Homecoming

Patrick has been home for about a month now and the pictures are just now getting posted. Being distracted with the joy of just having Patrick home in combination with requests for other posts being made first (haircut and such), has delayed this post. I am trying to catch up with all the pictures that we have been taking over that past month. So here are the pictures from Patrick's homecoming.

1 & 2-- Waiting on the bus while the plane has a customs agent board and collect forms. 30 minutes later, we get to run out on the flight line and see Patrick.

3 & 4-- Phoenix is sporting his support and love for Daddy.

5-- Happy, happy kids. Happy, happy Daddy.

6-- The whole family together, happy as can be.

Tower of Refuge

The pictures have gotten out of order. Phoenix likes to play with the computer when it is unguarded. While I was cooking lunch, he was clicking and typing. I had the page minimized the page so I wasn't too worried, just checking every minute or so. After about 7 minutes and 5 times checking, I come over here and the page is open with the pictures rearranged. The combination of click and button pushing cannot be replicated to put the pictures back and my undo only goes back so far. Instead of reloading the pictures, which takes more time than relaying an entertaining story, I figured that I would just label them as is and let you imagine them in the right order.

1-- "Look how high up I am mom!"

2-- "Hmmmm, I think I should climb up on that chair."

3-- "Yep, I am on the chair and far from the ground."

4-- "I am being cute for the picture."

The chairs were on the table for the purpose of keeping Phoenix off the table and off the counter. He continually pulled out the chairs when they were pushed in and climbed on them. On top of the table they went. He pushed the front chair off of the table and Kira stood it up and pushed it in. Phoenix pulled it out and climbed on the table. I was slightly amused by the whole process and took pictures to remember it.

Peek-a-Boo

These are pictures from when Phoenix was learning to play peek-a-boo back in November.

Keeping connected

Kira likes to talk on the phone; whether it is her friends, her relatives, or our friends who call, she will usually ask for some time to chat.

Remembering Micah

This posting is not about my kids. This posting is about the impact that a person is capable of having. This posting is about our friend Micah Gifford. We had the blessing of knowing Micah for a year and a half. We met him in May of 2005 at the continental breakfast that our church congregation has on Memorial day weekend instead of Bible class. Micah had shown up for Bible Class and been surprised with breakfast. Micah was relatively early and so were we. Being the only people there his age we start chatting with him and ask him to sit with us. We found out that Micah had a great sense of humor, devotion to God, and a fresh set of orders to Alaska through the Army. Micah could joke around with Patrick, accept my smarty-pantsy comments (and dish them back very well), and encourage us to continue serving God. We also learned of his love for golf, and Patrick and Micah had the ever-elusive game set up between them. Every time the planned to play something came up. They were nice enough to take turns with who couldn’t make it. Micah would be moving; Patrick had something come up with the kids; Micah had to leave for field training; Patrick had to deploy; Micah had to deploy.

I remember one Sunday when Micah came in and sat in front of us and he still had the size tag on the back of his collar. I put my hand on his shoulder, removed the sticker and handed it to him. After worship he jokingly asked me to put the sticker back on his shirt because he was proud of his shirt size.

On another occasion Micah came in and sat behind us on a Sunday evening. We were singing a whole bunch of praise songs that evening and Micah heard Dwight (who is a southern soulful singer) get up and lead a few songs. Micah leaned forward and told us that he liked the way that man could sing. After worship he talked about how his Dad being a preacher and how he got to visit and worship many congregations through his dad being a preacher and through going to a Christian college. He commented about the joy that he got from singing and hearing folks sing whole-heartedly to God.

Micah was humble and helpful. We had a game and song night at the Doyle’s house during the time that Patrick was deployed. Micah played dinosaurs and wrestled with Kira while I got to have conversation with adults. He also humbly took on the role of singing the alto part and teaching the girl’s part on a few new songs.

Some people (OK 1 political person) have said that the military is for people who “weren’t smart enough to go to college.” Not true for Micah. He told us that he enlisted after graduating from Harding University and planned on becoming an officer after his enlistment was over. He left in October for a one year deployment to Iraq. On December 7, 2006, Micah died in Iraq. While the human side hurts knowing that we will never see our friend again, our spiritual side rejoices for his soul leaving this world and heading home. The last time that we saw him before this deployment, he talked about how he had struggled with his service to God; how he wasn’t sure if he was doing enough. Then he started looking forward to this deployment as an opportunity to serve God and show our Savior to other soldiers who might feel lonely and have time to think. He wanted to show them that obeying Jesus was the way to comfort and peace within. He had 2 months over there to do this work. I pray that we will all study the Bible like we want to and show Christ to others like we want to because our time on Earth is limited. This is part of my grieving and coping. I talk, I pray, I process, I remember, I share, I cry, I return to life a little more in touch with remembering the important things.

Helping Paw

Kira helped her favorite Mascot, Boomer, pass out braclets and promote Military Appreciation weekend with the Aces hockey team at the Joint Military Mall. (P.S. Boomer is only her favorite mascot when a certain relative is in there... otherwise it is Fredbird or her Sand Lake Lion.) Patrick and Phoenix were there to support the cause.

Swim Lessons

Kira is taking swim lessons at Swim Like a Fish. We really wanted her to have the life skill of swimming, and lessons seemed to be the best way for us to get her into that. Some people told us that if we just got her into the water more often (playing or floating around with us) she would get the hang of it. Coming from a swimming background, I wanted her to know more than just enough to get by. So we looked around town and checked out several places. Swim Like a Fish is where we ended up for several reasons. So here are some pictures from her second class.

1-- The pools as viewed from the balcony viewing deck.

2--Kira and her teacher... she seems to swollow/choke on the water quite a bit, but that doesn't stop her from trying again and again full force.

3-- Kira and Zoe hanging out on the stairs while River has a turn practicing.

4-- The last 3-5 minutes of class is play time.

The Haircut

Here are the pictures of Kira's first major hair cut. We took 127 pictures during the process but here we have posted the highlites. This is something that Kira has been asking to get done for about 6 months. As parents, we weren't ready and we kept putting it off. Finally, here it is.

1--Before the cut.

2-- Cutting off the ponytail.

3-- Kira gets to have that relaxing feeling of someone washing her hair and massaging her head.

4-- Trim it up and style it.

5-- Ta Da. Kira was so excited to have the haircut. She smiled and flipped her hair around the whole way home... and for the next day and a half.

Quick Draw

Phoenix really liked playing with River's laser gun.

1- "So, you want the play with the gun too?"

2- "Let's make it fair. I will put the gun in the middle of the table and we will see who can get it first."

3- "Go ahead... I am looking away to give you a fair shot at getting the gun....You do know that I am the quickest draw in all the house?"

4- "I am going in for it."

5- "I gave you opportunity. I gave you a head start. Look who still has the gun."

The Teeth

The kids chased each other around wearing the "vampire" teeth for about an hour. The finally settled down and became disinterested with the teeth, well all of them except for Zoe. (By the way, check out the static pulling Kira's hair to the couch... it is definitely winter time.)

Craft Bazaar

Phoenix was strolled through the craft bazaar while Kira wanted to touch and buy everything. Kira finally found a booth just for her. The National Honor Society was doing face painting. Kira ended up in the face fainting girl's pictures too. Her mom kept clicking pictures and said, well at least you know that you will always be taking pictures to remember these events.

Trick-or-Treating

Trick-or-Treat in Alaska is a little different than most places. You have to pick extra warm costumes, ones that will fit ovre a snow suit or just accept that the costume won't be seen due to overwhelming layers of warm clothes. We had Jedi Mahugh, Super Girl, Snow White, and Tigger on the neighborhood adventure. Phoenix stayed with Morie and helped pass out the candy.

Comments

It was mentioned to me that one of the postings that I had created was slightly confusing in one part. I just want everyone to know that you are welcome to post comments, questions, and anecdotes to any of my posts. I do have it set up that all of my comments will be moderated before they are actually posted to the blog. This is for two major reasons: 1) I know that advertisements have come flooding into my friend's blog disguised as comments but they are truly spam and not all of it is even family friendly spam; 2) I have been told about unkown people just making inappropriate comments on their page for twisted enjoyment.

That being said here are a few guidelines that will help me when I am moderating comments to the blog.
* Please keep all comments family friendly.
* Please sign your name to you comment so I can fully appreciate all comments.
*If you don't want everyone to be able to read the comment, you may email it to me (again family friendly).
*Feel free to post comments (it keeps me believing that people are actually reading this blog.)

Phoenix's Role

Phoenix had fun at Parent's Night Out too. He loved having Kira in the nursery to play with him, but when she was out doing her big kid thing, he played with Justice, Logan, and the other kids in there. I worked mostly with the big kids and he was fine with that too. Of course, these last two pictures were taken after Phoenix's bed time so he was a little loopy.

Parent's Night Out

Our Young Families Group at church started a Parent's Night Out. This is a much needed time for kids to come together and play in a safe, comfortable environment while parents take turns to work or to get a date night (or grocery shopping, catching up on sewing or whatever it may be.) We have puzzles, games, coloring and quiet play time before dinner. Then we eat (which you can see how Kira took her sweet time in eating while Mitchell's pizza was half gone.) After dinner we have much more energy expending activities: obstacle course, red light green light game, parachute games, the giant ball to play with, and tag/running around. At the end of the evening, we all settle in to watch a Veggie Tales so that when parents arrive the kids are calm and ready to go. Thanks for organizing this Lori!

Crazy Hair Day

Kira had a "crazy hair day" at school for red ribbon week, because "you'd be crazy to do drugs." Instead of dyeing Kira's hair (as the original plan was), we went with the whole buying a wig process. Phoenix thought it was so funny to see Kira in her wig, that he would just laugh and laugh. When Kira took it off to go play at the neighbor's house, Phoenix picked it up and put it on. That made him laugh too.

School Haze

On the way home from Kira's half day of school yesterday, she proudly announced that she had "made Maya." I followed up quickly with the question, "You made Maya? Then what part did God have in her creation?" Kira answered, " No mom, not made like that. Like we are friends again. I told her that I liked her coat and we are nice friends again." Oh, Kira had made up with Maya. Maya is one of the girls in her class that Kira constantly talks about. On day, Kira came home and told me how she and Maya were sitting in the back at story time. Before the story started, a boy that Maya is friends with outside of school told her to come up to the front and sit with him. Maya said to move up front with her, but Kira saw that there was no room for them and would not go. Yes, Kira talks about other kids in her class, at her table, who she plays with at recess and who she eats lunch with. So I know that there are kids in her class named Hanna, Fred, Aurora, Hailey, Amanda, Annika, Stephanie, and William.

Now this in combination with thoughts that Patrick had brought up earlier (how do we know when Kira will be allowed to play with kids from school? We don't know their parents. Will they live up to our expectations of discipline? Will they show our child a Godly example? Will Kira eat junk food the entire time she is over there?) has pushed me into wondering about this new stage of parenting. Kira has been in a world that we have created for her: a nice safe little bubble that we choose how big it is, contents of the bubble and who we allow into this bubble. Now she is off to school: a place where she will be receiving birthday invitations and play date invites from kids that we have not chosen to be with Kira, but they are in her life none-the-less. We have chosen and enrolled Kira into an educational program where she will be with the same 52 students for her entire pre-college education. That means 13 years of the same friends who will become more like siblings, and their parents who will inevitably be part of our lives too.

Now is the time for us to get to know the other parents. We are attending school functions and trying to meet the other parents. Some of them have older kids who are in the program already and they have forged alliances with the parents of the older sibling's friends. Some parents are from the same neighborhood and therefore carpool with others. Still another group of parents stand outside the warm-up room for 20 minutes before the end of school just to chat with the other parents. With 4 kids in tow under the age of 2, you can imagine that I am not part of the last group. I have had occasions where my kids were picked up early or someone was sick so I only had Phoenix. I have met a few of the parents who seem so nice, and they told me how much their child talks about Kira and how they played together. However while they are talking I sometimes find my mind wandering. (Imagine that... me over thinking an issue and analyzing it until it turns into a mere single celled organism. Another story, another time.) I think about what kind of parent they are and what would it be like if we let Kira go play at their house. Do they supervise enough? Do they let their kids talk back? How much junk food is in the house that the kids have free access to? What kind of respectful (or lack thereof) marriage relationship will they display before Kira? What kind of words or phrases might Kira learn from their child or older sibling? How much TV are they allowed to watch? What kind of TV shows?

And then I stop. I know that they have got to be wondering at least some of these same things about me and the future with our kids playing and learning together. This is when I must remind myself to have faith. Have faith in God, in Kira, in the way that we are raising her, in what we are teaching her, in the fact that Kira has personality traits to strengthen her in tough situations, and in the fact that we talk to Kira. I know that no one will be us; no one will be "good enough" to take our place, but I am not looking for someone to take our place. I am meeting my daughter's friends'/classmates' parents. They love their kids. They will take care of Kira like their own when she is playing with them. Of course, this does not mean that we let Kira just go to any one's house and play because they ask. We will have conversations with the parents, possibly go to these birthday parties and play dates with Kira. We will see the parents at school functions and chat with them. And we will continue to pray that Kira is the person who God wants her to be, that we are the parents who can raise her to serve and love God, and that God will make up for the places we lack in our parenting ability and failing examples. Kira already shows a desire to place Christ's example above her own wants and behaviors (not all of the time, but it is a great starting place.)

We will continue to allow Kira to venture out into that great big world of school. Of course, we will still discuss her school day with her and help her learn what was good about her day and what could have been better. We will continue to talk about her choices and how they are hers alone with consequences that she will bear. She is becoming more independent everyday, which is a good thing (to a point.) She is after all, one of tomorrow's adults.

Final Game

As you can tell, Phoenix was intently watching the final game of the World Series. OK, OK, honestly he barely stood still long enough for the picture, but he was the one standing there and I had to hurry with the camera.

Cute Snow Pictures