Easter Morning!

Coloring Easter Eggs

GOOD NEWS!

We are officially new home owners! We made an offer on a house yesterday and it was all settled this morning. We bought a house in Ankeny (very close to my friend Sara) and it was one of the last homes I looked at before I left. It has everything that we need and will be just fine for the next four years. Their schools are great and the community is as well. We will be closing on May 19th so that only gives me two months to prepare! Ryan will use vacation time that week to help move and then he will have to return to Denver until June 23rd. He will start at Iowa Methodist Medical Center immediately after that. We are very happy to have that all behind us and especially that I won't have to go back and do it all over again!

Other than that big news, not much is new around here. We have spent some days at the park and the mall playing but otherwise we just hang out at home. Kael has been crabby the last few days, maybe he is finally getting more teeth. He only has 7 and I can definitely see one coming in but who knows about the others. He is actually getting his teeth slower than Regan if you can believe that. She still has two more to come in so Kael will probably be 5 before he gets all of his teeth!

We want to wish everyone a Happy Easter and we hope to see you all soon!

Here are a few pictures of the kids from when we were back visiting our family. Kael is getting to be such a big boy and doesn't want any help eating anymore. He even wants to sit at the table and not in a highchair or booster! Regan is still Grandpa Curt's shadow. She goes everywhere with him when we are visiting. She loves to go with him to the bank, post office, and the grocery store and she comes back with a treat every time! The last picture is of Regan at the zoo playing the drums. It was 75 that day! We will definitely miss the Denver weather.

We returned home to Denver on Friday night and boy was it nice to be home. My dad and grandpa followed us here on their way to Arizona. It was nice to have them travel with us and it made me feel much better about the 10+ hour drive with two kids. They stayed with us Friday night and left early on Saturday morning. They will be visiting the Feuerhelm's (my grandma's side of the family) and also many friends my grandpa hasn't seen in almost six years since they moved back to Sioux Falls. There will be a lot of golf I'm sure and my dad wants to see the Cubs training camp.

We have been relaxing and enjoyed the nice weekend weather. It was 75 degrees on Saturday so the Zoo was a must for the kids. The traffic line to the zoo was about 1 mile long and it was very difficult to find a parking spot. The kids enjoyed it and they even had to wear sunscreen! On Sunday we woke up to snow. The temp dropped over 45 degrees in less than 12 hours, how crazy is that? The snow is now melted and we are enjoying a lazy morning at home. Kael is playing and Regan is watching Dragon Tales. Back to normal!

My dad will be inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Directors Hall of Fame after Easter and I would really like to be there so we may head back at the end of the month. We are so proud of him and what a great honor!

I will let you all know what we decide to do. Enjoy the warmer weather!

The kids and I have been back in SD/Iowa for three weeks now and we will be heading back to Denver on Friday. I have spent many days searching for a home and nothing yet, but I will keep looking. I have looked at well over 40 homes and I am just beside myself! Every home has had at least one big issue whether it was the roof, foundation, water problems, mold, or just way too much work for us. I can live with cosmetic issues but when we get into bigger problems I just don't want to have to deal with that.
Anyway, I just wanted to update you all on the house-hunting progress and I will let you know more when we get to that point. I am eager to get home and not have to worry about this for a while but we will try again in April or May.
We hope everyone is staying healthy and pray that this winter weather will soon be gone!

Kari

Eventually I will figure out how to do this whole BLOG thing! There are very large spaces in between the pictures so I apologize.

Regan had her last day of preschool yesterday since we will be gone for a while and who knows what will happen in the next few months. She attended a "Rodeo" at school last Friday and was suppose to dress like a cowgirl. She picked out her own clothes as you can see but she looked cute and had a great time. They made horses to ride, ate hotdogs and learned a new dance! Sorry I forgot to rotate the picture, I am so bad at remembering to do that.





















Kael's new 'favorite thing' is playing in the dryer. Everytime I do laundry he is pulling the clothes out(faster than I can get them) so that he can jump in! He thinks he is so funny.





















I cought Kael red-handed! He was playing Doctor and must have gotten hungry because he pulled the bread off the counter and was sitting on the floor eating it!






















Regan decided she would bring the firetruck in from the garage, so Kael was having a great time playing fireman. He figured out how to honk the horn and would giggle everytime it made a noise.




















This was Regan's last day of preschool wearing her Mt. Olive T-shirt. As you can see they love the firetruck but it is a little tight in there with two!

Not much new here, we are looking forward to watching the Super Bowl this weekend but I'm not really sure who I want to win. I really wanted the Packers to play but no such luck, Favre will have to put in another year. I thought a Super Bowl win would be a great career ending for him but oh well!

The kids and I are going to be traveling back on the 13th and will meet my dad in Omaha. He is going to take the kids to Paullina so I can go to Des Moines and look at houses. Hopefully within a week I can find something! We plan on visiting everyone for a while as we have nothing to get back for, besides Ryan but he is pretty busy! We will let everyone know where we are and when we will be around.

Ryan has been very busy on this rotation and we don't get to see him much. He has done so many interesting cases and is very glad he is at a hospital that has hands-on learning. It really is amazing the things he gets to do! I won't go into detail but he loves surgery! Iowa Methodist Medical Center is very similar to St. Joe's so he will get a lot of experience there also, which he is really excited about. It is hard for me to imagine him doing all of that (surgeries) but I guess that's what Surgical Residents do.

We hope everyone is surviving the crazy weather we have been hearing about. We don't seem to get much here and if we do it melts within a couple of days. Next year will be hard getting back into the swing of using a snowblower!

We love and miss you all!

Kael showing off all 6 of his teeth! Regan playing her guitar! Snuggling with Daddy! Kael blocking the football game from Daddy and Regan being her usual self!

UPDATE!

We just wanted to let everyone know that we're moving to IOWA!!! Ryan got the call today and accepted the position. This is a 2nd year spot in General Surgery at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. He will start in June when he finishes his contract here in Denver. We are both very excited for this amazing opportunity and we are especially grateful that we will be closer to our families.

Home at last

We spent New Year's Eve in Sioux Falls at the Ramkota. There were over 40 people in our group and it was so much fun. We got to see the so many friends we hadn't seen since we moved (and 3 new babies we hadn't met yet). We were missing little Alec this year as he passed away in November just one day before his baby sister arrived. Alec would have turned 4 this month and is just a little older than Regan. We were not able to make it back for the funeral so it was nice to talk with Brad and Stephanie and see Aaron and baby Emily.

We rented a banquet room so we could set up all the food. This was a great idea as the room was later used to play some cards. Our friends Scott and Lori from Madison, MN even came down to celebrate with us. Everyone swam, ate and overall had a great time. The balloons you see over the pool were let down at midnight and then the night was over, for the kids anyway! Cards continued until I don't know when!

New Year's day we traveled north to Grandpa and Grandma Garrys to spend the day with everyone. It was a very relaxing day, I think everyone was exhausted. The highlight of G & G's now is their new Wii! It's pretty funny to watch and now I picture Stan and Mary playing it and just laugh, sorry.

We headed for Des Moines for the big interview and stayed with my high school friend Sara and her husband Travis. They had a black lab named Tess and the kids just loved her! Thanks for having us and we hope we will soon be living there.

Ryan's interview went well and we are very optimistic. We should know by the end of the month if he got the job or not. We will keep you all posted.

After being gone 7 days, putting 2000 miles on the Tahoe and sleeping in 6 different beds we finally returned home. It was so nice to see everyone but it is always nice to be home. The kids traveled great and it couldn't have been a better trip. I did numerous loads of laundry and the house was in shambles. Last night I stayed up until 3 am and finally got the Christmas decorations down and the house clean. I never thought I would see the floor!

Regan goes to the asthma/allergy specialist this afternoon so I will let you know what we hear.

We hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday and look forward to hearing from everyone soon.

Love, The Garrys

Plans changed and we are in Paullina!

A couple weeks before Christmas we found out we would be able to get back for the week of New Year's. We headed to Paullina on Saturday and surprised everyone(my mom and dad knew we were coming). I think everyone was pretty shocked and we were so glad to see everyone. My aunt and uncle from Minneapolis, my cousins and my Grandpa were also there so it was extra special! We celebrated Christmas with gifts, food and some hold em'.

Christmas

Some more pictures from Christmas. Regan and Kael checking out Kael's new airplane. Regan helping Grandpa open his gifts. All ready for bed. Regan on Christmas morning with a book that I don't think she really liked! You can see her new bike in the background that Santa brought her. Grandpa and Grandma before they flew back home. We had a wonderful time and were thankful that they could come and spend Christmas with us.

What is that big present?

Regan and Kael woke up Christmas Eve morning to find this huge present by the tree. Grandpa and Grandma decided they should open and it and boy it sure was a hit! I only wish we would have had that much fun putting it together! Mom, Dad and I put it together after the kids went to bed and it was very interesting! It took three of us but we did it correctly, I think. This has a kitchen on one side and a grill and outdoor area on the other. Why didn't they think of things like this when I was a kid.

Christmas Eve

Regan and Kael opening gifts on Christmas Eve. Regan got a sleeping baby doll from Grandpa and Grandma that she named baby Jon. She has now named it baby Kael. What will she think of next? She also decided she wanted to wear her pink dress instead of her pretty Christmas dress. Kael worked hard at his gifts but in the end I think Regan opened them all! He wanted her doll and she wanted his cars, hmm!

Grandpa helping Regan put the angel that Grandma made on the Christmas tree. Kael is making sure they do it right! He is so hard to get a picture of.

Being really good so Santa will come!