Pretty girl...

Now that she will walk she can much more easily wear dresses.....

A Tribute

Recently, the world lost a wonderful person. Scott Strong was the father of two of my dearest friends and neighbors while I was in high school. I honestly can't picture him in my mind, no matter how hard I try, without a smile on his face. He was easy going, kind, and lots of fun. He was my favorite "friend's dad". He didn't try to be "one of the kids" but all the kids loved him and found it easy to talk to him.

I was at the Strong household a lot so I have numerous memories that involve him. However, there are several specific ones that come to mind....

One summer night I was spending the night over there and, for some reason, Harmony, Melody, and I thought it would be a great idea to go swimming in their pool in the middle of the night. I'm sure we weren't trying to be loud, but being the teenage girls we were, I'm sure we were anything but quiet. Eventually Mr. Strong popped his head out the back door and asked what in the world we were doing. I have no idea what we said. I don't remember what he said either except something about how we probably should come in and go to bed. The next morning I had no idea if we would be further questioned or given a lecture.... instead he just laughed about it and the silliness that we as high school girls were.

Another summer day I went somewhere with them that was a good driving distance away. Strangely, I can't remember what we were doing or where we were going. I do remember 2 things. One is riding in the back seat at night on the way home in the car that seemed to have 300 lights on the steering wheel. The other is stopping at Cracker Barrel for dinner. As we sat at the table Mr Strong was asking me about college (which is where I was headed a few months later). Later he had a distant look in his eye which I thought nothing of. Suddenly, Harmony piped in with "I know what you're thinking about dad! You're wondering if I'm ready to go off to school next year! ..... I will be fine :) " His grin told us she was onto him and she thought it was sweet. This was just one example of the relationship he had with his kids and family, and the love they shared.

I also remember their family finding out he had more brain tumors. Without going into great detail, this is something he struggled with for a very large portion of his life. Ultimately, it is the reason he is no longer with us. Shortly after that I went away to college and then moved to Washington a couple years later. Since that time, though their family was one I made a point to see if at all possible each time I went back for a visit, I have not been in contact with them nearly as much as I would have liked. I do know that he put up a wonderful fight with a wonderful attitude. He loved God and he loved his family.

When we made the decision recently to get on the path of moving our family to NC, Mr Strong was someone I thought of right away. I had no reason to expect he would be leaving us so soon but I thought of him hoping we would get there before he got drastically worse or went on to be with his Savior. In the end, I'm saddened that I didn't get to say goodbye one last time or be there as they celebrated his life, but I am thankful to have known him.

There are many things to say about Scott Strong, but I will leave you with a picture. This was taken at our wedding. He was pretty much in charge of ALL the music at the reception among a few other things. He was amazing at the piano (among his MANY other musical talents) and I wanted him to play! In this photo I'm pretty sure he's trying to figure out how to get our slide show to play with the music - in the end he played the piano while the slides were playing.

Though it's a silly picture I think it captures him well, at least in the way that I knew him. Silliness and happiness all in one - even though the slides were being frustrating and uncooperative.

Thank you, Mr Strong, for the lives you touched. You will be missed.

Love to Mrs Strong, Harmony, Melody, Musette, and their families.

Hair cuts

Jackson is getting his hair cut and Jared said he needs a cape (trash
bag). Jaden: but if he wears a cape he will fly away!
He continued to tell Jared to make sure Jackson did not fly away.
Jaden: when miss Mandy cuts my hair I wear a penguin cape.
Jackson: yeah. And dad puts a trash can cape on me.

Nice pics

The boys came home from Awana last night with these pictures in frames that they made....







We thought both pictures were supposed to be like jadens and that Jackson didn't cooperate for his pic so they used one where he happened to be looking.
Today Jaden said something about the picture he picked. I asked him if he picked the picture in his frame and he said yes. So I asked Jackson the same question. He said yes, he picked the OTHER picture because he wanted it to have both he and Jaden in it.

A little catch up on the kids

Jackson and Jaden had their annual check up last week. They are both in the 95th percentile for height (Jaden is a few inches taller than Jackson). And they fall into the 75th-95th percentile for weight (Jaden is 6 pounds heavier than Jackson). We could decide if we wanted to go ahead and do their shots at this appointment. I ordinarily would have waited but for one, we don't have to pay for them this year and probably will next year, and secondly I've heard it's WAY easier to get a 4 year old to handle a shot than it can sometimes be with a 5 year old. Also, Jaden thinks he likes shots. He actually enjoyed getting his finger pricked at a recent appointment. So I decided to go for it. We didn't mention it to them until moments before so that Jackson wouldn't be worried. Jackson volunteered to go first (he didn't know what for) and we told him what was happening and he didn't freak out but told me he was scared. He cooporated well and it was fast (4 shots!) but he did cry and yell ow numerous times. Not a huge scene but was very upset. In hindsight we should have taken Jaden out. I didn't think of it since he said he likes shots. He does NOT like to see other people hurting and got very upset for Jackson. Then he just started crying because he knew it was his turn and I felt SOOOOOO bad. I actually had to hold him down while he screamed (even though he complied) I'm certain the entire office heard it all. I juts felt terrible. When we left we passed the nurse (who was very nice) and she asked if they were still mad at here. Jaden shook his head no but Jackson said "Well I am!" then Jared said "Do you forgive her for giving you a shot?". Jaden said yes but Jackson said "Well I don't" Poor kids. They got over it quickly though and we took them to Dairy Queen for a treat. They could pick anything they wanted and had a great time.

Some of my favorite things they've said (and I wish I could remember more)

Jaden: "Does God build people? I think God was inside mom's tummy and sayed the magic word and turned us into babies"

Jaden: "This is rice cake world. There are rice cakes everywhere"

Jackson: "This is the triceratops place of joy"

I keep worrying as we sell things that the boys will feel unsettled or something. However, no matter what it is that we sell Jackson states that we can just buy another one in North Carolina and then they both get excited talking about how now they have more room to run around. So funny.

Somehow I managed to sell one of their beds and both dressers already - before even listing them. I was not intending to do this but it happened somehow. We had a full size bed in another room (that's for sale currently) so we put it in their room. Let's just say it has been an interesting adjustment....

Kylie had her 18 month appointment. She's in the 50th percentile for height and weight. She's walking alot more now. On her terms but she does choose to walk on her own now. She talks alot. Her favorite words are "no" and "yeah". When the boys were young I tried to keep no completely out of my vocabulary unless i said no thankyou. Kylie has way more influences. I'll say no to the boys and they say no to each other. We work on these things but Kylie does NOT miss a thing. I'm teaching her to say no thankyou instead and she complies but she has yet to come up with it on her own yet. It will happen though. I often have to remind her to say things like please, help please, more please, etc. I'm not a big fan of baby signs but if I sense she is OFTEN frustrated about communicating something in particular then I'll teach her something. She just signs more (for more please - I don't see a point in teaching her both) so we say more please but she just signs more and all done. She says alot of words. She'll try to say anything you ask her too. Here are some she just says without having to repeat you.

mom

dad

hi

bye-bye

Jackson - Jahsin

Jaden - Jasin

yes

yeah (most common)

no

please - psssssss

more please - mo psssss

water - wadoo

no thankyou - no wawoo

hair bow - ahbow

coat - co

oatmeal - oml

night-night - ni ni

tray - tay

door - do

snow - no!!!!!

window - wino!!!!!

She loves shoes and clothes and pointing to body parts when you ask her. She LOVES her pjs.

She is obsessed with keeping doors closed. If any closet or cupboard is open he goes right over and closes it. She loves to sing. Her tune and rythm are amazing to me for her age but of course you can't understand most of the words. Her favorites are....

ABCs - she kind of grunts all the letters in the right tune and rhythm but the only thing you can understand is H, I, J, K, mmmnnnnmmmmnnnp

Jesus loves me. Not as good on the tune with this one but you know shes' singing it when she ends with soooooo.

Itsy Bitsy spider. She just randomly sings in the right rhythm and sings spidoo for spider and tries to do the hand motions.

If you're happy and you know it. She claps her hands. When I sing that song and get to the clapping I always said "clap clap" and didn't realize it. Now she sings that too.

Every move I make. She only sings the "nah nah nah nana nah nah" part but in perfect rhythm and tune.

She tries to sing other songs as they play. And if she can't figure it out she resorts to the "nah nah nah nana nah nah" song. :)

I had a few pics but am having some problems getting them here for some reason. Here's the most recent video of Kylie walking.

Jackson's first black eye

The other day Jackson was playing with my shows. They are heavy slip
on shoes. He laid down and lifted his legs in the air. One shoe fell
right on his eye. It instantly started turning black. It's getting a
little better now. This picture does not do it justice though.

Update

Currently Jared is still unemployed. He is looking into jobs in NC but that is VERY hard to do from far away. At least we are in the day in age where he can at least make some contacts.

Our house has not sold. It has not been on the market long and it's a bad time to sell houses so we really can't complain. The problem is .... we really need it to sell NOW. Financially we NEED as much money as we can get from it, but since we have to sell it right away that may not happen. I am thankful, however, that is unlikely we couldn't sell it for enough that we wouldn't have to pay cash when we left.

We are approaching a time when we will need to decide if we need to go ahead and move before the house sells. This is not financially ideal. And it will only work if we find a place to stay for free or dirt cheap in NC until our house sells, or Jared gets a decent paying job in NC where we can last at least for a short while paying for two until the house sells.

We have begun selling our things and that's going really well. I'm thankful for this and pretty hopeful that the money we get from this will fund our move.

I'm not going to lie, I'm freaking out. When I'm in a pessimistic mind frame I see foreclosure, bankruptcy, and who knows what else in our future. Possibly the near future :) But when it comes down to it, God is in control and he will take care of us. Whatever happens is in his plan.

The boys seem ok with things but process very differently. Jaden is pretty laid back about it. Jackson is too but any time we sell something he says "maybe they have those in NC and we can buy a new one". The first day someone came to see our house and we packed the family up to leave for a while Jackson thought someone was coming to live in our house right now with all our stuff still in it. He didn't seem the least bit upset about it but it was interesting to see him process and talk about it with him.

Here are some ways for you to pray for us....

• That our house will sell FAST and that we could walk away with at least a little money
• That Jared will get a job soon - even before we move would be awesome
• That we would have wisdom about me getting temporary work
• That we would trust God to provide for us
• That people would continue to buy our things so we can pay for our move
• That I will stop focusing on the day "our money will run out" and instead focus on what God wants me to do.
• That Jared would ultimately find either a ministry job that he loves and is a great fit or an entirely different job that he likes yet provides for him to be super involved in ministry. Even if this isn't the first job he ends up getting.
• That we (especially me) will not be stressed or fearful. This is a big one. Many days I do not even want to get up in the morning because I don't want all these scary things to be on my mind.
• I'm sure I could think of more. so just pray for us in general :)

We've been going through Exodus at church. It's been very applicable to our situation. We thought we were past the "parting of the Red-Sea". But we are not. We determined the other day we are in the "Thanks alot Moses, now we have to start making bricks WITHOUT straw" phase. It is clear we are to go but a few more things need to happen and then God is going to have to part the Red Sea.

Thanks for caring about us and for praying for us!

Finally

On Sunday night Kylie finally thought it was high time to climb the stairs. Time to bring out the downstairs gate. I'm thankful I haven't had to worry about the stairs until now.

On Monday night Kylie decided it was high time to start walking. She has been pushing her stroller around while walking for quite a while and taken a couple steps on her own, but it wasn't until last night that she decided to really work on it. We were upstairs and she practiced for quite a while. It wore her out! The boys thought it was hilarious! She even let me walk her back to her room while holding her hand. She has always hated that idea before.

I didn't get any great videos, and some of them are kind of dark but I know the family will still appreciate them....

And Pardon the Overnight Diaper Attire....