i heart gap commercials

it's official.

bryan is done.  finito. for the next ten years, he doesn't have to think about another test.  let me back up a few years.  13 to be exact-ish...  he started college knowing he wanted to be a doctor, because of his anatomy teacher in high school, mr. lamb.  someone he respected so much, he was a guest at our wedding. he's even in our official album we got from the photographer because they goofed on which one we wanted in there.. oops.  bryan went to k-state for his undergrad, and ended up with more money at the end than at the beginning.  who does that? seriously.  he also studied for his m-cat in a comfy chair in loose park in the sun.  not in some classroom learning strategies, in a park!  let's hope these little babes get half his brains, they'll be fine... :) unfortunately, k-state didn't have medical school, or he would have gone there and wouldn't have ever had to admit to anyone that he became a jayhawk for four years of his life.  shh, don't tell.  k-state, however, does animals better than they do humans, so he came to the big city for med school.  at first, he thought he wanted to do orthopedic surgery... then he realized orthopods don't have lives.  i'm especially grateful for this revelation.  switched his focus to emergency medicine.  for those of you who've met bryan, this could not have been a better fit.  he's the most laid-back person i have and will ever meet, so go with the flow it sometimes drives me nuts.  but definitely a good yin to my yang...  in the course of med school, he took two of four board exams.  on march 17, 2003, we learned he'd matched at UCSF fresno.  one of the top emergency medicine programs in the country.  and i've heard would be the top if it weren't in fresno.  it was the best training you can get to be a good ER doc.  four years, one more written board exam.  a job in kansas city with a really great group fell into his lap (almost literally), we moved home and he started that in august of 2008.  fast forward to october 2009.  he slid in to a recently-cancelled spot (the last one - how does he do these things?) in a review course in vegas, read up on as much as he could retain, had me take him through several case studies, and took the oral board exam later in the month.   and yesterday, we got the envelope.

"congratulations dr. stork.... you are officially finished until
december 4, 2019."

what a feeling!!  i couldn't be more proud, although i never doubted he'd pass with flying colors... so so proud of you, babe.  congratulations.

our holiday card

i didn't get too crafty with our card this year (although it's still pretty sweet),
but this is the picture we'll be using...

out of the 7000 we took :)

we're gonna need a bigger boat...

or another letter... but what will we do when we have another baby??? maybe we'll have to sacrifice our letters for the children. the stocking hangers are empty at the moment because i'm working on hand-making some new stockings for all of us... sewing to be exact. i don't really sew. but i've asked for a sewing machine for christmas (which i know i'm getting because i saw santa my mom buy it) and jane has turned me onto the purl bee, which is where i got the pattern for what looks like pretty simple stockings. crossing my fingers it's not a lie...

christmastime with poppy

every year from the day after thanksgiving to christmas eve, my dad plays the piano at halls, a fancy schmancy department store on the plaza. you can find him at the bottom of the main escalators, playing and sometimes singing while shoppers pass by with their goodies... and don't worry, you don't have to wait for him to stop playing if you'd like to talk- he can do both at the same time. i know, so cool. it's the perfect time of day for us to visit, so i decided to take the babes down to hear him play. it's the first really cold day of the winter, and i just bought their coats. naturally, i want them to last all winter. needless to say, they're a tad big. :)

jingle bells...

so much to look at

mom, seriously, will you at least take this off while we're inside???!?

my studio!

if you can call it that. yes, you can. it's a work in progress, but when we moved in a little over a year ago, it was a guest bedroom. it was nice, our old bed became the guest bed, while we moved on to bigger (for my laarrge belly) and better things : a king-size bed! how did we ever sleep in a queen-sized bed comfortably?? i know, it can be done, and it was for almost 4 years, but it is definitely luxurious to be in a king.. i digress. a few months ago, i realized this room had only been used a couple of times. meanwhile, our "office" housed our computer desk, my work table, bookshelves, paper cutter, printer, etcera, etcera, etcera... the logical choice was made, and bam!, four or five months later, it is my studio. yay!! my workspace, my place where i can be by myself. as of right now, i'm not in there a lot, partly because i'm used to using other areas of the house for my projects- i'm a very visual person who needs to have everything spread out in front of her to be able to function... organized chaos, maybe? also because there's kind of been a lull in business for the past few weeks. and i need a good work chair. just a few reasons... i'm very lucky to be able to have a whole room! just for me, and i'm very proud of it. i'm in love with the color on the wall, and i wish you could see what it actually is. it's a yummy golden yellow with a hint of mustard... that makes perfect sense, right? bryan put up some cork squares on one wall, there's a collage of the babies as newborns on one, and the other is waiting on something. maybe a big overgrown plant. nah... built-in bookshelves that are sa-weet are on the other, and this is where most of my supplies are. i'm hoping to fill the corkboard with inspiration, pictures, cut-outs from magazines, and tons of quotes. i'm a tad obsessed with quotes. so here it is. sorry for the blurriness of the pictures, i wanted to try to take them without the flash so the color was as accurate as it could be...

a comfy chair i found at a used furniture store

(no bed bugs)

the desk/shelf bryan made for our fifth anniversary

(wood is the traditional present- he's so good)

ridin' in style..

in my attempt to revive this blog, i've been downloaded pictures like mad trying to organize all the crazy ideas running around in my head... and i will admit, i forgot about a few. i will tell you that i did not want to post these (well, the one of my husband is fine, but don't even get me started on the one of me). but i had to. i had to show you these super cute bjorn covers jane sewed for us. they definitely razz up these carriers, no?

who am i kidding, no one's looking at me, right?

liam, enjoying being super-stylish...

finn, trying to be cool about how cute he looks