Taylor's Fashion Design Experience

For Christmas Taylor received two gift cards to Fashion Playtes. If you have a little girl who dreams up designing her own clothes THIS is the place to send her. It's genius. They can pick the style, color, add in appliques, roses, ribbons ect. They also offer doll clothes that you can make to match. Taylor was quite excited for this and declares it one of her best Christmas presents ever! The dresses arrived last week and she's worn it pretty much every day since :) Oh and she designed the matching headband as well!









Be sure to check out Fashion Playtes for all the little girls in your life!

My Three Month Beauty

She melts my heart!

Disney On Ice

Last week Chris' parents bought the whole Daukas clan Disney on Ice tickets. Cousins and all (missed ya Scott & Jess!). My kids have never had an "on ice" experience! They were unbelievably excited. Trevor woke his sisters up at 6am to start getting ready for the 10:30am show. Ha! Thanks buddy! As you can see I've figured out how to post pictures in a larger format. The new change has inspired me to blog again :) Here are some highlights from the morning!

Waiting in great anticipation:


Uncle Jeff bought all the kids cotton candy! What a guy :)


Rylee biting her lip in anticipation


The girls loved the princess' on ice!


At one point the audience was asked to scream. It was great to see Trev man obey. You too Jeff good job :)


Seriously though I love this kid. He is adorable.


I think all the kids favorite part was when the Toy Story 3 characters came out at the end. Rylee is convinced she's Jessie. She will occasionally ask we call her "Jessie".


This was the best shot I could get of Papa D & Henni with the kids. It could be because I was risking MY LIFE standing in the sea of walking people just to grab a quick shot! I think Papa D was distracted by Luke who wasn't all that excited about getting a photo with them.


The swarm of people died down and little Luke was more willing to let us get a shot of him with his cousins.


I wanted to grab one more on my way out. Rylee informed me when she saw this photo that she didn't smile because she was very, very tired.


Glad this girl is never to tired for a photo


Thank you to Papa & Nana Jones for taking Alexie so I could enjoy the show! And THANK YOU to Papa D & Henni for providing this memory! Love you guys!

Testing New Format

We're Moving

This week our church plant finished up it's last Sunday meeting at the Rio Vista. Chris has been praying for the past six months that something in the area would open up that would allow us to move the church meeting time to mornings. It's become increasingly hard to reach families in our area and even unbelievers with our 4pm time slot. It's just not the time you think of when you think church. But in our case it was all we had and all we could afford. The schools that were open were over double what we were paying. Which when you're a small church and financially tight it just wasn't an option.

As Chris prayed he became convinced that God was leading him to take the plunge. A few weeks before Christmas, Chris was working hard making calls and meeting with principals. Their was a school he was starting to settle on but the doors to meet there weren't swinging open. Back to praying. A day before the school let out for Christmas break he meet with another lady at a different school. This school wasn't in the Peoria school district but close enough to our location now that it warranted looking into. As he met with the lady and toured the school doors were being flung wide open. Not only were they eager and excited to have a church meet there, they were even willing to offer us storage. To top it all off they're prices for rent were significantly lower! So much lower that our move to mornings will now be saving us money each month!! PRAISE GOD! It was a wonderful Christmas present for Grace Church!

For more information on Grace Church and the new location feel free to check out our newly designed website http://gracechurchaz.org.

Thank you to those who pray for our church and inquire about how things are going. We'd still covet your prayers. Prayers for endurance for our core team. Man they work so hard and although we've grown some in numbers, not enough to take the burden off this original group. Pray for more growth if the Lord wills. Oh how we long to see people get saved through the ministry of the preached word and evangelism from the members of Grace Church. Pray for my faith to be strengthened. God is so good to us. We long to be his happy, joyful, servants willing to be used in any way He sees fit!

"To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. Throughout all generations forever and ever amen."

A Hospital Trip

Last weekend we had our first hospital trip with one of our kids. I'm not sure how we've escaped the ER this long but we have. On a Monday Trevor woke up with a fever and a bad cough. I tried to keep him away from Alexie but to no avail. He ended up coughing right on her face and, in a not so happy with him tone, I said, "Son if she gets what you get she'll end up in the hospital! Stay away please!" Tuesday Rylee was down, Thursday Taylor and by Thursday night Lexie was going down too. Friday morning she woke up completely stuffed up, watery eyes and a bad cough. Mid morning she had this coughing fit that lasted over ten minutes. I ended up calling Chris in tears unsure of how to get her to stop. We stood in the steamy bathroom with her coughing non-stop, crying and turning red. Chris called our Dr. to see at what point we should bring her in. They said right now. So off I went before lunchtime to the Dr. At first check her oxygen levels were low but improved as we sat her up more. The Dr. came in and said her lungs are clear but she wasn't liking what she seeing. She was kind and said something to the effect of I realize I'm sending a mother of four to the ER and this isn't going to be easy but I think it's best. I called Chris and both of us agreed with our kids sick we couldn't ask anyone to stay with them. So off I went by myself to the pediatric ER that's nearby.

Our Dr. had called ahead so I was able to bypass the waiting and went straight to a room. From there things happened fast. She was due to eat again and crying from hunger but was told I couldn't feed her because they had to do a series of tests on her one was suctioning out her nose and chest. It could make her throw up so it was best to not put anything into her stomach until they were done. The nurse came in with the machines and mentioned something about blood. I was already feeling faint from not eating all day so I made the hard decision of leaving the room while they worked on her. I knew it would be a long day and I had to stay strong. Not sure what good that did though as I was in tears outside her room hearing the machine and her cries. I prayed and thought of every mom I've known or read about who has gone through so much more then this one moment with their child and I thanked God for their faith and knew that God was near. As I went back in with my baby they had her hooked up to oxygen. They got a lot out and I could tell she was breathing better. Poor thing looked so exhausted. Her already red eyes from her angel kisses were even redder. I went to feed her and she refused. To traumatized. More crying, chest x-ray, eventually she crashed in my arms and slept for over an hour. Upon waking she was ready to eat.

I'm grateful for my friends that came to support, pray and even distract me during the waiting. Thank Deb, Janelle & Megan. Deb has nursing experience and Janelle is a nurse so it was so helpful having their knowledge in the room. Megan is one of those moms in the background of my mind that I mentioned early. She knows what it's like to actually lose a child. Her faith is AMAZING. It was helpful having her there too.

The preliminary tests for RSV and pneumonia came back negative. Praise God and it was determined she had Bronchiolitis. The doctor thought it best to keep her overnight for observation.

That night was long. I spent the majority of it watching her oxygen levels as she needed to stay above a 92% in order to not be hooked up to oxygen again. I'd watch it go from 100%, 95%, 92%, 90% *alarm goes off, then she'd go back up. She slept pretty decent through it all. I, not so much. There were poor babies crying throughout the night and their alarms going off. So I spent most of the early night hours praying for them and their mommies. At her midnight feeding she spiked a fever and I began praying for Lexie to get better. We woke in the morning with more stuffiness but I could tell she was feeling better. Her fever was gone and she made it through the night without needing oxygen. Hopes for home set in. After another round of suctioning, the Dr. came in and released us to recover at home. Praise God!

I'm so grateful for all the prayers that were lifted up for us! We praise God for his healing and I can say now a week later she is so much better. With all the kids finally well I guess it's my turn to be sick :) I'm grateful for the health I had to care for my kids while they were down. Time to go get some more movies!

Alexie's First Laugh

Alexie more then made up for having a fussy week by giving us her first laugh! She gave me one little giggle and I had Taylor quickly grab the flip. Lucky us she did it again and gave us a little more.

I just love baby's laugh's they are truly one of my favorite sounds on this earth!

Christmas Moments 2010

My kids were so grateful for every little and big thing they got. I was super proud of them! Trevor opened a gift from Taylor and it was a T-REX book she bought him at a garage sale. He opened it and ran over to give her a huge hug!



Taylor was working for weeks on a surprise gift for Chris and I. It is truly something I'll treasure for a lifetime!


She made, on her own, a "LOVE" pillow for Chris and I! So super sweet. I'm so grateful for my mom and my friend Deb who helped her along the way.




Taylor and her new doll Felicity.



Trevor sporting his 3D glasses that went with his 3D color explosion set.



Rylee got a webkinz jr. and a wooden tea set for Christmas. She saw fit to put the two together.




Rylee got some leggings from baby legs. She put this little outfit together herself :)




New Toy



I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

A reminder I'm being watched

6:00pm- Enter Chris.
6:01pm- Tara asks Chris what time do you need to leave for you next mtg? Chris says 6:30 why?
6:02pm- Tara leaves.
6:03pm- Chris says to Taylor, "Taylor now think like an adult for a second...."
(that's all she ever does so it wasn't hard) "Taylor think like an adult what would make mommy want to leave as soon as I got home?"

Taylor, "Well Lexie has been crying like ALLLLL DAYYYY and at one point mommy yelled "I just don't know why your crying!!"

Chris, "Say no more."

Taylor, "Oh and then Trevor & Rylee snuck a bowl of cereal and spilled right before lunch time and didn't ask mom".

Chris, "Say no more."

Taylor, "Then there was the spider...

Chris- "Say no more."

...that crawled out of the sheets you brought in from outside this morning. She kept trying to kill it with her shoe but it wouldn't die. I was like hand me lexie mom."

Chris- "Uh oh. Say no more."

Taylor- "Oh and right before you walked in Lexie pooped all over mommy and her brand new shirt. She had just taken a shower too."

Chris- "..." you get the point.

Wow I forgot how challenging, in midst of the joy, it is to have a baby again. I'm happy to say my 25 min. drive of crying, I mean praying, did me good and I had enough grace to finish the night off. Chris and I had a good laugh at how well Taylor was able to recount my day to him. A very good and sobering reminder that I'm being watched.

My First Christmas

Wish I could've done this for all my kids first Chrismtas'!

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