Adriana's Birthday

Well, last Friday was our baby's 1st Birthday. She had lots of fun making a total mess of herself and her chocolate cake. She ate an entire piece (a big piece too). We can't believe she's one! We were glad we got to celebrate her birthday in an actual house and not a hotel room. We lived in a hotel for 3 weeks while we waited to close on a home that ended up falling through. We were so disappointed but in hindsight feel it may have all been for the best and the Lord was just watching out for us. We are are in Beaverton now and enjoying life here. Dan's new position is going well and he's feeling more and more comfortable each day. Isaac is back in Kindergarten and today was the first day he didn't cry when I dropped him off. I'm so proud of him! We just wanted to update some pictures of Adriana. We took the kids to a pumpkin farm last weekend and they had a lot of fun.

September, 2009

Well, we are half way through September and life is about to get crazy! Today is Dan's last day of work in Seattle...a little bittersweet. He is actually really sick today with a horrible head cold but he didn't feel like he could call in his last day. He and the guys from work are going to Chinatown for lunch today (yes, Seattle has a Chinatown). Dan's taking a few days off to help us pack up so I don't have to do much next week when he's already off to Portland. Last week the head honchos of Charter took Dan and the other two guys he was on the last project with and their wives to a really fancy dinner at this super nice place in Seattle called Canlis. It was a $3,000 dinner for 12 people (they drank a lot of wine, which I'm sure really killed the bill but still). It was really good food, a 4 hour dinner! We had a lot of fun and it was a really nice gesture on Charter's part. They talked about what an amazing job Dan and his team did on this last project and how excited they are for Dan to go to Portland and all the exciting things there. I felt very proud of my husband, he's such a hard worker and always earns the highest praises from his employers.



We don't know exactly when we'll be closing on our home, sometime before October 18th, that's all we know. We will be staying as a family in an Extended Stay Hotel just outside Portland for up to 3 weeks....yes, I may just go CRAZY but we didn't want to pay rent here and pay for a hotel for Dan in Portland. We might as well at least be together. The kids are excited, they think hotels are fun. It does have a full kitchen in it so we'll be able to eat in most nights. We just hope we can close sooner rather than later because each day will just drag on I'm sure. It will all be worth it in the end because our new home is going to be so nice.




Isaac started school almost 2 weeks ago. I thought he would love it but he actually hates it. It's a struggle to get him to go each day and the last few days his teacher has to peel him off me because he's crying and freaking out so much. I've talked to his teacher several times and he does fine in class and gets along good with the other kids, he just doesn't like it. He says "all we do is learn and it's boring". It's always a pain dropping him off but he's happy and fine when I pick him up. I've talked to a few other mom's of kids in his class and they said their kids are going through the same things. His teacher is older and I think she's a little on the strict side. Maybe his next teacher in Battle Ground will be more fun and he'll enjoy school a little more. I've attached some pictures of his first day of school and some pictures of he and Audrey being Transformers.



Adriana is crawling all over the place and pulling herself up on everything. She has 6 teeth now (4 on top, 2 on bottom). She loves to eat any and everything. We just got her some baby pictures and they turned out so cute. We'll send copies out with our Christmas cards this year. (Stamps are expensive).

Audrey is enjoying having Isaac gone a couple hours a day. She loves to play with the toys he doesn't let her play with when he's home. She is starting to play with Adriana more, which Adriana loves.

Once we close, I'll send a group e-mail with our new address to everyone. Until then, my cell phone will still be the same and I believe we'll be able to set up our computer in our hotel room so I won't be completely shut out from the world. Here's some pictures for your enjoyment. One note on the bath one....the bubbles were perfectly covering all the needed areas so we won't be able to embarrass Isaac and Audrey too bad in 10 years.

Our Crazy Lives - August , 2009

Well, we have had a roller coaster of a few months here. This summer has literally flown by. Isaac will start school next week, although I know he will be brave and excited for his first day of Kindergarten, I'm already stocking up on kleenex's. It's scary sending my little boy out to the evil world! He can't wait! He is such a funny guy and I'm sure he'll have the best time every.


Audrey is 3 1/2 and so into princesses and "tinkibell" as she calls her. She loves being a big sister to Adriana and "tries" to share, I know it's hard for her but she really does want to be nice...it's just so hard when Adriana grabs the one thing she wants to play with. Ha! Once we get moved in a few weeks here (more on that in a minute), we will begin Speech Therapy. Our pediatrician really feels she needs it, so do we. We're telling her she'll get to go to a special school just like Isaac but it will just be a few days a week. She is excited for it and we hope it helps. She is still young enough that we hope she doesn't realize how hard it's been for us to understand and that by the time she starts school, everyone will understand her fine. Kids can be so harsh. Dan still remembers studdering when he was really little and how people would stare at him and say things. To this day he is still self concious about speaking even though he totally speaks fine. Anyways, Audrey is very sweet and happy for the most part.

Adriana is a crazy baby! She is so much fun, we just love her to death. She really cracks us up with her little faces and growling. Yes, I said growling. Her new nickname is "little bear" because she growls at everyone. I took her to get some baby pictures yesterday and the only way the photographer could get her to smile big was to growl at her, then Adriana would growl back and laugh. She is just starting to crawl (we have late bloomers) and she now has 3 teeth which she loves to show off (see picture). She's 10 months now and getting so big! Time sure goes by fast. She loves to stand up and is almost always standing in her crib now and chucking stuff out.

Dan and I just celebrated our 7 year anniversary. My parents were here when we celebrated it and they were celebrating their 38th anniversary so we got a sitter one night and went to dinner at a really nice restaurant on the waterfront in Tacoma. It was a lot of fun. Most of you all know by now that Dan is transferring to the Portland branch of Charter Construction. He will be doing insurance work there and will help them as they begin to form a commercial division. He is excited and anxious to get down there and start. He will start work on the 21st of September....less than a month from now. We think we've found a home to buy in Battle Ground, WA (what a cool sounding name, right?) It's about 20 miles from his work and his commute should be less than a half hour (so great!). We're driving to see the home this weekend, our Realator is positive that it's the perfect home for us. It sits on 1/4 of an acre and has a huge fenced back yard and front yard. We hope it all works out! We'll keep you updated and take some pictures this weekend. Our Realator has sent some pictures, it's in the process of getting new carpet, new paint and new linolium and new appliances. It was a foreclosure and some investors bought it as it just needs some cosmetic work done otherwise it's in great shape. So, we'll get a brand new home basically. We will see how it goes this weekend but it sounds perfect for us. That's been our lives lately. If we buy this home, our Realtor said we can do a "good faith move-in" while we're waiting to close on it and we can move in as soon as the rennovations are complete in 2 to 3 weeks. That would be perfect so we can all move together and Dan won't have to stay in a hotel in Portland and work while we're here waiting to close. We hope you enjoy the pictures. I just realized I had people post comments on our last blog. Like I said, I'm still figuring this out. We hope everyone is doing well.

Summer 2009

Ok, we've finally decided to get with it and do a blog. With 3 kids 5 and under, we just don't have a lot of "free" time I guess. Anyways, here we are, officially bloggers. So far the summer is going well. We had a fun little trip to Idaho to visit our family's at the end of May, Dan and I escaped to San Diego (without our children) for a few nights and it was quite refreshing for us. The kids didn't even know we were gone they were having so much fun with Grandma & Grandpa and playing with cousins. It was a quick trip, it always feels that way, but a lot of fun. Dan and I did go to Knotts Berry Farm while visiting California. We (I) was brave and went on almost every scary ride that Dan wanted to go on. We both were crazy sore that night and the next day. We learned the hard way that we're too old to do the roller coasters. That was a sad realization. We have been busy back home now. Isaac can't wait for school to start in the fall. He'll be in Kindergarten. He sure misses preschool. I can't believe how old he's getting. I've started babysitting a couple kids from home a few days a week. A brother and sister. The boy is about Isaac's age and the girl is about Audrey's age so it's worked out pretty well. They all have fun together with only a few hundred fights a day. Ha! Dan's work has kept him VERY busy, his project will officially wrap up in the next week or so, then we'll see what happens from there. The company he is working for has a lot of projects that have been put "on hold" for the time being so he'll get to try his hand at some other duties in the office. Adriana is 8 1/2 months old, has 2 teeth and is so much fun. She is such a happy little girl. She loves her brother, sister and new best friend, our dog. Now that she can sit up by herself, she loves to pet Daisy and pull her tail. Daisy's such a good sport about it all. Last weekend was the 4th of July and we had lots of fun doing our own fireworks show. The kids sat in chairs and clapped while Dan lit off the fireworks. I'm sure it was a great boost to Dan's eg0. Ha! They loved the sparklers, Audrey almost lit her clothes and hair on fire with her sparkler but quickly learned to hold her arm straigt out. It was a hot weekend so we bought a pool for the kids which they lived in all weekend. It's now in the 60's ago. Good ol Washington summers. We have some super cute pics of the kids swimming. I'm going to try to update this once a week or so.