Kodiak Koehler's

Miss Donavyn is officially potty trained! She's even waking up in the middle of the night to sit on the potty or upset b/c she's pee peed in her pull up. She's doing great. Anyway...we're SO proud of her and she loves hearing that too. I believe we have figured out her love language - words of affirmation with a close second of physical touch. We tried doing the M&M's and stickers, but she didn't really care, just wanted us to give her a big hug and tell her how proud we are of her. Gabriel likes to help her celebrate too. She is so skinny though that panties are just saggy on her. I guess I'll be putting the underwear pattern I bought to good use. Just have to order fabric now. Oh, and she just HAS to read her books while on the potty. She can stay in there forever just sitting on her potty and reading. She gets that from her daddy. *snort* Here are some extra videos. The first is Gabriel and Zach at dinner. Don't mind Zach's hair....he had issu...

*Picture info at bottom of blog* The kids were SO good today (until bedtime, but we won't talk about how they threw fits until they fell asleep). Even though they both woke up at 6 a.m. Here are some of the things that happened: They wanted to play piano and I forgot that the cover was down. They must have been trying to lift it up when Gabriel's finger got smooshed . I don't think it got slammed, just the pressure of the lid on his finger. He starts crying so I go in there, pick him up (lifting the lid up so Donavyn can play and won't get hurt), go sit on the couch and he just cries into my shoulder for a while. He then says, " huwt " and shows me his finger. I kiss it and ask if it's all better and he says, "no" (very emphatically). This continues for a while, with me alternating between comforting and trying to make him laugh. Meanwhile, Donavyn is playing the piano and singing "tinkle, tinkle dar , woner woner are" taking interm...

Sorry I've been so bad about updating. Almost everyone is on Facebook , so I just usually do updates there, but I've been meaning to do this. Hopefully I'll be better. This will just be a quick recap of our summer and early fall.Back in June, we all went to San Diego for a few days. Zach was invited by the Discovery Channel to be interviewed for "After the Catch" - the post season recap with the captains of the "Deadliest Catch" vessels. We decided that the kids and I would go to, since we had the miles and the hotel would be paid for. We had a blast. If you want to see pics from our trip, HERE is a link to the ones on my FB. Ben Bailey was the host this year and it turns out he and Zach look a lot alike. Kinda crazy. See? On July 1, Zach pinned on 0-4. Melissa was nice enough to watch the kids for me, so I could go pin him on. We had the wetting down (military tradition for promotions) in September. We went in with the Dorval's and Becca's XO f...

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 tha...

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 bo...

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...

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 .

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 hop...

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 ...