Yesterday when we came home from church I asked Aaron if he would rather have Zucchini bread or No-bakes. He chose the bread. I didn't realize that I had so much zucchini that needed to be used up asap. So I made around 12 loaves of it (some big and some small). I made little notes to each family we were giving them to and then after dinner we drove around giving them out. We had such a fun time! It's always fun to surprise someone.

So we delivered some bread to our friends, the Cochrans, and Jodi gave every body a sucker. Jackson was nibbling away on his in the car and this is what he looked like by the time we got home. Man did he love that sucker! What was more funny was that the blue stained his face and his sucking thumb. It was a good laugh.

The best toys

Aaron asked me what we should get Jackson for his birthday, I replied, "an empty milk jug." Because isn't it true, kids are facinated with the things that are free. Lets take my tupperware drawer this evening. While I'm cooking dinner Jackson and Mads are having the time of their life throwing the lids everywhere. They probably could do this for hours. Hey, whatever gives me more than 10 minutes to do something I'm all for. Besides, it will take me 2 mins to clean up.

Thanks YoYo!!!

Yoyo sent some money for Mads to buy some Polly Pockets because she's officially potty trained!!! She played for hours and hours yesterday. It was nice to clean the house while Jackson napped and then curl up to a book while Maddy played. Of course every 3 minutes I would have to stop because Cinderella needed a new dress on and Mads has a hard time getting her arms in the long sleeves.

Thanks Mom for making my day a little easier! Love you.

My new addiction...ahhh I mean hobby

Our ward is so awesome and we have tons of active interest groups. We have music makers for the preschoolers, play group, basketballs in the morning for the moms with kids, quilting, and maybe starting some exercise step class. Anyways, last year Jody was trying to get me to get into the quilting class. It conflicted with my lifting class and lifting won. I thought that I would try the quilting now that it started up again, because school started, and I LOVE IT! I cut on Thursday, and then sewed here and there the rest of the week. Last night I finished sewing my parts together and now I need to decorate it. All the circles are snowmen heads that you put hats on or anything you want. I left 4 white squares that I'm going to personalize for each one of the kids. I just can't wait for Thursday quilting day!!!!!

Jackson loves his Grandma's!

Jackson received two packages in the mail the other day for his birthday. Granny Yo sent a couple of outfits (he's wearing one) which look so comfy that I wish that made one in pink my size. Thank you Yoyo!! Grandma Nettie sent Chatting Elmo. After watching Jackson play with it it really should be renamed Shaken Baby Elmo. He loved it!! You can tell how excited he was. Poor Maddy sat on the sidelines just waiting for him to drop it and play. After a half day of listening to Elmo stutter and asking someone to talk to him I thought, "Is Nettie mad at me?" HA HA! I have to make sure that next time we see Aaron that this toy has fresh batteries so he can have the priveledge of hearing it....all day long.

It pays to live in Alaska...well next year it will

Usually when Aaron leaves the hardest times for me are within the 48-72 hours afterwards. I usually go through the house trying to find something that smells like him and cry. Wednesday was my bad day. The phone rang and it was my bestest ever sister Meagen. We started talking about the Alaskan PFD (if you live in Alaska you get paid once a year for being an Alaskan resident from the money Alaska gets from the Alaska pipeline). I started to explain what it to her. See, we don't get it this year because we moved in April 2007. You have to live in the state for 12 consecutive months before you're eligible to file in January. It's a huge bummer for us because it's worth $3269 PER PERSON in your household which would of been a huge deposit of $19,614 in our checking account yesterday. Side note: can you believe that soldiers ranked E7 and below got the day off yesterday to blow their money? Crazzzzy!! So Meagen was like: If I lived in Alaska and Eddy said to me ' why don't you get a job?' I'd say to him, ' I do, I'm living in Alaska!' I don't know why but it was so unbelievable funny to me and it was just the thing that I needed to get me through that hour of my day. I love you Meagen and your sense of humor.

Super baby

How come Dad's are so good at freakin' us mom's out? My heart nearly drops when Aaron does this but Jackson LOVE LOVE LOVES! Good thing we have extremely high vaulted ceilings.

After Jackson's birthday party we "tried" to get a family picture. I think I have a better chance of winning the lottery or coming home and finding Ed Mcmahon on my door step with a check and some balloons. The only time you can get all 8 little eyes on the camera at the same time is when you say "funny picture time." Oh well. It really captures the craziness and fun we have together.

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!