Christmas again

Today wii were at the Bauman's for Christmas and wii had a really fun time. Lots of presents, but Dan told mii that his favorite one was realwii special. Wii hope to post pictures of it sooon! :)

December 25th

Christmas Day at the Totmans. We had fun opening gifts and Paul III was again excited to see his Larry Boy DVD that we got him for Christmas. Jacob was all decked out in his "ho ho ho" hat. I was extremely surprised by my gift - a digital piano! Dan and his parents had been researching them at Best Buy, got the big box home, wrapped it and I had no idea what it was. I've been talking about getting one for awhile either electric or a real piano but Dan has always been against moving real piano's so this was a perfect gift. I played for 10 years growing up but haven't played in almost that long! I kept a lot of my old music and will have fun practicing this year. I think I found my new hobby for 2008!

Paul III to Dan: "Hurry up and play Larry Boy!"

Jacob to Aunt Heather: "Ho ho ho!"

Better get practicing....

Never can catch him smiling in a picture, but he is still pretty cute! Look at those eyes.

I think this is as close to a smile as we're going to get! But it makes Aunt Heather so excited she can't center the camera right...
Paul III helping build the snowman but eating snow at the same time!

The snowman!

Sledding!Trying to make a snowball

December 24th

Christmas Eve was a day at the Totmans with the Espensons (Bob, Marsha and Edna) for lunch and then we went to the Bauman Christmas at my aunt and uncles in Farmington. We had a fun time with cousins but missed Amber and Brent in FL.

Cousin Katie, Dan and Heather

Cousins Brent and Jake, Lindsay and her boyfriend Dustin

Grandma and Grandpa opening their piles of gifts with Uncles Doug and Jim and Aunt Sharon looking on. With Grandpa's birthday on the 21st of Dec and Grandma's on Jan 2nd, they get lots of gifts at Christmas!

December 23rd

On Sunday we celebrated Paul III's 2nd birthday and he was very excited to watch our Larry Boy Veggie Tales DVD.

His birthday shirt fit well with the celebrations

Our new newphew Jacob and I matched outfits on Sunday (Monday and Tuesday too!)

Jacob and Uncle Dan (don't worry Jacob, we aren't so scary)

Paul III watching his new movie with Aunt Heather and Grandpa Roger

Early Christmas Present From Dan & Heather

For those of you who do not believe in opening Christmas presents early, do not press play until Tuesday morning. For the rest of you, Merry Christmas!

We're done!

Well, we finished our MBA's! Our presentation went really well and our professor said that our business plan was good enough to take to outside investors now and we'd be able to start this business very easily. He said this was one of the best projects he's even seen both in this class and in the business world. Yea!!!

It is such a nice feeling to be done, so even though I need to get up tomorrow at 4:30 a.m. I think it will be nice not to have school on my mind!

Here is a picture of us in front of our computer, it is hard to see but the page says Congratulations because we are in the last week of the course.

Another Late Night

Yesterday we went out to the lake again to bring the vanity for the downstairs bathroom as well as the microwave for above the stove. Another great job by our Vibe to fit everything in one car load! I was resolving myself to the fact that I'd have to sit in the front seat with this large microwave on my lap from the Buffalo Menards to the lake, but no, it fit in the back with the 48 in vanity!


Dan had a frustrating day with his speakers. The first two went in ok (one in the upstairs hallway and the other outside under one of the dormers), but the last dormer one was a pain. Apparently when he was drilling he hit a stud and so couldn't fit the speaker in the hole he drilled. He's going to have to figure something else out and try again later.

I spent the day finishing the 2nd coat of trim on the last set of trim boards as well as the three interior doors our builder hung. Plus, we took out the four bi-fold doors for the guest bedroom closet and the pocket door and got 2 coats on those as well. I've now used three gallons of that Min-wax smelly stuff and think with one more gallon I'll be able to finish the remaining 7 interior doors plus the big french doors for the office. The tough part isn't doing the finishing itself, it is sanding down the wood between coats. I have a couple slivers in my hands to show for my efforts :(


After Dan got done with the speakers he continued on his quest for a horrible day and started putting together the IKEA cabinets for the wet bar. We'd heard horror stories about those cabinets before, but he did his best. Throughout the day I could hear him muttering to himself about us not getting the parts we needed, and that the pieces we did get were flimsy, and all in all he just felt stupid. After I was done finishing the wood, I came down for moral support. In the end I do think we are missing a few pieces, agree they are flimsy (we need to get some super glue for a piece that broke), and because our builder didn't build the area completely to scale we put together a cabinet that isn't going to fit. Fun times!

We finally got home around 1:30 this morning and luckily we're not going out to the lake again today. Instead, we're going to do errands, wrap presents, and get ready for MBA presentation tonight at 7 ct. They we'll be done! This will be a happy ending to a hard weekend.

Heather's finishing work on the knotty pine interior doors

Dan: "I love IKEA cabinets"