Spring Break

   After high school I had the amazing opportunity to go on Heritage Tours, which took us across the country and back in 20 days, stopping at almost all the major church history sites, American history sites, and also just some fun places along the way.  JD hasn't seen hardly any of those things, so we took our Spring Break this year as a chance to let him go see some of my favorite places (that we don't live too horribly far from).  Our first stop was Fayette, NY where the Whitmer farm is.  That was a really neat place.  Then it was on to Palmyra, NY where we went to the Visitors Center, saw the Smith log home, Alvin's frame home, and also the sacred grove.  We walked around the temple there, visited the Hill Cumorah, and also went to the Grandin Printing Press where the Book of Mormon was published.  It was an incredible experience to see all those things, but it was colder than cold that day.  We froze our tails off, and although it was a neat experience, it was too bad it wasn't a little warmer so we could enjoy the Sacred Grove and the beauty of that area a little more. To be completely honest, all three of us were already pretty miserably sick, so we probably weren't going to get any sicker from the cold, but we were still glad we could go see those places on our last big break of dental school.

   The couple missionaries at some of the places just loved Jax.  One would keep him busy while the other gave us the tour.  It was wonderful to have someone take that much interest and love in Jax since he doesn't have any grandparents or the like out here.  He really misses all the attention, and we were glad we could let the Senior missionaries have some time with him since they were missing their grandkids, too.  It was also so nice to have a little break from him, and be able to enjoy the tours without worrying about what Jax was doing.  He even got to be their special helper and go back where only the missionaries go and touch and use all the old tools and things that were on display.  

  

The next day we drove over to Niagara Falls.  I remember it being just so incredible, and I was excited for JD to see it.  Well, it was colder than it had been the day before.  Poor JD was getting more sick, and just wanted to get back in the car.  But we walked around for a little bit all bundled up, and it was kind of neat to see all the thick ice formed down around the base of the falls.  I really wanted JD to be able to go on the Maid of the Mist, but we could see why it wasn't open yet when we went out on the observation deck.  Without the trees around for cover, the wind was relentless and ice cold.  We could only stand out there for about 15 seconds before we felt like our faces were going to freeze off.  We got to walk out on Goat Island, which I wasn't able to do when I went before.  Some time we'd like to plan a trip there again, but this time do it in advance so we can have passports to go over the Canadian side.  But it was too cold anyway, so we just enjoyed the American side this time.  Jax got to smash a penny and put it in his very small collection, and we headed on our way again.  

 

We spent the night with some good friends in Erie, PA, then drove to Kirtland the next day.  This day was the BEST!  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.  The sun was out, we had the windows down, and it was a lovely day for a stroll through old Kirtland.  We got to take a tour of the temple, and it was pretty neat to see.  The Church of Christ who owns it does such a better job now than when I went, and it was a good experience for us, although I thought the steps in that building were going to start giving me contractions!!  We felt such a wonderful spirit as we got to walk through all the LDS sites, and were glad we could go and learn a bit more about church history.  It was so nice to spend some time together as a family doing something fun, and hope we can see a few more things out here before our time is up!

Fun at the Zoo

We had some awesome friends who invited us along to visit the zoo with them.  It was February, but with the lack of snow and abundance of sunshine, we couldn't resist.  It was a beautiful day, just perfect for enjoying the weather and the animals.  Jax just loves all his friends here, and we couldn't ask for a better place the be in regards to all the other kids around.

 One really neat part about the zoo is that the peacocks just wandered around, and were very tame.  Jax thought it was all just about the best thing ever, and still talks about his friend, and their trip to the zoo all the time.

 

I hate potty training

Well, I did it.  I have a potty trained child.  I've been so torn about doing this, but finally bit the bullet and got it done.  I had some serious reservations about starting (reasons that ended up being completely valid during the whole process), but with a new baby coming in June, I had two options:  Do it now, or wait until awhile after baby girl is born when Jax is nearly 3.  No thanks.  I don't want a 3 year old in diapers still.  So we started.  He seemed to be doing great at first, but sort of just stopped progressing.  I kept at it, determined to succeed.  Months went by.  That's right, months. I tried every motivator out there.  Stickers, treats, charts, toys, everything.  The only thing that seemed to work was a movie as an incentive.  But he still wasn't really trying much.  i think we both got a little burned out on movies (what am I saying, only I was burned out on movies).  That's all we did all day, and he still didn't really care when he had accidents. I was really getting depressed about the whole situation, especially after seeing others start a month after I had, and be done in a week.  Meanwhile Jax was still having accidents and just didn't care to try.  Well, I'm happy to say that after 3 months of me wanting to shoot myself in the foot because of how much stinkin time this was taking, and how much laundry soap this was taking, Jax finally just "got it" last week, and now we are doing fine.  We still have a lot of practicing to do, but at least we've made the big step of him actually telling me when he needs to go.  Its such a relief that I don't have to keep taking him every half hour, every day of the 3 months we did it.  I'm very proud of him, and glad that this will be out of the way once sweet baby girl arrives!

Tall, tall, tall

Well, obviously I haven't done too hot at keeping up the blog.  I've been really enjoying the mild winter and early Spring here in Philly, and we've been just soaking up all we can while we're here.

First of all, as if everyone didn't already know, we are going to be having a little GIRL in the family come June.  We are so excited!  I'm not sure JD is so thrilled about the girl part, but I'm sure he'll love her once she gets here.  I've been re-organizing Jax's bedroom (and really the rest of the house) to make room for baby girl, and have tried without much success to shop for her, too.  I really feel like I am a new mom again with no idea what to do.  Having her in the exact opposite season with all the heat and humidity is leaving me stumped as to when I'll even have her in cute clothes outside the house, and even what thin clothing to put her in while she's still inside.  I'm hoping that the summer will be as mild as the winter, but I highly doubt it, so we'll just have to see how it goes!

Last year Jax was still a little too small to go out and play around in the snow, much.  But this year he was so thrilled to see snow on the ground, so we just had to go out and play in it.  We only had like 3 days that it even snowed this year, but we picked the perfect day.  It was really quite warm, but had really snowed a good amount just before the sunshine came out.  Jax absolutely had a blast helping me build the snowman, and couldn't get enough of rolling around in the snow and eating it (yeah, gross, I know.)  By the time JD got home from school that day, all the snow had melted, but our cute little snowman remained.  He still refers to that field as "the snowman place."
   I think the best part about the day was that instead of buying a sled, we took out the snow shovel, Jax sat on the back of it, and we dragged him around on that, instead.  He didn't know the difference, and it was honestly a lot easier than pulling him on a sled would have been.  We're glad he liked it so much. :)