Happy Birthday Baby!

Happy Birthday Branden! I hope you had an awesome day. Marina and I are so lucky because you are the best husband and father ever. You take such good care of us! Plus we always have fun together. Thanks for putting up with all of our shananagans :)

For everyone else, here is a little bit of what we did to celebrate Branden's big 27th birthday. (He is so old!)

On Friday we went to Tepanyaki with the fam. Branden's parents even came down from Idaho to celebrate with us. Branden got to open some of his presents- running shoes so that he can start training for the Spudman, and a trip to New York for the two of us! We are going in September to see the Yankees play the White Sox in the old stadium. We are so excited! Thanks mom and dad for putting us up in the Marriott while we are there. 

Saturday Branden and I went out on a date to see Vantage Point (only ok) and to go out to dinner. It was great to spend some time together, just the two of us. Thanks Vickie for watching Marina!

Sunday we had lots of friends over for ice cream (Branden hates cake) and some interesting moments playing Rock Band. It turns out that Branden is a pretty good lead singer! I was surprised. :) Thanks to all of our friends for playing, and especially to Melinda for bringing the entertainment. We are so lucky to have such awesome friends! 

Final Lecture

I found this link on another blog and really liked it and so I wanted to pass it on to all of you. This speech is a good one and it really makes you think and reflect on achieving dreams and what is most important in life. It's about 10 minutes long but it'll be a valuable 10 minutes so don't disregard it. Disclaimer: I do not normally watch Oprah.

http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ithct48cqw

Disease

Those who know me best know that I have a crazy disease. It is actually hereditary- I got it from my Grandpa McArthur, but it skipped my dad. My disease is that I am addicted to architecture/construction/design. When I was younger I was satisfied to be constantly drawing up new floorplans. Unfortunately, now that I am older I am more compelled to act on my urges. In the last year and a half I have decided to move at least seven times. My friends think I am the girl who cried wolf, because I always say I am moving, but I never actually do.

Well today I took a big step! We put our house up for sale! I am going to miss our house because I have put a lot of work into it. You would think that since we bought a brand new house it wouldn't need any changing, but I have made many changes ranging from paint to flooring to finishing the basement. I have a very patient husband. Here are a few shots of our first home. And by the way, if you know anyone looking for a darling home in Herriman (4 bedrooms, 3-1/2 baths) please send them my way.








So goodbye dear old (newish) house. We love you, but we are moving on to a new adventure...

I have found a lot that I am absolutely infatuated with. It is just down the street from where we live now, so we won't have to make new friends :) It is a walk-out lot with gorgeous views. So, I drafted up some new plans (probably my 20th design) and met with an architectural draftsman. The plans should be done this week and we will put an offer on the lot as soon as our house sells!

Hopefully acting as designer and general contractor on my own home will cure my disease... at least for a couple of years.

Bathing Beauty

Hopefully my daughter will not be mad at me someday because I put naked pictures of her on the internet, but at least I tried to make them modest. (Note the strategically placed wash cloth.) Now that Marina does not scream through her entire bath it is actually pretty fun. She likes to play with her toothbrush or washcloth while I scrub her down. Sometimes she will even splash a little and smile.

After I wash her hair it makes this cute little curl on top of her head. If only it would stay this way after it dried! Instead it just goes crazy.

What a sassy little girl. She gets this dirty look from her daddy.

Ta da. All clean! Note her hair is already starting to go a little crazy. Ten more minutes and it is a random ball of fluff.