Happy Father's Day!!!

Just wanted to take a moment to say Happy Father's Day to all the father's out there. Especially the 3 extra special ones in my life.

First, my dad. Thank you for always being there and for supporting me. I know I didn't always make that easy, but even when you didn't agree, you still let me know that you love and support me. That means a lot. I remember running up to you when you would come home from work and walking backwards on your feet as you went from the kitchen to the den and sitting in your lap (probably driving you crazy) while you read the paper and watched the news - at the same time. I love you, Dad!

Second, Pops. Zach isn't here to share any of his feelings or thoughts, but I know that he respects you more than anyone in the world. You always worked hard to provide for your family. He often talks about the big camping trip you did and he hopes to re-create that with our kids one day. Thank you for raising him (along with OM - other mother for those that are curious) to treat people with gentleness and kindness. Love ya, Pops!

Finally, the love of my life, the holder to the key to my heart, and wonderful father to our children. Zach, you are amazing. You are right in the thick of it with me. Not all women can say that, but I can. You are right there beside me changing diapers, bathing kids, disciplining when necessary, and loving and playing with the kids. Thank you for being my rock. I wish you were home today so that we could take care of you. You spend so much time taking care of the rest of us that you don't get pampered. We'll make it up to you. We love you very much and I am SO blessed that God chose you to live life with me and to raise kids up in Him. I could go on, but I'll stop.

I'm ba-a-ack!

I'm home now (as of about 11:30 last night). The flights were fairly uneventful. As usual, people stereotyped me and the kids b/c I was alone with two toddlers and kept rolling eyes and making snide comments, but my kids were troopers and acted better than some of the adults on the plane. Minneapolis to Anchorage was the hardest and I was met with several REALLY rude people, but it worked out better for us, as it got us a row to ourselves. YIPPEE!

The kids were SO excited to pull into the garage last night. Donavyn was pretty much jumping up and down in her carseat and they both were laughing. It was so nice to see them that happy. I let them play with their "new" (to them again, anyway) toys for a while and they went to bed around midnight. I was out by about 12:15 myself, but since one of our bags didn't make it home yet - "should" get here this morning - I didn't have the complete setup for the baby monitor, so I set the alarm for 6:30 thinking the boy may wake up early. It's now almost 8 and they are still asleep. I on the other hand have taken a shower, fixed my hair, moisturized, cleaned half of the bathroom, put away dishes and started going through mail.

I'll update with pictures soon. Zach has a lot of them on his computer too, so it may be a while since he is still in Mobile for a week of training. I'm going to see if my babysitter can come and watch the kids 2-3 days this week so I can just get some space. I haven't had much time alone in a month and a half, so it is desperately needed.

We had a GREAT time in FL and TN with my family. I miss them already. Love you all!

Told ya!

See? I told you I'd be better. The kids are SO funny. They love to sing and play the piano. We may have our own house band one day.


Donavyn likes to play with the box that is supposed to hold Gabriel's Thomas trains and track. She just dumps it and either climbs in or, as you can see here, put it on her head and pretend she's a space cadet. Ok, so that's what WE say she's doing anyway.

Gabriel also REALLY enjoys feeding his sister. It's really sweet. He will take his own snack and feed it to her and she will sometimes to do the same to him. I love that he takes care of her. Granted, he also likes to steal her lovies out of her hands and run off with them, but he is a big brother afterall and he does have brotherly duties to fulfill. He is pretty good about giving them back to her though when she gets REALLY cranky. She just chases him squealing while he taunts her. It takes all I have to not laugh when she gets upset. Alas, I have no pictures of this part, but I do have a picture of him feeding her yogos the other night.

Love you all! Only 10 days until the kids and I leave for Florida! YAY! I cannot WAIT to see everyone! I love and miss you all so much! And I can't wait until my kids can join the kid stack.

Check it out

Ok, two things.

1. We got our paper orders today. We are staying in Kodiak for one more year. Next year we have to do this all over again, so no, we won't know where we are moving until about this time next year. We are going to be back in the lower 48 in 2010 though, so there is that.

2. I created a new blog today. God has really led my heart to do this and I'm finally listening. It just so happens that I chose my 29th birthday to do that. So happy birthday me. Thanks mom and dad for raising me! I love you! Enjoy and let me know what you think! I am the clay.

A New Start

The past month or so I've really tried to upload pictures and make some update posts, but every time I sit down to do it, I just CAN'T! I've been trying to figure out why exactly it's been so hard and I think I've come to the realization that I just don't like to live in the past. I know it's not really living in the past, but I prefer to post new pics and things as they happen, not two months later. I apologize to my family for not keeping up with this better, and I am going to do my best to start doing that now.

With that realization about not living in the past also came the realization that I don't particularly live in the present either. I tend to focus on (many would say worry about) the future. I'm not exactly sure when these truths hit me smack upside the head, but they have. The past few days I've been trying to focus on the present and enjoying things the way they are now. It's important to take the lessons from our past and our hopes and dreams for the future to work on today.

God has really worked heavily on my heart the past year on one thing in particular. Not long after we brought Gabriel home, I was up in middle of the night rocking one of the kids back to sleep. At that time, we had to leave the radio on all night for the kids or they would wake up every half hour or so. We left it on K-Love and there happened to be a segment about letting your "yes be yes". For some reason, it struck a chord and for the past year or so, I've been focusing on letting my yes be yes.

It hasn't been easy and I have failed in my efforts in several areas, but I feel that GOD has truly encouraged and given me the time to focus on decisions before making them. The times I do NOT heed His guidance to truly think things through, I have regretted my decision every time.

Why I'm sharing this, I have NO idea. Perhaps it's because I haven't let my yes be yes regarding my blogging (i.e. "I'll get another blog up this week", and here we are 6 weeks later).

SO, with that said, I hope these videos and pictures that I took today will suffice. For the family that I will soon see (YAY for visiting FL next month!) you can see all the pictures from the past year or so while I'm there, promise.

Oh, and please pray for me as I take a while to expand my focus to include living in the moment, while learning from the past and building towards a future. I think this is a huge struggle for me.

Ok, without further ado, here are your pictures and videos.

Here Miss Donavyn is playing on the "motorcycle" Grandma and Pawpaw gave Gabriel for Christmas. It plays music (which you can hear in the video). She had SO much fun on this today.





The next picture is of Gabriel, happy as a clam to be flipped upside down. We cut his hair the other day b/c it was long enough to put in a pony tail and was driving him crazy (not to mention me). And yes, I did say "we". Zach used his 1" clippers, then I used scissors to trim it up. It's not perfect, but he looks so cute. He's such a big boy now!



This last video is of the kids playing with the bubbles that Nana and Papa sent for Valentine's Day. We got them a couple days ago and they play with them for 15 minutes before moving on. You are lucky I'm even posting it b/c I HATE videos of myself, but the kids are just too cute in it, that I know you all will love it.



OH! One more thing! Gabriel has FINALLY starting making more sounds and can now say "momma", "dada", "nana", and make the "ba" sound. I am convinced that he said "bubble" more than once today. And my mom heard it too, so I can't be imagining it. Donavyn says, "momma", "daddy", "ni-ni", "nana", the "ga" sound, "baby", "hi", "hedo" (hello), "hey" (can you tell she is social?) and we're working on the "pa" sound too. I can't believe they are growing up so fast!

Sweet November

Ok, so I'm REALLY behind, but I'm going to try to catch up in the next few days. I know I've said that before, but I really am this time...I promise.

Ok, so you are basically getting just pics (which is all you guys really want anyway, right?). Why does the slideshow start with a pic of Abbie and Jack you ask? Well, on Halloween, we went over to their house for a birthday party for Abbie. It was 10 years from the day she gave her life to God and what a fun time we had. BUT, I left the camera over there. I'm not sharing the pic of Jack mooning the camera...the feds may come after me for that one. What's even funnier is that I didn't even notice it until I was uploading pics to PhotoBucket for the month to make my slideshow, so I must have downloaded the pics and not looked at them right then. Too funny.

Some highlights: Seth and Katie got married...again. It was their big white dress wedding. Zach performed the ceremony again and it was fabulous. The bride was beautiful. We had our first snowfall. Kids played. Thanksgiving (Gabriel's first and Donavyn's first with food). Christmas decorating began. Enjoy! Love you all!

October

In my attempt to catch everyone up, I'm going to combine October and November into one post. Not too much went on, so it shouldn't be too bad. ***Ok, so I was going to, but I found too many pics that were just too cute not to share, so this is just October. It's my blog and I'll do what I want to, so there. Pbbth.


We started Oct off by going to Anchorage for Zach's sinus surgery. His parents went with us to help take care of the kids while I took care of Zach. He healed very quickly and hasn't had any more problems. It's GREAT! He snores less and he doesn't have to blow his nose a million times a day.

He also installed the desk he and his dad built together. It looks great. We already gave one of our computer desks away, now just to figure out what to do with the other one. It was a wedding gift from Zach's parents and we really love that desk, so we are debating what to do with it.

While trying to organize the office for our new desk, we were busy shredding papers and getting rid of things and while I was out of the room for a bit, the kids decided they needed to help. Gotta love 'em.

Donavyn finally figured out how to get in and out of the chair that Auntie Melissa and Uncle Aaron got her for her birthday. She was so funny. I think she sat in that thing for an hour, just swinging her feet and jabbering. Gabriel just looked especially cute in this shot, I thought.


There was a really pretty day when Zach came home from work early and took us out to Near Island for a walk. It was a nice brisk fall day - all you FL folks probably would have frozen in your knickers though.



We ended OCT with Halloween. Unfortunately Zach had to stand duty on Halloween so he decided to go Trick or Treating with the kiddos dressed as a Coast Guard Helicopter Pilot. I think he pulled it off quite well. Gabriel went as a dragon. He looked a lot like the dragon on his wall. Everytime he sees his costume now he'll run up to it and go "rawr"!! He's so cute. Princess was our "Lil' Stinker". The costume was a bit hard for her to walk in so she was constantly falling down. Everytime she got up though it looked like she was getting ready to spray somebody!!






That should do it for October. We're still trying desperately to get everybody caught up. Some things to look forward to are obviously Thanksgiving and our trip to LA. So much fun!!

A Princess is Laid to Rest

Today, Hadley Fox is being laid to rest. Many of you have been praying for the Fox family and now I ask that you all continue your prayers - only for comfort and peace. Last Friday, December 12, Hadley was called home to our Lord. She had been in so much pain and discomfort for so long that while we will miss her here on this earth with us, it's a blessing that she is now happy and pain-free. There are no tears in Heaven.

Her story touched us all. While I may have never met Hadley, or any of the Fox family, Angela opened up their story and shared their little girl with the world. They have been an inspiration. They never lost HOPE.

You are all in our prayers. We pray for peace, comfort and the faith that you will one day be together again in eternity. I have no doubt that Hadley is dancing and singing in Heaven today.

Rest in Peace, Princess Hadley. You have touched our hearts more than you could ever imagine.