Family Pictures

Our friend Ashley took some family pictures for us before we left Pittsburgh.  Taking pictures with little ones is hard work!!  But I'm glad we did it.  Ashley was so great to piece together a couple of pictures so we were all looking in at least one!  Here they are:

 

 

Look at that city!  It's beautiful.  We belonged there for a while. I think I might actually be done posting about Pittsburgh.... :(

Introducting Dr. Tyler Johansen, DMD

Tyler worked hard for this day to finally arrived!  May 20, 2012.  We are so proud of Tyler and all it took him to get here.  I'm grateful to be married to a man who wants to work so hard at becoming a professional who contributes a great service to society in order to care for his family.  I'm so glad that matters to him.

Sweet Luke did a great job!  Poor Caleb didn't get to come; he stayed home with Mandy and napped! 

Here's the magical moment!!

So happy!

With some of Tyler's friends.  We missed pics with a lot of people, but I'm glad we got these!

My goodbye with my great friend Kimi.  I'm sure missing living near her already and am super sad that there's very little hope of us ever living so close together again!  I started crying and just had to make myself stop thinking about it or else I wasn't going to get out of there in one piece!

The six graduates in our ward

The six of us couples in the 5th ward.

One last girls pic.  These are the girls who, besides my own mother, have taught me how to be a mother - through example and so so so much conversation.  We talked babies til the cows came home!  They each have great mothering qualities that I try to imitate.  I think about what they've taught me more than they know!  I wish I could have gotten one with all of the wives we spent time with, but there were just too many to coordinate it.

We felt bad for not inviting Caleb, but I think he had more fun at home with Mandy!  Tyler was so happy to come home to him even though sweet Caleb didn't even get it.

We are lucky to have such a great little life.  And man, I miss our house.

Hooray for Dr. Johansen!!!

Luke's Blessing

Tyler gave Luke the sweetest blessing May 20, 2012.  I am very grateful to be married to a man who is proud to call himself a Christian and be a worthy bearer of the Holy Priesthood of God.  When he gives blessings he humbly seeks to say what the Lord would have said and takes no credit for himself.  He is always willing to bless us with the Priesthood and it has benefited me and my boys many many times.

We were so lucky to have so many family members and friends and our ward family there with us for the occasion.  I'm so sad I didn't get a close-up of Luke on his blessing day!!  He tired and ready to sleep and we had to run to graduation so I thought I'd get one later.... But we did take a lot of group shots.

Love my little family of four.  It's crazy that we have TWO CHILDREN!!

Graduation & Blessing Celebration

Tyler, I and our boys are so lucky to have lots of family who were able to come be with us for Tyler's dental school graduation and Luke's Baby Blessing: my parents, Tyler's parents, Tyler's grandma, sister, brother-in-law, and cousins!  It was quite the party!  Since it was our LAST WEEKEND in Pittsburgh we decided to live it up one more time.

We headed to campus to walk Pitt one more time and then to the annual outdoor Children's Festival held right there in Oakland.  I have so many memories in Oakland of working, lunches with the girls, posting flyers all over for work, being stuck in traffic, going to Institute, taking classes to finish my masters degree, getting my favorite Italian soda at the library/checking out stuff for book group, walking to and from the million pregnancy appointments I had, arriving at 2:30am to Magee in labor!, giving birth to my two sweet boys!!!, going to the gym, running, dates, couple dates, playdates in Schenly, attending the memorial service for the 3 fallen Policemen, going to Tyler's intramural football and BB games, wow, the list goes on and on.  I'm sure Tyler has more too of patients, lunches with the boys, studying, waiting for and riding the bus, being on lock-down when the shooter was loose, tests, watching the world cup in some bar, picking up Jimmy Johns when I just couldn't manage to make dinner... I wonder what else he would say.  He'd probably say traffic was worth mentioning again.  Haha!  We had many a great discussion while stuck in traffic, so I think it was worth it.  We really had such a great life in Pittsburgh, pre and post kids.  Gosh, getting teary again....Okay, on to the pictures.

Watching Caleb on the carousel.

It was the only seat left... but he totally liked it.

The behavioral challenges of our two-year-old are often built in the idea that he is the center of the world and everything should go his way.... Judging by the pictures so far, I think we are to blame for teaching him this!!!!  

Oh, good, some more evidence that all those people really were there!  We had to walk the river.  Love this.

And shop the Strip.  

This one might have to be framed. :)

We also did a lot of great eating which somehow didn't get photographed, at least by me.  But the big events are still to come...

Lots of Lasts

As might be expected, our last couple of weeks in Pittsburgh were filled with lasts:

Our last Pirates game.  We took both of our boys to this one and it was perfect!  We got Subway and BROUGHT IT IN (love the Pirates), got there about 6pm so we could eat and get settled before the game and made it through the seventh inning stretch.  We got some of our favorite t-shirts that night.  The view of downtown is beautiful, the atmosphere so relaxed, and the team, well the team is our team, so I love 'em.  I am not kidding that I will sincerely miss watching the Buccos. 

Girls Night: Heather, Nicole, Carlee, Rachael, Randee, Marie, Jessica, Kimi (Kate), Natalie, me (Luke), Jamie (Heath)

Last day with my sweet young women... Hannah and Caroline were smart enough to bring their cameras to church!  I wish I had gotten a picture with all of them that last day.

Girls Night... there were a few "last" girls nights. :)

Back: Kami, Kimi, Carlee, Kaylene, me. Front: Rachael, Elise, Meredith, Libby

Last playdate with our neighbor friends Blake & Kendyl.  Blake was born just 4 days after Caleb in the same hospital!

Last pic with my wonderful neighbor Mandy.  It was a hot day and we both look terrible, but I love her and miss being able to go over and chat whenever.  She loved Caleb and Caleb loved her!!  She was willing to watch him whenever and it was just the best having her as a neighbor!   Her husband Joe did so much plumbing for us and her son Ian was always super sweet.

Last picture in front of our house.  We built our marriage there and brought our two babies home to that house.  I will always miss it and love it.

 Last playdate with the Wegeners.  Caleb still hopes to see T whenever I talk about playing with friends.

I have about 20 pictures of them holding hands this day...

Such good dads.

Last potluck picnic.  Here with Natalie.

Kami (Charlie), me (Luke), Elise & Carlee

Our attempt at getting ALL OF US, but still we are missing Drapers, Pecks, Bryant, and Shumates.

Nelsons, Us, Gneitings, Jensens, Gardners, Westovers, Richins, Grants, Nelsons, Wegeners, Kaylene

Gosh, I have got to stop... this is making me miss Pittsburgh so bad I'm about to cry!!