Hello there

So, long time...

Didn't realize until 2 days ago that I hadn't blogged since Sept. It's been crazy! Work's super busy, we spent a ton of time getting Christmas presents together, and yeah, other stuff.

Let's see. Halloween was fun. We ended up getting together with our friends Scott & Sarah and went to a little party in San Diego. We got our costumes last minute from my mom (needless to say, our selection consisted of all girl costumes - little girls).

Thanksgiving was great. We got to enjoy lots of family time with the Hansen Clan. Dave & Koren's triplets are getting so big! I can't believe it. Loved hanging out with them & of course the time off from work. We even got to tag along with the babies when they went to the beach & played in the sand for the first time!

On to December: I made these sweet aprons for Joy & her girls. I was stoked about it when I came up with the idea. I had called her one day & she was baking with her girls. Thought it was great - I love it when one of our nieces wants to help out in the kitchen. I made these aprons, then mom & I went shopping for a ton of fun baking tools & everything you could possibly want for making cupcakes. We loved it & Joy said she cried, yes!

Then Grandma P & Leslie drove out to visit for a few days. We got to spend some pre-Christmas time with family. It was fun, even if no one's face looks like it in these pictures!

I had a fun time with Aaron towards the end of our family get-together. I wasn't yelling, we were being silly. I love being an aunt and having family so close!

As long as I'm bragging about awesome Christmas presents.... Not only did I put together a sweet Cookie of the Month Club brochure for cookies that our dept of 5 decided to contribute to each month for our bosses, I also had this spectacular idea: Take a picture of our hot dept in some funny pose (we opted for Charlie's Angels, the original idea was America's Next Top Model), blow it up to poster size & replace a similar poster hanging up in our boss' office. It was fantastic! I also sewed a radical laptop bag for Brooke & put together photo calendars for all the parents & grandparents. If you didn't get a Christmas present from me, it's b/c I ran out of mind-blowing ideas & would rather not give a present than give a lame one just b/c. Maybe next year.

Christmas was great. We got to spend a ton of family time just hanging out and having fun. We woke up, went to my parents' for breakfast & presents. Then to the Hansens for more presents & food. Then drove out to the Moffats for a little paintball action - my first time & I proved I've got cajones! Then rush back to Poway for dinner at Grandma & Grandad's and finally more time with the Hansens. Overall quite wonderful, but I missed out on seeing my cousins b/c we were running late.

OK, and drumroll, please. We're on to January.

First, let me confess: Yes, we did watch our own little marathon of "Jersey Shore" on MTV. Completely ridiculous - everyone is a complete train wreck. Just don't start watching b/c you're sucked in by how retarded they are. Thanks Jared for pulling us in! Other than that, New Year's was pretty uneventful.

Now to the week of the most craziness.

Meet our new brother in law. Deb got married to a pretty awesome guy - Jonathon Moffat - on Tues, Jan 5th. It was a small, rather adorable ceremony. Moffat's a great guy w/a cute family & I'm very excited for them moving down here for more fun people to hang out with. Congrats to them both!

On Thursday, Jan 7th, we closed escrow on our first house! We're completely stoked & plan on being here for a long, long time. It's in Historic Escondido (which is where we wanted to be), 1100 square feet, 3 bed, 1 bath. We do have plans to eventually knock out a wall & extend a bedroom into a master suite & throw in a fireplace in the living room. We've got plenty of room to extend it out, we'll see if that's something that's actually feasible :) Regardless, we're going to love it for years to come! We have renters in there, so we don't move in until July 1st, but it's working out perfectly.

Check out our massive backyard. I can't wait to get a garden in there!

And on the same day, we found out that Dan was coming home. He's been out of commission since April, and though I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, it's definitely good to have him back! We went to a movie last night with Jody, Darlene, Jon and Dan; it was great. I love all our family so much!

Happy New Year everyone! Here's to making goals and keeping them, and growing closer to those we love!