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

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

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in three years or so.

This summer so far...

I officially suck at this blogging thing, as you can all see. Anyway, I figured I could update everyone on the activities of our little family. We are enjoying our summer so far. Casey is working for a landscaping company doing sprinklers (mostly), and I'm enjoying being a mom for the summer. Jack and I have done some fun things with my mom, Jordan, Fischer, and Sophie and some of the other cousins. Casey is busy studying for the DAT again, but he takes it on July 10. I know he will begin to enjoy the summer much more after he takes that test. I am supposed to be studying for the CPA exam; however, I'm having a hard time focussing because there are so many fun things to do besides study. I wanted to have a couple of the sections passed before I start with PwC in September, but it's looking like I will be lucky to have 1 out of 4 taken by then. Oh well... So, I'll tell you about some of the fun things we've been doing. Earlier this summer Thomas the Train came to Heber, and even though Jack is to young to really care, we went with my mom, Aunt Pat, Jordan and her kids, Chelsi and Whitli, and Hollie and her kids. It was fun to be there with everyone, and all the other kids were really excited.

Here we are in the gift shop. Jack seems to be having a good time, so I can't complain about that. He is such a smiley boy these days; however, in most pictures it seems he isn't smiling. You have to get right up in his face and then he will smile at you all day long.

We are on the actual train ride here. This is Landry (my cousins daughter), Jordan (my sister-in-law), Sophie and Fischer (my niece and nephew), and Jack and me. You can tell Jack is having the most exciting time of his life (yes, he is asleep). I had fun!

We took a trip to the zoo with all the kids. I haven't been to the zoo for so long, so it was fun! Jack just stared at the animals and was a very good boy. I think Jack's favorite part was the giraffes (I think). In this picture is Aunt Pat, Sophie, Jack, me and Riley (my cousin's daughter).

We had a picnic at Vivian Park with some of our very good friends, the Newmans. They were down for a family reunion, and luckily, they had time to hang out for awhile. It was a beautiful day, and as soon as we got to the park, it started to rain. We hurried under a shelter and finished our picnic and visited while Ava played in the water fountain. I actually stole this picture from the Newman's blog (thanks Anna).

We celebrated my birthday, and I had a very good day. I got some great gifts like clothes, a driver and 3 wood golf clubs, sunglasses, and giftcards. We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Macaroni Grill, and then later that week had a barbeque with the whole family. I'm getting old! :(

Jack attended his first campfire. We lit a fire in my parents' back yard and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for memorial day. Jack was mesmorized by the flames, and we all enjoyed smelling like smoke to go to bed.

We also went to Lake Powell with Casey's family, but I don't have the pictures on my computer yet. I will work on that and post about it a little bit later. Jack had fun and was really good. We had to ease him into the water, but he sat in his floatie for awhile. He really liked the wakeboarding boat rides. It was a little windy, but we all had fun surfing behind the boat. Thanks Duff and Amy for taking us!