More Space...

Our 950SF house here in San Jose is starting to close in on us...and even worse for JON since he works from home! Although we are IN LOVE with our ward and the location of where we live, we can't imagine living in a house this small for a LOOOONG period of time, especially if Jon continues to work from home!

So Alicia and Brett have been great at taking pictures of our house in AZ. The progress is amazing and we are getting so excited to be near family again. It has been 8 years since we lived nearby. We are also so excited because we can take some new exciting trips by gaining vacation time that we usually lose traveling home for the holidays - I know...very SELFISH benefit! and...we will be able to entertain more than just the dog and cat!

Any way our house was supposed to be done in November - looks like June now. The foreman at the site said that the housing market has slowed down so much that when he calls a crew to come out to work they are there in 30 minutes. He said a year ago they would have taken 1-2 months. WOW - in fact that made us feel extremely blessed to be doing what we are doing at a time like this!

So here is the house 3 weeks ago...courtesy of the Moeller's:

J just got back from a construction walk (pre dry wall and insulation) this week and here is where the house is from 3 weeks ago...

And finally - the view from our bedroom window - look at those mountains - c'est Magnifique! Oui?

The MOST important NEWS of all!

ALICIA is pregnant! Yes my little sister is almost 4 months prego-she is due in September!

She waited until the end of her first trimester to tell the whole family - little sneaky snake! And as you can guess my mom is KOO KOO for COCOA PUFFS about the up and coming grand baby....she squealed with DE-LITE from what I hear.

We are so excited to get to spoil and little "mini" Alicia or Brett. Jon was out there this past weekend to check on our house and got to see the family. He stated that he will believe it once he sees a bump! Ha!

But - here is a photo of the kinda "sick" announcement of their pending birth of a child. Keep in mind Alicia is a nurse and Brett is is serious jokester so this is very fitting. I did hear that it was actually Ashley's idea - she had stated that she wanted to get FETUS cookies from Alicia when she is pregnant. Something about eating a baby fetus is just GROSS! Call me crazy!

Jon and I made them baby's FIRST quilt and here is a pic of "prego" Alish and Brett with the quilt. I had so much fun making it for them. Auntie Keele and Uncle Jon are going to have so much fun spoiling their niece or nephew!

Blog Boycott

No - we have not held a BLOG BOYCOTT in the Elder household. We have just been CRAZY busy. And there really is A LOT to tell.

But FIRST - to Carrie Randall - of course I check the comments on the BLOG and I even sometimes answer - so there!

I do also frequent yours, Casey's and Maren's as well and leave comments from time to time so double there!

Anyway - life has been very hectic and it seems that we have been traveling too much lately. We are trying to get pregnant and our doctor said that we are not settled enough and need to stay in one place for more than 3 weeks. I guess that is saying something huh? Well, I think that is virtually impossible for us.

Alright - so on to the family DISH!

Valentines

Last night Jon and I had a HOT date and attended the Annual Stake Valentine Dance. We went to dinner with 6 couples in ward at Kyoto Palace (just like Benihana's) and then shook our tail feather for 4 hours.

We even had our pictures taken - apparently it is a really big deal here in our stake. We had a blast! It felt like an informal PROM...

It was so fun dancing to songs like "Gonna Make You Sweat - C&C Music Factory" and "Can't Touch This - MC Hammer" and feeling like you were 14 again. If only you could have seen all the peeps revert back to their cool 80's moves. We were so bummed not to get any "Vanilla Ice" or "Tainted Love" because we were really wanting to bust out our best moves.

Jon and I could not help wondering what we would have thought of each other if we would have met when we were teenagers. Timing is everything!

Here are some goofy self portraits that we took of ourselves.

Tonight we are having a "wii" party and going to be jammin with some friends to Dance Dance Revolution and Rock Band - I guess you never really stop dreaming - or grow up! I think I am a 14 year old stuck in a 36 year old body!

OMG - 36!!!!

TOES

Ok - here is our 15lb cat - no he is not fat at all - in fact he is ALL muscle. He is a beast and we refer to him as "satan" because he does things that deliberately drive us crazy. In the morning he knocks our clocks off our bed top, knocks pictures off the dresser, chews on shopping bags, lays on whatever papers or magazine you may be reading, claws at the sofa and most of all he loves to bite Jonathan's toes.

This is a story that I could not pass up sharing because we have the perfect picture to show how evil "palladio" really is.

When we were living in Philadelphia, we had this fantastic NY style loft. We wanted to put our bed above the bathroom which was the only part of the loft that had 4 walls. Jonathan built this really cool ladder so that we could get up and down and it soon became a jungle gym for our cat. He would run up and down like a maniac and leap up to all the cross beams in the ceiling because our place used to be an old warehouse.

Anyway - at night he would wait for Jon to turn out the lights and then literally chase him up the ladder nipping at his heels. It was the funniest thing - he never did it to me - only to Jon - he would even hide and the minute Jon would get to the first rung of the ladder he would start the chase. Jonathan hated it and even tried carrying a water gun with him to spray the cat on his way up - needless to say it did not work!

We have since put a bell on his collar to signal the warning signs of the approaching tiger.

Every since then "satan" has had an affinity for Jon's feet and whenever he leaves is feet out of the covers of our bed - he will attack and bite Jon's toes.

Last night Jon was laying in bed watching TV and all of a sudden - his big toe was chomped on and then palladio was out of site. The attacks have been more frequent lately. It may not sound funny to you - but it is hilarious to watch - mostly because Jon is afraid of our cat and getting his toes bitten!

Things you may not know...

So I got this off of my good friend Carolyn's blog and thought it was pretty cool...maybe you will too:

5 things on my "TO DO" list today:

1. See JUNO (the movie)

2. Go to Target (need toilet paper)

3. Clean the house

4. BLOG!

5. Look for flights to Croatia

3 of my BAD habits

1. Chewing my cuticles (usually when I am nervous or when my mind is spinning)

2. Rolling my eyes - I do it all the time and it gets me in SOOOO much trouble...I don't even know I do it - SCARY!

3. Blowing bubbles with my gum in exec meetings (so hard to not do especially when you chew ORBIT-Bubblemint)

5 things I would do if I were a Billionaire

1. Buy a house in Tuscany (Italy)

2. Take a trip around the world for 6 months

3. Start an Architecture/Interior Design firm with Jon

4. Pay off my parents house and buy houses for my sisters!

5. INVEST!!!!!

5 Places I have lived

1. California (Upland & San Jose)

2. Soeul Korea

3. Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh and Philadephia)
4. Arizona (Mesa & Tempe)

5. San Antonio Texas

5 Jobs I have had:

1. Personal shopper @ Nordstrom

2. Denim expert (aka Denim FOLDER) and Display Artist @ the GAP

3. Nanny

4. VP - JPMorganChase Manhattan Bank

5. Fashion Show Co-ordinator for Harris & Co.

5 things most people don't know about me:

1. I am obsessed with CLOROX wipes...I just LOVE them - especially the ones in the green dispenser.

2. I hum all the time - even without realizing it.

3. I love to play in the mud

4. I hate the smell of roses

5. I am scared to death of speaking to large groups - my knees shake and my lips quiver... and yet the irony is that it is a much too frequent requirement for my job!

There you go - I hope you learned something new about me.

The Big Build

SO - we mentioned earlier that we have decided to build a house in Arizona...we were just told that it will be done sometime between August and October - we are so excited. Suddenly all the walls of our house here are closing in. Go figure! We were back in AZ last weekend to make all of our design picks (my favorite part) and took a few pics - so here you go!

Here is our view - this is just a section of the panoramic view that we have - it is gorgeous!

SOLD - the happy buyers...I am out there somewhere...we were able to get a nice DEEP lot and we are not 5' away from our neighbors which is so nice!

Here is a picture of Jon - he found the architectural plans to our house. BONUS - my personal architect (jon of course) was able to snap pics of all 22 pages. This was the highlight of the trip for him I am sure! It was like finding the treasure chest for him and now he can see where every 2x4 and electrical wire is located! :)