March

March was a good and highly anticipated month in the Runyan household this year. This was the month that we were to find out where we matched for medical residency. For those of you familiar with this process, you know what I mean. I will enlighten the rest of you. In your 4th year of medical school, you begin this process by interviewing at different residency programs in the specialty of your choice. As you interview, you take notes of which programs you like and which ones you don't like. Which cities would be a good fit for you and your family, and which cities would not. Then, you fast and pray, (which you have been doing all along the way so that you can have guidance) and rank the programs in order 1 through whatever. (In our case, it was 1-7.) You submit this information to the powers-that-be, and it is put into a computer. Meanwhile, the programs that you have interviewed at have also been taking notes on all of their applicants. They have ranked the applicants 1 to whatever, have also submitted this information to the powers-that-be, and it is put into a computer. Then, the computer runs a program, and in a matter of seconds, the fate of hundreds of future residents all over the country is decided. WOW! What did they do before computers...Needless to say, we were all looking forward to finding out where we would be for the next 6 years of our lives. Anyway, here are the exciting events of March, listed chronologically. (Again, so that you can see them if I had posted them along the way...)

1.) I started feeling the affects of the first trimester. YUCK! There really is nothing redeeming about the first trimester. Don't get me wrong, it is exciting to be pregnant and to know that you will be adding another member to your family. But that is so far away from this point in your pregnancy. Furthermore, you are super tired, your kidneys kick into turbo action causing multiple trips to the potty, you are super tired, and if you are like me, you get really, really, really nauseous. Plus, you are super tired. -It was worse for me this time than with the previous two pregnancies. (I really can't complain as I was not as sick as some.) Suffice it to say that nausea and heaving were a big part of my life for a good three months, and that brushing my teeth at night was not pretty.

2.) Dad Lueken's 50th birthday! Wow Dad, you look great! Plus, you are way to young to have a daughter my age...We went to Indiana for the weekend to visit my parents and celebrate my dad's birthday. Here are some shots from the best part of the weekend, the cake and ice cream of course!

Dad with cake and presenents. (My nephew Owen used to call presents 'presenents'. It was so cute, we adopted the name. Funny thing is, he didn't do it for very long...)
Dad reading a card from the girls with Rachael looking on. -Yes, if you are wondering, Rachael is in her pajamas, and no, it is not the morning. This is Rachael's outfit of choice after church 9 times out of 10. Can't say that I blame her...Who doesn't want to put on their p.j.'s after wearing a dress and tights?
I thought that I would include this shot just for kicks. You can see the Graeter's ice cream, cake and presents in the background. Yum. Morgan and Rachael with their new webkinz ON the table. (At grandmas, of course. At our house, you are not allowed to have toys at the table, let alone on the table. The toys could get food on them, or worse, distract you from the wonderful purpose of being at the table: eating.) Then you have me in the background looking sick and tired. I am looking at the beautiful cake and wishing that I had even the smallest desire to partake of it and some ice cream. Darn you 1st trimester!

3.) Achievement Days. In our ward, another sister and I work with the Achievement Day girls. It is loads of fun. This particular evening, Sister Hand taught about temple marriage and had the girls try on their mother's wedding dresses. They all loved this. Here is a picture of Morgan in mine, big slip and all. (She loved it!)
4.) Home Repairs. Yes, that is Chris attached to a rock climbing harness and rope, being belayed by his 2 month pregnant wife on our roof so that he can fix the gutters. We do not own a ladder, which is something that we will have to remedy in the not-too-distant future. Chris did a great job fixing the gutter, and he did not fall, and I did not drop him. (Thank goodness!) We had to do a minor repair or two in order to get the house ready to sell...This was one of them.

5.) Morgan's violin recital. This was a fun night. She has been loving the violin this year, and is really playing quite well. She played 'Go Tell Aunt Rhody', and did great!

This picture turned out a little blurry, but it had to be included. She really did a great job.

Here is a shot of Rachael while we waited for the recital to begin. She is holding two very dear possessions, Dottie, her first webkinz animal, and a small pillow that she acquired from the treasure box in gym class. Thanks Mr. B...

This is Morgan with her friend Elizabeth who also plays the violin.

6.) MATCH DAY!!! March 19th! We made it! Here is a picture of me and Chris at the Match Day party. Here in Cincinnati, everyone gets together to open their match letters. Fun, right? Well yes, however, your name is drawn out of a bowl and you and your significant-other go to the front of the room and open it in front of the entire class. It really was quite exciting. Fun, nerve-racking and exciting. This shot was taken just before the letter opening commenced.

What a fun day. My dad, grandmother, and Chris's mom came to join us for the event. (Chris's dad couldn't get away from work, and my mom was away on a business trip.) Everyone was thrilled to discover that we would get to stay here for residency! The program for plastic surgery here is really good, and both of our parents live within 2 hours of driving. Hooray for grandparents living close!

7.) Quick visit with family! We had a quick visit with family the end of this month. Chris's sister Emily, her husband Jaron and their boys came from Iowa for a quick weekend trip. This was the first opportunity that we got to meet our new nephew and cousin to the girls, Trevor. Chris's cousin Tom came from Louisville, KY to join us. We spent time together, ate yummy food, and the cousins had a blast as usual. Tom brought his AWESOME camera along and took some fun shots. The only problem is that his camera takes pictures that makes our camera's pictures look, well, not as good as his. It takes great pictures. So crisp and clean. Wow, thanks Tom!

Here is Morgan holding 'Baby Trevor'. He is such a sweet baby!

This is Rachael with a stuffed bunny of hers. She loves stuffed animals, just like I did when I was a little girl. Though, hers are her little buddies. Each week or so, she has a new one that has to go everywhere with her...This week, it was 'Bunny'.

Morgan, Chief, cousin Spencer, 'Bunny', and Rachael.

***Family picture of the Runyans taken by Tom, to be inserted here. For some reason, we could not get all of the shots from Tom that weekend. -They were not transferring. I will get a copy and insert it here.***

February

What a fun month this year. Full of exciting happenings. (The events are listed chronologically, not in order of their significance. This way you can see them as if I had posted them in order of their happenings.) Here we go:

1.) The first event was actually bitter-sweet. Both of my grandfathers passed away this January. I was only able to attend one of the funerals as they were both in California. In order for me to attend, we had to postpone Morgan's 8th birthday party. She was such a trooper. I was able to attend my Grandpa Richard's funeral. It was a nice service. He had been sick for a long time, so are all glad that he is no longer suffering. Grandma is doing well, though she misses him terribly. She has since moved from California to Indiana to live with my parents, so we get to see her much more often. We love you Grandma!

2.) I found out that I was pregnant with baby #3! Hooray! Exciting! We are starting all over! (Oh boy...But not a boy. You will see when I update the month of June that we are having our 3rd girl. We are thrilled. Girls are so much fun. Besides, we like drama here...)

3.) A most significant thing happened for Morgan on February 14th. She was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Chris performed the baptism, my parents spoke, and Chris's parents took care of the music. (Ahh, musical connections...l) It was lovely. I cannot believe that she is old enough to be baptized...Here is a picture that we took while preparing the programs for the event:

What can I say? She likes to pose...

This was the picture that we used for the baptism program. Don't worry, we zoomed in on Morgan cropping out the garbage bag and other clutter in the background. We love you photo shop!

***Classic picture of Chris and Morgan dressed in white pre-baptism to be inserted here.*** In the chaos of the morning I forgot my camera. A word to you other mothers of children to be baptized in the not-too-distant future: Don't do this! A lovely picture was taken on Opa Runyan's camera. I will get it and insert it soon!

Here is a fun picture taken after Morgan's baptism at our home. This is with my grandmother Gwen, my mother, and me and the girls. (Back when I could still zip up those pants...) It has been really fun for the girls to get to know their great-grandmother. Rachael actually took several pictures this day, but most were too blurry to post. I have to say a word about Rachael this day. This was clearly Morgan's day. Rachael was loving, supportive and excited for her sister. She never once tried to get attention, only went along with the flow. Thanks Rach! -She also attached herself to Grandma Gwen. Something that was fun for the both of them.

4.) Morgan's 8th birthday party was a hit. We had to move it from the beginning of Feb to the end, due to the previously mentioned funeral of my grandfather. We actually braved a sleep-over! There was pizza, movie watching, cupcakes and ice cream and camping out in tents in the living room. (Can't camp outside here in February, unless you are a crazy boy scout.) We used a couple small tents and the girls loved it. Here is a picture of the girls in attendance:

From left to right: Michiah, Hailey, Abby, Morgan, Jeana, Lindsay, Rachael, Adalida, Campbell and Emilee.

Where Have I Been?

Where to start? Well, since my last post 6 months ago, I have been in what I like to call 'SURVIVAL MODE'. I was running the house, helping Chris finish interviews for residency, working with an elderly woman, helping with kids homework and music lessons, making life-changing decisions, getting our house ready to sell, packing our house, celebrating graduation from medical school, moving, and unpacking at the new house. Did I mention that I did all of this while I was pregnant and sick with our third daughter? Yikes. I have not had the time or energy to put into updating our little blog, and for that I apologize. We have had some great family experiences these past months however, so I will do my best to give you an update on the Runyans from February to August. I promise to include pictures wherever I have them. This may take a few posts to update, so please bear with me...

Snow Dayz

It hit! The BIG ONE of the year. In our corner of the country, we seem to get one really big snow storm that throws the city off for 5-7 days or so. This one happened to hit on a Monday evening and left quite a bit of snow and ice in its wake. School was cancelled through the rest of the week for the girls, which I will have to admit, was really fun. Growing up in Arizona, I did not have the pleasure of experiencing snow days, and I love having the girls home. Morgan was especially thrilled as school was cancelled on her birthday. She viewed this as a gift from above. Here are some pictures from the big storm. In 2 days, we got 4-6 inches of snow, 2 inches of ice on top of that, and then another couple of inches of snow. Whew! Incidentally, Chris was out of town for most of this. We were sad that he had to miss so much of the fun.
Morgan sledding with her friend Emillee.
Rachael and Brittanee eating icicles. The girls ate a lot of icicles this week.
Our neighbors' snow covered tree.

Our weeping cherry tree covered in ice.

Icicles on the side of our house. The icicles were everywhere. The girls collected them from any spot that they could reach, and put them into buckets. We had a wonderful time sleeping in, playing in the snow, watching movies and drinking hot chocolate. Ahhhhh, snow days.

Morgan's Birthday!

She is 8 years old and I cannot believe it. Wow. Where did the time go? Here are some fun shots from her big day:

Morgan and Rachael with Morgan's breakfast in bed. Morgan requested a ham and cheese omelet, toast, applesauce and orange juice. Rachael was quite the helper. She made the orange juice, rolled the silverware in a napkin, made Morgan a beautiful card, and carried the tray in to the birthday girl. Breakfast in bed on your birthday is a fun tradition that we adopted from some friends. The girls LOVE it, and look forward to it both as the server and the receiver.

In our house, I make your favorite dinner for your birthday. Morgan's favorite is fondue, so that is what we ate. We had a large bottle of fuel for our fondue pot that lasted 3-4 years. We only eat fondue on special occasions, so the fuel was just always there. Because of this, I never thought to look to make sure that we had some for the birthday dinner. It ran out last time we made fondue. (Oops). Of course I did not realize this until the table was set and we were getting ready to put the cheese fondue together. New discovery: an electric skillet works great! We just plugged it in and kept it on the 'warm/simmer' setting.

What could be better than cheese fondue? Chocolate fondue! Yum! Thanks to the Blackhams for the delicious recipes.

Sweet Dreams...

So, Chris and I have been staying up a little later than usual as it is winter break. After we put the girls to bed, we play some games or watch a movie, and just enjoy spending time together. (Something we don't get much of.) A few nights ago, we put the girls to bed in their beds, and proceeded to play some games. A couple hours later we went up to bed, and this is how we found the girls:

Morgan sleeping on her pillow in the hallway just outside her room.

Rachael, sleeping on her pillow with her bear in the hallway just outside her room. I would bet money that this was her idea.

Hair Cuts

We thought that we would ring in the new year with a few hair cuts. Just trims this time as the girls have decided that they would like to keep their hair long.

Morgan in the 'Hair Chair', which happens to be our piano bench.

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeese! Rachael's turn in the 'Hair Chair'.