Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Well with our wonderful East Coast snow storm we received more snow in 1 day than we did all winter long last year. We got more snow in Philadelphia in a December than they have received in 100 years. Schools are still closed and some neighborhoods still haven't seen a snow plow and it has now been 2 days since the storm. However, the snow made Caleb's day!! Now Santa can officially come and life is great! So we enjoyed the day of snow.

A Center City Christmas

We had the chance to spend an evening down in Center City with the Jensen Family to visit some popular Christmas sites. It was a beautiful evening and we had so much fun watching the Macy's Organ presentation, seeing Santa, watching the Comcast presentation, and visiting the shopping village in the City Hall Square. It was a fun way to get into the Holiday spirit.

Dickens Village


Telling Santa that he wants a James the Train and Nerf Ball Gun


Macy's Christmas Light Show


Macy's Organ


Cute Boys!


Comcast LCD Presentation

I Can't Wait for Christmas

Boy life as been so busy lately and I have thought of all these great blog postings but they just never quite made on the computer. I had to make sure this posted though. One day in the first week of December I heard this super cute singing outside my bedroon door. Caleb had made up this amazing little Christmas song that he was singing at the top of his lungs. I had to try and capture some of it. He has been so excited for Christmas and we have had a blast getting ready for Santa to come visit him.

Literacy, West Africans, and the General Relief Society

I had to make sure I posted this experience before I forgot it and because I really did need to do a post about my dear African friends. Shortly after moving to Philadelphia, it became apparent that there was a real need for someone with experience teaching people how to read and write. Our ward has a population of West African members who have never have the opportunity to ever be educated. In Africa any type of education costs money and most were too poor or too busy fighting a war to learn how to read and write. However, now that they are in America, they have found themselves surrounded by a society where education is vital to survival. They struggle with having their basic needs met, finding respectable jobs, understanding traffic signals, or how to navigate anywhere outside of their homes. Since teaching is a bit of a small passion in my life (my husband just chuckled), I decided that I really, really wanted to find a way to help these people. I wanted to teach them to how to read and write. So after lots of meetings and visits to West African homes, it was decided that twice a week we would have a class of 8 West African students come to our home and have "school". My little "school" opened in March and has been a huge learning experience for me. I have taught the alphabet, basic writing skills, and gone a couple field trips. No miracles have occurred and I have struggled to keep the members of the class coming regularly but as I reflect on the experience there have been small gains. The women from my class can speak English more clearly and feel confident enough to now answer the telephone or dial a phone number. They told me one day that they finally figured out what those red and green lights mean that are on the streets and they are all around more aware of the American life they are surrounded by and have been for the past 5-6 years. It is amazing what a perspective of learning does.

This week I had the rare opportunity to meet with Sister Carole Stephens from the General Relief Society Board in my home for a small private meeting. During this time I was able to share with her our story of the Little West African Literacy Class and all the struggles and successes that we had experienced over the past few months. I was able to share with her our need for a basic literacy program curriculum that could be used for people like our West Africans with no educational background. Our amazing Relief Society President was also able to meet with us and she was able to describe the dynamics of our ward and her experiences from all the wonderful service she as rendered to our area. Sis. Stephens was everything you imagined a member of the General Relief Society to be and it was an amazing experience to get to meet with her and share our efforts and trials with her. I don't know what effect our meeting will have but I am so grateful for the experience.

Philadelphia has definitely opened up a whole new world of culture and experiences that I never knew existed. It has been a huge blessing in our lives to meet and serve these amazing West African people.

Live in Thanksgiving Daily

I have been meaning to do this post for a while now but just never got around to it. The past few weeks for our family have been emotionally tough. After we found out about our second failed IVF attempt, we found ourselves with a lack of hope for our future and completely lost about what to do next for our family. During this time I remembered a talk I had studied for a class at BYU about being thankful. Since November is a month to focus on being more grateful, we decided to challenge ourselves to become more grateful. For our first Family Home Evening in November we read the great talk I had studied previously, it is "Live in Thanksgiving Daily" by Elder Wirthlin. He gave this talk at a BYU devotional while I was there and then I had the chance to study it for a class later. It is a beautiful talk about making gratitude a daily part of our lives. That night for FHE we started a Thankful Jar and every night before we go to bed we each write down something we are grateful for. It has been fun to focus more on all the things we are thankful for like Thomas the Train, dishwashers, a wonderful spouse, welcome home hugs from Caleb, and the gospel in our lives. We also have started to say only prayers of Thanksgiving. It is amazing all the things that come to your mind as you say only prayers of gratitude and don't ask the Lord for anything. We challenge everyone to become a little more grateful during this season. What are you most thankful for? What a blessing an attitude of gratitude has been for our family during this time of sorrow.

A Thomas the Train Halloween

Well I finally got the time to show off our fun Halloween this year. Caleb is obsessed with Thomas the Train and so he decided to be Thomas for Halloween. I decided to make the costume and set out the big project of creating my son's costume to his precise specifications. We did have a lot of fun making this costume. Caleb helped me paint the boxes and anything else he could do. It was so fun to watch him get excited as Thomas came to life. Grandma was a big help when she came to visit and the finished product was amazing. The best was watching Caleb be so proud and excited about being Thomas the Train!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Grandma Manning Visits

We were fortunate enough to have Brydon's Mom come visit us for a couple weeks and help out during our Invitro process. We got to do a lot of fun activities in between everyone being sick. Grandma does not like pictures being taken but I was able to sneak in a few fun action shots!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Black & White Photos

Here are the black and white photos as well. It took so long to get the colored ones posted that the black and white just had to wait.

New Family Pictures

Well we had the great opportunity to have Peggy Woolsey take our family photos this year. It had been a while and we were so excited to go outside in the fall. Here are a few of our favorites. Family and friends will need to weigh in so we knew which ones to send out to everyone. Check out the new pictures in our blog background as well. My favorites are kind of ordered from bottom to top. (Sorry still trying to figure out to post pictures how I want.)

The Pumpkin Patch

Right after we were married, we discovered that Holiday decorating was a passion we both shared. So we started watching for sales and pining and saving for a few years for some specific items. We love holidays! (Especially Brydon) It was so much fun this year to pull out the Halloween decorations and have our son enjoy them as much as we have. So I had to post some pictures of the very happy Halloween boy.

Check out the cool Haunted House!

I just can't leave it alone. It is so cool! If you come to my house I will turn off all the lights and make you listen to it.

Look out for the little Devil dog!

I also really love these pumpkins. We spend a lot of time in the dark looking at glowing pumpkins and Haunted houses.

I just had to try on my costume from last year!

Last week we also had a chance to visit the Linvilla pumpkin patch. Last year we had not fully discovered the potential of this place and so we were so excited to take Caleb this year. It was a tradition in Utah and now we have a fun place to go here. Caleb had a blast trying to pick out the very best pumpkin. We haven't painted or carved it yet but just wait, I am sure it will be a masterpiece!

We made it! I had to have a picture with these huge pumpkins. We didn't see the "Do not take Pictures" sign until it was too late! Ooops...

I am having a blast and am the master pumpkin picker outer!


Ahhhh...these pumpkins look great! How do I look?

I found my pumpkin and I can even carry it....sort of!!

Yep I'm a poser! We make quite the match.

Beware of the crazy Witch....oops...that is just my mom!

What a perfect end to the day!

A Testimony of Prayer

So last night my son's prayer went like this:

"Heavenly Father, Bless those babies. Bless Caleb, Mommy, Daddy, and Cooper to have a baby. Bless those babies to come to my house. Bless that there no webs and no spiders. Name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

The past few nights Caleb has woken up early and been very whining, cranky, and extra tired. We haven't been able to figure out what was going on until the other night when he yelled out in his sleep and woke up at 3 in the morning. When I went to check on him, he told me a very vivid story about how a spider was in our house and how he tried to touch the spider web but he got stuck and then the spider came to get him. He was very concerned that the spider was now in our living room. I stayed with him until he could fall back asleep, and began to wonder if bad dreams were the reason Caleb has been so extra tired and cranky lately.

Last night we talked to Caleb about dreams and how the spider wasn't real but was just a bad dream. He was still very concerned about the spider. Then we told him that he could say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help the spider go away and help him have good dreams. Lately Caleb has been struggling saying prayers. He has prayed for months to have a baby come to our family to no avail. He has begun to refuse to pray and has been very sad and agitated whenever we see a baby or talk about someone else having a baby. Last night it was so wonderful to hear his sweet, faithful prayer to ask his Heavenly Father to help him with his two greatest problems: a baby and bad spider dreams. This morning when he woke up at his regular time with a smile on his face, he informed me that he slept good. Heavenly Father had answered his prayer.

It was such a blessing to me to see my son get an answer to his sweet prayer. It has been discouraging to all of us that a baby has not come to our family but a night without out bad dreams was a testimony that Heavenly Father still does love and answer our prayers. We just don't always know when or how, that's the hard part. How grateful I am that Caleb got to receive an instant answer to his prayers so that his testimony of the power of prayer could be strengthened.

This weekend during General Conference we were again reminded of how much our Heavenly Father loves us and wants the best for each of us. Elder Packer's wonderful talk about prayer and the story of the sick cow was again another testimony of the power of prayer. You just never know when the Lord may save your cow because of a simple prayer from a dear little one.

A Day of Compliments

So today was just one of those good days for super cute compliments from my sweet little boy. I just had to record the moments.
While on the couch watching a movie this afternoon with Caleb, he grabbed and squeezed my arm and said, “Mom, I love so much. You’re my best friend.” Then burrowed in and snuggled me good through the movie.

Brydon and Caleb had a little father/son outing to run a couple errands and get Rita’s Water Ice (pronounced “wadda ice” here in Philly). On the way home, Brydon mentioned how fun it would be to finally slurp down their water ice. Caleb said, “I’m going to slurp your cheekies, because I love Daddy!”

While I was making dinner, Caleb informed me that he was so hungry and just couldn’t wait for the soup to be done. It took some convincing but finally he was able to eat the potato soup and salad I had made. After a few bites he said, “Thanks mom, this is so yummy.” After finishing his first bowl of soup and while eating his second he said, “Thanks for dinner mom. I love you!”

You know it is no wonder my son is so good at complimenting his mom. Brydon is constantly complimenting me. There is not a day that goes by that my husband doesn’t tell me I’m beautiful. He is so wonderful and such a good example to Caleb. Caleb has learned well from his father. A few weeks ago as Caleb and I were rushing to make it to church on time, I opened Caleb’s door and asked him to crawl in. Instead he ran around the back of the car to the other side. I was not happy and began to get after him to get himself in the car, NOW. However, he ran over opened my car door and came back with a cute grin and told me, “Mom, I opened your door for you.” Well I had to apologize and thank my sweet son for his kindness. The same kindness he sees his dad do for me all the time. How did I get so lucky to have two amazing men in my life? Caleb is so lucky to get to follow in his father’s footsteps.

I'm Gonna Miss This

So the last few months have been some of the longest months of my life. Only last summer beats this summer. Last summer was hell, this summer is just close. So as I have been pining for a better life and an explanation for why everything can go wrong at the same time, the song “You’re Gonna Miss This” has been coming to mind. We have been swamped with Medical School Applications (You know doctors deserve to be paid a lot just for having to fill out those absolute awful applications. You think I am joking but nothing compares to Med school apps for pure torture. If your marriage can survive the application process then you have earned Celestial Glory). And worried about how we might answer our little boy’s prayers to have another baby when the Lord’s answer just seems to be a big NO. Or how to keep up with church, a busy 3 year old, and all the other adult responsibilities that just have to be taken care of. So today I started to think about what was I going to miss? Was I enjoying the moments I have now or just pining for a future that I have little control over? I don’t want to look back and say that I missed out on living for today, so I have been making a list of all the things I would miss about my life just how it is right now.

1. My husband’s hair. The last year has been hard on his head of hair and I am afraid in a few years there will be nothing left. I am going to miss the full head of hair, even though I will love him no matter what.
2. A 3 year old. Quite frankly I love 3. It is way better than 2 and Caleb is too darn cute. 3 is fun because they can talk, reason, dress themselves, but still think mom can fix anything. I get cuddles and kisses and independence. It is a great combo and by there are far less tantrums.
3. Only having to clean 1 toilet. The advantage to small apartment living is that there is only 1 toilet in the house for my son to completely spray with pee. I do not look forward to having to clean multiple toilets.
4. Running. I am really going to miss the day that my body cannot run anymore. I truly love the product of running. It can make my day that much better to just go for a run.
5. The Student Life. I don’t like the living on loans that don’t pay for much, but I sure like the social life. There is something about hanging out with other couples that are in the schooling process. You have so much in common and understand so much about each other just because you are far from home and going through school. I will miss that easy connection.
6. Philadelphia. There is no place in the US that can disgust you and fascinate you in the ways Philly can. It truly is a unique city with so much to teach me.
7. West Africans. They may smell like fish, have cockroaches running across their tables, and be so poor and uneducated I don’t know how to help them, but they are so loving and giving. I have learned so much from them and cannot believe that I can truly call some of them Friend.
8. My 29 year old body. Already I can tell that a 30 year old body is just not going to be the same as the 29 year old one. It is going to be harder to lose weight, stay fit, and keep the skin looking quite as youthful. The day for actually having to count calories is near or here already.
9. “Mommy, I woke up with the sun.” There is no better way to wake up in the morning, than to a little boy with a big smile that says “Mommy, I woke up with the sun.” Then he tells me his big plans for the day.
10. 8:30 PM Adult Time. I love being able to put Caleb to bed and having just adult time until we go to bed. There are no teenagers to wait up for or late big kid bed times. Just a quiet peaceful night like this one, with a cute little boy all tucked in bed and safe.
11. The Age of Twilight, Harry Potter, High School Musical,& Hannah Montana. I almost forgot this one. Yep I am not a very orginal groupy. I love the Twilight Series and Harry Potter and find Disney movies like High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and Camp Rock way too fun and cute. What can I say, I'm a sucker.

So maybe life isn’t all bad and there are lots of things I would miss about life just how it is.

Taylor Swift is too cute!

Taylor Swift - New Music - More Music Videos

So with all the controversy with Taylor Swift earning an award because of this video, I just had to watch it. Boy it is cute and totally deserving of the best female video. I wish more people were as clean with their music and presentation. I am so glad she stayed true to her age. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

The Endless Pit

Well we survived another week. I can't tell you how tired I am already of Medical School applications. I thought it was painful 2 years ago, but they made the whole process much more painful this year. I don't want to help write any more answers to stupid essay questions or figure out how to maneuver all the hoops they created to get the proper recommendations sent. But I do hope it will be all worth it in the end. I think Dr. Manning has a nice ring to it and 2 Dr. Manning's just sounds really good:)

Last week, we discovered that our son had grown again and now needs to wear mainly 4T clothing. He just turned 3. And his feet went from a size 8 1/2 to a size 10. He is a tall, solid little boy. This week, he has turned into an endless pit. All I have heard from him is, "I'm hungry mom!" or "Mom, I'm really hungry!" or "My tummy hurts. I'm hungry." He practically ate a meal during sacrament meeting today because he was starving already. Then he ate crackers and a few cookies in the car on the way home. And ate a sandwich when we got home. I keep hearing Rolly on 101 Dalmatian's "I'm hungry mama. I'm really hungry mama." or the great quote from 17 Again "What are you eating?" "I don't even know but all I know is that I am hungry alllll the time!" Honestly what are we going to do to feed this boy when he is 17. I am getting nervous already. So for now I am holding off buying any new clothes or shoes until we find out what size he really needs to be wearing. We did have a great quotable moment yesterday in the car when Caleb was informing us that he was hungry again. He asked me if he could have a sandwich for dinner (we are on a complete sandwich kick now). I told him we were going to have grilled chicken and rice. He was not happy about my dinner choice and began whining for a sandwich. I told him that he could eat chicken to help his tummy out or he was going to be awfully hungry. After a slight pause he said, "Mom, my tummy is telling you it needs a sandwich." Well what do you say to that. Fortunately his tummy was hungry enough to eat chicken and rice and carrots and a homemade milkshake. I didn't know a 3 year old could be an Endless Pit.

Phillies -vs- Giants

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We got to enjoy Brydon's birthday gift from his parents on Sept. 1. Brydon has always loved baseball but never been to a professional game. So we had to make sure we saw the World Series Champion Phillies while we were here. It was so much fun. Caleb was so excited and couldn't wait to get to the game. When we got there he asked all sorts of questions about the black guys (umpires), red guys (Phillies), white lines, and yellow polls. When he felt like he had it all figured out, he put on his glove and said he was ready to go play with those guys. He was a trooper through the game and really got into clapping and watching what was going. In the end the Phillies won. Phillies 1 Giants 0 We had a blast!