Happy 3rd Birthday to Maia!

On Wednesday, August 29th our little girl turned 3.   I will always say this on both of my kids birthdays, but it does not feel that long ago that we were anticipating the arrival of our first daughter.  Crazy feeling indeed and now we have gotten to get to know her for three years.  INSANE!  So Maia get ready to hear  "it feels like yesterday" on all of your birthdays. 

 I can just say that in these past three years of knowing our little girl, it has been joyful with a few challenges.  Its crazy the gradual transition of they always needing you for everything and then the small bits of independence creeps in.  You begin to hear "I want to do it myself" ALL THE TIME!  and I have learned to just let her try and if she does not succeed I will be ready to help.  SIGH!  But its a joy in the end.  I never go through a day without laughing!

 So on her birthday we celebrated slowly in the morning eating pancakes and doughnuts (her choosing)  and then we got ready to play at playdate pdx.  This is a GIANT indoor play park with a huge play structure.  Both kids played hard and were tired at the end, hence the picture of Maia wanting to sleep on the grass right outside our house. 

 Maia and I the proceeded to make some delicious pizza.  This was by her request. 

 Then of course there is always cake.  cake. cake. blow out the candles. cake. 

 The next day we went to the zoo with some friends and this has become one of Maia favorite parts of the zoo.  Petting the goats.  She brushed them and then sang to them.  It was quite sweet!

So today (Saturday) its was PARTY TIME!  Here is a few shots of our party.  The theme was a dress up party along with decorate your party hat.  So here is a few shots of the artistry that occurred at the party.  Very nice party hats!

 The Party Crew!  Aren't they all so stinking cute?

 When we first asked Maia what kind of cake she wanted she said strawberry.  When I asked what she wanted it to look like she said she wanted flowers on it.  So I then concluded with Strawberry cupcake with flowers on top.  They were pretty tasty!

 Paxton was patiently waiting for his cupcake.  Then the happiness occurred.  FEED ME CAKE!

 Thus concludes Maia's Birthday extravaganza!  We had so much fun celebrating our sweet sweet girl!  A few things we love about our Maia girl is that she is so joyful full of singing and dancing.  I think just being around that I am more joyful with songs in my heart!  She loves to dress in her fancy clothes and dance around the house saying she is a princess.  

Yes a princess you are Maia! We love you very much!  

Happy Birthday Maia!!

Agony Ride 2012

The Bottom Line:  I (Michael) am riding my bicycle in a 24-hour fundraiser to help at-risk youth and hope to go 150+ miles (Okay, okay, I blew this goal out of the water and went 255 miles).  Will you sponsor me either a per-mile or flat amount pledge?  

https://www.christianencounter.org/events/calendar/agony-ride-2012/agony-ride-sponsor-form-2012/

Michael in the 2012 Agony.  Photo Courtesy of Steve Monck

Hi friends!


 At the end of July, I'm doing a 24-hour bicycle ride called the Agony Ride.  The ride is at the 5,000 foot elevation in the Sierra Valley, just north of Lake Tahoe.  There usually are high winds, and it is always possible to have extreme temperatures (anywhere from 30-90 degrees).  I did this ride last year and rode 210 miles raising over 1200.00 dollars.  To those of you who sponsored my last year, thank you, thank you, thank you!  Last year I actually missed the first eight hours of the ride due to a sudden funeral, so you would think I could ride over 210 miles.  That may be possible, but this year my goal is actually 150 miles.  For the first time, my wife is going to ride as well, and we are committed to riding together.  We have chosen a more realistic goal for someone riding their first year at the Agony.  I am very excited for this shared experience, and the opportunity it affords us to encourage one another as we suffer together for 24 hours.  While the ride is certainly a great personal challenge, the point of the ride is to raise funds for the residential counseling program that is putting it on.  


The ride is put on by Christian Encounter Ministries, a care and recovery program for young people in crisis.  The youth aged 16-25 who enroll (all voluntarily) typically live in this residential program for 1-2 years, and are provided an on-site high school, weekly counseling, discipleship and mentoring, Bible Study and an on-site church, twice-yearly wilderness trips, and live-in staff who sleep in dorms with them, cook with them, work with them, and hang out with them in the evenings as a family.  In fact, I believe it is through these relationships more than any particular aspects of the "program" (such as four days surviving in the snow by building igloos) that their lives are transformed.  The staff become like family to them and it is during the quiet evenings shared together, or during the monotony of raking leaves, or perhaps in watching how they respectfully handle a resident cussing them out, that true growth takes place.  And it really works.  I have personally seen punk-kids with their hat on sideways come in bragging about their gangs and drug use, and a year later they are mature young men spending much of their waking moments considering how best to serve the newer residents.  


I have seen this because I lived and worked at Christian Encounter Ranch for two years.  This program not only seeks to help at-risk youth, but also has a leadership training component as well, and the staff primarily in charge of the residents are all leaders in training.  CEM is near and dear to my heart because not only was I a leader in training with them, but it's also where I met my wife.  We both formed lasting friendships with the residents while working there, and one young man was even a groomsman in our wedding. While we were privileged to be a part of the transformation happening in the residents' lives, both my wife and I would say that we grew more than the residents did.  I learned:  to consistently follow-through on what I say, that the way I word something makes a difference for whether they will accept it or get defensive, that my constant allowing of exceptions to the rule ended up making those upholding the rules look like jerks, how to be firm, to recognize anger as a sign that things feel out of control, that people can truly change, to not despair even when things seemed to be at their worst, to hold appropriate boundaries without feeling guilty, to be patient with someone’s messiness but to be honest about how it makes me feel, and that sometimes choosing to trust that someone's telling the truth actually causes them to tell the truth.  I learned much, much more than this, but I can't fit all 38 pages of reflections I wrote about CEM in this post; suffice it to say that I am a far better individual and parent than I ever would have been without the experience.  


So why am I writing you this?  I'm asking you to please be my partner in supporting this life-changing work with a tax-deductible per-mile or flat-amount pledge.  The ride takes place from 1pm July 27th 2012 until 1pm July 28th 2012, and while sponsorships in advance are ideal, if you are reading this now, that means it is August so know that you can still sponsor me after the fact. To sponsor me simply click on the link below and fill out the form:  


https://www.christianencounter.org/events/calendar/agony-ride-2012/agony-ride-sponsor-form-2012/

Thank you SO much!

Also, stay tuned to this blog for the results-- I will be posting shortly a post-ride recap of how the ride went.

Paxton and his Car

Its been awhile now, but this little Paxton Boy sure loves to drive his car all over our little Duplex.   We really didn't teach him this, he just really loves anything with wheels.  So enjoy our little boy and his car and his sweet sweet smiles!

Independence Day.

Fourth of July!

 

It finally felt a little like Summer and so it was wierd that it was already July 4th.  Snuck up on me.  Well we celebrated with a little backyard BBQ or Cookout (depending on what region you are from...#wink).  We just had a lot of fun with Grandma Jo being in town and with a some friends too.  Here is just a little snapshot of our fun summery day. 

Not quite sure what she is thinking about, but she was definitely pondering on something. 

Impressed with Eben's ability to wink!

Cherry "star" Pie.

Grandma Jo with baby Judah Yates. 

These kiddos were so excited about the Pies.  Can you tell?

Could not feed him fast enough!

Thirsty!

This is their first time to be this close to fireworks.  We had to keep a close eye on Maia with her sparkler, but she did a great job and wanted more.  Paxton on the other hand just wanted to touch them, so obviously he did not get his own.

We ended up finding a little place and were able to see the fireworks that were shooting off on the waterfront.  It was our attempt to avoid the crowds.  Thanks to our Landlords/neighbors for letting us play with their fireworks.  We had a blast. 

Eat More Pie!

Eat more pie - So I think this will be my motto this summer.  I love pie and its the best when you worked hard to pick the fruit you put in it.  MMMM...I think think that just makes it taste better at least to me. I may make it a goal to make a pie out of the fruit we encounter this summer that is in season.  Hopefully mostly the one we pick!

Every June since we have lived in Portland Michael and I have gone strawberry picking at a farm called Sauvie Island Farms, right there on Sauvie Island.  Its about 30 minutes from our house.  The island is mostly farm country and so its great to get out of the city and get on your knees and pick some strawberries.

We brought along our help. 

She is a strong girl!

 This year Maia really helped and picked a fair portion of the berries and by the end she was picking the perfect ones.  Go Maia! 

16 lbs and delicious!

Paxton on the other hand well....

We turned our backs and the next thing we knew he decided to try the dirt.  Ooops!


This was at the end of our picking.  I always enjoy the scenery here at this farm and also love seeing those two kiddos and their dad after a hard hour or two of work.  We had fun and ate lots of strawberries in between!

And here is the pie!.  We got the rhubard from the Farmers Market since my rhubarb was kinda small. I kinda used a few recipes and then also improvised and wallah!  It was pretty amazing!  It was a strawberry rhubarb crumble pie.  Pretty tasty!  A great way to welcome the summer!

 Happy Summer!

Paxton Turns 1

Our Little Paxton boy turned 1 on Friday!  Friday we had a special day with just our family playing with Paxton.  Then the party was on Saturday where we invited a few friends and ate cake and had a lot of fun in the sun with each other. 

 It was a train theme party so Paxton got his conductor overalls and was ready to go!  I had a lot of fun making his train cake and was really happy with the results!

 There were quite a few people in and out of our house and Paxton was unsure for a little while what to do, so he found one of us and stayed really close, but was also checking everything out. 

 I think he was more into the strawberries than his own cake!

 choo choo!

 Cake Time!  We found out that he likes black licorice and enjoys dipping it in the icing on his cake.  It was pretty fun how that's how he ate his cake.  I wondered if he would just go for it, but he didn't; just dipped his licorice and then went on his way!

He got to lick the candle after having lots of help blowing out it out from a few friends.

Maia was a great big sister and had a blast celebrating with Paxton.