Tagged

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? no
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?2 weeks ago
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? not really
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? turkey
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? yes 3 girls and 1 boy
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yes.
7. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.
8. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? vanilla infused granola
9. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Sometimes.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Mint Chocolate Chip or mocha java chip
11. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? their eyes and hair.
12. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? where do I start :) probably my hair.
13. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Great Falls Montana
14. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? blue sweatpants...as usual, no shoes or socks as usual
15. FAVORITE SOUNDS: the ocean
16. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? what have you done for me by tree 63
17. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? blue or green or burgundy or...
18. FAVORITE SMELLS? bread baking...roses....cinnamon candles...crisp fall air....air right after it rains....onions, garlic, and celery sauted in buter!
19. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Jan...our idea teacher
20. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Football
21. HAIR COLOR? Brown.
22. EYE COLOR? I have an orangish/brownish then mustard yellow then green rings sometimes the green is more prominent but most of the time the darker orange/brown is so that at a quick glance it looks more brown than green
23. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Nope
24. FAVORITE FOOD? I have lots. Thai, pizza, a really good burger, a salad with great dressing, and of course any chocolate anything!
25. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings.
26.LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? House seasons 1-3 in the last couple of weeks.
27. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Burgandy.
28. SUMMER OR WINTER? both.
29. HUGS OR KISSES? kisses.
30. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? who knows.
31. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No clue.
32. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? I am reading "Lost Women of the Bible the women we thought knew" by Carolyn Curtis James.
33. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Puppy's.
34. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? House Hunters on HGTV.
35. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Isreal.
36. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Basketball and baking and being a mom.
37. WHO DO YOU WANT TO COMPLETE THIS LIST? The Zolls, Leah and Dave Delange, The Reinharts
38. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING? Every one's :-)

A sunset we had about a week ago.


Mason's favorite position to sleep in!


He has spent more and more time awake playing and interacting with us which has been fun.



Heidi sitting for a picture.

Getting into the swing of things

I have been working with a trainer now for two weeks and I must say that it has been really hard to begin juggling all the new aspects that this brings into my already crazy world. I want to do it.....I need to do it, but I am not doing it well. I feel very overwhelmed by all the homework and the food logs with the calories, fat, carbs and protein broken down and the classes themselves along with the duties that I have need to fulfill for my family at home. How do you mothers who home school and exercise etc. do it all?!!! I do know that in the next few months Mason will not be as dependent upon me as he is right now. A lot of this has to do with something I have never been very good at and that is organization and time management along with procrastination. If I was better at those things I would definitely be a lot better off. With God's help and the will to get healthier I am convinced that I can do this though. Please pray for me.

The great outdoors at 30 below zero!

Last night as I was trying to put my son to sleep at 2 am, the moon and stars were shining brightly and illuminating the snow covered trees. It is one of the most peaceful and beautiful scenes and I wish that I knew my camera better to capture what I really saw but here is one of the pictures that actually made out some of the trees.

This is what they look like during the day. I keep forgetting to bring my camera to town with me to get other outdoor photos....instead of all from my enclosed back yard. Oh well another post I guess! :)

I have been very much into baking so here is a picture of some of the yummy bread I made!

This is outside our door at night when it is -25 and there has been no wind so all the snow and frost is still stuck to the trees! I love how mysterious it looks.

Saturday Evening!

On Saturday just before I went up to put the kids to bed I was feeding Mason. Over the monitor I heard a comotion for a minute and then it got to be more and more of a comotion and Chad was telling me that after doing one thing he would go up to put them into bed. Just then the comotion turned into screaming and I raced up the stairs to see what had happened. Emma was crying hysterically and so was Heidi andMadison seemed to be ok.
Heidi has been a brave little girl lately and has been climbing into the top bunk bed to play...of course not being able to get down on her own. Her older sisters like to take on the role of mommies and decided to get Heidi down on their own. Madison was at the top lowering Heidi down and Emma was at the bottom to catch her. The problem was that Madison let go before Emma was ready and Heidi fell and hit Emma somewhere on her body, which caused Emma to fall backwards.....but the full force of the fall was on her head. Heidi had a little bruise and a gash on her head but otherwise everyone seemed to be ok and I got them all into bed. At about 10pm Emma comes downstairs complaining of a headache so I gave her some jr. Tylenol and she promptly threw that up. She stayed downstairs with us so we could keep an eye on her and after a half and hour she threw up again. Chad and decided that it was time to take her into the emergency room to get her checked out to rule out any serious problems. When the doctor looked her over he ruled out anything serious but decided that she definately had a minor concussion and to keep an eye on her for the next 24 hours. If she threw up anymore we were to bring her back in and she would have a CT scan done. Luckily for us she has just had minor head aches every now and then, but seems to be fine otherwise. So that was our scare for the week!
I think it scared Heidi enough that she has not attempted to go up to the top bunk bed now for a while at least. :)

Photography

I love taking pictures and it gives me no greater joy than to photgraph my children! I plan on taking a couple of photography classes so I have a greater knowledge of what I am doing, but I thought these two of Mason were really cute! I also love the scenery around us here in Alaska...so there is always something to take a picture of!

As for this picture...I took it for my parents so they could see how beautiful it was and maybe get an idea for one for their own entryway! This chandalier belongs to our camp director and hangs in the entry way of their new house!! They found it in an ally thrown away...how lucky is that! Anyway mom, you should get one like this...I think it will fill the room perfectly! :)

Christmas Day

Mason hanging out with daddy.

Heidi enjoying a baby bottle for her dolly!

What a beautiful and glorious day it has been, spending time with our family and enjoying the gifts this Christmas Day has brought us. Emma and Madison both recieved digital cameras to explore the world of photograpy and a nail thing that applies glitter and sparkly stones to thier nails...thanks so much Auntie Leah!!! My wonderful husband always out does himself and bought me a new bike for my triathalon training and races!!! We also were blessed with about 10 more inches of new snow today with the possibility of more to come! It is definately time to go out and cross country ski and build a snow house to sleep in. Hopefully we can get started on those projects tomorrow!! The girls got bundled up and went out to wade through the snow today and came in with very rosy cheeks. Now we are getting ready for some hot chocolate and cookies by the fire before we head off to dreamland for another night! Thank you all for your letters and gifts and are wishing you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

My new bike!

The girls in their new PJ's

December Moments

So I have been having the most terrible time getting pictures put onto my computer and so I have not gotten any new ones on here. We have been adjusting to Chad going back to work, which has not been that bad if you don't count having to get school done. That has been the biggest thorn in my side either not being motivated myself, or 4 kids screaming and having severe meltdowns due to colds, sudden fear of having to learn new things, needing mommy or needing fed! Math has proved to be the easiest subject to get done along with science, but history, reading, writing, and art (actual learning about...not the doing...the kids love to draw and color etc.). We are gearing up for Christmas...no real plans to speak of yet, but we are last minute people anyway so who knows what will happen! We did talk about staying in a cabin in the middle of no where for a night but not sure if it is still available or not. The kids have even done a great job staying out of the presents and not telling anyone what their gifts will be.
Every day we are thankful for our new little bundle to care for and watch over. He gets bigger and bigger every day and I don't even feel like he is a newborn anymore. He is now well over 11lbs now and is only a 3.5 weeks old! He is doing a good job of sleeping for more than 4 hours at a time at night so my sleep is not too interupted anymore. I usually only get up once in the middle of the night to feed him!
We wish you all a Merry Christmas.....

I need my memory back!!!

I went to Fred Meyer yesterday to get our Christmas pictures printed so we could send them with our newsletter. When I got them back Chads head had be croped and the picture looked bad. So I asked the picture guy if I could get them without them cropping off the head and I had to put my SD memory card in for him to see the picture. We solved the problem and the receipt was printed and I walked over to give it to the guy who would be handling the prints, and then I went on my way to finish shopping. When I got home that night I went to the computer to download my pictures I realized that my memory card was still at Fred Meyers. We called them and they could not find it........which to make a long story short made me very very sad. The picuters were just a few becuase it was a new memory card, but they were some of the best that I had of our family. I hope that we can take some more that will turn out just as good or even better. At least I have a few of them that we printed to share with everyone. I will post them tomorrow because I have to scan each one onto the computer!

Our Christmas Tree

For Thanksgiving this year we decorated our tree and spent the day together as a family instead of going to someone's house. We had made our Thanksgiving meal the night before because my mom was still with us for a few hours before she had to jump on a plane and get back to MT. We had spare ribs, mashed potatoes, salad, apple pie, and pecan pie that I made (the pies at least...Chad and mom made the rest)!! It was a delicious meal. The girls did a fantastic job helping me decorate the tree, and I did the mantle above the fireplace. Heidi has even done a great job keeping her hands off the tree!

Mason laying in front of the fireplace with the cat by his side to keep him warm. Chad warned the cat that if he layed on Mason he would be a dead cat....so the cat layed as close to Mason as he could get without being on top of him!!! It was very cute anyway and they napped together for over an hour. Oh what a warm fireplace will do for a nice long nap. :)

Heidi was having a great time coloring with her sisters. She is such a cutie pie!

Madison wanted to pose for a picture too so here she is!

Emma's Science Project

Emma is very proud of her science experament that she did with grammie Esther! Her beans are growing very well. Now all we have to do is get them in the soil....maybe we will even get some beans off of them! Mommy would be really impressed with that!

All the girls love to hold Mason and sometimes we have had to deal with the arguing. I know that there will be a time when I have to force them to help take care of him, but for now the helpfulness is overflowing!!!

Mason is getting into a better routine, and is sleeping closer to 3 hours in between feedings at night so I am getting a lot more sleep. I have chosen to mostly bottle feed right now because he seems to be happier and full longer. I still nurse a little bit but, due to some complications with that I won't be doing it for very long. I weighed Mason last night after his bath and he is 10 lbs 8 oz's so he is not lacking in the food department!