Just one reason...

Although I have been leading the campaign to leave, there are a lot of good reasons to live in Alaska. These pictures show just one of them. These were taken when Brad was out hunting with a buddy from work a few weeks ago. Love you Babe!

Too Funny

Just recently Glory has become fixated with the camera. She's developed the canned, cheesy grin that toddlers often pull when taking pictures. She's also added "Cheee" to the short list of words she can say. These funny pictures were taken a few weeks ago during an assembly at the Elementary School when I was desperate to keep her quiet during the last few minutes of award presentation and was foolish enough to give in to her wanting to play with our new camera. Dang she's cute!

School Days

Holy Smokes! I never posted first day of school pictures. Here in little ol' Alaska we still have standard schedule school. We start and end a little early in the year, and have outside recess until it's 20 below zero, but other than that we are just about like everyone else. Ooh, except we get full-day Kindergarten, which rocks! Delta Elementary has just under 400 students enrolled this year, with most classes coming in at about 22 kids. I LOVE our school. Jaycie is rocking 4th grade this year (yikes!) and Hayden is in 1st. What cuties! Penny is attending Smarty Pants Preschool in preperation for the big "K" next year. How do they get so big so fast?! Watch out boys--Here they come!

An apple a day....

So, a few weeks ago I went shopping (Surprise) and was unloading all the groceries when Glory discovered a bag of apples on the floor. She started rolling apples around and taking them in and out of the bag. Then next thing I new I heard crunching. She was totally taking tiny bites out of the apples! She only had about 6 teeth, so I was surprised she could get her mouth around them. It was all fun and games until I realized she was taking bites out of ALL of them. Still cute pictures though. :)

Trick or Treat!

I know, it seems weird to be posting Halloween pictures right before Thanksgiving. But, better late than never. I'm carrying enough guilt around because of all the pictures we lost when the computer crashed. This is me moving on. Anyway, this year Jaycie was a witch, Hayden was bat girl, Penny was a giraffe, and Glory was an elephant......and a bear. Depending on what party you saw us at. It seemed this year like we had "Halloween Hanukkah" in that it went on and on. Between the preschool party, the branch party and friends' parties we had plenty of "ween" to go around. By the time the 31st actually rolled around not only were Brad and I partied out, it was so cold ('bout 10 degrees) we chickened out of trick or' treating and convinced the kids that it would be just as fun to hunt for the candy around the house "Easter egg" style. So we hid all the candy we would have passed out to trick or treaters (had we had any) and they filled their bags that way. All in all, we had a good time and are gearing up for Turkey Day!

Catch Up

Whew!! It's been a long time. We had some serious technical problems, but now we're back. Always one to buck the system, I AM NOT going private. I am a fan of stalking others' blogs just to check them out, without leaving any clues that I've been there. So, in all fairness, I'm leaving mine open to all you other late-night stalkers. I know, I know. People can steal my pictures. Well, I'm just not that scared. That doesn't mean that one day I won't be. For now, I have other things to worry about. Like how Hilary and Chris are going to pay back their student loans once we get socialized health care. (hehe, love you!) Anywho, I will do my best to get some pictures posted before more holidays pass us by. Thanks for checkin' in!

Who doesn't love a parade?

One of the first things we did after Mom and Hilary got here was attend the annual Delta Junction Parade. Parades themselves are just good old fashioned fun, if you ask me, but small town parades are even better. There's no traffic, or getting there early for a good spot, and most importantly, not a lot of competition when it comes to catching the candy. The floats weren't fancy, but we had some of everything. Police, firefighters, Baptists, farm equipment, and my personal favorite: baby goats. We all had a ball, especially Landon, who loved playing in the street. Especially when he suckered me into letting go of his hand for just ONE second so he could make a run for it, through the floats and to the other side of the highway! Good thing Jaycie could keep up with him!

Family Fun!

Oh dear. So much has happened since my last blog! I am so far behind that there is no way that I can post it all in one sitting, so I will work on it slowly but surely. In the midst of it all, our trusty laptop has bit the dust. So the "slowly" may win out over the "surely" for a while, until the necessary repairs are made. On to the good stuff!

After much guilting and begging, my sister Hilary finally made it up for a visit. Mom came too, which was awesome. We had a blast! (I wasn't the one sleeping on the couch though!) It was so fun to get to know Landon and see Hilary in "Mom" mode. I also got a taste of what it is to have a little boy around. Seriously, that kid can run! Here are a couple of my favorite pictures--I'll try not to duplicate the ones Hilary posted!

I will definately be posting more pictures and info about all the fun things we did while they were here! Peace out Hilary!

Not-so-Lucky Charms

Need I say more?

Happy 4th of July!

For the first time since we moved to Alaska, we bought fireworks for the fourth. In years past, we were always discouraged by the whole "never gets dark" thing and let it hold us back from a true celebration. However, I realized, that meant that my 3 youngest kids had NEVER held a sparkler or experienced the joy of sucking down the acrid smoke of a smoke bomb. So, we sought out the roadside stand, spent way too much money, and lit off fireworks in the light! **YEA!!**

Happy Birthday Hayden!

Ahhh, it seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital.....and now she's 6! Here are some pictures of the birthday girl and her horsey cake. Also, I couldn't help but add one of Glory chowing on some watermelon. (I left off the one of her throwing it up later!) Ta Ta for now!

O-R-E-O

Just thought I would add on a picture of Glory after her first oreo cookie. (I'm sure not her last.) Ahhh, the good times!

More Valdez Pictures

Happy Campers

We finally did it! We have been telling ourselves that we need to take a family trip down to Valdez for quite a few summers now but somehow the summer always ran out before it happened. Well, this year the Army set up a campground down there complete with Camper trailers, fire pits, picnic tables and outhouses. All we had to do was drive down and stay in 'em. So we did! Valdez is one of the biggest fishing spots in Alaska. Big meaning lots of tourists and lots of fish. The town itself is quite small, and right on the ocean. If you want to go charter fishing for salmon, halibut and various other large, ocean bound fish, this is the place to be. This is also one of the ports where you can catch a ferry down to the lower 48. And in case that's not enough, this is the "end of the pipeline" where all the oil that has been harvested at the north slope then piped through the pipeline is loaded on a barge and shipped down and put in the oil reserves.....where? I don't know. And, if you are old enough you may remember the infamous "Exxon/Valdez" oil spill that happend off the coast here in Valdez. We had a great time camping, saw nesting bald eagles and lots of ocean views. We were a little early in the season to see much fishing action, be we had a good time anyway. Enjoy the pictures!

Long time no blog!

When I started this blog I swore I wouldn't let myself go weeks and weeks without putting something new up. Well, then summer happened! All four kids home all the time! I kept telling myself that nothing really exciting was happening anyway, but now my excuse has run out. So, I'm back--and I'm blogging!

Go Jaycie!

At the end-of-year awards assembly this week each teacher gave out 3 awards for outstanding achievement during the 07-08 school year. They were for "Most Improved," "Best Academic," and "Good Citizen." Jaycie received the "Academic" award for having the best grades and scores, and always turning in outstanding work. YEA! Too bad there wasn't one for "cutest 3rd grader," cuz she would've stolen that one! Mrs. Hanson also mentioned the fact that she always wrote lengthy and complete answers on her assignments, especially in regards to story problems in Math. Apparently she's very detail oriented and little long-winded. I wonder where she gets that...

Colby "Awesome" Graves

So for those of you who aren't familiar with Colby, he was one of the first kids that Hayden talked about after starting Kindergarten. She also spoke a lot of Caleb Pugh, who's breath smelled "like peaches." Anyhoo, I got to know Colby a little bit more by volunteering in class and following along on field trips. I learned just this last week while walking behind him on the way to the drive in that "You shouldn't step on the cracks in the sidewalk. If you do, your Mom's back will break. It says so in the Bible." Here's to you, Colby.

WooHoo!

Our 2nd field trip this week was a walk to the city park for lunch and play time, then a trip through the library for a story and back. While at the park Glory got a ride on the swings for the first time. She LOVED it, as I'm sure most babies do. Whee!

Field trippin'!

School is almost out and the warmer weather is finally here, so most of the classes at Delta Elementary are going on field trips. Because things here are few and far between and resources are limited, most field trips here are walking field trips. This week Penny and Glory and I accompanied Hayden's class, led by Ms. Marchini, on two field trips. First was a walk to the local drive-in which is getting ready to open for the summer. The owner of the drive in is a former Delta Elementary School teacher and sold each of the Kinder's an ice cream cone for .50 cents. Or is that "fitty cent?" Here are some of the happy field trippers.