Labor Day Party!

We invited over our friends and family for a Labor Day party, and I am just getting around to sharing.  We grilled some chicken, had an amazing pot luck (we know some amazing cooks), and had a great time!  Here are some pics of the fun day...

Uncle Del came solo to the party.  Aunt Marlys ditched Texas for Utah...

Jordan, Lexi, Mike, and Aaron fraternizing.

We invited over Nikki and Ben and their cute kiddos from our new ward, Gerret and Sarah are always standard at Packard get togethers, Mark and a prego Cori graced us with their presence, and Sean (as always) was loving all the attention.  

 Sean was smart and put on a Disney movie in the workout room so the kiddos could be entertained too.  I missed getting the good picture; all of the boys were standing just like Connor is watching the movie, none of them were even sitting down.  It was hilarious.  I'm pretty sure this was the most kids we've ever had in our house...note to self, we are not having six kids.

Janene and Aaron brought their adorable little girl, Savannah.  She was the heart-breaker of the group, five boys and one girl.  She is the cutest baby girl!  I hope when we have kids, they are half as cute as she is!  Sarah was nice enough to bring over some of Connor's toys...that's one thing we don't have for entertaining!  My cousin Marylynn, Kylie, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Elaine were loving watching little Savannah play around the living room.

Sarah, Cori, Janene, Kylie, and Lexi all humored me with a girl pic. :)

Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who brought their delicious food.  We had a great day, and it was a nice way to celebrate Labor Day.  Until the next party!

Sushi?

 

Sean always tells me that I eat like a ten year old (which is partially true, I'm really picky), so he's always making me try new things.  We love our new ward, and have made some really great new friends.  They love sushi, and suggested we should all go out for sushi together.  I was pretty nervous.  I kept thinking to myself that maybe they'll have something ELSE on the menu that I might be able to order...or maybe I could eat dinner before I went?


Sean basically forced me to at least try some...and I loved it!  It was surprisingly really good.  I'm seriously such a food pansy.  It's ridiculous.  Gerret and Sarah were appalled that we had never gone out for sushi together before, apparently they love it too!  Who knew? 

We had a really fun night with Holly and Scott, Nikki and Bean, and Gerret and Sarah.  Hopefully many more fun nights to come.  :)

I'm also trying to branch out more in my style.  I feel like I always dress the same.  So, I went against my instincts and got some mustard skinny jeans.  I actually really like them!  One day I'll be a grown up...

I'm a cleaning fool.

I've never really considered myself a "clean freak", but I know I definitely like things tidy.  One of my favorite household chores (not that I really love any of them) is vacuuming.  I guess that's one thing I'm really weird about.  I don't even really like it when Sean does it (victory for him).  I love seeing all the lines that the vacuum makes, it just looks so nice when it's done.  Okay, you can say it...I'm a freak.  Like most people, we didn't have very much money when we got married, so we bought the cheapest vacuum at Walmart.  I know it's not true in every circumstance, but at least for this situation...you get what you pay for.  Literally, I think our vacuum was just a glorified noise machine.  I never felt like it really did anything.  I didn't care too much about our carpet when we lived in apartments, because I knew we wouldn't be living there forever...but it really was pretty gross.  So now that we have our own carpet, I have definitely gone a little overboard trying to keep it clean.  Yes, I am one of those annoying people who wants you to take your shoes off when you come into my house.  It really is annoying, I realize...but I just am trying to keep our house nice. :)  Sometimes, I think it can be disrespectful when homeowners have asked guests to remove their shoes, and they are still kept on.  But don't get me going on that...

Anyways!  I have been coveting the dyson ball vacuum for quite some time now, and an AMAZING sale came up last weekend, and I took the plunge!  It was a little difficult explaining to Sean why we "need" this vacuum, but luckily he gave in. :)  As part of this amazing sale, I got $120 gift card just for buying the dyson, so I got a 'Shark' (another item I have been drooling over for the past few months) for free!  Basically when I left the store, I was waiting for someone to stop me for stealing, because I got such a good deal.  I literally felt like I was robbing them, it was glorious.

I think it's funny since we've bought our house how my "wants" have shifted to household items.  What has become of me?!  My 18 year old self would want to slap me across the face for getting so excited about a vacuum and a steam cleaner mop.  Is this what people mean when they refer to "growing up"?  I'm only 26, what will I "want" when I'm 40?  For the love...

I really have never been so excited to clean in my life, it's pretty sad.  It's really a win win for Sean, less cleaning for him...and a happier wife to boot.  What more could one ask for?

Isn't she pretty?  It works just like I thought it would...meaning, it actually works.  Who would have thought that could happen?  

 The shark is even more amazing that I thought it would be.  It does SUCH a good job cleaning.  I've never had hard wood floors before, and didn't really know what to use on them.  It cleans the bathroom floors (tile) really well too.  The steamer actually detaches and can be used as a handheld steamer to steam clothes, linens, draperies, you name it.  

I'm in heaven.  It's pathetic, I know. 

Happy Birthday Daniel!

My little brother Daniel turned 22 at the end of August.  Dan has a special place in my heart.  He moved in with us a couple of months after our Dad passed away, and has lived with us for the past year and a half.  Once we bought a house we mutually decided that it was time for him to get his own place.     Most of the time this kid drives me crazy, and I get really annoyed when he's around so frequently...but the truth is, I miss him when he's gone. (Sorry for the pic, I had just gotten done with a late night work out...training for a half marathon is going to be the death of me...more on that to come later...)

  As far as the Block side of the family goes, he and I are all that we have here in Texas.  Most of the time when we talk about our Dad it is in a joking manner, something he used to say or do...or some way he would always make us laugh.  But other times, we have break downs together...when we miss him so much we just can't take it anymore, and no one seems to understand but us.  It's pretty pathetic that my baby brother is the one comforting me.  I should be the one comforting him, I'm his big sister! 

Daniel is the only brother of mine I was really old enough to remember him being born.  As the baby in a family of five kids, he was babied in every sense of the word.  Everyone did everything for him, half of the time we just assumed it was because he couldn't...or didn't know how.  As an adult I can really see the negative impact it has had on him.  My parents, my siblings,  and I essentially crippled him, never allowing him to do anything on his own. He's grown up a lot since moving out to Texas, and finally leaving the nest.  He's a very hard worker, and has excelled at his job.  I never lived alone, I went straight from college with roommates to being married, and so I think it's really great that he is being so independent. He has surprised us many times with how capable he is at being all on his own.  Sean and I are both so proud of him.

Sean is such an amazing brother-in-law to Daniel.  They talk more than Dan and I do half the time.  Sean will stay up late playing XBOX360 with him, take him golfing, go to the church and play basketball, or just sit and talk while they watch ESPN.  I'm so thankful that Sean has been so supportive and really has taken Dan under his wing.

Dan worked late the night of his birthday, and didn't get off until about 11:30.  We still wanted to make his birthday as special as we could for him, so we stayed up late and had ice cream cake, sang happy birthday, and got him a present.  I knew he wouldn't really have any other birthday celebration, and so we really wanted to do something for him.  Being a grown up and working on your birthday isn't the funnest thing ever....I can relate.

Daniel doesn't work on Mondays, so every Monday he and I meet for lunch.  We always go to the same philly cheese-steak place down the street from my office, Fred's Philly.  We are such regular customers they don't even take our order anymore, they just start cooking our sandwiches as soon as we pull up.  Now that's what I call service!  Every Monday when we go to Fred's Philly Dan talks about how much he wants one of their t shirts.  So, that's what I got him for his birthday present (sorry, I know it's a little crude).  He loved it. 

Happy Birthday Daniel, we love you!

Get in the truck.

Since as long as I've known Sean (and apparently since he was 14) he's wanted a Toyota Tacoma.  Besides a Mercedes (which was not happening) this is the car that Sean covets whenever we're driving.  He's basically in love with this truck.  Well, happy freaking graduation Sean...I just bought you one.  Can you tell by the picture that he might be just a little excited? 

I told him one night that I just wanted to go and "look" at the different trucks, little did he know we would be walking away with keys to a brand new, sexy Toyota Tacoma.

Is this for real?  This is for me?  Yup, it's all yours!

Check out our brand new, 2013 Toyota Tacoma V6 TRD Sport Edition!!!

Some pics of the beauty herself...

Sean was very excited about the outlet in the bed of the truck for all the future camping possibilities...

Boom baby, 2 miles!  Sean's very first BRAND NEW car. :)

I had no idea how many different types of Tacoma's there are, shows how much I know.  Sean's all time fav is the TRD Sport edition.  He didn't even have to think twice.  It was a little comical looking at the "Texas Edition" models.  Some people are hard core about their trucks...  What no "Indiana Edition"?! :)

That's right, we're excited!  Please excuse the nastiness...clearly, I had just gotten off work.

I knew this was a deal breaker for Sean.  Bluetooth.  It will change your life.  My IS 250 is the first car that we've ever had it in, and it is AMAZING.  Seriously, I might give up everything else just to have bluetooth technology.  Glorious, simply glorious. 

She's pretty.

I like it when this pops up right when you turn the car on...

So, it's been two weeks and I know they're already dirty...but Sean was excited that he got the salesman to throw in the "all weather floormats".  Can you believe they charge over $400 for these?  

Apparently the double cab is a MUST.

Sean thinks I'm a loser, but I like having the compass/temp thing on my mirror!  Maybe it's because I have no sense of direction, and I don't have to try and figure out which direction I'm going (which I promise I really CAN do if I have to).  Especially when I'm lost these things come in handy, I already am flustered enough at that point.  Make fun of me all you want, but I was excited it had one of these like my car.  It's the little things, people.  

I may or may not have made Sean take this picture.  For the record, I did ask him to smile.  Why this kid never has a shirt on...I'll never know.  

Yay!!!  We love our new truck!  Congrats Seanie!

 She's a good addition to the the family.

  One of Sean's favorite/most random lines from Forest Gump, is when Jenny is running away from Forest after one of his "rescues", and she hitches a ride from a complete stranger and he says, "Get in the truck" in his super red-neck, southern, hillbilly accent.  Since we've gotten the Tacoma I've heard that 'one liner' more times than I can count.

When in Rome.