Handsome

I look like barf in this picture. But I am 7 months pregnant and had rolled out of bed to go to a photoshoot with Kris at a fun place in San Juan Capistrano so I had "yesterday's" make-up....you know what? Who cares...blablabla

The point is, Tofer looks so grown up to me in this picture! He's a little boy now! Ugh. When did that happen? I keep telling myself he's not even two yet but he sure doesn't look like a baby anymore does he?

Not only that, he's just such a good looking kid! I love that little face. Perfection.

Who knew it could come out of such an opposite blend of parents!

P.S. Go ahead, click click, get a closer look. So cute, huh?

California Dreamin'?

I am DYING to get someone in my family to move to California. What I would GIVE to have family close by. Ugh. My sister, Jen, has six kids and lives in Texas. My brother, Jeremy, has six kids and one on the way. They live in Arizona. My other sister, Liz, has three kids and lives in Illinois and my parents are in Texas. Considering all this, my best bet for success would be uprooting my parents or Liz.

In an effort to "woo" Liz, we had them come stay with us for a little California visit last fall with their two kids Sam and Josh (she just had her third, a little girl). Anyway, they got the works! Disneyland, a cottage a few blocks from the beach, Halloween in downtown Huntington Beach, the list goes on... We thought for sure we could win them over.



As luck would have it...when they went to pick up their Disneyland tickets they got for a "deal" on ebay, the cops were investigating the place for fraud and they almost lost their tickets. Halloween consisted of skanky moms dressed in bunny ears and lingerie, dragging their kids from store to store along Main street. The short walk to the beach, turned into a few hours as we gave bad directions and they got lost...To top it off, when we got home one evening our street was lined with forensic police vans and red tape. Turns out our next door neighbor had a meth lab going on in the garage.

Dang you, California.

Needless to say, they still live in the midwest. Maybe we'll try again in a few years...

P.S. I was driving along the freeway today when that memory came flashing back and I had to laugh and knew it needed to be blogged for memory :)

Happy Choices are....

1. Refinancing a rental property from a 6% interest rate and 30 years down to a 4.25% interest rate and 15 years WITH the mortgage only going up $150 a month. Love that we can now plan on rental payoffs when Kris is only 45.
   
2. Getting epoxy garage floors so I can move all the boxes out of every room of our house and back into the garage in an organized fashion
3. Baby sign language videos and watching Tofer SIGN in his sleep. Not kidding. So cute.
4. New windows and doors to replace the circa 82 windows
5. Making homemade pizza for FHE and watching Tofer roll the dough with a pin and sprinkle with cheese (the chunks he doesn't eat first)
6. Watching General Conference - having a living Prophet on the earth
   
7. Paying for things with cash when you can so you don't let the temptation of "EVERYTHING NOW" spiral you into debt (minus house/car etc - i wish)
   
8. Hugs
9. Saying prayers as a family and watching your 1.5 year old bow his head and fold his arms.
   
10. Making cupcakes for the neighbors kids
    

Wife of the Year

Surprisingly, I have never mentioned on the blog that we have been a ONE CAR FAMILY since we bought our house - almost a year.

When we sold my car I told Kris the one car thing would last a month.... So, we made a deal. We would save up and the longer I waited, the better car I would get. This was GREAT motivation for me. There were STARS in my eyes - a Lexus RX350, fully loaded. Let the saving begin!!

Well, I picked the car out and was going to buy it last week (AMAZING CAR, a few years old and really not much more expensive than any other mid-sized suv when it comes down to it - but felt like driving in a cloud...amamamamazing).

Turns out, I couldn't sleep the night before. I didn't need that kind of car. I was being impractical."Why on earth am I buying this car when we are trying to renovate a house?" So, I told Kris to get a sedan since they are so much cheaper, and I would use the money we saved to fix up the house as much as possible. In the meantime, we can keep our old beat up suv a while longer until we really need a new one.

I've had contractors here all week. I am very excited. It is a good decision. But a hard one since I'd been waiting so long and was so excited to buy the darn thing. And Kris was so cute to be excited for me to get it too. I just couldn't pull the trigger. I even cried, dangit. But it felt good to make the right decision.

Well, Kris has been haggling all night at a dealership. Looks like he finally won. This is the car he is currently buying at 11 pm tonight.





It is a Nissan Altima Hybrid. It is a 2007 with ONLY 10k miles on it. Crazy. Anyway, he negotiated with them to put in navigation and blue tooth AND take off about $3k more from their best price. Then somehow he get's them to finance it for 0.9% for the life of the loan. He's been there sine 8:00! He must get his negotiation skills from me ;). We finally have another car. And no worries. My day will come. I'll probably end up in a mini-van and that's ok with me :)

The end.

And the Sundberg name carries on...

That's right...this morning we found out that baby number 2 is a BOY!

Looks like my due date is January 21st :) Yay for Tofer having a best friend! Yay for a sweet boy to adore. And yay for another good man to add to the gene pool :) Haha.

We are excited!

True Blue

Kris and I have no BYU memories together :(

Funny enough, he actually moved into - not just the same ward, or complex, or building, or floor, or even apartment...but the SAME ROOM as one of my old boyfriends, when he moved out. Small world, even with over 30,000 students. Ha. But even with that, we never crossed paths (granted, I was also doing an internship in NYC when all that happened but anyway....)

We decided to make some memories. Thursday we are hitting the road for a long weekend to check out the old stomping grounds, visit some friends, and see his sister's new baby. The crazy thing is, I haven't been back for so long I'm more excited to hit up Provo than just about anywhere right now. Ha. Especially now that Fall is starting.

I can STILL feel that old rush of excitement I felt every year with the new school year and the weather cooling, the leaves changing colors, the smell in the air, the mountains, the football games. Ah, I can feel it NOW. Man, I loved BYU.

Can't wait to make some memories with Kris there.

Go cougars.

Tofer Through the Ages - Photo Timeline

A few days ago Tofer turned 1.5 years old! I can't believe it. He's grown up so much! We love him more and more every day - if that's even possible!

Here is the "Tofer Timeline" from tummy on. Enjoy.


Getting ready for earth!



One Day Old -Eyes Closed


One Day Old- Eyes Open (his big blue eyes took my breath away)


One Month Old (Don't you just want to squeeze him???)


One and a Half Months Old (Learning how to smile)


Two Months Old (Beyond cute)


Three Months Old (Photoshoot for ToyBoxTees.com)


Six Months Old (That face kills me- first photoshoot in grass)


Eight Months Old (Arizona trip with college buddies)


First Birthday (A little overwhelming for him but ended in fine form :)


Fifteen Months (Beautiful trail in Irvine)


A Year and a Half (Taking over the Alaska frontier)


1.5 down and a lifetime of adventures to come. We love you, Tofer!

High School Sweethearts

Today is my parent's 40th wedding anniversary and that is just plain awesome! My mom was the new girl in dad's history class in high school...and the rest really is history. Har har har.

I am constantly humbled by their awesome relationship. Individually, they are two of my greatest heros and together they are such a powerhouse - everything I hope Kris and I will be and then just so in love to boot. Such best friends. So happy. Such a great relationship. They just belong together.

Congrats, Mom and Dad. You are the BEST!

Favorite Thing

Right now, my favorite thing on earth is watching Tofer get super excited to play with his Dad. When Kris gets home from work every day, he changes his clothes and then has Dad time with Tofer. You should see how impatient Tofer gets sometimes for him to get changed. It's so cute.

Then when I say, "Wanna go on a bike ride with Dad?" or "Wanna go build blocks with Dad?" or anything "with Dad" you should see how fast those little baby legs go racing to wherever Kris is.

It is the sweetest thing I have ever seen. Sometimes I even get choked up. Boys love their Dads. There's just something different between them and I like it.

Here are a few Alaska pics of Tof and his favorite buddy.







And one of me and Tof, just for good measure. We all know how much boys love their moms :)



P.S. Kris posted about 150 Alaska pics on facebook, Kris Sundberg "Tofer Goes Into the Wild" in case you want to see! It was a blast. I'll get to that later.

Raw and Wild

A native Alaskan once described the state to me as "raw and wild" :)

I can't imagine a more awesome place to go tomorrow.

See you in ten days. So excited.

Land that I Love

So many fun things today....

But my favorite part was riding our tandem beach cruiser bike to church because there was no parking anywhere in Huntington Beach and then being able to just SOAK IN what this day is all about, instead of getting lost in the hustle and bustle of the activities.

And to think, we were running so late this morning we almost didn't go. Doesn't it always seem like the days where it is the hardest to get out the door to church, end up being the most meaningful?