Amber's First Trip to PA!

By: Shelsy

I have a lot of things to write about, so I'm going to break it up into a few separate posts over the next few days.

Last week Amber visited PA for the very first time! This will be the first trip of many. :-) We drove, so this was also Amber's first road trip. We were kind of nervous--we didn't know how she'd do. But, she did great! We drove straight through to get there. It took about 20 hours exactly, which is only 2-3 hours longer than it would have normally taken us. Considering we had to stop for about 45 minutes every time she needed to eat, that wasn't too bad!

We were all pretty beat when we finally got there, though. Amber slept most of the drive, and then got really cranky for the last two hours--understandably. Ryan and I didn't sleep at all--and I was cranky for the last several hours. :-) But we got there around 9:30 in the morning and once we all had some naps we had the whole day to spend with mom, Mindy, and Carter, which was really nice!

Speaking of Carter, he's getting so big! He's running all over the place now, becoming very independent. And he and Amber look so much alike, it's crazy! There's no denying they're related. :-) Here are some pictures of him, including a little photo shoot we had with the two of them. So cute!



The reason we headed up to PA was because Ryan's second cousin got married. It just worked out perfectly that the wedding was being held on the bride's family's property about 15 minutes from where my family lives. How convenient! The wedding was beautiful! And Amber got to meet all of her extended family on the Joseph side. Here she is meeting Situ for the first time!

Here's a video of her first slow dance with daddy!



The next day mom and dad had a bunch of family over to their house so that my whole side of the family could meet Amber. Here she is with her great grandparents:

It was so nice to get to see everyone and give them all a chance to see her. :-)

Our last day there was very relaxed. Mindy and Carter came over and we just hung out on the porch with mom pretty much all day. It was wonderful. Gram and Grandpa came over for a little while too, and we just did whatever we felt like, which wasn't much. :-) Here we are going for a little walk in the afternoon:

We got out the little kiddie pool for the kids. Amber loved it! Carter was not too interested in sharing his pool with her, but he was in there long enough for me to get some pictures:



Then it was time to come home. We took it a little slower getting backed and stopped in a hotel halfway. We ended up with a room that had two doubles, so here's Amber all sprawled out on her bed while Ryan and I shared the other one. :-)

I'm sure she liked being able to stretch out after being in the carseat for all those hours. I don't think she really appreciated having to go back into the carseat the next morning either:

When we got home we made sure we didn't go anywhere for about two days so she could recover a little. :-) It was a great visit and I can't wait until we can go back!

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Home For the Holidays

By: Shelsy

Well, it's been a busy few weeks. We got back from Thanksgiving in PA and then it seemed like we turned right around again and headed back! This time we spent a day with the Josephs and celebrated Sam's birthday and exchanged our Christmas gifts. Then we headed up to visit my parents for the rest of the week. We had a really nice time. We got to see a lot of family, a few friends, and just relax and enjoy the holiday.

We did a lot of things differently from our "normal traditions," like having a big Christmas dinner at mom and dad's house. And Mindy and Von hosted a brunch at their house the following Saturday which was really fun (and yummy!). I don't really know what else to say except that we had a great time, ate way too much, got a lot of awesome and really useful stuff--including some adorable stuff for the baby!!

And it's only going to be a few more weeks until I'm headed back up again for my baby shower. I'm glad that the 19 hour drive hasn't been too much of a problem for me--I've been making that trip a lot!

We didn't end up really taking any pictures over Christmas, but here are a few video clips of me with Carter, who was pretty much the center of attention the whole time anyway, this being his first Christmas and all. :-)

UPDATE: Video below updated to HD. If you already watched it, be sure to check it out again in high quality.

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Carter

Well, as most of you know, just over a month ago my sister welcomed her baby boy into the world. I had the chance to go up and see him just over a week ago. He's so sweet, as you can see from the pictures. He's the first grandchild for my parents and the first great grandchild in our family as well. So he's definitely getting a lot of attention. Ryan and I are his only aunt and uncle, also, so we plan to spoil him just a little. :-)

It was nice going back to PA and seeing everyone again, meeting the little guy, and just hanging out. When I was there I was almost always holding him, which I enjoyed immensely. :-) I also got to celebrate father's day when I was there, which was very nice. Here's a picture of Von and Carter on Von's very first father's day.


So it was a good week. I miss Carter and everyone else already. Hopefully Ryan and I will both be able to go up again soon. Maybe next time Carter will actually know who I am...probably not. :-)

Here are a few more pictures:

Carter with the block Ryan and I made for him.

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Two New Things

By: Shelsy

Well, I am happy to say that I have two new things to announce today. The first thing is already four days old, and that is my brand new little nephew! Mindy finally had her baby! His name is Carter Tyrone and he's adorable. He was born this past Monday night on the 19th at around 8:45pm. Mindy's been neglecting to send me pictures though, so I only have a couple. He's about an hour old in that one. Isn't he awesome?! :-D I can't wait to meet the little guy--hopefully I'll be able to soon, depending on the whole job situation.


Which brings me to my second new thing. As you all know, I auditioned for a singing role at Disney last Friday that didn't work out. I also auditioned yesterday for a character role. That also didn't work out. But, they say the third time's a charm.. I went into the Casting office today and applied for a regular castmember position. I got hired to work in attractions at the Magic Kingdom in Adventureland and Liberty Square. That means I'll be able to work at quality attractions like the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean--two of my absolute favorites. :-) Don't ask me about the pay--it's not really worth talking about--but I've heard that you tend to move up pretty quickly once you get in. We'll see about that. Even if not, though, it'll still be a fun, active, non-office job for me while we're in this season.



So I'm really excited. Especially after those two auditions I was starting to get a little discouraged. But the person who did my interview said I was only the second person to be hired that day so far and he had already seen quite a few. People were lined up for interviews, so I felt pretty good about it. :-) He said he knew right away that I had a great personality and that I would be perfect. I hope so! I have to go back tomorrow to fill out some more paperwork and then I should be starting very soon!

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