Raggedy Anna and Dirty Heidi

I struggle with Anna's hair. It is getting longer, which is what I want, but as it does it just gets shaggier. I have trimmed her bangs and back a bit, but didn't know what else to do. She has her Mom and Dad's STRAIGHT, FINE hair and won't let me do it every day. Or if she does she takes it out and it sticks out crazy. The sides are taking forever to grow in so she almost has a mullet, though it looks better than that. My dad said, "what goes around comes around" (my mom had to deal with the same thing when I was little.) I have been waiting to have Holly, my fabulous sister, help me figure out what to do with it. Hopefully cutting it will help it grow faster. It is a little shorter than I expected, but hopefully it will grow more even.

So here is my baby before... ( She is so tired and zoning out to Elmo)

Here she is in all her cuteness.... (it's still a little choppy but hopefully it will all grow the same length at some point. The left side Holly barely cut and the right side she cut about a half of an inch)

Heidi's story-
I have been putting off my hair WAY TOO LONG. I haven't gotten it done since August and was in a state of frumpy ugliness, but by the time is was too late, I only had a couple weeks to go until I could have my FAVORITE hair stylist do it. So I waited and waited in all my dirty look glory. I think that people in A2 probably thought I didn't shower all the time, even though I did. During a hair conversation with a friend she said to me, "well roots are in, look at some movie stars"- thank you Carrie, for trying to boost me up-but I doubt they have 3 inches of regrowth!

I was a natural blonde growing up, but as you can tell, it is brown. Now, no offensive to beautiful brunettes, but I love being blonde. Three years ago at Christmas I went my natural color and had an identity crises, so not again, as least for a while. So here you have the new and improved Heidi, back with all her bleached blonde glory (and more volume-an added bonus!).

Here is the before... (just fresh off the plane with only 5 hours of sleep)
After...Roots Before... YUCK, glad I didn't see that all the time, though it would have motivated me to go do something about it....


Roots after...Thank you to the most beautiful Hair stylist I know, my sister, Holly. She is AMAZING! and look at her gorgous LOOONG hair (that is mostly her natural color- lucky girl).
Now we can see people without feeling ashamed. (:

To California We Go!

After a bunch of applications and personal statements, many interviews, three on-site visits and a whole lot of prayer, we officially know where we're going after graduation. I have accepted an administrative fellowship position with Sutter Health in Northern California.

It's a one-year fellowship located in the Central Valley Region (which is based primarily out of Modesto). Modesto is a city of about 200,000 people that's famous for it's rich soil and incredible produce. According to the web sites, it's mild all year round (though it gets pretty hot in the middle of summer). Modesto is roughly a 1 hour drive south from Sacramento, 1.5 hours east of San Francisco, 2 hours west of Yosemite National Park (one of my absolute favorites) and about 3 hours away from Lake Tahoe.

I've been greatly impressed by the people I've met from Sutter and can't wait to start working with them. As a fellow, I'll report directly to the CEO at Memorial Medical Center but will also work on projects for the Sutter Gould Foundation (medical group) as well as some regional projects. It's an unbelievable opportunity and we couldn't be happier.

We'll likely start some time in June, so come out and visit us!!

Thanksgiving weekend wrap up

Thanksgiving was wonderful this year! I started the weekend off with a beautiful gift from my bosses, this lovely bouquet of roses! They are amazing, the family that is, and I am thankful to work for them. Dave has been doing a lo of homework to catch up on his crazy work load, but he did sneak away from the books all day on Thanksgiving! What a great present to ME (I am sure he enjoyed it too).
We had great friends over for Thanksgiving this year. We had way too much good fun, great conversations and lots of laughter (especially when we focused on the kids). I am so grateful for the wonderful friends we have made here in A2. We are lucky to be surrounded by talented and amazing people. Thanks Barbers, Abernethys, and Hortons for a fun holiday!! My only regret is not getting a picture of the whole group at the table (A Kinnersley tradition) and talking about what we are thankful for. Oh well. Gearing up our bellies for one heck of a feast. We had every counter covered with something!

Dave Carvin' Mr. Turk (as my mom calls it)

Jess and Drew made a yummy appetizer, Anna loved to dip the crackers, even if the dip wasn't her favorite, we had a hard time keeping her away.

Here are my homemade place cards with leaves I picked around A2 and dried. It was a fun craft to make and helped to dress the table.

...Ready to eat.... Katie and Kevin made this AMAZING layered Jello Salad. It not only looked beautiful, but tasted wonderful!
You know you had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner when you have these choices for dessert (Pumpkin pie, Apple Pie, and Chocolate Chip Cheesecake) and you are too stuffed to eat it. But that makes it even better because then have this much left over to eat all weekend!

Once everyone left we tried to take a picture, but we never got one without laughing at the outcome, here is the best we could get. I love this man and am thankful to spend each day being his wife.

THE REST OF THE WEEKEND...

After filling the bellies and cleaning up the house I was ready to get started on Christmas!! I love getting all the decor out the day after Thanksgiving. I do not start listening to Christmas music until then ( which by the way I heard Christmas music on the radio a couple days after Halloween, come on people, Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, lets not forget it!).

Here is the decor... In trying to keep Christ as a focus of Christmas this year I decided to first decorate with my Nativity. Anna helped me and enjoyed putting all the characters and animals on. She has been asking all weekend for me to hold her and show her Jesus ("Hold You Mama....Baby Jesus sleeping"). I thought that if I put the Nativity (or Creche as many people in A2 call it) as the main focus in the room that I might be better at remembering the true meaning.

I gave Anna her own tree and things to decorate it. It took her a minute to figure out how to hang ornaments, but once she did this was her creation! It was so cute.

(Yes, Sadie and Oly girls, this is the SAME tree from our Christmas party long ago. I always loved it and it has been fun to decorate in different ways throughout the year. Now my children can have their own little tree!)

Trying to get a photo of Anna tonight with her tree was rather daunting. She wouldn't look at me and when she did she was silly. I have NO IDEA what she was doing in this picture but I took it anyway.

Last year we decided not to get a tree because we wouldn't be here throughout most of December, this year I felt it was a must! We found a cute little tree that is perfect for this year. A change from our last tree 2 years ago (Goliath was his nickname).

P.S. One of the greatest things about Thanksgiving Turkey is TURKEY DUMPLING SOUP!!! I love it, the smell in my home today as I made it was so nostalgic. I have posted the recipe on a recipe blog. Here is the link...http://hllmwrecipes.blogspot.com/

So Proud

Dave just came home from the first of I am sure many days to come of being at school/studying for over 13 hours. I am so proud of him. He works his tail off and doesn't really complain (just expresses the amount of pressure he feels from such a heavy load).

(I don't know what he was studying but this book was home)

I am proud to be his wife. We have had a lot of huge choices to make this past year, but especially this past month. I am thankful that we have a strong marriage and the Lord to rely on as well. We have needed each other and I am grateful for the support and love we give one another. It is hard to make life changing decisions, but I am blessed we can make them together.

Tonight Anna got up on to of her favorite place to sit (the ottoman) and colored for about a half hour. She sat up most of the time, then she wanted help to lay down. I had to snap a photo, which of course distracted her and she stopped coloring afterwards.

I have been cleaning up messes just in time to get new ones out. I have been excited to host Thanksgiving dinner for weeks now and have a few fun ideas to add a little bit to the table. I will post later how they turn out and not spoil the surprise for the guests.

New Dress

Thanks to my creative sister we always get beautiful Dresses for Anna. My sister has a hairbow company http://www.juztgirlz.com and they team up a couple times a year with this dress company for some shows. I LOVE this new one and cannot wait to see Anna and her girl cousins all matching at Christmas time! These photos are for you Holly and Grandparents of course!

The Three Princesses

These are the little cuties I spend each day with. Meet Fiona ("No Na"- according to Anna) and Eilidh (pronounced A(long a)-lee- her name s Gaelic). They are so much fun! Fiona the "almost" 5 year old is creative, loving, spunky, attitude, and doesn't miss a beat! Eilidh just turned one and is determined, easy- going, happy, patient, and such an easy little babe. Anna is silly, loving, smart, musically inclined, possessive, excitable, thorough, and last but not least becoming a toddler!

It's another holiday and guess what...

... the Dog Woman strikes again. Here's your Thanksgiving pilgrim.

Also, a little treat. After Dave's parents visited, JoAnn sent me a wonderful surprise! Now, if anyone wants to order a flag they can! I was thinking of ordering the graduation dog for Dave for May. I think Mia would enjoy it. (: Here is the information.