Snow and More Snow

Rebekah and I took a walk a while back, and we took a look at a creek just down the road. It's totally frozen now. Jacob said there are bicycle tracks down the center of it now. It's snowing right now as I type this. It's great! Last night we fell asleep watching the northern lights out our bedroom window. Pretty neat! Someone told me recently that it's not so bad in Fairbanks. It snows just once a year....it starts in October and doesn't stop until May. Hahaa...only six more months to go!

Everything is pretty with the snow everywhere.

I love these little dead flowers. Sounds great doesn't it?! They are teeny tiny. The top is no bigger than the tip of my pinkie, but the snow still collects in them. It makes little round snow "flowers."

Who needs flocking when you have the real thing? It's beautiful here!

Child Labor

We don't believe in child labor laws here at our house. Just kidding...sort of. We have been implementing more chores for the children. The more they work, and the better they do it the happier they are and the less they fight. Amazing. We set up a challenge for the kids. If they can improve their manners at dinner we will take them out to a sit down nice dinner at the end of November. It is amazing what a difference that challenge has made for the kids. The amount of food on the floor and table after we eat has decreased significantly! Hooray! They also have to help clean the entire kitchen and dining room as soon as dinner is over and their jammies are on. It has turned out so well, and the kitchen is clean when I wake up.

Rebekah is learning to cook. She made two pans of cornbread all by herself except for putting it in the oven. I'm not willing to let her do that yet. Too much of the klutz gene in our family! I love that she is learning to cook (all the bigger kids are) and loving it. I love my little Missionary and Mommies in Training. Go MITs!

Each night during the week one of the kids sets the table. They are allowed to use any dishes they want. They put the silverware and cups in the right place, and they decorate the table with whatever they would like. Then when dinner is ready they escort each person to their seat, and Joseph has learned to pull out the chairs for his sisters and Mom!

And here is the after dinner dance party!

Happy dining everyone!

Tammy is Engaged!

The pictures say it all! too cute!

Dec 23 2010

sealing-2 pm, san diego temple

reception-Bobier building 7pm

and yes that is the same day as Mary and Gary

princess dress

Here is a picture of the dress I am making for Sariah for Halloween. Yes, me and last minute projects. I'm an expert at that! The cool part about the dress is that it belonged to my sister.

Here is Sariah trying it on sometime last spring. It was a size 22 spaghetti strap dress. I just have to cut the bottom off and hem it. Only three more costumes to go after this one!

Cake and Snow.

Simi's birthday cake. It turned out cute, and it had a train. Perfect for a two year old train fanatic.

Just thought I would share why Simeon was driving his train on the cake. It was on the cake before we sang to him, but he was so mad at me for putting his new train on the cake that we took it off before we sang to him. He carries Percy (the train) everywhere now. The way he says "Percy" is so cute!
Jacob so lovingly pointed out to me that the tunnel is in the sky. Thank you honey...at least it had jelly bean rocks that are super tasty.
In my defense I just copied a cake I found online without paying serious attention to the tunnel in the sky. But hey, the grass icing looks awesome. I think I'll just find a way to put grass on all the kids cakes. It turns out so cool, and I like the way it feels when I eat it!

Here is Rebekah showing me the mini snowman they made a while back. It has snowed again since then and now everything is covered, and it isn't melting. The crazy people of Fairbanks don't plow the roads until it is "bad." Our road is packed snow and ice. All the parking lots in town are solid ice. They also don't salt the roads here. They use gravel instead. Sooo....lots of people get cracked windshields during winter and spring. Awesome. We also learned that they sell little spike things you strap onto your shoes so you can walk on the ice that is everywhere without worrying about falling. Now, you may be thinking, "That sooo does not sound like fun." Well, it's different, but I'm loving it, and so is the rest of the family. AND it's not hot! Now that is nice!

Here is Sariah showing me the snowman too. She didn't have on gloves either. Silly girl! Now all the kids have gloves for playing in the snow, and they have learned through experience that you

REALLY want those gloves! They just had cotton stretch gloves we got for the trip up. Those are not good for playing in snow, so they refused to wear them.

Simeon is 2!

John has learned to sit up now, and the kids love to see it. They cheer him on each time he learns something new. Rebekah really likes to take care of him right now. She will get him out of bed and carry him around everywhere. She has decided she wants three kids. Anything more than three is too hard she says! She's like her mother, if it cuts into reading time it is a major sacrifice!

We put up the train table in the boys' room when we got here. Simeon especially loves it. I always find him sitting on it with tracks around himself. He will turn in circles over and over for a LONG time. If he has a train in hand all is well with the world!

He loves trains so much. Especially Thomas the train and all his friends, but really any train will do for this boy. We live across the street from the train depot here in Fairbanks. We are going to have to take a little trip there for him to see the big trains.

Halloween decor

I found this fun idea online for fun Halloween decorations that weren't bloody gory. The kids love it and I put the extras in their bedrooms. I can't believe the holiday season is already here!

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October 19, 2010

Thanks to Travis we have a working tub again. Dad finished up the tileing and jumped right in. I begged him to let me take a picture, of course he said NO! I snuck in with his phone/camera and took the picture any how. Isn't he soooooo cute!!!!!

Blow up the ballon and Ring around the rosies

Tustin got his head stuck in the rails on our balcony....Lucky for him Grampa and Travis were able to pull the bars apart far enough to pull his head out.

Having fun, making personal pan pizzas...YUM!

Hoppy children having fun!!!!

Lucy's B-day

We have a tradition that when our kids turn 7 they get a "friend b-day party" Lucy's was at the same park where Parley's was. We invited her entire class of 31 children and her primary class (3 more kids). Mom helped me plan some fun relay races but it was crazy trying to get that many kids to follow directions. Luckily there were a lot of the mom's I volunteer with at school there and they helped a lot. It was fun. I decided to make 2 cakes because Lucy wanted to have a pumpkin cake and then the day I was going to make her cake she wanted a kitty cat cake. It was a good thing I did because there were so many people. I also put a fun video that Emma made. She did all of their hair and then did a fashion show. I wish my sisters would have let me do their hair then I wouldn't have Neeeded!!! a cornsilk doll! (just kidding mom)



Oh yeah for her b-day mom and I took Lucy and Emma to get their ears peirced. We would have had video but the lady was a snot and said there was some rule against it.

California

We've had a ton of fun in California the last couple weeks. So many things have happened, so many good memories. Here's Dad playing the mandolin by the fire we had last night.

Samuel our cousin spent the night with us. He did pretty good! Just a couple times he cried. They made their own personal pan pizzas then we had a fire outside & roasted marshmallows. Then we watched The Incredibles and went to bed.
Here's Dad playing with Trayton listening. He was really fascinated by the guitar & mandolin. He was bobbing his head here to the beat of Dad's music.

When I saw Dad bring out the guitar & mandolin I told my boys that eventually one of them would learn to play guitar. So Tustin blurts out matter-of-factly "I already know how to play!" Silly kid, he's so much like his dad!!

Here Travis is working on Mom's chicken coop. It's got vents and built in feeder & nesting box.

Timmy can play the guitar too! The boys were all enjoying trying the mandolin, good size for little hands.

The boys watching the Incredibles.

We went to the Mormon Battalion on Tuesday. Mary was planning on coming, but her kiddos were sick.

Here we are standing in front of the statue. This building was just redone & reopened and is so neat. It gives the history of the Mormon Battalion & shows a movie of actors, acting as members of the battalion. Very entertaining & neat! After the presentation we went outside and panned for gold (and found gold nuggets-not real though!), saw how they made bricks, pumped water out of a well, and got our picture taken by an old camera. You can find info at mormon.org/mb

We went and met with the Belisarios, a family Travis stayed with while on his mission.

We were able to attend a temple session last week, and also had the boys get their picture taken. They'll go inside someday.

We went to Seaworld on Friday last week, I think. This picture is taken from the show Blue Horizons. It was pretty cool. Lots of acrobatics too.

Here's the Beluga whale.

This dolphin came right up to my boys while they were the only ones there and just looked at them. Here it is looking at them.

Watching the "Dream" show featuring Shamu. No one got in the water with the orcas. I guess it's not allowed after the terrible accident. I guess an orca dragged one of the trainers below and drowned him during a show. Scary.

Cousins watching a movie

The Lowells came over the first week we were here & had dinner. Mom had frosting & Halloween goodies to decorate sugar cookies with. Good stuff.

Tray's cookie. He made a smily face.

Tracker & Samuel playing. They're good friends.

Naomi in the exersaucer that Rachel let us borrow. She really looks like a Keller in this picture.

While we were waiting for Travis to get our rental car when we arrived in Salt Lake City, the boys fell asleep. Travis brought all the fish boxes into the "foyer" of the airport and barricaded us in so the kids wouldn't attempt to run away. I'm sure glad he did, because it took him an HOUR to come back with the van. I can't believe Tustin fell asleep like this! He climbed on as he was trying to escape, and fell asleep!

Trayton sleeping on the floor by the outside window. Naomi happy as can be.

I should mention Travis was sick for the first week and a half or so. We've all gotten sick, whether it's coughing, puking... um you get the picture. Hopefully Idaho air will get us well again. :) We'll be there next week.