Christmas in Ice

I thought this one was so cute!

The winner of the competition. Can you believe the detail inside

Don't you love the bunny hat. The big guy is pretty cute too!

My little Eskimos!

Before going in.

My kids actually tipped over one of the poles holding up a barrier to keep people away from the ice tree. We leave a wake of destruction wherever we go. (Think twice before inviting us over)

This is definitely something that is one of the advantages of living where they know that it is not going to get above freezing for a very long time. North Pole (where we live) has the annual "Christmas in Ice" celebration starting just after Thanksgiving and going until after New Years. I actually drove by there the other day and the sculptures and ice slides are still there (shocking).

We were glad that we held out for a little while, because when we went it was actually warmer than it had been for a long time (only -20!). It was so much fun. The ice slides are the best. They have the little slides all around that the kids can just go on with their snow pants and then the giant ones that you ride on with a sled. I must be getting old because when I went on the little ones I did not find them all that fun. I was wearing snow pants, have plenty of cushy softness for landing and still felt like my tailbone was broken after landing at the bottom. The sculptures were amazing and it was great to see all the wonderful creations that people can make from ice.

The only way we could get the kids to leave was the promise of going to the big ice slides in February. The international ice carving competition has 2 story ice slides and close to a hundred different sculptures. It is something to look forward to after the long winter.

Cheesy girl!

What can I say? Monson chompers and all, the girl is cute. She is giving the cheesiest grins lately whenever you look at her. She is sure a character.

Starting the New Year!

I have decided that no matter how much I give myself a pep talk about what I need to do and should do I really don't do it. Well here are a list of goals I have made for this year and I will keep you posted on my progress.

1. Exercise...not just every once in a while but consistently so when it gets warmer outside I will be in shape to do long runs and not start out will dinky ones. With the summers so short I really want to take advantage of the nice weather when I can.
2. Blogging...I know I am going to have to work at this one. I have gotten out of the habit so now I just need to back into it. That means I need to take pictures (which I should be doing anyway) and putting them onto the computer. I think of all the cute and funny things that my kids have said, but are now lost. With each pregnancy my "momnesia " has gotten worse; in other words my I.Q. has dropped considerably.
3. Being on time...I hate being "that friend" who is consistently 10 minutes late. There are only so many times that you can blame your kids and lost shoes. I have decided that I also become a raging cow when I know that I am going to be late and I turn into "mean mommy". Not something that I am proud of and not something that I like. So I'm trying! (to be on time, not mean)
4. Finishing what I start...I have million projects that are in different phases of completion. I just get bored with something so I start something new without finishing what it was that I was doing. (do you follow?) My friends have told me that I could sell the crocheted booties that I make at craft shows at the end of the year. I thought I might give it a shot. If nothing else I will be ahead for baby gifts.
5. Simplifying....Because we moved up here last year so suddenly, I didn't really get the chance to debulk which I really like to do each time we move. I know I am weird but I really like to throw stuff away (Travis makes sure his stuff is tidy when he leaves on trips). I have a massive amount of boxes that still need to be gone through but I have been too lazy to do so. I lost one of my favorite earrings in the crawls space the other night so I guess it gives me motivation to start.
6. Reading to learn something not just to read....I have come to realize that I am a very superficial reader. I was talking to my friend the other night about a book that I had read and thought was wonderful. I suggested it to her and she thought it was awful. She said that she hated how it depicted this and that (really in depth analysis). I guess I am just a shallow reader. I do not analyze what the author's agenda is, nor any hidden meaning. I guess I just read to read. So here is to a newer, brainier me.

Well, this is what I have so far. Here I come 2011!

Jace...what a kid

A couple of days ago Shane and Jace were in time-out and Travis went to talk to them after the time had elapsed. After talking to them about why they were in time out he asked them what they were thinking about.

Shane: I don't know (pouting)
Jace: (brightening up) I'm thinking about what I want for Christmas.

Tonight while we were trying to read scriptures he interrupts me mid-sentence and asks:

Jace: Do you think for my 5th birthday you could find me some green sparkly shoes? I think that would be so awesome, because green is my favorite color.

It is hard to keep a straight face when he comes up with this stuff. He is a constant source of laughter. My little ray of sunshine.

So who do YOU think she looks like the most?

Here are some pictures of the boys and Reese from approximately the same age. I didn't think that my kids looked a whole lot alike but when you put their pictures next to eachother they really do have some similar features. Maybe it's the nose....I seriously don't know though.

Morning Person

I must admit that I have become a bit of a night owl. I don't know when this evolvolution occured because I have not always been. I always wore the badge of "Morning Person" with pride. Lately however, I would prefer to chuck that badge into the trash along with the alarm clock and any child that dares enter my room prior to 7 am. I used to think those that hit snooze to get "just 5 more minutes" were just plain stupid. I am now a firm believer that those 5 minutes make all the difference! Why? Because more than likely those 5 minutes will turn into 30 which will more than likely turn into 60 because you accidently turned off the alarm in your attempt to hit snooze again.

Well, here's to all you night owls....got to bed!

Bikes

I must premise this post with some very vital information. My second child is by far my most accident prone, emergency room frequenter, "all go no whoa" kid. He is constantly finding new ways to stop his mother's heart with some sort of silly trick or stunt...and he just turned 4. So a couple of weeks ago when he asked if he could take his training wheels off his bike, I must admit this did not sound like a great idea to me at all. I felt that training wheels gave him a little protection even if he was flying down the road a 100 miles per hour. Yesterday Shane came up to us and said:

Shane: I took Jace's training wheels off.
Me: How did you do that?
Shane: (grsh, grsh, grsh...socket wrench sound) With the wrench.
Me: O.k. You were able to get them off?
Shane: Ya, but he isn't listening to anything I say.
Me: (thinking) (inward dialog....Sounds familiar)

So we went out to the street and 10 minutes later the kid was tearing up and down the road unassisted. He even mastered starting himself! Shane wanted to help so much and was constantly giving Jace little pointers. After Jace ran over his toes a couple of times though, he decided that me helping Jace was probably a better idea. I now have to go and buy a bigger helmet though considering the fact that he is using mine. The kid has a GIANT melon (hopefully I don't give him a complex because I remind him of this fact all the time)

Good job Jace!

Funnies

The past few weeks I have been meaning to write down a few of the funny things that the kids have said. After reading one of my friends blogs (thanks Lynette) I decided to do it before I forget (which is something that happens regularly around here.)

Brett-isms:

While crossing his arms, he will point his finger at me and say "I am not very happy with you right now!" (Guess he has heard that a time or two)
While crying he will say, "I'm just crying mom, I'm just crying."
He calls Spiderman (with whom he is obsessed with) "Juke-a-man" or "Jinkerman"

Jace-isms:
He calls the toaster the "toastermaker" and the lawnmower the "monlower"

He walked up to me a couple of days ago and asked, "Mom, have you ever wanted 49 kids for Christmas?"
Me: Can't say that I have Jace.
Jace: But it would be so cool.
Me: Nope....not so cool.

Jace: Mom, when is Reese going to grow her penis?
Me: Jace, Reese has girl parts and she doesn't have a penis.
Jace: Nope she's gonna grow one soon.
Me: (thinking)....just let it go

Shane-isms
Shane: I don't think that I will want to eat a lot for dinner.
Travis: Oh Shane you will want to eat this. It's pork.
Shane: (with a huge smile and giving Trav a high 5) Bring it on!

Right now Shane has been having a lot of fits and acts somewhat younger than his 2 year old brother. I am hoping that this stage will pass. I seriously don't need two of them right now, but overall the kid is great. He loves his little sister and is a superstar at school.

He has adjusted so much better to our move than I could've hoped for. His teachers are constantly telling me what a joy he is, and I am grateful that he at least performs well there.

Reese-isms
She now is an expert spit bubble blower.

I am so proud!

Ice Park

The day after we finally arrived in Fairbanks we headed to the International Ice Carving Championships. It was incredible and the kids had a blast going through the ice maze and sliding down all the ice slides. There were some enormous slides that you went down in sleds. Little and big kids alike had so much fun. We went back 3 times that week. Luckily the weather was really warm (in the 30's) and the kids were able to stay comfortable. Not once did I hear any complaining about being cold. Maybe it was because they went up and down the "hill" for about 2 hours. We are already looking forward to it next year.

Why Alaska....again

I have been so out of touch with so many people for so long that I feel like I need to give some sort of explanation for the change of address. I really don't know where to begin except at the beginning. Around March (2009) Trav's supervisor called him in and explained because of the economic stimulus plan that Obama put into effect there was going to be money coming into their office that they weren't expecting. With the extra money they (the Park Service) wanted to hire some temporary employees to help. Because of the nature of Trav's job and because they knew that within the next year we would be probably be looking for a job anyway, they felt that trying to keep one of these temporary employees on board was a better option for them than keeping Travis. In other words, he told Travis to start looking for another job. They gave us until the end of the year and we definitely thought that it would be plenty of time to find something. We turned down two jobs (one in California and one in Virginia) for various reasons, and finally the job that we were praying for came through. The only problem was, was that it happened to be in Fairbanks, AK.

This job was definitely meant to happen because from the time that we applied for the job until the time that they offered him the position was a little over a week. It has been such an answer to so many prayers. We were so confident that we would be able to find a job in Denver (or somewhere close), but I guess we had to finally be at the end of our rope before we realized that we needed to search elsewhere.

Travis (with the help of his mom) drove up the first part of January. They were able to find a wonderful house for us and we were able to close on it shortly after Reese was born. It was a little nerve wracking packing the house by myself being so VERY pregnant but we got through it and she arrived when she was supposed to (with Travis there!). We are so grateful for the job that we have and for the opportunity to live in Alaska again. We have already made some great friends and hope that we will have lots of summer visitors. I think that Trav's mom will testify to that fact that January is NOT the ideal time to visit.