Merry Christmas!

This is for all of you that I didn't get a Christmas card to...sorry!  We love all of you!

Hello Family and Friends!

We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS, and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This year has brought many changes to our lives.  Darin graduated from Medical School and we packed up our bags and moved away from sunny, Southern California.  We are now living in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, and enjoying the beautiful scenery of the East Coast.

DARIN is half way through his first year of ER residency at the Lehigh Valley Hospitals.  The truth is we do not see him much so we won't talk a lot about him.  Just teasing! :)  He enjoys the ER and is happy he was accepted into this residency.  The long sleepless hours, have been an adjustment but they come with the territory of being the low man on the totem pole.

CHRISTINA is enjoying raising the boy at home.  She and Nash have joined a Club Mom meet-up group that has brought many great friends into our lives as well as fun daily activities around the Lehigh Valley.  She continues to enjoy Photography and has made some great friends through this common interest.

Our little NASHAROO is a year and a half.  In between terrorizing the house like a hurricane he finds time to give slobbery kisses, calling everything "a uck" and says "moo".  We have had to rearrange our whole kitchen to meet his helpful needs.  He is the best dishwasher out there!  He continues to love books, puzzles, whole apples, animals, and stroller rides to the park.  Our little boy is growing up so fast and brings so much joy to our house with each new stage he goes through.

We have been happy and well, adjusting to our new experience in Pennsylvania.  We have already had some fun family and friend visits, and look forward to more in the future...hint, hint. :)

We are continually grateful for the blessing of knowing our Savior, Jesus Christ and for the opportunity we have to reflect, and rejoice for his life during this time of year.

With love,

Darin, Christina and Nash Willardson

First Haircut!

Well our little man finally grew hair, but only on the very top of his head...it just grew and GREW! :) He has been in desperate need of a hair-cut but Darin has wanted to be home for it. Well, I couldn't handle it any longer this past week and during Nash's bath I grabbed the scissors and chopped off the top. I thought I cut off a ton of hair but when I put it on the counter it was just a small bit. His hair is still pretty long but it at least is manageable and he doesn't look to homeless anymore. ;)

His new favorite toys are these farm animal bath toys. We found them at a bookstore for 3 bucks. He loves them and carries them around with him all day. He is a very particular little boy and lines the animals up just right. If you move them slightly he knows and puts it back in its place. I enjoy teasing him regularly by changing things up....keeps him humble. :)

Look at that sweet little curl.

The mohawk cupi doll is back!

Nash's expressions crack us up! He says so much with those big beautiful brown eyes.

Oh how I love this little boy!

DC Temple

Troy was on the east coast for some DEA training in DC.  After spending the day with us in NYC we took the trip to Washington DC to drop him off.  We left a little late, and it took us almost 4 hours because of the rain.  So we only had time to stop at the temple and walk around the grounds to let Nash stretch his legs and get the wiggles out before we started home again.

While we were there we went into the visitor center to look at all the pretty Christmas tree, and nativity scene displays.  When we walked in it was really quiet, but Nash announced our presence with a REALLY loud ROAR!

He continued to roar until we put him down and he made his way over to this picture. 

Then when we entered the nativity room he recognized the abundance of farm animals especially cows used in the different scenes.  In this very spiritual room we continued to hear "MOO", "NIEGH", "BAAAA!"

This camel was a little weird but Nash seemed to really like it.

This is our second time visiting this temple and each time I am amazed at how beautiful it really is.  Hopefully we will be returning soon to do a session, since this is our new temple district.  We are so happy Troy came to visit.  We wish it was for a longer period of time.  Nash was such a good little traveler.  I think we are finally past the car sickness!  YIPPEE! 

First Party and Movie...

A few weeks ago Nash was invited to his first birthday party, by his friend Rufus' sister Jeanie.  I recently took this families pictures so I was very excited to see that they used some of the photos for the invitation and gift bags.  SO AWESOME! (sorry that was my moment!) :)

Back to Nash...the party was held at the Emmaus Movie Theater.  It is a little theater just like Blandings.  The movie was "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs." Such a great idea for a party.  The kids were really good for the first 40 minutes and then they were running wild through the theater.  BUT that was okay because it was all to us!  

Nash loved the movies and we were so happy Darin could join us!

New York City

New York City has been on our list to visit during the holiday season so we could see all the lights. This past weekend we got a visit from Troy and decided to spend our Saturday in the BIG APPLE! The city was crazy busy with people visiting for the holidays. On our way to the Rockefeller Center to see the big Christmas tree we ran into a HUGE crowd of people coming from a concert. Somehow we got in the middle of this group of hundreds of people that were pushing and shoving in all directions. Nash was in the umbrella stroller and people were taking NO notice of him and he was kicked and stepped on. I was hovering over him like an umbrella trying to shield him from the stampede. One girl said "whoa a baby!" and the girl behind her yelled "WHO CARES STEP ON IT!" I couldn't believe it! Darin came to our rescue and swooped Nash up, Troy grabbed the stroller and we plowed our way through the madness. Nash was screaming by the end and I was ready to cry. It was nuts...but we made it and the tree looked beautiful!

Darin's hat cracked me up! He got it on Canal Street. He looks like he is from Russia!





I didn't take many pictures because of all the people, but we were able to visit Canal Street and makes some great purchases. Troy even had one man tell him "someone is going to kill you!" because of his bartering skills...or lack of! ;) At one point Darin and Nash were taken in a back alley to look at some North Face Jackets. I stayed with the stroller and bags. A huge group of Polynesian girls stopped in front of me. One look at them and I was sure they were LDS. Then the leader of the group started saying "raise your hand if you want to go to the temple" haha! They were from Utah. If is funny how you can pick out us Mormons anywhere! New York is a fun city to visit every so often. Nash loved the lights and whenever he saw a Lion King sign we heard a "ROAR!!"

The Tree Picking Gang...

This is an exciting year we actually get to have a real Christmas tree! We went to a little town called Neff to a tree farm, found the perfect tree, chopped it down and hauled it home. The whole process was pretty fun especially since we got to hang out with two of our favorite families.

Notice Nash still has his eyes on that Santa Claus.

Ours is the tree on the left. :)

The Ockerman family! They are members of our ward and moved to the area around the same time we did. Riley is a Captain in the Marines.

I can't believe this is the only picture I got of Aaron and Christine's family...slacking on the job!

Nasharoo

Emory

Amy

Ellie

Adam

Nash absolutely loves these kids, especially Emory. Poor Emory does all he can to run away from Nash. This is a picture of Emory looking at Nash...can you see the plea in his eyes to leave him alone!

Nash didn't get it!

Nash refused to wear his gloves. His little hands were frozen and I am sure on the verge of falling off. He had layers of clothing on but at the end since his hands hurt he felt his whole body was paralyzed and put the pathetic act on for whoever would feel sorry for him. Sadly it wasn't his mother...I was busy taking pictures. Thanks Brook and Christine for loving my child! :)