Nash's recent obsessions...

So I don't have much to blog on but I did want to write a few things about our little 2.5 year old. He is growing so fast and I am starting to see my baby slip away into a little boy. He still isn't talking to much but he does have a few cute little phrases. My favorites are "Mom, are you?" (mom where are you?) as he is coming down the stairs. Then he says "what oooin?" (what you doing?). Then when I get after him or when he is sad he says "Help Daddy!" or "Daddy, Work, HOME!" He is pretty shy about his speech and really anxious to speak in front of people. This is mostly why his speech is coming so slowly. Nash's English reminds me of what I was like learning Spanish! When he is nervous or does not know what to say he will just blurt out "ANIMALS!" it is such a crack up!
Here are a few of Nash's recent Obsessions:

#1 "Little Buzz"

This is Nash's favorite toy "little" as in little Buzz.
Not to be confused with "big" or Big Buzz (pictured below).

Nash carries "little" everywhere. He is always flying on elephants or dragons, fighting dinosaurs, and rescuing pigs/cows/sheep/etc. Nash loves to "hide" him, then not remember where he is hidden. That is how we lost "Woody" which is a toy we do not talk about anymore because he is NO WHERE to be found! SO when I see Nash carrying "little" I try to keep my eyes on where he is going so I know where to find him when a distraught Nash comes searching.

He still loves running in circles. And will do this for up to 15 minutes if I do not re-direct him.

Obsession #2 "that one" or the IPOD Touch.

I have to use this in secret. The minute Nash sees it he can not resist holding it. I think he knows how to use it better then I do. Today he came up to me saying "watch dinosaurs" when I looked at the screen he had opened the internet and was on the Netflix page. HOLY COW! I had this thing for months before I decided I was smart enough to use it.

Obsession #3 "DADDY"

This is what we see everyday when Darin comes home from work. I don't know who is more excited to see who. Darin has been doing some long days lately and he hardly gets to see Nash. When he is home he puts Nash to bed. (falls asleep with Nash) Then in the morning we have a sad little boy who can't find his daddy. We usually call Darin in the morning so Nash can say Good Morning. It seems to help him not be so sad.

He is such a sweet boy, and we are so grateful to have him in our lives. I don't know what we would do with out his silly little smile, and mischievous little laugh.

If you want to see more pictures of Nash click HERE.

Darin turns 32!

I asked Darin for weeks what he wanted for his birthday. He never came up with something so I decided to do a small party with friends for him. He seemed pretty excited about it and came up with what he wanted to serve which included an ice-cream cake (Willardson tradition), German Chocolate cake mound that I made, and fruit with chocolate and caramel dip.

This next picture is his guest list...

Ha! Kidding we had adults there too they just chose not to participate in the candle blowing, Happy Birthday song singing moments. :) Darin is in heaven when he is surrounded by children. Just gives him all the more reason to act like one! (in a good way)

While the adults mingled in the front room. Nash took it upon himself to take a bite out of EVERY apple on the kitchen counter! He doesn't like the apple peel so he so kindly left that for everyone else. Thank you Nash that was sweet. Good thing he doesn't like chocolate and wasn't found devouring the cake!

Our good friend Riley was so kind in sharing this picture per Darin's request....it is better to not ask questions. ;)

Girls Day In New York City...

January was probably one of the WORST months for us. Life was so busy with MANY disappointments. For my friends we had been so busy with New Beginnings for YW's that we were exhausted/frustrated and ready to get away from it all! So when my friend Stacia suggested we take a trip into NYC we jumped all over it. The only catch was Darin had to work...story of our lives these days! Taylor (Stacia's husband) graciously offered to watch Nash for me. I am not much on other people watching Nash for long periods of time, but I really wanted to go and so I took him up on his offer. Thank you so much Taylor!!
The crew: (top) Stacia Smith, Codi Barnes, Brook Ockerman and Lynette Wills (Erica Winter's SIL).

We really didn't have a plan besides see a Matinee Broadway Show.

After we bought our tickets we walked around a few shops and took in the city life a bit. It was a very simple day but so nice to be out.

We had fun goofing off!

I kind of like this coffee table in Anthropology.

We ended up seeing Mary Poppins. Which was AWESOME! The set was incredible and the music way fun!

I am very grateful for these ladies. They have been GREAT friends to me this past year. I am so looking forward to our next day out!

New Beginnings: Happily Ever After

This past week we had our New Beginnings Program for Young Woman's. We had a heck of a time getting it scheduled as the weather was not working with us and we had to change the date literally 15 times!!!! The program was really great it was based off of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk "Happily Ever After"

We had a great turn out!

My friend Stacia (pictured above) was the master-mind of the evening and did an AWESOME job! She had each of us choose 2 fairy-tales and put together a centerpiece of that story...such a cute idea!

Stacia and my other friend Codi (pictured above) put together the refreshment table...yummy!

We have 4 new girls coming into Beehives this year. Each one of their dads took a moment to introduce their daughters. Then we gave the girls a frame that said "Princess (name) Daughter of a King" As the night was centered around helping the girls understand their worth as a daughter of God. The girl in the bottom left was hit by a car walking to the bus stop last Monday. It was Darin's first day on his Trauma rotation so he was the doctor that treated her. Her parents were very happy to have Darin as her doctor. I have to say when I heard about the incident and that Darin was treating her, my heart was in my stomach the whole day until I talked with Darin. I get so nervous for Darin...even though I know he is a GREAT doctor! he is really loving this rotation and learning so much. I just wish we got to see more of him.

Next we introduced the new girls in our ward. The 2 on the left are the Wills girls. They just moved here from Nevada. They are also Erica Winter's nieces. Erica was my neighbor and SUPER good friend in CA our 2nd year of medical school...small world! Missa is on the right. She was baptized this past September. I spend a lot of time with Missa as I am her ride to church on Sunday's and Wednesday activities. She moved to the US from Haiti after her family survived the earthquake. She is the only member of her family.

We had some ladies in the ward narrate for us and most of the girls had a part in the program. It turned out so awesome. I am so grateful for my calling in the YW's. I have learned so much from these girls as well as from the AMAZING women that I serve with!

Snowy days...

Pennsylvania has been pounded by snow this past month. The school districts are hilarious in the fact that the weather man calls snow and they close school for the next day. MAN I wish I grew up in Pennsylvania! Nash and I enjoyed the snow as well....until the rain came and made the snow into ice. Now it just hurts!!!

Nash is such a naughty boy lately. He loves to run. If he gets the chance he will run down the street before I can catch him. He thinks he is SO funny!

Building a snowman with daddy. Odd spot I know, they were actually digging out a spot for the trashcans and decided to make the mound into a snowman.

Such a happy little boy!

The snow was fun but I think it can go now. This ice is crazy!!! I am ready for the pretty green Pennsylvania that I love!! BRING ON SPRING...hopefully the groundhog was right...I AM READY!!!

Sledding...

My calling in the church at the present time is 1st councilor in the Young Woman's. I love my calling! This past Saturday we had a sledding activity with the youth. It was a lot of fun and Darin and Nash got to join us. Darin was just getting off of another 30 hour shift but he wasn't going to pass up a fun time with the family....have a told you how much I love my husband! He is the best!!!

The Kutztown Ward Youth....crazy bunch of hoodlums! :)

Nash was not excited about the snow spraying him in the face going down the hill. He spotted the playground in the distance and was begging Darin to take him there.

Darin wasn't convinced and made him go down again! Can you see how much Nash enjoyed it! :)

Finally Darin gave in and took him to the playground. Nash definitely knows how to ride in style!

Within our YW's Presidency we have 11 children. All of our husbands work LONG hours (2 ER Residence, and 2 Amazon Employees) so the youth have plenty of kids to play with at EVERY activity. Our kids love it!

I even went down the hill. Although, I think I got sledding confused with riding a bull because I felt I needed to have my hand in the air for 8 seconds!

Nash was all tuckered out on the drive home.
What a fun family outing. Glad we went when we did because this week the snow has turned into ICE.....OUCH!!!

Fast Temple Trip...

I was going through my pictures and realized I never posted anything about our quick temple trip to DC. Growing up in Utah I never thought it would be that hard getting to the temple, even when I had kids. Boy is that a crazy thought now! Our temple district in the Washington DC temple which is 3 hours away. Our ward has regular temple trips but of course they are during times that Darin has to work and going to DC is an all day time commitment, and with Nash it doesn't always work out!
Back in November our stake was scheduled for a meeting in the 7th floor of the temple which is a big open room. Not as big as the LA temple but just as pretty if not prettier. Darin really wanted to go but I was a little hesitant because I knew Darin would be just getting off of a 30 hour shift. I set up a babysitter...thank you Kristen! And then I just waited for Darin to get home, and figured he would say "I am too tired we will go next time." NOPE my husband came home and said "okay let's go!" AND he drove us all the way there and all the way back! ...WHAT A MAN! :)
We made it just in time for the meeting. The temple had 6 stakes there that day so there were people EVERYWHERE! The sessions were all filled. There wasn't enough workers to do initiatory's or sealing's. So after the 20 minute meeting on the 7th floor we were done and ready to head home. I really didn't feel bad about it, because it just felt nice sitting in the temple with Darin. I felt we made a sacrifice to get there and I was glad we went.

After the temple we joined the Ockerman and Laubert family for dinner. We couldn't find the restaurant where others were meeting but decided to go to "California Tortilla." It was ummm interesting. :)



The other families wanted to go into Trader Joe's to do some shopping. I am not a big fan of Trader Joe's because I can't figure out what to do with a lot of their stuff! :) I would get very overwhelmed when we would shop there in California. BUT we did know we liked their Oreo cookies called "JoJo's" so we bought a box of those and headed home!

I hope we can make some time in the next couple of months to go to the temple again...and actually do some work!