Luke takes the driver's seat...

So Sarah gave me permission to commandeer her blog since I would have a little more time during the day than she would. Since this is my first time posting, I figured I'd better make it good, so here goes. Some of you may already have caught wind of this but hopefully it will be news to at least a few "Mostly Owen" lurkers out there. And for anyone that we flat-out lied to we are sorry for our less than truthful knee jerk response of "no, I don't know what you are talking about" or something of that nature. The Woodruff family is expected to increase by one in late September. The ultrasound suggested Sept. 22 but Sarah feels sure that we'll be seeing "junior" about a week later. Now I know what many of you are thinking and I had the same concern, "They can't have a baby then, what about Luke's moose hunt?" Don't worry, season starts Sept. 15th so we should have one down and ready for transport within the first few days in time to get back to my very pregnant wife. And if the baby comes early, well, we may just have "junior's" first moose hunt. The wall tent is very cozy.

March Already!

Sarah’s Thoughts: After more then a month of nothing, I’m feeling the need to explain my silence on the blog scene. Luke and I are hosting a small-group bible study on Sunday nights, which use to be the time I’d post my blog. So far, I haven’t found another time in the week that works for me. This week, however, our office is closed and we’re all on paid vacation (Thank you Dr. Schultz) so here I am. We’ve had a lot going on in the past month... We fit in a trip to Echo Ranch to visit our friends who are spending the winter caretaking. Owen and I took a trip to Anchorage last week to visit my dear friend, Sarah and her new husband, Jim. We’ve been to the beach, spent some time with Uncle Christian, and watched the snow melt away. I’m both nervous and excited to announce that as of today, March 2, there is very little-to-no snow on the ground! Come on spring!

low- poop and other stinky things

high- catching up on things around the house and beyond

Luke Update: While Owen and I were gone last week, I think Luke spent the majority of his time in the garage, “tinkering”, as he likes to say. He’s feeling all the excitement that comes with spring (i.e. hunting for grouse, bear, fishing for steelhead and king salmon, camping and hiking) and needs to get ready! He bought some new arrow shafts and is busy straightening, staining, gluing and sanding. He’s been testing his cast bullet loads to find the optimal combination for power and accuracy. He’s been cleaning and tuning our fishing reels and he even booked a weekend cabin camping trip in April. Once those daylight hours increase just a bit, then look out, great outdoors because the Woodruffs are going to be on the scene, ready for action!

Owen Update: Owen’s big and exciting news is that he hasn’t had a poopy diaper for about 3 weeks (except for an accident in the nursery at church). At this point, I need to pause and give kudos to Lela Paden. She’s been watching Owen for us this spring while Luke is working at the legislature. Lela has had lots of experience and success potty training boys, and ours is no exception! Owen received his first pairs of “big boy pants” after returning from Anchorage and has been very excited to wear them. He doesn’t have the peeing under control quite yet but one step at a time, right? He gets so excited about going potty on the potty chair, however, that whenever Luke or I do our business, he congratulates us up and down and runs to the freezer to get us a “special treat”. I try to explain to him that first thing in the morning, mommy just wants some orange juice or cereal for a special treat. I think he’s getting it, slowly...

And now for a month's worth of pictures...

window watching - Owen and Gabbie out at Echo Ranch

winter waves

happy valentine's!

throwing rocks on a sunny day

family snowmobiling

posing with mama

playing playdough-

Owen likes to line up the elephants and giraffes

T-Rex Owen

hanging out with Abby and Luke at the beach

playing the piano Jerry Lee Lewis style

Owen and Jim enjoying some computer time in their jammies

if I had a hammer...

echo ranch friends at the beach

big boy pants

...

settling back into the groove

Sarah’s Thoughts: After a month of company, we are slowly remembering how to wash our own dishes and be parents again. It was really wonderful to have my folks stay for such a long period of time. We were able to relax and enjoy living together instead of feeling pressured to cram all our visiting in a brief period of time. So sad to see them go. It is amazing that January is drawing to a close already. You have to be mentally shrewd this time of year, because it seems like spring is right around the corner but it’s really not. There are at least another two months of winter in which we get the most snow and the most cold and flu viruses. It is O.K. to get excited about the day light though. According Luke, daylight expert, we're gaining 30 minutes this week!

low- always cold, fingers and toes.

high- celebrating five wonderful years with my Luke and listening to my smart Owen count to 10!

Luke Update: The state legislature started this week and unlike other years, Luke has found himself quite busy. This is largely due to the fact that he’s the only full-time returning employee in the office so he finds himself in the middle of all questions, training and trouble-shooting. So far, I think he’s enjoying work simply because the busy-ness is making the days go by faster. He’s also started the prep work to make a new laminated wooden fishing net for this coming season. Despite my warnings, Luke is optimistic that spring will be here before we know it and with it, bear hunting, grouse hunting, steelhead fishing, basically heaven on earth. Today he squeezed in trips to both the archery range and the rifle range. That’s my husband!

Owen Update: Owen’s favorite phrases these days is “Me do it!” and “No!”. Is that officially “terrible twos”? I’ve taught him a new phrase, “please pretty mommy?” which will hopefully help to soften his often demanding dialogue. I’m realizing that he is able to do more and more by himself. At his insistence, he successfully climbed out of the car by himself yesterday, but then failed to successfully put on a fresh diaper, so he has some things to learn... ;) He’s still very much all about dinosaurs and has to sleep with a different dino book each night. That way, he’s able to quickly grab the book, his snuggly fleece blanket and convince mama to join him in some dino reading first thing every morning. That’s lucky for everyone involved. This morning, he was showing his plastic dinosaurs pictures of themselves in all of his dino books. He found his big plastic T-Rex and showed it all the t-rex pictures, then grabbed velociraptor and showed it all the pictures of other velociraptors, then grabbed triceratops... you get the idea.

t.v. zombie

anytime is a good time to be naked

"My Yia Yia!"

view from Christian's new house

my brother, the home owner

We make a traditional greek new year's bread called "Vasilopetia."

Before it's baked, you knead a dime into the dough.

When you cut the bread, you designate a piece for

each member of the family and whoever finds the dime

in their piece has good luck for the year.

Apparently, this is the year of the O-Dog.

all you really need is a pair of xtra tuffs...

daddy's boy

bubble beard

bow and flannel.

Our future bandit! We're so proud!

Christmas Recap

Its been a whirlwind holiday season. Between cookie exchanges, 40th wedding anniversary parties, christmas, new years, visiting friends and neighbors, it feels like we've been going non-stop for the past 3 weeks. My parents are visiting for Christmas and beyond, so its been really nice having help in the midst of all the business. I had some time off around Christmas and New Years, so we did lots of baking, enjoyed cold wintery walks, and read lots and lots of dinosaur books. Owen showed surprising self control on Christmas morning, waiting for Uncle Christian to arrive before diving into the presents. He cleaned up on the toys, books, puzzles... The morning after Christmas, Owen was a little bit disappointed that there wasn't another pile of presents to open. He's already looking forward to his birthday. We had a mellow new years and de-christmased the house yesterday. For the time being, I'm enjoying the lack of events to plan for. I am, however, hoping to start some good bible reading and working-out habits. If only there were 26 hours in a day...

Happy 2010! Enjoy the pictures...

We celebrated my parent's

40th wedding anniversary

on Christmas Day

mama and me

serious luke

sweet erifilie

pile of dogs

taking a moment to relax

christmas morning

formulating a plan of attack

Christian looking sharp in his new jacket

new christmas clothes,

thanks to our dear neighbors

not only are the presents exciting,

so are the bags they come in

mendenhall lake

(courtsey of Christian)

Short and Sweet

Feeling pressed for time, I'm just going to give you a brief re-cap of the weekend's highlights. On Saturday, we harvested our christmas tree and decorated it- big outing for the whole family (see pictures below). Owen went to the birthday party of a 1 year old and afterwards, slept for 16 hours- 3pm until 7am the next morning! He also discovered his love for "neg-nog" and would drink a whole gallon if I didn't cut him off. I've been christmas shopping and crafting like crazy and have completely neglected my house... dirty laundry and dishes and piles everywhere. Its sort of driving me crazy, but at the same time, I just can't bring myself to do anything about it. Poor Luke opted for a weekend with the family due to the threat of high winds and freezing spray, only to watch a clear, calm, perfect deer hunting weathered weekend slip by. So that's about it! Enjoy the pictures!

naked bullet re-loading with daddy

Owen loving the party favors

"helping" the birthday boy open presents

picking out our christmas tree

Luke dragging the tree back to the car

(do I even need to tell you how many

references he made to dragging-out deer?)

The finished product!

We're Back in business!

Sarah’s Thoughts: My last regular post was recounting Halloween and now here we are, two and a half weeks before Christmas! This is going to be a special year because we're not traveling! We get to celebrate this year at home with Owen, my brother and my parents. In light of my overspending tendencies at Christmas, I’ve been trying to focus on homemade presents. The problem is that I have about 6 x 12 different projects brewing and only 2 1/2 weeks until D-day, not to mention my full-time job and my 2 1/2 year old. Despite these obstacles, I’m spending every spare moment crafting my little heart out. I hope that old saying about it being the thought that counts, is true because there’s a good chance that all of these little crafts are going to turn out pretty hokey.... but, what's a girl to do? In the meantime, I'm loving it!

Low- The nastiness I found when we removed the outer cover of Owen’s car seat. Pulverized crackers, peanut butter and smashed dried cherries...

High- Toss up between getting to spend the afternoon with my brother and my hot Friday night date at the annual Christmas party for all of the dental offices.

Luke Update: When I asked Luke what he’d been up to this week, he said, “Oh, you know. Same old thing. Still dreaming of bigger and better jobs and bigger and better bucks.” He started back to work for the state mid-November and will be there through the end of the legislative session in mid-April. This time of year, there is very little going on in Luke’s office, so if you need any internet research done, he’s your man! Besides working, Luke has been getting out deer hunting on the weekends. He did manage to shoot another deer on his way home from a five day deer hunt, just before Thanksgiving so we are going to make it through another winter! Phew! Luke spent this most recent weekend at home working on our exterior christmas lights. After spending 2 hours out in the 20 degree weather, he discovered that its time to invest in some new lights...

Owen Update: Owen is all about Christmas and he doesn’t even really know about the present part yet. I think he’s going to freak out when he makes that discovery. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Luke was out hunting and I decided to pull out our Christmas decorations from the attic. In order to gain access, I had to back the car out of the garage, fetch the foldable ladder from the shed, assemble it, climb into the attic and retrieve the Christmas boxes and then do it all again in reverse. Needless to say, Owen had some significant “alone time” in the house with the Christmas boxes. When I came inside, it looked like Christmas threw up in the living room. Ornaments all over the floor, rolling under the couch, wire decoration hangers gouged into the carpet, Christmas books and stockings and present tags and lights strewn everywhere, and Owen in the middle of it all shaking and yelling, “Tismas! Its tismis time!” I wish I’d had my camera!

Owen and his daddy

cousins

baby, it's cold outside!

exploring ice.

who knew you could throw a rock onto a lake

and watch it slide?

me and my hot date, out on the town