It's Coming Along!

I can't believe how fast Dusty and his crew are building our house! It's very exciting and so fun to share this experience with Nick.
We drive past at least once a day to take pictures of all the changes. Here are a few pictures to show the progress of the house. 

Week 2- Foundation and floor (these first two pictures should be switched). If you  look close you can see Danny in the picture below. He is playing in the kitchen : )!

Week 3

By the end of week 3 all of the frames for the walls and roof where up.

This is about 3 1/2 weeks after they started. The last time I was up there they had about 1/2 of the actual roof on, so I'm excited to go to see it today.

For the next few weeks Nick will be doing all the wiring and duct work, so the outside of the house won't change a whole lot. Go Nick! I'm so impressed with his skills!

The rest of these are just random pictures from my i phone to kind of show what we've been up to.

Danny on the trampoline at Mom and Dad's. We are loving this warm weather! Thank goodness he's finally learned how to jump in the middle rather than run right off the side into the springs! Just about gave me a heart attack.

We spend A LOT of time in the car. 

Between errands, subbing at all the different schools around town, going to see family, and constantly driving to see our new house, I feel like we're always running around like crazy people! But it's fun.

Danny is always ALWAYS playing in the dirt. We've stared taking his shovel and bucket everywhere we go, since he always manages to find some place to dig.

Nick took pictures of Danny waking me up from a nap the other day. Danny never wanted a pacifier, blanket or special stuffed animal to be his soothe. JUST MY HAIR. It can be frustrating, and some days I don't know why I even bother to fix me hair, but it's his favorite thing. Nick tells me I'll miss it some day, so i guessI should try and enjoy it huh?

Life changes so fast. We never thought we would be building a house this soon and in Pendleton of all places! Danny is bigger and smarter every day. He surprises us everyday with something new. For example...

On Sunday in church he decided he wanted to sit in the empty bench in front of us by himself. He was doing well sitting so quietly when suddenly he started shouting, "Oh crap I have a owie, Oh CRAP I have a owie, OH CRAP I HAVE A OWIE!"

I decided not to look around to see if anyone else heard.

Day 1

A few months ago I told Nick how much I'm enjoying living back in our little home town with our families close by. I don't know why I wouldn't still be happy here in ten years from now! 

What?! SARAH wants to stay here? The one place you said you would never live? 

Yeah : )

Well then, let's build a house.

Ok!

We decided on a little lot right next door to Grandma Jani (Nick's grandma), and we are SO excited!

Danny was excited about all the dirt piles.

We got a call that they were starting yesterday so we ran up and took some pictures.

Danny and I hung out while Nick hooked up a temporary power line for the construction process. Nick will be doing all the electrical, plumbing, and heating and cooling. That's the main reason we are able to afford to build. He's gonna be busy!

The hills are the view we will have out our back windows. I'm sure it will just get better as everything turns green this spring! 

Sick Day

Danny came into my room this morning with one eye sealed shut with goop, a completely plugged off nose, and a frowny face.

Friday is our garbage day so we snuggled in bed until we heard the garbage truck come. Danny likes to watch it out our bedroom window and then cries when it leaves.

The garbage truck came and went, and we decided sitting in bed felt pretty good, so we stayed there all morning! We watched movies, and even had breakfast in bed.

I guess he wasn't in the mood to smile for my camera.

Eventually I got up and ran on our new treadmill (woo-hooooooo!), and packed a picnic for the park. I wanted to cheer up my sick boy.

Danny was excited for this, but still not enough to smile for some pictures.

Every picture I took turned out so great in the sunlight, so I just kept taking and taking pictures!

That is until Danny turned to me and yelled, "All done camera!"

I don't know where he learned to be so stinkin' bossy.

Now we wait for Dad to get home.

Birthday, Wicked, and Easter!

Last week was a full and FUN week for us!

We started off with Nick's Birthday on Thursday...

We both had the day off (I've started substitute teaching, but I'll post about that another time).

Frosted flakes for breakfast, Abby's pizza for lunch, and Great Pacific for dinner = NO COOKING! It almost felt like it was my birthday too!

I found the idea of giving small presents on the hour on Pinterest. He turned 27 so he got to open one at 9:27, 10:27, 11:27, etc. Thank you Pinterest!

These pictures made us smile!

This is what Danny does when you tell him to smile for the camera! It makes me laugh!

On Friday we dropped Danny off with Grandma Lizzy and Grandpa Dan for a sleep over, and headed to Portland to see WICKED!

Joey brought his friend Kiera : ). They rode in our car and it was super fun. They are going to the Prom together this weekend, and hopefully I will be able to snap a picture of them all dressed up.

Here's the rest of the crew.

Sambo, Grandma Carla, Mom, Joey, Ash, myself, and Nick.

It was my first Broadway, and I can't tell you how much I loved it! I was on the verge of tears the WHOLE time and my face was a little sore from SMILING!

For any of you who haven't seen Wicked, do everything you can to get there! It is so worth it!

Nick and I have been listening to the sound track for years. The cast sounded just as good and better than the sound track! We didn't expect that from a live performance so we were pretty excited. The music is amazing! It's all I want to listen to this week.

The tickets were a Christmas gift from my parents. THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!

The show was on Saturday so we were able to make it back for Easter with Danny!

He still doesn't understand the whole egg hunt part, but he was thrilled with the gifts he got from his grandparents!

I stopped by Mom and Dad's after church to visit and eat all their candy.

I love how mom still hides candy even though we are all grown up!

Danny was sleeping so it was just us big kids running around with little pink baskets grabbing all the candy in sight. I think I got the most :)!

Then we went to Nick's parent's house for another egg hunt and Easter dinner. We had ham, potato casserole, rolls, shrimp coleslaw, and a yummy strawberry cake. Everything you could want for dinner on Easter.

Grandpa Dan hid eggs in the yard for Danny. I think Danny was more into throwing them than gathering them, but it was fun!

I really love living here again where we can spend so much time with family. Families are the best!

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend too! Looking forward to reading about it on your blogs!

Sambo's Birthday

We had a little family party for Sam's birthday.

It's been years since I was home for Sam's Birthday.

It's good to be home!

Sam is FIFTEEN! Can you believe it? That's the age you get your driver's permit in Oregon. I just can't imagine the baby of our family cruising' around by himself.

He's good on a three wheeler, so hopefully he will be in a car too. Scary!

These kind of family pictures make me so happy, but a little sad too. There are a few (or nine) faces missing.

We missed you Ben, Cindy, Devin, Amie and all the kiddos! I can't wait until we are all together again.

Families are the best!

Happy Birthday Sam!!!

Pictures from last week

I had two cupcake orders last week. These cupcakes keep me almost as busy as Danny does!

Cherry cheese cake and chocolate peanut butter cup.

This is a new flavor. Reece's Peanut Butter cup baked in the middle and more chopped up on top! Joey said it was the best cupcake he's ever eaten. Yessss! That's what I like to hear.

Saturday was a beautiful day!

The weather is finally getting warmer, and it makes me want to sing!

Nick went golfing with his dad, and then we met up at Joey's rugby game. These games are really fun. Rugby is so entertaining, and it's just fun to watch my not so little little brother take people down! Ha ha!

Danny had a hard time understanding why he couldn't run on the field with the big guys. He spent the first half of the game trying to sneak past the ropes.

Eventually he settled for holding a spare ball.

Everyone kept saying, "there goes a future rugby player!"

Not something a mom wants to hear. At least not while watching those guys crash into each other and then go limping off the field. Sometimes they have to be carried off. Not my baby!

So this cake was an experiment (and not very successful).

I wanted to make Nick's dad an ice cream cake for his b-day, because I know he loves ice cream as much as I do! It looked pretty cute before the melting began. We still ate it.

Lesson learned:

Don't try to decorate an ice cream cake that's still kinda soft. Let it sit in the freezer over night, and then you can make it cute.

So who's birthday is next? I need to give it another try!

Mom's Birthday

We had a little birthday party for Mom.

Here are some of my favorite pictures. Thanks to Joe for being the photographer for the night!

I made some mini cupcakes for Mom to share with her co-workers.

They were chocolate with creme cheese frosting. Each one had either a peanut butter cup or Twix surprise in the middle.

I was up in the night with the pukies and could hardly get off the couch, so Ash delivered them for me.

Thanks darlin' : )!

Ashley practicing her glamour shots.

Isn't she lovely?

Who knew we had a super model in the family.

Danny was so excited to sing happy birthday (one of his very favorite songs), and eat ICE CREAM! He asks for cake or ice cream almost everyday, even though we never have it in the house.

My hardworking husband was on an out of town job, so this was a great distraction to keep me from dwelling on that! I still cry when he leaves. I wonder if I'll ever get over that.

Thank you Amie for the beautiful bouquet to complete our birthday table!

Ash and I had big plans for a fancy dinner and table scape, and the best mint chocolate chip ice cream cake you've ever tasted. BUT with me throwing up and Ash in tears from a super cranky customer at Subway, we were forced to improvise.

Chinese and Mazatlan take out (picked up by the birthday girl, woopsy)!

And all the fixin's of an ice cream cake pilled in a bowl.

It all worked out. Happy Birthday Mom!