We'll Try This Again

Well a few days ago I had written a post and thought that it was posted, only to find out that I think that I forgot to hit the publish post button so it didn't actually get posted! It basically went like this:
My parents came for a visit last week, arriving on the 12th of Februaury. We had talked a little with them before hand to see if they were willing to help lay new flooring in the downstairs portion of our house and they said they were. So on Saturday morning we ripped out the carpet, and got half the living room flooring installed before we quit for the day. The next morning my mom woke up with the flu and was out the entire day, and not quite herself on Monday. My dad layed all of the living room and most of the dining room, and we finished up the kitchen on Monday. Took Emma to swim team practice and then I felt icky the rest of the evening. The next day we tried to move some of the furniture back into place and clean up a little, but I did not have enough energy to do very much. On Tuesday we got all the finishing trim put in and then Mason got the flu :(. Wednesday we started to pull out the old lanolium and scrapping it off with small tools down to the concrete, did some stuff together as a family and stayed home from all the kids usual activities like swimming and awanas, just because we are gone every evening with something! On Thursday we finished scrapping the stuff off the floor so our new tile could be put down. That morning Chad came down with the flu and by evening Heidi started in, followed by Emma and an early morning appearance by Madison. Each kid had their own bowl and we all layed down stairs for less chance of a mess. It was a long night, and we had unhooked our washer and dryer so we could put our new tile in so we were without that for 5 days! Not good when your whole family has the flu let me tell you! On Friday all the kids and Chad slept most of the day, my mom and dad put in the tile, and camps womens retreat started. We had an amazing speaker "Sue Thomas" and it was a wonderful weekend. On Saturday mom and dad were supposed to leave for home, but my dad held out till the end to catch the flu and so they postponed their flying until Monday morning so he would not be so sick on the plane! I was so thankful for that extra day becuase I felt like we actually visited and played a little bit. I am so thankful for the work that they did....I will post pictures a little bit later. For now we are trying to get back into our routine and stay healthy. The kids still complain of sore stomachs every now and then. Emma made swim practice every night this week and is improving every day. Now for a little sleep! :)

Valentines Party!

We celebrated with our friends a little early becuase my parents are coming on the 12th and we are going to spend time with them. I thought it would be fun because the kids are getting to that age that they can appreciate what others have made and given them. It was a wonderful afternoon and the kids had so much fun. I wish I had gotten pictures of the beautiful cards that were made, but it was a whirlwind of an afternoon and I forgot! I did take these so you get a taste of what it was like.



These are the pouches that I made for all the cards that the kids would get! They had so much fun handing out cards and seeing what they were given!

The grilled cheese was eaten before I could get a picture, but we had a white bean tomato soup and molten lava chocolate cake with whipped cream and strawberries. We also had brownies and heart sugar cookies made by some of our friends. The kids had an excellent time and played outside or watched Kung Fu Panda, and the 4 moms sat around and had a wonderful afternoon of grown up conversation which is always a nice breath of fresh air every now and then!!! :)

Mischief

Mason and Heidi can do a lot of damage to one's house! Although I cannot always blame Heidi :). Mason is into playing in the toilet...eating ashes out of the fireplace (cold of course) or if he is sad or tired resorts to carrying his blue blanket around! He is a very happy little boy who likes to discover all there is to touch, pull out, dump out, and destroy, but has a soft spot for his mommy and likes to cuddle....sometimes!

Yes I had to get a picture....I figured he was already there why not get a picture first! (the toilet was clean at least! for a toilet.

Pictures

I had ment to put these up last fall, but never got around to it. Just some photos of the girls :)

The Moon :)

On January 30th I took the kids to see the fireworks in town to welcome the start of the Artic Winter Games here in Soldotna. As we were driving home the moon was huge and low to the ground. My poor kids had to wait another 15 minutes so their crazy mom could get some pictures!! But I think that they turned out well.

The next morning when we got up I saw the moon and it was glowing and orangish color. I love it when the moon looks different because it makes for some great pics!! Some of these are blurry because I had to take them through a window. They turned out ok :)

I took this picture of the moon and did a feature called inverting. It makes it look so amazing, and as you can see from the pictures below the moon two nights ago was beautiful! This is the only photo I altered....the rest are what I took!

The Sun

In the winter we do not get to see many hours of sun light but when we do it is often very breathtaking. These were all taken on the turnagain arm about 15 miles from Anchorage.

Tubing and other Randoms

We got some snow yesterday morning and so all the staff kids went tubing on the tube hill to pack it down, and get it ready for other tubing groups. Heidi had a blast and was up and down the hill as much as everyone else. Even Mason took a turn, with help, down the hill! The sad news is that after that it rained pretty hard for 7+ hours and so now we are back to hoping for more snow.

Heidi was supper tired!

my christmas lights outside!

Our christmas tree put outside!

Mason in his super hero pjs! He loves his banana :)

The spread for New Years Eve party. Lots of Thai food, yummy!

the kids all sat down to watch UP!

Danny fell asleep sitting up in the middle of playing with the pass the pigs game! Poor thing. He made it past 12am though!

Snow Camp

Christmas day was a very special time for us this year. We did not go anywhere and we spent it together as a family, just the 6 of us all day. The kids were so good and so patient ( I had been up until 3 am finishing a quilt for a friend of ours and the necklaces that I made the girls.) So I slept like a rock until 9am, and for some reason Chad did too! The girls then waited until I made breakfast (crepes) and then at around 10:30 we opened our presents!!!! The girls got lots of books and craft items. They did most of them that day :), and I think their favorite was the paint by numbers. Both Emma and Madison did really well on them! Heidi got another dolly with clothes and she spent lots of time playing with her. She also got her very own disney princess tea set which was an instant hit. She took it up stairs and played with it for at least and hour if not longer!!!! Chad got tools, socks and thermals, and amo which he found had gone down in price by 2/3's of what it had been! He was a happy boy this Christmas :) I got a new coffee mug to replace a few that the kids have broken, and a trainer for my bike so I can ride it inside her at home! I also got several picture frames that and an emersion blender!!! Made whipped cream in about 7 seconds = a very happy me!!!! Now on to bigger and better stuff SOUP here I come :). The most important thing was celebrating Jesus' birth. We really wanted to stress to our children that all the gifts and things were not as important as the gift of HIS birth and what that ment to us and everyone in the world. He has truely blessed us with a rich and full life, and for that we are thankful.

On Saturday we embarked on the grueling task of switching the girls bedroom with the play room, since they are hardly ever in the play room it made more sense to put the thre of them in the room that is twice as big as the bedroom the were in! We got everything switched and cleaned and sorted and lots thrown away and all vaccumed in 12 hours. We had some very tired little girls who did not even want to think about cleaning for a whole day. So since they worked so hard I gave them sunday with no chores except to clear the table and sweep the floor after meals the next day. That made them really happy, and now I am happy because the upstairs looks so much better!! (the downstairs is getting there!)

Tuesday started off with Teen Snow Camp where we had about 60 kids attend and today at 3pm starts the little kids snow camp and both Emma and Madison are going this year. I can not even begin to tell you how excited they are except that they have been asking for the last 24 hours if it was time to start packing their bags yet! They will have lots of fun tubing and playing with friends and learning more about God during chapels. Heidi will miss them terribly I am afraid....she does not like being apart from her sisters even for an hour, and absolutely hates sleeping in the room by herself so we will have to be creative tonight!!!

Madison's and Emma's necklaces

Heidi's necklace making christmas cookies and decorating them

crepes for breakfast!

Sheep Wrangling at it's Best

A friend sent me this in an email today and I thought that it was so cool that I would put it on my blog!

Winters Many Splendors

So for the last week and a half we have had lots of fog and mist in the air that has frozen to the trees. It has been so beautiful to see, and when the sun comes up in the morning or goes down at night we usually get the pink hues that have even taken Chad's breath away! All we can say is WOW. I took these pictures around camp and in our yard, but sometimes the picture just does not do it justice.

We had snow fall yesterday and today so now everything is more fluffy! Looking forward to getting out with the girls and cross country skiing!