Alexis & Charlie did the Born 2 Run Challenge

My hip, knee & ankle all were hurting at mile 8 but I finished and beat last years time.

Alexis & I were in the Lane Pregnancy Support Center's 3rd Annual Born 2 Run Challenge.

It was raining & cold, but the rain lifted just long enough and the coolness felt good after awhile.

Alexis did the 5K walk with Uncle Rick & Aunt Sandy Smith (Travis' family) and Charlie did the 15K run.

Alexis thought my goal should've been to win, but my goal was to do better than last year.

I'm not going to brag about my time because, let's be honest, it's nothing to brag about. I finished in the same place as last year, but I did better.

My time was 1hr 36m for 9.3 miles. There are some serious runners out there, how can you run the whole way? I didn't walk much, but I still had to a few times. I do like to run, but I'm not a runner that's for sure.

I don't yet know how much the center raised through this fundraiser, but prayerfully it was above & beyond expectations.

Alexis was excited to do it with her Aunt & Uncle and I'm so glad they were willing to go with her.
Travis' cousins (Janelle & Jason Smith) were also in it and both beat me like crazy. Of course they're just young kids ya know.

Janelle did great, beat me by about 11 minutes and it was her birthday.
Jason, 21, came in 12th overall. Amazing.

Next year I think Travis will probably run the 5K with Alexis. He doesn't like distance running, but I know he'll do it for his little princess.

Aunt Sandy & Uncle Rick Smith with Alexis after crossing the finish line.
Good job team!!

Our Home School Nations Fair

"This was for the kids" I kept saying as I stressed out about getting everything ready. Well turns out I only let Alexis contribute a couple small ways, the perfectionist in me had a hard time letting it go. Thankfully she really didn't care.

Families in our church's home school group got choose a country to study through the year & display what they learned.
I think most of us waited until a couple weeks before to get it done though.

Everyone did an amazing job, it was great to see the creativity in these families.
It was also great to eat some tasty food from around the world.

We chose Israel because my Mom has been a couple times & I knew that she would have a lot of stuff to display. Plus, that's where our favorite person is from....Jesus!!

This photo doesn't really do justice to all the great stuff we had out, but the other picture made my hips look HUGE.
I'm wearing a prayer shawl, not sure if I'm being sacrilegious since I've only seen men wear them, but I wasn't about to let any of the boys wear it.
I found a map of Jesus' ministry in the back of my bible, so I transferred it to the big map on the board.
We made Poppy Seed Cake (yes the kids helped), I thought it was totally disgusting but there were a few people that liked it.
We also made Cheese Blintzes, oh so yummy.
Then we had Pita bread & Hummus.

The Creech family did Norway. She claims to be related to the 1st King of Norway, well we supposedly have 3 Norwegian kings in our family too, maybe we're related. That would help to explain some things between us.

The Lambert family did Vietnam & shared with us a little history of our dear friend Maddie.
She was adopted from there when she was 5 weeks old.
Thankfully Kim decided to toss the dried squid, it was so so stinky!!

The Sinclair girls did Canada, with hand carved soaps. They smelled so good!!

The Johnson family did England, decked out in proper attire too.
Look at all the things that came from England, so creative.

The Rule family did the Philippines, they even had an exploding volcano. There was a lot of commotion from the kids, unfortunately I couldn't see over the mass of kids' heads so I didn't witness it.

The Turpin family did Romania, the mommy Adina is from there.
Yummy garlic sausage.

The Kreklywich family did Italy, later they brought out some yummy pizza.

The Blazer family did Somalia. James did a wonderful job with all his research, great job little man!!

Yummy Popcorn Recipes

Made popcorn for my father-in-law's birthday and they both turned out great.

I will make these again.

Links to recipes on the right, here's the photos.

Butterscotch Popcorn


Cajun Spiced Popcorn

Peanut Butter Overload - New Recipes have just been added

Wow, was I in a Peanut Butter funk or what? Wait, I guess the peanut buttery treat I made last didn't make the cut. Still gotta work out some kinks, but I'm adding at least 1 PB recipe.

The other recipe is for some yummy scones. I've started making up 3-4 batches of these & keeping them in the freezer to keep us stocked or to give as treats to friends. They are so good, especially from the oven.

Enjoy!!

The links are to the right under "recipes", but here are the photos....

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies


Cranberry Almond Scones

We calls these "experiences"

Well, once in a while we (meaning I) have a crazy idea and hopefully it will go down in the history books as a good memory.

For quite some time I've been hearing rumors about the best donut shop in the NW called Voodoo Donuts. I had a hair brained idea, let's get our friends to come with us all the way downtown Portland and see what the ha bub is all about.
Bad idea? Maybe the people inside the shop thought so, but our kids had fun and it'll be an experience to remember for sure.

The place is incredibly small & loud, I almost lost Preston on the street, but the donuts were oh so yummy. I complained so much about the one-way streets, the pay parking & the general inconvenience of downtown that Preston said he never wanted to go into that yucky town again.

We'll wait until the bad parts have faded from our memory, much like child-birth you say you'll never have another one and then you forget just how bad it was & shi-bam you're doing it again.

Then I had another (bad??) idea, "See that really tall building? Let's walk over there, take the elevator to the top floor & look out". We were able to go to the restaurant on the 30th floor (total of 41 floors) and the manager was so gracious to lead us through the restaurant to a less-populated area so we could look down upon the world. How fun was that?

We had a good time, but won't be doing that again for quite some time. Actually I think we'll go to the other Voodoo location where they actually have tables to sit at.

Mallory, baby Maja, Auntie Erin & Preston and the yummy choices.......

Carter needed help eating all of his, oh darn.


Mallory, Olivia, Alexis, Preston and part of Carter.

Today marks 12 years for the Daggett House

This photo was taken 12 years ago, maybe even about this time. Late afternoon anyway.
We were married on January 17, 1998 at 1:30pm in Eugene, OR at Grace Community Fellowship by Pastor Rick Thomas.
We honeymooned in Bend, OR and stayed at the Inn at the 7th Mountain. We played all week long snow-shoeing, skiing, snowboarding (I didn't like it), snowmobiling and trying new restaurants every evening.
My favorite adventure was the snow shoeing, we had our expert guide all to ourselves and it was so much fun.
My favorite restaurant experience was actually the one with the worst food, "Bend's Tom Tom Diner". I wanted Biscuits and Gravy, I specifically asked if it was sausage gravy or not. The waitress said that it wasn't, so I got it. WRONGO!! Plus it was the worst greasiest spoon ever.

I felt like we had ran away together and everyone was fine with it, weird.

I'm so grateful that Travis married me and I'm so glad that I said yes.
12 years does really go by so quickly, not year-to-year, but looking back it's been a ride for sure.

He's my bestest best friend, I just can't imagine my world without him.
Thank you Lord for bringing us together and keeping us together.

I love you Travis.

2009 in the Life of The Daggett House

Wow, what a crazy fast year this has been.
It seems like there really isn't much new with us, but life has been changing around us constantly.
Charlie's Mom got remarried in May to Tom Gregersen, a perfect fit for our 'Hall' family.
Travis' brother, Sean, married Jillian in October. She too is a perfect fit for the 'Daggett' family.

Both Charlie & Travis said farewell to their childhood homes. Both surviving parents had remarried and it was time for them to start anew. I'm still learning a lot about myself as our families change. My last visit to my old home was unexpectedly emotional as all I could picture in my mind were memories of my Dad, much different than all the other times I was there in the past 7 years.

Travis is still a Sales Trainer for Combined Ins, but that is not his passion. He spends his time with his family and what's left over he spends playing racquetball. He has also enjoyed taking classes here and there at our church and is preparing to lead a small-group discussion on the Truth Project. People are still telling him that they see him getting involved in politics and surprisingly I would support that. We need strong, faithful Christian men leading the greatest country on God's green earth.

Charlie is still involved with the Mother's Bible Study at church and the homeschool group. I teach Alexis 1st grade, Preston some things here and there and of course all the other motherly things that go along with having 3 kids. There are many days that I want to pull my hair out or pull the kids' hair out, but I control myself because I hear this is all worth it.

In September we committed to teaching a small class of 3rd & 4th graders on Wednesday nights at our church. It was a challenge to embrace yet another responsibility, but it has been great spending time with other people's children and helping them in their spiritual growth & understanding.

Alexis is in 1st grade and just celebrated her 7th birthday. She has had an incredible year of change & growth. She used to be our "problem" child, what I mean to say is that she is extremely strong-willed and challenged authority every chance she had. Her teachers at church have helped us mold & shape her little will and we have seen amazing changes. She still shows her God given personality, but she's pleasant to be around most of the time. We believe that God has given her this trait to be used for His glory and we know that she's a leader and will do great things no matter where she is.

Preston will turn 5 next month and enjoys just being a boy. He's a builder and an organizer and can spend long periods of time entertaining himself which Mom loves greatly. He still has such a sweet little personality, but we are seeing a change in him also. He loves to irritate his sister and he's still a bit of a cry-baby, but of course we still love him.

Carter will be 3 later this month and we now start the "battle" of toilet-training him, I don't even remember how it happened with the other 2. I can tell it's going to be a power struggle more than anything else though, great....another one of "those" kids. He loves to be in the action, loves dinosaurs & is terribly scared of them especially the ones in the closet and behind the fridge. He repeats everything his siblings say and then will turn on us and shout out, "YOU DON'T DO THAT!". We have some kinks to work out with him.

Both Alexis & Preston are still in Awana and impress us all the time with memorizing & understanding their Bible.

We sold our condo in Eugene, so we’re 1 step closer to moving back to Eugene. There is no other progress though, but our plan is to move in 2010. We just don’t know the month or what the circumstances will be. Amidst the unknowns of Our Journey we find an amazing amount of peace in the promises of our Lord that He will guide us & continue to give us wisdom and reward us in His time and also reveal His plan for our family. For right now, we’re to remain in our apartment away from our family but surrounded by great friends and an amazing church.

Happy New Year

The Daggett House

Travis, Charlie, Alexis, Preston & Carter

Below there is a slide show of our year, check it out.