Well, hello again, family and friends. It has been a busy, busy 5 months since I've last posted a blog post, and so many things have happened and changed!
First, we made our permanent move from Tacoma to Eugene in the middle of June. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to our house, much more so than I was expecting...but it was the first house we owned after we got married, the house we brought our kids home from the hospital, and the house that we spent thousands of hours painting, fixing, and updating. A young couple who had just gotten married purchased the house, so I was happy that the house could hopefully be a good beginning for them.
Second, we bought a house in Eugene. Mario had been living in a rental (and the kids and I moved into the rental when we got down here) and we'd been searching for a house for a couple months. We had an offer in on a house that ended up falling through, so we continued looking once we got down here. We put in an offer at the end of June and closed the first week of August. The house is wonderful and perfect for us - 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a large yard in a very nice neighborhood. Since the beginning of August we've been busy unpacking (the moving company delivered 15,400 pounds of household goods!) and making this house our own. The house was move in ready, but I've already done a bit of painting and some other small projects. I'll try and take pictures in the next couple weeks and post them.
Third, we flew to Minnesota for 3 weeks and got to spend some great time with my parents, siblings, and their spouses. The weather was wonderful, the lake water was not too cold (even for me!), and the kids loved being in the water and going on the boat. Miriam got to fish for the first time this year, and while she and Mario both experienced fishing disappointment (Miri didn't really catch anything, while Mario caught a huge fish that promptly took all of his line and then broke away), they are both excited to try again next year.
Speaking of Miriam, she's already 4.5 and doing really well in her new preschool. She's slowly making friends and getting adjusted, but she still remains pretty shy at school and mostly feels comfortable talking to one or two other kids or the teachers. Funny, because she never stops talking around us or other family! Her current favorite activities include riding her bike outside, helping me bake cookies/muffins/bread, coloring and doing art projects, and playing with her Paw Patrol toys. She's also doing violin lessons and soccer, both of which she seems to enjoy. And, just to brag for a minute...she can write her full name, count to 100 by ones and tens, do simple addition and subtraction problems, identify all letters of the alphabet and most of the sounds they make, and her logical reasoning skills are impressive for her age. She's silly and smart and dramatic and caring and helpful and we just love her to bits!
Mathias is almost 2, if you can believe it. (I know we can't!) And gosh, this summer has been such a summer of growth for him (and his hair). ;) He's a tall, skinny little guy, who loves to run and jump and bounce and do anything active. He loves his sister fiercely and while we are working on ways for him to express that appropriately (ha!), they play together fairly well and he's always game to play anything she asks him to play. He loves her so much and wants to copy her that the other day, when she jammed her finger and started crying, he ran over to a hard truck, jammed his finger into it, and held it up and started crying and said "Boo Boo OW!" "Boo Boo" (as he calls himself) especially loves cars and trucks and trains that make noise (of course!) and has really started to enjoy reading books as well. He is talking a lot these days, stringing 2 and 3 words together to make short sentences. He's active and crazy and sweet and busy and funny and snuggly and he puts a huge smile on our faces each day.
And now, Eugene - as most of you have probably heard by now, we are loving Eugene. We have found it to be a really beautiful area, and the town itself is very friendly, with lots of great outdoor and kid/family friendly activities. There are some really great parks (at least 2 within walking distance), beautiful bike trails along the river, and lots of open green space. We've also discovered some great beer gardens, food trucks, and even a brewery in the countryside that has a playground! We live in North Eugene, near the farm country, so every couple days the kids and I drive up to one of the local farms and get produce from the produce stand. They also have a lot of u-pick fields various times during the year, and we've heard the pumpkin patches around here are quite impressive. Mario, who has been quite busy with his new job and hasn't gotten to explore as much as the kids and I, is considering taking up mountain biking as well, as there are supposed to be some good mountain bike trails in the area. As it is, we got a bike trailer for the kids and he pulls them around when we go on rides, or takes them to the park. Eugene is quite the running town ("Tracktown USA!") and also home of the University of Oregon (the Ducks), and people here are quite fanatical about both. We've yet to jump on either of those bandwagons though.
And here are some pictures from the past few months...I didn't include any of our old or new house, as I'm hoping to do that in a separate post. And they are in chronological order, so notice how much the kids have grown from the first pictures to the last!
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| Swimming suits (at our old house) |
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| Miriam's last day of (3 year old) preschool! |
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| Last day at our old house! |
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| Mario's father's day present (matching shirts) |
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| He was SO proud of his new backpack (we got it for traveling) |
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| New house! |
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| Miriam's first day of preschool/Pre-K this year! |
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| Look at that hair! |
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| Even though we live in Duck country, we are still Seahawks fans! |
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| We added a chalkboard wall in the hallway... |
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| Mathias, just last week (look how big!!) |
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| Miriam, getting ready for violin! |
