Snow Day!

The Children Present

Well the weekend is almost over and I am now able to sit and look back at the amazing weekend.  This past weekend we had our children's presentation at church.  I get the extreme pleasure of directing these amazing kids and working side by side with some of the most outstanding adults out there.  This year's presentation was "Meet Me At the Manger" and it was filled with the usual "interesting" moments.  Before I share some of the more funny and scary stories I will say that God was glorified, these kids were used and I know that God was pleased with our efforts.  I am always encouraged by these little hearts that give up their time, do things that are REALLY out of their comfort zone and do it with a smile.  Why?  Because they are doing it for Christ and His glory.  How can you walk away from that and not be encouraged in your own walk.  

The first scary thing we had to deal with was the weather.  I know that there was a lot of praying that went out, just hoping we were going to get to do it.  God was good and held off the big stuff.  This was the first year that I had all three of my kids involved in the presentation.  My two youngest were in the pee-wee's.  Sarah was actually fairly uneventful, got up on stage with a smile, sang the songs and off she went.  HUGE change from last year.  Adam, however presented some, um, embarrassing moments.  For the first presentation he became very concerned that his shirt was untucked.  So on the stage, front and center, he starts trying to tuck it in.  Well he is really digging down to achieve this task and as a result he spends the entire first run of "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" with his hands down his pants.  And then there was the third presentation where I spent a few minutes chasing him around the stage.  Finally I picked him up and handed him off to grandpa.  When I asked him if he wanted to sing or go to grandpa he said "no, I wanna play with the mics"  Fantastic.  

Alex managed to keep most of his antics to the rehearsals for the big choir.  He was in trouble almost all the time but he turned it on for the presentations.  In fact he was even trying to "parent" the other kids so they would stay on task.  His hair was a bit of a distraction for him, but that's the price you pay for good rock star hair.  

Some of the other great moments were from other kids.  One girl hit her face with a mic right before her solo, that was great.  There was the pastors son playing air guitar during one of the songs, which the audience loved.  There was the kid that when I asked the choir what their secret weapon was, he said, without missing a beat "gas".  I was looking for cuteness.   There was the kid that thought he needed to show his neighbor how awesome his thumbs looked sticking out of his shirt right in the middle of the big serious moment for the choir, and he was in the front row.  Of course Mary couldn't find baby Jesus for the opening scene last night, caused mass confusion for the manger scene crew.  Then the biggie, the phone call at 6:00 this morning telling me that my lead girl had the serious stomach flu.  God was good and had her little sister right there willing to do it.  Amazing that she pulled it off.  An hour before the presentation she went through it for the first time on stage, the other actors helped her along and at one point she had to use the script on stage, but she did awesome and we were still able to present all the hard work.  Lastly there was the multiple times I almost pulled my skirt off last night.  The lace kept getting stuck in the heal of my boot and when I would go to stand the whole skirt would get pulled down.  Really frightening a few times.  Seriously the stories could go on and on, but over all I have to say it was amazingly fun, really encouraging and as always a chance to see God's hand at work.  He is faithful and good and never leaves us to do it alone.

photo shoot

OK, so I am going to attempt to post some pictures from my most recent photo shoot with my good friend Valerie Hibler.  If you do not go to this girl for pictures you are nuts, she is amazing!  Check out her website  www.valeriehiblerphotography.webs.com and see her work.  What I am posting is mostly proofs from a cd she sent me, so they are not as beautiful as they will be when finished.  She has this amazing ability to make our pictures so flawless and timeless.  She can even move heads, that's right, move heads.  Moms know how fantastic that is because we have such a hard time getting everyone to look at the camera.  Or we finally get the kids to look wonderful and we have a horrible double chin!  She can even take a few pounds off if you want her too :)  There are no family pictures here because they needed to much tlc from her still, when I get a nice finished product I will post it.  Most of you will be getting our Christmas card this year and I can't wait for you to see the awesome picture she took for that.  I am really pleased with how it turned out.  Enjoy a few pictures of my kiddos and call this girl, you will be so glad that you did.
















 

Seattle with Sarah

It's been a while since my last post.  I have missed it terribly.  I love writing down all the crazy, special, discouraging moments in my life.  It's great therapy!  Last weekend Kyle and I took Sarah to Seattle for 4 days.  We go every year for Kyle's work and have started taking one kid at a time to spoil them rotten.  Sarah did great, and it is really right up her alley as the girl LOVES to shop.  She did have a hard time hearing no after a while, got a bit of a princess complex, but she slept great and loved all the new adventures.  The princess complex has reduced significantly since returning home to two brothers that need mom and dad too.  The first night was just in the room as we didn't get there until 8:00.  We got to our room and she took one look at her big bed and was so happy.  She couldn't believe she got a whole big bed to herself, she tried out all 100 pillows (why do they put so many on those hotel beds?)  until she found the one that was just right.  On Sunday we slept in, had breakfast with daddy and then hung out while daddy worked a bit.  By the time we were headed into the city she was more then ready for an adventure.  We parked over by the Seattle Center so we could ride the monorail into the shopping district.  She thought the space needle was really cool and really wanted to go into it.  She had to settle for a snow globe of it instead.  After the train ride we shopped for several hours.  She loved the bookstore the best and bought herself her first Ameillia Bedillia (sp?) book.  She loved retelling the story to her brothers after we got home.  On Sunday we did some Christmas shopping while Kyle worked and then went to IKEA.  We always like looking for odds and ends for home there and we actually really like the meatballs.  Sarah liked the pre-made rooms that they have there, she found a little nursery and was right at home playing house.  We then took her to see Bolt, which was really cute.  I recommend it to anyone.  The hamster is super funny.  Sadly Monday we had to head home, although I was really ready to see my boys.  Sarah did not want to come home, so I know she had a great time.  Next year we will be taking Adam, which may have a totally different flow to it.  Who knows, we may get kicked out of the hotel with that one :)  (the above pictures are from our day downtown)

Here is Sarah enjoying our deck.

Treasured Moments

The last week has had some unexpected and nice moments of peace and some really fun times too.  Here are a few pictures from the last week in the Kivett household.  

Here is Adam all ready for his first Birthday party where he was the Kivett kid invited.  He was so excited, that he carried his invite around for 2 days, sleeping with it and everything.  The theme was Wall-E and so we went and got him a sweatshirt to wear to the party, here he is sporting it.

Everybody's Kung Fu Fighting!!!  The extra's on DVD's can be so fun.  Here the kids are learning some kung fu Panda moves.  They also enjoyed the "learn to draw" section of the DVD.  We killed probably 2 hours going through the extras, really fun.


Here is my amazing husband enjoying his time in front of his Jazz Band.  He is so cute and I am so proud of him.  He had a really fun swing dance fundraiser last weekend.  They give lessons for 30 minutes prior, then the schools jazz groups perform.  Last they have a local jazz band play for 60 - 90 minutes so everyone can dance.  Really fun.
Kyle's brother-in-law delivers fire trucks.  Last Monday our doorbell rang and I thought one of the kids must have called 911 because there was a fire truck parked in our street.  It was Chris and he swept Alex out of bed and took him for a spin around the block.  Alex LOVED it!!!  Chris even honked the horn for him.  What a way cool uncle.
Here is Alex holding our dear friends, the Griffith's, baby.  Brian was our best man so it is so fun still being a part of each other's lives.  The baby is beautiful and Alex loved holding him, he keeps saying he wants a new baby brother.  Sorry to let you down bud, but it isn't gonna happen.
Sarah with her current stuffed love.  She goes everywhere with this baby Simba from Disneyland.  To bad the puppy also really likes it and keeps trying to steal it.
Alex thinks he's a rocker, but really he is just telling me how much he loves me.  I think I won't fix that, I'll take an I Love You however I can get it.  Although he actually hands those out pretty freely.
Last here is my cute baby, and he is growing up way to fast.  I just really liked this picture, he has the camera strap around his neck and was thinking I was silly for taking his picture.  But who could resist such a cute subject!

Take Time To Enjoy

My life has been crazy busy, always is this time of year.  But yesterday Kyle was gone all day for a concert at work and I decided I was going to take time to enjoy.  I was going to enjoy my sleep, enjoy my kids, enjoy my house, enjoy my projects, enjoy all that God has given me.  I think that my favorite part of the day came as I put all the kids in their baths.  They are all so different in what they like.  Alex wanted a bath alone, no toys, with his music.  He wanted to "relax".  How many 7 year old boys want to relax in the bath.  He laid back, closed his eyes and enjoyed the peace of it.  Sarah was all about practicing her swimming technique, luckily our bath is just big enough for her to feel like she can do some of that.  She also just LOVES feeling how long and flowing her hair is under water.  She will lay for several minutes just feeling her hair.  Adam wants to be in my shower and clean, clean, clean.  He loves a wash cloth so he can wash down all the walls several times.  They are funny to me, and precious and when I stop and really look at them they are very easy to enjoy.  Now, I need to go find joy in my laundry.  

So Much Candy!

Halloween was a blast this year.  My kids looked amazing, but I know I'm biased.  Sarah was Belle, and so beautiful.  Adam was Peter Pan - really isn't he a true Peter Pan personality.  I thought it was the perfect pick.  Alex was Jack Sparrow, black eyes and everything.  We started the night off at Emily's for a neighborhood chili feed.  The chili was yum, and I really enjoyed my chili dog.  We had some great carmel corn and deviled eggs to go along with it.  There were several families from our neighborhood and quite a gang of kids in their costumes.  It was really fun, and felt very festive.  We started trick or treating at 6:00 and I was amazed at the turn out.  We had people bussing in to our neighborhood and Cambridge.  CRAZY.  I handed out 150 or more, pieces of candy.  It felt like and small town in days gone by.  Large groups running around, houses decorated, tons of families out.  It was really fun.  Sarah of course, fell on the second house.  This was a bummer because it took forever for her to truly recover and start moving at a pace that was less like a snail.  Adam got tired on about the 6th house so needed carried.  At one point I was carrying Adam on my hip and holding Sarah's dress up so that she wouldn't trip.  Why she couldn't hold her dress up is a mystery, but it just became "too much!"  Alex was well ahead of us with his current crush Sarah.  It was funny because Alex was with big Sarah and Adam was with his little tiny Alex and then Sarah went outside the family names by hanging with Becca.
  Adam pooped out about half way through and stayed back at our house with Grandma, who was kindly passing out candy.  The other two were out for an hour and a half.  I was amazed, I guess the need for sugar will really drive kids to achieve.  The saddest part of the night was the lack of their father.  Kyle had to work and so missed all the fun.  Bummer.  I hope everyone had such a great night, enjoy some of our pictures, the top pumpkin pic is what Kyle did with the kids a few nights.  Sarah's is the happy one, Alex is the scary one and Adam's is the silly one.  If you can't tell Adam's is standing on his head :) 

Ode to Fall

I love fall.  I love the activities, the smells, the colors and watching my kids enjoy a beautiful day like yesterday.  I love a warm Oregon fall day.  They can be rare which adds to their beauty and enjoyment.  This year we are extra blessed in our new house.  We have a really gorgeous view off of our deck.  I have loved watching the colors change, even though raking is a pain, I love a yard covered in fallen leaves.  Sarah and Adam can go searching for leaves right in our backyard which is great for me, I can watch with a cup of coffee and never leave our family room.  We didn't have a chance to go to the big pumpkin patch this year, but yesterday was so beautiful that we thought, even though we are super tired and want to nap, let's go find some pumpkins and take a drive.  If you don't drive the outskirts of Salem often, you should.  It's such a pretty place to live.  We went out to a place we had heard of out South and it was closed.  They have a hay tower that you can play in right on the road, and it's free, so we went ahead and played for a bit even though we couldn't get any pumpkins there.  After we went to a local patch and picked out some pumpkins to carve.  It was relaxing, and a chance to really look at God's creation.  When we have such breath taking thinks to enjoy here on earth I can only imagine what heaven will be like!  Enjoy a few pictures of our fall day.

Going for it - Thanks a lot Amanda!

Alright, I have officially been motivated to blog about my desire to loose 20 pounds.  I have been inspired by my very good friend Amanda, who did this and lost the weight.  Well she only had to loose 10 pounds, and really she was already so skinny.   I have decided to go in baby steps, I actually would love to loose 30 pounds but don't want to put a goal out there that is only going to discourage me.  I feel that I need some encouragement along the way, I guess I have a hard time focusing and waiting until all 20 pounds is gone is just too long.  So I am going to reward the hard work at 10 pounds, 15 pounds and then 20 pounds.  Those rewards are yet to be determined with the help of my hubby.  If I loose the 20, see already negative talk...WHEN I loose the 20 I will decide if I should loose the extra 10.  I feel like Valerie Bertinelli, she started with 20 and then went for the extra 10.  My hope would be to loose this weight in 12 weeks - we shall see.  Wish me luck, I am very rebellious and feel that really if I would just choose to take care of myself like I know I should, this would be easy.  Not to mention that I want to be a good healthy example for my kids.  Exercise and good food here I come.  As a side note, why do I have to love sugar so much?  And with Halloween right around the corner.  Deep sigh.

Little Friends

I love watching my kids make new little friends.  Yesterday I went with Sarah to the pumpkin patch with her class and got to watch her with her newest best friend Becca. Becca lives in the house right behind ours, and I am thrilled to learn she comes from a christian family.  As I was watching them together I got visions of our possible future.  They were giggly and silly and at one point they were even trying to leave one little girl out so that they could be alone.  This of course provided a chance for me to talk to Sarah about loving everyone, but it was really sad to me that they are already falling into those girl patterns of drama.  Kyle said that one day they may have a zip line connecting Becca's backyard to ours, or maybe one of those can phone lines.  I'm not sure about that, but I do know that right now they are madly in love with each other and want to spend every waking moment together.  Watching them yesterday and over the last few weeks has revived my desire to pray faithfully for my kids. 

Pray that they make good choices in school friends, that they put Christ first living out His plans for them rather then pushing for their own earthly desires.  It's hard to let the grip of my kids go a little bit as they enter into the world of school, but I know God will protect them, that He is in control and that they are not mine to hold tight to.  

1st graders are odd.

I have the pleasure of volunteering in Alex's classroom this year.  I am really enjoying being there, although I must admit 1st graders are little odd.  I feel the whole time I am in the room that I am gambling with my health, as many of them appear to have rather dirty hands.  They have an odd smell to them up close and they seem to always want to be "up close".  Last time I was there I made the mistake of letting this one little guy tell me all about his dream from the night before.  Well that did it, I was now officially his story telling victim.  Every time I turned around he was there, asking if he could tell me a story or tell me about something really scary.  It was hard not to roll my eyes, plus when I was trying to not look at him I could tell he was looking at me.  It became this battle of wills between us, as I looked anywhere but at him and he looked only at me.  After volunteering this week Alex had a melt down at home.  I asked him what was wrong and he finally cried out,"my girlfriend is moving to another state".  I was not aware he had a girlfriend, so I started to ask him who she was.  But no sooner had I taken a breath to speak then he was throwing his hands up saying, "I guess i'll have to get a new one".  I hope he will recover so easily from heart break when he is a teenager.  Really, first grade is great.  The kids are still sweet and fun and have a lot of little kid in there.  But they are a little odd.

Valerie Hibler Photography

You should notice a new web stop in my side bar.  It's Valerie Hibler Photography.  Please check it out.  This girl is an amazing photographer and as a bonus one my very good friends.  Check out her site and get those pictures taken.  Really, having beautiful, meaningful pictures is something you will treasure forever.  Check her out and smile!

My dog is wearing a sweater!

I never thought we would own a dog that wears a sweater.   I must say I use the word dog pretty loosely.  So far I have been way more excited about poop and pee where the dog is concerned then with my own kid.  Granted I can't put a diaper on the dog, well at least I don't think I can. She has the funniest bark, she can make herself sound like two dogs.  She whines and barks at the same time, really entertaining for Kyle and I.  She has survived the three year old, although he did launch himself down the stairs, jumping over pillows, while holding her this morning.  She looked a little worried, but then she always looks a little worried, something about those eyes.  Shopping for the sweater last night about pushed Kyle over the edge, although secretly I think he likes it.  We tried to find one with skulls and guns on it, but instead ended up with an orange and black striped one, that Alex picked out and a heart design one that Sarah picked out.  Sarah also picked a cute pink striped one for my moms dog.  An exciting adventure, well exciting might be over stating it, more like a little sad and funny to be buying our dog a sweater.  In our defense, it's because she's always cold, not because we like dressing our animals up. 

Chiweenie

The two kids holding my moms dog and our dog and our little Padme' with her chew toy.

Well we broke down and got a rat dog.  Granted it's a pretty cute rat dog, but rat dog all the same.  My mom called on Tuesday saying they had found a puppy that they wanted to get and they would like to buy Alex her sister.  At first we said no, she's to fragile and will get hurt way to easy, but being weak, we gave in to Alex who really wanted her.  I must say she is really cute and sweet and I am totally in love with her.  I'm not so sure that Kyle has grown to love her as much as I have.  What was really funny was that when we originally started talking about getting Alex a puppy he said OK but no dachshund and REALLY NO chiuaua.  Well we came home with a Chiweenie, a mix of those two exact breeds.  Its breed nick-name is the Mexican Hotdog!  So far I have been very pleased with her training, although we have had a few accidents today.  I think she's going to be a great addition to our family, and also the source of many great stories to come.  She has already had a fit over seeing Kyle's reflection in our sliding glass door and her own reflection.  I'm sure it is only going to get more interesting.

Sounds like a great blog entry.

Sounds like a great blog entry.  This is what Kyle said to me a few nights ago as I described my day to him, never a good thing.  The day started with Adam sleeping in, I thought what a great thing for me.  I was wrong.  As I am walking out the door to take Sarah and Alex to the bus stop Adam wakes up, and he is GRUMPY!  He does not want me to leave, and he does not want to come with me.  I finally just have to go or we are going to miss the bus.  I get all the way down the street and hear this kid screaming for his mommy, oh yes it's my kid.  As a side note, Alex gets on the bus right in front of our house, with a little friend of his, Sarah gets on the bus at the end of our street with two of her little friends, why we have two stops so close together I'm not really sure.  Anyway, Adam is screaming for me, which sends Alex into a panic so he is screaming for me to "come back, Adam needs you".  I am starting to feel a little embarrassed that everyone around us is watching these two boys scream down the street at me, what I don't realize is that this is only the beginning.  I leave Sarah, which she does not like, run back to the house and grab Adam.  He has no coat, no socks, green snot is running down his face and it's very cold out.  I feel like a really awesome mom right now.  I get back to the stop as the bus is pulling up.  I give Sarah a hug and she is very calmly walking on when her foot hits the first step of the bus.... something triggers PANIC!  She starts screaming, really yelling and trowing a fit.  I try to make her sit down, the bus driver tries to make her sit down - nothing is working.  I get off the bus and turn around to see my daughter standing on the other side of the closed doors crying her eyes out and screaming her head off.  Let me remind you there are lots of parents watching.  The bus driver has to open the door, as Sarah won't sit down.  The bus drives off to the next stop as I am telling her that she can't go to school today because she didn't ride the bus.  WOW, that really sent her into a fit and the next thing I know she is running down the street chasing the bus, which of course she does not catch (this was really sad and a bit pathetic to watch).  By the time I get home she is standing at our van, begging me to take her to school.  I make her promise she will never do that again, which she does, and off we go.  By the way, Adam is still not dressed and his nose is still not wiped.  Well I am very glad I took her to school, because when I get there I find out Alex is frantic, he thinks he lost his sister.  He didn't know she didn't get on the bus and unknown to me he had been walking her to class every day after they got off the bus, how sweet is that.  He had gone to her class and he and her teacher were searching everywhere for her.  I then had to explain the whole event to her teacher and I also had to explain why my crazy kids get on the bus in two different places.  UGHHHH.  I realize that I have not showered, I'm in my sweats and my three year old looks like I don't care for him at all, bare feet and all - a real white trash moment!  I see Alex standing behind me with huge eyes, so worried about Sarah, so that almost made the morning worth it, almost.  Needless to say we now get on the bus at the same stop and Sarah has not cried again about getting on the bus.  I have survived another adventure in parenting.

Thank you, thank you very much.

These are the words that I hear floating down the stairs right now.  Apparently Sarah has won a music award of some kind and is making a grand speech to her fans.  Sarah , Alex and Adam are all in a band, rocking out.  The boys are on guitar and Sarah, of course, is the lead singer.  It's really very precious to watch them, and of course it makes their musical parents proud.  Beyond these wonderful talents that they are working on, currently Adam is also trying his best to best the toilet.  Yesterday was a sad day as the toilet bested him.  He tried a couple of times to go and just couldn't make it happen, then at Burger King he had the blow out.  Poop from neck, I'm not kidding, to feet, again not kidding.  Poor kid, poor mom, poor people at Burger King eating lunch.  Today he was defeated before he even started as he has now developed a hate of the toilet and wants his diapers back.  I really don't blame him, poop everywhere just is not fun for anyone.  I'm sure the day that he wins the battle over the toilet I will blog a novel, as I will be so excited.  But for now we'll just keep working on it.  Although public outings may need to be a thing of the past for a while.  I have just received an invitation to watch the band play a gig in our bonus room, cool.  (the picture is an old one of the band in the early days)