Our Birthday Boy

Hello all! We've had a busy Memorial Day weekend. The weather's been beautiful and we've been celebrating three years with Xavier. Xavier's birthday party was yesterday (Sunday) at an inflatable bouncing place called "Pump it Up." Xavier had a fun time running around and playing with his friends. After the party wrapped up, we came back to our house and had a little bbq with family, including Nate, Cassie and the girls. It was a great day.

Today we took Xavier to McDonalds for breakfast and let him run around the playland. That was a special treat. Then we headed over to the Anchorage Museum's Imaginarium exhibits. The boys played in the science area before heading over to the sealife exhibits.

This afternoon, Xavier helped me plant some flowers in the garden and water the lawn. He's such a silly guy. He grabbed his umbrella (or rainbrella as he calls it) and kept running underneath the sprinkler. He still got pretty wet, but he didn't seem to mind.

OK, I am so drained right now, I don't know what I'm leaving out! So here are a couple of pictures and we will check in again soon!

I have enjoyed seeing the recent posts and loved the video. None of you can ever put too much info or pictures. It is great seeing what is happening with each of you.
We are finally enjoying some beautiful Alaska Weather. Of course that means it gets a little above 60 degrees but it feels great to us. We really could use some rain but the blue skies and sunshine feels fantastic.
I wanted to be sure that all of you knew that the I Bonds that we send to the kids are worth $50 when they receive them(that is what we pay for them) They have to wait at least 12 months to cash them in but they increase in value for 30 years. There is a fixed and variable interest rate that determines how they increase. You can read about them online.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that if you have any ideas of things you want made for your children for Christmas (scroll saw type projects) Please pass that info on to me soon. I am getting very slow and old so I need lots of time.
I hope you are all well and enjoying your wonderful families.

I Love You!
Mom

The Kids' Dance Party

So you guys are going to get sick of seeing all my posts lately, but that's too bad!

This is a video Trever took of the kids a while back and he took the time yesterday to put it on the computer so we thought we would share! Enjoy!

Asher's 1!

So, our little man is lucky enough to share a birthday with his cool cousin Andrew, and on Tuesday he turned one! He is such a joy to have in our family. His favorite things at the moment are standing up (still holding on though), filling and emptying containers, and anything involving him getting attention from Mommy, Ayana, or Daddy. He finally decided it was okay to crawl on his hands and knees, but still army crawls when he wants to get somewhere fast. He will walk with help and is beginning to cruise along the furniture, but I think it will be a little while before he really walks. No words yet, so maybe he will be a late talker like Ayana, we'll see. He is definitely a Momma's boy, he prefers Mom to anyone else, but will settle for Dad when he has to. I am sure that if Ayana was able to carry him around he would like her best though, he always wants to be where she is and do what she is doing. He is a very happy little boy quick to smile for his family, but a little shy around strangers. He loves to eat cheerios and kix and just about anything else he can get his hands on. He is still my little snatcher who will grab a hold of anything and everything, even when you are sure it is out of his reach. He is a wonderful addition to our family and we feel so blessed to have him!

Here are his one year old stats:

weight: 21 lbs (20th percentile)

height: 28 inches (3rd percentile)

5 teeth

and

The cutest little smile ever seen!

Asher's first picture

Asher at 5 months

Asher at 10 months

Asher as a One Year Old!

Big Birthday Boy!

Happy 9th Birthday to our big boy! I can't believe that Andrew is already 9 years old. I don't know where the time has gone. He is such a special boy, and we are so blessed to have him in our family.
Here are a few pictures from the past year...

So last week we had Weinhard's Root Beer with our dinner. THe kids were enthralled with the bottles. Trever saved the last few sips of his for Asher and gave him the bottle. He couldn't quite figure out how to drink from the bottle, but he sure loved playing with it. So here's some cute pictures of my two crazy kiddos. We are excited for Asher's birthday in a couple of days, and I will be sure to post some pictures of him enjoying his birthday cake.

Ayana trying to play her bottle like a flute

Dad, this bottle is just too tall!

Since it is Mother's day today I am reminded how very very blessed I am to be a mother and Grandmother to such awesome people. Each of you is such a blessing!!!
On this day I am especially thankful for my 4 daughters and 2 daughter-in-laws who are such fantastic mothers. I am so proud of each of you and the wonderful job you do raising my beautiful, fantastic grandchildren. We have had several grandparents at the daycare who are raisng their grandkids because parents aren't doing their job so it makes me especially thank ful for each of you.
The weather here is definitely getting nice. The trees are green and the rhubarb and lilies are popping so it is time to plant the garden. Dad made his annual six wheel trip to the knik Glacier yesterday and they had perfect weather.
I hope all is well with all of you!
I Love Each of You!
Mom

The Mouse House!

So I am finally getting a time when the computer is available and I am awake and the kids are not needing my attention for a moment, it is a miracle! Life around here is jam packed and wonderful as usual.

A couple weeks ago between semesters we went on a whirlwind vacation to Disneyland, or as Ayana likes to call it "The Mouse House." It was a belated 5th anniversary trip and just an opportunity to do something besides the same old same old in Rexburg. After the LONG drive to California we spent the first night at Shannon's house. The kids did amazingly well on the drives. Asher decided to get 2 new teeth just before the trip and had been super fussy so I was worried, but it turned out to be a blessing because he slept much more than he normally does during the drive. Shannon was kind enough to add my two crazy kids to her brood for a couple of days, so the next morning Trever and I (sans kids) left and headed to Anaheim.

We spent two blissful days just he and I and it was fabulous. This is the first time since Ayana was born that we have been on a date longer than about 8 hours and certainly the first nights without any kids around. It sure was a nice break and made me appreciate them more when they came back. We had a ton of fun riding the rides and enjoying all the fun. We enjoyed a number of the rides, but I think our favorites were Indiana Jones and Toy Story Midway Mania where you ride through and play a bunch of midway games in a video game type format. We thought it was a blast. We also went and saw the Aladdin show that is a live musical theater presentation. It was cool to see and made us excited for the day in the future when we can afford and have time to go t regular theater events. We also swam in our hotel pool, ate at some yummy restaurants and I got to sleep for 8 whole hours 2 nights in a row. All in all it was a great two days.

The third day we met up with Shannon to get the kids back and took them with us to Disneyland. It was sure a different place when you experience it with 2 small children. Asher was too young to do much, but I think he still enjoyed himself. Ayana was a little overwhelmed at first, but once we got in the swing of things she really enjoyed herself. She LOVED meeting Mickey Mouse and going through his house. Her favorite ride was Autopia where she got to drive a car around the track with a little help from her Dad. She also always talks about "going on the boat to see sharks" For some reason she loves sharks and remembers vividly the nemo ride where you go on a submarine and see clips from Nemo as well as some underwater scenes. At the time the ride scared her a bit, but now she talks about it constantly. Asher was a great kid who just enjoyed hanging with his mom a lot and the few rides he was able to go on. Now every day Ayana asks "to go to the Mouse House."

It was a wonderful vacation and we had a great time. Now we are counting down till the end of July when we get to go camping in Utah for a week. Vacations are always the best, especially with Trever who can make anything fun and enjoyable.

Other than that, life is the same as always. As you saw, I cut my hair pretty terrible in that picture with Shannon and Megan, but I've figured out some other ways to do it that look better. All in all though, I have now had short hair and know for sure that it is not the look for me. Though short hair is amazingly convenient, and to never have it in your face is great!

My very smart husband finished another semester with straight A's and only has another year and half to go. Now we are beginning to look into Grad school and taking the GRE and all that fun stuff. Right now he is thinking about either MIT or BYU in Provo. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, after all my jabbering here are some pictures from the mouse house...

This was definitely a quick week. We left for a quick trip to California a week ago friday and spent a couple days with the Olsens and then headed to Megan's for a quick visit before flying back to Alaska from Fresno. It was absolutely fantastic to see both families. All the kids are growing quickly and are so much fun to see. We really regretted missing Amber and her family by a week but hopefully we will find a way to see everyone else in the not tooooooooooooooo distant future.
Our connections for our flights weren't the greatest so we spent friday and tuesday night sleeping in the seattle airport but that's part of the deal sometimes. It was definitely worth it! Thanks so much Shannon for making my trip possible.
Things here are slowly warming up even though we did see some snow flurries again this morning. The rhubarb, lilies and strawberries are all popping so it should be time to get some seeds in the ground soon.
Scott and the boys were out yesterday( Yvonne was on a short trip with some friends) and we enjoyed seeing them. The sandbox was the place to be so the kids had a good time playing there.
I hope you all have a great week. Love You All!
Mom

Deadliest Catch

A couple weeks ago, we had several animals in our yard. The first was a baby possum in our back yard. Nathan and the boys caught it, put it in a box, and drove off to a wooded area to set it free. The very next day, when Nathan went to check the mail, there was a Black Widow spider that had built a web across the opening. Then, a few days later, there was a gorilla swinging in the trees! Andrew is not always the most daring of children, but when he threw his baseball and it got struck high up in the tree,...guess who was the one that had to retrieve it! Once he was up there, he almost didn't want to come down.