Our Home away from Home

It is hard to believe but today marks the one year anniversary of when we bought the Lock Shop. It has been a stressful year with a lot of hours put in towards running this place (for both Preston and I) There have also been some restless nights filled with worry of how we can make things better. Many board meetings (brainstorming and discussions) have occurred while laying in bed late at night. Overall we are happy that we purchased the shop and feel very blessed during this difficult economic time. It has been an adventure that has challenged us and hopefully will continue to make us stronger.

This is our safe show room and lock shop. We have 2 guys that work the front here but they were too embarrassed to be in the picture. We also have 1 dispatcher, a part time bookkeeper and Preston that work in the back part of the shop We also have 3 on road technician that do the calls.

Here is Preston (and Taylor) working at one of the desks. This is actually our bookkeepers desk but Preston was sitting here when I came to take pictures. His desk is twice as big and is 50 times messier. Poor guy really has a lot of things he juggles being one of the owners, shop manager and marketing manager.

This is Taylor sitting at our desk at home where I do my work. The past 6 months or so Taylor will copy me when I work. She gets a calculator some papers an old keyboard and a phone and tell me she is working. And no I do not sit in that rocking chair when I work at the desk. I actually have an office chair or I sit in the recliner and work on the laptop.

Natalie is 7 months old

Natalie turned 7 months old today. She is still as bald as can be. I took her to the doctor today for a weight check up and she still only weighs 13 pounds 4 ounces. (she has gained a whole 6 ounces in a month) I guess we will take what we can get. She also has another ear infection and has started coughing yesterday. I slept most the night laying on the couch with her last night. So we didn't welcome her 7th month milestone in the best way. She still is a major sweetheart.When you see her smile doesn't it make you smile too. You can't see in these pictures, but in the past few weeks Natalie has grown her first two teeth on the bottom. We love you Natalie

Some Spring Break Activities

Today Nathan went back to school so our Spring Break is now officially over. I thought I would post some pictures of various things we did during our break. It was a great break, we had a couple days when we were in our jammies all day and other days were packed with activities. I posted earlier about Nathan and Preston going snowboarding, well during that weekend Taylor got to help her Nana make cookies. Look closely and you can see Taylor is wearing a little apron. SOO CuteOne day during the break we went to the zoo as part of a midweek activity that I planned for our ward to do. This is Hayden (Nathan's best friend) Nathan and Taylor. The height of all 3 of them is deceiving they are standing on a slope.

Random picture of Natalie hanging out in the stroller. She was such a good sport. She stayed contently in the stroller for almost the whole 6 hours we were there.

Snapshot of Taylor at the zoo. She is such a HAM!!!!

Nathan and Taylor playing at the splash pad at the zoo. It was pretty warm that day upper 80's. I had them wear clothes that were comfortable and they could get wet in. Taylor was disappointed that I didn't bring her swimsuit or towels for them to dry off. She eventually got over it and had fun in the water nonetheless.

We went to Sting Ray bay for the first time. It was pretty cool. I got to feed a fish to one of them. That was really neat and a weird sensation all at the same time. Taylor only wanted to touch the small ones and Nathan only wanted to touch their tails (except when we got home he wanted to touch the body and was disappointed that he didn't)

Nathan on the carousel.

Taylor on the carousel.

I normally don't let my kids do the sting ray bay or the carousel, but we got into the zoo at a huge discount so I figured what the heck let's have the ultimate zoo experience. I did however object to buying any food or drink there.

During the break Nathan played the Wii a lot. We went to the park a few times, celebrated a cousins birthday and Nathan had his cousin spend the night one time and Hayden another night. We also had our trip to Eagar for snowboarding and celebrated Nathan's birthday which I posted about already. We also had a yard sale which I didn't put too much effort into but still spent way more time in preparation then I cared to. All in all it was a good break but glad to be back in the schedule of school.

Happy 7th Birthday Nathan

Nathan turned 7 on Saturday March 21st. I can't believe he is 7 already. We started the celebration on Friday night. Nathan had his best friend Hayden come over and we went to Peter Piper Pizza for dinner and to play. Then Hayden spent the night they played the Wii, made a fort and just played. Saturday morning we ate comboy eggs per Nathan's request in the midst of participating in a community yard sale. Nathan and Hayden played until early afternoon then I took Hayden home. That night we had family over for hamburgers and hot dogs. Another request by Nathan. He received a lot of fun gifts. We finished the night with Ice Cream Sundae Cones, Ice Cream Sandwiches and Ice Cream bars. (Nathan doesn't like cupcakes so we put a candle in the top of the ice cream sundae cone.) In the words of Nathan it was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!! We Love You Nathan Happy Birthday.This is Nathan when he turned 6.

Nathan on his 5th Birthday

Nathan on his 4th Birthday

These are the only pictures I have of Nathan on the computer. Prior to this we used the ancient camera with actual film not digital.