In case you hadn't heard...

We MATCHED at the MAYO CLINIC in ROCHESTER, MN for Kenny's Radiation Oncology residency!! We're so excited with the results and as I'm sure most of you who read this already know that was our first choice. We'll be moving to La Crosse, WI in June for Kenny to complete his Intern Year training at the Gundersen Lutheren Hospital which is a wonderful regional hospital, that has great training and benefits, and we'll only be about an hour away from Rochester so when the time comes for house hunting we'll be a short drive away. Then in July 2012 we'll make the move (and hopefully be purchasing our first home) for our four year stay in Rochester.

For as much as we've been anticipating this huge event in our lives you would have thought that I would have blogged about it sooner eh? Well, what can I say, I'm just not great at keeping this as updated as I'd like. I write posts in my head...I just never get them online. Any who..here is a few photos of our big day. We had our friend Jocelyn babysit the kids, who had a wonderful time at her house while we were at the Match Day activities at MCW. I don't think they missed us one bit really! Then after we picked them up and told Nolan where we were going he was so excited-Rochester was his first choice too-he loved it there. He talked about it non-stop the rest of the day to whomever would listen.

We met up with our pals Todd & Jessica Pitts and their two adorable girls Haley and Malia at Stonefire Pizza company to celebrate. We enjoyed the buffet, watching the kids play and mostly just the relief that the day had finally come!

Here are a few pictures that we remembered to take. We also had a friend take a video of us opening the letter, and our reactions are priceless (to me at least) but I couldn't get my camera to transfer them over the correctly so guess I'll have to figure that out later.

Us, about 5 seconds before Kenny ripped open the envelope!

This is what the inside of Match Day Activities look like-lots of bodies, excitement and cheering-it was great.

Todd & Jessica Pitts-they are heading to San Antonio, TX for Todd's Orthopedic Residency. We are definitely going to miss these guys.

Malia and Audrey at Stonefire's water table- a favorite destination for them.

Drey trying her hand at face painting.

This was the highlight of the day for Nolan-he's been dying to go on the "Up, up, up, Down, down, down ride" for a long time! Kenny was a good sport and accompanied him-he looks so big compared to those kids! :)

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!

Holiday Family Portraits

We had our formal family portraits taken the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and we're pretty happy with the results. It's frustrating to me though that I can usually get a nice smile out of Audrey when it's me behind the camera, but whenever we take her to Picture People it's hit or miss. We've got one with a big smile from her, and a sneer from Nolan, and one with a nice smile from Nolan and a dazed look on Drey. Oh well! They are done and they will be nice to have for the time that we will all be spending apart. The Christmas song "Merry Christmas Darling" by Karen Carpenter will definitely be playing over and over in my head this year!

November...not a big picture month

Here are a few pictures that we've taken this month. There aren't many, it's tough to compete with all of the fun of Halloween & Grandma's visit!

So here are a few random ones to document the month as best we can.

We've been waking up to jack-hammers and backhoes for most of the month since they are replacing the gas lines to each house along our neighborhood. Won't be missing that when they're finally done!

As Audrey's hair continues to get longer, we are experimenting with new hair styles and tricks-she's pretty receptive to it too!

Nolan realized that he didn't have a scarf, so we whipped one up quickly one night. A green one for him, and a burgundy shawl for Audrey. So glad I had some extra fleece kicking around.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at John & Karisa McAllister's house-a big thank you to them for hosting. They are always so organized and prepared-everything was beautiful and the company was outstanding. My kids never want to come home after playing at Benson's house-can't blame them-it's one of the most welcoming homes you'll ever be in...oh yeah and they've got some fun toys too!

The day after Thanksgiving we decided to start the day by making Christmas cookies, and proceeded to use up what sprinkles we had left in the pantry-which were mostly full before beginning this endeavor.

Please ignore the binky in Drey's mouth. She found it in her baby toy box and was attached to it all morning-she hasn't taken a binky since she was 7 months so don't report me to the dentist!

So that about sums up the highlights of November. Now on to the craziness, fun and excitement of December and January!!