Happy 37th Anniversary!

Happy 37th wedding anniversary mom and dad! We are so grateful for all the help you ALWAYS give to us in every aspect of our lives! We are looking forward to March 28th when we will be joining you in Blanding for a month....we hope you are just as excited!? ;) Nash will be happy to be with his Granny and Grand-dad. We love you both!

Lehigh Valley HERE WE COME!

That's right...Darin matched with his #1 choice! We are moving to Allentown, Pennsylvania where he will be working in the Lehigh Valley Hospital as an Emergency Medicine Resident. We need to be there June 1st so we have A LOT to do before then! We are so excited and ready for a change. Wish us luck on the east coast!

MONDAY - MONDAY!!

Monday, February 9th just isn't coming quick enough for our family...okay for me that is! This is the big day we find out where we will be living for the next 4 years as Darin does his residency. This past year was spent doing audition rotations and interviews in potential residency programs, and now it comes down to the day of the match....dun dun dun! About a month ago Darin submitted a list where he ranked his top DO residencies, all the DO residency programs as well submit a list of their top residents. If both lists match that is where you go. If he doesn't match in the DO match he has a chance in the MD match as well and if no luck there we scramble for a place. However, I don't think we will get to the last option...I hope! Not surprising my fingernails are gone from my nervous chewing and crazy Darin has come down with a terrible case of PINK EYE!

This is Darin putting on his anticipation face...basically he is humoring me.

Poor guy! Actually his eye is looking pretty good. Hopefully he will be in tip top shape for the big email reading on Monday or else I will have to take matters in my own hands, and read it for him!

THE ANTICIPATION IS KILLING ME!

Kewpie Doll

Is it just us or does our son resemble a Kewpie doll?

We are so excited that Nash has hair! (kind of)

My Eternal Family!

Today was a great day of church...I don't always say that...especially now that we have Nash...however, today was our ward conference and I really enjoyed it!  To be honest I don't remember much from sacrament meeting besides a beautiful testimony shared by a mom in our ward.  She expressed her love for her children, and how she recognized the love that Heavenly Father has for each one of us, not as a group but as individuals.  This concept rang in my ears through out all the meetings. I am the Primary Secretary so I am most often running around doing stuff.  However, today I took the time to sit and listen to the lessons being taught...each Sharing Time was about  My Eternal Family.  What a great theme for the children this year! 

I always enjoy listening to the children's answers and comments.  Most of the time I am holding in a laugh because of how funny they are.  However, I noticed today that even the funny comments were sincere.  The children really do have an opinion/testimony of their own, and that comes from teaching them not only in the home but in primary. 

My friend Briana is our primary chorister (one of the hardest callings...in my opinion!) and I have to say she taught the plan of salvation beautifully today while teaching the song I Lived in Heaven.  You know you are doing a great job when the children are asking for word clarification, because they wanted to know the meaning of the verse, or when you are sparking questions like "what is the veil?"  Those are such great teaching moments and I think Briana answered them beautifully.  I don't always feel the spirit in primary because I am too busy running around to listen for the small simple teachings.  Today I am glad I did, because I realized how amazing our church is and how it brings us so much hope.  Even our smallest children are learning how much our Heavenly Father loves us and how we belong to a HUGE Eternal Family.  Our stake Primary President showed the children an equation today that I thought was great...

The First Presidency

+

Our own family

+

+

=

THE ETERNAL FAMILY

I loved that the Proclamation was added into the equation because it is such a great road map for us to use in our families. She also shared with our presidency later about when Jesus blessed the children in 3rd Nephi he didn't just bless them all as a group, he blessed each one of them individually.  We are all special and unique, but we couldn't get to the celestial kingdom alone so an eternal family was provided, to help us on our way.  I am so thankful for mine and for the knowledge and understanding I have of the gospel.  Today, because I listened I was filled with a greater urgency to further my learning of the gospel so that I could be a part of the sharing and building of our Father in Heavens kingdom here on earth.  For those of you who have read this all the way through thanks for listening to me, and remind me when I am complaining about life how blessed I truly am!

Family Outing to Disneyland!

The rotation Darin is in right now is AWESOME! He has Wednesday's and Friday's off! How did we get so lucky....SERIOUSLY! So since we have some days to hang out together we decided we need to get all of the SO-CAL we can get before we move away. So today we took another trip to Disneyland and spent the day in California Adventure....

Nash loved the Carousel...as most kids do. He was more into looking at himself (cross-eyed) in the shiny pole.

We were able to go on the NEW Toy Story ride....WHICH WAS AWESOME...one of our favorites now! There was hardly anyone in the park today so we went on Monsters Inc. (another favorite) several times!

It was a little weird going to Disneyland with a kid, we had to take turns on the rides. Darin cannot resist the roller coasters... especially when it is only a 10 minute wait....we also saw my cousin Misty P. and her boys on this ride while waiting to see Darin.

My manly man!

Isn't Disneyland the place where dreams come true?

To bad there is reality...

I can't wait for our next excursion! Nash is at a fun age, we hear a lot of laughs and squeals.!

Background

What happened to "cutest blog on the block"?  I wanted to change my background so I tried to go to there site and it wasn't there?  Anyone know where to find cute backgrounds?

Beach Days!

I love California for the fact that we have beautiful beaches!  I am so sad Darin and I didn't take more advantage of living so close to the beach.  Every time I go I want to own a beach house, just so I can run on the beach... weird I know but when I see all the runners on the beach I just want to run! haha. 

A few Saturdays ago Nash and I took a trip to Newport Beach with some friends... the purpose was a photo shoot for little Addi who is turning 2 years old.  Photographing Addi is so much fun because of her energy, we spend the whole time playing to get those fun candid shots!  (if you want to see some of the shots...go to my photography blog...if you do not have access and want it let me know)  We invited ReAnn and her kids to join us and it was a fun morning of playing in the sand and lounging on the beach!  Thanks girls!  We need to do some more of that before I move.

It is so fun taking pictures of Nash now that he can sit-up!  He mostly just wanted to stuff his mouth with sand...whatelse are you supposed to do when you are 7 months old!

Darin's Sushi

Darin didn't get to make his sushi and Christmas Eve so he made it for Sunday dinner.  This was his first attempt in making it and I think he did a pretty good job.

It sure did taste yummy!

Eating his Num Nums!

Nash loves his food...A LOT like his mother!  Everyone enjoyed the fun of feeding him and getting food spit all over them.  Nash is a vegetable man...doesn't care much for those fruits but we are still trying!  

More Christmas - Downtown Disney

While the parents were here we took a trip to Downtown Disney to do some walking and shopping.  It was the first day it wasn't raining, but still pretty cold.

Who needs to go into Disneyland when you can ride the tram from the parking lot. :)

The parents and Nash.

"Old Guys Rule"  enough said.

Oh Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree....

Such a fun day!

Christmas Fun!

Nash's first Christmas was so much fun!  We loved having both sets of parents here in California with us.  The weather was pretty rainy, so we were not able to do to much.  However relaxation is always the greatest part of the holidays!

In my family Christmas breakfast is the main feast.  We choose our favorite breakfast and my mom makes it.  Sometimes we have a HUGE amount of food such as steak, eggs, fried potatoes, and of course hot milk toast or creamed eggs, all in the same meal!  I love this tradition but was not motivated to do that much work....so we all chipped in and had some yummy crepes and scrabbled eggs.  YUM YUM!

   

I didn't want our parents to worry about too much of the cooking, even though our moms made most of the dinner...thank-you it was yummy.  I really just wanted them to spend time loving on Nash and he certainly did get his share of lovin' by each Grandparent!  He loves ALL of them so much!

Opening presents was so relaxed. It was nice to sleep in, get ready and eat breakfast before we opened presents.  I don't know when we will have that kind of Christmas morning again!  

My brother Kedrick's family gave Nash the cutest lumber jack outfit.  He looks like Elmer Fud when he is wearing it.  I will take more picks because it is so dang cute!

Nash received so many fun presents.  Thank you to all! I can't believe he is big enough to play with toys!  It is scary how fast kids grow up.

I don't know what Christmas was like before our little man!  Christmas just seemed to mean more this year with Nash.  It was fun receiving presents (Darin spoiled me too much this year...do you think he feels guilty about leaving me for 5 months?)but I think the best part of the whole holiday is the time spent with family!

Sushi Christmas Eve!

Before we knew that both sets of  parents would be joining us for Christmas we had decided to have sushi for dinner.  Darin served his mission in Japan and LOVES sushi...as do I!  Darin decided he wanted to make it, however upon the arrival of our parents, things got busy and we ended up just buying a HUGE platter of sushi.  We were so surprised to see my dad trying and eating a good helping of sushi, my mom claims she tasted one of the cucumber rolls but no one actually saw her do it...hmmmm.  Good thing we had chicken to keep those anti-sushi people happy. 

YUMMY!!

It is always so fun having both sets of parents together!

This was a lot of fun, and could be a great tradition for Christmas Eve...however I don't know if the grandparents will be joining us if we carry it on!  I don't know if Nash will like that idea... haha

Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone! It has been too long!

Great news....

I have my computer back and everything is functioning WONDERFULLY! AND our roof and ceiling are both completely repaired....YEAH!


We really have been so busy the past couple of weeks! Time is moving so quickly!
Darin finished up his Ear Nose and Throat rotation in Riverside today. He really liked this rotation and was matched up well with a great doctor. I loved this rotation because he was home early most nights and he had almost all Friday's off. Next up is Orthopedics at Arrowhead Hospital...which means some on call nights...blah. He was also able to fly back to Pennsylvania this past weekend for another residency interview. I am so looking forward to February when we find out where we will be going! I have already started packing. I love to dejunk, it relaxes me!


And I need to be relaxed! I have been so busy taking pictures and making other peoples Christmas cards I was once again a slacker and didn't get as many Christmas Cards out as I wanted to. I am just happy I actually made one for our family this year. If I didn't get a card out to you, please consider this a Holiday Wish from our family to yours!

By the way I do have a blog for photography and card designs, I have been updating it more lately because of the Christmas season. It is private but if you would like to be added to it I would be happy to share.

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

Blogging Withdrawals!

Lately, I have been having major blogging withdrawals. Here are the top 5 reasons I have not been a more frequent blogger lately....

1. My computer hard drive crashed during Christmas Card Season.....stress!

2. Darin's laptop hates me, Photoshop and my camera. (I take offense to this because these are two of my loves in life! And this is the reason for no blog updates.)

3. The post office has decided we no longer live in our apartment and is not delivering our mail! (Thus we didn't get important documents such as our student loan installment, Darin's residency match packet, and my Photoshop update cd so Darin's computer will like me again.)

4. We have a freaking hole the size of the Grand Canyon in Nash's ceiling and it is still not fixed, and we haven't received any word as to when it will be fixed! (So we are living with crickets and dragon flies...yes I said that right dragon flies???? And Nash can't sleep in our room!)

5. We miss our families! (Nash and I loved being in Utah with our families and now we are going into withdrawals for them....thanks for letting us stay! We hope to keep you updated soon on the blog.)

But on the brighter side....
1. I have all orders for Christmas Cards completed despite the love/hate relationship with Darin's computer....if any of you are interested in cards for the holidays let me know, I will direct you to my website!

2. I am running again...and losing weight...YEAH....I LOVE our jogging stroller!

3. Nash is the cutest baby in MY world! (I don't want to offend the other mothers out there!) He is teething, almost sitting up and eating solid foods (hates peas). I LOVE my baby boy!

4. Darin is in an easy rotation and we see a ton of him right now! We have taken 2 trips together, one to San Diego (we love that place!), and then to Laughlin, Nevada (not the greatest place to go with a baby...Darin had a interview in Kingman, AZ so we decided to go with him.) I LOVE my husband!

5. I am excited to take pictures of some friends this weekend...I LOVE my camera!

6. We are grateful for our friends here in California! They are family to us...thank you for being so kind, understanding, and patient with us! We LOVE you guys!

Anyway for the bad reasons listed above I will not be posting on this blog for a while. A blog just isn't good with out pictures! (my opinion). The great part is because of the good list I will be busy and happy! I will have lots of pictures to post when my computer is fixed or when Darin's computer decides to be my friend.

Which is worse?

Which is worse? Being a one car family? Or a one computer family? For us A ONE COMPUTER FAMILY! My laptop hard drive crashed last week...sigh. It was only 5 month old so it is under warranty and I was able to get all my pictures off... YEAH! Sad for me, but more sad for Darin because he now has to share his laptop with me. When did we become so technology spoiled! Losing my computer is like losing my right arm!