Happy Halloween to everyone! I know it's a bit late, but oh well. We had a great time carving pumpkins with Mike home for Family night on Monday. Yes, I know...Mike and the mustache (sp?) It's scary. Luckily, he shaved it that night. Abbie was so hilarious with the pumpkins. She had been excited all day to carve them, but for those of you who know Abbie you won't be surprised to hear that once we got them opened up she was gagging because of the smell and plugging her nose while she scooped out the guts with a spoon. She would not dare touch the seeds or anything! It was pretty funny.
I know, kind of lame, but I forgot to buy the cool stencil ones at the store that day, and I was not going back. Abbir drew hers all by herself. Can you guess which one it is? ha ha.
( Ok, Nicole I am totally not surprised that Maddie and Abbie had the exact same costume are you? )Here are our cuties on Halloween night just before trick-or-treating. We had a ball going out with our neighbors. The kids got a lot of candy and some of the houses even had treats for the adults. Pretty cool. The kids looked great...unfortunately........
This .......and

This is what they looked like when we actually went outside. Yes, we had to do the old coat over the costume thing. We do live in Minnesota afterall!

A Day of Fun at the Apple Orchard

Tha Honeycrisp apples are my favorite, but I guess that didn't matter because they were Landon's favorite too and he would not give it back to me. I did get at least one bite though. Yummy!!

Abbie is a true Hale. She has no fear when it comes to jumping or sliding off of things. There was an giant pile of hay at the pumpkin farm and the kids had a great time climbing and jumping. Landon tried, but could not quite jump as far out as Abbie could.

Okay, so funny story. I put this picture on so that everyone could see how dilligently Mike was looking for the perfect pumpkin. I showed him a few that I thought were really good, but evidently they were not good enough for him. He wanted one with a good stem. Well, he couldn't find one and finally just ended up getting one that was pre-picked up at the front where you purchase everything. It really was a beatiful pumpkin with a great stem. When we got home and opened the trunk, however the pumpkin had been rolling around so much that the stem had broken off. He was so mad. I laughed and laughed and I am still laughting even now as I write this. That's what he gets for being so picky. Ha Ha!

Fall Fun

We have this problem called squirrels here in Minnesota. There must be a family of them that live in our yard, because as you can see in the background, they think we put that pumpkin out for them to snack on. I guess it's a pretty common thing that the squirrels eat the pumpkins. People have told me that you have to carve your pumpkins the night before, and only put them out on Halloween. Darn Rodents!
Abbie and our neighbor Alex having fun in the leaves!
We had the best day on Sturday jumping in the leaves and enjoying what I can only assume will be one of the last semi-warm days this year. Mike was off all day and he went out to mow the lawn, but before he could do that, he an Abbie had to rake up all of the leaves on our lawn. We have a huge Red Oak in the front yard, and the leaves literally covered the grass. The pile that they made was taller than Abbie. I love Fall!!!

We had a great time doing Halloween cookies with our friends the other day. The kids are getting really good at spreading the frosting and decorating, Even Landon can frost his own cookie and yes, he got a haircut.

OH -- IO

Once a Buckey, always a Buckey!! Even though Mike and I live in Minnesota now, we are still faithful to our Buckeyes. They came into town last Saturday, and we were there to cheer them on to victory over the Gophers. It was our first date in four months! We had a great time and even found another little group of Buckeye fans to sit with. We did think the Minnesota M that the band made was pretty cool though, I mean nothing compared to the Best Damn Band in the Land, but still cool. Seeing the Buckeyes made me really homesick for Columbus. We really miss everyone and especially our friends that are still there, getting to go to every game. Enjoy it while you can kids...there ain't nothin like it!!

Here is our big girl on her first day of Preschool. She goes five days per week and we are both loving it! She has done great and doesn't get scared or anything. She has already made some friends and loves going everyday!
For those of you that know my kids, you know that they don't eat anything. Every mealtime is a battle, so Mike and I were out to dinner with them one night and got so tired of it, that they pretty much had icecream for dinner. At least we got to eat in peace!

Mike and Abbie at the Wolf Preserve in Ely Minnesota
Abbie fishing for the very first time. It was cold and windy, but we still had a great time on the boat!


Landon the Sea Captain!

Our big 2 year old! Landon got spoiled by his Grandma and Grandpa Hale who were lucky enough to be here visiting!

We Celebrated Landon's Birthday a few days ago. We went to the Zoo, went out to eat and Landon got lots of presents. We had a great day and can't believe our little boy is two already!

Silliest girl in the world! Abbie has a number of "poses" that she does when I
ask her to smile. This one actually turned out cute!

Our choo choo boy! He loves his trains. We went to a small, but very cute zoo in St. Paul a few weeks ago and Landon sniffed out the train. We couldn't do anything else until he had a ride on it!

Summer is coming to a very rapid close here in the great North. It will be much cooler within a month. We have loved our first Summer here in Minneapolis. We have found a lot of very cool things to do, and hopefully there are just as many for the winter.

We went to Utah for three weeks to escape Mike's crazy schedule. We had a great time hanging out with family and friends and most of all, swimming in Papa's pool. Abbie learned how to swim (thanks Rach!) while we were there and is no longer afraid to go under the water. Abbie also loved holding and getting to know her new cousin Andrew. Landons favorite thing to do while we were there was to chase the neighbors cat. He knew right where the cat would hide and follow it around forever. He also loved to swim. He was constantly trying to get my hands off of him while in the water because he thinks that he can swim. He doesn't even care if he goes all the way under. He's a crazy boy! We managed to be gone for just the right amount of time. Mike was pretty anxious to see us by the time we got home. Mom and Jenny came back with me and stayed for a week. We had a great time.

We are still trying to adjust here in Minneapolis. We have really gotten to know the area well, but we are not used to Mike's schedule. He still does not get home most nights until abou 8:30. This is hard for the kids, because they don't get to see him too often. They are hanging in there though. I am trying to adjust to life literally without a husband. I really do not know how single moms do it. I have made some friends here and we hang out, but it's lonley not having a husband around in the evening hours. At this point, it's not even so much about the help as it is the company. We are still loving Minneapolis, however. I'm glad to say that none of us were involved in the bridge collapse a few weeks ago. It is a horrible thing and has made the traffic horrific around here. On a good note, Mike is loving Oral Surgery. He loves the work he gets to do on the patients. He does not, however, love being the peon and bottom of the totem pole. I told him that's just how residency's are and once he gains some seniority, that will change. He knows this to be true and hopes that it turns out that way. We are gearing up for preschool (only 5 weeks left) to start. I have enrolled Abbie in five-day per week preschool which will come as some great stimulation for her and a much needed break for me. I'll be sure to send pictures of her first day. We hope everyone is doing well. We love you all!

Home is Where the Heart is

We are finally settled here in Minneapolis. There are tons of trees, lakes and parks to go to with the kids. Mike graduated from dental School on June third and we packed up the truck the next day and drove off. Thanks to all who helped! We have been figuring things out here in Minnesota. It is surprisingly warm here so the kids and I do something in the water almost everyday. There is tons to do around here, just not enough warm days to do them in. Just kidding! Mike and I have joked a lot about how cold it is up here and we will definitely be in for it this winter, but right now it is sunny ( most days) and hot. We love our house. We lucked out and moved in next door to some kids that are our kids' same age and the parents are my and Mike's age. They are so nice and have made the transition pretty easy. Mike starts his residency on july 1st, so the next blog may not be so upbeat, but for now all is well.

Love Erin

Okay, so I thought that I had more pictures of Easter, but evidently Mike did not take any during our Easter egg hunt with our friends. But really... what more do you need than this? On to present events... Mike and I just recently returned from Minneapolis where we found a house that we are going to rent. We were thrilled to find an actual house with a yard and a full basement. There will be plenty of room for the kids to run around and play which makes me very happy. We are in the final stages of our time here in Columbus. I have stared packing boxes and taking down decorations. I am trying not to be too sad in front of my kids, but it's hard sometimes. We have made life-long friends here and will miss them greatly. Mikes parents come on June 1st for his graduation and they will be staying to help us move. We are pulling out of here on the 4th of June. Sound familiar? Yea, it's my birthday. It's what i've always wanted for my birthday...to be driving in the car for hours at a time while my kids scream and cry. Oh, well.. maybe we'll go out to dinner or something!

I Know, I know it's been way too long....

Here it is Jen...the updated Blog you've been waiting for. Here's what's been going on with us. We went to Disney World at the end of January. Mike's dad was a guest speaker at a conference in Orlando, so he invited us down too. We went to all four major parks and hit a a water park too. It was heaven. We got out of the frozen North and made our way down to Sunny Florida for six days. Abbie got to meet Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Mickey Mouse and some other characters that she loves. We were tired by the end, but had a blast!

When we got back from Florida we were met with almost three straight weeks of below or slightly above zero temperatures. We also had a pretty mean snow storm on Valentines day. It turned out to be fun though because Ohio State was cancelled as was every other school in the city and we played in the snow with all of our friends. We had hot chocolate and valentine's cookies. The kids loved having Mike home. Later that month we flew home to Utah for Mike's brothers wedding. Scott and Rachel looked so good. It snowed the morning of their wedding and all through the picture-taking. It was beautiful! I wish I had some pictures of it!! You'll have to settle for some pictures of the kids in the snow on Valentines Day!

In March Mike and I went with 8 other couples on a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. We went to San Juan Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Maarten and Nassau Bahamas. Talk about heaven. No kids, all the food you can eat, beautiful islands oh and did I mention no kids!!! I needed a break. We went during Spring Break ( all the other husbands are in school with Mike). We had a great week. We snorkeled, layed out, slept and shopped a lot. By the time we returned,we were golden brown (don't worry it's faded already) and anxious to see our kids. My mom stayed here with my kids for 10 days. She was a real trooper. Landon had to go to the Doctor twice and was sick the entire time we were gone. I'm glad I didn't know! Thanks mom!!

Now everyone is caught up. (I'll save Easter for another post). Love to all!!!

Well, for those of you who have not heard yet, Mike matched at the University of Minnesota for Oral Surgery Residency. I am so proud of him. he worked very hard to be a competetive applicant and I know that he was. Mike graduates on June 3rd and then we will be making our way up North to the North Pole. Just kidding Only Minneapolis...ok so they are close, Susan you can relate right? I'm a little nervous about the cold, but we'll survive. We have heard from a number of people that have either lived there or know someonrewho lives there, that it is a great city. There is evidently a lot to do there and it is beautiful... lots of lakes and trees. We are excited about our new adventure. Love to you all!

Erin