love these things

'nough said

the finished product

last nite we grouted the backsplash which makes this project complete...well, kind of. the thought had crossed my mind to also tile behind the stove but i didn't say anything. then my dad mentioned it and i realized it was a really good idea. we have all of that extra tile and the end result looks so good we're gonna do it. it should be really easy, with really only 1, maybe 2 cuts, around the outlet. i'm hoping to get this done this weekend.
anyway. the grout work was messy, but easy. and we love it!

and it hasn't even been a year!

before the holidays, if you recall, we finally did something about our broken up counter in the kitchen. since then, we've had a hole in the wall and no backsplash. but this weekend we finally did something about it.
we ordered our tile on wednesday and picked it up on saturday. dave patched the hole (well, really he just covered it with a piece of wood since the other walls had wood on them) and then on sunday our good friend and master tiler, kevin brace, came over to help us out.
the whole thing went rather smoothly (which never happens with projects in our house) and we even ended up with a whole bunch of extra tile left over. so it wasn't even as expensive as we thought it'd be.
hopefully this evening we'll be grouting and be able to check this project off of the list. the next step is to re-tile the kitchen floor which kevin said wouldn't be hard at all...after the tile is all busted up and our house is a complete mess that is.
thanks for all of the help, kevin! it looks great!

before:


i was a little nervous about dave doing the cutting, but he did a great job. he made 2 perfect cuts on the accent piece and i don't think anyone else could have done a better job!:




finished (minus the grout):

reunited

our friend andrew erickson is a busy guy living out in the la area. we haven't seen him in years but on friday evening a group of us were able to meet up with him for dinner (unfortunately his wife, mary, couldn't make it...next time!) at what used to be dave's least favorite restaurant simply because of all of the "stuff" on the walls.
the food was great and the company even better. it was great seeing you, andrew, and we can't wait until you're back in town again!

hayden, talan (reaching for the glass of water which seconds later spilled all over him), jessica, jenne and joe villanueva, andrew and heather wood, andrew erickson, dave:
what happened after the camera snapped the picture:
jenne and joe:
heather and andrew:
i gave hayden a new video game right before we left the house. it worked like a charm as we didn't hear a single thing from him the whole evening:

4-20, dude!

i'm a little late putting this blog up because our computer had NO space on it for me to download the pictures. so for the past several days i have been uploading them all to shutterfly and then putting them onto discs so i can erase them from the computer. it's quite a job seeing as though i have about 2 years worth of pictures on here. but i have finally freed up enough space to download my most recent pictures.
so to you table 17ers, i apologize if you've been checking the blog and there have been no pictures. but here they are in all their glory.
7 years ago we were attending the bridge church in pontiac. dave and i were getting ready to leave that church to help plant another church. at the time, we hadn't invested a ton into the bridge and we hadn't formed a whole ton of relationships, so the move to the new church was not going to be such a big deal.
on april 20, 2001 we attended the wedding of eric shanburn (the pastor of the bridge) and jennie palsgrove (did i get that right? totally going off the top of my head). at the reception we were seated at table 17 with a couple of people that we did know but a bunch of people we didn't know at all. seated at the table next to us were most of our friends and those that we were going to go to the new church with. we couldn't really understand why we hadn't been seated at that table.
not long after being seated and making our introductions, we realized these people we were sitting with were 10x (maybe even more) cooler than those at table 16. or 18. or whatever number was next to us. seated with us was scott and susie loudon, matt and niki nichols, kacha and michelle azema, and when she wasn't performing her bridal party duties, melissa weckler.
it was the first time we'd ever met, if not ever seen, the nichols and the loudon's but we all hit it off immediately. after leaving the wedding, dave and i looked at each other and said "moving to the new church just suddenly got a whole lot harder."
in the end, things ended up not working out with us and the other church which was good on so many different levels. we stayed at the bridge until it shut it's doors about 4 years ago or so.
we have remained friends with everyone from table 17 and every year around 4/20 we have our anniversary party. now that we all are at different churches and spread out a ways from each other, it's great to be able to have everyone together once a year. this year was the first year that EVERYONE was able to make it, even eric and jennie.
due to crazy, busy schedules we typically don't find a date that the majority of people are available for until sometime in may. this year we were able to have the party on saturday, april 19th. the nichols graciously let us use their house. and thankfully, the weather remained beautiful so we were able to hang outside most of the evening!
table 17 now consists of scott, susie, estella, and samuel loudon, matt, niki and everett nichols, kacha, michelle, cielle and eden azema, melissa weckler, eric and jennie shanburn, dave, jill, hayden and talan skiver. we have gone from a group of 11 to a group of 18. it's been so cool to see all of the changes we have gone through and i look forward to another 7 years of celebrating our friendships!
happy anniversary, table 17!

dave, talan, scott and estella:
the azema's:
hayden and cielle coloring (hayden never does this anymore...it looks like he was doing it to get out of eating):
niki and everett:
talan, eden and michelle. eden and talan are just about 2 or 3 weeks apart. we tried having her teach talan to walk, but he still wasn't having it:
samuel....such a cutie:
talan. he's cute too:
dave, susie, jennie, melissa, eric, kacha, eden, talan, cielle and michelle watching the jumpers:
the favorite part of the evening was jumping off of the porch. even after hayden skidded across the concrete just the day before, he had no fear. and stella kept right on with him:
discussing what kind of jump to do next:
i wasn't around when this first started, but i can only guess it was all hayden's idea:

sam decided to get in on the fun too:
what we did with the kids:
matt and niki...thanks for having us!:
when it was too cold to be outside, this is what they did inside:
hayden and stella's prom picture:
it was a long, fun day:

bloggers ate my babies....back in business

so as i'm sure you've heard by now, my camera died on talan's first birthday. i went back and forth quite a bit as to what camera to get and after half of the population told me to get a canon, i did so.
for whatever reason, i still have not wanted to get a digital slr. maybe because i get pretty much what i want/need/can do out of a slightly more advanced point and shoot for half the cost. but i'm sure one day i'll make my way to a digital slr.
i decided to get two camera's as it was always our intention to get a small pocket sized camera since the camera we have has a big zoom and is definitely not pocket sized. sometimes you just want to bring your camera but you don't need a big zoom and just don't feel like lugging the bigger one around with you.
beach camera ended up having both of the cameras that i wanted for below cost so i got a really good deal on both of them. i ended up getting the canon s5 which has a 12x zoom and i got the small sd1100 elph.
i placed my order on monday and yesterday, at about 2:20pm my camera's arrived.
i played around with them a bit yesterday and was really happy with the pictures i took. in fact, one of my new favorite pictures of all time was taken yesterday with my s5.
here are some that i took. with many more to come!

one of my all time favorite pictures :these are few and far between:

it may look like his "sexy" pose, but when you say "where's talan?" he puts his hands over his ears instead of his eyes:
he loves shoes:
love this one:
stuffing his face with pretzels: