Back to school!

Yeah for Daddy!!! Jake has officially started Med School. With orientation and the White Coat Ceremony behind him he was ready to go. We are foturnate to live in a wonderful cul de sac of students. They have been so kind to us and have given Jake all the advice he could need. We are now halfway through the first week of our long journey. It hasn't been too bad. Jake is gone from about 8am-6pm, but when he gets home he gives us his full attention until Nolan goes to bed and then it is back to the books. I think that we will survive. We have already met a lot of new friends. But we haven't forgotten our old friends back in Utah.
Nolan has slowly started to adapt to the move. He is now taking regular naps and is such a happy baby. On Monday he sat up all by himself for the first time! We were so proud. We have been putting him in his door bouncer for about two months now and he is now starting to go crazy. He loves to jump up and down and scream at the top of his lungs. He sure is full of personality. We love that about him. His new thing is to have us blow in his face. He makes the funniest faces when we do that. I will have to take a picture to post next time.
We are all doing great. I have actually been a good wife. I have made Jake dinner consecutively for three nights. That is a record for me. Hopefully it will last.

Grandma Rabe treated us to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch before she left. It was wonderful!

Say cheese....

Here we are, the Rabe Family. We were so proud of Jake for starting med school. He is such a great example to us.

These are a couple of buddies that Jake has met that are M1's. That is code for first year med students. They live in the cul de sac with us. From the left is Richard Leake, David Barber, and Jake. Don't they look official in their coats?

Jake and Nolan, the two best lookin' boys in town.

Jake's mom Ann was able to come to the White Coat Ceremony.

Jake is the second one from the right walking off the stage.

White Coat Ceremony

Jake had his official "White Coat Ceremony" on Friday. This is where they present the med students with their doctor coats. It was pretty neat to see it put on him. I think this is a great way to get the students excited to start their adventure off.

This was the official White Coat Ceremony. Jake is the second to the end on the right. I was so excited for him!

Milwaukee County Zoo

MCW took everyone to the zoo for free on thursday. We will take anything that is free. We were even able to take Ann with us. We had so much fun having her here to visit. She loved spending time with Nolan. I don't think I have ever seen anyone so excited to see their grandbaby.

Zzzzzzz

All the cool animals made Nolan extremely tired. He was so good at the zoo. I think he will really like it when he is older.

Orientation Week

Jake's first day on orientation week. He looks like a doctor already.....

Go Brewer's!

Our first baseball game together.

We had the opportunity during orrientation week to go to the brewers game. We have already made some friends. From the left is Richard Leake, David and Kelsey Barber, of course Me and Jake, and Haley and Judd Fitzgerald. We had such a fun time. Grandma Rabe was nice enough to watch Nolan. It would have been a long night if she wasn't there. Thanks grandma.

Look at me, look at me!

Nolan is such a big boy standing on daddy's hand. He loves to do that!

Greetings from Milwaukee, "land of the good earth."

What movie is that line from.... you guessed it, Wayne's World. Well, we finally made it! We have now been in Milwaukee for over a week. It is great here. Definitely takes a little getting use to but I think we will do just great. The neighbors are amazing. They helped Jake and my Dad unload the truck in 45 minutes. We have already had desert night on Sunday with the neighbors. There are lots of kids and really nice people. We can't wait to get to know them. Our apartment is the bottom left in the picture. We love it!!!! It is so perfect for us. I thought that you might want to see a little of what it looks like so there are pictures of all the rooms. And yes, we do have a very pink bathroom. Not by choice. These pictures are a before image and then when we get all situated we will send the after pictures. We are almost all the way unpacked and have most pictures hung. I was a drill master almost the entire process. Gotta have it the way you want right? Nolan has taken awhile to get use to the new place and the new surroundings. But I think he will do just fine.
So far we have gone to the Milwaukee State Fair with my parents and loved it! Nolan especially enjoyed looking around at everything. Then we have gone to our new ward, which was great. There are 62 kids under the age of 2 here! Talk about a loud sacrament meeting. Then just last night we hung out with our new friends the Barber's and Tensmeyer's. We played settlers of catan. Unfortunately we didn't take the victory. I'm pretty sure Joel won't be too disappointed.
All-in-all we have had a good time so far. Ann flies in tomorrow and Jake starts orientation on Monday. Wish him luck. We well let you know how it goes. We love and miss you all in Utah. I especially miss the beautiful mountains. It is really hard to know which way is north or south. Oh, and the drivers here are ten times worse than in Utah. They do this thing called the Milwaukee sneek. Which means they cut you off quite often. Well, talk to you later.

The living room. Notice Dad isn't working very hard. No, I tease. Mom and Dad helped us out tremendously. We can't even thank them enough.

Nolan's room

Our bedroom

Mom hard at work.

Yes, a very pink bathroom.

Happy Boy!

Grandmommy and Grandpa Russell treated us to the Milwaukee State Fair. It was so much fun. They sure know how to throw a good fair out here.

Cute Jake eating a cream puff. They were delicious. Although you couldn't eat one without it going everywhere.

Mmmm, the best cream puffs ever!!!!

And they're off!!!

The duck races at the Milwaukee State Fair.

The goat races.

The pig races were so much fun.

Best corn in town!

The corn at the Milwaukee State Fair was to die for! It was grilled and then dipped in a tub of butter. I can taste the savory goodness right now. mmm!

The girlers

Peace, man

Such a cute picture of Nolan and Melissa's little girl Kate.

She did it!!!! My friend Melissa and her husband Brady had their baby girl Kate on July 30th. She is exactly four months younger than Nolan.

Da Boys!

It is always a good time with the old gang.

This is Bone and Tori's little girl Harley. She was so incredibly cute, I couldn't pass up this picture moment.

Kickin' it with the old gang. We had a chance to get together before Jake and I took off for Milwaukee. I wish we could find some other reason to get together then just when someone leaves....

Here we are at the Pizza Factory with bossom buddies Clint and Shelly and their two adorable kids.

Our Best friends the Meyer's. We really miss them. And Joel, we will never forget your many attempts at TRYING to win at Settlers. Rabe's rule!

Studdly Boy

Jake's sister Nicole....so cute. And for some reason that day she was particularly giddy. Hmmm, I wonder why???

What Hunks......

Joel and Jake are almost too competitive, even in the wonderful game of crocket. What you are not seeing in this photo is Jake is standing on his tippy toes to get somewhat close in heighth to Joel. He is our "jolly green!" And how ironic that Joel is wearing green.