Lessons Learned in Maui

We recently got back from a wonderful vacation in Maui!  It was a great, relaxing week.  Luke and I didn't realize how much we missed wearing shorts (capris for me) and flip flops.  I guess to sum it up quickly, we miss the heat!  

Lately, it seems like vacations are fun but not relaxing.  Going back to Oklahoma and Texas, you want to see as many family and friends as possible, which is not relaxing.  In Maui, we woke up, went to the beach or pool, ate lunch, had nap time, ate dinner, went to the pool and then put the kids to bed.  Then, the adults sat outside listening to the ocean while we read or surfed the internet.  Sure, we went to a few places around Maui but overall we just relaxed.  It was just what we needed.  

We ventured out to two different places in Maui, the aquarium and the Iao Valley State Park.  The kids enjoyed the aquarium.  The state park was beautiful.  It seemed like we were in the set of Jurassic Park.  It was fun until we got back to our rental car.  Some people were waiting by our car.  When we got close to them, they told us that they witnessed our car getting broken into.  They yelled at the thieves and tried to chase them down but couldn't catch them.  These wonderful people had called the cops and waited 20 minutes for us to come back to our car.  Unfortunately, they did not get the license plate number on the thieves car.  

When the witnesses told us our car had been broken into my heart dropped.  I had left my diaper bag/purse in the car.  I walked over to the window that was broken and saw that of course the diaper bag was gone.  My heart dropped even more when I realized my wallet, check book, iPad and old iPhone that we used as an iPod were all in the diaper bag among other things.  The only good news was that I had my phone and my brand new camera with me.  The other good news was that they didn't look in the back seat where there was another wallet and a video camera also.  

For anyone that has an Apple product, you need to download the app call Find my Phone.  I didn't ever enable this app, and if I had we would have been able to locate the thieves with the GPS.  Also, we would have been able to delete all the information off the iPad and iPhone immediately.  

I have to be honest and say that some of my first thoughts were how violated I felt.  My bubble had been burst.  Bad people can get to me.  My next thoughts were on all the possessions I lost.  My bag, which I loved.  My iPad, my wallet, my nursing cover (pathetic I know, but you get kind of attached to these things), my key chain which I'd had since I was 16...  I could go on and on.  I just kept running things through my mind of what they had taken to me and how I could have prevented it by just taking the bag with me.  I felt irresponsible (okay, it was irresponsible).  I put a post on Facebook saying what happened and asking people to pray.  I didn't know what for.  The likelihood of getting my stuff back was slim to none.  I didn't know what else to do, and when you are like that the best thing to do is to pray.  

Some of the responses I got to that post were very encouraging, and God answered those prayers.  One response said she was praying that God would give me peace that passes all understanding since He is in control and knows that this is for my good and His glory.  Another said she was praying for peace and joy.  Someone else said she was praying for the salvation of the two men who broke into our car.  As the day went, I was able to feel God's peace in knowing that He is in control.  We were able to enjoy our last day of vacation (the next day) without worrying about things to much.  The last prayer about the guys salvation offended me at first, but then I realized that is what being a Christian is all about.  Loving people that are the hardest to love and when they are the last people you want to pray for.  God loves those two men and desperately wants them to come to know His saving grace.  I also realized that possessions are worldly things that don't matter in the end.  I put too much value in my possessions.  I have had to reevaluate where my values are.  God wants to be my first priority and then my family.  Possessions are way down on the list of important things.  

I have two challenges for everyone that reads this post.  First, truly think about where you value your possessions.  Second, make it a habit to pray for those you don't want to pray for!  God is in the business of miracles.  You never know what He will do if you just ask Him.  

(Another post with pictures will come soon.)

Promised videos

Here is the promised video of Luke and Jackson dancing.  

This is Brady and Jackson's first bath together!

This one is Jackson playing outside yesterday.  He started eating snow after a few minutes I noticed the snow he was eating was awful close to where Bruiser, our dog, does his business.  

Life Lately

It's been awhile since I have update the blog.  Apparently, when you have two kids you are twice as busy!  I love all my boys more than anything.  God is so good when he blessed me with Luke, Jackson,  Brady, and Bruiser (of course).

I'm not even sure where to begin on what's happened in our lives lately.  Both boys have grown up a lot.  Jackson talks all the time, I mean ALL the time.  The kid is always singing or talking, especially while we are driving in the car.  He is obsessed with the movie Monster's Inc. right now.  He doesn't like to stay home all day.  He always says, "Mommy, let's go jump and play!" or he packs a bag, walks to the door and says,  "Mommy, go to Caleb (or Cameron's) house."  I guess we are boring at home.  We have taken him sledding a few time which he loved.  He cried both times we had to leave.  Jackson's latest obsession is marching to music.  He gets his play cd player, drum, and recorder.  He makes us all go into Brady's room.  He plays the ABC song on the cd player and marches in a circle singing, beating the drum or playing the recorder.  I forgot to mention that he makes Luke or I march along with him while we play one of his instruments.  Brady gets to sit and watch.  I have a few videos of it that I will try to post.  We have done that for at least thirty minutes the last few nights.

Brady is now eight months old, which in itself is crazy!  His personality is starting to show.  He is always smiling and laughs a ton.  He is also a very determined person.  Once he sees a toy he wants, he will do anything to get it.  He LOVES food.  He has had a lot of fruits, vegetables, puffs, and stuff like that.  While he is eating he grunts the whole time in approval.  If you take to long to get him a bite it results in a complete meltdown.  Brady has five teeth, three on top and two on bottom.  He also LOVES Jackson.  He squeals with excitement every time I take him into the room to get Jackson up after his nap.

A few other things have happened since my last post.  We had to put Cookie, our precious dog, to sleep after we figured out she had some serious lung disease.  When the vet opened her up for surgery, they found that a very small part of her lungs were even functioning.  It was a very sad day in our house.  Bruiser has adjusted very well.  He now likes that he doesn't have to share our attention with any other dogs.

This has been a weird winter, of course I'm not sure what a normal winter looks like here in Alaska.  Each one we have experienced has been completely different.  This winter started out REALLY cold.  I think we had a few months in the negative temperatures, which is way to cold.  I can handle cold, but once it gets past zero, I have to draw a line and say that is too cold.  Then over Christmas holidays it warmed up to the 40s.  You think that would be nice, but you really don't want it to get above freezing during the winter.  Once it gets above freezing all the snow starts to melt and then it freezes overnight which creates an ice rink to drive on the next day.  NO FUN!  Do you notice I haven't mentioned snow at all?  That is because it hasn't snowed much at all.  Up until a week ago, you could see the grass in our front yard.  Last year, you couldn't see grass until late April.  A week ago we got about eight inches of snow so the grass is covered again.

Not much is up with Luke and I.  Luke is teaching Sunday school for the junior high kids at our church and I am teaching a infant/toddlers class for Bible Study Fellowship.  We both love our two boys more than words can describe!

Here are a few pictures of the boys with their cousins from Christmas:

Jackson's Birthday

Last weekend Jackson turned two.  It's hard to believe he is already two years old.  That also means that we have been in Alaska for just about two years, which is also crazy to think about.

Jackson is such a fun kid.  He is very dramatic and has extreme emotions, but I love that about him (most of the time).  He still loves music and singing.  He frequently sings along with Veggie Tales in the car.  I love hearing his sweet voice trying to mimic the words of the songs.  His favorite song to sing along to is "Allelu, Allelu" at the end of that song he shouts out "Praise Ye the Lord."  I love it!  He is obsessed with elephants right now.  His favorite thing to do is dump all his toys out into the middle of the room and run through them to scatter them around.  That is not my favorite thing.  We are teaching him to clean up, but we still end up cleaning up a lot of the toys.  He has a few chores he does around the house.  He puts his laundry in his basket (we have to tell him to do that one everyday).  He also feeds the dogs.  He remembers to do that one on his own.  I have to open the dog food container, but he can do the rest.  He is very shy in unfamiliar situations at first.  He takes after me, he has to sit back and observe before he will interact with people.  If someone tries to talk to him right when they see him, he gives them a dirty look.

I love his curly hair and big blue eyes, but most of all I love his sweet heart.  God has truly blessed Luke and I with our boys.  

Here are some more pictures from Jackson's birthday party.

Alaska Still Amazes Me!

We been in Alaska for almost two years now, and I am still amazed at the beauty of this place.  God is so creative!  It was a beautiful day, so after dinner we decided to take advantage of it.  We went to the beach here in Anchorage.  It is a little hike to get to the beach.  Luke carried Jackson in the hiking pack and I carried Brady in the Moby.  The boys did great!  Only in Alaska will you see a moose and bear scat on the way to the beach.  Then we saw some salmon running and a few seals while we were at the beach.  

What's even crazier about the salmon and seal is that I was at the same beach Tuesday morning and the tide was out so far you could barely even see the water.  It was all just mud flats.  There were bald eagles hanging out in the mud.  The tides in the Cook Inlet are very extreme, the hour we were there they came in at least ten feet if not more!

Here are some pictures:

You could see some silvers (salmon) running through right here.

You can always see an airplane in the sky in Alaska.

The seal poking its head out of the water.

I love these last two pictures!

More Family Came to Visit

My sister and my niece came to visit and meet Brady.  It was great having them here.  This was Melanie's first time in Alaska.  I think she liked it.  I know she liked the break from the hot weather they are having in Oklahoma.  

Jackson LOVED my niece.  She is getting so big!!!  She is almost as tall as me and now has bigger feet than my mom (her Nana).  It's hard not to still think of her as Jackson's age.  The first night after they got here, we put Jackson to bed.  After a while, he started crying and saying what I thought was "Mommy, mommy" so I went up to comfort him.  When I got in his room, he kept crying and saying it.  Well it turns out he was saying, "Monie, Monie" which is what he called Mollee.  He followed her around and tried to copy everything she did the whole time she was here.  Mollee was a huge help too! She is going to be a great babysitter in a few years.  She was good at taking care of Jackson.  Whenever we went to the park or a place to play, I never had to worry about Jackson because Mollee would follow him around and help him do things.  

We did a lot of fun things while they were here.  It was rainy the first few days, so we went to play at Bouning Bears.  It was Jackson's first time there and he seemed to like it.  We also went to the zoo.  It is a good little zoo.  There are animals unique to the cold weather.  There are some polar bears, brown and black bears, moose, a two humped camel (I forget the real name), and many other things.  We went to the beach here in Anchorage and took them to Girdwood to play at a cool park.  Mollee and Melanie also went to Seward where they went on a wildlife cruise.  They saw a few pods of orcas, which I was jealous of because I've not seen any orcas yet.  

Mollee helping Jackson play at Bouncing Bears

She was able to have some fun too!

Playing on the cool bouncing pillow.

Holding Brady - she was great with Brady!  I was impressed how well she handled him.  

Hanging out with Aunt Melanie

Melanie and I went to the store and left Luke with Brady and Jackson.  When we came home this is how I found him.  Luke set Brady down and went to get Jackson from his nap.  He said putting him on the floor is safer then leaving him on the couch.  I guess I have to agree.  

Big blue eyes

Hanging out downtown in our new ride

Checking out a puppy with daddy

a beautiful day in Anchorage

A Visit from Nana and Grandaddy

My mom and dad came to visit after Brady was born.  My mom was here for a month, which was wonderful!  She was so helpful to us.  After having a c-section, you are not supposed to lift more than 15 pounds for 6 weeks.  This is really hard to do when you have a toddler who weighs 28 pounds.  My mom came and took care of Jackson and all of us really!  It was wonderful!  I will never be able to thank her enough.  My dad came for a week.  It was fun to have them both around when Brady first came home.  Jackson LOVED spending time with them.  He is still asking where Nana and Grandaddy are.  

Two of their grandkids

Nana holding Brady.  She spent many hours doing this while she was here.

Brady is checking out his daddy.

Nana with all 3 of her grandkids