First day of school

As we got to Alaska, we had so much to do before school started. When we arrived here school started in five days. We had so much to do. The night before school started we had to take my Mom back to the airport and we did not get home until late. We had been unpacking our things for the last four days trying to make the house livable. As many of you know Shandeigh has diabetes and also celiacs so I cannot really just take her to school and drop her off. I was tired and told the kids that we were not going to go to school on the first day. They were so disappointed. When we woke up in the morning they were begging and begging so I said get ready and we will go see what we can figure out. When we got to the school we had a big discussion with the nurse and the teacher. Shandeigh is now in 5th grade and pretty much taking care of her very own diabetes this year. I am very proud of her. She still needs some guidance sometimes, but does very well for the most part. She is growing up so fast. Shandeigh also is starting band this year and she is going to start playing the trombone. She brought it home on the first day and could blow that thing. I was surprised at how good she good do it. She says that she is the only trombone player in her band. I told her that she needed to practice alot so she could be the best. She is pretty excited about it. I on the other hand am not so sure about this loud thing playing in my house..lol Just kidding. It will be a good experience for her. Her teachers name is Mr. Johnson and he seems to be a good teacher so far. We will see as the year goes on how it goes.

Jonathan started 1st grade and goes to school all day now. He is doing well so far and is really liking it. He gets to ride the school bus this year and thinks that is pretty awesome stuff. He really acts older then a first grader to me. He is pretty mature for his age and is turning into a little man. He gets a cold lunch every day and he told me the other day that I needed to pack him more then three things because he is always still hungry. GEEZ! It makes me wonder where all that food goes that he eats because he is nothing but skin and bones. His teachers name is Mrs. Mock and she also seems to be a pretty good teacher. She is all about homework though and Jonathan is not very happy about that..lol He just wants to play all the time and hates to do his homework. He will get use to it eventually.

The school in Fort Greely has alot of Russians in it. That is what happens when you only live 75 miles from Russia. I think it is very interesting because Eric served his mission in Russia. I guess they have alot of parents who dont speak much English and need interpreters. It just might give Eric a chance to freshen up on his russian..lol
These pictures are actually the second day of school. We were in such a hurry that we did not get any pictures on the first day. This is a little shelter that they go in to wait for the bus. It gets really cold in the winter so its nice to have this for them while they are waiting for the bus.

The adventure to ALASKA!

The first day we drove to Seattle, Washington and spent the day there with my brother and his new wife and also met up with one of our good friends. We went down to pikes market and saw all the cool stuff people make. There is alot of talent at that market. We even scored on a gluten free bakery for Shandeigh. She was super excited about that. I totally forgot my camera that day also. ugh! They also had the fish market where all these fish are on ice that you can buy, as we were standing there they had this fish that came out and scared you if you were standing by it. We were right there and Quinn literally tried jumping out of his stroller. We had to leave because he was screaming at the top of his lungs. It was quite entertaining. We had lots of fun in Seattle and the next day was the journey to the longest drive ever. We drove to the border of Canada and they would not let my hubby take his pistol into Canada, so he had to go find a place in Washington that would take guns for you until you could figure out a way to get it to you. The funny thing is that he had a rifle also and they did not even care about that. Yeah was not very happy. It took us like half the day to get that mess worked out. It all worked out though and the gun is still in Washington. Our good friend picked it up for us and now we just have to figure out how to get it to Alaska. The whole trip was pretty much mountains and lakes the whole way. There would be a small little town about every 300-400 miles. It took us about a week to get there. I only got like four big huge rock chips and a crack at the bottom of my windshield. Lets just say that Canada roads do not have many road signs saying when there is gravel on the road and there was alot of it. Thank goodness for insurance so that my windshield can be replaced. We figured out that it cost us over 4.00 a gallon for gas also in Canada. My mom and I had fun trying to figure out all the conversions on money and miles and speed limits. We found a cool little conversion thing on her cell phone, so that came in handy. All I can say is I am proud to be an American and I hope we will always continue to be a free country.

One of the many beautiful lakes.

This was just a whole bunch of signs that they nailed to posts. It was kind of cool.

Check out the mountains. Yes it was like this all through Canada

Yep its another lake.

Look we finally made it to Alaska. My kids were dang excited!

It is late and I can't figure out how to space the last three pictures so I will just tell you what they are. The first is the front of our house that we are living in. The second is the side of our house. The third is our backyard. It like living in a forest here.
Shandeigh said that she saw a moose the other day at the school here on base on her way to school off base. She said that the moose looked like it was going to school. She got a kick out of it. I have not got to see a moose on the base yet, but am looking forward to seeing one. Everyone talks about how you see moose all the time. Well its late and I have more pictures from when we went to North Pole and saw Santa and his reindeer. I will do another post about that some other time. Enjoy the short video I also put on here of the pretty lake.

Vacation and whatever else.

So as many of you know Eric got a job in Alaska and we will be moving from beautiful Boise, Idaho. We will be living in a little town called Fort Greely, Alaska (military base). Well we thought we would be living in Alaska by July 15th. Well it is obviously July 31st and we are still in Boise. Are we surprised? Absolutely not! This is the military where we get to wait when its convenient for them..lol So why we are waiting and Eric does not have a job we decided to take a vacation and go see mine and Eric's family. While we were there we got to go to Glacier National Park. It was so breathtaking! I could not believe when we got to the top of the mountain how cold it was though. I guess when there is snow all year around that it would be cold. We also went to the zoo and the Titanic meusem in Idaho Falls. We had a great time being with family.

Shandeigh is at Camp Hodia and will be home tomorrow. It is a camp for kids with diabetes. She always has the best of time when she goes. We have missed her though and will be glad to have her home.

Eric had his birthday on the 28th and we had a fun time with friends and had pizza and birthday cake. It was fun to celebrate. Happy late birthday Eric! Love you!

Well that is about it. We are still waiting on Eric's orders. In the meantime maybe we will just go on another vacation. Hmm any ideas??This water is so clear. This is the snow melting and running off the mountain right into the stream. It makes me so thirsty just looking at it

One of the many waterfalls!

The family!

This is me throwing a snow ball. Someone carved a face in the snow. This snow is actually whats left of an avalanche. It destroyed the highway and took down a ton of trees. I thought the dirty stuff underneath was dirt, but its snow.

Catching up

Kids fun!

Yesterday I took the kids to home depot for the class that they offer the first weekend of every month. We have never been and it was actually quite fun. They made these wheel barrow plant holders. They also got their home depot aprons. Every time they go they get a pin to put on the apron. Quinn wore his all day and did not want anyone one to take it off. When Eric was getting his pajamas on, he did not want to take it off either. He is such a funny kid. The kids had a great time. After we left all Jonathan could talk about was how he got to use a real hammer like dads to put the nails in. If anyone wants something fun to do for your kids on saturday this is a fun thing to do.

Easter

The day before easter we colored easter eggs. We got ours done and then had about 6 more kids come over and color more easter egss. We had a great time and always love to color eggs. Not so sure about the egg smell in my fridge a couple of days later..lol

Poor Jonathan

About a month and a half ago, Jonathan broke his wrist. He was playing over at a friends house and got thrown off a rock and landed on his hand wrong. This also made it so he could not play soccer so we had to pull him out of soccer. He was REALLY sad to have to do this. Next year hopefully he will not have any injuries and get to play. He had a bad month because he was also sick with the flu for about a week and had a swollen lymphnode on the side of his neck about the size of a golf ball. He went to the doctor twice and emergency room once due to the paranoid Mom that he has. He had many blood samples drawn and we never found anything wrong with him. Thankfully he is doing better now. I am truly thankful for that my hubby is a worth priesthood holder and could give him a blessing along with our home teacher. I know that had alot to do with him getting better. He now has his cast off and is liking it much better without the cast on.

The crazy person in the house!

So this is why I have not blogged lately. I VERY addicted to couponing! I think I need to go to therapy. LOL. I got all this stuff for 38.00. I love to shop and what better way to do it now that I can save a ton of money. I can honestly say I have a ton of food storage now and it feels so good to say this. My pantry was so full I finally had to buy a can rotater, which I love, to clear some of my shelves. We also are excited to not have cans drop on our feet when we grab something.

Well that is about it that has been going on here. Eric is still busy as ever. We may not have a job in a couple of weeks again so please pray for us. We could really use all the prayers right now. Also the kids have been playing soccer. I will soon get some pictures of them.

Just Wondering

If anyone wants to be so kind, you could print me out these coupons. They are having a really great deal on cereal and I could use some more of these. Click here. It should allow you to print three. Any help would be awesome. I need about 10. HELP!!!!...lol

The Cradle Rocker

Shandeigh has these projects they do for school every couple months or so. They have been learning about Idaho History stuff. One of the things that they could do was make a model of a cradle rocker. Shandeigh had been begging me to make a real cradle rocker for a couple of weeks and I kept forgetting to tell Eric, because my brain does not work alot and I could not have the talent to make stuff like that. Well this Friday I told Eric about it and told him that if he helped her make this cradle rocker it would make her year. Well did he ever make the most COOLEST cradle rocker you have ever seen. Shandeigh is SO EXCITED to take it to school tomorrow she can hardly stand it. Thanks dear you are the BEST Dad ever! Thanks for all you do for our family.

Happy Birthday Quinn!

It was Quinn's birthday on the 5th and he turned the big 2 yrs old. We had alot planned for his birthday, but it did not go as planned. When he woke up in the morning he was so whiny until I put him down for a nap and he fell right so sleep. I thought that was weird, but I was quite ok with it. He only slept for about 20 minutes though and woke up crying saying ow ow ow and tugging on his ear. Well we ended up taking him to the doctor and he had an ear infection. We gave him some tylenol and got antibiotics going and he felt better a couple hours later. By the time Eric got home from work and school, he was a happy camper. We ate cake and opened his presents.


This is him opening his presents. I think he was more interested in opening his presents then anything.

Here is some things Quinn is doing at age two.

* When I am cleaning the house, Quinn is somewhere else making a mess. He is always getting into something you would never think he can get into it.

*He loves to dance when he hears any type of music.

*He loves to get in the markers and write all over himself. Did I mention that he got permenant marker on his birthday and drew all over his face and hands with it. I totally forgot to take pictures..dang!

* He is really good at helping pick things up.

* His favorite words are "NO" and "MINE"

*He knows how to get his own way by using his high pitch scream that he always uses.

*He loves to torture his big brother Paden.

*He loves to give his Mom and Dad hugs and kisses.

*He knows how to get his own drink of water from the fridge with the ice in it even. We have to
make sure we lock it..lol

*He loves to eat toothpaste. UGH!!

*He likes to put everyone elses shoes on.

*He is always taking his clothes off. He will not leave his pants on at home for anything.

Happy Birthday Quinn we love you!