Pinewood Derby

This past Friday was Cameron's Pinewood Derby race.  Cameron didn't win a trophy although his car did come in first the first time down the track.  Each boy got to send his car down 4 times.  He was very disappointed that he didn't get a trophy but I think he enjoyed getting to race his car.  He designed it himself and chose the color and Warren cut it out and painted it for him.   

Cameron waits for his car to come across the finish line.

 Cameron with his car after the race.

The red car is the one he raced in the Pinewood Derby.  

The blue one was the "practice" one he raced last fall.

Having fun!

Family Day

Warren had taken a Vacation day on Friday so we had a family day.  (He was supposed to have Easter weekend off but he got mixed up on the dates and then some other things didn't work out so our original plans didn't pan out).   We went to the Outdoor show.  We got there an hour early so we went for a drive.  We drove out KGB Road which dead ends on an air strip.   [Interesting note:  AK has more airplanes per capita than any other state.]  We had a beautiful view of the mountains and the Inlet.  The ice had broken up and was in chunks.  That is neat to see.  We saw a moose too.  The moose was going to cross the road but then changed his mind.  Of course I hadn't taken the camera!   At the Sports Complex where they had the Outdoor show they had a really neat animal mount.  A lion attacking a zebra.  After seeing that I really wished I'd taken my camera!  Oh well!  We had a really fun day!  It's been too long since we went out and did something like that.  I guess that means we have been too busy.  It was a nice break from the daily grind and I for one really enjoyed it!  

Copper Clappers

Amy's Jumper

Amy's birthday jumper is done and she finally got to wear it Sunday.  The skirt has frogs on it and of course I had to put pockets on it.  Amy thinks everything has to have pockets anymore. 

The Joy of Easter

He is not here:  for he is risen, as he said.  Come, see the place where the Lord lay.            Matthew 28:6

This is my favorite Easter verse.  My favorite Easter song is "He Arose".  These almost give me goose bumps when I hear or sing them.  Praise God, we serve a risen Savior!  

Easter Morning

The kids really liked their baskets this year.  The baskets had camo hats over them.  The older boys are really into camo so the baskets were a big hit!  

Typical Warren

My dear Husband thought I needed to be decorated for Easter I guess.  :-) 

Easter Eggs

Growing up we always colored Easter eggs on Saturday night before Easter.  I don't remember ever not doing it.  So when we had kids I wanted to carry on the tradition.  Warren would do one or two eggs but usually he just watched.  This year he volunteered to help out!  With two 2 year olds that was greatly appreciated!  :-)  The older boys were so excited!  Clayton has been asking for several days when is Easter and when do we color eggs.  I never boil enough eggs (according to them).  The little guys had fun too.  Here are some pictures of the fun.

                                         Amy slam dunked her eggs into the cups!

                                         Cameron and Clayton wanted to make Camo eggs.

                                          Clayton was tired and starting to get grumpy 

                                          hence the look.

A Day Off

Well, Warren had the day off today.  Yeah!!!  First I got to sleep in, then we cut school a little short after that Warren went to town and took Cameron and Clayton with him.  That means my house is pretty quiet right now.  Nick is napping so it's only me and Amy.  What do I do with this peace and quiet????  Shall I make my list?   dishes laundry cleaning. . . . .  Call me crazy but it's easier to work without the crew hanging around and that stuff really needs done.  Even though Warren is out and about it's nice to have him "home"  since I'll see him more than if he had worked.  Well, enough of the rambling.  I have "things to do, places to go and people to see" as my brother Chester used to say.  

Birthday Girl!

Amy is 2 years old!  Time goes by so fast!  It seems like just yesterday we brought home that TINY baby girl weighing only 5 #, 4 oz.  Amy has added so much to our family.  She is such a silly, funny little girl.  I thank God for her.  We just had a family celebration since I wasn't up to doing a party.  That turned out to be a better idea than even I realized because Warren was still sick, Amy got sick and some of the would-be-guests were sick.  Anyway, Amy still turned 2.  She seemed to have fun and that's what counts.  The boys spent their own money to buy Amy 2 dolls.  They were so excited they could hardly stand it.  I made her a pink cameo blanket for her new bed from her dad and I.  The jumper I was supposed to make her didn't get finished yet.  OOPS!  Here are some pictures of her big day.     

Amy gets help licking her cake bowl.

    Amy--not too sure about blowing out her candle
Amy and Daddy

She's got him wrapped around her little finger!

unwrapping presents

Amy with her new dolls--trying out the baby's bottle

Iditarod Winner!

Lance Mackey has won the Iditarod!  He ran the 1,100-mile race to Nome in 12 days.   He went under the Arch at 2:46 this morning.  He also ran and won the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest.  He has the distinction of being the first musher to win both the Yukon and the Iditarod in the same year.

Messes and Blessin's

Water sprayed all over the counter. . . . . . iced tea flowing across the table and onto the floor. . . . . toys scattered from one end of the house to the other. . . . . . . books stacked on the counter. . . . . dresser drawers unloaded onto the floor. . . . noise. . . noise. . . . . noise!  This has been my life the last few days.  I was tempted to complain but then I thought "What if I didn't have these messes?  What if we never had kids?"  How boring my life would be!!!  So I decided that these messes were really a blessin'  and I didn't complain.  Well, ok, maybe I did complain just a wee little bit.  Though, honestly, thinking of it as proof of my blessings changed my attitude.  I am truly thankful for my 4 little Blessings!  One day last week, I was having a frustrating day.  School was rather chaotic that morning.  We'd finally finished so I was sitting down trying to regroup when Clayton came up and handed me a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich that he had made (all by himself) for me for lunch.  How sweet!  I instantly felt better!  For those of you that know Clayton you know how extra special that was.  Clayton is our little rambunctious, spur-of-the-moment kind of kid.  So let me take the time to say that I thank God for my messy little blessin's!

SimonSezd

Thanks to my Aunt Kate for sending this.  Once again it's a good one!

New Beds

Here are the beds that Warren made for Nick and Amy.  They love them!  We went with the toddler size beds since 2 twin beds won't fit in their room.  They found out that they can't jump on these beds like they could in their cribs!  There's nothing to hold them in.  

Nick's bed

  

Amy's bed

In God We Still Trust!

Thanks to my aunt for sending this to me!

Dreaming of being a Cub Scout

Clayton can hardly stand the wait until he starts 1st Grade so that he can join the Cub Scouts.  So in the mean time Cameron has the solution.  He makes up paper badges for Clayton to wear.  Clayton's "uniform" is his navy blue shirt and red bandana.  Here they are posing as Cub Scout and Den Leader.

Hill's Hockey Team

Warren took the Cubbys to a Hockey game a few weeks ago.  It was the Girls-14-and- under team here in town.  They had alot of fun!  Clayton was so excited because he got to go too!  For several days after that all they could think about was hockey it seemed like.  They made hockey sticks and pucks out of Tinker Toys and my dinning room became the ice arena.  They sure had fun playing "hockey"!  

New Tiger Cub

Finally!  Here are the pictures of Cameron--the Tiger Cub!  Last Friday night was the Blue and Gold Banquet for the Cub Scouts.  Cameron was thrilled to get his Tiger badge!  We are so proud of him!  He also got 3 more Belt Loops that night.  He has 6 altogether.  He gets Belt Loops for doing different activities or assignments.  The last 3 he got were for Music, Geography and Marbles.  He is enjoying Scouts very much.  He likes meeting new friends there too.  Each Pack Meeting they have the Honor Guard march in with the flags.  Cameron can hardly wait until he is old enough to be in the Honor Guard!  The boys have to be a Webelo which is the highest level in Cub Scouts to do that.   

Tiger Cub

Cameron's Tiger Badge

His Belt Loops

The Iditarod

Saturday the Iditarod--the Last Great Race--had it's ceremonial start in Anchorage.  The real start was Sunday afternoon in Willow.  This is the 36th annual race and they have a record number of mushers and teams running this year.  95!  For those of you who aren't familiar with the Iditarod, it's history goes back to when Nome had an epidemic and ran out of serum.  The only serum to be had was in Anchorage and the only way to get it there was dog sled.  They ran the serum on the actual Iditarod Trail and got the serum to Nome.  To follow the Last Great Race you can go to http://www.adn.com/iditarod  .  We weren't able to go in to watch the start this year.  I missed being able to do that.  It is usually very cold but very fun!  The dogs are so eager to run they can't stand still!   

Kids are funny!

Warren had made a slide show of some family pictures (to send to his aunt Cheri) and we were watching it.  He had put on a picture of my purse (see earlier post).  When it came on the screen Nick, who is 2,  says "Mom's back pack!"