Introducing a New Blog!

I have decided to write yet another blog titled Christ Centered Mama that will have more of a focus on mothering and childbirth. This is something I've wanted to do for awhile, yet knowing it is a LOT of work, I've put it off until I had it very clearly in my head what exactly I wanted it to be like. I've felt for awhile that I'd like to encourage women who are in the childbearing stage of life to have the best birth experience that they can possibly have and a great start to being a mother. Also, I've been very passionate about helping women who are trying to VBAC....most have to overcome many obstacles and I especially love encouraging those women and helping them with any advice I can offer. So, I have moved some links around on my blog list and all of my "earthy birthy links" have been moved over to that blog. Also, I've added my mom's blog called "Kieft Kapers" and am going to focus this blog as a "family" blog full of pictures of the kids and the events of our lives.

Climbing Boy

Cade has decided he is going to turn into his sister and climb into and onto EVERYTHING! Chairs are just the beginning. I can not keep him off the kitchen table and yesterday he actually tried to climb into the sink (he hasn't been successful yet, luckily!).

Field Day at Arthur Academy

Gavin had field day at school yesterday and I guess it was quite the carnival experience complete with face painting and colored hairspray for goofy hair. I was pretty surprised when I picked him up and saw the kids parading out in all their painted glory!

We Survived Our First Teeball Season!

Gavin first teeball team

Gavin and Logan
Who's the bigger goofball?

Gavin in the outfield

Busy Weekend

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting as much as I used to. Facebook has hijacked my attention over the last couple of months and I've been spending more time over there. However, for those of you who haven't gotten in on the FB craze, I thought I'd at least update over here. We had a wonderful weekend in Puyallup celebrating the May and June birthdays. There were five to celebrate, including Cade and Alayna. We had a beautiful warm day for the party, which was at Tammy's house (Chad's sister). I forgot to take my camera, so unfortunately I don't have any great pics to post, but my MIL took some great ones, so if you are on FB, you can view some of the pics of us from my profile page.

So, details: Alayna got fun art supplies and lots of Dora the Explorer gear including a bathing suit, dinnerware set, a Dora doll and "Backpack" (the character, not an actual backpack). Cade got some cute clothes and toys, his favorite being a set of keys that has all kinds of buttons to push on the keyless entry part. He held it the entire way home. Alayna played with Backpack the entire way home.....I practically had to pry her little hands off to get ready for bed! ;o)

It was a great weekend, although I've completely lost my voice due to the sickness that has gone through our family, forcing me to lose precious sleep. Hopefully I'll rebound soon and takes lots of new pics to post!

Crashed Out

Some days when Alayna is cranky and I know she just needs a nap, I'll just throw the kids in the car and go for a little drive. Here's a pic of what I saw upon arriving home after one such excursion!

I Can Make Messes Too!

Just like his big sister.....Mama's so proud!

Stickers!

Yup, the title says it all....Stickers! That is exactly what Alayna exclaimed when I found her in the bathroom! Look at how proud she is!

Cool Kids!

Its fun to wear Daddy's glasses!

Spring is Here!

So glad to be able to get out of the house on these nice warm days!

Diaper Love

Cade got some new diapers for Christmas and I decided to have a Diaper Fashion Show! Above we have the Fuzzi Bunz Under the Sea print.

Next is the Fuzzi Bunz Trains print.

Finally, Thirsties in "Melon" ~ Kind of hard to actually see the diaper in this pic, but is that a happy baby or what?

January Pics

Here are some random pics from the last couple of weeks. This was soon after we arrived home from Michigan....can you say "Jet Lag?"
He's moving......and he's into everything!

Big Brother, Little Brother

Alayna loves the cat, but I'm not sure how she feels about Alayna.

Vacationing in Michigan

Well, it took me *way* too long to post these pictures, but better late than never. These were snapped during our vacation to Michigan in early January.
Cade & Aunt Karen

Dad, Kelly, Dan & Karen all sporting their new hats that Chad and I got them for Christmas! (Actually, Karen's hat was a present from Dan....I guess I should clarify!)

Playing Cards...gotta teach 'em young!

Let's see, Is this a good hand?

Karen and Dan took the kids to Build-A-Bear Workshop. Getting a pictures without a silly face proved impossible!

For some reason, the ducks decided to stick around this winter!

My kiddos crack me up!

New Year's Day in Michigan

The kids and I are spending two weeks in Michigan over New Years! It has been a fun time spending time with Grammy & Grandpa, Aunt Karen, Uncle Dan, Aunt Kelly as well as seeing extended relatives. Every day has been packed with activities and I know this wonderful time will be over with before I know it. I will definitely enjoy every minute that I am able to be here.

The Snow Just Keeps Coming!

Believe it or not, its STILL snowing! This most recent picture was just taken (about 3 hours after I took the previous pics) and shows the massive amount of snow that is piling up! Gavin started asking if it would snow so much that it would cover the house! I laughed and said, "I don't think so, honey".....now I'm starting to wonder. No, according to the news, it looks like we're right on the edge of the snow....it will probably stop accumulating soon as this storm blows through.

Portland Blizzard

We have snow! And lots of it too! I took these pics this morning....this shows the "drifts" that have been created as the snow has been blown up against the fence. There is another drift on our back porch that is probably about waist deep!


Why did I snap a pic of our recycling bin? Just to show how much snow has actually fallen....it looks like about 4 or 5 inches to me.

This is NOT what I meant when I said I wanted a winter garden!

Preparing for Christmas

Alayna checking the lights in the star....just to make sure they all work, of course!

Gavin and Alayna were a BIG help getting the lights onto the tree!

Gavin singing for his school Christmas concert. It was a very neat concert. The theme was "Around the World at Christmas Time". Gavin's class sang "What You Gonna Call Your Pretty Little Baby?" (African American Spiritual) and "O Tannenbaum!" (Germany). Select other songs included "Here We Come A Wassailing" (England), "Para Pedir Posada" (Guatemala...Yes, the 4th graders sang in Spanish) and "Gong xi fa cai" (China...And yes, the 3rd graders actually sang in Chinese!!!) The whole thing was highly impressive!


This is the church where the concert was held...just beautiful!

I wanted to get a picture of Gavin's music teacher because he looks completely different from what I would have expected. You know, the sterotypical male elementary teacher in his 40s and wears a sweater vest....this guy looks like he should be in a rock band or something. (Sorry if I've offended any teachers out there.) I took several pictures, but this was the only one that was somewhat not blurry. Oh, and this picture is actually taken of the 5th graders who learned to play these instruments....I can't remember what they are called, but think of a bell choir, but with these sticks that you hit on your hand and the different colors produce different sounds. It was highly cool!

~Happy Thanksgiving~

It has been way too long since I've posted pictures, but hopefully this little smiling face makes up for it! Cade is now six months old. He just started rolling over and scooting around on his tummy. He very much wants to crawl and one of these days (soon) he'll figure out how!

We spent Thanksgiving in Puyallup with Chad's family. Everyone was in charge of a portion of the meal.....we provided the turkey & stuffing! It was a great day spending time with everyone!

Chad and his brother, Dan, relaxing at the table after the big meal!

Kate (Dan's girlfriend), Ashtin (our niece; Tammy's oldest) & Cade posing for a pic.

Mama & Alayna taking a picture of ourselves....Alayna loves looking at herself in the viewfinder!

One More Election Post

Ok, I promise, after this I won't post anything more about the election. I happened upon this blog and I agreed so completely with it and thought of emailing it to lots of people, but then decided to post it here so that everyone who has interest can read it.

A Christian's Response to the 2008 Presidential Election

Thoughts After An Election

It was an exciting time watching the results pour in on TV last night. It was also conflicting for me, as I really do like both candidates personally. I've felt for some time that our two choices were both excellent candidates, qualified in different ways. I've defended both Obama and McCain to different people (devil's advocate?) over the last several months and last night it hit me that the road was ending for one of them. As the night wore on, it became more and more obvious that McCain would come up with the short end of the stick. When the official announcement was made, it was bittersweet for me. I was excited about an historic election. My grandchildren will probably ask me some day what it was like to elect the first black President of the United States the same way I wonder what it was like to listen to Martin Luther King's Dream Speech. But, I admit that when McCain took that stage to give his concession speech, a tear fell as I watched the dream end for this man of honor.

As someone who is now completely addicted to Facebook, I also kept tabs on my friends "status reports", an area where all of my friends can write a blurb about themselves and I view the whole thing on one page. It was interesting to view the polarizing thoughts. Some cheered and leapt for joy; others were disgusted and declared that our country as we know it is over! I know for the next several days and weeks there will probably be hostile feelings. My hope, though, is that in time we can all come together as a nation, the UNITED States of America! No, things won't be perfect and we can and should all stay just as involved and invested in what our government is doing as we are right now. But hopefully we can all move forward, now, together.