Homeschool Ramblings

I am SO excited to start fresh with homeschool this week. Kids have been asking for it for a while now. Fresh starts are so wonderful. D.J. and Megs are home and will join us for our studies. We are more than 1/2 way done with our health book! I took time to plasn and make copies for the whole week. Hoping it goes smooth. My parents are spending the night on Wed...kids are excited!! We were able to have dinner with Drew's parents tonight ((here in our new house)). Megs didn't understand that they live only 45 minutes away. She was nearly in tears when they left. It may be a while before they "get it" that family is close by now. Church was really good today. Got to see some friends! I also thought about friends in Iowa...missing you very much too. I promised myself I would be more sociable here in Oregon. I have 2 playdates scheduled for this week. ONe friend coming here on Tues. and we are going to our Cousins on Saturday afrernoon. Lots of kids and family. My cousins' Rex and Anita only live about 15 minutes drive from here...on a cool farm. We are SO happy to have family near by. Also they are homeschoolers too. Well, I should go cause it's getting late :-) Will try to post pics soon.

9852 Willamette St.

Just a note to let yall know we made it home to Aumsville. IT is beautiful here. Kids did great on the drive here and have enjoyed playing outside and going for walks around the neighborhood. We all have had fun listening to the frogs at dusk. There is a creek not too far from our house. We had loads of help from the ward moving in ((thanks))!! We are excited about being back in our home ward. Tonight is the chili feed...should be fun! Most everything is unpacked. Just need to hang pics and catch up on laundry. Miss you Davenport folk already.

More Isaksen Happenings!

It's been an eventful week or so in the Isaksen house. We've had b-day parties, strep, coughs, good-bye parties, more parties...did I mention parties? Lol... IT sure has been crazy though. Tonight some of the girls got together and had a good-bye party/wife graduation. It was really nice to get the chance to really say good bye....thanks Robyn!!! We are also thankful to have been approved to rent that house in Aumsville :-)...the address is: 9852 Willamette Street Aumsville, OR 97325
We will be moving in on March 1st or 2nd depending on how long the traveling takes. Drew and I will keep our same cell numbers for a month or two until all transitioning is copmlete. Following are pics from the last couple of weeks.

Drew earned his black belt!! ((thanks Emmiline for watching kids so I could go))




Seth and Mom at the bob the builder exhibit

\ Megan opening her tinker toys
Joe exploring his new ball pit
Joe first opening his ball pit
Before the mayham
More b-day and museum fun!






Valentine Fun!

"Adoption Day Anniversary"

Yesterday marks our second annual adoption day. Since Meg's B-day and Joe's B-day are also within the same 2 week time frame we plan to do a bigger than normal party. It seems like time has really flown since then. I can remember the car ride home from the courthouse. I was gazing down at the adoption decree where the kids "new names" were listed as Isaksen. It was so emotional and impossible to imagine what we had just done...not only in the temperal life but also the eternities. The kids were sealed to us in the Portland Oregon Temple in the summer of 2007. Since then we continue to work together growing closer to one another.

Adoption day at the courthouse

Kids climbed all over the judge and slammed the gavel
Homeschool was fun today. In our History lesson we learned about how people used to dress and communicate. We talked about all the different ways people sent messages to eachother from the town cryer to mail by horse carriage. We then talked about giving special messages to our family members through nice cards and notes. They got to decorate a paper sack for their "mail". We also set up a valentine card making center with all the goodies needed to make valentines. At the end of the week we will have a lil family party. Should be fun!!!

The House

This is the house that we will hopefully be moving into. There are a lot of houses like this one that are sitting empty due to the poor market, so we got a killer deal on it with a possiblity to buy it..or rent to own. I am most excited about the fenced back yard and that it is at the end of the subdivision. The kids can ride bikes with little to no traffic. The house is plenty big enough...so no worries there. The kids berooms are a little smaller than the ones they have here in Iowa, but we don't play in bedrooms anyway, so no big deal. We are excited...is it that obvious?

More Updates

I know..we are just such exciting people...lol! Kids are good. Our house is still on the market...we just dropped the price....anyone...anyone?? Any takers? Drew and I have been looking like crazy for a place to rent in Oregon. With the size of our family and the dogs we really needed something with some space. Today we finally applied for tenancy for a house in Aumsville, Oregon. The good news about being in Aumsville is that we will be in our old ward which is still very special to us....the Stayton Ward. We are looking forward to rekindling old friendships and settling down. I am excited for the kiddos to have some new friends as well. Now that the house situation is done...I feel like I can relax a little and focus on packing. We have some friends here that are going to drive to Omaha with us and spend the day at the zoo. It's supposed to be a fantastic zoo with a lot of attractions. After that we will explore winter quarters. We are booking the same hotel so we all can play in the pool and have some good times. It will be a fun way to say goodbye. Unfortunately, they will have to go back to Iowa while we drive to Oregon. That's all she wrote for now.

Yummy Recipe!

We have been BLESSED big time through fasting and prayer! Drew will be precepting with Dr. David Milroy in Hubbard/Salem, Oregon. He is a DC as well as a ND. Some of you remember when I lost a ton of weight?? I was working with this doctor. He was the guy who suggested a very low carb diet for me. I've been very bad and gained everything back over the past 1.5 years, but since Drew will be working with him we both decided to be good over the next 6 months. I''ve got a good start having lost 6 pounds in 3 days. It does come off quickly, but once you start eating "simple" carbs/sugars again it comes back just as fast. It has also been proven that the low carb diet has helped thousands of women who struggle with PCOS to gain their fertility back. Most of you all know that I have this disease. It's near impossible to lose weight or get pregnant with it. Anywho....the recipe I found is for Chocolate peanut butter cups:
1 unsweetended chocolate square (melted 35-45 seconds)
1 stick butter (melted and then mix w/ choc.)
6 splenda packets
2-3 tablespoons peanutbutter
Mix it all together and pour into 5 foil lined cupcake papers...then freeze!
YUM!!! 5 carbs per cup.