Strangers from the East...South East...

Guess who came to visit?

 That's right... My parents! Grandma and Grandpa Packham happened to be in the area for some of my dad's work, so they stopped by for a few days and we had a lot of fun! We went shopping, made bread (well Mom made it), watched a movie, played games, talked, and even went out to Multnomah Falls! These pics are from that outing. In the picture of my parents my dad is looking a little weary because the hike up is short, but very steep, and on a gentleman of his years and bad knees, it was rough. What am I saying... it was rough on all of us! We borrowed a hiking pack from a friend of mine and Andrew was the lucky one to pack the Goob around. We went about half way up and decided we'd better turn back. Luckily, just as we got to the car it started to rain pretty heavily. Talk about good timing eh?? It was great to have my folks to visit us and to be around people we knew really well and who knew us... I know that sounds trivial, but when you move away from everyone you know and all your families, it is nice to be around familiarity. Enjoy the pics of our outing!

  We love all our family members so much and love communicating via phone, facetime, email, text, or any other form of communication, anytime! We hope you are all well and enjoy some of what we share with you! 

Some of the day to day to day !

Andrew and I are so blessed to have what we do have. Especially we are blessed with our little angel, Ellinore! She brings so much joy into our every day happenings and is involved in everything we do! She walks very well and is getting used to wearing shoes. Elli loves music and singing. Every night Andrew and I sing a hymn or primary song to/with Elli and she has lately started to wave her arm to lead the music, thanks to her daddy. Whenever pandora is playing she is intermittently waving her arms around, conducting the songs. We just love it! Elli is not only a conductor, she sings too. Her voice can get very loud as she belts out her tunes :)
Here is an example of such a time....

Elli loves to play with her clothes. Most of the time, the floor in her room in littered with her clothes that she has so quickly emptied from her dresser drawers. My efforts to put her clothes away usually end up futile. :) Elli also enjoys my purse. She loves to unload it and carry it around. Other items she enjoys playing with are couch pillows and her blankets. All of these and more are found throughout our apartment and are always in the kitchen. We sure love our little trouble maker and can't wait till she starts to talk more clearly. We spend evenings, when Andrew is not doing homework, hanging out with Elli and just playing with her. Right now she is placing all of our shoes in different spots around the room :) Fun Fun!!

Laughing and pinching Mommy :)

Below is a video taken right after dinner. This particular time she spit out a lot of food all over the floor instead of swallowing it! So to clarify my out bursts during this segment... the moment I say wahhh! is because I almost knocked something off the counter, next.... when I say I stepped in it, I mean the dinner that she spit on the floor :) 

All in all we have loads and fun and sometimes not so much fun, but there are always a lot of snuggles and loves to go around.

It has been AWHILE!!

Wow! It has been a little while since we really made a post on here and I am realizing more and more that some of you (our family) have been wanting updates! So here goes! First of all, we are officially living in Fairview, Oregon. This is a tiny area about 12 miles east of the heart of Portland. We moved the first of June and have settled in nicely. We live in a ground floor, 2 bed 1 bath apartment with neighbors on either side of us and above us. We are re-learning the life of having actual neighbors and living with noise, not a ton, but still it's noise.

Andrew and I with Elli on our first Sunday in our new ward!/ Pic of Elli with Grandma Packham

For the move, my parents, Joel and Marie Packham, drove with us! It was great to have family to help us and Elli loved having Grandma around to entertain her :) Thank you Mom and Dad for coming up here with us! It was such a blessing, especially for me, to have you there.




Andrew started school on July 9th ish? He is doing really well! (Especially in his art classes) You may think, "Aren''t ALL of his classes art classes since he is attending an art school?" Not necessarily! Anyway, his creative talents are finding their way to the surface and he is thriving! What a blessing to see him doing so well! This testifies to us often that we are where we need to be and that our Father in Heaven is indeed aware of us..... Speaking of blesssings, Andrew got a job! He started about a month ago working for Nautilus in their shipping dept. They ship parts for exercise equipment and such. He only works Mon and Tues from 730am to 4pm, then Wed through Fri he has classes. This work is only a few miles away so Andrew gets to ride his bike to and from work always, and sometimes to school if there is time. Sadly, some of his classes have him bringing ginormous drawing pads to class so he can't ride and carry those at the same time.....

An assignment Andrew had on texture drawing. Each level of dark to light is a texture. Put it all together and BOOM!
 He did it of Elli and we LOVE it!
PS,,, so did all of Andrew's classmates and teacher :)

Moving on......

I am staying at home with Elli and for the most part love it! There are days when it doesn't pay to get up in the morning and I swear that I will always have food somewhere on my kitchen floor, in the carpet, or on the couch. But not to worry! Elli is learning to be a helper and I'm sure we'll get better at it. When Elli sleeps I crochet, clean, cook, and play games on my ipod. I have a minor Candy Crush Saga addiction and was stuck on level 125. Elli deleted the game off my ipod and needless to say, I don't like starting over at 1. :)  Anyway.... Elli and I go for walks and love the beauty here! Everything is so green and there are 2 nature paths that I have found so far that are only a mile or less from our place!

We love our ward! The Columbia Ward is another "place we needed to be." We are surrounded by great people and a couple Idaho folk too! About 2 weeks after we moved into the ward, I was called as 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency! Crazy! It has been great and I love the ladies I am serving with. Compared to the last primary I served in where there were over 50 kids in primary, our primary here has about 25 all together and on a quiet week less than 10 kids! They are great kids and I am loving getting to know them all and their families! Andrew was recently called to be the Priest Quorum Adviser. It has been a lot of waiting for this calling to go through with scouting paper work and such, but he is excited to serve in a new capacity and get to know the young men in our ward. :)

 Sorry this was so long! Just had to get the basics over with so there will be more postings but they will be shorter! Whew!!