Easter Weekend

A guy that Andrew works with invited us to a party at his house on Saturday. They had a big Easter egg hunt planned for the kids. Each family was to bring 1 dozen eggs per kid in their family. Friday night we dyed Easter eggs. Each year gets funner and funner. The kids are now big enough to do things completely by themselves and have a little more patience than years past.

We dyed 18 eggs and also stuffed a couple dozen fake eggs. Because I let the kids help me put the candy in the eggs I didn't have to fight them to stay out of the candy. Not one piece was eaten until after the party!

I loved that Easter fell later in the month. It was a beautiful weekend and the snow was melting.

Sunday morning we all got dressed up for Easter service. We gave the kids their Easter presents. We didn't do baskets this year. We took this as an opportunity to buy the kids something they had been wanting for awhile. We got Lance a remote control truck and Lexie a bike.

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter message and worship service, then home for a wonderful Easter dinner; grilled steak and corn on the cob!

That evening we went to our first Alaskan Hockey Game. Fairbanks team is called the ICE DOGS. Lance was in heaven!! He loved being right up against the glass watching every play. Lexie enjoyed snacking and talking to those around her. We had a great evening!!!

Tuesday thoughts

*my parents will be arriving in a little over a month and we can't wait!!! Dad will be helping fix things up at the house. We have lots of fun things planned for while they are here too.

*my Brother Matt, his wife Stephanie and little girl Addylynne will be coming to visit also in early June!! 

*kindergarten enrollment Is in just a couple weeks!!!!! O my goodness! I don't know how I feel about this. 

*Lance will be turning 5 in little over a month! I'm not really planning on doing a big birthday. We still don't know too many people here. 5 is what I consider a milestone birthday so that may change. I am thinking about maybe something at the park. 

*Lexie finally decided on a name for her puppy. Her name is Alaska! 

*all the puppies have homes and will start going home in about a week or so. Today is their first vet appointment so this should be fun.

*spring is in full force here in Fairbanks. The snow is rapidly melting and temperatures are reaching 50!!! I love walking outside and hearing the song birds and the sound of geese returning!!! Also, yesterday I noticed buds on the trees!! I could burst with excitement! 

*this weekend we will start work on the house!! Super excited! I can't wait to get my hands dirty!

*have you noticed all the exclamation points? I am super excited about so much!!!

*we have a trip to Pennsylvania planned for July. The kids and I will then travel on from Pennsylvania to Lousiville to see some friends for a day or two then on to Missouri to visit more family. I'm super excited to see everyone, but hate we will be missing a bit of Alaska's summer. 

*16 years ago on this day I became an Aunt for the first time! I can't believe my niece,Oaklie is 16 today!!! Crazy! 

*Sunday is Easter! We have an Easter party in Saturday and plan to attend Sunrise service on Sunday. I am looking forward to celebrating the resurrection of Christ! 

Some sillies from the kids:

On tv they were playing bongos and Lance said "they must be in china!" I said "China, why do you think that?" Lance then says " have you ever heard of China? It's where you can only eat rice!"

I gave Lance a pack of gum that had a piece missing. I told him that daddy needed a piece for his breathe. Lance then goes "did his breathe smell like wart hog musk?"

Lance had a book about the Ninja Turtles and Lexie calls it the "engine turtles"

Lexie is all about dancing these days! She does a littler performance anytime she ears music. Lately she has added a few Disney moves in there. She pretends to be making ice with her hands and she loves to comb her hair and pretend it glows. 

Lance told Andrew "when you love somebody you marry them and you only marry one person. I'm gonna marry Lexie" Andrew then says "no, you can't marry Lexie. She's your sister." Lance then says "but I love her so much!"

Spring Pictures

I made a new friend and was telling her about our puppies and chicks when she suggested that it would be a super fun to do a photo shoot with the kids and animals. I agreed that it would be super cute and I would need to find a photographer since mine was moving away. That's when my new friend Jenny told me that she was a photographer and that she would hook me up.

I am absolutely in Love with all of the pictures!!! These are just a few of my favorite!!

Jenny is an amazing photographer! She came to our house and worked with the kids so good. They really liked her.

I can't wait to get into the new house and start hanging up pictures!! I have years of pictures to hang up, I hope I have enough room for them all.

Weekend fun

Andrew had to work through the weekend so the kids and I had to find some fun things to do on our own. Our town always has something going on.

The University of Alaska is a huge part of the community! They are always hosting free events and opening up their doors to the community. Saturday they hosted Science Potpourri. It was a day for the students to show off some of things they are learning.

We got to see glow in the dark rocks.

Pan for Gold.

Watch them melt hot lava and pour it out.

Play with robots (Lance's favorite!!)

Do science experiments 

Cut rocks 

It was such a fun time! The kids loved running room to room seeing what was next!

How cute are these two holding hands!!

I am so blessed with two wonderful kids. I love being able to take them places and not have to worry about temper tantrums or anything like that. They listen so well, know to stay right by momma and they watch out for each other. 

Dozer Fun at the Farm

We love our weekends!! 

Friday evening Andrew and Lance went to the gym to go swimming & then to their favorite store, Sportsmen's Warehouse. Lance loves to swim and is getting really good at it! 

Lexie & I attended an event called A Woman's affair. There was tons of booths set up all geared towards women plus some food tasting and lots of wine sampling. I didn't drink any wine, but the food was all yummy.  Lexie listened so good and stayed right with me. She wore her Princess Anna dress so she got lots of comments from all the women. It was so much fun getting dressed up and spending an evening with just my little girl. I love spending time with my little girl!! She is getting so big! I love our conversations! She is so smart & funny! 

Having a boy and a girl works out perfect for our family! 

Saturday and Sunday were such gorgeous days!!! We rented a bulldozer for the weekend from Andrew's work to clear out some brush, junk and snow from the farm. We all had a blast!!! It seriously was so nice to get out of the house and be working outside getting dirty. One of the things left on the farm was an old camper packed full of stuff!! Lance was in heaven! He spent a majority of his time digging through the junk. He found old cars, marbles, a skateboard and lots of other "treasures". 

The kids loved driving the dozer with daddy. He even taught me how to operate it and mommy got in on the action too. 

It all looks so much better! I love our huge level yard!!! 

We have lots of little things to do, but we are up for the challenge! 

This & that

Andrew had a four day weekend! It was so nice to have him home with us! Friday we enjoyed a fun evening at the home show. It really was tons of fun. We all got bags at the door to put all the free stuff we were given in. For the kids this was like trick or treating. Each booth had something for us adults and the kids. The kids got things like candy, chalk, coloring books, balloons, stickers, hats, frisbees and stickers. Andrew & I got tons of ideas for the house, information, and samples. 

Lexie is at the stage where she points out everything about people whether it's size, color or gender. She will ask questions like "what color is that man?" To which I reply "he is brown. God made everyone all different beautiful colors". While at the home show she pointed out a lady who was wearing a silly stick on mustache "Mom, what's wrong with her!" 

We have been making lots of trips to Home Depot and Lowe's lately. We are finding out who has the best prices and getting ideas for flooring. I think we have it figured out what we want. 

We should be closing on our house on Friday! I'm praying for no more hiccups! 

My parents' flights are booked to come visit for two weeks! We plan to get allot done with the house, but also have lots of fun. We booked a fishing charter for the guys in Valdez while us girls do some other fun stuff. 

Puppies are now 4 weeks old and growing so fast! They are so stinking cute, but 11 little puppies can be kind of overwhelming. I am sooooo glad that I make my own cleaner as I am using tons of it! I don't want the house to start stinking. 

To add to our animal population we added 6 baby chicks. We know once we get in the house we want chickens, but come the middle of summer chicks won't be for sale. Andrew decided we should go check out what they have which turned into buying them now. I think it will work out. For now they are in the house where we can watch them. After a week or so they will be moving to the garage. 

Lance is getting so good at all his letters. Here is a picture of him teaching Lexie by writing the letters on the chalkboards. 

We have lots planned for this summer! I am super excited. We will be flying to Pennsylvania in July to stay at some cabins with all the Conway family. I have been researching things to do in the area that will be fun for the family. After visiting with the Conways for a few days Andrew will be flying home to Alaska while the kids and I take a small road trip to Missouri. We will be stopping at a few places along the way. One stop on my list is the Newport Aquarium in Cincinnati then we will head to Louisville Kentucky to stay with some friends for a day or two. 

The days are getting longer here! It is now bright out till around 9 pm. Each week the temperatures have risen and the snow is melting crazy fast.

We can't wait to start work on the house, do lots of fishing, hunting and camping trips!!! 

God is so good to our family. I am so thankful for all the wonderful blessings he has given to us and especially our health!!

Some funnies from the kids:

I asked the kids if they wanted to eat out tonight with daddy. Lexie says "you mean eat dinner outside!!"

During our bed time prayers Lance says "God, please let us go to Missouri soon!"

Lances said to me "you know what flowers are for?" "To make the world look beautiful!"

Driving in the car when Lance says "boys are smarter than girls!" I say "why do you think that? Mom is pretty smart!" Lance says "I just know because I'm a boy and Boys are smarter!"

Saturday morning we were earing breakfast and we had ham and eggs. Lance asked what part of the pig ham came from. Andrew told him it came from the butt. Lance then puts his piece of ham back and says "why do I have to eat the butt!" Andrew hands him a different piece of ham and told him it was the leg. Lance was okay with that.

After church I was asking the kids what songs they sang in church. Lance says "you know that one song about God" I asked "sing it for me. I want to hear it" he then sings "you are, you are the Messiah. The Son of the lily pad!" I think it's supposed to say Son of the Living God

Lexie was super upset because I had gotten on to her. While crying she comes up to me and says, "mom are you mad at me?" I said "no, you just have to be a nice girl!" She then says "are you jealous at me?" 

House update

We were supposed to be closing on the house tomorrow, but some issues came up with the sellers since the husband who passed away is on the deed. We are praying everything works out and nothing changes. We should know something next week. I'm trusting God & know He has a plan. At first I was really upset but now I'm just grateful that this bump happened before signing papers and not afterwards. 

Since Andrew is taking a 3 day weekend we thought we would go somewhere for the weekend. That idea quickly got shut down when I looked over and was reminded we have 11 little puppies!