It happens..

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Guess what! We are finally getting a house! It's really happening! We are suppose to close on the house we're getting on 4/20! We probably won't get the keys till a day or so after, but that's the plan! It will be close by. So we're super pumped to be out on our own finally and to experience that part of married life. We got a 5bed/3bath - 2 story home just a couple miles away from my parents house. The neighborhood is very family friendly and has TONS of young families. I am excited for Damon and his future siblings to grow up there. That's the biggest news for us for now. Most of our days home together lately are spent outside. Damon would live out there if I'd let him. He's becoming a handful, but is also very independent as well. He is 18 months this week. That means he's officially nursury age. In our current ward, I am in the nursury for my calling. So Damon has been coming to nursury for a couple months. But when we move, he will officially be old enough. So it should be interesting to see how he does in there without me or my mom (who also has a nursury calling)I feel like I haven't attended (or mentally attended) all 3 hours of church since Damon was born. He has always been such a busy body that I was either busy entertaining him during the meetings or would have to be out with him in the hallways. Or when in nursury, it's hard to get much out of church as well. Maybe it's just me. It should be interesting to see how things are in the new ward. I have high expectations so I hope it's great. We happen to actually know our next-door neighbor already. I haven't officially met her, but we have mutual friends on facebook. I'm sure I'll have more updates for ya shortly. Stay tuned.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Damon is now 16 months old. Life seems to always be busy for us Browns. We are in the process of looking for a house FINALLY. We were under contract with one house, but it ended up not working out due to the house having a lot of hidden problems found during the inspection period. It was a long, stressful, and frustrating situation because we were both really excited about this one which was a FIRST. It is really hard to find a house we both like in the area we are looking, but we'll get there eventually. It's been a learning experience too.We have been so lucky to live with my parents up to this stage of our lives, but my parents are looking into finding a different, more suitable home for them now. So, that gave us a little bit of a push toward getting this home-buying process started (which we needed).

Damon's first birthday was nice. We spent the evening at the park with family and played volleyball. Being his first birthday, we wanted to something fun for the whole family since he wouldn't remember it or know what's going on anyway. It's even more weird to think that he is already almost half way to being 2! Where did my baby go? I feel like time is just getting faster and faster and I can't keep up sometimes.

Halloween was a bit more exciting this year. Last year Damon was only 2 weeks old so we stayed in most of the night. This year we went around the neighborhood a little bit. I always swore I wouldn't be the parent that took a baby trick-or-treating. We all know that candy isn't for the baby. Well, We did that.. BUT to be fair,Damon DID have about half of his candy. Haha and we just went to a few houses. Nothing like I did as a kid. But it will only get more fun and exciting as he gets older and more aware of the routine. Thanksgiving was fun. Nothing out of the ordinary.. just spent the day split between mine and Adams families. Damon wasn't a fan of Thanksgiving food. He has getting been more picky as the days pass it seems. I mean, who doesn't like Thanksgiving food!!?

Christmas was great. He was excited about his toys which was the best to see as a parent. We didn't do a whole lot for each other this year. We have pretty much settled for that every year so far because of us trying to save money. Plus, our anniversary is so close to Christmas that we usually do all the good stuff at that time or we merge it. New years was good. We spent it with friends this year and Damon was a champ! He normally goes to bed by 9pm and he stayed up till midnight without too much of a push! We did end up coming home just before midnight, but we were awake still by new years. Adams birthday was spent alongside the superbowl with his family. That's how he requests it every year since it usually lands within the same week anyway. We didn't plan on doing anything for Valentines day because of us trying to save money for a house. But of course, Adam surprised me with a candy bouquet and making chocolate dipped strawberries and going to dinner after we looked at a couple houses anyway!
Adams job is still with Vanguard and he is working hard to get promoted to a higher position. Of course that entails longer hours and I know it will pay off one day. I CAN'T wait for that to happen.
I am nannying two days per week witb a new family since my last post. They have 2 kds (Damons age and 5yr old -both girls) and they live like 10 minutes away from my parents house so it is a good fit for us.I have also been making and selling bowties as I mentioned in my previous post, but it definitely could be better! We will see what the next few months have in store for us. Hopefully some good exciting changes ahead!

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

The past couple months have been fun as the weather is beginning to cool down. Damon is walking all over the place now and is beginning to lean out of his baby fat. His eyes change color every day. Most recently, they are green. He is now 1 year old! Holy cow. For his birthday, we celebrated at a park near our house with our close family and played volleyball while the kids played on the playground.
We also recently had a family reunion on the Wilkins side of the family up in Pinetop-Lakeside. It was nice to get out of the heat even more for the weekend. We stayed at my grandparents house where there were less dogs to worry about Damon walking around with. He did surprisingly well on the drive. It's the longest drive he has been on so far. He slept half of the drive and then I just sat back with him and entertained him the rest of the time. It worked out surprisingly well. We also stopped at Woods Canyon Lake to fish for a little while on the way up to the reunion. We didn't catch anything, but it was a fun experience.
For Halloween, we dressed up as Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto. Damon hated wearing his ears, so you couldn't really tell what he was unless you looked at his collar. We went trick-or-treating just around the block and he did well. He sat in his stroller most of the time. So he didn't really know what was happening except for a night walk with people dressed weird. He enjoys the candy though. We are looking forward to the rest of the holidays.
Adam recently started studying for the CFP exam. He's always been very studious and a very hard worker. I picked a good one! ;) So he will be preparing for that for the next year and then he will take the exam at the end of 2017.
With the election coming up, I'm sure we are just as tired of all the junk on social media and the news about the candidates, but I'm mostly curious to see what it does to the housing market. I am hoping it brings house pricing down so it makes it easier for us to purchase. We are still saving up and aren't sure what the timeline looks like as far as buying yet, but we are HOPING for 2017. It might be in a shack, but it's a reasonable goal.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Ever since Damon was born, his life has been my life. He's my world every day. So it's been easy to overlook the other updates along the way. He is such a fun little boy and I love being his mom so much! It's been a world of a change for me which has caused me to personally care about people more than I use to. Adam finished his MBA back in May. It's been such a relief to have him back! It's kind of weird though, because people always ask if he has a bunch of free time now or if he's bored. Honestly, I don't know how he had time for school before. He's such a good dad and has such a cute relationship with Damon. I love watching Damon's face light up when he sees his daddy come home from work every day. I think he's a daddies boy more-so than a mommies boy. All I'm good for is food. Haha Since school has been out, we went on a vacation to Payson and stayed near the East Verde River for a couple nights. Damon's first vacation! Wahoo!!! We rented a guest house from someone on Airbnb. It was super close to the river. We went fishing in the river, and a different lake not too far away from where we stayed, but didn't catch anything. Actually, ADAM fished. I held Damon.Ha, but it was so nice to get away and Damon did surprisingly well in the car both directions..and that was in the infant rear-facing seat. He is now in a forward facing seat and is much better in the car. Since school has been out, Adam has just been focusing on work and home now.

I have recently started nannying. I started with a family that had 3 kids I was watching (ages 9,12, and 15) I was just basically there to help for when they got out of school. It was nice because the ages were old enough that Damon wasn't interfering with much since they were fairly independent. However. they had a pug puppy that liked to bite (like most puppies), but he thought Damon was a toy. So needless to say, that situation didn't work out, which was a bummer because it was literally like 2 miles away from me. I have since then helped with a couple other kids from our ward that was just over a few days while their grandparents were out of town. This week, I started watching a new family with 4 kids (3 of which I've met so far). They have a kid in preschool, elementary, and junior high that I've met so far. I spend almost all of the time with the preschool age boy. It is a Monday through Friday deal and so far it has been going well. It is only like 5 miles away from my house, so it's convenient as well. We are trying really hard to save money for a house and weirdly enough, groceries seem to be making it the most hard. We spend a lot more than necessary on groceries. But we're working on it and hopefully next year sometime we will be able to get a house. It seems to keep being pushed back though, so we'll see if that changes. House prices are kind of high right now and interest rates are low, so it's kind of tough to know when to take the punch. I feel like if we buy now, we will get less house (smaller size) since price per foot is higher. But if we wait till interest rates are higher, then we would be paying more for the house per month, so it could wind down to not being able to afford a mortgage for the size house we want. So it goes both ways. So that basically sums up our current circumstance. Damon will be 11 months this month. I can't even believe it. Check my other blog for details. People have asked me when we might have another baby. Well, here's kind of an update. I want to breastfeed Damon for AT LEAST 1 year. Depending on how he is, probably longer. We'll see. Nannying has brought me to recognize what it might be like with 2 kids. But That has been an age gap for 3-4 years. So we'll see. It would be nice to be in our own house when we have another kid. That's a reasonable goal.
I have started to take on more hair, makeup, and nail clients lately. I was holding off for awhile since Adam was trying to get through his finals and was needing to focus on that and not have to be the sole person watching Damon while I am working on a client. So now that he's done with school, we can switch off easier. So, that being said, to visit my cosmetology portfolio, click here. I am doing my best to get it up and running to serve as a good outlet of advertisement and so my potential clients can get an idea of some of the things I can do. I recently took on using Olaplex with my color clients as well hoping to bring in more clients and also help my own hair along the way, I used it once already and it seemed to live up to its reputation fairly well. I am excited to play with it more.
My mom and I have recently started experimenting making bows. And by bows I am referring to headband bows and bowties for kids and babies. We have been super slow getting things started, but we will be running a test to see how they sell soon! Stay tuned.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Well, as most of you know, life has changed A LOT since my last post here. I have been slacking off in this blog since i created the other one. Background info: I created a separate blog to record info about us starting to try to have kids, but kept it private till we conceived. So from there, it was a pregnancy tracker and then turned into a monthly baby update which I have actually been really good about keeping up with.

So here's whats happened since September. Damon was born on October 14, 2015. He weighed 7lb 14oz and was 21 inches long..born at 1:34pm. Since then, life has been super busy for me as I've tried to get the hang of being a mom and figuring how to balance everything out during the day. I finally feel like I'm starting to have a routine going. Damon is such a blessing in our lives and we love being his parents. Adam has since gotten a much anticipated promotion at work. It came within the week that Damon was born. I have quit working and am a stay at home mom. So, it's been a huge blessing and couldn't have been better timing. When you do things by heavenly father's plan, things fall into place! Being a stay at home mom is the best thing ever. Being a mom is the best thing ever.
Halloween was fairly laid back..especially since Damon was like 2 weeks old. We did dress up though and spent time to with our families.
Thanksgiving was good as well. I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant, so Damon was born at the perfect time. Thanksgiving would have been pretty boring if I had to stay on the diet I was on. As soon as the placenta was out, the hormones that cause the GD were gone as well. So I could eat whatever my heart desired. It was great. I am in good health now. I am slowly trying to figure out how to fit in exercising during the day. It's hard enough trying to feed myself. Damon had become super needy lately because he's starting to teeth. So if I want to eat, he's not a happy camper. But he really has been a good baby.
December brought our anniversary and Christmas. Our anniversary was fairly simple this year. We just went out to dinner. We didn't want to try to travel this time with a 2 month old baby. We went to red robin and then just came home and spent time together.
Christmas was good as well. We haven't really ever done big Christmases for each other because there's always something that we use as an excuse. This year, Adam didn't get a while lot because he was scheduled to get lasik soon after. If you're familiar with lasik, it's not cheap. So that has been his Christmas and birthday in one.
New years, we went to bed at 8. Haha we have been trying to keep Damon on a good sleeping schedule so we didn't care to stay up.
Valentines day weekend was good for us. Nothing too crazy. We just went out to dinner.
Me and my mom recently went to the Arabian horse show with Damon. He did pretty well! We went to Lehi Days as well and that was a bit of a different story. It was a long day though. So I don't blame him. We got there at 8 and left after 3:30. He was just antsy so I was up and down a lot. One day he will enjoy it though.

I also helped plan my friend Monica's baby shower recently. She is due with her baby at the beginning of April- baby Winston! It's so nice having friends with kids that are close to Damon's age. She's going to be such a good mommy!

My birthday was pretty laid back.We just hung out with family at the house. It's funny how when you're about (for me) 17, Christmas and Birthdays become a lot less exciting. Haha I am excited to see and experience Damon's excitement though. He probably won't really get there for a couple years, but that's ok with me. I'm definitely content living up these baby days.

Damon tried his first serving of baby food this month. That was fun and still always interesting. Damon makes 8 grandkids on the goodman side of the family. My brother Clint and his wife Jodi had a baby recently as well. One more is due (from my sister Rachel & her husband Jason) at the beginning of April. So that will be 3 babies within the same age (school year age). So it will be fun to have them all grow up together.

That pretty much brings us to the now. Adam graduates in May. We're so excited for that. I'm ready to have more time with my man! We are planning on staying with my parents til we have enough money saved for a down payment on a house. So, right now we have to finish paying off school and then see what happens and see how long it takes and how the housing market is. I'm guessing it will be next year before we get a house, but we can hope for the best. We would like to stay in mesa or nearby so that we're near family as well as not adding to the long commute to work for Adam. So, we'll see.