TAG

The rules:
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

so heidi says if i don't do this tag thing, my dog will die (i don't own a dog and if it weren't for the fact that my kids love dogs, i wouldn't even care to own one... ever) and i won't ever find true love (too late... already did!) and a swarm of mosquitoes will take over my lawn (the apartment lawn??? hey, that could be interesting!) and i'll have a bunch of years of bad luck (you know how many emails i've never forwarded to 10 of my friends and the threat of bad luck never came to pass?)... so i guess i don't have to do this! just kidding! actually, it's been fun to try to think about 6 interesting facts about myself. here goes...

1. i have an addiction. it's 24, the kiefer sutherland series about the anti-terrorist unit in los angeles. somebody loaned us five seasons on dvd, and we watched all five seasons in about 3 months' time. i'm a bit embarrassed to admit to this (that's a heck of a lot of t.v.) but it was lots of fun. i don't recommend doing it though... and i'll never do it again (until the next 24 season comes out on dvd, that is ;)

2. i don't spend money on music and i don't own my cassettes from high school anymore, but if i did either of these, i would listen to a-ha, tears for fears, thompson twins, and depeche mode.

3. i've been known to cry at sporting events, the kind that require serious training (ironman in coeur d'alene, idaho and the beginning of the iditarod in anchorage, alaska). to tell the truth, i sobbed almost uncontrollably. i think it's because somewhere deep inside of me is a girl with an unfulfilled dream. i have a lot of commitment issues that i need to overcome right now, but one day, mark my words, I WILL RUN A MARATHON.

4. since moving to alaska, i've become quite a domestic diva. i now patch my boys' jeans, sew buttons on jacob's shirts instead of shoving them to to the back of the closet, grind my own wheat and bake five loaves of bread every week or two, and sew or crochet baby shower gifts. i guess you could say that last winter was extremely looooong and i needed stuff to fill my time! it's been fun.

5. i love holidays. this past week, my boys and i made paper mache spiders (see posted picture) and we decorated our door for halloween. i think i had more fun doing it than they did! i was the only one who kept checking the paper covered balloons to see if they were dry and ready for the next step. i'm also learning to make clay tree ornaments for christmas time. i can't wait until we can put our little tree up!

6. even though my hair is going gray, my family is what brings me the most intense pleasure. the other day ammon proclaimed that he is going to get married in the temple so he can live with his family forever... my heart melted. abraham is doing a new little dance that involves shaking his skinny little leg... and my heart melts each time he does it. and ziya, well, all she has to do is smile at me... and my heart melts. and as for jacob... well, he owns my melted heart.

i'm now supposed to tag six more bloggers... but i don't think i know six bloggers! (and two of the ones i do know are already tagged). so i tag rho-bean, vero, cici and russ.

BOO! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

just trying to be safe...

i hate that i have to worry about crazy stuff... but i do! so this blog is now "invitation only." email me with addresses if you know somebody who might like to join our cool people club. no weirdos allowed :)

moose, moose, moose

the other day on the drive to take ammon to school, we saw a mama moose and her twin calves. i think they live in the woods near us. they'd crossed the street when abe, ziya and i drove back so we counted that as a different sighting (we were up to six). then after school we had to drop a letter off at the post office and there was another mama and her calf (eight). we drove all the way back home to get the camera for that one! then saturday we spotted the neighborhood mama with the twins just about a half block from where we live... that's eleven sightings in just three days (o.k., o.k. so they're mostly the same moose over and over... but it's still exciting for us!). and for all you non-alaskan friends... the coolest thing about all of this is that they are right in the middle of town!!!

six months old!!!

ziya turned six months old today. i didn't even realize this until after church jacob said we needed to take her month birthday picture. gosh... wasn't i just giving birth to her like yesterday? it's going by so quickly. she's such a doll. she likes to stick her tongue out and she blows raspberries constantly. she has a beautiful personality to go along with the great looks! she loves playing with ammon and abraham. she's quite the eater now (i made a vegetable soup a few days ago and froze some for her... it's now her favorite!). what a sweet blessing she is! here's a little slide show of all her "month birthday" pictures.

mud fight at bishop's creek earlier in the summer

i'm just learning to do videos. this is from several months ago, but i couldn't resist putting it on. be patient... you have to watch for two things - abe going in for the kill and then ammon losing his shorts! so funny. i still double over every time i watch this.

mothers who know!

yesterday during general conference the relief society (LDS church women's organization) president gave an inspiring talk that will probably be titled "mothers who know." we were at home watching this on our computer, so sister beck was competing with my insatiable nursing baby and my two young boys who were having a hard time with their reverence. however, amidst all the noise and distractions, i did happen to hear the resounding statement, "LDS WOMEN SHOULD BE THE BEST HOMEMAKERS IN THE WORLD." yes, she talked about nurturing, cultivating, teaching, being an example, etc., but she also talked about cooking, washing clothes and dishes, and keeping an orderly home. i felt terrible as i looked around our place. by this point (sunday morning), we'd spent approximately five hours on our living room floor watching the conference proceedings while trying to be creative about keeping our kids quietly entertained and at least partially learning the significance of general conference (this resulted in a lot of stuff all over the place). saturday evening we had dinner with some friends and got home a bit late, so the days' clutter did not get cleaned up. on sunday, conference started at 8 a.m. and we barely had time to have our special breakfast (cinnamon rolls from a can because i wasn't brave enough to try to make them from scratch!), much less wash up all the dishes and mess. the contents of a tote from storage were scattered throughout the living room (my attempt to swap out the winter and summer clothes failed miserably... the boys got to it before i did!). at least 20 sheets of drawing paper and mazes littered the entire front room. i could go on and on describing the mess, but i'll spare the details. needless to say, for that moment, i felt like a mother who does not know! but then, just a few speakers later, president gordon b. hinckley came to the pulpit. abraham stopped what he was doing and turned towards the monitor. "it's gordon b. hinckley. he's the prophet," he said. for just a quick moment, before abe went back to his gallivanting, i was granted the beautiful and warm "you're doing alright" feeling. i'm doing my best to nurture "future fathers and mothers who will be the builders of the Lord's kingdom for the next 50 years." it's an awesome and oft times overwhelming responsibility, but this talk was just what i needed to remind me of its importance and to encourage me to keep trying to be a mother who knows.

is it getting cold yet? you ask

imagine that creepy music from Jaws. that's what i've been feeling like lately. it's that "it's creeping up on you and it's very scary" feeling. i go out in the mornings to take ammon to school and i wish i had a remote starter so i could warm up the car and wouldn't have to feel that cold leather on my backside. last monday, there was ice on the windshield. genius me thought i could just "melt" it off with more water... so i did the little windshield washer fluid stuff and it froze immediately. it just took that much longer to scrape! one of our friends already put snow tires on his truck. the snow plowing company called today to set everything up for the apartment parking lot plowing. on our walk today, abraham was wearing sweats, another sweatshirt over it, a jacket, hat and mittens... and he still cried because it was just too cold for him. all the signs are here. de, da, de, dum, de, da, de, dum... faster and faster (that's my jaws music).