Cool Kodiak photo's

Here is a beautiful photo where the sun is so shiny! When the sun shines here, it is amazing! Everything sparkles!

I thought this was a really cool photo from the plane coming into Kodiak. You can see all of the city of Kodiak. If you draw a line almost straight down from the arrow looking part of the plane, that is where we live. In that bunch of trees. Anyways, enjoy.

Too much fun for one person in one week!

Oh, my! We had soooo much fun in Anchorage! We had some fun trainings and classes and the shopping was FABULOUS!! Candice and I went shopping each night after the classes were over and OH MY!! I went to JC Penney's and spent $29.00, but saved $172!! I walked out of their with 2 huge bags of clothes. It was a good thing I had packed suitcases inside of suitcases! Because we had the same experience in Old Navy. Everything was 50% off and then 50% off of that. Whew! We shopped till we dropped. The conference was outstanding as well. It was like we were back in preschool ourselves with all the stickers, glue, markers, dancing, music, instruments, toys, etc. that we played with all day. Okay, we did have some trainings in discipline, and new approaches to teacher related things too, but it was interesting and fun as well. Some of the new techniques etc that I learned about I have already started to implement in our home with Dylan and the other kids and they are working soooo well! Who knew that a tennis ball with a face drawn on it and a slit cut in it for a mouth could get a kid to go get his pj's on or his church clothes on without any arguement?!? Dylan will do anything that Mr. Squishy askes him to do! Who knows how long it will last, but I will take any amount of time that it provides! I also learned about an amazing discipline program. It was taught to us by a lady named Becky Bailey. She is from Florida and came up to our conference as a keynote speaker and also did some training groups. Her approach is called Conscious Discipline. You can look it up on line at www. conscious discipline.com. I was having lightbulb moment after lightbulb moment in her trainings! Amazing woman!!! With many great insights! I would highly recommend checking her out when you get a chance. Well, needless to say I had an amazing time and am looking forward to next years conference!!!

I'm so EXCITED!!!!

Okay, for all of you who do this all the time and think it is not very exciting, just bear with me! I get to go on my first business trip tomorrow!!!!!! I am flying up to Anchorage for 4 days for a Preschool Teachers Convention/Conference. My school wants me to go and is paying for everything. I am so excited to go to all the different workshops and exhibits etc. Two of the other girls that I work with are also going, one has taught for many years and all her kids are grown and on their own, but myself and Candice have just entered the work force after spending the past 10-12 years at home raising kids and so we are just beside ourselves with excitment! So I will let you know how it all goes. WHOO HOO!!!

Relief!

I have just been released as Cub Master and Wolf, Bear, and Webelos leader! YEAH!!!! I have been the one and only cub scout leader for our ward for the last year. They had discontinued the scouting program years before we moved there and then when we showed up and they heard that I had been in scouting, they asked me if I could start it up again. So I did and only started with 5 boys and in the process we have moved up to 20+ boys after I went and did a little song and dance about cubs at my kids' elementary school back in September. Well, I could no longer do it myself so they have finally gotten some more leaders for the scouting program and I am so happy to just be over the Webelos group with Colton. What a relief!!! It was getting to be too much with that, ward organist, ward custodian, and primary pianist. You've got to love the tiny wards!

Mom is really OLD!!!

Oh, I am still giggling about this one!!! I have Dylan home from school today because he has the stomach flu again. So, I made him some noodle soup for lunch and crackers to settle his stomach. He was also drinking his Gatorade as well. We were talking and he asked me if my Mom made me noodle soup when I wasn't feeling well. I said yes. Then he asked me if my Mom gave me Gatorade to drink when I was sick. I had to tell him that when I was little they didn't have Gatorade yet and we drank Sprite and 7-UP when we were sick. He looked at me funny and said, "You mean back in the old west?"

Relief Society Retreat

We had a fun Relief Society retreat this past weekend. They rented a beach house for us to go spend the weekend at. We had many different activities going on. One that is pictured here is making candles. We melted bees wax and dipped our own candles. The Sister in the blue with the scarf is our wonderful Relief Society President, Sister RuthAnn Robert who organized this whole fabulous weekend. She also is a great friend! She comes over to our house quite often and just watches my kids, so Ken and I can go out or just hangs out with all of us. She is an amazing woman whom I just adore!

Here is some of the Sisters with their finished candles. We dipped the string in so that you had the two ends covered in wax and the middle of the string uncovered so you could hold onto it. Then we took the two waxed ends and twisted them together. It was to symbolize us and Christ becoming one and that together we were stronger and could accomplish so much more if we were as one.

We just had so much fun visiting, munching on various snacks, and making crafts all night long. And I'm serious about the ALL NIGHT LONG part! I didn't go to sleep that night. We were having too much fun.

This is Melanie, Crystal, and Terri making coasters for one of our crafts. We had such a fun time just getting to know each other better and laughing and having a good time. We have a great bunch of women here in our ward!!

CONGRATS TO THE "5"!!!

Oh, my the "5" have arrived! James, Madison, Quincy, Ian, and Caleb have graduated from Nursery and joined the ranks of Primary. YEAH!!! I also have to send out a big congrats to Pam and Sandy and myself as well because we have also now graduated from Nursery. WHOO HOO!!
(For all who don't know the history behind this- myself and 4 of my siblings all had babies in 2005 between the months of January through April. My parents were hopping all over the US for the blessings of these 5 babies and we will encounter the same when they turn 8 and are baptized. CRAZY!! But fun.)

Twilight Movie

The Twilight movie finally came to Kodiak last night and a bunch of us girls went to see it for our girls night out. It was so fun to crash the movie theater like that! Most of us had read the books and were very excited to see it. What a huge let down! I'm sorry for anyone who has not seen it to spoil it, but don't waste your money!! It was fun though because we were all there together and we could laugh and make fun of it throughout the movie!

Here is most of us after the movie.

We have rejoined the 21st Century!

Happy New Year to Everyone!!!

We had a great New Years Eve! We had a party at our house with some friends and all the kids! It started with the Kodiak Firework display that was supposed to happen on the 4th of July, but because of rain and wind it didn't happen then, and this was the 5th attempt to shoot them off since then. It was a lot of fun. A lot colder than it would have been in July, but fun none the less. Then we all came over to our home for movies, goodies, games, and visiting. It was great to be able to send the kids all up into the theater room and we had the whole downstairs to visit etc without the noise of so many kids! They all had to head home before midnight because they all have littles that were getting tired and cranky. But our kids stayed up til midnight for the first time and we shot off the confetti poppers and blew horns until our ears were ringing and then we tucked them all in bed. Whew!!

(This photo was taken Christmas morning about 10:30 am, and you can see that it is still dark outside. This crazy place we live, but we love it!)

Cole got a new scooter for Christmas that he has had fun riding around the neighborhood on. I just thought this was a good picture of him, which I don't get too many of because he either won't sit still long enough for his dear old Mom to take one of him or the flash is so bright that his eyes are closed (his eyes are very sensitive to lights).

Here are all the kids waiting to come down the stairs Christmas morning to open their presents! HEE HEE! Just wait a little longer, nope, a little longer, etc! As you can see, Quincy didn't want to wait for breakfast and so she requested that her toast be served to her on the stairs.


I got this cute picture of Quincy the Sunday before Christmas. She had worn this dress to church and I just thought she looked so cute that I just wanted to stop time for a little while. (Thank you Sandy for the dress!)

Anyways, we are back online and I am so forever in debt to our friend Chad for fixing our computer.

We also need to welcome Del and Shannon to Kodiak!! They finally ALL arrived on Monday, Dec. 29th. We are so excited to have them here and we have already bombarded the McDonalds here with all 10 of our kids. Which is a huge thing for the Kodiak McDonalds as they probably only have 10 booths in the whole building and a small little indoor playland. But it is better than nothing. :]