Its not a boy...its a girl! My new niece!

Here are some pictures of my new niece, Olivia Noel! She was born on Christmas day, after 32 hours of labor, doctors decided to do a C-section. After many many months of thinking it was a boy, they got a surprise when doctors told them that it was a girl!! We all were so shocked but also very very excited and overwhelmed with love for this little girl! God is amazing and has a sense of humor! Both mom and baby are doing very well and maybe going home really soon! Skylar and I get to go visit on the 31st for 5 days. I can't wait to meet my niece! There will be many more pictures to come!

The latest addition

When we first moved into our new house and finished our yard we talked about getting a little play mate for Hooch. A few months ago one of Jamie's patients dog had 9 puppies (pure-bred bull mastiff puppies, my favorite!) But they were pretty expensive so we decided against it. Then we found out that Hooch tore both of his ACLs (that's right, BOTH back legs!) So another dog was out of the question while Hooch is going through his recovery (he had surgery about 2 1/2 weeks ago on one, once I figure out how to get pictures off of my phone I will post a pic of him after his surgery). Anyway, last Friday Jamie got a call from her patient who had the puppies and she said she wanted to give on to her! For free!! It turns out that they are moving, they only had two puppies left, and she just wanted to bless Jamie. Even though another dog is a lot of work Jamie convinced me and I just couldn't say no to a Mastiff Pup. We picked her up last Saturday, her name is Daisy (I wanted to name our next dog Turner but I just couldn't do that to a girl dog).



So now we have quite the hosehold. Especially with my parents visiting over Christmas, they brought their dog too. So we have three dogs, two cats, and 6 people running around the house. Fun fun!

Right now Daisy is about 14 weeks old and already weighs 35 lbs! She is small (relatively) but heavy. Her mom is 110 lbs and the dad was 150lbs, so she will probably end up around 120 or so. She is going to make Hooch look small (he is only 75 lbs these days). It will be fun to see them playing around with each other once he is all healed up. We will try to keep posting pics over the next couple of weeks so you all can watch how fast she grows.

Officer Byrd Comes to Colorado

My college room mate Cage came out to visit us for a couple of days. We didn't do anything special, just a lot of hanging out. I had planned on going on a few hikes and showing him the beauty of the Rockies, but snow and freezing temps got in the way. So instead we hit one of the local breweries, played some video games (just like old times) and hit a local hot spot, "Bruce's Bar" with some of Jamie's co-workers. Bruce's one of two local bars here in Severance (only about a mile from our house) and they are famous for their rocky mountain oysters. Yes, that's right. The sign on the side of the building says "Where the geese fly and the bulls cry" (Severance also has a large geese population because of all the fun things to eat in the farm fields). I couldn't let Cage go back to the Northwest without trying some (I had never had them either, so it was a first for all of us). It is true what they say, it tasted like chicken... kind of. They were fried and looked like chicken strips, just a little rubbery and some had a strange after taste. Nevertheless, I can check that one off my list of things to do in Colorado.


Jamie and Cage after the first bite of the rocky mountain oysters...or maybe not.



Cage and Holly, one of Jamie's co-workers (Cage's favorite!!)

Tacky Sweater Christmas Party

Earlier this week we had a tacky sweater Christmas party with our small group from church. We also did a white elephant gift exchange (the rule was you couldn't go out and buy anything, it had to come from your house). The popular gift was the Monkey Hat, it was stolen every round. Proud to say that was our gift! Here are some pics.

The Group

Skylar is not happy about that Lion on his sweater

The infamous Monkey Hat, Rob was lucky enough to take it home.

Justin and Sara: his tacky sweater was a Denver Broncos sweatshirt. He is a Chiefs fan...didn't go over well in Bronco country, but it was funny.

It is safe to say Isaac was the winner this year.

Wes and Elissa were proud of their matching Santa buttons.

Windsor Football

It is a sad day...the high school football season came to an end yesterday. The Windsor Wizards lost 14-31 yesterday in the quarterfinals of the state playoffs. It was a very successful season, but always sad when it comes to an end. Now what am I going to do, I guess go back to concentrating at work...how boring:) The Varsity's final record was 7-5. We were the 14th seed (out of 16) going into the playoffs with a record of 6-4. All of our losses came to the top four teams in the conference, so our conference sent 5 teams to the playoffs (more than any other conference in 3A). Obviously a tough and talented conference. In the first round of the playoffs we upset the #3 seed by a score of 20-6. This year was the first year since 2002 that they made the playoffs, and I think it has been about 10 years since they last won a playoff game, so everybody was pretty excited. The town gave the team a lot of support. On our bus ride down to the game yesterday about 200 fans lined main street and cheered us on as we left town.

My freshman team ended up with a record of 6-3-1 (there is no overtime for freshman football). A very fun and successful season, my first as freshman "head coach". Our first two losses were by a total of 3 points (it is hard to find a good field goal kicker for PATs these days). The third loss was pretty bad. The kids were a lot of fun to work with and I can't wait for next season. I am going to be running the weight room a few days a week in the off season so that will help me get through the slow months (every month that is not football season is slow...)
Here are a few pics of the Varsity from the season. (I can't seem to find many archived photos on the net so I will work on finding more and try to post them later).

Halloween

This was our first Halloween party in a long time...I wasn't too excited about dressing up at first but we ended up having a good time. A couple from our small group at church hosted the party. Jamie went as Tinker Bell (I am pretty sure she ordered her costume in September, very excited) and I had the option of going as Peter Pan or a Pirate. As you can see, I wanted no part of those green tights.


This is Jamie and her friend Elisa, she is Rosie the Riveter.

This is our friend Wes, he is Elisa's husband. If you can't guess, he went as Dwight Schrute from the office. The best part was his photo ID badge that he made on the computer (hanging around his neck).

Justin and Sara are JD and Elliot from Scrubs.
And then the most popular costumes of the night were John McCain and Sara Palin. The couple on the right hosted the party and the other couple (the guy is Sara and the girl is John just in case you can't tell...) were their friends that we hadn't met yet.

So last weekend we had our old high school friend Jeremey Becerra come visit us with his wife Kelsey and two adorable girls Adalynn and Bailey! We had such a good time seeing Jeremey again and getting to know his wife and kids. They live in Eagle, CO just a few hours away. Of course you all know I was all about holding the baby! I really enjoyed having them here and it gave us a small glimpse of what life would or Lord willing will be like someday with little ones!


Skylar and Jeremy sat down to watch some college football while Adalynn took a nap...but it looked like she was having too much fun so they joined her!

I know its been a long time since we have updated our blog, I'm sorry and we will try to do a better job at it:-) Things have been a little busy lately! Not too long ago we had some Portland friends come to Colorado and were able to come to our town to see us, it was really good to see them! We have been doing a lot of work on our back yard. We have our fence up, but now working on soil and putting grass in. Its been a lot of work (more for Skylar:-) but I have been helping also! Once its done it will look really nice. Work is going great for me! I moved to a different clinic, in Windsor, the same town Skylar works in. Its actually across the street from his work. I am really enjoying it, I love the people I work with and my doctor is awesome! So God has answered my prayer in that department, I was really unhappy at the other clinic I was at. Skylar is still working at the same place and also coaching football at Windsor High School. He is the freshman coach! He loves it and they are having a good season! Well there is a little up date for you all! We miss all of our family and friends! Can't wait to see you again! God Bless!

Messing around with video clips

Our new home!

Well its official! We have the keys to our new home! Here are some pictures of the inside of our new home here in Colorado! Thank you for all your prayers!

We sold our house...finally!

I guess it still isn't official until July 31st when it closes, but we finally have a signed contract. The price isn't exactly what we were looking for, in fact we won't make any money once it is all said and done:( But at least we don't have to worry about the mortgage payment anymore and we can get into our house here. We are supposed to close on the house in Severance tomorrow. The last couple of days have been very crazy trying to get all of the paper work in and coordinate things. But at least it is over, a little less worry for now.

New family member...kinda!

Hey everyone! I know its been awhile since we have updated our blog. Lots of stuff going on right now. First off, we have a new addition to our little family! We got another cat! I got her from a coworker who had to get rid of her, her name is Shade. She is a beautiful 1 year old, who is starting to feel at home with us. Her and Winston are starting to play with each other more and more. Hooch on the other hand still wants to jump on her and sniff, which she doesn't like!

Onto other news. We have been having some trials with our new house here. We almost lost it but were able to secure it. Now having loan issues, but also some good news we have an offer on our house in Tigard. They offered $10,000 lower then our asking, so we counter offered back in the middle. We are still waiting to hear back about it. Please pray that everything will go through smoothly and that we will be able to sell our house in Tigard and get the house here, SOON! So its been pretty stressful around here lately, but we both keep having to remind each other that God has a perfect plan and that it will all work out in his timing!

Skylar is still at his job and liking it (I think) and I am actually working at his office as well! Just part time as the "errand girl"! They needed some help running errands, filing, copying, etc. So I go in 2-3 days a week and do whatever it is they need done, its kinda boring but they are paying me pretty good for such a simple job so I am not complaining! As for my other job as a Medical Assistant, I am not really enjoying where I am at so I am kinda looking for another job, I need prayer for that too! We will see what I can find, or what doors God will open! Well thats about all thats going on here! We are enjoying the summer weather in Colorado, its been blue sunny skies! We have become really close with our friends Justin and Sara (Justin is the youth pastor at our church), we hang out with them a lot and that has really help Skylar and I, not to be so lonely! Well friends and family, we miss you and love you!

Our New House! ...hopefully

This is the house out in Severance that we have a contract on. It is scheduled to be finished near the end of June, and then we have another 45 days after that to close. So hopefully our Portland house will sell by then. Since we signed a contract on it early enough we were able to pick out the outside stone and paint colors. We also get to pick out all of the inside colors too.

This is what it looked like a few weeks ago.
And this is what it looks like today. Thankfully there was no major damage during the hail storm and tornado that hit in Windsor. Only a few broken windows. They are almost finished with the paint and trim (still some work to do above the garage). We are very happy with the colors that we picked, I think they turned out great.
The front door, home sweet home someday...
The side of the house, facing west. The builder will do landscaping in the front yard and the side yard, but we have to build the fence and finish the landscaping in the back.


Our view to the west, at least for a couple of years. There are lots directly across the street, but those probably won't be built for a year or two. The field behind those lots is still farm land.The back.

I took this picture from the corner of the property line. Hooch will have tons of room to run around!

Lord willing we will be able to live here in July! But there still are a lot of things that have to happen.

Tornado in Windsor

A huge tornado hit Windsor, CO yesterday around noon. My office is in Windsor, which is just about 11 miles southeast of where we live in Fort Collins. Around 11 am it started to hail so all of us in the office were just standing around looking out the window. The hail started off pretty small, but soon it was golf ball size! The damage to the cars in the parking lot was terrible. My front windshield was cracked (two perfect circles about 1-foot in diameter, kinda weird) and there are "dimples" all over the top and hood. One person's back windshield was completely shattered. Little did we know that this would be the least of the damage around the rest of the town.

Shortly after the hail storm started the power went out. I tried calling Jamie (who had the day off and was at home in Fort Collins) but the call wouldn't go through. She was able to call me a little bit later and said that a tornado had knocked over a couple of semis just south of Windsor. So of course we all go out side and look at the sky (after it stopped hailing). I didn't see any funnel clouds, but there were tons of other clouds in the sky doing crazy things. Right about that time I guess the tornado hit in East Windsor (I work on the west side of town). But at this point we still didn't know that there was a tornado warning (no power or phones, so we were kind of in the dark in more ways than one). Shortly there after we saw tons of emergency vehicles driving by toward the other part of town. One of my co-workers kids were in a day care on that end of town and she just got a strange feeling that something happened to the day care. She was freaking out because she couldn't get in touch with anybody because we couldn't make any cars out. So three of us jumped in the car and went over to the day care trying to assure her that it was just a hail storm and everything was going to be alright. As we got closer to the other side of town we started to see trees that had been snapped in half, fences were blown over, a couple of cars had been flipped on their side with all of the windows blown out... not good. We pulled up to the day care and it was like a scene straight out of a movie. The building right next-door to the day care center was just a pile of rubble, every car in the parking lot had windows blown out, the playground at the day care was destroyed, but the day care center itself was still in tact. There was lines of kids crossing the street and teachers pushing cradles full of kids. They were all headed to a nearby bank that was a little safer. Thankfully all of the kids were accounted for and okay. My co-worker found her kids and was able to take them home. I went over to another co-workers house who lives in Windsor to survey the damage. Luckily only one window was broken (probably just from the hail). I ended up going back home to Fort Collins and spent the rest of the day listening to the radio to keep up with the storm.

All in all I think seven tornadoes touched down in the area. The "path of destruction" was over 30 miles long and about 1 mile wide. The town of Windsor was hit the hardest. The most amazing thing, the biggest blessing, was that there was only one death and very few serious injuries. Quite a crazy day. I am sure this weekend there will be tons of opportunities to help in the recovery/clean-up process.

Today at work we are going to go out and just find some place to help. My co-workers know a lot of people in the neighborhoods that were hit the worst and we might go over and help them out. But most people aren't even allowed back in their homes because of gas leaks and structural damage. I can't imagine loosing my entire house, but most people who have been interviewed on the news have a positive outlook. It is just stuff.

Here are a few pictures from the internet.

A lot of the houses were completely destroyed. Almost every house in Colorado has a basement, so that saved the lives of hundreds of residents.


A train that was derailed near the daycare center.



This is an old grain warehouse that was used by a billiards company just about a mile down the road from my work.

Game Night!

The youth pastor at our church was out of town last weekend so Jamie and I got to run a game night for youth group at the church. It was a lot of fun, but I was dead tired after about an hour and a half of games (I didn't even play any!!) Here are some of the games we played.

This game is called Kajabee-can-can (don't ask me why). The point is to pull the other people into the trash can in the middle of the circle. If you hit the can you're out or if you let go of the rope you are out too. Fun game (I've played it before), but we didn't have the best ropes. After the first round everybody had rope burns! And as you can see, the guy to that is nearly out of the picture pulled really hard, everybody let go of their ropes, and then he flew into a table. Good times, cause no one got seriously injured:)


The point of this game was to see which team could do the best design using gold fish, peanut butter, and a face.
I gave the prize to Rose, that team went with the classic bearded lady / unibrow look. I think the other team just tried to cover Drew's face completely.




The winner!

Pictionary, always a classic!


Chubby Bunny...
How many marshmallows can you stuff in your mouth and still say "Chubby Bunny"?
I think the winner only had 8, I was a little disappointed in the effort...






We finished off the night with a couple of rounds of "spoons"