mom2four: March 2011

Monday, March 28, 2011

Just an update

I wanted to show how much the snow has melted here. Not too long ago this was covered in tons of snow. Then it melted into big puddles that would freeze at night. There would be big rivets in the road where the cars would drive over the ice and it would freeze. Now the kids can walk almost all of the way to the bus stop without ice. It is great. I no longer have to worry about falling on my bottom every time I walk the the kids to the bus!

March is always a busy month for us. Not only did we celebrate Nate's birthday but, 2 days later Nate and I celebrated our 14th anniversary. He brought me these flower's for a gift. We also had the missionaries over that night. I bought Nate an ice fishing pole for our anniversary.

I have been eyeing some really cute high heels lately. I don't typically wear heals because I don't' think that they are the most comfy and also then I am taller then Nate. But, I do like to wear them when I am out with my friends. I went into my closet and tried on a pair of heels to even see if I could walk in them. Verdict... I could not. Instead I found these really cute yellow flats and a pair of brown flats for the price of the one pair of heels. Bonus for me!

Tyler got an award at school the other day for being a really good speller. I don't even have to practice the words with him because he studies them all on his own. What a good boy!

On St. Patrick's Day I made these rainbow treats to go in the kids lunch boxes. They also got an all green lunch which consisted of a sandwich made on green bread, green pudding and sugar snaps!

Natalie got bored and tried to keep this balloon up in the air for a long time. I am not sure how long she did it but I do know that it kept her entertained for quite a while. I wanted to be sure to add a picture without her flashing a peace sigh. I used to do this all of the time with my brother's and sister. We used to call it Pigs In Space. After the pigs in space episodes on the Muppet's!

It is finally getting warm enough to play outside a little. There is still a lot of snow but it is now starting to melt. Soon Ella will be able to ride in the Cul de sac instead of on the patio.

Ella made this little girls in art. I thought she did a great job. Look at the rosy cheeks!

Ella also got an award in school. She got it for reading. In Mtn. Home the kids had not even started reading yet so when we moved here she was way behind. She worked really hard and jumped up 4 reading levels in 2 1/2 months!

Tyler had his final Pinewood Derby. I am so glad that this is going to be over. I have never really been a fan. But this one was especially painful. It ran over 3 1/2 hours! Every car had to race every other car. He did a great job making it although it didn't run super fast.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

I want to be a missionary now...

Nate had been promising the missionaries that he would take them out to the air traffic control tower at his work. For our family home evening activity this week that is what we did. Elder Stephen's and Elder Calk had dinner at another member's house and when they were done headed to over to our house. In the meantime Natalie taught our family home evening lesson on being a missionary. She read a story from this month's New Era called "Delayed Delivery" by Jacob Fullmer. It is about a young man who in 1979 was trying to decide if he was going to go on a mission or not. He had written 3 letters to one of his friends serving on a mission. The first letter talked about his struggle to decide to go on a mission, the second one talks about when he made up his mind to go, and the third one talked about some experiences he had in his first area. His friend did not receive any of the letters. Fast forward to 30 years in the future and his son is now going through the same thing that he was going through trying to decide if a mission was right for him. And his friend's son is now serving in the same mission that his friend had served in. His friend's son gets to the mission house and receives three old letters that were addressed to his dad. He forwards them onto his dad, who then forwards them onto the original writer of the letter. The son then gets to read his dad's letter's and read first hand about his father's own struggles to go on a mission at the very age that he is. It is a really good story and worth your time reading if you have a chance to do so. Natalie then handed out missionary name tags to each of us and we all told one way that we can be a missionary now. I then related missionary work to air traffic control. An air traffic controller tells the airplanes which way to go while he is searching for a place to land. Missionaries tell people about the gospel who are looking for a way to Christ.

We then took the missionaries out to the tower to have a look around. Nate showed them all of the cool equipment. From there you can see Mt. McKinley (or the Denali mountain as it is called here). We got to see a C1-17 practice landing and taking off and all together had a great time just visiting with the missionaries. I discovered that Elder Calk is from South Carolina which is were my little brother served a mission although he didn't live in the same mission area. I really like having the missionaries over to my house and around my kids. And the kids really love interacting with them. As a matter of fact Ella wouldn't stop talking to them. I like how the missionaries seem to care about my family and how their standard's are a shining example to my family. I want to be a missionary now.

Back Row-Left to Right: Nichole, Elder Stephens, Elder Calk, Nate

Front Row- Left to Right: Ella, Tyler, Natalie

I am so disappointed that I lost my little camera. I had to take pictures with my phone and it doesn't take the best picture's. Which bothers me being a photographer and all.

Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest. ~Larry Lorenzoni

My amazing husband turned 32 this year! I can't believe this. The first birthday we spent together was his 17th birthday over 15 years ago. I can't remember what we did for that birthday but, I remember for his 18th birthday we went to Frontier restaurant in Utah for dinner and dessert. Nate had a rather low key birthday which is exactly how he likes it. When he got up that morning Tyler made him eggs for breakfast. Nate and I went out to The Glacier Brew house for lunch and then we came home and Nate did what he likes to do most. Played on the computer while I made his favorite for dinner. Chicken Pot Pie which I had through together rather quickly because we had an appointment to go and look at a car. After we saw the car we came home for dinner and then went back and bought the car (saving that story for another blog post). Then the kids and I sang to Nate and he got to cut into his birthday tart. I made him a chocolate truffle tart. For his birthday I got him a fishing trip that he is going to take with some guys from work. They are renting a boat and going into the ocean to fish for Halibut. The kids made him an awesome birthday sign and displayed it for him to see first thing in the morning when he got out of bed.

I am so lucky to have Nate in my life! Happy Birthday babe! I love you!!

Ella's sleepover

Ella got to invite her friend Jocelyn over to spend the night during spring break. The girls had so much fun. They played on Ella's scooter out in the garage,played the wii, ate junk food, watched movie's and played in Lou's room. At 11:15 that night I tucked them into bed and told them that they could talk as long as they wanted to as long as they didn't get too loud. I think the two of them crashed pretty quick because I did not hear a peep from them. When I got up that morning I didn't hear anything from them so I assumed that they were still asleep. Nope those two girls were up and very quietly playing downstairs. What good girls they were.

The two little girls thought that it would be cute to have their hair done the same way while we were out and about for the day. I did their hair in what I call puppy ears and they loved it. They would shake their heads and laugh at the puppy ears.

Spring Break

This year for spring break it was pretty low key. On Monday I invited Mindy and her kids over for lunch. Tyler, Ella, J.C., and Riley all ran around like crazy and worked off some of the pent up energy from the weekend. I love when the kids have friends over and I can just chit chat and not really have to worry about them.

On Wednesday Ella had a sleepover with JC. On Thursday and Friday Nate took off of work. On Thursday my family and Mindy's family all went to the Anchorage Museum to play in the imaginarium. I had the big kids team up with a little kid so then if someone got lost they were always with someone. For the most part we just let them have at it. Nate, Natalie, and Nichole disappeared for a little bit and went and looked around the museum at some of the other things it had to offer. All in all it was a great way to pass a the time.

Nichole's class made this quilt out of paper. They used flower's and fish as their inspiration. Then it was donated to the museum and put on display.

The blue fish block was the block that Nichole made.

Instead of letting the kids touch the fish they brought out a snake for the kids to pet.

This display showed the different amounts of heat the different parts of your body was letting off. Notice Ella's unders are yellow. What an appropriate color for heat at that particular region.

After the museum we came back home ordered Pizza and watched a movie. It was a fun day!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

A cupcake from Heaven

I made these cupcakes the other day and they are just heavenly.

Coconut Cupcake

3/4 c. unsalted butter, room temp.

2 eggs, room temp.

1 c. sugar

3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 tsp. coconut extract

1 1/2c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. buttermilk

7 oz. coconut, divided

Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.

3/4c. unsalted butter, room temp.

3/4 tsp. coconut extract

12 oz. powdered sugar

Preheat oven 325 degrees. Line muffin tin. Cream butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy about 5 mins. Add eggs 1 at a time. Add extracts, mix well. In separate bowl sift flower, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In 3 parts alternate dry ingredients with buttermilk. Mix until just combined. Add 1/2 of coconut. Bake for 25-35 mins. Let cool completely.

In electric mixer cream together cream cheese, butter and extracts. Add powdered sugar. Mix until smooth. Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” - Dr. Seuss

The kids have been celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday this week at school. On Monday they had wear your pajama's to school day (which of course I forgot because it was on a Monday and that would require me to remember through the weekend). On Tuesday it was Hawaiian Day at school. Tyler didn't have anything to dress up in so he didn't do it but, Ella dressed up in a grass skirt and tried to do the hula. Notice the snow in the background. What a great thing to dream about here in the middle of winter. Hawaii. The kids also go to eat green eggs and ham at school that day. On Tuesday it was crazy hair day. Tyler wanted to do his hair in a mohawk. I told him that it wasn't too crazy of a hair style and that a lot of kids wear there hair like that. He thought it was CRAZY! Ella also wanted her hair in a faux hawk. She told me that the kids just thought that it was her normal hair and was kinda disappointed that it wasn't crazy enough. Today they read Dr. Seuss books in class. Tomorrow is dress up like your favorite Dr. Seuss character. They won't be doing that either. Next year I am going to have to prepare myself more for Dr. Seuss week. They are going to have a teacher-student basketball game. Tyler is super excited to watch that.