Happy Birthday, Dad & Jon!

On Sunday, March 7th we celebrated Josh's dad's birthday and Jon's (our brother-in-law) birthday at the Green's house.  (Their birthdays are on March 11th and 14th.)  We all had fun hanging out, eating together, and celebrating the Birthday Boys!  The cousins always have a great time playing together and it's fun for us to watch the older ones helping out with the younger ones. (:

 Ronan & Grandpa

Amy made all the fixings for a build-your-own burrito bar.

Dessert Time!

Amy & Emma

Audrey, Erin, Josh, & Emma (being entertained by silly Uncle Josh)

Present Time!

We all gave Jon funny coffee mugs as a joke along with his real gifts.  The idea came from an incident that happened at Christmastime. (: 

New Car

The week after our car accident we started the hunt for a new (used) car for our family, since the totaled 4Runner was our only car. ):  The insurance company gave us a fair amount for our car, so were thankful for that!  Josh started looking around and researching cars, and we ended up deciding on the Volvo XC90, a seven passenger crossover SUV.  We test-drove one in Eugene and really liked it, so Josh searched on craigslist and the Oregonian and found this one in Wilsonville.  We drove up and bought it on March 4th.

So far we are really liking this car!  It's in great shape & only had one previous owner.  We like having the extra seats so that we can transport the kids' friends & cousins. (:  We hope it will be a good car for us for a long time!

Winter Retreat

 

I've been a little stuck lately with blogging, because I haven't quite felt ready to blog about this event. ):  The weekend of February 26-28th was the annual high school youth trip to Sunriver.  This was our 4th year in a row going, and we always look forward to it because it's such a fun weekend!  It's usually Josh's only chance to go snowboarding each year, so he gets really excited about it.  Well, this trip turned out to be one that we will never forget!  

On the drive from Sunriver to Mt. Bachelor we hit black ice and swerved across both lanes of the highway.  Josh was driving and thought he regained control of the car, but the car kept sliding and we ended up rolling onto the snow bank.  Thankfully no one was injured and no other cars were involved...but it was very scary!!  Our friends & youth leaders, the Fullers, were in the car with us, along with one of the high school girls.  We were so thankful for God's protection over all of us (and that God put Josh in the driver's seat, because out of all of us, he was the most calm & capable driver)!

Josh was the first one to climb out of the car, and then he pulled each of us out through the back passenger window. That all happened before the rest of our group (who were driving ahead of us) realized what had happened and came to check on us.

 

 Group photo before the rest of the group went on to ski at Bachelor.  Those of us who were in the accident decided to just go back to the Sunriver house to relax for the rest of the day.

A tow truck came to get our car and then we waited to be picked up by someone from our group.

It was sunny and somewhat pleasant as we waited on the side of the road.  I think we were all in shock...

 Our car was totaled, so we ended up renting a car in Redmond because we didn't have enough vehicles to get everyone home to Eugene.

100th Day of School

I didn't realize that the 100th day of school was such a big deal in elementary school!  The kindergarteners spent weeks and weeks working on counting to 100 and writing the numbers 1-100. The whole school had a fun celebration when the 100th day of school finally arrived.  I helped out during the class party where the kids got to go around the room and gather 100 treats: mini marshmallows, pretzels, raisins, mini chocolate chips, cheerios, fruit loops, etc.

For sharing that week Ronan had to gather 100 things from home and display them creatively.  Josh helped him come up with this idea and they worked on it together:

 100 screws arranged to spell the word o-n-e h-u-n-d-r-e-d.

PK Park

On Wednesday, February 24th, we went to an open house at PK Park, the baseball stadium for the Oregon Ducks and Eugene Emeralds.  Amy told us about the open house and so we planned to meet up with their family after the dads got off work.  We drive by it almost everyday and have watched the different phases of construction, so it was neat to see the field up close and check out the dugouts.

Me with my little athletes. (:

  

It started raining when we got there, so we stood under the covered area for a little while.

  

A bunch of people were standing on the field so we joined them to see what the turf felt like, and then we were told to stay off the field.  Ooops!

  

Ethan, Macey, and Ronan

  

Griff

  

A (washed-out) picture of the cousins in the dugout:

Emma, Macey, Griffin, Ronan, and Ethan

  

  

The Greens

  

Our Fam

  

February 14th

 The boys were so excited to wake up to cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Valentine's Day. (:

Their first gift from us was their own little box of chocolates.

  

After church we all had lunch at Memaw & Papa's house

Katrina took this cute picture of all the cousins lined up youngest to oldest.  

(Cedar was sleeping at the time)

  

New shirts from Memaw & Papa

  

(Griff moved his hand right when I took the picture, so you can't really see his new ski shirt.)

Me and my Valentine

  

Our big surprise for Ronan & Griffin was taking them to the pet store and letting them pick out a new parakeet!  We found Joey, a green & yellow parakeet, in our backyard in September and ever since then we had been wanting to get another one so that he could have a friend.  We all had fun deciding on which bird we would get, and then on the drive home we tried to come up with a name that everyone agreed on.  

Penny was the name we picked and she is such a sweet bird!!
  Josh tried to put her in the cage with Joey and she just wanted to sit on his hand for the longest time.  She seems much more comfortable around people than Joey is. 

  

It took awhile for them to get acquainted, but soon they were kissing each other and snuggling at night. (:  They are very cute together. (:

 

Valentine's Date

My parents offered to watch all the grandkids on Saturday, Feb. 13th, so that the Mamas & Daddys could have a date night.  It was so nice of them!  They had a fun night of pizza making and decorating cookies planned for the kids. (:  Josh and I went to dinner at PF Changs and then we went to see the movie, Valentine's Day.  It was a fun night for us!  Thank you, Mom & Papa!!

Ronan took these pictures of us. (:

 

  a night on the town...

  

  Back at home...one last self portrait. (: