Our Life
On Sept 14, 2013 we moved into a new house in Bend. We’re renting still but this house has a lot more room. Our last house had 1,775 sq ft and this one has 2,826 sq ft. Which means I get my own dedicated home office, Emma get’s her own room and we have a big guest room (in addition to Sarah’s room and our bedroom). So we’re grateful for this house and have been enjoying it a lot over the last 2 months.
Thought I should update this blog since it’s been a year since the last post. So here’s an assortment of photos (90% of Emma) from our first year in Bend. We just moved into a new house to start our 2nd year. I’ll post some pics of that as soon as I get a chance. (By the way, you can click on the small photos to enlarge them).
Here’s some recent photos of Emma Grace… she’s getting cuter by the day!
Emma Helping with the Dishes
The last two months have been interesting to say the least.
I’ll back up to Friday, Sept. 7th when I received a phone call that ended up with us moving to Bend, OR.
The call was from Michael Jans, the President of Agency Revolution and arguable the highest-paid copywriter in the insurance industry. He asked if I’d be interested in a copywriting/marketing position with his company. I said, “Maybe. Tell me more.”
By the time we ended the call I told him I was interested but I would have to talk to my wife before making a decision. So we agreed to talk again on Monday, that would give us the weekend to talk.
We ended up having a long talk and decided this would be a great opportunity for me. Two of the goals I set going into my second year of business were:
Emma Sleeping
The last 5 weeks have been some of the best days of my life. That’s because on March 17, 2012 at exactly 3:58am we welcomed our first child into the world… little Emma Grace Monen was born 9lbs 8oz and 21″ long! And I must say, she is adorable.
I was going to update this right after Emma was born, then I blinked and it’s 5 already weeks later. Apparently time flies when you’re having fun. And I can already hear all you parents saying, “Just wait, the next 18 years will fly by just like that. It goes so fast.”
And I bet it does. The last 5 weeks have seemed like only a few days as we’ve enjoyed watching our little baby girl grow up right before our eyes. It’s kind of crazy to see her change so fast. One day she looks more like Lacie and the next she looks more like me.
“So are getting any sleep?” Continue reading
Last month we went to Mt. Hood and stayed at our favorite little cabin. It’s the same one we stayed at for our 2-year anniversary. This will probably be our last getaway before little Emma Grace arrives and we enjoyed it very much. It was relaxing and I even got to go snowboarding for a few hours Saturday night while Lacie stayed at the cabin and watched movies.
It was nice to just sit in the hot tub, hang out with my wife and listen to the sound of the creek. I love this place and I hope to have a little cabin of our own like this someday. Here are some photos: Continue reading
Man, I am not doing a good job at updating this blog! It’s been 4 months since I last posted on this…OK, I’ve decided, at least once a month I’m going to post something, anything on here (I’m putting it on my calendar right now).
So what’s happened since July? Well, we went to the beach (Seaside, OR) for Thanksgiving last week. That was fun. Oh and I started a hyperlocal website for Battle Ground WA, called the Battle Ground Buzz….Let’s see what other news is there to report? Oh yeah, we’re going to have a baby! A little girl in fact!
We found out in August and Lacie’s due March 19th! We’re so excited since we’ve been trying to have kids for a while now. If I can figure out how to scan the ultrasound image I’ll post it on here soon.
So that’s pretty much the big news around the Monen household. I’ll write more about it later but it’s already getting late any my wife said it’s bedtime. Until next time!
Last weekend Lacie, Loretta, Henry and myself discovered an amazing hiking spot. It was Sunday afternoon and we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful day. I had a hockey game that night so we couldn’t drive too far.
We decided to drive 30 minutes north (of Yacolt) to a place called Siouxon Creek Trail. We forgot the map and never found reached our planned destination. Instead we found one of the coolest hikes in the area! I’ve lived in this area for 12 years and never even heard of this place.
And in an effort to keep this hike on the down low I’m not going to tell you how to get there (plus I can’t remember exactly). If you want to find out just email or call me. I just don’t like great hiking spots like this one to be overrun with people.
Here are some pictures, courtesy of Loretta:
Last weekend we got to watch Lacie’s nephew Brody. He just turned 5 years old and is the coolest little kid I know.
Brody got to fly Grandpa’s remote control helicopter.
Earlier this month we celebrated our 2-year anniversary and our birthdays. Yes, for those of you who don’t already know we share the same birthday and decided to get married on our birthday. So June 13th is a big day for us.
This year we decided to rent a cabin on Mount Hood and are so glad we did. The cabin was perfect in every way. It was secluded, cozy and had a hot tub in the back that overlooked the creek. It was very relaxing and the only downside was that we didn’t stay longer (only two nights).
We also got to take a nice hike to Ramona Falls and the trailhead was only about 15 minutes from our cabin. And on our way out we stopped by Timberline Lodge for lunch. It was the best 2 year anniversary we’ve ever had. 
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