daddy's big helper

the other day ethan helped nick get his quad ready to take a trip to the dunes. he was so proud of himself!

i'm ready to help you, daddy!

love the tongue sticking out!

notice the walkie-talkie, he would pick it up and say random things into it to nick!

all finished!

Go fly a kite...

today was the perfect weather for flying a kite...
happy sunday!
a

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Kahler Family

eight years of sweetness...

happy birthday little miss mae! you are such a treasure and have brought so much joy to our lives and we are so happy to celebrate you turning eight today!

happy birthday!
daddy, mommy and ethan

it is so clear that he totally loves her! (before opening presents at home)

first time on the ice and she rocked it! (ice skating party with 6 friends!)

yes, her smile can light up a room!

family party at home
my brother and em have this "you owe me a dollar" thing going on and have for years... when I was pregnant with ethan they bet on what the baby would be (we didn't know), and she said a girl, mike said a boy. the wager was a dollar. her card from them said "we were going to give you $20 for your birthday, but you still owe me a dollar... here's $19!" she loved it!

of course, a hannah montana card :)
em with papa (my dad) and his gift. i take no credit for the socks or the fact that she is wearing heelys while on an electric scooter (i made her take the wheels out pronto)... at least she has a helmet on!
us four and our nephew carson

there are days...

days that i feel like all i'm doing is laundry, tripping over toys that i just put away, feeding little people that i just fed, breaking up fights, saying "close the refrigerator", "no, you can't have fruit snacks for breakfast", repeating myself, going to another birthday party, attending another playdate, repeating myself, singing the song from mickey mouse clubhouse, repeating myself and wondering when my last shower was, all while dreaming of lying stretch mark free on a beach somewhere.

we all have those days, right?
please tell me you have those days.

i've been swallowed by those days lately. me and my kids haven't been getting along too well lately. translation: i have had no patience lately and i haven't been the kind of mom that i want to be. i haven't been the kind of mom that i know God wants me to be. that's tough to swallow and it's hard to admit. even more, it's not a fun place to be as a mom.

yesterday lysa terkeurst wrote a great post (like always) and urged her readers to leave a verse that encourages us in times when we are acting less than encouraged. times when we snap at our husbands. times when we want to put a for sale sign around our kids necks and stand them on the corner.

as i read through the comments and verses left by others, i was struck with the realization that the recent struggle between me and my kids has little to do with my kids behavior and more to do with me. the comments and verses reminded me that i can't try and go this alone or my life will be filled with "those days". i don't want that. i don't want that for my kids.

i am a reactor. too often i react to something my kids say or do without thinking about my actions that follow, and too often i end up wishing i would have acted differently.

i want to be a responder. i want to stop, see what God is teaching me and what He wants me to teach my kids. i want to pay attention to what my kids are really saying to me and when i kiss my kids goodnight i want to be thankful, not regretful.

i encourage you to read the post and comments here. lysa was kind enough to quote me here, but more importantly, she reminded us that we are all in this together.

if you're having one of those days and you need a good laugh, go see "confessions of a shopaholic". it is a great movie with a dancing scene that made us laugh so hard we cried! somebody in the theater even snorted and that made us laugh even harder!

happy wednesday!
a

makin' mama cry...

today emily brought home a lot of work from the past quarter, including some projects that they did for christmas.

i cried when i read this...

i think the true spirit of christmas is...
"beleiving the Holy Spirit. spending time with your family. praise the lord. know that Jesus died on the cross. know God will forgive our sins. merry christmas! emily kahler"

she gets it.

happy friday (again)
a

economic stimulus

i heard something on the radio today that shocked me beyond belief and i am still astonished.

it has been determined that if our country spent one million dollars every day since the birth of Jesus that we still would not have spent as much as congress is spending on the economic stimulus.

that blew me away. i pray that it actually makes a difference. that is a lot of debt for my children to carry.

happy friday
a

and please, i didn't write this to start a political comment wars, just some facts and my own little opinion.

wordless wednesday

...is a pretty lucky guy to have a sister that loves him

enough to make his name out of legos.

happy wednesday

a

NBA Jam Session

nick took emily to the nba jam session in phoenix on saturday. they had a blast (thanks aunt linda), and both agree that it was the perfect way to spend valentine's day! it's so sweet that they go on fun little "dates" like that, she's such a lucky little gal!

here are some pictures of the day; you can definitely tell that they had fun!

i love that it looks like she has thrown the large decorative ball... so funny!

white girls can jump (i know, i know, but i couldn't resist)

lebron james' shoes

happy tuesday-ish
a

ps... i'm digging the lowercase, even thought it's not entirely intentional... i think i may need a new keyboard (or my kids need to figure out what they did to make only certain letters capitalize and my control button not work). who knows. and yes, i typed the title before the fateful round of computer time for my kids.

Who are you people?!

I'm sure that a lot of you out there, especially bloggers (because almost all of us have one!), know of this little thing that I love called Sitemeter. It is a site that has the capability to track who visits my blog, what pages they look at, how long they visit, where they are, what page they exit to, etc.

So, my question... who are you? I know who some are; if you check from work your company name shows up and the locations sometimes give it away too (I only have two friends in Chile!). Technology is amazing to me!

Anyway, leave me a comment, I would love to know who's dropping by. And I know there are a lot of you... the numbers don't lie!

Oh, and now that I mentioned technology it reminded me of a video that totally blew my mind. I'll have to post it later. Right now I have a little guy with ear infections that needs some snuggling!

Happy Monday!
A

Wordless Wednesday

My favorite flower in my yard right now.
Happy Wednesday!
A

The "No" Alternative

Ethan and I just had a little "chat" about him not telling me "no" when I ask him to do something. He agreed... success!
Just a couple of minutes ago I asked him to do something. He looked at me and shook his head. Shook his head. I gave him "the look" and said "Eeeeethan" you know, I had to draw out the name to give myself a little more time to figure out what I was going to do next. Kind of like when you're counting and you say "before I get to three"... "one, two, two and one eighth, etc".
He looks at me, shrugs his shoulders, arms out in front, palms up (I wish I would have snapped a picture!). "Me not SAY no, me just shake my head." Then walks away.
Lord help me. He's only three.

Happy Monday!
A

Prayer request for friends... Update

Updated: Matt and Niki are doing well and there are talks of them going home today! Please continue to pray for their recovery and no complications. Thanks!

We have some friends, Matt and Niki (whom we met through our friends the Andersons!), that will be undergoing serious surgery tomorrow and we ask that you remember them in your prayers.
Niki is in need of a liver transplant and Matt, her husband, is a donor match.
This is a very serious surgery and we pray that Matt and Niki both come through the surgery free of complications.
Please pray for the medical teams as they operate on both husband and wife tomorrow.
Please pray for peace and comfort for family and friends, especially their two very young daughters.
Please pray that Matt does not experience any complications as it is known that the donor may have a more difficult time than the recepient.
Please pray that Niki's body does not reject Matt's liver and that she heals completely so that she may live a long, healthy life free of the pain and complications that have gripped her for so very long.
I will update when I hear how they are doing.
Thank you for praying!
The Kahler Family

Right Now...

Out of my window: It is sunny and beautiful outside; a crisp cool day that started out with rain, one of my favorites.
I am wearing: Jeans, a long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, going to put socks on because the tile is cold and I have been freezing all day long!
I am hearing: The after school chatter and my kids crunching tortilla chips, the healthy afternoon snack of choice!
I am thinking: That there is still some fudge in my fridge that is just calling my name. That I am going to make some chocolate chip banana muffins with the bananas going brown on the counter, or I may just toss them like usual.
I am thankful for: Emily being so happy to go back to school today! My God, my family, my friends, my warm home, the hundreds of thousands of dollars that our church collected for Darfur and clean water over Christmas, the decorations nestled all snug in their bins until November, and the overflowing bin of things to take to Goodwill (where does all of this stuff come from? Seriously, we take a bin to Goodwill at least every month).
I am creating: Project 365, the idea of taking a picture every day and journaling just a little bit, so that I will have a record of an entire year with little work... really great idea! A plan for taking pictures of my friend's one week old son tomorrow. I have so many ideas, I have to get them all on paper so I don't forget!
I am going: To fold the sheets that just finished drying and get Em started on homework.
I am hoping: That Game Crazy still has the Rock Band 2 game for Wii, we've gotten through all of Rock Band 1 and can't wait to play the new songs.
I am reading: Magazines that were passed on to me. I didn't get involved in any books over the holidays and the library changed hours and was closed today.
Around the house: There are signs of the happy family that lives here and the love that we share!
One of my favorite things: Drinking hot chocolate on a cool day like this, snuggled inside with my family!
A few plans for the rest of the week: Photoshoot tomorrow of sweet Jack (maybe some of Max too!), hopefully re-painting Emily's room, maybe re-painting master bath, more sorting and purging, creating, playing with the kids, taking my mom to the ortho for her check-up (she broke her humorous bone (the ball of her shoulder) in three places on Dec. 19 and isn't able to drive or work; finish Christmas thank yous, relax and enjoy the start of 2009!

I saw this idea on one of the blogs that I read and thought it was a great way to post without putting much effort into thinking of a subject!

Happy Monday!
A

Happy New Year's Eve!

Be safe and enjoy your family, friends, or whomever you will be spending the evening with.
Us... we'll be playing Rock Band until the wee hours of morning, no doubt!

Happy New Year!
The Kahler Family

Merry Christmas!

May you and your family be blessed this Christmas and may you remember what Christmas is about, the real reason. May you remember the baby, the Savior sent to our earth to live among us, to save us. May your heart be filled with His love, now and always.
You will need to pause the music at the bottom when you play the video.
Merry CHRISTmas!
Love,
The Kahler Family

Some people have mentioned that the video will not load on their computer. Click here and it will take you to the site.

The Sweetest of Anniversaries...

Five years ago today, my courageous husband returned home from Iraq!

It was such a wonderful day and I can't even begin to describe the excitement that we felt! It was kind of like one of those scenes from a movie, the ones where they show the kids running up and being scooped up by Daddy. I was crouched down next to Em waiting for him and she ran into the jetway the second I saw his boots and said "There he is!"; there was no stopping her!

These pictures were taken a bit after we had already seen him. Thankfully we were able to be alone at the gate because it was very overwhelming.

That little munchkin went through a lot missing her daddy for nine months

and she was amazing the whole time!

I love how Em was hugging me too... so cute!

Happy Friday!
A

Picture Tag

The object of the picture tag is to:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 people to do the sameNO CHEATING! (cropping, editing, etc)

April 22, 2006. Emily on the Bug's Life ride in Disney's California Adventure. We went to Disneyland/ California Adventure for Nick's birthday (April 23!), and we had a blast! She looks so little, doesn't she!? Funny thing is that I just gave that shirt away last spring, it fit her for two years, the little peanut! I love all of the pictures from that trip, the kids were at such fun ages then. Well, Ethan didn't really care too much, he was six months old. He cut his first tooth on that trip, our last night there. We got back into our hotel room after midnight; of course, we always stay at the parks open to close, we are hard core. About 45 minutes into a crying session Nick headed out to get more ice for the second try of the cold washcloth on the gums, and when he got back to our room there was a security guard there about to knock on the door. The neighbors called with concern. Apparently they thought we would leave our 6 month old alone in the Disneyland Hotel in the middle of the night... seriously!? Anyway, once the Tylenol kicked in, we all slept soundly and were able to enjoy a little time at the beach the next day.

I went off on a tangent, and I'm going to cheat. I have to post pictures of the trip now that I've talked about it so much. Warning, there are a lot of pictures!

By the Teacups... love this picture of her

Note the sign on the pedastal says no climbing... she couldn't read yet!

They have cartoon drawing classes. They both rock.

Mickey at the top of the Matterhorn

Aren't they so cute!?

Emily was very excited by the parade
So was Ethan

This is the sad, teething face that I looked at the whole way home. It was such a long drive, we felt so bad for him. I was in tears, Em was in tears, Nick had headphones on. Not really, but I bet he wished he did. Man.

Happy Wednesday. Again.
A

Relax, it's going better now

We were just having a couple of rough days, nothing to worry about.

It's a mom thing... "If you don't quit telling me 'no', I'm going to have to call Santa." "If you don't take your medicine, although I know it's terribly disgusting and you're tired of being bribed with mini chocolate chips (or teeny baby kisses as Ethan calls them), I'm going to call Santa." That kind of thing. We've all had THOSE days of our own, adding small kids that are also having one of THOSE days makes for stress, especially when assembling 28 small gingerbread houses to be decorated by second graders at the Christmas party on Friday.

Funny thing is, right after I told him that I might have to call Santa, the phone rang. That was the only time I've said it, it was dramatic enough. Funny, but dramatic.

I'm off... making dinner for a friend that had sweet baby Hudson on Friday. He's adorable, and don't you LOVE his name!? We also have coloring to do... the Sesame Street Christmas coloring book is a little bare.

Happy Wednesday!
A

ps... anybody have about 500 extra gumdrops lying around? We're all out here in Gilbert, have been for a couple of weeks; must be a lot of gingerbread house making going on.

It's been one of those weeks (already)...

I may have to call Santa.