September 11th

Yesterday was the ten year anniversary of September 11th and being here made it special. They had a big ceremony and opened up the memorial they built to honor the world trade centers. We didn't go to the ceremony because we knew it would be crowded and security was on high alert. But we were able to see these things being across the river


They had planes flying around with American flags all day.


Each year on the anniversary of September 11th they shine lights representing where the twin towers stood. It shone from dusk to dawn.

Braves game

So I am starting to think that Blake chose to go to NYU not only because it is the top ranked in the tax masters program, but also because there are things like the US open and the Braves game that he has always wanted to go to. So we fulfilled his dreams of going and went. The Braves were suppose to play the weekend we got here but due to the hurricane the games were cancelled and rescheduled for a double header. Wow two games for the price of one, who thought we would be that lucky;) We got there right in time to see his favorite player, Chipper Jones, hit a home run! It was awesome.

The US Open

So we knew that the US Open would be in New York when we moved here and we thought that it would be totally awesome if we went to it, so we did! We actually went to the Us Open park on Saturday to see if we could get lucky and buy some tickets from someone but they had signs that said no scalping tickets within 1500 ft. of the area and the seats at the box office were sold out. We did talk to someone who told us to call TicketsNow, so we did and found a pretty great deal on a couple of tickets for the night session on labor day. We were a little nervous cuz we knew we had to take Jaylee and it could get pretty late but we decided it was a once in a lifetime chance and we shouldn't pass it up.
The day session ended up going long so our session, which was suppose to start at 7, didn't start until 8:30. We got to see Wozniacki's (#1 women's player) match first and it ended up being 3 hours long so we didn't get to the men's match until 11:30. We were thinking there was no way that Jaylee would last but we decided to go as long as she was doing okay. She turned out to be a champ and actually loved being there! She loved to clap, cheer and dance with the crowd and loved watching/talking to the people around us. Everyone loved her!
Blake's dream came true and we were able to watch Roger Federer play. It was awesome! He crushed his opponent which was good because his match was only about an hour and a half long, but it was about 1:40am at this point and we still had to make it home. It ended up taking us two hours to get home because we had to wait for the trains which not running as much because it was so late/early AHHH! Oh well that's the price you pay when you do something crazy like that.

Hurricane...Herpes...Help!

Well we made the big move to NYC and already we have had quite the experience. Needless to say it has not been what we expected yet. As we were in the airport heading toward NYC we learned that hurricane Irene was expected to hit right where we were moving to. Fortunately we were able to move in our stuff before it hit ( thanks to Blake's dad who came to help!) and luckily we were in an area that didn't have power outages or flooding. So I thought well this was good cuz now the worst was over, and it could only get better from here on out, but I was wrong.
During all of this chaos, Jaylee wasn't feeling well and had on and off fever which we thought was due to the stress of flying, change, and teething. However, as her top gums started to swell up and a nasty sore appeared below her lip we found out that she has primary herpes. There is no special medication we can give her to get rid of it, so we just have to wait for it to heal itself and they say that it can last up to two weeks. She has started to eat a little bit more everyday so we are hoping she is getting better and will get rid of it soon. It has been so hard and sad watching her go through this and knowing there was little that we can do for her.
On the up side, we love our new place which is actually located in Jersey City, right across the Hudson river from Manhattan. We are in tall apartment towers and live on the 26th floor so we have a cool view of Manhattan and the river. It is brand new so we are the first people to live in our apartment. The apartment complex has nice amenities including a pool, gym, movie theater, playground (which is perfect size for Jaylee) and a cool kids room that has toys, music and a tv. We are really close to a mall, grocery store, and the subway which is nice considering we don't have a car here. It only takes Blake about 20 minutes to get to school which is way nice. We only have a one bedroom apartment but it is almost twice as big as any of the one bedroom apartments that we saw in New York. I will post pictures of our new place once we unpack everything and put it together.

1st Birthday!

So on May 6th we celebrated Jaylee's first birthday. I can't believe that my little girl is already one! Craziness, life goes by way too fast. She is now walking, talking, and getting into anything and everything.

Celebrating with Blake's Family


The Awesome Cupcakes that the girls made


Jaylee trying out the cupcakes




She loved her gifts!

Celebrating with Amy's Family

We decided to do a Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday




Oh what a cute little family ;)

As you can see she didn't like getting her hands dirty



She got a dog and a cell phone for her birthday, we are in trouble!

BLAKE PASSED THE BAR!!!

We just found out today that Blake passed the bar exam! Yipee! We are so excited!

We took pictures in December for Blake's graduation and never mailed them out, so we decided to just post it on our blog for all to see.

Jaylee

Jaylee is 11 months today!!! Crazy! I can't believe that her first birthday is coming up. She is getting so big and loves to imitate everything we do. We were sitting in the front room watching the Jazz game and she was standing there looking at my dad who had his leg crossed and after looking at him 3 or 4 times she finally crossed her leg too while still standing. It was the cutest thing ever.
She can now stand on her own for about 30 seconds and just today she took 3 or 4 steps! She will be walking by her first birthday if she keeps going at this rate. She is our little spitfire, full of attitude (it is cute most of the time).

If you're Happy and you Know it

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Cruising

So again I have been horrible at updating. So here's a overview of the past few months
January- Blake studied for the bar
February- Blake studied for the bar and took it (We won't hear about the results of the test until the end of April)
March- Blake and I celebrated his being done by cruising!

We went on a Mexican Riviera Cruise after Blake got done with the bar because it was definitely time for a vacation. We snorkeled and went para-sailing in Cabo San Lucas, and then we went into the jungle on a canopy tour in Puerto Vallarta. They had 12 zip lines and the longest one took you down the mountain side and was over 1600 ft. It was a blast! Thanks to both our families who took care of Jaylee and spoiled her while we were away.
Here's some pics

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

December Update

So I haven't been good at updating sorry, but this is what happened during the crazy month of December...

First, Graduation
Blake finished up finals and graduated! YAY! Jaylee and I are so proud.






(Blake with the Gonzaga mascot, Spike)

Second, Moving
We packed up and moved from Spokane back to Utah into my parents basement. It was sad to leave, we had so many special friends that we grew so close to and will never forget.
Oh and special thanks to Blake's mom and dad and the church members there who helped us pack up and load all of our stuff!

Third, Christmas
It was so fun having Jaylee with us this Christmas. She was much more interested in the bows and wrapping paper than any of her cool toys.








I finally got my Kitchen Aid that I have been dreaming about for years! YAY!






We went to see the lights at temple square, it was freezing but fun!



Fourth, The Bar
Blake started studying for the bar 3 days after Christmas so he didn't get much of a break, dang! I will be happy when February is over and he isn't as stressed. Although he is still thinking about doing another year of school (he is crazy!)