I am at the Newell's and Beth is helping me get a little something on the blog to update now that I have a computer that is not at the library. This photo is of our last few minutes in Medford.

The moving truck was full. It took longer for the movers to pack it and they were ready to GO. It was a sad and exciting day. What followed was a weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's and then I left with Darren for a week of home searching--without the kids. It was an awful week. I can't even describe my emotional test of faith. It was a test of faith that I rode up and down. We had specific ideas for what we felt we needed and wanted.

The many rentals I had seen when living in Medford disappeared and I was worried about time--kids missing school, house items of truck etc.. Lets put it this way--I didn't wear mascara(because I figured I didn't need raccoon eyes). Describing the ordeal as a difficult week seems weak but truly I am grateful it is OVER and I really appreciated every ones prayers because I needed them. In the end we were blessed with events that lead us to a great house that was better than we had hoped.

Here is the "unveiling" of our home.

Boy does it feel good to have a place to call HOME!!!

Hannah again




hi again guess who this is....... Hannah . yes Hannah i wanted to blog again, so here i am blogging.


wonderful Natalie


Natalieis wonderful and full of joy and is so so so cute! daring dinner yesterday we told Natalie that her birthday is coming up. she said '' MY BIRTHDAY !!!!! I AM GOING TO BE 5!!!!! we told her no but is going to be 3. and the same age as Ben (cousin). Natalie said "same age as Ben -e- boo!!! can i call Ben- e- boo and tell him!!!!" and the answer was no. Natalie is so cute!!!!!!!

sad to move

hi this is Hannah blogging for Tricia {mom} since she has not blogged for ever!!!!!!!!! so far 2010 has been great. except that we have to move. Medford has been great !!!! we have loved the town so much. we are sorry to move,but Portland will be great, [that's what mom and dad say.] !!! we will be by Matt and Beth and their kids. how fun !!!!! we are sorry to move away from Ashlee and Jeff. Darren {dad} is up in Portland right now.


spring break
[pictures are on the way]


this week from the 20th to the 29th Taylor , Katelyn and i had our spring break.
this was one of the best spring breaks ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but it is all thanks to aunt ann and uncle Heber and aunt Cindi. THANK YOU GUYS SO SO SO SO VERY MUCH!!!! we had so much fun!!!! we loved being with you guys!!!!!!! Mom and Dad had to stay in Medford to fix a house problem for the sale--long story.

Halloween

Our carving of the pumpkins...all pumpkins were from our own garden this year!!
































Our family has a vampire...
Our very own pirate...





















This is princess Jasmine








Natalie as a fairy princess (but if you ask her you might get the answer that she is Ariel and Dora)





The family. We love to dress up

















The s haul

Before we leave this area we are trying to enjoy some different activities around here. Darren and the s, surprised me with a night for the family at a treehouse hotel and this was our wonderful room(or should I say rooms since it was more than 1 level)
He did not get the rooms that were up about 40 feet Thank goodness!
We had a great time and enjoyed doing something different.


Do you see how high we are? That's a two story cabin below the walkway. I understand why Darren wanted to surprise me with this trip--I'm afraid of heights.

On a tree house bridge. No one had problems with this except me!




















Katelyn enjoying the small zip line














Ok so one of the activities you could do were big zip lines. So... Darren bought the cheapest ride called the Tarzan swing. Taylor had begged me to go first. I said no problem, you and Hannah can go and Then it would be my turn. This folks turned out to be NO zip line. It is a swing. Not just any swing! Darren was going to save money and not go but I made Darren go on this (after my own ride) just so he would have the same experience!!
This is how they haul you up there...
You are hooked up to the bottom of a rope with zip line gear(the rope hangs between two trees from a wire) hanging onto a separte rope (which turns out to be a water ski rope), they have it rigged to the golf cart (lower right corner) and he drives forward till you reach the designated top. This happens to be higher than the rope you are on(I didn't get this until I was dropping 20 feet!!!) You let go of the water ski rope and drop until you get swung forward and drop and swing until you just swing. It wasn't until I had my ride that I understand why you hear no yell until a person has come down half way--it takes your breath away. I found out that it is 55 ft. up. It was so scary coming down and it doesn't look so scary just watching! I freaked out later that night as I cried and laughed with Darren as to how I could let my children do this--Lets just say that they wouldn't have experienced it had I gone first!!!
There is a spec of blue in the middle tree--that's Taylor






Taylor's first swing





















can you see Hannah?




Hannah's second swing--I was so proud of her and Taylor, especially after doing it myself.





I let my babies do this!!! This is Darren(I was the photographer and the photos they got of me were not worth printing) Although video is available :)

























My favorite shot of Darren on the Tarzan swing
























The s saying good-bye in their groovy hats

Happy Birthday Nama!

Hi Mom! This is our Happy Birthday card to you & we hope you like it! We wanted to send you something that you'd like that was hand crafted from the girls. These first two videos are from Natalie & Katelyn.

Now, you'll need to visit this blog in order to view the videos b/c we can't send them to you. (We plan to keep each video posted for about 1 week.)

Any questions?? just let us know.

Also - did you know you can post comments onto the blog? Tricia can explain & teach you how.
Again, Happy Birthday! We are looking forward to seeing you at Thanksgiving here in OR!

Love, Darren Tricia & the girls

wedding=Party!

This is confusing--do I write or post photos first? I can't get the writing to match up with the photos. however, I am determined to get some photos of my sister JJ's wedding to Zach(and Alex his son) It was a great weekend party at the Newell's! It was wonderful to meet Zach's family and to see so many friends and of course our awesome family that always supports us!!! Even aunt Dixie who has been very sick suprised us by showing up!(well it was supposed to be a suprise-way to go steve :) I must admit that it was a bit stressful as I made the wedding cake for them and it was a first. It wasn't perfect but it was gone so I was glad people enjoyed it. Now I will post more photos and I don't know where they will turn up.