Home

I remember the first time I came to Milwaukee.  We were living about an hour south during Medical School and we wanted to head up to the "city" for a fun night out to eat and shop.  As soon as we drove into the city I felt happy.  I knew it was a place that I could easily love.  

When we found out we would be moving back to Milwaukee for fellowship I again felt happy.  I wanted to come back here.  During our job searching over the past 6 months we did everything in our power to find a job back west.  Specifically closer to home.  We even accepted an offer in Phoenix in hopes that we would get to see our family more often. After months of trying to make that work, we realized it wasn't right.  We again set out to find another job in the west.  With lots of hopes and promises we thought we found other opportunities.  But again, it wasn't right.  We finally realized we were exactly where we needed to be....Milwaukee.

So, we have accepted a position in Milwaukee and will be officially be calling this home.  It feels good.  It feels like the right place to raise our family.  We are sad at the idea of not being close to extended family, but feel good about staying and raising our family in a wonderful community.  We love it here.  We will just have to bribe all our family and friends to visit :)

Liv's 6 year pictures and birthday video

A little late, but here is Liv's 6 year old birthday photo shoot and video.  The weather has been so crappy, until the past week that we haven't been able to get outside and get the pictures done until now. She talks really quiet in the video, but if you listen close you can hear her.

Double Digits

Ethan turned 10 today.  I can't believe I have a 10 year old.

He is growing into such a wonderful little person

He is caring and compassionate

He is sensitive and honest
and bursting with personality

We celebrated with a birthday dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, opened presents (ipod touch, soccer clothing and gear, and PS game) went to the park and played a soccer game, doughnuts at school, a piñata and mango oreo ice cream cake.  It was a great day.

Piñata

We worked hard this past week as a family making a Piñata for Ethan's birthday tradition.  He requested a soccer ball piñata and I thought that would be fairly easy to make.  It ended up being a lot of fun with everyones help.

And here is the finished product that we are going to break on Ethan's birthday.

Civil War Re-enactment

On Saturday afternoon I went with Ethan and his scout troop to the annual Civil War Re-Enactment.  We were taught by a blacksmith and by the dentist and surgeon who had to amputate legs and remove bullets.  The kids got to participate in lots of fun things.  In the end they had the re-enactment and set off the guns and canyons.  It was loud!

EFW Run

We spent Saturday morning at the zoo participating in the annual EFW Run.  It is a fundraiser for the kids school.  Ethan took off running and finished with a 7 minute 40 second mile.  Cole took off running, but had to stop twice to tie his shoes and then ended up walking back to Liv and I claiming "I'm done". So he ran the last half of the run with me.  Liv did a great job.  This was her first year running the mile and she ran almost the whole way.

 In the picture below we are almost at the finish line and Liv ran ahead and finished, but Cole wanted to stop.  He is begging to stop running, but I made him finish :)

After the run we spent the morning at the Zoo checking out all the animals.

Liv's new skills

Lately Liv has spent a lot of time perfecting her hula-hooping

and her splits.