December 2010 Continued

Sure enough Santa came, and having four kids to enjoy Christmas with was a blast! That was a wrapping paper mess like none other! We took tons of pictures, but instead of posting all of the pictures (we wouldn't want people to actually SEE how spoiled our children are) I'll just be sure that everyone on the Whittaker side who didn't take like 200 photos themselves gets a copy of our 200 photos. :)

We had a great time in Utah and got in lots of family time. Then before we knew it we were in a rental car making a very treacherous 12 hour drive to Richland, WA to visit Kenny's family for the big New Year's party at the Kurtzes!

Not a fun drive-WAY too much snow driving. My husband has the most amazing ability to drive in the worst conditions with way too many distractions and still get us all there safely. So thankful for that!

Mercedes & Nolan vs Allyson & Audrey on Mario Kart Wii

This is where Nolan's Wii addiction started, and only got worse as the month went on!

Nolan & Shelby getting ready to do calendars

Tyler and his little shadow

Audrey teaching Great Grandma Wing how to load up the Nerf assault weapon

We enjoyed quite the spread of yummy food, these poor little penguins didn't have a chance of survival.

Deep conversation with Great Grandpa Wing & Nolan

Giving loves to Great Grandma Wing before we headed off to Kelso.

December 2010 Part 1

I flew out to Utah on December 4th with the kids. LONGEST PLANE RIDE EVER! Wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't have bodily functions that were out of control the entire day. I think we made 8 or 9 trips to the bathroom on the plane alone. I was so glad to fall into the loving arms of my parents when we got off of that plane.

We spend pretty much the entire month in Springville with my family, while Kenny was out traveling around the midwest interviewing for residency programs.

We had lots of time to catch up with my immediate and extended family. But the most fun was having the cousins around each other to play. Nolan is the oldest and only boy at this point, and then Audrey, Maggie and Mckenna were all born just a couple months apart. It was crazy at times, but we loved every minute of it.

Playing Spies with Uncle Lance

The girls had a pie eating contest

Getting that wind-blown look from the Discovery Gateway

Audrey rediscovered binky usage. I love that hers is upside down.

Maggie is showing her the correct binky positioning.

We got to play in Aunt Merle's basement full of wonderous toys!

Took the kids to their first visit to Temple Square. Where we helped reunite a little lost boy with his parents, lost Audrey's boot, and then found it again in the parking lot by our car.

Papa & Nolan played with the interactive Temple thingy for quite a while.

And all of the girls couldn't stop pointing at the pretty lights and the castle...in between mini meltdowns.

We made a countdown for Kenny to get there.

When he finally did we all loaded up and drove to the cabin to spend our Christmas weekend.

There were 8 adults, 4 kids, and all of the Christmas we could handle! That was a LOT of trips on the snowmobiles this time!!

Both Nolan and Kenny couldn't get enough speed and powder.

On Christmas Eve we had a tree to decorate! Here's Maggie and Uncle Jason

Nolan being SO careful.

Audrey getting a little boost from Papa.

An even BIGGER one from Dad!

Then we opened our Christmas PJ's

Posed for some pictures...

Makenna, Audrey & Maggie

Handsome Nolan

Me and the Hubs

Jason & Alannah and Mom & Dad Whittaker

Then waited to see if Santa would come...and of course he did!!

Where to start??

OK here is my marathon update the blog session from clear back in December. I promised myself that I would at least have the blog totally up to date before Match Day...so I've got less than 36 hours to get this done. Yikes. In my defense we have had a lot going on since we finally returned to Milwaukee after being out West for two months. I know we spent a lot of time at night researching residency programs, areas, and coming up with our rank list. It seem like lots of other stuff was going on and frankly at night when we weren't looking up stuff pertaining to our future, we've been tuning out the world watching our favorite shows together like "Psyche" and "Modern Family". Thank Heaven for those two shows.

Now on to photo overload!

Note: This is mostly for our Mothers, Fathers, and Grandparents who always say they can't get enough pictures-for the rest of you, hey it's at least giving you something to look at while you kill time!