Here's some pics of our new van, the longer we have it, the more we love it. Whoever invented the automatic opening and closing doors should definitely win the Nobel Peace Prize or something, they certainly brought peace to my little world!

SPRING BREAK

Let me begin by stating that I did not grow up in a camping family,...therefore, I am not a camper. But as the kids are getting older, we didn't want another Spring Break to come and go, without doing anything fun, or out of the ordinary. So, after much deliberation, it was decided that we were going to go CAMPING! We invited along another family to add to the fun and adventure. At first we were going to head to Akansas to a park about 4 hours away. But in the end, we thought that since this was our first attempt, and it was still a little chilly outside with a possibilty of rain, that we wouldn't go too far. So, instead, we went to Wall Doxie State Park, which is about 45 minutes south of us. The kids had a blast setting up tents, going on a 2.5 mile hike around the lake, playing frisbee golf, playing boccee ball and horseshoes, making smores, and chillin around the campfire. Although a little too cold for me, I must admit that it was a fun 3 days. I don't know that I would now claim to be a camper, but I think we may try it again when the weather is a little warmer. We are planning another adventure with a group of families for later next month.

March Madness

I feel like it's been a while since we checked it. We are all doing well, staying busy that's for sure. This month Xavier started swim lessons at the Alaska Club. He loves getting in the water and splashing around. I think he also likes that fact that he is in the water without mommy and daddy, so he feels like a big boy. Toby had his six month appointment and is growing and changing more each day. He now weighs in at 18 pounds 11 ounces. If I remember correctly, that's what Xavier weighed at a year!

Scott has been incredibly busy at work. The new supervisor is here, but his old one has not retired yet. I think there is about a month of crossover time to wrap things up and get the new guy up to speed. Next month, Scott will be in Houston for three weeks. We thought about meeting him there, but decided it's not worth the cost since he will be working the whole time. We would rather be saving our pennies for a vacation in February. Unless we move out of Alaska, which, at this time, sounds like a possibility.

We hope you all are doing well! Amber, congrats on the minivan! Post pics when you can! I want to check it out!

I can't believe that I am sitting here at 8:30pm and it is still light outside. The weather has been really nice (in the 40's) the last few days and it really seems like spring. We will probably get another foot of snow next week but it has been great to have a few nice days. Prince seems to have found somewhere to dig so when he goes outside he has been coming back rather muddy.
I couldn't believe that your Dad thought it was ok to give him a bath in the sink. Yuck!!!!!!!!!
I made sure I got him cleaned up really quick today with an old wet towel.
Dad and I have been working on opening up the wall between the two upstairs bedrooms and putting in a large closet in our present bedroom. The closet will be the whole length of the wall where our door is now. That door will open to a small hall closet and we will get to our room from the other door. It is coming along pretty well but we still have a long way to go. We have new carpet coming in 2-3 weeks so hopefully we will be ready for it when it gets here. The worst thing so far has been sanding the stuff used to fill the nail holes and cover the joints. It said it was low dust but they definitely lied. Dad definitely enjoyed making the holes in the wall between the two rooms. I am really looking forward to getting it done. Dad may even decide he can share a closet with me again.
I hope you are all doing well. We love each of you soooooooo much and you are in our thoughts and prayers every day. Have a great week!
Love - Mom

We found one!

Well, we are officially van owners. I am a little sad about not having my car, it was the first vehicle I ever owned that I really loved and it was very reliable and great mileage. However, I am very excited about the van that we got. It is a 2003 Chrysler Town and Country Limited. It is really in great shape with only a few small scratches, and no stains or anything. It has lots of fancy extras like memory seat positioning, heated seats, DVD player for the kids, etc. I would probably never pay for those things if I was picking all the features myself (especially the DVD player) but when you buy used you just get what you get as far as that stuff goes. We feel really good about the deal we got. They took $3000 off the original asking price (which was the blue book value) and gave us $1500 more than what blue book said to expect for our trade in. In the end we got a much nicer van than we were expecting to be able to get and we are very excited about it. I already love how much space we have. It does feel really strange to be way up high in the van instead of really low like my car. We will probably take a picture or two this weekend and I will post one for you all to see

Well, it seems like it has been forever since I posted on here. Not much is going on in our lives, The kids are growing like crazy and are more fun every day. Asher is still working on the crawling, but I know it will be any day now that he is an expert at it; he is so close! He started waving a few weeks back but now he just loves to wave at you, especially if you wave at him first, then he tries to copy the way you waved at him. He loves to be held, and gets mad if you ever put him down, though the other day at church he thought being down was alright when there were two little girls on the floor to watch and steal toys from. Ayana is turning out to be a real character. She loves to play the xylophone that Dad made for Christmas and sing at the top of her lungs "La, La, La" Her latest thing is whenever Dad asks if she wants a piggy back ride, or to ask for a ride she starts oinking like a pig, it is pretty funny. She loves to play ghost, and to be outside, luckily the weather has finally started to warm up. She likes to crawl around the house to try to show Asher how, or to push on his bum to try to get him to crawl. She is not good at sharing toys, but in every other way is a wonderful and helpful big sister. Trever and I have just been doing the same old thing. He is doing well as always in his classes. He is also getting very excited for the warmer weather because that means it is almost time to get his RC truck out again! We spent a good few hours yesterday getting our car all cleaned and ready to sell. Hopefully by this weekend we will be able to trade it in, and between that and some cash we have end up with a van. I always said I never wanted a van, but now I can't wait to own one! If any one has any recommendations for a good type of van let me know. Love you Guys!

Well, I guess I have been a slacker for a few weeks but since Dad picked up the ball while we were in Hawaii so he kept you all up to date. It has been great to see Cassie, Nate and the girls.
They are all doing well, busy job hunting etc.
We got a little snow over the weekend but all and all winter has been really mild. Since it is well into March the days are getting much longer and spring is at least a hope for the near future.
We have started tearing apart our bedroom to eventually open up the two upstairs bedrooms into one area. Dad is working on a large closet which will be the whole length of our bedroom and then we will take out our present closet and have a large opening there to connect the two rooms. After all that I will have to repaint and then we will have new carpeting put in. We should be finished in a couple months max but time will tell. I bought tile for the bathroom several months ago and that it sitting in the garage so who knows.
I hope all is well with all of you.
Love You
Mom

Playtime!

We are so happy Cassie, Nate, Kyrie and Arianna are back home in Alaska. Since they've been home, Xavier has insisted on driving out to visit twice and the Green's have come into Anchorage to visit us too. We love it. Xavier thinks Kyrie is the best friend ever and loves playing games with her. Arianna is the sweetest little girl who gives her little cousin Toby plenty of love and attention. Here are a couple pictures of the little ones playing at our house on Thursday. There's even a picture of Uncle Scott playing "wiggle worm" with them. Hopefully more cousins will decide to move back home too, so we can have even more fun and playdates. (HINT HINT!)Well, at least visit more often! Love you all!

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