Our trip to OMSI

The Oregon Museum of Science has a really great kids section that Saralyn, Emma and Nana took us to last week. The kids all had a blast!

Maya LOVED getting her hands all covered in paint. She spent most of the time moving her hands around in the gooey

paint tins then she did painting....I can't say that I blame her. it is GREAT being a kid!


Okay, so Kai is OBSESSED with the alphabet, but he enjoys sand, water and balls. So to have all three in one place for him to play with. I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Any parent know what I mean when I say he was running around from one spot to the next as if it would all just disapear soon. It was like Christmas mornig for him. I loved watching the pure, simple joy in his and Maya's eyes. Addison, on the other hand, sure enjoyed a nice warm nap snuggled up with her daddy.

Evil but so Funny!

Sometimes, in parenting, you need to do things that may be considered slightly evil by some parenting standards in order to spice up the mundane and to get a good laugh...... This may happen a little too much in our household.
I only hope they won't resent us later in life.



Okay, so Maya put the dress on him.....I, however, am responsible for making him pose and taking the picture.

Anthony thought it would be funny to put one of Addison's newborn diapers on Kai.....Kai, on the other hand, was NOT amused.....

Happy Birthday Kai!!!

Kai is three! Happy birthday buddy! Of course his birthday was an ABC theme. He loves his letters. I made him a big kix treat K for breakfast and had a bunch of new fridge letter magnets for him to wake up to and Kai was udderly thrilled.


Maya and Kai helped me make the yummy chocolate birthday cake. They, of course, had a blast licking the bowl.
We had a fun bbq birthday party with the Strehlow's, Grandma June, Amy, Aaron and Daisy. We had a blast and Kai LOVED opening all of his ABC and Word World presents.

Home Sweet Home

Here it is....our soon to be new home. We just signed the papers on Saturday and it should be final and ready to move into around the first of June. It has been a long hard search but Anthony and I feel really good and excited about this home. We are excited to make some fun and wonderful memories here. I was only able to do a "drive-by" photo shot but will for sure be taking and posting more as soon as we move in. YIPPEE!!!!!

Leading the music

Maya loves to pretend that she is leading the music in Primary. She does such a great job. Kai obviously gets a little bored with it. Check out his facial expressions....he is such a crack up!

House Hunting

We have been spending A LOT of time in the car lately driving around, looking for houses. Most of the time it is just me and Anthony while Nana has be so great to watch the kids for us. But this day, Nana had to go somewhere and so the kids were stuck with us in the car. On one of our stops, Anthony had to go in to look at some paper work and so we were stuck out in the car.....BORED! Maya found the camera and asked if she could take some photos. I usually don't let her play with my precious camera but I was desperate so I let her and we acutally had a ton of fun.



Kai was all tuckered out. Looking for a home is hard work!

Our new Mission

It was a beautiful day outside and so the kids and I decided to drive and find a park. As we were looking around in the car to find one, Maya said "I know mom, we should start a mission to find the best park in our new home." Great idea Maya! So it is official, the Pabst's are on a mission to find the best park in the greater Portland area. This park was just down the street a ways from Nana and Papa's. After we played for a while and started heading up to the car Maya said "that was fun and all but I think we can do better!" Oh that girl kills me.

Kai HATES swings. I thought that maybe this big swing would be okay.....but obviously NOT!

Kai tucking bear into bed

I love it when I come upon the kids doing WAY cute things and the camera is near by. I went to put some laundry away and saw Kai tucking in one of Nana's stuffed bears and singing it a song that he was making up. What a cutie patootie!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

What a fun Mother's Day! The kid's woke Nana up first with breakfast in bed at about 6am. I won't show you the picture Maya took of Nana with her morning breakfast because we still need a place to live and can't take the chances of my mom kicking us out.
I got my breakfast next......that is true mother's day love for me to post this picture because Maya took it and was so excited for me to put a picture that she took on our blog.....I love you Maya!!!
I thought for sure Anthony was getting me a GPS for my car for mother's day because I have a "slight" problem with getting lost. It was a problem in Utah where everything was on a grid system and so moving here to Oregon where streets just have names and no numbers....let's just say, mapquest isn't quite cutting it anymore. But to my pleasant surprise, I got a beautiful red Kitchen Aide...This is something that I have wanted for forever but just kept it locked up in my dreams because the hand mixers are SO much cheaper! What a fun surprise. I think the kids and Anthony just want more cookies. Oh well, whatever works!

Maya asked me "Since it is Mother's day will you take a picture of me and Abbie(her stuffed dog, named after her cousin, Abbie) since I am her mother....but don't worry, you don't have to make me breakfast in bed." TOO CUTE!!!!

Addie Giggles

Jodi was the first one to get and hear Addie giggle. If that wasn't bad enough for me, Nana got her to giggle second.........Then pulling up the rear.....finally, her mother got her to giggle. It is so thrilling to hear your child's first giggle. LOVE IT!!!! These are the moments.......

Nana and Papa's house

Kai was so tired and so excited about all of the pillows on Nana's bed and so he actually asked me if he could lay down on Nana and Papas bed and take a nap....Wow, that is huge for Kai to ask to take a nap. He must really like Nana's pillows!
The Sunday after we arrived here in Oregon was Spencer's birthday and so we had a bbq and a birthday cake for him. The strehlow's came over and we had lots of fun!
Uncle Spencer loves using his camera to take cool pictures. It is so nice to have a really cool camera around and someone besides me to take them all.
what a dork......

Oregon or BUST!!

So, we are officially here in Oregon! It has been a long few weeks but we are finally here. So far it has been a bit crazy. We are staying at my mom and dad's house until we find a good place to live out here. So, it is kind of like we are in limbo. It just sort of feels like we are on vacation so it is hard to establish structure and routine again for the kids. So I think it is going to be kind of a weird month or so and then a lot of work once we really get settled to get our "normal" lives back. Until then, we are loving being here with Nana and Papa and are SO grateful. The kids, of course, are eating Nana and Papa up and trying to keep their attention 24/7. Poor Nana and Papa...I know how exhausting that can be.

Our first stop was suppose to be the half way mark at Anthony's parents house in Boise, but I hit a wall with about an hour and a half left and didn't think I could stay awake and continue to drive. So we decided to play it safe and stop at a hotel and then get a fresh start to Boise in the morning. The kids were so excited. For some reason, hotels make any trip more exciting.


After about a 15 minute adrenaline rush when we first got to the hotel at about 12:30am. The kids passed out on the bed. Gotta love Kai and the Buddah Belly.

Maya got really resourceful after a bit of boredom the next morning and played monkey bars on the luggage rack for a while.



We visited with Grammy and Bapa for a while in Boise before we started the 7 hour drive into Oregon and to Nana and Papas house in Sherwood.



What a gorgeous welcome into Oregon as the sun was setting