Isaiah 20 months old!

Isaiah is getting so big, and now he smiles very well for the camera, such a joy!

Spring 2011

Corey and Miriam on Corey's 30th birthday!

Miriam and Miriam (Mahder)--I've known her (and her three siblings) since she was born, went on family vacation with them (to Maine for three weeks, when I was twelve) as their mother's helper, and babysat them numerous times, etc. Now, she's a sophomore at my Alma Mater, Truman State University!

Lukie before his haircut--his hair was 5 inches long.

The kids, Corey and his parents and maternal grandmother.

Corey and his dad. Pic taken by Abby, hence the patronizing smile from Pa.

My mom and dad and Abby at a dear friend's wedding.

Lukie at the same wedding, he was ring bearer, and I was matron of honor.

Me and Isaiah at the reception.

Abby and one of her buddies, Paige, at Paige's birthday party.

The extent of my spring decor, bird and bird's next under a cloche. Don't mind the clock propped against the picture on the wall. :-)

daddy daughter dance with abby

Here is a link to the 20110205 Daddy Daughter Dance photo album.
Here is a link to a video of Abby talking about where we are going.
Abby and I went to the Daddy Daughter Dance at Providence Comunity Church in Lenexa on Saturday February 5, 2011. We had Abby's hair fixed down at my Mom and Dad's house. It was curled. It looked very nice. Abby was dressed very elegantly in a flower dress with a little white shawl. Abby and I got some pre party pictures and then headed to Chris Keup's house to car pool out to Lenexa together. Chris actually invited us to the event. He and his daughter, Ava looked great together.
We arrived at 6pm (perfect timing). Outside the main entrance there was a line of candles on each side and a young boy opened the door for us. We were greeted and escorted to the check in room. We got signed up for pictures, checked in, had our coats valet checked and then hung around until we were up to get our picture with Snow White. Abby had a flower pinned on her dress. Abby was a little nervous about Snow White. I think she was generally nervous about the new surroundings, all the people, the decorations, and the pomp. We got our picture with Snow White and then went to the main dance/eat area. And apparently we unknowingly stole some reserved seats. If your out there and you happen to read this, we really are sorry...we did not know they were reserved.
There were light hors d' oeuvres. Young boys (8-12ish) were very attendant waiters. I never had my glass of lemonade less than 1/3 full all night before one would take it for a refill. They did an excellent job. We had some snacks and then they brought out the main dinner. It was buffet style loaded with salad, chick-fil-a, and jack stack barbecue. It was very good. Abby really liked the sausage and had quite a bit of it. I had a very generous second helping of meat. Sliced beef is one of my favorite foods. The attendant boys cleared our plates and then asked the girls if they wanted vanilla or chocolate cupcakes. Abby got vanilla. The attendants brought the dads huge pieces of chocolate cake and ice cream which I split with Abby. I don't even like dessert that much so was happy Abby helped me eat it.
Dance time started around 7:15. Abby was very energetic and we danced hard. She wanted to jump up and down and do the slide though. The slide through is a move where she holds both of my hands and slides between my legs. At the last minute she lets go with one of her hands and I reach around back between my legs and grab her hand, while she lets go with her other hand. I continue the pull and she slides through my legs and stands up with a twirl, completing the slide though. We did that move many times. We also did the swing move "cradle to flip" which Abby's mom and I particularly like (kind of our signature move which we performed on our wedding night). We just had a great time dancing together...until about 7:50-8.
Abby just stopped dancing and said, "I'm done, lets go home." Miriam, Luke, Abby, and I had been sledding (with the lyford family) for 2 hours earlier in the afternoon. Abby walked up big hills many times and expended a bunch of energy. Combined with the dancing, her energy level at 8pm dropped to 0 pretty instantaneously. So, for the next 35 minutes, we got to have some great daddy daughter cuddle time.
Yep, right there in that big dance room with all those people, Abby was content to just sit on my lap, head on my chest and suck her thumb. I don't know how much longer I will get these opportunities, so I was in no rush to go. On the way home, Abby did not waste much time falling asleep. This night was very special for me. I hope we created a memory she will be able to cherish. I hope we created a tradition, at least one daddy daughter dance annually. I hope when she is 18, and prepping for her prom...that sometime during that busy year she still wants to cut some rug up at a dance with her daddy at a daddy daughter dance. I hope I have the strength to be her daddy, to guide and teach her in the ways of the Lord, and the strength to let her go.

2011-02-05 daddy daughter dance

In praise of love basket

Love Basket is the adoption agency we used to facilitate our adoption of Isaiah. They recently asked us to submit a brief testimonial. We did and you can see it on Love Basket's Domestic Testimonial Page.

We were very happy with service provided by Love Basket.

disclaimer: Miriam's dad, Frank Block, is the Executive Director of Love Basket so we have some bias in recommending Love Basket. I wish I could post our answers to Love Basket's survey about their service. I took the liberty of settling a couple of son-in-law/father-in-law scores by providing some "entertaining" responses about the executive director. In actuality, Frank is a fantastic father-in-law whom I greatly respect.

beautiful

An old picture from 2009 that may be used on Love Basket's Adoption Testimonies page. And wow...what a beautiful family. And doesn't Miriam look, ummm, well particularly hot? I think so. Isaiah was really tiny, not so much anymore.

Athletes 4 Athletes Crossfit Competition

I competed in the CrossFit Lee's Summit hosted Athletes 4 Athletes Competition today. Below is the workouts we performed and some video of me competing. I competed in the RX (as prescribed) division. I do not know the complete results but I will post when I find out.

A huge thanks to CrossFit Lee's Summit (where I work out). They did a great job of organizing and running the competition today. My wife, kids, parents, and Pat Whitworth and his son Erick also came out to cheer me on. Thank you, I appreciate your support.

I am definitely looking forward to more of this.

0700-0745 Athlete Check In
0745-0800-Rules and explination of events and scoring
0800-Event #1 starts

****Event 1***
AMRAP 10:00
RX
    6 Squat Cleans (135/75)
    9 Burpee Box Jumps (20 inch box)
    12 KB Swings (24K/16K)
Scaled
    6 Front Squats (75/45)
    6 Burpee’s
    6 Box Jumps/Step-Ups



********Event 2********
“DEADLIFT MEET”
3 – Single Deadlifts
Performed like a weightlifting meet.  All athletes will call for an opening weight and adjust their 2nd and 3rd lifts accordingly.  Once a weight is put on the bar it’s not taken off. Each athlete will be given 3 attempts.  The WOD will be scored as best lift percentage body weight.
(A 150lb athlete with a 375 deadlift would score 250% and beat a 215lb athlete with a 516lb deadlift and 240%)
RX and SCALED divisions performed the same…scored within division



******Event 3******
5 Rounds for time
RX
    5 Sandbag Overhead Squats (60/40)
    Sandbag sprint length of basketball court
    3 Atlas Stone Shoulders (100/45)
    Sandbag sprint length of basketball court back
Scaled
    5 Sandbag Squats–Any position (60/40)
    Sandbag sprint length of basketball court
    3 Sandbag Shoulders
    Sandbag sprint length of basketball court

2 months of CrossFit

I have been CrossFitting at CrossFit Lee's Summit for the last 2 months and I have been really enjoying it. I am working out at the 5:30am class so I can avoid traffic on the way to work. This is the kind of fitness I want.

Here is a quick shot of me doing a box jump (1 of the 15 I did):

an inspiration

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/sports/baseball/17reflect.html

"It didn’t matter to me — I wanted to join the fight against Hitler and the Japanese. We were losing that war and most young men of my generation wanted to help push them back. People today don’t understand, but that’s the way we felt in those days. We wanted to join the fighting. So on Dec. 9, I gave up the chance to earn $100,000 with the Indians and became the first professional athlete to join the Navy after Pearl Harbor."

"I knew then, and I know today, that winning World War II was the most important thing to happen to this country in the last 100 years. I’m just glad I was a part of it. I was only a gun captain on the battleship Alabama for 34 months. People have called me a hero for that, but I’ll tell you this — heroes don’t come home. Survivors come home."

-Bob Feller
died december 15, 2010

Bob, in my book you are a hero...and an inspiration.

kids making isaiah laugh

I sure do love my family. What fun.

Debt, one of my biggest concerns

I think debt is one of the biggest problems our country is facing right now. I have posted about how Dave Ramsey's teachings on finances have changed our life here. The borrower is slave to the lender. I know who I am a slave to right now...the bank that holds my mortgage.
Who are you a slave to?
Who holds the US debt?

Hey, guess what? The government is NOT going to fix our problems. We are. Lets clean up our mess. I get tired of politicians (not delegated to just one party) talking about the working people like we are perfect. As an average, Americans are chained down by mounting personal debt and gross overspending...just like the federal government. Something is going to have give eventually. I do not know what or when, but I know we can not continue on our current path indefinitely. I don't even know the details of a solution. But I know a basic principle...YOU CAN"T SPEND MORE THAN YOU MAKE! The best place for me to start is with me. How about you?

If you have 15 minutes, check out the video below or if that does not show up click Glenn Beck on US debt

Isaiah Laughing

We love this boy!

Family fun

The lost rule of organizing

I am an organizer...sometimes to a fault. And this lost rule of organizing is something for me to heed. Know when to stop.

Big Boy Underwear

We're working on potty-training again around here. It's slow going for two reasons: 1) I (Miriam) do not have the time or desire to devote large amounts of effort to asking Lukie if he has to go potty every three minutes. And if he answers yes, that means I must rush him to the bathroom, unsnap a onesie (if he's wearing one), take down his pants and take off his diaper and get him on the toilet in time...often it just seems easier to let him go in his diaper. Isn't that terrible?

2) Lukie seems determined to poop in his diaper. Even when I catch him trying to poop, and I ask him if he wants to go on the potty, he responds frantically, "No! Go away! I need privacy. Leave. Go. I'm not pooping." He says all of this while earnestly waving his hand at me, showing me where he wants me to go, and quickly!

So, as I mentioned, we're working on potty-training! However, Lukie does love his big boy underpants that happen to have Thomas the train on them. Exciting stuff!

Raking Now

Be sure to check the post below this one!
Abby and Corey raking in November 2009, 2.5 years later. Corey has Isaiah, who is sound asleep, on his front.















The kids had a great time running and jumping into this pile of leaves. Luke, 2; Abby, 4; and
Isaiah, 3 months; all "helping" Corey with the leaves.

Raking then...

These pictures were taken in March of 2007, before Luke was born. We raked all the dead grass out of the yard, with Abby's help. Abby was almost 2 at the time and still in that chubby stage, very cute!

















I was also in the chubby stage, but it wasn't quite as adorable. :-)















Little girl all tired out after raking the yard. No better place to recuperate than in Daddy's arms.

Darth Miriam

My awesome wife got me tickets to the Star Wars: In Concert show playing at the Sprint Center in Kansas City on December 9. Pumped doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about this. My wife is not a fan of Star Wars (i don't even think she has made it through one of the movies yet...and i think she only tried once). On the other hand, I am a huge Star Wars fan (my firstborn son's name is Luke). I read the books (there really is a lot more that goes on than the movies can convey). I even got to watch Star Wars Episode II during its opening week at the Odeon Cinema at Leicester Square in London (there are 1,683 seats...just huge).

This is going to be great. A huge thanks to my wife for such a creative and sacrificial (remember she hates star wars) gift. I wonder if she will let me dress up in costume and take my lightsaber? Probably not, but this ... is ... sweet!

Abby and Izay!

Isaiah is getting so big! He's over 12 pounds now and two months old! Abigail and Luke continue to enjoy being big brother and sister to him. Isaiah ("Izay" as the kids call him) is smiling and cooing frequently which is so much fun!





Abby dressed up like a kitty cat (courtesy of my mom, Mima, who whipped this outfit together). She looked adorable and thought it would be great fun to claw and lick all of her family. She's a great girl!

He's Getting Bigger

Isaiah is 5 weeks old. We had him weighed last week (4 weeks of age) and he was already 9lbs 5 ounces! He had gained 2 lbs since birth, which is a lot in four weeks! We were very grateful for his good weight gain, because that means he's getting enough milk and nursing is going far better than we had hoped for!

Isaiah is a sweet little guy who loves to be held and is a cuddle-bug. He is still not sleeping well at night, getting up to nurse about every 2-3 hours, so I am tired, but I'm getting used to it. Abby's in preschool now and so we have a routine at least 3 out of 5 days.

Baby swap

Our dear friends Jesse and Shanee just had a baby three weeks ago.
Miriam and Shanee playing baby swap.