Our house, is a very, very, very fine house...

Alex and I made an offer on a house on Saturday, and it was accepted last night! We are so excited about it (and terrified at the same time)! It’s a 1920’s bungalow with a stone fireplace, a backyard, room to grow, and it's in a great neighborhood located just outside of Philadelphia in Glenside, PA. After we saw the home, we drove around the neighborhood and it just felt right. There’s a place called Keswick Village a couple of blocks down, and it’s an old tudor-style village with shops and a theater - it reminded me of both Germany and the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, Utah. :) Assuming everything goes well with the inspection, we close on April 30!

We're from Utah

We took a day trip up to New York on Saturday for our Valentine's celebration. The funniest part of the trip had to be on the subway. It was totally packed, and we were standing next to a group of guys hitting on a group of girls. One of the guys asked the girls where they were from. “We’re from Utah,” was the reply. It was classic to watch them do small talk until the girls got off. Then we got to see what happens after you tell someone you’re from Utah and leave! They started going on about Mitt Romney and how hooking up with some girls from Utah was not a possibility. Such opinions these guys had!

So, what's a trip to New York without a musical and some good food? We stopped in the East Village for some sushi and a teriyaki chicken bento box, and then we saw The Color Purple. The voices were amazing, of course. In my opinion, it was an extremely deep message for a musical – maybe one we weren’t exactly prepared for. I read the book for school, but didn’t remember it very well and Alex had never read the book. I guess that it was just a part of opening up our minds to the struggles that African American women faced in the rural south, and continue to face.

After the musical we stopped for some fine Italian food at Trattoria Trecolori. The food was excellent, as was the atmosphere. Highly recommended – but I’d suggest making a reservation before you go!

Our last stop in New York was Toys ‘R’ Us. We made the best find there. For Christmas, my mom bought my two-year-old nephew some wooden cutting food by Melissa and Doug. He LOVED it! After opening that present, he wasn’t interested in any other presents. This is what it looks like.

Anyway, so in the Toys ‘R’ Us store, we found the most perfect thing by Melissa and Doug – a wooden sushi cutting set! This is definitely on our list of ‘must-haves’ for our baby girl!

Home Buying 101

So lately Alex and I have had our TV permanently on HGTV, where we watch shows about buying your first home, remodeling homes, and selling homes. This is a bad idea for people who are house hungry! We are firm believers in living close to where you work, and so far we haven’t accomplished that since moving to Philly. Alex’s commute is about 25 minutes by train, and mine is about 45 minutes by car (ugh). So yes, we are definitely leaving an environmental footprint.

We’ve found a few houses that definitely have potential, but they a) are too expensive, b) are in a not-so-safe neighborhood, c) need remodeling, or d) are too far away from Alex’s work. We both know that at some point we’re going to need to reach a compromise on what actually is the most important to us. So, for any of you out there who have bought a home, please, we need your advice!

Here are two houses that we like. Both have pros and cons, as I'm sure most houses do.



PS - we've been preapproved! Let the buying begin!

Our fatty coconut

We had an ultrasound last week, and our baby is "officially" a girl! We're still set for early June, and our baby girl is measuring in at a healthy 11 oz.

I was on one of the parenting websites today, and I was looking at how big our baby is right now. Apparently she is the size of a coconut, and should weigh between 9-10 oz. Well, as I said before, she's weighing in at 11 oz. Alex started talking to our baby calling her our fatty coconut. I just keep picturing this huge baby, and that kind of worries me. At least I know she's not starving in there!

Mukluks

Mukluks or Kamik (singular: kamak) are a soft boot traditionally made of reindeer skin or sealskin and were originally worn by Arctic natives, including the Inuit and Yupik. The term mukluk is often used for any soft boot designed for cold weather and modern designs are often similar to high-top athletic shoes. (Wikipedia)


Alex lounging around in the mukluks he got for Christmas from Bryant and Heidi.

Holiday Trip to Utah

Alex and I got to enjoy the holidays with our family in Utah. And can we ever put the emphasis on FAMILY! It had to be one of the more crazy weeks of *bonding* with our long-distance siblings and parents.

My WHOLE family was in Utah for Christmas. Dan, Ashley, Josh, Jake, and Ben were in from Colorado. Nathan, Julie, and Mikka were in from Clearfield. Mark, Cat, Matt, and Ethan were in from Japan. Megan was in from Ireland. And Alex and I rounded out the bunch from good ol’ PA. There were always way too many people running around the house, way too many games played on the Wii, way too many late nights (those party animals Cat and Megan), and way too many pictures taken of us in our Irish wool sweaters. Couldn’t have asked for a better mini-family-reunion – who knows when the whole fam will be together again.




Alex’s WHOLE family was in Utah for Christmas, too. They all live in Utah (with the exception of us), so it was a little less distance for them to travel. But we had lots of fun with all of the brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles (there were family parties on both the Fillerup and Robertson sides). Alex packed our Wii with us so that his siblings could play it while we were in town. And, just as with my family, there were way too many games played on the Wii!

The highlight of the trip was telling our families that we are expecting a baby. We gave a present to both sets of parents on Christmas day. The present had bibs reading “I love my Grandpa” and “I love my Grandma” and included a bag of pink and blue m&ms with our due date written on it. Alex’s aunt was awesome enough to take us in to her clinic the next day for some ultrasounds so we could try to find out what we’re having, along with giving us about 50 pictures of our baby! Based on the pictures of our cute baby, we’re pretty sure it’s a girl!