The Latest Happenings

A few recent pics from completely unrelated events!!!Here is the littlest 'J' posing for a picture! He won out and got to keep that crazy binki in his mouth.Some friends of our hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner that was tons of fun. Here we are in costume just before the whole thing started. What did I learn??? Well, other than who committed the crime, I learned that I REALLY need to brush up on my Swedish accent!The latest craft of the fall holiday. This was easy, fun and it looks cute too! I LOVE,LOVE,LOVE fall!!!!We've had freezing rain for the last two days so Fairbanks is a gigantic sheet of ice. What does that mean? It means NO SCHOOL and SNOWMEN!!! The snow is usually too dry and powdery to even make a snowball, but with all of the rain we have WET snow!!!! YAY for snowmen! On top of that, it has been warmer(hence the rain and not snow) so we could stay outside for hours and not get cold!!!!Daddy and the kiddos posing with our snow creation. He is just a few inches taller than Jeremy, the biggest snowman either one of us has ever made:) It was so much fun too! Of course we had a few snowball fights during the building of this guy and lots of running around in the snow. Janie could barely run in it without falling down because it was up to her thighs. Such fun for the kids to play outside.

Halloween Time

I have got to get these Halloween pictures up before Thanksgiving! We were lucky enough to have Jeremy home for Family Home Evening the week of Halloween so we were able to carve our pumpkins together. The fun thing for us this year is that two of our pumpkins came from our very own garden!! Yay for long summer days!!
Jace was hilarious. He kept scooping up everything that Jessie had put into the bowl and dumped it all back into her pumpkin!Halloween costumes this year were a little odd. Jessie was going to be a doctor and Joseph a Ninja. The day before they both changed their minds. Joseph wanted to be a cowboy and Jessie wanted to be a hiker? Who wants to be a hiker???? Anyway, makeshift costumes from what we had in the house already was this year's theme!Since Halloween fell on a Sunday we decided to celebrate a little differently. We had a special Halloween dinner. We ate bugs in a blanket, Jack 0 Lanterns, bones, and gremlins for dessert, all with some slime to wash it down. The kids had fun wrapping up the bugs and cutting out the Jack O Lanterns too:)

BUSY!

My life seems very busy to me. I think about updating this blog often, but I have just been trying hard to be vigilant in other areas. Here is my attempt to catch up. Just some of my favorite pictures since July. We've had three birthdays. Janie turned 4 in July, Joseph turned 8 in August and Jessie turned 6 in October. I guess I'd better get started.
We had Janie's b-day party at the park and it was a PERFECT day!! Such easy clean up too!
Don't be fooled by Janie in this picture. These are the cupcakes Joseph requested for his birthday. Janie was just modeling because the birthday boy was at school!
For Jessie's birthday she asked if she could have caramel popcorn instead of cupcakes at school. She decided that cupcakes were too messy. Her teacher was grateful too:) Jessie was so excited to have Janie and Jace there to celebrate!
We had a swimming party for Jessie on her b-day and then her friends came over after for cake and presents. These are her closest friends here. She LOVES to spend time with them!!
This was taken one Sunday before church. I thought my boys looked so handsome. I love Jace and all of his girly sippy cups.

We spent as much time as possible outside over the summer. Here we are doing our weekly marshmallow roast. I look at this picture and can't believe how blessed I am to have such a sweet family.

Next to come will be our Halloween post! Stay Tuned....

A Little More Summer

We had 28 tons of rock delivered to our driveway and spent MANY hours spreading it. The kids were lucky enough to be invited to the neighbors for a few hours which made our work a bit faster. Jace stayed with us and helped every minute. He threw rocks, fell in rocks, and ate rocks!! He loved everything about it. Definitely a boy!!!The only picture from swimming lessons that really turned out was this one. This little guy really is a trooper. He sat in that stroller for two hours every day for two weeks straight. We HAD to find things that would entertain him!The kids have also enjoyed jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath for a quick cool down. We haven't really had that many HOT days, but yesterday was beautiful so we turned the water on and let them play.Jace didn't love it as much as we though he would.What he does love though is his little slide. He would play on that for hours and hours and have the time of his life. What a sweet little man.
After the trampoline I tried to see if Jace would like just the sprinkler, but he really didn't even want anything to do with it. Janie had a blast and didn't care how cold the water was at all!It has been a fun summer. The kids participated in a reading program and just got their free books yesterday. We woke up this morning to a big moose trying to eat our radishes out of our garden. No picture though because Jeremy chased him away. SAVE THE RADISHES!!!! Too bad I didn't get a picture of him chasing the moose away. It was a pretty funny:) He came home just in time. I haven't had one moose in the garden the whole time he has been gone and now just hours after being home one shows up. Welcome home hon!

July 4th!!!!!

Today is my FAVORITE holiday!!! The kids and I have been trying to do some fun things to celebrate Independence Day here in North Pole where the sun never goes down and we won't get to see fireworks. We have been hearing fireworks today which has been fun, but for some reason it just isn't the same for a family who is used to having a HUGE celebration with a massive firework show over the lake at the cabin each year.We went to a little parade they had in town with a bunch of friends from the ward. The kids got lots of candy and enjoyed waving their flags around.

We made some "Fourth of July Guys." My mom and sister came up with this little crafty fellow and so we decided to follow suit and join in on the fun. Joseph and Jessie LOVED making them. Joseph actually made his and Janie's while she napped. They turned out cute and the kids enjoyed waking up to them this morning.Oh how I just want to kiss those sweet faces!!!! I love, love, love how Janie's fingers are touching Jace's arm and how his chubby little hand is resting on her lap. It just makes my heart melt!We didn't do Easter outfits this year so we did patriotic instead! Wow! All four kids smiling and looking the same direction at the same time. What a wonderful day!! We came home from church and drank sprite with red ice stars (out of crystal goblets too:)!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

Summer Time!!

For Father's Day we decided to make a special meal for Jeremy. He had been fishing the week prior so I baked up some Halibut for him. I told him that I was showing how much I really loved him because not only did I cook fish IN my house, but I also ate it and didn't fix anything else. Well, the kids and I decided that we'd also grill for him, but this time we thought it would be fun to grill dessert. It turned out quite tasty too!

This is actually an idea I got from the Family Fun magazine and I thought it looked like such a great idea. It was easy and the kids got to do most of it! We love our dad and our grandpas too!!


We've had a bunch of fun this summer. We've had some swimming lessons, Tae Kwon Do camp, and 3 day trip to Valdez where we went on a glacier cruise. We were able to see some breath taking sights and amazing wild life. Those of you who know our family well know that I sometimes bring my camera along but even when I have it, I don't take pictures because Jeremy takes enough for all of us. I'll try and get some of his shots from the cruise and post them soon.

We look forward to more swimming lessons, sports camp, and some camping before school starts again in August.

Our Little Lion

I brought out a couple of costumes that I bought for Joseph when he was little. It was way too hot in Florida and Okinawa for them so they've never been used. Jace has taken a liking to the Lion costume. It is so funny to watch him with the hat, he has me put it on him, takes it off, and then asks me to put it on again. He did this over and over for about 30 minutes the other day. Anyway, I was able to get one shot of him before he pulled the hat off and it turned out kind of cute, minus the runny nose :)A couple of other fun shots from recent days or semi recent days are as follows: On Easter Sunday we were watching conference and this was the last 5 minutes of the morning session.
How many people can you get around one little tiny screen to watch a You Tube video????Swimming lessons and soccer season are coming up so we'll have some more shots soon.