Kaeo rocks!

So Kaeo likes to play guitar. Since we moved to Kansas City he has purchased an electric guitar, an amp, and some guitar petals. Let me just tell you that this habit of his is very expensive. There is always one more things to get to make you sound great and have fun while playing, and also your guitar gets old after 2 months. Well that's not true, but you always want the better, more expensive one, because they are the best. Matt and I have paid for some lessons from Issac Meyer and now we are trading lessons for lunch from a new friend, Nate. Nate is great with Kaeo and plays on two sets with Kaeo.

Kaeo has been learning so much and picks things up so fast. One of his teams has played in the Global Prayer Room which is the main prayer room here in Kansas City. It is the one that gets web streamed, but the two times he has played it was not web casted. The set he was on is called "keeping the fire burning". The official prayer room gets moved to another building for a few hours and while they do that they have other worship teams come in and do a set.

So he got to play on in the GPR tonight on Tamise's set. She has been a great leader and very gracious to let Kaeo play with her. I mean he is skilled, but he is only 13 and we are living in a place filled with musically gifted people. Recently their lead guitar person had to leave and Tamise was looking for a new electric guitar player. Kaeo was 2nd electric guitar player on the team which means that he usually plays rhythm and not any major leads in a song or lead any cycles that they have. After a few weeks of playing without a lead electric and some hard and impressive work by Kaeo, Tamise said she wasn't going to look for another electric and that Kaeo would now be lead guitar. Kaeo was very happy with that news. He knows things can change, and he will not be offended by it, but he was so happy to be given that honor.

Well, he got to play again in the GPR, like I already said about 3 times. He also got to start a song and lead a cycle. Tamise writes some great songs and one of her songs is introduced by Kaeo. I took a video but I didn't get Kaeo's solo start but this song is really highlighted by the electric guitar. This is a great song. I absolutely love it. I hope that you enjoy this song and Kaeo's electric guitar. Please don't mind my singing. It is such a good song that I can't help it!!!

Kaeo is on electric guitar, Nate is playing bass and standing behind the piano players, our good friend Ashton is playing the piano closest to Kaeo, and Tamise is on the acoustic guitar.

We are so proud of Kaeo. He will be a great leader someday. I Love you so much!

First family trail hike 4/2009

We got a new member to the Skeele `Ohana. Her name is Trixy and she is a year old retriever. She is such a great dog. She was given to us by some friends that we have made here in Kansas City. Our family just loves her and it's so great to see all the kids play with her and love her. She is so great with Kala'i and Kahi, the two younger boys. Keala and Kaeo love to take care of her. They are both great with Trixy. Whenever they read to her or sing to her, she falls asleep. They do that after they play with her, when it is time to settle down or they are coming in the house.



They both love to take her on walks and today we did a big family walk in a wooded area near our house. We walked down a trail to a creek and we took Trixy with us. We have only had her for 5 days and Kaeo and I were kind of nervous to take her off her leash. When we got to the trail, Matt took her leash off and she ran around, but she stayed near us and would come to us if we called her. Yeah, she likes us!





We got to take some new family photos with her today. We had lots of fun.

Walking the trails.

We finally made it to the creek after 45 min of walking through the residental area then down the trail. It was a very beautiful day here. It was 70+degrees and there was little wind, if any at all. Trixy was the only one lucky enough to get wet. We are not to sure about the murky water just yet. We like the salt water.

Kaeo and Trixy.

There is a funny story about Kala'i and Trixy. Matt, Keala, Kala'i and Kahi took Trixy for a walk yesterday and usually Kala'i doesn't hold her leash. Trixy is very strong and likes to explore everything, so she pulls hard and you have to remind her to heel and stay with you. Matt took them to a small field and asked Kala'i if he wanted to hold her leash and walk around with her. Kala'i agreed and took hold of the leash. Trixy started to pull Kala'i and Matt told him to keep up with her and hold her. Well Kala'i started to run to keep a lag in the leash. Trixy started to speed up and she brought tension back to the leash and the next thing everyone knew, Kala'i was parallel with the ground and then landed parallel on the groung and Trixy dragged him several feet before she stopped to look at what was going on. Kala'i didn't cry or anything and he wasn't hurt, but he just kept holding on to the leash.

Keala is 9!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEALA



YOU ARE SO SPECIAL




YOU ARE AWESOME!










Keala had a most wonderful time celebrating her birthday with a cup cake decorating, pizza making, present opening, High School Mucial 3 watching party. It was so much fun. She had her two friends from church join her (Sammi and Gracy). Also there to celebrate were uncle Mark, aunty Jenn, and uncle Reagan. Then there were all of her brothers of course.

The cup cake decoration was great fun. Keala and I had made some funky colored cup cakes earlier that morning. We had chocoloate cup cakes of course and then made some neon blue, neon pink, neon green and neon purple cup cakes. Then when her friends came over they got to dress up all the cup cakes and make them look funky with some cool colored icing. We are very thankful for food coloring!!

Sammi, Keala, and Gracy acting silly.

Keala and Aunty Jenn. A lot of people say they look alike. Hmmmm . . . yup they sure do. We love you Aunt Jenn. You are such a big help and you are willing to try anything. You rock.

Sammi you are a great friend and beautiful girl. Thank you so much for your friendship.

Happy 9th Birthday baby girl. You've grown up so much just within the last month and you have come through your trials with that beautiful smile on your face. You are truely a gift from God.

Easter 2009! He is alive!

Egg-xellent.

We had a great day of coloring and egg hunting on Saturday with Uncle Mark and Aunty Jen. We colored about 3 dozen eggs. That is just not enough eggs for all the color of dyes that we had, but it was soooo much fun!!! Look at all those happy faces!!!

Kala'i and Kahiau playing with their baskets.

Uncle Mark hidding the eggs!

Kaeo too cool to find eggs gets to hide them now.

So much fun finding the eggs.

Oh mama, that is a huge hole in your back!!!

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:24

"Jesus turned and saw her. 'Take heart, daughter,' he said, 'your faith has healed you.' And the woman was healed from that moment." Matthew 9:22

Keala Faith Skeele

On Friday, March 20, 2009, our daughter Keala had ran into some glass. It shattered and she had gotten a cut on her back. Most of you already know this. If this is new to you and you were kept out of the loop on this, we apologize. Everything happened so fast and God has just miraculously healed her.

We are going through a three month internship at the House of Prayer and she was at her class. They were having free time and the kids decided to have a little race. Keala ran into the glass wall/window. She tripped over and the glass fell on her back and she got a huge cut on her back. Just one cut, but it was about three inches long and one and one half inch deep. So when you have a cut that big it just lays wide open. It was open about one and one half inch. It was quite disturbing to be able to look into the back of your child. There were some scary moments with the doctors since they didn't know if the cut had hit her spine, her colon, or her kidney. She had all feeling in her feet, legs, and hand and she was in a very cheery disposition. Those were really great things in her favor. After some test everything looked really positive. The cut did not damage her spine, kidney, or colon. All they had to do was do some minimal exploring of the wound and then stitch her up. The glass cut through her muscle in her back so they also had to stick that up as well.

Within a few hours of Keala's accident, we had people in Kansas City, Virginia, Hawaii, and Oregon praying for Keala. There might have been more so sorry if your prayed for us and I didn't list you. Give a shout out and let us know!!

Matt and I didn't have the time to really contact anyone. We just called our parents to let them know. Everyone else found out by the community that we developed here at IHOP. When the people here say that they are going to pray for you, they actually do it. We actually believe that prayer moves the heart of God to act on our behalf. We firmly believe that the prayer that was sent out for Keala and our family was immediately answered because Keala had almost no pain. She went three house before the doctors gave her any pain medicine. Everyone kept asking her over and over again about her pain, but her pain numbers were low.

Two days after she got stitched up she was walking around the house. On the third day she stopped taking the pain medicine (Advil). I could not stop her. She would just want to go everywhere and do everything. She did take it easy the first week and I made her stay home a lot, but after that I couldn't tell her slow down. She is healed. She still has some superficial healing still going on, and her body will tell her if she can or cannot do something, but only two weeks after the trauma, she looks great.

This is her EMT guy, Mr. Eric. Keala had some very nice things to say about him. He was great with Keala and made Keala very comfortable and happy in the ambulance.

This was about three days after the stitches were in. She looks fabulous and it was already healing very nicely.

This one is of Keala's back when all of those terry strips fell off. It just looks amazing. So this is about 10 days after her surgery. There was no bruising in this area. Totally not what I was expecting. Thank you, Jesus.

This one is exactly two weeks after the accident (April 3). Every time I think about her healing, I just start to cry. It just makes no sense that she is doing this well. I know that kids heal faster than most, but this was crazy fast. We totally agree that it was the prayers of the saints going up on our behalf that have healed her. Thank you to all who prayed and to all who love us. Please continue to pray for us and Keala even now.

Blessings in Jesus name!

Kaeo

So these are some pictures of the kids that I took in the fall

of 2008. These are their school pictures since they are home-schooled this year.

Keala

They sure did have some nice background options for some of these pictures.

Kala'i

She's just so beautiful she gets her picture in twice.

Kahiau

I cannot wait to take some spring pictures of the kids and hopefully some beautiful family photos!!!

Kansas City, Missouri

So we moved to from Honolulu, Hawaii to Kansas City, Missouri. Why? We moved here to partner with a mission called the International House of Prayer (IHOP-KC). What? It is a 24 hours a day Prayer Room in Kansas City that calls forth, trains, and mobilizes worshipping intercessors. What???? Don't worry if you don't get it right now. If I tried to explain it to you in one paragraph I might loose you. Just keep reading our blog to understand our heart and the call over our lives both individually and together as a family. Just know that right now God has brought us here to soften our heart and raise our children to know the heart of Jesus.

We got here in November. It was a very hard and sad good-bye for us. We had to say good-bye to Kris' parents, brothers, sister, and niece and nephew. The good thing is that Matt's brother (Mark) and sister (Jennifer) have also moved to Kansas City and that our good friend and former pastor Reagan is here also. Soon after we moved here we had the holidays to keep us busy. It was the first winter for the kids and their first time to play in the snow. It doesn't get that much snow here. It mostly just gets really cold and icy. But we have had fun the few times that it snowed here.

Matt's parents also came up here during Christmas and New Years. We had a great time with them. It was really good for the kids to spend time with grandma and grandpa during the holidays. Matt's dad taught us how to make a fire in our fireplace. Matt has gotten quite good at it and the kids love to help him build it. The boys like to do some manly work with their hands and start fires. All of it is done with great safety and care, of course!

More on 2009 in the next blog!