Arizona Birthday

The kids and I were able to travel to Arizona for 11 days at the end of September for my cousin's wedding. Mirielle was a beautiful flowergirl and had so much fu geing in the wedding. More details and pictures on my blog here. Jason was able to join us for the weekend of the wedding and we were so thankful to be able to be together.

We arrived on a Friday afternoon (and man was it hot!). Saturday, Jason's brother and his wife took the kids to the zoo and to a splash park while I hit the mall with my parents to try and find something to wear to the wedding. That night we had a party for Kellan with all of the AZ aunts and uncles.

I had grand plans to make a fancy John Deere cake for the birthday party, but after walking through the mall all day I wasn't much in the mood for cake decorating. So I cheated! My parents had bought this scraper for Kellan's birthday party, so I chopped up my chocolate cake and chunked up some Recees peanut butter cups, mixed it all together and made a dirt cake. I guess you can decide for yourself if it was super creative or super lazy! It was pretty delicious and Kellan thought it was great, so I guess in the end my dirt cake was a winner.

Happy 3rd birthday Kellan!

Moody Student and Staff Retreat

Mid September, we had the chance to attend a Moody student and staff retreat at a beautiful camp about an hour away. It was a good reminder that I really am not even close to being a college student any more and I give Jason a pat on the back for working with them every day. Really, I love college students and all of Jason's students I have met are amazing, but get them together in a big group and the are LOUD! There were a couple hundred students from both the Moody Northwest campus and Moody Aviation.

The student retreat was Friday and Saturday and then the staff had a chance to connect Saturday night through Sunday. It was such fun being by the lake and the kids had a blast. We were so glad that we were able to go.

The students during one of the speaking sessions

The aviation staff being introduced

The kids loved being in the water

Jason was the main source of power on the row boats, but the kids took turns too

Jason and Kellan took a go at the canoe. I was a little nervous about Kellan being up in the front, not strapped in, all by himself, but he did a great job
He just sat back and enjoyed the ride

Off to Kindergarten

Tuesday was Mirielle's first day of Kindergarten. Her elementary school is just up the road from us which makes it very convenient and familiar as we go there every once in a while to play on the playground.

Here she is ready to go

The, "MOM---do you have to keep taking pictures of me?" half smile

One with Kellan, who has no idea what is going on

Mirielle did a great job getting to school, finding her desk, and meeting the other kids. All until the girl at her table sat down CRYING her eyes out. I think this is her trying to be brave face.

All settled in at her desk

All is well!
Way to go big girl!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

This year was a big birthday year for me. 30! I think that I am mostly happy to be headed into my 30s and leave the 20s behind.

I started out my birthday by taking a big step - I went and took some pictures for a friend's family reunion. I was a nervous wreck, but I decided that it was a great way to start off a new decade in my life.

Dealing with anxiety issues the last few years has really held me back as far as trying new things in my life and stretching and challenging myself. The anxiety even makes it hard for me to do dumb little things like drive to a new part of town by myself. SO, I have been trying to take steps to do fun new things despite the fear that holds me back. Taking pictures of 40+ people gathered together for a family reunion an hour and a half drive outside of Spokane was definately one of those big steps for me. I thought it was a great way to start year 30!

After that I came home and needed a nap! Then we headed to the south part of town to one of my favorite little places for dinner. Later, my dear sweet friend, Stacey, brought over a wonderful birthday cake. Yum!



Just for laughs, I thought I would include this picture. The photo organizer on our computer has automatic red eye reduction and this was the first picture I saw when I uploaded the pictures of my birthday. I guess it got a little confused!

A Day at the Park

Saturday was a 30 year celebration at Riverfront park. The park is located just north of downtown Spokane and runs right along the river. There are beautiful walking and biking paths, some amusement rides and an IMAX theater. To celebrate, the park was offering day passes at the 1978 prices - $6.00 for all of the rides and a ticket to an IMAX movie. The kids amazingly enough made it through the entire "Lewis and Clark" movie and we enjoyed some amusement rides and a bike ride along the river. It ended up being a wonderful Saturday together as a family.

Both of the kids had fun on the roller coaster. We couldn't believe Kellan didn't freak out!

Mirielle loved the bumper cars. It almost made me cry watching her drive into the other kids on the cars. It was one of those moments that made me realize how big and independent she is getting.

I still can't figure out a way to get a 2 year old to look at the camera with a nice big smile.

Or a 5 year old for that matter.

Only if I am really lucky does she grace me with a smile.

Graduation Time

The last few weeks have been a time of graduation celebration for our family. Jason celebrated as he watched his first class of students graduate in May. There was a wonderful speaker from Moody Chicago that gave a message that I didn't hear a word of - as I was sitting in the audience trying to keep 2 little kids very quietly entertained!

Can you spot him? He is the young guy in the back row.

Some of Jason's very happy students

In June, we celebrated as Mirielle graduated from preschool. The school had a graduation ceremony for the students. The teacher asked that each student do some sort of little performance for the parents. While most of the students sang the ABCs or quoted a verse from the Bible, Mirielle decided to do a dance. This from a girl that has never taken a dance class in her life!

The teacher started the music Mirielle had picked out for her dance and as soon as Mirielle heard the music and looked out at the parents she suddenly stopped, put her hands in her hair (looking like she might rip a couple of handfuls out) and while stomping her foot, told the teacher that she had forgotten her dance. (Which I thought was interesting, since as far as I could tell, she was making the dance up on the fly!)

At that point I thought it was all over. Thankfully, the teacher was able to calm her down. Mirielle went on to do a beautiful dance that she made up all by herself and danced the whole song. It was really beautiful! She is definitely our little performer!!

Family Business

So I have to brag a bit....

Many of you know my (Jen's) brother, Matt Vlahovich.

Matt is currently serving as the Worship Pastor at Bethany Community Church in Tempe, AZ and is attending Fuller Seminary in his spare time (haha!). It seems like all of his studying is paying off.

Matt just preached his first sermon a few weeks ago on suffering. I was pretty proud to listen to his sermon he posted on his blog. To anyone that knows him (or even if you don't!) take a listen here.

I love you little brother and I love the man God is growing you into!!

Face Forward

This spring I have had the blessing of co-leading a small discussion group for our Tuesday morning women's Bible study at church. We went through Beth Moore's new study, "Stepping Up" which walked us through the Psalms of Ascent, Psalms 120-134.

Our fearless leader was asking the discussion leaders to volunteer to read a Psalm throughout our last meeting where ladies were asked to share what the Lord had taught them throughout the course of the study. I volunteered to read a Psalm, but after I offered to read, the leader also asked if I would be willing to share.

The week before I had been thinking about what I had learned through the study. I loved walking through the Psalms, to see the joys, the heartaches, the excitement and discouragement that were so truthfully and vulnerably lifted up to Him. God really impressed on me through the Psalms, that I have permission to just be. I can approach Him where I am at and in turn He will show me Himself in a way that will meet me where I really am. I don't have to come and fake it before Him. Life is a journey - a pilgrimage. And I don't get to walk on streets of gold yet, but we don't have to journey alone either. These Psalms really drove that point home for me.

So I kind of had in mind what I would say for our time of sharing at the meeting but as I mulled my journey through the Psalms over during that, God showed me something that has given me much freedom.

Since we have come home from the Philippines, I have carried around a load of guilt. Sometimes it has felt bigger and heavier than other times, but it has always been there. My mind constantly races through what ifs.

What if I could have toughed out the panic attacks, what if I could have somehow prayed my way through them, what if I had too little faith and God wanted more from me.... What if coming home wasn't really what God wanted for us, what if we are really going to miss out on what He had for us, what if I really disappointed God. What if I ruined my husband's career, his dream of flying, what if, what if, what if. There was hardly a day gone by that I didn't remind myself of the what ifs of us being here in the States and not overseas.

God knew what I needed to hear and when I needed to hear it and in his wisdom, He used my walk through the Psalms to heal my heart. As I was sitting in that meeting thinking about how I would talk about life being a pilgrimage and that our final destination is Christ and we walk forward one step at a time, I had a mental image flash through my mind of me walking my journey, not facing forward focusing on Him and the step that He has in front of me, but of me facing backwards looking in regret at the road that I have traveled. I've got to tell you that in those moments it was like the chains were being broken.

What kind of fool would walk on a road going forward but would have his head looking backwards the whole trip? I don't want to be that fool! I want to focus on Christ and what He has put in front of me for today, regardless of what happened yesterday. I don't want to miss out because I'm too focused on what could have been. It was like He said, "FACE FORWARD Jen! Pay attention to ME!"

Thank you Lord for setting me free!

Lamentations 3: 22-23
22Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

Crazy Busy

This spring has been CRAZY busy for us!

Here is a quick look at some of the things that have been on our calendar:

- We had almost 3 weeks of company sleeping on our basement floor. How I wish we had an actual guest room!

We enjoyed a visit from one of the guys from NMTA. 'Mr. Bart' was one of the best house guests I've ever had. He helped around the house with everything from folding laundry to loading the dishwasher. He was so great with the kids, playing hide and seek - even hiding with Kellan in the bathtub long enough that Mirielle almost gave up looking for them. (I'm still not sure how he kept Kellan quiet that long!) It was such a treat, and at the same time made me kind of sad that we don't live around family and have any grandparents and aunts and uncles to invest in the lives of our kids.

We also had a visit from some former co-workers of ours that served in the Philippines with us. They are stateside now and came and crashed on our floor while attending a missions aviation conference that Moody hosted last week.

- I finished up my year as a co-leader in the women's Bible study at church and serving in MOPS leadership.

- Jason was able to fly standby to attend the wedding of his college roommate in Colorado Springs.

- I had a blast at the Women of Moody Aviation retreat. It was a great time to get to know some of the ladies at Moody better.

- We planted a garden in our yard!

- Jason has been busy working on the house as the 50+ year old galvanized pipes in the house are starting to rust through. Yuck!

- Jason and his students have been busy trying to get through their commercial licenses before the end of school. The crazy weather here and maintenance issues have slowed down what the students have been able to accomplish this semester.

- We've just started hosting a home Bible study group at our house. It is a great group of young families that we are really excited to get to know and grow closer to.

The month of June is jammed packed for us too. We have friends and family here 3 out of the 4 weeks of June. It is going to go too fast!

We had a lovely afternoon out in the country celebrating the senior's upcoming graduation. The guys were able to go rafting in the morning and then the families met up for a BBQ in the afternoon. It was a wonderful time to just relax and be together. The guys played a game of football, the girls sat under blankets, chatted and cheered on our men, Mirielle ran around trying to keep up with the older girls and Kellan was content to play by himself pushing around a toy dump truck for 3 hours. It was the perfect afternoon!

Spring is finally here!

Spring has still not sprung

This picture perfectly describes how we've been feeling lately. We're starting to wonder if spring will ever get here. It just doesn't seem right to be building snowmen in the middle of April. The weather has been wreaking havoc on the flight schedule and it has had all of us feeling a little gray. Gray, gray, gray. Where are you sun?

A Kodiak on the airfield

I’ve been able to have my first flight in a Kodiak! It is the new missions airplane that NTMA is moving to in order to meet the future needs of our missionaries. The Spokane Turbine Center is a non-profit company that is hoping to train missionary pilots in the airplane so each mission doesn’t have to keep one in the States to train their pilots. It’s a pretty expensive machine and costs a lot to operate so it would save a lot of resources to have one cooperative training center. STC will have two simulators and one airplane in a hangar right next door to Moody’s. It’s a really stable and easy to fly plane, but has very advanced computer instrument and navigation systems that will take a bit of getting used to.

p.s. - the shirt matching the Kodiak was a complete coincidence!

March Update

A slow start

The students are all back in school, but we’re off to a bit of a slow start. The first part of the semester was meant to finish up some of the training that the weather didn’t allow us to do before winter. This included tail wheel training for several students, a few flights at night, and some flying in the airplane with retractable landing gear.

We started flying the tail wheel airplane, a two seat Decathlon, but after a few days of feeling pretty bad by the last flight I put a Carbon Monoxide detector in the plane. Turns out it was bringing quite a bit of Carbon Monoxide into the cabin. Usually this would be caused by a problem in the heating system, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The mechanics are trying to make sure the engine compartment and cabin are properly sealed off, hopefully it will be ready to go on Monday

The weather is still a bit of a factor so we haven’t been able to get too many night flights done. Cold night temperatures and cloudy/rainy/foggy weather don’t make for great flying conditions for a small airplane. We have had a few nights with scattered high clouds so we take advantage of those.

Moody bought a used C-182 RG for retractable landing gear training, but it needed a new engine installed before we started training students in it (they got a good price for it since the engine had so many hours on it). That work should be done soon and hopefully by the end of next week we’ll be flying it.

In the mean time we’re working with the student’s on their commercial pilot ground school. There’s a lot of information to be learned for their check ride later this semester. They are also involved in the maintenance projects in the hangar, I’ve been turning a wrench a bit too!

My first loop!

Last week Moody hosted a two day flying safety seminar. One of the speakers was Clarke McNease from APS Emergency Maneuver Training in Phoenix. He taught for about 4 hours on “upset recovery”, which is essentially how to control the airplane in unusual situations. I was able to do 2 flights with him to put some of his techniques into practice. We would turn the airplane upside down and descending toward the ground and I would roll it upright and climb back away from the ground (we were really high up and never got anywhere near the ground). We also did some aerobatics to learn what the airplane can do and be more confident in it. It was a lot of fun and a great learning opportunity! Moody is considering bringing some of the training into the curriculum and if they do I’m hoping I can be part of that and spend more time with Clarke to be able to teach the material myself.

March 11th - Celebrating 8

"Where there is love there is a light that cannot be described,
a circle that cannot be broken,
a joy that cannot be surpassed.
For where there is love
there is God"

Wow! Thank you Lord for the eight years of my life spent with this amazing man. It is hard to believe the journey we have been on in those eight short years!

Jas and I were trying to remember where we spent our eight anniversaries....

1. A weekend at my aunts' beautiful cabin in Christopher Creek. We even were surprised with snow.

2. We were somewhere in Baker City, OR in the first stage of training, but we can't quite remember what we did for our special day!

3. Mirielle came a month before our our 3rd anniversary. We splurged and went to Houstons in Scottsdale, (my mouth is watering just thinking about it) and left Mirielle with Grandma and Grandpa. I remember that I couldn't find any clothes that fit to wear out for a special night.

4. We had arrived in the Philippines the month before. I think that we went out to the one special restaurant in town?? Not really quite sure.

5. I had been as sick as a dog and in the beginning of my pregnancy with Kellan. Our friends brought over Chow King (fairly mediocre Filipino Chinese food) since I was actually having a day that I could get out of bed. We realized during the middle of dinner that it was our anniversary.

6. We spent our special 6th anniversary with our friends the Barkmans on a 6+ hour van ride to our flight base on the northern island for a field safety seminar. We did have the special treat of stopping at McDonalds for lunch (and yes, it was a special treat to be able to go to McDonalds).

7. We have absolutely no recollection of what we did last year for our anniversary. Everything from last spring is a bluuurrrrrrr.

8. This year we probably wont forget because we had an unresolved discussion from the night before...... Need I say more??

As you can tell, we're really big on romance. HaHa!! I'm thinking that we need to start saving up our pennies for our 10th anniversary. I think that doing something special would be well deserved!

Poor Baby

Poor Kellan has had a rough winter. It seems like every time I turn around the kid is sick. He came down with the stomach flu 5 times in just over 6 weeks and seems like his is always battling a cold. A few weeks ago, I noticed a red spot on his stomach in the morning. By the afternoon, his knees were all swollen and hot. And by the next morning, he looked like this. He was covered head to toe with hives for almost a week. Made me want to cry just looking at him!

Way Behind!

Well, I certainly am behind on my blogging. December up until now has been a blur. You can catch up on our Christmas on my blog. I thought I would do a bit of a photo update for what has been going on for the last few months.

Christmas fun




















We were in Salt Lake to bring in the New Year with Jason's family. It was fun to all be together again. The kids got to go sledding with the boys while the girls went shopping. Aren't those mountains amazing?
















We headed out of Salt Lake the week after New Years and were hoping to make it through our old stomping grounds of Baker City, but between our car needing some work and the amount of snow heading through the Northwest, we decided to head straight home.

We were home just over a week before we all headed out on a trip to Portland. Jason attended a large missions conference in the area as a NTMA rep. We tried to include a little bit of family fun and headed out a day early to take the kids to the zoo. It happened to be cold enough that day that it was snowing right about the time we got around to the elephant exhibit. Go figure! The good news was that we had the zoo almost to ourselves. We had a great time seeing friends while we were there too.



















The end of January brought an INSANE amount of snow. The schools closed down for a whole week for the first time in 20 years, there was a state of emergency declared for eastern Washington, and I was stuck in the house and didn't drive for over a week. AGH! Cabin fever!!
The city was so unprepared for the amounts of snow that it took 4 days of heavy snow before the city got around to plowing our street. Jason had to take my car to work because he couldn't get out of our neighborhood without all wheel drive. The snow in our street was up to my knees. What an initiation to winter!



























We had an awesome sledding hill out of snow in our front yard.















The good news about all of the snow was that Jason celebrated his 34th birthday on the slopes in lieu of a present.




















We had 2 weeks to recuperate before Grandma Arizona came for Mirielle's birthday. We now have a big 5 year old in our house!