That was one expensive dinner!

Of course I did not have my camera last night, a very memorable night...

We went out to dinner with a group of friends to Red Lobster. We were having a great time, good conversation, our kids were being well behaved, we couldn't wait to eat our food! Then the lights went out. We live in one of the windiest cities in the nation, I am quite sure of it. We are basically at the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge and it sends some nice gusts our way. Anyways, luckily our food had just come up to the window when the power went out, so they went ahead and brought our food out and we continued to dine in the dark. The kids thought it was great, and my coconut shrimp was divine!! We finished our meal in the dark, paid with a manual credit card machine and were on our way. 

We already had a babysitter lined up so we could go to the movies after dinner. We headed up the street home and find our street is barricaded off. We go around three different ways, and about three blocks around our apartment is blocked off by cop cars and flares. Apparently a tree had fallen and was leaning on a power line just across the street from us. We begged for them to let us get to our apartment. We had plans!! No such luck... "it was too dangerous." Though they didn't evacuate anyone within the blocked area. Had we not gone out to dinner we could have just hung out in our powerless home all night and avoided what was to come. All we could do was wait. 

We drove around to a different block where we could get a good view of the tree and damage. That is where I wish I had my camera! The tree and power line were at about a 45 degree angle to the street. It was bad. We just turned a movie on in the car and waited for PGE to do their thing. Then we waited some more. Nobody knew how long this was going to take. We started the waiting at about 7:00pm and finally at 9:30pm, when we noticed that not much work had been done to get the tree and power line fixed we called it quits. PGE was going to be there all night, it was apparent.

So, we drove down to the Days Inn and booked ourself a room. I did manage to talk the customer service lady into taking $20 off of our room with our sob story. Since we didn't have ANYTHING for a night stay we drove to our friend Carolyn's house, who kindly loaned us pajamas for our kids, a pack and play, and offered to house us. Luckily she has a boy a year older than Carter and a girl a little younger than Andi. We got into our room a little before 10 and tried to get our kids to sleep. Andi actually didn't have a problem at all, but Carter was another story. He layed next to me for about 15 minutes, really still and quiet, and then got restless and excited. We finally just let him curl up next to us and watch TV. He probably fell asleep at about 11pm. He kept popping up in the middle of the night because of the howling of the wind. Andi made a couple of squawks in the middle of the night too. I was hoping for a little bit of a sleep in, but our kids decided to wake up at 7am. We did enjoy our continental breakfast and headed home to get ready for church.

Upon our arrival home we find a tree on our property has been uprooted and blown over and smashed into our dumpster (luckily nothing more). A bunch of our fence had also blown over. Luckily we were allowed back on our street though. We come inside and lo and behold, we have no power!! We were going on 13 or 14 hours now. Well, without hot water to shower with, tired and crabby kids, we decided to bag church. Not only did we bag church but we went to the store to buy ice to put all of our fridge stuff into a cooler- I know, SINNERS! Luckily our power came on between 10:30-11:00. Then we just vegged and watched movies all day. Our kids napped for about 3 hours and we are looking forward to a good nights sleep in our own beds. (knock on wood) The wind has calmed down a little bit, so hopefully the worst is over. 

There is sunshine in my soul today...

And outside! Which helps. That last couple of days have been so pleasant up here. Today there is lots of yummy sunshine! I just had to take the kids out for a little walk. The fresh air did us good. 

Here are a couple other random pictures of what we have been up to. 

Carter and Andi love playing with the train set Carter got for Christmas:

We took the kids to McDonald's and got them ice cream cones. A definite favorite of ours:

When Carter got some new underwear, Andi wanted her own pack to carry around the store, so I got her some princess underwear. We aren't potty training her by any means, just yet, but isn't that bum just yummy?!

Swimming

We went swimming with our friends, the Hatch's, last night up in Vancouver. We definitely need to do it more often. Carter LOVES the water. He just wanted to break away and swim, which he can't really swim, so we didn't let him. But he really gets a kick out of being in the water and loves to dunk his head. We weren't sure how thrilled Andi would be with the whole swimming thing. She likes bathtime and all, but hates getting water poured over her head or on her face. By the time we were done last night she was dipping her face in the fountains. This pool was perfect for our little ones. We floated in the lazy river, played in the little kids sprayground, and went down the water slide again, and again, and again. Carter and Jefferson probably went down about 15 times. We had a great time. After swimming we headed to the Hatch's for pizza and a short game of Catch phrase. It was a great family night.

Getting ready to head out:

Loving the kiddie pool:

The end of the waterslide:

Carter, Andi, and Logan heating up with their feet in the hot tub:

Crashing at the Hatch's after 1 1/2 hours of swimming:

Gotta brag about my boy...

I'll begin with a disclaimer: I know that we have a long journey ahead of us in this wonderful world of potty training, but I have to admit, we are off to a good start!

Carter has been in underwear for THREE DAYS with NO accidents! Is that amazing?! We put him in pull ups at nap time and bedtime, which is when he decides to go #2, but the whole dry thing during the day makes me HAPPY! We even went to an open gym yesterday and Carter stayed dry and used the restroom at the gym. Today is the first day that he has asked to go the bathroom instead of me constantly nagging him. I am so proud of him. We all get an M&M whenever he goes; it's a mini potty party! I am sure there will be some accidents along the way; especially when he gets distracted with playing or I forget to ask frequently enough, but again, a much better start than I could have ever anticipated! YAY CARTER!! 

Missionary update

I saw my friend out there today and said hello and asked if he had a chance to see if he had a Book of Mormon. He said it turns out he doesn't have a copy. I told him to wait right there and I went inside and grabbed a copy for him. I wish I had time to write my testimony in it, or something, but at least he has the book in his hand!

Mommy moment, or I suppose Daddy moment

Jefferson has been gone quite a bit these last few days with school and orientation to the clinic and making up finals (their school was cancelled four of the five days of finals). It has been kind of a hard adjustment for the kids, especially Carter, and let's be honest, for me too, not to have Jefferson around as much. We were looking at pictures on the computer today and Carter pointed at Jefferson and said, "That's my daddy! I love him!" 

That's for you hon! You are loved and missed at home, but we are oh so glad that you are willing to be at school for us. 

And a few other funny things he said today:

-On the "skerl movie" (aka Ice Age) the squirrel dances around towards an acorn and Carter said, "Look, he's like a ballerina." I'm not sure how he knows what a ballerina does, it's not like he's been exposed to a lot of ballets.

-Then, he kept telling me he wanted to watch "Polar Express" and I was ignoring him and he clenched his fists and went, "grrrrrrrrrrrrrr." He was frustrated. 

-After I went to the bathroom Carter congratulated me: "Good job Mom! Now you get an M&M!" Thanks Carter! :)

Missionary Moment

I had one! This past Sunday, our neighbor's dad was standing outside of his daughter's apartment while we were headed out to church. He casually asked if we were headed to church. Jefferson told him that we were and that we attended the LDS church around the corner. That was about the extent of the conversation since we were wrangling our two kids into the car and it was windy and cold outside.

Well, I saw the dad again today and went over to introduce myself. He explained that he's just coming around a little bit more to try to help his daughter, our neighbor, get her feet under her and what not. His daughter is maybe 20, single, and has a two year old son. He said that they are trying to get everyone on the right path and whatnot. I asked if he was religious, and he said he's just been too busy to get to church, but that he knows he needs to make time for it. Then he said, "You go to the Mormon church, right?" I told him that was another name for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I asked if he knew anything about it and he said he knows a family who is Mormon and has had a few discussions with them. I told him a few more things about our church, like that we are Christian and that we are really family oriented. He said that sounded great. I then invited him to church this Sunday and told him what time it started. He sounded really interested. I then asked if he had a copy of the Book of Mormon, and he said he thought that he did, but I told him if he didn't, to let me know and I can get him another copy. 

It was a really good experience, and I truly hope he comes on Sunday. It seems that his family could really use the gospel. Then again, who can't use the gospel, right? I'll let you know if there is anything to update on. 

We.Are.Family!

My dear friend Kirstin and I have known each other for 2 1/2 years and as of December 27th we can call each other family! My sister married her cousin. Crazy, huh?! Ok, so I am sure there is technically no name for our relationship to each other, but we like to claim we are family. 

This last Saturday we decided to surprise Alli and Nic by driving down to Medford for their open house. They were both pleasantly surprised to see us. We had lots of good conversation on the 4 1/2 hour drive down, met up with my parents at a delicious pizza joint called Kaleidoscope, hit up the open house, and then turned around and drove back that same night, pulling in at 1:15am. It was well worth it. A special thanks to Joanne, Kirstin's mom, for driving. 

As a side note, my good friend from high school, Tory, and I are now related too. My sister and Tory's sister are sister-in-laws. Again, I am sure there is no official name for that, but I like to claim her as family too! :)

And a Happy New Year!

I love celebrating the New Year. We are not party people by any means, though we did see the clock strike 12 last night. I guess I just enjoy reflecting on the old year and looking forward to what the new year has to offer. Jefferson and I were talking last night and decided that this may be one of our biggest years of change since we've been married. We can now officiallly say that Jefferson graduates and will become a doctor this year. We will be exiting the student life. We will be entering the real world of work. Jefferson will be going into, or starting his own practice. We will most likely be moving from the wonderful city of Portland. We will hopefully be having a baby in 2009 (if you didn't know we were trying, check out our September posts). Exciting year, eh?

Last night was just dinner and a movie. The kids loved lounging on their "rugs" that Grandpa Jon got them. Jefferson and I stayed up late catching up on "Lost" since the new season starts pretty soon.

Tonight we celebrated the first eve of the New Year with our friends Ryan, Hayley, and their son Loggan. We had a delicious dinner of tri-tip, fettucini alfredo, salad, and garlic romano bread. Then we had dessert of brownies and ice cream. It was fun to sit around and chat and maybe play a little Wii... It was a fun evening, never long enough! Thanks for coming down Hatch Family! 

I have never been a huge New Year's resolution type of gal. I think it's good to have goals all year long and see nothing wrong with setting them on the first of the year, or the 50th of the year, or whenever you need to. But, if I were to have a New Year's resolution it would be this: 

To find joy in the small things. To appreciate where I am at and what I am doing. To appreciate my children for who they are. To listen to them, to understand them, to let them be the rambunctious, funny, quirky, creative, kind hearted toddlers that they are. To be supportive to my husband as he faces some of the biggest changes of his life. To not stress about what the answers are to all of the major life decisions that we are going to have to make. And to step back and see (and allow) the Lord's hand in the molding of my beautiful life. 

We hope you all had a fun time ringing in the New Year! Here's to a happy, healthy, beautiful, fun, exciting, prosporous, joyous New Year!