What they say is true

I've come back to this little blog a few times over the course of this year. It's been fun to look back. See in just a few short months another school year will finish up and I will start preparing for the next. The next just about blows my mind. I'll have one starting high school, another will have his first year in middle school, another will start her last year of elementary school and the baby- that baby will be starting Kindergarten. Suddenly the years of giving birth, sleepless nights, runny noses, endless why questions, temper tantrums, it'll all be behind me. Ok temper tantrums just change it's form. I was reminiscing with Chris today and we figured that from now till when our baby is 18 is a shorter amount of time then what we've been married. What?! How in the world can that be?!

So weary young mom don't lose heart. Fight for joy. Soak in that smell of a fresh clean little baby head, take deep breathes through the mess of a house, and just do what you can to survive and love those little faces cause one day you too will see that what they say is true. Time just keeps on moving by. Sometimes slower then we'd like, other times faster but once you're out of the slower you look back and think- wow, that really, truely, did fly by. And I gotta say, for as crazy busy as it is, I'm absolutely loving this new season with my kids.

A "New" Kind of First Day of School

This year we had a very different type of “first day” of school. Trevor & Rylee ventured out into the big wide world of school outside the home for the first time!! EEK!! I cried like a baby with all the kindergarten moms! I cried all summer, I cried the first two weeks of school. Lots of tears. Not for them though... they were like "bye mom! See ya later! This is the best day of my life!!"

So, Tara did you not like homeschooling? Nope loved it. Made me a tad bit crazy but I’ve always teetered on the crazy side anyway. I loved having them home, loved seeing them learn, loved being the one to see light bulbs going off, loved watching them play together as siblings, loved learning alongside them, loved bringing God into all subjects. We joined a formal co-op called Classical Conversations last year that I thoroughly enjoyed. Taylor became "memory master" and the other two enjoyed their day at “school”. It made our year in many ways and I had every intention of continuing.

So why change? Well largely due to this school. In the state of AZ we are blessed with some pretty incredible charter school options and there is one that we’ve had our eyes on for a few years. It’s never been close enough to consider though. All that changed this year as they planned to open one a few miles from our house. We put the kids on the lottery list to see what would happen and somehow both Trev & Ry got in. All with no sibling preference. It’s a classical, hard-core academic, literature based charter school. It attracts awesome families and the kids that graduate from there are some of the brightest, well-rounded, respectable kids you will see in the state. Much like what I would say about homeschool families. It’s not for everyone. Not every kid can hang. I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have made it a year through the academic rigor ;) But from what we knew it was worth giving it a try. Some friends of ours have tried for three years to get in and their child is still number one hundred and something on the wait list… so it’s not exactly a opportunity you pass up without some serious consideration. Chris felt strongly that we should give it a try. His thought process goes a little something like this. Love the philosophy behind school. Support the curriculum. We try it. It doesn't work they come back home. BAM! Done. Decision made. If only it was so simple for me...

But he was right and of all years to give it a try, this was a great year. All you have to do is follow me on instagram to see the terror my sweet little lex brings to my house on a almost daily basis. I keep trying to remind her she is the FOURTH child and to chill out and be a good little birth order girl and just sit on her mama’s lap contentedly. But no, she thinks it’s funny to remind me I'm not 20 anymore and give me a run for my money. Add in homeschooling three different grade levels and well… yeah, I almost didn’t make it through last year. Yesterday it was gum. She climbed onto the counter to get into my purse. Chewed a couple of pieces then spit it out into her hair. Nice and stuck. After a few ice cubes I just grabbed the scissors and said what’s a few strands in this head of hair? Today it was her climbing on the counter to get those said pair of scissors so she could try cutting her own hair. Add in giving up naps, transitioning to a toddler bed and I’d say heck ya lets give this school a try this year!

One month in and all I can say is wow. They are thriving. The fruit I am seeing is incredible, the excitement for learning, the love for the classic books, the Italian opera songs they are learning in music class and the spanish they are picking up in their spanish immersion class. There is not a day that goes by where I don't pick them up and they get in the car giddy, talking all over each other, trying to share what new thing they learned. I think I've been thanked somewhere in the hundreds for getting them into this school. I keep wanting to say, "Come on I wasn't THAT bad was I?" We are blessed to have Christian teachers for both kids. One was even homeschooled through a good portion of elementary school and reached out to me that first week of school knowing it would be an adjustment. She assured me that she would take good care and look out for my children when they were there! That was a gift from God. That day in particular was hard for me. Trevor’s teacher has e-mailed me saying how his behavior is “exemplary”, he is a strong leader in class, he is responsible and a bright light in her day! I resisted the urge to ask her if she had the right parent! Just kidding. Sort of. We went to an open house night and in Trevor's class there is a virtue board. Kids can write cards where they see certain virtues displayed in their classmates. I think of the 10-12 cards Trevor's name was on 8 of them. Needless to say the kid who put every effort in figuring out excuses why he couldn't do school that day is now up at 6am on a Saturday working on a science project adding in a extra sheet of research so he can get extra credit. Um, ok.

Taylor and I are thoroughly enjoying our time together at home. She was pushed to the wayside last year and asked to be “more challenged” this year. I added in pre-algebra, a formal Latin class, as well as a Brit/lit composition co-op class and I’m thinking she won’t asked to be challenged again ;) No our times are sweet together. She is my motivated, self-learner and though she desires to give this school a try, the wait list has said otherwise. I'm grateful to have her home!

Maybe one day I will attempt to write and share something to the effect of “how to rid yourself of guilt when putting your kids in school” or “how to make it through another identity crisis”. This whole decision really shook me. Left me wondering how much of the gospel is really functioning in my life. I’m grateful for the shaking and grateful for the friends, who still homeschool, that stood by me through it all, speaking the truth to me.

Homeschooling doesn’t save our kids. Christ's death on the cross saves our kids. Homeschooling doesn't make me or my kids righteous. Christ's righteousness imputed to us makes us righteous. I still want my kids to see Jesus above all else! It’s just that this year we think that Trev & Ry will better see Jesus by attending this school. Someone asked me today… but do you feel like you never see them? It’s valid. I was concerned about that myself. But honestly with every Wednesday being a half day and practically 2-3 Fridays a month they get out at noon, lunch at home, I feel like I see them more. When they are home they get ALL of mommy. Not tired or going crazy mom. We spend more focused times together then before. I cherish each moment with them!! Our devotions together are still consistent and now we have the opportunity to be praying for new people that they are coming into contact with!

I know that this is not the normal school and that our experience in it may not even be normal, but I am so incredibly grateful for God’s goodness to us in it this year. That’s our year. One year at a time, one kid at a time. However God leads.

Hallelujah for uniforms. Love it, love them.

On My Way- EP Chris & Tara

Hello everyone!! I'm sitting here anxiously watching this...

Yep waiting for that little plane to land. As I wait I have something I'm excited to share! After 13+ yrs of singing and writing with my husband we FINALLY have something to put up online of our music and say, "Here! Listen and check this out!" Our friend Dale offered his studio and time as a birthday present for my husband and I am now there forever, family photographer. :) We titled the EP On My Way. Since Chris and Taylor can say "I'm on my way to Africa" it's fitting.

First track is:

On My Way- Our friends Jason (electric), Mark (cello) and Andy (drums) do such a wonderful job adding to Chris and I's guitar/piano tracks. In hindsight we kind of wish we would've played it a little faster but it gets there in the bridge section. It's a catchy tune that gets stuck in your head. Lexie walks around sing/saying "On My Way"

Not Ours To Keep- Features Taylor! I started writing this song after reading Kisses from Katie. A outstanding and inspiring book! Taylor read it as well and wrote the second verse to this song. She did a great job singing lead on this song! It almost didn't make it on the album as we were running out of time. You should know she did her vocal at 11:30pm in about one take. That's not easy for an adult, trust me I know, let alone a 11yr old! Good job Tay!

Look Up- I wrote this last spring in thinking about my mom. I actually wrote it about a week before she went in the hospital and almost died. It was looking like their house that they bought (two doors down) was going to fall through and I was despairing in the waiting. Little did I know that God would use this song over and over again to keep reminding me to "look up" and remember his goodness as I would wait to see if she would live or die. Kind of what I'm having to do now as I wait for Chris & Tay to land, minister, and return. I am so honored to have Mark (cello) play on this song too. He did a fabulous job and really makes it!

So I invite you to download this music FOR FREE. Just take the tip button and scroll it all the way down to 0! Put in your e-mail. They in return give it to me so I can contact you with future music we post. Then you'll get a activation code to download and you are done. That's it! If you however want to tip, awesome! Thanks! All funds go towards paying for this trip. But honestly we are just honored if you'd download and give it a listen it's only taken us 13 years to do something like this. Pretty please. Now. Seeing how many downloads we have gives me something to obsess about other then watching a plane fly on my computer over the Mediterranean Sea :)

Chris & Tara Artist Page


or go directly to the EP



Enjoy!

Kid Update #2- Rylee

Ah my sweet Rylee. 6 1/2. She is my easy, go with the flow, child. She loves to tumble. Like everywhere. If there's anything we are working on with Rylee it's, could you maybe just walk a little more when we call you instead of tumbling towards us? Someone recently asked us where she took lessons at. I was like, um our family room?! She frequented a few classes last Spring but it was just to much money to keep up. She loved it and it's obviously made a lasting impact. The kid just is in constant cartwheel, tumbling motion. Ah Rylee.

She is a smart one. I LOVE listening to her read. There's pretty much nothing she can't read and it's just adorable hearing her sweet little voice read such big words. She is loving our school curriculum we chose this year, classical conversations. More on that later. But it's quite impressive what this girl has got memorized.

Taylor was in a musical called Suessical this fall. You would think it would be Taylor walking around singing all the songs but it was Rylee who took the greatest interest. She still takes my computer and turns on Spotify and dances and sings to all the songs. Her love for the piano continues but these days it's mostly focused towards singing and dancing to her picks like Britt Nicole, Jamie Grace and of course back to Suessical.

Rylee and Trevor have become more like twins over the years. Same height/weight they walk and talk like they are twins. It's quite cute. I've been asked on occasion if they are. She hangs in there with her brother with the best of them. I have a feeling she will rock the athletic world when we let her loose.

It's fun to watch her become more and more her own person. Being the third child isn't easy. So I hear. Her heart has been drawn to the Lord this year. She has created her own nightly routine of reading from her bible story books. Either to Chris or myself. I love to see a mama's prayers begin to be answered in that way.

This is classic Rylee!










She was a flower girl this summer in a friend's wedding. It was one of the first time that I saw a glimpse of an older version of rylee. Beautiful.


Love you Ry.

Grateful for Social Media

I've neglected this blog for awhile. I've struggled with the why. Why keep it up? Facebook is so much more efficient for the little things. This blog isn't special in any one area. This isn't a food blog, or a share my deep knowledge blog, or a follow my adoption blog.  It's just kind of a "here's" my life take it or leave it blog and that just hasn't been enough to keep me going.

Something very sad happened this week. Something so sad that I said, "If THIS happens I will quit photography and everything extra in my life and just curl up in a corner and cry."Then a few days ago the call came and "THIS" happened.

See being a photographer takes up a TON of space on your computer. Having three to four sessions a week, what I can often average in the fall, can not be held on a computer. This winter if became evident it was time to upgrade pretty much everything. I needed a faster computer, the newer version of photoshop, and some new ways of backing up photographs and video's. But there just wasn't anytime so I kept going and going and going. Meanwhile dumping EVERYTHING I loved onto this one hard drive. Newborn photo's, video's of Lexie coming home, her first days, her first laugh, her first step. Need I go on. And for some reason, unbeknownst to me, it just died and all those photo's and video's were ruined by a piece of plastic that scratched away each captured memory. My poor husband didn't even know how to tell me. He just sat across the table after dinner was over and the kids were off playing and said babe it's all gone. Unrecoverable. I cried. Hard. And after crying I reminded myself I'd rather have my children alive then their photo's and video's saved. Then I cried a little more. I still tear up even writing this. I'm sure at some point I'll forgive myself. In all honestly I thought we had Mozy going on our computer but come to find out it was just on Chris'. Ugh.

The night Chris shared the news with me I was unable to sleep.  I found myself visiting this blog. The blog that had very little meaning to me until this point and cried and gave thanks for every post I wrote and every picture I shared. It's not all lost. I also found I had some of my favorite photo's in accounts like Costco photo, flickr, shutterfly and I've been storing a good amount the past six month on smugmug. Even facebook has a few video's and pictures full resolution! Social media to the rescue.

So I'm back. I see more clearly the why. Life may not ever slow down over here but I have to make it slow down enough to where I have enough time to do the little things that matter to me. Blog and back up :)

Happy Birthday Taylor!

I haven't posted anything in a long time.... life is just so full. Full of laughter, tears, homeschooling, training four hearts, a toddler who won't sit still. I have to break my silence to recognize that Taylor has been apart of Chris & I's life for ten years today. A whole decade!! Oh how I love this girl. She is my daughter and year by year becoming my friend. I have so much fun with her and am beyond excited to see what God has in store for her these next ten years. Although I admit it is bittersweet to see my baby grow up. I've spent the past month looking at pictures of her and just marveling at how fast the time has gone. So, so fast. Here is a slideshow I put together, quite quickly I should add, of her over the past ten years. Love you Tay.

Costumes & Memories I'd Like To Not Relive

Halloween was a eventful night. We joined our neighbors in a Franks on Frank party before tricking treating with them. Within ten minutes of being there Taylor dropped ketchup on her brand new medieval dress, seconds after I told her,

"Honey remember this dress is for our medieval feast in a few weeks PLEASE, I beg you, don't get anything on it!"

After cleaning up the dress my dad choked on a piece of chicken. Like really choked. Like running away choking while Chris runs after him prepared to do the heimlich. He is fine thankfully. Then some guy yelled at Trevor and Trevor ran home crying not wanting to come back out. I am not saying that more then likely he didn't need to be corrected but we typically try to do that without yelling in our household.

Somehow after all that excitement we were able to join our neighbors in some good old fashioned trick or treating. Honestly our kids were on the fence this year with trick or treating. I told them I would buy them a ton of candy myself if they chose not to go. There are quite a few houses in our area that get just a tad into Halloween. Like neon, flashing, orange lights that illuminate scary ghosts faces, into Halloween. Which also, in turn, flash into Taylor's room each night as she try's to go to sleep. Sometimes as late as 11pm. Nice. Like an invisible wire that hangs from the lamppost connected to a house with a demon face floating back and forth in the air, into Halloween. Honestly, I'm not even saying this as a Christian. But I just don't get it. I don't get the fun in celebrating scary evil things. Maybe it's because I've always been a "sensitive soul" but I just plain don't enjoy going through party city to pick out plates for Alexie's 1st party with larger then life-sized demons hanging over my head in each aisle. Stretching out as if to suck me into their world. Call me a party pooper. So when the man dressed as a dead baseball player, with a fake axe, hiding in the corner of a driveway looks at me and I say to him,

" I promise you if you chase after me or ANY of my children I will personally take your axe and...."

Ahem. Just don't blame me ok. And for the record the man with the axe heard me and did not move.

So on that happy note... we were able to met a ton of new neighbors who have just moved in! The kids had a great time dressing up and joining in the fun with their neighbor friends. There were PLENTY of non-scary houses that were able fill their bags up with a disgusting amount of candy.



That's Trevor in the far left corner not letting me take a picture of him.


I won in this picture.


This is just to great to not post. These are some friends of ours, also neighbors! Man what a husband does for his wife. Haha! You guys are awesome.


We'll see what next year holds :)

Birthday Morning- Tradition Continues

We started Alexie's first birthday morning as we do every Daukas kid birthday morning. Waking up to balloons. It's a tradition my parents started with my brother and I. I have great memories of waking up and looking around to see if my parents had remembered and sure enough there they were. Balloons.



After we sang "Happy Birthday", Chris lead the kids in praying over Alexie and thanking God for her life. It was so sweet.



Next up... Her owl birthday party!

Taylor's First Concert

As many of you know Crowder band is finishing up their final tour ever. Chris and I saw them in concert 7 years ago and had so much fun. When I saw Gungor was touring with them I knew we had to try to swing it. It's quite often hard for Chris and I to swing anything that involves a babysitter these days but my parents graciously drove out here so we could go. Taylor LOVES Gungor and Crowder so we thought what better first concert for her to attend? Another family from our church was going and Taylor is friends with the daughter. We knew she'd not only enjoy going with us but it would be a bonus to have a friend there.

We decided to not tell her till we were in the car. Partly not wanting to tempt Trevor. As in typical Taylor fashion she was BEYOND excited. The concert was general admission. Chris and I didn't really have the time to stand in line for an hour but our friends did. They were some of the first in line and got us some floor seat wristbands but we kind of needed to get to get there before the doors open. And when I say we barely made it... I mean like Taylor & I were running, they were the next to walk inside and we were able to squeeze in with them and grab our bands. I'm sure that made everyone around them happy :) But hey it's a christian concert right!?!

The concert came at a perfect time in Chris and I's life. It was definitely one of those "we need to escape life and go see a concert" type night. In all fairness we have many of those nights but this time we actually had a concert to go to. Convenient.

















Taylor's new dream is to become a professional singer.... you could see the dreaming in her eyes that night as she saw artists come and go off the stage. Heck you could see the dreaming in my eyes that night as well. I whispered to Chris at one point, "Let's leave this all behind and hit the road to tour." I guess some dreams never die, even once accepted it will never be a reality :)

What an awesome night! Check out Gungor if you haven't already.  Crowder was amazing as always but I am eager to see a whole night of Gungor!

Happy Birthday Alexie

Oh my sweet baby Alexie.... how can it be true? How can you be one already?!?! You have brought your mama and family pure joy this year. I tear up thinking about how much love I have in my heart for you. How your very presence has INCREASED my joy for your brother and sisters. Seeing them love on you, make you laugh, care for you makes my heart soar. And oh how you love them!! You love your mama too :) You show it by crying anytime someone tries to take you out of my arms. You are on the verge of walking, a few steps here and there. A whole new world is going to open up to you this year. I praise God that in his goodness, even when I thought we would not have anymore children, he surprised us with you! You are loved.































Happy Birthday Alexie Jane!

Happy 11

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better. It did. And it does. I am so unbelievably grateful for my husband. He has far surpassed any dream I had for what I thought marriage would be.




We laugh. We cry. Ok I cry and he listens.
We compete at games. He always wins. I let him. After 11 years I've found it's best.
We disagree. We have conflict. We talk. Talk some more. Pray.
Reconcile. Make up. I like that part.
We work hard. HE works hard. Hard late into the night and days serving the Lord and His church.
Then we rest. Sweet, blessed rest. And we recount God's goodness to us.
Four amazingly beautiful children.
For today, we are alive and healthy.
We are best friends.
We are married.
Thank you God.

Happy 11 years baby.

Friday's on Frank

We live in an awesome neighborhood. I feel so blessed to live on this street. Chris and my desire has never been to shut our garage and live within the confines of our house. We desire the kind of neighbors that text you at 10pm to say, "Hey your garage is open." Or, "Your car door is open." and then about 20 min. later, "I just shut it for you." Something apparently we need :) We desire the kind of neighbors that concrete their side walkway to pull up their trash and say, "Hey feel free to pull up your trash on our walkway too!". And when a neighbor's brother passes away, all the neighbor's pool in to buy this family flowers of sympathy. We have all of this and more here on Frank.

There have been many "F on F" events over the past year. "Franks on Frank", "Fire on Frank" and no we didn't set things on fire just roasted marshmallows in a friends backyard. There's been ice cream socials and a cookout on Halloween. My favorite has been the weekly, "Friday on Frank". We meet outside around 4pm and let the kids ride bikes and play in the massive sandbox out front. The girls catch up on the past week and celebrate the weekend's arrival by drinking wine in fancy cups. This is a highly anticipated event in our household.

Here are some of the girls.

We have chosen to overlook the UofA paraphernalia :)

There have been four babies born from October through December! All boys except for Alexie.


Our fancy cups.

My favorite was the week we used Hello Kitty cups leftover from a birthday party. Hey it's what on the inside that counts right!



The kids have created something they call, "The post". The mission each friday is to find really cool items to add to this post. Anything from boards, cool looking rocks, my kids left scooters and nurf guns have been found in the dirt.
We've talked about planting a neighborhood garden in all this dirt but figured that's not something the HOA would appreciate :)


Houses are slowly creeping in us. More then likely this time next year our street will be built out. My children have often us asked me how much it would cost to buy this land so we could keep houses from being built on it. It's a devastating thought. We keep encouraging them that more houses means more friends to join us for Friday on Frank! Right guys? The adults will miss the dirt too.



I praise God for leading Chris and I to this neighborhood! I'm grateful for the new friends our family has made here on Frank Ave and look forward to seeing our kids grow up together!



These pink toms are just too cool to not post :)