Merry Christmas!

For Christmas this year Stephen and I wanted to do a family (including our dogs) Christmas picture. What fun that was! We got a little taste of what it will be like taking pictures with kids. Out of like 25 pictures, not a single one turned out right. Molly (the black one) did great posing, but Honey (the tan one) doesn't have the posing down yet. In most of the pictures she was looking backwards at Stephen, or trying to bite him, or looking at me, or trying to run away. So no Christmas picture cards for us this year. We do love our dogs. I took this picture of them for an ornament for Stephen. I am amazed at other people's pictures.

Junipers are gone! (well... mostly)

Yesterday Dad and Stephen spent the day getting rid of the junipers covering our house. We think that they are very ugly, so we're trying to get rid of them. Yesterday they cut them down, and pulled out some of the bushed on the side of our house. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks they will get the stumps out.

Newport Beach Trip

Last weekend we took a trip to Newport Beach. There we stayed at this beach home on Balboa Island. The home belongs to the family of one of Stephen's friends from school, Brandon. We stayed with two other couples, Brandon and Natalia, and Jared and Aubrey, both from Stephen's program. Friday after we got there, we went to this cool fish restaurant, than walked out on the pier. That night we also went to the local hoppin' spot, Dad's Original Frozen Banana, and got delicious frozen bananas. Saturday we spent a wonderful day hanging out and going to the beach. Stephen tried surfing and Chelsea boogie boarded. It was so much fun playing in the water thanks to some wetsuits of Brandon's. We are so sold on wetsuits, they just make things better. That night we took another trip to get frozen bananas, good stuff. Sunday we got to go see the temple there. It's about 3 years old, very beautiful. Different from a lot of the other temples. We really loved our trip to Newport, and had a hard time leaving. Vacations are so much better than work!

Chelsea's new hair! Well, hair cut that is. Chelsea grew her hair out and cut it to donate to Locks of Love. Here's her new do. After looking in all those hair magazines where the girls all have that funny no smile look, she just had to take one.

Living Happily

We moved into our house a little over a month ago, and are loving it. We've been working on the yard, and organizing inside the house. The day we got the keys to our house we also got a dog from the animal shelter. Her name is Molly and she is a black retriever mix. She is a little less than a year, and we love having her around. She is fun to play with, and good company for Chelsea during the day. She is still a puppy so she does enjoy digging and chewing up our hose, but we still love her.

Two Year Anniversary!

Yesterday was our two year anniversary! How time flies when you are having fun. Stephen arranged a special dinner for us at his house, and when I get there, there was a note that said to press play on the CD player for our gift. When I pressed play, it was the music from The Phantom of the Opera! How exciting! We're going May 23rd, we're both really excited.

"Our House, in the Middle of Our Street"

Last Friday we got the call that we had been accepted on a house we had made an offer on. Yippee for us! It's a 3 bedroom 2 bath house in Northern Turlock, just a block south of Cal State Stanislaus. We are so excited. It was built in 1979, is a corner lot on a quiet street and cul-de-sac. We should be moving in around the first of May. We are excited to set-up house, but will be sad to not be within walking distance of our families. Yeah, this is going to be our house!