Double Digits

Today, our first born is 10 years old!  I cannot believe it.  A whole decade has passed since his birth.  Amazing how quickly time goes by as you get older.  I reflected a bit on what it has meant to us to raise Jeremiah these past ten years (read that post HERE).  It's been quite the journey.  He's an amazing child.  Granted, he has some issues with impulsivity and attention that have presented some big challenges over the years, but they haven't come without growth and gained wisdom.  But, he is funny, smart, creative, and determined.  These characteristics can be used for a lot of positive things in the future, with the right guidance.  We look forward to seeing just how Jeremiah will grow into these traits and what kind of man he turns out to be.  As I said in the other blog, he has the BEST example of a man in his father, and we hope Jeremiah will follow in his Dad's footsteps.

We have several visitors in town this weekend for the big day.  Peter's best friend Mike and his wife Zabrina are visiting from San Luis Obispo.  My parents are in town and so is Peter's Mom.  All of us, plus Jill and Aaron, our friends Luke and Kat, neighbor Thor, and a few kids from Jeremiah's school had a bowling party to celebrate.  It was a lot of fun.  My Dad decorated the awesome cake!  After the bowling party, we had a burrito feast at our wonderful neighbors' (Thor and Alison) house and J opened his gifts there.  It was a wonderful day.

Happy Birthday Jeremiah!  We love you!

Here's a slide show of pictures of the past decade of Jeremiah.

Kids and balls

Ready for some bowling!

 Bowlers!

Friends!

He's "conducting" as we all sing Happy Birthday!

  WOW!  He looks so grown up!

Everyone signed the bowling pin and J got to keep it!

My Dad decorated the cake!

Eating some cake and ice cream with friends

Gift from Grandma and Grandpa F.

Reading the home made card from my parents!

Excited about some more bey blades (both my parents and sister got him some)

Only a little excited about the new Basketball shoes and Oregon Ducks shirt from us!

With our boy

Family pic

The Waiting Game

Since this is kind of a big deal to our family, I thought I would share here on the family blog about my journey to being a nurse.  It has not come without some drama, tears, and (of course) loss of money.  I won't go into all the details about what has transpired thus far (you can read about that HERE and HERE) but its been quite an adventure.  And now, I am happy to say, the first part is over.  I am DONE with prerequisites.  I turned in my application to PCC's nursing program yesterday (I was too late to apply for OHSU's program, but if I don't get into PCC for Fall 2012, I will be applying to both schools for Fall 2013).  And now, its a waiting game.  First, waiting to hear if I get selected to sit for the essay exam at the end of April.  And then waiting another 6 weeks after that to see if I am accepted into the program.  Prayers are coveted.  It is very exciting!

Snow!

How surprised we were to wake up and find it snowing around 8am this morning.  While the kids have played in snow on several occasions, they have never actually seen snow fall and they were in awe.  As the flurries started coming down faster, Jeremiah exclaimed, "It's a blizzard!"  Ha!  Far from it.  The snow wasn't even sticking.  But, it was still snowing as we drove to Imago for the 1st service--awesome to see the kids' reactions.  After lunch, we got surprised by another little "snowstorm".  This time, it was actually collecting on the car and the porch steps and even in the grass.  So the kids went outside to play in it for a little while.  It lasted about 20 minutes before the sun came out and the snow started melting.  What a delight to experience our first Portland "snow".  We're still hoping for some real snow we can sled in.  We may go off in search of some tomorrow on our unplugged day (the kids have the day off from school).  Yay for snow! 

Woke up to this out the back window!

From the front window

This afternoon--sticking around!

Alayna checking it out.

Snowballs!

Peter still rode his bike to work, as usual!

(He only works about 2 miles away.)

Laynie's footprint on the front porch steps

Me, braving the "storm"!  :)

Kids watching the snow before church service.

Playing in the snow!

New Addition! :)

I posted the "We ♥ Music" blog earlier today, knowing this was going to be making a debut in our home this afternoon:

We got it at an estate sale with Christmas money from Peter's brother.  It needs a major tune up, but we figured even with that, this deal was a steal.  Alayna started taking piano lessons back in AZ last year, and we just signed her up again here in Oregon.  We thought this would be better than the keyboard she has been practicing on the past year.  It's a good quality 60-key keyboard, but there's nothing like a real piano, right?  Getting a piano has been something I've wanted to do for several years, as I myself am interested in learning how to really play it (I can play a few songs, but not well.  And I cannot read music or play two-handed).  So happy with this new addition to our home!

We ♥ Music!

So we started with one iPod 4+ years ago.  Then, Peter and I each wanted our own, so we got another.  Then, I really wanted the Touch, so we got one (1st gen) in 2009.  Last month, we decided we would try to find another (used) nano, that way each of us could have our "own" iPod.  We found one on Craigslist for $60 and bought it.  So, now each of us has an iPod.  Music has always been an important part of my life and I know Peter's as well.  I find that I can connect my emotions best with music (not by writing it or playing it, but listening to it).  I also find that I connect well to others through music.  And to God.  We want our kids to appreciate music too, from all different genres.  It's so fun to see how their tastes are developing as we expose them to different stuff.  I decided to show you some of the music they've been listening to lately.  Now, mind you, I did not ask them "What are your favorite songs?"; instead, I am just listing the songs I hear coming from their rooms most often (they both have iPod docks that play the music through a small speaker).

Jeremiah

1. A Hard Day's Night (The Beatles)

2. Joy to the World (Three Dog Night)

3. Weird Pants (Five Iron Frenzy)

4. Undignified (David Crowder Band)

5. Mammal (They Might Be Giants)

Alayna

1. Every New Day (Five Iron Frenzy)

2. I Should've Known Better (The Beatles)

3. Fur Elise (Beethoven)

4. Win Park Slope (Gomez)

5. Grow (JJ Heller)

Christmas 2011

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  We had an amazing first Christmas in Portland!  On Christmas Eve, we spent the morning cleaning up and baking.  Then, we enjoyed some outside time because it was an amazingly GORGEOUS day in Portland.  We went to the Christmas Eve service at Imago and then headed home for dinnner.  My sister Jill and her boyfriend Aaron came over for tamales (YUM!), games, music, and gifts that night.  We also skyped with my family in LA as we were all opening gifts!  It was so much fun!  I love that technology brings us together despite our distance.  We let the kids stay up until 10:30 and then shooed them off to bed (both fell asleep immediately).  We don't "do" Santa at our house, so all the presents had been under the tree as they were arriving from out-of-state family members.  They were up at 7am on Christmas morning, but we made them wait until 8am to get into their stockings and open the rest of the gifts.  We skyped with Peter's family so they could watch the kids open the gifts they gave to them.  We had a big ham lunch before Peter had to go to work.  We had intended to have a completely unplugged day, but just had to test out our new Blu Ray player!  So, we watched a movie in the (rainy!) afternoon and then played with some of their new toys (I also did a lot of laundry....).  After a light dinner of sandwiches and fruit, we had a lot of fun playing a few games  with our awesome neighbors.  It was another late night because we were having such a great time with them.  It was a wonderful Christmas!  Hope you all had one too!

Christmas Eve

With Auntie Jill

With Aaron and Jill

 Opening gifts

Skyping with CA family

 Sisters!

 Christmas Morning

Stockings!

More presents

Our Angel Baby Ezra

Dad and Mom got some cool gifts too!