So Fun

I just realized that I can use blogger on my I-pad. Yay, now maybe I will start to blog more. Maybe even catch up from this last year. I would love to just start from now until the of the year. That's my goal and hopefully I can complete that goal.

Cub scout cake

Bud was suppose to make a cake and decorate it for the Cub scout birthday party. He wanted to make a lake and then a grassy area. He then planned what he wanted to use on the cake. He wanted to try and write something but then realized that might not work out. He then found something that would work. He used the figures from our Lincoln Logs. He did a really good job.

Catch up

So alot has happened over the last couple of months. I'm trying to catch up with all of our family happens etc.

I will hopefully try to get to the posts over the next couple of days. Here's to working on them...

Our home

It has been a long, house hunting process. The process has been filled with lots of ups and downs but in the end we have "our" house. Even when we weren't really sure if the deal was going to go through I was calm because I knew that Heavenly Father had a plan for us and that if it really was meant to happen it would.

We fell in love with this house the moment we saw it. It was the first house of 8 houses that we saw that day and all both J and I could say to each other was....I like that first house the best. It is in a great neighborhood with a park just a 1/2 a block away. Here are a couple of pictures of the house. I will show more pictures as we make some changes to the rooms. We are so happy and feel like grown ups now that we own a house.

Front view of the house

Living room--no we are not keeping the red

It's just not "us" so we are having it painted a neutral color

This is the kitchen and dining area. I love all the cabinet space.

This is the family room area that is attached to the kitchen.

We will use this area for the playroom/homeschool room/craft room.

I love having 2 living areas as we really need it.

So for the time being that's the house. We can move some things in next weekend but will move the bulk of everything in 2 weekend. We are having the living room and the 2 kid's rooms painted before we move all the furniture in. It will actually be kinda nice to take a little bit of time to move in. My plan is to have the kitchen moved before anything else. Good thing we are staying at my parents. We have all their kitchen stuff to use before we completely move to the new house. I have lots of plans going on in my head I think I'm going to write them down so I can sleep tonight. I'm super excited.

Grass is greener....or is it?

Sometimes, I try and remember what it was like before all this cancer stuff started. I remember the things that I would stress over like....

What's for dinner?

How am I going to get all this laundry done?

Why can't these daycare kids be picked up early?

Is J gonna have to deploy again soon?

Those, and most likely others, are the things I would worry about.

Now, I worry about that amazing man in the picture.

Is he going to feel ok after the next chemo treatment?

Is the cancer going to get worse?

How will it affect our children when he gets worse?

Do I have the courage to make it through?

Some people would say my life before cancer was easier but I don't agree. We are in the unique situation that we get to spend all of our time together as a family. J doesn't have to go to work but because of his years in the military he still is able to get compensation. Bud doesn't go to public school because we home school. Bubba and Bug will home school as well. We get to go places together like the zoo, OMSI, the beach. We can go swimming in the middle of the day if we want. We are a family and we get to spend our time as a family. I know that Bud is at the stage where he might not want to be with us soon but I'm holding on to him tight.

So, I have deceided that the grass is greener now. Even with all the health problems that J has to go through. This is my greener, my happy place, my home. Because home is where my family is.

Snow time with the cousins!!!

A couple of weeks ago it snowed here in the Pacific Northwest. It snowed enough that the kids were able to go out and sled in it. Now, my sister and her 2 kids were here along with my brother's 2 kids. There were 6 sledding and playing the snow. Baby H was sleeping during all the festivities. My sister ventured out and took these pictures of the kids. I would of gone out too but lets face it she just has a better camera then I do. I don't know why the ending picture is first but that's ok. I'll just do it backwards.

Warming up with hot chocolate after playing for about an hour outside.

Bug in her snowsuit. I like to call her my purple marshmallow.

This snowsuit should still fit her next year.

Big brother taking his little sister for a ride.

She had a blast.

Doesn't she look like a purple marshmallow?

Bud & Bug again

Getting ready to go down the hill, it wasn't very big but they had fun.

Bubba going solo...

Did you notice his snow boots? He didn't have any that fit his monster feet

so he doubled up on his socks and wore Grandmas.

Bubba & Bug

Everyone together!!!!

Bud going solo

Don't know what he's doing??

The whole crew: K, Bug, Bud, Bubba, A, and H

Houses, houses, houses

We put an offer on a house. Then 2 days later rescinded the offer. Seriously, I just feel in love with a couple of things in the house. I LOVED the kitchen including the pantry that is AWESOME!!! I also loved the master bedroom. The master closet was HUGE. I saw those 2 parts of the house and had my blinders on. Jody being the wonderful husband just went along with me. We do realize now that we need to communicate better especially with this big of a purchase.

We will start over again. New list with our needs and hopefully some of our wants too. We hope that we find "the" house in one of these. I know that I don't want to say "oh this will work." I want to know that it is the house for our family.

I am praying that there is a plan for us....

Just journal....

I am really wanting to journal more and I'm going to try and include it here.

Something that's really been on my mind is HOUSE HUNTING!!!!

I do not like house hunting. I did at first. I was all excited thinking how much fun it was going to be to pick out our new home. Then I found out what was available in our price range. The homes were on the smaller end like 1200-1400 sq. feet. We aren't really a small family so we need a little bit more room than that. We found a home in Dayton that was a good size with a nice backyard but it didn't go through. Looking back that was best for both families that it didn't work out.

We then found a home in McMinnville that we really liked. It was a short sale so it took a LONG time to have the sale to through. We made the offer at the beginning of November and the 2nd week of November we found out that Jody would be re-starting chemo. We were just waiting for the word from the bank. We waited through December and into January. We started realizing how much farther McMinnville was from the VA Hospital in Portland. We made the decision at the beginning of January to rescind our offer on the house in McMinnville and then look in the Newberg and Dundee area.

That's were we are at. We are still looking. We did find one that we an offer on. We loved it. It was perfect. It was a 2-story house and I really think we need a ranch/rambler but I thought oh this will work. It had a living room, family room and a bonus room. It was a little over 1900 sq. feet. There was a lot of space but unfortunately there were 2 offers and our offer wasn't excepted.

I do believe that Heavenly Father has a plan for us but it's been a little difficult being patient in order to find that plan. We have a place to live right now and are happy with the situation. Sometimes having faith things will work out is the hardest things to do.

Batman birthday party

Bubba wanted a Super heros birthday party. Of course, I thought of what Cricut cartridge could I use. I found a screaming deal on the Batman cartridge and Bubba was into Batman to it worked.

Here's the birthday banner I made.

Here I made some Bathman insignas in different sizes. One is on Bubba's birthday present bag and the others were for the treat bags that were for Bubba's cousins.

This is the cupcake holder that was only for Bubba because they were a PAIN to make. He thought it was awesome to have something that no one else did.

Bubba enjoyed his Super hero birthday party even though it was a Batman birthday party but I just let him believe it was multiple superheros.

Bubba turns 5!!!!

I can't believe that he is soooo big!!!! He is such a joy to our family. Bug just loves to follow him and do whatever he does. I can't believe that he was just a little baby with this bright red hair. Now he is a FIVE YEAR OLD!!!!

It's been a week...

I realized this morning that I haven't written a post in a week. My goal for blogging was to write at least one a week. It's been a week. :)

It also also 'BEEN' a week. It really seemed as if this week went on forever. It feels like Monday was 2 weeks ago and not 6 days ago. I don't know why it seemed to drag on but it sure did.

We went house shopping on Friday. We looked at 3 and liked one of them. Two would just not work. One of them was DIRTY!!! It was a foreclosure but do you have to take the woodwork around the doors oh and doors themselves. The other one just wouldn't work for our family. It had a lot of room but only ONE bathroom. That bathroom only had a shower. Nope won't work for us. We'll look at more this coming week as well as the one we liked on Friday (again). If I like a house most times I go home and think about it and then have to go back and look at it again. I most make sure I really like it since it's a HUGE decision for our family. We have a couple of requirements that I won't budge on which our: there must be at least one bedroom on the main floor, there needs to be a garage and hopefully there is a living and family room. We're being positive that we will find what we need and LOVE it!!!

Until then...

My ideas

So, I have written about 5 new posts since the beginning of the year. What you can't find them? Oh that's because I write them in my head (in the shower no less) and they never make it to the actual blog. I still haven't written my new year's resolution but one of them was to blog more. I am going to write some I just probably won't do it until February. I'm always at least a month behind so that sounds like me.

I have decided that I want this blog to be more like a journal for my family. I am hoping to write at least once a week if not 2 or 3 times. I really hope to get to that point.

so until then....