Our move to the city of brotherly love...

It's been awhile, but here I am writing a huge post to catch up on all the events of the past little while. We made the move to Philadelphia about a month ago, and it all went pretty well. Casey drove the big moving truck with his Dad and towed the car while I drove our SUV with Jack, my Mom, and McCall. We were a little nervous for jack to sit in a car for 35 hours driving across the country; however, he handled it better than anyone could have expected. I believe it was almost completely due to my mom's excellent entertaining in the back seat. Thank you so much for making the drive with us Mom, because I'm not sure I could have done it without you. Oh, and I guess McCall kept me entertained while driving, so thanks for coming too McCall! We were able to stop in Missouri and stay with Kyle and his family. They took us to Nauvoo the next day and we took a tour around the historic sites, and it was a pretty neat experience. Casey and Val made it on Thursday and by the time we got there on Friday everything was moved into the apartment. Thank you to all of Casey's family that helped move everything in (Val, Kathy, Amy, Kace, Kassidy, Dave, Tracie, Taylor, Drew, and Lana).

The apartment isn't bad. We were a little worried because we did everything online and didn't fly out to see the apartment before we moved in, but luckily it is a decent apartment. I don't have pictures of the apartment to post yet, but I will post some eventually.

We really like the area where we live. It is about 5-10 miles from the school, which is downtown. We live in the Roxborough area, which is a little more suburban. We live right next to an 8000 acre park that has a river, hiking and biking trails, ducks to feed, etc. We love it. We have been mountain biking a couple times, and it is so much fun. The biking trail is right off our parking lot, so we don't have to load the bikes in the car.

There are several other young families that live in our complex and nearby complexes, and we have been overwhelmed by friendly and welcoming people. It is crazy how many instant friends we now have. We are so grateful for the church and the support system that is available no matter where you live. Speaking of church, we really love our ward. They didn't waste any time giving Casey and I callings. Casey is the 1st counselor in the young men's presidency and I am the 2nd counselor in the primary presidency. Our callings have already presented some challenges, but it is awesome to be so needed and involved in the ward.

We all have been adjusting pretty well. Casey likes most of his classes; he is trying to get used to sitting in class for most of the day and then coming home to study for a lot of the night. He really likes the Pre-Clinic where they actually get to practice waxing teeth (whatever that means?...) Below is Casey's first day of school. They all wear light blue scrubs every day to school for the four years, so that makes it really easy for Casey to decide what to wear everyday.

I am trying to adjust to living in Philly and being a stay-at-home mom. It has been pretty good so far. Jack and I have a pretty good schedule going right now, but I'm a little nervous about what we are going to do when winter comes. We get up in the morning and go walking with some others girls that live nearby. Then we come home, get ready for the day, and go to the park, target, or somewhere else. It seems like the mom's here are always doing something. We come home and Jack eats lunch and goes down for a nap around 12:30 or 1:00 and sleeps for 3 or 4 hours. This is the time that I get to work on my projects, clean the house, or pretty much whatever I want. By the time Jack wakes up, it is time to start working on dinner and Casey gets home. I'm working on getting a job that I can do from home, so that will be good. But for now, I'm enjoying spending more time with this little monkey!

So, the first time we turned on our oven in the apartment we had an oven fire! It was so terrible. It was 9:00 at night, and we were finally making dinner after a long day. I was getting Jack ready for bed and my mom noticed a bunch of black smoke coming from the oven. We opened the oven door and there were huge flames. McCall ran out into the hall with naked little Jack in her arms. Casey got the fire extinguisher from the hall (after McCall pointing out the extinguisher) and put the fire out. After we got most of the smoke out of the apartment, we put Jack to bed and spent the next 3 hours wiping black soot off every surface in the apartment. The fire department and the police showed up about 2 hours later and asked if everything was ok. It is so comforting to know they are on top of things around here :) Here is a photo of the oven after spraying it out with the fire extinguisher. What a mess!

I've added some pictures of some fun things that we have done since we have been here. We visited some of the historic sites downtown with Casey's family while we were here, but we didn't get any pictures. However, I'm sure we will have plenty of opportunities for pictures. We have a pool at our apartment complex and spent time there before it closed for the fall. There is a playground and a nice grassy area where the kids can play.

Some families in the ward were going camping one weekend, so we showed up for dinner and the campfire. Jack love sitting next to Brooklyn because she kept feeding him M&M's. I think he would have sat there all night if I didn't interject.

We take a lot of walks and bike rides in Fairmount Park, which is the park I discussed above with the river, trails, and ducks. It's almost like a little get away in our backyard.

One of the first weekends here, we went to a Temple football game. It was fun and helped us to feel a little school spirit. The game was at the Eagles stadium, so that was pretty cool. Speaking of the Eagles, Casey also got to go to an Eagles game with some of the guys in the ward and had a lot of fun (even though it was just a pre-season game and the starters hardly played). Here are some pictures from the Temple game.

We went to the beach at Ocean City on Labor Day. Jack loved the ocean and the sand. We had a really fun time.

There is this awesome market downtown called Reading Terminal. We went last weekend to check it out. It is filled with fresh produce that is super cheap compared to the produce found at the grocery stores here. There are fresh seafood, meat, and cheese counters. There are several 'restaurants' (for lack of a better word) that serve all kinds of food from Greek to Italian to Japanese entrees. Also, there are several cases full of chocolates, candies, pastries, and cakes. Below of a few pictures from the little trip.

Congrats to Casey

If you have not heard yet, Casey got into dental school. We will be moving to Philidelphia mid-August and are super excited. I would like to say how very proud Jack and I are of Casey. He has worked very hard to get into dental school and has been very dedicated and persistent. He has put in so many hours of shadowing, service, studying, classes, etc., and I'm very grateful for him. We are excited for this new adventure, and to join some of our friends and family on the east coast. So, once again, good work Casey!

So far we have had a great summer. We went to visit Matt, Jordan, and the kids in California during May and had a good time. We went on a hike/walk in the mountains, played at the beach, walked along the boardwalk, went swimming, ate indian food, and met our new little nephew Finn.

Jack's first time on the airplane. Thank goodness of portable DVD players, baby einstein movies, and his plug (his pacifier that we only give him at nights... except when he's on an airplane). He was pretty good on the airplane, but he wanted to push every button above, pull the window shade up and down, and crawl back and forth across Mom and Dad's laps.

This gross looking creature is called a Banana Slug, and they are very large as you can see next Matt's hand. This isn't even the biggest one that we found on our hike.

Fun at the beach:

Swimming in Matt & Jordan's pool...

We also made a trip to Firth Idaho during May to visit our good friends the Newmans. We went up there with the Bergstroms & the Kites, and we had so much fun. It is was so great to see our friends from Logan. While we were up there we went to the Idaho Falls temple, had a picnic, fed the ducks, and visited with friends.

We had a great July 4th weekend. We spent the weekend down at a ranch in Southern Utah with my family four wheeling, biking, sitting around the campfire, playing card games, and enjoying the outdoors. We also watched fireworks with Casey's family. Jack wasn't too sure about the fireworks. He like the bright colors and lights, but he sure didn't like the loud noises. Although, he was dealing with "Hand, Foot, and Mouth," which is an awful virus that results in a fever and several sores inside and outside of the mouth. He handled the virus pretty well, and I will have to post some pictures later. Overall, we are doing very well and having a great summer!

Update...

I just wanted to finally post again and let you all know what we have been up to lately. Casey is enjoying spending time with Jack, and they are both happy that it is finally warming up outside so they can play. Casey is still waiting to hear from a few dental schools, so we will give an update as soon as the schools get around to letting us know. I am still working away at PwC, and I enjoy my job most of the time. I work with some very smart and fun people, so that makes all the difference. Things have slowed down at work, and it is so fun to get home and still have time to spend with Casey and Jack before bedtime. We have all been taking advantage of the good weather. Jack is a very busy boy and is continually getting into things.

For some reason Jack loves to play in the refridgerator. So, sometimes we leave the door open for a few minutes for him to play. He usually just moves things around from shelf to shelf. Well, this time Jack found something good to eat and Casey couldn't help but take a picture.

Jack found the tissues on the shelf, pulled them down, and had his way with them. Casey caught him half way through but decided to let him finish off the box. We just stuffed the tissues back in the box as best would could and used them anyway.

Another thing Jack loves to do is play in the cupboards. This cupboard is his favorite because there are a lot of cans down here. He takes the cans out and puts them in a pile and then puts each can back in the place he found it. Oh, and you've gotta love the big smile for the camera.

We had a great Easter with our families. This is Jack's Easter basket.

Jack seemed to enjoy the toys and the treats that he found in his basket.

Jack looked pretty cute in his new Easter clothes.

We went to the zoo with Kyle, Chelsi, Whitli, and McCall a couple weeks ago. Jack and I enjoyed a ride on the carousel while Casey took pictures. Jack wanted to stand up on the kangaroo most of the ride, because he seems to have such a hard time just sitting.

We loved the giraffes. There was a cute little baby giraffe that we were able to see.

McCall and Whit eating some goldfish.

Jack taking advantage of his uncle Kyle.

I love this picture... Jack's trying to find something in his nose, and Whitli thinks he is a gross boy. They are so cute together and have so much fun. Kyle and Chelsi tell us that Whitli loves to go see Jack (she says his name so cute).

I think Jack liked this fountain most of all. He could have played in it all day. Luckily it was at the very end, so we didn't have a problem letting him get all wet.

Jack is One!

We can't hardly believe that Jack was born one year ago. However, we cannot remember our lives without him. He has been such a good boy, we often wonder why we are so lucky. He has always been a happy baby; he has always slept well; and he has always eaten pretty much anything that we put in front of him. Jack is a very busy boy. He is always on the go and keeps us moving non-stop. He never slows down, but when it is naptime we lay him down, and he goes to sleep without a fuss (most of the time). Don't get me wrong, he throws hit share of fits. When he wants something, you better believe he is determined to get it. If you are eating anything, you better be prepared to share with him or suffer the scream. He is such an awesome kid, and we are having so much fun watching him learn and grow.

We had a little birthday party for him today with family. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it. Here are some pictures of the party.


We decorated the house with baloons and signs, but we don't think Jack noticed very much. I guess it was more for us than for him.



After eating lunch, we opened presents from everyone. Jack didn't care too much about opening the gifts. We kind of knew that he wouldn't be extremely interested, because he was not excited about opening Christmas gifts either.


He was more interested in the gifts after they were open, which is probably a good thing. We have just always heard that one year old kids are usually more excited about the wrapping and the boxes than the gift. Jack is the other way around. He doesn't want to open the gift, but he will play with it afterwards.


He got several items of clothing from everyone. Here is a snapshot of most of the clothes he got. He is kind of between sizes right now. Size 6-12 month clothes are getting a little small, but 12-18 month clothes are still quite big.


Here are all of the toys that he got. I'm not sure where we are going to put all of these toys, because he just got several new toys for Christmas. I guess we will figure it out.


The largest gift Jack received was a brand new, front-facing car seat. We aren't really sure how we feel about this, because Jack is so awesome in the car. He usually falls right to sleep when we drive anywhere, but I'm not sure how comfortable how this seat will be to fall asleep in. I guess we will see.


This is Jack's own, personal birthday cake. We haven't given anything like this before now, so naturally he was a little timid. At first, he didn't want to put his hands in the cake, so he tried this for a minute.


After awhile, Jack realized that I wasn't going to take the cake away or wipe his hands clean, so he dug in and loved every minute of it.


We let him eat quite a bit of the cake. He just kept playing in it, and we think a lot of it missed his mouth and ended up on the floor.


Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............................................

We think this is the point when Jack decided he was done. Afterwards, he threw up this same red cake about three times. We kind of felt bad. Below are just some cute pictures of Jack playing after he got all cleaned up.

We've had a lot of fun with Jack throughout this past year, and we look forward to what his next year of life brings. Oh ya, we have an announcement to make.................................................. ........................................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................................

Jack's going to be a big brother!!!!!!!!!!..........................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................................

in three years or so.