Driving Across The Country

Jess and I set out on yet another driving adventure! She can officially be called my co-pilot!

Day 1: Sunday

We started out in Baltimore (naturally) and drove a good 6-7 hrs and made it to Columbus Ohio! We stopped at a few places along the way, got some Subway, took a few pics and got several postcards!

We found a Red Roof Inn to crash for the night. As we pulled into the back parking lot, we realized it didn't wrap around to the front of the building leaving us a bit stuck! We had to do an 18 point turn and Jess had to get out and direct me. It was intense! If you reverse the truck to the left the trailer will reverse to the right. It took some time to figure it out, but we did!

Day 2: Monday

Even though we got to bed after 1am, I still was wide awake by 9am. We got on the road with the goal to hit Oklahoma City by night. We listened to our Dixie Chicks, Lisa Lobe, Michelle Branch. Beatles, Lee Ann Womack and sang our hearts out! We also listened to an awful Nicholas Sparks book, The Choice. The characters were just kind of annoying! But it kept me awake non the less.

We stopped in St. Louis. We went to a mall, did some shopping and ate at Cheesecake Factory. St. Louis was so cute! Just had a good community feel, nice houses, pretty trees, cute little towns and we loved seeing the arch!!

On Expedia, I was searching for motels in Kansas City, MO which is where we wanted to get to that night. I found a room for $44/night at Harrah's hotel and casino. haha. It was one of th

e cheapest places to stay in the area, so we booked it! It was big and glittery with lots of signs and big lights. We checked in and put on something nicer and walked around the casino for a little bit. It was pretty shocking how many people were gambling on a Monday night in Kansas City!

We ordered some late night cheesy fries, which were pretty gross and then turned in for the night.

In the morning we hit the buffet! I'm pretty sure a buffet is a necessary staple at any casino. We got there as breakfast was turning in the lunch, so I basically

had a fresh out of the oven otis spunkmeyer chocolate chip cookie for breakfast that morning. It was so worth it!

Day 3: Tuesday

We spent most of the day driving through Kansas. Wow..... there is nothing in Kansas. The land was so flat. I could just imagine big tornado's ripping through there. I was pretty glad it was cold enough to not even have to think about that.

We finally got into Colorado towards the end of the day and stopped in Frederick CO to stay with Ashley Cox (my college bestie!) It was great chatting and catching up with her. She is having a baby girl in April and just sold her house. It is so crazy to how time changes things. I am so thrilled she is so happy!

Day 4: Wednesday

We decided to not take i-70 the rest of the way and went up to i-80 instead to save an extra hour. I was worried about the truck and the big mountains through Colorado too. Well....Wyoming turned out to be pretty scary driving as well! Jess was driving while I napped. When I opened my eyes, I couldn't see anything out of the windows....just white! It wasn't a blizzard....just fierce winds blowing the snow on the mountains around making it so impossible to see. We just kept a slow speed and were super careful. We slid a few times but Jess handled it like a champ!!

We made it through the bad parts in about an hour. There is nothing in Wyoming either! We stopped at a gas station to fill up and had pleasure meeting Less!! We walked in the small little shack of a service station and were confronted with Elk heads that scared the crap out of us. Less was there to explain it to us though! Good times!

It only took another few hours to get to Utah. We stopped at Little America on the way of course, because the signs said we HAD to. We had lunch, and off we went for the last stretch to Jake's parents!

It was so crazy to be pulling in to this state knowing it's my new home! I had a great house welcoming! Jake brought Bry and Luciano home with him and we had a great night playing games and being a family! I was so happy to have my kids and hubby again too! doing fun stuff!

Ahhhh. What a great trip!!!! Thanks Jess for coming with me!!!!

Moving Day

I was pretty nervous about moving everything out of the house without Jake. But, with the help of my dad who is a super packer and some guys from church, everything went perfectly!

Dad came in on Thursday and we spent the day organizing and packing up what we could. Friday morning we picked up the rental truck. Wow. I was pretty intimidated. The truck was 22' plus the trailer was an extra 15' behind that. How in the world was I supposed to maneuvre this things across the country?!

I got some practice driving and was relieved it was easier than I thought. I think dad was relieved too that I could handle the big bad truck!

We had people come and help fri night and sat afternoon and dad and I did the rest.

I stayed pretty strong throughout the whole process until I started moping the sun room. I lost it for a bit while I moped. Dad helped me take down the owl bell chime that was there when we bought the house. I just remember that owl hanging there when we first looked at the house. We were so excited to have our own home. I will be taking that owl to every house we ever own!

On Sunday Jess, Charly and mom came down. I got the phone call that our agent had placed someone in our home starting in March for the Rent-to-Own property. Perfect timing. I had been feeling so stressed about leaving our home unsold and rented. I know we were blessed with this news because we had the leap of faith to move to Utah.

My heart was really full walking through the empty house. I kept myself busy enough to keep the tears at bay most of the day. The tears still came as I locked the front door and walked down the steps for the last time. Of course someone was honking their horn at me to drive faster so I didn't even have time to look back. Darn Baltimore!

Well....I was really excited to spend a few days with Jess on our trip across the country. More pics to come on that!

Bye Bye Baltimore

Tomorrow I will head off to Utah to start a new phase for the Nelson Family. It has been surreal packing up all of our stuff and seeing the rooms empty as people from the w
ard have helped move everything into the moving truck.

This is where we really got started. This is where two crazy kids in love turned into a family. This is the place we came to when we first got our keys and were so excited and ordered chinese and ate it and watched TV it in the basement and I almost threw up cause I was pregnant with Zoey. This is the place we brought our newborn babies home to. This is the place where Linkin could run free in his yard, chasing the squirrels. This is the place Jake and I set up tents in our back yard just cause we felt like camping! This is the place Zoey climbed ont

o the roof when we weren't looking. This is the place Logan started walking at 9 months. This is the place we brought ALL of our IKEA furniture after a good Wednesday "as is" sale. This is the place we made AMAZING bbq ribs in our crockpot, and even better grilled pineapple on the grill. This is the place Jake and I watched our endless hours of redbox movies. This is the place I was so angry I threw a cupcake at the wall (of course I don't remember why I was angry). This is the place we piled the kids in the red wagon and Linkin on his leash and walked to the park and around the neighborhood. This is place we listened to our ice cream truck drive down the street every Sunday playing "Jingle Bells and "Deck

the Halls". This is the place that Jake's approval for graduation was sent. This is the place Jake and I spent many moments laughing at the cuteness of our kids, and the silliness of ourselves. This is the place that I will never want to forget a second of.

We love this house. We loved the lives we had here. We know it's time to move on and know lot's of good things come our way.

We are so grateful to my parents and Jake's parents for being so supportive in this big move. My parents came down so many weekends to help me

pack and keep me company. Jake's parent's are letting us into their homes and have done such a good job loving my kids while I was apart from them. We are so blessed to have them in our lives.

So... See ya Maryland. We will miss so much about this place.

signing papers to buy the house!

Zoey's First Halloween - 2 weeks

Logan 6 months

Jake and the kids

Zoey and Logan's Nursery

Our Home - 909 Olmstead Rd

My Last Day At Liberty High School

Today is my last day at work. Yesterday was my last day with students. It was a great day. My student's threw me a party in one of my classes (the instructional assistants help them of course) and I just got to sit and talk with them and enjoy being one of the kids for the day. One of my students even stood up and serenaded me with "Time To Say Goodbye" in his "opera voice". You have to know this kid to know it was pretty hilarious AND awesome! He sang the WHOLE song in Italian. He is a big guy and quite the jokster! I loved every second of it.

My department threw me a little party on Tuesday after school. So many people came down to chat and say goodbye. I was really touched and feel really lucky to have worked in such a great school. Today they are having a cake for me (and I WILL be having some) and then me and some of my co-workers are getting some lunch.

I know I will be really sad to leave my classroom for the last time. It was definitely a place of many memories and moments of growth as an adult and teacher. I went from a new teacher right out of college, not married yet, and now I am a tenured teacher, married with kids. Wow. Time changes things.

I'm not sad though. I know my family is where I belong and that these past 5 years have just been stepping stones to the new adventures that await me. I am really ready to go. Two months ago tears formed in my eyes everytime I thought about having to leave my job. Today. I am just ready.

The Christmas Post That Never Was

I've been slacking big time. I left my camera in Utah when I went out there for Christmas. Christmas 2011 was so wonderful! It was my 1st Christmas not being with my parent's. I sure did miss them and our traditions, but being with Jake's family and Zoey and Logan was so special.

I flew out Christmas Eve. I was so happy to see the kids and Jake. We got to go see Santa at the Mall. Zoey went running up to him. She loves Santa! Logan wasn't scared either. My kids amaze me with how content they are with everyone. We got our family picture and then the kids got the messiest chocolate lollipops and had a field day with them!

We spent the evening at Grandma Joy's house. It is ONE PACKED HOUSE with all of Aunt, Uncles and cousins! We did presents, and dinners and sang some songs and took lots of pictures. During presents Zoey had a moment of true concern when we saw other people opening presents, and she didn't have anything to open. Oh how they learn quickly!

The whole family love Zoey and Logan and it feels good to see them getting to play with other kids and be loved-on my everyone. I mean, they are freakin cute, so it's not hard to love them!

We put the kids to bed and started getting out all the presents for Christmas morning. Wow. They had a lot of presents for two little ones who really have no clue what's going on!

Christmas morning was so simple. Once the babies got up they played with a few toys left unwrapped from Santa and played with the toys in their stocking. Linda and Lloyd went to church and we got the kids down for a nap. We got to open presents will all of Jake's siblings while the kids slept. It was really nice to be with all of them. We all got some nice things and got to play with our own toys before the kids woke up.

Zoey and Logan loved opening all their toys. They got a play kitchen, Little People Farm, play camera and lots of good stuff. Zoey is very into opening presents now!

Christmas night after we put the babies to bed Jake and I headed to Salt Lake City for a little over nighter! We had a great time relaxing and sleeping in a king bed!

The rest of the week we just did fun things and I loved every minute being there!

The day before I flew to Utah I got a wicked tooth ache. It got so bad in Utah that the left side of my face was swollen up to my eye! I was miserable. The dentist thought I might need to go to the ER to receive antibiotics through an IV. Luckily Jake's uncle had some pretty awesome antibiotics he couldn't used and they helped so much! You can see in one of these pictures that I'm having a hard time smiling!

It was a very Merry Christmas! So fun to see them having fun and enjoying the holidays. Hopefully next Christmas we can get the WHOLE family together!!

Logan is 1!

Logan turned 1 on December 8th! Here is a summary of who he is at this age...

I just melt everytime I look into his face. His brown eyes and ivory skin are so adorable! He has my eyes and my dimple, but otherwise he is all Jake!

He also has these really spaced out teeth on the top and when he laughs he looks so funny.

Logan is about 21.8 lbs.

He still only has 7 teeth (has had them since about 8 months).

He is still taking 2 naps a day and for the last 2 months has been sleeping 12-13 hrs a night.

He goes to bed/nap with a bottle and binkie.

He says, "mama" and "dog" and the other day Jake walked into the room and he looked at him and said "dada". sometimes he will try words you ask him to say, like "bubble" or "cupcake" but it comes out "baba" and "caca"

blows kisses

Will go down a slide by himself...usually head first

He still does "If your happy and you know it" and "roll your hands", and "so big"

He likes to feed himself with a spoon and eats whatever we are eating. He is a good eater!!

He pretends to talk on the phone by holding the phone behind his head

He likes to jump off things (sound familiar) but is more cautious than Zoey

He of course walks and climbs up and down stairs, on couches, coffee tables, no problem

He loves to run and give you hugs and kisses with a big open mouth

Loves Ice Cream

Starting to want more independence to do things himself

Growls when he is tired

Loves peekaboo

Logan is definitely his own little person. He is just as busy as Zoey, but he is so even tempered. He doesn't mind when Zoey comes stealing things out of his hands yelling at him "No Gi Gi, Mine!" He just let's her freak out and moves on to the next thing. Smart boy to learn so early to stay out of the way of a woman freaking out!

Sometimes I just watch him amazed that he is mine! What a lucky mommy I am to have such a sweet and beautiful baby boy!

Trip 1 To UTah

My weekend trip to Utah beginning of Dec was PERFECT! The flights were on time (early even) and I even managed the whole row to myself on one of the flights! Dream come true, except I was too excited to sleep. Seeing Jake was wonderful!!!! I love my husband. We got to stay overnight in Salt Lake since Jake had to work in the morning and I didn't get in until 11:30pm. My husband all to myself... It was as good as a carribean cruise! Kinda.

I was so giddy to see the kids the next morning! I just hugged and kissed them to death. I couldn't believe how grown up Logan looked! He took a second to warm up to me, Zoey too. It was like they didn't believe I was REALLY there. We had so much fun though, playing and celebrating Logan's birthday.The only bad thing is being with Jake I just eat like crap!! Why is that? Popcorn and soda at the movies, a soft taco inbetween lunch a dinner. I would even think of doing it in Baltimore. I have to figure out where those choices are coming from and get a hold on it before I move out there.

Here we are at Kangaroo Zoo! I couldn't get Zoey to sit still long enough to get a picture!

It was so hard to leave, but in just a few short days I will be with them again! I will post tonight on all the fun stuff we did for Logan's birthday! Can't believe my baby is one!