Habitat Day

The Kindergarten classes at Clayton's school had Habitat Day last week.  All the Kindergarten classes set up a different habitat in their classroom.  Family and friends got to go tour the rooms.  They were all very well done!  I have to admit I liked Clayton's room the best.  I don't think it's just a "mother's loyalty" thing either.  His room did Ponds and Lakes.  Mrs. Booth, the teacher, had some creative ideas.  Here are some of the projects the kids did.  (Clayton brought them home and I hung them on his wall.)  I wanted to get pictures of the class room but with two 3 year olds and a baby in tow I didn't want to deal with pictures too.  I also thought it might be a bit crowded.  It definitely was!  So these pictures will have to do.  I thought these animals were very cute!

Beaver from the Beaver Pond display

Frog, Turtle and Beaver--the turtles were all "relaxing" on a log.

Butterfly and Dragonfly

Duck--they were "waddling" along the edge of the pond.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday.  She's pretty spry for 76!  She is so special to us all!  She is a wonderful mom and grandma.  I am so thankful that God gave her to me for my mom.  She knew how to let a kid have fun.  Mom taught me some valuable lessons too.  As I sit here and think of all the memories I think that this could be a long post.  I will keep it short however. :-)  Although things aren't quite like they used to be I am thankful for every day that God gives us together.   I wish we could see her more but thanks to modern technology we can still keep in touch.  I love you, Mom!  Happy Birthday!

My Dad and Mom--The best parents ever!

6 Months

My baby girl turned 6 months old today!  I love watching her change and grow but at the same time I want to hold on to her babyhood.  So I cherish every minute of these too few short days. . .

Hello, Goodbye

Hello, Pick up!  Good Bye Explorer!  Warren finally got another pick up truck.  He's very excited about.  It's a 1994 Dodge Dakota and it's in very good shape.  It has a white topper for on it which looks very nice.  Warren took the topper off so he could install the bed caps.  The Explorer has been a good little truck for us.  We actually kind of miss it; however I don't think Warren is going to trade his pick up for it !  :-)  He's been wanting a pick up for a long time now.  The inside of this pick up looks identical to the Dakota we had when we got married.  

This little truck has taken us many places including Alaska!

Tooth Fairy

Clayton was so excited!   He has had a very loose tooth.  On Thursday he come home from school and discovered that his tooth was gone!  We looked everywhere but couldn't find it.  It must have fallen out at school.  Well, I told him that maybe the Tooth Fairy would come anyway.  I "called" her on my cell phone and left her a message.  :-)  The next morning Clayton found a dollar under his pillow so the Tooth Fairy must have gotten her message.  :-)  This morning he was brushing his teeth and discovered that his other front tooth is quite loose now too.   

Easter

Here are a few pictures of our Easter.  We had an enjoyable one.  We went to church of course and then had dinner at the in-laws.  You can't see Ashley's hat very well, but she has a sun bonnet on.  She looked very cute!

Our 5 great kids!

Easter loot

Ashley's First Easter

More Seward Pictures

OK so the last post didn't load one picture and then there were some others that I wanted to post too.  After going to the Sea Life Center and the beach on Saturday we drove around a bit before leaving for home.  We found the old orphanage where Benny Benson used to live.  Benny Benson was the kid who won the contest for designing the Alaska state flag.  On our trip we had to drive around Turnagain Arm.  I was impressed with the ice.  Some of these chunks of ice were like boulders.  In places they stretched as far as you could see.  When the tide was coming in you could only see the tops of them but when the tide was out it was just a bed of ice ("ice rocks" I guess you could say).

Seal swimming upside down

Crab trying to climb the glass

Orphanage

Turnagain Arm ice

Sea Life Center

The Sea Life Center in Seward is an interesting place.  The animals they have there can't be released back into the wild for whatever reason.  The animals that can eventually be released are not on display so that they do not get used to people.  

Sea Lion--largest of the 2 on display

Mr. Grouchy--Amy said "Mom, he's grouchy!"  He was ugly too!  :-)

Seward AK

Easter weekend we took road trip to Seward, Alaska.  We spent one night there and came back for Easter services at our church.  We like to take a road trip each Easter.  The last couple of years we didn't so we thought we'd do it again this year.  We've been to Seward before but have never stayed over there.  We went to the Sea Life Center and the beach.  The Kenai Peninsula has alot more snow than we do here at home.  Actually it snowed, rained or "slushed" most of the time we were there.  We had fun anyway.  The kids even played some on the beach.  While at the beach we saw 7 Sea Lions (you may need to click on the picture to see them better).

Sea Lions

Amy with her new sunglasses, headed somewhere :-)

Cameron & Nicholas at the beach

Clayton enjoyed his donut breakfast

Happy Birthday, Karen!

Today is my big sister, Karen's, birthday.  Karen, you are such a special part of my life.  Just wish we could see you more often.  Happy Birthday!  We love you! 

My 3 wonderful sisters!  Karen is on the right.

Big Girls, Songs, Race Cars

This post should have been first I guess as these events happened in March (the haircuts were in April).  Oh well!  March 27th was a busy day at our house.  First of all, Ashley turned 5 months old.  She is getting so big!  Ashley is growing and changing so much.  Another thing to happen this day was that Clayton had his first school concert.  He was very excited about it!  Grandma Hill came for it.  Unfortunately, Warren had to work.  Why do they always do these things in the middle of the day?  We ended our day with attending the Pack Meeting for Cub Scouts.  This was the annual Pine Wood Derby Race.  Cameron did very well, but he didn't win.  Each scout raced his car 4 times.  Cameron won 2 out of the 4.  Last year it was 1 of 3, so he improved this year.  He designed his car by himself.  He did a good job.  He had a low profile to help with speed.  He was disappointed that he didn't win but he did have fun.   Here are a few pictures of these events.

What a big girl!

Clayton is in the middle row, 3rd from the left.

Best buddies! (in the class room after the concert)

My big Wolf Scout

Cameron with his Pinewood Derby car

Catching Up

I thought it about time to update this blog.  We've been busy and I needed to download pictures.  I hope you all had a good Easter!  I am so glad that we serve a RISEN Saviour!  What hope!  

I have quite a few pictures to post.  For starters here's pictures of Barber Warren.  Our boys needed haircuts, really needed haircuts, so Warren commenced to do the clipping.  Clayton's best friend, Zackary, also needed a haircut.  He doesn't like anyone but his dad to cut his hair but his dad is deployed.  So we offered Warren's services.  Somehow I failed to get pictures of Clayton getting his haircut.  

Earthquake!

Well, that was quite the experience! My MIL and I were sitting here when we felt the house tremble. I thought it was a truck going down our road (there is one truck that shakes the house as it goes by) but then the house really started to shake and the dishes were rattling in the cupboard. The whole place was shaking! I knew that was no truck. Earthquake! Talk about a weird feeling! We have seen things shaking before when we lived in Anchorage but I have only actually felt one earthquake before today. That one was only slight. This one was quite a bit more than that. I am eager to find out what this one registered on the Richter Scale.

Daylight

Warren left for work at 6:30 this morning and IT WAS LIGHT OUT! Yeah! :-) One sure sign of Spring here in Alaska, even when we still have some snow, is the lengthening days. We now have about 13 hours and 51 minutes of daylight. Of course we have some light just before and after the official sunrise and sunset times. The days are getting longer, the skies are blue and the sun is shining!