Hello New Friend! Tiffany is 24! We've been married for 2 whole years (and a month)!

Well, Tiffany sure knows how to pull at your heart-strings huh? I must say, I'll miss ol' Gus quite a bit myself, but as they say south of the border "Asi es la vida". And so, without further ado - I introduce you to our new ride:

So far all we can figure is to call him The Captain, but we're still ironing out the name. Any suggestions? He's a 2004 Honda Pilot, and one nice thing is that he has a third row seat (see it back there, three rows!!) which means seating for 8! Well, seating for 8 people that are the size of Tiff and I or smaller, but still - 8 seatbelts! Quite frankly I still can't believe it. We'll keep the third row folded flat until we fill it up with a soccer team or two, but it's always available if any of you want to come and visit!

Kayla-Bear's car seat fits nicely in the back seat, she's easy to get in and out, grocery shopping is now much easier, and the Pilot is great for road trips. Here's Kayla giving it the once-over before we made the purchase. It passed her thorough inspection.

As well, there's plenty of room to grow (which Tiff keeps reminding me).

Next up - Tiffany had a birthday, shout Hooray!!! My eternal 24-year-old companion* celebrated another year, and I must say she was radiant. She's an awesome mom and an even awesomer wife, and I still can't figure how a goofball like me ended up with her, but I'm not complaining! I love you babe! To demonstrate my love, I made her cupcakes, which we devoured.

Also - Anniversary!!! 2 whole years! I can't believe how fast they've flown! Last year I thought we'd had a full plate, but this year I think it's even fuller, because this year we've HAD A BABY! And I think we've both grown up about 20 years or so as a result. I changed my first diaper, and my second, and my third, and so on. Tiffany has changed about a billion more than that. We've watched Kayla roll over, crawl, fall off the bed, eat an m&m, stand, pop some teeth, giggle, become ticklish, cuddle occasionally, and learn to clap! It never ceases to amaze me how amazing it is to watch her grow, and how tiring (yet rewarding)it can be to be a parent. We took a road-trip to the South Carolina where we saw real live gators in a swamp, and camped in the Great Smoky Mountains where we saw some real live black bears. We ate hot dogs whenever we could in the summer time, and caught fireflies and tried to take pictures of them in a jar (it didn't work too well). We avoided frostbite in the Illinois winter, and sang about springtime to avoid seasonal depression. As well, this past year Tiffany made her first cheesecake, and I ate that cheesecake (it was delicious). We moved from one side of the apartment complex to another because of mold (thanks to some help from our friends Ben and Katie), and we didn't get everything unpacked before it was time to start packing things up again. I studied for and took the GMAT, and applied to business school. Tiff put up with me being busy applying, and then put up with me as I was nervous with anticipation waiting to hear back. Then she says she knew I had nothing to worry about when I got in. It's been a pretty good year, and the future looks bright! I love you again Tiffany Louise!

Here is the aforementioned deliciosity made by the love of my life!

Look at that! Just look! It's edibley incredible!

And here's the little girl that's changed our lives

In closing, those of you that didn't know already probably noticed from the spiel that I'm going back to school. I've been accepted to the LGO program at MIT in Boston, which is a joint MBA/Master's in Engineering. It's a two-year program with a 6 month internship, likely in yet another different part of the country, so needless to say it's going to be an adventure these next two years! Class starts June 1 so we're starting the preparations to move the rest of the way across the country, to the land of patriots and the long forgotten "R". We're really excited (among other things, read: stressed-out beyond belief), but thus far we've taken life by the horns, so we figure we better not mess with a good thing!

*Yes I am aware that my wife was born in 1984.