Holy cow, I'm officially a blogger!

Okay, this is so cool - why didn't anyone tell me about blogs? Tia - you should have told me. This is incredibly convienent - we have so many family members and friends living in different states (and even some in our very own) that we don't get to see very often and we would love for them to be apart of our lives as much as possible...especially since Gracie seems to be eating Miracle Grow!:) This is going to help me so much - I spend hours each month developing photos, handwriting cards, and then sending them to people - very time consuming! You may be wondering why I don't email photos - I've tried. We have old school internet - yup, that's right - dial up (cue the scary music) and it takes FOREVER to send a photo. We had high speed internet (loved it) but we are trying to pinch our pennies so that we can afford a family pet - we really want a dog! Here's a brief rundown of what's been happening in our lives lately: As you all know, Mark is a state trooper (who looks so stinken good in his uniform by the way - can you say MUSCLES!) which means his work schedule is never consistent - every 28 days he switches between day and night shift...not an easy thing to do for all of us but we're getting used to it. Being an at home mom is the hardest job I've ever had - but I do enjoy the perks. We moved up to Sedro Woolley ( a small town about 1 1/2 hrs from Seattle) 6 months ago when we purchased our first home (see photo:) - nothing fancy but we really like it. We both love to work out and Gracie has shown a bit of interest in it as well - the other day she picked up one of my lighter dumbells and tried to do a few curls! We're desperately looking forward to the summer months - it's hard to do some of our favorite activities when it's crapping rain every day!