Knead and Feed and some other stuff too

Kyle and I were blessed to have the entire holiday weekend alone in Seattle. My amazingly awesome parents offered!!! to take our kids! God bless them. The weekend started off with a bang, watching little Adam graduate from preschool. What an amazing experience we have had there, all three kids graduated from Judson Baptist Preschool and now an era is over for us. Hard to believe.

Here's Adam with his amazing teacher that took him such a long way this year. He is more then prepared to be a kinder and amazingly he has successfully learned to follow instruction and behave in a socially ok way. This is a big deal for this crazy kid and we are very proud.
I don't have any pictures of the first day or so of our trip. We took the long way, back roads, to seattle, 8 hrs people! But we saw some beautiful scenery and I took a lovely nap and no one was in the back seat asking when we would get there and fighting so it was all good.
Saturday was sleeping in, finding a yummy breakfast and shopping at some outdoor cottage type shops, then we read, for hours... and hours! Sigh, so wonderful. After all that relaxing we headed out for dinner at this place we found on line. It was in an old Seattle neighborhood and it was yum. Here's Kyle playing at the local park, and me outside the place we ate.
After dinner we took in some jazz, and our table was almost on stage we were so close. I was actually touching the stage most of the time, and it was great because we could really see everything happening. I love watching their fingers and hearing them communicate with each other.
On Sunday we hopped on the ferry and headed to Whidbey island. This for me was the highlight of our trip. Very cute - full of small towns that remind me of little fishing villages. Great shops and AMAZING food.
Here we are on the ferry, first time for me so fun memory to make with my main squeeze.
taking a walk on the beach, check out the shells they were everywhere. Huge whole shells.

Then we ate here, at this amazing wonderful place that I highly recommend. I suggest reservations, but they took Kyle's cell number and called us when they had a table free. So we were able to get our beach walk in while we waited for a table. Really you have got to eat here. If for no other reason then the toast!
I know, toast should not be a reason to eat somewhere, but oh how it is. The best toast ever, homemade and so buttery good.
And this wasn't to bad either :) Look at our cute table markers for the servers.
And what I wished I had room for as I walked out the door with my...
cup of coffee to go, free when you get coffee with your meal. Just make a to go cup to have in hand while you walk around town. So perfect!
All the stores and buildings had neat old, knobs on their doors. Here is just one of many.
We found an old block house at the museum and the light upstairs was awesome for pictures, Kyle went crazy. I love the baby cradle that you can see in this one.
The town of Coupville where we spent most of our time, isn't it cute!?
This crazy seal that was feeding the birds, not kidding you, he would come with fish and the birds would jump on his back and take it, then they would do it again. Crazy.
Me and my sweetie!
We ended the day by exploring the lighthouse and Kyle walked around Fort Casey while I read. (I started and finished a book, so rare.) Then we enjoyed coffee in another little down while reading at a table outside under an umbrella. Because of course it was drizzly, but we didn't care, it was still lovely.
So thanks mom and dad, we loved it, we are still feeling refreshed from it, and I can't wait to take my kids back to Whidbey Island. I think that's a pretty great sign that it was a successful weekend.

Band Man for Hire

The season is upon us for searching for that new job. The one that will finally give us some closure from Gladstone, the one that will help us feel more secure, the one that would help me not panic at all when I hear my childcare gig might be ending sooner rather then later and that unemployment is up soon and that our mortgage is going up... and so on. Of course these things all happen at the same time, because isn't that how it goes for everyone. But I have peace, supernatural peace that comes from my heavenly Father. I know He will provide, as he has all year. I wish I could say OK Lord I'm done, and poof it would be over, but that would be a shame because I would be missing out on something He has in store for me. I've learned and I think grown this year. We have relied on Christ and become more unified as a couple. We have truly found joy in our trial, all because of God. I know this is a God thing because I am a worrier. I fret and wonder and think "what if" and "what will we do"? But God has claimed all that from me, thank you Lord. Yet I still found myself rather teary as Kyle headed out Monday morning to turn in his remaining application pieces to Mt. Angel high school. I was praying, please God if this is your will, if this is a good fit, allow this job to happen. But more then that I don't want to fail, I want to stay strong in the Lord, I want to continue to rely on Him to let Him do it and not try and force this trial to be over. I want my husband to stay positive, to not lose hope or think himself less then he is. I can't put into words my amazement with him and how he has endured this, how he has stayed strong for all of us, and really lead my attitude through his own attitude. I'm blessed and I know that this year has brought that understanding even more to the surface, but pray for us. Pray first that we continue to rely on Him and second that if it's God will this trial will close for us soon. Thank you God for these days and for the plan I know you have for us and patience you continually grant us as we wait on You.

Birthdays + Easter =

No time for blogging and a whole lot of fun! This year Sarah had a PJ party minus the sleep over. She had a group of girlfriends, lifelong and school friends, over for the classic slumber party fun! There were makeovers and dancing and pillow fights... you get the idea. They ended the night with these little take home treats. Sarah's parties are so fun for me to organize, I love getting really girly even as I age, it's great living a little of my youth again by watching her.

Then we had the combined family party. Birthday's one week apart makes it hard, so they each get a friend party than they have one party together with the family. This year we played games with questions about the birthday sweeties and Sarah won for Adam and Alex won for Sarah. Nice to know the siblings know each other so well.
This was the beginning of Easter week, two parties down, but real life was also taking place. Like watching this little sweet guy! Yes we are teaching him to sing already.
And every night we had Easter practice - here I am with one of my PT peeps - that stands for Praise Team, a small group on mics. We had way more fun then we probably should have complete with some rad dance moves and a whole lot of laughter.
And by day I was still being mommy - Adam out front guarding the homestead. I feel so much safer with him around.
And more singing - yes we are getting down and loving it!
Mommy by day - Adam working on his new laptop that he got from grandma and grandpa all while sporting the batman PJ's.
singing monster by night - here we are doing our best to feel some soul while singing a gospel number.
Then the end of the week held a super cool Abbygail party for Adam - wow it was fun. I have an album on facebook that lays it all out there, but here he is watching as our surprise guest arrived, Abbygail herself. What a special celebration for a special 5 year old.

And we also had to dye eggs, this was actually the first time I had ever done this with the kids and it was really fun. While the kids worked on eggs and I helped them, Kyle talked about Easter and it's importance in our life. It was a nice way to spend Saturday morning before kissing them goodbye as they stayed with the grandparents while we camped out at church for the weekend.
Adam's egg says Jesus, I think.
Sarah went with a pretty little stripe.
And Alex drew a cross, I think there was more to his egg on the other side, but I don't remember.
The finished product. They actually ate some which shocked me.
Here we are Sunday morning after two performances Saturday night having some vocal warm-up. Really a great weekend, I loved the music and the message was clear.
I had to include this shot - taken by a photographer at church. These two played Adam and Eve, I think the hardest roles out there, they were really good sports.

The weekend was topped off with an egg hunt with the cousins at my folks place. Whew, it makes me a little tired just looking at all we did. God was so good and kept us healthy and happy. As always a great week, and a crazy week.
Can you see the egg hiding in the pillow case. The oldest cousins hid the eggs this year, they had some pretty clever spots too.

All the craziness aside, I have to say, I am grateful for my Lord and Savior. I am awed by Him and that is always renewed in this season. I watch as God puts our presentations together each year, and as he keeps everyone so calm and leaning on Him. There is no tension, no harsh words, no grumpy servants. Everyone is working together to please Him and He sees us thru. I get to thank God for not only the birth of two of my children at this time and the huge blessing that they are, but also for the eternity I get to look forward to with Christ. Thank you for the cross Lord, thank you for the price you paid. Bearing all my sin and shame in love you came.

Life is always changing

On Tuesday my husband went to visit his dad. Kermitt was always a hard worker, a busy man that loved his farm and working the land. Since the passing of Kyle's mom Arlene, Kermitt has aged, a lot. The stress was hard on him and his Parkinson's disease. He has a stutter now and so it's hard to follow him sometimes, hard to have a conversation and just hard to watch him struggle. But today I was remembering that this is temporary. This is not our home and getting old is usually a needed step towards going home. Praise God. But it's hard and no fun and a stress on the family and honestly just way to early in our lives for this to be happening. And we don't deal with it often, honestly Kyle's sisters do most of the hard care giving when its needed, and we are grateful for them.

However, God is great and gives us moments that are wonderful. Even now when it's hard and sad we see glimmers of sweet memories. Every New Year we go to Florence with Kyle's family. Oregon that is, although Italy would be wonderful too. This year we had dad in our car, and Adam who loves everyone and is always so excited to see grandpa Kivett, was saying "grandpa, I love you!" And dad kept saying "what Sarah?" So Adam would say it louder and dad would say the same thing... back and for they go. Finally Alex starts yelling "Grandpa it's Adam not Sarah", still not getting it. Alex turns to Adam and says, not quietly mind you, grandpa is really old and can't hear you. Kids, gotta love em. We are so blessed to still have Kermitt in our lives, to get to see our kids make some kind of memories with him, to see Adam loving on grandpa is just precious and we know Kermitt loves anything he can get. We'll just keep our eyes on the prize and enjoy the tiny moments of laughter and love we still get to share together. Loves to Grandpa "old grandpa" as my kids so sweetly now call him.

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.