Weekend Roundup 4/27-4/29

We had such a fun weekend! On Friday Brayden and I packed up the car and the dogs and met Jarrod at his work... we were off to spend the weekend in Hood River! We were going to celebrate Bella's birthday (she was turning 3)! We were also going to visit some relatives who were down from the Seattle area. Here is our recap...


Friday: Brayden and I met Jarrod at work and drove into Hood River. After saying a quick "hello" to both Grammie and Grandma Fogle we were off to Husum, WA to have dinner with some family. It is so fun to catch up with family you haven't seen in a while and for a few of them it was the first time meeting Brayden!


Saturday: Jarrod went golfing with a few of the boys at 7:30 in the MORNING. Those boys are crazy when it comes to going golfing, but he had so much fun. For Bella's birthday the Belcher's decided to roast a whole pig (in the ground), yes you read that correctly a WHOLE pig. Now none of our friends have ever done this before, but that's how our friends are.. always up for a challenge. Jeremy (Bella's dad) bought a pig from a local butcher, he paid for an 80lb pig... but got a 120lb pig!! That is one big pig! They had put it in the ground to roast at 3am the morning before the party. Needless to say after a great effort and no lack of trying the pig was not quite done when the boys pulled it out of the ground around 5:30pm. BUT, have no fear being from a small town what do you do when something like this happens? You call the local fire department and borrow their homemade industrial size BBQ... and that they did. In no time (about 5 min) the BBQ was at the house getting fired up to finish off cooking the pig. It tasted AMAZING and all thanks to the amazing boys! It's so fun getting together with old friends, celebrating and enjoying each others company and making memories that will last a lifetime!

 

Sunday: Today we got a lot done. We got back home to Portland at about 11 this morning and after unloading the car we were on a mission to find a refrigerator for the garage. We found one that was an awesome deal right up to road from our house. We spent the day reorganizing the garage and we even started to transform the guest bedroom downstairs into a play room for Brayden. While doing all that I managed to sneak a way for a while and go to the salon with one of my girlfriends and we got manicures and pedicures!! It was such a nice treat. As I write this post Jarrod is playing basketball with one of his friends, I wish there were more hours in the day... especially on fun-filled weekends!

Weekend Roundup 4/21-4/23

Last weekend was a very long, but very productive one! First things first... it was in the 80's!! We had record high heat for this time of year and it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. to say the least. Our neighbors who we have come to enjoy greatly are moving to Tennessee this weekend (sad)... He was offered a job at Nike he couldn't turn down and the process has been super fast for them... in 2 weeks they have put their house on the market, sold their house (3 days later) and are getting ready to pack up their whole family and life and move to Tennessee in 3 days... CRAZY, but we are so excited for them. Anyway, back to why I'm telling you this... We had a double garage sale with them this last weekend and we did some MAJOR cleaning out! It feels so good to get rid of things you just don't need anymore. Jarrod, Brayden and I made almost $700! We were very excited about that. The weather was amazing and even though we were in our front yard, we were still outside! We did go to the park each night as well! Braydn love love love's the swings!

 On Monday Anna and the girls met us for an adventure at the zoo and boy, was it an adventure! Bella, who is 3 (birthday is today!) had never been to the zoo before and she had a blast! I can't talk about the zoo trip without talking about what a bad mom I was... Here goes, before we left the house, which was about 11:30am I didn't want my little guy to burn (because it was 80 degrees) so I put Coopertone Suncreen (for babies) all over him, on his legs, arms, cheeks, neck, ears... you get the point. While we were in the car on the way there he started crying, now Brayden doesn't usually cry in the car, but I didn't think anything of it... he then started screaming... we were close enough to the zoo I just got their as quickly as possible... well when I did get him out, he had rubbed his eyes and got sunscreen in them. This was probably one of the worst things I have ever gone through! He could barely open his eyes and even when he wasn't crying they were watering and tears were streaming down his face nonstop! I felt so bad, I can't even put it into words. We finally held him down and drenched his eyes with a bottle of water and he fell asleep in the stroller... when he woke up, thank God he was all smiles and he could actually see and open his eyes! Those first few hours were ones I would rather forget! Bella on the other hand had a BLAST at the zoo and I'm so glad I got to experience it with her!

Sunscreen in the eyes... Worst few hours EVER! 

After the traumatizing start to the day at the zoo I made a special stop to get Brayden a balloon and tear-free sunscreen! Never again will we be using Coppertone!

The time has FINALLY come!

Hello All,

I write you today with a new job title : Full-time Wife and Mommy! Hooray! In the back of my mind I never really thought this day would come. For the past month I have been working part-time at the college helping in this crazy transition. Our department was/is going through some tough changes and I decided to help them out until they found my replacement. Yesterday was my last day and it was very bittersweet... I'm going to miss a few of those "crazies" I worked with over the past 2+ years. But I'm SO EXCITED to be able to watch Brayden grow and change on a daily basis. He makes my life so perfect. What this will hopefully mean for me...

• More blogging!
• More cooking & cleaning  
• A LOT of play time
• A LOT of zoo time (we will wearing our family pass out)
• A LOT of park time
• organizing
• hopefully back to couponing

... and just working on bettering this already AMAZING little life of ours!
and NONE of this could have happened without the support and encouragement of my amazing husband and Brayden's amazing dada! so once again, Thank You Jarrod for all you do for us!

Flashback : Shamrock run '10, '11 & '12

A tradition that has come about the last few years is the Shamrock run which is held around St. Patrick's day (St. Patrick's day in our house is better known as Jarrod's birthday). The run is a 5k, 8k, or 15k run. This year was our 3rd year participating in the event. It is sponsored by Adidas and all the proceeds go do Dornbecher Children's Hospital... which is an amazing cause. Below are some pictures of each year we have done it...

2010 I did the 8k (a little over 5 miles) and Jarrod did the 15k (a little under 10 miles)

2011 I was 5 months pregnant and I did the 5k run/walk and Jarrod did the 15k again

2012 we both did the 5k walk with BRAYDEN! 

The Shamrock run is a very fun family and friend tradition... Wonder what event we will do next year!?

Sunshine is out to PLAY

Today we had a garage sale! Hooray! We sold a lot of things and we are doing some major cleaning out! Our friends/neighbors are moving to Tennessee this coming weekend and we decided to do a double garage sale... We are sad they are leaving though. But, it was a BEAUTIFUL day and we enjoyed being outside all day... even it was just in our driveway :) 


After the sale was over for the day we went to the park and enjoyed the 80 degree weather. The next 2 days have pretty much the same thing in store! 

It's the little things when you're 8 months old...

Being a mostly stay at home mom now (down to only 2 days per week) hooray... but anyway, being a stay at home mom we have to use our imagination, right? So as I'm putting away laundry and Brayden is wanting 100% of my attention... I put him in the laundry basket... and there he stayed and LOVED it for quite a while. Please don't think I'm a bad parent leaving my kid in a laundry basket for hours, but it was a fun 20 minutes for us both!!

Oren and Opal are here for a visit!

A couple of weekends ago Jarrod's grandpa Oren and great aunt Opal came up to visit. Grandpa usually comes up for the summer and lives in Hood River, but this year just decided to come up for a visit before heading back to Arizona (to enjoy the sun)! We love seeing them and they are sooooo sweet, we really wished they lived closer. We feel so blessed that Brayden has been able to meet so many family members already and he isn't even one! 

MS walk

Yesterday we did a walk for a great cause! It was the walk for multiple sclerosis which is a very scary disease that has no cure. My college put together a team and raised over $1,500 in less then 2 weeks! Way to go Anthem College! The weather was suppose to be amazing, but it was freezing (go figure Oregon)... it was OK though it was all for a great cause and the walk along the waterfront is always a beautiful one! Here is a little picture of the family!

*For those of you who know Jarrod, this is a pretty good looking sweatshirt isn't it? Oh the power of your wife buying your clothes and doing your shopping :) 

Easter Weekend

Brayden's first Easter was a very special one & a very busy one!

• We started off the special weekend going to church on Good Friday. Our church always has a Good Friday service and we love going, even if it's at 7pm which is almost Brayden's bedtime. He did very well given the fact he can get a little grumpy when it's getting close to bath and bed. It was a very enjoyable night and it's always amazing to see how many people turn out to celebrate Jesus :)  
• Saturday we went to the zoo to see the easter bunny with our neighbors Mike, Amanda, Tug (Michael jr) and Sam. The weather was amazing and there were so many people! Jarrod heard on the news there were over 12,000 that went to the zoo that day! As the babies were getting a little fussy we decided to go on the mission to find the bunny! What kind of Easter  would it be if you don't get your picture taken with the bunny? Needless to say we finally found him and got to take a few quick photos with him before the total meltdowns started! The bunny was more like Peter Cottontail, but still very cute! 

• Sunday after church we invited Jarrod's parents and brother over for an Easter lunch. They drove all the way from Hood River to be with us! They are so sweet! We had a ton of food and it was so yummy! We ate, hung out and chatted outside and ate some more in the nice weather. It was a very fun first Easter as a little family and we are so thankful and greatful for the sacrifice that Jesus made for us! 

Eating Grandma's necklace

Grandma and Grandpa brought a big blow up bunny to play with!