The Latest

I apologize to all of you that have checked my blog and have been disappointed to see the same old post there. I am now in Southern California at my parents house. We are now adjusted to the time zone and the kids are having a blast with my family.

I owe a few pictures to the past few weeks.... so here it goes:

CONGRATULATIONS DR. POLLEI-
Among the many things a wife can be proud of her husband for I think graduating from school, preforming their children's baby blessings, follwoing through with household duties, and husbandly duties is a good start. I have to say that I am so proud of Taylor for all that he has accomplished. He graduated with High Honors, scholarships and with a successfull match to his choice of residency. All of his 20 years of shcool has led up to this point in his life, and I am so excited to say that he made it. We still have a long road ahead of us, but a girl couldn't ask for more. Taylor is a wonderful friend, husband, and father. Thank you honey for working so hard and for always making things work out for us. The lord has blessed us so much. We can't wait to start our new life in Arizona. Good job honey!!!! (Zoe walked across the stage with Daddy in her cap and gown.... it was so cute)!!!!

Update!

How is everybody out there in blogger land?? I am a little busy these days trying to tie up a bunch of loose ends. Lately we have been getting together with our friends that we are going to have to say goodbye to soon (sob sob) and visiting places we haven't seen before we move. When we got to Philly 4 years ago we saw a lot... Delaware, New York, and various parts of Pennslvania. But believe it or not we hadn't seen Washington DC yet. So we packed the kids up last weekend and went on our mary way. That was a lot of fun and pictures are on there way from that trip.

In the mean time, I am just trying to keep my head above water and prepare myself for the big move and Taylor's graduation.

Our timeline....

Taylor's Graduation: May 15th
Fly out of Philadelphia (Kids and me) May 20th -- then I fly to California (not directly to AZ)
Taylor and his dad pack up the rest of the house and drive Cross Country May 23rd-- he will drive straight to AZ
Then I fly out of California to AZ with my mom and kids on June 1st

I have a little less than 3 weeks to say my goodbyes, give my hugs, pack the house and fly to Cali, lets just say I'm experiencing a bucket load of emotions right now.

Also, I need to address my last post.-- My Aunt Vicki pointed out that I know more people in AZ then my new next door neighbor... and she's totally right. What I meant was I didn't know anyone in my immediate area, however, I do know quite a few people in AZ, and I am so excited to be close to them too!!! A big shout out to my cousins-- Heather and Joy. Heather is in Prescott Valley with her children, and Joy is in Queen Creek with her two kids. Both drives are totally doable and believe me will be done on numerous occasions. I can't wait to see you two.
Then.... one of my best friends - Kristi Tibbs lives in Tempe, where her husband is going to Business School. Also, some old time friends of ours the Kunz's live in Tuscon. Not to mention Taylor's life long buddy Rob Fisher in Gilbert. And I can't forget Kerry and Allen - Taylor's aunt and uncle on his dad's side.

So... all in all Yes... I know many people in AZ and we couldn't be more excited to be closer to all of them.

Updated pictures of our House

So I have a cool story...

Taylor's ENT Residency Program at the Mayo Clinic accepts only 2 new residents per year. This year they accepted Taylor, and another graduating medical student- Santino Cevantes, who ironically is LDS. What are the chances of that happening right? So we were so excited that both Taylor and Santino matched at the Mayo, especially since they already knew each other and worked together. (They both did away rotations last year at the same time-you know when we were traveling all over the place). Not to mention that Santino has a wife with a brand new baby boy a few months older than Dane. So we were hoping to get together and do somethings right?

Well, they too needed to buy a home since they were going to be out in AZ for 5 years and it only makes sense with the market these days.

So we told them to check out our neighborhood to see if they liked it and the area. It turns out that they did... and they bought the house right next door to us!!! How awesome is that? I don't know anyone in AZ, yet I sorta do already. I take that back, I get to live about 8 minutes from my wonderful sister-in-law Abbie for the next year before her husband graduates from Midwestern Medical School. (Hopefully they will stick around in AZ for his residency, we will have to wait and see on that). But I am so excited because I already know someone I can borrow a cup a sugar, go on walks with the kids, and she will totally understand exactly what we are going through.... her husband will be doing the exact same thing.

So what are the odds-- Only 2 residents per year, both happen to by LDS, both with kids, and now both living in the same neighborhood-- as next door neighbors. Does the Lord work in mysterious ways or what?

Anyways, here are the pictures Santino sent us of our homes when he was in AZ last week. We are on the end and they are the tanish one right next to us. The next one is our our two homes and the connecting side yard aka "our backyard." Then finally, the third one is our view of the pool from our porch.

Cool huh!!!

Typical Scene in the Pollei Household

This is what we see everyday after Zoe's traditional "after dinner treat a- "COOKIE" (really an -OREO)! In Zoe's mind the only cookie out there is an oreo. We've given her others, but her absolute favorite is the OREO. She is such a professional oreo cookie eater, that she even does the twist lick and discard. Yup, that's right, normally it's the twist, lick and dip method your used to, but for Zoe, the actual cookie part is pure garbage... she only lkes the white, fatty cream stuff. Then, when she's done with that she asks for more after chucking her remains to the floor. Lately to avoid wastage of oreos... we buy the double stuffed (I know we are bad parents) and that way she gets double the cream but only wastes one cookie. Anywyas, heres the BEFORE:



And the AFTER:




We've also started doing the double bath thing...this save me time and energy. It's so fun having two kids right?

Dane's Easter Pictures

Dane's Easter basket was full of candy and toys... none of which he can actually eat and or play with, however it was still fun to decorate it for him. Also this is his first official church outfit that my friend Kelley got him. He looks like a little man/"old man" as many have said... but still we love him and he's totally a stud with that vest and orange shirt. Needless to say we had a crazy photo shoot after church. (ps- the Dodge Ball DVD was all Amber's idea, I promise :) hehehe -Taylor)

Easter Pictures

Zoe's Easter Pictures.... This is her dress that she got from Nanna (my mom). It's still a little big so we had to wear a sweater to make sure no cleave was showing...haha... but still it was cold so it was worth her wearing. It's a great little pink dress and it has the cutest cap sleeves, however Zoe wouldn't really let me take her picture let alone get a decent shot of her dress. Also, here is her Easter basket, one in which she was definitely not shy about digging right into.

Meet the newest member of the Family!!!

I've been meaning to put this map of where exactly we will be moving. Here it is. We are the big blue dot.



We did it... we actually bought our very first home-- Yea!!! It's quite exciting, but also a little scary. Now... we actually have to be grown ups and pay a mortgage. However, we couldn't be happier. Although this economy has been really hard on the country right now, some of us are benefiting from a great buyers market.

Here are a few pictures of the house. The animated one is of what our home will look like when it's done. Right now it's being finished, and when we move we will be happy residents of Stetson Valley in Glendale (really Phoenix- Arizona). Taylor's commute to the Hospital will be 15-20 minutes. We are near grocery stores, malls, pools, shopping centers, and parks!!! To me that is so exciting because right now in Philly we drive a long way to get to those necesities.

We are thrilled and can't wait to greet our new family member when we get to Arizona.








Kitchen

bathroom

bathroom


The view of the pool from our window