Halloween! Monkey style

Fall is here



There are millions of trees here in Milwaukee, our streets are lined with trees. To collect the leaves here all you have to do is rake them into the road and they have a snow plow looking thing that drives through the streets shoveling away the leaves.

This is just the beginning of the leaf drop our trees are still loaded with leaves. Regardless, Natalie loves playing in them, and throwing them in the air.

This is our sweetheart Natalie in her monkey costume, she loves it. We wanted to get her a butterfly outfit but she wouldn't have it. When we tried it on her she sat there looking at herself in the mirror and laughing. She, however, will not wear the monkey hood that goes with it.
She also loves pumpkins.

Trick o' treating here is kind of weird. Each city has certain hours of the day that they can trick o' treat and they were all on Sunday afternoon and they only last three hours. You also have to register your kid to trick o' treat, and pay. Messed up I know. Luckily the med school does a trick o' treat and Natalie loved it.

This is Natalie and Patrick walking through the portion of the medical school that looked like Candyland, everyone was dressed accordingly it was way cute.

Natalie only allowed candy in her bucket, some lady put some halloween stickers in her bucket and she promptly took them out and said "no" to the lady. Geez, to all of you who don't know you only give candy on halloween, Natalie even knows that.

Natalie loves stealing her dad's ping-pong balls that he has in his backpack, if she doesn't have enough hands she'll just stuff them in her mouth.
Natalie on our front porch with her pumpkins.

Natalie throwing rocks into a stream at a park near our house.

Oh and for all of you in places other than Wisconsin, I hope you are enjoying the cold weather. Here it is in the high 60's sunny and beautiful, and everyone told me it was going to be cold in Wisconsin, please. St. george doesn't even have that so why would we move there?

Taking Wisconsin by Storm

My family was here this last week and it was so much fun.  We packed a lot of fun Wisconsinite activities into a week.  We also spent WAY too much time sitting around and letting Natalie get spoiled and be the center of attention, by the time she left I had no idea how I was going to be able to entertain her while she got used to normal life again.  I was relieved to find out that she adjusted rather quickly and is now back to normal and can entertain herself for awhile without asking me every minute for Ada, Daddy (grandpa) and mommy (Grandma).  We had so much fun while they were here and can't wait until we see them at Christmas.  Also I am horrible with pictures so even though we did a lot, we did not take pictures at every activity, so here are some of the fun things we did.

These next pictures are of the day my family had Natalie while I was at work.  She had a great time learning about the business that keeps Milwaukee afloat--Miller Brewery.  She loved the free pretzles at the end of the tour.  


We tired her out with lots of activities through the week and by Friday she was so tired she fell asleep during the tour of this cool old mansion right in downtown Milwaukee.  It is called the Pabst mansion, and it was beautiful, a great example of old town Milwaukee and the amazing architecture they have here.

After the exciting morning at the mansion I stayed home to try to get Natalie to take a nap while my family went hiking and experienced the beautiful wildlife and fall colors of Wisconsin.  Yes the following pictures is of wild turkeys roaming around the hiking trails. 

Saturday led us to explore a little further south of Milwaukee and get out of the city to explore the Jelly Belly factory, cheese stores and the outlet stores.  It was a fun-filled day with lots of free samples of Jelly Bellies, yum!

Sunday morning we went and showed my family Lake Michigan.  It was a windy day, as you can tell from Natalie cuddling with Grandpa on the rocks.  Also to add excitement to the day Natalie lost her shoe among the rocks on the lake, thanks to brave Uncle Adam we were able to get it back after he crawled between the rocks and got sprayed by the very cold water.  Adam to the rescue again.


  We did many other things the week my family was there including seeing the Medical College and hositals, watch BYU lose in the student lounge at the college (we don't get the games at home), tour Sprecher's rootbeer factory, and go to the park (a lot).  Patrick also survived his crazy test week and we were glad when the weekend came and he got to have fun exploring Wisconsin with us.  

Tribute to the Greatest Mom in the World

I was notified multiple times that we failed to include my mom in the pictures of her visit, my mom did not complain but others did. So this blog is about her, mostly pictures. I am sure most of you can agree that she is the "Greatest mom in the world." For those of you who cannot, I am sure she comes in at a close second behind yours.


Grandma, Grandpa and Natalie at the beach.


Grandma Leiter with Natalie at the zoo

Grandma with Natalie at build-a-bear. Traumatic experience for Natalie. She thought they were hurting her Monkey when they were stuffing it. Good thing Grandma was there.
Random, elephant picture.





Also, pictures of Natalie are always appreciated by the blog audience, so here is some of the best daughter in the whole wide world.

Sitting next to monkey at zoo.
Eating her Pizza
Sliding the slide
Skipping rocks on the lake.

Grandma and Grandpa Leiter Visit

Last weekend Patrick's parents came to visit. It was so nice to have family here for awhile, Natalie loved the attention. We were super busy while they were here playing with Natalie and showing them around Milwaukee. Here are some highlights of their visit.


Natalie got to pick our her own pumpkin for Halloween, she was so excited about it, she also got one for her friend Myleigh. Following are the pictures from our trip to the zoo. Natalie loved to drive the truck they had at their kids play area. She also got to ride the Merry-go-round with Grandpa. I took her to the zoo again this week with some friends and she remembered the Merry-go-round and wanted to ride again.




We also went to Lake Michigan. Newsflash--Natalie likes the sand now!!! Yea maybe we can go to the beach this summer and she will do more than sit on the beach chair. She also discovered rocks there and kept asking for more to throw into the lake. Careful that girl has got an arm on her--she also has no aim to it is very important to stay clear of her while she is throwing the rocks!



All in all it was a fun-filled packed weekend with Grandma and Grandpa! Now we are getting excited for my parents and Adam to come and visit us next week! Yea! I ask Natalie if she is excited to see Uncle Adam and she smiles and says "Ada" --I think he is still the favorite, sorry Grams and Grandpa Esplin!

One more exciting thing these last couple of weeks. We got a treadmill, I have been wanting one for awhile now and we finally got one. I kept reminding Patrick how cold it is here in the winter and how much happier his wife would be if she got to work out, I have been so excited about it. Now I have also proven that I will use it too. I have gone running on it 4 times this last week, we will just have to see if I can keep it up!

Wild Card

Natalie will eat anything as long as we give her "dippers" as long as she is dipping her food she will eat it.

The Brewers have made the Playoffs, for the first time in 26 years. Why? Because we jumped on their bandwagon, they couldn't have done it without us. Amy, being the best wife ever, called me last Monday and asked if I wanted to go to the Brewers vs Pirates game on Tuesday. She got me tickets, best wife ever!!! We went with a few of our friends, Prince Fielder hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. Awesome Game!

Told you she is the best wife ever!

These are our friends Brad, Kjerstin, Justin and Jessica that came to the game with us.

Continuing with the Brewer theme of this post. One of the Brewers physicians came and gave us a lecture during Grand Rounds on Sports Enhancing Drugs. It was a very interesting lecture.

I also went to a workshop on echo-cardiograms and I was chosen to be the "model." Shirt off, laying on my side with arm behind my head. Sexy, I know! Well anyway my heart is functioning at 100%. we also learned about 3-d echos which is a technology that is very new but awesome. Cardiology in my future? Maybe!

I have found out my favorite surgical instrument, THE STRYKER BONE SAW, it is the coolest saw. It cuts through bone like a hot knife through butter. My anatomy group always lets me use it when we need to, I love it. Orthopedic surgery in my future? Maybe!

HARVEST FEST

Friday night Amy, Natalie and I all went to this fest called Harvest. Natalie loved the petting zoo portion. However, anytime a baby goat came near her she stiff armed the goat. She also went on the marry-go-round. Once we were done with the Harvest Fest we went to Chipotles, Natalie loves it.



Also this weekend Natalie woke up sick Saturday morning so Amy and Natalie got to spend the day at urgent care, which was actually a very good experience, good doctors, reasonably fast and Natalie is doing much better, she has an ear infection in both ears. Today she was up and running around again so I think the antibiotics are working!

Wisconsinites

This weekend we decided to go hiking, so we obtained a book on "hikes" in Wisconsin. "Hikes" is in quotes because the hike we went on was more like a nature walk. However, it was way fun. It was a hike that took us to the second highest point this end of Wisconsin. At the top was a lookout tower that had us climb 7 flights of stairs so we could have a view of the lake. Natalie loved running down the trail and yelling "ahhhh" and also saying "hi" to the puppies.

Saturday, Patrick worked at a clinic for the uninsured and to get there the GPS routed him through the ghetto. He was driving through at 7:00 am and there was a fight in the middle of the intersection. That GPS needs to have a no ghetto button.

Patrick is enjoying medical school, he is in class from 8 to 5 almost everyday, but always comes home and plays with us after that. He just finished his first round of tests and did well on those. He is always becoming interested in new specialties. The latest are Cardiology or surgery.

Natalie loves giving hugs now and will run to where ever you are and give you a hug when you ask for one. She loves playing with her dad, and will find him even if he is hiding out so he can study.

I am liking my job, but I am not keen on leaving Natalie. Luckily it is only twice a week. I think Natalie and I are going to go to the zoo sometime this week with her friend. I think Patrick and I are due for another baseball game also.

Almost settled in

I know I am a total slacker when it comes to blogging. I told Patrick that I would be and that he should be the one to keep everyone updated, but he said it was my turn. We have been having lots of fun getting settled in and trying to figure out our way around these crazy roads, I definitely miss the Utah roads. Roads here start and end in random places, they go from 2 lanes to 1 without notice, and cars pop up parked in the right lane on busy roads, its crazy. I think I am finally used to it now though. Anways back to the important stuff. I am a speech therapist at a charter school here two days a week it is working out very well, they are super flexible and easy to work with. Our neighbor is watching Natalie and Natalie loves playing with their daughter. I also finished putting together our upstairs a few weeks ago and finally have pictures to post.

Now here are some pictures of Natalie, she is getting so big. She is talking a lot more, learned how to fold her arms to say her prayers, says thank you, she is so cute and so much fun everyday. She is excited to go to nursery next month, they leave the doors open at our church and she always goes up and looks at the kids playing and asks to go in, poor girl, almost 18 months!

Natalie has started posing for pictures.

And as you can see she definitely still has her curly hair.

Her first experience with a whole cookie all to herself, no mom giving her little pieces. She loved it. We will try to be better about updating our blog more often now that we are getting into a routine.