Good Bye Iowa City

We are so sad to say goodbye to our Iowa City friends and community.  We've spent the past few weeks saying our good byes.

We spent our last weekend in town with Erin, Donny and Drew who were visiting us from Des Moines.  Stella loved attacking Drew. 

She really did try to go after him.  She would have gotten in trouble if she wasn't so cute while she was in attack mode.

Stella & Adel saying goodbye.

Adel wanted to give Abram a hug but he wasn't so sure.  This is a total turnaround from when they were younger.

Joan, Stella and Nana.

Stella had a little crush on Max.

The Sittigs' are awesome!  We will miss you - Abram already asked if Max can go with us to the zoo tomorrow...so sad!

Something we will miss the most is our Thursday night dinners with Rachel and Caity.  They already have a trip planned in April so we'll be able to see them sooner than later.  Rachel and Abram baking one last batch of cookies.

Abram gave Caity about 30 kisses goodbye.

Last bath in I.C.

We sure will miss our friends!

But we hope you all come visit us in South Bend!!!!

Finally!

After 22 years in school he's finally had enough!  Josh walked during the winter commencement and then defended his dissertation this past week.  He must have some pretty sweet defensive moves because he fended off all his committee questions and they knighted passed him.

I am so, so, so proud of Josh.  Not only is he going to use his super-sized intelligence to help save the world, or at least the little critters that live in ground water, he has been a wonderful husband and  patient, loving father throughout the entire process.  Way to go Josh!

Our whole family was so excited!

 

Grandpa and Grandma Livermore even came down to celebrate.

Josh is the one being 'hooded.'  It sounds like some kind of hazing ritual but he assured me it was painless :)

The happy grad!

In and amongst all the exciting graduation celebrations Abram had time to hit the slopes in our backyard.

 We celebrated Josh's birthday.

 Our party girl Stella.

2 days to go!

Wait...what's that?....you say that Christmas has already passed?  So I have been a bit behind in my blogging...

Craziness in our life lately:
1) Colds
2) Christmas
3) Flu
4) Flu during Christmas
5) Josh doing job interviews
6) Josh getting job offer
7) Family trying to figure out how what job to take/where to move while having the flu
8) Josh graduating
9) Our 4th Anniversary!!!
10) Josh Birthday

Whew...I'm tired just reading over this.  Well we decided that the best fit for Josh and for our family is a post-doc position at Notre Dame in South Bend, IN, which is about 5 hours from Iowa City.  We'll be moving the last week of February and I'm fortunate enough to be able to continue to work part-time for a bit in my current position after moving to South Bend.

I'll quit going on and get to the pictures :)

5 Days To Go!

Sick parents...

I thought that it was tough taking care of two sick children - we realized the past few days that it is much easier to take care of sick children when you are well than taking care of well children when you are sick!

Besides being sick - Josh has been busy graduating!!!  He was 'hooded' yesterday during the winter commencement.  He still has one last thing to do to be official which is to defend his dissertation.  He will schedule that once he has accepted a job and we know where we will be living.  I will do a separate blog about graduation once I feel better and can give the monumental occasion the attention it deserves!

Christmas came early!

Christmas came early this year in the form of visit from Grandpa Terry and Uncle Andy.  

Abram loved his tool set from Uncle Andy.

He was hammering away on anything that would sit still, this includes cats, sisters...

Another favorite was Lion King from Grandpa Terry.  Note to other parents of small children - Lion King is scary and sad and scary.  I was not aware since this is the first time I had ever watched the movie.  

 Josh got the best gift of all.  A ham.  He was really, really quite happy with it.  It's a good thing he only got one ham because three hams would certainly kill him.

 Stella was happy that she got a workbench so she could hammer away just like Abram.

She also got the most adorable little jacket from Uncle Andy.

How cute!

 Abram roped Grandpa into reading book after book after book.

 Uncle Andy read a few too.

Awwwwwww

We miss you Uncle Andy and Grandpa Terry!

Sick babies

So we had a break in our Christmas countdown.  Stella got an earache and pink eye on Friday morning and by Friday night Abram was sick with the flu.  Somehow in all of this sickness we haven't had any cross-contamination but I am sure it is only a matter of time.

In the meantime - here are some more adorable pictures.  I think these are my favorite of Stella.