Soccer

Fall=Soccer! It was so fun watching Garrett play a second season of soccer. He is so good at it. He handled the ball so well and was awesome at making goals! Ryan and I are seeing a very competitive side to Garrett. He is very determined and is a great about encouraging his other teammates. I see so much of Ryan in him! Super competitive!! We find ourselves encouraging him to keep it on the field and to remember to encourage the other team, be a good sportsman. Since this year he wasn't tackeling anyone we thought we were doing good. He is such a sweet, cuddly little boy and I love that he wants to do well at what he is doing. He loves soccer and said he can't wait for soccer again! Good Season, way to go Puma's!

Swimming

This summer and fall many hours have been spent at the Juniper Swim Center. Madi is planning on going out for swim team this summer and is brushing up on her technique. Garrett is moving up in his swimming and Addyson and I took a parent/tot class. Our family loves the water and have enjoyed swimming together and watching the kids improve on there skills. Madi enjoys doing laps and has a beautiful back stroke! We are enjoying attending sporting events and look forward to next summer watching them compete. I can't believe it but I don't have one photo of Addyson's lesson. Go figure with the third child!

Summer Nights

Wow! Where does time go? We have been non-stop busy since we moved to Bend. Between us having people in town visiting, traveling to Portland for Ryan's Reserve weekend, school starting, sports or being sick I haven't had time to update our blog. Well I finally have some extra time. Be prepared for some "overload" on the pictures and entry's. These are some fun pictures of our family enjoying some summer nights in our new home. Enjoy!

Bend or Bust!

Deschutes River not far from our house.
Broken Top Mountain one of five mountians.

Mt. Bachelor

Mountain range from afar at Sunset.

Our home.

I know it has been so long since I have posted any news or pictures. I do have an excuse though. We have moved! We are so excited to have moved to one of the most gorgeous places on the planet and a very special place Bend, Oregon. Ever since Ryan and I have been together (were going on 16 1/2 years) our desire was to raise a family in a place where people still new your names and wasn't over populated. Where football games on friday nights were still important and we were active outdoors. We love the sun and we love the snow! So what better place then Bend. We had spent many weekends visiting friends, family vacations and ski trips to know Bend was where our heart was. God did not see fit to put us in Bend right away. We have been waiting for a perfect job (if there is such a thing) and time for our family to move. God made that happen June 6, 2010 (my birthday) for Ryan to be offered a job as a City Engineer for the City of Bend! Woohoo!! Thank you Lord was how we responded. It was an awesome offer and we took it, knowing the path the last three years had been tough with Ryan's current job and how God made this very evident to us this was his timing. I'm still amazed as I look at this Journey he has taken our family on how in the end his timing is more than perfect. What a great blessing we have to know he has it all worked out and he knows the desires of our heart. Though Ryan and I both have had desires and prayer requests not turn out the way we wanted them, we still hold fast to his plan being perfect! Our house we are living in now is a rental and we will call home for the next year or two until we find the right lot, property or home for us. We are happy and feel very fortunate to live in such a great home and great neighborhood. We feel so fortunate to have friends already here so our transition has been very smooth for the kiddos. So to sum up we love, love, love Bend! We feel so grateful that we are here. Also, we love visitors. So if East Coasters ever want to experience the west in the mountains with some Cowboys this is your spot! For all you West Coasters who love Bend come stop by we would love to see you!

Addyson

I thought I would post some pictures of Addyson. She is growing so much and is very much a mommy's girl. She keeps up with her big sister and big brother very well. Out of all the kids she seems like she has grown up the fastest. She is anxious to do everything her siblings are doing, putting on her own clothes (trying atleast), climbing, riding a bikes, going down the slide all by herself you name it she want's to do it. Makes a little sad knowing she is the baby. She has a bit of a serious side to her but once she warms up to you is so cute, cuddly, funny and super sweet!!

Garrett's 5th Birthday Party "Army Style"

Well our little man turned "5" on February 26th. I really honestly can't believe it! I remember thinking to myself that he would take forever to grow up. Now he is getting ready for kindergarten. He is such a sweet, energetic and funny little boy. Life would not be the same without him. He is truly a little blessing and has his challenges ahead of him smashed between two sisters! Garrett wanted and Army Birthday this year. So we took about 30 people up to Ft. Vancouver and had a party "Army Style". It was easy since Ryan does his Reserve weekends up there and the weather couldn't have been more perfect! It was cool but sunny. He chose vanilla and choclate cupcakes with sub sandwiches, chips and root beer. I now think we own every Army toy ever made! He also got a wonderful gift that was made for him. My friend has a business making purses, bags and hats and she took some of Ryan's BDU's he wore in Iraq and made Garrett this really cool bag! She used all of his patches too! It was a great day and hopefully a birthday he won't forget.

Madi's 8th Birthday Pajama Party

Madi had her 8th birthday in January. I know this is a little late. I just finally getting around to it. We still can't believe she is "8"! Where does time go? We had a very simple party this year. She chose to have a pajama party. We did home made pizza's, cake and ice cream, girl movie and of course a girls favorite manicures! April Ryan's younger brother was awesome and helped paint nails. I don't know what I would have done without her! We had a house full of girls. I thought maybe there could be a little bit of drama, but they all got along and Ryan and I were amazed at how eight little girls were actually more quiet than Garrett all by himself. We had fun and most of all Madi had fun with all her friends.

Getting a Christmas Tree

Picture this little family walking up the hills looking for the picture perfect Christmas tree. Singing Christmas Carols and rejoicing in the outdoors that God created for enjoyment! Sounds awesome doesn't it! Well that's not how it was for us, in fact it was completly opposite and it is the same way every year!! We spend an hour getting the kids dressed up in warm clothes and get them in the car to find yourself yelling at your kids while there screaming because they are to hot or there clothes are to tight while telling them to be quiet so we can go out and find a Christmas Tree! That it's going to be fun and to stop!! I swear every year I share nicely with my husband that if we find a great tree we should stop cut it down and head out. No, not an Oster! It is something they are born with I think, this feeling that if they leave with the first tree they find it's a failure because they haven't hunted long enough or something. I actually had found this great tree, the first one of course and like always there was this long pause and then a comment that came from my wonderful husband that sounded a little bit like "Do you think we should keep looking for another one?" So like always we kept walking through the hills above our house at a Christmas Tree Farm and the kids of course already had started complaining that "my toes are cold", "my feet hurt", my hands are cold and so on. I swear we had looked at twenty trees, and finally we found one and agreed to one towards the middle of the hill and it was perfect or so we thought! We decided after Garrett's going crazy wild and yelling (which I swear all of the West Hills heard) so he could hear is echo, we should stop and cut it down and get out of here. So we took a quick picture and started cutting down the tree before dark. Poor Ryan always has the task of cutting the tree down and every year there is "something." This year he was on this slope and the tree stump was huge at the bottom. It didn't look like it at the time but this tree was huge! Why is that tree's always look smaller until you get it into your house? So as the kids kept complaining and crying I said to Ryan I will hike back into the car and you will have to follow. 30 minutes later poor Ryan was hiking up the hill with the tree, I was standing with the owner of the farm and he commented "You must have a big room in your house cause that's one of my biggest trees!" Yeah that's just it we didn't and our goal was to get a tall skinny tree. Needless to say it hung over front and back and both sides of our van, and when we got it into the house hit took up half our family room!! We had trim so much off the tree to make it fit and we still had to put it behind our couch. We laughed later that night giving eachother a bad time about our ability to pick a good Christmas tree, but hopefully our kids will remember the funny and fun times we had getting our tree. Enjoy the pictures!

8 Days with NO KIds...

Well we did it! We left all three kids for eight days, or should I say eight lovely, romantic, much needed days with the love of my life!! You might be asking yourself who would take three kids that aren't there's for eight days? Well Ryan's parents offered to take all three children and come up and stay at our house so we could go celebrate our 10th/11th Anniversary. I know that's sounds funny, but last year we celebrated our 10th Anniversary and just had four weeks earlier had a baby. So it was going to be hard to get away on a trip let alone a dinner together. So last year we planned to go to Mexico for a week with no kids. It sounded great at the time we planned it but as time came closer for us to go I got a bit anxious about it. I had never left them for eight days, the longest had been 6 days. I had a few good friends of mine Kim, Jill and Zephyr who a few times had to talk me down about my worries and said to go and enjoy our time together and once I got there it would be so fun that it would all go away. Wow was it nice! I have to say this was probably to date the best vacation we have taken together. We are at a different point in our marriage and we were able to talk, laugh and cry together. It truly was a growing week for Ryan and I just being "one together". I found myself looking at my husband still seeing that nineteen year old boy I married but realizing WOW what an awesome MAN God has blessed me with and seeing how God has molded him and changed him into the person he is today. I feel like we were able to really capture and talk about what has gone on in our life these last eleven years of marriage and fifteen years of being together and how far we have come. Boy has it come far. This has been a growing eleven years. God continues to put things in our lives that we find ourselves saying "Really God?", "Why this?" But then you come out of that and you see behind you this story he is creating for you. He has showed us this awesome glimpse of how wonderful life is when you leave it in his hands and let him carve this path for you. Those of you who have walked through some of toughest times of our life like Ryan going to War, loosing our sweet Mackenzie, a job loss, the stress of Ryan returning from war and several moves. We want to thank you for your friendship, prayer and support. This has been a major factor in us getting through these years and our marriage coming out stronger. Thank you! God is good and continues to be good! I am excited for the coming years to see what he has in store for us. Enjoy our pictures.