Palmyra

This weekend we were able to go to Palmyra for the day. It was AWESOME! I've been wanting to go since we moved to PA but for whatever reasons we never made it. We really lucked out because our old ward in Erie was doing a temple trip this weekend so we were able to meet up with some old friends (which made it even better!!) and they were so awesome and watch Ri and Case so Cody and I could do a session. Thanks Isaac and Hannah! The kids had a blast! Rilyn is still talking about playing with you guys. Come visit us in Scranton sometime! We got there a few hours before our session was supposed to start so we could do the tourist thing and sight see. We went to the Hill Cumorah and hiked up it.

That was no easy feat wearing a dress and holding my little Tank! We made it though and checked out the monument for a minute (it was pretty hot out there). Then we raced back down the hill - I would like to report that the kids and I totally beat Cody even though he cheated and just ran straight down instead of using the path. Our next stop was the Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove.

It was so pretty walking around in the Grove. We stopped and had a picnic out in the grass in front of the house. Then we went to the Temple and did our thing while the kids hung out with Isaac and Hannah and Tad.

The temple president let them go play in his basement so they wouldn't melt which was even more awesome! When we were done we all (Ashlee, Smitty, me, Cody, Isaac, Hannah, Tad, and the kids) went to Cheesecake Factory!! Yeah!! And it was national cheesecake day so cheesecake was 1/2 off. I'd say it was a perfect day!! The end.

Photo Sesh

Ok now Yes I know the kids birthdays were 2 months ago but I am finally getting around to taking birthday pictures!! In my defense we moved 2 weeks after Ri's birthday and Casen cut his face open the week before his birthday so I had to wait until he was normal looking. Man was it hard work getting these pictures. I'd try to set casen up and he'd start running away and Rilyn would jump in the picture or throw toys in the picture. Then, I'd set Rilyn and Casen would jump into the back drop and I'd have to set it back up and move him to the other side of the room and give him a new toy. Lets just say that from now on I'll do their pictures one at a time instead of at the same time unless I have a helper. I guess our family pictures this year should be really really fun if this was any indication of how they're going to be in a few months! Anyways, these are a few of my favorites. I think you can totally see their personalities in them.

We Are Party Animals!!

We are starting to get really settled in here in Scranton and are trying to get to know the people out here. I guess theres another med school out here and theres a family in our ward who are also 3rd years and have 2 cute kidos so we decided to get together this weekend. The boys, of course, talked school and board scores and blah blah blah while us girls did our own thing, and the kids played. Rilyn is in heaven having a new girlfriend her age to play with. They got along so well. I totally sucked at taking pictures so the only pictures I do have are of all of the boys (including the missionaries who joined us for dinner on Saturday) having a cherry pit spitting competition - Cody's idea.

Poor Ashlee had to be the marker so she stood out in the yard to measure how far the pits went while the guys spit at her. Shes a trooper! Oh and while relaxing in the backyard our neighbor across the ally decided to put on a show for us by standing her her window butt naked!! Theres 5 minutes I wish I could scrub from my brain and eyes!! We found a new place to run this week. Its called Lake Scranton and its like 3 1/2 miles of paved trail around a lake about 15 mins from the house. I ran it with the kids earlier in the week and made Cody run it with me on Saturday.

He did pretty good for an old fat guy (just kidding Hunny!) I'm trying to convince him we should run it as a family once a week. Hes still warming up to the idea. For some reason the kids get really tired after I run - still trying to figure that one out - Rilyn has even told me that she is all sweaty from me running. They both crashed in the car after my run at the lake.

I'm still looking for more places to run though. This place is lacking on places I can run with the kids and I'm not a huge fan of running at night. I'm starting a biggest loser competition on Monday though so I have to keep motivated and run no matter what!! I can't get voted off early this time!! Oh and Casen has found his new favorite thing to play with.

Aprons!! Awesome right? He loves to play in the pretend kitchen but now he thinks he has to wear an apron too. And usually he has more than one on. Hes such a goof!

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

This week started with a bang (quite literally - it was the 4th of July). We didn't do much, just a little bbq with the Meads.

Casen decided to make it exciting by getting hurt though (go figure). He got a little cut on his heel which ended up being a huge sliver of glass that got jammed up into his foot. We didn't find out it was glass until a few days later when I was cleaning his owie and the glass shot out at me. SO NASTY! Hes much better now though. Rilyn and I played a prank on Cody.

We dumped a huge bucket of ice water on him while he was in the shower. It was great. And this week we decided to head on over to the ball field to watch some home team ball. Our AAA team is affiliated with the New York Yankees (they're the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees) and they were pretty fun to watch. We got lucky because the night before their game had be called because of the rain so we got to go to a double header. We only made it 2 innings into the second game but it was still a lot of fun. We went with Ashlee and Smitty which made it even more fun.

Since Ri and Case have the attention spans of flies they spent most of the game snaking and running back and forth between the seats.

They both had their gloves and Casen didn't want anyone to touch his.

He kept a very close eye on it. Before the game Rilyn thought that we were going to watch her play baseball and she kept telling us, "but I don't know how to play baseball". It was pretty funny. Trying to explain the game was pretty funny too. Basically I told her that we wanted the blue guys to hit the ball and the grey guys to not hit the ball. At one point I said that they get 3 chances to hit the ball and then they have to go sit down and of course she starts counting and the pitcher starts throwing balls instead of strikes. Thanks for making me a liar pitcher!! She wanted to know what was up with that so I told her that he messed up on the last throw and gets to try again. She's 4, I've gotta keep things simple! All and all I'd say it was a very fun night and I hope we get to go again soon.

On a different note, this week my Nana passed away. She's been battling cancer for a couple of years and on Friday she passed peacefully with her daughters around her. My Nana was an amazing woman. She ran her own business and was an extremely talented pianist. She taught me how to play. She also taught me to love theater. She would take us to plays and musicals all the time when we were little and at the time I'm sure my brother and I would have loved to do something different but I'm so glad that she did because now I can appreciate it. She also was a very good seamstress and made me so many beautiful things. Rilyn now loves to play in a dress up she made for me when I was Rilyn's age. The last year before I moved out to PA I got to spend a lot of time with her helping with the company. I loved spending time with Nana. She was so wonderful and I'll really miss her. I'm happy knowing that she's no longer suffering and I'm glad that she got to know my children. I'm glad that I got to have her as my Nana for 25 years. I love her a lot and I really miss her already. I wish that we were closer to home because it doesn't feel right being over here but I know that here is where I'm supposed to be. This is the first time I haven't been around when someone has died and its different to go through it alone (well not totally alone I have Cody and the kids but its different). I've been feeling a very strong pull back towards the piano for the last couple of days and feel like that's because of her. I hope that I can pass on something of my Nana through her music to my kids since they are so young. She left big shoes to fill in that department though. I love you Nana and will always miss you.

Happy 1st Birthday Casen!

This week Casen turned 1!

I can't believe that he's already 1! This year flew by! He loves cars so Rilyn helped me pick out this super cute cake for him.

He loved it, especially since the cars on there are real toys not just decorations. Uncle Mike and Aunt Cassidy came over to help us sing happy birthday and eat cake.

He was spoiled rotten with lots of great presents (most of which were cars).

We made the day all about him. We had his favorite breakfast, pancakes, and his favorite dinner, sweet and sour chicken and fried rice. You also may notice the lovely black eye he's sporting... He decided to have a close encounter with the book holder on the pew in front of us during sacrament meeting on Sunday.

We ended up having to leave and go to the er. Luckily they were able to glue it shut (which really freaked Cody out because our friend had a cut in the same area glued and they ended up gluing his eye shut for like 3 weeks- luckily that did not happen to us). Anyways he was a trooper and has been doing great and it's looking better everyday. I'm afraid that our new ward is going to think we're crazy with Cody's beautiful tie from last week and then having to leave church in the middle of sacrament meeting covered in blood to rush to the er.

Yup we're on our way to being the ward crazies. Hey maybe it'll help us get fun callings. This week we also did some more exploring around town and found a fun park with a splash pad and a sand pit.

We went to wilkes-barre to go to dinner. We've had a chili's gift card since before we moved to PA and finally live by a chili's so we could use it. On the way home we stopped at Sonic. Guess who was super excited about that.

That's right me! I love sonic drinks but there wasn't one anywhere near us in Erie. Of course we spent some time playing outside

where Casen showed me his new trick of being able to climb the ladder to our swing set.

Scary!! Cody told me that he's been able to do it for like a week now. I guess it's a good thing that Cody's going to know people at the hospital because this kid is even crazier than his sister.

Rilyn planted herself a garden this weekend. It ended up being red, white, and blue but that wasn't on purpose. Shes's very proud of it and I think she's going to be great at taking care of it.

I thought since it's Casen's birthday I should share some fun things about him. He's up to 4 teeth now. It's so cute! He has a great smile! He loves his sister and loves to do everything she does.

He's crazy and wild and such a boy. He loves cars and he now makes a car noise when he pushes he car around the house. He's a biter! When he gets frustrated he will yell and then try to bite the person or thing that is making him mad. It shouldn't be funny but I have a hard time not laughing. Someone inherited Uncle Cody's temper! He's becoming a talker. He can say hi, mama, dada, dog, lola, good dog, all done, Dora (yes his sister makes him watch lots of Dora), outside, whatisit (that one ends up being all one word), I love you, go, that, thank you. He has a bunch more words that he understands but doesn't say yet. He seems to start saying something new everyday so I'm sure we'll have 2 chatterboxes around here soon. Because of the move he hasn't made it to his one year check up yet but I'll put up stats as soon as he does. We sure love our little guy. He's made our family feel more complete and is just such a perfect little boy. We love you Casen. Thanks for being a part of our family!