PA / DC Trip

A few months ago, Jake was in touch with a fellow classmate scheduling an exam back in Pennsylvania.  We were friends with this family while in Washington at school and have kept in touch since moving.  While they were choosing a date a noticed that the flights were at such a great price, this friends of Jake's, Shane, decided that his wife would be joining him and asked us if we wanted to join in and make a trip out of it.  So we did!! And it was so much fun.

We left the kids at my mom's house while went and it was a great 5-day getaway.  We left March 1st and just crashed at the hotel.  For most of the next day, Saturday we drove to DC, passing through Baltimore and 2-3 states on the way.   Once we got settled into our place there we started sight-seeing.  Jake and I went for a tour through the Capitol, which was pretty spectacular.  It was amazing to see how big it was and the architecture and art within it.  We finished off the sight-seeing with a short jaunt through the botanical gardens and then headed over to the Natural History Museum with Shane and Mallory. We finished that evening with a nice dinner just outside of town.

The next morning we were able to meet up with my med-school wife friend, Lauren and her kids.  She lives in Virginia now and so I'm glad that we were able to find a time to see each other.  That morning we did most of the outside sight-seeing which consisted of The Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, The Korean War Memorial, WWII Memorial, WWI Memorial and the White House.  Out of all of these I think my favorite would have to be the WWII Memorial.  It would have been even cooler with the water fountains running.  But it was far too cold for that.  We then headed over to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and the Constitution.  It wasn't as cool as I expected it to be, but I'm still glad we went to see it. 

That afternoon we finished out with the Air and Space Museum which was really neat.  Seeing all of this history is actually really incredible.  We then headed over to the Holocaust Museum, which I really enjoyed.  Even though some of the videos and information were graphic, it was so true and real.  I have always been so fascinated by World War II and the holocaust and so I was really glad that we went through.   The experience is somber but so interesting to me.  I'm continually flabbergasted by how much pain and hurt happened to so many people without many even noticing. 

Before sun-down we visited the Jefferson Memorial and then headed out to dinner. 

The next morning we finished up DC with a visit through the Library of Congress, which out of the whole trip it had to be my favorite.  When I first heard "Library of Congress" I thought, oh great, this is going to be so boring.  But the architecture and detail within is amazing.  I could have spent so much more time there, but we had to cut things short in order to get back to Philadelphia that afternoon. 

We did a short visit through the Supreme Court, which was rather boring and then we headed out to see Arlington National Cemetery.  The Cemetery was pretty neat and we were able to visit JFK's grave site and then went to see the Unknown Soldier site.  After visiting the cemetery that was the end of our DC experience.

We headed back to Conshohocken, PA that afternoon and spent the night at our hotel just relaxing and getting some pizza.  The next morning the boys headed out for their test and Mallory and I went to the Largest Mall in America, King of Prussia Mall.  We only ended up getting a couple things for our kids and then wandered to kill some time while to boys had the rental car at their test.  It was amazing to see how big the place was.  I got to go inside some of those big name stores you only hear about or see on T.V., Louis Vitton, Gucci, etc.  It was pretty cool, but still a mall nonetheless.  The boys picked us up that afternoon and we headed into Philadelphia.  Because of traffic, we got back just short of being able to see inside Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.  That was kind of bummer, but we weren't too torn up about it.  From there we headed out to try a "real" Philadelphia Cheesesteak from both Pat's and Geno's (the two rivals, right across the street from each other). Geno's was decent, but my vote had to go to Pat's.  We relaxed for the rest of the evening and went to bed early as we had an early flight the next morning.

Overall we had a really great time.  We got to see lots and it was a nice time to relax away from the kids.  The sad part about the whole thing is that we lost our camera.  It was sometime after seeing the Liberty Bell and think it must have been in our car or hotel later that evening.  After some calls, no luck, which really stinks.  Luckily I removed all the other pictures on it before leaving for our trip, so the only ones we lost are from that. 

The only few pictures that I did get are on my phone, but we don't have any of Jake and I there and lost everything that we had taken of Shane and Mallory.  Here is what we did get pictures of:

The Mummy at Natural History Museum

Capitol Building

Capitol Building

Lincoln Memorial

White Houe

Jefferson Memorial

Air and Space Museum

Library of Congress

Mosaic tile ceilings at Library of Congress

Arlington National Cemetery

Pat's and Geno's

Valentine's

The kids and I had a really fun time getting daddy surprised for Valentine's.  We don't have a ton of money to spend on each other for Valentine's, so I like to do things that are simple and memorable.  To keep it a surprise, I let Jake take our Subaru to work that day after he had asked about it.  So when it came time pack the kids up in our little Saturn to get 16 balloons, it was quite the adventure.  I barely had enough room to see out my passenger side window, but the kids really had fun with it.  And what kid doesn't love playing with balloons?!  When I got home I finished up the little surprise, just in the time for Jake to come home that afternoon. 

Typing this more than a month later reminds me of just how much love I have for Jake and our little family.  We don't have much and I'm sure that there are better parents and people out there, but I love what we do have.  We have great kids and a nice, simple life.  Even though we have our shortcomings, mistakes, and little bickers every now and then I wouldn't change it for the world. I'm so lucky to have what I have and I hope that I can remember that every day. 

Here is what I ended up doing for Jake.  He also surprised me and Audree with some flowers.  What a great day!!

The passenger seat in our little Saturn

The after product

Under each balloon were pictures that reminded of just that. 

XC Ski Trip - February

Back in early February we took the kids out for XC Ski trip at Kelly Canyon.  We’ve been wanting to get the ski attachment for our Chariot system for a while now and I’m glad that we did.  I really enjoyed the time out.  I only wish that we could go more.  Since we’ve gone this first time, either the kids or Jake has been sick or our schedule hasn’t allowed for it.  There isn’t much left of winter, so we’re hoping that we can at least get another couple days in because we had a lot of fun. 

We went from Kelly Canyon Ski Resort up to the warming hut.  We’re thinking it was about 5 miles roundtrip.  We ate a little snack at the hut, where Josh thoroughly enjoyed jumping and running around.  He jumped so much that the chimney to the stove in there would rattle.  It was pretty fun to watch him have so much fun with that.



On our way back down we ran into two dogs that followed us for a while, which both kids of course loved!

For not going for about 4 years, it felt great to get out again.  What a fun way to enjoy a Saturday with the family.  

The kids also really enjoyed it.  Audree fell asleep on the way up to the hut and enjoyed the rest of the way down.  I’m so glad that we have such easy-going and fun-loving kids. 

I only hope that we can enjoy more adventures like this in the future.

Joshua updates

The past couple months for Josh have been full and exciting. 

We've been slowly meeting some new friends through the ward and play group.  

We got started with some feeding therapy after I consulted with his pediatrician and feel that he has some sensory issues going on in his mouth. We've had three sessions so far and they've been very informative and helpful. His therapist, Michelle, clicks with him really well and I think that it will be really good for him. In our initial evaluations she definitely agreed that he has some sensory issues and also is a little slow with his mouth motor skills. After trying everything we felt we could from home, we both felt like this was a next step for us. So I'm really grateful that we'll have this opportunity to help Josh grow and expand and hopefully it will help all of us. 

Josh has also grown a lot in his speech. He talks a lot!! Even though a majority of it is repeating back what I say I'm slowly starting to see him grow out of that. More recently I've noticed him expanding in his imagination. He "plays" and talks with his toys. He's added a lot more emotion to his language. He has expanded his sentences, tying 7,8,9 words together. He asks questions and is great at spying things. 

He still has favorites of cars and trucks, but over the past month or so he's really found an obsession for trains. His wood train track has gotten a lot of use and his favorite game to play with it is "I'm gonna get you." Where he alternates chasing his trains around track as if to "get" the other train. Super cute to watch! 

We also had a dentist visit, which he did pretty well with. At that appointment we found out that he has an extra tooth and a geminated tooth on top. Every time I looked at his teeth I always thought something was wrong, but no one ever said anything. Too funny!! 

We also got everything set up for Josh's preschool starting next Fall. I will be doing a Joy School Co-op with 5 other ladies in my ward/neighborhood. I'm really excited to have a group of ladies to interact with regularly and I'm also excited for the opportunity it will give Josh. I think Joy School will be a good change for him as it focuses more on moral development and life skills than arithmetic. He is already so smart and advanced in the arithmetic part that I think this will help round him out. We start in September and it will be 2 days a week. 

As for everything else with Josh, he's an incredibly happy and energetic child. He has his issues with sharing, listening and being nice, but I think that's definitely all with the age. We've already got a good glimpse of the terrible-threes, but even though he's at a tougher stage that way, he's also extremely smart and loving. He adores all of his family members and friends and is concerned about all of us. I'm truly grateful to be his mom and to learn from him every day. 

Our next goal/adventure potty training... Wish us luck. I hope to dive into it hard pretty soon. We bought him some Cars underwear the other day, so we'll see how it goes. :)

Sillies love playing on the bed while we have movie nights in our front room.

We've found a new way to provide entertainment. Board games. This kid goes crazy over board games

Playing at the dentist office.

Playing on the cool boat while at the dentist office. 

Loves wearing around our shoes.

Picture of Josh's crazy teeth.  On the left of this picture (Josh's right) is the geminated tooth and on the left are his two teeth (one being the extra)

Josh likes playing with the resistance bands and pretends they are fire hoses.

Playing with colored vinegar and baking soda.

Joshua hates it when his friends leave.  This is after playing with a neighbor friend.

Audree turns 1 and 11/12 month photo update

I will have to apologize to myself for taking so long to update.  I don't know why it's been such a challenge to get to the computer to write a little something about our kids or daily life.  I'm really hoping to make a change and pick up on this at least once a week.  The longer it takes to write I feel like I lose so much detail and it makes me sad. 

Anyways, little Miss Audree has been growing up so quickly.  As her birthday approached, I couldn't help but think how fast the last year has gone by.  Through 11/12 months Audree learned how to walk, talk and has expanded a lot of her eating.  Just recently she decided that she was ready for walking independently.  It only took her about 6 weeks of taking steps to get to that point, but now that she's there, she's everywhere (and fast!).  Just over the past week when Jake and I were gone on our trip she has become a lot more independent, fast and confident.  It's been really fun to watch.

She also has started to pick up on a lot of words.  She now says "no", "go", "bubble", "baby", "bear", "cracker", "mama", "dada", "dog", "more" and I'm sure more that that.   She has picked up on talking so fast and I'm so not used to it.  Josh didn't really start saying words until about 18 months and even then he wasn't really talking or associating words together until he was about 2.  So this is a huge difference for us, and a really fun one at that. 

She also has expanded a lot of her eating.  She is open to eating just about anything that's on her plate, which is super nice.  Every now and then she can be a little picky, but overall she eats much more than Josh did at this age and I think as a parent it's just a learning phase to feed them what you're eating and if they don't want it, don't compromise. 

As for everything else, she is such a happy, cheerful baby.  She can be a little needy at times, but that makes for some good cuddles.  She is equally drawn to both Jake and me.  She loves to play with Josh and is incredibly self-entertained.  She loves books, baths and music.  She is down to one nap a day right now, which is pretty surprising.  She sleeps less than Josh does most days, but has much more energy.  Makes me a little nervous for when she's a toddler, but she's pretty darn cute which makes her energy easy to handle. 

Overall, I know that Jake and I are extremely blessed to be her parents and to have her in our lives.  One year ago when we delivered her on our kitchen floor, was just a glimpse of the happiness that she would later bring into our lives.  I look forward to many years of happiness with her.

We celebrated her birthday last night with her butterfly cake and parents on Skype/Facetime joining in on the fun.  I love technology.  Anyways, it turned out to be a fun night.  Small and sweet, but that's just what she is.  Her stats for her 12 month appointment were: 12 month stats: 28 1/4" tall (20%) and 20lbs5oz (60%)

Playing peek-a-boo

First toenail painting

This bear hung in my bedroom for as long as I can remember growing up.  I decided to give it a little update for Audree's bedroom

First pony

She ate it so daintly.  Never really dug in and ending up wanting to eat it with a spoon.  She is so funny and definitely her own little personality.

The little damage.  A tiny bit in the hair and a little in the hands.

Audree loved watching Josh throw all of her birthday presents around.  What an awesome laugh she has: