Hailey's off to Kindergarten!!!

Our little girl, Hailey Lauren Hanis, started kindergarten this week. She is attending Red Elementary and is really liking school. She was pretty excited last Sunday and could barely go to bed and then woke up around 6:00 AM and was ready to go. Her teacher is Ms. Sweeny and she really likes her a lot. Although we don't get all the details we have heard some. Her best friends are Lauren and Maya, recess is really hot, she went to the Meth lab (we are assuming it was Math lab), she can't wait for play stations to start, she fell asleep only one day during nap time, she didn't have enough time to eat all her lunch because she was talking, the boys got in trouble. We do get more and more information each day. Amy drives her to school and picks her up each day. Hopefully this week Hailey will be confident enough to not have to be walked in to school. Anyways, we are so proud of her and can't believe how grown up she is. Five years have passed by so quickly. Shad keeps telling her she better like school because it is only 23 years of more school to get where he is. She really doesn't believe him, but if she only knew!

Oulu, Finland...Here Shad comes!

When Shad started his orthodontic residency program we knew it would probably be busy, but we didn't know he would have so much fun as well. So after 2 months he is starting to figure out some things, starting a lot of patients, and learning a ton. However, he is also getting to travel. He went to a conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan last month and was excited to go because he was born there. In September his travels will take him to Oulu, Finland for a week to do his Masters research project. He is super excited to go and has always wanted to fly Lufthansa, so you guessed it, he is. He flies to Frankfurt, then on to Helsinki, and then finally to Oulu, which is just south of the arctic circle. On his return he hits the same cities and will spend a day in Helsinki. Two more trips to Dallas for conferences and hopefully a trip to Spokane for Thanksgiving and he should be tired out by Christmas. The spring will bring trips to Boston and hopefully Connecticut, San Antonio, Austin, and then next fall to Cancun. Anyways, the whole family is jealous, but Amy and Shad have a cruise with Amy's family scheduled next Christmas. If you ask him all of these trips are officially orthodontic "business" but hopefully he has some fun to since he missed out on Yellowstone, Utah, and Idaho over the summer since he couldn't take any time off.

Aren't We Cute?

The kids are getting SO big! Hailey is anxiously awaiting the start of kindergarten in two weeks. Zach is excited that he will get to be the man of the house from 8 am until 3 pm each day. And Chloe is almost 3 months old already. How time flies.

The Greatest Show on Earth

So we took the kids to the circus. They earned free tickets from the library by completing the summer reading program. Unfortunately they didn't pay for the two adult tickets, but oh well. We were sure that the cost would be nothing compared to their excitement at being there. As you can see from the picture, they were less than thrilled. Zach fell asleep before intermission & Hailey spent the second half asking if we could please just go home already. As much as Shad & I enjoyed the show, I think next year we'll just keep our money instead.