Teaching your kids

Sometimes teaching your kids what is right comes back with their own twist to it... Avery: "Mom you taught me that Heavenly Father wants me to be happy, right?" Me: "Yes, Avery I taught you that" Avery: "Snowmaching makes me happy" Me: "ok" Avery: "So, if I snowmachine on Sunday, He won't be mad, cuz I'll be happy" I am in serious trouble...she is only 4 and already coming up with this stuff!

Christmas in April!

This is what we woke up to this morning…12 inches and still falling. We shouldn’t be surprised, we do live in Alaska, but after almost 50° weather yesterday…it is a little shocking!

Girl Scout Cookie Monster!

Levi loves thin mints can you tell???

Hats and Glasses

 

Kids love hat and glasses…alone and together!

We thank thee O God for a Prophet!

We love General Conference and listening to President Monson speak!

Rylee vs the tree

Rylee was ran into a tree riding in a sled behind the snow machine.I think the tree won!

TROUBLE!!!

Culprit #1-----Ryder

Culprit #2----Levi

 

Crime….emptying my dryer into the toilet.

You always know there is TROUBLE when it gets quiet. I asked Ryder why his pants were wet and he told me toilet…yes he stood in it to help cram the rest of the stuff down so more would quit. Good thing they both are cute!!!

Ryan and Ethan

From Avery’s party…too cute not to post!

Avery turns 4!

She had a great day…

Chrystal took her to town shopping and then got her lunch

Flowers from Daddy…

A party with her birthday buddy, Ethan and neighbors

Presents…

Levi trying ride Bullseye

Deorating and eating cupcakes....

Happy 4th Birthday to our little Lee Lee! We love you!

And then bowling the next day...

Mahalo Brenners!

My mom and dad were supposed to come and be with the kids while we went to Hawaii. Some things out of their control did not allow them to come. We were very sad, but know that they had to take care of the things in Nevada. We are able to get the Brenners to come and spend the time in our home with the kids. They were very well taken care of. They loved Brother Brenner cooking them toast and reading them books. Sister Brenner made them these skirts. They had a fun time. We thank you Brother and Sister Brenner for serving our family.

St. Patrick’s Day!

The Brenners even kept up with our family tradtion of a green dinner for St. Patrick’s Day and made hats to wear to dinner!

 

Evacuate to Higher Ground!

Aloha! Our first night in Hawaii proved to be quite the adventure! We met our friends at baggage claim and headed to the shuttle to get our car! We crammed our selves in a BEA-utiful gold mustang…that Ryan lovingly nicknamed Duke…it was about the color of newborn baby poop! We drove the North Shore with the top down while it was raining with luggage piled on our laps! Sure wish we had a picture of it and also how wonderfully our hair was styled by the wind once we arrived at our rental. We dropped off our luggage and headed to grab a bite to eat. The first place we went to was closed and the “young” crowd told us to go and watch the news. We thought they were being rude…but come to find out when we went to the second place to eat everyone was buzzing about the earthquake/tsunami that had hit Japan and was headed right toward Hawaii. We got a phone call from one of the guys Ryan works with asking if we were ok. We got to order food, but they brought us our check before the food even arrived. They were closing too.

We went back to our rental and watched the news. We talked with the people who we were renting from. They assured us all would be fine.Nestor, the husband was sound asleep in his bed. He told his wife to tell us that he would get us ladder to get on the roof is it was going to be a big wave.  Kristen and I showered and put on comfy clothes. We continued to watch the news and decide what to do, by this time tsunami sirens were going off every hour and the fire trucks were driving down the road saying “EVACUATE TO HIGHER GROUND..YOUR HOMES ARE NOT SAFE. We knelt in prayer. None of us felt worried that something was going to happen to us, but we felt is was better to be safe than sorry. We did have kids to come home to. We were not in our homes with our own emergency supplies. We headed to higher ground with our Fiji water and protein bars. Ryan was making fun of me for all the bars I put in my bag before we left AK. They came in handy. He didn’t complain about the baby wipes that I felt prompted to leave in the bag when I was packing to leave. We all were happy to have them!

We spent the night in our mustang. We didn’t sleep much at all. 4 people in that car made for a sweaty sauna when we all tried to fall asleep.(we didn’t want to put the top down in case some crazies walked by) Also, people from home kept calling and texting to check in on us and see if we were ok. We listened to the news every so often to hear what was happening. By 3:30 when not much had happened, we had hoped we were going to be able to head back to our place, but it took until 8:30 for them to open the roads up again and deem it safe. We needed the “ALL CLEAR” signal. We made it back to the place we were staying and cleaned up. We went to breakfast..it tasted good…could have been nasty any other day, but gourmet to us that morning. We were kind of tired but made the best of our first day, even if parasailing got canceled. It was an adventure alright..a good story to tell and one that you could only laugh about…especially if you were in the middle of it!

All and all, we had a great trip.There were a few things out of our control like the wind and the big waves.  We did laugh a lot. I haven’t laughed that much in a long time. It is good for the soul.  We enjoyed relaxing, not having any responsibilities, and spending time with our good friends!

The cars lined both sides of the ground…when we were all on “higher ground”

Our emergency kit…