Michael and Kim's Wedding

Michael and Kim were married Saturday October 8th in the Mesa temple. David, Josh, and I flew in the night before the wedding after David's Friday classes. Josh was great on the flight!

The sealing was beautiful and Michael and Kim were just radiant. They are an awesome couple and make a beautiful pair! Here they are leaving the temple as newlyweds!

Mom, Shannan, and Josh outside the temple.

Shannan and Josh looked so cute in their fancy little outfits. Mom made Shannan's dress and Julie made her darling little shoes! They are such talented seamstresses...I need to get working on my sewing again!! Carrie and Charles drove up from Tucson for their ward's temple day at the Mesa temple. It was so great that we got to see them too!

Michael and Kim's reception was held at the Choules' home in their backyard. It was absolutely beautiful and romantic. Here the lovely couple enjoy a sweet dance together!

Josh was all partied out--after a long day of travel the day before and not taking a very long nap that day I'm sure he was exhausted!

David left early Sunday morning to get back to Philadelphia and his schoolwork. He was only in Arizona for a grand total of 30 hours!! Josh and I stayed for a couple more days to enjoy some more family time. Josh and Shannan loved playing together.

This is about the sweetest picture ever! These little cousins are so cute!

Mom, Julie, and I took Josh and Shannan to the mall. Josh and Shannan were in heaven looking at the puppies in the pet store windows! This was so much fun!

Josh loved having so much time with his grandpa and grandma! It was a wonderful trip!

The Coat: A Story of Charity

Watch this beautiful video for the true spirit of Christmas:

September and Early October in Philadelphia

We have fast fallen in love with the City of Brotherly Love.  Philadelphia is really a great place to live, we love how much there is to see and do here!

Josh (in his owl hat that I love) and David in front of City Hall.  We love exploring the downtown area and have made regular family dates here on the weekends.

This beautiful building is the Please Touch Museum, a fabulous children's museum.  I couldn't believe what a gorgeous building it is!  We bought a membership here and have gotten our money's worth out of it already.  Josh and I love spending our afternoons here!

We also love the public library.  They have a great story time for babies and toddlers that Josh enjoys.  This  was a cool book we borrowed from the library, a counting book involving all things Philadelphian!

Our ward has a great weekly playgroup.  The first week in October, the playgroup went to Bartram's Gardens for their "Little Explorers" class.  The view of the city from the garden was neat.

The class was about apples.  They had the kids gather some apples that they had scattered in the yard...

...these were then pressed into apple cider.

Josh couldn't drink the cider quick enough.  He spilled quite a bit down his shirt.  It was really delicious!

Another thing we love about the city is how biker friendly it is.  David rides his bike to and from school most days, and Josh and I have done a lot of exploring via bike.  One day, we rode to campus to visit Dave.

University of Pennsylvania is a beautiful campus.

College Hall houses the undergraduate admissions office.  The exterior was the inspiration for the Addam's Family victorian gothic house!

Josh's First Birthday

Josh's first birthday was at the end of our trip to Utah on September 8th.

Mom and Dad bought him this sweet ice cream cake.  He thought the candle was pretty cool!  David was able to take part in our little celebration via Skype.

The birthday boy.

Josh, who normally is a great eater, was very tentative about eating the ice cream cake...crazy boy!

"I'm one year old!"

Josh had a couple of presents to open.

He was really excited about this book!

After Josh and I were back in Philadelphia, I made Josh another birthday cake from scratch.  I had planned on trying to decorate it, but struggled to get the cake frosted at all.  It wasn't the prettiest cake, but there's only room for improvement from here!  :)

I took Josh's shirt off, hoping that he would go to town eating and squishing his birthday cake, but he again was very hesitant about the whole thing.  He spit out the bites of cake I tried to feed him!

He did mash the cake up a bit though, so that was fun.

Josh's pile of presents!  It's hard to believe how fast that first year went with our little guy.  We think he's the best!

Utah Part 2--Mom's Surprise Party

The highlight of my time in Utah was, hands down, my Mom's 60th birthday party.  She had NO idea that Dad and we kids had been planning a surprise party for her since late last year!

We kids are spread out all over the country-from Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Iowa, and Pennsylvania.  My out-of-state siblings secretly planned trips to Utah for Mom's birthday.  Mom thought that there would just be a little dinner with Dad, me, Josh, Jay, Em, and Carter at the Ruby River Steakhouse in Ogden.  But, lo and behold, when we went to the back room, all of her children and grandchildren were waiting for her!  When she opened the doors to the room and everyone yelled "Surprise!" the look of shock on her face was priceless!  We got her good!  David, who was in Philadelphia for law school orientation, was the only person from our family who wasn't there.

We presented Mom with a scrapbook of why she's the best and why we love her so.  The pages by her grandchildren were so cute and sweet.

Josh with the birthday girl.

I adore this picture of Josh, he was so excited to have this helium balloon all to himself.  My sweet little boy!

It was so fun being all together at Mom and Dad's.  As we've gotten older, these complete family moments become more rare and precious.  Rachel gave some happy cousins a fun ride on a tire swing at the park.

Josh loved playing in the saw chips and watching his older cousins run around.

Grandma giving some of her grandsons a ride!

Back at home, Josh was all about playing with his helium balloon.

All the grandkids turned Mom and Dad's driveway into a sidewalk chalk masterpiece...

...they had a great time doing this!

Mark and Rachel brought their sweet dog, Wally, along for the trip.  It was so great to spend time with Wally.  I seriously just love dogs.  I made Mark take this picture of Josh and me with Wally to help convince David that our family needs a dog someday!  :)

It was so amazing being with my parents and siblings for Mom's 60th birthday.  We all had so much fun!

Utah Part 1

From Kauai we flew to Los Angeles and then on to Utah for more fun with family.

At my parent's home, Josh loved playing in the sandbox.

 Carter is used to being the only grandchild with all the attention and toys to himself when he is at my mom and dad's home.  It was fun watching him hesitantly share his space with Josh!

Josh in the swing in mom and dad's backyard.  Look at that dirty face!!

 Swimming time at my parents' neighborhood pool.   Fun!

Playing a duet with Carter.

My dad has an extensive collection of Hawaiian-themed shirts; we were thinking of him when we bought Josh this outfit in Hawaii!

David found my 5th-grade journal and it was pretty hilarious.  After Josh was asleep, we roasted s'mores as David read aloud from my journal in the backyard.  We all had a great laugh!

Jay with the cute little cousins at Kneaders.

French toast breakfast from Kneaders...so delicious!

Josh with his darling cousin Shannan in her high-tech stroller.  It was so fun watching these two sit by each other in the stroller, Shannan would put her arm around Josh and he had the most uneasy look on his face!!

The Dads with the kids.

We went on a hike up Adam's Canyon.  We wanted to get to the waterfall at the top, but our pace was too slow and David had a flight to Philadelphia to catch that evening.   Josh was so cute sitting in Em and Jay's hiking pack.

My beautiful mountain home.  I love seeing the gorgeous canyon behind my parent's neighborhood.  I feel so lucky to have grown up here.

Our family at about the point where we turned around on the  hike.  David had to head back to Philadelphia that evening for his law school orientation.

The next days were filled with more fun; trips to the park, picnics, more swimming, playing in the sandbox...

...playing with my mom's bubble machine in the front yard...

...practicing golf with this little club my dad bought for his grandkid's to use...

...there really is no place like home!