Category: Shaycam.com

The wife and I are a few weeks in to being full-blown parents and I must say it wasn’t exactly as I pictured it in my head. Having my first child was more than just adding a new addition to our family–a lot more. I don’t really know what I pictured, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t include the following: putting 2200 pounds of bricks on the back patio, fixing holes in the wood then sanding and repainting the patio, fixing the stucco on the exterior of our condo, putting in a new kitchen light, putting up a new kitchen fan, moving outlets, fixing outlets, patching holes, re-wiring the TV cable in the walls, buying a new dishwasher and installing it, cleaning and re-grouting the kitchen tile, putting up new shelves in the storage unit, painting a shelf and installing it, cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing, holding baby, and last but not least, the true joy of being a part of a family that cares enough about you to help you accomplish all of those things.

Since we moved in to our condo in September we have kept a list of things we wanted to fix in our condo, and the list has gotten pretty extensive. But thanks to our families, the list is much, much smaller. Lord willing these things will make our little home a great place for our baby and for us, and we hope this house will be a place that honors the Savior.

Here’s some pics from the past 2 weeks (with captions below each):

Our condo is the bottom left one with the door open, but our neighbors put out streamers and sidewalk chalk that said “Welcome Home Baby Titus”. Super fun.

This was Titus’ first Skype with his uncle Andy and aunt Bonnie. They live in the Seattle area and are planning to come down and visit some time in the summer…can’t wait.

Our old fan and our new one.

The old light in our kitchen and our new one. And not to mention the fact that my dad moved the light switch to a way more convenient place….so helpful.

This was what our patio looked like when we first bought our condo. There were four different types of brick in there, weeds, dirt, etc. It looked terrible. Some friends of ours actually wanted that brick and took it out a few weeks ago for us. I guess one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.

My bro-in-law Adam bringing in the new brick we bought. Man up.

Adam and my father-in-law Daryl in the “planning stages” as the brick piles up.

More bricks are piling up. Oh, and yes ladies…Adam is single.

A few “test” bricks start going down so the guys can achieve the perfect “herringbone” pattern.

This is the final shot of the finished brick before we painted. Soooooo nice.

This is the new patio! I don’t have pictures of us filling the wood with putty, sanding, and repainting, but that was another couple days of work that went in to the final product. The tree in the corner was from my mom–it’s an orange tree.

This is just for good measure so you can get the full effect. Many thanks to my family for making this happen for us.

This is us on Sunday morning dedicating Titus at church. Pretty cool that the same pastor who officiated our wedding was able to dedicate our first child. Thanks to Adam for taking a few pics for us.

The new mommy on Mother’s Day. Fun.

A shot of Bethany I took at the Getty Villa last week in Malibu.