Today we went to a friend's birthday party at the local water park. It always stresses me out because I don't have enough eyeballs to keep track of everyone. Thankfully, Jake is pretty trustworthy and spends most of his time in one area. Usually Jordan has my heart racing because she is magnetically drawn to the deep end. Joshy is still not sure about this whole swimming thing. It took him about 20 minutes before he would even get his toes wet. But once he got in, there was no stopping him.

So when I wasn't hauling Jordan out of the deep end, I was scrambling to scoop Joshy up from the bottom of the water slide. For some reason he overcame all fear and rational thought and just started sliding by himself. The problem was, he couldn't muster enough coordination to get out from under the water once at the bottom. Especially when five more kids slid down and sat on top of him.

Surely, an episode such as that would keep him stuck to me like glue right? Wrong, he was back on that slide immediately. The whole situation reminds me of a movie quote, "That kid is BACK on the escalator again!"



So about his 80th time up the slide, Josh sat down at the top of the concrete steps to begin his scootching manuever over to the slide. This is where it went horribly wrong. I was at the bottom of the slide waiting for him when I saw him tip over backwards, down the concrete stairs. I sloshed through the water as fast as possible only to watch him land on his head at the bottom. Poor baby was scraped all up. We cuddled and cried for a minute and then THAT KID WAS BACK ON THE SLIDE AGAIN!



Moving on to the festivities. Cake, ice cream and presents, hurray!

Jordy's First Haircut

Today little Jordy-Roo got her very first haircut. We took a couple inches of really whispy baby hair off. It doesn't look a whole lot different but you can tell that it feels a lot thicker and healthier. She was such a good girl. She sat very still and looked down when she was supposed to. I was proud of her.

This is right before the cutting started...


The very first snip. I kept this one of course.


You can see how long that little ringlet is on the side.


Sitting so still like such a big girl.


The result. So cute. Lunch at Wendys.

Records and Accomplishments

So the official word is that we got 22 inches of snow in one big snowfall. That is the third largest snowfall in the history of Anchorage, ever. I guess that's cool.

In other news, today I ran 8 miles straight without stopping. It actually went really well and I'm thinking I might be able to do this half marathon after all.

Because it made me laugh.

Maybe I'm poor white trash or something, but I didn't realize bidets were so popular. Judging by the looks on their faces, maybe the world would be a better place if everyone gave it a try.

Almost TWO FEET and counting...

To make the most of an incredible suck fest of a situation...we went outside to enjoy the lovely spring day.




And the Oscar goes to..! Little Joshy shares my opinion of this weather.


Jake and Jordan, however, are the real optimists in town. Well, maybe not as optimistic as my shirtless neighbor mowing his brown grass two days ago. Today I spied him snow blowing his driveway in a parka.

TEN inches and counting.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

This is what we woke up to this morning. Camping trip...cancelled. Track meet...cancelled. Spring? You guessed it...cancelled.

Can't get enough of this sunshine!

Another beautiful spring day in Alaska. We spent the day with a quick errand run to the grocery store, lunch at McD's playland because the kids were SO good at the store, and some time outside in the yard. Josh had to go in for a nap so he missed the photo session today.



Jordan with her bundle of sticks and fake smile.


Beautiful blue eyed Bubba.


Our Baby Gap advertisment pic.

Has Spring Really Sprung???

Today while Jake was at wrestling practice, the rest of the family had some time outside. It got up to 60 degrees today! It wasn't long before we had some four-legged visitors. They just walked right up the street to hang out with us. There was a mama moose and an older baby moose. Jordan enjoyed mooing at them. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the baby moose was up on our neighbor's front porch.

(No, I'm not pregnant. Remind me not to wear that shirt ever again.)

I DID IT!

Today I ran my third 5k. I'd been training hard and had high hopes for a new personal record. When we arrived at the start line we took a walk down the trail and our hopes were diminished as we beheld the surface of ice and snow we would be running on. Oh well.

I guess training really helps though, because despite the road conditions, I managed to blow my previous personal record out of the water by completing the race in 27 minutes and 30 seconds. That is a little over TWO WHOLE MINUTES faster.

So that was cool.


Here we are right before the race.
Corrie, Rachelle, Jordan and April.


The throng.


Off we go!


Here I come, fast as the wind!


Ah, good race!

Wish Me Luck!

Saturday morning at 10am I will be running in my third 5k race. I've been training hard and I'm hoping to set a new personal record. I'd better go eat some pasta.

For the Girls!

To all my faithful readers who wear makeup:

The company E.L.F (Eyes Lips Face) has recently been bought out by Nordstrom and they are liquidating their inventory. Everything is $1 and kits are priced at about $1 per item in the kit.

We are talking makeup, bath stuff, nail stuff, brushes, gift sets, everything. If you spend $75 shipping is free.

If you spend $15 and put in coupon code CAROLINA at checkout, you will recieve 50% off your entire order.

I just placed an order at $16 and the shipping was $6.95 to Alaska. When I put in the half off code, my whole order including shipping was under $16.

Have fun!

Got a scanner!

You are in trouble now! I got a scanner! And that means that you all will be blessed with lots of blogs about my latest scrapbooking layouts. This is one that I created for an upcoming Peekaboo Picks article. This is from Christmas 2007. I redid the page a minimum of three times but I'm finally satisfied.

And check out my editing prowess! My scanner only scans 8.5x11 pages and both of these were 12x12. I had to scan the bottom, then the top and "stitch" the two pieces together in Photoshop. I betcha can't even tell that their was a line right through mine and Darrin's head on the left page. Once my pages were stitched back together, I combined the two sides as they would appear in my album.

Love learning these new tricks!

What happened?

Today I left Jake alone to practice writing while I did some chores. After about fifteen minutes he tracked me down. (laughing) "Look what I did!"



Well, my first reaction was a devestated, "NOOOOO!" Which caused his face to fall in utter sadness. I edited my reaction and explained to him that he wasn't in trouble and that I knew he was just trying to be silly, but that the red pen wasn't going to wash off very easy and he might have it for a few days. He was still still very upset when I seized the moment with my camera.

Creativity

"Mommy! Come see my clock!"


Well look at that. Lincoln Logs are good for more than building.

Pah Rum Pum Pum...Pum

Today Jake came upstairs making a terrible racket. Oddly enough, Jordan was holding a racket, but I digress. This is Jake's answer to the age old question, "how can I fashion a system for drumming that allows me to drum all over the house and pester everyone, rather than remain stationary in my room?"


And there was Jordan dancing along beside him.


But where was Josh? Oh, he was taking advantage of the racket by playing all alone with Jake's train set. When I snapped the picture he jumped out of his skin and ran out of the room as fast as he could. I wonder if he's not allowed to play with Jake's trains or something...

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

We are pretty pumped around here what with Kansas beating North Carolina in the playoffs tonight. Looking forward to that championship game on Monday night! I realize we all look like a bunch of crazy fans but you have to realize....we ARE. We named our first born child Jayhawk for crying out loud!

Another tournament

Jake had his third wrestling tournament today. He had four kids in his weight bracket this time (35 pounders!) Unfortunately, he finished in fourth place. He was pinned VERY quickly in his first match, but his second match was another story. Although he lost, he was never pinned. This was the first match that went through two periods and then was decided on points. Even though he didn't win, he fought so hard. He twisted out of several near pins by his opponent. It was exciting to see that he was starting to use some of the moves that he has learned rather than lay down and give up! (Jake is wearing the black singlet)




Almost pinned!


Look at him twist out of this near pin! He's learned so much!

Garbage Man

Had a couple of complaints about the lack of pictures this past week. There just isn't much going on I guess. But I managed to snap these of Jake while he hauled the garbage cans up from the bottom of the driveway today. Fascinating I know. But isn't it cute that he has chores?