What we do...

We are still enjoying our time up in Priest Lake...it's not really much of a challenge. 

My brother Paul, his girlfriend Jenny, and his three boys came up to visit us the other weekend. We had a fun night in at a resort (with one very sick Ezra) in Couer D'Alene, the rest of the time we spent up at the lake. With so many people we were a bit cramped on space, but we managed and had a good time.

 5 monkeys in the sled.

 Sledding can apparently be painful. Luckily Kyle and I had a much smoother ride when we went down the same trail.

Riding on the "snow train" aka sled behind the snowmobile is fun, but with the fresh snow we were all getting it thrown in our faces which makes it not so much fun. So helmets and goggles, not only made the ride more enjoyable, but also safer.

 These two stayed back with me while the other boys went for a wild ride.

 At preschool they always have these fun days and one Thursday was "Monster Day." They told us on Tuesday. Tuesday night I spent super sick and Wednesday Kyle and I both were sick, so I forgot about monster day until about 6pm Wednesday evening. Kyle and I put our creative heads together and sewed him this shirt and hat (the monster eye). At first Gunnar wanted nothing to do with it, but Thursday morning he was excited to put on his monster shirt and happily wore it to school.

 We love the beauty of our surroundings.

 We also have movie/popcorn....often. Really, what else is any better.
This is our sophisticated and proper son who refuses to let me take a picture of him not doing something silly with his mouth (haha).

 This is our laid back and bum of a son. (Not really, Ryker just got his church clothes dirty and Gunnar was still wearing them.)

Kyle was just hired for summer employment with a group called Peak 7. He will be a white water rafting guide this summer...sadly that means we won't see much of him. He has training every weekend the rest of the month, so please be praying for his safety and my sanity.

Looking for Moose

 I almost forgot to share this story...Kyle would probably rather I forgot.
On a Saturday a few weeks ago, I left Gunnar and Ryker with Kyle and his brothers Shawn and Caleb. Our washing machine broke, so I was at the laundromat doing laundry. Kyle's dad showed up around the time I left and cousin Jimmy showed up shortly after. So there were 5, let's repeat that, FIVE grown (well, one is 13, but still) men around my two little boys!
I have heard many variations of the story for each individual, but from what I have gathered this is as close to the truth as we will ever know....
All were outside playing. Jimmy and Mike were working on the heater. Ryker started to cry and wanted to go inside. Kyle took Ryker inside. Kyle stepped outside to make sure Gunnar was being cared for. He called "Gunnar?" No answer. He called "Shawn, Caleb?" No answer. So he assumes that they all must be off somewhere together so he go inside to care for upset Ryker. (I'm not exactly sure where Mike and Jimmy were at this point).
Sometime later a little red pickup pulls into our driveway and informs the menfolk that there is a little boy, probably about two, in a black and red coat walking along the snowmobile path and was about to "The Little Store."
Hmm...that sounds a lot like our little Gunnar. Mike and Jimmy were the message receivers and Mike took off to the Little Store. Gunnar got a spanking and told to walk home (mean ol' Grandpa..haha). He cried the entire way home. He not only got to the Little Store but did so pulling his sled.
I pulled up into the driveway, probably about the time Mike was reaching Gunnar at the Little Store. I was informed "Gunnar is missing, some guy just pulled up and said they saw him walking on the snowmobile path." Can you imagine my panic??? There are woods directly behind us, a busy Highway in front of us, a rock crushing business to the right of us, and down the road about a fourth of a mile is the Little Store. Luckily my panic was quickly diminished as I walked out onto the snowmobile path and watched as my sad little boy walked himself home. I felt bad for him, and wasn't really sure who to blame, as everyone was pointing figures at each other.
Gunnar came up got a hug and told me he was looking for moose. He has a huge moose obsession, apparently its a bit of a problem.
We are so thankful for someone having enough sense to stop and tell us about our little run away. Really, all the men were clueless that Gunnar was gone, each assuming someone else was watching him. Lessons were learned and Gunnar is home safe and I doubt he goes out on any moose searching adventures alone anytime soon.
(Gunnar really loves moose and asks us almost daily to go out looking for them. He can point their antlers out on walls and anywhere else he might see them). My mom bought the giant moose from Costco for him to play with while we were visiting and he loved it.

Things are Good

I'm often asked, "How are things going?" My answer is simple..."Good. But, we need to find our purpose."
It's been about a month that we have been up at the lake. We are having a blast. Enjoying taking it easy, but also realizing that we need to find a purpose. We really stay plenty busy, but also anxiously await to see what the Lord has in store for us next. We have some ideas, but have to be certain before we go blabbing on about them on the world wide web. But stay tuned, hopefully exciting things will be happening soon.

In the meantime, here is what we have been doing...
We spend a lot of time outside playing in the snow. Gunnar had his first major sledding crash a few weekends ago at a Pettit sledding party. That is always a sure place for someone to get hurt, to bad it had to be the youngest Pettit who was participating in the sledding. Gunnar is fearless and climbs to the top of the hills all the big kids were using. He jumped in the sled and headed down. Unfortunately he got strapped into the sled (who puts staps on sleds anyways?), so there was no way he could bail and it kept him seated for about 4 nice and intense barrell rolls down the hill rather than dumping him in the snow. He was a champ. Kyle ran to the bottom on the hill, Gunnar said "My leg hurts. That wasn't fun. I want mom." Haha. Really the picture I got of his crash doesn't do him any justice, but I only caught the first roll as I dropped my camera in horror for the rest. The second picture is some wounds from underwear dancing and falling on the ice the day after. Him and Ryker have both had another accident on the ice and both had cut up faces. But they are still all smiles!

 My dad bought an older model snow mobile and brought it up. The four wheeler just wasn't cutting it in the snow anymore. We are having so much fun on this thing. We use it daily for joy rides, the "snow train," sledding, etc. It is perfect and we appreciate my dad letting us use it.

 If we get bored, there is almost always something to dig out. We dig out vehicles, snow caves, and we also made them a snow slide on some of the snow that has been plowed in front of the trailer.

Gunnar goes to preschool at the elementary school twice a week for 3 hours each day. He loves it and it gives him an opportunity to interact with other kids.
We had Ryker in a playpen because we didn't bring his crib, but he was sleeping just horribly so we found him a toddler bed. It has been a bit of a challenge, but once he is asleep he sleeps so much better!

I've been trying to make the trailer feel a little more home like and started with curtains. Just looking at them makes me feel better. We are learning to deal with lots of fun problems, like losing water due to a pressure switch issue, losing hot water, being cold, having to much heat,  the washing machine breaking down, and lots of other fun things. We are debating on putting carpet in as we don't really know how long we will be here, and we were going to put in new doors, but decided it wasn't worth the money. I thought living in the old, run-down trailer would really bother me, but it's been okay. Everyone is happy, and we have each other, so we couldn't ask for much more!

In baby news, it's true, we are expecting baby #3. It came as a surprise, one not so welcomed at the time of moving and chaos, but has since become much more welcomed. Other than extreme sleepiness and headaches, I have been okay. I haven't had much morning sickness at all, which is a much welcomed changed. I have to go all the way to Coeur D'Alene to the doctor which is a good hour and half drive away. But I see a midwife who will deliver me in the hospital and works in a OB/GYN clinic. So if there are any problems there is a medical doctor close by. So far I'm enjoying the experience, although it is much different from Germany and I do miss Dr. Schwind. We had an ultrasound a few weeks ago as they thought I was measuring a bit bigger than my estimated dates. Turns out, I was probably only about a week off, but they think I'm just larger because of it being my third child. I feel huge, after gaining less than 20lbs with both Gunnar and Ryker, I'm a bit nervous about gaining so soon, but I'll deal with it I suppose. The baby is due July 24th. I forgot the ultrasound pictures up at the lake (we are down visiting my parents) so those will have to wait, but at the ultrasound we also were able to find out the sex of the baby and.......

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.