Friday, March 30, 2007

Who is this???


My husband likes to take pictures of me. What can I say?? I thought I would post this picture before I left, so that I would only miss one day. I didn't want to fall behind, ya know. So, this is a picture of me taking the kiddos to school this morning. I think the temp was about 7 degrees. Notice no jacket!! We are protesting jackets, it is the end of march, ya know. Anyway, I thought that I would put this shot up just in case you girlies forgot what I look like. hehe.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Volcano??

I took this picture as we were coming onto post. It is of the sun setting behind the mountains. It was kind of an overcast day. This cloud almost looks like a volcano that is smouldering. Up here, it is not uncommon for a volcano to do this, however I don't think that this is a volcano. Shane thinks it is. But, I thought that this shot was worthy of blogging. I thought it looked really cool.
I probably won't be posting pictures this weekend. But, not to worry, I should have some pretty good shots to post on Sunday night. Hopefully, I can make it up.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Puddles


Is this really a water puddle? Really, a puddle?? I think this ice is liquifying. Hallelujah!!! We are all excited, the weather guys say it may be around 40 degrees by this weekend. WOOOOHOOO!! I have been searching for the right puddle to get this shot of the reflection of a mountain in it. I just wish I could have gotten more of the mountain. Oh well, at least this is a sign that break-up is coming, or for you GRITS, that the snow is melting. Hopefully by the end of April, it will all be gone and we can see some color, other than white, hanging around. Until then, may we see more water and may our cars be dirty from puddles like these!!!

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Daddy's girl(s)


McKinley is such a daddy's girl. She would much rather be doing something with daddy than me. Don't get me wrong, she loves me, I know that. But, there is just something about those daddy's. I always loved being with my dad, still do. There is just some special bond there between a daddy and a daughter. I thought that this shot just captured that bond. There is nothing sweeter than seeing her little hand tucked ever so gently in his hand. Emily is like this with daddy too. He can be out in the garage working on 4-wheelers or his truck, and Emily is right there with him, watching every move. I used to do the same with my dad. I used to like to "help" my dad. I didn't ever think I was really doing anything unless I was dirty. Being dirty is the key to helping every dad. I probably mostly got in the way, but I thought that my dad was---is great. He could fix anything,(still does in my eyes.) They are true heros, because like the saying goes, Any man can be a father, but it takes a special man to be a daddy. Love both of ya, dad!!!!

Best Friends




I am sorry girls!! This dang blogger thing wouldn't let me post this yesterday. So, I am posting today, and don't worry I will post again tonight providing that the blogger cooperates. This picture was taken at ballet. The first one is Emily and her best friend. See her flipping her hair as she talks. I thought it was so cute!!! Just like best friends. I actually took this picture in the mirror because I couldn't get a good shot on them just regularly. The second picture is a part of her recital piece. Boy, she really gets into it. The third picture is just one I thought really captured my Emily!!!!



Sunday, March 25, 2007

Harley





Everybody, meet Harley. This is the other member of our family. He just turned 3 years old in January. For the most part he is a good dog. He is sooo patient with the kids and even protects them if he thinks we are hurting them. We can't even wrestle around with them if he is around. He is a big baby. He tries to act big when our neighbors dogs come out, though. In this first picture, he is out running around. I thought it was pretty cool how I caught in mid air, running. The second picture is of him and Mackie. They have a love-hate relationship. She usually takes his toys and then he will take hers. She enjoys giving him loving. They last picture is of Mack hugging him and saying something in Swahili to him. What I think is hilarious in those last two pictures, is his face. Notice he IS NOT real thrilled, but he endures. And for that, I guess we will keep him around for a little while longer. I am upset that I cut the top of her head and his bottom lip off. I was trying to get in close. Oh well.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

The bridge


I am cheating today. We had another wrestling tournament today and didn't get back until late. But, Jacob placed 5th out of 11 boys today. We are so proud!!! This picture is taken on post, on the way to Otter lake. This little bridge is right before the lake. I like how it looks rustic, and how the ice is melted just enough for us to see the water that flows underneath it. I also like the way the sun shines through the trees on the snow. It looks like a place of quiet, frozen serenity!!

Friday, March 23, 2007

Firehose



I am sticking with the John Harriott theme for today!!! This is one of the coolest things that my grandpa possessed. Every time I look at it, I think of him sitting in his recliner with this lamp on the table right next to him. He, also, had a square wooden bowl with pecans in it, with a silver nutcracker that sat right in front of it. After he passed away, I begged my grandma for this lamp! After asking and asking, she finally gave in. This lamp has turned out to be a topic of conversation with all the people who come to visit us. This is an old nozzle off of a fire hose on one of his old firetrucks. I can't remember the exact year, (mom will have to help us with this one.) The firefighter guys made this nozzle into a lamp for my grandpa. It is made up of all brass. It is heavy!!!!! I always joke around that this lamp, by itself, makes up half of the household good pound limit that the army gives us. I am so proud of what my grandpa accomplished and I am very proud of displaying this lamp in my house and hopefully one of my kids will want it, so it and the story of this firehose can be passed on for generations to come.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

My little helper


Today McKinley was my little helper. She loves to draw on paper or write notes like Jacob and Emily. So today I was writing out my to do list, and I looked over and she was writing hers too. I don't know what I would do without her. The second is of her in a drawer. This is an end table in the living room. She loves to climb in the drawer and take her toys with her. She usually sits in there and plays with her toys!! She likes all kinds of drawers. She will get in the bathroom drawers, Emily dresser drawers, anything that she can open and get into!!!! I don't really like the side of the recliner in this shot, but you gotta love the Pebbles do!!!

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Spring is in the air



Spring is in the air!!!!! OK, so today it snowed. Well, I can at least dream of all the wonderful things that come with spring, right???? These pictures were taken last summer (May). I love planting my flowers and watering them everyday. Watering flowers is a huge stress reliever. Sometimes I think my flowers are going to drown from all my stress..haha. The colors and size of the flowers up here are AMAZING. I have never in my life seen humongous flowers like these. It is because in the summer, we have about 22-23 hours of sunlight. (The sun never really goes down. The darkest it gets is like dusk there.) The sun goes around in a circle in the sky. In the winter, we only have about 5 hours of sunlight. It comes up about 10am and goes down about 3pm. The sun kinda goes to the side of the sky. It comes up and then goes down. It never reaches the middle of the sky. Right now, we have about 12-13 hours of sun. But, we are gaining about 5 minutes of sunlight a day, which means summer IS coming!!!!! Hallelujah!!!!!!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

To plug or not to plug



I had to throw this picture in. Yes, this is a picture of Shane's truck plugged in. And, no, it is not electric. Up here in Alaska, it gets so cold that it isn't good for the vehicles engine. So, most people up here, have engine block heaters. Its purpose is to keep the engine warm so that it last longer, and to keep emissions lower because being plugged in, causes the engine not to have to work so hard to get warm. Now that we have had our mechanics lesson for today, they say that you should always plug in at 20 degrees and colder. Most of the winter, it stays plugged in. My purpose for plugging it in, is that it takes less time to warm the inside. The thing is, you always have to remember to UNPLUG it. I forget most times. I swear, my whole wall is going to come down one day. I have lost so many extension cords because I just drive away with them hanging. (This is an instant give away that I am not from here!!):) However, I am getting better.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Popsicles





These are what my kiddos call popsicles. It is so funny because Emily comes up with all these words, and I have to figure out what she is talking about. This one was relatively easy. Popsicles are icicles. These icicles amaze me. I love to see them. The first picture is on the shoppette (gas station). There is a drip of water that comes out of the tube and I guess over the course of the winter it has formed this ice sculpture. It looks like someone turned on the faucet and left it on and it just froze solid, kinda like a cartoon. The second picture is on the same building, but, I guess this has several drips coming off of the roof. These icicles go from the roof to the ground. The last picture is of icicles hanging off of a snow bank. You can see these all over town. What happens is the truck plows and leaves a bank. Then, the sun comes out and even though the temperature is still cold, the sun beating down on it all day, melts the snow slowly, leaving popsicles. I think these are sooooo cool.





Sunday, March 18, 2007

My Hero


Here is my knight in body armor!!!! He usually tells me that I can't publish his picture because it doesn't look right, but I won't ask him this time because I love this picture. This is a picture from yesterday. He was looking over the railing at the wrestling matches going on below. I have to say that this guy is my hero. He sacrifices so much to keep his family and our country safe. He puts me up on this pedestal that I am not sure that I belong on. He loves God, his country, me and his babies!!! Please keep praying that all of our guys come home safe, and pray that their families stay strong!!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

THE ICE MAN





Today was Jacob's first wrestling tournament. Oh my, the intensity of this first meet was incredible. I really didn't think that I was going to get knots in my stomach like I did. As Jacob was wrestling his opponents, I was wrenching my own body around like I was out there on the floor. You know, as a parent, you feel as if you have to help your child no matter what circumstance they are in. It is so different from football, although I really tried helping him then, too. In football, he has a whole team with him. In wrestling, it is just him, his opponent, and the mat. He thoroughly enjoyed himself. He won both his matches and ended up coming in first in his bracket!!!!!! We were so proud, not only because he won, but because he had fun and gave 100%. We left our house about 6:45 this morning and didn't get home until about 7:00 tonight. So, we are VERY tired. He, for once, decided to go to bed on his own. (Miracle)
The posts today is of course of the meet because, well, that is the only place we were today.

Friday, March 16, 2007

All American Firecracker




Emily is now a member of the All American Firecrackers. I know, the name fits her oh so well!!! She started taking gymnastics and I found out they had cheerleading which also consists of tumbling. So, what do ya know, she is a little cheerleader now. They do demos where they show people what they know and they ride around in parades and they can compete, if they want to. The older girl usually do the competing. They are in the process of ordering their uniforms, but I thought I would let you preview her cheerleading. Can you tell that she thoroughly enjoys it?? She wouldn't be excited, would she?? And Amy, I didn't even have to give her a dollar for this smile. (Although I did have to pay for the class.)


Thursday, March 15, 2007

Fishy, Fishy...



Fishy, fishy in the brook, come and bite my little hook.......J/K These are our fish. The orange one is Jacob's fish. He or she, whichever the case may be, swims sooo fast round and round our tank---kinda like Jake. I think this picture turned out pretty good. I like that you can see the lines in his fins. Pretty neat. This darker fish, the one that looks like a snake, is called a coolieloach. sp? He was actually named after Calvin Coolidge---so they told me at Petsmart. Anyway, we have had him for over a year. He pretty much lives through anything. He has lasted through about 5 other fish that I have killed, not purposely. He lives under those rocks. He swims under the rocks like the other fish swim through water. We had one more fish, a dalmation molly, but, sadly, she died after having 2 babies. She was Emily's fish. I can't find the babies anymore. And, remember, SHHHH, she doesn't know about that either.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Baby backhoe?




Ever since Jacob was a little baby, he has wanted to help Poppie buy a bobcat. He has been saving his money. He even told Poppie that he had a dollar to put towards a bobcat, because he and Poppie NEEDED one for "their" business. Well, today, about 6-7 years after he saved a whole dollar for the bobcat, we ran across this machine. Jacob immediately said, MOM, I wonder how much that cost, that way I can help Poppie at work. So, Jacob is still on the lookout for a bobcat. But for today, we decided that they could work side by side in this machine.

I had to throw this picture in because how many times do I really get to see my two older children hugging like they love each other. And, no, I didn't MAKE them do this. Today was picture day at school, and I guess since they got all dressed up for the occasion, they were abnormally cordial to each other. Maybe I should make them dress like this everyday.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Wrestling???


You all know me. I know NOTHING about wrestling. And my son decides that he wants to wrestle. So, we buy the singlet-(the outfit used to wrestle), the headgear, the wrestling shoes, and we pay for all the tournaments. We are ready. We have a tournament this weekend. I need to know a couple of things. One, I have no idea how to cheer for him at a meet. I know how to cheer for any other sport, but not wrestling. Two, why on earth do boys want to roll around on the floor with other boys and wear these outfits, and last, but certainly not least, (Jacob is mostly concerned with this one) -- This is the one we need the MOST help with. If you saw this face and these muscles across from you on the mat, what would you think his wrestling name is?? We have a couple..... but I wanted to poll you to see what you could come up with. Something very intimidating, I know.

Monday, March 12, 2007

My Ballerina's




Emily had ballet today after school, so once again we were in hurry mode. They boys went off doing their "boy" stuff and me and the girls headed to ballet. Mom wanted to see more blue eyes, so here they are. I thought the picture of her putting her ballet shoes on was adorable. It didn't turn out quite as I had planned, but it did alright. Mack was so funny. She heard the music in the dance studio. So, she eased over to the door. Then she would take another step to get closer. She was watching the girls dance. I peeked over and I caught her dancing with the girls, at the doorway of course. By the time I got the camera ready, I was spotted and she stopped. So this is a picture of her standing in the doorway, watching and wanting to become the next prima ballerina.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Lettin' Loose









Today we decided to go try to dig out our trailer that has all of our 4-wheelers in it. When we got there, we found that the snow plow truck had plowed right in front of the trailer leaving about a 3 foot wall of snow that turned into ice. How nice of him, huh?? So, instead of trying to chip ice for hours and hours, we decided to have some fun on the mountain of snow that he had pushed up. We sledded or fell (as the case may be) down the snow hill several times. It was lots of fun. No one was injured in these pictures. The last one, yes, it is me. Shane took this picture while I was sledding down Dyea Ski hill. After we left the storage lot, we decided to go to Dyea. This is a bunny hill on post. To us, it's called cheap fun, because it is free and it wears the kids, and me, out from walking up this hill all the time, but it sure is fun to sled down it. (Just ask mom and dad, they went down a much, much bigger hill, and lived to tell about it!) GOTTA LOVE THE ACTION SHOTS!!!

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Alaskan wildlife









We were out and about again today. We went over to Elmendorf Air Force Base. There, they have eagles that are kept in a cage because they are hurt. They find eagles and they nurse them back to health. The good thing is, is that we can go and see them any time we want to. It's pretty cool. There are always raw pieces of meat in their cage that they eat. These two eagles that I took pictures of, didn't mind posing for the camera.
We, also, went out to Otter Lake to see if anyone was ice fishing. On the way to the lake, we went over a creek. Low and behold, there was this duck. He was swimming in this creek, then would disappear. He would go under the freezing water and then about 5 seconds later, he would pop up. It is amazing that he didn't freeze to death. Look at the ice all around him. I guess all of his feathers keeps him warm. I don't know what kind of duck he is, do you guys?? I, also, like the sunset in the water.
The last picture is of some monkeys we came across. They were pretty cute and didn't mind posing for the camera either. I am still trying to find a porcupine. Maybe I will see one of those when the snow breaks.


Friday, March 9, 2007

King of the Mountain






My kids had today off from school. As most of you know, these can be very trying days as a parent. Usually Jacob and Emily fight all day long, and Mackie seems to think that because they are yelling, she needs to put her 2 cents in, too, with the occasional scream. So, we decided to go up the mountain to keep them out of each others space. Arctic Valley is what it is called. Beautiful photographs can be taken from there. The first photo is a mountain range called "Sleeping Lady". If you look at this mountain, it looks like a lady laying down and her hair is out flowing behind her. Mt. McKinley is just to the left of it. Today wasn't as clear as I want it to be to get that shot yet. It will come though. The second shot is of some peaks that you can see from the road. When you travel down this road, you are reminded just how small we, as humans, are. God is so BIG, and He creates such beautiful things. (Wait till you see this in the summer.) The last picture is of the city of Anchorage from on top of the mountain. I always feel like shouting from here, KING OF THE MOUNTAIN!! I didn't realize until I looked at the pictures when we got home the mountains in the background. I am not real happy with these, but they'll do for now! For a second, we truly were on top of the world.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

THE CUP




Some of you may already know this story, but I felt the need to capture "the cup" for you. My mom always used this very cup to make her famous sweet tea. I knew exactly how much sugar was needed just by this cup. It measured very exact. If you did not use this cup, the tea just wouldn't taste the same. So, I went off to college and eventually I got married. I began wondering just how I was supposed to make tea because I did not have "THE CUP". I just knew that the southern sweet tea as I knew it, would not be the same for the family that I was beginning. What was I to do?? Well, at my wedding shower, I got this gift from my mom. As I opened it, there it was!! It was beautiful. THE CUP. Of all the wonderful and brand new nice things that I received that day, this cup meant the world to me. It even brought tears to my eyes (some of you probably remember this). So now I make pretty darn good tea, just because I have the cup that measures the sugar perfectly. Thanks, mom. It may become our family heirloom. It may not look like much, but she sure does measure sugar good. The second picture I just threw in there because I think the world should know how handsome my boy is!!