Happy Birthday Jackson

Tuesday was Jackson's first birthday. It was perfect because Aaron was home for weekend to spend it with us. The responsible Mom that I am..cough cough...forgot to charge the battery to the camera so THIS is the ONLY picture that I have. Bummer. But I did get the rest on video so I guess it's okay long as it was recorded somehow. Jackson tore into cake and ice cream. It was just a great time.

Sing a song

So Caleb totally surprised me yesterday and had joined the school choir- yes choir! This is coming from the kids who NEVER wants to get up with the primary in church and sing. I reminded him that he'd have to sing in front of people and he said, "Yes I know mom. One of our concerts we'll sing in front of 500 people." HUH? So, we talked about commitments and he slept on it and decided this morning that it's still something that he wants to do. Alrighty then...

Happy Anniversary

Can you believe Aaron and I have been married four years now?! It seems much much longer and I think that's because we've accomplished so much in a short amount of time. Lets see....we've purchased 5 cars, had 2 dogs, have moved three times in three different states, had 2 kids, bought a house, Aaron finished his Bachelor's and Master's, 4 different career changes, and now separated for almost a year due to pilot school. Whew! Can't wait to see what the next four bring. Maybe we'll slow down.....nah!

Today was our busy errands day and can you tell the kids were totally tired by noon? LOL. Jackson actually fell asleep in the car and I thought that he would of waken up when I carried him inside the store but he didn't. So my purse became the pillow and he slept the whole time. Even through Madeline whispering to him, "Jackson wake up baby." She thought that I couldn't hear her because I would walk 3 feet away. LOL. Notice how she's grabbing stuff off the shelf during the picture.

LIving in cave people times

When Aaron was here a couple of weeks ago my microwave bit the dust. Aaron was going to go out and buy me one but I thought that I would make a little experiment out of it and see how life is like without a microwave. So after three weeks here's my opinion: It's hard if you don't remember to start defrosting your meat early in the morning, Mom's burnt popcorn over the stove is BLAH, and cold syrup on pancakes is a shame. I miss having a microwave.

Tylenol Plus

Aaron has been gone for almost three weeks now and comes home on Saturday mornings (12:45am) thru Tuesday night. I'm super excited because it was worth the ticket for just a couple of days so that he could be with us for Jackson's birthday. So where has he been? Survival school in Spokane, Washington. Poor guy. He's already toughed it out in the woods for 5 days and had to catch his food. He was able to gut a rabbit. (yuck). He called me on Friday and I knew that was the day that he was in his....I forgot what it's called but they came and got him at noon to torture him. I was able to talk to him at night and asked him how it was, which he can't give any details about, but said that it would make me cry to know what happened to him that day and that he was so sore to move. That lab was only 7 hours long and by the end of this week he has to do 36 hours straight of being tortured. It's not everyday when people at ask you, "what's Aaron up to?" "Oh he's being tortured today." I just can't wait for all his schools to be over and for him to COME HOME! Sure do miss him.

Starting Kindergarten

So Kali had her first day of Kindergarten yesterday. I THOUGHT I was very ready for her to go to school. It seemed like last school year she was so bored staying and home and I was running out of ideas to keep her busy. Kindergarten in Anchorage is all day everyday including music, P.E, art- the whole shabang. So when I was driving her to school yesterday out of no-where I started crying. I'm still excited for her but I started to realize that I'll never be able to go back and appreciate my time with her more. I should of played more instead of cleaned. Well, she had a fabulous day and told me all about when I picked her up.

Kali in front of the school sign. She was soooo excited!

She looks so little with her backpack on. I'm surprised that it didn't knock her flat on her back. P.S. Nettie she insisted on wearing the red sweater you bought for her. Yoyo, thanks for the jeans.

Kali and Mrs. Frost

Kali putting her little person under cold lunch.

Ready to start her first day of kindergarten. You would of thought that someone famous was in that classroom by how many flashes were going off from cameras. The parents stayed to sing a little song with the kids, say the pledge, and then were nicely kicked out by Mrs. Frost. I'm happy to report that I didn't have one of those hysterically crying children.

Potty training 101

So we went a whole day with no accidents! RELIEF! My sister-in-law just blogged about her daughter who's Mads' age and found out that candy is the key. I bought a big bad of M&Ms and if she just sits on the potty she gets 2, if something actually comes out she gets 4. She went about a two hour stretch the other day and we came from a bike ride nice and dry. I told her to go upstairs to pee and she did. When I told her that she needed to put on a diaper to take a nap she freaked out. She now hates wearing diapers and just wants panties. WOO-HOO!


P.S- Jenn the key to the candy is not to eat it yourself. I found myself raiding the M&M jar the other night and had to stop myself.

Tagged

So my wonderful sister in-law tagged me. Here ya go Jennie...

Three Joys:
* The restored Gospel in my life and all the joys that come because of it
* My wonderful husband who actually wanted to be sealed to me. I thought I might have to arm wrestle him over the alter to say "yes" but he said so willingly. (Love you) And of course my children.
* That I just happen to live in the boundaries of the coolest ward...ever!

Three fears:
* Anything that has to do with my children being around water
* Leaving this earth not being sealed to Caleb and Kali
* Dying before my children are grown

Three Obsessions:
* I'm a girl so of course my weight.
* cleanliness of my house
* lately... house projects.

Three Surprising Facts:
* This one is really bad and Aaron always gives me a hard time about but I'm addicted to celebrity news. I have certain websites that I read at least once a day everyday. I really need to break this one.
* I love the smell of skunk unless I'm too close to it.
* I have three siblings and talk to none of them on a quarterly or semi-annually basis but one of their wives is reading this right now. Strange.

Something is wrong with this picture...something very wrong....

The other morning Madeline got up really early and came into my bedroom. I said, "Mads go watch a movie." She said, "ok" and walked out into the livingroom. Aaron was like, "she can't do that Jess." At first we could hear whatever station was on the television. Then you heard silence. A minute later you can hear a movie starting. Aaron was like, "You mean she can find a movie, change the inputs of the television off the remote but isn't potty trained?" Okay that put it into perspective. So we have been potty training but it's mostly my fault that it hasn't been 100% successful. We did go to the park and I kept her in panties. I told her that if she peed in them that she would be cold because we weren't coming back home. She kept them dry for 2 hrs straight. Hopefully I'll have this chapter closed within the month.

I MUST of been so valiant

What does that mean? I'll explain. I was talking to my friend, Jodi, yesterday and telling her about the crazy things that the kids were doing. She said, "Oh you must of been so valiant!" What? She explained that her and her sister have come up with the theory that in heaven you must of been SO SO SO SO SOOOOO valiant that Heavenly Father decided that you were so strong that you were the only one here on Earth that could manage your crazy kids. So, next time your kids are fighting in the grocery store, throwing toys out the car window, or just down-right-driving you nuts...remember you were that valiant!

I miss you Gamy!I HEART YOU!

Aaron was showing Jackson how to ride his bike. It's actually Jackson's bedtime but we all went outside to play- that's why he's in his pajamas. He was all smiles on this little scooter. I can't believe how fast he's growing!

It's great having dad home

So I've been slacking about blogging but man do I have a great excuse...or excuses. To make a super LONG story super SHORT... Came home from vacation, started to remodel the house to sell it..then rent it so we could move to Corpus Christi, TX to be with Aaron...we're not going now. The End. I'm okay with it now because the Lord wants us here in Alaska and I know the Lord's way is always the right way.Second excuse, Aaron has been home off and on for two weeks now. He had to leave for four days to go to FL for water survival school. He left again yesterday for SERE school in WA and will be back for a couple of days in September. Then he's back off to school in Texas. He'll get his wings around April. It was great having him here. It was nice to finally feel complete again. Madeline now knows how to play the "I want my daddy" card when she gets in trouble. She didn't know how to before he left. Jackson had a great time getting to know his daddy and loves to wrestle now! It's like he suddenly turned into this wrestling, screaming, maniac toddler. Can't wait for September!

So it looks like I have some explaining to do....

A couple of days ago I checked my voice mail and my loving friend was laughing her head off and said, "Oooooo a bear attacked a mouse! Thanks for the laugh." I was confused about what she was talking about. And then I realized what it was.

Do you have a word with a couple of meanings, and a couple of different ways to spell it, that just confuses you? Well guess what, mine is moose (the animal) and mousse (the hair product). I remember spelling it with two e's and spell checker changed it to mouse. So there you go. It was a MOOSE that scared the crap out of Caleb and a MOOSE that was attacked by the bear. All mice are safe here. LOL.

Bear attack video

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/08/03/natpkg.bear.vs.moose.mcclendon

Here;s the video next to our church and the kid's school where the bear attacked a mouse in a neighbhorhood.

Oh, and I cut Mads' hair too. Ta-dah!

Reach out and touch a mouse

On Saturday we were getting ready to leave and Caleb walked out to the car. What he didn't know was that a mouse had walked right next to him. The neighbors saw it but Caleb failed to realize this huge animal was a hand length away from him. When he finally did he yelled out for Aaron. Aaron turned around, he was at the driver's door, to realize that the mouse had ran around the car and was running past him to our backyard. Caleb ran inside to tell me and I got my phone out to take a picture. I ran out the front door to the front porch and was so close that I probably could of touched him. He was walking to the kid's fort in the backyard to munch on some leaves. Yummy.Today I'm very paranoid about the kids playing outside bc the neighbors found bear scat in their yard. There was also a man attacked by a bear in Eagle River yesterday but was able to get to the fire station. And then last night while we were eating at our friend's house she told me that on Driftwood Bay, the street out church is on and the school, a bear was caught on camera killing a mouse. I know that's normal but it all seems too close to home. Now, I could keep the kids inside but if I let myself always feel so scared that would be living inside. The neighborhood kids are outside so hopefully with all their noise it will keep all animals away.

No I did not move my ears

So I chopped off my hair last week. I was tired of looking like a tiny-bopper- wanna-be. Plus all I did was wear it in a pony every day. So I got something more sophisticated, grown-up, and momish (in a good way).

Nothing like a fire in JULY!

Yep, it was like 62 in the house, colder outside that I actually lit a fire in the fireplace than turn on the furnace. ONLY IN ALASKA CAN YOU DO THIS! Our summer has been LAME. We have had 4 sunny days since I've been home. It's always cold, raining, and gray outside. And to top it off, two weeks ago termination dust showed up. (that's when the first snow falls on the top of the mountains. It means that your summer is just about over).