~Soccer, Fish and Simon's Friend

Tonight Noah had his first soccer game. I was heartbroken I had to miss it. I had to go to Young Womens, but...I knew he'd do great. Noah scored 4 goals for his team. The only one to score. He's a natural when it comes to sports. Reminds me of my brothers!

"WHAT THE!?!" A girl on his team was taking the ball the wrong way.

Last week we went fishing with the Fuller's. The boys were catching fish right and left. It was AWESOME!! They were catching Lake Trout and Grayling.

Simon is naturally curious and will touch anything, but Noah is more cautious. Adam and I were surprised that both boys were getting their own worms and taking care of the fish they caught. Simon actually had one worm stretched out as wide as he is. Then he was pulling other worms apart into pieces. Gross but boys will be boys.


I had to include this picture of Simon's little friend. Don't worry it's dead. Simon carried this bumble bee around for days. He thought it was soft. Notice the hands. Little boys are meant to get dirty. Thank goodness for bathtime!

~Spring...FINALLY!

I saw this little lady bug and grabbed my camera. I'm so excited that spring is finally here. The trees aren't looking so bare and the temperatures have actually been in the 60's this week!

We're back to weird daylight again. The sun is coming up at 4:13 a.m. and setting at 11:21 p.m. The length of the day is 19 hours and 8 seconds long. Tomorrow will be 6 minutes and 50 seconds longer.

Adam's Bear Hunt

Unfortunately, Adam didn't get a bear, or even see one over the weekend. From what we heard, every other bay was crawling with bears except for the one where Adam was camping. He went with his friend Kary and his brother Steven. Overall the guys had a good time, dispite their misfortune.

This is the small town of Valdez, Alaska

(once again the date wasn't set right on my camera)

Crazy looking star fish with lots of legs. It's such a cool color.
The underside.
I guess these little guys eat other starfish.


This over-sized goldfish is called a rock fish.

They were hoping to catch halibut, but...
Notice the eyes popping out. Apparently when you bring these fish up too fast out of the ocean, the pressure causes their eyeballs to pop out. Poor guy died before he got to the surface. Oh well, he was getting eaten anyway!

Another rock fish. This one got to keep his eyes in his head.
Those fins are pretty interesting too...


Another starfish, but a bigger one this time.
Looks like the head of Medusa.

Lots of iceburgs and such. Adam also saw whales, sea lions and jelly fish. Went clam digging and caught shrimp. He said that bald eagles were everywhere and they actually saw an eagle snatch a fish out of the water, about 20 feet from their boat. So cool!

Rock, Paper, Scissors

well not really rock, paper, scissors...

but there was a rock.

the culprit had to clean up the mess....

~you're a little boy, not a dog

A little while after I put the boys down for a nap, I hear from downstairs, "Mom, come wipe my bum!" Super confused I went to investigate. See the only bathroom we have is upstairs and Simon was supposed to be sleeping, downstairs.

Sure enough, there is Simon, pants down looking at me with a big smile.

Totally proud of himself, he says, "I pooped outside!" Seriously!?! I hadn't even heard the door open...very sneaky.

After making him scoop his own poop and having a talk about why we don't poop outside, he walked inside the house and said,

"I WISH I WAS A DOG."

This is for Whit...Happy Late Birthday

All Whit wanted for her birthday was pictures of the boys. So, below are pictures from the last few weeks - our trip to Arizona. The date wasn't set right on my camera. The pictures really were just taken.

Noah's Freckles

They are so cute. This picture does not do them justice.

Easter at the Connolly's

Look at how white Simon is. He is truly an Alaska resident.

We spent a week in Eagar, but I left my camera in Mesa. Holly has pictures on her camera of the boys flying kites at mom's house. She also has pictures of Jett, Gavin (Jen's baby) and Kinsley (Josh's baby). They are all the same age and just super cute. When Holly forwards the pics, I'll do another post.

We went to the Maricopa County Fair with Amanda, Welcome and Sylas!

Thanks for a fun day!

Noah enjoying the pony ride.

Jett thought it was fun too!

The next day Grandma Connolly took us to the Wildlife Animal Zoo

It took a lot of courage for Noah to touch the star fish...but, he did it!

Grandma had a lot of fun teaching Simon how to pet the Sting Rays. These were just the right size for Simon.

Simon and the Llama...so cute!

I also got to spend an evening with my cousins. We went to the Cheesecake Factory. YUMMY!! We were missing one thing though and that was Jana. I do have a picture with Jana when we were in Eagar, but that's on Holly's camera too.

We also went to Falcon Field Open House. We went last year and it was so fun.

The boys sittin' in the police helicopter.

Trisha, Tyler, Tanner and Nick came with us. It was great to spend some time with them. Can't you just see the trouble these four could cause!?!

Jeremy and Echelle met up with us also. Cousins! This was just a few hours before Jeremy's appendix decided to cause problems. Emergency surgery fixed it though. Poor Jer.

We also checked out the car show. Simon backed right up and sat on the bumper of this car. He liked it because it was orange.

Jett learned to crawl while we were in AZ. Go Jett!

Notice the tongue. It's always hanging out.

A proud papa... Shane's first baby was born while we were there. Oh she is so sweet. (Another picture on Holly's camera) Baby Kamryn looks just like a Slade. Congrats Shane and Jennifer.

Fun in the sun. Jett discovered many new things, like grass!

Playing in the water with Welcome and Sylas at Grandma Connolly's

This was Noah's smile for Aunt Whitney. He sure misses you.

On our 12 hour layover in Seattle we went to the mall to get Jett some clean clothes. It was a rough plane ride for the poor baby. He vomited too many times to count and for some reason, I didn't pack any extra clothes for him in my carry-on.

Just waiting for the cab...being silly.

Some other highlights (not pictured) of our trip to AZ is that we went to the temple a few times. I got to see some friends from Florence, had lunch with Lisa and Jamba Juice with Linda. We drove past our old house. It was occupied and looked terrible. Weeds everywhere. Honestly, I miss the square footage, but that's about it.

The day after we got home, we got Noah registered for Kindergarten. He's going to do GREAT!!

~Simon's trip to the ER, New Calling and Arizona

Pellet Stoves do get hot enough to burn your skin. Actually there was quite a chunk missing from Simon's arm last Saturday night. After coming in from the cold, Sim decided that he would get warm by the fire. He backed up to the stove, not realizing how close it was. By that time, his arm was already resting on the stove door. Pain, suffering...and lots of crying. You know how bad burns hurt.

Seeing the amount of skin that was left on the door of the stove and what Sim's arm looked like, I headed to the ER. About half way there he went hysterical, screaming..."I BROKE MY SHINGER! I BROKE MY SHINGER!" I kind of smiled and got his attention. I told him that no he didn't break his finger but that he burned his arm. He stopped crying for a second, looked a little surprised and said, "OH!" Then almost instantly he was screaming, "I BURNED MY ARM!!! I BURNED MY ARM!!!" A little humor amidst the chaos. Poor guy just knew that something hurt really bad.

As you can see from the picture, a bandage, juice box and pretzels made everything all better.

**********

In other news...

I got a new calling. Young Women's President. I have 33 girls. It's been an interesting two weeks trying to get counselors and advisers. Now that the dust has settled, it's time to get to work.

We'll be flying home for a visit in just a few weeks...April 3-20. I'm looking forward to seeing the sun, being warm and wearing no shoes! It will be the first time everyone gets to meet Jett. I'm so excited!

Random Pictures from the last month

~What Noah learned in primary

Adam and Noah were chatting after church

and this is what I heard...so funny!!

A: Hey Spud, what did you learn in your primary class today?

N: Some bad guys were killing all the babies, so an angel came and said that Jesus needed to leave his home and go somewhere safe.

A: Oh ya? Where did Jesus go to be safe?

N: Scotland

A: Wait...where did Jesus go to be safe?

N: Dad! I said SCOTLAND!

Snowpants, Ice Crystals and Moose

Saturday the boys were getting ready to go sledding. Usually I get them ready, but Adam was helping out. I had to take a picture of Simon. It was hilarious!

I guess it was backwards day!!

Look at how beautiful these ice crystals are. Monday morning it looked so neat outside. All the trees were covered with this stuff. The sun was out making all the trees sparkle. So cool!!

This cute little baby moose was right by our house. In the last week we have seen moose everywhere. It looks like they're back.