Nieces & Nephews

Got my baby fix this weekend, finally (and thank goodness)! Dave & Koren came out with the trips & they are all so stinkin' adorable. Hung out with Jared & Yvonne, too and Mel & Jon. Everyone was there except Deb & Moffat - even though we had McCall until midnight Friday....

While the boys + Mel went on a hike Saturday, the girls stayed back with the kids. I took Tay & Bri over to our place to play some games, jump on the trampoline & have a little bit of quiet time. So I gave the girls some food & set them up on a towel outside to picnic. Next thing I know, Tay's teaching Bri about the Plan of Salvation - how adorable is that? "And there was this good guy, Jesus, and he was against the bad guy, Lucifer, and a lot of people followed him...

So cute! Glad for times spent with family, can't wait for Joy & her girls to get out here in a few days.

Holy cow - my baby sister is getting married!!

Getting Old & Loving Life

Man, Josh & I are now 27! It's crazy to think about, because we don't feel like we're that old. We had a party on Thursday - good fun, pinata & a spank machine. It was a blast. We missed all our family who couldn't be there, though!

Looking forward to this summer when Joy and the girls are hopefully able to come out for a birthday party for the grandparents. Already planning a trip to Phoenix b/c we miss the babies. Excited for Coachella - we're going for the party regardless of if we can get a hold of tickets or not. Ready to move into our new place in July...hope everyone's excited about helping paint, install flooring, landscape, etc. Our first real call in for return of favors. I know I can't wait!!

Sending our love & prayers to Brianna who came down with pneumonia (a completely valid reason for missing a rad birthday party for her favorite uncle & aunt). Hope she gets better soon!

We love you all so much & are so grateful for family that is close in proximity (mostly) and heart especially. Happy Sunday!

Phoenix, AZ

Just got in early this morning from Phoenix. We had a lot of fun just spending time with Dave & Koren and the babies. They're growing up so fast & we're so glad to be able to be a part of it. Luckily, AZ is a drivable distance.

Josh & I ran the Rock N Roll Half Marathon. We both met our goals - mine was to come in under 2 hours & his was to survive :) He's doing much better than me today b/c I didn't stretch so much. At least I thought ahead enough to take the day off from work!

We got a treat yesterday - Wendy invited us to dinner at her place before we left. All the hype was right on. She's a super mom who makes delightful food. We had a great time & delayed a few hours b/c we were hanging out. I'll have to get her breadstick recipe & post it. I'm ready to make it already, they were so good!

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!

Yay for our toaster oven

OK, I've always been a believer in toaster ovens. No question there, they're great. When I moved out on my own, Josh used to come hang out after work & I'd make dinner for the both of us - usually something that worked perfectly in a toaster oven - like chicken & veggies - one pan kind of thing. So it made sense that 1 thing we kind of splurged on with our giftcards from Bed Bath & Beyond after the wedding was a higher quality toaster oven. It has a convection (no Kim, not confection - that's candy, silly), setting, can fit an entire 10" pizza (that's a bit tricky, but I've heard works really well if you remember to rotate it mid-way), toasts, bakes, broils, you name it you got it, right?

So here's the excitement. Back in the day I could've been the poster child for Bagel Bites. Pizza in the morning - check, pizza in the evening - check, pizza at suppertime - you get it. I have since married a guy who completely spoils me when it comes to meals, so I rarely resort to Bagel Bites. But today I had some in the freezer (oh yeah, thanks mom!) & Josh is gone. I already spent an early lunch break going for a run & I'm hungry, so I popped some in. Here's how it works - 13 min on the highest setting under the bake function at mom & dad's. Get this - 8 min in mine @ 400 on convection. Hell YES!

I say again, Yay for our toaster oven! Here's to money WELL spent! I will say also that I have some individual-portioned cookie dough in the freezer that works perfectly here as well, I may go for that later & embrace yet again the joy that is the toaster oven. Cheers!

What is this, a joke?

First off, my lack of posting isn't due to our inactivity, or even a lack of personal interest; Dana has been doing a perfectly adequate job of not only blogging about what we've up to, but reminding me that this whole thing was my idea. So it seems we've been horrifically busy since we've been married, which would only surprise me more if Dana and I weren't so totally awesome. Labor Day weekend we jammed back out to PHX with some of the fam for the blessing of The Trips. It was incredible, seriously incredible to be there and to be a part of that, I feel like it's such a huge blessing having them added to our expanding family.

The next day Jon, Dave and I met up with a group of guys Dave knows to play some paintball, it was pretty wicked fun and we did a good job of showing that we don't mess around. Interesting fact, as it turned out opening season for Dove started that same morning apparently, and the first location we showed up to play was soon filled with half drunk hillbillies wandering around firing bird-shot at anything that stirred up the brush, we ended up taking when the gunshots we're getting too frequent, and after Jon and Dave got shot, seriously (just not seriously). The last round we played was capture the flag, and you weren't out until you said you were, basically it's a toughness thing, and if the 90+ visible welts were any indicator, I'm a pretty tough dude. I wish I had gotten a picture of it because with my shirt off I looked like I was suffering from some bizarre disease. Other notable things that have happened in or around the last month. We learned that there is a very real difference between "Phantom" and "The Phantom of The Opera", mostly that Andrew Lloyd Weber used up every one of the good ideas that could be associated a play about "Opera's being invaded by a phantom!"; also that "Cats" is not a very good play unless you're super interested in any of the following things:

- Actual cats

- Local theatre

- The physiques of people that are involved in local theatre

- Said physiques stripped down to nothing but form fitting spandex

- ...and acting like cats.

So yeah, if that's what you're into do I have a treat for you, and if not I'm sure you could look up the songs "Memories" and "Mr. Mistoffelees" familiarize yourself with those two songs, learn the phrase "Jellicle cat" and imagine a theatre nerd dressed like catwomen, and you can pretty much say you've seen Cats...

No Jay Maynard did not actually make a guest appearance as the Rum Tum Tuggard, but you get the idea right?

I Love My Family!

I have officially started my marathon training - thanks to Kim. I love my sister (not so much waking up at 5am, but it sure is nice to have someone who's diong it with you).

This morning we went running & she ran to the store to pick up OJ & brought me back a bagel. In the meantime, Roman & Isaac woke up so I got hugs. But then I had to leave. Isaac said "Aww, does Dana have to leave?" and I said "Yes, I have to work." :( Then Roman asked if I would come back later. "Like when?" "I don't know, maybe this afternoon." Oh, I love my nephews! Unfortunately, I had to decline b/c today's Henry's day & I was going to grab groceries on the way home for dinner that was supposed to be at 6:30pm.

So I got back to work & called Josh about an hour later. He said he'd do the grocery shopping today so that I could hang out with my nephews. I love my husband!

And I got to play with legos after work today b/c my family loves me :)

We should go to the Temple more often if these are the kind of days you have afterwards! (We went last night for Ward Temple Night - loved it).