End of school sunshine!

This week was full of sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine!  So much sunshine that the dog took to laying out on the deck all day while we were at work - when usually we can hardly get her out the door in the morning to go potty.   My friend Shannon and I typically meet up to walk the dogs once I've got the kids in bed.  This was just one of the magnificent sunsets we saw this week.  Hard to believe this picture was taken at 9:30 at night! 

With so much sunshine, we just had to take a trip to the part one evening after work.  The kids both love to swing as evident by the pictures!

Papa teaching Leinna how to pump her legs in and out - she wasn't very confident about leaning back when she pumped her legs out - but I would bet by the end of summer she'll be a pro at the swing!

Lukkas just giggles the whole time and the higher the better for him!

I'm so thankful for the sunshine this week as it helped distract from the bitter sweet ending of the school year.  I'm going to miss my students and we celebrated the end of the year with a party and awards.  For confidentiality reasons, I can not post pictures- but I have the pictures burned in my mind.  Now it's time to focus on getting the house packed up and ready to move.  We are booked for the June 15th ferry!  Our plans are to rent a storage unit until we get back from our trip to Wisconsin and then we'll get moved into a rental house in Anchorage.  Our house in Cordova is still up in the air.  Leif and I did agree that we should get renters for the house if the house doesn't sell in the next week or two.  We do have renters who are interested but we also have a potential buyer coming to see the house for a 2nd time on Monday.  Ideally selling the house is what we'd like to have happen, but we are also thankful to have people interested in renting the house too!  We'll just have to see what happens this week.  

Mother's Day to Graduation

Happy Mother's Day 2013

What a week it has been!  We celebrated Mother's Day, by letting Momma sleep in - it was amazing.  Leif got up with the kids, fed them breakfast and I didn't hear a single thing until 9am!  Did I say how amazing this was.  This was the perfect gift as I'm running on fumes these days between wrapping up the end of the school year, trying to pack up the house but at the same time keep it clean to show to potential buyers with a moments notice - whew - it's exhausting.  Add to that the other moving duties such as where are we going to live, finding a new day care, and so on - it's all just so emotionally and mentally draining.   So thankful for my faith as this is where I'm finding my strength and energy to get through each day.

Between Leif and I, we had an activity to attend every single night this week.  I knew this week was going to be crazy, so I made a promise to myself to capture moments of "normal" and to celebrate the many blessings in my life when everything seems so uncertain.

Lukkas seemed to sense my level of stress and broke out in hives/rash on his back and torso.  I'm counting this a blessing because even though he looked like he was sick - he did not run a fever nor did the hives/rash seem to itch or bother his skin.  He was a little fussy, well let's be honest, he was Mr. Crabby pants, but none the less, he ate well and for the most part slept well.  This was also a blessing because I remembered Leinna having the same thing and I remember the doctor saying that unless she started to run a fever there wasn't much we could do.  Within 3 days, Lukkas was back to himself!

While we were dealing with Mr. Crabby pants, Leinna was such a blessing and truly entertained herself.  With Leif gone every night - I was flying solo for bedtime, and Leinna was such a good big sister!

She entertained herself with playing Legos and I must say - was very proud of the tower she built.

Or she just hung out on her sleeping bag playing quietly with her baby doll.  I love this age and watching "play time" shift from just playing with the toys to the shift in imagination.  In this photo she was telling me that the baby was awake now so I could be loud again :o)

Our normal day care provider's son is a senior and with the big graduation ceremony on Saturday, she took Friday off to prepare. I don't blame her and I'm glad she put her own family first and gave us plenty of notice to line up another provider. So, I called on a good friend and retired elementary teacher to watch the kids for us.  She had Leinna doing subtraction with her breakfast before I left the house and when I got home, she had taught Leinna how to put her puzzle together.  When I got home she was starting to put the puzzle away so I couldn't tell if she could do the puzzle by herself or not. This morning, Leinna was working on the puzzle again and I knew she could do a couple pieces on her own - but when we saw her do the whole puzzle by herself - we were amazed!!

 So many things to be thankful for and during high times of stress and uncertainty, remember to focus on the blessings in your life.  Trust in God and His plan for your life.  This Proverbs verse came to mind this week "The heart of man has many plans, but the Lord's purpose will prevail."  As I continue to make plans from a to z, I realize that 's okay to have a plan but to be flexible with where God is going to take us.     As this crazy week wraps up, I pray for each of you to take a moment and celebrate the blessings in your life!

2 weeks until school's out for summer!

The sun has been shining in our little town - which means time to play outside.  Mister here decided that sand and pine cones are a viable food group.  Silly boy!

All that fun time outside is making for some very hungry kids - Leinna was kinda fussy so to defuse the melt down and I asked if she wanted to help make her lunch.  She did a pretty good job I'll say for her first PB and J.

Finally, as our lives promise to get even more crazy with the end of school and moving details, I love the lesson my kids are demonstrating - just stop what your doing or stressing about and hug the ones you love.  God has a plan - Trust.  I'm slowly learning to let go of the things I have no immediate control over - like the what-ifs in life and just focus on what decisions or tasks can I accomplish today to keep moving forward. 

As I'm sitting here wrapping up this post, I'm watching a hummingbird that has discovered our feeder- while it's raining out and I still have 2 feet of snow in the yard!  

Got to love spring in Cordova!

Doctor Appointment All Good!

What a busy week! Lukkas and I took the big plane to Anchorage on Sunday for some doctor appointments on Monday and Tuesday.  After recalling my easy travel with Leinna, I wasn't quite prepared for the way Lukkas travels.  First of all, he's so stinking strong and he likes to do what I call his Crocodile Roll when he's mad - oh, he just tries to spin out of whoever or whatever is holding him.  Anyways, our plane was late getting to Cordova, so all of our "happy time" was spent waiting for the plane. By the time we boarded, Lukkas was beyond ready for a nap.  Both of the kids like their own space to fall asleep in.  So, you can imagine a very tired little boy who was stuck sitting in his mom's lap- did not make for a very pleasant flight.  Thankfully, the flight was only 30 minutes long and the person sitting next to us was very patient and tried to help in anyway that he could.

We land, of course Lukkas is as happy as he can be now - but we still had to go get the rental car.  With Lukkas strapped to my back and me toting the suitcase and car seat - away we went to the rental car.  While I was getting his car seat buckled in, the safest place for him to be was playing in the front seat of the car.

Oh - the giggles from him. I just had to stop and snap a quick photo of all the fun he was having! This certainly made up for the difficult flight into Anchorage.

We went to an eye doctor for Lukkas. At his 1 year check-up he was referred. Not sure if I wrote about earlier- so I apologize for the repeat if I did.  Anyways- he was referred for something called cornea reflex.  I initially thought this meant that his eyes did not focus at the same speed, but I was wrong.  It actually meant that when light is reflected back from his eye it should be centered in his pupil, but in his right eye doesn't do this.  This is an early indication that they eye may start to wander.  Well, the doctor was amazing and she did everything she could to try and make Lukkas' eye wander - but it wouldn't do it.  So she said this could be a version of normal for him, but she does want to follow up in 3-4 months to make sure nothing has changed.

We also had vaccinations to get - poor little boy was ready to be back home and in a normal routine.  We were able to spend some good time with our dear friend Heidi - which is always a special treat when we are in Anchorage.  Pretty soon, we'll be calling Anchorage home and able to see Heidi anytime we please :o)

The flight home went better- he only screamed for the 10 minutes prior to take-off, but then slept the whole flight home.    I ended up with a horrible cold, so the remainder of the week has been spent taking care of myself.  Leinna so sweet and kept offering me hugs so that I would feel better.  Such a sweet little girl.

Well, I hope to take more photos this week - but no promises.  With the end of school 3 weeks away and preparing for our move life is going to be a tad bit busy!  Until next time...