Taking advantage of the space

Lily and Nora have spent many hours riding their bikes on the new floor.  There is ample space and you can do it forever, just as long as you don't bother dad as her works.  As you can see, the bike is a bit small for Lily, but she doesn't care.  She just loves to be out doing something around her dad and the new space! (7/1)

Two steps closer

Matt has been working like a mad man on the house.  It has been REALLY hot so he gets tired quickly and drinks 6- 32 oz. bottles of water and/or gatorade everyday.  But here you will see him cutting off part of the roof where the new part of the house will connect with the old and you will also see the floor of our addition.  Each day we are seeing more and more of our house come together and we are so excited!  (6/30)

First Bath

Jaren held onto his umbilical cord for along time.  It finally fell off June 27th -- his one month birthday.  I was so excited though because that means I finally got to give him his first bath.  He absolutely loves baths now.  And I love them because he smells SO good.  I could sit and smell him all day long!!  There was a better picture, but it showed a bit more of Jaren than we should probably share on the internet, but you get the idea.  What a cutie!! (6/28)

Trying something new

The girls have only been taking swimming lessons for 2 summers now (plus a bit in the winter months) and they are doing well.  Mori was given the opportunity to try her first real swim meet last weekend in La Grande.  She participated in the 100 freestyle, the 50 breaststroke and the medley relay.  We were so proud of her.  She was most nervous about the 100 freestyle because of its length, but she did great.  She said she almost cried on the 4th turn, but she made it.  Grandma and Grandpa Isaacson came to watch, as well as Auntie Michelle and her 4 kids (in town from Salem).  Mori has now decided that swimming is her second favorite sport and she looks forward to learning more and challenging herself in future swim meets.  (6/28)

The call of stardom (ha ha)

Nora loves to wear sunglasses.  Her favorite thing to do is to make a "cool" face when she has them on.  I am not sure she realizes that her face doesn't necessarily look "cool".

Sweet Dreams

Here is our boy having sweet dreams.  Don't you wonder what they dream about.  It is NOT gas!  I want to have a talk with the person who came up with that notion!  How often do you smile when you have gas? (6/24)

First Bottle

I have been wanting to try Jaren with a bottle to make sure he would take one.  Lily never would really because I didn't try early enough.  We are needing to go to Portland, so we need to make sure he will take a bottle to save stopping and Matt and I like to go for dates -- a bottle is a necessary thing so we can go alone.  He took it like a champ and daddy was happy to be the one to give it to him! (6/22)

Happy Daddy!

Matt has really come out of his shell with Jaren.  It is our 4th baby, but he really seems to want to hold him more -- he is not so scared of his size, etc. like he was with the girls.  He is SO proud to have a son.  We all knew he would be!  You can just tell he loves him dearly.  We are so happy to have a boy in our home.  It really is different! (6/21)

Cooling Off

Our spring lasted for a long while -- it was wonderful!  But since we live in Pendleton, we are guaranteed HOT weather in June, July and August.  This was one of the first hot days.  The girls ran through the sprinkler to cool off.  They would have done it all day if we had let them! (6/21)

Helping Dad at Meacham

Dad has been working HARD to make sure his land is the best looking land in the country.  It had been a bit neglected over the years before dad bought it, so he has been doing all of the back-breaking labor to make sure it is not a disaster.  He found out that a type of beetle had moved into the slash piles he had laying around, so we went up to help burn it all so that the beetle wouldn't move into the healthy trees too.  This was about day 500 of all the work and now the land looks great!!!  I wonder what they will do with it next?! (6/21)

Jumping In

Matt is a bit nervous about adding on since he is doing all of it himself.  He has been picking a lot of brains and reading a lot to make sure he has all of the bases covered.  This is the first day of construction with Matt at the helm.  We are so excited!!! (6/20)

Quick Cash

Before Matt started on our addition, he wanted some of the big rocks in one area taken out for ease of entry, as this is where the crawl space will be.  He offered the girls 5 cents per rock.  I am not sure what he was thinking as $ is a biggie for the girls and they are DRIVEN to make as much as possible.  He left to the store and upon his return 45 minutes later, the two older girls had each earned around $30 each and Nora had earned about $20.  He tried to change it to a penny a rock, but they didn't go for it.  Leave it to dad to make THAT kind of promise to his girls : )  

First Smile

Matt and I were enjoying our boy one fine afternoon while the girls were visiting Grandma Yoshioka and Jaren smiled for us.  He actually smiled for Matt (which I feel is a bit unfair as I am the one who feeds, burps and cleans up after him) but I was there to catch it on the camera.  Isn't he precious? (June 11)

Pouring a foundation

GO Construction poured our foundation the first week in June.  Nora and I got a first hand view from the back door.  Nora thought it was pretty cool to have all of those big machines in our back yard.  I thought it was cool that we were finally getting things underway for our home addition!

Another season finished

Mori finished her softball season with the Cubs in early June.  They had a lot of fun.  They were blessed with great coaches and lots of team spirit.  They finished their season with only one loss.  They really worked well together and their hard work paid off.  Mori has decided that softball is her #1 favorite sport so she will continue this summer in All-Stars.  We will keep you posted with how they do.

A visit from Great Grandpa and Grandma Connolly

We had many visitors in the first week of Jaren's life!  Everyone was so excited we had a boy "finally"!  Matt's grandpa Connolly and his wife Bev came through and we were thrilled.  We hadn't seen them for a while and they were thrilled to meet our newest addition.  It has been a real blessing to have our family be so supportive.  It makes having a new baby even more exciting!