Craftin' stuff

Here is my banner I made for the holidays. We have a tradition of decorating the house with streamers and balloons on everyone's birthdays, so I think I will make one that says, CELEBRATE or HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Any one know where to get really cute fabric?

New year calendar tutorial.

So now all your red and green ribbon, fabric and wrapping paper are obsolete. What to craft? Well, all you nimble fingered girls out there, it is the time of year to buy a new calendar, but why buy when you can print out and assembles this? You can find the instructions here.

ye merry olde christmas letter

Denali Natl Park (Mount McKinley in background)

Runnin' in the Oklahoma rain!

Merry Christmas everyone! It is time for the merry olde Christmas letter once again. This year has been one of great change for our family! We spent most of it in Oklahoma, were Mike finished a residency program with the army! We loved it there We had a ditch in the back yard that became a raging river at least once a week, due to the record rainfall they had there. We enjoyed the hiking and swimming and worm catching. After every rain the kids loved to go “pick worms.” Little Jace Michael Judi joined our family on June 30th. He is 5 months old and has found his thumb and is as happy as can be, even when he is being mauled by his 3 adoring siblings. Three weeks after Jace came we hit the road for a 10 day drive to our new home in Anchorage Alaska. Speaking of our kids, they have been busy too, spending a few weeks at their grandparents homes in Utah, starting new schools, taking a big 3500 mile road trip, seeing their first moose, fox, porcupine, black bear, grizzly bears, and their first sightings of Mt. McKinley and -3 degrees below zero on the thermometer. They’ve also been keeping us laughing with their little kid observations of the world, here is a sampling of what kept us laughing this year.
The funniest thing Quinton told me this year: “ I can’t wait until summer for two reasons. Number one, Rachel, I hate sitting by Rachel, and two because I won’t have to go to school and did I tell you mom, I hate girls.”
The funniest thing Austin said this year: The kids were at church with my mom, when a brother from the ward approached and said, These kids sure are cute, I’ll give you a load a hay for them! Before my mom could respond Austin pointed to her and said, “I’ll take a load of hay for her.”
The funniest thing Avery said this year: “ Mom, you should have a baby monkey, and then I can have a baby sister!”
The funniest thing Mike said this year, bright and early one morning (actually, dark and early, it is Alaska) “ Hey, Jace slept through the night!”
The funniest thing Maggie said this year: “ Would anyone like to help with the dishes?”
We are so grateful for all our blessings, including YOU! We hope the season finds you smiling, and may you all feel the spirit of Christmas this year. From our home to yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Overheard

Austin: Mom did you know that missing means you can't hug and you can't give kisses. It means you are far away.

I think he misses grandma.

Jolly Ole St. Nick

We saw Santa! The kids all told Santa what they wanted for Christmas at the ward party. Avery was terrified last year, so much so that she cried whenever we went to the mall for months after christmas, but this year she plopped right down and told Santa she needed some princess dollies this year. Austin and Quinton each had their turn. The elves gave them giant candy canes, which I think are kinda like a big card board box, I could just get them that for Christmas and they would be happy. Don't you just love the magical look on thier faces?

PS Quinton was a very handsome wise man in the nativity.

The Latest

We've been playing at our house lately!!! Jace has discovered blocks and Austin, Quinton and Avery have discovered Snow! We have a hill in our nieghboorhood designed for sledding and the kids have had a ball with it. We had rain that melted all the snow just recently, so now we are dreaming of a white christmas again. Hopefully the kids (me really) will get their wish. Jace is sitting now and loves to have toys around. His favorite new haunt is the toy room were he, Avery and daddy were discovered making a mess recently.

The View From Where I'm Standing: I'm Worried...

My good friend Adri recently posted about safety and how to keep your blog secure. All the comments were very helpful and I learned about sitemeter.com, you may have noticed my new cute little icon in the upper corner. Anyway lots of comments were made about the inconvenience of going private. One girl suggested this site that allows you to see who is visiting you. You can find out how they got to your blog (usually via your friends blogs) where they are visiting from etc. This way you can stay non private until fishy activity comes up and then you can decide if you want to privatize. Also on the blogger website you can disable google searches and limit some viewing possibilities. You can check out all this info here: The View From Where I'm Standing: I'm Worried...

I somehow did that backwards, but you'll still get there.

Tag! I'm it.

Well, I have been tagged by my friends Jamie and Cathy. Thanks for the nod guys! I am supposed to write six things about me most people don't know. I have had a hard time with this, since I am generally a boring person, but here goes.


4 or more places I have lived:
Cedar City, Utah
Fishers, Indiana
Louisville, Kentucky
Lawton, Oklahoma
Fort Richardson, Alaska

4 or more places I have been on vacation:
Nauvoo Illinois
Washington DC
Carmel California (Honeymoon, it was awesome)
San Fransisco
Driving for 10 days from Utah to Alsaka and through Canada along the famous Alcan Highway, with 3 kids a new baby and a picture taking happy husband.


4 or more jobs I have had:
Shake Shack (I was a cook and a waitress!)
my sibs and I cleaned the elementary school after school everyday from 4th grade until
my jr. year
Ambassador President at Snow College (student in charge of recruitment and leadership scholarships)
Mom (nothing compares)

4 or more foods I like:
tomatoes
chocolate
all salads
lime cilantro chips

4 or more hobbies I have:
running
crafting
reading
blogging
yelling (I am not proud of this hobby)

4 or more things people don't know about me:

1.I sometimes get my excersise by dancing like a crazy person to billy idol's "dancin with myself" my kids love it.

2.If I could eat white cake everyday for breakfast I would.

3. I follow politics closely. I was going to say I like politics, but it actually makes me mad, so I'll just say I keep an eye on them. When I was in fourth grade I followed the 88 elections religiously. I even wrote a creative writing story about how michael dukakis was a bully in elementary school. I used to think I was patriotic, until my husband joined the army. It is much harder to be patriotic when it means your husband may be leaving for 15 months. The brigade that is stationed here at Fort Rich is returning home after a 13 month deployment. One family put a sign out on their home written with paint on a big white sheet. It says, " stencils $6.00 Paint $4.00 Sheet $18.00, Daddy coming home? Priceless. 50 men in the brigade died in Iraq. I realize how much more we all need to give to this great country. Jay Leno always says, "you get the government you deserve." He uses it as a punch line, but I have made it my mantra to remember to get involved, now the issues, and vote. That all sounds depressing. Mike and I chose to be in the army, so don't feel bad for me, but I realize just how much patriotism costs now. I still fly my red white and blue, if a little more humbly now.

4. if I am ever in a bad mood, (which is rare) you can find me in therapy, running a few miles that is. few being the key word here. there is nothing like running to hammer out my frustrations.


I tag, Melinda, Jenny and Meagan. don't you just love that!!! he he he

Halloween

This is how Jace spent his halloween. His fingers are his treats!

Capt. Jack Sparrow, the black Ninja, and a little princess. They had so much fun and now we have way too much candy. We went to a party at the church, and mike was in charge of the spook alley. Ausitn went through it 4 times. He said he wasn't scared at all but when we got home and he got in bed he started crying and said, "I'm scared of the spook alley!" I am so glad halloween is over, hopefully my kids will start dreaming of sugarplums instead of ghosts, goblins and witches.

Dumbledore in my mind

I am sure you all have heard what JK Rowling said about Dumbledore by now. When I finished book seven, I was so pleased with the way it ended and was written, so I was totally bummed when I heard that. It all seemed tainted to me. I mean come on, she wrote it for kids. A great series of books that didn't even go there, a safe haven for kids to explore deep emotions and stories, without the heaviness of private things. My sister in law e-mailed me this article. I love what he has to say about all the halluballoo (sp) because he eloquently states what I was thinking when I heard JK Rowling messed it all up. please read: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-rowlingcolumn_1024gl.State.Edition1.2292bdc.html
Dumbledore is now mine, to be what ever I dream up. Ahhhh I feel better now.

Tomatoes

I am excited to be living in Alaska and we have loved everything about it so far. So aside from the distance from all ya'll, the only downside I can see is that my favorite food will be hard to come by. Oh they sell the regular old chemically ripened tomatoes we all survive on through the winter, but apparently it will never get hot enough for long enough to sustain a beautiful tomato plant. So my sweet mom, knowing this, sent me six tomatoes and three jars of homemade tomato juice way up here for my birthday. It was awesome. It cost $31.00 to send. Me and Mike savored every slice of those juicy tomatoes. Here is my present in all its glory.

Avery

Avery said to me the other day, 'Mom if you have a baby monkey, then I will have a baby sister." She is always saying the craziest things. She is so happy and full of life. Her latest thing she loves to do is play grandmas. I have to be grandpa and she is grandma and we drive to her house and have a tea party.

Austin

This is Austin on his first day of preschool. He loves it! He goes to a preschool on base. He has a small class but they are all boys and he can't wait to get there every morning. He told me the other day the they have a stupid rule at his school. " It is No touching friends mom" he said. Austin can't get through the day without a hug. His teacher told him if he asks and his friends say yes, then he can give them a hug.

Quinton

Today I bought a bag of peas at Costco. They are still in the pod and I knew my kids would love them, it is a favorite activity of theirs to pick them at the grandmas houses. At dinner Quinton ate a huge pile of them. My kids, like any kids I am sure, make a giant mess at meal times. When it was time to clean up I took a pile of pea pods to the garbage, only to open it and find another pile of pea pods already in there. It seems my sweet little Quinton decided to take care of his mess. This may seem silly but it is a huge milestone in my 7 years of mothering, to have one of my kids be mature enough to take some responsibility. It caught me be surprise. What a wonderful surprise it was though. Quinton has shown alot of growing up lately. If he asks for something and I say no, he usually responds with "Okay mom!" I love that about him. He was coming up the stairs the other day and for a split second my mind was like, "who is that?" He is getting so tall it took me off gaurd that it was him. My how time flys.

Jace

Jace is growing so fast! He is getting that typical judi chub all my babies get. He loves to suck on his fingers and watch his brothers and sister play and make faces at him. He is so close to laughing, not the full bellied laugh yet, just little chuckles!

joining the society of bloggers

So I have been enjoying reading everyone's blogs for months now and I have resisted starting my own blog, but I can resist no longer! More posts and picts later.