8/23/08

Holy Crap! Where did the summer go? Well rather than try to catch you up we'll do something better. Check out Rachel's blog.

Rachel started her blog in June, so I guess from now on just check out her blog for our family updates. :D

Thanks! Love ya!

6/12/08

Geez, I guess it's been a while once again... Time for an update. We were able to get the flooring, and it's almost all installed, just a few square feet to go! Eric was also able to build a stand and drywall it for the aquarium in the basement. It will be about 12 feet long so he's very excited to get it built.

Even Micah got in on the work. :D

Rachel has been busy with the boys and to help her get rid of some of that frustration Eric took her to the shooting range for a few hours in April. She did very well for her first time, and got to shoot a .22, .38, 9mm, .40, and an AR-15 (M-16). If that didn't help her relax then having her parents visit for a little while at the end of May certainly did the trick! It was great having them visit and allow us time to be away from the kids from time to time.

4/5/08

Looks like we're only 2 days late on a monthly update. Yeah us! LOL! We've been very busy, so we're really suprised we are even getting an update on here this soon. :D Rachel has succesfully painted the interior of the entire house including the new basement walls! It looks great but we are now itching to buy all those paitings we've been wanting to help furnish the living space. The basement floors are just waiting for that check from Uncle Sam; we have a nice Pecan laminate picked out that will hold up to the kids wear and tear. Eric will be buying solid Pecan and making and installing his own stair treds to match the floors, that is if he finds the time. He has officially launched his own business manufacturing calcium and kalkwasser reactors for saltwater aquariums. In a nutshell it's a way to keep calcium levels raised in an aquarium so corals have the calcium to build their stoney structure. Eric has built the website http://www.elite-reef.com which has a lot of information already but it's still being developed. He just finished his first batch of calcium reactors and as of today (day 1) may have already sold his first one! He plans to sell them online and through 1 or 2 local fish stores, and hope that demand will pick up and spread to multiple online vendors and other retailers. The feedback he is getting is very positive since he's pricing his reactors about 30% less than the closest competitor. Since they start at $149.99 there is still some room for profit, now we just need to build and sell about a thousand units. :D

We still need to take some pics of the house, perhaps after we get some paintings on the walls, but here's some pics of Eric's first batch of reactors and the garage while they were being assembled.

3/3/08

Sorry... Another 2 months have vanished, we really don't know where the time goes. We're finally through the holidays and in full swing to getting the basement finished. We have completed the guest bathroom, the guest bedroom and rec room only need doors, floors and trim. We are trying to save every penny we can right now to get the flooring purchased and once Eric installs it, the doors will go in along with the trim. We finally decided on a laminate flooring after spending the last week imagining if we had real hardwood and all the dings and scratches it would have from the boys. :( But the good news is that we found it cheap enough that we plan to do the basement, along with the entire main level and hallway on the upper floor. Once that's in we will use real wood to finish the stairs and then put in a carpet runner to provide traction for the kids.

We need to get some more updated pics, but here's the bathroom right after we finished it, all that is missing is the mirror, which is now hanging. We'll get some more pics again soon.

1/5/08

How is this for a quick update? :) We celebrated Micah's birthday today, he is now 3! We can't believe how fast it has gone by... We spend lunch at Chuck E Cheese and the boys had a blast! Below are some pics from the day. Also in other good news the BMW is fixed after the dealership discovered the engine was just flooded. How that can happen when it's fuel injection and wasn't started for almost 2 weeks is confusing, but at this point we don't care since it only cost us 60 bucks to get it fixed. :D

A quick nap before opening presents.

Clean Up was just as much fun!

1/3/08

Well the holidays have come and gone and we are just trying to get back to normal life or something close to it. We first celebrated Halloween and the boys had a ball doing so. Micah dressed up as a monkey, and it was a struggle just to keep him out of his costume as he wanted to wear it all day every day. Ethan made an adorable dinosaur and was so cute crawling around and causing terror.

Then came Thanksgiving which we spent with Eric's parents. It was quiet, relaxing and delicious - as always. We celebrated Ethan's first birthday two days later. He had a blast opening gifts and especailly eating his cake. Ethan tried to touch the flame on his candle and we all gasped which of coarse scared him and caused a sad breakdown. But he was over it quickly as he dove into his cake excitedly.

In early December Rachel's parents made a quick weekend visit for Travis', Rachel's brothers, wedding. Travis and his wife Kendal are expecting a baby boy and they were married on the 8th of December. We were excited to share their special day with them. Unfortunately, Rachel's dad was involved in a car accident while driving our Honda Civic. Thank goodness and most importantly he and Mom were fine, but the insurance company totalled the car. Dad felt terrible about it but it all worked out fine with his help.

Before we could start the Christmas holiday Eric participated in David Scroggins' wedding as a groomsman on the 21st of December. He and David have been friends since they were ten years old. It as a beautiful wedding but very hectic as we left for D.C. the next day on the 22nd of December.

We spent Christmas in Washington D.C. with Rachel's parents and all of her brothers and their families. We had a wonderful time being all together as it had been the first time in four years. We also loved being in our nation's capital. Eric had never been there and felt very in awe with it's surrondings and history. We got to see most of the monuments including the Jefferson, Washington, WWII, Lincolin, Vietnam, Arrlington Cemetary, Iwo Jima, and the Air Force Monument. We saw the outside of the Capital building, the White House and the Pentagon. We also toured the Library of Congress, the Simthsonian National Air and Space Museum, the National Botanical Gardens, and the Baltimore National Aquarium. We left for home on New Year's Eve so we did a lot in about a week's time. The thanks must go to Rachel's mom for watching the boys so we could enjoy alone time together and see as much as possible in our small amount of time. Rachel's parents loved the time with their grandkids and were sad to see them go. Rachel's dad has a year and a half left of his assignment at Andrews AFB and they then plan to retire in Colorado Springs which we excitedly anticipate.

We came home to a hectic pace as we had much to get done in a short amount of time. We immediately began looking for a replacement vehicle for the Civic. The pickings were sparce in our price range but we found a used Civic in great condition that is exactly like our old one but two years newer. We feel very blessed to have found it. On the other hand we were also challenged with another car issue as our BMW died when we got home and would not start. We had it towed for service, and we are still waiting to hear the results of the inspection so we'll keep our fingers crossed.

We've also been very busy with our new church callings. Eric is the Elder's Quorum secretary and Rachel is the second counselor in the Primary. We love our ward and feel blessed to be a part of it.

Of coarse the boys keep us on our toes as they are growing up so quickly. They are interacting more and more with one another, laughing and playing and unfortunately fighting at times, but that comes with the territory. Eric is still plugging at work and doing a great job.

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and we love you all. Enjoy the pictures and look for our next update. Take care!

You can see the pictures while we were in DC here.

9/27/07

Guess my summer updates didn't happen so we'll try to catch you up...

First, we finally found our pictures from our sealing, and posted a few of them here.

This summer has been a time for family and housework. Our summer began with Eric building a swing set for Micah and also continuing the finishing work on our basement, which has been a work in progress for quite a while now. Rachel's folks came into town and helped us with some extra muscle in the basement as well as some help outside the house. The basement finally passed all it's inspections so the time came to cover the walls. After 2 trips to Lowes and moving 70+ sheets of drywall downstairs, Mike (Rachel's dad), Travis (Rachel's brother), and Eric got all the sheet rock hung in the basement. Rachel and Rosemarie (Rachel's mom) went shopping for flowers and planted them in the front retaining wall. In addition, Eric was able to finish the fence, stain it, and build gates to allow access into the backyard on each side of the house.

In August we took time away from everything and headed for San Antonio to meet with Katy (Rachel's best friend since college), Chris, Katy's husband, and Jackson, their son, for some fun! Of course we went to our favorite restraunts, Alamo Cafe and Tom's Ribs, repeatedly and saw a bit of the city while Eric reminisced about growing up down there. Two of the days we spent at Sea World; it was so much fun watching Micah get so excited to see Shamu and touch and feed the dolphins! We had such a great time, even Ethan learned how to clap his hands while we were there as a result of all the excitement we were feeling!

When we got back home we were determined to get Micah potty trained, and after some advice from his Aunt Crystal to put him in "big boy" underwear he got it down over just one weekend! Granted, he'll have an accident once in a while, and he beats himself up for it, but he sleeps dry through the night most of the time! We're so proud of him!

To give an update on Ethan, he is 10 months old now. Ethan is crawling all over the place and pulling himself up to stand. He just got his seventh tooth and is growing up so fast. We can't believe his first birthday is just around the corner. Ethan has so much fun watching and playing with Micah, when he's not getting beat up that is. But he'll probably catch up to Micah soon and then Micah will be the one running from Ethan. :)

We feel blessed that Rachel is still at home with the boys, and Eric is approching 10 years with Wells Fargo despite their recent consolidations and layoffs. While Eric still works on and builds aquariums, he has little time to work on one for himself so we are now without coral and fish for the first time in a long while. To keep Eric's itch away we've bought eight dart frogs and will start breeding them once we get a large and permanent vivarium built in the basement. Eric has also been spending a lot of time working and building up his dad's salt water tank. Eric recently helped him to replumb the sump and upgrade the lights to dual 1000 watt bulbs! Yep, there is 2000 watts of lights over his aquarium; it is so bright!

Guess it's time for some pics, so enjoy and we'll update this again, hopefully sooner than later. :D Take care everyone!

5/18/07

Man, where did the time go? Sorry we haven't had any updates recently, so I guess it's time to post one. Today's our 5th anniversary, and we are going to breakfast and a movie tomorrow morning (Saturday). Ethan is almost 6 months old and just broke his first tooth with a second close behind! Micah is talking up a storm and entertaining us with what's coming out of his mouth. He's not enjoying the terrible two's but neither are we. LOL!

Here's some updated pictures, we'll try to get some more posted soon with what's happening this summer!

2/13/07

No major updates to report, but figured I'd post a couple videos of Rachel tickling Ethan.

2/1/07

February, Wow, where did the time fly??? I guess it's time for an update! Where to start, I guess how about Christmas since we've missed the last 2 months completely.

Christmas was terrific for us, we had Crystal, Bill, and Caden (Eric's sister and her family) as well has his Grandmother (Nana) in town and loved spending time with them.

For Christmas dinner we got together at Eric's parent house with Eric's sister and her family (in-laws included) along with two of Eric's cousins and their family's. It was a full house!

And here's some pics of Micah Christmas morning.

And Ethan's first Christmas

And no Christmas is complete without a Mickey Mouse Christmas. :)

In January Micah, turned 2 and we got a few pics of him, here's some small pics.

And Ethan turned 7 weeks.

Everyone is doing well, and Ethan is getting big! He just had his 2 month appointment and weighed in at 12.5lbs, just to compare, Micah was 11.25 at the 2 mo. mark. He's in the 75th percentile for weight and it's amazing how fast he's developing. :) He's already laughing and smiling.

Micah's still small for his age, but it just makes him that much more adorable. He is such a flirt, and every where we go, someone usually has something to say. We were at dinner the other night and our waitress just had to hug him, it was quite funny! Here he is enjoying some Oreo's and milk. :)

Click here to see what happened in 2006.