Little Fishy

Max had been acting a little under the weather for the last couple of days, but wasn't completely out of sorts, and so I chalked it up to him just having another cold. When he went to bed coughing and hacking on Thursday night, I thought something was up, and then when he woke up Friday morning struggling to breathe and really wheezing, I took him to the doctor. There we found out he had a double ear infection and an upper respiratory infection and they wanted him to be put on nebulizer treatments to clear up his lungs. Poor guy! He really hates his nebulizer and fights us on it every time, but he seems to be getting well. And he looks totally cute with his little fish mask on his face!

And on a completely non-related note, Easton loves to be just like his daddy, and can totally rock the backwards hat look. And yes, he is wearing his Batman cape again......it never really comes off except for bed and school.

The many faces of Max

The "I'm so tired I look drunk" face.

The "I'm too cool for this" face.

The "Stop taking my DARN picture" face.

The "I'm about to punch my brother if he doesn't let go of me!" face.

And the "What's that smell?" face.

He makes silly faces, what can I say?! But, we love him no matter how he may look at us.

Movin' on up

We bought a house. As you can see from the picture, there is nothing there yet, but it will be completed sometime in April. We are very excited to be 1st time home-buyers. A little nervous too; I think I've had to take a sleeping pill every night since because of elevated anxiety levels. We can't wait for it to be finished, and Scott keeps me updated on the progress of it by driving by every morning on his way to work. We were very excited yesterday to see that they had staked out the property, and hopefully by this weekend, they will have set and poured the foundation. We'll keep all of you updated on the progress.

It happened.

We've been waiting for this day ever since Luke was born. We knew it would happen, and had been expecting this event to happen sometime within this year, and it finally did. Lucas is now officially TALLER than Easton. They were measured today at a doctor appt. and Easton was 39.5 inches tall (15%), and Lucas was 40 inches tall (90%). Easton may always be older and wiser, but his brother will always be taller. They haven't really noticed this fact yet, and I'm sure it will be a few more years before Luke realizes he can use this to his advantage. But I'm sure they'll always love each other.

Pros/Cons

The Pros and Cons of being the wife of a City Manager:

Pros:
1. Income/Benefits (duh).
2. My husband having an awesome reason to get up in the morning.
3. Getting to tell people that my husband is a City Manager (I really like this one).
4. I will get to know people and have lots of connections.
5. Seeing my husband thoroughly enjoy his work and love what he is doing in life (I really, really like this one!).

Cons:
1. My husband is no longer at my disposal.
2. Long hours (so far they have averaged at least 10-12 hours).
3. When he says he'll be done at 6pm, it means I won't see him until almost 7pm. (It is currently a 45 min. commute).
4. Being coerced into doing things like making quilts for the Centennial Celebration, and so on.
5. Having to remember the names of all of these people that I meet, and be diplomatic in speech (even online....we might have to go private). For the people that know me well, this might be a stretch for me, personally.

I still think the pros win over the cons! And, most of the cons will be eliminated as soon as Scott gets his feet wet, and as soon as we relocate to Hermiston. All in all, I think it was a successful 1st week on the job, and we are both looking forward to all that lies ahead.

Stanfield!!

Well, its official! Scott is the new City Manager for the City of Stanfield, Oregon. We are super excited, and it is a great step for Scott's career goals! We thought it might be nice for our friends and family to know some facts about Stanfield.

Location: Northeastern Oregon (45 minutes south of Tri-Cities, WA; 3 hours east of Portland, OR; and just under 4 hours up I-84 from Boise, ID).

Population: approx. 2200 residents

Church Stats: There is one Stake in the area which is Hermiston Stake (3 miles up the road) and that is where our church building is, as well. There are 3 wards that attend our building, but we don't know which one we will attend yet. We will still be in the Columbia River Temple District, located in the Tri-Cities. (Thats where we got married!)

Weather: Avg. High of 87 degrees in the summer and Avg. Low of 29 degrees in the winter. Only 10 inches of annual precipitation!!!

Local Sites: Stanfield has a Mini-Mart, Pilot gas station w/ McDonalds and Subway, lots of Antique shops, a bank, a Mexican Restaurant, and a cute little Library. They also have new ball fields, a city park, and an Elementary School and a Secondary School.

Now you might be asking yourself, "How can they live in such a small town?" or "What is there to do in Stanfield?" And our answers for you would be "We won't" and "Not much!"

We will probably live in Hermiston, and this was quite the relief to find out that it wasn't a requirement that we actually live in Stanfield. And anything that we need or want to do is available in Hermiston (i.e. WalMart, Home Depot, Cinema, Grocery stores, Bowling, Family Aquatic Center, etc.)

Reasons to come visit:
1. We're awesome people, no matter where we live!!!
2. The Pendleton Round-Up: one of the 10 largest Rodeos in the World, and this summer they are celebrating 100 years.
3. Hermiston Watermelons (supposedly they are famous for them)
4. Stanfield 4th of July: I guess they have a big to-do for the 4th and yep, you guessed it, Scott is the head-honcho for the event.
5. To get away from it all, because frankly, there isn't much here.

Top Ten of 2009

And these are in random order:

1. Having another cute baby boy. I never thought I would be the mother to all boys, but it is turning out to be quite fun and I love it!

2. Seeing every living family member this year on a whirlwind tour of almost the entire Western United States.

3. My parents moving back to the Tri-Cities. I can finally visit "home" again and be able to show my kids where I grew up.

4. Running another 5k. I never thought I would enjoy it, and I'm not really good at it, but its nice to know that I can at least go run 1-2 miles, anytime, no sweat.

5. Enjoying lots of time outdoors with my entire family. We loved the summer with swimming, parks, bikes, and playing in dirt. And we've really enjoyed the winter with snow, sledding, and lights.

6. Celebrating another Anniversary with my husband, whom I love so much! We're up to 7 years now!

7. Celebrating all major holidays and birthdays with family.

8. Easton started full-time preschool. I love my children dearly, and I was extrememly nervous about letting him go, but he LOVES it, and Scott and I enjoy those semi-peaceful hours during the day when he is at school.

9. Having only 1 child in diapers again. (Good job, Luke!) We definitely enjoy less diaper duty as parents, and our wallet enjoys it too.

10. And last, but not least, Scott getting a job, on New Year's Eve! Talk about cutting it down to the wire! We are thrilled about our new adventure and a little nervous about it all too. Looking back on our experience of unemployment, it all seems a little surreal that it is finally over, but it also seems like it was too easy and we should have suffered a little more or something before a job finally happened. We are extremely grateful to loving parents (all 4 of them) who helped us and supported us through it all, to our spiritual, physical, and financial preparation that made it all okay, and to the strength of testimony that we gained through it all. What a year!!!