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.

November Fun

November came and went so quickly this year. It was a busy time. I found myself waking up every morning going "wow time is going by quickly". Ryan and I found ourselves blown away at how fast our kids are growing and how I would like time to slow just a little. It is excited to see all the milestones that take place in our childrens lives and how much of a blessing it is that God has blessed us with so much love for our children. Recently I had come across a bible study I had done in the past and it talked about "children" I now know how just a glimpse of the love that God has for us and what an awesome thing to beable to experience this love for our children the way he shows and loves for us everyday!

Madi experienced her first Birthday Party Tea at her friend Tessa's house. It was so fun to see her pick out a dress and ask to have her hair curled and put lip gloss on. She loved every minute of that party having tea sancwiches and little cakes. I love having little girls!! Addyson is all over the place we find that she has so much curiosity climbing stairs, getting into everthing. As I cook dinner in the evening's I find that I have a little buddy that always sits herself in my warming drawer below the stove and jibbber jabbers at me. Garrett has found the love of Lego's and of course his daddy loves everything about that. They spend many evenings creating all sorts of things. So as we wrapped up this November we found ourselves thanking our heavenly father for all that he has blessed us with. My hope and prayer is that you too had a wonderful November and found many blessings that God has blessed you with.

Halloween

Halloween was a bit of a downer this year at our house. Friday evening we had to take Madi into urgent care and turned out she was sick with the rest of West Portland and Beaverton with H1N1. I felt so bad for her. She spent the better half of the weekend on the couch watching movies. So this year Garrett and Addyson went trick or treating with Ryan through the neighborhood while I stayed home with our sick little girl. Madi was still happy that she had gotten candy from Ryan's work at the little Halloween party they have. Needless to say Garrett made out well with the candy this year having gone to Ryan's work and out through the neighborhood. Next year will be better and hopefully we won't have a sick kid. Here are some pictures of Garrett and Addyson.

Pumpkin Patch

Fall, I love it! We made our annual trip with the our good family friends The Kellar's and Putz families to Lakeview Farms in North Plains to the pumpkin patch after we enjoyed the rest of the day eating lunch and dessert together. Our kids all range in ages from 7 years-9 months and we had alot of fun. We started going as couple's when Margaret and I were pregnant with our older girls Madi and Zoe. Now there seven and growing like weeds. It is so fun to have these very special friends to share such fun traditions and outings with. We love them like family and are so blessed to have them in our lives. Thanks guys for being such great friends!! Here is a glimpse into our day together. Pictures still don't express the funny little things that eight kids can do. Enjoy and Happy Harvest.