With Nolan being born in Minnesota, we decided to wait until we got to our rotation in Utah to bless him. That way at least a little more family could attend.
We ended up blessing him on Deacons 4th birthday, October 13, 2013.

Trevor and Lauren and Josh, Jourdan and Teddy lived in Utah so they were able to make it. Grandma and Grandpa flew up and Uncle TJ was in town for work so he was able to be there too.
Jason gave a beautiful blessing and Nolan did great.

                                                           Someone was quite tired.

 

The men that were in the circle, Uncle Trevor, Grandpa & Uncle TJ.

We then got to celebrate Deacons birthday with a requested Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party.

Thank you to Trevor & Lauren with their help with the cake! 

Can't have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party without Pizza!

 

Happy 4th Birthday Deacon! 

We're SO Happy you're in our family! 

802 Marshall Ave, St. Paul, MN. 

Where we are calling home for the next couple of months.

 

 

 

It had been cloudy, rainy and cold all week and finally the sun poked its way through the clouds on Saturday so we could enjoy being outside. We heard of Como Zoo and conservatory so we decided to check it out. It was beautiful. Como Park is huge! and right in the center of it was the zoo {it was free, so even better} and conservatory. As we made our way through the zoo, honestly, we only made it through the monkey exhibit when Deacon spotted a huge 'burning building' with fire trucks driving around it, he RAN straight for it. Just off the zoo there is a little amusement park, ComoTown.
 After some begging and seeing the joy in his eyes, we couldn't say no to letting him ride that ride. He was so thrilled! 

 

 

 Afterward we kept checking out the zoo. Deacons favorite animal is a giraffe and he was so happy he got to see some and 'ride' one.

 

 Just off the zoo is the conservatory. Filled with beautiful plants and one room specially filled with flowers. They had THE biggest most beautiful Lillys I've ever seen.  

(36wks1day pregnant)

  

We made it.

Jasons first rotation is at Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

We'll be here just shy of 3 months.  We arrived late Saturday June 1 & his last day is August 21. 

After lots of prayers, because we just learned a couple of weeks ago that it was for sure we were coming here, we found a furnished place right in St. Paul. And only 8 miles from the hospital. 

The lease is for basically the exact time that we need. What a miracle! 

Also, I'm due in a month {July 5th} & another miracle...we got health insurance so quickly and found a doctor! What a blessing! 

We're excited to live in a new place and explore Minnesota! 

Packing up our house was not the easiest task. We had to decide what we would need/couldn't live without for a year, while the rest was going to collect dust in storage. We could only pack what we needed, plus stuff for the baby, in several suitcases to last us through the year. 

6 suitcases and 2 duffel bags later our life for the next year was packed.  

The first of our yearlong travel with Jason’s school is Minneapolis Minnesota at Abbott Northwestern. 

So Minnesota, Here we come. 

  

        

See you later Mimi, Papa and Grandpa! 

{With Grandmas excellent flight benefits (free luggage!) she joined us on the flight. 

A huge thank you to her for that!} 

Good-bye Arizona.

Decisions, Decisions...

This past week Jason was offered to be a General Manager at one of the Pete's Fish 'n Chips stores. What an incredible opportunity!--We'd get out of debt within a year, make a 6-figure salary right away, etc.  There were many "Pros and Cons" to think about.....Only he'd have to quit school because they needed him ASAP. The owners gave him until today to make a decision. 

It has been a very difficult week for us. The decision was not an easy one to say the least! (the hardest we've ever had to make!,besides getting married, but as mom said, that was an easy one. :])  "Why couldn't they have offered this to us a year ago, or even a year from now after Jason finishes school?" Lots of questions plagued our minds. It's made us nauseous/ sick to our stomachs. They really, really wanted Jason and were offering very good things to us. We weighed out our pros and cons-which was quite the list!, prayed A LOT, fasted (at least J did), went to the temple, read our P-blessings numerous times. We feel that either 'path' in this fork in the road for us would have been good, but it was very hard to figure out the "Best" one for us as a family and Jason as a career move. 

That being said, we've decided that Jason will continue with school. He turned Petes down. 

I know that a lot of people would think that we are foolish to have done that. But in the end we both felt peace and comfort with our decision. 

And so we move on with life and school.

Among all of this, Jason finally got his rotation sites! About time, Seriously! -He's actually meeting the program director about them right now to see if anything needs to be changed and finalizing them. (Nikki, although its a lot cheaper to live in Georgia, I told Jason to tell the director that we'd love to go to Fairfax Virgina instead of Georgia, here's to hoping!!).

 But as of right now we have 4 rotations for the next year. (nope, he didn't get ANY of the sites he put in/requested)

1st--Utah at the University of Utah hospital, from June 3-August 23rd. 

2nd-- Macon Georgia until November 14th. 

3rd-- back to Utah where Jason will do a Pediatric rotation at Primary Childrens. November 18th?-Feb. 20th? (not too sure about those dates & nope, not so excited about the winters up there. ha ha.)

4th-- we end in Az. where Jason got an internship at the Mayo Clinic.(hopefully this will look really nice on resume :]) March-June 2014. 

Then, graduation June 2014 and hopefully within the mix of all this is offered a job somewhere. 

Although it's challenging, for Jason and I, we're so grateful that he's in school!  

We're also grateful for this decision that was put in our way. It's brought us closer together and taught us to depend on the spirit and our faith in our Heavenly Father. 

We know this next year is going to be really tough, but we are looking forward to our continuing life adventures!