Weekly Update

July 20, 2009

Beth, Isabella and I flew into Portland. Stan picked us up and took us HOME!! George and Dan had helped Stanley unload the trailer so when we got here it was just boxes to unpack. It thought I didn't like packing...I think I like it better than unpacking. Beth and George were such a help to us. We all worked together till late in the night getting things in order.

July 21-23, 2009

Dan is leaving to fly back to AZ today so the boys decided to go fishing while they were here. They spent the morning fishing. Stan caught a bass and Dan caught a perch. So it was a successful trip. Too soon Dan had to head home. We are really going to miss not living by family. We spent the rest of the day getting the house put together some more. It is humid here and most people us included don't have AC, so one of the first things we did is go out and buy fans. It gets "cold" at night so if we leave the windows open and the fans on all night and close the house up in the mid morning then the house stays cool all day. Its awesome that our house stays under 80degrees without AC. I am excited to see what our power bill will look like. :)

We spent most of Wednesday shopping and putting the house together and cleaning up from unpacking. George and Stan got the back yard all prepared so that we could plant grass. They moved bark chips to the side yard, tilled the ground and then planted grass. They also made me the cutes planter box. It is about 8ft long and 2ft wide. We have tomatoes, 2 kinds of peppers and zucchini to start with. If I can learn how to keep those alive then I will work up to a bigger garden.

Isabella loves to be outside. She scoots all over the porch and plays with whatever she can get her hand on. She decided after a few tastes that she doesn't like the taste of potting soil. hahaha however she does like to get all dirty with it. She still scoots when she is outside but mostly walks when she is inside and in familiar surroundings. She doesn't really hold onto the walls for support anymore. I am excited because that means she will be mostly independently walking when the baby comes. Stairs! Oh how Isabella loves stairs. It took her about 10 minutes to figure out how to climb, and now that is all she wants to do . She doesn't know how to get down but always wants to go up. She has already had a few bumps and bruises. So our next purchase was 2 gates for the top and bottom of the stairs. We still let her go up them sometimes and try and teach her how to go down, but this way she doesn't get hurt and I don't have to spend all day at the stairs.

Thursday I had a doctors appointment. I met with a midwife and a doctor to talk about doing a VBAC. They think I am a great candidate and the risk is minimal. I only have 4 weeks left so we are getting very excited! After that we took Beth and George to Multnomah Falls. It was so beautiful. Beth had her camera so I will have to post pictures later. It was a nice get away. We ate a picnic dinner and hiked around a bit. There are several falls all within a mile from this one so we stopped at each to take pictures and enjoy the beautiful scenery. It was a great way to end our week together.

Beth and George left Friday morning. We didn't feel much like being in doors so we checked out the park that is about a 2 minute walk from our house. Isabella had a great time. She just wanted to push the stroller around and play with the other kids. I think we will love being by the park.

Saturday we finished getting stuff for our house and then went to see the Temple. It is so beautiful. I am excited to be able to go sometime...after the baby probably. Sunday we went to our new ward. It is small compared to what are used to. The ward doesn't fill the whole chapel but the boundaries are at least 5 miles around. It will be a change but small wards can be nice because you can really get to know people. We are excited to see what are callings will be, but also enjoying having no callings and just enjoying church.

We are here!

Portland is wonderful so far. We are getting the house unpacked with tons of help from Stan's parents. They have been such a blessing. More details to come when I have more time.

This weekend

Since we will be leaving Arizona in less than 2 weeks we decided to take advantage of the three day weekend and spend time with visiting family. Wednesday Samira and Bella went camping with her family and Stan joined them Thursday after his tests. It was beautiful up North (and cooler!). Isabella liked being outside and getting spoiled with treats and playing in the water.

Saturday we went to spend time with Stan's family for a reunion. Isabella liked playing on the tractors and going on a hike with Grandma and Grandpa Brewer. We decided to stay with Stan's grandma that night instead of driving home. Isabella gets her middle name from her great grandma.

Saturday afternoon Stan's Mom took everyone to see Wicked. We loved it. Sunday morning we drove down to Tuscon. Chet and Cindy were blessing their newest addition Traivs. Isabella loved having so many kids around. Just just watched them and tried to scoot around after them as they played all over the house. She just can't wait to have a baby brother to play with. We went to dinner with Samira's family. Stan's cousin also blessed her baby Sunday so Sunday night we went over to see Stan's cousins who were in town for that. It was great to see everyone this weekend. We are going to miss everyone!

My Amazing Husband

I just wanted to take a minute to tell you all what a wonderful husband I have. Today I woke up with a yucky flu. I won't go into detail cause I am sure you can imagine. Oh I will say however that contractions and an active baby kicking me doesn't help nausea. Anyways Stan got up with Isabella fed her breakfast and played with her all morning while I sat around trying not to throw up. I couldn't even hold Isabella because it was too much pressure on my stomach. We didn't have any medicine so he took Isabella and went to the store. When he came back he not only brought medicine, and powerade, but a beautiful little bouquet of flowers. He said they were my get well flowers. When he put Isabella down for a nap he put a movie on for me while he cleaned the house. Then when she woke up he fed her, made me some rice and took her with him to school to study. He taught his study group while taking care of her for several hours. Then put her down for nap when he got home, sat with me for a while then started taking a test. He paused his test to get Isabella up out of bed and feed her dinner, then continued his test. I was starting to feel better so I was able to play with her on the ground. When she got sleepy I put her to bed because Stan was still finishing his test. As you know Stan usually has tons to study and today was not different, but he took the time to take care of me and Isabella. This shouldn't shock anyone because thats just how he is, but I wanted to really thank him because it meant so much to me. I love you so much Stanley!!!

We found a house!

This past week we were able to find a house that we like and that is in our price range. So many people helped us out. I contacted the bishop of the ward we wanted to be in several weeks ago and he gave me lots of advise on the area and some good places to look for housing. We looked on craigslist.com and found a house we just loved. The bishop went and looked at the outside of the house and back yard and said it looked good to him. Then we applied for the house and were approved! However before we put money down we really wanted to be able to see it or have someone we knew walk through and take pictures and get a feel for the house and the landlord. Stan's friend Elana and her husband Jason were lifesavers!! They offered to meet with the landlord and take lots of pictures of the inside for us. We felt good about having them go look at it and would totally trust thier judgement. Well about 5 minutes after we got off the phone they call us back and offer us a free standby ticket to fly up there and see it ourselves. Jason works for the airlines. We were so grateful!!! Wednesday I hopped on a plane to Portland. Elana wasn't busy that day so she was my taxi. I had never met her before but we became fast friends. We looked at the house, took more pictures, took measurements of the house and even picked a bag of strawberries that grow in my new front yard!!!! It is so beautiful there!!! Our landlord Laina is so nice! I hurried back to the airport and was back home by 8pm. It was a long busy day but well worth it. We can't wait to move there. The weather was perfect, everything was green, and we have a house!! YEAH no more apartments!

Here are some pictures of our cute little house! Enjoy!

Front yard that is just infront of the door
Front yard. This is where all the strawberries are. YUM!!! And there are tons of flowers just starting to bloom
In front of the house

Back yard

Back yard

Back Yard

House Hunting!

So as you can tell from our nifty count down we are almost gone! We are excited and nervous and stressed. Right now we are in the process of finding a place to live. It's hard when we can't go look at the house or the neighborhood. We have found several that we like and are getting excited as we go through the applications process. Hopefully we will know soon. Until then we will just have to pray hard and trust the spirit. Wish us luck!

Isabella is 1 yr old!

Isabella turned 1 yr old on Saturday and we had a little get together with the family. Isabella and us had a blast. Thanks everyone for coming! All of her cousins were able to come except one who lives in Idaho. She also had both granparents there. We went swimming and then had a BBQ while the kids played at the playground.

Here are a few pictures.