Heirloom Renovations

The reason we've been SO busy these past few weeks is we are opening our own business!! This was completely unplanned, and unexpected. One day, about 2 weeks before Christmas, Matt came home and said that he was losing his job, after I cried over the fact that we were both about to be unemployed, we pulled our heads out of the sand, and said, ok, what now?!?! And what now led to, Heirloom Renovations.

We were unable to get a bank loan, the economy just hasn't recovered enough for banks to want to loan to startup companies, so we borrowed from my parents and a couple close friends and we've borrowed everything we possibly could and have managed to get this business set to start on January 3.

We are very excited, yet very scared. We don't know if we will be successful, but we know we need to try. It is a granite countertop business, for those that don't know what Matt did/does for a living.

We imagine things will be very tight, tighter then they have been, but we are hoping it leads to better things in the long run. So, look for more posts, and pray for us, we are going to need it!!

Christmas 2010

This year was a VERY tight Christmas for us. But, through the generosity of our family, I don't feel like our kids were neglected one bit, lol!! On Christmas morning, Garrett even said, "I think Santa brought too much", I could have cried. What we did, was bought more, smaller, couple dollar items, so it appeared to him that he got a lot, when in reality we didn't spend much at all.

We were able to spend time with my parents the week before Christmas, then we saw Matt's mom's side of the family the weekend before, and Christmas Eve with Matt's Dad's family and then Christmas Day was here with just the O'Banions.

We had a very enjoyable Christmas, seeing the delight on Garrett's face when he opened up his green light saber from Santa was SO very worth it!! Payton, of course, just wanted to eat the paper.

I know this post is a bit late, but we've been extremely busy around here! I'll explain why soon.

10 months old

We were in Dallas for Payton's 10 month birthday, so I'm a bit behind on the blog update, I'll try and get pictures up later tonight.

Payton is an absolute joy, I do think it's the age, but a lot of it is just her personality, she's a very happy baby. She's also extremely active, taking her out to eat is an adventure, she just doesn't sit still much, and she's so curious, just as you go to spoon some food into her mouth, someone walks by and her little head whips around and food ends up in her ear, lol!

She is so close to walking, I'll be surprised if she doesn't walk before her first birthday, but since you can't predict these things, she may surprise us all and wait a bit longer.

This past weekend she spent her first nights in a hotel, I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep in a hotel until I was in my teens, so she's definitely ahead in that department! But, we went to see her godmother and Aunt graduate from college!! We were all so proud, and think so highly of her, we know she'll do great in whatever she does next!

So, Happy 10 month birthday Payton, and Happy Graduation Aunt Heather!!

Babies and Dogs

Have you ever thought about how similar babies and dogs are?? I"m not being mean, but think about it.....

we clap/whistle at them to get their attention;

if food drops on the floor, they will clean it up for you;

they like to chew on shoes;

you worry about them peeing or pooping in the wrong places;

if they eat too much, they just yak it up;

we love when they fall asleep on our laps;

strangers love to look at them and touch them;

we buy them special food;

they drool on us;

they hate having their hair brushed;

but love water;

and, of course, we love them to death and would go to the ends of the earth for them!