18 month/ family picture highlights

Merry Christmas blog http://athousandacresofland.blogspot.com/2011/12/pictures.html

Great way to keep him busy.... and keep him in one place for a loooong time

http://youtu.be/7uWpIP8fUp4

My sister's wisdom

taken directly from my sister's blog at: http://athousandacresofland.blogspot.com


DECEMBER 1st

Oh first of December
This, the first year ever
I, as an adult,
Have the Advent Calendar out on time.

One sheep only,
Twenty-two more animals, stars, wisemen, shepherds and angels
To go
Then the Baby.

The Baby
Of all babies
For Whom
This month's celebration is for.

And maybe, just maybe,
This baby, born over two thousand years ago,
But still living,
Even in me...

Dare I hope
This time
He will show me more of Who He is?
And my children, too.

More than gifts,
More than festivities,
More than decor and delicacies and thrill,
This is what I seek.

Farmer in training

We went to the farm twice in November... so Elias has had a lot of hard core training on how to be a real farmer...

Music Together

The day I met me neighbor, she told me of an awesome music class she and her daughter (the same age as Elias) had just started. . . . It took me 9 months, but we signed up. Elias loves music and enjoys making a guitar out of anything (his toy guitar, apple slices, tooth brushes, giraffe's ears, etc). He loves to sing!

Normally we go to a nice old church/ community center near our home. It has a child friendly coffee shop where we can play after the class (this will be awesome as it starts raining more). Since we were in Washington DC for the first week, we did a make-up class this week at a different location, an assisted living home. It's called the "intergenerational class" is an amazing idea, they invite the home's residence to sit in on the class. The toddlers make a circle with their parents, and the senior citizens sit in chairs on the sides, but we interact some and sing together, its a GREAT concept and a fun and special time. I didn't get a good picture since I was busy keeping up with Elias, but here is a snap shot of one part of the class.

He doesn't dance too much like some kids do, so we are hoping he has better dancing skills, rhythm and coordination than his parents. The first step is this music together class. The video below shows Elias playing the giraffes ear guitar and his latest style of making music...

Pumpkin Patch

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day, so we geared up for fall (and the last day of sun) and visited the pumpkin patch for the first time!


Elias' favorite part was the tractor.
And we even ran into our cousins, Serena and Kayla!

Washington DC trip!

Last October Andy had to go to DC for a conference, Elias and I were excited to tag along! See pictures of a sweet cute little baby in DC here. We liked it so much that this September when Andy found out he had a meeting there again... we wanted to go! BUT... since then a few things have changed, like Elias is 16 months, not 5 months, he is walking and adventuring, not cuddling, I am working teaching one night a week.. just so happened to prevent us from flying out with Andy.
Elias and I headed for a cross country flight from Portland to Newark, and then on to DC at 6:30 am. No, I will NEVER do that again with a 16 month old boy with as much energy as he has. nope. Only one break down... by mom and a few more before that by Elias.
DC itself was great! Elias had a great time
Gettysburg visitor center above. The most important part was of course... the landscaping rocks. (below William booth house where Abe Lincoln finished delivering Gettysburg address)
We got to see Aunty Sally (my college friend) again!


We got to see the solar decathlon houses!

Sloth bear and panda bears at the National Zoo!


Sleep in the carseat and in the closet....

Visit Fresia, who lives in Baltimore. (my friend from Honduras)

and play, play, play... but home is always good too!

Panera

There is a great restaurant near our home, Panera, that has recently taken a new twist and become a non-profit, now named Panera Cares.

The main idea is to have people who can pay for their meal do so as well as possibly donate a little extra money, and then someone who can not afford to pay for their whole meal will pay what they can, and then they can get the rest free, or if they can't pay at all, they can work.

Even though it doesn't work out perfectly, Andy and I enjoy going and eating in a very diverse environment.

Tic Tac Toe - 3 in a row ;(

Two weeks ago we celebrated the life of Andy's aunt, who fought a very courageous battle with lung cancer. I met aunt Marilyn when Andy and I got married. (probably at our wedding). I was attracted to her because she was blunter than me! I loved it! Besides her bluntness what stands out to me is how she has inspired us for the last two years. She grew up in New York City, and went to a Catholic school. She decided she had had enough of religion...for a few decades.... Until she started reading her Bible again and decided it was the real thing. She accepted Jesus as her savior, and about the same time so did her husband, uncle Jim! They had both decided that religion wasn't for them, but now they realize it really is true! Their life transformation has been truly amazing and inspiring.

I remember last Thanksgiving getting together for an extended family meal she asked us to pray for the persecuted church! What an amazing transformation she had not caring, and then caring about people far away that we don't know, but will meet in heaven.

The title is tic tac toe, 3 in a row, because we are having three weekends in a row where we are celebrating the life of someone we loved.

Last weekend at a small graveside service and this weekend at a larger memorial service Andy and I will be celebrating the life of our little friend Kaia.

All about Kaia

Wednesday, August 17th Andy, Elias and I went to eat and then we went to a beautiful shaded park that is between the restaurant and our house.

While we were happily enjoying out little boy, about a mile away, Andy's best friend from high school, and his wife Leanne, were spending their last moments with their 20 day old newborn at the hospital. This is a letter they wrote after she passed away.

Dear Dear Friends,

Tonight Kaia went to be with Jesus around 5:10 PM. Her last moments on this earth were in my arms, and from my arms, she went directly into the arms of her loving Heavenly Father. She died peacefully, after suffering the last several days and nights with intense seizures, in addition to her an inability to swallow or breathe on her own. Neither Leanne nor I have felt such deep sadness and sorrow in our lives. Though we felt this day was likely coming, we could have never fully been prepared for the ache and the lostness that we feel. I write all this as I sit in the rocking chair where we expected that Leanne would get up late at night to nurse Kaia. We are together sleeping on the floor in Kaia’s room tonight. We have had such wonderful, painful, open, real conversations throughout Kaia’s entire life, and today and tonight have been filled with many more. Please pray for our wounded, fragile hearts.

As Kaia’s life drew to a close, Leanne and I had the chance to spend some special time alone with her. I held her, then Leanne held her, then I held her again so tight. I can’t get the image out of my mind of her in my left arm, outstretched so I could see her clearly. She is so beautiful. She is my absolute delight. This image in my mind isn’t a haunting image, but a mesmerizing image. From the first day when she was born, and shortly thereafter entered the NICU, she had my whole heart. I remember realizing that no one in the whole world could ever possibly love her as much as Leanne and I love her, because we are her mommy and daddy. What made her “our little girl” wasn’t simply that she came as a result of our union, but what made her “our little girl” was our deep, intense love for her.

This evening, as I held my dying little girl in my arms, and as we paced her hospital room, I asked Leanne to turn on the ipod. A dear friend of ours had called a week or so ago and left Kaia a voicemail. It was a voicemail of her singing a beautiful song to Kaia, and we played it for Kaia with tears streaming down our faces. It was a song Leanne and I both already love, too. It was the song Wildflowers by Tom Petty. I asked Leanne to turn on Wildflowers, and as Kaia’s heartbeat became fainter and fainter, I danced with Kaia to Wildflowers. It was an unbelievably special moment for me as her daddy. From even before she was conceived, I have dreamed of having a little girl. I’ve dreamed of her growing up and knowing her daddy’s love. I’ve dreamed of taking her on little daddy dates, and I’ve dreamed of taking her to dances. I’ve dreamed of her getting all dressed up in a new dress I bought her, and I’ve dreamed of telling her over and over again how beautiful she is. I’ve dreamed of helping her to understand the love of God by doing all I could to resemble that love to her. And so Kaia and I danced to the song. We played it three times. Somewhere during our dance together, Kaia’s heart stopped beating and she went from my arms into God’s arms.

Last night Leanne and I stayed the night with Kaia in the NICU. Our wonderful nurse brought in a cot for us, and we laid Kaia down on the bed beside us. And Leanne and I each took turns laying for hours next to little Kaia. As she seized, we kissed her forehead. We fell asleep for brief moments as we laid there throughout the night, but never for long, as her struggles kept us rushing to kiss her and comfort her. We enjoyed snuggling so close to our little girl. We memorized the feel of kissing her forehead and her hands, and we memorized her scent. Since we’ve been home tonight, we have caught her scent on one another, on blankets, on her stuffed animals. And we know it is unmistakably the scent of our little Kaia. She is truly our delight.

Our hearts ache and ache and ache. I know the days ahead are going to be brutally difficult. We have spent the last 20 days creating a lifestyle the consisted of very little, other than holding Kaia, caring for Kaia, and enjoying Kaia. I don’t know what tomorrow will be like, when we don’t drive to Legacy Emanuel, when we don’t see, hold, and kiss Kaia. I don’t know. We have cried big tears every day since she was born. We will certainly cry more tomorrow. And the next day, and the day after that. We love our little girl so very, very much.

Tonight Leanne wrote a message to some family members, and I asked to include part of it in what I wrote, as well. She said “A few days ago Kaia was seizing over and over again, and they had to re-intubate her and re-do her feeding tube, and she looked like she was in so much discomfort and had tears in her eyes... it was really, really hard on me to see her in pain and struggling. I felt so desperate for her to know comfort, and that we weren’t trying to hurt her but only wanted the best for her. It grieved me so deeply that she couldn’t understand that. And as I prayed through this, God showed me that he feels the same way. It grieves Him so deeply to see our pain and know that we don’t understand what is really happening. He is doing something so much bigger, richer, deeper than we can comprehend. Our greatest, most extravagant dreams for Kaia here on earth pale in comparison to God's plans for her. Please trust Him with us. Please remind us to trust Him when we don’t. I know He is good, to the core of my being I know it. And I believe that Kaia is in glory with Him now, and for the rest of eternity will get to see the unraveling of all that He did, is doing, and will do through her. She is such a gift.”

Thank you, thank you, thank you to each of you who has read these updates, prayed for our little girl, and loved us. We are so thankful. You no longer need to pray for Kaia, except to tell God thank you for her 20 days of life. She is in the best hands possible now, and God will be a greater parent to her than we have the capacity to be. It’s less difficult to comprehend trusting Him with our little girl, and more difficult to comprehend that for 20 days, He trusted us with His little girl. Please do pray for Leanne and for me, and for our families. This is so hard. And pray for all who have been impacted by Kaia’s life. Pray that God would do things in the lives of people that would make Kaia’s short life worth it! Isn’t our little Kaia just beautiful?

Our 5th Anniversary

Yesterday we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary!

Each year I make him a yearly anniversary album, it's good motivation to get one done, and a fun anniversary present for us! Here is this years.

Click here to view this photo book larger

35th wedding anniversary party part 1

Last Friday night we (my 3 cousins, sister and brother) held SuRprIsE 35th wedding anniversary party for my parents and aunt Lorna and uncle John. 35th is a special # because our parents threw a surprise 35th anniversary party for our grandparents when we were small (I was 5 years old) it was fun reliving that and watching the video of 1985 to plan this party! We were all amazed about how extremely surprised our parents were! Our cover was that we were having a cousin party held right after Holly's 30th birthday so we could celebrate her birthday too. Friday night we were going to go on a boat cruise on the columbia river. Keith was going to pick them up and take them there... keith never did pick them up, but a limo did, but it never took them to the Columbia river....

We sang this song back then and now taught it to our kids to sing:

big rock candy mountain

Untitled from Heidi Dryden on Vimeo.

Untitled from Heidi Dryden on Vimeo.

Grandparent's interview:

These are the links to the slideshows if you are interested:

John and Lorna's slideshow

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d6a59774f444d784d7a6c384e546b7a4d546b7a4e7a453d0d0a&sb=1

Jim and Tressa's Slideshow

http://vimeo.com/26143247

Elias Reading

Elias does not really let me read to him, but when I am not looking, he will read to himself. This was his good morning story...watching it makes me wonder if I read with my hands that much... I am pretty sure I don't drool that much. I have been wanting to get his "talking" on video for a while, and finally was able to without him noticing today!

Summer Fun Part 1

we love the nearby park.. .and playing with neighbor Annabelle
our friend Theo brought Eli a pool that he LOVES! We use it often, and swimtime doubles as bath time!
We stopped by the downtown blues festival...elias loves his musica! (the sun came out and we were getting a bit warm and thirsty in this picture) He kept visiting people all around us and trying to drink their beer.... eventually we got him some water.
the park across from our church has a GREAT water play area for kids... so fun!

Cousins are the best! Especially when they share their really cool tricycles with you!

Cherry Harvest 2011

yeah...just turn your head sideways for a minute and you will see that I really am wearing pink pants.




One of the weeks of the year where I speak more Spanish than English, enjoy the outdoors at 5 am, and spend a lot of time in my fathers orchard.... Cherry harvest.
When I was 5 my dad and uncle purchased land in Walulla, WA and planted an orchard...
I was probably in 6th grade when we started getting real harvests, and I have been working out there almost every year since I was twelve...
Most of all; the experience is beautiful and peaceful. I love being hidden in the middle of many acres of trees, feeling the Columbia river breeze, and listening to the leaves rustle under the big open blue sky. I also love how busy and hectic the week always turns out as I try to help manage a temporary crew of 75 to 120 pickers and get all the fruit off in the small window of perfect ripeness.

I have gotten to know a lot of the workers who return year after year, and that is definately the highlight of the harvest for me!
It is fun to be back working this year!

Home Ec -Sewing

sock puppets (practice sewing buttons)
My friend Frann from the MA TESOL program at PSU moved to Mexico last summer to teach English. She is an amazing woman who was fun to work with while we attended classes. When she left she gave me a food processor to make baby food with. She also offered me a sewing machine. I took it.
Later
I found myself with a sewing machine, a new baby, and dreams of sitting on my sisters couch while Elias played with his younger cousins and I sipped tea, chatted and rested with my sister.... the dreams had not originally included a sewing machine, not my sister home schooling her children. My dreams evolved.... to teaching home ec for my sister's kids in their homeschool program. I wanted to spend time with them, but not interrupt their home school schedule, and the sewing machine provided a way to make that happen.
We meet each Thursday morning for an hour or two. We had "threading the sewing machine" class, "pinning" class, "sewing lines class", etc... slowly building up to our final project.




I have learned a lot about step-by step teaching, and working with younger children. I will always look back at this as a special time with my nephews and niece.
*disclaimer* I am not even good at sewing, but I do know how to thread a machine and do some basics, which is good enough for one semester of elementary classes. Next up... cooking. I think I am ready and qualified because I have an apron....Everyone that will have to eat the food we cook next year in home ec will probably appreciate it if I read a few books before I embark on this next subject.