We Made It!!

Steve is officially done with surgery! He took his test on Friday and turned in his last assignment on Saturday. It's so good to have a husband again and Cadance loved spending more than 5 minutes with her dad this weekend. He now has 8 weeks for family medicine and then he will be a 4th year med student. How crazy is that?

In other news, having a 6 month old baby is fantastic. We've been having a ton of fun together and it seems like she's changing even faster now. She's eating really well and her first tooth popped in last week. She's sitting up really well and wants to crawl but mostly just wiggles around. She also has fast hands. One thing I wasn't anticipating about motherhood is having my baby swipe her dirty diaper while I wipe her bottom. She's discovering swings and slides, leaves and grass, faucets and water. It's so fun.

Miles and Milestones

Cadance and I put some miles behind us as we traveled to San Antonio last week. We spent some time with my dad, who is recovering from surgery. Cadance had a lot of fun with her grandparents and uncles. Cadance is also now officially Texan because she's had pictures taken in the bluebonnets.


As you can tell from the previous picture, Cadance is now sitting up all by herself. She also had her first meal of "solid" food. It was more like rice cereal enhanced milk. But, since it is an exciting time we got some of it on video.

A Shout Out to The Cara Cara

This year I discovered the cara cara navel orange. They were on sale so I thought I would try them. I was shocked to discover the pink flesh on the inside. I was also shocked at how good it was. Normally I don't go for oranges - they're kind of a pain and so acidic, but not this one. This fruit is brilliant. It has all the essence of a normal navel orange without all the acid. It's almost like the pink lemonade version of the orange. The season is ending, but you should definitely try one of these oranges.

Look Out World Here Comes Cadance

Cadance is having a ton of fun exploring the world. Her are some things that she's discovering.

The pool. She has become quite the sun bather.

Kitchen utensils. Apparently it's really easy for a 4 month old baby to reach across the counter, drag the utensil holder up close and pull them out.


Music. Cadance loves this bell she's holding, singing time and pounding on the piano


Literature. We read stories almost everyday and Cadance loves books, although she currently thinks they're better for eating than reading


Gravity. Cadance loves playing with her dad, which usually means she's playing airplane, bouncing on his legs or hanging from his shoulder

Cadance has also learned how to roll from the back to stomach. She does it a couple times a day, but, like most things, it requires great incentive.

Besides entertaining Cadance, Steve and I are doing well. Steve just started his surgery rotation, which is famed at being the worst one of 3rd year. But, he's excited. He's actually in the OR for the first time today, so I'm really excited to hear how it went. Class is going well for me. I'm definitely learning and improving. Last week we did petit fours. They may be cute, but icing a pastry 1" cubed is a pain in the butt and one of the reasons why I like yeast breads. I now will not complain at paying $2-3 because I know all the hard work that went behind it.

Snow Days!

So after you have a baby you start keeping track of a lot of firsts: first smile, first laugh, first time going to church, etc. Well, this week Cadance had her first snow day. Like most of the country, we were hit with a storm Monday night. Tuesday we woke up to 1-2 inches of icy snow. What's unusual about this particular storm is that its remnants haven't gone away. Last night the roads were still icy; we even got 2 more inches last night. So, Steve is on his 4th day off work. We have been enjoying lots of family time and lots of time inside. But, we did take the opportunity to introduce Cadance to the snow. Really, I don't think she got it, but it was fun anyways.

Cadance's First Laugh

After spending about thirty minutes figuring out how to view videos from my phone on my computer and freshening up on my video making skills, this is the end product. Hope you enjoy!

The Holiday

We had a fantastic holiday down in San Antonio. Cadance had a wonderful first Christmas, and Steve and I enjoyed playing Santa for the first time. All of her aunts, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas loved having her around and I have been informed that they miss her tremendously. Here are some highlights.

Week one we spent at the Ellsworths. We took family pictures and the cousins got to play. Most of our time was spent playing Bohnanza and Wii. It was fun.

We also spent Christmas morning at the Ellsworths, where Cadance learned the art of gift opening,


and we indoctrinated her with worldly ideas of Christmas


The second week of our vacation we spent at the Cunninghams

We played tennis, ...


Settlers of Catan, ...

and the Wii.



We went bowling...


and texted our friends.


And Cadance played with her Christmas presents



We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!