The long awaited house pictures

Hey thanks everyone for your comments on the "nursery troubles". I stayed in nursery with Sam this last Sunday and after several times of reassuring him that I was going to stay in there with him and a few minutes of sitting on my lap he was ready to play. He did great so we'll see how next week goes.

Here's a few pictures of our house. I still don't have my computer up and running so I don't have any of the before pictures so I'll hold off on showing the kitchen for a little while longer. We only painted the living room. We'll probably eventually paint the dining room but not for a while.

This is our family/living room. It started out a yellowish color that didn't really work for us. Jared was so proud that he was able to put a hole in the wall to run the tv cables down to the cable box and dvd player so we didn't have them showing or something to hide the cables. When we move we'll have to cover up the big holes. I think it does look good though. We were afraid the paint color was going to be too dark but it has grown on me since painting.

This is another view of the living room going into the music room. Sam loves playing with the door.

This is the music room which is supposed to be a living room but we don't have enough furniture to fill it so we turned it into our music room.

This is the formal dining room. We also have an eat-in kitchen but we only have one table so our kitchen has a lot of space right now. Eventually I want to paint the dining room red but we still have some other projects that I need to start and finish before I think about this one.

Nursery troubles

I knew it is going to be a hard day when during Sacrament meeting I took Sam out to change his diaper and he didn't want to leave because he thought I was going to take him to nursery. After Sacrament meeting I told him it was time to go to nursery and he started crying right then. He didn't last 30 seconds in the nursery before he made himself throw up. Yes Sam can make himself throw up if he gets really upset. It can be a little frustrating and now a little embarrassing to say the least. He did so well going to nursery in CA and his first 1-2 Sundays here but now he screams whenever we walk in there and won't let go of me. I stayed with him the first few Sundays and tried to get him to play with the other kids but any time I would start to move away he'd run to my side and start crying. I tried talking to him and letting him know that I was going to be back soon. The last couple weeks I tried putting him in there and letting him cry it out. I'm not sure if that was the best idea considering how today went. I don't know how to help him adjust and get over his separation anxiety. He's usually ok on one on one situations, I don't know if it's because there are so many kids or if he was traumatized by something. Any suggestions?

Hanging out

Sam playing on our front steps.

Catching up

We're finally pretty much settled in. I still don't have my computer connected, I need to get a desk or table for it so in the mean time I've been using Jared's laptop. I spent most of the last month stripping wallpaper in our kitchen and painting our kitchen and living room. It's hard to get anything done with 20 month old awake because he really likes to get into everything so I tried to mostly work on it during Sam's naps and at night. I've haven't taken any pictures of the outcome so I'll have to post those another time but I'm pleased with it.

Jared's mom came out last weekend so we checked out some of the sights around here. One day we went to Williamsburg and Yorktown. Another day we went to Maymont house, the owners died in the 1920s and left their 100 acre estate to the city of Richmond for the public. Sam loved the petting zoo there. There were a lot gardens and house itself was incredibly lavish and elegant.

This is Yorktown at the beach. Sam had a really good time running around.
Still Yorktown on the beach.

We're still trying to get used to the weather here. It's pretty hot and humid. Sam and I try to spend as much time as we can at the neighborhood pool.

I still haven't posted pictures of Jared's graduation so here are some pictures of our last weeks in California.

Jared just finished his last day of clinic.

At the OKU dinner.

Our last day at Disneyland...at least while living in CA.

Lunch at Ariel's Grotto.

The awards ceremony with our LDS friends, classmates and wives.

Just before graduation Sam hanging with his buddy Quincy one last time.

My dad chasing Sam around during graduation. We're so glad that he made it back from Kuwait in time for it. Thanks Dad!

I guess it was too bright in the room. :)

Jared being hooded.

Shaking Dean Parks hand.

We're so proud of dental graduates.

Thanks to all our family who came out and supported.

Back at our complex, Sam swinging with his cousin, with Dad and Grandpa pushing. Our last day in CA.

We stopped in New Orleans on our way to VA. We spent some time at the aquarium and the zoo. We only have pictures from our trip to the zoo. I think Sam's favorite park was taking the street car to the zoo.

Climbing on the baby elephant statue.

It was soooooooooooo humid. Time for drink break.

We made some friends at the zoo. It all started with a comment about my hair, next thing we knew we spent the rest of our zoo trip with them.

Can't go to Louisiana without seeing a gator.

We made it!

It's been a long time since I've updated this, I know. Jared is now Dr. (Jared) Martin. Graduation was on June 1st so it is really official, he's a shoe. He has worked really hard. We're so proud of him.
We are now living in Virginia and we are now house owners. Our stuff gets here tomorrow so I can't post pictures yet but our cable/internet/phone guy came today so we have internet. I feel more connected even though we're really far away from pretty much everyone. We miss you guys already. I'm sorry if we didn't get a chance to say good-bye, it seems like everything went so fast it's all a blur now even though it was only a few days ago.
We are loving our new home but as with all things after a little while you start noticing flaws. The first things we did when we got into our new home were to buy and put up new shutters and paint the doors and to get and install some much needed new toilet seats. If anyone is on the fence about getting new toilet seats, we found out they are only $10 a piece. Sam is really loving all the space and the stairs we had to buy a gate for the stairs because he loves playing on them and throwing things down them.
As soon as we get our desk top set up I'll post pictures from our cruise and everything since then.

Sugar-crusted french toast

If you have a sweet tooth you will really like this. On the cruise they served this for breakfast, we all thought it was really good so I decided to see if I could find a recipe online for it and I did. I tried it out yesterday and it turned out really good just make sure you don't let the bread sit in the egg mixture or else the bread will be way too soggy. Trust me I know.

Sugar-Crusted French Toast

3 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 3/4 cups whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
4 Tbsp sugar plus 1/2-1 tsp cinnamon (mix together)
1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
6 4x4x1 in slices egg bread (I used Texas toast from Vons and it worked great)
3Tbsp unsalted butter

Melt 1 1/2 Tbsp butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle skillet with sugar-cinnamon mixture. (If you cannot fit 4 bread slices on the skillet use less butter.)

Whisk eggs, yolks, milk, 1/3 cup sugar, vanilla, and salt in bowl. Dip bread into egg mixture,one side at a time. Place bread on skillet. Sprinkle sugar-cinnamon mix on top of bread. Cook until golden brown then turn bread over. Enjoy!

April Update

We've been pretty busy in the last month so I think it's easier if I do one long post with pics of everything.

We spent Easter here this year. Jared had his licensure exam (WREB) the next weekend so we did Easter dinner by ourselves. It was fun and is getting us ready for when we move and will be spending most, if not all, the holidays by ourselves.

We did have a Easter egg hunt the Friday before with a bunch of people in our neighborhood. Sam didn't get any eggs but he didn't seem to care. He had fun with his buddy Wyatt.

Sam got a new haircut. It was the first time we've taken him to someone to get it cut. I think from now on I'll just do it myself. She charged $20 and it wasn't totally straight.

Sam also got his first ear infection. Poor little guy took it so well. After not sleeping for several days of not sleeping (His fever started on Thursday. I called the doctor's office on Friday and they told me to watch it over the weekend. Nice.) I finally couldn't handle it and took him to the ER. They put him on Amoxicillin and this is what happened.

His rash didn't start until a week into the antibiotics. I took him back to the doctor's. They said it could have been an allergic reaction or an amoxicillin rash which isn't really an allergic reaction so for now they have labeled Sam penicillin allergic but I think eventually I'll have him tested just to be sure. It looked really bad at the time but he didn't seem to notice it. He wasn't itchy at all so I think it probably wasn't a true allergic reaction.

We celebrated friends' birthdays with a bbq. All these guys have spent the last 4 years in dental school together and are finally just about done.

Congratulations guys, we are so proud of you!

Sam enjoyed his cupcake with his buddy.

We found a house in VA. We are so excited about it. We will have plenty of space there inside and out.

As soon as we get there we will change the shutters so it will look like this.

We also went on a graduation cruise with some friends last week. We left Sam with friends. Thank you so much Laura and Karolyn for making the cruise possible. We had a great time, even though I missed Sam. I'll do a new post for the cruise, most of the pics are on another computer. Here is one picture from it.