Chubby Bunny

While at the Schaefer reunion, Matt and I played a game of chubby bunny. I hadn't played since middle school and had forgotten how horrible it was when you start to laugh. I was able to snap a few picture of Matt before I had to spit out my marshmallows. He won of course. I couldn't stop laughing and almost lost my lunch trying not to gag on the marshmallows in my mouth at the time. Matt makes a pretty cute chubby bunny! Notice the game face and rally hat? He doesn't miss a beat!

Reunion at Wallowa Lake

July 19th

We attended the "Scheafer Reunion" today at Wallowa Lake. The Schaefer family is Matt's mom's, mom's family. It was the first of its kind and it was a blast. We met many family members we had never met and ate lots of food. The kids did crafts, played in the river, and played games supplied by Grandpa Yoshioka. Their favorite game was the "filling the water bucket one cup at a time" race. Many of the younger kids missed the bucket more than they hit it. It was fun to watch!

Kittens, Horsey rides, and a girlfriend for Jaren

July 16th

Our neighbors, the Leonards are GREAT people. We went over to visit them this afternoon and were able to pet and hold their baby kittens. I stayed inside and talked to Vickie while the girls mauled the baby kittens for a while. Later on, Vickie took her horses out with the buggy and gave the girls a ride up and down the road.

Vickie had a little girl, Miranda just a month before Jaren. While Vickie gave the girls rides, I took picture of Miranda and Jaren together for the first time. We have started making plans for them in the future. Since they are our neighbors, just right across the field, we figure it would be great proximity for Jaren and Miranda to become "friends". Do you think they will go for more than friends -- she is a pretty little girl and don't guys like older women?

Chubbiness

Jaren is growing as quickly as ever. You can see the size of his cheeks and the number of his chins changing almost daily. He is such a joy. He puts up with hammering and big booms, his sisters fighting, and 2 hours of hot sun each day for swimming lessons. Amazingly enough, he still smiles at us. What a cutie!

2 more walls

July 15th

With the help of a few friends, Matt was able to put up the east and west walls of our upstairs today. The walls are extra heavy because the plywood is already put on the outside, so it took quite a few people to make it happen. It was also a bit scary watching them put them up because anything went wrong and the walls could have fallen to ground. Thankfully they went up without a hitch and things are on their way again.

Aquathon

July 14th

Mori and Lily have been in swimming lessons all summer. They are part of the Pendleton Swim Association and have been working hard to learn all the strokes required of them at their level. As a fundraiser for PSA, they participated in the aquathon. Each level of swimmers were asked to swim a certain number of laps and to collect pledges from friends and family for new swim equipment for the association. Lily was supposed to swim 30 lengths of the pool and Mori was supposed to swim 60 lengths of the pool. They had 2 hours to do it and they did it! Every third lap they could use a kick board or a noodle to help them so they didn't get too tired, but they did it. Lily finished her 30 laps with about 15 minutes to spare and Mori actually swam 56 lengths in the 2 hours. They were both VERY happy with their accomplishments and so were we. They were quite tired at the end of the day!!!

Second Floor started

July 14th

The second floor is down and the walls should be going up tomorrow. Our friends came over and we all took a look at what our view will be from the second story. It is a bit scary with little kids up there because they always seem to get a bit too close to the edge.

Rest Stop Rodent

On our way home from All-Stars, we had to stop lots to feed and appease Jaren. At one stop, Mori sat and watched a rockchuck lay on top of a garbage can while another picked food out of it and ran around. Mori took lots of pictures of it. I couldn't get her to get very close though. I think she thought if she got too close the rodent would tear out her throat because no matter what I told her, she wouldn't get close enough to get a more clear picture. But we got a good laugh out of it and I actually think we saw them gain weight while we sat there. Lots of grub for the little guys!

Ikea playdate with Mom and Mori

After Mori's Saturday game, we went to the new Ikea in Portland. I wanted to go look at furniture and get decorating ideas for the new part of the house. Jaren was in tow so it was a little slow going at times, but we had fun. When we went through the children's section, Mori befriended a toy snake and it reminded me of a picture I had seen 100s of times while growing up of my dad being "strangled" by a stuffed snake. We recreated the scene with Mori and her snake and will have to compare them at a later date to see if we were close in our rendition. Either way, we found lots of decor we liked, had fun, and ate yummy treats there!

Pendleton Girls 10 & 11 year All Stars

July 12th

We had an interesting experience with All-Stars this year. Pendleton had 3 teams: 9-10 yr., 10-11 yrs., and 11-12 yrs. Mori made the 10-11 yr. team and practiced for the district tournament in La Grande. Unfortunately the teams in her age group all cancelled on the district tournament, so Mori's team got an automatic in at the state tournament in Gresham, Oregon. We were very nervous for them because they had never played together before their first game in Gresham. They had a rocky start, but came back to almost win it in the last inning. Unfortunately they lost 11-12 which put them in the consolation bracket. They had to play the next day (Sunday) and Mori had made the decision to not play on Sunday, so we didn't go to the game to watch. The team lost again and we went home. We only wish they could have played together in districts to see if they actually deserved to go to state. It is always hard to go to play, not knowing what is really out there.

Mori did well though. She played 1st base in Saturday's game and helped complete many outs. She also batted a few times (of which she was hit or almost hit 3 times) and scored for our team. She is looking forward to next year and maybe another chance to do All-Stars.

Picnic with the Grandparents

July 11th

It is so nice being able to meet my parents up on their land in Meacham as often as we are able. We seem to go there a lot because it is about half-way and it is usually cooler than La Grande or Pendleton. We met up there this time because it had been a while since we had seen mom and dad. We ate yummy food and laughed and played a lot. Mori will be leaving for All-Stars in Portland tomorrow and Dad has to go to scout camp soon, so we needed to get together to make sure we didn't have withdrawls in the meantime.

Beautiful vegetables

July 10th

Here is a picture of some of our veggies we have grown. I love to eat them. I do get a bit nervous when the zucchini start to come on since I can't EVER keep up with them. As much as I love to eat them, I don't think I could eat as many as we grow. Have you ever noticed how fast they grow? I actually measured one in the morning and then again in the evening and it had grown 3 inches during the day. It reminds me of a sign I once read:

It is zucchini season, don't look your neighbors in the eye!!

Oh how true those words are!

Dirt magnet

With all of the construction going on around our house, there is also a lot of extra dirt. Nora is a dirt magnet. We find her playing in the dirt piles around the house all the time. We will even find her playing in the dirt 10 minutes after finishing taking a bath and getting ready for bed. Needless to say, she usually gets in trouble when that happens.

Getting ready for the second floor

Matt is working as hard as ever on our home. We have had to wait for a few days here and there for parts to come in at the local hardware store. We have actually had a few of our orders shorted as well. We find that the papers will say one thing and our drop off will be something a bit different. We were short 3 joists which meant we couldn't go any further until they came in. That was a 3 day wait. It is hard to sit around and wait when you really want to be working on something!!!

Breakneck Nap

July 7th

Nora, Jaren and I went to La Grande today to pick up Lily from her trip to Wyoming. I was able to visit my old childhood friend, Mandi Perry for a while and Nora was able to play with Mandi's kids. She was SO tired from it all that she fell asleep in the car. Have you ever wondered how children's heads don't just snap off when they sleep in a car? I thought this was a very cute picture!

Chubby boy!

Jaren is growing like a little boy should (or so the nurses said in the hospital). He is gaining weight like a champ and is smiling often and sleeping and pooping and all that normal baby stuff. At his last check-up (4 weeks) he weighed in at 10 lbs 12 oz (up from 6 lbs 14 oz at birth). We love having him in our home and look forward to seeing what having a boy is really about!

Bottom floor... check!

The bottom floor of the addition is framed and almost all of the plywood is up on the outside. Matt is doing this all by himself and is just using the plans from the architect, the plans from the lumber company, a book from Home Depot, a few phone calls to contractor friends, and faith to do it all. Believe it or not, it is all going well and Matt is excited!

4th of July

This was an interesting 4th of July for us.  Lily was in Wyoming with Grandma and Grandpa Isaacson and Mori stayed the night with a friend.  SO, that left us home with Nora and Jaren.  Matt worked on the house a bit and we did fireworks with our neighbors and went to bed around 10 pm.  No big fireworks shows for us and the best thing -- Nora didn't have a clue that she missed anything.  She did throw about 6 boxes of pop-its in the new construction area and get spoiled throughout the day too.  Maybe that is why she didn't care that we didn't do much. 

A lovely view

July 3rd

We lost a window in our existing bedroom today because of the way the new addition lines up with our house.  That means that we get to look at this lovely green for a month or two while other things get finished.

The first wall

July 2nd

We put up our first wall today, actually, we put up the first few walls today.  It is starting to come together and we are excited.  We had help from LOTS of neighbors.  Having people willing to help is such a blessing!

A new post, finally!

We have been busy with...life, so I am going to play catch up on the posts for the next few days.  I hope all is well for you and yours!