Progress Report (Our New Home)

We were sent this aerial photo of our home site (furthest lot on the left) this week from our community manager and thought you all would enjoy seeing the location of our home. One of the reasons we liked this lot was the proximity to neighbors. We liked the fact that we will only have direct neighbors to our right. The grassy areas you see to the north and west are maintained by the homeowners' association and will provide some extra play space for out little guy. We also liked this lot because it offers more square footage than a typical lot.

On Wednesday we went in for our final showroom appointment. For this appointment we sat down with our Quadrant sales associate Melinda and reviewed all of our selections. We were given $30,000 toward showroom choices and we ended up utilizing all but $32. We upgraded items such as our roof, counter tops, cabinets, lighting, and added a bathroom downstairs. It took us a little over an hour to complete our selections and finalize the purchase price. We left the showroom feeling good about our choices and are now in the process of prioritizing the items we plan on completing ourselves (landscaping in the back, fencing, accent paint, fans, etc.). The actual construction of the home will begin in the next couple of weeks. We look forward to the actual construction and watching our home take shape. We anticipate our home being completed in early June, just in time to welcome our little guy.

The picture to the right is looking at Mt. Rainier from our driveway. What a beauty!

Our Baby's Beautiful Momma (Week 22)

If Karen isn't the cutest 22 week pregnant woman ever than I am not weird. I guess ya'll can't argue with that because I am one weird hombre. Karen is progressing along just fine and gets excited when she can feel the baby kicking. She took a Yoga class last week and really enjoyed it so she plans on taking the class every Tuesday and Thursday. Karen picked me up from the train station the night after her Yoga class and I could tell something was different because she was completely relaxed and used words like "duuuude", "faaaar out" and totally surfer/hippie person words. It took me a while to rile her back up. She has been collecting baby stuff little by little and we have been the beneficiary of many charitable individuals who have provided us with some baby basics and necessities.

We are coming up rapidly on our final showroom appointment for our home in Bonney Lake and are excited to begin watching the construction. We have a few items to finish picking out including the car-cleaning, dish-washing, floor-sweeping, yard-maintaining robot named Erik2. We wish!! Thanks goes to all of those who have made our purchase of a home a fun and exciting time. You are all welcome to visit us anytime!

Brycen and his motorcycle

Brycen,

Thanks for the laugh buddy!

A week with the Marler boys

We definitely got our practice in for our boy this past week. We watched Linda and Wade's boys while they spent the week in Acapulco, Mexico. We had many fun events and activities throughout the week. We started out cutting their hair Saturday morning and getting things ready for Sunday. Sunday Erik wanted to make cookies but much to his surprise he had more than enough helpers to get the job done. Fortunately we were able to distract them with some goop (cornstarch and water) while the cookies were being made. We also experimented with mixing colors to make the goop even more fun.

As the week went on I kept the kids on their daily schedule; helping Spencer off to school, practicing letters with Kaleb and making sure Brycen was happy. But not every morning was as smooth as others. One morning I decided to make German pancakes and while transferring the eggs from the fridge to the counter I dropped four of them on the floor. Let’s not forget to mention on that same morning Spencer's bus drove right past him as he was waiting to be picked up.

The kids had fun playing in the snow, jumping on the trampoline, and wrestling with Erik. Friday night Kirsten came over to babysit so we could go out on a date. We saw National Treasure and stopped for some Cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory. Yummy!!! Saturday we took the kids to Home Depot where they got an apron and built a football stool. While Brycen was napping Spencer and Kaleb had fun painting their stools. (You can't really tell they had a blast from their pictures; but they did)

The kids were very excited to see their parents when they woke up this morning. Erik and I had a great time but are grateful they don't all come at once. We are still excited about parenthood and look forward to the precious moments children bring.

Thank you Spencer, Kaleb and Brycen for a fun week!