Dedicated to the one I love...

well one of the one's I love. You all know him as Adam, but his name is actually James Adam. He has been called Adimal, the A bomb, monkey, monster, and future ruler of a small nation. In all honesty I don't know a sweeter kid. This is one of the reasons we believe he could be a future politician. He has a way with people, they love him, they want love from him, they want to do things for him and they want to turn the other way if he is being naughty because any punishment for him is to severe.

We were recently in Sisters with the Dempsters and after waking up he came out of his room, went straight to Ryan and gave him a big hug, then the same for Emily. He does this because it comes natural to him, showing love is automatic. Which is good because he has lived longer then he should have as a result of this easy way of showing love. Because like all good future nation rulers he has some crazy ideas and they tend to get him in trouble.
He has put kitty litter in the toilet, has drawn with sharpie on one of my really good chairs in the family room, he has cut up a Christmas present before we even had a chance to put it together (actually he convinced Sarah to do that - so he could have plausible deniability), he has been found wandering the streets, in neighbors backyards and in neighbors garages on their motorcycles, helmet on! He has answered the door at friends houses - not our own mind you - totally naked, the list could go on and on and on. The boy is a walking experimenter of life.
He is also SO SO SO sweet and with each of these offenses I have felt little to no anger, because it's Adam. And you just can't be mad at Adam. He loves the anger right out of you. He is also really funny when he's in trouble. Saying things like "mom, everybody sins" presented to me by him as evidence as to why I shouldn't really be that upset. Really what 4 year old says that. He enjoys life and to his credit he never commits the biggies twice. He only stuck kitty litter in the toilet once, because why do it twice now that I know it does indeed turn into a paste. This is his philosophy on most of his experiments.
He's irresistible, he's fun, he's super cute and we love him so, so much! Thanks God for this crazy kid that completed our family so perfectly! Life would just be to simple and really lack excitement without him.

James Adam Kivett - running for future ruler of any small nation. You can donate to his campaign fund, however he only wants donations in change so they can fit in his fireman piggy bank.

How will the New Year look?

No one really knows, but we come at it with ideas, plans and resolutions.

Kyle and I have resolved to lose weight, eat healthy and act our age not 15 years older. This comes with the new year, and really with the end of a heavy duty season of insane business and a desire to see that slow down enough to care for our bodies a bit.

Every day I resolve to have a more active relationship with Christ, to grow in my knowledge of Him and to live like the daughter He desires me to be. I'm happy that is still a desire of mine, as I know that's supernatural. It's not really human nature to strive for something that will not be complete until the day I go home, meaning my heavenly home that is. But I do, and pray that I will continue to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as He spurs me on to desire that.

As for plans, I want to see my photography grow. I have learned I LOVE it, that it is a passion and something I want to grow into a business/ministry. I want to get really great at it, not for a pat on the back but because I love a great picture. So I'll continue to read, and practice and hopefully learn. If you know anyone getting married, I am officially up for a few more weddings, and I'm a great bargain!

I'm hoping to see traditional employment for my husband, but I am VERY aware that is up to God and we still don't know what He has in store for us.

I also hope to spend even more time together as a family. Being more proactive at putting the endless work aside to focus on the needs of our precious three, and watching them grow, we do not want to miss this time!!!

God is good, God is great! He has shown us repeatedly that He loves us, He will provide for us and that He is walking right beside us, actually carrying us along as we travel through this crazy life. I hope the new year finds each of you happy, but more importantly in Love with God and seeking Him at every turn in life. We have learned that you never know when that curve in the road is coming, only He can prepare you for it.

Season on Blessings

I won't even start saying how sad I am that I have been away from my blog for months. Instead I will say what a blessing our busy life has been. We have been going like crazy people here, hardly time to breath and relax, but through it all we have watched God provide. First He is providing projects that keep my husband, and myself, so busy we don't think about the lack of a traditional job, or insurance. There is no time to worry. Second He is providing enough for us to pay our bills and feel secure - some times just enough - but always enough. Third we are watching our future look uncertain. Which some would say is not a blessing, but I oddly feel excited to see where God will take all of these new adventures in our life.

The original start to my blog was as a way to journal our kids lives for them in the future. I was remembering this and feeling HUGLY ready to get back to that. There is so much that I have not documented, funny sayings and moments, times that make us proud, frustrated, sad and SO SO in love with them. But I will just have to start fresh and let go of what we won't remember one day because it was never written down.

A few weeks ago I was watching Sarah and Alex at breakfast. I have enjoyed watching them go through the year together. Riding the bus together, talking about their principal or what they did in PE. Being excited for school adventures and arriving at home "starving" together. As they were sitting eating breakfast and discussing the possibilities their day held it hit me that this is my special memory that they most likely will not have later. The simplicity of their friendship and their easy love for each other. They are truly friends and how they are right now most likely will change and they will find each other together at the breakfast table less and less. This precious way that kids their age are with each other - no pressing school projects yet, no boyfriends or girlfriends taking their attention, no e-mail or facebook or texting, no separate activities taking them from the home early in the morning. You always hope they will remember and be bonded by these early years, but so much will happen between now and adult hood that it's hard to say what they will hold onto in their minds. I hope they will always know that they had a great time together as kids, I so enjoy seeing it, hearing it and feeling the warm love we have in our home. What a blessing they are!

This years Christmas programs were full of blessings, but watching my kids always brings me special joy. Hearing Adam shout out to his grandparents and his dad, although not very professional was super funny and sweet. Watching him sing his heart out and do all the extra hand movements I used to teach him the words to "We Three Kings" was so cute. Seeing him grow at school, learning how to make good choices out of our home, and seeing him make new friends that he loves so much has been simply wonderful. His school program was sweet and he spoke his line "U is for Undying Love" so clearly and loudly! What a performer he is. Give him a minute and you will hear the hippest Jingle Bells ever! With air guitar included. What a blessing!

Watching Sarah in our church presentation was amazing. What a beauty and she was so relaxed, not an ounce of nerves. She watched her "director" and knew EVERY word. Not to mention she was always on time for her scarf dance. Loved watching that! And Alex with his little solo and duet with his life long friend Brynn. Hearing how excited he was and watching him invite the entire world was such a proud mama moment. What a blessing!

Last blessing that I will include here - although there are many - is the HUGE blessing of church family. We have seen first hand what God has designed with the church coming along side and holding us up. We have been so loved with words of encouragement and gifts of help that we hardly know what to say. Our hope through this season of change and trial was that our kids would look back and say they didn't realize that daddy was ever out of work. That they did not worry about our security and that we just went on living life, trusting God and being a family serving our Savior together. Loving each other and learning Gods lessons for our little family. Thank you God for this opportunity to see how a loving church family can be a tangible example of your love and provision. What a blessing!

Now on to the rest of the holiday adventures. I'm hoping I will see some of those documented here now, rather then wait 2 months for a new blog post to happen. I hope everyone will have a blessed Christmas!

The Kroc Center

I thought I would share a brief little blog about the Kroc Center with you. I had the pleasure of photographing the opening weekend events with my good friend Valerie and Valerie Hibler Photography. The facility is amazing, I highly encourage everyone to kidnap their kids and go. Membership for adults is $25 a month, and kids is $15, not bad. And as a bonus childcare is free while you workout. They have all the great workout machines, they have a wonderful gym and dance studio, not to mention a chapel, banquet rooms, computer rooms, art rooms, guitar hero and rock band room, outdoor theatre and more. The best feature in my opinion though is the olympic size pool and the kids pool. There is a water slide and a splash pool and a cool outdoor splash pad as well. Lot of fun. Here are a few pics, sorry about the quality, I didn't take the time to make these look great, I just wanted you to get the idea of how great the place is. They offer lots of classes to, check it out!

Part of the kid area, you can see the squirters if you make the picture bigger.
At the far end is the water slide.
The huge hot tub. With the kids party room in the background!
The bottom of the slide and one of the water dump stations.
The rock climbing wall. You can take classes for this even. I noticed they offer a 2 hour, saturday morning class, for kids Alex's age.
Synchronized swimming was warming up when we were there, gotta love the choreography they do before they even get in the pool.
My favorite picture from the weekend, the mayor cutting the "ribbon" - actually a badminton net- with some of the kids this was designed for watching.

I still have a blog... who knew?!

Disneyland
Good times with Friends
Hiking
Cruise to Alaska
First Day of School

So, I guess I still have a blog. Hmmm, I appear to have forgotten about it. I think it's been crazy and not crazy around here all at the same time (the above pictures are an abbreviated way to blog about our summer). Having Kyle home makes normal life things harder, I just don't want to do anything. If he is sitting on the couch working on the computer, then I want to cuddle up and watch HGTV. So not much gets done. Bad me, but good times. Then add to that a cruise at the time I normally blog first day of school stories and you get little blog activity. So, sadly I have no funny first day of school story. Bummer, because there have been some very good first day stuff in the Kivett household. Instead the school year is going along like clockwork. Alex is SO happy in his new class. He has a man teacher and has already received a call home, from the principle no less, to tell us he is doing EXCELLENT in his class. So nice to get that kind of a call from the principle. Sarah Just plane loves school, she loves to learn and in fact was thrilled to have homework over the weekend. Love it! Adam, who started preschool, is just happy to be doing something. Especially with girls around, my boys love the ladies, what can I say. This week brings with it the sub class for Kyle. So he should be subbing here anytime, making getting stuff done a little easier for me. Plus, I think he is getting bored. I would have liked to have seen the year end, and so would he, with a job. But God has different plans for us. He has blessed us with nearly 20 students, thank you, so that will keep us busy and help provide some needed income. I am doing childcare for my neighbor. One very sweet and SUPER easy 6 month old three days a week. So that helps, and hopefully subbing will fill in the gaps. We are blessed to have these options and I'll keep you all posted on how it's going. Our biggest prayer is our health. We have no insurance, so please don't throw our kids around, we can't afford to put them back together if they break. Hopefully fall holds lots of great things for our friends and family, I'm looking forward to changing colors and cooler days. Jeans and sweaters and cozy fires. We know God has big plans for us and those around us. Looking forward to seeing what he bring our way.

Enjoying a new hobby

So lately I have been enjoying my new - true hobby - photography. It's really fun to have something that is just for fun. I am passionate about music, but it is also my job so it's not the same. For Christmas Kyle gave me a new camera, I still don't know how to use all of it's fancy parts. Slowly I started taking pictures for people, because I enjoy the challenge and it's great practice, and oddly people keep asking. Ultimately I want to be able to take amazing pictures of my kids but they can only handle so much practice. I actually think my talent may be the detail pictures, meaning the cool mountain shot or the flowers that look so pretty. But every now and then I capture a really neat moment and I get so excited to see it. My next challenge is learning how to print these pictures in a way that doesn't look like just a regular snap shot. They look great on the computer but not as awesome printed up. (I also really want photoshop) I'm super blessed to have REALLY talented friends that actually know what they are doing. I'm actually trying to convince one of them, Valerie, to offer some classes in general on how to take good pictures and how to use our cameras. Kind of a mommy friendly class on how to really capture our kids lives on film. Good idea I think, right Valerie? :) These are a few of the thousands, I am not kidding, that I have taken over the last month. Gotta love digital. So if I call you up and say, hey can I have your children for the next few hours, say yes please. Maybe I'll grab a good shot of your sweeties.I like the colors of this picture. The log floating on the beautiful rocks. I wish it hadn't been so hazy so that the mountains looked a little prettier.
One of my favorite little girls with a huge weed - I know those have a name but I can't think of it.


I love the back light on this one. When I look at it bigger Ethan's eyes are so pretty.

I just really like the composition of this one. There is a free photoshop web site where I can change everything but her dress to black and white, so pretty that way.
The Libby clan, some of our dearest friends. Thanks for letting me play with you guys, I have so many new ideas just based of that little photo shoot.
These are some of my scenery shots - for lack of a better term. I just think they are pretty.

The Dempster clan, another set of really dear friends.
I love these "country" pictures we took.


I don't know why I love this one of Adam's hands hanging out of the car so much, but I think it is really cool. These were taken on our recent tent trailer camping adventure.
Mt. Adams, which Adam thought was pretty cool.

Just interesting to me to look at. Nothing more to say.

8?!

Wow, Alex is 8 years old. Amazing! 8 years and 4 days ago I went to the hospital to be induced after being almost two weeks over due. I was nervous and excited. The first day was kind of fun, we played cards and had a ton of visitors. Kyle's parents and brothers family were waiting to leave on a long vacation until after we had the baby and so they were already passed their intended departure date. There was a bit of pressure, but I had high expectations of having that baby in the next few hours so no worries.....HA! At the end of day one, NOTHING. I was super bummed and starving as I had not eaten all day. Also I was really worried about having to get a second i.v. since the first one took 4 or 5 tries. Anyway, they sent me home, kindly with the i.v. still in, and Kari and Kate got me some dinner at Sharis. A club sandwich, I still remember. When I came back on day two I had made some progress over night and the doctor said I would for sure be having that baby.......HA! The end of day two came and NO progress. The doctor felt really bad for me so had me stay over night and tried a different type of induction, one where I could walk around and eat....NO PROGRESS! By day three I banned all visitors, I was a bit stressed and I was really feeling the contractions, with no relief. They were one right after the other. Finally at 6 PM my water broke, and I immediately wanted my mommy. Oh and drugs. Well it just went from bad to worse at this point. Apparently this kid had a big head because he was not coming. Every time I had a contraction his heart beat dipped, big time. And I was having contractions every 2 minutes or so. My blood pressure was dangerously low and I was still not progressing. So they gave me a new drug to stop the contractions - which made me shake and scared the whole room - and wheeled me off for my emergency c-section. At 12:55 AM on July 19 2001 the first of three of the most awesome gifts from God came into my life. Sadly I slept through about 12 of the first hours of his life, but once I was truly awake (I lost a lot of blood and was on morphine sp?, thus the sleepiness) I fell totally in love with this guy. He was an easy baby, minus that random rage he occasionally showed us. In fact we were not sure we qualified as parents with how easy he was. And he is growing into an amazing kid. He is smart, talented, a good brother and friend and learning every day how to show love for the Lord. We are proud of him and I can't wait to see where God takes him as he continues to make his journey through this crazy life. Yesterday we had a rock party, thus the cool hair picture at the top of the blog. Love you Alexander Allen, and I will love you even more tomorrow!