Catching Up

So it has been a while since I have updated the Schacher Checker. We have had a mix of busy and really relaxed times. In order to remember all that we have done in the last 3 weeks I had to look through my camera. Here is what I found:

Phil Wickham Concert

Three weeks ago, our friends the Bennetts called us up wanting to know if we were able to attend a concert with them. We quickly called around to our possible babysitting options and finally found Dan's dad and sister available. After picking up our good friends we ate a quick dinner at Red Robin and headed to the concert. It was a wonderful concert and Phil Wickham is an amazing musician.

Waiting outside the church to get into the concert.

Now presenting Phil Wickham.

A Trip to the Falls

One Saturday afternoon, Dan and I were sitting around trying to figure out what we were going to do to fill our time. We finally decided to drive to Silver Falls and hike the South Falls (the shortest, basic, most hiked path). Once we got there we unpacked and started our trip. We had only made it to the lodge before Dan decided it was cold outside and he wanted some coffee. I was wondering at that point just how long this "hiking trip" was going to be. Once in the lodge we ran into some of my high school girls who had just hiked the South Falls trail. They informed us that the trail was closed due to storm damage, but they walked around the sign and crawled under some trees. Dan and I went to assess the damage and see if we thought it was worth the risk. As we looked down the trail, we realized that it wasn't worth risking with Marissa. So, our nice afternoon of hiking turned out to be a nice afternoon of "driving up to the Falls". At least we were able to get out of the house for a while.

Marissa and I getting ready to hike...or not.

M & M's Birthday

The following Saturday was a special day for Marissa...her friends Mason and Mya had their first birthday party at the Salem RiverFront Carousel. Tara (Mason and Mya's mom) did such a cute job decorating and planning their party. Marissa got to ride the carousel for the first time and had a great time watching her friends.

Riding with Marissa on the Carousel.

Marissa posing on one of her horse rides.

AC Gilbert Discovery Village

My mother and I have been trying to walk together 6 days of the week. It is nice to have someone to keep me accountable and to have a partner to walk with. While we are walking, it seems like we use the time to talk about life and bounce ideas off each other. Last week my mom brought up the idea of taking Aiden (my nephew) and Marissa to the AC Gilbert house and decided it would work best on Friday. We left around 11am (right around Marissa's nap time) and headed for the Salem Waterfront. Aiden had a great time in each of the rooms and Marissa had a fun time watching him play. We made it to the baby/toddler room and both Aiden and Marissa spent at least 30 minutes playing with the toys, looking in the mirrors, and reading books. There is so much to do at the Gilbert House, we barely made it through half of the "village". It was somewhat cold, so playing outside was not high on our priority list for the day. After realizing it was almost nap time for Aiden and he hadn't eaten, we decided to head home...after stopping by McDonalds. Marissa was such a good girl making it through the entire time without getting cranky..no nap and a late lunch.

Marissa and I reading books in the Toddler/Baby Room.

Marissa loved the mirrors in the Toddler/Baby Room.

Mom and Aiden having fun in the bubble room...I think Mom had more fun than Aiden.

Marissa's First "Contact Work" Experience

Since we have decided to step back from Young Life as leaders, we haven't done much contact work (contact work for those of you that might not know, involves "going to where the kids are"..going to lunches, games, coffee dates, etc). Not that we don't like to, it was actually one of our favorite things to do, we just don't seem to have the time and energy, not to mention Marissa gets tired early (like 8:30ish, that's early for us :). We finally decided that we should brave it and go to one of the basketball games to support our old Young Life kids. It was a great experience and Marissa did a wonderful job sitting in the stands watching all the "kids" and clapping with the band. We definitely miss doing ministry and will continue to try to venture to some of the high school activities to catch up with our old students.

Marissa clapping to the band.

Messy Hair

I am excited to announce that for the first time in Marissa's life, she woke up on Friday, January 30th with messy hair. This is very exciting because maybe soon she will stop getting the "oh, cute boy" comments (even while dressed in pink or purple clothes).

It isn't the best picture...but I hope you can see the messy hair.

She's Walking!!!!

At the end of October Marissa started crawling, standing up, and "cruising" on furniture. We have been awaiting the next step...an actual step. She has been pretty nervous about taking a step without support and immediately lowers herself to crawl to her destination. On Thursday of last week after Dan came home, Marissa took her first 4 steps to her dad. She has taken a few dozen more steps since then, even some on her own...without us cheering her on. Soon she will be using walking as her main mode of transportation and looking like a toddler instead of a baby.

Routine

This week has been busy, but relaxing for me. I enjoy schedules and routines, and that is exactly what I got. Monday and Tuesday were days of cleaning the house. I "took down Christmas" and deep cleaned. My normal cleaning day is Monday, however it was such an in depth cleaning it flowed into Tuesday. I was excited to go back to Bible Study Fellowship and dig back into The Word through lecture and discussion on Tuesday morning. Wednesday I was able to get laundry sorted (not done) and did some major scrapbooking. In the evening, Dan and I went over to the Bennetts and had dinner. Thursday Marissa and I went to story time and she LOVED it. She is becoming so aware of everything and enjoyed clapping to songs and playing with her "shaker". In the evening, Dan came home and took care of Marissa while I finished putting together a scrapbook of Marissa's first year (it isn't fully done because she's not one yet :). Finally, after trying to get together 2 other times, on Friday I got to have lunch with some gals that went to George Fox. We all have children that are only 6 months apart. It was fun hearing about what they have been up to since college. Friday evening, once Dan got home we attended Sarah's (a friend and old Young Lifer) engagement party. It turned out to be a normal week, but a good one.

Enjoying Family and Friends

Guy Time

On Friday Dan was able to go out with the boys 4x4ing in the snow up at Crooked Finger. They had a great time and there were at least 15 of them that went together.

Friend Time

We left for the beach to meet up with some friends on Sunday morning with a "little" detour. The little detour made the drive "out to the beach" into a 5 hour drive. Dan's company got a call on Friday to assist a power company by driving their employees, by snowmobile, to the downed lines in Yamhill. His partner ended up spending a few days up there, but they needed a 4 wheeler delivered to them, so Dan and I got to drive out to the middle of nowhere. It was pretty interesting reading signs saying "beware of flying amo". Needless to say we made it out alive. We finally caught up with our friends Matt, Terese, Noah, Aaron, Ginny, Audrey, Nan, Grace, and Solomon at Neskowin. Terese made a turkey and we had a feast of a meal while enjoying each others company. It was fun watching all the kids play together (mostly Marissa and Audrey, but soon Solomon and Noah will be able to play with them too). The boys stayed up till almost 3 am catching up and talking. It was also great to visit with Nan and Grace who are here from Mexico for Christmas.

Noah, Audrey, Marissa and Solomon chillin on the couch.

Audrey and Marissa playing together.

Family Time

On Monday morning we met up my family. We have made it a tradition to go to the beach with the Ivan Schmidgall family over New Years to celebrate our Christmas.The three kids were spoiled this year with presents. Marissa got so many toys and a bunch of new clothes. Her favorite toy was her pink, school bus that she got from Aunt Michelle (then again she hasn't gotten to play with all of her toys, I am opening new toys as the ones she has gets old). Throughout the week the boys went crabbing, the girls went shopping, we played Apples to Apples (long pause) Bible Addition (inside joke), and made some good food together.

We took the "boys" lunch while they were crabbing.

Dan feeding Marissa her first taste of Tillamook ice-cream.

Marissa loved Aiden's Elmo and Uncle Matt's rockstar hat.