Anyone Can Comment now

I changed some of my settings on my blog because some of you have said that you want to leave a message but don't have a gmail account. Now you can. Type your message in the comment section, select anonymous , and then hit publish comment. TA-DAH!

Biggest Loser first challenge

Today was the official start of Alpenglow's Biggest
Loser Couples. We met up at the church at 8:30 and waited in the freezing cold for directions to our first challenge. All we had been told was to bring ten 12oz cans per team. When we got there some teams had carpet samples while other had chalk boxes with their names next to it. The challenge was to have one team mate run to the other side of the church, pick up a can and run around back to where the teams where. You were to put the can on another team's spot. When your team had accumulated 12 cans you were out. I was the first one for our team and underestimated how hard it was going to be. We took off sprinting but by the fourth time running around I was exhausted! Not to mention that we were running in snow, that will slow you down. Ali and I didn't win, but another team won and was able to pick from three envelopes: Cash, Adventure, or Game Play. They picked cash and got $30. After that we met in the gym and each team is assigned to a certain scale. We had to weigh in and mark it on the sheets that were given to us. You accumulate points each week by three different categories: weigh loss (40%), fitness (50%) and challenge (10%). For fitness you have to do several things to accumulate daily points for your team. (15 minute scripture study daily, 30 min workout daily, getting 6 hours of sleep, eating 5 veggies/fruits daily, drinking 48 ounces of water daily, and doing one personal goal- we picked keeping a food journal). In all there are 20 couples (40 people) participating. Here's just a couple pictures of our group and the challenge today. I'm excited!!! Good-bye 20 pounds!

9-4-2004

So it was recently brought to my attention during a midnight phone call with my dearest girlie friend, Meagen, that she still hasn't seen my wedding pictures after 3 1/2 years! Then I realized that a lot of my distant family and friends hadn't seen them too. SO, here are just a couple of a really great day.

Here's where the ceremony took place. The weather was beautiful for a park wedding.











VIEWING DISCLAIMER: I had been advised to post a claimer that Meagen has lost all her baby weight since this picture. (She told me I had to write this)
Here's Meagen and I getting ready. She's great at hair and should be after all her hours at beauty school. LOL. Love ya girl.





















My closest girlfriends. I'm just missing Lena Rios. Lt to Rt: Erica, Meagen, me, Aya, Tiffy.








Best friend since before training bras.





















The only person who's advice still makes me laugh my butt off till this day. And that advice was given in 8th grade.



















Closest cousin that I have. Still have great memories of taking a bottle of Dawn soap and throwing it in Aunt Rosie's hot tub. Pretty soon all you could see was bubbles foaming out of the tub.













Aya, the funniest woman that I know. She's going to be a great mother and should start her own blog, or stand-up act, of "How to be a mother" questions.

















My best friend and I.

Side note: Looking at this picture I laugh now because we tanned too much. How did we have so much time to do that?















Kali's so cute. She was only 1. Madeline has out grown that dress now.







Ahhhh...the get away car. We dragged the cans around and people down town shouted their congratulations at us. Too bad that we forgot to put gas in it and ran out. We had to flag down a stranger to go get gas for us. I think me wearing a wedding dress helped in our efforts.





Here's Kali all partied out. During the reception she stepped in a huge pile of dog poop. So, the kids took her shoe off and were having fun throwing it at each other. Someone finally found it in a tree. This was the picture my mom took when she finally got her home.

Challenging myself

So I'm making it official, I want to look like ME again. Biggest Loser starts on Saturday and I have so much anxiety over it. I think most of it is over that this is huge. I'm stating to everybody that I'm going to lose 20 pounds in 8 weeks. So, to get extra motivated I thought that I would take a pic of me in a bathing suit (now) and state that if I don't lose the 20 pounds that I would embarrass myself my posting the pic on my blog. And then I looked in the mirror. HA HA. So, I am keeping this pic around that was only taken 3 years ago after having two babies! This picture is my goal. I'm going to get there and then...I'm going to take a trip and see my husband. If that isn't motivation enough then I don't know what it.

Easter Sunday

Here's a pic of the kids on Easter Sunday. They look so cute and Jackson wearing a 12 month suit (sniff, sniff). We went to church and had some awesome speakers but one was beyond amazing. I called my mom and tried to explain everything he said but couldn't give it justice and decided to call it quits. Anyways, the Easter Bunny came and Madeline was up by 6 knocking at my door saying, "Mama, LOOK!" I got up and video taped.

Comical Relief

The other day I was talking on the phone to someone (I have Momnesia, remember? That's why I can't!). And I turned around to find Maddy inside of the office trash can with Polly Pocket. She then went running around the house hitting into walls. I was laughing so hard. She's so funny!

A couple of blogs ago I was complaining about all the trouble that my kids make early in the mornings. Well, Maddy got up around 6am the other morning and I turned on the cartoons for her and went back to sleep. About an hour later Jackson woke up hungry so I went to the kitchen to make him a bottle and saw 5 empty Trix yogurt containers on the counter all lined up. I took a deep breath and said, "Kali, why did you guys eat all of this yogurt?" She was like, "What yogurt?" I then looked down and found all the lids to the containers on the ground (nicely licked so there was no trace of yogurt on the floor). I then called for Maddy and she comes up with a huge pretty BLUE smile. Evidence. She just decided that she couldn't wait for an hour and fed herself. Imagine that.

Backpack Baby

We're in the middle of "break-up" right now and everything is melting at a good pace. After I picked up Caleb from school today the kids just played for hours outside. I thought that I would try out the backpack and Jackson LOVED it! He hung out for a couple of hours and even took a cat nap. He was so excited and I could feel his little feet kicking like crazy on my back.

Biggest Loser!

My friend, Stephanie, decided that our ward needed to have their own Biggest Loser Couples. Next week it starts and I"M SO EXCITED! We're going to have challenges and everything! My partner is Ali. I think we're going to do great! I have lost 7.5 pounds since last month so last night I ate 10, YES 10, girl scout cookies. I started to feel guilty but thought, "You need to weigh more when the competition begins so you can be the big winners, I mean LOSERS." But I woke up this morning still feeling guilty and worked out extra hard at the gym. If you want to see how our Biggest Loser site go to alpenglowsbiggestloser.blogspot.com. I'll post pics.

Finishing some projects

BEFORE

AFTER

I started the living room and actually finished two walls this weekend. The before picture is so dark because too much sunshine was coming in through that window when I took the pic. So I took the after picture in the evening but I love how much sunshine comes through out windows now with these curtains. This weekend I'm going to finish the wall with the piano on it and the chimney. WOO-HOO!

Spring Break last Bang

Yesterday we went to the early afternoon showing of Horton Hears a Who. It was so cute! Our friends met us there so the kids had a blast chowing down on some popcorn and hanging out with their friends. We got home and the whole neighborhood was in the circle playing so that's pretty much how they spent the rest of the day.
I was actually able to get some painting down and I LOVE this color that I painted. It's called Garden Wall and it's like a green, brown, grey. It sounds strange but looks so good. I'm going to finish hanging up my curtains and then I'll post a pick. I probably just like the color more because I actually finished what I started in the living room. Most projects take me months to finish because I can only do it a little at a time. Today we're just relaxing, getting laundry done, and going to bed early so we can get back onto our school schedule.
I just want to finish reading my book, Yearning for the Living God (which is AMAZING!) and relax. Oh, and eat the banana bread that's cooking in my bread machine. Yummmmmmm.

My New Video

I posted a video on my blog called 18 video tapes. It's located right under the pictures of our family on the side bar. I get so choked up just listening to the song. I feel so bad for all these children and I know it's so hard for us being apart from Aaron but I'm so happy that he's not in Iraq. Hopefully this war will end soon because he'll be looking at deployment next year flying in Iraq.

Please watch the video! I can't but have a prayer in my heart for those moms that had to tell their kids that their dad wasn't coming home. It might take some time to load up but please watch it, especially the end. (Actualvideo of a dad saying goodbye to his girls). We should cherish everyday.

FINALLY, AN EXCUSE!

So I finally have an excuse! The other night the nightly news was talking about moms that give birth develop Momnesia. I TOTALLY believe it! About a month ago I called someone, can't remember if it was Jeanne or my mom, but I was standing in front of my car and COULD NOT remember for the life of my the code to unlock my doors. I have forgot the pin to my debit card. I have walked downstairs and started to stare around because I knew there was something I was going to do. I have drove all the way to Wal-mart and then once I got inside couldn't remember what the heck I had needed. Momnesia I guess is because a hormone imbalance and lack of sleep (Jackson still gets up every 2-3 hours). I think that my license plate could say "Momnesia" instead of "tmlrsn" because there are times I start to drive somewhere but forgot why it was important. And my kids don't help at all in the mornings. My kids are early birds. I mean, Madeline will be knocking on the door at 5 am (last night 4:30) wide awake. Most of the time by 6am there's in the living room fighting about something. The other morning when I got up it looked like a post-its tornado had come through the living room. Madeline got a huge stack of post-its out of the office and separated all of them. AND, she decided to unload the cups out of the dishwasher so Dora cups were everywhere. Good morning to me.

Bowling

On Tuesday we went bowling with some friends. I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!!AHHHHHHH!! So, this was pretty much the best that I got off my phone. It was a blast and everyone had a great time. Madeline loved it but when she bowled it would roll so slow that the machine thought that someone had forgot to bowl and would actually send the ball back when it finally got to the pins. It was funny.

On Wednesday we went back to Arctic Oasis with some of our friends. The kids had a blast and it was nice to just sit and talk to an adult for a while. After hours and hours of playing we finally took where able to pry them away and went to Burger King (yuck, not our pick but the kids). I swear that within the next couple years I'm going to have to add Caleb as category in our family budget. He's going to eat me out of the house! I noticed today that he must be going through a grow spurt because he's good 7 inches or more taller than Kali.

More spring break fun.

On Monday we went the Arctic Oasis on base. It's this huge free community center on base for all military families. It has a huge play structure, a work our facility next to it so parents can workout and watch their kids, a rock climbing wall, mini golf, virtual golf, an indoor skate park, pool, and a lot of other fun stuff. The kids love going there and we make the day of going there and just hanging out. This was my best attempt at a group picture because nobody wanted to stop playing to sit and smile.
When we came home that night there was a box waiting for us. It's was Grandma Nettie's Easter surprises inside. The kids always enjoy her packages. Thanks Nettie! I must say, my kids are so lucky to have some wonderful grandparents. I really never grew up with grandparents. My Nana, my dad's mom, died with I was 5 years old. I think if she would of lived that I would of experienced the joy of having a grandparent. My mother's parents are...well ,I'll just politely say that they were "non-existent. " The closet thing that I probably had to a grandma growing up would be my Aunt Rosie ( but she's like 20 years too young to be my grandma). She NEVER EVER EVER forgot our birthdays, graduations, etc. growing up. You would always see a card during a big part of your life. Still to this day my kids get a birthday card from her. She'll always be my favorite.

Just a little Alaska perk

I know earlier this winter that I complained about our washer and dryer being in the garage but I've found a perk with it's location. Now Moms, how many times have you started a load in the wash and three days later wondered what the heck that smell was and realized it was the load of laundry that was abandoned. Well, I don't have to worry about that in the winter! The big "plus" is that my garage is so cold that my laundry just freezes or stays so cold that there's no way mildew is going to form. WOO-HOO!

Day at the Imaginarium

Today was day one of our fun spring break. After we did our Saturday chores we went to the Imaginarium in downtown Anchorage. It's like a mini OMSI. They have cool science projects, marine life you can hold (star fishes), and animals. Here's a couple pictures of our day. Jackson's big enough to sit in the stroller our of his car seat (sniff sniff). He's getting SO BIG! He was such a trooper and just watched kids the whole two hours. Only at the very end during group picture time did he start to fuss.Here are the girls going down the slide from the rock climbing wall/ mountain. (Notice Kali had to wear her Wizard of Oz shoes outside and it's "break up" outside which means that water is EVERYWHERE. She said she had to be fabulous. LOL).They had this huge fan that you were supposed to put a ball over so that it hovers in air. Well, MY KIDS thought it would be hilarious to take off their shoes and see if they would fly. I turned around to see all these kids just staring at them. It was funny. They stuck their heads partially in and here's the pic.
One of the exhibits was on bubbles. Madeline had a blast getting all soapy. People were cracking up because every time that she would stick her bubble wand in she wouldn't stick it in just far enough and just enough to get the bubbles all over the wand. Doesn't sound bad but she's 2 so every time she went to go blow and had to put the wand up against her face and was walking around with a goatee of bubbles. In this exhibit the kids stood in this huge bubble wand and would pull the rope up to lift the hula hoop and make a huge bubble around them. Pretty cool. Here are some future Larsen aviators. This exhibit let you fly a huge model airplane. You had to use the hand controls and pedals to make the airplane fly straight in the wind. Both of the girls had a blast and I had to pry Madeline away after the line got too long.
Some baby chicks had hatched and the kids got a chance to hold them. Kali loves animals. This was her favorite exhibit.
As you can see from this picture, it was time to go. There were starting to get tired and hungry. As we were getting ready to leave this man gave us balloons because he had too many from this kid's birthday party. I wasn't sad when the balloons floated off to outer space after the balloon fight that went on in my car. It's hard to see with three kids jumping around hitting each other with balloons. I got hit a couple of times. Remember the movie Cheaper By The Dozen with Steve Martin. There's a scene where all chaos has broken out with their 12 children and he's talking to his wife on the phone but doesn't want her to know what's going on. She asks, "How are the kids?" At that moment a Chinese star goes through the closet door that he's hiding behind. He answers, "Oh fine, they're like kittens." LOL. I feel ya man!

Picture time

Jackson is so new, and young, that he hasn't had the privilege of his mom wearing out his smile yet. Actually, I haven't worn out any of my kid's smiles yet but boy do some of them hate it when I make them pose for pictures (mostly just Caleb. "Mom, only 1 more!"). I bought some black fabric today to make a backdrop and had fun with Jackson. He's just so cute and I haven't taken enough pictures of him lately.

Besides this we haven't been doing much lately. I caught some stomach bug on Tuesday and today was finally back into the swing of things. I went to my lifting class at the gym and thought, "Okay Jessy, here's the big test. If you can get through this first set of squats and nothing happens...then you're fine>" Nothing happened so I figured that I'm not sick anymore.

Caleb's spring break starts tomorrow. I'm now trying to think of things for us to do for the next two weeks to keep us occupied, and so the kids won't kill each other out of boredom. They started to fight over a banana (YES A BANANA) the other morning. I just asked Madeline to say the breakfast prayer after I was able to get the fight under control and this is how it went, "Ah...asdlkfsdlfkj......asdlkfjasldkfj....MY BANANA...Amen." I had to laugh because it was very funny.

Breast Milk Does A Body Good!

Aaron wanted to see an up-close picture of Jackson so this is what I took last night while I was holding him. It's a little blurry because I took it with my iphone but he was laughing. Breast milk does a body good!

"MORE BUTTER!"

I was making Madeline a little peanut butter and honey sandwich yesterday and became a little distracted. This was the aftermath of a couple minutes away from the peanut butter.She ran into the office and kept saying, "More BUTTER!! MORE BUTTER!!" It was quite comical.