Bounce House Business

After renting a bounce house for Garrett's party we thought that might be a good business opportunity for us.  We drove a good distance to pick up the bounce house we rented for his party.  When researching our own rental we knew there wasn't anything like it in our area.  We have been brainstorming ways to earn a little extra money and this seemed like a fun way to do it.  We causally mentioned to several people that we thought about starting up a small business.  One family came to us and was very serious about doing it with us.  We got together and started to talk details and it all came together.  JJ and I would have done it eventually but going in with another family gave us the push to do it now.  There are several good things about going in with another family.  We each have our own strengths and it will also be nice to share the time commitment with them.  We have been working hard and learning a lot about starting up your own business.  We formed a LLC and got all the legal business documents we would need.  We made a website and bought a web domain along with creating a Facebook page.  We have been making flyer's, business cards, t-shirts and advertising on craigslist and local sell and swap pages.  We opened a business bank account and have been working on getting everything set up so we can accept credit cards through our phones.  We created leasing contracts and waivers and had a lawyer look over them.  The contracts should cover everything but we are also working on getting insurance.  We had the most fun picking out the bounce house.  We picked a fun palm tree house that has a large bounce area with two punching bags and a basketball hoop.  It also has two slides.  It is a large commercial grade bounce house and it's lots of fun!  We have had several people respond to our advertising and have already scheduled a few parties.  We hope to be able to have fun making a little money and someday possibly add some more bounce houses to our company.  We are excited to see how our small business adventure turns out! 

Busch Greenway Trail

JJ and I enjoy our Fridays together.  We usually do projects around the house, go grocery shopping together for the week or do something fun.  It is nice to have only Nolan with us.  He is young enough to have no input on what we do.  On the other hand he is young and that sometimes helps us decide when and what we will do.  This past Friday was our last Friday before school gets out.  We wanted to make sure we did something fun together.  JJ rode a new trail with a friend before work last week and really liked it.  He wanted to ride it with me so we loaded our bikes up after lunch.  It is a nice trail and is really pretty.  We parked at the top and rode the new Greenway trail.  It is a nice paved trail but it was full of rolling hills.  That made it fun to ride on and we were glad we didn't have the kids with us.  They wouldn't have done very well on the big hills.    

 

The farther we go on the trail the prettier it got.  It was so pretty riding through the trees and we loved the fresh smell of the woods. 

 

 The Greenway trail connects to the Katy trail.  JJ rode the complete loop with his friend.  The Greenway trail, Katy trail and Hamburg trail all connect now for a 13 mile loop.  We rode the Greenway trail to the Katy trail and turned around and headed back.  All those fun hills we coasted down we now had to go up.  It was definitely a leg workout!

It was fun and we are glad we were able to get out together.  It is a beautiful trail and it is neat to have them all connected.  When we have more time it would be fun to ride more of it. We are now looking forward to using our Fridays as family days when the kids are out of school.

Field Trip and Losing Teeth

The kindergarten classes went on a field trip this week.  They went to Big Joel's Safari.  Garrett was so excited to go and counted down the days.  On the day of the field trip he woke up and said "today I'm going on my field trip!!" He had a blast and told me all about it when he got home from school.  He said he was able to feed lots of animals and had fun being with his friends.  A few Mom's sent me some pictures of the kids.  It was fun to be able to see all the fun they were having. 

 Garrett really likes the girl sitting next to him on the swing.  Her name is Daisy.  She came to his birthday party and she is really sweet.  Garrett made a summer bucket list at school and on it he put to play with Daisy.  They live just around the corner from us so we will have to get them together to play during the summer.

 Yesterday morning while eating breakfast Garrett said his tooth hurt.  I looked at it while brushing his teeth and the bottom tooth was really loose.  I told him we could pull it out after school.  He said it was really bothering him.  After dinner he kept complaining about it and asked me to pull it out.  It was really loose and you could see the new tooth was just about to pop through.  I grabbed it and pulled it out.  He said it hurt but was glad to have it out.  He was happy to see he had a new gap in his mouth.  You can see his little tongue poking through when he smiles.

 He now has lost both bottom teeth and is about to loose a top one.  It is really loose.  When he went to the dentist the hygienist showed me both were loose.  The top one was more loose then the bottom one, so I'm sure he'll loose it soon.

He was so excited to put his tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy.  He was so excited to get a dollar!

Saturday morning I was able to go to the temple with Jenny as she took out her endowments.  JJ sadly missed it since he was at work.  I got a babysitter for the kids and since we had another rainy weekend Garrett's baseball game was canceled.  Which made things easier actually, I arranged a ride for him but it was better to just have him stay home with the babysitter. I am so glad I was able to be there for Jenny.  She was very appreciative that I was able to come and support her, along with a few of my family members.  She didn't have family there with her so having us there meant a lot.  

Lauren and Braden came in town to go to the temple with us as well.  Jenny's Aunt was her escort and she was really nice.  It was nice to be able to be in the temple with my family.  I think the last time we were all there was when Jordan took out his endowments.  It is always special to be in the temple with family.  Watching Jenny was sweet and she was excited for the day and everything that came with it.  It reminded me of when I went through the temple and I thought a lot about that when we were there.

We love Jenny, she is so sweet and we are looking forward to having her part of our family. 

Straight from the temple I headed to a baby shower for my friend Valerie.  It worked out nice that her shower wasn't to far from the temple.  I am so glad Valerie and I have kept in touch.  We have known each other since 4th grade.  She has shared with me her struggles to get pregnant and her struggles to adopt.  It has been a very long road for her and her husband.  I was thrilled to hear she was expecting a baby girl this summer!  I was so glad it worked out for me to be there for her shower.   They got a delicious cake from a bakery downtown, it was so cute! 

Valerie looked great and it was good to hear she is having a good pregnancy.  It was a nice shower and she got some nice gifts.  It was fun to catch up with her a little.  We need to plan a time to get together again before her baby comes.

 JJ came home from work and spent the afternoon helping the neighbors put together a play set in their backyard.  They have all been helping after work in the evenings.  They were having a birthday party on Sunday and wanted to have it all put together.  Once JJ got Nolan down for a nap he was able to help.  Lucy and Garrett had a blast running around and playing with the neighbor kids.  When I came home I couldn't even find anyone.  Nolan was still sleeping but I had to go looking for the others.  Garrett and Lucy had a blast trading Pokémon cards, playing at each others houses, riding bikes and going on walks with one of the moms.  I think we had a little preview of what our summer will be like. We barbequed for dinner and then went back to help put the finishing touches on the play set.   

 

 Once it was all done the kids were so excited to try it all out.  It is a really nice play set and I told her I would just put my kids over the fence to come play on it.  It is way nicer then ours.  JJ said he had a fun time working with the guys during the afternoon.  It is really neat to see how helpful everyone is.  They were so surprised how willing everyone was to help put it together.  It has been fun getting to know our neighbors better.  We went on a little family bike ride before heading in for the evening.  It is fun to ride around the neighborhood and see all the new houses being built.

My lily plant is blooming and it is beautiful! It only blooms about once a year so I always look forward to it.

 Friday evening we went to some friends house for a BBQ.  Before we headed over Lucy and I headed to the mall for some girl time.  She picked out a new dress and was excited to wear it to church Sunday.  She looked so pretty and grown up.  I saved a few earrings from when I was little and gave her one of the pairs to wear to church. 

 After church we headed next door for Declan's birthday party.  It was a lot of fun and Angela did a great job decorating and making a ton of food.  The kids had fun playing on the new swing set with each other.  It was nice to sit out on the deck and relax and visit.  The party was a lot of fun and it was a fun weekend.  We were glad we were able to spend time with our neighbors and friends.

Kindergarten Celebration

It is so hard to believe the school year is almost over.  I feel like it was yesterday we were attending teacher orientation.  Garrett had his Kindergarten celebration this week and it was so fun.  I told my parents about it when we first found out the details.  I told them if they could make it that is great but if not no big deal.  It is a busy time of year for my Dad and it was right in the middle of the day.  It ended up being a rainy day and that morning my Mom called me and told me they were going to come.  I was glad it worked out for them and was excited to see them.  JJ was going to head over as soon as he was done with his last patient.  The program ran into his lunch time so we knew he would at least make it to some of it.  I packed Nolan's lunch with us hoping that would keep him happy and still long enough to get through the program.  I didn't think of or plan on pulling Lucy into see the program.  Since my parents came I thought she would want to see Grandma and Grandpa.  I checked and it was during her lunch time.  She wouldn't be missing any class so I went ahead and had her called down.  She was glad I did and had fun seeing everyone.  She brought her lunch with her so she could eat it during the program.  JJ was able to join us about half way through, it all worked out perfect.  I was so thankful my parents were there to also help with Nolan.  I was able to take video without wrestling him.  He sat pretty good for my Dad and ate his lunch with Lucy, trying to share his grapes with her.   

 They had a slide show and each kid held a sign with what they wanted to be when they grow up.  Garrett said a Lego artist, fits him perfectly.

 They sang some cute songs.  Garrett likes to sing and you could see he was having a fun time singing up there.  The program was nice and short, shorter then when Lucy was in Kindergarten.

 Garrett was so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa, he didn't know they were coming. It was a fun surprise.

 Garrett and his teacher, Mrs.  Militzer.  Garrett has really enjoyed having her as a teacher.  We have been impressed with her and think she has done a great job.  After having a party with his class last weekend I give her a high five for doing that everyday.  Those kids have some energy.  

After taking a few pictures we sent the kids back to class.  We headed to get some lunch with my parents.  JJ visited with us for a short while before heading back to work.  My parents came to the house for a while.  My Dad headed to the nursery down the street to tag some plants for a job he had coming up.  My Mom and I worked on a few things at the house and visited.  I am glad they were able to come up, it was a nice time!  It is nice to have family be able to come to things like this.  I know it means a lot to the kids. 

Weekly Misc.

I gave Nolan corn on the cob with dinner the other night and he didn't know what to do with it.  I showed him how to hold it with the handles a couple of times.  He soon got the hang of it and then figured out how to eat the corn off the cob.  He loved it and it was cute watching him figure out how to eat it.

 Garrett had team pictures for baseball this week.  They had them taken at the Rascals stadium.  There were tons of teams there and it was kind of chaotic.  They moved fast and even though there were tons of people they seemed to have a system that got us moving quickly.  The boys were cute playing in the dugout.  Garrett had fun playing with his friend Jackson while they were waiting.   

 Nolan has discovered a new place to sit.  He fits perfectly under the crib and loves to go sit under there.  He is so funny just sitting under there.  He will go under there and find all the pacifiers that have fallen down.  I think it is fun that he found a little place to go hide.  It's the only place he will sit still for more then 2 seconds.

 We had a few nice sunny days this week.  It was good since we had so much rain last weekend.  Things needed to dry out and we loved the sunshine.  I got out the water table and set it up on the deck for Nolan.  He had fun splashing in the water and playing with his stacking cups.  He kept trying to drink the water by putting his face into it.  He also kept trying to push the water table around or climb inside. 

 Lucy's teacher sent us this cute picture of her class out at recess one day.  Lucy is hidden behind someone, but I can see her feet.   Her teacher is a lot of fun and I love that she sends us pictures of the class and what they are up to.

 Our garden is doing good and growing!  All our seeds except the peppers have come up.  Once they all came up I was able to go out and work with the soil a little.  I bought a pepper plant, but figured overall the seeds were a success.  My tomato plants are starting to turn yellow on the bottom because they are getting to much water.  Unfortunately we have had tons of rain and there isn't much I can do about it.  Hopefully we can get some nice warm sunny days to dry things up.  We are starting to have problems with rabbits eating the plants so I am going to have to get some sort of fence to put up around the garden to keep my plants safe.   

 I noticed the starts of our first tomatoes the other day.  The kids were so excited to see them! 

 Even though we had some nice warm days we ended the week with more rain.  The kids didn't mind playing in the puddles one day after school.  Nolan was so wet but had so much fun splashing around and exploring.  Nolan's favorite thing to do outside if push around his little car.  Garrett liked riding his bike through the puddles and seeing the water splash up.

 Between all the neighbor friends we have a large variety of bubbles and bubble wands.  We all got them out and they had fun blowing bubbles.  Garrett got some pretty big ones and caught them on the wand.  Nolan tried to eat the bubbles on the grass and would clap his hands. 

The Deck Project

Ever since we bought our house the deck has needed some attention.  The previous owners did a horrible job staining it and it looked awful.  It had become warn and needed to be re-sealed and stained.  We talked about hiring someone because we knew it was going to be such a big job.  We needed to save some money and we knew that if we put some serious work into it we could do it ourselves.  Here is what the main part of the deck looked like before. 

 We started about 3 weeks ago power washing it.  We borrowed the power washer from some friends, we are so thankful we did.  Renting one would have cost us a fortune!  We wanted to see how much of the old stain we could get off.  We could tell that it was going to take a long time.  With some effort we could tell that the old stain would eventually come off.   

 We were excited to see how nice the wood looked underneath the stain.

JJ put in some serious hours power washing.  He spent several days and lots of hours in the evenings when he would come home from work.  It was so tedious to get in between all the spindles. The water would shoot back at him and he would come in soaked!  Almost half way through the hose to the power washer got a crack in it.  We had to get a new hose.  We were having a hard time finding the proper connection piece to the handle and spend a whole evening trying to track one down.  It was so frustrating.  Finally we bought a whole new attachment to it.  We could have ordered the connector piece but we didn't want to wait for it to come in.  It was a hassle!  The people we borrowed it from felt bad and knew that it could have happened at anytime.  They now joke that we own half the power washer.  You can see the bottom of the stairs how big of a difference it was making.  

 

The top part of the deck power washed

The stairs partially done with power washing 

 Then came sanding, we again worked on this step for a few days.  Power washing really splintered the wood in a few areas.  It definitely took its toll on the wood and some spots needed a lot of sanding.  I would blow my nose and have dust in my snot from sanding.  We got some masks to wear so we didn't breathe in so much sawdust.  I was glad I could help more with this part.  I did all the little parts by hand, the spindles and railings.  I was able to come out during nap time and work little by little.  JJ did the big surface with the power sander.     

 After sanding.  We were very pleased by how much of the old stain we were able to get up.  It wasn't perfect but it was tons and tons better.  We loved the way it was looking already!

We were now on the final step, re-staining and sealing it.  We went back on forth on which stain to go with.  We both loved how natural and clean the wood looked.  We didn't want to have it look so worn again if we went with a dark stain.  Although we would be using a completely different product.  We both agreed that it needed some color to hide what stain we weren't able to get off.  We went with the most natural color you can, the first step up from clear.  Staining was another very long process.  So many spindles!!  The wood really soaked up the stain and we used more then we thought we would.  JJ and I worked a lot of long hours on the deck.  JJ came home from work and put in a couple hours a few evenings.  He would turn on the back flood lights and work on the parts he could see even when it was dark.  I worked almost all day one day putting in about 5 hours.  JJ then again put in another long evening.  We should have finished it last week but it needs 24 hours before any rain is forecasted and we didn't want to chance it getting ruined.  

 It looks so dark going on by dries a completely different color.

 

We are so glad we went with a little color in the stain.  It brings out the wood grain and hides just enough of the stain left over.

Such a transformation! Seriously it looks like a different deck.

We are so happy that this project is over and so pleased with how it turned out.  The deck looks so nice now!  Since we saved money by doing it ourselves we decided to buy a nice outdoor rug.  It is really nice to have and makes it more inviting for Nolan.  He loves to go out there and play on the deck and the rug is a much nicer surface.  We also bought a nice outdoor gate for the top of the stairs.  Even though Nolan knows how to go down stairs we don't want to take any chances.