Adventures in Tennessee

Yesterday, on a whim, Bryce and I decided it would be fun to go to Chattanooga, TN and see some sites. Since it's less than 3 hours for us and less than 3 hours for Abby (who lives in White House) we called her up and she met us there. First we went to Raccoon Mountain Cave. I tried to convince Madison that we were entering the Chamber of Secrets and we had to hunt the Basilisk. (She's reading Half-Blood Prince right now) Anyway, here's some awesome pictures of the cave.

After our cave exploration, (we never did find the giant snake, turns out it's too cold for life inside the cave except the occasional salamandar or bat) we went to the state park for a quick dip in the lake.

Though it wasn't the funnest place to swim, it felt nice to cool off. The kids had a blast, that's what matters.

When swimming was done, we all had a blizzard at DQ and went our separate ways. It's always sad for me to say goodbye to Abby, even it's only going to be a week and a half until I see her again. So, thanks Babbadel for being flexible yesterday! We had a blast!

Happenings

Wow has it really been 5 month since I last blogged. Well, we are good. The family is healthy and there is no big news to report. Life is just continuing to move along. Here is just a quick rundown of each person in the fam.

I guess I will start with me and the business. It seems like the business has kind of become part of the family. Anyways, it is going great. We have exceeded every expectation I had going into it. I looked the other day and we already have 460 patients. In less than 5 months! We recently had an open house and ribbon cutting. We had a total of about 150-200 people attend. Among them were the Loganville mayor and 3-4 councilmen, a couple people from the county commissioner’s office, the Walton County Chamber of Commerce, the Walton and Loganville newspapers, lots of family and friends, a lot of people from the community, and several patients. There was also a guy there from the local TV channel. He video recorded the whole thing and it aired on the local channel. I wasn’t able to watch it b/c it was only for people with Comcast and I have Dish. Overall it was very successful and we have had several patients schedule b/c of it.

Amy continues to teach piano. I think she has like 15 students or something like that. It is awesome b/c she trades lessons for babysitting with like 3 or 4 girls. Now we have a babysitter every weekend and we don’t have to pay them. WooHoo. She comes into the office on Wednesday mornings and helps around the office. She helps keep the books and helps up front.

Madison loves to read. She is half way through the 5^th Harry Potter book. She is in the Gifted and Talented at school and they recently had and invention night. There were only a few awards given out but, she received an award for the most creative invention in the second grade. It is called Gunny Box. It is a robot that eats toys that don't get picked up and it puts them away. She is also continuing to take piano lessons and she is a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Preston is starting to read. He is really good at sounding out words and he even has a few books that he can read. He has recently started taking piano lessons and is still in Tae Kwon Do. He is also a brown belt. He and Madison are both on the Demonstration team at TKD. That means one extra practice per week and they will eventually be demonstrations in the community.

Jackson is our mischief maker. He is into almost anything as long as it is in some way related to food. He seriously will steal any food and hork it down. He has stolen the sugar bowl like 4 times and eaten straight sugar until it was gone. I just hope that he does get type two diabetes by the time he is 12. Even though he is into mischief he is so adorable you can’t stay mad at him. He has the cutest little voice and the ways he talks is just so cute. One of my favorite things he says is “Dad I am not talking for you, I am talking for mommy.”

Garrett turned 1 in December and has been walking and running around since10 months. He is a handful to keep up with sometimes but, he is just a good kid.

We have really enjoyed living in Georgia. This time of year is beautiful. My favorite time is when he Magnolia trees bloom. They smell soooooo good. I can’t describe the smell but it is by far and away the best smelling flower I have ever smelled. Our Magnolia tree in our front yard only had 5 or 6 blooms but I picked one of them and brought it in the house so I could smell it all day.

Amy and I went on a temple trip with the youth to the South Carolina temple. This a picture of some of the youth that went. I am on the far end.

That was a long update, but that is what we have been up to.

Simply Dental

Well here are the long awaited pictures of my practice. It has been a very long process of getting this thing up and running but, it has finally all come together. It is an incredible relief to have reached this milestone. I was able to see my first patients on the 23rd of December and then we saw patients on the 30th and 31st. I have been impressed how many calls we have had. We are in a Kroger shopping center that is the largest (sq. ft) in the southeast 8 states. It is the 4th largest for revenue in the southeast 8 states. And the gas station is the 2nd largest for total sales in the entire country. That includes all their stores like Smiths in Utah. It is an impressive shopping center and the traffic is unbelievable. It wasn't the cheapest space but, the extra premium that we paid for the space will come back to us in the amount of traffic in the shopping center. All in all we are totally excited and look forward to being business owners.

Well without further ado, the pictures.

The Store FrontThe Waiting RoomWith the tray ceiling.The Front DeskThe LabThe SterilizationThe Operatories (I built three ops but plumbed for 5. When we get busier I will finish the other 2)Central corridor and patient bathroom.Staff Break room and my office (not too big but not too bad)

Why We haven't blogged

So I know that most of you are wondering why we haven't blogged. Well get off the edges of your seats because here comes the answer.

WE FINISHED OUR BASEMENT!!!!

What a burden that has been. Now you would think that we would have taken "before" pictures prior to embarking on this 4 month endeavour but alas we didn't. The following are the pictures of us painting and then the final product.

Just a quick run down. I had a guy in our ward do the framing and HVAC. I did all the electrical and insulation. I had a contractor do the drywall. Then Amy and I finished the doors, the trim, and the painting. We had the carpet installed. All in all we finished 1250 square feet of the 1500 in the basement. We have a partially finished storage room and a small work room but the rest is finished. It looks awesome but, it has been so time consuming. Add this to the time I have spent starting my business and you begin to understand why I haven't been blogging. Anyways, without further ado, the pictures.

I am getting a lot balder with all the stress I have had recently.The kids painted their little playhouse under the stairs.Garrett mostly hung out in his Pack and Play.This is the stairwell. It looked like junk until Gentry came over and helped get it looking good.Media room with wall sconces on a remote dimmer and the recessed lighting on a separate dimmer. Did I mention that I did the electrical?We availed ourselves of a black Friday deal at Sears and got the TV. Not before I sold the old tv to myself to use in my business though. After all was said and done we didn't have to pay much out of pocket for the new tv.Here is one of the small hallways.This a place the kids can destroy and play and I don't have to worry about it. You can see the kids playhouse under the stairs.Last but not least the bedroom. It has been by the far the largest project I have ever done. Actually the business is the biggest. It isn't done yet but, as soon as it is I will post some pictures of it.

Prestons Birthday

For his Birthday Preston wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese. We have never really done a party for preston so we decided that we would do it this year. Here are a few pics from that. We got Preston his Tae Kwon Do sparing gear.
Garrett was just chillin out enjoying a nice slice of pizza.In other news Preston was selected as student of the month in his class. He happens to be the youngest kid in his class but he was the most behaved and attentive kid. If you can't tell we are really proud of him. Congratulations Preston.

Beginning of School

So we have already past midterms but I did want to post a few pics of the kids on their first day.

This is how they spent their last night a freedom. Madison lost a tooth. Preston goofed off. Then here are some pics from Preston's first day of Kindergarten and Madison's first day of second grade. Preston decided to take his scooter for a little ride before school. Yeah he ate it on the grass and stained his new school pants. Oh well boys will be boys.