You know that one...

You know that saying that goes along the lines of...it's a good thing she looks like that...the one that used to be said for those pretty girls who might be cute but nobody was home?

Well I am going to say the it's a good thing Nia looks like that....but mean something else....Dang if she wasn't cute she might have had a worse day yesterday than she did...

When a child has pushed their parents buttons repeatedly for hours at a time it shows....it shows even more when it well past midnight...

Nia has decided that nothing should considered out of limits for her.  So yesterday she made it her goal to climb the stairs up to her brothers room.  She got into everything possible to make a step to climb over the gate....it is amazing what a little kids mind can come up with when put to the test.  She was using boxes, toys, mixing bowls..and our favorite...a cup to get over that gate. 

She was very vocal in her displeasure of us not allowing her to hurt herself either...  The screams that can come out of a little girl are incomparable to little boys...  We know that for a fact now..

The worst of it is that she proceeded to do this even after we put a larger gate up...so her stacks of things got more precarious....so of course we stopped her, and you know what that means..

Come midnight she was doing a continuous scream...  The best was we would get her to lay down, her eyes would fight the urge to drift shut, but then she would be asleep...yea not so much.  Then she would pop right back up and scream some more....

Tag teaming this situation with your husband is the only option to save your sanity...but the kid is pretty good at breaking you, I decided...

I love her...but sheesh already.  She can rule the world tomorrow when she is grown up more...like 25, until then we would like to not battle it out with her....

Birthday Plans

We might not have TV but that sure doesn't stop the kids imaginations when it comes to asking for things for presents...

Every day Jenner comes up and tells me something new he wants for his birthday....and that of course sets Ender off in asking for things...

One day it will be a scooter, the next a trampoline....yesterday ended with Ender announcing that he is in great need of a dump truck....

Love those boys!

My favorite is Jenner casually announcing that four is no longer going to be his favorite number.  He said, "I like four now but soon five is going to be my favorite...and then six...and ...seven...and then eight...and then dad's going to go ...sploosh...and I will be all wet..."

So apparently that is cliff's notes for baptism....sploosh and you're all wet....

Sunshine Makes Me Happy

It might be cold enough out that we are still wearing jackets and hoodies,

but as you can see we are enjoying the sunshine....

 

I am sure the rocks and sticks if they could speak are tired of being thrown...but they can't so all

you can hear is the ocean...

 

We will take the chilly sunshine any day.  In speaking to an old friend in Nevada they are already up to 70 degrees there...

 

Don't miss that one bit...

That's All Folks!

Thanks to everyone who called on Sunday!

 

It was really good to hear everyone on the line....

 

You made a great day special for Raiden....

 

We did take some pictures and thought we would share them with you...

 

 

 

Don't ask about Ender's face...I am not sure of the story that goes with it...I do know that Jenner decided he was going to be three faced...

 

The boys have been playing a Batman game and he decided two faces wasn't enough...

So one side is Good/Normal, the other is Bad/Evil, and the middle is an octopus...

 

 

 

I don't get it either!

 

These two were made for the expression, "Only a mother could love that face."

Our little princess sat very patiently on her chair waiting for her turn...unfortunately her hair

paid the price....

Happiest of birthdays....to them...

A little late..I know..but I figured it was going to be after their birthday's and I am sure no one is chomping at the bit to see the birthday greed pictures...

But here they are....our newest 10 and 12 year old's!!!!  They had a lot of fun topped by a lot of cake and ice cream!

Wild Flowers

We were pleasantly surprised to see our flowers out the back of the house had finally opened.  Jenner thought they were the neatest things to see when he went out to play.  He came running in to make sure I had seen them and had taken a picture of them so we could share them with you...mostly his grandma's but you get the side benny!

Saturday Stroll

We sometimes find ourselves in the middle of a beautiful

Saturday, and a little girl asleep...

So when possible we do take advantage

of a simple stroll along the shoreline...

It is amazing what you can see and find

in a stretch of beach...

This time we mostly focused on the views....

However, Jenner did have to additions to the family...

Meet Brickey and Shelley....

By the way...Brickey's birthday is today...so yes we have been celebrating...he is 4 of course...  :)

Shelley is a bit younger.  She is only three...but her birthday is on the 25th....  ;}

It's a bird!

Ignore the background of the picture....

What you are witnessing is the pure, unadulterated joy of a good cape...

Jenner says it is a great cape, if I do say so myself...

It makes for a sad afternoon when we can't find it...but that doesn't happen too often...

Like I said...he loves a good cape!

Tuff Nia

We are fans of Despicable Me, aren't you?  Well any way, any time I see Nia in a ski cap of any kind it brings to mind the funny little Edith in that movie...

Got to love a tough girl in pink...

So any way...

Eat your hearts out!

Nature walk

Nia and I went for a little nature walk this morning and this is what we came across...

 

This guy was in the tree above our house...

 

And I am not sure if this is the beginnings of skunk cabbage or something else...

but it was very interesting to see.

 

LOL

I never thought I would live to have this experience...

Here it is the first day of spring....I am living in Alaska of all places...and what have I done today that is so laughable, you say?

I husked and cooked corn for the kids for lunch.

So here it is, March 20th, and the kids here in Port Alexander, Alaska had corn on the cob with their lunch today...

Growing up on a farm like I did, that just struck me as quite funny to be eating corn on the cob this early, let alone while in Alaska!

Me too!

I always feel like I am posing for a mug shot when I get my picture taken...

is this a bad sign?

 

I guess I need to say, that today of all days, I am one year older...and hopefully wiser....

 

Happy Birthday

I have to wish my boy the happiest of birthdays!  He is twelve today and I think it is awesome he has gotten so big!

Happy 10th Birthday!

Now I'm TEN!

He was sooo excited and decked out in green of course....he even had some

wonderful St. Patrick's day underwear on! (leprechaun hat's and pots of gold)

 

All in all I think he had a pretty good day and we survived it...

Thanks to everyone who made it to the cake and ice cream party...

Sorry to everyone who witnessed the piñata debacle...

And thanks for all the cards and gifts...that was nice of you!

Never in my life

 Well we had a good time on Sunday.  We started our evening off enjoying this delicious pork roast that we slow cooked using the top of furnace.  (sounds weird, I know) And that was followed up by a show...  You know, dinner and a show?  Well we took the scraps out to feed the birds and that darned Eagle had a nasty plan.....

 

Knowing full well that those birds would come looking he waited above our house once again and when those birds came he dove into them.

 

He hit this one bird once and took it into the water.  And then he bounced in again on it.  I am not sure if it was dead the first time, but by the second he was a gonner....

 

So as the phrase goes, I never in my life have been used for bait by an Eagle....

who would have thought it?

 

 

 

SO much to do

I can't believe it has been such a long time since our last post.  I must beg craziness I think.  I have been dealing with insurance issues and can't claim to still be a sane mother at times.

Also there is the issue of having three birthdays this next week to worry about.  I guess I don't really worry about mine, but the two boys is another matter.

They are expecting who knows what and so who knows what they will think of what they actually get....some day's I think that it is going to be Christmas part II and I don't know why...

But any who....today is day two of our spring break.  The weather hasn't been super cooperative so far so we have been indoors mostly...

We have had Mario Kart championships, duals on Lego Harry Potter, flying competitions on New Super Mario Brothers, and slush snowball fights to list a few of our activities...not too bad for two days and crummy weather huh?

Hopefully we can continue to have a good time for the next two days...

Rain

Well we have enjoyed a few days of not warm weather, but semi good weather..  No snow...the sun was out sort of...the wind did blow a lot.... but there is no longer snow or ice on the boardwalks so you can't really complain...

But I did get told today that we are in for some NASTY weather.  I will have to let you know how bad it gets....I know right now you look out our many windows and think...hmmm when is the thunder and lightning going to begin?

But on a way, way side note....we have been watching (kale and I) the BBC's Sherlock...it is quite entertaining.  (It doesn't hurt it's case at all in Kale's eyes by having the Star Trek's Kahn as it's starring actor)  We are hoping before too long Netflix will update the tv series and we can see more recent episodes...

Once there was a snowman

   

 

We had quite the snow storm come through today...and I happened to spot this outside our house!

 

I didn't want to risk it being covered up by the snow so I thought I would share it with you while it is still visible....

Spring...I guess you could say Iced Spring...

Did it again!

Our little tooth pulling enthusiast has done it again!  He came in to my room last night and said, "Look mom my tooth is almost broked out!"  And sure enough it was on it's way....  next thing I know he is shouting for joy cause he pulled it out. 

"Look there is blood on it!"  was his cry.....shivers up my spine on that one...

I told him I would give him one of our tooth holders to put under his pillow for the tooth fairy so the tooth wouldn't get lost..

He said, "NO!  She took it last time!"  So alas....nothing but the tooth and the whole tooth for the tooth fairy!

Sunday Smiles

This is about as good as your going to get 'em in their Sunday attire...

 

Too cute to resist...her looking so tuff in her camo hat...but she stopped to investigate something on the boardwalk.

Bear Tracks

No it isn't what you think...

It is a new-fangled Alaskan chocolate mint version of the good ol' moose tracks ice cream....

Actually it is what it is...

We went kayaking, and hiking, and had a nerf dart war today....in the midst of all this fun we were able to see and compare tracks in the snow the kids have never seen before...

To begin with you have the unmistakable two hoofed (is that right) track of deer.  The kids thought that was funny to see...

Then you have cat paw prints...(yes there are several up here)

and dog paw prints....all of this are easily identified...

And then you have a bear paw print.... now that is a sight to behold. 

I can't remember the last time I saw one in mud let alone snow...

It was cute to see the small ones (two inches) and the larger ones( three inches or bigger)...until you realize that might mean momma bear and baby bear.....

But they were interesting to see and even more so when you could see that the bear had either been tracking or actively pursuing the deer...nudge..nudge...wink..wink if you get my drift....

All in all though a good day and I didn't die too much in the nerf war so an excellent ending as well...