The big weekend: part 1

This weekend was jammed full of excitement and activity. Uncle Paul flew in on Friday from London for Jason's graduation and Caroline's baby blessing. He hadn't seen the sun in months, so we played outside all afternoon. The girls climbed all over him and wanted to play games on his phone.

 

I love it when babies fall asleep all squishy like this. This was probably the longest Caroline had been outside.

Sunday morning was Jason's graduation! We are all so proud of Jason! It seems like the 4 years have flown by and crawled by at the same time. We couldn't have done it without support from our parents and the Lord. The ceremony was only supposed to be from 9:00-10:30, but it went until 11:15! We had church at 1:00, when Caroline was going to be blessed, so we ate a quick lunch at the reception and then raced home.

Jason's parents and grandmother flew in, and my parents and sister Ashley and her husband Tom came up, too. It was a full house, but so much fun! Clara and Savannah were in heaven, with so many people to play with. Jason's mom came a few days early to help with the baby, which was a big help. Grandmothers are wonderful, aren't they?

Clara and Savannah attacked Jason after the ceremony. They love his "funny hat" and his robe.

Caroline

I was induced on Thursday and Caroline Grace was born on April 26 at 4:39am. She weighed 10lb 7oz and was 21 inches long. Jason and I guessed she would be in the 9lb range, but we weren't too far off! My parents brought Savannah later in the morning, and she was a little wary of the baby, but when she came back later she wanted to hold and hug and kiss Caroline. Clara was ecstatic to come to the hospital after school. Every time the baby would move or make a sound, Clara would say, "She's waking up! She's going to cry!"

When we got home from the hospital Sunday, the girls eagerly descended on Caroline and passed her back and forth a few times before church.

Valley Falls State Park

My parents came into town last week and we actually found somewhere new to take them! Valley Falls was about 40 minutes out of town, and we took a picnic dinner. Savannah calls it a "micmic." The falls were really beautiful, but apparently you can be fined just for touching the water because the currents are so dangerous.

Croquet, conference and bathing suits

I was induced on Thursday and uploaded these pictures early on in the day. We've just been hanging out, enjoying Jason's company. We "played" croquet in the backyard and Clara perfected her bigfoot walk. :) It was pretty cold but Savannah refused to put on pants or socks.

Snuggling with my girls during General Conference. 

 Trying out the girls' new bathing suits in the backyard.

And the match results are...

We found out Friday that Jason matched in dermatology at WVU! He was really hoping to match to derm, and we didn't really mind where. We'll be here four more years; there is a first year that is more rotations, and then three years of dermatology. He is interested in MOHS surgery. (You'll have to look that up for a

There was a lunch on Friday and each student's match letter was in a box at the front of the room. They would open their letter, read where they were going, and pick the next student's name out of the box. Jason went up after about 20 minutes, and when he opened his letter, all I heard was, "Preliminary year---at WVU." (Preliminary year is the first year, which he had to interview separately for.) So the whole time he's walking back to me, I'm thinking, "What does that mean? Did he only match to preliminary year? Does he have to apply for derm again next year?" And all the while, he's smiling at me as he's walking back to our table. It wasn't until I saw his letter, and about 5 minutes later that it sunk in that he had gotten a residency that we wanted. It was surreal.

We are really excited. And now that we don't have to move, we'll have time to visit Jason's family, won't have to move with a newborn and can stay in our house. And since Jason's been fixing it up, it is looking great! His honey-do list is very short these days.

A random update as we wait for Match day

Jason celebrated his 30th birthday in February and we invited some friends over to celebrate. The girls were our official frosting taste-testers.

 Savannah is letting me fix her hair more, and not just on Sundays. I love her little "pigtail buns" that she didn't notice until after church. Hehehe. What a sweet face! She is getting so old and is excited to sing, kiss, rock and teach the baby things. She usually goes to sleep singing the ABC song at the top of her lungs.

I can't get this picture to turn, but Clara made it at school a few weeks ago and I thought it was so cute. Notice the ponytail on top of Savannah's head.

We got some "colorful cookie dough" from a school fundraiser, and the girls have just loved it. We make all kinds of funny shapes and faces. Clara has lost her second tooth, and is a firm believer in the tooth fairy...at least enough to warrant a visit. She is also growing out her bangs, which makes her look so grown up. 

 

We find out on Friday where Jason has matched for residency. We are trying not to count the hours, but we are keeping pretty busy. We've been trying to get some projects done around the house in case we are moving, which we are assuming, but...who knows!

New York City

Jason and I have been trying to plan a trip for a while, and finally did it! We went to NYC while my parents came to watch the girls. We haven't been on a big trip alone since 2006, and we had a great time.

The first day we were there we went to a highly recommended bakery, Levaine Bakery just a couple blocks from Central Park. Thanks to Ashley! We had chocolate brioche, hot chocolate, and banana chocolate chip bread. Clara kept saying, "No fair!" when we told her what we had for breakfast that day. 

 

 Then we walked through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Luckily, the sun was out for the hour that we walked through the park. Central Park was so pleasant. The rest of the time it was cloudy/rainy. We saw the Dakota, where John Lennon was shot, and Strawberry Fields.

I haven't been to a big museum in a long time, and it was wonderful. We took some pictures with Renoir and Monet paintings to show Clara; she knows these paintings.

That night we had a fabulous dinner and saw "Wicked." I know we're about 10 years behind the times, but we finally saw it. It was amazing...the set, music, acting. So fun.

The next day we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was all covered with scaffold, so we couldn't see one inch of the outside. We also stopped by Grand Central Station, which is celebrating 100 years this year. My hip was hurting from all the walking, so we hung out at the hotel in the afternoon. We discovered to our delight that just a block or so from our hotel was a Harry Potter Exhibit! It was awesome. There were tons of props, costumes, and sets from all the movies. For example, we saw:
All the famous wands                                                
Ron's horrible dress robes
Buckbeak                                                                  
Hagrid's huge furniture
Tri-Wizard Cup
Dementor's robes
Harry's glass                                                               
The quidditch uniforms
Harry and Ron's dorm room                                      
The tea cup with the Grim in it
It was awesome. I can't even remember all the things we saw. That night we saw the "Newsies" musical, which was fun. The boys were great dancers, and the music was great. I grew up on the movie, and had all the songs memorized.

It was so great to have a trip together and we're so grateful my parents could come and watch the kids. Clara and Savannah had a great time with them, and they were so happy to see us home.