Beaches, beaches, beaches

I love the beach, the sand, and the blue sky!!

Our friend Crash, three sea turtles lived in the cove where we were swimming and would come right up to you.

The master trench builder hard at work

Searching the tidal pools for crabs, shells and fish

Buried in the sand

Bury me!

Filling the bucket to fill the moat

I LOVE HAWAII

Come on sister!

Kayaking with Dad

Both kids loved the water and spend loads of time digging, splashing and laughing in the warm waves.  The were not into posing for pictures - just to busy!

Inklings ...

Such a little man!

Waiting for their big entrance

What is it like to watch your son get married?  Just knowing in your mind that yesterday you held him in your arms and rocked him to sleep, watched him take his first steps, and listened to him sing the ABC song?  This last weekend I got to watch another mom see her "baby" take that step. She is such a kind wonderful women, it was heart-warming and a little tear-jerking to watch her smile and welcome a new member into her family.  Her husband is a quiet man and he too nearly made me cry as he talked about his "journey" to this day.  It was wonderful to have a small share in their big day.

At four and a half I know that this milestone is far away, but the last four years have flown by and I can only imagine how fast the next twenty-five will go.  His face is looking longer and leaner to me, his body more and more that of a boy, not a baby or a toddler. 

The first two images in this post were taken in the tux fitting room as my little man got his suit for his cousin Wes' wedding.  Happy and proud of his cool new outfit he behaved like a gentleman and was extremely cooperative during the entire fitting.

The last three photos are from the wedding day.  He was not a model of cooperation that day, but I think we kept him far enough away from the bride that she didn't hear any of his protest screams **sigh**.  Lucky for us the nephew of the bride is one cool kid and came to the rescue with a little peer pressure - "Hey look at my suit, get dressed like me and it will be cool to be in the wedding."  Instant cooperation and no more tears or whining, and a big high five to Kyland! 

While the first few images fill me with thoughts of the future and make me wonder at what time will bring, the last two bring me joy as I watch my BOY climb trees in what is probably a $100+ rented suit LOL.  Do you see the awesome shimmery silver Converse peeking out the bottom of the last photo?  To cool!!

Losing a tooth a little early

The toothless grin!

On Friday February 24th Jade knocked one of her front teeth out.  It was the one that had been chipped at about 15 months.  She dashed into the kitchen to see the daycare attendant, bounced off of her leg, missed the table with her hands and caught her lip and tooth on the edge.  Apparently there was a LOT of blood and very little crying.  The attendant ran her to the bathroom and looked at her mouth, the tooth was sticking straight out and when it was touched fell out.  Luckily the entire tooth came out, root and all. 

Five minutes later all was fine in Jade's mind and she wanted her post-nap snack.  She got a special treat - grapes and cheese.  Wade was on his way to pick her up and missed the daycare calling to tell us what happened, when he arrived Jade was happily watching a little Dora and the attendant was still shaking.

Arriving home a little later with the big brother mom was a little traumatized too!  But half a dozen phone calls to doctors and dentist (takes a bit to reach people on Friday afternoon), the dentist kindly told me they don't do much for baby teeth, but he would look at it if I liked.  He asked if she was hurting (which she didn't appear to be) and told me Motrin before bed was a good idea, then he said, "This is probably going to bother you much worse than her."  Such true words! 

The picture above was the best one showing the new gap, which is actually difficult to take a picture of - wonders never cease :)

A Cold, Cold, Cold month

So we have not seen temps above 0 degrees in over a month, the thermometer has hung consistently below -15 most of the time and closer to -25. We have seen -40 at our house and -55 in town. I love Fairbanks and put up with the winter for the summer months of endless light and mild temperatures. I am not complaining just explaining the situation. So, what do you do with two energetic kids when you can't take them out for exercise? You must get creative. Braving the cold to go swimming, trips to Playland, short trips outside where you spend more time getting them dressed then they are actually outside, taking them to a friends house where they run laps around the hallway, trips out to school to run in the gym( Dad needs more exercise also) and any reasonable excuse to get them out of the house.

Big lashes, blue eyes and a whole lotta spunk

Sledding at Christmas in Ice

Rosy cheeks from all the trips down the hill in front of our house.  She would jump on the saucer sled and fly down laughing uproariously!

Love that sweet little angel of mine.  Wonder what she is thinking and how much of the future person she will be already shows.

Looking good!

Commander Fox in his new duds!

New Years fedora, Mr. Jones tie, and spiffy new shorts!  Try to ignore the mid-calf socks ;)

Easy to make (with kids) Bird-feeders - with instructions

Step #1 - take 4 Popsicle sticks and hot glue gun them together in a snowflake shape

Step #2 - allow small children to spread peanut butter all over the surface of the snowflake

Step #3 - dip the peanut butter side into a plate filled with bird seed and press down firmly

Step #4 - (which may have worked better as part of step #1) hot glue gun twine strings to the back of the Popsicle sticks.  This may have allowed a better place for kids to hold onto when putting on peanut butter and have let use put it on both sides for optimal bird feeding

Step #5 - Hang on or from any surface that birds come to!  Or give to your friends/neighbors - we sorted them into pretty little plastic bags with the strings sticking out the top so that people could hang them up and then remove the plastic bag and avoid getting birdseed all over their homes.