Pumpkin carving!

Family ties

Guess who this is? Not Charlotte, as many have assumed as this has been hanging on our refridgerator, but in fact is baby Matt in 1983. I guess we know who she looks like now! (Kristi has shuffled through many of her own baby pictures, looking for any sign of resemblance, but has so far been unsuccessful...)

Charlotte's kissing face--bottom lip sticking out.

She loves her swing...ok, not so much in this moment of fussing. But she actually does love it hanging in our sunroom, and rides in it at least once a day.

What more could a lady ask for than a purse and a dolly?! She always carries the purse like that, with the strap long and her arm up in the air to keep the strap on. She gets really mad if you try to help her with it.

Our little mechanic, working on her car.

Carving a pumpkin!

Helping scoop out the seeds.

This is Skeletor on Halloween. (Skeletor was from the cartoon "He-man") Her shirt was glow-in-the-dark. Grandma Cindy and Auntie Kate got it for her, figuring that as the daughter of two med students she could get away with wearing it at times other than Halloween.

For Halloween we went to Grandma Carol Ann's and Grandpa Randy's to help pass out candy and spend some time with them. Charlotte loved helping to answer the door and seeing all of the kids in costumes. She also loved playing with the candy in their crinkly wrappers. Lucky for us she doesn't know what's inside of them!

A momentous occasion!

Drumroll please..............Matt and Kristi have submitted their residency applications!

We applied to family medicine programs in the following places:

Duluth

Rochester (Mayo)

LaCrosse

Minneapolis (UofM/Smileys, Methodist, North Memorial)

St. Paul (United, St. John's, St. Joseph's)

Matt has already heard back about interviews at Mayo and some of the Minneapolis/St. Paul programs. Kristi just submitted her application about 5 minutes ago (it is all done via internet), so she has not heard back yet. Interviews will be in November-January. We will rank our top choices by February 25, 9pm eastern time (very specific!). We will get our placement on March 19 at noon at a big celebration called "Match Day." Then we will know where we will be living and working for the next 3 years!

A tiny update on the shining star in the family--Charlotte can now say "apple," "shoes," and "breakfast." Some of you may be saying, "but she could say 'breakfast' already!" This is true, but it was more like "Buhf." Now she really says "Beck-fas." It is so cute (you know Kristi has to be writing this post as Matt would NEVER use the word cute). Charlotte also knows to raise both arms in the air if you yell "TOUCHDOWN!" And she has quite the signing skills--she can sign more, eat, drink, milk, please, thank you, shoes, and she's working on cookie. (she LOVES the sugar cookies we made this weekend Mom!) She picks up on stuff super-fast, so we will have to be careful what we say and do around her!

Here's a picture from last August just for the heck of it. Remember how fat and bunchy she was? I just want to squeeze her little thighs!

Little Mama

Here is a video of Charlotte taking care of one of her babies. She LOVES to play with dolls--I promise we did not get her started on this, she did it all on her own. She spends lots of time laying her babies on the couch, covering them up with a blanket (or in this case, the insert to a cloth diaper), feeding them bits of snacks, sharing her pacifier, and pushing them in her swing. She will carry a baby around with her all day if you let her!

Puddle Jumper

Here's the video I promised I would post a while ago from our trip to Duluth. Enjoy!

At home in Duluth

Last weekend we went to Duluth to celebrate our 4th anniversary. You may recall that we tried to go to Duluth two weeks ago but Charlotte was sick and we had to cancel our trip. Luckily no one got sick to interfere this time. We had a good time being back in our favorite city, and we did lots of our favorite things. A quick synopsis: stayed at the Edgewater hotel where they have an indoor water park, went to our favorite Indian restaurant and Pizza Luce, stopped by our old apartment and went to the farmer's market a few blocks away, walked around Canal Park and the boardwalk, chased seagulls, watched some TV in our hotel room (a rare treat for us), went for a couple of walks, went to church and saw a bunch of our friends and their babies, watched a hawk get released at Hawk Ridge, went on a hike and splashed in a puddle at Hartley nature park. Charlotte was unfortunately not a fan of the water park, so we spent approximately 10 minutes in the pool, all while she screamed hysterically. Luckily we were not there to hang out in the water park, but to traipse around Duluth, so we had lots of fun anyway. Check out some of our favorite pictures.

Here is Charlotte making some long distance phone calls from our hotel room.

This is what she liked most about our trip- lounging in bed with lots of pillows, talking on the phone, and watching TV.

If you click on the picture and make it bigger, you will see how much fun Charlotte is having at the water park.

These guys are making apple cider at the farmer's market.

It was a bit windy and cold on the boardwalk, but we still had fun!

Charlotte loves to ride on daddy's shoulders!

Charlotte and a store owner's dog get up close and personal. If you click on the picture, you will see a string of snot connecting them at the nose!

We call her old lady Florek, all bundled up and with a lap blanket.

Yum, Pizza Luce!

Daddy and Charlotte at Hawk Ridge
Mama and Charlotte

A nice family picture at Hawk Ridge where the colors were beautiful!

Miss Charlotte after a bit of stomping in a puddle. We'll try to get a video of it up sometime soon. It was probably her favorite thing to do in Duluth besides chase seagulls!

Fall fun!

Just a quick post with some pictures from a visit to Kristi's parents two weekends ago. We went to the apple orchard and got some apples and pumpkins. Charlotte had a good time, though it is questionable whether she or Kristi had more fun. Kristi is a nut about seasonal fruit/produce activities (like berry picking, apple orchards, pumpkin patches, christmas tree farms, etc). Anyway, here are some pictures, with a promise of more to come this weekend or early next week. Kristi has a week off of school to hang out with Charlotte and get her residency application done!

Charlotte in the classic 'hole in a picture' pose.

We love apples!

The flying baby trick. She loves it!

Some people say you can dislocate a kid's shoulders like this. Might be true. But it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

A couple of nice family pictures. What you don't see are the 20 other shots where one or two or all three of us are not looking at the camera or throwing pumpkins. Matt promises next time he will not throw pumpkins.

Nice, yes?