KNOCK, KNOCK!!

KNOCK! KNOCK!!!
WHO'S THERE??

This is Mac's new playhouse!! She loves to play in it!! She likes to look out of her windows and knock on the door, and then answer it!!! She really likes our doorbell these days. Before coming in, she has to ring it!!

The outfit!

Tonights blog photo is actually for Nana...... This is the outfit that Nana sent Emily for her birthday...She HAD to wear it to her party! It is rather cute!!! I really think that the bowling shoes truly make the outfit!! LOL...

I had to throw this one in there... She was the only one I didn't post yesterday, so here she is, with her cutsie face she always makes!!!

What a day!!!

Emily had a most 'wonderful' birthday!!! She had about 15 people at her bowling party today... She had 5 friends that are around her age....The rest are her friends that also happen to be mine and Shane's friends...LOL....
Of all the friends that came, this one probably was one of most special!! This was her VIP at the party!! His name is Aaron. He and Shane have been friends for a LONG time. And when we first got up here to Alaska, they didn't know that the other was here, until they saw each other at formation.. Ever since then, he has been in Emily's life....She loves Aaron!! He loves being with our kids, it's like another uncle for them!! He just got home for leave (R&R) from Iraq!! She said that she didn't even recognize him!! But then it was a big hug!! Needless to say, her day was great!!

Moving right along.....right after Em's birthday party was football practice... Little man is doing really good this year... He is tackling people left and right! He is a lineman on defense, and a right pulling guard on offense. He was promised a mohawk if he did his very best and knocked some heads!! Well, since he can't really have a mohawk during the school year (Christian school won't allow it) he got one tonight!! This is a big transformation for him.... he now is a warrior!! Would you want to be right in front of him on the line???? I think I will pass!!!

We didn't cut this in a point, it is the way his hair grows!!! crazy!! The purple mark below it is a bruise... from football!!! I know this was a lot for today, but this is just another full day for us!!!

Some beach.....

Well, if we were at a real beach we wouldn't have to improvise!!........Tomorrow is Emily's birthday!! I think she is 5 going on like 25.... We hadn't figured out what we were doing for it until last Thursday, so she and I laid in the bed discussing what it was that we were going to do....She said, 'I got it covered mom.' I told her that she needed to tell me so at least I could be her taxi driver.... Where does she get this independence from??? Anyway, we decided on the bowling alley!! And I would make the cake... Hence the picture... It is an ice cream cake....so easy to make...a Sara Lee cake cut in half and chocolate ice cream in the middle....with twizzlers to make the flip flop straps and M&M's around the bottom.... Cool whip is the frosting...The sand is made out of graham cracker crust!!! Amazing that this is what she wanted and it was SOOOO easy!!! Wish you guys could be here for her birthday!! Maybe next year!!

side note: Jacob kicked butt today at football practice!!! He is playing the defensive line... and an outside lineman..(I think)... He was on every pile of boys!! Right in the middle! GO #49!!

Our day of exploring

Shane had therapy today, and so instead of sitting in a waiting room for an hour and a half, me and the kids go exploring in the car. We found this water fountain today. We didn't even know it was there. It was at Alaska Pacific University. I liked the fountain, but what I found really cool is the hanging pots in the background. You can see it if you click on the picture. They were huge. Pretty cool day exploring!!!

Sweet Dixie

Even in Alaska, they know what is the best state to live in!!!! I came across this truck today and had to take a picture! You guys wouldn't believe how many South Carolina license plates are up here. I would say more SC than any other state. I have even had people roll down their window at red lights and ask me where from in SC that I am from!!! Gotta love that good ol SC pride!!!

(the only thing that I would change on this truck is the Gamecock trailer hitch!! I think it needs to be an orange tiger paw!!!)

His Boots

To some, military is just hoorah kind of guys and girls that run around in camoflauge. To me, it is a way of life. We are very proud of our flag and what it stands for. Day in and day out he puts on these boots and goes off to work.....sometimes to the opposite ends of the earth to fight for our freedom. The very freedoms that you and I enjoy and take for granted everyday. Shane always says these boots and his feet are what pays our bills. But, I know different. It takes a very special and courageous person to fill these boots! Not everyone is cut out for these boots. Not everyone would lay down their life and sacrifice everything just to insure that you and I can enjoy the very comforts that we have become accustom to. I thank God everyday that my husband and every other person who has served and are serving have put on these boots and have sacrificed everything- their families, their lives, their bodies unselfishly for me and my children..

All over my house are hints of camoflauge and desert boots. Sometimes it clutters up my house as he packs for missions, 'nature walks'-(road marching), and even for combat. I hear taps playing outside my house everyday, and along our streets are flags waving in the wind.... We are a very patriotic group of people.... We as wives and children are left many times to carry on at home, to be independent, to make sure that he doesn't have to worry about anything while he is gone except for his safety and his mission. We have to carry on this way and wait anxiously and patiently until those boots come walking in our door again.

I felt that I had to get this out today. Shane's platoon in Iraq has had many injured and sent home and one killed. These were all guys we knew... the people next door, the people who wear these boots day in and day out, go without sleep, without all the ammenities of home. They do this for all of us, unselfishly give up everything. It is what is in their heart. They love what they do, and they wouldn't have it any other way. Please keep praying for all our men and women serving, who are courageous enough to put on these boots!

The salmon are running

We went to see the salmon running today!! It was actually pretty cool. These are Chinook salmons. They go up this stream.....there were alot of them.. Around here these salmons are just called 'reds'. The other ones are called silvers, and kings.

When they get to a waterfall, they attempt to jump up them... They go up pretty high. This waterfall is really high, so they couldn't make it up it. But, this is also where the hatchery is so I think that they just made this a natural habitat for them.

But, when I have a bad day, I remember what these poor salmons have to go through, swimming up stream their whole life, then they spawn and then, they die......so my life is pretty good......

Keepin cool in Alaska

So, tonight is keepin cool night!!! I almost forgot!! Most of you probably expected me to post some snow pictures.....but we are in the middle of summer ya know...I knew that you guys know how I keep cool in the winter, but in the summer well, that is another story!! Sometimes, it reaches about 80 degrees and then only gets down to about high 60's at night. And, well, we don't have air conditioning up here. Even most of the civilian population don't even have AC. It really gets hot in our houses!! SO, to keep cool in the summer we all have fans!!!! It is pretty funny because in all the stores lie empty shells where fans used to be! That is how you know it is summer in Alaska!!! So, keep cool everybody!!

Jacob made me...

Jacob made me post this one. Well, actually, he just wanted me to email this picture to EVERYBODY. So, I figured this would be the best route. He finally learned to jump his little motorcycle. And yes, both wheels are off the ground. Be still my heart.

But, after a hard day riding, he must come in for a pit stop. I loved this shot because it shows how deep in thought he was. One could only guess what in the world he was thinking about. I wonder if it was any of my wise words...... probably not!!! Oh well!!!!

Before the storm........

This helmet may look so nice and shiny now, but the STORM is coming........


Enough said.....stay tuned!

A day at the spa?

Yesterday, Mac and Emily both had manicures done by JoJo. Mackie loves to have her nails painted!! She chose her color, aquamarine!! She likes to look at her nails after they have been painted! I think JoJo might have been having a little fun too!
Everyone who paints their nails knows that we must blow them to get them dry! So, that was what Mac was doing!! Too cute. JoJo was teaching her!

Then it was Emily's turn! I think she chose pink, (imagine that). She has had so much fun having them here!

This is the ultimate!! She got her toes done too! But the most amazing thing is the things that go between your toes! She loves them! I thought they were cute too. They say SPA on them! Too fun!!

So, when do I get to go to the spa???????LOL.

Our Day

We started our day off today by visiting Alaska Wildberries. This is 'the' place that houses the world's largest chocolate waterfall!! It is 20 feet tall!! It pours from pot to pot all the way to the bottom!! When we first got to Alaska, we found this place, and now we take everyone there!! When Emily was 2, Mom, dad and JoJo came up here and she told them 'Don't wick it!!!'

In the summer months, just outside the chocolate waterfall, there is a place that you can hand feed the reindeer! We always love doing this. We can pet them and feed them. Jacob and Emily don't mind them. Mac got close to petting one and then thought otherwise!!

After a hard day of sightseeing and then taking Jacob to football practice, we made Alaskan red King crab legs!! We ate 5 pounds of crabmeat. And JoJo made some homemade marinara sauce to go with some french bread! MMMMM!!! This is the picture of the aftermath of all of that! I didn't think of taking a picture before we started eating.....oh well, I guess we will HAVE to get some more!! Oh the sacrifices that we must make!!

Catchin' some AIR

As planned, we went out riding 4-wheelers. This is the first time we have gone out in a while, since Shane left last October. It was a good test of how he is doing. He actually said that he had better wait a little while longer, cuz just loading and unloading and fixing, and helping the kids ride was quite enough!! Actually, I did most of the loading and unloading. Anyway, we had a blast!!! This first picture is of Jacob on his Honda 90. He found this little jump and stayed there most of the day!! He was catching some air all day!! even on the little Honda 50 dirt bike! Check out the dust trailing him!
These are the girls!! We might could send this pic into dirtwheels magazine!! Check out Emmy's stance on this one!! It is so funny how she can change from little princess ballerina to gettin down and dirty on some 4wheelers!!! It was cool to see her get braver and braver on her wheeler.. She even learned how to ride the dirt bike today thanks to dad!! She says she is so happy in her heart!!

This is what Mac did just about the whole time. She would go in the trailer and sneak some snacks!! She didn't know I got this shot!! BUSTED! She was so good out there!! And she loves to ride!!! I don't think she cried the whole time we were there!!

As a side note: THE LUGGAGE CAME IN TODAY!!! My guests are soooo happy!!!

Our strawberry

Well, my aunt JoAnne and my two cousins, Robin and Annie came in last night. Everything is going well except that their luggage got lost or actually it isn't lost, it just stayed in ATL!! Anyway, we were sitting on the backporch and I looked over at our strawberries to see how they were doing and this is what I saw!!! We actually picked 2! They were good! I only took one bite and Emily ate the rest! Hope you guys have a good rest of the weekend! I think we are going out to ride 4-wheelers out by the lake tomorrow!! FUN!

Some beach, Somewhere!!!!

Well, let me see!!! Smells of summer..........Up here in Alaska, we have summer all of 2 days, this year at least! So, when I think of summer and the summertime smells, I think of the beach, suntan lotion, watermelon, bar-b-q's, baked beans, ....... So the closest that I can come to any of that is this candle!! It is Sun and Sand by Yankee candles. It smells like suntan lotions! I burn it all the time, especially when I want a little hint of summertime up here in the Artic!

Doesn't this look inviting??? Some beach, somewhere!!!!! (this is how I feel most of the time!!!)

Out and about

Tonight after football practice we went riding around to see if we could find the bears that everyone but me has seen!!! Instead of bears, we found this cotton wood tree. I have been wanting to take pictures of this for awhile. Around the first of July this tree always starts letting cotton fall from it. It really looks like it is snowing in July.... And believe me, we get enough of the white stuff!! But after it all settles, it looks like this around the trees. This picture is taken at Cottonwood park.

This is a picture of the cotton up close!!

This is a purple weed I think. But it is a beautiful weed!! I think it is called blue bells. Not sure.

I am still working on the smell of summer. Nothing up here really reminds me of the smell of summer!! Jacob and Emily says that I should take a picture of Mac's smelly crocs!!! LOL. I will figure something out though!!!

One of my favorite models....

Well, the only one that will be relatively still. You know from my blogs that my kiddos are my favorite models, but the older ones are hard to capture in motion. So, Mac I can keep in one area most of the time. Her granny decided to put her hair in pigtails today..... I think that she looked like the people that use to live across the street from me when I lived in Sheldon, but it was cute...LOL. The first pic.. is of her biting her nails... I don't think that she really bites her nails, but she has her fingers in her mouth when the passi isn't!


The marks on her chin are from being chapped and the passi! Jacob used to get the chapped look all the time! Yes, Nana we are using Balmex to try to clear it up! LOL. And do notice the bracelet on her arm!! She loves jewelry!! She is just tooo dang cute!!

Woodstock???

So, looking up at the sky we all see different things in the clouds..... Snoopy is one of my favorite cartoon characters...and his trusty sidekick woodstock... So, up in the sky what do I see???? WOODSTOCK... Do you guys see it?? Or am I totally losing my mind?

AND SO IT BEGINS.......

Tonight was the official start of the 2007 football season. Practice was actually a parents meeting along with the dispersal of equipment. So, here about 20 boys and their parents are anxiously standing there in a circle around the coach and waiting for their sons name to be called and gear and practice jersies to be given out. Then it was up to the parents to give them all the vital info about your kid like birth cert, report card, physical, and a picture...... I am surprised that Jacob's manager wasn't there to do all of this for me!! I think I will fire him!!! Along with the nanny and the housekeeper!! She never does her job like she is supposed to. We always have clothes on the floor....But thats another story!!!.......... But back to the blog.... This is the infamous practice jersy (that he is currently sleeping in.) AND he got his all time favorite #49!!!!! WOOOHOOO~~

POP get ready, Jacob is ready to destroy!!!!!!

Battle of the Wills

Mac is starting to do everything we do, even down to biting her fingers because she sees me biting my nails. She even spits into cups just like daddy and his copenhagen!! So I think this picture explains itself! Who do you think will win this battle?? (You know daddy is wrapped around her little finger!)

A baby brother?????

I think NOT!!! Jacob keeps telling me that I need to have one more baby, and it NEEDS to be a baby boy!!! I told him that we are all done having babies, and that if we did have one, we couldn' t be sure that it was going to be a boy.... You know he is such a loving little boy, (don't tell him I said that), but, he would love to have a million brothers and sisters!! Emily would love to be the only child and Mac--- I think that she would love to have more brothers and sisters, as long as it didn't interfere with her schedule and what she wanted!!! This picture is of Jacob holding hands with one of my good friends little boy. He is almost 3 months old. His name is Tad. Jacob, since we aren't having any more babies, has adopted Tad as his little brother!! He loves to hold him and talk to him!!
Mac loves him too!! She always wants to give him his passi, and she holds it in his mouth for him and pats his little face!!! She loves to give him kisses too! Tad is usually good with her loving, but sometimes he just wants some space!! Just like a man! LOL!!

Somebodies round!!

My something round actually turned into somebodies round!!! LOL. Emily had cheerleading today and I thought what a cool shot it would be to have her whole squad help me with my round shot. You should have seen these girls trying to get into this shape. I told them what I wanted and they were trying to make themselves in a circle instead of working together as a team!! They had fun though and all had to see the pic!! Now I have to email it to all the parents!!

These girls love to cheer and some do gymnastics with Emily too. We kinda got some news about the gym though. Ms. Amy, their teacher, was going to move her gym to another gym on post and already had approval and everything and now they are saying that it might not happen. She is supposed to move in a couple of weeks. Please pray that God will intervene and these girls will have a place to go to gymnastics!! They LOVE it!! (Her contract is up with the place that she is in now.)

Found the cord!!!!

Todays post is Mac with the Carolina flag behind her!! Em got this in a package sent from Nana. She loves it. It is already on her wall! Jacob has the Georgia flag on his wall because he was born in Georgia. Lou probably should have a Virginia flag, but I think she is a Carolina girl at heart! You know when I was pregnant with Mac and we were thinking of names, Shane wanted to name her Dixie. So, maybe this flag is appropriate for her too! JoJo and Uncle Glenn call her Dixie and so does everyone at our church up here!!

These are the pictures that I was talking about yesterday! This is when I wish that I had photoshop!! The flag could be so much more vibrant!! Also, it didn't help that yesterday was an overcast day. Oh well, I was just trying to show you girls that I DID take a pic yesterday!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Hey guys!! Sorry about no picture today! I do have one!! Everyday at 1700 hours or 5:00pm, the flag comes down on post. They have a song that is played, can't remember what it is called right now, and then the cannon goes off!! So, I went and thought I would get a pic of the cannon going off with the smoke coming out of it, but since it is the 4th of July, they didn't do it!! I thought it would be perfect with the flag coming down and then a shot of the cannon going off. I did take pics of the flag coming down though! But, I can' t seem to find my USB cable to hook to my camera, and I don't have a card reader! SO...... I did take pics, but am having technical difficulty. (Actually, the cable is in the room with Emily and my mother in law who is visiting!! And they are asleep!)

As for an update on Shane.........he keeps having stabbing pains in his head, which makes him feel nauseated. He can't talk to ya, much less do anything else. Then afterward, he just sleeps. Today, all his muscles hurt, like he has been beaten up. I did take him to the ER yesterday, and they did a CT scan and it didn't show any bleeding in his brain, so that is good, but what the heck is happening. Good news is, his neurologist is putting in a consult with Palo Alto VA clinic in California. Supposedly this is a top notch facility. Stanford Univ school of Medicine practices there. They have a traumatic brain injury rehab place there. I really think that he needs to go....but there is a catch.... The army will pay for me to go, but not the kids. So, pray that God will show us the way and that we will have answers to all these burning questions that all of us have!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!! We didn't see any fireworks,( I don't know what the point of even having them in the summer, because it is light out when they go off!!) but, we did have a pretty good day! Thanks to all you veterans out there who have served and who serve today, so that me and my family will be safe!!

What, Sunflowers in Alaska?

Jacob and Nana planted these sunflowers from little seeds when mom was up here!! My, My, look how they have grown!! I know, I need to do some weeding. But, it has been rainy these past couple of days and I haven't even had a chance to cut the grass!! (I almost said mow the lawn---oh boy do I need to move home!) Between all Shane's appts and 3 kids and finding a little time to blog, I am pooped at the end of the day when I can weed!! I can't wait to see how big these babies get!!

Thanks, JoJo!!

These are my windchimes that my aunt Joanne sent me for my birthday. It is always so great to get things from home. This set of chimes hangs on my back porch and when the kids are jumping on the trampoline, I just sit on the porch and watch them and get lost in their Charleston melody!! Remember, Shane says that when you marry a Carolina girl, you end up having trees and moons all over your house inside and out!!! (Pretty cool reflection in the window!!)

Catie, we are all praying for you that God will put His Hand on you and heal you!! A friend always reminds me, (Mrs. Louise), God is still in the healing business!!! Take care and Shelia, girl, if you need me night or day, I am here!!!