It's finally ours (after a few extra thousand bucks!)

Ok, so this is an old picture, but by the time we got back there today, it was too dark to take a new picture. The roof is all fixed and the house is all ours. We just can't believe it:) It just took a bit longer (3 hours) to close than we anticipated. We were about 2 min away from closing when our banker called and said HOLD ON. Mind you, we had already signed all the loan documents and the money had already been transferred to the lawyers, but all the sudden we could not close. The bank had just gotten the flood certificate and it said that the house IS in a flood plane and so all of the sudden, we have to have flood insurance. The appraisal of the house said that is was not in a flood plane. So now, we had no idea what to do. We tried to get a hold of our insurance agent (which took about an hour), then we had to wait for him to see if we could get and bind insurance that day. It was crazy. Finally we got everything taken care of, but by that time it was dark and we had to hurry home to get the kids. We only got to stop off at the house for about 5 minutes and then we had to rush home. Of course on the way home, JT gets pulled over for speeding. But, lucky for him, his license is expired, so he got a ticket for that instead of for speeding. So, after a few extra thousand dollars, we now have our lake home! It's open for visitors.

It's always something!

Just when I have about seven huge loads of laundry to do, my washing machine breaks. Somehow the seal ripped and all of the water leaked out onto the floor. So, in comes the repairman! James and Kellen were in heaven. He was the nicest guy and totally let James and Kellen help out. James was all about holding the flashlight, while Kellen just looked on. They were so cute helping out!

Baby (5) bump watch! Week 12!

I will regularly update you on the baby bump! So far, all is going well. I have been feeling great-no morning sickness or anything, just a little tired! I heard the heartbeat on Friday and it was 165 (girl?).

Not really a good picture of me, but oh well, you can see the bump!

Saturday/Swim meet day;)

Skylar and I headed out to her second swim meet this year. She did pretty well! She swam all of her 25's about the same (except for free-she dropped a second!), so when it came time for her IM, I thought she would swim about the same. When she touched the wall, she had dropped 20 sec.! I could not believe it. They had been having trouble with the timing system all day, so I made her go back and ask the timers her time. Sure enough, she had dropped 20 seconds. I was so proud of her!! Not to mention, now she is .2 seconds away from her tri-state time in the IM (or she could have made it, we are not sure what her actual offical time was). I thought there was no way she would make it in the IM since she had to drop about 30 seconds at the beginning of the year, but now I am sure she can drop .02 seconds between now and February.

Getting ready behind the blocks!

Swimmers, take your marks...

Skylar, you are not supposed to smile when you are racing!

An actual suuny day!

We don't get very many sunny days here in Northwest, Iowa during the winter months, so when we do have them, we jump at the chance to play outside! It was a bit windy, but we stuck it out. We went on a stroller/bike ride and made a stop at the park.





Brennen, eating some rocks! This kid is a vacuum cleaner, he puts everything in his mouth. He picks up every piece of dirt on the ground and tries to eat it. I just say, "what's in your mouth?" and he opens and spits it out.

We got our strips tonight. I got three and Skylar and James got two. You need all three to do your testing and get the next color belt. The kids are really excited about getting their stripes!

A run down of the wedding weekend!

I have uploaded all of the pictures on the shutterfly account, so take a look.

http://thedeanslife.shutterfly.com/

I just want to give you a run down of what we did so that you have an idea of what the pictures are. We got in on Thursday night and there was a family BBQ at Jen's parent's house. On Friday morning, we spent some time down at the ocean and then we had a bridal luncheon. After lunch (which was outside in 95 degree weather), we went down to the pool to cool off. Oh by the way, Skylar and James were so hot during the lunch, they decided to jump into the ocean with all of their clothes on. It was lovely taking them back through the restaurant when we were leaving. I could see all the waiters eyes going, "don't bring all that sand in here!" THen we had to get ready for the rehersal dinner where the kids got to do their trick-or-treating. Wayland, Wesley and my kids are the ones that are in the pictures! Then on Saturday, the kids spent the day at the pool, while I had to get ready for the wedding. Then it was wedding time and reception. We had to leave the next day:( We all had a wonderful time!

A few favorites:







There are a lot more good ones, so check out the shutterfly site!

Video's of Evan and Jen's wedding and reception!

I don't have much time today, but I wanted to give a little on the wedding.
The ceremony.

Evan and Skylar dance.

Wayland and Kellen.

David, Mormor and James!

Everyone had so much fun!

More to come...