We are moving to.....

Hershey, Pennsylvania

(Wahoo)!!

For the anesthesiology program. (Do you know anyone that lives there)?

(Above)This is where Dave will be spending many hours.

(Below) Kate from Jon and Kate Plus Eight delivered her sextuplets at this hospital. Fun.

I am planning on hanging out with them and having play dates. They only live thirty minutes away.

I am also planning on hanging out lots at Chocolate World and gaining a good twenty pounds while we are there.
I am extra excited about living next to Amish country. I hear their homemade treats are to die for. I am so intrigued by the Amish. Other fun facts about Hershey...

-Population: around 20,000.

-Philadelphia and Baltimore 1.5 hours away.

- D.C. and the beach 2.5 hours away.

-Best of all my cousins are less than 4 hours away! Lots of road trips with Ashley.

-The lampposts are shaped like Hershey kisses.

- The fresh chocolate within arms reach.

-Surprisingly a lot to do with kids for such a small town. There is ZooAmerica, Hershey Gardens, Hershey amusement park, and Dutch Wonderland.

- Safest town.

-Green, Green, Green!

-Everything revolves around Hershey chocolate.

-Is this making anyone want to visit. Please? Visitors are always welcome.

Negatives= far from home and I am pretty sure that the winters are going to shock us.

We are nervous but mostly excited for the next 4 year adventure. We will see you soon beautiful Pennsylvania!

Happy St. Patty's Day! Thanks Grandmas Linda and Dena for the fun package filled with lots of Irish loot. I especially love the clover planting pot and the pot o' gold coins. You spoil us!

The email that we got today

TITLE: Did I match?
(Longest second ever as Dave clicked to open the email)
and............... Congratulations! You have matched.

Yeah! Now we get to wait three more long days to find out where we are moving to for the next four years. AAAAHHH. Can't we just find out already? Our stomachs are hating us... butterflies + ulcers and every other emotion in between.

My shadow

Me and my shadow

I have two shadows. One is tall and looks like me, the other one is really short and has a nice, round head. My little shadow follows me from the second I wake up early in the morning until around dinner time. Then sticks onto Dave for a few hours. My shadow eats meals with me, goes on every single errand with me, follows me to the shower but just stands outside because it is slightly scared of the shower. My shadows favorite thing is to pull on my arm as hard as possible and say "follow me." When my shadow is doing something naughty and knows it, it either shoots me with its arm laser or tells me to "shoo, shoo." This is the only time the shadow likes to be separated. Lately my shadow is extra clingy when it comes to sleeping. It sleeps in my bed now. After two years of my very strict no co-sleeping rules, it now sleeps with us. I always said that this would never happen and it has been going on for a couple of months. It always needs to be holding my hand while sleeping. Loves to snuggle. It is actually quite nice. I think it is maybe my favorite part of the day now.

While we were watching Peter Pan the other day, my shadow asked what was going on when Wendy was sewing Peter's shadow back on. I explained that Peter's shadow came loose and ran away from Peter. It made me realize that my shadow probably won't be stuck to me for much longer either. It will want to go off on its own too. It made me sad to think about how in 15 years (probably even a lot sooner) my mini shadow won't want to tag along with me, watch movies with me or snuggle in bed anymore. That is going to be strange. So for now, I am loving and enjoying my little shadow.

California dreamin'

Ice cream in Balboa

and Luke's first visit to DISNEYLAND!

Disneyland in February is the way to go. It was warm and perfect for the first half of the day and it rained pretty much the second half of the day. But...no lines! We would go on rides over and over and the longest wait was about 5 mins. Not bad.

Patting the chipmunk on the head

Luke couldn't take his eyes off of the life sized Buzz Lightyear. His favorite ride was the Nemo submarine ride but the Toy Story and Buzz rides got two thumbs up! We would ride on it, Luke would chant more then we would hop back on for another turn.

Somebody REALLY liked Jessie but I must say he is very good about never throwing tantrums when we don't let him get toys. He would just put her back on the shelf, give her a kiss and sign I love you. He pretty much did this after every ride.

Not quite tall enough for the raft ride but just tall enough for the Matterhorn. Yep, we took him on the Matterhorn. He closed his eyes the whole time!

A Bug's Life

L is for Luke Loving Life.

7 pm- Bye Disneyland. Thanks for the best day of this boy's life! This is the part where we beg Luke to go on a few more rides and he tells us "no, frome (home)" over and over.

**and a special thanks to my sweet friend/neighbor Kelly, that offered to have Luke play at her house while I blog because she had noticed that our Disneyland pictures had no been posted yet! How nice is that!!

You know that you are a good mom when...

1-You hear the doorbell ring while you are busy making dinner and you open the door to find your smiling two year old! How did he get out there? I guess he has learned how to unlock the doors.

2- When FHE is held only during The Bachelor commercials. I am ashamed.

3- You give your son a black eye {accidental of course}. Thanks to Luke's Kung Fu Panda head-butting skills right into my super strong cheekbone.


Let's hope tomorrow will go more smoothly.

Here is the poor litle guy holding an ice pack o his eye for a straight hour saying "broken eye".

DAVE'S INTERVIEWS

They are ALL done. Every once in a while Luke will randomly cheer "Daddy home, yah!" After 12 interviews he is home and relieved. We can't believe that this medical school thing is coming to an end in the next few months. It has been long and it has been hard, but hats off to Dave for working so, so hard and hardly ever complaining. Now we are waiting to see where we will be moving to in 4 months for residency. We find out towards the end of March.
Here is where he has interviewed at and our future home. Vote on your top choice. (Of course it depends on how much he likes the program, the match process and blah blah blah but it is fun to get every one's two cents in anyway).
In random order


1. U of U - UT
2. Dallas, Tx
3. Lubbock, Tx
4. Philadelphia, PA
5. Hershey, PA
6. Tucson, AZ
7. Cleveland, OH
8. Toledo, OH
9. Detroit, MI
10. Little Rock, AR



Cute Dave in Michigan doing interviews and staying with Jackson and Cara. I let Dave take the camera for this week, only if he promised me really good pictures of where we could possibly move. Let me tell you he delivered (please note the major sarcasm). Here are the pictures that I am just dreaming of.

I think these are of the Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit area. Don't they just make you want to pack up right away and move to this area?! But seriously I think these areas are normally nice and have a lot going for them (I hope), I just think these particular freeway shots are so funny.

This shot on the other hand DOES make me want to move to Michigan. Dave's brother Jackson is going to dental school there and his sister Ali and her husband are doing a residency there. That is a big plus to moving to this area. In the end I think we will be happy in any of these places but please note that I am scared to death of the cold. AZ has changed my internal thermostat forever.

**Thanks to Jackson & Cara, the Sorensens and the Parkers for letting Dave bunk up at your nice houses and for serving him gourmet meals. I am jealous.

In DECEMBER we celebrated

The Rain

The rain is a treat here and I guess that Luke has never seen an umbrella before because he got biggest grin on his face when I handed one to him.

My Birth
We went to out for a fun Greek dinner and Uncle Micah was in town for babysitting duty while we went to Twilight of course.

An Early Christmas Present

Oooh, a wonderful, manly, purple kitchen set sent to us from Grandma Linda. Which he loves. We had been eyeing the pretty, red Costco one but this one keeps him entertained for a lot longer with all of the fun features like a blender. This is such a winner. Good buy Ma Linda.
My Utah B-Day Party
Amy and Micah made the cake. Boy was it ever to tasty and pretty. I am so craving a bite right now.For some reason they were watching a movie and snuggling like this. It was very sweet. I think that they missed each other.

Christmas Eve
Anthony the Shepard. (The font size is having a mind of its own and won't go back to small)The greatest Great-great-grandma in the world! Grandma Roselle is 96 and going strong. Wittier and funnier than ever. Her secret is lots of chocolate and coke. I need to do a whole post on her soon. I love her.
Luke getting nervous as Santa walks in.He was so cute. He waited and waited and waited for all of the millions of cousins and finally Santa said "well it's time for me to go now." Oh, no. His tiny present was hidden but we finally found it. He jumped on up with a little smirk on his face.

It looks like he is going to throw that worthless Winnie the Pooh but it is actually his most cherished toy still to this day. Good boy.

Christmas Morning

The Snow

Luke and my mom shoveling

Sledding with the Snows, Jordan, Camilla and Danny. This is was a hit with Luke. I was surprised that he liked the snow so much. Hence the many pictures and big smiles.
The brothers trying to do something? I guess pile on top of each other. There is Jordan flying off.

Jo and Co. Such cute newlyweds.

A New Year

Utah game. Dave loves this picture for obvious reasons- Utah game, Vranes jersey in the back, Luke grinning. I do not- pictures taken under you never are flattering. But, ending one year and celebrating a brand new year is always so exciting to me.

and last we celebrated Getting Home To The Sunshine