Wednesday, July 24, 2013

~The rest of April

Simon loves dressing up.  One day he found this wig and wore it all day.  Love this kid!
 
 
We took the boys to the Ice Dogs hockey game.  Despite the picture where everyone looks bored, we did have a good time.


 
Don't look at the kitchen that's trashed.  (Nothing is ever clean in our house on Sundays.)  Look at the boy sitting in his underwear on the stool.  If you are naughty during church, you get to practice being reverent at home.  Not sure why Simon is mostly naked, but I thought it was hilarious.  Poor disobedient child :)

 
Simon's partner in crime.  He likes his clothes on.


 
I was not happy to find our fairly brand new mailbox down on it's side one day.  I sort of propped it up, went home, grabbed a marker and cardboard and taped the sign.  Apparently I was feeling feisty that day.  After about two hours I felt guilty and took the sign down, but not before I got a picture!  lol  Poor Adam had to get out in the cold and fix it.  I'm so glad he knows how to fix anything!  He's da man!
 



There is always time to squeeze in some young womens projects.  A new centerpiece for our table on Sunday.  It turned out pretty cute for just freehanding it.  My little jigsaw has cut out some pretty cute stuff.  Wish I could get the hang of my scroll saw.  Oh the things I could do...


Camp preps.  The theme for camp is "There's no place like home."  And our ward is the "Lollipop Guild" and our color is orange.  The creative juices were really flowing with this project!  This big lollipop was our mailbox.  I started with a round hat box that I got at Joann's.  Glueing, cutting, screwing things down, installing a hinged door and loads of glitter.  Voila!!  We have a mailbox.  LOVE IT!

P.S. as you can tell I'm not a "clean crafter."  And when I get an idea that I just HAVE to do, the rest of the house goes too.  But never fear, it always gets whipped back into shape so I can make another mess the next day :)
 

 
Why is it still snowing in May?


Silly Sunday morning picture.  I got these cute orange sweaters (in honor of our girls camp color...lol) for all the boys, and of course, Simon absolutely would not wear his on the same day as everyone else.
 


 
New discovery.  Levi likes chocolate!  I swore he was going to be a "no-sugar baby."  I was mostly wanting to experiment to see if he would be less crazy that his older sugar-loving brothers.  But...the no-sugar doesn't really work when his brothers leave their Easter candy out.  Chocolate bunnies are delicious, according to Levi!

 
 
As I was doing dishes one day, I looked out the window and saw this lynx walking down my neighbors driveway.  Super excited, I threw the youngers kids in the car and followed it around the neighborhood.  It was so awesome!!



Poor sick Jett.  He has a very colorful bed.  This kid changes favorite blankets almost every day.  It's so funny.  Wish he felt better.

 
We found Levi's new favorite past time.  Pulling keys off our laptop.  grrrr.....



The Abbotts moved and I was so sad to see them go.  Heather was a great counselor.  Her example and testimony strengthened the young women and other leaders, including myself.  I knew I would need someone strong to be with those Beehives and she did excellent!  I always loved that she was on board with all the extra stuff I like to do.  Love you Heather!
 

 
Finally, break-up!  The swamp is back.  This yucky mess happens to be my side yard.


Hello mud.  Hello fun.  Hello summer!! yay!
 

 
One of my old Laurels from 4 years ago, who I still keep in touch with, crocheted this beautiful scarf for me.  She remembered me saying long ago, that I needed a new black scarf to go with my peacoat.  So she made one and just gave it to me.  I LOVE IT!  And I can't wait to wear it come winter time.  That's only a few months away!


~April - Easter

Easter was fun!  We hit the community Easter Egg hunt at Santa Claus house. Then we came home and hid eggs around our snow covered yard and let the kids find 'em.  This was all the Saturday before Easter.  I still think it's weird that we hunt eggs in the snow.  Not sure I'll ever get used to that!
 


 
 Adam looks like he's relieving himself (heehee), but he's throwing eggs down.  I took this picutre to show how much snow was still on the ground.  Almost to his knees.
 

 
We let the boys dye a TON of eggs (5 dozen).  Adam even got creative!
 

Easter morning was exciting!  The Easter Bunny brought the boys 4 chickens and a turkey!
 


 
The picture below makes me think "fly away Stanley...be free!!"  quote from the movie CARS.

 
Let the fun begin!

March Northern Lights

I'm pretty sure other things happened in March, but the Northern Lights are one of my favorite things we get to enjoy here in Alaska.  They really are magical!




Monday, July 22, 2013

February was a busy month

 
Levi had his first birthday!!
 


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Valentine's Day

 
 Breakfast - red heart pancakes
 
 
Candlelight dinner and scavenger hunt to find their valentine's from mom.
 
 
and.....
 
 
...a wonderful surprise from Makell!  Special delivered, chocolate covered strawberries.  They were HUGE.  She knows my true feelings about Valentine's Day.  And ironically, Adam worked late and missed our special dinner.  So, my feelings are still the same, but at least I had a yummy treat to eat all by myself!  Love you Makell!
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The stake assigned our ward the Valentine's Day dance again this year.  The theme we went with (sort of recycled it from our wards Christmas party) was "hawaiian."  We did an ice cream sundae bar and hawaiian decorations.  The pictures don't do it justice.  It looked pretty cute.
 

 
McKinley decorated "Mt. Hunkahunkaburninglove" So cute!  The DJ's set up a fog machine by the volcano and had fog coming out during the dance.  Our bishop saw that and about died.  A few years ago, a fog machine at a ward Halloween party set off the fire alarms and it was a big mess.  Luckily that didn't happen this time.
 
 
 
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I'm not sure exactly when we went and did Laser Tag with the youth, but it was fun :)
 
 

 
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A random picture of us doing a project to pass the time on a cold winter's day.  Paper mache pinatas.  Fun, but super messy!
 


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Noah's first Pinewood Derby.  He designed it and dad cut it out.
 
 

His car looked great and it ran pretty well.  He didn't get first and he didn't get last.  I thought it was a pretty good night!





 

 
All the boys did a great job and had really good sportsmanship.
 

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We had a few days in Feb. where it was warm enough to hit the ice park.  Loads of fun!
 

 

 Last but not least, Tamera taught me how to make bread.  Thank you Tamera!  She has a great recipe that has no eggs in it!  I spent an afternoon at her house watching, helping and learning after my first try was a horrible disaster.  In this picture the loaves were a little flat, but it tasted yummy.  My goal was to sign off a personal progress experience.  After about a month of trying the recipe once a week, I felt pretty good about learning a new homemaking skill.