where did june go?

almost the end of june...crazy! here's a recap of the month!

1. joe and i attended the residency banquet at the downtown hilton. it was so much fun to hang out with good friends and drink free wine :). in two years, that celebration will honor joe as he will be done with residency! 1 year down, 2 to go!

2. we have been lucky to have so many family and friends here this month! we love having visitors! last weekend was the opening weekend of the college world series so we had family stay with us for that! joe and i went down to rosenblatt to hang out with family. so much fun! i was definitely missing out last year when i was at home pregnant and not feeling well!  

3. aubrey and i went back to my mom and dad's for 4 days to visit. she loves her grandma and grandpa!! grandma bought her a baby pool so we need to get that set up outside so we can splash around on these hot hot days! she loves her bathtime so i'm sure she'll love pool time just as much!

4. we celebrated joe's first father's day!  aubrey loves her daddy!  we gave joe a picture and made his favorite cake!

5. we've been enjoying our neighborhood as we have get-togethers often. we are lucky to have such fun neighbors!   here's aubrey and neighbor, alexis. :)

yep...we're still here!

talk about total slacking!!  why have i not updated the blog since aubrey was born?  i don't know! well, i'm back and hoping to keep this updated!  

we are enjoying the summer so far!  joe's schedule this summer looks to be pretty manageable and he will actually have almost all the weekends off...YAY!!  it's crazy that he is almost finished with the first year of residency!  wow, what a year it has been!  so much has been learned!!

"aubrey girl" (as we sometimes call her) is doing very well!  she had her four-month check-up and shots this week.  it was the first time i brought her there myself so i was hoping i would do ok with her crying from the shots.  well, she's such a happy girl that she actually looked at the nurse after shot one and smiled.  the nurse couldn't get over it!  aubrey is in the 99 percentile for height!!! and 67% for weight.  she is soooo long!  she's giggling, rolling over, and smiling all the time!  i just love going into her room after her naps...as soon as she sees me, she gets a huge grin on her face.  LOVE IT!  today i gave her her first pedicure!!  lol  she's got some pretty pink toes now!  dad says he can't wait to see them when he gets home!  i love my time at home with her and being her mommy!

we had the living room, hallway, entryway, and stairway painted last week--got rid of the terra cotta color that was starting to get on my nerves and went with a neutral color!  now i need to decide what colors to decorate with.  

joe and i don't have major plans this summer but it seems almost every weekend we have visitors or something planned.  he will have a week off in august so we will have aubrey baptized, go to joe's 10 year high school reunion and enjoy some family time!

 

waiting and waiting....

i've never been a very patient person.  i like to be early for everything but it seems this baby girl doesn't want to be too early!! (hmm, sounds like her dad!)  i am no good at this waiting game!!  baby girl is due sunday, february 7th, however, i've been ready for a while now!  the house is clean, bags are packed, batteries in the camera...and mama is feeling large!!  the good news is that an induction date has been set (February 12th) just in case so that means regardless, in 10 days or less, joe and i will be holding our baby girl!  YAY!  i see the PA on thursday so we will see if i've made any progress in 10 days! oh please, oh please!  it does seem weird to me how fast my pregnancy has gone and how different it will be to not feel her in my belly anymore.  i know i will miss that but i'm looking forward to feeling her in my arms instead! 

I think this is one of the more recent photos of Joe and I.  We had just told my parents that we are expecting! I'm holding the poem that I wrote and a baby frame.

It's September already!  I'm looking forward to fall this year...cooler temperatures, the colors, and getting a little closer to meeting baby Stolp!  I think everyone knows by now that we are expecting a baby!  My due date is February 7 so I am 18 1/2 weeks along.  I can't believe I'm almost to the halfway point!  My pregnancy thus far has been great!  Joe and I went for an ultrasound the end of August and were not expecting to find out the sex but the ultrasound tech saw one angle and told us what we are having.  When asked how sure she was of the sex, she said "I'm sure!"  How exciting!!  We wanted to find out the sex for at least this first baby...but it still came as a shock when the ultrasound tech told us!  I think it's because it all starts to feel real when you start seeing the legs, arms, hands, feet, head, etc.  I've started to feel movement which is the most amazing feeling ever!  We're waiting to tell people what we are having until at least after the 20 week ultrasound.  What do you think it will be?!  :)  

My mom and I are leaving for the Quad Cities tomorrow as one of my friends is having a baby shower for me!  I am so excited!  It will be fun to see and catch up with friends and former co-workers too!

I'm starting a water aerobics class tonight...it will be interesting with my growing belly but I'm looking forward to it!  I'll also be taking a Calligraphy course in October which I'm excited about! 

Joe is busy with residency!  His first rotation was University Wards and his second was at a clinic.  The University Wards was hectic...one week was over 100 hours.  Yuck!  The clinic was a great rotation for us because it was an 8-5 everyday!  But now it's back to the real residency crazy hours.  He will be doing two months of VA Wards.  He is learning so much everyday and the attending physicians have been great teachers and supervisors. 

       

a new chapter in our lives...

yikes...i've set a record that i'm not proud of!  i haven't posted in about 3 months!  oops!  as always, lots has happened since my last post. 

1. joe graduated from medical school!! yay!  it was such a fun weekend! we were surrounded by family and got to see old friends as well! 

 

2. we moved to omaha!! and most importantly, everyone and everything arrived safely!  we are so grateful for all the help!  here we are at the closing and getting the keys!!

3.  we enjoyed a very relaxing june...we went to the zoo, went to some baseball games, and lounged as we knew july would bring much craziness with joe's schedule!  here's joe in the rainforest at the omaha zoo!

 

4.  joe started residency on july 1!  wow...he is a busy guy but he is learning so much and learning from great physicians.  we are so happy that we got matched to our #1 choice!  here is dr. stolp on his first day of residency!  

5. we went home for july 4th (my favorite holiday!)  it was a great weekend!  i was able to spend some extra time there and then my mom was able to come down to omaha!    

lots of exciting things...

so, once again, it has been a month since i have posted anything but lots has happened since then. here's a recap of the events...

1. we officially got word that joe will be doing his residency in omaha, ne which was our number one choice!  we are so excited about the program, the location, the city, and did i already say location??!  it's just over 2 hours from home!  yay!!

2.  after three visits, lots of anticipation, thought, and 5 counter offers, we will officially be homeowners in omaha!  we are so excited about the purchase.  we are scheduled to close on june 1!  here is a picture of it...

3. joe and i went to galena, il with friends for a weekend to celebrate the news of the residency match.  we had so much fun with kim and erich.  we will really miss them when we are in omaha.  galena has a great downtown and we stayed at a fun resort just outside of the city.  kim and i enjoyed the wine tasting while the guys golfed. we ate at a little italian restaurant and that is where this picture was taken...

4. it was easter last weekend.  joe and i had been on the road a lot in the last month so we decided to stay at home. it was weird not being with family but we had a nice easter dinner by ourselves.  one of my favorite easter memories is the easter egg hunt.  we had them a lot as a kid so i decided that joe and i needed to have one.  at first, joe thought he was too cool for an easter egg hunt but he gave in and decided that he could have fun with it.  i hid them first and he found them and then he hid them for me.  i think i was having more fun! 

joe and i will soon be taking on the huge task of packing up our house for the move.  he was done with his rotations on april 17 and i will be done with augustana on may 5th. what an exciting time it is!    

seattle

joe and i were in seattle sunday thru wednesday for a conference i had for work. in between my sessions, we were able to explore the city. we had some great food and loved the scerery! joe went on an underground tour and thought that was pretty interesting. we also went to the space needle and it was a clear day so we were able to see mt. rainier. i loved seattle and would definitely like to return. joe laughs at me because it seems i say this after every city i visit. well, i guess we'll just have to travel a lot! :) here are pictures from our trip!

at the top of the space needle

the view of downtown from the space needle

pike's market...such a fun place!

all the yummy seafood at pike's market!