The Evans' Residence

Welcome to our new home!!! After looking at a little over 50 homes, we finally found "the one". The house was built in 1967 and has only had one set of owners. For 41 years, the sellers took immaculate care of their home and we are so fortunate to have such a solid home to call ours. It is on .2 acres and is just shy of 1900 square feet. It is a tri-level home with the garage, play room, and laundry room on the lower level, the entryway, kitchen, kitchen nook, dining room, and sunken living room on the the main floor, and the four bedrooms on the upper level. The backyard is long and will be very fun for the boys to explore. The neighborhood is awesome, too. We have had so many neighbors come over to greet us - it will be a great place to raise our family. While we know that we have a lot of work ahead of us, we are very excited to start working on the house to make it our own. Can't wait for all of you to visit so we can show you our new place! =)

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Just a few miscellaneous pictures of Thanksgiving. Despite the chaos of moving, we had a great time having everyone here. Grama and our niece Maile arrived the Friday before Thanksgiving and stayed until the next Friday. Maile is only 5 months older than Ryan and it is so entertaining to see them together. Unfortunately it is not so entertaining for Maile as Ryan has learned very quickly how to push her buttons - typical boy!

During their stay we mainly packed while attempting to maintain some sort of sanity while stuck in a little house with two 2 yr olds and a 7 month old. Luckily things weren't quit as crazy once we got into the new house and they could go to opposite corners. However, we did manage to get them to the barn where all three kids got a ride on Whirlwind.

Nana and Papa arrived the day before Thanksgiving - just in time to help with the moving =) We immediately put them to work moving boxes and furniture, but managed to find time to show them around our new town.

Thanksgiving day itself was pretty entertaining. Nothing like cooking Thanksgiving dinner when your kitchen is in boxes! Needless to say, us women pulled together and manged to get the job done while the men continued to move things from the old house to the new one. All in all, it was a very special Thanksgiving - one we will never forget.

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween was certainly a fun one this year! We started off by visiting a The Davis Family Farm where, after sampling some homemade apple cider and doughnuts, we hopped on the hay wagon and took a ride through their fields back to the pumpkin patch. We had a great time walking through the patch in search of the perfect pumpkin for each of us. Even Caleb got one compliments of his big brother. Ryan and Daddy got a special treat when the hay wagon came to pick us up - just as we were loading up, the farmer asked if Ryan wanted to drive the tractor. So Ryan got to sit on daddy's lap and drive everyone back on the tractor - a job he took very seriously =)

As for Halloween itself, Ryan was a pirate (he'd been practicing his "ARRRRGH!!" since September, usually in the car while Caleb was trying to nap) and Caleb carried on the traditional Evans' first costume of being a Dalmatian puppy (let the hand me downs begin!). The weekend before Halloween, we loaded everyone up for a quick 11 hour drive to California, dropping daddy off in Sacramento for his Structural Engineers' Exam while mommy and the boys continued to Merced for some quality Grama, Nana, and Papa time.

The day of Halloween, the boys got all dressed up for trick-or-treating in downtown Corvallis. Ryan has his first real taste of candy (yippee!) and got a kick out of all these people giving him candy. Caleb on the other hand wasn't too sure about all of these strange things walking around!

Afterwards, we headed to the church for a harvest festival where Ryan spent the whole time in the bounce house. All in all, it was a very fun-filled Halloween!

Mr. Caleb

While he is definitely a mama's boy, Caleb is certainly showing signs of being just as independent as his brother - if not more! He is still trying desperately to get somewhere. He is a strong little guy and we have a feeling that any day we're going to look down and he will be cruising on his own. In the meantime, he has decided to take food into his own hands. Meals have certainly taken on a new meaning with Caleb trying to do it himself. He turns six months tomorrow and finally - Caleb will get have his first taste of real food - even if it is in almost liquid form....

Ryan takes on Oregon

Well Ryan has certainly adjusted well to Oregon. He loves the rain (except for when it is raining too hard to go outside). He jumps at every chance to use his umbrellas (Thanks Uncle Rigo!) and to wear his nifty bug rain boots. Meanwhile, we are becoming quite creative on thinking up ways to harness his boundless energy indoors. Daddy taught him to build trains with his blocks. This is a picture of Ryan's very own version of Thomas the Train - built all by himself!! He's pretty creative....maybe another engineer???

We've also discovered a few fun places for him to play indoors. The Boys and Girls Club have a toddler indoor park four days a week while the big kids are in session. Basically, they turn the gym into toddler mania with hundreds of toys and play structures and wagons, etc. It's great to be able to just turn him loose and watch from the side as he and the others learn to play together.

So far, Ryan's favorite has been the Children's Museum in Portland. He was thoroughly entertained for 5 hours! His absolute favorite was the water works room. Guess he figured if it's raining outside why not get soaked inside! He also took a toddler painting class (aka "parents trying to avoid knee high hands covered in a multitude of colors!"). He also enjoyed story time, where of course he had to be right smack front and center. He sure doesn't miss a thing :)

What we've been up to

In the past six weeks, we've certainly covered a lot of ground. The first week we were here, we took a break from unpacking and visited the beach town of Newport where Ryan was fascinated with the sea lions. We also went on two great hikes with John's mom, one of which was 120 acre piece of property in the hills that her parents used to own. We enjoyed the tall trees on both hikes and of course made lots of stops for blackberries.

Ryan has shown a lot of interest in kicking around a soccer ball so we signed him up for toddler soccer. Basically it is ten parents chasing around their ten two year olds while the coach tries to get them to play soccer related games - it's pretty entertaining for the parents who are watching :) We go once a week and boy do Ryan and Daddy look forward to it! After soccer, we usually go to the farmer's market. There is a small one in Albany and an even bigger one in Corvallis where Ryan met a balloon making clown. We have also gone to the Corvallis Fall Festival where all of the local artists had their art for sale. Pretty neat.

The boys have both grown so much in the past month. Ryan is becoming more of a boy everyday - He and mommy even built his first fort the other day. It should be interesting seeing what mommy can come up with to channel his energy as the rains set in...

Caleb on the other hand is trying his hardest to convince us he is actually a grown up in a baby body. He started rice cereal for the time about a month ago and he was way into it. Now, he takes every opportunity to show us he is ready to move on to meat and potatoes by grabbing our food whenever he can. He is also trying really hard to get somewhere and will be mobile in no time. Big brother better watch out!

The Big Move

So after a year and a half of saying "We're moving to Oregon" - we did it! On August 30, after loading up the U-haul the day before, we headed on the open road for our 11 hour trek north. John and Shasta the dog drove the U-haul (the biggest one they make!), Judy (John's Mom) drove the 4-Runner, and Wendy drove the mini-van with the boy, the baby, and, Sammy the cat. Caleb slept almost the whole way (except for crying the last hour and half when he finally said "I've had it!"), Ryan read books the entire time, and Sammy just lived in fear of where she was being schlepped to next. Whirlwind arrived in style a few days later on a huge fancy trailer.
We arrived at our new home at 10:30 at night, weary, but very excited to finally be in Oregon.
The house we are renting is little, but will definitely keep us happy until we find a home of our very own. There is a big backyard and Ryan loves to go out and pick what is left of the raspberries. As for the house search, we have looked at everything there is to see (about 50 +/-), but we have finally narrowed down where we want to live and what type of house/lot we want. Now we're just waiting for the right house to come on the market :)
As for everyday life, John started work at his new firm on September 17. It is a two man (now three man) firm. His bosses are great and he is very pleased with his choice of firm. Wendy of course is home with the kids and having a blast. Every other day, she and the kids go the barn to clean Whirlwind's stall. Caleb hopefully naps and Ryan helps Mommy by opening gates and attempting to scoop manure into the wheel barrow.
Oh, and the rains have begun .....

Welcome

Hello from Oregon! With so much going on in our lives and in yours we thought we'd create a space where you can keep up with the crazy shenanigans of "The Evans Bunch". Our hope is that you'll check in from time to time as we share exciting and funny things that happen in our lives. We're new at this, but we'll try to update it regularly with pictures (of the boys mainly - don't worry) and updates on the wild and crazy things they do. We miss you and can't wait to hear from you! Enjoy :)
Luv,
John, Wendy, Ryan, and Caleb