Sleepy head!

Love love love this little sleepyhead!

Zion on The Drums

Zion tried hard to convince us of these drums in Costco!
He sure can drum like his daddy!

What a BLESSED little family we are....

Soooooooo sorry that it has been FOREVER since I last posted. Life has been full! God is good to the Miles-Derton family!!! :) I even found my THIRD $20 bill on the side of the road last week! :) God knows how to let me know, "Hey, I'm still here and going to provide your EVERY need!" :) The other night we walked out the back door to play frisbee golf and Brandon said, "man, I wish we had a football!" Guess what we found lodged in a tree not 100 feet later... a full sized nice football. :) Sooooo.... we are confident that when our God so blatantly meets even our wants, He is most definitely going to provide our super sized needs. Aka an amazing job for Brandon. :) Customs is still moving along and we KNOW that if that is the job that God has created to be perfect for Brandon, then he will get it no problem! :) (Just wanted to let everyone know where we're at on that!) In the mean time, our time is getting short on Kodiak Island and we're soaking in the salty air and enjoying Zion's little sandy feet! Our ferry is set to leave July 13th! And we are hoping our movers will be here before the end of THIS month! Eeeekkk!!!! It's coming up quick!!! 

Here are a couple of my FAVORITE pictures that I just had to share! :) Enjoy! There are many more to come from this day at the beach! We have NEVER seen Buskin beach  this GORGEOUS! It was just perfection. Okie dokie. Have a super blessed day!!!

Weeming!!!

Weeming. Also known as Swimming. Zion is CrAzY about it! He was SO excited to be at the base pool yesterday. In the locker room Mr. Z was going around saying "weeming, WEEMING!" He was so happy to be there. Is this not the cutest picture? He just melts my heart! Maybe he''ll take after me in the pool?!? (That would be SO awesome!) Who knows... I DO know that he will be amazing at whatever he does! :) Brandon is just positive that he's going to be in the NBA, due to the fact that he is a giant little 20 month old. Maybe we have a NBA AND swimming all star on our hands! :) "I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength!" Phil. 4:13

Dinner and New Snow

Zion LOVES snow! What are we going to do in Arizona??? I guess we'll have to make do with snow in a different form: chlorinated water! :) Until then, Zion is enjoying EVERY moment outside!!!
What a little man... I love this picture.

And Zion HATES coming inside...........................................................................................lol.

Last night I made Kapama (Greek Stew). A meal Brando and I enjoy, and apparently now a favorite of Zion's! He had a great time eating; not only was it a culinary treat, but it was a fun sensory experience as well! Hope you enjoy these pictures as much as Zion enjoyed creating the scene! :)

A Sample of His Silliness

So sorry it's sideways!!! I can't fix it. Hope you can still enjoy it!!! He is such a ham.

What a difference a year makes...

Then....

Now...



Wowza! We had fun in the snow today! Zion BEGGED to go outside this morning! :) Like pitiful begging, crying and pleading with his tear brimmed handsome eyes. So, I gave in. It is nearly impossible to resist those eyes! (The last picture was taken right when we went out, and shows his, "Haha, it worked, I'm outside!" face.) And we were surprised that it was actually a nice temperature outside. YAY!!! (My thermometer right now says 28, but it didn't feel that cold! But there is no wind and that makes such a huge difference.) We were out for an HOUR and then decided to have a picnic outside when Daddy came home. It really felt nice out with the sun shining. I have no idea when it was last this nice and sunny out. We actually brought out Zion's highchair and our lawn chairs and it was LOVELY! Brandon did point out the fact that when we soon have our Arizona picnics, we will not be seeing our breath! :)

Speaking of AZ, we will be starting our trip down in 2 weeks!!! WOOHOO!!! Brandon has an interview with T.P.D., so we're gonna make a trip of it! And we'll all see OUR house for the first time! Praise God! We are so excited!!! We will be making a pit stop in Seattle and get to see Grandma & Grandpa Miles and the Derton clan. SWEET!!! We cannot wait!!! God is so good!

Randomness

He is very tall!!! Where did that come from? lol.
Zion and Daddy love to build things together!!! :) I love it.
Think they're related? :)

A Happy, Silly Little Man

He figured out how to do zerberts, or rasberries, or whatever you want to call them, so he does this face quite frequently now. lol! I'm telling you, he is SILLY! :)

Here are some quick shots of our happy, silly, lovable, giggly, ADORABLE, little toddler. He literally keeps up laughing and smiling ALL DAY LONG! He is such a blessing to us and we are just constantly thankful that we were chosen to be Zion's parents. We are BLESSED! This morning instead of waking up to him crying in his crib, I had the joy of hearing "MOMMY!". What a big boy! :) Such a little milestone to some, but it made me so happy! :) He has certainly turned into a bubbly, talkative toddler. Okie dokie. Have a blessed start to your week!!!

And Grandma Miles: FEEL BETTER SOON!!!!!!!!!!!! We love you lots & LOTS!!!!!! XoXoXoXoXo

80's Night at Our Youth Group

Brandon and I are leaders in the Youth group here in Kodiak. We love it! And well, the pictures probably say it all. lol. It was 80's night last night and Brandon went all out! lol. Enjoy! Zion is always the hit of the party. He was rockin' his basketball 80's look last night as well! SO cute! And here is a partial pic of the youth last night that dressed up. :) Some of them were party poopers and forgot. :)

Happy Valentines Day!

John 3:16 "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

I am so thankful for Christ's love! He cared SO much for ME that He was willing to let His ONLY SON be killed so that I can have eternal life with Him. Wow. Thank you Lord for that amazing Love! Having Zion, I cannot imagine loving another enough to let him die. It's quite a thought.

I am also so so so thankful for my wonderful Husband! God has truly blessed me with an amazing man to share my life with. I am blessed to be his wifey! :)

And of course my little man! :) What a Valentine he is!

LOVE my family! :) Happy Valentines Day to YOU! xoxoxo

Kodiak Weather

We have been having just CRAZY weather! It has been snowing AGAIN all day today and it is forecasted to continue to snow all week! Yikes! While I sit here in my nice warm house watching my little Zi round around like a mad man and saying, "MOONEY" (which for some reason equals Thomas the Train and all of his other favorite things) I am reminded how super blessed I am that I am not required to be out and about in this nastiness! ESPECIALLY on the ocean! So far this winter we have had boats that have sunk in the harbor because of the weight of the snow... but this picture made it all seem more real. This is a Kodiak Vessel that got caught out in the storm and had to be rescued by the USCG. Wowza. Some of the crew had frostbite, but all were ok.

Also, Here is a link the video from the Coast Guard helo who rescued them. I am honored that my husband is in this elite service of rescuers! SO proud of my hubby and all of his shipmates who risk their lives to save others!

Also, Zion LOVES reading! :) Here is a little snapshot of him enjoying one of his favorite past times in his new chair. :) Have I said lately how much I love this little boy?!?!? Thank you Lord for making me his Momma! I am so so blessed!

SNOW

He thinks that he's being naughty when he eats the snow because he tries to eat it off the floor in the house when it comes off our boots... and that's just yucky. :) So this is his "I'm eating the snow mom..." sneaky look. :)
Loving the MOUNDS of snow we've gotten! And it's still coming down!
Another look at Barometer yesterday! I love this pic! Super snowy out and then BAM blue sky! :) That's Kodiak weather for ya!
He is a view of town from Dead Man's curve. (The main curve in the road between our house and town.)
Who is this big boy???? I barely recognized him when I picked him up from the nursery after church! (Which he is doing so good in, BTW) I thought, "surely that BIG BOY is not my Zion!". But, alas, my baby is growing up! Isn't he just the most handsome little guy EVER?!?!?
He was caught in the act of dumping out some toys here. :)At Deadman's, overlooking God's amazing creation!
Snow, snow, and more SNOW!!!
This ice collects around Deadman's curve. It's super cool looking! VERY thick! Some people climb it... no thanks.

My amazing little family!!! Thank you Lord for blessing me SO abundantly!!!

Blizzard Fun!

Kodiak has had some CRAZY weather the past few days!!! It has been quite something to just sit back and enjoy from the comfort of inside our nice warm home! :) (Until the fluffy white stuff lured us out for a little while, of course!) And then back inside we went for some more NASTINESS! Apparently the streets of Kodiak are flooded & have icechunks floating down them! Nothing like seeing that to remind you that you live in Alaska. :) 3 boats have sunk in the harbor because it rained for a while after many feet of snowfall and the snow became super heavy. Yikes! Stinks for those boat owners! Brandon is glad his boats get put away for the winter! :) Yup yup, the weather here has been super bad, then blue skies for a couple hours, and then back to blizzard white out conditions, then raining! Such is life on an Alaskan Island. :) What are we going to do in sunny AZ? :) (Go to the park and not freeze!) Okie dokie. Off to clean the house while the baby (can I still call him that please?) is napping. These naps are getting shorter! Yikes! Anyways... we are all well up here. Hope all is well down there in the lower 48. God bless your day today! AND enjoy this little video of our fun! :) Thanks for checking the blog! :)