Pictures

We got some professional pictures taken for the office and for our marketing/brochures/website. Plus we just wanted some for our house. I think they turned out pretty cute! Well, these are a few of my favorites...

Luck, or Miracle?

4:30 - Tom leaves for the airport. He's going to Utah to work. His plane leaves at 6:30.
4:45 - Tom's gas light comes on.
4:55 - Tom stops at a gas station in Spokane to get gas
5:20 - Tom gets to the airport
5:25 - Tom boards the shuttle from the parking lot, sits down, looks for his wallet in his pocket to tip the driver, and can't find his wallet. Tom then gets out of the shuttle, goes back to his car and begins a frantic search for his wallet. NO LUCK!

Tom then calls me completely panicked.

"Well hun, did you leave it at home?"
"No, I had it when I got gas. I think I set it on top of the car and must have drove off."
"I'll get online and find the gas station and call it. Get BACK in the car and head towards the gas station."
"OK, but my plane leaves in less than an hour. There is no way I'll make it."
"Just GO."

We both say a little prayer. HELP!!! About 2 minutes pass when...

5:35 - REI calls Tom's phone. "I just got a call from a police officer in downtown Spokane that has your wallet. Here is the phone number. He said to call him directly." (Apparently the police officer called REI when he found Tom's REI card in the wallet and REI luckily had his cell number on file.)

Tom calls the police officer

5:45 - Tom meets up with the police officer in downtown Spokane and starts racing back to the airport.

6:05 - Tom pulls back into the airport parking lot, parks his car (in a closer lot where he can make a mad dash for the Southwest counter). He makes it to the counter, checks his suitcase, gets through security.

6:25 - Tom makes it to his gate with 5 minutes to spare!

Luck or miracle?

Tom checked for his wallet before he got to the ticket counter...
A police officer had his wallet...
He called right away...
REI had his cell number...
He made it back in time to park and check a bag...
Tom made the LAST flight of the day to Salt Lake (he has a full day of patients scheduled tomorrow)...

We feel blessed!

Surprise!!!

This is what my sisters & sister-in-laws were doing on Thursday afternoon. Flying up to Coeur d'Alene to SUPRISE me! I guess Tom called them way back in June and told them it would be fun if they flew up here for my 30th birthday. It only took him asking once and the next day they had their tickets! WOOO HOOO!!! It was a total shocker for me and I was TOTALLY emotional when I saw them all there at my house! I've been missing them all like crazy, and was just so surprised to see them all, including my sweet sister-in-law Amy, who JUST married my brother last May, and my sister-in-law to be, Tabitha, who is marrying my baby brother Will next month! I really just couldn't believe they all made the effort to be here!
We went for a little walk/hike to get some beautiful views of Lake Coeur d'Alene.
Then we got a famous "Hudsons Hamburger" and pie! We had to hit up some vintage and thrift stores before we left downtown CDA.
Then early Saturday morning, the weather was gorgeous and we went out on the boat! I was SO proud of my sisters for even attempting to ski/wakeboard/surf. Then when they did attempt, they were pro's!
Kate on the wakeboard:Rachelle surfing slowly behind the boat(and yes, she is 18 weeks pregnant with a baby GIRL!!!):Emily showing us all up on the surfboard! She was amazing! Our little family cheerleader is athletic after all! She's been pretending all these years:Way to go Amy for attempting! She's been on a boat all of 2 other times in her LIFE! she's awesome!Whitney surfs goofy, so the wave never quite treated her right! But after this she showed us all up on the skis!The only one I didn't get a picture of was Tabitha...who got up for a quick moment on the waterski. She's awesome!

To say the least, we were all exhausted and sore the that day and even more the next morning! We had so much fun!

We headed to the spa after the lake. Not just any spa, "Anew Start" Spa. We got the following treatments: a massage on a massage table with warming Jade stones (not pictured),

a 30 minute infra-red sauna treatment with temps getting to 145 degrees: (in just a towel...Emily and Tabitha were modeling here)

A vibration machine...or the butt jiggler: A detoxifying foot bath and chair massage, along with a foot and leg rub at the end. The water did start off clear. It takes the toxins out of your body and everyone's was a gross rust color by the end!A picture of us all after our 3 hour spa afternoon!Thanks to you all for flying up! Thanks to Tom for planning the big birthday bash. Thanks to Lizzy for hosting the big surprise party Thursday night! Thanks to all my friends here for coming! Thank you, thank you thank you! This was definately the best birthday ever! No bad memories about turning 30! (Except I guess I don't really turn till tomorrow!)

girls weekend

Last weekend I spent with some of my favorite girls on the planet! Since we all turned 30 this year, my old college girls and I decided to throw ourselves a big 30th birthday party and get together.

I came from CDA, Tiff from Utah, Pepper from Colorado, and Brooke from Norfolk, VA. We had an absolute blast together!

It was three days of staying up way too late (I think the last time I stayed up till 3:30 am I was in college with these very girls), eating out, watching olympics, going on the 4-wheeler (all together), a midnight visit to a "borrowed" pool, visiting Shelly's grave (so glad she was with us!), missing Lake and Mara who had to drop out last minute, Mama Mia, and tons of laughing, smiling, and fun!

Thanks girls! I had the time of my life! Thank goodness for Chipman Hall in 1996!

busy busy busy

Life has been SO busy lately! I need to get copies of some pictures I really want to post from our family reunion and a few other happenings lately but I FORGOT my camera! I know, how is that possible? Since I've been blogging I've been so good at documenting everything. This is really a good thing for me since I don't journal like I should. At least I have somewhat of a record of what goes on in my life.

We drove to Lake Alturas, by Sun Valley, Idaho, for a family reunion with Tom's family. Tom wasn't even there. 8 1/2 hours in the car...it was fun...but i was glad to get home. A crawling baby at a girls camp. The whole family in one cabin with two babies waking in the night. Need I say more? It was worth it though. Great family, great food, great memories.

Jane is crawling. She is the highlight of this post. She's just been so cute lately I have to post pictures. She is SO busy though. She puts everything in her mouth. She stands up in her crib and screams at me. But she is so fun. She took a bath with the boys tonight and was laughing at them like crazy! It melts my heart.

Here is my little miss blue eyes...

People tell me she looks like Braden and usually I just think she's a mix of the boys but not here...baby Braden or Baby Jane???
I was shooting pics of Jane outside and the boys decided it would be fun to all take a picture. Funny that I'm in it...usually I'm the one behind the camera!
Here she is scrunching her nose. She does this ALL the time at people. It's so cute!
The end.

7/11/08

We had a wonderful week of the 4th of July. Tom flew out to Utah so I drove with the kids over to Seattle to spend some time with his family there. Jane is just getting so big I had to bring her over so everyone could see just how fun she is! We got to see Heather and Logan who were there for a few days, and also enjoyed seeing Traci and her new baby Sam.

Jane is just moments away from crawling. Right now she gets up on her hands and feet and sways back and forth. She's trying so hard! She's just so cute!
We went to the "Seattle Chocolates" factory. This was so fun! I felt like we were in Willie Wonka's factory. The whole place smells amazing, and there is just chocolate everywhere! We got to taste some of the toffe Frangos right off the conveyer belt. It is really amazing to watch the whole process, and yummy too!
We marched and rode in the neighborhood 4th of July parade. The boys and Jake went on the scooter and they loved it! It rained early in the morning but cleared up by the time we were ready for the parade. I packed my kids summer clothes, and when we got there they needed jeans and sweatshirts...oops...only in Seattle I guess!
We got to spend some time with Tom's grandparents and they just loved seeing their great-grandchildren. I feel like we just have to capture every memory with them while we can. Time passes and as our kids grow up, our grandparents get older. It's great to see them in such high spirits and still going for life!

Life has been good. I haven't had much time for hobbies or other things right now. When I'm not with the kids (and man, I forget how much time an 8-month-old takes), picking up the house, or making dinner, I'm working on something for the business. Here is the latest photo of what our sign in front of our building will most likely look like. I'm still working on colors, and obviously the light blue isn't quite working with the background, but you get the idea. There are so many little things involved with starting a business!

Life Lately

So here is our business logo. It's kindof grainy b/c I couldn't figure out how to download it...it was in some vector format and wouldn't upload so I decided to scan it. After cropping it, this is what it looks like. The real one will be in a neat shade of blue and it is clear, of course.
Basically we've been really busy with the business. We are supposed to start framing any day now...just waiting for permits to come through. It's starting to get exciting!


This is a picture of the building. You can't see the whole thing from this, but to give you a better picture, there is another building exactly opposite of this one and it's connected by an archway. It has a matching tower. The tower, however, is all for looks...too bad! It would be fun to have a twirly slide coming down it or a fort up there!

Last week I had the opportunity to send my boys on the airplane to grandma & grandpa Dance's home in Bellevue. I took them to the airport, sent them on the plane, and enjoyed 5 days with just Tom, Jane, and Myself. It was heaven. I was ready for them to come home after the 5 days and they had a blast. Thank goodness for Southwest...$29 each way! We are going to make this a tradition. The boys getting off the airplane.

Grandma took them to Discovery Park and they had so much fun looking for sea life!They will never forget their trip to Seattle by themselves!

So that is about it for now. Jane is getting SO big! I have to post a picture of her soon. I haven't taken any in a few weeks...oh my...and she's almost crawling! She's trying to scoot along, it's so cute!

Graduation time

We seem to have a ceremony for everything these days. Not that graduating from preschool and kindergarten aren't momentous occasions, but is it really necessary?

OK, OK, So they were really cute. Braden graduated from preschool last week and we had the pleasure of hearing his class sign the abc's, their names, they counted to 100 by 10's and then 1's, and they sang a few cute songs.

Then today we went to Cameron's kindergarten graduation where we heard the whole kindergarten (about 100 kids) sing songs and then watched as one by one, they went up to the podeum, shook hands with their teacher, accepted their certificate and stood on the X to take a picture.
They were both really cute and I'm really proud of my boys. They have come a LONG way this year and both really come out of their shell. Don't get me wrong, they are still both totally shy and freaked out at the thought of giving a talk in primary, but it's been so good for me to see them grow up this year and watch them interact with other adults and kiddos in a school setting. I must be doing something right because as crazy as my boys are at home, both their teachers tell me how well behaved they are and plesant to have in their classes.

Congratulations Braden!

Doing the pledge...oops, wrong hand Braden!

Cameron with his teacher, Mrs. English.Cam with his kindergarten buddies.

Me and my handsome boy! (he just ate a blue cupcake & you can see the blue on his teeth!)

Braden's Birthday

Thank you everyone for your birthday suggestions! It definately gave me some ideas...in the end I got him

1. a new pair of Keen sandals for summertime

2. a mini skateboard for the cul-de-sac (to add to the bloody knees of summer)

3. a boogie board (for the hours we spend each week at the lake)

4. a playground ball for the back yard (kickball anyone?)

We had a "party" at Jump-a-Lot. The kids had a blast.

We topped it off with a Pizza Party at our favorite pizza place. We took over the place but the kids had a great time!

I can't believe my little boy is 5 years old!

Braden is such a sweet boy. He really is my tender hearted kid. He loves babies and the other day asked me if he could go next door to play with baby Jackson (our darling 1 year old neighbor). He is my kid that is SO stubborn. He is very particular about what he wears. He could spend an hour in front of the mirror doing his hair (wetting it, re-wetting it, combing it, re-combing it). He takes his own sweet time when we do anything (there is no such thing as "Braden, quickly jump in the car"...he needs sufficient warning so he can finish whatever he is doing). He is my kid that you can bribe to do about anything for a piece of candy (including quickly getting in the car)! Then when he gets the candy, he'll bite it in half and give half to you if you ask. He will do ANYthing for his sister Jane, who he just adores!

I love that boy!

HELP!!!

Braden's birthday is this Wednesday and I have NO IDEA what to get him! You'd think with Braden being my second boy I'd have some clue but I don't. We have plenty of legos and playmobil guys. I'm going to start Kinex next Christmas but I'm not ready to delve into that one right now. He's already getting Cameron's hand-me-down bike (while Cam gets a brand new bigger one...the life of a first child!), and he got a scooter for Christmas last year. So please, if you have any ideas of gifts to give my darling almost 5-year-old boy, please share! I'm at a loss.

A taste of summer

It's finally warming up! We've enjoyed a few 80+ degree days and will get a few more before it cools off again next week. So today I made a major Costco run. What did I get? Well, water bottles, strawberries, sunscreen, watermelon, some food storage (yeah, we'll save that for another post) in addition to the "regulars". I've already picked up my huge, double beach towel and beach umbrella, to go with my buckets, shovels, and the sand at the beach!

What else comes with this time of year? Well, we've already planted a few shrubs and annuals, and will enjoy a fun Saturday planting the garden!

Can you tell I'm just REALLY happy that it's warm? After enduring the longest winter in history (quite literally), with very few complaints, I think we all deserve some sun! (Braden is riding our neighbors motorcycle.)

On another note, we are quite excited that our dad comes home today! Tom's been gone for the week and now he'll be home for a whole month before he has to travel again! Yipee! Although he will be working on the new business, which will be crazy for him, but at least he'll be here at bedtime.

I had to post a few of Jane. She's sitting up, eating food (thus the messy face), and just really brings so many smiles to everyone in our family! She loves her brothers so much and they both think that they are her favorite!

Here we go...

So we did it. Tom signed the lease today for a building space about 2 miles from our home. We have been in the works for some time now, but it finally is official. Now it's plans, plans, and more plans. And a lot of stress to go along with it. Yippee!
whew...here we go!

I forgot to put in a picture of my baby all dressed up for the wedding! She was so smiley and cute!