Oh No! She's TWO...

With the arrival of a new year, our very own New Year's Baby turned 2...

As you can see, she's got the whole "unwrap the presents" thing down. But, she's also just a wee bit burned out on all the partying that she's done over the last two weeks.

And yet, there is always room for cake.

Mmmmmm... cake... goooooood.

The cake before Maggie got her hands on it. Double layer chocolate with butter cream cheese frosting. It may not look perfect... but it was quite tasty!

New Year's was wonderful and yes, Maggie did make it to midnight where we did the usual Happy New Year thing and then sang Happy Birthday to her.

Last Christmas on North Stine and Let The Frames Begin...

Our Christmas was quiet and uneventful. I think everyone was thrilled with their gifts...
Santa brought Kate a portable DVD player. For Maggie it was the "BackPack" from Dora the Explorer and Dora Walkman CD player (yes, even a 2 year old has CDs). Santa brought Ethan a black Ipod Nano and all the necessary accessories. It was a pretty cool Christmas.

I received a beautiful pair of diamond earrings from my Santa (aka Mike)... the man has awesome taste in jewelry!

Now for the big news... they've started framing the new house on Starlight Dr. From here it should be just a few months to completion. We should be moving in by the beginning of April 2006!

This is the front of the house...
on the left you can see the house next door and on the right you can see the other house next door.

Another picture from the front, on the right is the garage, if you look closely you can see our livingroom window. The house next door is a single-story - this house will probably be done a few weeks before our house because our house is a two-story and those seem to be taking a bit longer.

The Big Day Is Almost Here...

No, not the move in date for the new house (don't I wish).

Doesn't it seem like December is flying by?

Last night we took the kids out to look at Christmas lights in different neighborhoods around town. Every year we go get burgers (and not from a chain fast food place, but from a good old-fashioned independantly owned burger joint) and eat in the car (the kids love this for some reason) and then drive around making sure to stop to buy cookies from "Dustin's Diner" a stand in a popular neighborhood that always puts up very elaborate Christmas decorations. Dustin's Diner sells cookies, cider, and hot chocolate with all the proceeds going to the local homeless shelter. Last year they raised 10,000.00

The kids are absolutely disgusted with Mike and I this year. Mike found out about one of his major Christmas presents a couple of weeks early when he and I arrived home and found the fishing pole from Cabela's leaned up against the front door. (I didn't expect it until the next day when I would be home to receive the package and hide it before he got in) Since then he has begged (when I seem to be in a receptive mood) to just "hold" the pole for a couple of minutes. On Friday he and Kate went Christmas shopping and he bought me a pair of earrings. Since the jeweler only had a 7 day return policy - Mike wanted to make sure I would like them before time ran out... so he showed them to me (I LOVE THEM!!!! They are GORGEOUS!!!).

Needless to say the kids don't understand this and are completely irate that we found out about our presents before Christmas. What they don't realize is that this sort of thing happens almost every year with at least 1 present, we just didn't go to great lengths to hide it this year because we overestimated their maturity. ;o)

A Firm Foundation and Construction Fairies...

The foundation was poured yesterday... if it weren't for the groups of construction helmet wearing, toolbelt adorned men roaming the new neighborhood I would be convinced that houses were built by Construction Fairies. I don't drive by ONE day... and this is what happens:

Let's see here... on the left there is our future living room, behind it is the kitchen, in the center there is where the front door and entryway will be, over in the far right corner is the family room and in front of it is the garage.

Just to give you a (very) rough idea.

Progress at last!

Yesterday morning there were still huge piles of dirt at the front of our lot, so imagine our sheer glee at driving by today and finding this:

The dip you see there is the entrance to our soon-to-be driveway.


Granted, these are not the most clear pictures... but see the debris above there right by the sidewalk? That is all that is left of 2 HUGE, HUGE, piles of dirt and stuff.

What is not clear in this picture is that the plumbing is all in and they have brought in the sand and have it all tamped down in preperation for the foundation to be poured.

I'll try to get more clear pictures tomorrow!

The Christmas Season Is Here...

Thanksgiving weekend we decorated the house...


and picked out our Christmas tree. This Christmas is a little bittersweet because it's our last Christmas in this house.

*** New House Update ***

Our plumbing is in and they are preparing to pour the foundation!!! I'll post pics soon.

In the meantime...

Thanksgiving Aftermath

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The weather was gorgeous the food was awesome and everyone was in to the holiday spirit!

Garett, Kate and Maggie

Maggie wearing what Daddy calls her, "Maggie About Town Hat"
I always manage to get these pictures of her when she's sticking her tongue out!

We all ate way to much and afterward everyone was exhausted:

Especially Mike and Maggie.

November Birthdays!

A big happy birthday from the Doran Clan going out to you rockin' Scorpios out there...

11/21 - Happy Birthday Jeri!

11/17 - Happy Birthday Dad!

Scorpio is symbolized by the Scorpion. Intense and emotionally perceptive, you pick up on unspoken words and speak the language of gesture. Deep, mysterious and magnetically attractive, you yearn for emotional intimacy. If hurt, you really sting -- and you don't forgive easily!

Famous Scorpios include:

Leonardo DiCaprio
Julia Roberts
Joaquin Pheonix

Two Posts In One Day... Exciting Stuff!

It just gets better and better. The kids and I drove by the lot today after school hoping to find that it had been all trenched out.

Instead... we arrived WHILE THEY WERE TRENCHING IT!!! Which meant that the kids actually got to see them starting to "build" our new house. I can't believe how truly blessed we are to be doing all of this. It's very exciting!





Ethan says that now the "hard part" will start... we'll go out there (every day like we have been for nearly two months) and we'll complain about how they haven't made any progress. ;o)

Mike says he is sure we are going to drive him crazy over this house.

Duh!

Groundbreaking...

Today is the day they dig the trenches for the new house on Starlight Drive!
I was out there early this morning to capture the preparations for the trenching that will happen a little later today (in fact... it might have already taken place by the time of this post!)

Woo hoo!!!!

A Dig Date - A Dig Date

Ok... we finally have a trench date for the house.

They are officially breaking ground on Wednesday, November 16th!

That's not exactly "early November" like we were originally told... that's more like mid-November. But, that's really just splitting hairs I suppose (or at least that is what Mike calls it).

I'll post pics on Wednesday!

A Doran Halloween

Ok, alas, no DoranFest this year, again. My apologies.

Kate's recital went off without a hitch. She only played once because Pioneer Village was PACKED they were expecting 2,000 people and it appeared they got that and more. There was barely any room to walk and the lines to get up to the doors (to get a piece of candy) were 20 minutes long. There are RIDES at DISNEYLAND I won't wait that long for.

We scooted Maggie around a bit and then got the heck out of there. I would have hated to see that place ON Halloween. Good grief.

Halloween was fun. Mike picked up pizzas and breadsticks from Joseph's, I picked up sodas and candy from Target and we blacked out the house. We all piled in on the bed in our bedroom to watch "Ghost Hunters" and "Most Haunted LIVE: The Search For Jack The Ripper" it was GREAT!

Still, next year we are all looking forward to handing out candy at our new house and taking Kate and Maggie out to Trick or Treat.

I'm already starting to brainstorm about decorating the new house for Christmas next year. I am just so excited!!!

Speaking of the new house... no news yet. We are hoping they'll break ground this week or next. Early November is what we were told...

Not sure I would call that "expediting the process."

;o)

Happy Birthday Jan... Halloween... Updates...

Still waiting for them to break ground on our lot! We are all very excited.

Typical for this time of year, Mike's work has slowed down a bit and we have actually seen him twice for dinner this week!

Last night we drove to Porterville for one of my closest friend's surprise birthday party. Jan is turning 30 November 3rd and her awesome husband, Scott, spent weeks planning and executing a surprise birthday party at a local mexican restaurant. It was very sweet and a lot of fun. I have to say that these two are a match made in heaven, they are adorable, both have a great sense of humor and they compliment each other in every way. It's so nice to see such a wonderful pairing work out so successfully!




Are these two adorable or what?



















This weekend looks to be rather busy. Last night we had Jan's birthday party, today we are cleaning house and tomorrow we'll be out at Pioneer Village for Kate's recital and the 'safe treak-or-treat.'

Monday we've decided to pack it indoors for Halloween. We're going to blackout the house, pick up pizza and watch some spooky stuff on TV - just a quiet evening with just the five of us! It'll be great!

Diggin' The Date...

Couldn't resist... LOL

The dig date for the house has been scheduled... 1st or 2nd week of November! Now THAT is what I call "expediting the process!" Yippee!!

In other news...

Mike left for Woodland Hills yesterday. He arrived safely and stayed in a hotel last night. The whole company went for CE (Continuing Education) he had a 7 hour class yesterday and again today. It was probably smart that he didn't decide to drive back last night and then go back down again today considering the weather and mudslides have the grapevine down to 3 lanes and almost closed completely. I think it was closed last night because of an accident anyway. Whew!

So he'll be home this evening and then he has online classes Friday AND Saturday. This is putting a bit of a crimp in his actual work schedule. If he gets slammed with a bunch of appraisal orders he's going to be running his ass off nearly 24 hours a day for the next week or more to catch up. Poor guy.

The kids are home today because they have dental appointments... wish them luck.
LOL

With All Of This Butt Numbing Excitement...

Who needs the news or politics?

We are officially one step closer... to our new house.

There's no backing out now... we've given them CHECKS!

We spent 4 hours in the design center yesterday. We chose carpet, tile, slate, grout, blah blah blah blah blah.
They manage to keep you there for 4 hours with a special incentive... get all of your design choices made in one day appointment and they will EXPEDITE the start of your house.

This means they will push your "dig date" forward.

After 4 hours of butt numbing choices and decisions - they better push it forward by WEEKS not days.

Apparently, we can call on Monday and they will tell us when our dig date is. Should be about the middle of November. The house will be ready by the beginning to middle of March - if not sooner. Obviously, we are hoping SOONER.

The really good news is that we managed to stay within our budget.

So, I've still got a shot at a lot of new furniture...

;o)