Sydney's school commute

Here are some pictures of what we see on our walk to and from school. Not too shabby!

Santa Cruz Part 2

What a whirl wind the last couple of weeks have been. We packed up the house up on Sunday in Portland and unpacked the house on Wednesday in Mount Hermon. I can truly say that I am in no way utterly exhausted. God gave us lots of endurance, lots of very helpful hands, great kids, and sunshine.
The kids did a great job on the drive down. I am so thankful I caved in and bought the car dvd player. It truly made all the difference in the car. WE stopped in redding the first night and stayed at a hotel that had a pool. The girls loved it and the adults loved the hot tub.

We are pretty much settled into our house. There are still somethings we want to do to the outside to make it a little nicer, ( gravel, paving stones for our table, toy storage, etc), but overall it really is starting to feel like home.

Here is a picture of the outside. It looks a little hillbilly with the toys and table and other things that we need to find a better place for, but at least you can picture where we spend most of our time. Sydney has been adjusting pretty well. She got plugged into school right away. She made a couple of friends that live on camp. One girl named Khenya said to me today, " Sydney is my bestest friend!'. I was so thankful for their instant connection.

When we were driving up to the camp and driving through the town of Felton, where we grocery shop, Sydney said, " Where is the town mom. I thought we were living in a town. All there is here is trees. There are no buildings. Where is town? Where will we go to get stuff?". I didn't realize how much of a city girl she was. She has been 'adjusting' to non city life well. We saw a banana slug on the way to school and chased a butterfly home.

I can't even express the thankfulness and gratitude I have in my heart for this amazing opportunity we have been give. I am so thankful to God for answering my prayers beyond my imagination. I feel so blessed. So blessed. Nate has been home for lunch. The girls chant at the door for him when he walks in. We have had lunch and dinner out side. There are endless placed for us to explore out our front door. I just truly feel like we are a family again. I love seeing Nate be a daily part of the girls life. I feel like this is us again. This is us, our family.

Big Plans!

I can't tell you how cool it is to truly feel/know/experience that God has a plan so much greater than we can imagine. For the last 3 1/2 years we have loved living in Portland. We have taken full advantage of this great city. We have loved the puddle stomping, the rainy wet hikes, the summer concerts, McMenimens, riding bikes to the city, such great friends, farmers markets, berry picking, Sunday dinners with Nate's family, Tuesday diners with the Jer and Crista and their kids, getting to know great people, Manzanita, the mountain.... The list could go on. On the flip side, one thing that has been really hard on our family is the amount of time that Nathan has had to be away from us.

Over the past year or so Sydney has been more and more upset by Nate being gone. She would cry and ask why does daddy have to be gone so much. She would wake up asking for daddy only to be disappointed that it was not him opening her bedroom door in the morning. Stella's baby sign for Nate was holding her hand to her ear like talking on the phone. That is how she saw him. It has been really tough. I have shed many tears missing Nate and so many sad days experiencing great things with the kids that he was missing out on.

Through out our marriage, we have always gone by the motto, "we will know when it is time to move on. God will make it clear and He will clearly lead us somewhere". I am so happy to share with everyone that God has made it SO clear and has lead us somewhere new! We are off on another new adventure.

Nathan has just been hired as the Director of Adventure Programs at Mount Hermon Camp and Conference Center in California. We are excited about this new job and place for our family. Mount Hermon is located just miles from Camp Redwood Glen in Scotts Valley where we worked 2001-2004. We still have great friends in the area, there is surfing, hiking, biking SUN, SUN , SUN, huge redwood trees, Nate can come home for lunch, he will be home for dinner and he will be able to open the girls bedroom door in the morning. It is such a huge blessing and the job is a great fit for Nate. He will be working with some great people. The job really fits his personality, gifts and talents.

It is so humbling to feel the outcome of so many prayers in such a clear way. I am so thankful for this opportunity for our family to be together again.

The details of when we are moving is still being worked out, but it will be sooner than later. We will be putting our house on the market soon so, if you or anyone you know is looking for a great house, let us know!

Please be in prayer for all the transitions that lay ahead. Our move, Syd's new school, selling the house, transition from Synergo and leaving well, transition to Mount Hermon, the girls adjustments to a new place, moving away from Nate's family....

We are so thankful....so thankful and excited for this next chapter in our life. Santa Cruz here we come!!!

Stella

Sydney

Life through the eyes of Sydney

I let Sydney take some pictures with my camera the other day and this is what she saw. I think she captured her life pretty well....

Disneyland!!

Nates parents took the whole family on a trip to Disneyland!!! We were so excited to go and be at Disneyland and to spend time together. Sydney was really anticipating the trip. She had a countdown calendar and marked off each day almost immediatly after she woke up.

It was a great trip. We were at the park for 5 days. It was the perfect amount of time, We didn't feel like we had to rush each day and there wasn't any reason to kill your self with LONG days. It was great. Sydney was able to go on some 'bigger kid' rides. She went on a small rollercoaster in California adventure and Soaring over California. She told her school friends when she got back that soarin was her favorite. Tinkerbell made an apperence at the end.
Stella loved all of it too. She left being able to say Disney, minnie, micky, pluto, goofy. ..... She loved the characters. But what I think she loves the most was all the fences that were just her height to step on, balance on and to walk through and under. Go figure.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Routines

Life with kids makes for many many routines. Sometimes I am so thankful for the routines we have in place and other times the whole world comes down when you do one thing out of routine. Here are a couple of our routines that I think will be fun remembering when the girls are older or when they have their own kids.
Stella
-we must have two crackers while we read our night time stories.
- a kiss good night for bunny and her before leaving the room.
- powder on the buns. poh poh poh

Sydney
-We sing 2 songs in bed: Zacheus and I've got the joy joy joy down in my heart.
- I will scratch, tickle and the rub her back
- We say good night and then she says, " eat yummy oatmeal with me in the morning, Leave the door open this much now and this much in the morning, and leave a not on my door telling me not to yell in the morning. I love you mom! Bigggg Huuuuugs!" Every night. The same thing.
- After bath she wraps the towel around her whole body and lays on the rug in her room like a frog on a log until she is 'warmed up'.

I am sure there are many more that I am forgetting, but these are the ones that I just went through to have a peaceful house tonight. I can't wait to add to the list as Stella gets older.

Not to forget these...

A couple of things Sydney has said the last couple of days:
When talking about a new kid in her preschool class.

A- How old is he? He looks like he is you age.

S- Nooooo..ah. He is not grown up like me. He is not huge 4 mom.

Were in the backyard playing T-ball the other day and Stella was sitting in some chairs along the fence and Syd went up to her and said,

S-Stella, you are in the hooray stands.

A- The what?

S- You know the place where all the people yell hooray from, the Hooray stands.

What a difference a year makes

This last weekend we went up to Mt Hood and rented a cabin with our friends Molly and Jeremiah and their 2 boys (Olen 5, Jonas 2). We had a great time relaxing, hiking and Skiing. Yes Skiing! I was a little hesitant after what happened last year when we tried to take Syd skiing. She has become much more daring this last year and we were with Olen who already knows how to ski.
Sydney acted like she skied yesterday. She was determined to ride the chairlift. She skied between our legs, but rode the life like a champ. We were so proud of her.
At bed time she said, " Mommy I am really proud of myself today." We were so proud of her too!
Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Of course Stella had to get skis on too! She really wanted to give it a shot. She kept pointing at the slopes and saying Stella Stella.

Good buds!

two litle girls sittin on a bench

not very exciting but still so cute. Very much both of their personalities.

If only....

Dinner time is usually a battle with Sydney. She never likes what is made for dinner. She always wants something different. It gets very tiring and can make dinner not very enjoyable. Tonight at dinner the story was just the same. So I asked,

Syd, what needs to happen for you to eat you dinner?

Rollerskates.

Rollerskates?

Yup rollerskates. So I can skate around the room with my plate and then I will eat my dinner.

What a great idea. Wish we could make it work, but makes for a good mental picture anyways.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Part Three: Christmas = Mustachemas...

The Stockings were hung

The letter to Santa Claus was written along with a picture of him and Rudolph. The excitement was all through the house.

Sydney was so excited she woke up several times throughout the night singing, 'We wish you a merry Christmas' and 'Rudolph the red nose reindeer'. Almost every hour she woke up asking if Santa had come yet. Unfortunatly we were all up anyways because Stella was having stomach problems due to eating foods that had some milk in them... poor girl.

Morning came. Little girls ran around excited to open their presents. These girls are serious present openers.

Smiles were endless.....  and there was the mustachmas...

Carlos was my favorite!

It was a very merry Christmas. We have so much to be thankful for. Sydney loved reading the story of Jesus' birth. There is so much more to be thankful for.