Seriously so cute...

This is my new family. Aren't they so cute? Don't you all wish that you were their nanny? 

Back in the high life again..

Happiness. Life right now is complete happiness. Kenneth and I have had a lot of stress in the past few months. Ever since August it seems like we just move from one stressful situation to the next. Sometimes it was a necessary frustration like moving to a new apartment, or Kenneth starting the PhD portion of graduate school and suddenly becoming super busy, or my last nanny job - which let's be honest - was ridiculous. But now, things have settled down and evened out and we are back to being completely and blissfully happy. 

So, here is an update of our month. Hopefully more frequent postings are coming :)

We are officially moved in to our new apartment! There are no more boxes and all of our pictures and curtains have been hung. It feels like a real home. My sister-in-law Katie has a special gift for decorating - we are so lucky that she and her cute family came to visit us last month. She really helped us get settled in. Thanks Katie!

I've been at my new nanny job for 2 1/2 weeks now and honestly, I have never been happier at work. I spent all 6 weeks at my last job wondering how I could have felt so good about agreeing to something which was such a wrong fit. Those six weeks of frustration were worth it, however because I am so much more grateful for my new job! They really are the nicest people in the world. I love them already and I am so grateful for them. Their old nanny (who has been training me for 2 weeks) spends every day telling me how great they are and how good they have been to her. They are such good people, they love their kids so much, and they are so nice to me. I love being their nanny!  

 

Another reason for our current happiness is that things are going really well for Kenneth at school. He was recently chosen to teach Arts of America at Boston University for the summer. I am so proud of him. He is working so hard and teaching this summer will be a really great opportunity for him. 

On top of it all, the longest presidential election in history is finally over, and while I am not trying to ruffle anyone's personal partisan feathers, Kenneth and I are happy and hopeful for our country's political future! While I have happily voted in every election of my adult life, Kenneth has often been disenchanted with our political system. For the first time of our marriage we were both energized and excited to fill in our ballots. In fact, we even agreed on a candidate and are sure it was that final piece of positive energy that swung MA for Obama! (okay, maybe it wasn't all us...)

Hooray for happiness!!! 

Home away from home

This past week was so much fun!! Kenneth's sister was in town with her husband (Kenneth's best friend) and her son, who might actually be the cutest ever. 

I was lucky enough to have the week off, and Kenneth was able to do most of his homework and reading for his classes before they arrived, so we got to spend so much time with them.

We visited historic sites, toured Ben and Jerry's, went to the Aquarium and Walden Pond, ate yummy apple cider donuts from Wilson Farms, visited the Joseph Smith Birthplace, went candlepin bowling, had some very cute guitar lessons, and watched the Wiggles more times than we could have ever imagined possible in just one week.

Kenneth hasn't been home in almost a year, so we are so grateful that we were able to experience a little bit of home away from home. Our apartment seems pretty lonely now without our cute family. 

Thanks guys, we had a great week! 

Today's the day!!!!

Hooray! Finally, today is the day our family comes! Kenneth's sister Katie, along with her cute family, are on a plane right now flying to Boston!  

Before we moved here we saw them practically every day. It has been so hard to live so far away for the past 2 years.. and now, they are finally coming for a visit. We are so excited, we can hardly wait! Saturday has never seemed longer.....

Who wouldn't be excited to see these cute faces? 

(We love Court too... we just don't have any recent pictures of him on our computer... :)

My Name is Jonas...

Thanks to our fantastic friends Kristal and Richard, we recently enjoyed a transcendent evening with Weezer and the various inhabitants of Lowell MA. It is hard to describe the iridescent glow of joy that surrounds you as you sing "Buddy Holly" at the top of your lungs with a few thousand like-minded friends. Luckily, a picture is worth a thousand words...

We don't own a digital camera, so you are benefiting from Kristal's trained eye! 

We just finished listening to Angels and Airwaves... their music must make people fall even more in love with each other.

Look how happy we all are! The concert is over, but we can still feel the influence of Rivers Cuomo's mustache.

Richard's homage to the tracksuit-clad rockers.

Well done my friends, well done.

My husband the rock star

Last week our ward put on a musical fireside for our stake. Spearheaded by our good friend Kristal, the fireside gave members a chance to share their testimonies through music which would not usually be played in church. This is Kenneth's arrangement of "Nearer my God to Thee" - video by Kristal Willams-Rowley

Moving on up! - Literally

Hooray! We have finally moved in! And up - literally. Not only did we move from a regular apartment to a great one, we moved from the basement to the 3rd floor! Once we get everything settled we'll take more extensive pictures.  But here is a picture of our living room - our favorite place in our new apartment (it wont look this white for long - we have curtains and artwork to hang, but you get the idea).

This second picture is of the mugs that were awaiting us in our newly painted and spotlessly cleaned apartment on move in day - a gift from our fantastic management company.

I know many of you are wondering why we moved from our old Boston brownstone apartment to regular looking building on a regular looking street. But let me assure you this is the greatest place we have ever lived. We have super awesome friends in our building, we have a parking spot, a dishwasher, and a garbage disposal! (This may not sound so exciting, but most of these things are very very rare in Boston. Disposals for example, are actually illegal in some towns out here...) Kenneth's commute has gone from 45 minutes on the T to a 15 minute bus ride. We have 2 bedrooms, for any future guests that want to come stay with us (hint, hint). Everything is de-leaded (a feature which is hard to find in Boston) - a must if Kenneth and I are ever going to have children. We have a real live eat-in kitchen with an actual kitchen table. And best of all - we have a management company that takes care of us, as opposed to the sinking bathroom floor and flooding bedroom in our old place.

We are seriously so happy here. We have spent every night since we moved here unpacking and arranging things, as well as exploring our new neighborhood. This really is a great place for us to be and we are excited for you all to come visit us!

Special note:

We need to give a very special thank you to Christopher Seely (pictured below with his cute wife Robyn) for his contribution to this project (our move). Because without him, and the 30 other volunteers from our church that came to help us move, Kenneth and I would never be here in our new home. We might actually still be outside our old apartment trying to figure out how to get everything effectively loaded in the moving truck.

Thanks Chris! You're awesome!!

And, for more complete pictures and commentary from our move check out Robyn's blog :)

Also to note - for those of you who have been wondering... I absolutely LOVE my new nanny job. I have never been so happy and I am so excited to be able to get to know this new family. It is so nice to feel excited to go to work in the morning - especially when your alarm goes off at 6:00am.