It's a whole new year....

I just wanted to remind myself how awesome last year was and how great this year is going to be....

Last year started off with a lot of snow and cold. Of course, we are in Alaska, so that shouldn't be to much of a surprise. We took the kids sledding, snowboarding, skiing, and ice skating. Of course Madison participated in Girl Scout events. Madison also participated in her first science fair and received a first place ribbon for her project on clouds! We really got into the Library's story time where Christian and Liberty participated regularly and I even started helping with crafts and such. Before we knew it the school year was coming to an end and the snow was already melting.

Spring brought with it a lot of sludge as all the snow and ice melted. The warmer weather had us dying to spend time outside. The family went to a Girl Scout event that had us flying kites and cleaning up the beach for summer. A spring concert at school and a pre-school graduation for Christian, and we were ready for the heat!

Summer came with long days and new friends. Spending almost every waking hour playing, hiking, camping, sitting around a fire, bbq's, swimming and so much more. Madison and Christian both celebrated birthdays! Soccer, the fair, and a trip to Anchorage made the summer even fuller. Christian learned to ride his bike without training wheels just before the cold weather started kicking in again.

Fall gave us amazing colors and cool weather. It also brought a brand new school year. Madison moving on to 1st grade and Christian staying home and going to speech therapy in preparation for Kindergarten. By October the snow was falling and the kids were ready to get out their sleds.

The holiday's felt amazing and full! Halloween was a blast and Thanksgiving was full! Before we knew it Christmas break was upon us! More sledding and ice skating. I finally talked Todd into buying some tools, and I mean real tools... Like saw and sander and so on. So over the Christmas break we started building things together.
Here we find ourselves in a new year with all the love and joy of last year! This new year will bring us so much I'm sure and we already have some exciting things planned! The science fair, a visit home, another year of Girl Scouts, summer activities, and a new baby!

Expecting ... Again...

This makes baby number 4 for us! We are so excited!
Today we made a trip to Fairbanks to see an ultrasound tech. She was wonderful and allowed our whole family, of 5, in the room at the same time. She was very pleased with how well behaved and well mannered our yes ma'am/no ma'am kids were. Which is always nice for me to hear because it offers some reassurance that I am doing well raising well adjusted, respectful, one day adults. Anyway, when we left the office we were equipped with pictures, a dvd, and new knowledge of our little kicker. We are having another girl! Christian was not to thrilled with the idea at first, because he has been asking for a brother. He says he needs someone to share his toys with. I think a girl will be great for us. Christian will be our only boy and that makes him that much more special. Of course each one of our girls are special to us, and they seem to have a knack for making themselves so.
With enough chatter from me I will get on to sharing the video I made. I used the song "Come To Me" by Celine Dion on her Miracle album she did with Anne Geddes. Hopefully baby will enjoy it as much as we do.



Lyrics:
I will always love you no matter what
No matter where you go or what you do
And knowing you
You're gonna have to do things you're own way
And that's okay
So be free, spread your wings
And promise me just one thing...

If you ever need a place to cry
Baby, come to me
Come to me
I've always known that you were born to fly
But you can come to me
If the world breaks your heart
No matter where on Earth you are
You can come to me

Don't walk around with the world on you're shoulders
And you're highest hopes laying on the ground
I know you think you've gotta try to be my hero
But dont you know the stars you wish upon they fall its true
But I still belive in you

If you ever need a place to cry
Baby, come to me
Come to me
I've always known that you were born to fly
But you can come to me
If the world breaks your heart
No matter where on Earth you are
You can come to me

And the seven sea's you sail
All the winding road you're on
Leave you lost and feeling all alone
Let my heart be your beacon home

If you ever need a place to cry
Baby, come to me
Come to me
I've always known that you were born to fly
But you can come to me
When the world breaks your heart
No matter where on Earth you are
You can come to me

Life here and now...

Liberty's Photo Shoot
Madison guarding the goal at practice

Me and the girls getting ready for midnight showing of eclipse.

My little superhero

Part of our Eclipse gear

So quick update since I haven't been doing much on here... You'll see me a lot more in the winter.

So the summer here is fantastic. Sun is always up, you feel like time is unlimited, and there are always friends to be with. Summer is also full of camping, hiking, laying on the beach, sports, friends, fishing for seagulls, races, and so much more...

I also just finished a block of classes with a B+ in both classes. A block consists of 2 classes for 9 weeks. I just jumped into my second block this week...

We plan on taking a trip to Anchorage in a few days. When we get back Madison will be going to girl scout camp. School starts soon for her...

I photographed Liberty lately. She is growing so fast...

Christian is speaking more. He is much easier to understand now...

XOXO~

Life is busy...

But I have some tricks up my sleeve when it comes to maintaining the chaos in my life. My number one thing is FlyLady! She helps me keep the chaos at home to a minimum! With a daily cleaning mission and weekly home blessing I will never have to spring clean again. Every week you focus on a different zone and they help you maintain clutter as well. If you can live with out something - get rid of it.
Another trick of mine is my calendar. I actually bought a school planner and I cut the tip of the end of the days that have past so I can easily locate where I am in my week. Another thing I do is use different colors for different people or for priority things. If it is a priority I normally put it in pen and other things in pencil. Different colors allow me to see who is doing what... Madison's cheer leading, Girl Scouts, Todd's work schedule. I also make sure when the kids receive a birthday invitation or Todd lets me know there is a squadron party I put it in the calendar immediately that way I am not looking for a tossed invitation later. ALSO, I RSVP immediately! Even if It is a maybe, people prefer maybe's to no response at all and a lot of time they will check back with me and ask if I know for sure yet if we will be able to attend or not.
Laundry is another place I cheat. I do laundry everyday... and when it comes from the dryer I immediately fold it! Socks however do not get folded. Instead I have small baskets on the dryer, each labeled with someone's name, and their socks get tossed into this basket. If someone decides they need socks before I have a chance to fold them and put them away they can run down and just grab their basket. The kids normally match their own and take them to their rooms. I am still working to get them to remember to return the baskets when they are done though...lol. I take laundry upstairs and put it away once a week. The same day I normally clean the laundry room. Sometimes if I have extra time on my hands or have just folded a small enough load I'll run it up right away but for the most part it all stays downstairs until the one day and then I get everyone's help putting laundry away. Todd normally helps carry it up and the kids put their p.j.s and such in their drawers.
My final thing is school work. I have yet to find a way to work a schedule for my school work. At the moment I have Todd take the kids out for a little while or wait until they go to bed. I am not to concerned with making a schedule for my school since this is one of the reasons I choose online classes. This way I could work it in when it was convenient. However, I am always open to suggestions.
Life is far from perfect, but these little things help me keep some sanity.

A day for me...
I wake up and get dressed and ready for the day all the way to my shoes
swish and swipe the bathroom before you leave it... make sure my hot iron is put away or any other tools i used
empty the dishwasher
make coffee
wake up the kids
serve breakfast
check calendar and help the kids get dressed and do the girls' hair
Take christian to school
check kelly's zone mission, my email and so on
take madison to school
work on kelly's mission and do todays chores
pick up christian from school
serve lunch
finish chores and take the babies outside
pick up madison from school
fill the sink with hot soapy water so I can clean as I do dinner
Let the kids play outside, play a game with them or take them to their extra cirricular
start dinner
give kids baths
layout clothes for tomorrow
put kids to bed
clean kitchen
do school work
brush teeth and get to bed

MY WEEK:
Mondays = Tanning day, and my weekly home blessing (which consists of sorting magazines, changing sheets, empty all trash, dust furniture, vacume all rooms, mop kitchen and bath, clean mirrors and doors) *more info on the weekly home blessing hour can be found on FlyLady website*
Tuesdays = Free day and work out day, I will water plants and spend 15 min in todays zone
Wednesdays = zone clean and desk time, clean fridge, make menus, balance checkbook, make cards
Thursday = Grocery and errand day, Workout day
Friday = paperwork and other, Tanning day, clean out car, purse, and laundry room
Sat = family day
Sunday = renew your spirit day

How do you keep up with life?

Ipad vs. Slate

my first question is where were all the women when apple was choosing a name for their newest product? and did anyone try to explain to them why a sanitary product might not make the best name for a $600 product? LOL

Anyway... thanks to apples remarkable advertisers they once again sold the nation on something. Well everyone but me that is.

With Ipad's heavy tablet that CAN NOT replace your laptop, there are a few more reasons IPad is not my first pick. Now don't get me wrong... if you love your Iphone and want to get a super version of it... this is a buy for you. But if your struggling with the economy and want a cool toy at a better deal.. then check out the Hp's Slate.

IPAD PROS:

• It is about the size of a piece of paper
• It is everything you would expect from a apple touch screen experience
• The battery life (so far) is great

SLATE PROS:

• Slightly lighter than the Ipad
• Offers features that are missing on the iPad, such as a built-in camera, a USB port (a real one, not an adapter), and an SD card slot.
• 3MP lens in back and a front-facing VGA camera for video conferencing
• "conventional" SIM tray for 3G networking
• HDMI-out video capabilities (not to mention 1080p playback) via the Slate's dock connector
• Windows 7, a full-on, multitasking, desktop-caliber operating system

IPAD CONS:

• Heavier than you would think
• The keyboard app is ackward to type on and would leave you hunched over a table.
• Apps are expensive
• No flash support
• Won't replace your laptop
• You will have to buy other assesories, like a keyboard

SLATE CONS:

• Shorter battery life (5hrs compared to the 10 hours on the Ipad)
• Price tag may be slightly higher than the IPad

So Slate wins hands down for me...
Check it out for yourself...
HP.com/slate

Oh wow... a long one...

Story time last Thursday was about dog mushing. The kids had a lot of fun meeting a dog and checking out the sled.




We participated in a scavenger hunt Friday and one of the things we needed was a Halloween greeting card... so I whipped this one up real fast. We had a lot of fun though running around ... I think the greatest was the pictures... We had to wear wigs and take a picture with smokey the bear, play twister in the bowling alley, wear diving fins at the playground... and so much more.



Madison is getting reading glasses. Christian thinks he needs them too... I couldn't help but giggle to myself when he tried on a pair. He looks so much like his daddy...lol

A new place for my craft stuff. I still have a ways to go but this is the start. I actually have an area dedicated to everything now. I started to paint the walls... but then couldn't bear to cover all the kids art. Especially since this is a room of inspiration and nothing inspires me more than my kids. The room is L shaped so on one end I have my cricut, computer, and sewing machine... things I use together a lot. I put all my fabric into the old wood toy chest and got under the bed cases for the kids toys.

The other end of the room is the paper area and a table for me to sit and do my cutting, stamping, and card making... most of the supplies which have been moved into the drawers of the huge case behind the table.

So it may not look like much... but if you look at what I came from...

Lol... yeah... what a mess!!

Mission decorate and organize!

I decided I'm going to move my craft room out of the laundry room! Tomorrow I will grab a few new shelves and get started on my mission. If anyone has super ideas for organizing and decorating let me know... I'm working with an L shaped room w/ no windows... time to get creative! I can't wait to get started! I've got the spring cleaning bug. We got our garage all cleaned out! Go us! I also have some before pictures I can't wait to share once I have some after pictures to go with them.

I found a really cool blog http://www.tipjunkie.com/. While browsing the site I found the coolest thing I think I've found on the web yet! A guide to chores by age!!! View the chart here.

Well, I'm going to go check out the Northern lights for a few minutes and then get myself in bed.

Laundry Simplified?

Purex just sent me a sample of Purex Complete 3-in-1 Laundry sheets. The first thing I noticed about this product was that it smells great! They sent me the Spring Oasis scent and it smells very clean and floral... even Todd and the kids approved of the scent.
This product is suposed to work by dropping it into the washer with a load of clothes and then putting it in the dryer with the same load. Ultimatly to remove all the messuring, messes, extra bottles and trash, and make my life a heck of a lot easier!
So far, we have a product that is enviromental friendly, simple to use, and smells great!
Now about price. It costs about $8.99 for a starter pack* which is equal to 20 loads. Compare that to a bottle of Purex Laundry detergent for $6.49 (32 loads) and a bottle of Downy Fabric Softener $7.69 (60 loads). This means if you measure your detergent and softener perfectly and get the said number of loads out of each bottle (which I never do) you spend about .33 cents on each load. With the Purex complete 3-in-1 it costs about .45 cents a load. I would spend .11 cents more per load for simplicity! *note that the refill packs contain 24 loads
I have to say I was impressed by the performance of this product... even getting my sons smelliest clothes clean. Overall a great buy... Thanks Purex!

Get a Free Sample of Purex!!
Read more about Purex 3-in-1

Because sometimes I like to rock-n-roll...

Oh, Joan...

Go me!

I had class today and am so proud of myself for making the effort! Go Me!
Now off to look for some organization ideas that won't break the bank. I need help with all our closets! Hmm... and the laundry and craft room could use some help too!

So last night the Northern Lights were out and I took Madison for a drive to see. They were amazing, bright and dancing! I wish I could share what we saw, but of course no pictures could compare. I took my little camera out and it kinda picked up a little of the lights. I think I would need a very expensive professional grade camera to pick them up correctly. My camera can't even pick up stars ...lol... but it did get some of these lights!

Little Blogger...

Courtney snapped this cute picture of Liberty helping me post a blog. Isn't she something!!

About Me

I am a wife and mother, which basically means I am clothes washer, food maker, money distributor, calendar maker and booger wiper. My children fill most of my time, but I still enjoy random things. My mood is always changing, and what I do changes with my mood.