Bend Top Ten

As we are settling into our new routine I am realizing how happy we have been with our move.  What an incredible opportunity for me to spend the days at home with the girls and finding peace and joy in a new adventure.  So here are some pics.  I know that's why you came here...to sneak a peak at how our girls are growing.  This top picture is one of my favorites. 

I am amazed at how much time the girls spend in their room.  Quite honestly, we were very hesitant to have them share a room, but it's been such a delight.  Here they are in Elise's bed.  Lauren seems to be able to safely climb up and down, however, I am a little fearful we might have a fall from the top bunk.  None the less, Lauren is quite capable and they have many adventures from the top bunk.  And yes, they sleep wonderfully at night.

So here is a list I made about why we love Bend:

1. Proximity to Lakeview.  We have visitors, it's so wonderful to see our friends and family consistantly.  The girls love getting to spend time with their "Lakeview" friends who are so dear.  They also love our family that comes to stay with us.  Pictured below is the girls with Matthew and Alida Finetti.

2. Climate.  Although it's been a little chilly the past few weeks, we are loving the more warmer climate here and sunny afternoons.

3. Outdoor Recreation.  Rivers, skiing, hiking, biking....you name it.  Rarely a day passes where we are not outside enjoying the sun.

4. Food and Shopping.  Grocery shopping is such a wonderful endeavor.  I have found that I do most of my shopping at either Fred Meyers, Costco, Trader Joes, and Food 4 Less.  The options, prices, and availability is awesome.  

5. Recycling.  Yes!  It makes me so happy to send off our trash to be reused as opposed to the landfill.  Apparently, it's the little things.

6. Community Living.  As you have noticed in previous pictures we have ended up in such a wonderful sub-division.  There are great sidewalks and many kids for the girls to play with. As much as we miss our old neighbors in Lakeview, we are loving Sun Meadow (the area we live.)  Not to mention the 5 minute walk to the Pennocks home.

7. Parks.  Our girls are becoming park snobs.  "Mom, lets go to _______ park."  We have many opportunities to visit parks and are at the park across from our house almost daily.  They are getting to be experienced climbers, sliders, and adventurers.

8. Mountains Galore.  I need to snap a picture of the mountains. They provide a beautiful backdrop to the city and remind us of God's amazing strength.

9. Family Time.  Scott has 3 day weekends.  Although, he is currently traveling a lot, the days at home have been lovely.

10. God Opened Doors.  There is a reason we are here, and it's proven by God's provisions that this is where we need to be right now.

We enjoyed a quick morning trip to the High Desert Museum.  It was a 15 minute drive and I checked out free passes at our local library.  We are rolling like locals these days.  Opportunities like these are so greatly appreciated after moving from such an isolated community.

Keeping Up

It's been a month, yikes!  No excuses in my lack of blogging.  But honestly, I have been distracted.  I jumped onto the Becky Higgins Project Life bandwagon and that where my creative juices are going these days.  It's just simple scrapbooking that encourages you to journal and scrap the everyday events in your life.  I LOVE it and it's been a joy getting things in print to keep forever.  My pal Danica is my motivator and we scrap at least monthly for a couple of days.  I am trying really hard to keep up with this and do 2012 in the process.  More pictures to come...I promise.

Here is what the girls do when I craft.  Seriously, they love to create things.  I finally made room for their table in the kitchen.  Even though it's not an ideal spot it helps give them their own space and the do love to color.

Something else big happened...Lauren Grace turned 3.  Holy smokes, they are getting so big.  This is how I describe her:

Super Independent

Loves Riding Her *New* Bike

Adores Her Big Sister

Appreciates Chocolate (ha, she might look like Scott but she eats like her momma)

Smiles with Her Nose and Eyes

Favorite Thing to Wear:  Running Shoes

Determined and Stubborn

Enjoys Bath Time and Water

Brave when Climbing and Jumping

JOYFUL!

For her sister, Elise dictated a card.  It made me cry.

And alas, a typical afternoon.  Me on the computer for *momma's time* and Elise doing homework.  Today she is learning letter F.  She says she prefers writing A's.  Go figure.  We are a bit behind on the school work portion of life.  But we have 5 months of learning to get her ready.  It's been both challenging and rewarding but we are figuring it out.  

Right now Scott is in Salt Lake City for training.  He said is is crazy difficult and he is thankful for his college experience in computer science.  We will pick him up at the airport on Friday night.  It's such a blessing living in a large town.  We were able to shuttle Grammy and Papa from the airport last week while they went to Anchorage to visit Melissa and watch the Ididarod.  Even though this year will require Scott to be out of town frequently for training, it's such a breeze getting anywhere from here as opposed to Lakeview.  He is home much more.  Working 8-6 Monday to Thursday has been an absolute JOY.  It's like we are in college again, without the homework.  

So, until next time.  We will be exploring more of this new city.

Making a Home

I'll be honest, there is a lot about Bend that I love!  Here is why:

We live on a street that has parking in the back, providing a wonderful, safe, place for the girls to ride bikes.  They ride daily and love it!  If you look in the first photo, the park is at the top left of the picture.  I am standing on the sidewalk in front of the house.  It really is an awesome neighborhood that I am so thankful we were able to find a place to call home.

Another great perk to the city is the fine dining at your fingertips.  Actually, it's quite tempting and we will be exercising great restraint to stay home and eat.  Only going out on special occasions.  But this was a special occasion, Scott was home after being gone for 6 days.  We tried out a sushi place in the Old Mill, delish!  And the girls loved it as well, not surprising but they would probably love any food that was served with chopsticks.

(my fave picture of L-Bug and Scott.  I just love his super cool hipster glasses)

The animals seem to be adjusting quite nicely.  It's such a dog friendly city that Troop goes everywhere with us.  She delights in our jogs by the river and loves chasing the girls on their bikes.  It's so wonderful that she can be more a part of the family and not just home alone during the days.  And the cat, well... not much to report.

However, there certainly are some downfalls to this BEAUTIFUL city!  For starters we dearly miss our family and friends.  Thankfully we always seems to have a get together on the books which gives us something to look forward to.  Another wonderful thing is that so often our Lakeview family and friends travel to Bend.  Here is Elise and Lauren enjoying their afternoon with Garrett.  It was so nice for Lisa to let him spend some time with the girls.  They are doing a great job making new friends, but old friends can't be beat!

So thankful for the provisions and blessings received during this big change.  But, it is starting to feel a little more like home.

Home Sweet Bend

Well, we made it.  Two adults, two kids, a dog, a cat, and a lot of stuff.  As I sit here in our new rental house on Dayspring Drive I can't help but find myself at peace.  It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks, but a lazy afternoon provides a great opportunity to re-introduce myself to my blog.  Yep, it's been a while.

So here I am enjoying my new job: momma and wife.  It's lovely, while I do miss my work peeps, I am enjoying this breath of fresh air.  So far, we have managed to unpack *most* of the boxes and make the place feel more like home.  I have found that life is a new pace around here and Elise is learning to quit asking, "what should I do?"  My reply, "PLAY!"

Old desk:

New desk:

And my employees (does this make me the supervisor?):

Alas, our new home.  Yep, big change from Lakeview.  But we love it.  A wonderful place for our family to grow and make new memories.  And we didn't need to bring our lawn mower....and the park is just down the street one block BONUS!

As I have been busy unpacking, the girls have been busy playing in their new forts.  Awe, living the dream!

And don't worry friends and family.  I will be back shortly.  There is a high demand for Elise and Lauren photos.  And not to mention Bend's 4G network is blazing fast...oh the joys of big city life!

Whirlwind Travels

May has been wonderful!  We have had lots of opportunities to travel!  From Lakeview to Government Camp to see Melissa and Matt, back to Bend.  The girls and I cheered on Team OSP SWAT at the Pole, Peddle, Paddle!  It was fun to spend some time at Mt. Bachelor, but really disappointing that we did not get to ski.  Only daddy made a really great run to lead his team.  

The girls paying at the Old Mill District after the big race.  

Winner, winner, winner!  Okay, so they didn't get the gold but they had a great time.

We got to spend some time with the Roth family and their precious baby Hunter.  Here I am with Ginny...soon we will live closer.  Our girls are the same ages, hopefully we will have more playdates soon!

Awe, my FAVORITE!  Me and my girl Elise.  Yep, gotta love the aviators.

From Bend, we took a brief detour to Las Vegas.  And by we, I mean Scott and I.  It was lovely and we had a chance to spend some time with family in Reno.  The girls stayed with Dammy and Papa, they had a great time!

From Reno, we took a brief pit stop in Lakeview to unpack, repack, and work a little.  We loaded up the camp trailer and headed to Sheldon-Hart Mountain.  We had the chance to spend the weekend at Duferrena, God's Country!  Wow, it was beautiful!  Here is the gorge, and the pictures don't do it justice.

And we took a trip to see a petrified tree, wow!  And, an old homestead with a rock fence.  

Now, back to laundry...

Can I hold her?

We finally made it to Bend to spend a little time with friends.  Here is Baby Addison.  Elise and Lauren are in love with her and constantly asking to hold her.  It's really special watching Lauren interact, and attempt to be gentle with Addie, who is almost 2 weeks old.

It's a time in our lives we are thankful for our friends and their babies.  We have enjoyed our fair share of baby snuggles, but as our girls grow, we can't help but love the stage in life we have made it to.  With the exception of the endless questions of how babies are born.....ugg.

Here are a few of my favorite pics.  Thanks D & Rob for sharing your precious baby with our family.

Those girls are going to make many memories!

Pretty Fingers

When Elise was about 2, she got into my make-up.  It was really pretty funny.  She had tons of blush on and cried when I plopped her in front of the mirror.  

I learned my lesson. 

My make-up is safe up in the bathroom cabinet, out of reach of little fingers.  

Lauren, however, cannot reach my make-up for an evening of mischief.  She found the bag filled with finger nail polishes.  After an a quiet evening downstairs, I wandered upstairs to check on my sleeping beauties.  

Lauren was not sleeping.  She was applying finger nail polish...all by herself.  "Mommy!  Look, pretty nails!" She was smiling from ear to ear and I couldn't help but let my enthusiasm fade as I noticed the rainbow of colors all over her carpet.  

None the less, I know I will look back and smile so we went and found the camera.  

What a cutie!

I spent the next hour scrubbing the carpet.  I didn't get it out and after a blister and watching my carpet start to come out I gave up.  And called Scott to report that we need to add new carpet to the list of future house needs.  (He was in John Day at training.)  

Life does go on.  Here she is sleeping soundly as I scrubbed the carpets in her room....she looks so innocent!