Baby Nash is 1!

I can't believe it! Our baby boy is a year old today. Time has just flown by. It doesn't seem like a year ago that our little boy came 2 weeks early. He weighed 5 lbs 11 oz and was 18 1/2 inches long. He has always been such a happy, smiling baby and loves to have all the attention by making eye contact with everyone in the room. We are so happy to have his silly little personality in our family, our lives are certainly brighter with him in it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NASHAROO!

For those of you interested we are packing up our stuff today in Blanding and Darin starts the long trek to Pennsylvania tomorrow with his parents. Lucky Nash and I get to fly out there next week with my parents. Pennsylvania here we come!

Dr. Jon Darin Willardson

As of last Friday, Darin is now officially a Doctor of Osteopathic medicine.  Our last trip to California was a blast...We (Darin's parents, brothers, Nash, Darin and myself) flew to LA for a three day whirlwind trip of fun!  Thursday, Troy, Travis, Trevor, Darin, myself, Nash and Mom Willardson went to Six Flags Magic Mountain, while David and Dad Willardson went to Disneyland.  This was a fun trip and I hope to do a post of this craziness...yes I went on ALL of the big rides and LOVED IT!  Friday, was the big day.  It was great seeing Darin's old classmates and even more special watching all of them earn a hard earned doctorate...WAY TO GO EVERYONE!!  

This is Darin and Jared Taylor before the ceremony.

The great institution that required a quarter million dollars of us!

The mighty graduate.

The Poom-daddy...aka Dr. Pumerantz the President/Owner/Money Milker of Western University.

Look at that good lookin' graduate! Doesn't that smile just show a sign of relief.

The graduation crew.  During the graduation, mom W. and I were assigned to hooding Darin on stage.  Nash was being cared for by Gpa W., Travis, and David.   On our way to hood Darin we found Nash in the hall, we decided to surprise Darin by taking Nash up with us to help hood.  Troy and Trevor were in charge of photography and video of the event.

It's amazing it is over.  We do not know a marriage with out medical school.  We started this journey 4 days after we were married....WAY TO GO US!

We are so happy all the brothers could come...a big thanks to all the sister-in-laws for letting them come party with us!

Two very important people!  Couldn't have made it this far with out their support!

Doctor Darin!

Way to go Darin we are so proud of you!  4 long years of medical school isn't easy...just think we have 4 more years to go!  Bring on the residency!!!  You will be an awesome ER Doctor.

Nash was such a good boy.  My mom bought him this shirt that said "My Goal...to be as Cool as my Dad!"  

Okay here is the actual proof that it happened.  Yes, Darin can be loud...

Blanding Rotation

Darin's last rotation of medical school was spent in Blanding with Dr. Jones and Dr. Fisher.  I was a little worried about this rotation because it was in my home town of 4000 people, so basically I know everyone there.  Darin has such a great attitude and he really loved this rotation.  He enjoyed working with the Navajo/Ute people...those squaws were extra nice to him! ;)  It was fun having him come home and tell me a general idea of what he saw, however, in the back of my head I was trying to figure out WHO the cases were about...bad I know! My favorite thing about this rotation was walking around town with Darin, and people would say hi to him first and then say "hey you were my doctor yesterday!" instead of only talking to me.  I think Darin's favorite thing about this rotation was the trips to Montezuma Creek and Monument Valley...especially to Monument Valley in Dr. Jone's plane....

Doesn't he look so gitty! haha

Good ol' Blanding

This is the rock where Darin proposed to me...I said "heck no!" haha...I thought he was kidding around, until I saw the ring...oops.

That rock is in Comb Ridge which over looks the above valley.  I love this view it was my thinking rock, when I wanted to be alone and one with nature (haha) from the top you can see all 4 states.

This is Valley of the Gods.  I don't know if I were a God if I would want to live in this ugly little valley!

The Goosenecks.

Monument Valley.

One of the mittens in Monument Valley.

Yes this looks familiar...Forrest Gump stopped running somewhere on that stretch of road.

A view of Lake Powell.

Dr. Jones and Darin in the fancy smancy airplane.

The Elk Mountain.

The Elk again with view of the Bear's Ears...one of my favorite places...yes I know they do not look like Ears, just trust me on it!

Sort of a view of the Blue Mountain.

So that was a sky tour of where I grew up.  It may be ugly to some, but I love it and I am so grateful for growing up there.  Darin was amazed at how rugged the land was, I guess thats why I am so rugged..;) j/k.  I am glad he enjoyed his time in Blanding.

The inside!

Here is the inside of our home. Bruce our landlord is doing some renovations, he is putting in new windows, redoing the kitchen walls and ceiling and putting in ceiling fans. So there is a lot of equipment in the rooms, but you get the idea of what it looks like....

First Floor:

Front Living Room

2nd living room:

Another view of Front living and 2nd living room. The hallway leads to the 3rd living room, as well as the door to the basement.

3rd living room with 1/2 bathroom, this room also has an entrance to the stairs and kitchen.

1/2 bathroom

Kitchen, Darin and Bruce were in this room talking so I didn't get very good angles of it.

Mudroom that is connected to the kitchen and sun room.

The sun room...I think this will be our favorite room in the house, when it isn't too hot.

Second Floor:

These stairs were the deal breaker. We looked at so many houses that we really did like, however their stairs were either extremely steep or they didn't have a banister at all.

Bedroom #1 will be used as a study/office for now as well as a guest room for visitors...hint, hint!

Bedroom #2 - Nash's bedroom

This is a closet that connect with bedroom #1 and #2.

Master Bedroom, the door on the far left is the attic entrance. The door next to that is the full bathroom entrance (a down fall of the home, is the full bathroom is in the master bedroom, with no other entrance.) Then the door on the far right is a HUGE closet.

Full Bathroom:

Master Bedroom Closet. I swear we could make this into a whole other room. Maybe when we have our next baby this will be the nursery....haha.
This is only part of the attic, this is a lot of storage space up there.
And finally this is the basement with the washer and dryer. I am not going to put the other sections of the basement because Darin has deemed those as the scary story rooms, and I do not want any other comments about a haunted old house! I have to be in this home with Nash alone A LOT and I am not going to be scared to do laundry in the basement!

So that is a tour of our new home. It is sooo much better in person.... we are happy to have visitors!! I really enjoyed visiting the area this past week, it is so green and beautiful. There are a lot of Amish and Mennonite people, we stopped by one of their homes where they were selling quilts, it was pretty awesome. We also took a tour of the covered bridges in the area. That was neat, this place is like living in an Anne of Green Gables movie. We also visited our church ward and they were really nice. The bishop actually served his mission in the Holbrook, Arizona mission with the navajo people and one of his areas was in Bluff....random!! Then there were many others who knew people from Blanding....small world. The church building is 20-30 minutes away, in Kutztown. For those of you in Claremont, Brother Clegg's daughter (Briana's step sister) is in our ward. It is so nice to somewhat know someone!

We found it!

Exciting news!!! We found a home to rent in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. The past couple of weeks, Darin and I have been gathering apartments and homes to view, in the Lehigh valley area. We planned on being in PA for 1 full week with a crazy agenda of homes to see. We had so many homes that I made a binder with notes to keep them all straight...yes I am a little OCD sometimes! We ended up seeing more than half of the homes and driving by all of them, weeding out the yucky ones. We had our top 5 choices picked out, and I was very disappointed to learn that our #2 choice (and my personal favorite) had been rented before we could see it! However, during an attempt to find another home in that same area we stumbled upon a "FOR RENT" sign by a home that I classified as out of our budget league! But our moms told us to call and we did and guess what it was right in our budget!!! The owner Bruce was leaving for a 4 day fishing trip and had us come right away to view the home. The minute I stepped foot into this home I WAS SOLD!! This was the first day of looking!

Many of you know I LOVE old homes. Bruce didn't know how old it was, so I am going to be on a mission to find out! It has 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, a basement and attic, a huge sun room in the back, tons of storage closets, washer and dryer. Presently it has oil heating (boo), but Bruce is in the process of getting a gas line approved (YEAH!). That will cut utility costs.

I love the porch, and look forward to putting some chairs out there along with hanging flower pots! It is exciting to live in a home rather than an apartment with neighbors through a wall! Now our kid can cry and I won't feel bad about letting him.

The home is located in the town of Emmaus which is a few miles south of Allentown, and 50 miles north of Philidelphia. Emmaus has a population of about 11,500 which is very manageable for a small town girl like myself!

The yard is huge, and luckily Bruce takes complete care of it! That was a big seller for me too!There is plenty of room for Nash to run and play! There is also a couple of parks in walking distance....I think we will be very happy here!

We feel very fortunate to find this home, had we found it a day later, Bruce would have been gone and we would have missed out...we feel very blessed! We meet with Bruce on Monday, and I will take pictures of the inside.

There is a sad part to this happy ending! Our sweet little Lindy (dog) can not come with us....we will have to leave her at my parents house, where she will eat anything, and everything, as well as run rampant and free...well I don't think she will miss us that much!

We will miss her!