New bowling shoes

If you follow the blog you know that Jake likes to bowl and it was one of the final carrots we could dangle in fromt of him to get him potty trained.  The place near our house is pretty good but half of the fees are actually shoe rentals.  After a while I decided to buy some shoes to cut down on the continuing costs.  His shoes arrived two days ago and last night we took him bowling again.  He also likes to copy any older kid and a few weeks ago he starting trying to roll the ball like older kids (and adults) do.  This actually has significantly increased his score as you can see from the pictures at the 9th and 10th frames.  You can see that not only did jake get two strikes and two spares in the first 5 frames but we were tied going into the 9th frame.  I am an increadibly erratic bowler and will bowl anywhere from 100's to 190.  Unfortunately jake was getting so enthusiastic around the 6th frame he was almost throwing the ball into the the adjacent lane.  I had to stop him and this made him start rolling the differently without much force.  (good thing or he probably would have won).  People started coming by and giving me a hard time about losing to Jake before the 9th frame.  Fortunately for me I survived with my ego intact and won out by 1 point.

Sam is 5 months old!

Well, actually Sam was 5 months old 2 weeks ago, but this picture was actually taken on December 4th. He has been interacting a lot, definitely expresses discontent when he drops his toys or you don't feed him fast enough. He's doing well with rice cereal. I haven't quite moved onto veggies yet. He is sleeping really well since we returned from San Antonio, about 10 hours most nights. He laughs at Jake and Daddy. He is cuddly and smiles with me. Happy 5 months, Sam!

Back home again.

Well the trip is over.  After a 16 hour marathon drive fueled by red bull and coffee we made it back today.  We spent the last two weeks in San Antonio for the CCC (non-important army acronym).  We had to bring the entire family with us or else do the course some other time in the future which could mean 3 months of separation instead of two weeks.  Thanks to Heather and Grammie Kris the kids both had fun down there while Mandy and I were in class.  It was strange putting on my uniform again for the first time in 18 months to remind me that I am in the Army still.  Even better was the PT test at 0420 in the frigid temperatures....
It was great reuniting with so many of our old friends from medical school and residency as well as making some new connections.  After all the stress and preparation for the trip I am glad I got to do it and no longer need to worry about it.


Jake and his new favorite helicopter the "Huey"



This was from a fe weeks ago but I just found it again and its too cute not to put it in.