Welcome Reception

On Wednesday night Josh and I attended a welcome reception at the Mayo Foundation House. The house is amazing! It is a tudor style that looks like a castle. At the home's website it says that Dr. and Mrs. William J. Mayo gave their residence to Mayo Clinic in 1938 as a meeting place "for the good of mankind. 

I got there just after the class picture, boo. I'll have to add it once they give Josh a copy. We had drinks and hors d'oeuvres while mingling on the main floor and then headed up to a grand hall on the third floor for dinner. They served an appetizer, salad with grilled asparagus, delicious prime rib, and banana split ice cream cake. We were blown away. After dinner, the director gave some interesting history about the house and welcomed us to stay and tour it. We saw tiffany lamps, famous paintings, and a vase from early B.C. Egypt. We walked through Dr. Mayo's personal library. He would rate books from A-F and get rid of books that were Ds and Fs. Funny story, there's one book that someone gave him who knew that Dr. Mayo gave books ratings. He wrote an A+ before giving it to him and on the next page is a B+ by Dr. Mayo.

I loved the stained glass behind the stage. It was added in 1943 and depicts the history of medical education, practice and research. 

a view of the back of the Foundation House while walking through the garden

I was so lucky to find Bethany to babysit Peyton. A woman recommended her in Side By Side Bible Study newsletter. She's about to be a senior at Baylor and Peyton had fun while she was here. She even left the living room cleaner that it was before she got here. Score!

Minnesota Children's Museum Rochester

Last Friday I decided to venture out and explore the Children's Museum. It's only about the size of one floor at the San Antonio location but we still had fun. First stop, the AgCab Lab! Peyton loved this room. There was a tractor cab with a virtual display where you could pretend to plow or plant. It was really hard to pull him away from it so that other kids could have a turn.

Next we headed over to a table where you could design and build a wooden car and test it out on a ramp. I love watching him learn through play. He breathes heavily like his Dad when he's thinking. One of the wheels kept falling off and he had to go get it. He kept saying "Uh oh! Wheel, Mama. Help you!"

We also loved the Storyland exhibit which had displays for some childhood favorites. He loved Peter Rabbit's den.

The last stop was the arts and crafts room. I really had to take a deep breath and let go so that he could enjoy. There was self face painting, 2 water tables, a large craft table, a mouse cage and a caterpillar display. As you can see from the video, he was a fan of the face painting. This boy always steals the chap stick I keep by my bed and as you can see he's a pro at applying it.

The Russells Secede from Texas!

Well it's been almost two years since my last post! I went back to teaching after my maternity leave and life got pretty busy. We're now done with medical school and living in Rochester, MN where Josh will begin his surgery residency.

Josh and I made the trip up here and my parents flew up with Peyton a few days later. Here's our new place! Hooray for a 3rd bedroom! hint, hint visitors :)

I don't know if I could have survived the 2 day trip without my audio book to Redeeming Love. What an amazing book! It's a Christian novel that follows the story of Hosea and Gomer during the Gold Rush. I love all of the different layers and clever elements, and it's not preachy. I totally recommend it! (and will probably read it again and again)

Peyton loves our new state. It is so cute how he says Minnesota. We went to the Mall of America after we picked them up from the airport. Another reason to come visit ;) Here's us at the Rainforest Cafe

There's a huge theme park inside the mall called Nickelodeon Universe. We took Peyton there on another visit to the mall. His favorite ride was where he got to "drive" a semi truck. I think he rode it three times. 

There's also a huge Lego store with giant lego sculptures. They said it took 6 months to build them, with 160 people broken into 3 8-hour shifts. So someone was working on the statues around the clock. Crazy! 

I'm so happy that we're adjusting so well. Sadly, the worst part of our move was the "waiting game" leading up to in. Now that we're here, it's time to dive in and enjoy the ride. I leave you with our latest adventure...Peyton having the toddler rail on his crib. Below is a picture of him from our Dropcam calling out to me at nap time. I love my big boy!

Talkative boy!

Just wanted to share a video of Peyton talking. He's become quite the entertainer lately. Enjoy!

2 months

Our little man has gone through some changes this past month. He's officially in size 2 diapers and fits comfortably in size 6 month clothes. We went to his 2 month check up and Peyton weighed 13 lbs 10 oz (above the 95%) and was 23.5 inches (70%). He got 3 shots and was a trooper...It only made him cry for a little bit. He quickly fell asleep and we had to wake him up for feedings. New during this month:
-he became more aware and started looking around at things (around 5 weeks)
-he also started smiling and cooing (around 7 weeks)

Here he is smiling with Daddy. (so sweet!)



And another while we were packing for our tour de Texas: Austin for Josh's STEP exam, Garland to visit Josh's family, and Port Neches to visit my family/ Brytni's wedding shower.




I also wanted to share his monthly "P" photo. I borrowed this idea from another blog. He's changed so much!

Here is 1 month



2 months



Major props to Josh for taking these...he's getting so talented with his camera! Sorry for the lack of posts, things have been busy. My goal for this month is to at least update my blog weekly. Fingers crossed that this will happen! :)

1 month

Hi! I'm Peyton and I'm already a month old!! Mommy has really neglected her blog. I'm on it guys, don't worry...we have lots to blog about. Keep checking in, happy Monday!

Before we go, I'd like to mention a few key things that have happened in my short month of life:
-the Aggie women's basketball team won the national championship! Whoop!
-William and Kate's Royal Wedding
-ding dong Osama's dead (cue Wizard of Oz music)
-Mariah Carey had her twins Monroe and Morocco
-gas prices have sky rocketed...dislike
-Daddy finished 2nd year of medical school...now onto STEP 1 studying
-Lots of birthdays...Mommy, Grandi, April, Brytni, Robert, Allison, Craig, and our favorite twin boys who turned 1 year old! (photo borrowed from their mama's blog til I can figure how to access mine! Grr)

5 years together

Our first date at the Texas Hall of Fame, February 2006

5 years ago I was blessed to meet the love of my life when I was a Freshman in college at Texas A&M. I'm sure you've all heard this, but we met in the laundry room one night at the Traditions Dorm. (where he ended up proposing)

Now onto March 9, 2006. I remember it all so well. I had been seeing this awesome guy for about a month. It was time to leave for Spring Break and we were headed home to our opposite ends of Texas. That night I was headed to the Houston Rodeo to see Maroon 5 with some girlfriends. I had just gotten out of the shower and was finishing up packing. There was a knock on my door and it happened to be Josh. He looked so serious.

"I just don't want to leave you this long without making things official," he said. After asking him what he meant he asked me to be his girlfriend. We've been together ever since. I remember calling my Mom to tell her...I was sooo giddy and had butterflies in my stomach. How did I get so lucky? OK, that's all for now and the rest is history...thanks for reading my lovey dovey post of the year ;)