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Little pony

We are finally at my mom's house and grandpa bought this talking pony for Mads. She's smitten. She keeps pushing the little button to watch its mouth move. Too funny.



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Me and my honey!

Aaron and I having a good time!



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Getting my priorities straight

I've realized lately that over the years we, as in members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, have been instructed multiple times to have our families prepared for an emergency and have our food storage in tact. Last week when I was visiting teacher with my bestest companion, Jody, she was telling how Elder M. Russell Ballard was recently at her sister's stake. He was pleading with the members that NOW is the time to get our affairs in order. Get rid of debt and have a food storage. He said that things will get much worse before it gets better and that many will be hurt by our economy's situation. That day I went to Costco and people were FIGHTING over rice! Costco is only letting people buy one bag at a time because of the shortage. The employees were saying that everyday when the doors open people run as fast as they can to get the rice. Unbelievable. My friend, Kelly, and I almost started to panic buy in Costco but decided that we should go home and take inventory first and come up with a plan to prepare. Then that huge cyclone happened in Burma which is a huge rice producer. I came home and felt so troubled that I hadn't prepared our family. I mean food storage isn't only in a time of crisis. Some people lose their jobs and live off of their food storage when money is tight. Then yesterday that huge earthquake happened in China. So many people don't have anything. And even if their house didn't cumble they probably don't have power or running water. So, I'm on a new mission to prepare my family. I found a food calculator on the church's website and for my family of 6 I need 900lbs or wheat, flour, rice to substain us for 6 months. And we as church members are supposed to store water for us to drink, bath, ect. Plus, after Katrina the church made a policy that you store X amount of water for the stake in the case of emergency. Water was the biggest need in Katrina. I started to feel overwhelmed but thought that if I just wrote down a plan that I'd be okay. So first I needed to find a place to store all this stuff. Last night I cleared out the room under the stairs and organized everything in the office closet. I just finished so now I have a 6x3 to store my food and water. Now I'm making a list of everything that I need and on Friday Kelly and I are driving out to the cannery to pick up our supplies. I'm feeling good. I know Aaron can work his butt off and provide an income to take care of our family but this is the one project that I need to do to take care of us. I just keep reminding myself that the Lord said that "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear." I know that being faithful in following the prophet's advice will only help our family.

Another Tornado touches down on Tanadak Circle

We have been super busy this weekend. Yesterday I had a Biggest Loser challenge (by the way I lost 2lbs but they round up so it ended up being 1) and came home to have a date at 10 am with my neighbor, Jeanne. We worked all day in our yards and plants tons of flowers. Madeline and the kids just played all day long with the neighborhood kids. I love that about our neighborhood. All the kids just run through everybodies backyards and you just don't worry a lot. Anyways, by night all of them were so dirty. I was getting Maddy in the bath when I noticed she had a circle on her back. I called Nettie to see if I was ringworm. As I'm talking to Nettie and trying to put Jackson down for bed Mads slipped out of the tub and grabbed my eyeshadow and brush. I came back into the bathroom and Mads was so proud of herself. I told Nettie, which as a grandma she thought was hilarious. I went to go get the makeup away from her and she was growling at me, yes growling! So I have come down to this conclusion: 1) Maddy's eyes really stand out with brown camouflage 2) No more watching Shaggy Dog and 3) to laugh with my children.

Caleb's zoo field trip

On Friday of last week Caleb's class went on a field trip to the zoo. Field trips here are done with parent's driving (no school buses) so I volunteered and the whole fam went. We had never been there so I thought it would be fun for all.

Funny story: I was all excited, maybe a little too excited, that the seal was swimming around Madeline and I went to go put my face close to the glass with her and misjudged the depth of the glass. I thought that I was further back than what it was and smack my face HARD into the glass. It made this huge noise and everybody was starring at me. I thought I was going to pass out for a second and was seeing the little stars. LOL. All these people just busted out laughing, including me. Classic.

Do you see how my children are on the railing? The Alaska zoo is filled with animals from Alaska. Meaning, anything that just might roam in our neighborhood at any given time: moose, bears, bald eagles. My friend and I had a laugh about it.

Yep, we were that close to the grizzly bears. I used it as an excellent time to teach my children what to do if a bear comes roaming through the neighborhood when they're playing outside. I know that sounds bad but I guess it's better than the ghetto, right?

Feeling strong

Lately I've been lifting a lot and hadn't realized until yesterday just how strong I'm getting. I take a lifting class twice a week and usually see the same friends in class. Usually during class my friend, Meagen, and I give each other a hard time about how much weight we load onto our bar and try to out do each other. Yesterday after class we decided to see how could squat the most. I couldn't believe it but I did two sets of 5 with 100lbs! I was so stoked! Then I thought I would try a set of lunges with 100 lbs but my form was so off by the time I hit 4. It was just too much weight for my leg. Then we decided to try bench presses and I did two sets of 5 with 70lbs! I was so pumped! I couldn't feel my arms or legs but I felt like the hulk, except I wasn't green or mad.

10 More days till what?

I know that I'm keeping a count down because in 10 more days the kids and I are OUTTA HERE! On the 19th we leave for Oregon and will first stay with Aaron's parents, Nettie and Mike. On the 22nd I'm leaving to go see Aaron for Memorial weekend. I'm super excited because I haven't seen him since December. I came back on the 27th and on the 28th my mom will pick us up to head down to Bend. I can hardly stand it. The only thing that I'll miss about Alaska is the long days. It's light by 5 and totally dark after 11. I loved how last summer we could take bike rides at 11pm because it was still light outside. But I'm excited about just hanging out and visiting old friends for the summer. We'll be back July 10th but Aaron recently informed me that he doesn't think that he's coming home for his one week break in August. Soooo, if he isn't able to I'm going to extend my trip till August and go see him again. The kids don't start school till August 22nd so I have some time to decided. YAHOO!

Bon Appetit

The other day Kali asked if she could feed Jackson and I hesitated at first but the truth was I needed help that morning. So, I let her. She actually did a fairly good job. I mean, it was all over Jackson but at least it wasn't all over the walls. Maddy thought it was the perfect time to play Little People on Jackson's high chair. Which was entertaining for Jackson so he got dinner and a show.

The unwanted house guest

The snow has finally melted and the sun is starting to come out. On Wednesday neighbors gathered together in the middle of the circle to catch up from this winter's hibernation. All of the sudden all the neighborhood children started to run towards us and were screaming bloody murder. I grabbed Jackson tight because I thought for sure a bear or moose had entered the neighborhood.

The parents started to yell, "WHAT'S WRONG?!! WHAT?!!"

The children screamed, "mosquito!!"

That's right, there were all running from the mosquito. (notice it's not plural). I couldn't believe it. Some of the little girls were crying. This time of year Alaska is notorious for it's outragous amount of mosquitoes that come out as soon as the snow melts. They're everywhere! It all started when one of the little girls decided that mosquitoes were prime evil and she was going to tell all the little neighborhood kids mosquitoes will suck out all your blood. So now every single child is deathly afraid of the mosquitoes. It's hilarious to watch them play and one of them spots a mosquito and they take off running and some will be crying. Caleb even refused to use the bathroom for a whole day because he saw a mosquito in there. In my effort to try to put an end to this I got a huge bottle of Off and sprayed them down and put it on the freezer in the garage. Today when Kali came inside it was wreaking of Off. I looked at her shirt and it had huge rings on the front of it where she must of drenched herself.

While this seems quite comical it's also scary because I can be inside and in unison hear 8 kids all scream at the same time. I know it's just a mosquito they've seen but I look out the window anyways because the bears and moose are out.

Update: Snow

I was wrong with how much it snowed on Friday. It wasn't 10 inches... it was 15. And a couple miles up the rode had 22- all within 24 hours.

Who wants 6 months of snow? NOT I!

This is what was going on yesterday. This week we have had beautiful weather and enjoyed the sun. It was actually mid 50s, which is huge. The snow melted and I was actually able to clear out the leaves from my flower garden and rake the yard.
And then this is what happened. I watched the news the following evening and they were predicting snow but I' thought maybe they were giving worst case scenario.
It snowed 10 inches!!!!!! This is my view out of my office window.
This is the front door this morning. I could barely open it. So, can you guess what the kids' Saturday chores were?
Yep, shoveling some snow. I have to laugh because Caleb's shoveling consist of a criss-cross pattern. Which means, only pieces of the driveway get shoveled. I could always just drive over it but my neighbor said that a couple of years ago the people who live next to us thought that instead of shoveling their driveway they would just drive their car up and down their driveway to pack the snow down. LOL, well I guess it didn't work out too well because their ended up getting stuck in their own driveway. So, after I run today I'll be shoveling what's left of the driveway. Hey, it's a good ab workout.

I Pledge to destroy the house!

We were all outside Thursday when I realized Madeline had slipped out of view. The neighbor said she saw her go into the garage so I opened up the door and yelled for Maddy inside the house.

"Madeline, come here."

"Okay Mom. Um, hold on."

" No Maddy now."

"Okay Mom."

A couple minutes later she came downstairs.

"Maddy, what were you doing."

"Um, nothing."

And she ran past me to go play. I didn't want to know because I would find out as soon as we went inside. She had gone under the kitchen sink and got the bottle of pledge and just sprayed the floor and dishwasher down. The dishwasher had a inch thick of foam on it. I cleaned it up but the floor is so slick now, like wax. She was running with her sleeper on the same night and totally biffed it.

Note: If you look at the kitchen cabinet you can STILL see the red permanent marker that won't come off.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Wish we could spend the day with you! (Caleb is covering his mouth because he has severely chapped lips and is embarrassed). I love you! I love you! I love you!

Little Aari

Meet little Aari. Why little Aari? Because the boy looks just like his father.

The eyes and the hairline....definitely the hairline.

I

Little Jumper

Jackson absolutely loves his Johnny Jump-up, almost as much and he loves his right thumb.

Madeline absolutely loves to sling-shot Jackson when he's in his Johnny Jump-up. Good thing babies are durable.

Biggest Loser week....4?

So I haven't done a very good job blogging about my biggest loser experience. I think we are in week 4. We haven't had a challenge in over a week and won't have another one until next weekend. So far, as of this morning, I have lost 8 lbs. I feel like it's more but the scale is a bad reflection of what's really going on. I lift about three times a week and muscle definitely weighs more than fat. I'm feeling good and have found a new motivation, my husband. I get to go see him next month so I'm really motivation to look steamy hot when he sees me. My partner and I are currently in 2nd place. Yippie.

Just a phase

Maddy is going through this phase where she seems to always be naked. And if she's not naked then she's wearing dress up clothes. Some days she'll be in her dress up clothes before she even comes upstairs for breakfast. The other day we were heading for the gym and she insisted that she wear her Barbie high-heels. I took us FOREVER to actually get inside because she had the granny-shuffle going some trying to keep those shoes on her feet. So, the other day I thought that I would be taking more pictures of this phase in her life. And when I was looking at them on the computer today I busted up laughing because look at the picture of Kali and Maddy. Both of them have their fingers in their ears. Sometimes I feel like they really do have their fingers in their ears when I'm talking to them. I love these girlies so much!

84...what the heck?!

When I set my iphone on it's cradle it will ask me if I want to download the pictures from my phone onto the computer. Today when it asked it said I had 84 pictures. 84...what? So I went through them and these are two of the pictures that were taken, except that there are like twenty pictures of toes and face shots. Gosh....I wonder who got a hold of my phone. (Don't worry honey, I put a lock on my phone...now).