No, not a baby, we’re just updating the site! I know, we’ve been total slackers! We finally got our apartment together, had a great house warming, and then were so tired, we didn’t even get photos of that out up!

A few highlights: We had a great housewarming in June with some of our friends. It was fun showing off our new place and some of the great things we got for the wedding. We also enjoyed spending time with friends we hadn’t seen for a few months.

Mark got a new job in July. He’s now working for Napster as a Web Integrator. It’s a great combination of his two loves (other than me of course)–music and web design. The benefits and pay are also much better than his last job, so we Both like this new place.

We went to San Diego for the 4th of July and had a lot of fun. You can read about our trip on my travel Web site: www.3daytravel.com. Here, I’ll just say it was a lot of fun and if we could afford it, we’d probably want to live there. It’s also a great place for families with kids.

The summer was concerts time. Coheed and Cambria, Yellowcard, James Brown and John Williams with the LA Philharmonic are just a few.

You know, a big deal is made about Southern California weather and beaches and people who don’t live here are astounded to hear many locals don’t spend a lot of time at the beach. Well, here’s why: traffic. If you don’t live in one of the beach cities, hours could go by before you’re laying on the sand or splashing in the water. That’s why, for Labor Day Mark and I bought Roller Blades. We wanted to be out in the sunny weather, and this was a great form of exercise. Beverly Hills got its name for a reason–so we have a lot differing terrain pretty close to home, and we don’t get worked up yelling at stupid California drivers.

Mark had the opportunity to teach a Web design class at the Art Institute where he went to school. The department chair really likes him and continuing contributions he’s made to she school, from feedback to participating on panel discussions, and thought he would be good at it. He really enjoyed teaching others about something he feels so strongly about.

The Holidays came really fast. First, for Halloween our friends had a Pirate Party. Their house was practically a pirate lair because almost every inch was covered with something. Even a Pirate Butler showed us the way in. With “Yo Ho Ho” from Pirates of the Caribbean playing in the background and more than a dozen “pirates” surrounding a blazing fire telling tales we slipped back in time for a few hours and relished feeling of lawlessness.

We were up in Utah in November for Chezney’s baptism. It was good to see the family and participate in that with her. She was really excited.

Christmas always seems to come too fast, and we feel like we don’t really get to appreciate the season and ponder its real meaning as much as we’d like to. This year we were in Utah. Our week went by really fast. Mark and I took Chezney to The Nutcracker and had a nice evening. It was her first play or ballet of any kind, so it was a big event for her. As is tradition, we spent Christmas Eve at Teri’s. Dinner was delicious as always, and Chezney helped me read our Christmas story–The True Meaning of Christmas–with the tree and all of the symbols of the season.

We spent Christmas Day celebrating family and spending time with them. We had fun watching Chezney opening her presents because she got so excited. Mark was even surprised–a difficult feat I must say when he picked out exactly what he wanted and watched me buy it. I sneaked it into my carry on and wrapped it up. He thought it was at home, waiting under the tree.

We even managed to get in a ski day at Park City, which was a lot of fun. Mark has never skied in Utah during the day, so we had to fix that. We went with Luke (cousin) and Shaela (sister). The snow was pretty good all over the mountain and practically heaven from Mark’s perspective.

For my birthday Mark got me tickets to see the broadway musical Wicked and we saw that last week. It was beyond my expectations. Even now, almost a week later I still have all the songs in my head constantly.

Ok…I think that’s most of the highlights. We promise not to wait so long before adding posts again!