Celebrating Valentines

I feel like this is the year (and the end of last year) of starting new traditions now that I have 2 kids that fully understand what's going on with each holiday and appreciate the fun little things we do. Valentines has provided yet another set of traditions. I wasn't sure what to do so in full Lauren fashion I stalked other creative blogs to copy other people's great ideas and add my own twist. I got these mail boxes at Michaels and added vinyl to personalize it. Every night I write something that I love about each child and put in a Hershey's kiss as well. When the flag is up, the girls know they have love mail. The first night, made it all worth it. The screaming, running down the stairs, and jumping up and down, not to mention the look in their eyes when they opened up their mail box was utterly satisfying for me. It's times like this where their reaction really makes my extra effort to make them feel special worth it. Every night since they pretty much have the same reaction. It's my favorite time of day, and theirs too. We'll continue this daily until Valentine's day. Here's the mail boxes, excuse me...Love boxes w/ love mail.
Up close view.
With their kiss and love mail.

For FHE, we made a love chain, counting down until Valentine's Day. Every morning we take off a piece of the love chain and perform the task on the paper. The tasks are all love/kind acts: Helping w/ the dishes, giving a compliment, making someone else's bed, etc.

Warm Fuzzies

Most parents would agree that trial and error is a part of day to day life. I recently saw a quote that goes along with this, "You may never make a discovery if you're afraid to make mistake." I've made my fair of mistakes (and my kids are only 5,3, and 1. YIKES). I made a new discovery that's been awesome for now, so we're sticking with it. We've been doing this for a few months now. I copied this from a friend, so it's not an original thought. So I call it Warm Fuzzies. My kids get a fuzzy when they give me or someone else a warm-fuzzy feeling inside them. This can be accomplished by sharing kindly, giving a genuine compliment, helping around the house w/o complaining or doing something w/o being asked to (I saw Jordyn throw trash away she saw on the ground w/o being asked and she didn't know I saw...so she got a fuzzy), helping a sibling that's needing something, etc. When the jar is full, they get a date with Jeff. Next time it's me and back and forth. Jeff took Sydney to get a pedi/mani. It was her first time. She loved it, what girl wouldn't right? Jeff just watched, he didn't join her. One time Jordyn wanted to make cupcakes together so we did that. It's been fun to see what the girls come up with on things they want to do. I think this will be sticking around our house for awhile :)
Love the purple and green she picked out.
Jordyn insisted on blue frosting on your cupcakes.

Sarah's baptism

For the past year and a half Jeff has been our Ward Missionary. Up until recently (when we got sister missionaries) we had no baptisms in our ward since we had been in the ward. Since November, or maybe December, we've had 6 or 7 baptisms. The sister missionaries are AWESOME and have been working so hard, it's been inspiring. Jeff works closely with them and so he has had great experiences teaching and meeting people. This past Saturday he baptized Sara and the next day blessed her with the precious gift of the Holy Ghost. He hasn't baptized anyone since his mission which was 10 years ago. This experience was also a memorable one as well.
Jeff's words now:
This was such a special occasion for me. I conducted the service wearing my white baptismal clothes. I took the occasion to share some of my thoughts at the outset of the meeting. I felt impressed to share with Sarah that there was a greater purpose for her coming to Alaska. She came here to help her cousin but clearly the Lord had a bigger purpose. It reminded me of how Katherine came to Alaska to be a nanny but ended up getting married. It appears that Alaska is a place that the Lord sends people to find greater purpose in life. The best part of the baptismal service was that I had the same type of spiritual experience that I had frequently on mission. I realized how much I miss those moments- moments when life makes so much sense and joy abounds. After the ordinance was performed, I had a moment of panic when I realized that I forgot to bring an extra white shirt. It was quick an embarrassing moment to stand up to conduct the rest of the service wearing a t-shirt under my suit jacket. At least I had a t-shirt and it wasn't my g's though. The mission president was in attendance and he found it quite funny which made me feel better. I will always remember the chance to baptize and confirm Sarah Smith. I am so grateful that she asked me to baptize her and that the Lord blessed us to have a great experience at both the baptismal service and confirmation the next day at church.

Rainbows

This is what happens when you're feelin' a little funky, go a little crazy with food dye, and all the kids are playing together nicely so you have a few extra minutes.....you make some rainbow pancakes. The brown pancake is actually purple.

This past week

Another busy week has come and gone. I'm looking forward to Jeff having Monday off. Mondays off are the BEST. It makes Sunday night exciting, not like we're doing much, but knowing we have Monday to sleep in, spend together, and do whatever we want like it's a Saturday is exciting, at least for us anyway.
This past week was pretty fun for us. Sydney has been talking about taking violin lessons for about a year now. I've been waiting to put her in lessons to gauge how much she really wanted to learn. Well like I mentioned, it's been about a year since she first brought it up, and she mentions about playing on a regular basis. I had mention piano lessons, since we have one, but she has no desire. Our neighbor girls got locked out of their house and came over. The oldest has a viola and Sydney begged to play with it. She didn't sound like a natural, but she sure looked beautiful holding it like she knew what she was doing. I'm planning on starting her in lessons after summer.
Another thing the girls started this week was gymnastics. The gym is awesome, a little bit of a drive though. The girls go to different classes but they're at the same time so I kill 2 birds w/ 1 stone. It makes the drive not so bad. Sydney and Jordyn loved it as you can imagine my little monkeys would. Every day since sydney has been asking, "Is gymnastics today?" Both of their teachers commented how strong each girl is.

Last night we went to the UAA boys hockey team game. A friend gave us tickets and we met up with Jeff's coworkers. The girls enjoy going because they get to play with their friend's, stay up late, and cheer for the SEAWOLVES. Here's a picture of us before we left our house.

Here's a picture of Jeff after x-country skiing when it was -11. He thought his contacts were freezing to his eyeballs so maybe that's why his eyes look blood shot. I know you're probably thinking he looks miserably cold, which he probably was, but he loves going skiing.

10 monther

Yesterday Levi turned 10 months. On this wonderful day, he woke up at 5am, for some unknown reason, and was ready for his first nap by 7:35am (he slept 3 hours). I was jealous. My eyes were hurting and I was wanting more sleep. This past month has been pretty monumental. He got another bottom tooth, learned to crawl backwards downstairs, and has taken his first steps. His hair is getting longer and it's growing out curly. It's so cute. When he wakes up from sleeping, the curly hair has turned into nappy, sleepy head. He has followed in his sisters footsteps....early walker, curly blonde hair, and I'm sure he'll be an active, curious toddler as well with lots to say. He is pure delight to have in our home. We cherish the small amount of time we have w/ Levi alone when the girls are in bed. I think he loves it too. I love his smile, cheeks, thighs, giggles, toes, and just about everything still. The girls love him to pieces. They continue to nurture and adore their little brother. The girls have picked up on mine and Jeff's reaction when Levi has little falls, they cheer for him. I'm already thinking about what to do for his 1 year birthday, which is just not right. It's gone by SOOO fast this time around. It's much harder getting him to sit still and take a picture.

The famous 'I want more food' face. There's a loud sniffing noise that goes along with the face. The face never gets old, it cracks us up every time.
Nice curly hair. I can officially say that ALL of us have some rockin', crazy, nappy, curly locks.
Checking things out.

Using my camera

Still getting used to my camera. I loved that they had a DVD instructional guide to using the camera. There is so much to learn and I easily get frustrated when pictures turn out blurry because I'm not on the right setting or something else. But here are some amateur yet focused pictures of the people I like taking pictures of.The one of Levi is my favorite one that I've taken.

X-mas and NYE

It's been awhile (for me) to post anything because our computer couldn't fit anymore memory and we had to get an external drive to move things to (mostly our movies I make that take up so much space). It's pretty much over my head, like most computer things, but with the help of a friend, he was able to help out and we've added more space...so there's that mindless story.
CHRISTMAS: I think this was our first Christmas with just us and our kids. Kinda sad, but nice to just focus on each other and the true meaning of christmas. We added lots of traditions this year since we weren't traveling to the lower 48. This is what we did for the month: gingerbread houses, making cookies for Santa, seeing Santa and his reindeer, service (polar plunge) and helping out a family, singing, acting out the nativity, scripture advent calendar (copied from the Friend), reading Luke 2, Christmas pjs (we do it the 1st of Dec.), Christmas puzzle we do together, Christmas day we do presents and after we watch the movies I made for each child. This year we watched it on our wall using Jeff's projector, and our turned our blog turned into a book. Christmas Eve night Jeff gave me my present, a nice legit camera. He thought I should open it so I could use it the next morning. The only problem with that, I still didn't know what I was doing. The next day when the girls were running down the stairs, I didn't even get their faces. The girls got razor scooters and some other girly dolls and such. The ultimate novelty present was a whoopie cushion (Luisa, it's gonna happen at sometime. We'll buy one for Jacob in a few years). We give the kids a dollar to buy one another a present. Jordyn bought Sydney the Whoopie Cushion. She didn't know what it was at the time, but it's still getting plenty of use. We had a great day and month for that matter.
NEW YEARS EVE: We missed going to Jeff's grandma's house for her NYE party. But we incorporated one of her traditions...banging pots and pans outside right after you count down. We did this New York time (8pm AK time). The girls loved it and then we watched the fireworks going off in the city. So although we were sad to be away from family we did manage to make the best of it.Levi getting in on the action.
We went outside and then the girls filled their pots with snow.
Sydney sitting on the Whoopie Cushion
A great picture of the girls looking at a present.

Special Olympics Polar Plunge

Yesterday was the 2nd annual "Freezin for a Reason" polar plunge for Alaska's Special Olympics. I personally raised $500 for the organization and in total $275K was raised so I think it was a huge success. Weeks prior I was so excited to do the plunge. As the date came closer, I became more nervous. Moments before we jumped, I was actually FEARFUL. I didn't know what to expect. Our jump time was at 10 am. We got to UAA an hour before, took a shuttle to Goose Lake, checked in (signed our life away w/ our signatures), scoped things out, and tried to stay calm. On the outside I may have appeared calm, but I was anything but calm. It was -5 outside. Wearing snowpants, jacket, gloves, boots, and hat didn't even keep me warm and I wondered how I would survive jumping in freezing water; we heard the water was 14 degrees. It was the first time in my life when I questioned my intelligence and logic. Crews were there hours before breaking the ice away to get to the lake's water. There was a hospitality tent with hot chocolate, beverages, soup, and other food. Another tent housed 3 hot tubs and a men and women's locker room to change afterwards. We hung out at the fire pit for about 15 minutes before we had to change into our jumping clothes. My friend, Heather came to document the whole thing. The best thing we did was leaving our kids home. I thought about taking them, but they would have been freezing and whining the whole time. As you can tell we wore shorts and a shirt. I named our team Lakers so I wore a lakers shirt. Other people went all out dressing up. A man jumped in decked out in a suit, a woman wore a thrift store wedding dress, someone named Toucan Sam dressed up as a Toucan, we saw a group of guys dressed in bikinis, one of the guys was wearing a thong/cup bikini bottom (yucky!.) Over 700 participants jumped. The atmosphere was very fun, festive, and exciting. Jeff and I were one of the first to jump. I think that was the best time to go. It wasn't so crowded as midday and we had fresh hot tub water. We changed into our shorts and shirt and waited outside in line to jump. This was freakin' cold. I was shivering like you wouldn't believe. This is when I actually considered walking away. I became fearful. I guess I was scared how my body would respond to the shock of it all. I was scared that the emergency crew would actually have to help me out and I didn't want to be the "special olympic polar plunge SPECTACLE". I dreaded thinking about being the one and only person who needed rescuing. Leave it to me to be the one who is scared I might and could be the center of attention. I despise having all eyes on me, it's uncomfortable. So there we were, standing on some mats (we had to wear shoes), the DJ was announcing our names and how much we raised. I elected to jump by the rescue diver guy that was in the water. I looked at the water we had to jump in. We had to jump in the water and then walk to the other side where the ladders were to climb out. It was about 8 feet away but I remember it seemed much further. They counted down 3-2-1 JUMP, a semi truck honked his horn, and we jumped in. I just stepped off. Jeff on the other hand, sprang up with enthusiasm (and adrenaline too I'm sure) and jumped into the water getting totally submerged, in true polar bear fashion. I wasn't thinking about anything except getting into the hot tub and warming up. When I jumped in, my feet hit, and I stood up. I didn't think to bend my knees more to get all the way under. I only got wet to my shoulders and walked as quickly to the ladder as possible to get out. They handed us a towel and Jeff and I ran into the hot tub. I definitely worked up the whole thing in my head and got overly anxious for nothing. It wasn't so bad after all. Jumping in the water was the easiest part. Waiting in -5 degrees in shorts and getting out of the water in the freezing air was the coldest part. This would be fun to do every December. I'm thinking my goal next year would be getting submerged in the water and maybe even stay in a few seconds. haha. Here are some pictures and I'm working on getting the video up too so come back for video footage.

ALASKA-winter style

Alaska is like a whole new state to me when winter hits. For some of you, who think I am crazy to live here, let me list the advantages of living in ALASKA in the winter.
1. you don't have to mow your lawn.

2. you don't have to worry about if you're driving in the correct lane, because the roads are covered in snow and you can't see the lane markers.

3. you have one more reason to cuddle up with loved ones.
4. you can walk outside, x-country ski, walk to the mail box and not have to carry bear spray or look over your shoulder every 5 seconds.
5. you can enjoy christmas lights 18 hours of the day.
6. you can see Santa and his real reindeer since the North Pole isn't that far away.
7. schools have snow and ice days
8. if you don't shave your legs for a few days, it's okay, no one will ever know.
9. your snowman you make will last for at least 4 months
10. so many outdoor activities to enjoy: x-country skiing, snow mobile(ing) (here they call it snow machining), snow shoeing, polar plunge, ice fishing, ice skating, down-hill skiing and snowboarding, sledding, watching the iditarod, and so many others....you just gotta get outside.

11. If you run out of room in your freezer, no worries, you can always stick the food outside in the snow to keep frozen.
And yes I had to make a list of the advantages so when I'm feeling disadvantaged about missing the sun and the warmth it brings, I'll remember the advantages....."and then I won't FEEEEEL soooo bad." Shout out to The Von Trapp family for that song.
2 other beautiful pictures of nature. I never get sick of looking out our back windows.