Growing up...

Signed Katie up for 4 year old preschool class in the fall...

Signed the boys up for Baseball (I'm crazy!) this summer.... (Why did I promise them they could play a sport at 8 years old? because at the time it seemed a long ways away!)

They are growing up so fast!!

The Story of our Easter Eggs

On a Snowy Sunday at the end of March. We decided to color our Easter eggs. First we strived for the perfect color... It's an exact science you know...The tablets do not turn out the color you think. And it's just awful when you get yellow instead of purple!

Sometimes Orange turns into Yellow, which is truly exciting when it's the color you want!


But if Mommy changes the tablet you can get the color you want so much!

By the time they are all colored, we are all a litte crazy and silly, so getting a good picture is hopeless...

Finally the best part was eating them!

Hope you have a happy Easter!

Random Fact

Alex brought me a book to read about explorers. Before we read it I asked him if he knew any famous explorers. He said, You bet! Dora the Explorer...

Kateisms

Scene: Katie brings me a postcard from Texas, it has a picture of a prairre dog in grass. She goes to the window and points at the snow...

Katie: Momma where did the grass go?
Me: It's there Katie just under all that snow...


Scene: Bedtime. Pappy (grandpa) is in Texas right now.
Me: Katie did you talk to Pappy on the phone today.
Katie: No Mom! Pappy went on airplane to Texas. Katie is in Alaska not Texas...

Turning the corner

The sun is shining! Temp in the 40s and the snow is melting!! The sledding hill is very fast today with the melted snow on top. Katie has gone from being afraid of the hill to jumping on the sled and going down herself now. She just laughs... Of course someone has to be at the bottom to stop her from hitting the fence as she has no fear of it! It's nice to have the kids outside for hours and not worry about the cold. They've been on the dry deck playing for several hours and we did an hour off the deck with snowpants in the wet snow. Katie has worn herself out, the boys are still at it outside, they haven't given up yet...

Think Spring?

Mark was snowblowing to clear from our recent snowfall. Someday it will be spring... We hit a record cold temp this morning, it was -10 at our house, cold for March. The sun has been beautiful lately and you can see the increasing daylight... Here's a shot of the backyard... Munchkin is my measuring stick, she's 33 inches tall.... So it will be a bit until we see the grass....

Happy Family Day!

A year ago today we stood in Russian court and were granted the adoption of an adorable 2 year old girl. Today Katie is still just as charming and has fit into our family perfectly... Happy Family Day Munchkin!

Snow

Just when it's spring break. Another 10 inches of snow and temp is back below 20 degrees. Someday it will be spring :)

Iditarod

I had a conference in Anchorage this weekend, so the kids and my mom all packed up and came in to town with me. We camped out at a hotel and hit up the Iditarod Ceremonial Start on Saturday. I'd post pics of the Iditarod, but mine aren't that great. If you want to see good pics, check out the adn.com ... Katie LOVED the doggies and she would yell, go, go go... The boys loved the escalators at the Fifth Ave. Mall. They've never been there before and thought it was so cool to go up and down flights at a time. We even hit up the Build-A-Bear store and added an owl, husky and a Peep to our family... We had a beautiful view of the Inlet and downtown Anchorage. The boys loved watching the airplanes flying in. We even had a birds-eye view of all the work it takes to set up the restart as we watched the tow trucks tow cars, and then the dump truck start hauling in the snow for the streets. (Yep, they have to haul it in to have enough for the doggies)...

Here's some shots from the sidelines of the Iditarod...

The Green Rock

We have some small painted rocks around our house (past craft projects). Katie has latched onto a little green-painted rock all winter. Each day we get home she finds her rock, plays with it for a bit and puts it in a new spot. She's had to dig to find it sometimes, but everytime we get home she goes back to the exact same spot she put it last time.

A few weeks back she put it in the driveway. I moved it after she went in the house off to the side of the driveway and it snowed that night. So the next day she went to the driveway and started digging for her rock. No rock. Each day she's come home and gone back to the exact spot and looked and looked. Now that it's warming the snow is starting to melt a little, so more spots are visible. Katie's been searching and searching and was SO happy today when she was able to see the green on the rock and dig it out... She has her rock again...

Who needs fancy toys? All we need are rocks...