Home

We have made it home.
We have been getting all settled in and trying to stay toasty warm up in Priest Lake, Idaho. We have now been there about a week and a half (and I still haven't managed to get a picture of our accommodations, believe me, it isn't much to write home about, but we are still thankful). Kyle and Gunnar are truly loving every minute of it. Ryker and I are having a bit more difficult of a time adjusting. We enjoy being outside as long as we can stay warm. Luckily, no matter what, we have a warm house to come back inside too.
Life without no obligations or time restraints is fun and usually very uneventful. Our days usually look something like this:
7:00-Wake Up, 7:30-Breakfast, 7:50-Play Time (indoors), 9:30-Sledding and four wheeler fun, 11:30-Lunch, 12:00-Family Nap time, 3:00-Snacks, 3:30-More sledding and four wheeler fun, 5:00-Inside to warm up/Playtime, 6:00-Dinner, 6:30-Playtime, 7:30-Bath time, 7:45-Bedtime stories, 8:00-Bedtime. Once the kids are in bed, Kyle and I usually make our way too. This is the first time in our married life we have had a television in our room, so we usually spend the evenings warm under our bed covers watching a movie.
We live a pretty rough life, huh???
 I really wonder how long until we all officially go insane or grow completely sick of each other.
Kyle is on terminal leave until February 26th, then he will officially be medically retired from the Army. He will be volunteering with a group called Peak 7 in Spokane, this Spring and Summer.
I am working on my substitute teacher application for up in Priest Lake and the area. I think I am going to need something to keep me busy. I am also looking for other groups to volunteer with a few hours each week. We are also spending much time in prayer and in the word, seeking God's direction for our lives.
I really want to find the boys a play group or some sort of setting to go where they have other little ones to interact with. We have been attending the Community Church up in Priest Lake, but my boys are the only ones under the age of 10 attending, so there is not a whole lot of interaction coming from there.

This weekend we had my parents up for a visit to check out our living conditions. I'm not sure they were so impressed. They left Sunday afternoon and about an hour later, Kyle's brothers Shawn and Caleb showed up to hang out and stay the night as they had no school today.
We drove back down to Post Falls this evening as tomorrow Kyle has a VA appointment in the morning and then on Wednesday I have an appointment, so we will be camping out here the next two nights rather than making the hour and half trip back and fourth. It is nice Laura is willing to let us stay and watch the boys for us, espeically in this not so great driving winter weather.
 Ryker and Gunnar enjoying the snow.

 Some trees in our backyard.

 Riding the "snow train"

 Gunnar and Ryker's first snowman. Gunnar bossed us on how to make the entire thing you would think he had done it a million time. "Carrot for nose." "Get sticks for arms."

 My mom taking her turn on the snow train.

 My mom and dad checking out the lake.

 All of us.

 Racheal and Ryker.

 Ryker taking a turn on the bunny hill.

 Gunnar is too cool for the bunny hills. He got to the bottom and said "THAT WAS FUN." He wants to go again and again..."Gunnar sled down big hill again."

He has no fear. No matter how hard he crashes he brushes himself off and climbs back up the hill.

 Mom has a lot more fear. Our ride down the hill was much more relaxing than his rides with dad and solo.

 Caleb sledding down the hill.

Christmas and New Year's

This year we spent Christmas in Eugene with Kyle's mom. We arrived on Monday the 19th after we got all moved out of our Fort Lewis house. The car was packed. So packed that the dogs had to sit at the person in the passenger's seat feet. It definitely wasn't the most of comfortable rides.
We spent time at between Kathy's house and the McCools. Unfortunately our kids were having a pretty rough time with all the transitions and running around and I wasn't feeling well at all, so we all weren't able to socialize as much as we would have liked to, but we tried to get out as much as we could.
Kyle's mom Kathy ended up with the flu, I was also throwing up, and the boys had upset stomachs as well. We went to a family get together on Friday and we ended up being blamed as the carriers of the nasty bug as all the other women folk  ended up getting the puking disease. Only women and children got it...weird.
On Christmas eve, Kathy's cousin Denise came over from Portland and Megan and her boyfriend (now fiance) Jonathan came over from Oakridge to celebrate Christmas with us. We had a fun time playing Wii Pictionary and eating way to much junk food. On Christmas Eve we also went the a Christmas Eve service at the church.

 On Sunday, Christmas day the kids were spoiled rotten...as were Kyle and I. A while back we were contacted by a group called Heartbeat, who served wounded warriors and were ask if they could sponsor our family. We were pretty reluctant to fill it out at first, but it ended up being a real blessing. The postal workers of downtown Tacoma and Fife adopted our family. Their representative and Heartbeat volunteer Barbara and her postal worker husband, Dick brought over the loot on Saturday before we left Fort Lewis. It was totally overwhelming, a huge blessing, and their generosity was completely amazing. Honestly I didn't think we would have room for it all in our car. The cargo box on top of our car was jam packed as was part the back of our car. I didn't know if Kyle and I could hold in our suspense and excitement with all the gifts until Christmas, but we made it! These postal workers are some amazing shoppers. Kyle and I didn't have a lot of time for Christmas shopping with the moving, so this really helped us out. We honestly were total slacker parents and didn't get them anything...however, they have no idea, there were so many gifts for the boys they had to open them in two shifts. I also didn't get Kyle and gift (while he spoiled me rotten). I insist I am waiting until I find the perfect gift...it might be awhile. In my defense Kyle is really hard to buy for. If he wants/likes something he usually just buys it, which then requires me to be really creative come birthday/Christmas time. My creative juices were not functionally very well this Holiday season.

 We also enjoyed some time at Putters playing on the indoor playground, eating pizza, and playing a little golf.

We left Eugene on Tuesday afternoon and made the 5 hour trip to my parents house in Pasco, WA. We have now been here a week and will leave tomorrow for a quick visit in Post Falls, then up to our "new" home in Priest Lake, ID.
Here at my parents, the Christmas celebration continued. We had a little get together with my brother Paul and his boys, Ezra, Owen, and Zane, and Paul's girlfriend Jenny, my sister Jami, and her boyfriend Corey, and of course my parents. Gunnar and Ryker are crazy about their cousins and can't get enough of them. The house is crazy when everyone is in here, but the kids have SO much fun. There is so much laughing. My kids have also enjoyed being spoiled by my parents. The bedtime routine has been a joke and we are really doing to have to work on getting our good bedtime habits back. Gunnar has been SUPER naughty at nap and bedtime, it's pretty frustrating. He has also been having potty accidents, which hasn't been happening in a long time. Hopefully this just has to do with all the change/transitions happening in our lives at the moment. I am praying once we get settled up at the lake that the boys settle too!
We also celebrated Paul's 31st birthday and Owen's 6th birthday. The cupcakes were enjoyed, but some more than others...

Kyle and I did get to go out on New Years and brought in the New Year by going to the Tri-City American's game vs. the Spokane Chiefs. It was a really fun game and we were home, in bed, and asleep by 11pm. We are pretty lame, but we really value and need our sleep.
They rest of the time has been fun hanging out with my parents, going to the park, and just playing around the house. They boys really do love it here.
At the park...

 Gunnar playing some "Uno Moo" with Grandma and Poppa.

 After tomorrow I'm not exactly sure what our internet situation and even cell phone situation will be. We are almost 100% sure we won't be getting internet while we are at the lake. It is REALLY expensive and we can utilize the library in dire emergencies. My cell phone also doesn't get great reception up there, and I have to go out and stand near the road to make calls. It could be interesting. We are excited, but a little worried about getting bored quickly. We are really going to have to bare the cold if we don't want to go crazy sitting inside the small house all day. So....that's it for now. Next update, I can post pictures of our new accommodations...believe you will all be super jealous of our plush living.

The move

Moving...procrastination...stress...cranky kids...sleepy/cranky mom...carefree dad.
I think that about sums it up.
Life was crazy. So crazy, I ended up turning to avoidance. You know, telling yourself, "if I pretend it's not happening, then maybe it's not happening." I don't think this mentality actually ended up helping anything, but you can't say I didn't try.
On the 18th we sent the boys off to daycare and spent our time at home packing up what we wanted to keep for ourselves for up to a year (possibly, but hopefully not that long) and cleaning/preparing for the movers who arrived on Thursday.
Thursday the movers came and went. We said farewell to our belongings and, prayed that it would be sooner rather than later before we see it all again. It's kinda funny how much we think we "need" our stuff. When Gunnar and Ryker came home from "school" Gunnar broke our hearts. Gunnar kept saying over and over, "my house is gone" or "my bed is gone." We explained it all went on a big truck, so periodically we hear him say "my house on a big truck." Poor kid, it was pretty hard on him.
On Friday my dad and I (so thankful for my dad coming over to help) pulled a small Uhaul trailer over to Priest River, Idaho and put our stuff in the garage so it is easily accessible to us over the next year. I stayed the night with Laura and the boys then got on a plane early Saturday afternoon with Ryker to fly back to Seattle to help with all the cleaning of our house for inspection the following Monday.

Sunday was crazy. We went to church then our kids went to the Schroeder house and spent the day with Kaytee. We then got busy at home after a little dinner to say goodbye to some of our great friends. I was completely overwhelmed and anything that could have gone wrong did. The dog ran through our screen in the door, which consequently broke, which consequently meant we would end up paying for it. Lowes and Home Depot had no replacement parts, but thankfully superglue worked for the inspection. Kyle also decided to help me clean the fridge by putting a drawer in the dishwasher to clean it...bad idea. It melted. I was able to get it back in the fridge and the not so nice inspection lady didn't notice. I know this sounds a little dishonest but we had a lady from the housing office (not a regular inspector) end up doing our inspection and she was trying to charge us for everything.  We ended up having to pay over $800 for new carpet and a mini-blind that had a little scuff mark on it, smaller than a dime size. Oh well, we try not to think about it. However we would have never been able to get all the cleaning and garbage throwing away done without the great assistance of some amazing people: Iona, Josh, Liz and of course my dad. What three awesome friends we have and one great dad. And, we can't forget the world's best babysitter Kaytee. Our boys adore her and there is no way we could have gotten everything done without her helping with the boys!
After doing some final running around on Monday, we got out of Fort Lewis around 1pm and headed to Eugene, OR to spend Christmas with Kyle's mom. While we forgot to pick up Kyle's discharge prescriptions we got everything else done. It felt good, a huge weight off our shoulders.
I should also mention that from Thursday night through Sunday night we all slept on the floor of our empty apartment. With our three dogs, it was just way to expensive to find a place to stay that would accommodate us....let's just say we should have coughed up the money. 
I will post later our Christmas adventures and time with my parents.
For those who don't know our plan, we decided to not rush finding a house, since we aren't sure where God wants us. So in the meantime while we pray, we will be going to to Priest Lake to a mobile home Kyle's dad has. While it isn't the most luxurious of places, it a free roof over our head and will give us time to regroup and figure life out a bit more without the stress of needing to hurry. We have all the time in the world now!
Some pictures of our little moving helpers:

Santa Pictures

It's that time of year again...Santa has come to town.
We are blessed to have a special connection with Mr. Claus. He is our former pastor who retired this past September. Even with the kids knowing him...Ryker still was not a fan. Oh well, Kyle and I found Ryker's ridiculous screaming quite humorous. My mom would say it's pay backs, because apparently I wasn't much of a fan of Santa pictures either. Gunnar has never cried with Santa before, while he was a little unsure, I think it was more all the people standing around, watching, and staring that made him more nervous than the man in the red suit.
So here they are...

 Check out Santa's website... http://www.northwestsanta.com/ I especially enjoy the section on "Where is Christ is Christmas?"

Thankful

November is a special month in which we are really reminded to think about all the things we are thankful for. This year I am especially thankful for family. The army allowing us to move from Germany to Fort Lewis to be closer to our family a little over a year ago served it's purpose well. Being closer to family has given us the support and often times assistance we need to get through it all.
This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family. It was an interesting time, but the food was delicious. On the day of Thanksgiving when we sat down to eat Gunnar started screaming and yelling that his ear hurt. I thought he was just tired and not wanting to eat so I put him in bed for his nap. He woke up and seemed ok. He said his ear hurt but he definitely wasn't screaming about it, he wanted to play. Then came dinner. Same story. He started screaming bloody murder. This time he would not allow anyone to touch him but me an there was no calming him down. He cried for at least 30 minutes. I called our on call doctor to get approval for taking him to the ER and we were off, he never cries like this.
Turned out one ear was really hurting. For my lack of doctor terminology I will explain it for the rest of us. He had the normal ear infection and then he had some bacteria growing in ear which was the main cause of the excruciating pain. So we were sent off to get ear drop and antibiotics. Once those got in him, he was dandy.
We got back to the house, got Gunnar in bed, then Kyle said he wanted to go black Friday shopping. We attempted and really didn't have a plan so it didn't work out to well. He did decide he wanted to sit outside of GameStop from 12am to 5am for a limited edition Nintendo 3DS...what a nerd. I went home to sleep during that time and ended spending most my night with an unhappy Ryker. Ryker loves his sleep so I knew something was up.
In the morning he was a BIG unhappy camper, so off to urgent care I went with him. He had an ear infection as well. The poor kid just had one a couple weeks ago.
That afternoon Laura and Caleb showed up to spend the next few days with us hanging out. Really that's just what we did. That night we left the boys with the Grandma, Nana, and Poppa and took Caleb to a hockey game. the Saturday we spent our time just hanging out and playing at the house with the five little boys, Ezra, Owen, Gunnar, Zane, and Ryker.

 Sunday was a very special day. For Christmas my parents (we won't be with them for Christmas this ear) got everyone tickets to ride the Polar Express so we drove down to Hood River, OR. The boys had a blast and loved seeing and riding on the train. We were all exhausted by the end, but had a great time. It was the perfect gift. After the train ride we drove back home to Fort Lewis.