this and that

i know it's been awhile since i posted when casey tells me "you should blog, it's been forever"

i told him there's nothing to blog about!

that's a lie, there's little things going on.

so here's my random compilation of life lately:

when we were in PA two weekends ago visiting the novitzke's and hunsaker's,

we finally went to Rita's.

it's a custard/italian ice place casey raved about on his mission.

it's supposedly all over the east coast but we can rarely find it .

it was actually really yummy!

we went super late after the novitzke's kids were in bed so it was just 5 adults in a small 5 passenger car.

we laughed how this felt like were were in high school again!

oh the days.

in honor of the first day of the olympics we had pancakes with red, white and blue sprinkles :)

aren't the olympics just so darn fun to watch?

with nbc making it possible to watch ALL the events live on line, it's been so totally awesome!

i have officially made my first quilt.

well, it's not completely done yet, but the hardest/longest part is over.

it's nothing actually pretty like my crazy talented sister in law, but it'll work.

my mom always had a jean blanket around when we were younger that we could take anywhere and it didn't matter what happened to it, it was just great durable jeans!

so between casey and myself, i've been saving jeans here and there.

after much cutting, sewing, debating, laying out, and pinning, all the main parts are together!

i still need to finish the sides somehow, haven't decided what i wanted to do on it yet though.

yeah for feeling like it's done!

side note: when i was sewing the two long strips together, i didn't realize it, but after like 4 inches my bobbin ran out! gah, so irritating

i was reminded how awesome casey was when he filled up our tires in the pouring rain.

he rocks.

not one complaint of getting all wet.

we went to scranton, PA last weekend to visit more families from casey's mission.

he served in scranton 6 months so it meant a lot to him.

with stayed with the shiner's again and they are just the nicest people.

oh pennsylvania...

and lastly, we are FINALLY leaving new jersey this week for good!
so happy!!!!!
like i've said plenty of times, this is not our favorite place we've lived but it has been good.
a good experience and all.
i just personally am a lover of the west (midwest totally counts).
this will be our last move for FOUR years!
excitement is here.
oh to see the end of moving for awhile.
this will be the last time we have to waste food bc we couldn't eat it by the time we moved.
i hate having to do that.
we're doing semi good on that this time around though.

ps- an update for family.
they've decided little ruthie (logan and blair's daughter) will need to have surgery done on her pancreas.
there's only 1 surgeon in the country who does it and he's in philadelphia.
blair will be flying with ruthie to PA and will be there for 4-6 weeks.
they'll go as soon as a few other things happen.
it's so strange because ruthie looks and acts like a happy, healthy baby.
they're all doing well and are just happy there's doctors who can help.
we continue to pray for them!

nebraska in 24 hours.

i must tell of my nebraska tales when i went back 5 weeks ago.

like i had mentioned, we decided it'd be more cost effective to fly me out there for the appt than do it here in NJ curses to you NJ, curses

so we woke up at way way early to get me to the 5:30 am flight to st louis which would then take me to nebraska.

so after lots of tears, like i mentioned before, we got the trip all set up.

we have the nicest new friends in lincoln that we couldn't be more thrilled about.

as luck has it, they will be our next door neighbors in NE.

so katie was nice enough to babysit me for the day :)

she picked me up from the airport, entertained me at her home, and drove me to my doctor's appt.

she is just so wonderful.

she also happens to be expecting her 2nd just 1 month after me!

so it was the first time i got to actually talk and relate about pregnancy openly with someone now that pregnancy was feeling more real!

it was really just the best trip for that reason, ha.

i also got to peak in the window of our new little place which was exciting as well.

it really will be such a great place to be with being close to the school, having some great neighbors and a great place to live.

yay for nebraska!

the appt went wonderful and it was just a matter of getting back to new jersey.

since my plane left at 5 am and it was an hour drive from lincoln to omaha, we decided it would just work best to sleep at the airport that night.

i know it sounds kinda insane, but it worked out wonderfully.

the airport security gave me great tips on how to sleep the comfiest that night.

i set up a whole, nice bed for myself and got the maximum hours of sleep.

i woke up an exact hour before my flight.

now that people, is the way to do early flights.

we flew from omaha to chicago to newark.

blah, for flying so much.

but, flying with a big comfy pillow makes it a billion times easier.

so yay for being done with that part of the pregnancy!

and lastly, here it 21 weeks!

i feel like i've gotten crazy bigger in this last week which is good and bad.

good: because it's fun to feel like i'm actually pregnant finally!

bad: i'm only 21 weeks!

 

and happy pioneer day!
when we were getting ready this morning casey said "we should be going to a rodeo today"
i agree. a rodeo, pancake breakfast, parade, and fireworks.
we miss you utah.

the weekend in PA

this last weekend we took a little excursion to harrisburg, PA.

casey served his mission in PA so it was off to visiting old mission people.

the gist of the situation was that one of his mission companions ended up marrying a girl from the area (their names are tim and kelly),

 the family he married into was one casey and he became good friends with.

the novitzke's (kelly's sister and BIL) have become our very good friends that we've visited multiple times.

we heard tim and kelly were going to be in town from michigan so we decided to be in town too!

while there, we had casey's most favoritest pizza, caught up on each other's lives, the italian ice he always raves about, reminisced over mission stories, played with their children and just enjoyed ourselves.

it really is quite fun to have friends :)

take me out to the ball game

we headed back into new york this last week to yankee stadium.

for only $5 a ticket (plus a $15 service fee, $35 parking fee, $10 toll road...), we got to watch the NY yankees play the toronto blue jays.

it really was just fun to be there at the infamous yankee stadium.

it is right there in the middle of a city.

beyond the scoreboard is just city buildings, it was seriously way cool.

we of course were in the very most top section of the stadium but it was a great view and we really enjoyed it.
we brought a few of our own snacks but had to get us some hotdogs.

a few home-runs, 1 grand slam, and 9 innings later, the yankees won 6-2.

 

glad this is just another things we can say we've done!

half way

so last week i was 20 weeks.

half way through my first pregnancy, how crazy is that?!

i'm definitely starting to feel like i am pregnant and things are happening!

 let's make a list:

1. my tummy is starting to feel tight, blah. not really itchy just tight!

anyone have recommendations on creams for stretch marks/itchiness?

2. like i said before, baby is a kicking.

it's been super fun for me, something is alive and growing in there!

3. last night was my first night of "mmeh, i'm uncomfortable trying to get to sleep..."

it didn't take me long to get to sleep but it was still annoying.

4. speaking of sleeping, i'm creeping up on wanting 3 pillows while i sleep.

i'm at 2 right now, we only brought 3, so i'll just have to wait til nebraska.

5. pants are beginning to get tight.

we bought one of those belly bands from target last week which i'm hoping will make it more comfortable and my shorts last a little longer til (maternity) pant season.

we also had the official 20 week ultrasound this last week.

we did it in new jersey this time so casey got to see baby boy moving!

 i hate you, new jersey, why are you so freaking expensive!

it really was the best to have him there and see all that movement.

a weekend of family and new yorkness

so, like i mentioned a while ago, we were lucky enough to have family come in town and play!

cody and camille took the TWELVE hour drive to us with 2 little kids.

they were saints.

but we were so happy to have them here with us, and really couldn't believe they came all the way,

fo' reals people, they were stellar.

it got a little crazy when they got here.

to say it simply, jaden, the 2 1/2 year old, LOVES casey.

LOVES CASEY.

and it's great because, casey loves him.

we somehow made it work with 4 adults, 1 toddler, and 1 newborn in a 1 bedroom apartment with the tiniest bathroom/kitchen and a crappy AC.

it was just the best to have them all there to just talk and play with one another!

the first day we trekked our way to hoboken to see the infamous cake boss!

and boy was it a hot day.

hot and humid.

the line was mostly in the shade but we took every chance we could to go into other shops with AC during the wait.

after waiting in line for over and hour, we were allowed to go in the little itty bitty shop.

HOLY. COW.

it was packed in that place (but at least it had AC!)

it was really fun to be in there with all the pictures on the wall and the beautiful desserts everywhere.

i decided to hang out with baby brielle and the stroller by on side instead of push through the crowds.

it was really fun to just be in there, sit back, and watch all the commotion.

we all walked over to sinatra drive on the river to completely enjoy our sweets.

thankfully, a breeze came by a cooled us a teensy tiny bit, ha.

the sweets chosen were 3 cupcakes, 1 cookie, and 1 brownie/trifle/awesomeness.

jaden couldn't wait long enough for his cupcake,

my m&m cookie was crazy soft and wonderful

the brownie/trifle/awesomeness was rich beyond rich.

i was also surprised with the yummiest red velvet cupcake for my birthday, so good.

after taking the drive back to our place in new jersey,

we jumped in our swimsuits and jumped in that pool ASAP

(ps- we got the pool passes figured out so we didn't have to pay, thank goodness!)

it was seriously tons of fun in the pool.

jaden was a mix of emotions from 

1) YAY! we're going to the pool!

2) no! i don't want to get in the pool!

3) i must cling to you in the pool!

4)  i don't want to walk in the pool!

5) no, stay in the baby pool!

6) no, keep throwing me in the big pool!

7) i want to go back to the big pool!

8) no i don't want to leave the pool!

it was just the funnest thing to play with him in the water.

funniest line from the pool "i don't want to sink, i want to float!"

casey and i then ran to the tiny/fake playground/park by our house to get a bit more of jaden's energy out.

that night we all just hung out at our place talking, playing games and laughing.

we loved being around them.

it brought back so many memories of our fun summer in indiana!

our final day we trekked to central park to hang out.

after driving around for what seemed liked forever, we miraculously found two beloved parking spots by each other.

we walked forever to the great lawn, swung on the swings, lounged on the grass, watched the baseball players, chased jaden around, passed around baby brielle.

funniest memory from the park: casey breaking jaden's stick.

since they were only in town 2 days, we just had to make sure they tasted shake shack since it's seriously like the best burger.

it did not disappoint, and the line was only like 10 minutes!

we walked the 10 blocks back to the car, and right at the end of the last block,

the stroller wheel fell off!

story: the double stroller they were using was the one casey found on the side of the road while working!

it was not the most awesome stroller to begin with but it lasted as long as we needed it to.

it was such a joke, but it got the job done.
and yes, jaden pretty much didn't fit in the front at all...haha he's one large 2 1/2 year old because he's awesome like that.

on the way home we went to liberty park.

we stopped and saw the beautiful back side of lady liberty.

jaden did a great immitation of her, it was great.

we video chatted it up with family that night but it didn't match much longer after that.

i fell asleep while video chatting and cody and camille packed up the family for the next morning.

it really was just the best time with them around.

we were so lucky to get to spend time with those 2 kids because they're changing so much!

luckily we'll get to see them again in august on our way back to nebraska.

till next time familia!

ps- 2 month old brielle was an angel, angel i tell you!
being around her i was like, "yeah, we can do this baby thing!"
but then again when she would cry and neither casey nor i could soothe her that's when we'd look at each other and think "we can't do this! how are we going to do this?!"
ha, my oh my, that will be it's own journey.
i can only pray and hope that soothing your own child is easier than soothing others' like people always say...iye yiy yie.

some highs and lows of last week

BIGGEST HIGH:

casey felt the baby kick!!!!!!

after days of hoping to get him to feel something he finally did!

i almost broke his thumb trying to get his hand over to feel in the process.

luckily i did because almost immediately there was one and only one really big kick that he felt!

ha, so fun.

what a game trying to get casey to feel the baby kick at this stage with the combination of the kicks not really being that big and kicking being so sporadic at times.

oddly enough, the really big kicking happened when casey started reading his portion of our book together out loud, that'll be fun to remember :)

BIGGEST LOW:

the dishes were horrendous last week.

they were literally mountain high every night.

it's probably due to me actually making some kind of real yummy food everyday/night.

i hate dishes.

i hate having no dishwasher.

i hate the thought that we will have no dishwasher the next 4 years of our lives...

high:

the baby has suddenly made his presence known all week long with all this kicking.

it's really quite fun :)

low:

more on dishes,

muffin pans are 100% the worst thing to clean by hand.

they're just terrible.

high:

video chatting with family.

low:

my back hurts

high:

getting my first gel manicure.

those puppies rock.

low: 

going to the bathroom all the time

high:

july is going by so fast,

 it is half way over!

wahoo with five million exclamation points.

doing summer sales is the only time i want the summers to go fast and hurry up and be over.
i know 100% this will be the last time i'm excited for summer to end.

but we are SO EXCITED for nebraska and to get outta new jersey.

low:
after 2 games of bowling last weekend we were both totally sore and tired...
so much for that bowling class, ha

high:

casey signed up for his first semester of dental school classes.

how fun is that?

i can't think of another low so my last high:
looking around at different, cute shops in the mall at their baby boy clothes is the funnest thing ever.
every 3 seconds, we were those annoying customers and would gasp and say in a high pitched voice "look how cute this is!!!"
even casey thinks they're all cute and it gets us more and more excited!
it was all we could do to not buy tons of crazy cute baby boy clothes.
it'll be so fun to start buying stuff in NE for this baby.

more pictures later this week!

one lucky girl

i try not to post about my ooey gooey love for my husband too often on this blog because i don't feel like i need to share that with others.

i love my husband and don't feel like i need to proselyte to all my blog readers how i think mine is the best ever etc.

today i make a little exception.

lately i have been overwhelmed at how lucky i am.

example 1.

i wanted US to get manicure/pedicures for my birthday this year.

not one complaint or i don't want to go from this guy.

he came with me, he enjoyed it, he was laughing and smiling with not one ounce of self-consciousness for being the only male in the room.

i'd darn say he'd go again by himself to get that pedicure treatment.

he ignores the whole stereotype of what guys should or shouldn't like.
and because of that, life is so much funnier with him.
i just love this man so much.

 

example 2.
we don't have to have children around to watch disney movies.
the other week he took me to go see the new movie brave.
a) it was adorable
b) we both loved it and talked about how cute it was.
he's just the funniest and i love him.

example 3. 
he watches the show jane by design with me and loves it.
it's our show we look forward to every week.
we pause it for each other to get up and neither of us one to miss a thing.
a feel like a pretty lucky girl with this guy.

example 4.
children flock to this man.
i'm telling you he's the baby whisperer.
babies easily slip into a deep sleep in his arms.
toddlers are always running to him and following him around to play.
he gets down with them at their level to show them they're important and loved.
he's so patient with them.
he's so loving.
i am so beyond excited to see him with our little babes.

that's it for now.
sure there's plenty more, but i'll just share that with casey :)

thank you for letting me indulge in an ilovecasey post.

12 hours to play in the valley of the sun

well it was a wonderful birthday weekend indeed!
we were sooo lucky enough to have cody and camille and kids come all the way here for a quick visit with us!
we had such a fun time with them and it absolutely was not long enough.
more on all our adventures later!
by the way, no longer than a half hour after they left this morning, i looked at casey and said "i'm bored, it's so boring/quiet without them..."
a little bit more busy-ness in our lives will be good :)

on our way back from hawaii, we had about a half day in arizona with family.

we were exhausted but wanted to play with everyone for the few hours we had.

miss annalle slept over the night before and promptly woke us at 6:15 to make sure we didn't miss out on any hours during the day :)
mom was wonderful and made pancakes with little flags on top for breakfast/flag day

blair and megan both brought their kids over and we played with them and went swimming!

it was just the best.

those nieces and nephews are just the cutest.

we love them so much.

it's so sad that we won't be living around them for SEVEN years.

i seriously want to just cry thinking about it, mmeh.

we didn't really take many pictures, we just played :)

but we got meet miss evolett!
that cutie is 1 week old here and is the sweetest girl, and she's just so adorable.
and phoebe really liked annalee's birthday present...

sadly, they all had to leave around 12 or so for naps.

so my parents went to bahama bucks with us!

oh how we missed it!

seriously, we were both so happy!!!!!

i got the new sweetart flavor and it was AWESOME.

people of AZ, go try it this summer!

it's not a permanent flavor so get it while it's there.

totally my new favorite.

and because it was flag day they put little flags in our cups :)

 
my parents faced in this bottom photo are bomb...sorry parentals, we all know you two really actually look gorgeous still.

like i said, we forgot our underwater camera in az while we took pics while playing in the pool!
hopefully we get it back soon!


i love and miss you arizona!!!!


speaking of family
on father's day, we video chatted with our families!
but instead of just 1, we did lots of people at the same time with google hangout!
first it was us, cody and camille in indiana, and the family in wyoming.
it was really fun and kind of felt like we were all together!

then after lots of ours of trying to get ahold of my siblings, we got 4/5 siblings and the parentals all on at the same time.
scott, the internet/google guru, knew all the cool things about it.
before we knew it he had horns coming out of his head and mustaches all over his face.
we got a kick out of putting them on all the little kids.
 

oh how we do love our families

on a not so happy note, our neice, little ruthie is in the hospital for some testing and monitoring.
it was a roller coaster of emotions yesterday learning about it all.
keep her in your prayers.
we just keep praying that that sweet girl will feel better.

Happy Birthday Kimber!!

Pretty cool to have a gun named after you!

About 19 weeks and looking great!

Today is Kimber's birthday and sometimes she acts a little older than she seems. I am so happy this girl went to BYU and that I ended up meeting her there because I don't think I could live without her. She makes me so happy and does so much for me. I am glad that we have the opportunity to start our lives and family here in the next few months and truly rely on the Lord for that is what Kimber knows how to do. She is very compassionate and loving and can make even her enemies like her for just being her. I love you babe and I look forward to sharing many more birthdays with you. I tried to surprise Kimber with a present every day since we celebrate birthdays  as a birthday week! So I tried to start out little with smaller gifts and lead up to a larger gift, which included a manicure/pedicure for the 2 of us at some spa for this morning. I am glad Kimber is in my life and I can't wait to grow old together!

what our independence day in new jersey looked like

so a small break from the past 3 weeks of our lives to share something we JUST did.

go me for posting about it so fast!

for the fourth of july we ventured over the the new jersey/new york border which means the hudson river to watch the macy's fireworks!

everything i read online said these were "the biggest in the nation"

we were excited to say the least!

casey worked a half day, came home, we got ourselves ready and went for the trek.

we didn't really want to deal with traffic this time so we spent a little more money and took in the train.

i got the terrible job of planning the whole excursion.

man that is stressful when you really don't know the area/where to go!

i finally decided for us to drive to the clifton train station and take the train into hoboken from there.

it was $20 roundtrip for the two of us but then we didn't have to deal with parking and traffic so it was well worth it.

we arrived in hoboken around 5:30.

from there we began walking along the coastline up north where i thought it was supposed to be a better view.

we kept hopping forward to new spots.

we'd think we found a good enough spot, kelly would wait there to save it, and we'd walk a little further forward to see if there was something better.

finally, the 3rd spot was just perfect!

it was actually more perfect than we thought it was going to be!

so we laid out in the sweltering hot grass for 3 hours waiting for "the best fireworks in the nation"

luckily, we did have a big building behind us that provided shade the whole time.

we did have a yucky group of people in front of us smoking out of some hose thing THE WHOLE time, losers.

i got really bored after an hour so casey and i went for a walk while wonderful kelly saved our spot.

we walked up and down washington street til casey's legs were dying.

at that point we decided to go back.

once we were almost back i remembered i had to go to the bathroom asap.

so we walked for another 1/2 hour trying to find somewhere.

during this time the new york fire department was going up and down the river shooting off fun colored water for all to enjoy.

really it was fun and the sunset at this time was gorgeous

 

after that we decided we needed pizza

after being unable to find the pizza place that everyone was coming from with pizza boxes for a half hour,

we found it :)

alas, but the wait was 25 minutes for our pie!

mind you this whole time, it's SWELTERING hot outside.

and we didn't have our water bottle.

at that point i kept apologizing to casey that he has to walk around outside all day everyday for his job,

poor thing, i love that man.

while we waited for the pizza, we went to the overpriced ice cream shop next door hoping it would cool us down.

it was slightly cooler in the place but not for long enough.

but then our pizza was done 10 minutes early!!!!!

thank goodnesss!!!!!!

it was all we could do to get back to our spot to just sit, and eat, and drink water!

sadly our spot did not prove to be any cooler than where we had been the past hour and a half.

we did enjoy the pineapple side of the pizza very much,

they were ginormo slices.

and our water went much to quickly,

blah.

but for the fireworks we continued to wait.

at 9:25 they STARTED!

and for 26 minutes the sky was lit brilliantly with every color of the rainbow,

all kinds of fireworks,

different heights,

booming so loud you could feel it in your heart,

4 barges synchronized perfectly together across the river,

reflecting off the water and the building,

the NY skyline directly behind the fireworks,

oohs and ahhs from the crowd.

it was surely the best fireworks we've ever seen in our lives.

well worth the wait, the heat, and the effort.

i don't think anything will ever compare

and to our surprise, a barge was DIRECTLY in front of our grass area where we were with the other 3 barges beautiful to the left so we could see it all.

but it was PACKED.

there were so many people there, i couldn't believe it, seriosuly, so busy.

but so part of the fun!

it will undoubtedly be a 4th of july hard to forget or a show to be beat.

BUT,

after the fireworks we literally ran for 15 minutes back to the train station to catch our 10:15 train, 

the next train wasn't for another hour!

that run was taxing in flipflops, hot humidity, no water, blah.

but we made it.

and the train was even conditioned :)

happy birthday america!

ps- casey and i kept talking about how next year we'll get to have a little baby with us to celebrate!

ahh!! i just can't imagine how fun that'll be!!!!!!!

here i am at 19 weeks!
(i'm awesome at sticking my bum extra out in these pictures...)

and the other pic is the epitome of my life this summer.

that stupid clipboard and me on the phone. i hate my job. so grateful i can still get my work done when we go out and do fun  things :)

 

pps- happy 500th blog post!
how crazy is that!?

hawaii part 4

here are some odds and ends of our trip from our iphones!
they're in a completely random order but who really cares...
1. diamond head crater hike
2. the temple.
3. rented mopeds and drove up the east coast
4. took a a beautiful jungle tour that was like the disney indiana ride in real life.

1. yay for being in hawaii!
2. north shore sunset
3. north shore sunset.
4 we went to a swap meet our last day and gots tons of cheap souveniers/gifts we'd been eyeing the whole trip (boy/girl outfit, towels, a magnet, birthday gifts for family, etc). once we ran out of cash we passed this AMAZING bread vendor. he let me play a contest with him for a free loaf and i won! i was THRILLED. that was the yummiest bread ever and lasted so long and was still fresh and yummy!!!!!

1. getting on the plane to go to hawaii.
2. waikiki beach
3. the pizza we had  on waikiki beach
4. north shore sunset

1. touring a the missourri battleship
2 on the pearl harbor memorial
3. on the submarine bowfish.
4. on the pearl harbor
(we did all these events on sunday and it was so wonderful).

1. dole plantaion train.
2. pineapple ice cream
3. matsumoto's snowcone.
4. yellow tongues from pineapple ice cream

1. before we went to the airport on our last day we went to a popular shop called the hula dog.
way good.
we got pineapple relish on our dogs and it was so yummy.
definitely a go to place.

 

this is the last of our hawaii pictures til we get our underwater camera back.
hopefully there's some good ones from kayaking, snorkeling, and paddle boarding!

thank you for enduring!!!!!!!!