Updated House Pictures

A few pictures of our new home....

Feel free to visit anytime!! We love company:)

It's Official...Dr. James R. Jastifer M.D.!!

On Friday May 2, Jim officially graduated from a medical student to a medical doctor! We were so blessed to have all of our family there for this special occasion. Thanks for coming you guys.....we could not have done the last four years without you and your support. It was bitter sweet as we leave a city and friends that we love and get to start a whole new life in Kalamazoo in our very own home, which we are very excited about! Congratulations Jim, we are all so very proud of you and all of your accomplishments!

Home Owners!

On Tuesday we closed on our house and we are proud home owners! Jim was able to sneak a peek at the house before closing and snapped some pictures for me:) Here is our home and it feels so good to say that!! We are picking the truck up today, Jim is graduating Friday (yeah Jim!!), loading Saturday, moving out of Marquette Sunday, and into our home in Kalamazoo Monday....whew! We are excited for both of our families to join us this weekend for Jim's graduation, it should be a great time!

Warm Weather + Sunny Skies = Playing at the Park

We finally had some nice weather in Marquette (not for long though, it is suppose to snow again in the next couple of days), so the other day I took Ethan to the park in the lower harbor. It is this huge play area for children with everything that you can think of to play on. Ethan had a blast and especially loved the slide! I am excited to say that there is a park a quarter mile down the road from our new house in Kalamazoo, Ethan will be in heaven!

"Look at this silly fish mom."

Taking a rest after playing hard.

"I see you!"

"OMG, this park is huge!"

"I LOVE PARKS!"

"Lets go down the slide again!"

Sweet Ethan

"My favorite thing to do at the park.....eat wood chips of course!"

Update on Life

Family Update

We are getting the packing underway for the big move in two weeks and are so excited about our new home in Kalamazoo, but are enjoying the time that we have left in Marquette. Finally yesterday was a nice day and Ethan was able to get out and run around and he LOVED it! He was eating dirt dipped animal crackers and enjoyed every bit of it. He enjoyed jumping on and off the deck. He is saying so many new words lately such as "Andy" (his stuffed toy raggedy Andy doll that my good friends mom made him.....thanks Connie!) He loves dogs and every time he sees one he gets this high voice and even calls them "Andy" sometimes. He says "mama" and "dada" all the time and he even said "tongue" yesterday when someone stuck their tongue out. He is doing new things everyday and Jim and I are enjoying this period of his life. Ethan and Jim have been able to spend a lot of time together now that Jim is done with school and they both are eating it up! They love to chase each other around and having that "guy" relationship:) Another thing that Ethan is doing is bringing books to us all the time to read. He would read books all day long if he could! There are several times throughout the day that either Jim or I will read for 45 minutes straight and read the same book ten times over, but it makes Ethan so happy!! Ethan will read on his own if we are not around sometimes:) Ethan got some new "kicks" for playing outside!! Jim and I put together a 1500 piece puzzle and it took us an entire week! I know we are dorks!

House Update:

We close on our house next week and are moving Monday May 5th. Jim graduates a couple days before that and we are so excited to have all of our family here for that!! I am so proud of Jim and what he has accomplished!

We went to Grand Marias the other day to visit the cabin that has been in my family, my great-grandfather built it with his own hands! It was really neat to see and was glad that I visited before we left the UP.

Ethan and I standing in front of the "Biener" cabin my great-grandfather built.

Life is good!!:)

Gate? No Problem. Stairs? No Problem

I turned around the other day and saw that Ethan was following me up the stairs, monkey see monkey do. He even tries to close it behind him. Now we make sure the gate is "locked"

What do you do if you get a lot of snow in April???

MAKE SNOWMAN!!!!!!!!!! Ethan, Jim and I had a blast making snowman in our front yard this afternoon. At first Ethan did not know what to make of it, but then he became more curious about the cold, wet, white stuff on the ground. After Jim took Ethan inside for a nap, I continued to build!! It was great packing snow and pretty warm outside, so there I was a 26 year old woman building a snowman by herself and I had a great time, brings back lots of memories when I was a kid!!:-Here is our family.....for some reason the mom snowman and the baby snowman are the same size??? I built one and Jim built the other....apparently we had different ideas!Ethan warming up to the snow and loving to watch the cars go by!My masterpiece!

Marquette in April

This weekend was not your typical spring weekend in Marquette, if you looked outside you would have thought that it was January! The two feet of snow was not welcomed by the majority of the city, but it was beautiful and so were the BIG waves that followed the snow storm. A look from our front porch on Saturday.The waves were amazing!If you look real close that black spot in the waves in a surfer...only in Marquette can you ski and surf on the same day!!:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT KELLY!!!

This is the homemade card that Ethan made for Aunt Kelly! Notice that fact that it is all crinkled up, he didn't want to give it up after he made it:)

We miss you and hope that you have a wonderful 28th birthday....can't wait to see you this summer!:) Enjoy your day!

You turn your back for one second....

Post from JIm

Ethan and I have a nightly routine; we play "games." Lately it has been "I'm gonna get you." After bath time he will poke me or push me to get him to play with him. Here is a sample.

House Hunting II

The inspection took place and there were just a few things that needed repaired, so that was great news considering what happened with our first offer when the inspection was done. Now we are just working with the mortgage company and if it all works out, and I for see no problems occurring, Jim and I will purchase our first home by the end of the month!! It feels good and we are really happy with our new "home".

House Hunting

Jim, Ethan, and I headed down state last weekend to start the process of buying a house in Kalamazoo. We saw 30 houses in two days and we had the task of picking the one that we liked best. We kept going back to this one home that was smaller and cute and decided to make an offer on it. The offer was accepted, but after the inspection we found out that there were too many things wrong with it (like $60,000) and it was not a good deal after all so we took back our offer. We luckily made two offers while we were down there and submitted our second offer on the very last house that we saw. Yesterday the offer was accepted and now we just have to wait for the inspection to be done before I feel really secure about it. This one is a little bit bigger, but is in total move-in condition and Jim and I really feel good about it. He is very excited to build a sauna in the basement:) There is also a finished basement that has lots of room for Ethan to run around and a fenced in backyard. We are hoping to move May 3rd after Jim's graduation up here in Marquette, so that we have 6 weeks to move in and get settled before Jim starts residency on June 16th.

Here is the link to the house that our offer was accetped on.
http://image.datashow.com/?mls=SWMRICRETS_2812014&website=A157IyNP

Have a great week!

Dr. James Jastifer M.D.

Jim is offically done with Medical school!! I am so proud of my husband!! He doesn't graduate until May 2nd, but he has done all that he needs to do and now he gets to spend two and half months with us!! It has been a great four years and it went by so fast! We look forward to residency and all that it has to offer for our family and Jim as he enters the world of orthopedics. It really hit me the other day when we were looking for houses (which we saw 30 in one weekend!) and the real estate agent gave us our itinerary for the day for "Dr. and Mrs. Jastifer M.D." How weird it was to see!!

Happy Easter

Ethan and mom decorating Easter Eggs!
I was trying to get a picture of Ethan with his egg, but he just wanted to eat it......go figure!
Ethan's Easter Eggs!
Ethan digging into his Easter basket.

"Hmmm what is all in here??"

Ethan had a fun first Easter. He enjoyed the art of coloring Easter eggs, finding all the fun stuff that the Easter Bunny left in his basket, and of course a yummy meal prepared by the Long family here in Marquette. We hope that you all had a great Easter as well!

We are heading to..........

Here we are minutes before finding out where we are going:)

KALAMAZOO!!! We are so thrilled words can not explain it!! Jim asked me to open the envelope and I was shaking the entire time, but once I saw "You matched in Kalamazoo", a sense of peace came over me. Thanks to everyone for all their support, thoughts and prayers, it means so much to us. Hopefully next weekend we will be looking for a house!

The Shirt Says It All...

This is definitely an appropriate shirt for Ethan! He wore this to the pre-match party yesterday.

Just for you Aunt Keri....Miss you!

We Matched!

Yesterday we received the confirmed e-mail that Jim matched for a residency spot! Now the waiting game to find out WHERE he matched. The wait will not be too long since we find out this Thursday at noon where we are heading for the next five years. Cross your fingers that it is close to home! I will post as soon as I can after we find out.....thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!!

Happy Birthday Grandma Jastifer!

Not only is it St. Patrick's Day, but it is also Grandma Jastifer's birthday! We miss her and hope that she has a wonderful day!! Ethan has something he wants to tell her......

"So Big!"

Okay you HAVE to watch this video until the very end....funniest home video material!!:)

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!

Ethan just wanted to say.......HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Haircut (by the professionals)....

So mom has been trying to cut Ethan's hair, but it is just not working when you have a curious 9 months old watching your every move with the scissors. So I took him into the salon and they did a great job and so did he! I just fed him food the entire time and the best part is it only cost me $5 with tip :=)

Life is Good.....

As I sit here at the computer a lot is going through my mind. First of all our son is going to be 10 months here in a couple days and I just can't believe how time flies when you are having fun! We have LOVED being parents to such a great kid and I look forward to all the adventures that lie ahead with him. I also ponder what the next moth holds for our family. In just one week Jim finds out if he matched with a hospital for his orthopedic surgery residency and then three days after that on Thursday March 20th at noon, we find out where we match!!! It means so many things and it is weird to me how one little envelope and letter can mean so much. It is where we are going to live for the next five years, where we are going to buy our first home, where we are going to meet so many new people who may end being important people in our lives, where Jim is going to be trained as an orthopedic surgeon, there are just so many things to look forward to!! As soon as we know something, we will let everyone know the great news!!:)

Have a great week!

Snow doesn't stop a Yooper!

The other day I took Ethan to the park near our house. Even though it was cold and snow covered the ground, he still enjoyed swinging and going down the slide with mom:) Gotta love the UP and the Marquette winters (although I must admit that I am ready for spring!!).Yesterday Jim and his buddy Toby took the kids out on a hike up Marquette Mountain and had a great time. Dad said that Ethan didn't make a peep for two hours, he just enjoyed looking around and getting some fresh air, even if it was cold!!A wonderful view of Marquette.

Sporting the Speedo!

I know what you are thinking....why is Ethan wearing a speedo in the middle of the winter?? Well the answer is that Ethan and mom are taking a swimming class together at the YMCA on Saturdays. I thought that it would be something fun for us to do together and he loves the water, or so I thought. After screaming for 10 minutes, he finally calmed down and started to enjoy the pool. At least he was not the only baby that was crying. I think that the pool was overwhelming at first and that next time will go much better (I hope)!!