Happy Birthday Debbie!

Can you believe this much time has passed? I'm sure for your mom it seems like yesterday! Now your 2 are almost the age you were in the picture! Glad you've had a good day. We're praying that you'll have an incredible, wonderful, blessed year!

Love you!

Sorry!

Happy Birthday Abigail:) I guess the picture was keeping people from posting? It's gone now!

Happy Second Birthday Abigail!

Welcome to the 2 Year Old World! We all wish we could celebrate with you today. Eat an extra piece of cake for us!

We love you,

Grandpa and Grandma

Summer time fun!

We went camping last weekend. It was so good to get away and be together but it was way different with a mobile child! Noah LOVED being outside with all the dirt, sticks, rocks etc. He was such a happy boy until it came time to sleep. We worked on getting him to sleep for at least and hour and a half. I think he went to bed around 10 or 10:30 only to wake up a lot and freak out because of the new environment. He loved snuggling and I was stuck many times between Jon & Noah not being able to move.
Noah decided to get up at 5:30am. It was freezing and he was determined to run around in the tent while he was shaking with cold. Silly boy. Jon let me sleep some more and when I looked out the tent about an hour later, there was Jon reading and Noah asleep on the ground.
Except for the lack of sleep it was a good trip. We hope to go again the end of August.
We got to go bluberry picking for the first time this year and although it wasn’t great picking it was fun to have Noah. He was eating the berries out of the bowls almost as fast as we could pick them. He finally got into picking them and putting some into the bowl. We ate our 2 lbs in a day. Next Wednesday the berry place we really like opens and Jon is going to go to work late so we can all hit the fields early. We’re pretty excited!!!
Today Jon slept in and then we went on a hike down to the Sandy River. Noah enjoyed throwing rocks into the river and Bree just loved being able to run around. It was fun to have Jon home a little extra. Santa’s workshop has begun work for Christmas. Hope everyone has been good!
Ps. Mom and dad we finally found that slug that has been hiding in our house for the past few months, must have been 6 inches long!

Swingin'!

Elijah had his first swing experience at the neighbors the other day and he LOVED it! He sat there for about 15 minutes, perfectly content to just swing away!

And Abigail had her first "official" tea party with their daughter, Ajda (Ida) today. The girls really had a great time together. The rest of the afternoon Abigail was asking for her "cu" and getting both of them out and saying, "Abby" and "Ajda".
The kids also started taking baths together recently. Eli is actually just in for a short time and has to be held the whole time, but Abigail likes the company even though it's a little crowded. And no, she isn't strangling him, it does look a little like that though, doesn't it?! : )

Camp Invention

The girls were able to attend a science camp at the college nearby. Here are some pictures from that time. They also have a neat video showing all the activities they did during the week. Just click on the link if you want to see it. They had a lot of fun and learned a great deal.

http://rpsec.usca.edu/student/CampInvention/

bigger pic

pictures!

Make a SlideShow at MyWackoSpace.com

Make a SlideShow at MyWackoSpace.com

Hope you enjoy the pictures!! We had a great time and really relaxed! It's good to be home, but we are dreading work......duh duh dunnnnnn.....

HHI 2

We are having lots of fun!! We are taking lots of good pics - just no way of getting into the computer yet. (we have a borrowed laptop until Ben get's his back) Tomorrow we hope to rent bikes with 'car'seats on the back to ride around the island with the boys. They will love it! I can talk again:) Today we went shopping, swimming and walking on the beach. We found tons of little baby sanddollars just lying on the beach. We are all having fun! matthew is a little mixed up on sleeping, so that makes it no-so-fun at night, but takes a good nap for us in the afternoon. That's all for now... Hope everyone is doing good:)

Hilton Head

Hey, everyone, we made it safe to hh island. No pictures yet, though:) The trip was better than expected. Even though it was long, it seemed to go quickly. The kids were little troupers! No complaining or griping at all - thanks to the dvds:) They LOVE their 'new' room. Ryan said this morning that he's going to miss his new room when we go back home! Silly boy. Matthew spent his first night in his big boy bed - with lots a pillows next to the wall and his brother's bed. Mommy and Daddy slept wonderfully and all night!!! It is great to have tired kids LOL:) I have laryngitis - frustrating! I can't call my friends...can't yell at the kids to stop running or to come here. Can't yell at my husband - just kiddin:) You don't realize how important your voice is until you lose it. I think the lady at mcdonald's was offended I wouldnt talk to her yesterday. I had to whisper my order in Ben's ear! Everyone looks at me like I'm some fruitcake when I whisper to them. Whatever. I wonder if that's how deaf/mute people feel- but atleast they know sign language. Anyway, I'm off to the beach.... Any body have a cure for laryngitis????

New Pajamas!

Dear Grandma,

Thank you very much for the new pajamas. I like them very much. Butterflies are cute and I like the color purple. After I put them on I ran outside, away from Mama and slid down my slide before bedtime. I love you.
Thanks for the pajamas for Abigail and the cute Elmo outfit for Eli! Abigail saw the Elmo on the clothes and said, "Mo!" We had a really nice visit with Larry & Donna. It was great to see them again. It sounds like they've had a great trip so far. Larry said, "I've been praying all these prayers for the Woodards, but after coming here I'm going to send my prayers to someone in China that could really use them!" He was joking of course, he just thought it was so beautiful here. It was nice to connect with them and they took TONS of pictures of the kids for you. Can't wait to see you in December! Love you!

DESTIN

I think they are having fun.

HAPPY BIG 30!

Happy Birthday Ben! Can't believe it's been 30 years since you made your appearance. We are blessed to have you in our family! Hope you have a very special day! Eat extra cake for us! Hope to see you soon.

Love you,
Mom and Dad

Ben's 30!!!!!!!

We love you and hope you are having a fun Birthday!!!

Love Debbie, Ryan and Matthew:) :) :)

Happy 4th!

Our trip is almost over - we went to the zoo yesterday - Noah's first zoo trip! Portland has a great zoo and we enjoyed browsing through the different exhibits. I don't think Noah was too impressed with anything inparticular but I really enjoyed the Gerenuk, bat display, and the tropical birds. Today Jon has off and has been working on trying to change the clutch on his car. He and I did breakfast out early this morning which was nice. Erin's mom taught me how to bead - I made a necklace with matching earrings and may have a new hobby! :) Erin and I investigated the new Walgreens that opened yesterday right around the corner from them. It's within walking distance and will be very handy! We head for the airport tomorrow morning about 10. It's been a great trip and a lots of fun getting to know Noah - you'll all love him at Christmas!

Marie and Will are at our house and picking us up tomorrow evening - (hint-don't forget! :) We've got Stewart for a week or so as they are heading for Destin, FL Monday morning.

Joel and Amy, when you see Donna, wish her a Happy Birthday for me. It's the same day as Ben's.

Mom

More Sandy Pics!

I thought Katelyn, Morgan, and Ryan would especially like the horse pictures. Jon and Erin's neighbor took us out to see her horse - if you come visit Uncle Jon and Aunt Erin you can probably get a ride! :)

Jon and Noah fixed breakfast for us Saturday morning. Noah gave some instructions to his daddy while they were cooking.

The hoop is a tad high, but it won't be long and he'll figure out a way to get the ball in - might even have Bree in on the fun.

We've got strawberry jam making in the plans as well as a big batch of cookies. Thursday afternoon Jon is off and we're heading to the zoo. It's cooler today and will be even cooler the rest of week! Yeah! We had water buffalo burgers last night at Erin's parents that were very tasty. Oh and we're having fresh grilled salmon tonight! Sorry guys - we'd share if you were here.

Love from Sandy,
Mom