Cleveland

A day after we got back from Disneyland Casey, Holland, and I headed to Cleveland to look for houses.  My sister Brooke graciously watched Carly for us while we were gone for 4 days, and I know it was not an easy task! (i.e. Carly tried to escape in the middle of the night) We flew in and out of the Provo airport and it was AMAZING.  It was so nice to get to the airport an hour early, walk right through security and not spend an hour on the tarmac waiting to take off.

My first thoughts of Cleveland: A lot like Milwaukee,  nice and green, lots of Chick-Fil-As, This EST time is going to kill me! (probably because we had just come from PST time and it was hard to adjust, especially with Holland)

AG set us up with a realtor to help us find a house to rent while we were visiting.  Our realtor had been working with us for a month beforehand getting a feel of what we wanted.  While we were in Cleveland we found a place that we liked enough and we decided on it to be just be done.  The owner of the house couldn’t go over the lease while we were there because he was busy or something so we left it up to our realtor to finish things up.  Right when we got home from Cleveland our realtor called and said she found our dream place and that it was a sign that the owner of the other house was busy because she knew we would want this new place.  She sent pics and we fell in love because it was EXACTLY what we wanted in our #1 city and in our price range so viola we signed. 

In short I am so so SO excited that we got a place that we really want. I think it will ease the hardness of the move of bit to be moving into a nice big place that we love.  I can’t tell Casey enough how much I’m going to love to be down the street from a Costco AND a Target too!  Here are some pics.

Disneyland!

We had the time of our lives at Disneyland!  It was so so much fun.  I was worried at first about how we would work everything with Holland, but she ended up being able to go on a lot of the rides and LOVED them.  On the other rides that she couldn’t go on we just got a stroller swap pass and either Casey or I was able to run to the front of the line after the other one went.  She slept really well in the stroller when she was tired. Carly was able to go on every ride except California Screamin and Indiana Jones.  She loved all the rides.  We went at the perfect time of year and we didn’t have to wait in lines very long at all.  We went with my mom and my sister Kristen and her family.  It was so much fun to go with all of them and they helped out a lot with our kids too! 

We spent a full week in So Cal.  Three days at Disneyland, two days travelling and a few days at the beach.  We stayed at my parent’s time share in Newport Beach and it was amazing.  We have stayed there before but before I was married.  We got our own condo which was a lot bigger and nicer than our current apartment!  It was so nice to have Carly and Holland in their own rooms.  A day after we got back from Cali we flew off to Cleveland to look for places to live, and we found an amazing house that I am so excited to blog about in a few days…

What happened to the kids whenever we got in the car!

Graduation

Casey graduated with his MBA on April 20th.   It was a bittersweet day for our family.  It was VERY hard for me to say goodbye to all of our friends who went through this experience with us.  We had a lot of get togethers with friends before everyone left.  Its so crazy how spread out over the US all of Casey’s good friends are.  We already have a trip planned to Maine and Indiana to visit some friends!

One of Casey’s favorite professors, Dr. Snow

Some pics from graduation parties:

Casey with some MBA BFFs, Zach Rogers and Royce Riddle.  Casey and Royce did a lot of stuff together.  Royce pretty much saw Casey more than I did for 2 years.

Me and Annika Riddle,  We will miss the Riddles so much!

I threw a graduation party for Casey at my parent’s house

The Paynes are moving to Cleveland to start Podiatry school this Summer too!  Nate and Casey grew up together and have been friends for a very long time.  We’re so excited that we’ll have them close by :)

Picture Update

We have been busy lately.  We have been looking for houses in Ohio and Casey has been studying for his last finals week EVER.  I can’t believe Casey will be done with his MBA in 2 weeks.  It’s bittersweet to say the least… We’re excited for the 6 weeks that he’s taking off before he starts work to spend as a family travelling!  Here are some recent pics:

“Push me now woman!”

Carly’s new tricycle.  I have a love/hate relationship with it.  I love that she loves it, but 100x a day she runs out the door to ride it!

Carly’s joy school group.  Brayden and Maddie are Carly’s best friends.  Maddie lives next door so she spends a lot of time with her and they love riding their twinner trikes together.

Our family Easter picture: take 1

  Take 2.  We gave up after this one (sadly is was our best one!)

Happy Easter everyone!

6-month stats

Holland will be 7 months old in a week but we just got in to the doctor today for her six month check up. Her pediatrician was booked straight until today and I even made the appointment a month ago! Something I definitely won’t miss about Utah when we move to Ohio is overcrowded doctor’s offices.  Whenever I go to a doctor there are like 20 people waiting, and I have to plan out at least 1.5 hours for a visit. 

Holland is still a big baby, and she’s getting even bigger and chubbier.  Her doctor and a med student who was observing kept saying “wow she is a huge 6-month old!”  I’m afraid she’s going to grow out of her car seat soon (length-wise), which isn’t a big deal except that I like that she falls asleep easily in her car seat.  Carrying that thing around has made me feel like Popeye though.  It’s 30.5 lbs carrying her in her car seat, and my arm is starting to hurt a lot more now!

Stats (Compared with Carly at 6 months)

Weight (Holland): 19 lbs 11 oz (91%) – Carly@ 6 months: 16 lbs 11 oz (75%)

Length (Holland): 28 inches (97%) – Carly @ 6 months: 26.5 inches (60%)

And some pics of the girls both at 6 months

                                              

Holland smiles a lot more than Carly ever did :)