We finally received snow!  It’s always super exciting when the snow comes.  It’s so beautiful as it majestically floats down from the heavens and covers the ground with a sparkly soft blanket of white.  Okay, that feeling really only lasts for a little bit, until we remember how cold it is going to get.  Togiak is only 65 miles away, so winters in Dillingham are not much different than there. Our temperatures usually range from -10 °F to 30 °F. Since we are up river a little bit and not directly on the coast line the winter storms from the Pacific Ocean won't affect us as much as in Togiak.  Don’t get me wrong; we will definitely feel the weather, but just not as much.  So far, we’ve had a week of snowfall and a week of clear skies and cold weather⎯cold enough that we had to start plugging our car in at night.  

     Even though our weather will be very similar to that of Togiak’s, our winter will be drastically different than in years past.  This year we have a car!  We loved driving our 4-wheelers around.  We actually miss it quite a bit.  It’s amazing how nice and quick it is to just jump on your 4-wheeler when going somewhere.  However, it really is only nice for short distances.  We feel so pampered now.  We have a car that is fully enclosed with a heater; can’t say many 4-wheelers have that option.  We recently switched over our car tires to studded winter tires to help with snow and ice.  As nice as it is to have a 4-wheeler, a car is nicer.  

     It feels like not much has happened in our house recently because sickness has been present for the past two weeks.  Both Kaitlyn and Kaylee got sick after getting Flu vaccines.  Kaitlyn was only sick for a day or two; Kaylee for much longer.  Kaylee had a cold about two weeks ago then received a flu vaccination last week.  The next two days following her vaccination Kaylee was miserable.  She wasn’t interested in eating or drinking, she had a horrible deep cough, she slept very little, and was super cuddly (which is out of the norm for her).  After two days she developed a bunch of red dots over her head and torso.  Tuesday morning we took her to the hospital (which doubles as a hospital and walk-in clinic) and got her looked at.  The pediatrician who saw Kaylee gave us a list of illnesses that she had.  Kaylee had Roseola, an ear infection, and bronchiolitis (not to mention she was cutting a tooth).  Talk about a wake up call.  Thursday morning when we took her to get a Flu vaccine she was fine; Tuesday morning she was a mess.  It’s amazing how fast things can change.  The nurse at the hospital/clinic told us that Kaylee probably didn’t get the flu from the vaccine, but it may have weakened her body a little.  Kaylee was given Amoxicillin (anti-biotic) and a nebulizer with albuterol for her cough.  The Amoxicillin is a 10-day process and the nebulizer is just until she begins breathing better again.  To say the least, things have been strenuous.  To top it off, the Amoxicillin gave her diarrhea, which resulted in horrible diaper rash (with lots of screaming).  I guess sickness is part of growing up, as well as training first time parents. 

     Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to give Kaylee Priesthood blessings.  A Priesthood blessing is truly one of God’s great gifts to man.  It’s surprising to me how surprised I am when I give a Priesthood blessing and it works.  I know it will, I have participated in many; yet there is always a little bit of me that stands back and thinks, “Wow, that was amazing.  It was instant!”  My testimony is strong, yet without fail, it is strengthened each time I am part of a Priesthood blessing, especially to my children.  

     Giving a Priesthood blessing reminds me of a scripture in the Book of Mormon.  Alma 37:6, “…behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass…” Giving a Priesthood blessing is such a small and simple thing.  It takes only a moment, however, such great and miraculous things come because of it.  I know that our Heavenly Father looks out for His children, and I am grateful for the experience that I have to be able to give a Priesthood blessing to my daughter.

     We spent Thanksgiving with some good friends of ours, the Calverts.  They are members of the Dillingham LDS congregation with us.  They have four kids, two of which are close in age to Kaylee.  Kaitlyn and Kaylee spend a lot of time with them playing.  They are a great family and we are very grateful they are here and friends with us!  

     We had dinner at their house.  They made the turkey, potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, gravy, and a slough of desserts.  We brought homemade rolls (three varieties), 24-hour salad, Watergate salad (both of which are Phillips family favorites), and sweet potatoes (which really should be categorized as a dessert, rather than a side dish).  It was great fun spending time with them.  After dinner we played fat-dog and laid on the couch moaning while we watched Cirque de Solé.   

     Thanksgiving always brings great time off from work too.  Kaitlyn and I got some chores around the house checked off our list, but mostly laid around watching movies and putting up our Christmas decorations.  It has been a great weekend to be home with family.  We’re sad that we are not closer to our extended family down in the states, but this time together has at least made the three of us closer.

Not too long ago I came home from work to be greeted by Kaitlyn and Kaylee in the parking lot, I (Tim) usually get home from work at 5pm.  I thought it strange to see them outside at the time, because Kaylee is usually napping and Kaitlyn is putting the final touches on one of her amazing dinners.  I thought to myself that, “Oh, they must be going for a walk.”  I got out of the car and went up and greeted them who both had big grins to see me.  The first words out of Kaitlyn’s mouth were, “I am so glad to see you....we’ve been out here for hours.”  Upon further analysis, Kaitlyn had on my rain boots and a light fleece and Kaylee only had on a light jacket, which really isn’t warm enough for the weather we’ve been having. Kaitlyn had a little red on her cheeks.  She told me that she went to throw the garbage out and accidentally locked herself out of the house around 3:30. Luckily, she decided to take Kaylee with her, which isn’t always the case.  Kaitlyn made the time go by by walking around our building and hanging out in the laundry room.  

A few years ago, the Dillingham Branch turned about two-thirds of the back parking lot into a garden.  Last spring they planted a bunch of carrots and potatoes. (They also planted some Sun Flowers, which only amounted to some wilty stalks.)  Gardens are typically harvested around Labor Day up here. Not too long after Labor Day the temperature drops and we get our first frosts.  The Priesthood brethren had been trying to get a day when we could all come together and harvest them.  However, we waited too long and the weather had been rainy, until this past week.  We were lucky to find a day or two where it wasn’t too wet to go harvest.  

It was a Priesthood event, however, I decided to take Kaitlyn and Kaylee along.  When we got to the church, there was only a few people there because it was thought the weather was going to turn sour again.  We decided to stick it out and harvest.  We had a wonderful time.  The dirt was soft and had a rich deep brown color to it (which in my mind means it’s high quality dirt).  Kaitlyn and I put Kaylee in a box and started digging.  About 20 minutes in, Kaylee decided that the box was too confining and she wanted out. Kaitlyn sat her in the dirt (her first time in dirt), and she had a blast.  Kaylee was so inquisitive that she face planted in a mound, mouth first.  It was actually quite funny to watch her facial expressions.  It was a fun night.

A new family moved into the Branch about a month ago.  The Branch Manager at Wells Fargo here in Dillingham is LDS and is Kaitlyn’s age.  His name is Spencer.  He is married with a new born.  His daughter was born pre-mature and his wife and daughter are still in Utah, awaiting for her to grow a little bigger before making the trip.  As you could imagine, Spencer gets sort of lonely.  They live across the street from us, so we have him over quite a bit, probably 2-3 times a week.  It’s been fun to have him over and to visit with him.  We look forward to meeting his wife and daughter in the coming weeks.

Recently, Kaitlyn started watching two of my co-worker’s kids.  Friday is a short day for students in Dillingham (every Friday, how awesome is that?!).  The kids get off the bus at our house and she watches them for a few hours.  Kaitlyn watches two girls, Kiley (9) & Kalin (5).  This makes things tricky, because when they are here every girl in the house starts with a “K”.  Kaitlyn, Kaylee, Kiley, Kalin (pronounced Kay-lin).  Kaitlyn seems to enjoy their visit and I think Kaylee enjoys spending time with them too.

Kaylee is just a bundle of joy and happiness.  She’s always smiling, singing, and spitting.  Kaylee has decided that she wanted to start teething, for real.  She decided that she wanted to grow four teeth all at the same time.  There’s a row of four on the bottom all coming in together.  Luckily, we haven’t seen a super big increase in crying or fever(ing).  We’ve tried putting some of that teething gel on her gums to help, although, I’m not so sure it is actually doing anything, because Kaylee just seems to lick it off as soon as it is put on.  We’ve started giving her Cheerios to munch on as well as Rice Chex.  She really likes Rice Chex, so much that she keeps shoveling them in her mouth even before she’s finished with the first batch.  Her favorite thing is to put them in her mouth and stuff her cheeks with them.  They don’t dissolve as fast as Cheerios.  

Kaylee has also become more mobile.  She been rolling around the house for weeks now.  Her new tricks are to sitting up from any position, get on her knees and try to stand up.  If she is around anything she can grab onto, she will keep going until she’s on her feet.  She’s climbed up my pant legs a few times this week.  Lately, when we go get her from her crib she is either sitting up playing or trying to climb up the rails.

Kaylee is 10 months old this month.  She’s been wearing her helmet for approximately 11 weeks now.  Her head is really looking good.  The doctor told us to wait until the gap in her helmet (wear the velcro is) is at least 1/4” before calling it quits.  We’re not quite there yet, but I wouldn’t suspect it taking too long.  Kaylee likes to grab the velcro and rip it off, then reattach it, and rip it off again.  

So, I should probably just say that the Phillips household is sorry for the tardiness of our posting.  We have had a few other things keeping us busy, however, things are starting to mellow out a little and we can get to our missing posts.

Weeknight Phone Call

Monday and Tuesday were normal days to our standards up here in Togiak.  School demanded all our attention, and we worked hard giving it our attention.  Every Tuesday night Kaitlyn and I watch an TV show called “Castle”.  It’s one of our favorites.  We had just finished that show (about 10pm) and were thinking that we weren’t quite tired enough to go to bed, so we decided to put on an Office episode to finish up the night.  We had just turned on the show when we got a phone call on Kaitlyn's cell phone. This was quite unusual because it was 10pm. Kaitlyn took the call and it was Kristine Heckman, Kaylee’s birth Grandmother (Jessika’s mother).  She was the one to drop the bomb on us that Kaylee was going to come early.  Apparently, when Jessika went in for a doctors visit she mentioned that Kaylee hadn’t moved much recently.  To keep a long story short, they did some watching of Kaylee and decided that it would simply be better to prevent any medical emergencies and have Kaylee be born early.  As you could imagine, when we got off the phone both Kaitlyn and I were a little excited.  Excited may not be the best word to describe that feeling and I’m not really sure what would be the best word.  The closest thing I can think of describing the feeling is to relate the experience of little kid trying to go to sleep on Christmas Eve when their excitement, anxiety, and anticipation make them wide awake for hours.  This is what it was like for Kaitlyn and me.   I got about 4 hours of sleep that night and Kaitlyn got even less.

Kaitlyn called Alaska Airlines that night and the soonest we could fly to Anchorage wasn’t until Friday morning (2 full days away). We decided that we were going to be useless as teachers, so we took Wednesday and Thursday off.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t just walk away, so both Kaitlyn and I spent Wednesday and Thursday in the school library making lesson plans for the next two weeks for our classes.  I feel so bad for our students, I don’t think they’ve seen so many worksheets in their life!  Jessika’s mother kept us filled in as we worked, but it was hard to get anything done as we waited, filled with excitement.  Kaylee Cikiun Phillips was born by C-section at 3:54 pm on Wednesday, December 5th.  She weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.  

To be safe, we flew to Dillingham on Thursday evening and stayed at Steve Noonkesser’s house.  Steve is the Director of Instruction and Technology (or something like that) for our school district.  He’s kind of the under-Superintendent for the district.  We had a great visit with him and his family then flew to Anchorage the next morning.  When we arrived in Anchorage we were met by Kaitlyn’s parents, Lewis and Myrna Hart.  It was actually a little bit funny, because they met us on the way to baggage claim.  Just happened to be on the escalator to meet us….good timing!  We were really excited to see them and even more so….the McDonald’s cheeseburgers they had ready for us (you really learn to miss that greasy goodness). We rented an SUV and headed on to the hospital to meet Kaylee. 

On our way to the airport we picked up some flowers for Jessika.  We met Jessika’s mother, Kristine Heckman, at the hospital gift shop and she took us to the Jessika’s room to meet Kaylee.  It was a really sweet experience and difficult to put into words.  Both Kaitlyn and I were really excited.  Kaitlyn held her first and held her for a while.  I was asked if I wanted to hold Kaylee, but I declined, because there were way too many people in the room for me to feel comfortable (I can’t imagine what Jessika must have been feeling).  In the room with us was Jessika, Jessika’s mother Kristine, Myrna and Lewis, and Valorie Rampton and her husband (LDSFS rep).  We stayed there in the room visiting until the attorney showed up, then we retreated to the waiting room and allowed Jessika to sign her legal papers and we signed ours.  Really, to make a long story short….we got there, we visited for a few hours, we signed some paperwork, we left.  We then checked into our hotel, the Homewood Suites off of C Street.  

Saturday morning we did some last minute shopping and then met Jessika around noon.  This was a great time for Kaitlyn and me.  We got a few hours to just be in Jessika’s room with Jessika and Kaylee.  We both got time to hold her and feed her.  It was great; and  difficult to express with words.  We spent most of the day there just visiting.  Bro. Rich Hartman, our LDSFS Alaska case worker came over around 5:30 and we signed the official adoption papers.  We gave some time for Jessika and family to get ready for the placement ceremony.  It was originally scheduled for 5:00, but was pushed back to 6:30 because Bro. Hartman arrived a few hours after he said he would.  The ceremony didn’t really start until 7:00.  Jessika had scheduled someone to come take pictures and she spent about 30-40 minutes doing that.  Afterwards, Jessika shared a letter she wrote for Kaylee to be saved for her when she gets older and gave her a little charm bracelet.  Jessika’s oldest daughter, Mckennah, gave her a gift (which was a blanket) and a drawing.  Kaitlyn and I then said a few words and we presented Jessika a necklace with Kaylee’s birthstone.  We also presented Mckennah with a Build-A-Bear.  Kaylee has a matching one at home.  The service ended around 8pm and we began to bundle her up and take her home.  

Click here to see pictures from the placement ceremony.

We took Kaylee back to the hotel and ordered a Papa Johns pizza to celebrate.  That night was very special to Kaitlyn and me….Kaitlyn got up and fed her ever two hours, whereas, I slept all the night through (probably for the last night).  We spent that weekend simply enjoying our precious little bundle.  We got to video chat with a lot of the family and we were very grateful about how much everyone cared and congratulated us.  Sometimes, it feels like congratulations are said without feeling….but this time all the congratulations received seemed to give us strength, so thank you all.