Grown up life aka Steve is looking for a real job

So I realize that I mainly post about my kiddos on this blog.  But so many of my family that reads the blog is far away and not in the day to day of our crazy Platt life, so I thought I would let you in on a few of the biggies going on right now.

This is our last year of Steve's residency in Wisconsin.  And we have loved this city and his program, the people and Wisconsin in general.  But here comes the end and the big question of where we go now is beginning to take over a big chunk of our thoughts.  First things first, though.  We've gotten lots of general questions about what kind of a doctor Steve is, what he wants to do, and where we want to go.  Here are a few answers for yas.

What kind of a doctor is Steve?
 Steve is doing and Internal Medicine residency.  With Internal Medicine you can be a clinical Internal Medicine doctor--in fact, you may have one as your primary care doctor.  With Internal Medicine you can also specialize and become anything that has to do with the trunk of the body, so Cardiologist, ICU doctor, Hematologist, Allergist, Ear Nose and Throat doctor....tons and  of different specialties.  Now Steve doesn't want to be a specialist or work in a clinic.  He is going to be the last option, an Internist at a hospital or what we call a hospitalist.

What is a hospitalist?
If you ever have to be admitted to a hospital, you have had a hospitalist take care of you.   Any admitted patient is first assigned an Internal Medicine hospitalist doctor.  That doctor is the main primary care doctor during a patient's stay.   He does your general care and medicine and coordinates any other care from other specialists or surgeons you might need.

Freeeee timeeee
So, a hospitalist job is pretty awesome.  You get to take good care of sick peoples and because the work is so demanding most hospitalists work one week on and one week off.  So every seven days we could have our Steve all to ourselves.  Sounds pretty darn great!

What that means for the Platts
Well, with the end of Steve's training comes real life.  We are looking for a grown up job.   Or actually Steve is and I'm looking for a life for our family.  And both are just an ideal in some yet unknown place.  Weighty decisions, folks.


So for the next little bit I'll be posting about how we are narrowing the search and the places and cities we are looking at for our home.  Please, if you have any good thoughts or advice or ideas for future homes, I'm open!  Leave a comment and wish us luck!

Wren + Makeup = 45 year old woman

Steve and I decided about 6 months ago that we wanted to get to know our kiddos better.   So we began dating...our kids.  At least once a month (a.k.a. when Stevo has a day off) we each get to take one kiddo (plus Ford....who is still a bit of a tag-a-long) on a special activity of their choice.

Yesterday I got to be our Wren's date and we went to the Clinique counter :).  We got blush and lip gloss applied by ladies in long white coats.   And then we went to the dollar store and she got to pick out her very own make up.  

It was all I could do to convince her not to bring all her make up to church.  We compromised with her taking only the lip gloss.  Let me tell you about those extremely glossy lips next to me on the pew.

But after church she let loose and there were several hours of makeup application.  About half way through I got this picture.  It doesn't do the artistic expression justice.  Purple and black eye shadow.  Orange blush from eye to jaw.  An extremely healthy dose of pink sparkle lip gloss.  

It really adds a few years to the Wren-girl.  If you come to my house and are greeted by a 3-foot tall middle-aged woman, its just my almost 4 year old daughter. :)

A man and his rocking horse

Hey guys, some days, you just gotta ride.

Belated Easter Pics

Easter 2013.  Dad had to work all day.  Boo.  The Easter Bunny came.  Horray!  Everyone ate ridiculous amounts of candy.  Especially Ford.  No really.  Ford thought he had died and gone to candy heaven.  Here are a few pics of our Easter festivities.  

 The Easter Bunny showed up at our house this year!  Judd got a Nerf gun. Talk about ex.cit.ed.  We have a good Easter bunny. (toot, toot :))(that was me tooting my own horn, just in case you didn't get it)

 Wren got a Melissa and Doug pizza.  Melissa and Doug, its an obsession.  For the mom/EB, I mean.  Though Wren thought it was pretty cool, too.  (toot, toot)(now I'm just making myself laugh, ok, I'll stop.)

 We hunted for eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden all over our living room.  The EB knows that Wisconsin at Easter time is maybe not the best outdoor hunt senario.  You'll see why if you keep scrolling down.

 Finding the eggs....

 Not really looking for the eggs but trying to eat all the candy that will possibly fit into my mouth at the same time.

Now that is a lot of eggs.

 All of our colored eggs.  And the daffodil that I have to buy every year.  Can't wait until I can have a yard full of them!

 "Here's all my eggs."  The next few pics are from the Easter Egg hunt we had with a few families the day before Easter.  Look closely and you'll see why, with all the snow melting, WI is not ideal Easter Egg hunting ground.  On a side note:  We learned that Platts are not aggressive in the Easter egg hunt department.  There were TONS of eggs and we ended up with about 6.  total. 

 Easter egg hunt at the park, or lake, as it were. 

He's probably thinking, "Yeah, where is my shoe..."  He thinks that a lot.  

And we come down to the Easter-clothes-before-church pictures.  I may have the most beautiful kiddos in the whole world.  That said, doesn't this picture remind you of Despicable Me just little bit?  

"Its so FLUFFY!!"  

Not sure Ford is appreciating it.

And Ford lets us know he doesn't appreciate it by showing off his super effective "I'll just slide out from under this" manuver.  Judd and Wren don't seem to mind :).   One more major side track here: Do you see that awesome Japanese doll on the shelf behind them?  Just a random tidbit but it was part of the decoration at my parents wedding.  My dad served his mission in Japan and so my parents had gorgeous Japanese decor at their wedding.  And now that doll that was there at the beginning of my parents married lives gets to sit in our house and be beautiful while reminding us of the family we love so much. It makes me happy and its red, which also makes me happy.  Just thought I'd share.

So we sure had a happy Easter and as Judd so appropriately reminded me, "Easter isn't about candy, Mom, its about Jesus."  So very true.  I am amazed at how motherhood strengthens me in ways I wasn't planning on.  Teaching my sweet children about their Savior, remembering with them the events that happened each day of the holy week--I want so much for my children to feel a testimony of Jesus and amazingly, my own testimony grows.  Jesus is my Savior.  He lived, He suffered for my sins, He died, and He was resurrected.  And because of Him I can change, repent, have a body again, and be with my family forever.  I am so grateful for my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Sleeping Beauty

Being a ballerina sure does wear a girl out.  Whew!

Just Thursday Morning and Valentines glimpse

New skill for the Fordman.  I'd say we're kinda excited about it.  

 Pensive girl.

 Spacey girl.

 My sweet girl.

 My handsome guy (that's right pjs match Ford's...guilty pleasure :))

Oh, this is what our Valentine looked like.  They were really into the gumball machine.

 And finally, my fix it man.  He's prepared.

Nothing ground breaking here, folks.  Just a peek into our goings on.  

Our New One-Year-Old!

 Opening presents! (this pic is out of order, but I'm too lazy to fix it.  He's sans clothing because of how much he enjoyed his cake.

 This cake, actually.  Yummy burnt sugar cake with maple cream cheese frosting.  The candles were supposed to be in the shape of a one....

 I blew out all the candles for him and then realized he was trying to blow (and doing a great job!) too. So I lit one candle again (ok maybe 6 more times.....) so he could blow it out himself. 

Enjoying some cake.

Fordie got a new pirate boy with fun buttons and zippers.   Its his very own little baby to love and tuck in :).  

 "Opening presents is so great......ahhhh....."

 Mommy and Daddy with the birthday boy.

 Sneaking cake and strawberries after everyone had gone.

 Ford doing what he does best; organizing our cupboards.

Ford turned one today.  Crazy, I know.  To coin a cliche, where does the time go?  It seems like he was just born.  He is such a joy.  He's happy and smiley and very loving.  I get lots of his kisses, which are super cute now that he makes the kiss noise. He's getting really close to walking by himself but until then his days are spent walking behind anything he can get to move: mini grocery cart, chairs, baskets, bowls, a play kitchen.... He is very easy going and a great communicator.  He points at everything he wants with open palms.  So sweet.  His favorite foods are chocolate chips, cabbage and gogurts--he'd probably take 'em together, too. He loves to play with his mini piano, cars, dollies, and put brother's legos in his mouth.  Acutally, if we're being honest, his main past time is putting everything in his mouth he can find.   Oh, the stickers, pins, dried peas from past dinners, sidewalk salt, etc. I have pulled out of his mouth......Gross.

To mark the day, we took Ford birthday shopping at Toys R Us  and ended the day with a little party with our dear friends the Crosbys and the Knudsons. We made Old Vermont Burnt Sugar Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting from the book Vintage Cakes with homemade chocolate ice cream.   Oooooh. Yeaaaaah.  And the kiddos, 9 in total, ran around and were crazy together.  Ford loved it.

A great day.