Our House

So the question Don and I hear the most (besides what gender our baby is,) would be when are we going to be invited to see your house or when will you post pictures of your house up so we can see it. Well, today you get your wish! Well... to see pictures of the house that is. Before we delve into the pictures though I want to give a special thank you to everyone who helped us with this HUGE undertaking thus far. We had A LOT of help so if I missed anyone please excuse my error.

Thank you to Ben Smith for all the plumbing services you have provided for us. Everything from installing our bath tub/toilets, helping Don demo the kitchen and bathroom as well as hooking up plumbing and such. That was such a huge help. We could not have done all that ourselves seeing as we don't know the first thing about plumbing. :o) Ben Smith is currently trying to start his own plumbing business. He is a hard worker and a great plumber. I would highly recommend him to anyone. Once you get your website Ben, let us know and we will post a link to it.

Thank you to Ray Basso for helping us with our A/C. From the first time we turned it on and it leaked all over our kitchen and laundry room floor... you really saved our butts. Thanks for coming over and fixing the condensate lines so it wouldn't leak anymore. Also, thank you for coming over and hooking up the unit properly/sealing the hole the previous tenants created when they tried to install the A/C unit themselves. You were a huge help. Ray Basso also owns his own heating and air conditioning company. Of course we would highly recommend his services too. Everyone we have recommended him to has been very pleased with his work as well. His website is http://www.airflowsd.com/

Thank you to Daddy Don! He provided us with much needed tools and of course knowledge and help. My Don was constantly calling his Dad for advice and help on various projects. We are so grateful to have that outlet to turn to. He also helped Don install the cabinets in the kitchen and the floors down stairs among many other projects we had going on. We didn't know the first thing about doing any of that stuff and he came right in with the right tools and helped his son get the job done. Thank you so much!

Thank you to Willie Carbajal too. Willie is Don's Uncle and he was a huge help when we installed the floors down stairs too.

Thank you to Joey Dene' and his crew for installing the carpet upstairs. We love it and couldn't be more happier with the carpet. The carpet that was in there before was nasty! The first day you guys laid it down I full on laid on the carpet and didn't want to get up. Plus I absolutely love the smell of new carpet!

Thank you to Don's Step Mom Amy Horn for coming over many days to paint, paint, and paint some more! You helped paint so many rooms, doors and molding in our house. You were a huge help. And you were the only one brave enough to scale our vaulted ceilings in the stair well. Even though the boys all chickened out, you said no problem and got up there and got the job done! It looks beautiful too! You were also a huge help when we moved. Thank you so much, you rocked!

Thank you to Don's Mom, Gina Horn. You helped with many things too. From painting, to moving to helping us unpack and finding places for all our crap. You helped motivate us to do a lot of stuff when we just wanted to give up. You were a huge strength for my husband when he was ready to say forget it, I am done. Especially with the painting! I know he was so fed up with it by the time we got to the kitchen. He was so over it and I was so busy with my weddings that it seemed like it would never get done. You came in and said "let's get it done, give me a brush and let's finish this." You also gave us great ideas for decorating. I had a lot of fun going shopping with you and finding things to make our house more "homey." You still are in the process of helping us with that... namely our curtains, downstairs bathroom and soon to be our baby room!!! You are awesome!

Thank you to Don's brother Jon Horn. Jon came over on his day off to help me paint rooms too. Namely the baby's room so your soon to be nephew or niece thanks you too! :o) That room was a pain too since it was all blue including the ceiling. He also helped paint other parts of our house. I am also grateful for you helping us move. Jon went out partying the night before and didn't come home till 4 in the morning and than got up early to come help us move. Now part of me doesn't have much sympathy since you knew you had to get up early the next day and you still stayed out late... but I can appreciate the dedication you had of still coming inspite of you feeling like crap and wanting to just sleep. Most people would have said "screw it, they can handle it themselves, I am going back to bed." But you didn't and you hung in there like a trooper. Plus I think you were still a little buzzed and you were just funny to have around as always. Thank you for hanging in there for us. We really needed the extra man hands for the big items. Poor Mike would have been all alone trying to do all that with Don. ;o)

Thank you to Don's other brother Mike Horn. You helped Don a lot too when you could have been doing other things during your summer break. I know Don really appreciated the help. You were also a huge help during the move too. Don has some great brothers!

Thank you to my nephew Craig Hildebrand. He came over to help me paint our living room too. You were great!

Thank you to Don's cousin Dustin Rowland. You came over as well and helped Don do a lot of painting too. Plus you helped during your summer break, so that was way cool of you to take time out of your summer vacation to help us as well

Thank you to Marcia Parkes, our realtor. She was truly a Godsend! One of the best realtors ever. I would highly recommend her. I can not begin to tell you the roller coaster ride Don and I went through when we bought our house. Mostly because it was a short sale and short sales are basically a nightmare. The only reason we got through it was because of Marcia. She was constantly calling me and updating me on everything. Even when she had nothing to update us with, she still checked in on us. She was just great and she was a fighter! Man it was a nightmare trying to deal with PUD's, the title company and HOA issues from the previous owner. It was a bigger nightmare for Marcia since she was at the forefront of it all. But she had our back the whole time and fought for us. She truly went above and beyond the call of duty. I can't thank you enough Marcia. If anyone is in the market to sell or buy a home in San Diego, I would highly recommend her. Her website is http://www.marciaparkes.com/

And last, but not least thank you to all the wives who sacrificed their husband's time to come help my husband! I know it was a burden on you guys as well to not have your husbands at home, so thank you. It did not go unnoticed and we appreciated it very much.

So in closing, Don and I are just so thrilled and grateful for wonderful friends and family who came together to help us make this all happen. You guys are wonderful! Thank you so much. And now... here are the pictures!

This first link goes to the before pictures/remodel pictures of the house:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mandi.horn/OurHouseBeforeAndRemodelPictures?feat=directlink

The second link goes to the after pictures of the house:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mandi.horn/OurHouseAfterPicturesOfTheRemodel?feat=directlink

Pregnancy Update

So the latest and greatest... Today I am 23 weeks and 1 day pregnant. We have 16 weeks and 6 days left until our little bundle of joy will be here!!! We can't wait! So far everything is going great, no complications and the best part is the morning sickness is GONE!!! Yes finally GONE!!! It really wasn't that bad for me compared to other people seeing as I was mostly just nauseous and only threw up 3 times, but it still was not fun so I am excited it is gone.

We had an ultrasound a few weeks ago and our baby is already taking it's Daddy's side... Don thinks keeping the gender a surprise would be the coolest thing ever. We don't exactly share the same enthusiasm with that. So the plan was I would find out and he would be surprised. Well the baby decided not to let us see... so it still remains a mystery if it will be a he or a she. No worries though, my doctor said he will order another ultrasound towards the end of the pregnancy. Don and I have yet to decide if we will find out than so we shall see. Stay tuned to find out!

So here are some fun facts about our baby's development at this stage in "it's" life:

The baby is about 1.1 lbs, which is about the size of a papaya. The baby is still making remarkable changes at 23 weeks. The skin is still quite red and heavily wrinkled by the end of 23 weeks. The baby can often hear loud noises in the womb from now on, so it may move around a bit when you are in an environment where loud noises are quite common.

The baby is about to chub up a bit. It's saggy skin will start to fit it's frame as fat deposits fill things out. Beginning this week, it'll start to pack on the pounds (which means I will, too!) and by month's end it'll be double the weight it is now (though I won't be — whew!). Right now, the baby's organs and bones are visible through it's skin, which has a red hue due to developing veins and arteries beneath. But once those fat deposits settle in, the baby will become less transparent, too.

As you can tell, I finally took some pictures of my ever growing belly. I have been putting it off since I didn't think I was showing that much until a month ago and I wanted to take pictures when it was obvious that I was pregnant, not just fat. :o) Since than Don has been pushing to take pictures of it and he even went as far as taking candid pictures of me yesterday when I wasn't paying attention. Definitely not fair! I figured I better have him take some pictures that I like instead of taking unflattering candid photos of me at my worse! Those will not be posted due to the "model's" non-consent! I thought he did a great job of taking these pictures though. He is quite the little photographer too!







On a side note, Don and I celebrated our 6th anniversary yesterday! It has gone by so fast and it will go by even faster once the baby comes. We kept it low key... we had breakfast together in the morning and than cleaned our house/organized more of our stuff. Yes I know, lame... Well the cleaning/organizing part is lame. But it was nice spending time in the morning eating yummy food together! Than we went to Grandma Krafft's house later that night to celebrate her birthday. When Don and I picked our wedding day, it just so happened to be on the same day as his Grandma's birthday. Before we had a chance to change the date, she insisted that we keep it that way. She wanted to share the day with us, so we did and it was nice! We had dinner with the whole family and just enjoyed each other's company. Don's Aunt Paula even came out from Florida to join in on the celebrations. That was a fun extra surprise for everyone. We also found out today that Don's step sister had her baby yesterday, so it was an eventful September 6th with many celebrations going on all at once.

I ended up taking the whole week off of work this week because originally before Don lost his job, we had planned on going somewhere for our anniversary. Obviously things changed... so our plans of going somewhere turned into staying home. I think they call that a staycation? :o) Which is actually kind of nice. I have grand plans of updating my photography website, working on our house/unpack more stuff and organize... and finishing all my wedding/photo shoots I have pending. So this will be a much needed time for me to finish my to do list. I am so excited and can't wait till it is all done! I will be starting all that tomorrow since I have lots of updating to do on our blog. Very important stuff you know. :o) My next post will be pictures of our house. Yes, finally before and after pictures of the house! Stay tuned... If I don't get interrupted or distracted I may finish that today. Making dinner right now may be just enough of a distraction to lure me away... ;o)

The River - Yuma, AZ.

This past weekend Don and I were invited to go to the river with his family. They also invited my parents too which was very nice. It was all in all a fun and very eventful trip. Definitely not a boring one. We sure had our little adventures and not so fun ones for some people.



My cute Mom!







Jon going tubing



Poor Jon was stuck with sleeping on the futon bay window that sat above the A/C unit. He pretty much froze through out the night and when I woke up I saw him curled up in the curtains trying to stay warm. Ok so it was really sad, but kind of funny at the same time... I know I am mean for taking a picture of it and thinking it is kind of funny.



This is everyone who went - minus my parents since they only stayed for one day. We hiked up to this miner's cabin and it had all the original tools and such in it. It was kind of cool, but it was so stinkin' hot. I "B" lined it back to the boat while most of the group went on to find the mine.

Don's 30th Birthday Party

Don finally turned the big 3-0!!! We had a great time celebrating it with friends and family. We ended up doing a funny t-shirt contest. So everyone that wanted to participate wore a shirt with a funny picture or saying on it. Don's brother Jon won first place and than my niece Kaylie and I won second place. Here are some pictures from his birthday party:



Don and the Smith Family:



Don and his little buddy Maddie:



Don & the Jesperson family - Minus their other children.



Picture of my sister Marza. She is always up for a fun picture!



This is Don's cousin Shaun who let us use his house for the party and he even BBQ'd the food for us. Thanks Shaun!



My nephew Craig playing Rock Band 2.



I thought this was a cute picture of Caleb & Patty. Awwww...



Don's shirt says "Keep talking, I always yawn when I am interested." He thinks he is sooooo funny!



Ummm I think that joke has already been played one too many times! ;o)



Don with his Aunt Paula and Jon

Update!

So a new post is definitely over due. These past few months have been a little hectic so I will summarize in order...

The begining of June we finally closed on our very own home in San Diego. We put an offer in for that place back in late January, beginning of February. It was a short sale and the name "short sale" is SOOOOOOO deceiving! Don't be fooled by it! It was a nightmare, but worth it in the end. We got such a good deal on our place so I can't complain too much. Definitely a fixer upper so we are putting a great deal of sweat equity into it right now. We just finished painting or at least painting what we need to right now. We have a few touch ups we need to do but we are ready to put in the new flooring this week. After that we will be moving in finally! Right now our kitchen is a disaster zone. We demoed it the first week we owned the place. We later found out our cabinets won't be in for about 4-1/2 weeks. That is ok though, I know if we had left the cabinets in we would have never remodeled the kitchen. We would have lived with it, and that kitchen was UGLY. So we will be working on it while we live there. Once we get some head way on our house (meaning it starts to look nice,) I will post some pictures of it. It is a 3 bedroom town house. It is a little over 1300 square feet, one and a half bathrooms, a laundry room, a two car garage and a little backyard. It is perfect for us. The front yard is a HUGE grassy area with lots and lots of trees and space between all our neighbors. It is so nice and peaceful there. We love it. So we are excited and we can't wait to move in.

Our other big news is Don and I are expecting our first child. Our little guy is expected to be here January 3rd, 2010. I am hoping for a New Year's baby. We shall see. :o) Here is our little Jelly bean's first picture!



I am currently 12 weeks along and the baby and I are doing well. I was able to hear the heart beat for the first time a few weeks ago. It was one of the best sounds ever. Don and I couldn't be happier! We can't wait for everyone to meet the little one. Six more months!!! Anyways, that's all for now. I will update some more once I get some pictures of the house.

Gina's Graduation!!! 4/25/09

My Mother in law Gina, can now officially say "I am a Phoenix!" On Saturday she officially graduated from the University of Phoenix. She has been working on her Bachelor of Science in Business/Accounting degree for the last four years. She has worked soooooo hard and we are all so proud of her. It was not an easy task. Here is a picture of Gina and her cute red shoes. Those shoes were not comfortable for her to wear by the end of the ceremony so we had to take a picture of them to make it worth it.





The ceremony was held at the San Diego Convention Center in the Sail Room. It was a beautiful room. The ceilings literally looked like sails. But the acoustics were awful! The whole ceremony sounded muffled. Every time someone would talk, the sound would bounce all over the room and muffle the next words out of the person's mouth. You would think the engineers who designed the room would have thought of a solution for that.

Anyways, if you look at the ceiling in this picture you can see the roof that looks like sails. Honestly it was basically like a canvas roof pieced together like a sail. It's a cool idea since the convention center is right next to the bay.





Gina and a few of her classmates:









This is Gina with her siblings and her Mom.



This is Gina and her boys.



Gina, her boys, and me!



We were ALL supposed to be making funny faces... When in reality I was left all by myself. :o(



This is Gina's sister Kristy and her family.



This is the WHOLE family!



And here we all are doing our Phoenix impressions. I AM a Phoenix!

La Jolla Temple 4/21/09

On Tuesday, my sister and I went to the temple to do a session. I was having an awful week that week and I had about a million excuses of why I shouldn't have gone and up until we went into the session, everything was going wrong. I just wanted to go home and start my day over again. It was just one of those days...

Being the good sister Marza is, she kept pushing. So I made it happen one way or another, and I am glad we went. I sure needed it. We try to go once a month, but it has been happening every few months. Hey, at least we are trying. After we got out of our session the sun was literally just setting so I grabbed my camera and got a few shots. These shots were taken just as the sun was almost gone from the sky. I love the brilliant blue the camera captures at this time of day. If you look in the lower left corner of the picture below, you can see just a little pink from where the sun is setting.

Easter 4/12/09

Today we spent Easter at Grandma Krafft's house and Shawn & Gigi's new house.

This is Grandma Krafft and myself.



This is Don and his brother Mike. Not really sure what they were doing, but I thought it was funny.



These pictures are at Shawn & Gigi's house. This one is Brandie, Don's cousin. I liked the lighting around her, so pretty.



Don was trying to take Anthony's Easter basket. He is such an antagonizer...



Easter Egg Hunt: