Thank You!

I just wanted to tell all of my family that reads this that I love you very much. I want to say thank you for giving me the best family anyone could ever ask for. I was raised with manners, morals, goals and love. I was tought how to care and be passionate, how to love and what is right and wrong. Looking back on my childhood, all my memories are great with every single one of you. And because of my family, I am the person I am today. I have never been in trouble with the law, never been wrapped up in drugs and alcohol, and really wasnt that bad of a teen and all of that is due to everyone that has influenced me in my life. So I just wanted to take a quick min. and tell everyone that reads this that I love you and I am so happy God chose you guys as my family. x0x0

Red Licorice and Barney

Playing in the mountains

Sunday the weather was beautiful so we decided to spend the day hiking in the mountains. We found a new hideaway called Elks Lake. The lake and surroundings are amazing and you can rent little camping cabins for $58 a night and boats for $80 a whole day. Theres even a little lodge with a market and restaurant. It felt like we were a million miles away when really, we were only 37 miles from our house. Journee had such a fun time. Everytime we take her in the trees and let her explore, she just loves it! There wasnt really a hiking trail around the lake so we found a little spot, took our shoes off, and played in the muddy (gross) runoff water. I have to remind myself sometimes that I am with a guy from the country, not the city. While sometimes certain things like playing in muddy, gross, runoff water, is kind of a little much to me, Ryan grew up doing those dirty outdoors things. We were even ohhhhh so lucky to have a little water snake slither past my feet. That was enough for me....shoes were back on. Towards the end of our little excursion, a bald eagle flew right over us and landed on a tree by us. He hung out for a little bit before getting back to fishing. It was really awesome! Apparantly, it is pretty common to see them flying around in Oregon.

Saturday was the annual Bite of Bend where alot of the restaurants in town set up booths and you can buy samples of their food. They have live music, an iron chef competition, and of course, the kids area. Journee got to play on all her bouncy toys again. She wasnt so happy when we had to leave tho :0( Almost everyone in the area was staring at us as Journee was screaming and Ryan and I are trying to get her sitting down (as she is arching her back) in her stroller. I think I am going to rent a blow up toy for her second birthday...that way she can jump all day! Anyways, we had a great weekend. Here are some pics. This weekend is suppose to be in the 90s, so we might go on our first camping trip in Oregon (And Journees first TENT camping trip) sure to be an experience. Love you all x0x0

Caught in the moment

A friend sent me these pics in an email and I thought I would share because they are pretty cool. The weather today is going to be 85 and Sunny. Yay!!

Book Worm...

So Its crazy as time goes on how much I see myself as a little girl in Journee. The girl LOVES to read! In the car, the bath, first thing in the morning....you name when, shes looking through books. I decided now would be a good time to hunt down some of my favorites as a kid and collect them for Journee as I am sure she will love them just as much. Some of these are (In case someone stumbles upon one...they are prob. harder to find nowadays):


Alexander & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day
The Salamander Room
The Curious George Series
Love you Forever
The Great White Man Eating Shark
The Story of the 3 Little Pigs
Where the Wild Things Are
If you give a Mouse a Cookie
Corduroy
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
The Barenstain Bears Collection

Just to name a few! I rememeber I used to just sit and read and read exactly like Journee does. Crazy!

On another note, I have decided I want to learn how to sew! I know I have never really been the artistic one in the family but I think it would be sooo much fun to make Journee curtains and Halloween costumes and the possibilities are endless. Who knows, maybe I will kick butt at it. The thought of picking out really cute fabrics excited me. In fact, I have already looked at sewing machines that look like they would suit me (the ones made easy)



Until next time..... x0x0

A Funfilled Weekend!

First I have to start off by saying Happy Fathers Day to my dad, and every other dad out there that is reading this. We spent our Sunday hanging out down by the river behind our house. I thought when we took Journee down there that we were going to play in the sand, MAYBE put our feet in the water....turns out, my girl is a river rat at heart. Good thing for her Grandpa. As soon as she saw the water, she was head first in it. If I would have let her, she prob. would have floated down the whole river no problem!! The kid had not one ounce of fear in her. I ended up having to go in with her up to my knees, with my dress on, so she wouldnt throw a tantrum in front of the crowd. I was not equipped to go swimming. Here are some pics from our outing (some of them are from Sat. when I took her down to the water myself):







I have to say, the Daycare we found for Journee when we first moved here is absolutely great! There are only 4 kids in the program so Journee gets alot of one on one time and Katie, the daycare lady, makes sure they do lots of arts and crafts...especially for special occasions such as Mothers and Fathers day. Check out what Journee made for her Daddy:




The hammer was such a great idea filled with pictures of the Boog herself. Something that we will keep forever. When I read the poem that was put on with her handprints, I almost got a little teary eyed because it reminded me how much Journee has grown up and shes more of a little girl now than a baby. It reminded me that I need to cherish all the rough times just as much as all of the good times because soon, she isnt going to be doing all the little things that makes her my little girl!

Moving on to something that was the highlight of the weekend. Our apartment complex threw an 80's Party like no other. We dont need to get into many details about the festivities, lets just leave it at there was alot of short shorts (on men), alot of dancing and a big mess to clean up the next day. You can see for yourself all the fun we had. And Yes, Ryan had hair for one night. He is in the yellow jersey.





I guess that is about it until next time. I will try and update more frequently. Love you all!