School, Seattle and Some Other Stuff

Wow, February was a long time ago. What is blogging again?! Ha! So many new things in our household these days. Caden is my big Kindergartener and loving it, Michael started a new job in Seattle on Monday, we put our house on the market 2 weeks ago and are now looking for a new rental house in the Seattle area. I have a million things on my mind and I just keep reminding myself to pray and that I don't really have any control over any of it.

Praying for LOTS of things right now--
-Patience
-Trusting that God has everything under control
-Faith in God that He knows what's best for us
-Someone will buy our house! Soon!
-We'll find a perfect house to rent
-These next few weeks/months will fly by quickly while we're separated
-The kids will do fine with all the changes and transitions

And mostly I'm just thankful that God has brought us this far and put all of these things into motion. Michael likes his new job and is looking forward to what the future holds and we're all excited for a new adventure!!! 

10 Year Anniversary Trip

Michael and I celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary on 8/2/13 and we decided to do a really fun trip just for the 2 of us. We've always wanted to go to New York City and finally did it! The kids got to stay with Nana and Papa while we were gone and had lots of adventures without us.

We decided to rent a car for a couple days when we first got there and drove up the East Coast and went to a total of 8 states (New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont). It's so crazy that we went to that many states because if we'd covered the same ground on the West Coast we'd have stayed in Oregon and Washington. Anyway, there is a ton of history in those places and here are some of the places we went. 

This is in Quincy, MA, where President John Adams and his family lived. 

There are rumors that he is a relative of mine. We love genealogy! 

Boston, MA, site of the Boston Massacre

The "other" Portland - Portland, ME

Snow, snow and more snow...

Figured I should blog since it's been 6 months since the last time! :-P
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It's been snowing the past 3 days. Which is so weird around these parts! I grew up in a place where it snowed off and on all winter long from November to March/April, sometimes May, but here it normally dumps 2 or 3 inches (maybe 5 or 6) once a year and that's it. Last time we measured we had about a foot. Craziness I tell you! 

I'm an auntie again!

My sister-in-law gave birth to her baby girl, Aria on the 17th of July. She is such a precious little baby! Congratulations to Heather and Ryan!

Here are some pictures from that special day! 

Seaside, Multnomah Falls and Crown Point Trip

Ok, so I have a lot of catching up to do. We were non-stop busy all summer and now that I finally have some down time I figure it's time for me to catch up on all the fun things we did! Ready, set, post!!!

At the end of June we went to Seaside for a mini family reunion with Michael's family on his Dad's side. We hung out with his Grandma, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. The weather was perfect and it was fun to meet new family. Caden had a wonderful time playing with his cousins and Emberly had fun making new friends, as long as they gave her candy or some other sweet treat :)

Here are a few pictures from the day!

 

Preschool

I'm not a teacher but I did learn a thing or two about teaching when I was in college...especially since my major at one time was Children's Ministry.  A few months ago I decided to start "preschooling" Caden (and of course, Emberly too!). I figured he's old enough to start learning how to write his ABC's and his name and learn about Oregon and the USA and all that other good stuff. He already knew how to say his ABC's and count from 1-20 but he didn't know anything else. The internet and Pinterest are a huge resource for preschool, and school in general, so I've been doing my research. It's been a little slow going but we've made it through the letter D and have talked about geography and different animals. The format I chose to do looks like this:

1. Talk about the calendar on the dry erase board (day of week, month & date, activities or birthdays in the month) .
2. Talk about the weather for the day (look up the temperature and the kids look outside and tell me what the sky looks like) and draw it out on the board (clouds, sunshine, blue sky, etc.).
3. Sing a few songs (Old McDonald, Wheels on the Bus, etc.).
4. Talk about the letter or theme of the day. If it's a letter day I write out the upper and lowercase letter, and we talk about which words start with that letter and what it sounds like. 
5. Then we practice writing the letters in a book I got him at Dollar Tree and then he practices more on a piece of paper.  
6. He gets star stickers at the end if he was a good listener and followed directions and also if he does a good job writing his letters. 

Muffins, Pancakes and Chips

Yesterday I experimented with two new recipes I found on Pinterest and they both turned out pretty good.

The first one was Bacon, Egg and Cheese "Muffins"
Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.cheeseslave.com/low-carb-bacon-egg-cheese-muffins/ 
I used mozzarella cheese in place of the cheddar because I was out of cheddar and they still turned out fine. I think they would have been better to have the bite of a sharp cheddar though. This recipe calls for coconut flour and I want to add that it doesn't taste like coconut and they're not too sweet. Also, when I make them again I'll leave the salt out of the recipe because they were too salty...you can also use the base recipe and swap out the other ingredients to make different variations (ie. ham/sausage/bacon, veggies, different cheese, herbs, etc.)