Family Newsletter August 5, 2009

I am going to start posting our family newsletters so they will be included in our blog books.

Hello Family,

I only have five more minutes until Dora is over so I need to crank this letter out. Oh no! She is already singing the “We Did It” song. To the point…Top to bottom…

Steve- has been busy learning and training with the new job. He has been working more hours as each week passes. But he is glad to have the job and a good boss. I think he will do very well here and I am sure things will be less busy as he learns the routine of things.
Other than work he has been busy planning our weekends making sure they are full of new Oregon adventures. The past four weekends we have been to the beach, Tillamook Cheese Factory, Jones Creek, the Rose Gardens, Mt. Tabor, and downtown riding the train and going to the Rose Quarter Fountains. When we got home this last weekend I said, “I feel like I just ran a 10K.” He laughed and said, “I guess that’s being 8 months pregnant.” So apparently it wasn’t that much of a workout, I am just feeling the effects of pregnancy and being out of shape! I am glad he likes to get out and plan fun things for us to do. I am a lucky girl.

Me- Since the kids have not been in any rec-center activities (because we have not had our residency cards) we have done a lot of exploring ourselves. We have been to many of the parks and made weekly library and story time trips. We are starting to get into a schedule and I have been having them earn their keep around here too. On Mondays I have been giving them a checklist of things we need to get done around the house and if we accomplish it all we go to a park, the library, the dollar store, or the like. We all work together and it has been really great for all of us and I have been really proud of how hard they work to get everything on the list checked off. I’m amazed at how easy it is to get them to scrub behind the toilet as long as they are excited about the end reward. Hopefully this will last!

Hudson- I can’t remember where the last letter left off, but big news for Hudson is learning how to ride a bike. He has been asking me to take off the training wheels for awhile and I finally did it. Steve got him started on a Saturday and then he wanted to practice more when Steve was at work. I gave in and I am sure I was quite a sight to be seen jogging along his bike (don’t picture it). He eventually was too fast for me and I just crossed my fingers and said a silent prayer that he wouldn’t kill himself as I watched him ride unstably down the street, (almost hitting cars or running into curbs). One morning we went to a large grass field to practice turning. He was practicing turning around trees and at one point he was way out there and he was going straight into the tree really fast. I yelled, “Turn! Turn!” Well, he ran right into the tree. I did not let him see me laugh, but it was so funny. I was surprised he wanted to get back on (of course after a good cry).
Other things…Hudson is so excited to ride a school bus in September, he tells me daily things he wants for Christmas and he has constant questions about how things work…for example here are some of the questions I have been fielding as of late, “Is there air in space? , “How do we talk?”, “How does the stove work?”, “How did that baby get inside of you?”, “How does the baby get out of you?”, “What would happen if we didn’t have a skeleton?”, “How do you make tools?” Needless to say google, discovery channel, and YouTube have been my good friends as of late (except for with the baby questions, no YouTube on How Babies are Made).

Sadie- Sadie loves to take care of us. She often helps Everett get dressed or brush his teeth. In fact I just sent her upstairs to help Everett get dressed and she said, “sure”. She loves taking care of Everett and you can often hear her comfort him when he is crying by saying, “Everett, that’s okay. Come on bud.” They play together a lot and they play really well. She somehow gets him to play dress up with her (much to Steve’s chagrin) and he often gets her to play trains with him. It is really nice to have them be such good friends.
Sadie is also very excited for school. I just have to figure something out for her. Hopefully I will be able to get a joy school started or something!

Everett- Can be described in one word. Trains. I need not say more, but I will. His obsession with trains continues. This picture tells all…
This is us on the downtown street train. He loved it and has been asking me daily to go ride the train.
He is also a little comedian and can always get us all to have a good laugh at the dinner table.

That’s us in a nutshell. Congrats to Adam and Kasey, I cannot wait to squeeze little Matthew’s cheeks.

-Steve, Natalee, Hudson, Sadie, Everett, and ?? Give us some ideas.

We've Been...

playing at parks...



touring Portland...

(Everett all smiles on the street train)

(Below: Outside Pinnock Mansion)

(Below: Jones Creek)
(Rose Garden)

Shopping at Costco...

(I'm glad no one knows us yet here,

there were plenty of "you've got your hands full" comments)

and learning how to ride a bike...

Go Hudson!

This is a beautiful place we live and there is so much more to explore! We are enjoying our laid back weekends. Steve pointed out to me we have not had weekends together for a long time, either I was working or he was studying! It has been really nice.

Survi-i-i-val!

I've been singing that song in my head since the move began..."survi-i-i-val". Steve and I feel like for the last two months we have been living in complete chaos with packing, moving, and unpacking, and keeping three children happy at the same time. Most the time we did not achieve the last and the TV did too much babysitting. But we survived. Today Steve started at Intel and so real life has kicked back in for us.

We took the kids to Cannon Beach for a break from unpacking. Of course we picked the only day of the week that was cloudy and rainy but that did not stop us from enjoying ourselves.

We were shocked when the kids decided to actually get in the freezing water. Dad volunteered to hold their shirts and jackets.

He wouldn't even take off his shoes. He said, "To be honest, I don't really like sand." What? Since when? After seven years of marriage he tells me he doesn't like sand. This really could have impacted my decision to marry him :) .

These are always cute. This probably was just prior to a head lock.

We then ventured to hike Multnomah Falls which is an hour east of us. I unfortunately did not get any great pictures. Everett is actually on Steve's back here but was screaming the whole time. So this shot he is flailing in the other direction. Needless to say, Hudson and Steve were the only ones to make it to the top. I really wanted to make it to the top, but sacrificed for the team...okay, I admit I was a little breathless.

Steve snapped a great shot of H at the top of the falls.

I have to quickly mention the 4th. This town goes all out. The day kicked off with a pancake, muffin, sausage, breakfast...followed by a kids parade, followed by a carnival in the park. All provided by donations. This is a shot of the kids just before the parade...

Okay and the house. These are mostly for Tiffany, Mom, and Judy who have requested them...but feel free take a look into the new home of the Maxfields. Which we might buy some time in the near future. This actually feels like a mansion to us, coming from a 900 sq ft basement with two closets. Here, everyone has a closet, and there is a linen closet! And a garage! We fill the space quite nicely.Downstairs BathroomMaster Bedroom. And below is backyard view from our window.Master Bathroom. And a walk-in closet. Our last closet was not even half the size.Sadie's RoomKids Bathroom. We have a tub! Future Baby's RoomBoys Room (above and below)

We think we are going to like it here. The only downfall is family being so far away, so start planning your trips up here!

Goodbye Sunshine, Hello Rain

Steve and I left the kids with my mom and dad (love you mom and dad) while we went to Portland for a few days to find a house to live in.

This was the view outside the plane window as we came into Portland. Beautiful Mt. Hood.

We had come up with a list of about 10 houses we wanted to look at to rent. Steve had organized them on a spreadsheet (of course) with school ratings, rent price, bedrooms, sq. feet, etc. We were excited because we felt it was a renters market and with my great barganing skills I learned in Jerusalem and Haiti I was for sure I would be able to talk them down at least a few hundred dollars on the rent (to Steve's dismay...thinking I was being impractical). The first house we went through we loved. We were going to put in a contract until after the tour of the place the property manager said, "now there are two contracts submitted that are ahead of yours and according to Oregon law the first contract gets first priority. Now you can still submit (for $80) or I can let you know if one of the other two did not get cleared." We opted for the latter. We never heard from her again.

Now I could go into detail of the next 10 plus houses we saw but I will spare you the pain. Basically nothing was as good as the first until we came to a particular house that we walked into and felt really good about it. It was older but just recently remodled inside. We were both excited about it and immediatly called the property manager (the tenant showed it to us). She said there was a couple interested but they had not submitted their contract. We asked where we could meet her to turn it in. She said she would call us in an hour and let us know. The next hour went by and we called her. She said the other couple was going to submit thiers and that they had trouble downloading it, so she felt she should give them priority. She gave us a time to meet her. We were a little ticked that she was giving these people priority (since we now were pros on OR renters law :)). We headed down to her office and we called our other appointment and told him we were going to be late. He said to just try to make it as close to 4 as we could. Long story made a little shorter. We traveled the long haul to her office and filled out the blasted contract and brown nosed her the whole time. She was quite a particular lady and even asked what we would do with our kids when they were eating because the dining room had carpet. I quickly stated we would put a rug under the table and Steve started telling the lady how great our kids were. We were sucking up. Desperate to find a home because we both knew we were leaving the next day and needed to sign a lease before then. With much labor and phone calls we completed the contract and got into the car at 4:45 (our other appointment was at 4). I called the guy and told his secretary that we were running really late. I was on the verge of cancelling, but for some reason I didn't. I told her we would be another 20 min and she said she would let him know. We argued the whole way there about our number two option house, because we disagreed (I wanted some old huge home and he wanted a nicer one but it had a deck with a pond below and I would have too many mother nightmares with that). Well, we made it to the house and miraculously the manager was there. We apologized for being so late and he didn't seem bothered. The family was moving so there was stuff and boxes everywhere. The minute I walked through the bottom floor I wanted to blurt out, "We'll take it!" But I restrained fearing that would be too forward. We toured the rest of the house and we were thrilled. It was better than any of the others. It had a "bonus room" which they couldn't list it as a 4 bedroom because it didn't have a closet. It had a backyard and a deck. It was cute and built in the late 90's. It just get's better from here. At the end of the tour with the owner and manager we said we'll take it...is there anyone ahead of us? They said we were the first ones through. Steve mentioned being LDS, which to be honest made me a little nervous because I was afraid the guy would be anti and find a reason to not let us rent but instead he said, "oh the backyard neigbors are mormon and they have a three year old little girl." I was just thinking to myself, this could not get any better. But oh yes, it could. He said we only had to pay half the contract fee because we were married and by moving into this area we belonged to the Tualitin Valley Recreation (which he explained people pay non-resident fees to get into because it is so great). The owner also mentioned there might be an option to buy. Oh, and it is a great neighborhood, great schools, and some great jogging paths nearby.

Let's hope it all pans out and we have a great year.

This is it...

Oh, and it actually didn't rain while we were there. It was sunny and beautiful.

GRADUATION!!!

Daddy, We are so proud of you!!

Grandma with the White Hair's 90th

Unfortunately, Natalee and I weren't able to be there for the celebration, but we are certainly grateful that Grandma Maxfield has lived 90 good years thusfar. We hope there are a lot more since we'll be living 3.5 hrs from her in 2 months! We're so excited.

Grandma is an amazing example to her whole family of enduring to the end without complaining one bit. She also still sends nice little cards to her great grandchildren on their birthdays and gives us the occasional call. We love chatting with her and hearing all of her stories. Our children adore their Grandma with the White Hair and so do we. We love you Grandma!

Photo of The Week

Coming Sept 12th 2009. Little E has no idea what he is in for.