mike judi won the green jacket today......

.....which is amazing considering he was on the couch the whole time....

a brilliant plan

i put my scriptures in the silverware drawer so that every morning when i get out the cereal spoons i'll go "what the?...... oh yeah, i need to read my scriptures."

happy memorial day

early mother's day

austin refused to ride his bike to school today. which is really confusing to his poor mom whom he has BEGGED for 2 cold alaska weeks to do that very thing. but when he came home and presented me with the most beautiful flower and said, "now ya know why i didn't wanna ride my bike today," i wasn't confused anymore. but i was a little teary.

bears in trees

i've spotted this momma bear and her cubs in trees three times this week. i managed to get a pretty good shot of it today. this tree is no less than 400 yards from my house. mom and babies are eating about the only thing available during spring time in alaska.....budding leaves. hence, the incessant climbing. too cool.

milestone

For the first time in nearly 10 years...we are a diaper free household.

choices

mike sent the kids books from iraq. the cool thing is they come with a dvd of him reading the books. so they get some special one on one time with dad, even though he is miles away. he reads them the stories and interjects with comments about the parts he thinks they like the best, or how crazy the picture of the author looks, or a promise he will read the story to them for real once he gets home.
when we are done watching the dvd's austin turns to me and says, "you made a good wedding choice."
yes, i did.