"Ya'll gonna have to wait for the Avis bus!"

*Guest blogger Jeremy*

Those were the first words we heard when we arrived at the Philadelphia airport Sunday night....we were outside waiting for our shuttle to take us to the rental car area, freezing cold, watching all other rental car company shuttles whiz by. So we stopped one and asked if he could take us to the Avis area (which is right next to the rest of them anyway) and that was his response.......

Brieann and I took a housing trip to Allentown this past week, left Sunday morning and arrived back Wednesday night. In preparation for the trip, Brieann packed a nice cold virus that had her reaching for a tissue most of the trip, and that eventually spread to me during the middle of the visit, and who knows, she may have infected various others around her in the airplanes we were on (If anyone knows anyone that flew Delta to Philly via Atlanta and got sick tell them were sorry)

So other than the headcolds, and the chilly morning/night time weather it was a pretty good trip. Wind chill brought the temps in Allentown down to 9 degrees the 2nd day we were there, but without the winds it wasnt that bad with a sweater and jeans on.

We had some unforgettable, forgettable, and regrettable food while we were there.

The Unforgettable- Boston Gourmet Pizza. A great pizza/italian restaurant with a killer boston creme chocolate cake. Chick Fil-A was a great lunch choice, and for me I thought a Checker's bacon cheeseburger in the Atlanta airport was pretty dang good.

The Forgettable- The Crackerbarrel restaurant right next to our hotel.....we only went because it was close.....food was greasy and made us both wish we had made a better dinner decision.

The Regrettable- The hotel's "continental breakfast". OK, normally I know that these breakfasts are usually terrible and of no quality, BUT this is a Wyndham -owned hotel, and the offerings actually didn't look too bad.......All I had were eggs and sausage, and thats all it took to make me sick the rest of the day which affected my desire to eat for the rest of the day! Brieann played it safe and stuck to a toasted fresh bagel, which I ended up eating for breakfast the other 2 mornings.

Down to the business-So we did find an apartment, we visited about 5 or 6 places, found 2 we really liked and made a tough decision to go with a certain one. We got a great deal on a 1 bed 1 bath, its almost 1000 sq feet, it comes with a storage closet on the same floor as our unit, we have all the amenities we will ever need, and all appliances come with the apartment. Below are some shots of our trip......

(This is the Starbucks of PA. There is one on every corner)

Baby Stuff...

I am so excited because the baby bedding and crib have been purchased. Thank you so much to my loving and generous mother and mother-in-law!!!! I love the Penelopy bedding from Pottery Barn and the white sleigh crib. I am so excited to get it all set up and see what it looks like in person! It’s hard because I am going through this “nesting phase” where I want to get everything ready for the baby, but we are moving so I am not able to. I will have to let my wonderful husband get everything set up for me when he moves into our apartment in April. We are flying out to PA this weekend to look at housing. I’m so excited to see what it is like out there. Wish us luck in finding a place that is available and in a good area!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year for Valentine's Day I tried something new. I saw these cake pops on the bakerella blog and thought it would be a fun idea to make Jeremy a cake bouquet. They were very time consuming but I think they turned out pretty cute. It is a long process so I won't post how I made them. If you are interested check out http://bakerella.blogspot.com and go to Pop Central. One batch makes about 50 pops so there were plenty for his bouquet. They actually tasted really good. Will I make them again? Probably not unless it is a real special occasion.

I decided to do some cupcake pops, round lollipops, and hearts on a stick.

mmm....so good!

I haven't posted a prego pic in and awhile and I am definitely getting bigger. Here is my 6 month bump, me at 26 weeks!

Before we go.............

As the moving date gets closer, Jeremy and I have really been able to think and talk about thethings we will definetely miss about living in CA and also the things we will NOT miss about living in CA. So between the two of us, here are some of them.........And to start with, this list will not include family and friends, because OFCOURSE we will miss them tremendously being in PA!


Some things we will miss.......

The beautiful year-round weather with all those sunny days! Fullerton has an avg of 283 sunny days per year, while Allentown PA has an avg of only 201 sunny days.






The BEACH! We have loved going to the beach with family and friends, playing volleyball and football, and ofcourse attending numerous summer bonfires! We will be about 90 miles from the nearest beach in New Jersey!








The Lakers and Angels-We both have grown up going to Angel games so it just won't be the same not being able to go down to The Big A and see a game on a cool night, parking across the street and eating Panda Express before the game! Jeremy already has plans to check out the Phillies in June with his friend Brian while Brian is visiting back East. Jeremy will miss the rare golden opportunity of attending Laker games once in awhile, but he says he will always support the Purple and Gold......Does anyone remember that Kobe Bryant is from Philly?! (PA fact) Anyways, Jeremy now has to get acquainted with the 76ers......he's hoping to see a 76er-Celtics game soon because the 76er games are so much cheaper than Laker games!















The Newport Beach Temple...

We have loved living so close to this georgeous temple and being able to attend so often. We have many great experiences at this temple and will miss it a lot! We will be in the Washington D.C. temple district until the Philadelphia temple is built. It will be a high-rise style temple similar to the temples in NYC and Hong Kong. We are excited to still be able to attend a temple near our future home.

In-In-Out! I don't think words do this place justice, because it is so good and the best fast-food in the world! In-In-Out, along with Pei Wei, Brea's Best, and BJ's will definitely be missed when we are looking for something good to eat in a few months!

Some things we will NOT miss..........

Traffic in all directions!







Crowds everywhere!


Governor Arnold and the mess that is left of California's finances.......IOU's for a state tax return???!!!

Nutwood East Apartment complex! We have loved the 600 square feet of space on the inside of our apartment and we will miss it, but outside our own 4 walls its been a different story!

We really are going to miss our family, friends, and lots of other things in good ol CA. But we are excited about the change and look forward to the new things we will be able to experience back East. CA will always be our "home" and we hope to come back to visit often as we can!

It's official.....

Well we have some exciting news........... Jeremy has accepted a job with Lutron Electronics!!! He will be working as a marketing associate for one of their product lines. We feel so blessed to have gotten such a great job in this tough economy. The only down side is that the job is so far away! But we are only a plane flight away. With the new job, we will be moving to Pennsylvania! It is in the heart of the Lehigh Valley, about 50 minutes outside of Philadelphia in Allentown/Bethlehem area. Besides being so far away from family and friends we are really excited about the move and this next step in our lives. To live in a new climate, a beautiful area, and to experience life on the east coast will be a whole new exciting adventure for our growing fam! He won't be starting until the first of April so we have some time and will hopefully miss the most/hopefully all of the cold winter.

Here are some important things in PA:

ABOVE: Lutron Electronics office in Coopersburg PA-Jeremy's new employer*

BELOW: Here is a map just in case you didn't know how far PA actually is from CA......yeah its far! We will live in far east PA, 1.5 hrs to NYC, 30 mins to NJ, and important to Jeremy only 50 mins to Phillie and 76er games!

BELOW: JoPa! or Joe Paterno (Jeremy made me put this in!) He is Penn State's football coach and is a living legend in PA

BELOW: This is actually a picture of the Allentown area where we will most likely be living.

Prego update...

Things are going great with my pregnancy. I had another ultrasound done with the Dr to make sure everything was ok and that she was growing on track. The Dr says that everything looks great and that we have nothing to worry about. Her thigh and arm bone are measuring about a week ahead of what they should be. The Dr says we might be having a long baby!! haha.. I told the Dr that my husband is 6'3"and I am 5'10", go figure. Here are some ultrasound pics.

22 weeks pregnant

What we have been up to...

I had a week off of work so Jeremy and I decided to take advantage and visit some places before we move for his new job (TBD). We drove down to San Diego and visited the temple that we were cealed in. It was beautiful and brought back so many great memories of our wedding day.

We also ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was pretty good.

This is a picture from the top of Bastanchury hill. This is one of our favorite parks to run to and enjoy the view.

Look at that view and all that snow! I wish I could snowboard this season. Oh well, there is always next year...

I was able to go to Riverside and spend some time with some old friends.

Ella and Ashely

Here is a belly pic at 20 wks!!! Half way there!!!