Where are those Higbee's anyway.....

Dan's graduation from residency is this Friday evening, WOO HOO!!! Way to go Dan! (There were times when wondered if this day would ever really come.) We are busy getting some final preparations worked out for our move. We got an offer on our home and we were hoping to be moving out by June 25th so that we could buckle down and find a home in Utah before the girls start school, but we may be delayed a bit due to a few normal glitches. We are planning to make the drive to Utah, hopefully visiting Nauvoo and a few other places. If you have any recommendations of fun or historic places to visit along our way, let us know. When we get to Utah are planning to rent a townhouse in Brigham City.

My Daniel.....

Graduation from Medical School 2005

(For those of you who don't already know) we are finalizing a contract with a hospital in northern UT. We are SO excited to be moving a little closer to "home". We have listed our home here in MI and the realtor officially posted a sign in our front yard today. I have mixed feelings when I look at it, even though I really want to sell the home.

Our time here is slipping away SO quickly. As we near the close of this period in our lives, I want to tell you a little bit about my wonderful husband. (Warning: if you don't want to hear me brag about him you might want to stop reading now...) On June 18th Dan is graduating from his intense 5 year orthopedic residency program. I don't know how he has been able to pull the crazy hours and sleepless nights/days on his feet (For a few of those years he was working 36 hour shifts without sleep, sometimes a couple in one week). Full weekends at home have been rare. He is always awake before me by a couple hours and asleep after me at night. When he's working he runs from patient to patient and surgery to surgery often going the full day without food. It is because of his hard work that I know that he is prepared to go out on his own, and I am thankful for that confidence. His attendings and the director of his program have complimented him several times on his surgical skills and have told him he's been a pleasure to have in the program.

Every year residents are required to submit a scientific research paper to the American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopedics and last year Dan's was good enough to be published in a medical journal. This year his paper on wrist fractures won first place of all the orthopedic DO residents in the nation (there are over 100 here in MI).

I am so proud of Dan for his hard work, dedication and drive!!! I am so thankful that I will be able to have him around me a little more often!!!

I LOVE YOU DAN!!! Way to go!

....Oh yeah, I should mention that his kids think he's the best dad ever.

yourfentonhome.blogspot.com

'Tis the time for us to start thinking about putting our home on the market. (Ah, the lovely housing market in Michigan.) We are really hoping to sell, not rent, for several reasons I won't belabor you with now. We are probably going to get a realtor, but in addition I have created a new blog (yourfentonhome.blogspot.com) so that if anyone has any friends (or enemies, haha. were open to either :) ) that are wanting to move into the area they can get a peek into our home to see if it would be worth coming for a visit. Even if you don't know anyone interested in buying a home right now, feel free to simply see a miraculous picture of what our house looks like when it is clean. :) I just wished it would stay that way and that I could keep the little kids too. It is fun to document what our home looks like so that someday when it isn't ours anymore (fingers crossed) we will be able to look at it with fond memories. The blog isn't complete yet. I am planning on including pictures of the downstairs, master bedroom, master bath as soon as possible. I'm SO sorry about the boring post. Thanks for any help or referrals you are able to provide. -M

ps-The picture on the top right side of the blog is a link to the yourfentonhome blogspot.

pss- Don't you love the sunny summer picture. I really, really can't wait for that time to roll around again! Does anyone else feel the same? I am thankful to have a few more beautiful summer months here in Michigan before we take off.

February 6th, 2010: Terrific Twos!

We have been so lucky to have Isaac in our family for the last two years! We had one of those relaxing, unforgettable days enjoying time as a family on his Birthday. We opened presents on the kitchen floor with the sun shining in the windows (if you live in Michigan, or have before, then you know why that is special in February) and played with Isaac's gifts together. He loves dinosaurs, trains, balls, and airplanes, so we included all of the above in some way. Most notably, Maren made the coolest dinosaur cake I'd seen. Isaac just laughed in excitement every time we flashed it in front of him. We love our little man...Happy Birthday, buddy!!





I call this look "red steel".

Just some memories from Christmas. We miss you all!

a Hint of Winter

It's true, I may not be very artistic with my blogging, but I'm not going to let that stop me. I bought Maren a really nice digital SLR (that is short for "too expensive") camera about a year ago, so here I am posting a bunch of pictures taken with my cell phone camera. Makes sense, eh? I guess the problem is I am usually not at home on our desktop computer when I have a chance to blog. Someday you may get to experience the nice pictures our camera takes.

I am also braving new frontiers as I have decided to stretch my blogging skills and add a few bolded, highlighted, and enlarged words. It's something I've seen on my siblings' blogs. It's only an experiment for now, so we'll see what type of feedback I receive. Who knows? Maybe I will someday even do Italicized! The sky is the limit, or as a russian orthopedic surgeon recently told me, with heavy accent, "the sky is the ceiling, doctor."

The first picture is Lainie playing "Oh come all ye faithful" at the Pullins Christmas Party. It was part of the yearly "Progrum". It's a pretty big deal. She did a great job, especially since it took her about a week to learn it. Following that picture are a few pictures of the kids on a Horse-driven wagon ride through downtown Fenton. It was the annual "Jingle Fest", so we did that while Maren went to do some shopping. There was a Santa Claus in one of the tents they had set up, taking pictures with peoples animals and children. We were in a hurry to get the girls back for a date with Maren to go watch a Nutcracker ballet, so we couldn't stop, but I caught Lainie sizing him up. I have to say, his beard was looking as natural as a fur coat on a PETA ad, and he looked like he had just taken three ambiens; not exactly a jolly saint Nicholas, but definitely an OLD one.

Well, on the way home my (extremely intelligent and thoughtful) 6 year old said, "Dad, I know that Santa only comes on Christmas Eve when we are asleep, but that sometimes people dress up like him".

"oh? Why do you say that, Lainie?" I replied.

"Well, it's just something I've been thinking about everyday", she said.

I had to think fast, as we all often do, "I think it is really hard for Santa to be everywhere at once, so Santa has helper's who can tell him what you want for Christmas. But, sometimes the real Santa does come out and visit. Like, remember last year when we went to the mall and saw Santa, and he let you pull on his beard, and told you he loved you, and knew your names, and gave you hugs?"

"Yeah, I remember him."

"Well, that was the REAL Santa Claus."

I saw a HUMONGOUS smile from the rearview mirror as she said, "OH YEAH, he WAS the real Santa! Can we go and see him again??!"

Crisis averted. Thank you to all the Santas who make it easier for us to keep the magic alive.

This is my little buddy. I'm pretty grateful for him. We like to just hang out and do guy stuff while the girls are at ballets. Stuff like, watch "The Incredibles", build train tracks, and throw him through the air onto our soft bed.

Last Sunday, after arriving home from church, I fell asleep on our bed. I started out pretending to be asleep, playing with the girls, and it turned into the real thing. I rarely take Sunday naps, but this one must have been needed, and it felt really good. When I awoke, I found myself in a pile of stuffed animals and covered in the girls special blankets. They take good care of their dad and I just really love 'em. (photo courtesy of Maren :)

We were so "Thankful" to have some great friends as guests for our Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone contributed to the feast, including the missionaries who brought a pie (impressive). When we went to take pictures I didn't realize the camera was set to take multiple pictures, so we were surprised, and then we all let the creative juices (faces) flow. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thought I'd blog some random pics. the first took place about a month ago. Brinley came to Maren and informed her that she had just but a bead in her ear. I was moonlighting, so they met me and I tried to play the hero. Unfortunately, it was deep in there, and I couldn't get it with my limited selection of tools on hand. We took her to the ER and one of our ENT friends got it out with a small suction device. She was so courageous through it all.

The next picture is Alaina's school picture this year. I have to say I have some beautiful little girls!

Isaac has begun to show interest in hats. This one I picked up for him in the airport after going to an orthopedic conference. Doesn't he look kinda like the Sundance kid??

The last picture is one I posted on Facebook. Brinley spent a whole evening making card after card for me. This one she was so proud of, and knew I would "love it". It had footballs on the front, and on the inside, a picture of me as a little boy, with "lots of wax in my ears". Apparently that's what little boys have.

Halloween Pictures of our sweets!