Dan

I am always posting about Claire, so I decided I should write something about Dan!  Lately Dan has really gotten into being an entrepreneur on the side, his most recent idea is a math game called Arithmedice!  It's a great game to teach math and would make a good teacher gift too.  You can see it on Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/Arithmedice-Math-Dice-Game/dp/B00INA8ZBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393650538&sr=8-1&keywords=arithmedice

I'm not posting this in hopes that you will buy it, I just think it's great Dan got an idea and made it happen.  Yay for Dan!

Update

I think it's high time for an update on our family.  It's something I don't do all that often aside from Claire's monthly updates.  It's about time I talk about all of us on this blog :).  But we will start with the star of the show, of course...

Here is a pretty good picture to sum up Claire:

She truly is the Princess of the house, but we wouldn't have it any other way.  Some might call us a little obsessed, but it's hard not to be with a face like that!  She probably gets tired of us kissing her sweet cheeks all day long.  People are constantly telling me how beautiful this girl's big blue eyes are and I completely agree.  She is very alert and loves looking around at everything.  

This past month Claire has been learning so much!  She isn't crawling yet, but is getting very close.  She now plays peek a boo with us and is learning to wave.  She's also getting her first tooth.  Time is really flying!  She is very content and smiley most of the time.  The minute Dan walks in the room she gives him the biggest smiles.  She is a great eater and loves almost everything she has tried.  Her new favorite snack are Gerber Puffs.  She could probably eat a whole container in one day.  Whenever I pull them out of the pantry she kicks her legs and gets so excited.  She is so much fun to be around, she brings so much joy into our home.  We can't imagine life without her.

Dan is busy maintaining his internet businesses while constantly coming up with new business ideas.  He just started his own web design company (www.thundersparkwebdesign.com) and also started a business with his friend selling specialty wrenches (www.cheaterwrench.com).  His next big idea is to start a roller rink in St. George.  We have gotten lots of feedback from the community saying they would love something like this.  St. George is really in need of a place for teens and tweens to hang out.  We have a couple fun centers but they kinda stink.  Dan has been searching high and low for a building that would work for the roller rink but has so far been unsuccessful.  Most buildings are too small or have lots of poles in the middle.  Dan has always loved hockey and I'm sure he will eventually find a way to bring it to St. George.  Aside from all that business stuff he is busy as a counselor in the Young Men's Presidency in our ward.  He comes up with great lessons to keep the deacons interested and he faithfully attends mutual each week.  He told me it has been one of his favorite callings so far.  

As for me, I am happy being a mom and a wife.  I feel like Claire and I are finally in a good routine and I think all my pregnancy/child birth hormones have settled down and I feel like myself again.  Claire and I try to go walking almost every day with different friends from the neighborhood.  There are tons of babies Claire's age to keep us company.  I also watch my friend's girls 2 days a week.  They are 3 and 5 and so far it's going really well.  They love Claire and constantly want to hug her and hold her.  They always say things like "This baby is SO cute!" or "I wish this was MY baby!"  They are funny and Claire enjoys being around them.  Aside from keeping the baby happy, I try to keep our home in order and I occasionally find time to craft or try one of my many Pinterest pins.  I just decorated for Halloween and I am SO excited for the holidays!  October is my absolute favorite month because it's my birthday (19 days away) and Halloween.  I am starting to get our costumes put together, but you'll have to wait and see what they are.  I'm also looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving this year with my side of the family and I can't wait for the Christmas season.  I think it'll be even more special this year because it's the first year we get to share it with our baby girl.    

That's it for us, life is great! 

Random Photos

I have some random photos I meant to post, but never did.  So... here they are!

Here is Dan at Christmas.  I don't think I even posted about our Christmas!  We stayed in St. George and enjoyed a nice Christmas morning together.  Then we headed over to Dan's parents house for a delicious dinner.  We also saw the movie "Wreck it Ralph" on Christmas Eve, which I thought was really cute.

Here is Dan's real Christmas present, a piano!  It's something we both have been wanting for a long time.  We finally have a house to put it in, so we got one!  It came a few days after Christmas and we love it!  For those who don't know, my husband is an amazing pianist (yep, I can brag about him!).  I love hearing him play!  He often comes home from work now and plays the piano while I make dinner.  Occasionally I even try to play a hymn or primary song.  I'm hoping to get better!  If only I had practiced more when I was younger.

The other morning I woke up early and an orange glow was coming through my blinds.  I looked outside and this is what I saw!  Beautiful!  I love where I live.

And lastly, this is me saying "I am 39 weeks and huge!"  Baby girl is due this week!  I can't believe this pregnancy is almost over.  I will try to keep everyone posted on what's going on.  Hopefully she decides to come this week, but maybe she'll be late.  Dan came on his due date and I came 8 days late.  We'll see who she takes after :).

Dan's 30th

I meant to blog yesterday to say Happy Birthday to Dan!  However, I was so busy getting ready for his big celebration that I didn't have time to blog.  I hardly had time to sit down.  I was busy shopping and baking and cleaning and wrapping presents and all that fun stuff.  But it was worth it and I think Dan had a great birthday!

He turned the big 3-0 so I wanted to make sure it was a special day.  I decided to do a theme where we celebrated all 30 years of his life.  I got 30 presents and they all had to do with his past, present and future.  I even asked his siblings and friends from growing up what he liked when he was a little kid, to make sure I got the right things.  Unfortunately there weren't too many 80s toys out there (maybe I should have gone to DI).  But luckily things like Ninja Turtles and Star Wars are still around.  And if you are wondering, yes it is difficult finding 30 presents! I think I went to every store in town, some more than once.  Amazon was also very helpful in my quest for 30 presents.

I also made a poster of Dan with pictures from his whole life.  Here is a little sample of some of the pics I used:

Isn't he so cute???  I love how light his hair is.  We're thinking we'll have blonde babies :)

Not sure what age, but still cute!

Middle school age!  I told him I would have had a crush on him back then :) haha

High school age... still would have had a crush on him ;)

mission pic!

The first picture of us taken together ever!  We weren't even dating yet. 

And here are a few pics from his party.  We were joined by many great family and friends.  I just wish I would have taken more pictures!  

The cake!  Thank you, Costco.

Opening his 30 presents.  The kids loved helping him!  I wish I would have taken a picture of all 30 before they were opened.  That wrapping was a lot of hard work!

As kids their dad would always make them a 2nd cake just to burn (that's what happens when you have 5 boys).  So I had Dan's dad help me create a cake just for the purpose of burning.  Dan loved it!

Love you, Dan!  Hope you had an amazing birthday!

Birthday Week

Most people know I love my birthday!  I make sure it is thoroughly celebrated every year.  I don't just celebrate for one day, but usually the whole month of October.  This means if I see something I like, I usually buy it and tell Dan "it's for my birthday!"  Or we might go out to dinner more than usual, or stop for cupcakes because hey, "it's my birthday month!"  I figure I might as well live it up!  And luckily I have an awesome husband who supports birthday month fully.

But this post is about Birthday Week.  I feel we did a lot the week of my birthday and I just considered it all part of the celebration.  My parents even came down to celebrate with us!  It also happened to be my fall break, which was perfect timing.

Here's what we did...

Saw Aladdin at Tuacahn!  We all really liked it.

"A whole new world!"

The next day we did a session at the St. George temple with my parents.  We were able to do some work for Dan's ancestors.  I love doing family names!  It was great being there and I loved going with my parents.  I just didn't love the part at the end when I really had to go to the bathroom (thank you, pregnancy!)

After the temple my mom and I went shopping while Dan & Dad went golfing.  This arrangement pretty much happens every time they visit.  My mom helped me pick out fabric to make a car seat cover and then we stopped at TJ Maxx.  Because what's a trip to St. George without a stop at TJ Maxx?

That night we went to the Piano Guys concert!  Unfortunately Steve, the cellist, wasn't there because his wife had a baby that day (good reason not to be there).  So it was just Jon.  But Jon always puts on a great show!  We really enjoyed it.  

My sister Jannifer & her husband, Danny, also happened to be at Piano Guys that night.  They were down in St. George celebrating their anniversary.  So after the show we met up with them for some Yogurtland!  I love Yogurtland!

Happy 2 years!

Parents!

Not the best photo of us, but had to show we were there too!

Then on my real birthday, my parents headed to Las Vegas for a wedding.  You see, when you are mission presidents you get invited to lots of weddings.  I feel like my parents have a wedding almost every weekend! While they were gone Dan took me maternity clothes shopping, then we stopped at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for caramel apples, and lastly we went to see the movie Hotel Transylvania.  It was sorta cute, but not anything I'd really rave about.

Once my parents were back we all went to Buca di Beppo for my birthday dinner.  Jannifer & Danny met up with us for that part too.  It was yummy (I definitely recommend their apple gorgonzola salad)!

We then ended the night with cake!  And yes Dan made my cake (he only had a little supervision from me).

Ahhh 26!

First cake Dan has ever made!  Turned out delicious!

Making a wish!

And that was birthday celebration for this year!  I think we did pretty well.  Thanks to Dan & my parents & Janni & Danny for celebrating with us!

I forgot to mention, Dan got me a serger as my birthday gift this year!  Can't wait to start sewing with it!  And thanks to my many other family members and friends for the phone calls, gifts, cards, facebook messages, texts, etc.  I felt very loved :).

Nursery Project #1

Last week I was wandering through the TJ Maxx... which this should be noted, St. George has the best TJ Maxx.  Seriously, I love it.  I never really liked TJ Maxx until I moved here.  You can even ask my mom, whenever she visits we always make a trip to the TJ Maxx.  Anyway back to the story... so I stopped by TJ Maxx to see what baby stuff I might find and I came across a little table I thought would be cute in the nursery.  My plan is to get a glider and I thought this little side table would be perfect next to the glider.  You know, so I can put things down while nursing the baby, etc.  Oh one other side note, I've gotten mixed reviews from mom's about gliders.  But my mind is already made up, I want one.  Now back to the table.  It was exactly what I had in mind and lucky for me, happened to be in the clearance section because it had a few scratches.  The only problem was it was a dark wood (everything else is white).  But I thought "we can paint this!"  So... I bought it.

I then decided to head to Lowes to buy paint.  Once I got there I wasn't exactly sure what I needed.  I called Dan and he didn't sound nearly as excited about the table as I was.  He told me all about the sanding it would take, and then the priming and then the painting.  It didn't sound like it would be too difficult.  After checking out the paint I immediately chose a lovely aqua color (i'm thinking aqua, pink & green as the colors for the nursery).  And did you know at Lowes you can get a little paint sample for $3?  I picked up some paint brushes and then went over to the primer and found the most amazing primer ever!  Ok seriously, if you are going to paint any type of wood with a laminate or varnish on it, you NEED this primer.  It's called Zinsser primer for all surfaces.  I read the back and it said it would stick to any finish, no sanding required!  I was so excited to find this awesome product.  Who knew primer could be so exciting?  I took my findings home, showed Dan, and I'm pretty sure he was impressed with my home improvement skills.

And then guess what happened?  My nice husband took everything to the basement (since it's unfinished and being painted anyway) and did all the work for me!  Love that man!  I think it took 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint and NO sanding (yep, worked as advertised).  Ready for the finished product???

I give you... Nursery Project #1:

Turned out perfectly.  And sorry for the really long story, but I find it important for everyone who has ever wanted to paint wood furniture to know how easy it is!

4 Years!

4 years ago today I married my best friend.  I love him even more now than I did back then.  He is such a great husband and I know he will be a great father too.  I was thinking and we have done a lot in the past 4 years...

• I finished college.
• We have each had 2 different jobs (post college).
• We have moved 5 times (and hopefully won't again for a very long time).
• Dan started his own company.
• We have found a place to live where we are both happy (we weren't sure that would happen... i like Utah, he hates snow... haha... very few choices there!).  
• We bought a condo and built a house.
• We've gone to Disneyland twice.
• And my favorite... we're expecting our first baby girl!

It has been a great 4 years and I'm looking forward to many, many more!  My sister in law tells her kids on their anniversary that it's their family's birthday.  I'm definitely stealing that from her (thanks, Katie!)... so... Happy 4th Birthday to our family!!!  I love you, Dan!!!  

Celebrities

A lot of you have probably seen me post about this on facebook, but Dan started something in St. George called the STG Cash Mob.  It was quite a success and he was even on KSL news!  You can see me too :).  Click on this link to watch the news segment about it.  I am really proud of Dan for getting this idea and making it happen.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=19732402&title=cash-mob-surprises-local-business-with-show-of-support&s_cid=featured-3

v-day & president's day

I know most people posted about their Valentine's Days a long time ago.  I am just now getting around to it!  Holidays are always fun when you work at a school.  I got a bag full of valentines from all the kids.  They were SO excited to give them to me.  I think the #1 candy I got from them were fun dips!  Somehow those just don't sound quite as appealing as when I was a kid.  Dan wanted to come home early and do cute things around the house for me, but I got off of work early and foiled his plan (sorry, honey!).  We still had a good time together though.  Dan got me pink roses (my favorite), I got him a game for us to play together (and a grill... remember from last post?), and he also got the chain on one of my necklaces fixed.  We then went to Red Robin and shockingly did not have to wait at all.  We walked right in and sat down.  It was great.

Over President's Day weekend my parents came to visit us!  We went to the Parade of Homes together (which I will blog more about later) and we celebrated my Dad's birthday.  The men also went golfing (of course).  Here are a few pics....

My parents! They are so cute.

My Dad and me!  I made him a boston cream pie.

Us!

In other news... a Gap Outlet just opened here and I'm so excited!  My friend and I checked it out yesterday and it was fabulous.  You see... the shopping in St. George is um... just ok.  But with the addition of Gap I feel we are moving up in the world!  haha.  It's kind of perfect because it's next to the new Old Navy and the new Dick's Sporting Goods.  So while I'm clothes shopping Dan can enjoy the sporting goods store.  I can't think of a better arrangement!  

Today is going to be a sunny, beautiful day!  We are going to be grilling with some friends this weekend as well as building more garden boxes and finishing up the parade of homes (so far we've seen 25 of the 28 homes).  Have a great weekend, everybody!  

Hello, goodbye.

Ok poor picture quality, but here is the last picture we took of Dan with his old Acura.  We drove it to Las Vegas Friday night to give it to his Dad (the original owner).  His Dad then drove it back to CA.  

We were talking and we had many good memories in that car!  Such as... our first date, we got engaged by it, our honeymoon, and it was the only car we had for the first year of our marriage.  

Here's Dan with his new car, a Nissan Maxima.  So far he is really liking this new car and I'm sure many more memories will be made with this car.  Such as me getting my highest bowling score ever last night!  Yep, 135! Ok... it's not that great, but I rarely get over 100, so for me it was awesome!  

glasses

Here is my Dan in his new glasses.  I think he looks smart and handsome (but i always think that).

We celebrated his birthday with Kneaders french toast, opening presents, a game of tennis (yes, in mid-December... it was awesome), relaxing, new glasses, dinner at Outback, and watching the new Pirates movie (Dan thought it was ok, i fell asleep).  Today the celebration continues with a yummy dinner and chocolate pudding parfaits for dessert (Dan loves pudding).

Happy Birthday!

To my most amazing husband!  Here he is with all his presents (spoiled! haha... but he more than deserves it):

What he wanted most this year was a recliner.  We ended up driving to Cedar City this week to get the one he wanted.  It was quite the trip!  We got there and it was 17 degrees!  I forgot what freezing felt like.  I also failed to mention we were both in sweatshirts- dressed for St. George winter, not Cedar winter!  It was also quite the task trying to fit the recliner in the back of the car and we stood in the cold for about 20 minutes trying to get it to fit (thanks to the worker who also stood in the cold to help us).  Luckily it fit and we were so happy to get back to our 38 degree St. George.  It always baffles me how just 40 minutes away it is sooooooo much colder.

Regardless, it was worth it.  The birthday boy (i mean man) needs his birthday throne :).  Happy Birthday, Dan!  I love you!!!

books, pictures and christmas trees

Finally! I have some things to blog about.  It seems I haven't been blogging much because we've just been working and that's about it.  But... here are a few things from this past week.

1. On Friday at my school I found out all school employees got 50% off at the book fair.  I was so excited!  I love collecting children's books.  So... I bought 3 pictures books.  I am most excited about "If You Give a Dog a Donut."  It's the newest addition to the "If you Give a..." collection (ya know, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, If you Give a Moose a Muffin, If you Give a Cat a Cupcake, etc).  I wanted to buy more books, but I restrained myself.  In just a few weeks the school district is having a big book warehouse sale and all books are 50-80% off.  I figured I would wait and see what they had there.  If anyone is looking for a specific kids book for x-mas, let me know.  Maybe I'll find it at the book sale :).

2. We just got our family pictures taken on Friday.  I can't wait to get them back!  My friend Jessica did them in downtown St. George and I really think we got some good shots.  We wanted something for our Christmas card and also we've never really had professional pictures taken of us before (aside from our wedding).  I'll be sure to post the best ones.

3. Yesterday we went to the Jubilee of Trees!  It's St. George's version of the Festival of Trees.  It is definitely not as big as the one in SLC, but I was fine with that.  I was always done about half way through the trees at Festival of Trees anyway.
We had so much fun!  I loved looking at all of the trees but we kind of wished it took place after Thanksgiving because we celebrate every holiday in this family!  No Christmas decor til after Thanksgiving here.  They even gave us slips of paper to vote for our favorite tree.  I also thought it was cute, they let every kid vote for their favorite tree too.  The last 2 awards they were going to give out were Viewers Choice and Kids Choice.  So fun!  Here are the trees we voted for....

I chose this tree.  I loved how it had Santa's workshop underneath.  Pretty awesome!

Dan chose the palm tree Christmas tree.  He said he had to because we live in St. George.

A few other favorites (too bad we could only vote for one).  The Harry Potter tree!  I really just liked the sorting hat on top.  I thought it was pretty clever.

The Angry Birds tree!  This was made by one of the elementary schools.  I thought it was cute how they had the birds shooting at the tree and the tree was tilted.  Oh and one thing I loved about the Jubilee is they had trees in different sections.  They had a whole section of just trees from the elementary schools.  Festival of Trees needs to do that too!  I remember decorating a tree in 5th grade with my class and when I went to see it at the Festival it took FOREVER to find.  Way to be organized, Jubilee!  And sorry I am not mocking Festival of Trees.  I always loved going to Festival of Trees.  I was SO happy to find St. George had a similar event so we could continue the tradition.

That's about all that's been happening in our house.  We are just looking forward to family coming this week for Thanksgiving!

shopping trip

Last night I sent Dan to the store to buy an avocado and chips for dinner.  What did he come home with?  No avocado, no chips, a Kindle and a Blue-Ray player.  haha... I sure love that man!  He always keeps life interesting.  Needless to say, I am really liking the Kindle (and Dan is fascinated by the Blue-Ray's clear picture).  So... anyone know of any free Kindle books I should download?  All I've gotten right now are the scriptures.  Moral of the story: Dan is not allowed to go to Walmart by himself anymore :).

And if you're wondering, the avocados weren't ripe and if there isn't going to be any guacamole then chips are pointless too.  He didn't just forget them.

25

Today I realized I never blogged about my birthday!  My most favorite day of the year and I didn't even blog about it... unbelievable!  So here it is, my 25th birthday story...

The morning of my birthday Dan made me breakfast.  I then rushed to work and decided not to mention my birthday to anyone.  Mostly because I forgot to bring a birthday treat and I knew if the kids knew it was my birthday they would expect a treat (because that's what you do in elementary school).  However, towards the end of the day the head Special Ed. Teacher told me Happy Birthday and she and the kids sang to me (ok, mostly she did... the kids kinda just stared haha).  I forgot she had put my birthday up on her calendar in her classroom.  She said she wanted to get a treat for my birthday, but had a meeting that morning and wasn't able to.  Oh well, less sugar is probably a good thing.

After work I went home and hung out around the house.  I then decided I needed to go shopping and do something fun for my birthday!  I went to a few stores, but didn't buy anything.

That night Dan came home and gave me presents!  He got me 2 Wii games (Just Dance 3 and Mario Kart), a cushioned mat for the kitchen, and an ice cream maker attachment for my Bosch.  We then went restaurant hopping!  We started at Red Robin for our appetizer and drinks.  We love their spinach artichoke dip!

The sweater I am wearing I called my "birthday sweater" because my sisters got it for me for my b-day.

 Then our waiter asked if I wanted people to sing to me and I said no.  He asked if I wanted ice cream and I said yes!

Yummy!  Dessert before dinner? Yes, please!

 We then headed to Red Lobster for dinner.  We were pretty full so we shared a dinner of lobster, shrimp & scallops.  Delicious!  The waitress also asked if I wanted people to sing to me and I said no, again!

After dinner we decided to get dessert at DQ.  We bought ice cream cupcakes and took them home because we had family coming (Dan's brother and wife & kids stayed w/ us that weekend).  We waited to eat the cupcakes until the next day because we knew the sugar would make the kids hyper!

It was a fabulous birthday and I really appreciated all of the calls, texts, cards, presents, and facebook messages from so many people.  I felt so special!  And of course thanks to Dan for spoiling me.  He's good at that!

My birthday celebration has even continued because I got my final present yesterday.  I have been wanting a steam mop for a long time (especially since we moved into our house with so much tile! Swiffer just wasn't cutting it anymore).  I initially got a cheap Shark steam mop at Walmart and it did not work.  It was one of those "you get what you pay for" moments.  After checking about 5 or 6 stores, we finally found what we were looking for last night at Sears.  I ended up getting this steam mop and I love it!  I wish we could have ordered it from Amazon (much cheaper), but they say my address does not exist (that's what happens when you build a house).  Anyway, I mopped all of my floors today and even enjoyed myself!  It works so well and my floors feel so clean!  Another thing I love about it is it works on carpet too.  Awesome birthday present, for sure!

this is halloween

Went to a festival yesterday and got our Halloween picture taken!

I know, we are pretty scary! :)

Life is Good!

Everyone has been asking how my new job is going and it's good!  So far I am really liking it.  Last week I helped out in the special ed. classroom b/c the kindergartners had not started yet.  I had a lot of fun working with this one 3rd grade girl.  She is really cute and we have become good friends.  I will still get to see her every day because I am always her lunch buddy.  On Friday we even had a princess party with the 2 girls that were there.  We watched "Tangled", made necklaces, and colored Disney Princesses.  The whole time I was thinking "I actually get paid for this???"

Today I spent my time in the kindergarten with the kids I will be helping from now on.  I help one little boy in a wheelchair get around the classroom and the rest of my time is spent as an aid helping out the whole class.  The day went well and I'm excited to get to know the kindergartners better.

I am loving working just part time!  The hours are really fabulous.  It's so nice to be able to come home and relax (and sometimes clean & run errands).  It is exactly what I wanted.  I can't wait til we move and I can walk to work!

As for our house, it is going to be done this week!  We checked it out yesterday and the inside is basically finished.  They are now working on the landscaping.  We do our final walk through on Friday to make sure everything is how we want it.  We are getting so excited!  I think our plan is to move Labor Day weekend.

I know I already posted about it, but we had a great anniversary!  The restaurant we went to was awesome.  We loved it.  It's a steakhouse but they also have fondue.  Dan got steak and I got shrimp and scallops.  We cooked them on these 700 degree rocks at our table.  It's neat because every bite is warm and you can cook your food to the doneness that you want.  We also tried the chocolate fondue and loved it!  I think next time I just want to go for the fondue :).

Dan cooking his steak.

Yummy fondue!!!

We've been super busy lately, actually.  Just this past weekend we had some good friends stay with us and we all went to Zions together.  It was an awesome trip!  I will have to post pictures soon.  Other than that we are just focusing on working and moving.

3 years!

Happy 3 years to us!  I can't believe it has already been 3 years.  The time has gone by so fast.  We are still so happy and in love!  Maybe even more in love now than we were on our wedding day :).  You know how in young women's they always make you list those qualities you want in your future husband?  I feel like Dan is all of the qualities I could have ever wanted and more.  I don't know how I got so lucky, but he really is perfect for me.  Dan, you are amazing! Thanks for all you do for us!  You are truly my best friend. I love you soooo much!  Forever! :)  

We are celebrating tonight by going to a yummy fondue/steakhouse we've never been to.  It's not a place we would normally go to (b/c of the price tag)... so we're excited to try it out!  And our present this year is our new house.  I can't think of a much better present than that!

coupon

Dan and I are going to lunch today and we are using this coupon.  If you like Olive Garden, you should check it out.  Seems like a pretty good deal :).  I just came across it on their website.  This is Dan's way of paying me back for always adding up his employees hours for him.  Can't wait to eat some of those delicious breadsticks!

Guess What?

We started our house!  Ok actually we just took the large deposit check over last night so that they can start building (it's always kinda scary writing large checks like that).  Now they are going to spray paint exactly where our house will sit on the lot and get our approval and then they can start building for real!  I feel like we have been waiting forever.  I am so ready to move into that non-existent house already!  Anyway, real building should take place starting next week.  You had better believe I am going to take lots of pictures of the progress. 

And you know what else?  Dan and I have been using those new tennis rackets like crazy!  We played 3 time last week and once this week.  We'll probably go again tonight.  It is so much fun!  I think it's the first sport I can actually win every once in a while.  Maybe that's why i like it :).  Dan is too good at every other sport.  Luckily with this sport we are both beginners so it's almost equal (he's still a little better).   

Lastly, my parents are visiting this weekend.  Yay! :)