Nature lovin

The last week here has been amazing. We have really been enjoying the nice cool fall weather.

The kids and I went on a little hike collecting all different kinds of leaves to use for art projects. 

Lance loved climbing up the trees to collect leaves.

I love this picture of Lance looking at the already bare tree. 

We had tons of fun on our hike and gathered all different shapes, sizes, and colors of leaves & a few pine cones.

Once we were home we dumped out the bucket on the table and started our art projects. 

Lexie was amazed at how we could see the leaves under the paper by rolling over them with a crown.

Like normal, Lance had his own vision of how his leaf art should look. He taped down the leaves and then cut them out. A tiny spider crawled out of the leaf pile and he taped it down too for part of his art work.

Fall is so beautiful here! God's handy work is clearly displayed. We are definitely enjoying it to the fullest with lots of walks, bike rides and evening drives.

Update on the kids

Lance and Lexie are constantly growing and learning. I love how they love to learn and are so easy to teach. Lance can recognize all the uppercase letters in the alphabet now and knows most of their sounds. Lexie can pick out a majority of the letters and identify them. SHe loves to make the T and S sounds.

Lance can now count to 39 with no help. I feel like it took a while to get the concept down of saying "twenty one, twenty two,...." It has finally clicked and he now has figured out that is just repeats itself. Once he gets to 39 and I say 40 he is on a roll again. 

Lexie can count to 20. I think she is starting to get the concept of the numbers repeating too. My little princess will be 3 in less than three months!!

This week we are looking at some preschools. I am not too thrilled about the whole preschool idea. Lance learns way more from me and we do stuff constantly with other groups of kids. I'm not ready to put him in school, so unless I find a place that we both absolutely love then we're not going to mess with it.

The last year with the kids has definitely been the most enjoyable. We are out of diapers and don't require all the extra gear that we used to. They listen well enough that I don't mind taking them to the store or anywhere really. We have so much fun together!! I really do enjoy being a stay at home mom. Sure, there are days that get a little crazy, but I wouldn't change it for the world!

Apparently the kids really enjoyed daddy being home with them while I was gone to Minneapolis, because Lance asked me if I would go somewhere really far again. 

Lance is wearing a size 5 now and a size 12 in shoes! No way does it seem like the tiny baby I brought home from the hospital should be this big!! He now weighs almost 40 pounds.

Lexie is still in all size 4T and wears a size 8 & 9 in shoes. She is still bigger than most kids her age, but I finally feel like she has slowed down growing. Her hair reaches the middle of her back now. I have thrown around the idea of a trim just to even it out, but when I talked to Lexie about it she didn't like the idea of someone cutting her hair. I'll bring it up again soon. 

We love our new mom group. They have different activities almost every day. Today was all about apples. We all brought different kinds and our favorite toppings. We tried some marshmallows and peanut butter, coconut butter and cinnamon, chocolate chips, and of course, caramel. The kids even painted with apples. It sounds strange, but it turned out really cool. If you cut an apple in half rite through the middle then the middle makes a star. The kids stamped with their apples. It kind of looked like sand dollars. I miss visiting the apple orchards every fall!!

We are having lots of fun exploring our new home and making new friends.

Play Time

Sunday we had our first snow fall. It was just enough to cover the ground. Lance couldn't wait to get out in it. 

He loved riding his tractor and making tracks in the snow. 

Since moving to Fairbanks we have joined a moms group. Today our play date was at a member's farm. The kids had so much fun at the farm. 

The goats were the kids favorite! The goats kept checking Lance's pockets looking for a snack.

We made some new friends today! We can't wait for all the upcoming play dates together! 

Sizzle

Tuesday I ran around like crazy trying to get everything ready for my trip to Minneapolis for Pampered Chef's leadership conference, Sizzle. I was so nervous about being away from the kids for so long. I knew they'd be fine since they would be home with daddy, but I was feeling guilty for leaving. 

We went out for a nice dinner before heading to the airport. Andrew and the kids dropped me off at the doors. Lance was so excited to see me leave. He couldn't wait to spend the next few days with daddy. Lexie was asleep so I didn't  hear anything from her. 

My flights all went great. I flew to Anchorage then to Seattle then to Minneapolis. I was able to get in lots of naps so I was feeling pretty good.i met my director, Carol, and a couple other Pampered Chef ladies at the airport. We headed to our hotel then on to Mall of America. I enjoyed having a nice evening of shopping and dinner with just the gals. 

Sizzle lasted Thursday- Saturday. We heard from motivational speakers, Bonnie St.John

and Jon Gordon. They were amazing. They were so inspiring and had some amazing advice for our businesses but also our lives. 

Sizzle is also a chance for recognition. Friday morning was all about the new directors. We had a new directors breakfast and time with our National Executive directors which is the highest level a Pampered Chef consultant can achieve.

We then did our new director march across stage. I was so excited when they called my name. I had worked so hard for my title. I waved my red scarf around and let out a big "wahoo" which is a favorite word in the Pampered Chef business.

Next year I plan to walk the stage as an Advanced Director! 

That week they also recognized people for having high sales and also for recruiting. It was so inspiring to watch as these amazing women (and a few men) walk the stage an think "that's gone be me one day!" 

We heard some amazing stories about how Pampered Chef has changed the lives of people. One lady spoke of how her Pampered Chef business brought her family out of poverty. They were on food stamps and welfare, but unlike most people in that situation she wanted to better her family and get off of government assistance. There were so many inspiring stories of how Pampered Chef changes lives! For me, I feel Pampered Chef has gave me so much confidence and A life outside of being a mom and housewife. It has helped me make so many friends. I love working for this amazing company! I had an amazing time this week. 

The week was also filled with gifts. i received a wristlet purse, a red scarf, a red spatula, and jewelry!!! pc also had some awesome giveaways. one woman won a $5,000 kitchen makeover, another a $5,000 personal makeover complete with a shopping assistant, and two women won a $3,000 electronic makeover! The energy in the room was amazing!!! 

Pampered Chef had allot of entertainment for us too. The all that cloggers from America's got talent were my favorite!! Friday night we had a wonderful dinner reception! It was beautiful. I felt like I was at a fancy wedding! We even had a dance. 

 I called Andrew Friday night and the first thing he said was "you need to get a full time job so I can stay home!" I was overjoyed to hear those words. He had such a great time with the kids. They really enjoyed being with daddy too. I wasn't missed at all!! 

I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband who is so supportive and an amazing dad! I thank God for this amazing man and for the Pampered Chef opportunity!!

I can't wait for what's to come! 

Me, my director Carol and Carol's director Jane

Welcome Baby Barrett

Before I left for Sizzle we received news that newest member of the Conway family was making his way into the world, so at each layover I was checking my phone waiting to see a picture. I was so excited to turn on my phone when we landed and see such an adorable baby. The lady next to me even commented "what a cutie!"

 Barrett was born September 18,2013 at 5:34 am! Andrew & I couldn't be happier to have another nephew. Barrett is the perfect fit to Jason and Ashley's family and Big sister couldn't be prouder! 

Our "Golden" Weekend

Last week flew by and before we knew it it was time for the weekend. We had discussed the possibility of camping over the weekend but couldn't decide on a place.

Andrew met a guy for a few minutes that had a gold mine (yes, people still do that here) and had a camp and wanted us to come visit so that Andrew could look at his downed machine really quick. He also told Andrew that there were tons of moose in the area and since it is moose season Andrew took the man up on his offer. 

Saturday morning it was raining but the rain quickly passed by and we were off on our adventure. We headed North towards a village called Manley Hot Springs (population 89). The road getting there was pretty bumpy, but the scenery could not have been more beautiful! The whole drive we kept a look out for moose. We never did see any moose, but we did see several camps set up with people proudly displaying their giant trophies. The area was a antler only area so every moose killed was a bull.

 

Along the way we seen several ptarmigan  (kind of like a small wild chicken). We found a place to pull over out of the way and I did some ptarmigan hunting. It was so much fun. I was one happy hunter!

We noticed the Happy being a golden retriever was extremely interested in the birds. We let her have a little action this weekend and she did great! 

The camp we went to was about 20 miles away from Manley Hot Springs. It was an actual Gold Mine. I really had no idea what to expect. Honestly at first thought upon arriving I was kind of upset. I was thinking "Andrew came here to work!"

 

The man and his crew were super excited to see Andrew. They had a machine that was down and every day the machine is down loses him tons of money. It took Andrew about 15 minutes to fix the machine. Everyone was doing a happy dance. You would have thought Andrew was a god by the way they acted. 

We parked our camper and then met everyone: Jason; his wife, Becky; their two little girls and a few other family members. 

We enjoyed visiting with them and learning all about how gold mining works now days. Becky told us about the amazing summer they had last summer. They got about 1,000 ounces of gold which made then over $1,000,000!!! Isn't that crazy! They are just rednecks (like Andy and I) from Arkansas who come up each summer and mine for gold.

We made our campfire and I plucked (or chucked it, as Lance called it) my ptarmigan and cooked it. I was really surprised at the taste. It didn't taste anything like chicken. It was still good though. 

Jason had an Argo (an ATV with 8 wheels and tracks that can go ANYWHERE) that he told us we could use. Andrew and I got all bundled up and  loaded our guns and went out for a hunt. The kids wanted to stay and play with their new friends. The little girls had not seen really anyone else all summer so they LOVED having friends. We let the kids stay and play and was off. 

We didn't see any bull moose, but we did see some more ptarmigan. It was a nice evening just driving around with Andrew.... And the dog.

That night got a little cool but we all slept good cuddled under two big blankets and snuggled together. 

We woke up the next morning bright and early so we could eat breakfast with everyone and visit in the main cabin before they all headed off to work. After breakfast it was still pretty cool out so we took a ride in the truck to Manley. After driving around for a bit we finally found the hot springs. It really was amazing! They had piped in the water from the springs into a greenhouse with four different pools with different temperatures. We picked the pool with the coolest water (just a tad hotter than bath water) and played for over an hour. The water felt soooo good!! I was a little stiff from sleeping in weird positions all night but the hot water definitely relaxed my muscles. The kids absolutely loved it!! I never would have expected this little Oasis out in the middle of back country Alaska.

The hot springs had really put us all in such a relaxed mood. We could barely stay awake. Lexie and I took a long nap while daddy and Lance played with the fire and explored. 

After nap time Andrew, the kids, Happy and I all took a ride on the Argo. Happy loved running along side the Argo hunting. She treed a squirrel so I only felt it rite to shoot it out for her. After the squirrel fell to the ground she grabbed it and brought it rite to us. She is such a natural at retrieving. 

We seen some of the prettiest country on  our trip. We had a view of Mt. McKinley and the Yukon river. It was truly breath taking.

We said good bye to our new friends and got ready to head home. Jason insisted that he pay Andrew for fixing his machine. If he would have called a company to come all the way out to look at it, it would have cost him a couple thousand of dollars. We really didn't want to take payment. Having a new place to camp and being able to use their Argo was payment enough. Jason ended up putting 2 gold nuggets (over $1,000 worth of gold) in the truck for us. We decided to put a nugget away for each kid. How cool is that!

We had a wonderful weekend, made some new friends, shot some ptarmigan and a squirrel, visited some awesome hot springs, and found a new place to camp and hunt, and came home with some gold. The only thing that could have topped off the trip was a moose, but there will be other times! 

We love living in Alaska. We get to see and do things most people only dream of. God has blessed us so much and put so many great people in our lives! We love accidentally meeting new friends!

Weird family

After living in our neighborhood for over a week now I have noticed something; We must be the weird family! 

Our neighborhood is full of kids. I mean tons! But the one thing I haven't seen is parents out with their kids. We are the only parents that go outside and play with our kids and dog. We definitely have the best dog on the block. All the other are just pinned up and act nuts when they are actually let out.

Last night while visiting the park there were tons of kids there but no parents. I think it's sad. The kids have been at school all day, you'd think the parents would want to spend all evening with them. We see the same kids always wondering through the neighborhood all alone even in the rain. 

Family time is something that is so important to us. I'm proud to be the weird family. 

New

We are loving Fairbanks so far. I love the newness of moving and exploring our new home and making new friends.

Saturday we went and explored some new places. We went fishing at several different place with no luck, but that's ok we still had tons of fun. Daddy tried out his new fly rod and is trying to learn how to fly fish. It was pretty funny at times.

One place that was especially beautiful was red squirrel pond. The trees with their beautiful fall colors were reflecting in the pond.

Sunday morning we tried out a new church. It was ok, but we don't think it's what we are looking for. The kids had tons of fun in their classes though. Lance learned about Jonah and he even drew us an awesome picture! 

Other things that are new is the kids have made up a new game. Lexie pretends she is a dog which Lance has named "ruff ruff". They are too funny as he leads her around the house and teaches her tricks. Here is ruff ruff begging for food.

Also, Lexie is working on trying new foods. I don't know when my little girl has decided that she doesn't like certain foods, but I am not having it! At dinner time Lexie sits in between mom and dad and we have to force her to try a bite. The first couple of nights were so dramatic. She would cry and gag and so on. By the end of the week she knew she had to at least try the food so she didn't put up a fight at all. One night we had halibut and she cried "I hate halibut. It's yucky!" Once she tried a bite she stopped crying and gobbled it all down. What do you know, she loves halibut!! It was so nice to have dad sitting at the table for back up. I really needed support with making her eat. 

 

Today, we looked at a new gymnastics place that also had a preschool. The kids really enjoyed checking the preschool area. lance sat down and played with an aqua doodle pad. he would trace the letters and tell the teacher what they were. She was super impressed that he knew every single letter and would even say words that start with that letter like "thats an F like in the word Fly!" I was very proud of him.

We really liked the facility, but it was more than double what we used to pay for gymnastics class and now Lexie is ready to start classes. I just don't think it is an expense we want to fork out. I am going to look at other fun stuff for us to do during the winter. Maybe dance for Lexie and Karate for Lance. We'll see how much it cost first. Not sure about the whole preschool thing. He learns way more at home from me and he gets tons of socialization from play groups, Sunday school and other things they are involved in.

The plan is to get all settled into groups, church and all the fun stuff before winter hits. Winter will be so much easier having stuff to do and having friends. 

Life is good!

Nothing too exciting going in here. We have had a great week! It has been so awesome having Andrew home every evening. 

The kids have taken to their new beds so good. Way better than I imagined. Each night the kids are fast asleep around 8:30. It has been so nice having an hour or two alone with Andrew once the kids are out. 

Life is good, and my God is great!

A couple funnies from the week

I was saying the ABC's with Lance and we was going back and forth

He said 'k' then I said 'L' then he said 'minnow' then Lexie yelled 'P'

Lance had his BB gun and he says "this is my BB gun. It is for shooting baby deer in case I need a snack."

*the BB gun only gets used when daddy is around and under close supervision. It came from Crazy uncle Ted!

Information overload

*the kids have adjusted to our new house so well. The only time Lance got really upset was when he was walking through our old house and it was empty. He ran from room to room crying. It was pretty sad. After a good nap he was excited for the move. 

*Lexie is such a little momma. It's funny the things I say and don't realize until I hear them come out of her mouth. Like after I tell the kids something I say "Rite?" Or if I tell them to do something I say "ok?" When they answer I know they  are paying  attention. It jut so funny hearing Lexie say "it's bed time, rite?" 

* Lexie is such a sweetie and pretty spoiled. Now when she wants something she will say "O please please please!!" With the cutest little begging face and her hand folded together up by her face. Who could say "no" to that? Well, mommy can but daddy sure can't! 

* Last night at 8:30 Lance crawled up in his own bed and went straight to sleep and stayed there all night long!! It was amazing! He was too cute though as he climbed up his ladder he turned an looked at me and said "mom, you can sleep on the bottom bunk if you really want to, I won't mind" I told him I'd be in later to check on him and he was completely fine with that. I put Lexie to sleep by laying with we in our bed because I didn't want her to disturb Lance. She was out by 9 then I moved her to her bed and they both stayed asleep till 8. It was so weird sleeping in our bed just me and Andrew. At one point I joked with Andrew "could you put a knee in my back or elbow in my side or maybe a head on my shoulder?" 

* our new house is rite by an army base. Every little bit we ear a trumpet playing. I am not sure what it means. It plays at odd times for about a minute straight. During the day lots of helicopters fly over and sometimes we hear them shooting the big guns. 

*in two weeks in my trip to Minneapolis for pampered Chef leadership training. I have already made contacts here and am excited and determined to keep my Pampered Chef business going.

* I started selling a Product called Plexus Slim. I came across it while searching for stuff to help my mom. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes last week. I have researched it and looked to find the dirt on it. I couldn't find any dirt, but tons of awesome testimonials. The cheapest way to get it was too actually sale it so that's why I signed up. You could find out more about it at http://www.plexusslim.com/getskinny2 it's an all natural weight loss drink that helps regulate your blood sugar & lose weight.

*Next week we will be checking out a new gymnastics place and possibly looking into a preschool for Lance to attend 2 days a week. 

*

Settling In

*Saturday Andrew and I loaded up everything we owned into our trailer. It took all day of non stop packing and loading, but we got it done. Our neighbors, Holly & John, were nice enough to watch the kids for us all day long. 

We finished loading up around 4 then I went back through the house, vacuumed everything and wiped down every little surface.

At 5pm we headed out on our 346 mile journey to our new home in Fairbanks.

The drive was so pretty! The leaves are changing and the moose were out. The last 100 miles we were guided by the most spectacular Northern lights show I have ever seen............yet. It was so amazing! It made it hard to watch the rode when all I wanted to do was look up. 

We arrived Sunday morning at 2 am at our new home. We aired up the air mattress and went to sleep.

Sunday and Monday were pretty raining so we spent the days inside unloading and unpacking. Monday morning we made a trip to SAMs club to buy the kids mattresses for their bunk beds. The kids were like monkeys climbing all over their new beds. Seriously, they played on them all day!!

Our house has three bedrooms so we decided the kids bunk beds and books in one room and all the toys in the other room. So far it is working really well. When we buy a house of our own then the kids will get their own rooms. 

The first night in their own bed was a little challenging. The kids had took a late nap in the car and weren't that tired. They were pretty excited and wanted to talk.....allot. I ended up sleeping in the bottom bunk with Lexie and Lance fell asleep on the top bunk, but woke up around 4 and climb in bed with daddy. I think all went pretty well considering Lance has slept with us since he was 11 months old. Lexie just started sleeping with us in February when daddy was traveling tons. 

Yesterday, daddy went back to work. Our day went by sooo fast and before we knew it daddy was home by 4:30. It was awesome! The kids gave him a huge welcome. Lance couldn't believe that he was home. We are definitely loving this much better than him flying out to go to work. 

We live rite by a park so it's the perfect place to go after dinner to burn off some energy then home for baths and bedtims.

Andrew is so funny. He becomes a kid again at the park! 

We are getting settled into our new home. We are so thankful to God for this opportunity to be together again as a family!!