Has been a fairly busy week around here and desperately looking forward to next week when I will be on vacation! YEAH!! We are going up to Cutty’s at Okoboji for a few days to “rough it” in Mom & Dad’s camper.

This last weekend, Jason tackled another major “honey-do” job for me. He constructed wall-to-wall shelving for our storage room. We now have most of our totes neatly organized on the new shelves and can see the floor in the storage room. It is amazing. He did a great job on the shelves and it only took 7 trips to Menards to get the job done!

Here are a few pictures of Anya being silly and trying to help her daddy build the shelves.

Our good friends Brad & Steph Cathcart finally had their big arrival this past Saturday. You can see some great Jaxson pics and other stuff on their blog.

Aren’t they cute together?

Today we ventured out the 2006 Iowa State Fair to see all the sights. It was a fairly decent day weatherwise…overcast and cool, so we didn’t have extreme heat or rain to deal with, which made things easier. Anya really enjoyed watching all the activity and was such a good little girl all day in her stroller. She got to stretch her legs alittle in the pumpkin patch….here are a few pictures of her and the moster-sized pumpkins they had on display!

This is becoming a common scene around here. We have spotted multiple deer in our backyard several days now and enjoy watching them do their thing. It is pretty much a smorgasborg out there for the deer with all the brush and berries we have growing around the creek. I think Anya thinks they are our new pets as they seem to sneak closer and closer to the house everytime we see them out there. Good thing Jason has never been interested in hunting…..

We have had a busy last couple of weeks around here, so it has been awhile since I have gotten anything posted to the site. Last weekend, Jason and I got a wild hair Saturday night and decided we should paint our livingroom/hallway. It was a much bigger undertaking than we had originally anticipated and it took us all night Saturday night and all day Sunday. I was pretty sure we had lost our minds starting the project halfway through the weekend, but we survived and I am SO SO happy that it is done. Anya was such a good little girl while we were busy working and only tried to put her hand in the paint once. Anyways, the paint job looks great and now we have most of the daunting paint projects done and are left with smaller rooms to tackle.

On Wednesday, Kenny, Brooke, Tanner, Kaitlyn and Allie stopped by since they were in town for the fair. They stayed and grilled out with us and then Jason, Tanner and Allie played aerobee in the backyard. It was great to see them and nice to have visitors at the new house.

This weekend good friends of ours, Chad and Jodi, got married here in town. Jason was the best man and I was a bridesmaid, so it was fun to have both of us be part of the wedding party. They had a beautiful wedding and Jodi was a gorgeous bride. My mom and dad came to town to Anya-sit and I am not sure who had more fun–my parents or Anya! They put her wagon together that she received for her birthday and had fun taking her on wagon rides.

This afternoon after my parents left, we packed up everything to head off to the fair for a few hours. Unfortunately, on our way there, it started to rain cats and dogs, so our trip to the fair got cancelled. So, we are planning to go next weekend at some point. We feel like it is our duty to attend the fair now that we are officially “east-siders”!

Well, here are a few pictures of the last week or so. More later…

Here is our new information now that the move is official. Now that you have the address, we expect lots of visitors to stop by……

We think Anya has said her first official word (other than mamamamama and dadadadada)……….BABY! We aren’t really sure where it came from, but she has started saying “baby” and grabbing a doll she got for her first birthday. When we ask her “where is baby?” she trotts right over to the dolly and brings her to you. It is so cute and she gets SO excited whenever her baby gets mentioned!