The art of Photography

I've been a bit preoccupied packing and organizing these last weeks so I haven't posted many recent pics of the boys. Here are a few cute ones. I won't include the 25-picture slideshow from yesterday where we attempted, for yet another year, to get a good Christmas card picture. Those of you who have known us for awhile remember our card from a few years back with Ryan and I smiling and Bridger bawling his eyes out.

Why this early, you ask? Well, since we're moving we need to get something out with a new address and I thought it would be easier to get everyone to pose for a picture here on a nice day outside when my folks could try to make the kids smile. Needless to say, there is one moderately usable shot in the whole bunch. When I say usable, that means everyone is looking at the camera and has their eyes at least halfway open. The fact that the kids look like their dog just died is irrelevant. Adding another child to the mix made the difficulty increase exponentially. Stay tuned to your mailboxes (btw, just because we took a picture now, doesn't mean I'll be getting the cards out before New Years).

I love these bath shots of the kids (their first official bath together). Asher looks so suspicious...

Yellowstone trip

I thought I would post a few pictures from our trip through Yellowstone at the end of September. We were in Lander, WY (where Ryan passed his licensure exams with flying colors--only two left in Jan and he'll be officially Rev.) so we drove up through the Tetons and then through Yellowstone from the south to the north entrance on our way to Missoula. It was the perfect day--clear, warm, full fall foliage, no traffic and it happened to be "public lands day" (who knew?) so we got in free!We saw a bear 10 feet off the road, and tons of buffalo, elk, antelope, and deer. The shot of the elk is in Mammoth where Ryan grew up and we stayed a night with friends.Life update: we move to Missoula in 10 days!

Homeowners!...well, in a few weeks

Here's a photo of the house that we are in the process of buying (the photographer is lopsided, not the house). For more pictures, click on the link to the right entitled "view/download photos" and you'll find our house album. Much has happened since the previous post. The original house we made an offer on didn't pan out. The owners were in the middle of a divorce and things were very complicated--one party wanted to sell at a price we were happy with, but the other wouldn't budge. We felt that God definitively closed that door, so we moved on to this house, which had come in a very close second.

We are so excited about the central location--very close to all kinds of shopping (walking distance to several places), right across the street from a park, within biking distance to the Cryders and to downtown. We have plenty of room for guests, so start planning your National Park and ski trips.

House hunting

So we're finally in Missoula looking for a house--in fact, we put an offer on a house yesterday and we're waiting to hear today whether or not it will be accepted. On Monday and Tuesday we looked at about 20 houses all over the place. Some were immediate no's...25 cats used to live there, only two bedrooms, etc. We narrowed it down to two and it was a really hard decision. One was a three-year-old house a stone's throw from the Cryder's house with everything we wanted--four bedrooms, unfinished basement (that we could finish), nice yard, garage, cute neighborhood, close to downtown. We also found a fabulous 1950's house that had been completely updated with beautiful character and built-ins, a great yard with a climbing tree, finished basement. We waffled back and forth forever because they were both priced about the same, but finally decided to put an offer in on the newer home, mostly because it is so close to the Cryders and it is hard to pass up that opportunity.

We sort of low-balled the offer so we're not sure what will come of all of it. If the guy won't budge we might be switching to the other house. We feel really at peace with all of this and know that God will lead us to the house and neighborhood that we should be in. It's nice not to be too emotionally attached to either house and to have a mental back-up. Plus it's such a buyers market that we are holding most of the cards since these houses have been on the market for a long time already. It's been an exciting process--being our first house purchase. Pray for us this week that the process will go smoothly and quickly and I'll keep you posted!