Recap

I admittedly am not the best blogger in the world. It's not because I don't have a million and one pictures of the cutest little boy in the whole world, because I do. I'm just not sure how much everyone else wants to see them. However, I do have some really fun things (at least in my oh-so-proud-mother-ly mind) to share with you.

Dane's first experience with food:
(it's kind of a long video, but I think it's darling in my completely unbiased opinion, of course)

Sorry, I can't figure out how to turn it...

Tummy time:My parents and I went to Boise to my cousin's mission farewell, and while we were there we visited my Grandparent's grave. My grandma passed away 3.5 years ago, and I really miss her. She was one amazing woman. It was the first time I have been back to her grave-site since. This is the first picture of Dane sitting up all by himself, and I love it because it's like he's looking at the headstone. I really like to think that he already knows my incredible grandparents. I just wish they were here. They would be the greatest great-grandparents.

He did get to meet Uncle Bill. He's our favorite!

We went down to St. George for Thanksgiving with my family. We were able to see some of our very good friends, JR and Brynn, and their darling little girl Haley. We were going to surprise one of my dearest friends (we've been friends since elementary school) with a visit as well, but for the second time in a row, she was up here visiting family while I was down there. Blast! I was so looking forward to meeting her newest addition (she now has FOUR beautiful girls...WOW!) and seeing her new home. Kamille--next time we need to get this right:)

While we were in St. George, Dane cut his first tooth. He is such a big boy! I can't get a picture of it, because every time I pull his lip down, he sticks his darling little tongue out. It's still pretty small, but it's there:)

And some not so fun stuff: two weeks ago today I was upstairs cleaning when I heard a loud "pop" and then water gushing. Fun times! I ran downstairs and water was just pouring out of our water softener. The nut on it was plastic (genius) and just snapped in two. I didn't know where the main shut off valve was for our water, and couldn't figure out how to turn it off, so I was running around the house grabbing towels and sheets to try and stop the water from getting to our computer or other electronics. Luckily my mom came over with our friendly neighbor Dan, and he was able to turn it off (and show me where it is for future reference which I will hopefully never need). Brock came home from work and with the help of my wonderful father in law, we spent the rest of the day tearing up carpet and sucking up water. The good thing is I was here, and our basement isn't finished, so there could have been a lot more damage done. Also, the carpet was going to go at some point anyway, so it's just speeding up the process. Fun times!

Shower Fun

So when we moved into our house a year ago, there was only one shower. It was downstairs, and SCARY!!! Quite reminiscent of my shower days in Venezuela. I must admit, I didn't think that I would ever be forced to shower with flip flops on in my own home. Nevertheless, that was unfortunately the case. I'm not sure how the previous owners did it, but that was the first project on the list when we moved in...

Shower complete with custom shower-head.

Fast forward a year later...

Really, I don't know how it possibly took us so long to get this little project done. You'd think with the growing belly, and the sheer atrocity of showering in something so third world would be motivation enough! In all fairness, it didn't take us quite a year to get the project done, just 11 months :).

It did take us a while to find tile to match. The previous owners had re-done the floor in a granite that has all sorts of colors in it-pink and gray. Since I wasn't too keen on having a pink shower, we went with the gray. Lucky for us, there's not a whole lot of gray tile to choose from. We finally found something we liked, and Brock got going on the way overdue do-it-yourself project.

He did it all by himself, and did such a great job. There were a few set-backs that pushed the finishing date back, but all in all, it was a great first run at tiling!

Voila! The finished product. It sure feels luxurious to shower bare-foot!

Catching Up

Sorry for the delay in posting. It seems since we moved in, there have been a million other things to do. Thank goodness for Sundays when there is time to concentrate on other things! I apologize for the randomness of this post, but I've got to throw in all those thing that I have left out in the past month since I last wrote...

September is a fun month for us. We celebrate both our anniversary and my birthday within ten days of each other. Brock and I switch off who plans the anniversary happenings each year, and this year was my turn. Brock had never been up to the Alpine Slide, and when we went up to Park City last year for our anniversary, there was snow on the ground, so it wasn't an option. This year we went up and went all out. We went down the Alpine Slide, did the zip line (not necessarily as fun as you think it would be) and the new Alpine Coaster which was awesome! We had a great time. We came home, took a nap, then got ready to go do some sealings at the Salt Lake temple before we had our reservations at The Roof. It was a fun filled day, and a great reminder of our special day two years ago. I have the best husband ever! (Sorry girls, don't be disappointed, second isn't all that bad:))

My birthday was interesting this year. For some reason it was hard for me to turn 27. Perhaps it is because I'm now only three years away from the dreaded 30, or perhaps it is because I'm now a homeowner, which must make me an adult. Or perhaps it is because I was sure I would have at least one child by now. Most likely it was a combination of all those things. But it was a great birthday nonetheless. It's always nice to be surrounded by people you love. As I have grown up, presents have become less and less important, and time with family and great friends has become what I really want for my birthday. The celebration was drawn out, as we celebrated with the Anderson side, then with the Barrick side, then with just me and Brock, and finishing gloriously with an ALF outing to the canyon. Thank you to all of you who made it a wonderful time of year for me! A special shout out to my mom who made my favorite cake ever: fruit pizza--you're the best!
We have been getting settled in our house. It is so much fun to have a place of your own that you can do whatever you want to! We had a neighborhood clean up day at the beginning of October, and we had quite a bit of yard work to do to get ready for the garbage trucks to come and haul it away for us. Our biggest project by far was taking down the ivy. I used to think that it was pretty, and though I still do think it looks nice, we will never again allow it to grow where we live! That stuff is INSANE!!! It is no longer a beautiful plant in my mind, but a pernicious weed! The tentacles on that thing are strong little suckers, and it took a whole lot of man power to detach it from our house. It had completely overtaken our chimney, and the south side of our house, and had actually grown a trunk! Who knew? We took it down from the front of our house, because it had started growing in to the attic. It has left an awesome residue on the bricks--any pointers on how to get that off would be very much appreciated.

It wouldn't be a complete update on what had happened in the last month if I left out our little guy, Cooper. We took him to the vet at the beginning of the month, and he had DOUBLED in size in the 5 weeks since we got him. Less than two weeks later, he has grown even more. He's now nearly 40 lbs, and when we go the little squirt, he was only 13. He's definitely a growing boy! He is so adorable, and we are so happy to have him! He is really learning how to "sit," and we are now trying to teach him to "lay." He's not that great at staying still, so "stay" is a little tricky, but we'll get there. He is the funniest little dog, and has brought so much happiness to our little family.
Listening to Conference this month, as well as reading an awesome book called "Finding Peace, Happiness, and Joy" by Richard G. Scott, has inspired me to concentrate more on my blessings than on those things which I don't have, or can't change. That has brought me to the new section on this blog entitled "Things I'm Thankful For." I figured if I was held responsible to add something new to the blog every day I would be more inclined to really think about what my blessings are, and be a little more creative than the typical things one thinks of. Though I won't necessarily explain all the things I put on there, occasionally there will be some elaboration, such as today... I work downtown, and every single day I get to look at the Temple and the beautiful Joseph Smith Memorial Building when I go to work, and when I leave for the day. It's something I shouldn't take for granted, thus the reason for "Beautiful Buildings." I encourage you all to think of those little things that are really blessings in your every day lives. I think the more we realize what we have been given around us, the more we will realize how much we really have been given.

Home Sweet Home

Brock and I started looking at houses at the beginning of the year. We weren't really looking "for" a house, per say, just looking "at" them; kind of scoping out our options, but not very seriously. We actually toured probably four houses during that time. Brock has been thinking about changing his employment, and we decided in July that we would look at the few houses that I had found on line, and if we didn't fall in love with one of them, we would put off buying a home until he found a new job. That way, he could concentrate on one big thing and put all his energy into it, instead of trying to split his free time between the two.

We were looking primarily in South Davis County. We both grew up here, and we both wanted to come back--at least for a while. We drove to one of the houses, and it was just the most dated one we had looked at. It had a nice flat roof, with painted white brick, and though we could have put a lot of work into it to make it look more updated, we almost drove right by and headed to the next home. But something told me to hang back, and think about it for a minute. We actually reversed, and sat in front of the house to talk about it. As we sat there, realizing that we really didn't want to have to put all the work in that would be required, a couple rode up on their bikes. They passed us, and then, the guy rode back smiling at us. We both thought, "What's up with this guy? Is this his house?!?" Brock rolled down the window, and the man introduced himself, and asked if we were looking for a house. We told him yes, and he proceeded to tell us that he and his wife had just put their home up for sale, and suggested we go take a look. They were a really nice couple, and we figured "Why not?" We weren't serious about it anyway; what would it hurt to look?

They gave us the address, and it was about five minutes away, so we went and looked at the outside of the house, and grabbed a flyer. The house has an awesome curb appeal. They did a great job at keeping the front yard looking beautiful, and the house was in really good shape. We both knew the neighborhood, and decided that we would take them up on their offer of taking a tour later that night when they returned home from their bike ride.

We called them about 45 minutes later, and headed over. We walked in and fell in love. They had updated the upstairs, and especially the kitchen just put me right over the top. The basement is a bit of a disaster, but none of it is structural. They had begun to remove the lovely wood paneling, and had started to put up sheet rock, but were still in the middle of the project. We walked through the house, thanked them for their time, and said we'd be in touch.

That's when we got serious about looking "for" a house, because we had just found it.

We loved that we would be able to put sweat equity into the house without disrupting our everyday living too much. We loved the neighborhood, and the wonderful yard (perfect for a dog)! We invited our parents to come over and give us their opinions, did some more research to give an educated offer (neither the seller, nor us were working with a realtor), and decided that we wanted to make an offer. Two weeks after they stopped us on the street, and we fell in love with the house, we had a signed contract. Less than a month later, we were homeowners. Things just seem to fall into place when you are trying to do what you're supposed to. We both feel very strongly that this is where the Lord needs us. And we are so excited to be here!

You're all welcome to come visit. We would love to plan a big get together-once we get out of boxes :).