Next Stages

 When daddy's becoming a doctor AND he does a little handy work here and there, you can see where Brody might get his tools confused.  Nice try bud, but wrong ear tool!

Today Barry moved home from Duluth for good.  He had a banquet for the end 2 years in Duluth last night and won two awards, pretty sweet!  Tomorrow starts 3 1/2 weeks of hard core dedicated studying for Step 1 of Boards, a super important test that you want to pass and do it well.  From what I gathered of fellow students, most of them have 6-7 full weeks of dedicated study and most of them do not have kids.  I think he's taking the test the earliest.  I have no idea how a person can study 10 hours a day every single day for a month, but I guess that's one good reason that Barry's in medical school and I am not!  I pray he finds the focus like I know I'd never have and I'm confident that he will do well.
After the Step 1 test, which is basically the exam on 2 years of medical school material, I will deliver this baby about 5 days later (and more importantly hopefully not early), then Barry will have just over 2 weeks off after the baby before he starts rotations.  During rotations he moves around to different locations and schedules for 2 years.  Those 2 years are all scheduled already and everything!  So if you need anything, Barry will be available from May 24 until I deliver (yet to be named) baby boy #2.
And for Brody news....he has moved on to the next stage in sleeping and has done so like a champ!  He has the bunk bed from Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Steve.  These are the ones Barry grew up with.  There's a rail that goes across the whole thing, but with training and a pack of fruit snacks, he was able to climb in and out gracefully.  He goes down to bed or nap without a peep.  I think he loves sleeping even more than I do.

Claire's Birthday

Claire turned 3 today.  I hear that Omi and Papa took the kids to the zoo!  Last Sunday she had a party at The Little Gym, a great party spot for a group of young kids!

Easter Part 2

 Briggs reminds me of Brody, at 6 months he's not a feather weight newborn anymore!  He sure wiggles around a lot too.

 Everleigh and Brody (I think she's about 5 months older).

 Chalk = Fun!

 A man on a mission.

 Just look at the focus in his eyes.

Each egg had 2 pieces of candy in them and for most of the 12 he got, Brody either shared 1 or both of the pieces with someone else.  Next year he'll know better;)

The great part about being 2 years old is that a holiday can last a good week or so.  When you're 2, why save all of the holiday fun for just one day, right?  We're still hiding eggs at home.  We load up one big egg with 2 jelly beans and hide it for Brody (per his request each night).  He's not so great at finding, but he sure has fun trying.

Easter Part 1

 Silly goats chewing on clothes!

Yes, we had an Easter egg hunt and yes, the kids each found a ton of little Easter eggs!  They were filled with mostly cereal though (Kix and Alpha-bits), so don't tell these three that they were ripped off because they were pretty excited!

Arizona Part 2 - Swimming

"One, two, three, nine, TEN, jump!"  To say he loved the water is probably stating the obvious!  We went swimming in Arizona everyday, including the day we arrived 6 hours late.  He also got to sit on the step of the hot tub after swimming which he loved equally as much.  I think and hope we have a swimmer on our hands because I all but lived in the swimming pool every summer (my grandpa used to call me a fish) and Barry grew up by the lake.