Kinsley - 3 Months!

Kinsley's 3 month birthday was yesterday. We celebrated by hitting up a consignment store and getting a new "toy." See video below. :)

Kinsley has been steadily gaining weight and continuing to eat every 3 hours except at night. She eats a 3 course meal at every feeding. She usually has two appetizers of mommy's milk and then a main course of formula from a bottle. At her last appt. she weighed 10.13lbs and is in the 25th%. My friend Rachel always lists what her little girl can do each month, so I'm stealing her idea. Thanks Rachel!

At 3 months Kinsley:

• smiles tons
• giggled for the first time on the plane ride home from Dallas
• likes to talk to anyone who will listen
• loves looking in the mirror and watching videos of herself on the computer
• is starting to like facing out in the Baby Bjorn
• still loves her her swing(s)
• grabs things accidentally but then purposely put things in her mouth
• has very strong little chicken legs - she likes to stand, especially in front of a mirror
• loves watching the movie Cars :) (see video below)
• likes to watch the dogs play
• is sleeping through the night, usually about 8-10 hours. Yipee!
• has her mommy wrapped around her little finger.

Last weekend Louie, Kinsley and I went to Dallas so Daddy could go to a joints conference and get a break from work and Rochester. We ate Mexican food 3 days in a row! We stayed with our friends Lisa and Kris. They have a little one named Whitney who is exactly 5 months older than Kinsley. It worked out well because we were able to just borrow baby stuff so we didn't have to bring as much. Thanks Lisa!! I was not very good about taking pictures. I only got one with Lisa. :( We were really busy the whole time but that's no excuse! The few pics that I did get are in the slide show below. Louie was busy from about 7am-7pm every day but it was still good to get away. Louie says that coming back to MN gets more and more difficult every time. We are really looking forward to moving back to Texas. This Christmas will be the half-way mark. We started with 60 months and we are currently down to 31 months... slowly but surely we will get there. In the meantime, we are enjoying our everyday MN life, which isn't too difficult with our little blessing.

Enjoy the pictures and videos below!

Just had to add these before and after shots. Amazing!

Miss Kinsley

Kinsley news: We went for a weight check today and she has gained nearly a pound in two weeks! She was 9.8lbs on Mon. the 19th and is now at 10.7lbs. She has moved from the 12% to the 22%. Yay Kinsley!

My new favorite picture:

Louie's Birthday and Halloween

Louie's Birthday was Oct. 19th. We had a great dinner with some friends while my good friend, Kristin and her daughter, Madison watched Kinsley. Thanks Kristin and Madison!

Louie asked for money for his birthday to go towards his new and latest hobby, playing the guitar. I'm pretty excited about this one. It definitely beats hockey! His guitar is beautiful and he has already learned a couple of songs. He hasn't let me snap any photos just yet but I will post some soon.

Below is a slideshow of Lou's b-day and Kinsley's first Halloween. :)

Texas Trip Part 2

Kinsley and I had a blast on our trip to Texas. We had a total of 7 flights and she did great! I was a proud mama. Below is a slide show of my friend Katie's reception. So fun! My mom and Marcus babysat so I could go out with the ladies. It was so great to hang out with the girls. I also added some more photos to the the Texas Trip Part 1 slide show in the previous post. Enjoy!

Two more videos of Kinsley talking:

Texas Trip Part 1

Kinsley and I are in Texas. Here are a few pictures from our trip so far. I will write more when I have more time. :)

This video clip is for Daddy:

2 Months, Aunt Victoria and SNOW!

On Oct. 13, Kinsley celebrated her 2 month birthday. :) Over the past couple of weeks we have been visiting the pediatrician for some extra weight checks because I felt like she was not quite putting on the amount of weight that other babies her age were gaining. Unfortunately, I was correct. Kinsley currently weighs 9lbs. 1oz., which puts her in the 14th %. After trying multiple solutions and a lot of stress on Mommy, we have finally settled on supplementing the breastfeeding with formula. Since we began supplementing, Kinsley has gained on avg. 20grams/day up from 7.6grams/day (recommended 15-30grams/day). We will go in for another weight check when we return from our Texas trip. Developmentally, Kinsley is doing well and she is a very strong little girl. Please keep her (and her parents) in your thoughts and prayers. That being said, there is not a big difference between her 1 month and 2 month pictures, she is still a little peanut, but thought I would post anyways. Hopefully, her 3 month picture will show more of a change. :) The first picture is her one month and the second pic is her two month.

Kinsley got to meet her Aunt Victoria this past weekend and we had a great time. Victoria was a huge help and kept me sane as we focused on solving Kinsley's feeding issues. Thanks Aunt Victoria!

Grandma and Grandpa Stryker

Here is a slideshow of Carol and Garvin's visit.  We had a great time!!


Below are a couple quick videos of Kinsley. You can see in the first two that she has a little trouble figuring out how to wear the pj's with feet in them. The third video is of Kinsley helping me with the laundry.

Fall 2009

Fall is officially here... temperatures have dropped, leaves are changing colors and falling, and Rochester Icehawks hockey games have begun. Kinsley has yet to decide whether she likes the change in temperature. I am doing my best to bundle her up, but am trying not go overboard as we still have about 60 more degrees to drop come winter time.

Being a stay-at-home mom has been both challenging and rewarding so far. I love getting to spend so much time with Kinsley, getting to be there every step of the way as she grows, but it is difficult trying to get out of the house and it would be easy to catch cabin fever. I am participating in two Bible studies, a "play group" (truly for the moms) on Wed., running errands, taking care of the house and most importantly, our little burrito, Kinsley. That's what we call her when we have her all swaddled. Sometimes she is even "the flying burrito" when Louie is making her fly around the house. :)

Kinsley has discovered her fists, her tounge, is smiling more and more, and is sleeping six to seven hours at night-ish (bedtime around midnight). She is also going through a growth spurt and has already grown out of some of her newborn clothes.

Louie has just begun a new rotation. He finished up joints and has begun spine. Spending the last 9 months on joints was great for his future as a joints doc but did not prepare him in the least for a spine rotation. Needless to say, he has been doing a lot of reading. The nice thing about this rotation is it's a home call. This can be hit or miss, but last Sunday he came home at 8pm and was not called back in all night. Yay! We will see how he feels about spine in about 6 weeks.

Below are a couple videos of Kinsley and some pictures of our recent activities. Enjoy. :)

Louie and his baby girl catching a little shut-eye.

Kinsley and me taking a walk on the beautiful Douglas Trail.

Kinsley having a cold one at her first Icehawks game.  Don't worry, Grandparents, the only bottle she had at the game was some milk. 

Our little one after her big night out at the hockey game.  As you can tell, it was a little intense.

Daddy Duty

Louie has had a particularly tough call week. He has been on call 4 out of the last 8 days, so he is a little tired, to say the least. He came home this morning post-call and before he hit the sack, I asked him to dress Kinsley in "something cute" for church while I got ready myself. To give him credit, he did pick out a cute outfit, but... see pictures below. :) See, very cute little dress. Now for the close up...

Hmmm... are the buttons and lace supposed to be in the back?? I don't think so. I discovered this wardrobe malfunction while at church and started laughing out loud. I got a few looks from the people around me. I love it!

Oh, and you can see her birthmark too. She has one right at the top of her neck, hiding in her hair. Same place as me and same place as my mom. Although she has quite the receding hairline, she still has quite a bit in the back.

Just a couple of 1 minute videos. Another clip of Kinsley smiling and the other one is of Trout. He managed to shut himself in our bedroom. I couldn't figure out where he was until I heard some strange "knocking" on the master bedroom door. Oops. :)

Kinsley Smiles

Nap time. :)
So precious.

I am the "Girls Night" coordinator for the Mayo Spouses Group. We are starting our second year. Our first gathering was this past Wed. There was a great turn out. About 35 girls made it. Kinsley stayed home with Louie, and I had a great time with the ladies.

This is some of the ortho spouses. We have a lot of fun together.

Kinsley started smiling this week. I was able to catch a few smiles on video. I apologize about the length of the video and my high-pitched voice.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Love, Catherine, Louie, & Kinsley

A Little College Rivalry and... Bath Time :)

Our Texas friends, Witten and Sari.

I have gotten over the fact that they are Longhorns...

Kinsley, obviously, has NOT! :)

Kinsley's first "real" bath.

She LOVED it!

Sorry this video is sideways. I have to remember to record videos in the landscape position. Oops. :)

Have a great week!

Love, The Strykers

Watch Me Grow!

I will try to post a Kinsley and Trout picture each month.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Love, The Strykers

One Month

Disclaimer: Our blog has quickly turned into a Baby Kinsley blog and at 4 weeks of age, our posts might not be that exciting. None the less, we will continue to post pictures and videos of what is going on with our little one. We will not be offended in the least if you are not interested in watching her sleep, wake up, fuss, etc. :)
Enjoy!

Weeks 2 and 3

Things have continued to improve everyday with our new little one. Kinsley has ("knock on wood") figured out this day and night thing and is sleeping for longer periods of time at night. I am feeling much better and have thoroughly enjoyed having my step-mom, Leigh Ann here to help. She is headed back to San Antonio tomorrow. We will be very sad to see her go but I'm sure my dad and brother, Andrew will be very excited for her to return.

We have had a lot of visitors but I, unfortunately, have not been very good about pictures with all of Kinsley's new friends. I was good, however, about taking pictures of Kinsley. We are having her newborn pictures taken this afternoon. Fun! :)

One Week

Our little Kinsley turned one week today and what a week it has been! Louie and I wanted to thank everyone for their support and love as we welcomed our daughter into the world. My mom was able to come up the day I delivered. Louie called her around three once we confirmed I was in labor and Mom was on the 5:30 flight up to MN. My mom became a grandma in flight!

Overall, labor went really well and quickly. I'm a big proponent of the epidural. :) Around 10:45 Wed. evening, I started having contractions that were about 7-8 min. apart and were a little more uncomfortable then what I had been having for the past week. I woke up Louie around 12:30 because the contractions were around 5 min. apart and pretty darn uncomfortable. I took a shower and Louie got things ready to go to the hospital. I was really concerned about getting there and being sent back home, especially because I had heard first-time moms are usually in labor for quite some time. By the time we got to the hospital the contractions were about 1-2 minutes apart and I was almost 4 cm. They decided to watch me for an hour and then check me again. They offered me some morphine which I gladly accepted, although they couldn't administer it until Kinsley woke up and showed some varying heart rates. I'm not sure how she was sleeping through the contractions. Around 3:30, they finally administered my epidural(s). I was 5 cm around 5am, my doctor broke my water, and was fully dilated and ready to push by 7:30. I pushed for a little under an hour and Kinsley arrived at 8:29am. Unfortunately, the first epidural did not go smoothly and the resident tapped into a little spinal fluid. This causes a splitting headache anytime you sit/stand up. Friday morning I had a procedure done called a blood patch, to patch the hole in my spinal cord. This gave me instant relief. A couple days later my headache has returned and we are still not sure what this is caused by. We contemplated a second blood patch but decided against it. Despite the headaches, my second epidural was perfect and I am thankful for drugs!

Since returning home, Kinsley has done really well. Our biggest issue as first time parents is that she has her days and nights confused. This really doesn't work well for Louie given he used his two paternity days while I was in the hospital and is back at work full time. He is on call tomorrow night so Kinsley and I will be on our own... sure to be an adventure. Luckily, we have had help this entire week. As I said before, my mom showed up on Thursday afternoon and then my dad showed up Friday evening. It was so wonderful having my mom and dad here to help us.

My dad headed home Monday and my mom headed to Austin on Wednesday to help my youngest sister, Sarah settle in at UT. My brother and his wife, Sarah showed up on Tuesday and are leaving early tomorrow morning to go back to Germany. This constant help has been such a blessing. Laundry has been completely taken care of, dishes are done, house is clean, dogs are fed, the list goes on and on! Louie and I will be tackling the weekend just the two of us and then my step-mom, Leigh Ann will be up on Tuesday for about a week. Yay! Another huge blessing has been the help we have received from our Rochester friends. They are supplying dinner for us every other day! The first meal arrived on Monday and will continue well into September. We are so thankful!

We have had two newborn doctor visits so far. Each one went really well. Kinsley is measuring around the 50th percentile in almost all areas. She is also gaining weight just perfectly. She was 7lbs. 13.6oz at our visit today.

The only other issue we had occurred yesterday, when I went to visit my doctor because of pain in my right side. We had some blood work done and my doctor called me around 4:30 yesterday evening with the news that he thought I might have appendicitis and he wanted me to head to the ER. Fun! After some various tests and a CAT scan it was determined that I did not need to have my appendix removed (thank God) and that the cause of the pain was undetermined. Hmmm... I am feeling better today, apart from my headaches so, I'm just going to be thankful I didn't need surgery.

Overall, life in the Stryker household is good. Louie and I are very much in love with this new little person and can't wait for her to meet all of you!

Enjoy pictures below of Kinsley's first week at home.

Love, Catherine and Louie

Kinsley - Coming Home!

Kinsley Allison Stryker

Date: Aug. 13, 2009

Time: 8:29 am

Weight: 8lbs

Height: 19 and 3/4 inches

40 Weeks

Well... it's official. My due date is tomorrow and unless I go into labor right this second, I don't think she is coming on Aug. 8th. I was hopeful at the beginning of the week with pretty regular contractions all through Monday evening, Tuesday, and Tuesday night, but then they kind-of just stopped. At my weekly appt. on Thurs. I had made some progress. 2cm, 50% effaced, and she was at 0 station, BUT my doctor wanted to go ahead and schedule my induction, just in case. I am scheduled to go in on the morning of the 18th to start the process. I'm still hoping we won't quite make it to that day but we will see...

In the meantime, I have been trying to keep myself busy with exciting things like cleaning the fridge. Wohoo! :) We've also been taking trips to the County Fair, the park, visiting with friends, deciding on baby annoucements, and meeting new puppies. Her are some random pictures of our SUPER EXCITING outings. See below:

Also, a couple of weeks ago I finally decided on a photographer to take 1st year pics of Baby Girl Stryker. The photographer's name is Erin with Fine Exposures. I liked her pictures and the price was right. She offered a free maternity session, which most women do at 7 months, not 9 but I thought "what the heck?" You can check them out at:

http://www.072709stryker.photoherald.com/index.php/view_event.php

Password: august

Louie's ankle is doing much better. He is wearing an aircast and the black/blue/yellow colors have started to fade. He's been able to drive for about a week and 1/2 so that's been very nice for me. :) He's been under a lot of stress at work but that's not really new. He's currently working with the head of the ortho. dept. whose PA recently left, so Louie is functioning in both capacities, as his resident and PA. Just makes for more work and longer hours, but I'm pretty sure that's part of this whole "being a doctor" thing.

Hopefully our next blog entry will be about our newest addition... I'll keep everyone posted. Thanks for all the kind words and prayers as we head towards her arrival.

Love, Catherine and Louie

38 Weeks

Nothing too exciting is happening with Baby Girl Stryker. I went for my 38 week OB appt. and it looks like she is pretty comfy in Mommy's tummy. She is still head down and weighs some where between 6 and 7 lbs. We are hopeful that she will stay in there until my due date (Aug. 8) to let Louie heal.

Last Sunday, our 6th anniversary, Louie somehow managed to really mess up his right ankle (his "good" ankle). I took him from the soccer field to the ER where he got some x-rays and spent some time discussing things with some of his ortho buddies that were working that day. He did not break anything, but did manage to tear some ligaments and the swelling was obscene. He spoke to one of the foot and ankle consultants who wanted to do an ultrasound of his ankle to see if he needed surgery. They weren't able to see Louie until Thursday so, until then Louie gave work his best shot. He has not been able to put any weight on that ankle, is wearing a big boot for stability, and is using crutches. He can't drive because it's his right foot so he has been very dependent on his very pregnant wife. We are just glad that this occurred before she got here. Louie realized that he was not going to be of any help in the OR after his first case on Wed. and decided that he needed to stay off his ankle and focus on healing and getting the swelling down, so he took two vacation days Thurs. and Fri. and is hopeful to be back on his feet, literally, on Monday. The ultrasound showed good news. The important ligaments were still intact so, he does not need surgery. He thinks he'll be in the boot for another two weeks.

Louie has been a very good patient with his foot elevated and on ice for the past two days and will continue through Sunday. I've enjoyed having some time with him and so have the dogs.

Here's a picture of Striper getting some cuddle time with Daddy. She climbed up in his lap without any prompting from him. She's turning into more of a cuddle-bug than Trout. :)

I have been busy taking care of Louie and continuing to get ready for the arrival of our daughter. I got the car seats installed properly and packed the baby's bag for the hospital. I still need to pack mine but am not feeling too pressed for time. I have also started on a couple of craft projects that have kept me busy. I completed the wall art for the nursery. I used the 6 fabrics for the quilt as the background for some "picture frames" I made. They are pictured in the slide show below. I have also made some cute burp cloths... I'm feeling very domestic. :)

We are also very excited to share the news that our friends Rusty and Kerri had their little boy last night via c-section. Wilkes Christian was born July 24th and weighs 7 lbs 7.5 oz and is 21 inches long. Mom and Baby are both doing well. Congrats Hoermann Family!!

I will end this post with a little experiment that developed through Louie and I having a little too much time on our hands since he's been laid up. We have a little ongoing contest to see which dog is the smartest between Trout and Striper. Here are the results:

July 2009

July has been an exciting month so far. We started with fireworks, continued working on the nursery, had a visit from Louie's parents, a Rochester baby shower, and we're only half way through the month.
Louie's parents, Garvin and Carol came up the 8th-14th to help around the house and that they did!! Carol was in a sewing frenzy with new curtains for the nursery, a swing cover, and a boppy (nursing pillow) cover. Garvin was busy around the house with assembling the pack-n-play, replacing curtain rods, hanging mirrors and art, and paint touch-ups. We also managed to fit in a Honker's baseball game, a trip downtown to Thursdays on First (vendors, crafts, and food), two of Louie's soccer games, church, brunch, a baby shower, and a lot of errands. The poor Stryker's will need a vacation from their vacation. All of their help, love, and support is much appreciated!
Below is a slide show of all the July events. I also added a few pictures of the nursery. It still needs some art that I will hang behind the crib, our changing pad, and the quilt my mom is making. I can't wait to see it!!
There are also some not so flattering pictures of my belly at 34 weeks. My next doctor's appt. is tomorrow, Thursday. At this appt. we should get our last sonogram, check to see if I am dilated at all, and pre-register for the hospital visit. I will be 37 weeks on Saturday, which is considered full term. Yipee!
I have been feeling okay but my size is starting to be truly uncomfortable. I sleep with about 5 pillows all around me to give me some extra support and our little girls is moving so much it is difficult to sleep through the night. I guess this is God's way of preparing me for when she arrives.
My mom is planning on coming up to help for a bit when she first gets here and I'm sure my dad and hopefully sister will come up as well. I'm not sure yet when Andrew and Victoria will be able to make the trip. My step-mom, Leigh Ann will also be coming up to help after my mom leaves, so that should be really great! My brother and his wife are coming from Germany on Aug. 18th for a visit. Hopefully our little one will be here by then.
So... that's the latest. Enjoy the pictures and I will post again soon.
Love, Catherine and Louie

The Latest from the North...

Our good friends, Sari and Rob, had their little boy early this morning. His name is Witten and he is just precious! They are from Texas too, and yes... their little boy was born over Texas soil. :)

Sari was 6 weeks ahead of me... so this definitely means our count down mode has begun. I had an OB appt. today and everything went well. Our little girl is head down and she is measuring just right. I go back for my next appt. July 2, so the weekly OB visits have also begun. Crazy!

Last Friday, Louie took his current hobby to a whole new level. This past January, Louie bought some ice skates and decided he wanted to learn how to skate so that he could eventually play pick-up hockey. Mind you, he had not skated since his childhood trip to Jackson Hole, WY. I have to be honest, I wasn't necessarily in support of this hobby, but after watching him this Friday, I'm pretty darn proud of him.

We drove up to The Cities so Louie could play in a beginners pick-up-hockey game. In Louie's words he "wasn't the worst, but definitely not the best." He did spend a lot of time on his butt, but overall he said he had a blast. I enjoyed watching him and was even able to steal a couple of snapshots.

This video was just a random video of Trout and Striper. It's pretty self explanatory. Enjoy! :)

Showers, showers, and more...

Hello Friends and Family!! I put together 4 different slide shows. This first one is from our San Antonio trip at the beginning of June. It was an event filled weekend that kept everyone on the go. I flew in Thurs. for Sarah's high school graduation. The next day Louie flew in for our baby shower thrown by my parents. We had a blast! Saturday morning was the ladies' brunch thrown by my college friends Andrea, Julie, Lesley, Allison, and Julia. Following the brunch we met the whole family at Baby Vision for a 3D/4D ultrasound (third slide show). Then, that evening I went to Sarah's graduation dinner while Louie spent some quality time with his folks. It was a very busy weekend but SO worth it. We had so much fun and were constantly reminded how truly blessed we are.

Remember to click on the triangle in the center of the slide show and then click on it again to open it up to a larger page. If the pictures are moving too quickly, click on the pause button and then you can scroll through manually. :)

This slide show is from my school shower. I am really, really going to miss teaching and it's because of people like this (and the kids, of course) that make the profession so rewarding. :)

Baby Girl Stryker was being a little uncooperative for her ultrasound. She was positioned up underneath my right ribs with her hands AND her feet in front of her face. She was also pushing her face against the inside of my tummy so some of the pictures are a little distored. Not to worry, she is practically perfect in every way. :)

These are just some random pictures from June that I had to post on the blog. Enjoy!

Finally!!

Sorry I've been so terrible about keeping up with the blog. Here are some pictures from April and May. Yes... I've included some belly pics. They are in the slideshow with my mom's visit. Enjoy! :)

Dallas & San Antonio - April 2009

Florida Trip - April 2009

Mom's Visit - May 2009

Big Announcement!

Louie and I are very excited to announce that we have a baby on the way! My due date is Aug. 8th and I am 19 weeks along. We went today for the "anantomy screening" and "growth screening" and we have a very healthy little baby in there.

Watch the video to find out what we are having!!

We have not decided on a name yet but we will keep you guys posted. It may be kept hush-hush until Little Stryker arrives. :) Here are some pictures:

A profile shot

Being a little dramatic! The back of the hand is resting on the forehead.

A perfect little foot.

Another profile picture

We will post again soon! Love, Catherine & Louie

Misc. Jan/Feb 2009

I put together some random pictures from Jan./Feb. that I thought you all might get a kick out of. The first set of pictures in the slide show is from this year's Polar Bear Plunge. In case you don't remember from last year, the way it works is teams of people get together and raise money for the event (similar to a marathon). This event benefits the Special Olympics. Then on Feb. 14th they head out to a small lake, cut a hole in the ice and the teams take turns jumping in the water. Crazy!! This year was actually a lot warmer than last year. Last year, the windchill was about -20 and this year is was a tropical 10 degrees. Because of the "warm front" there was a much better turn out this year and the costumes were in full swing. Brrrr!

The next couple of pictures are from our friend Emily's Golden Birthday. What you ask is a Golden Birthday?? Well, evidently the people from the north have an extra special celebration when you turn the age of your birthdate. For example, my Golden Birthday was when I turned 18 because I was born on Feb. 18th. Darn! I missed the opportunity to dress in gold! Emily took dressing in gold to a whole new level. I had no idea they made gold spandex!

The last few pictures are just random pictures. One from a hockey game and two of my students from school. Enjoy!!

This was a video clip I took of a very creative group just before

they plunged into the water at the Polar Bear Plunge.

Mini Vacation

Due to Louie's crazy schedule, he was scheduled to have only one weekend off during his 3 month rotation of trauma, we decided to take a mini vacation at the end of January. The sad thing was that the weekend off was scheduled by mistake and he actually was not supposed to have any weekends off. One is definitely better than none.

In honor of the occasion, I booked a room in St. Paul and we headed to The Cities for the night. This happened to be the same weekend that Winter Carnival 2009 was going on. Here is the scoop on Winter Carnival:

In 1886, Saint Paul was America’s fastest growing city. Growing from 39,000 residents in 1880 to 120,000 residents in 1886, Saint Paul had also become America’s third largest rail center. To celebrate their city’s success, Saint Paul business leaders produced the inaugural Saint Paul Winter Carnival, which was held during the first two weeks of February in 1886.
In addition to showcasing Saint Paul, the business leaders wanted to disprove a New York newspaper reporter who had described their beloved city as “another Siberia, unfit for human habitation in the winter.” Patterned after Montreal’s Winter Carnival, the first Saint Paul Winter Carnival included parades, skiing, snow shoeing, a blanket tossing contest, and push ball, a game played with giant balls. The most successful attractions were its ice castle and six large toboggan slides.

I love the part about being "another Siberia." A few weeks prior to our trip to St. Paul there were two "Cold Days," which meant it was too cold for school so they canceled. My friend Danielle discovered that it was actually warmer in Siberia those two days than in Rochester!!

Anyways, I put together a slide show of our trip. Enjoy!

PS The windchill was in the negative single digits that day. Fun!

Christmas 2008

This year Louie and I were able to spend Christmas in Texas. After spending about 15 hours in the Minneapolis airport we finally were able to finagle our way to Dallas and then eventually to San Antonio. Saturday night we met some friends at one of my favorite Mexican food restaurants, Rosarios. We had only had about 2hours of sleep (Louie was post call so, he had 4 over 2 nights) and Northwest Airlines had sent our luggage to Memphis so please excuse the pictures. I was sans make-up, but luckily Victoria had let me borrow some clothes. :) It was really good to see my friends and we were able to go to breakfast, just the six of us, the next morning. It's very rare for all of us to be able to get together so we ate up every minute of it.

Sunday for lunch we met my mom and family at Canyon Cafe for a birthday lunch. It was fun to visit with my mom, Marcus and Sarah. That evening we were off to dinner at Alamo Cafe to celebrate Andrew and Victoria's December birthdays. Andrew was very purposeful about everyone in the family being together to celebrate. My brother, John and his new wife Sarah were in from Germany so everyone really was there.

Monday, Louie and I headed to Houston to visit his family. They moved into a new condo and it is beautiful. We really enjoyed our stay there. Louie has some favorite meals that his parents make so he was excited to have some delicious home-cooked meals. Louie's sister, Sarah (we have 3 Sarah's in the family now) and her family came over for some Christmas fun. We decorated gingerbread houses and were highly entertained by JoAnna who is our 5 year old niece. She decided to put on a show for us and even Louie got to preform. He was a cheerleader!

We hit the Galleria on Tuesday and headed back to San Antonio on Christmas Eve morning. On our way out of town we were able to stop in Katy and say "hi" to our med. school buddies, Kris and Lisa. They have a little one on the way so it was fun to visit with the parents to be.
Unfortunately Louie caught a bad cold and spent all of Christmas Eve in bed. I brought him home some dinner before heading out for the Christmas Eve service.

Andrew was sure to set out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Although he was pretty perplexed the next morning when he found Santa had brought him Rock Band for a Playstation 3. This was confusing to him because he doesn't own a Playstaion, he has a Wii. Needless to say, Dad and Andrew had to take the gift back and get a new one. Andrew thought it was a little strange that Dad had the receipt. He explained to Andrew that Santa is just very thorough and always gives the parents a gift receipt. Andrew's response was "yeah, right." So we will see if he leaves cookies out for Santa next year. :)

That afternoon we headed over to my mom's for some more Christmas celebrating and Christmas dinner. My grandmother, Grommie, was in town. So we had a really good visit with the whole family; Marcus, Mom, Luke & Emily, John & Sarah, Drew, Grommie, Sarah, Louie and me. The rest of our visit in San Antonio consisted of catching up with old friends and eating more Mexican food then a person should. :)

Louie and I were not looking forward to coming back to the cold. Luckily our flight home was smooth. We were upgraded to first class and everything ran on time. So no complaints here. There was a big melt the day before we came back so I was thrilled that our car wasn't covered in 8 inches of snow. Our puppies were happy to see us but probably not as happy as Sari and Rob. They were dog-sitting and they have 3 dogs of their own. 5 dogs in one house can be a little overwhelming.

We hope everyone had a wonderful New Years! Happy 2009!!

(If you would like to see this slide show a little larger, click in the middle of the picture once the slide show has begun. A new page will open up and you can click "slideshow" on the top left. Enjoy!)

December in Rochester

Louie's Birthday and More...

More Fall Fun!

DC Trip