Week 16

Things to notice:  Even though it is wet Oregon, we had to do this wooden fence.  No option to upgrade to a durable man-made product.  Every house in our entire neighborhood (100's of homes) has to have this soon-to-rot nightmare.

There will be a railing around the porch soon, but in the mean time Isaiah loves jumping off.  It's a good size porch--10 feet deep and, um, you know, sort of long.  15 feet long maybe?  Plenty of room for our patio set.  Oh wait, we don't have a patio set, but someday when we get one we'll have a place for it now!

 The yard, although *TINY* by Utah standards is definitely a typical new construction Oregon size.  It's a bit bigger than the back yard in the rental we're in, but tons smaller than our old house.  We keep reminding ourselves:  There is a park just around the corner!  (This doesn't actually substitute for a large backyard because I can't supervise my kids at the park while doing the dishes (or watching TV) but that's okay.  My kids actually go in our teeny rental backyard and play for a long time with no space at all.  They just need some dirt.


The side yard is my favorite.  Whatever is the minimum allowed by code is what we have.  Seriously, if you open our kitchen window and the neighbors open their kitchen window, I'm pretty sure we could hold hands.

Utahns may laugh, but this is the space we're going to use for our garden.  Keep in mind that I can't grow anything anyway, and even if I could, no one in our house eats very much stuff that can be grown.  Zay is only interested in planting mac & cheese.  So this space will be quite suitable.  It's the other side yard, which leaves the back space wide open for the kids.

 Zay showing you how BIG the porch is

Probably the most important upgrade for our new home.

 Right behind Eliza is the door that goes out to the porch.  I will definitely not miss having a sliding glass door--I hate those!  This pic shows the "great room."Great room from the other angle.

Week 15

The kids' favorite part is playing in the dirt everytime we go over there.  I'm hoping those little blue flags don't mean anything important because not a one of them is in the same spot it was before the kids got there...

A True Oregon Experience (cold beach)

Tillamook 2012

 My kids, particularly Isaiah, love to "drive" the little yellow VW Tillamook bus in the entrance of the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  I think this was Isaiah's 3rd (or maybe 4th) visit to the factory this year and he always wants to spend forever driving it. During one visit, it wasn't crowded at all and he spent a solid 20 minutes driving around.  I was so glad when another little boy came and wanted a turn!





Here's sweet Ellie watching the cheese being made.  Well, not made, but packaged.  As Jerel and I stood back watching everyone else watching the cheese he commented that he just didn't get what was so fascinating about this place.  Just add that to the list of things we don't have in common; I love the cheese factory!  I could watch it for hours!  I always loved the part on Mr. Rogers where he'd visit a different factory and show how things were made--I specifically remember him visiting a crayon factory and a trumpet factory.  This is like Mr. Rogers in real life (sans Mr. Rogers himself)!

How do you get five kids to look at the camera at the same time?  I'm not sure.  But here they all are--Isaac (7), Isaiah (3), Jocelyn (3), Eliza (1.75), and Ellie (5).  

 Jocelyn & Isaiah were due to be born on the same day.  In fact, I had been told two different due dates and it turns out Karee was told those same two different dates!  Turns out Jocie came 11 days before Isaiah, but I still think of them as "twin cousins," a phrase I made up myself but which I'm pretty sure will son spread to worldwide use...

Ellie really waned a picture taken with Eliza.  Eliza really didn't want to look at the camera, but I did catch them both here after about a hundred attempts.  Thank heavens for digital cameras!  And here's another cute one of Miss Ellie--love the cute side braid.  And the freckles.

And here are some shots of Eliza's many facial expressions:

This one is my all-time favorite:

Here's cute Jocelyn.  I love that Karee's girls have these eyes that are, um, cool....how to explain....the outside edge of the colored part of the eye is a dark blue and then it fades to a light blue in the middle (instead of the whole colored part being the same shade).  I think it's beautiful!

Isaac is so grown up now!  When Jerel and I got married Isaac was just a baby and it's been so fun to watch him grow into a little boy and now see him hanging out with the older cousins.  Karee said she sees a little bit of Isaac in Isaiah's personality; it will be fun to see if the similarities continue.