Halloween (a little late)

Kenzie and Madisons costumes for this year. Don't know exactly what you want to call them but Kenzies was called a "Gothic Robe" she is really into skulls this year and has several shirts. a pair of shoes and shoelaces that have skulls on them as part of her wardrobe. My little girl is starting to be not so little anymore, at least not style wise. She is still tiny compared to her friends but she is definetly growing up into her own style. You can sort of see her red highlights in her hair in these pictures but I haven't been able to get them to show up like I want. They are temporary but she has been doing it for a couple of weeks now since her daddy won't let them be permanent. She also likes the darker makeup but not normally allowed to wear black lipstick.

Maddie is still very much into little girl stuff though so this is very much costume for her with the highlights and makeup. Maddie is catching up with her sister size wise, both wearing the same clothing sizes. Although she is much easier to shop for since she still is into the littler girl clothes. It's hard to find clothes in black and dark colors for little sized girls like Kenzie. Anyway Maddie wanted to be a vampire but no fangs since with the Twilight stuff she doesn't think real vampires have fangs :)



Anyway this year for Halloween we did the same thing we have been doing since we moved here and went to the Trick Or Truck at the school they used to go to when they were in school here. They got a lot of candy but the weather was pretty cold so most of the time they were in coats but wanted to get pictures without them. We also got lucky because the begining of the day was very raining and windy but the rain dried up just in time for trick or trunking and stayed like that till they were done, just pretty cold. We had rain mixed with snow in the morning though.



After they finished with the trick or Trunking they walked to my friends house down the street to go to the houses on the way. So they got plenty of candy!

Other things they've been doing alot lately is going skating at the rec center with friends. Picture to the left is Kenzie and her friend Wyatt. They get a lot of teasing about flirting. Which they both do although I think that they are both just the type who flirt naturally without even realizing it. They don't necessarily like us pointing it out but it's cute.

Hey look I've finally decided to post! **warning it will be long**

I know I've been gone forever and I've gotten a few messages from people wondering if I quit blogging. I didn't really quit more like I took a break.

For awhile it was just that I didn't really have anything to blog about. Life was kind of boring I guess you could say and I felt like if I was blogging I would just be repeating the same things everyday. Also I was kind of in a funk I guess you could call it. I still am in a way. I'm working on it though. Life just gets to you sometimes, you know? Some of you have been around at other times when I've this kind of issue and know that I was on medication for depression, anxiety, etc. before we moved here to Alaska. Many of you know that I decided to go off of everything when we moved here and at the begining it was going really well and I wasn't having any issues with those problems or was able to deal with them well. I am still determined for now to stay off the meds but at times it has been a struggle. I just don't like the way some of the side effects of them make me feel. I am considering the anxiety meds though but I am still holding off for now though. One of the biggest issues right now is the anxiety which causes me to have difficulty sleeping and generally being around other people sometimes. I do force myself out though. I've been in that place before where I could barely leave the house and don't really want to get there again though. I'm doing better though like I said.

Anyway things did pick up around here after awhile though and the last few months have been hectic for us all.

In August it will be 2 years since we moved here, it seems like we've lived here longer then that though the kids have all changed so much.

Izzak is still growing like crazy. He's not even recognizable from the kid we moved here with. It's really weird to look back at pictures from just 2 years ago. Just look at the difference....

Here he is just about a month before we moved here at age 12.



And now at age 14 he is very different. Of course you can't see real well since he doesn't like me having my camera out much and he always has his sunglasses on. I really do need to get a better picture of him. Can you see the huge differences though? For one he doesn't shave his head anymore and now has that long hair style going. Also he's grown about 8 inches since we moved here and thinned out a lot.

He's doing well though with home schooling. He's reading a lot better then when we were down south and has had a lot more progress in the last 2 years then the 7 he was in school before. He has a lot less stress not having to deal with other students and getting into fights and everything that was going on his last year in school when we were in Portland. He's still a great kid with an awesome personality in my opinion. He listens well for the most part and doesn't give us any major issues. He hasn't done to much in the last 7 months since I last posted other then growing and going to camp. He went to boy scout camp at the begining of the summer and had fun although he tells me he got in trouble alot. I sometimes wonder if they single him out a bit though, he isn't the oldest in his troop but he is the biggest and I've noticed they seem to expect older behavior out of him sometimes as well as him getting in trouble along with Joshua when he is near him by association. I don't know how to talk to them about it though and he is getting frustrated enough he is about ready to quit. He also went to camp with our church youth group. Hopefully I'll get some pics from that one soon and I'll share those since I might get a better picture from that. He did well there and didn't have any problems. I can't believe he is going to be a high schooler this year! I don't feel old enough for that...

Joshua has grown like crazy since we moved here as well just look at the difference in his pictures! He still looks like a little boy here and again this was just before we moved.

and look how much he has changed....



He's doing well with homeschooling also although it was a little rough this year. He did like challenging me when it came to assignments alot but got most things done like he was supposed to. He also went to boy scout camp with Izzak this year which was probably the farthest away from home with us he has ever been. Camp was in Juneau so they had to take an 18 hour ferry ride there and back plus they were gone for a total of 10 days. He did well for the most part. We are still having a lot of issues with him and his behavior though. He is still taking meds for his ADHD although he is off of them for the summer. We changed his meds though this last fall from what he had been on for a few years and that seemed to help things a bit. He also went to childrens camp with the church but not youth camp. He did really well there and I got alot of compliments on how helpful he was. Joshua played baseball again this year and his team did really well. They were the number one team in the Ketchikan league having only lost 2 games this year but they didn't win in the tournament so they ended that in second place. It was really hard on the boys but they did a fantastic job this year regardless.


Next we have McKenzie here is the summer before we left again at age 8..


And now at age 10....


Another with her friend Clarrisa


She is still little but she doesn't look it besides her size. She is growing up and I think she is going to be breaking hearst someday. She already gets boys flirting with her.

She is doing great with home school as well and has had probably had the least momentus year of all the kids so far, which is great for her. One of the reasons I decided to home school her was because she missed so much school before because of getting sick all the time. She has gone the longest in her entire life this year without getting any more then a mild cold. It's been great. She has always spent all winter down with some kind of illness I was happy it was better without her in school. She participated in her first parage this year with the girl scouts but I couldn't get a picture of her because of where she was standing.

Lastly we have the baby of the family Madison at 6 toothless and huge grins. Honestly I miss her being so little....


Madison now at 8 with all her teeth. Isn't she pretty in this picture?


She is growing up so much it makes me a little sad. She still has all the spunk she ever has though. I hope she never grows out of that. She's had a more going on this last 7 months then anyone though. She had her tonsils and adnoids taken out in March. Since she is so stubborn and hates taking liquid medicine she refused to take any pain killers or pretty much anything after the first day. I really fought trying to get her to take them but she is very stubborn. We ended up having to take her to the emergency room for 3 days in row for iv fluids and pain meds. She said she prefered the iv, weird kid. She is also doing great with home school as well and really soaks everything up. She was in her second parade this year with the girl scouts and I was able to get a picture of her...


Like Madison would ever make it difficult to find her anywhere she could get attention....




Kelly is doing well although he may be getting laid off this week from his job here that we moved up with but we are not worried. He already has 4 job offers lined up so no fear there. The only thing is the one he most likely will take will be away from home for 10 days at a time with being home for 4. The choice for not being away would have him working 6 days a week with only one off so and we decided that 4 days straight would be better. We are not absolutely positive on the lay off though so we will have to wait and see how that pans out. I promise to not go so long without posting again and will be back soon.

A bunch of winter pictures

I know I disapeared for awhile. Just haven't had the motivation for blogging lately. Not sure why. Kids are doing great, most of the time.

We have had a lot of snow in the last couple of weeks and I thought I would share some pictures of the kids

Here are the boys shoveling snow. I guess I have proof now that they actually work sometimes.
Of course if little sister is standing near you while shoveling snow it is to much of a temptation apparently not to throw snow at her. Here is Madison after getting a face full of snow. Obviously it didn't bother her any....yeah she's weird.

She decided to try a little snow shoveling herself after that.


Kenzie tried her hand at it a little bit also.


More snow shoveling except at a friends house this time. The snow was high enough you couldn't really see where the porch ended and the yard started but they managed.

After that was time for a little sledding over at the school.

Here is my little purple marshmellow, otherwise known as Maddie....she won't keep a hat on.....



Neither will Kenzie for that matter...


I guess it's better then Joshua who manages to sneak out of the house without a proper jacket....He didn't seem to mind at all though. He did have several layers under his sweatshirt.



Izzak and Joshua with a friend getting ready to go down the hill on the snowboard.

I have more pictures and will try to post more soon. I have several videos I'd like to post also but I'm having trouble getting them to cooperate.