My baby turned 2!

Jack turned 2 on January 16, and he is officially not my baby boy anymore. He has grown and changed so much in this last year. He is talking and saying words and sentences that make me laugh. He never stops running around (just ask the lady who lives below us....). He knows what he wants and he believes he is going to get it at all cost. I'm pretty sure he gets his stubbornness from his dad ;). He loves playing with his friends, reading books, playing with cars, helping cook dinner, playing in the snow, doing anything with dad, and taking out the garbage. I don't know why people call it the terrible 2's, because I'm pretty sure Jack started at 18 months. He throws fits for up to 40 minutes until I'm able to distract him with something else. So frustrating. He likes to sing the temple song and the family song at bedtime, and he always wants to 'read another book mommy' as a stalling tactic so he doesn't have to go to bed. He loves music and wants to 'rock and roll' with mom and dad. He's found a new love for the 'Cars' movie and wants to watch it everyday. But once I turn it on he will only watch for about 10 minutes... sometimes it is longer, but he usually gets distracted with something else. He still takes awesome naps up to 4 hours and sleeps at night from 8 pm to 8 am (sometimes earlier). He loves going to church, because he gets to go to nursery and play with toys and friends. Although he is hard to handle sometimes, he is so much fun and keeps life entertaining.

We celebrated Jack's birthday with a 'cars' theme with a homemade sign and black and red balloons. We woke up and had pancakes for breakfast because that is what Jack wanted. We opened presents, and he got lots of fun things. Casey and I were really excited to get him his first bike, but we were worried he wouldn't be excited. Luckily, he loves it and rides/walks it around our house for at least 30 minutes a day. We had a few friends over for cake, and I think the kids enjoyed the balloons more than the cupcakes. We love Jack so much and are excited for his next year of life.

As I have not posted for awhile, I thought I would do a little catch up from our wonderful holiday season. We spent our first Thanksgiving away from family and stayed in Philadelphia. We enjoyed dinner with some of the other first year dental students (and their families) who have become such great friends since we moved to Philly. One of my best friends from high school, Katrina, her husband, and their dog also joined us, and it was so much fun to spend time with them. We have so much to be grateful for, and it became clear at Thanksgiving that one of our greatest blessings is to be surrounded with friends that seem like family.

Jack was spoiled rotten by so much attention from Bear and Katrina. They entertained him non-stop by reading books, coloring with the new crayons and coloring book that they brought him, and playing with cars. They are so great with Jack!

Bear and Katrina spent Thanksgiving weekend with us, and we visited a 'German Christmas Village' held in downtown Philadelphia. There were various booths displaying anything from handmade Christmas ornaments to delicious smelling treats to knitted hats and scarves. It was pretty chilly, but we had fun exploring each booth.

The Christmas Village was downtown by the Love Statue, so we had to snap a picture as a family.

We spent Christmas in Utah with our families, and it was great to be home. We have learned to appreciate our families and the beauty of Utah in these few short months we have lived away so much more than we used to while living in Utah. We love you all so much! We were able to attend a few family parties and had fun visiting with family. We were able to get family pictures with Casey's family, because everyone was home for the holidays.

My brother Kyle and his family also came to Utah to spend the holidays with family. His little girl, Whitli, is about 6 months older than Jack, and they played so cute together. Whatever Jack did Whitli wanted to do, and whatever Whitli did Jack wanted to do. He definitely misses his partner in crime!

We spent Christmas morning at Casey's parents house opening presents with everyone and enjoying a delicious breakfast cooked by Casey's dad. We all got such wonderful gifts, and some of the favorites were: Jack (train set, basketball, toy laptop, magnet set, movies and toy cd player), Lindsay (skis, camera lense, and attachment for my kitchenaid), and Casey (water filter, blu-ray player, and slippers).

We went sledding several times during the time spent in Utah, because there was ample snow for sledding. At first Jack was a little nervous about sledding by himself, but by the second outing, he was having a blast.

We had the opportunity to go to the Jazz game in my Dad's company's suite. It was so much fun because we could all bring our kids and there was available running space for Jack when he got tired of watching the game. Although, I do have to admit that he spent a lot of time on Grandma's lap, because he loves her more than me. It's ok... I'm over it.

We took Jack skiing for the first time at Park City Mountain Resort, and he really liked it. We rented him some teeny, tiny pink skis (they were all out of the blue ones), and he was a champ. He enjoyed it the most when we let him ski by himself, i.e. I would ski about 20 feet down the mountain and Casey would let him ski to me. There isn't a lot you can teach an almost 2 year old, but we just wanted to introduce him to skiing.

  

We are back in Philly, and trying to get readjusted to the time difference as well as all the other 'stuff' (school, Jack, etc.). We are glad to be back home, but we sure do miss our families and the beautiful snow covered mountains of Utah.