Happy Birthday, Jared!!!

Happy Birthday, baby. :) I can't believe the once so tiny newborn has grown into this amazing little boy, and how fast it happened just blows my mind away. It seems like yesterday I was feeding you bananas and cheerios, and holding you while you suck on your blanket. :) I am looking forward to spending the rest of my life as your Mama, being there wherever you need me to. I know that as you get older, you won't need me like you have the last six, but I look forward to filling whatever role you need. :) You are an amazing person...and I love you one million. ;)

Ice Skating. ;)

Hey...it has been forevverrr since I have posted anything. :) I have been getting ready for winter...we officially skipped fall altogether today (the first day of autumn) when we got snow flurries. :) I am...ummmmmm....not...quite ready for winter yet, but I don't guess anybody asked me. ;)

Anyway, there are some cool things that we have been up to lately...we went ice skating today for the first time. :) It was sooo much fun. :) I have been on roller blades/skates before, but never had gone ice skating. :) I was as excited as the kids were, I think. :) My friend here Lisa and I took the kids to McDonalds for happy meals, and then we took them to the ice rink. Between the two of us, we have 5 boys under 7, so they have oh so much fun together. :) My boys especially were all wiggly and excited today and had a hard time settling down. :)

When we got to the rink, we rented our skates, and tried walking around on them before we actually got out on the ice. They were sooo much easier on the ground than they were on the ice. :) I spent the first 20 minutes or so s-l-o-w-l-y moving around using the wall....I guess because it was also used for hockey, there wasn't a rail like there is at roller rinks......sooooo my fingers were just about cramping trying to keep myself up with just a tiny little lip around the windows about the size of a fingerprint. ;) I did that for a while until all the little kids were kind of giving me the eye like "lady learn how to skate already, and let us use it!" I was probably melting a spot beneath me where I was trying to get the skates to move, so I decided to be a big girl, and start edging away....I kept sliding backwards without trying to...and finally got so far away that I couldn't get back to the rail, so I decided I needed to learn how to keep myself up. ;) I made it to the middle...and went just about everywhere. :) I was soooOOoooo proud of myself. :) Hahaha. :) I want to be a fun Mom, I am just not altogether athletic, I am afraid. ;) I do have fun trying though. :) I actually didn't fall, although I had a bunch of REALLY close calls. :) I figured I would end up with a wet bottom, but I didn't....this time. :) I was pretty proud of myself until the end of the session was over, and everybody started emptying off, and I was in the middle on the far side, and started trying to make it out of the rink, and when I got to the exit, I looked back, and saw I was THE LAST ONE OFF!!!! Oh well, maybe next time. :) I did do some twirls and spins, even though I wasn't trying to. :)

The boys had soooo much fun. My friends Lisa and Becky were MUCH better skaters than I, so they took them and skated off with them, so they could get so fun in the middle. :) I got some videos of them with the camera, but it didn't catch the sound, but you could tell they were really having a good day. :) Jared was able to snag one of those skating walker things that little kids use...(I totally wanted one, but I was too tall to use Jared's. ;) He was going fast with that, he loved it. Jathan made it all the way around by himself, and had a great time. :) We definetely are gonna come back and do this again. :)

Denali-

We took the boys to Denali this last Saturday because we had a season pass, and it is going to get too cold to go soon. :) Fall is here.... the yellows and reds were abundant. We ended up seeing a grizzly bear.... I actually got out of the truck to take pictures...and found out later that he could have made the trip up to me in less than 6 seconds....ummmmm....probably wasn't a good idea. Especially since the camera that I had taken (my digital one), doesn't zoom and the pictures were lousy. :) I really didn't feel threatened... I guess I should have. :)

We did end up getting out later, and taking some of the hiking trails. I love to hike...it is just a little different than it used to be before my car accident messed up my foot.... I can still do it, it just hurts. :( We took one that was pretty much uphill all the way, really steep, without ANY flat spots once you get started. It was a beautiful view... Once I got up high enough that I could see for a long ways around, I was ready to stop...but the boys kept urging me on... "Come on, Mama!!!" I thought it was so funny...usually always in the past I have been the one urging THEM on. "If you get up here, we will have an animal cracker picnic up there," or "I will race you up!!!" or "If we get done with this quickly, we will still be able to watch Diego before bedtime!" I guess they love to hike too. :) Anyway, here are some of the pictures that I took on our trip. Enjoy. :)

Demolition...

The boys and I had a playdate today at the park at McDonalds, and on our way to run some more errands, we saw a demolition crew demolishing a bunch of buildings. The boys and I decided to park the truck, and walk to where we could get a better look. They had a man spraying the area with a water hose, and a man operating the heavy machinery (I am not sure what it is, but the boys and I are going to get a book from the library so we can find out more about it. :) Mamas aren't boys, even if we do raise them. :) I am learning as much as they are, I think. The boys were so excited to be able to witness the buildings coming down. They were actually SCREAMING with excitement!!! I bet the operator kind of thought we were crazy, because he gets to see things like this all the time. :) But for us, this was our first time. I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures of the day, so my boys will one day be able to look back on them, and remember their fun day dreaming of dirt and big boys toys. :)

Out our front door

This was the view through our front door this evening about 9:30-ish. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets that I have seen in a long time. The weather was glorious, really still and calm, perfect temperature and made you want to stay outside and enjoy the view. The sun is beginning to set earlier now, and we are really enjoying the novelty of having a real night now. Ask me again this winter how nice it is to have dark, and I might have a different answer. :) But, for now it is so wonderful and cozy. It is towards the end of August, and we are already experiencing frosts on some mornings. It is totally different than what we are used to in Arkansas, we would still be running the air most days nonstop. The trees are starting to turn colors, and I have heard that the leaves don't stay on for long once they start changing. In the time that we have spent here we have not had alot of sunsets like this, and we were surprised and delighted to look out our front door and get a view like this. I walked out and down the street looking for glimpses without power lines and street signs, and thought that I would share some of my favorites with you.

Jared on babies. :)

Jared absolutely LOVES babies, but he told me today that his car that he got at McDonalds he was going to keep in my purse until we left, because he didn't want a baby "blobbering" on it. :)

Jathan's newest thing.

Jathan wants a dog. Bad. He has been reading alot of stories about dogs in his reading comprehension, and apparently they are passing on more than just the main idea. :) He keeps talking about how that it would be to have a dog, changes that we would have to make for one, whether he would be able to walk one, ect. He talks about it at least once an hour. We don't want one here where we are at now, because it would have to be an indoor dog, and we don't want that. So he is looking forward to when we might get a home in the country, and be able to get a dog. He is trying to decide which ones are best, and everything. I guess it is true, every boy needs a dog. :)

Jared's Marriage Plans

Jared has been so funny lately. :) He just told me that "he wasn't going to marry anyone. At all. Because he likes me the best. And he always wants to be with me. But when I die, then he will have to get married. But he isn't going to talk about that. Because that would make me sad. When I am gone he would get too lonely without me. But I would never know. Because I would be dead.And don't worry, it won't happen for a long time. Because I am not TOO old."