HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEBBIE!

Somehow 29 was one of those years that felt like the end of a season but was a really great year! I pray that you will have a great year full of exciting moments with Ben and your boys as you create those special memories that will carry you to the next season of life! You are truly gifted as a wife, mother, friend, and nurse but more importantly, I can see God's love through you. You have a real heart for Him! Happy Birthday Debbie - I hope it is extra special!

Love you,
Mom and Dad Woodard

Happy Birthday Abigail!

It's hard to believe you are already 3!!! Have a fun party and enjoy your cake. We will have to have another party when you come to South Carolina.

Grandpa and Grandma love you and can hardly wait for you to move here!

Blueberries

Blueberry season is here which meant we got up at 5:45am to get to the fields to go picking. They said they didn’t open until 7 but we thought we should get there early. Good thing because there were already about 50 cars there and they were only letting 100 in! We stayed for about 2 hrs and came home with 60lbs! We’re set for the year now and still have 2 bowls left to munch on.

We’re getting ready for some hot weather here. They say it looks like it’s gonna be the hottest weather in 15 yrs. We looked for tickets to anywhere yesterday so Noah and I could fly and visit someone with air conditioning but unless we got the tickets 14 days in advance it was CRAZY expensive. I guess we’re gonna be sleeping in Noah’s room where the air is.

Here is a picture of the garden at our friend’s house that we’re sharing. We’ve had some beets and peas from there so far. Oh broccoli too. It’s looking good.
Last weekend we went camping with our friends. (the ones in the blueberry picture) It was great fun. Noah and Bree were covered head to toe in dirt and they loved it! It was nice however to come home and get clean and sleep in our own beds. That’s the news from OR. Thanks for putting pictures up of Garrett!

Baby Garrett Photos

here are some more pictures. Mom said she wanted some with clothes on. We do the really good ones today.

Introducing Garrett Andrew Woodard

9.4 lbs, 18 hours of labor, 20 inches long, exhausted mommy, cute kid. Will write more later.
(p.s. - no it's not Ryan's birth pictures, it's actually Garrett)

After months of planning...

and about 12 hours of labor it's finally done. Everyone is doing great here in p'cola. Click here to see the pics.

preggo pic

ok, here you go.... me 9 months preggo with garrett. I am SO ready to not be pregnant!!! but can wait to have a newborn:) We have everything ready - the tiny clothes are washed, the tiny diapers are stacked, the bags are packed for the hospital... just waiting. It has been nice to be at home with the boys more, but it would be nicer to not be so huge so we could actually get out and do something! It's getting frustrating since all my friends who were preggo with me have now all delivered.... sigh... he is due the 24th, though, so we have a few more days to cook. Please pray he comes on his own and soon!! I have never gone into labor on my own. Had to be induced with the other boys, so I was hoping for something a little more natural with this one. I'm still not believing we are going to have another kid. I still seems surreal. I acually still forget I'm pregnant... please pray for all of us. A third kid is going to be a major adjustment!!!

Pensacola Vacation

Here are a few pictures from our week with Ben's family. The picture above shows the ramp Ben created for dad's power chair. It worked though it was normally a challenge for dad to keep both wheels on the "ramp." Challenges are good though, right? Thanks Ben - it did get his chair in the house which was a big deal!

It was fun to be able to celebrate Ben's 31st birthday Monday with him. The boys enjoyed the whole process as much as Ben. He had a lot of help blowing out he candles.

Ryan decided that there needed to be a flower on the table for the celebration so he went to Debbie's gardenia bush to try and find one but there were no flowers. It was not a problem though because this nice tall greenery worked just as well! He made sure that it was on display for a couple of days. I tried to take a picture of Garrett, but his mommy didn't really want a picture taken so you can barely see him in the background.

Matthew has discovered how much fun bike riding is. He still has his training wheels on but probably not for long. We went for walk with Ryan and Matthew riding bikes and Dad in his power chair. It was a very exciting walk with all three going in different directions and the cars playing dodge bikes/chair.

It was a fun week - lots of time to play with the boys; Debbie and I got to go the mall one afternoon; a couple Chick-fil-a lunch play times; grilled snapper and macrel (Sp) that Ben caught; Dad and Ben went golfing and to see transformer 2; I read 2 books; and generally just spent time together. We're now waiting for "THE CALL" that tells us Garrett is on the way because his mommy is very ready!

Geiger Island

Three weeks ago Noah and I came home from Geiger Island located in Dale Hollow Lake in Tenn. It was a GREAT time of fellowship with old and new friends. This was my 20th year at family camp and most of the folks there are the ones that helped raise me. It was so refreshing to be in "my village" again. Noah had a blast running around everywhere playing ball, catching lightning bugs for the first time, fishing, tubing, driving boats, paddle boating and experiencing thunderstorms for the first time. He did great. He decided that any time there was thunder it was snuggle time. I liked that! A storm came through camp every day but one. By the time we left one family was on their 3rd tent because the other ones blew over or got holes! At least there was some sun/no rain each day. We played volleyball, skied, swam, had campfires and great food.

One of the best parts was that I got to see my good friends Anna, Joanna and Amanda (all bridesmaids) for the first time in 6 years. Our wedding was the last time we were all together. Only 1 is not married and the rest of us have kids. It was soo good to finally meet their kids! We stayed up late talking, laughing and praying for each other.


At the end of the trip Noah and I went to the Opreland hotel to look around before our flight back home. Noah needed to get some exercise before sitting for the next 7.5 hrs or so. Our 2.5 hr layover was in Denver and my other bridesmaid Sarah met us there with her kids who I had never met. I got to see all my bridesmaids (except the one from OR) in one day!! The last time I saw Sarah was in Prague 4 yrs ago. It was so very hard to say goodbye to everyone but good to see Jon again who stayed home to keep Bree company and work. What a wonderful husband I have!!!!

We went to the high school down the street to see fireworks for the 4th. To say Noah was excited would be an understatement. There was joy and excitement etched on his face most of the day. It was so much fun to share even the little ones we got with him. He went to bed at 11:30pm and went down so nicely. Sigh…if only he’d do that at an earlier time.
This week is the Sandy Mt Festival with parades, shows and LOTS of booths with food and crafts at the park down the street. We’re thinking we might go camping this weekend or maybe next. The weather has cooled down this week which actually is nice after August type weather here the last few weeks. I’m cooking again and cleaning the house.

That's the up-date for now. We went to Salt Lake City to see Kevin, Megan and Dane and that all went well. We have some really fun pictures of the boys together that we'll have to post sometime. They look so much alike!

JULY 6TH !!!!!

I have looked through all the pictures I have and this one stood out the most. Ben as a butcher!!! How much further from the Ben we know can there be? He is a great father, husband, pastor, golfer, web-designer, jokester, salesman, entrepreneur, optimist, and friend, but not so much a butcher! We love you Ben and hope you have a great Birthday and enjoy the time with mom and dad.

Happy 4th!

It's strange to think it's the 4th of July today. I don't think I would normally think much about it...1) because we're usually at English camp or doing some sort-of picnic or follow-up event and celebrate in some way and 2) because we haven't been in the states for the 4th of July for 7 years now. But this year! We're on Facebook and everyone in the states is saying "Happy 4th of July!" and what their plans are for the big day. So strange from way over here...

So no, we didn't have a BBQ (Grill out) : ) today, or fireworks or parade or anything like that. It's Joel's first full day home since camp ended yesterday. He spent most of his day off mowing the lawn(s). We actually have three large areas of grass that normally take him an hour to mow them all. Today though, it took at least 3 hours!!! We had so much rainy weather before camp and were so busy that he hadn't been able to mow the lawn in about 3 weeks...so it was tall! Here is a picture of Elijah turning Abigail's baby stroller into a lawn mower...ya think we need some more boy toys around???I was inside most of the morning, cleaning the house after such a busy week with camp last week. Some exciting news though...2 families are interested in the house. One from each realty company we have it listed with. It came at a great time with camp being finished and we have a couple days to get the house back in order after being so crazy the past couple weeks. One family comes on Monday (when Joel will actually be in Salzburg with the team! Yikes!!) and the other comes Wednesday afternoon (hopefully Joel will be home after driving the team down to Venice!!) We're both really encouraged about these families!

So more of today...after mowing the lawn, Joel took the kids into the pool--they loved getting some good play time with Daddy again!
Oh, and here's some other recent pictures of Abigail. Sarah & Lili Hunnicutt gave Abigail her first pair of child safety scissors...so here she is making a card for Daddy to welcome him home again.Also, after spending the week at camp--where there was playground-ish equipment--and watching the bigger kids on stuff, I think her bravery level went up a bit. This morning she was on her swingset doing this!!
And, at English camp one evening they had a Western Night for a late night activity and brought two of these little horses. The team leader's wife gave them to Elijah and Abigail a couple days ago and Abigail is loving them!! It's fun to have such new & simple toys!So Happy 4th of July to everyone! Hope you all enjoy your holiday!!