My first fondant cake!

My first fondant cake! We learned how at a Relief Society activity.

Spencer was quite impressed with my skills and thought it would be fun to reenact cutting the cake at our wedding.

We had fun acting it out for the camera!

Going for a dip in the mud!

Last week we went to a birthday party at a park that has dirt hills for bike riders near by. As you know Oregon is a bit of a wet place to say the least and so what do water and dirt make...MUD! Maren decided she was big like the other kids and ran to join them. Spencer and I both thought the other was watching her and with in seconds she face planted it into a mud pool. Some lady found her trying to pry herself out! Poor girl. She came back to us pretty devastated. I am proud to say that every bit of that mud came off her clothes. A classic picture and memory.

California Visit

 Maren was loving Grandma's pearl jewelry. I love this group of pictures capturing the many reactions she gave to her new look. Lets just say she is all girl and has a hard time leaving my jewelry box alone!

 We had a great day at the Sacramento zoo with Grandma, Aunt Amber and the cousins!

I forgot how nice the weather is in California in March. We had time outside every day basking in the sunshine. Nothing beats California weather. Nothing.

On the Silver Falls trail we saw 6 out of the 9 waterfalls

 The last day of Spring Break we went to Oswald West Beach

 It was clear at the beach and cloudy at home!

 The little walk in to the beach is really beautiful.

Pittock Mansion

The grounds behind the mansion

In front of the Pittock Mansion March 21, 2011

Spring Break

We started off a much needed Spring Break at the Portland Farmer's Market-there opening day of the year. It's always great fun to peruse and buy fabulous produce and goods. The spring blossoms were for sale and made me want spring to come so badly. It was a bit chilly (and still is-April 7, come on!). We stocked up on fresh herbs and vegetables and of course the best bread from the Pearl Bakery. We enjoyed a delicious pastry on the park bench as you can see from the picture above.

I think I just about have it figured out. It's not how I would love for it to be but it is definitely a number of steps up from what it was. I am talking about the blog. From now on the pictures will be displayed within the post and will no longer continue adding to the massive column currently snaking down my blog page. In the near future (not tonight because I have already spent way too much time on this today), I will be adding pictures from two great weeks of fun with both grandmas and grandpas. As for now here she is decked out in all-girl pearls. Stay tuned for more fun.

We have not written since Christmas because I am quite frustrated with blogger. Since they switched to an update format I can't post pics the way i want. I talked to a friend about it and she says she posts her images through the post portion so I am now going to give it a try. Well it looks like the image uploads at the top of the post. Here is a pic of Maren and Spencer at our favorite little toy shop we peruse but don't buy at (a bit too expensive). Maren has a blast. I will try uploading another image. It wont let me load another image. So now I will publish it and see how it looks in the layout of the blog.

It has been nearly 8 months since I last posted a message and its about time. It is truly amazing how fleeting time is. Having a child makes that very apparent. Maren is our little toddler now. She definitely has a mind of her own and is a spunky, energetic, and lovable little sweetheart. We are amazed by her every day. She is my tiny dancer and Spencer's football (or as she calls it fuhball)watching partner. She loves to make us laugh which happens quite often. She has a special place for Jesus in her heart and loves to learn about Him. It is amazing what we learn from our 18 month old.

Since the last I wrote you can see a lot has happened from all the pictures posted. Ever since blogger changed its design I now have to post new pictures at the bottom of the page rather than at the top. I don't like this but I don't seem to have a choice. In short, the pictures are out of order. The change starts with Thanksgiving and will continue to be posted at the bottom. Around Thanksgiving, we moved down the street into Garden Grove to save a whole lot of money. We had a few challenges adjusting to the new place but are now enjoying it. We are fortunate to be surrounded by so many other student families. It makes it a lot of fun, especially for Maren to have lots of kids to play with.

I have to say I am ready for Spring to add a little color to the constant gray. I can feel it upon us. Spencer has been coming home lately excited to announce that the daffodils are about to pop up. All the rain is good for something, its just hard to remember in the dead of winter. It will become more apparent as the blossoms begin to appear on the bare trees. Life is good and we have much to be grateful for. I am grateful for the journey even if Spencer calls me the pessimist of the family.

This May we will already know where we will be going on rotations during our fourth year. We have discussed going to Germany if we get the luck of the draw (literally). We think it could be quite a fun adventure before it gets too hard to travel once kids are in school. Why not live a little right? It's still scary to think about but exciting as well. We shall see where life takes us.

The memories we create will be all we have in the end, so why not make the most of life and do it with the Lord on our side? Life will go as he has planned for us and we will grow and change. As Spencer says: "We just need to have faith." So we trudge forward with faith and hope that we can endure it well. Thanks for going the journey with us, even if its only through our blog! We love and miss you all!

Maren is walking!

Maren, who is now over 13 months old has been walking for a couple of weeks. We have footage of the night she first walked to us but cant seem to get it loaded on the computer, so for now you can see her walking after about a week and a half.

Pictures taken by a kind professional photographer in Seattle

 

This is Spencer. I just have to say that this is a pretty great blog. I might be biased, but I think that the two girls on here are the two cutest I've ever seen.

"We Are Family" My choreography for a wedding.