"Tomorrow your friend or partner will tell you some exciting news"

So I just had to tell you all that my fortune cookie came true (as always :)). I had almost given up on it when late Wednesday night Nate told me "the exciting news" that the FAA has decided to pay the controllers a per diem rate as well as their salary while in training in Oklahoma City. I don't know if you all know how stressed out I have been about his pay while he is in training since before it was just minimum wage, but it is now a LOT more than that, and it has come as a huge blessing to me!!! A very HUGE relief!! He will be making about what he is making now- so it will not feel like we are quite as tight as we thought it would. So anyway- that's the exciting news that my fortune cookie was talking about on Tuesday. Just thought you should all be a part of it :) Heavenly Father is totally taking care of us- here's another example!

Stick People - OUT, "Real People" - IN

Charity's teacher taught her how to draw "real people" as charity calls them. No more stick people for her :) This is our family and yes, that is me- the big head and the baby in the tummy- not sure how I should take that :) But I thought this was cute and definitely a step for Charity's artistic talent :) clothes and hands and everything :) Love it.

Just some Random Pictures

We started tending two little girls today. One is Luke's age and the other is 4 months. Kelly and Bradley absolutely adore the baby! As you can see in this picture. Luke not so much :) They were really good little girls today. I am hoping it stays that way :) But we will be watching them for 4 hours a day on Mondays and Wednesdays. Enough to get a little extra money, but not enough to stress mommy out :) Bradley and Kelly were totally helpful though- I think I actually did LESS today than I usually do :)


I forgot to rotate this one, but it's one of Kelly's masterpieces on old paper :) She was up in her room for a long time and when I asked her what she was doing up there- this is what she showed me! HER CASTLE!!! She worked so hard on it- I had to get a picture.


And this was cute I thought- Luke had his drink and bowl of Pumpkin seeds sitting here on the floor to snack on, and realized he needed a better place to sit, so he went and got himself a little seat and made himself comfortable! I thought it was just creative of him :) And he parked himself right by me :) I just love being a mom and being a part of these cute little moments!

We Finally Got Our Pumpkin (part 2)

I just love this picture!
-- I was kind of amazed at what a system we have developed with the whole pumpkin carving thing. Since it's only once a year, seems like it should have been more chaotic, but things went really well, only took us a half hour!! I was surprised :) It was actually REALLY fun!!


So, Kelly got the gettin' dirty award- she's the best at cleaning out the guts!
Bradley got the first time for everything award- he actually got in and helped out a lot this year- it was really cute to let him pull the lid off when we cut it open
Charity got the comment on every single little piece of slime you touch award :) Charity is good at vocalizing what she is doing- second by second. She's not too fond of the pumpkin guts, but she was a good sport about it this year and dug in.
Luke got the busy body award- he was totally uninterested most of the time, there was a few seconds where he stuck the spoon in and pulled out a seed or two, but other than that- not too thrilled :) He gets into the other kids' excitement though- kinda funny.


Luke even had to have some chips while we were working :)



Mommy is in charge of the actual carving and cleaning out- but thankfully- Daddy designs it- otherwise we would end up with the same triangle eyes, upsidedown triangle nose, smiley mouth with a few teeth face that I made every Halloween of my life :) (try not to notice my gray hairs in this picture- can you believe people think I dye my hair! That's some pretty crappy hair dye if it can't cover up the little bit of gray!)


I took this one in the dark believe it or not! Check out our cool pumpkin!! How fun!
Unfortunately we only braved the one- we should have done another one or two- we have this tradition down!

We Finally Got Our Pumpkin!!!

Charity picked it out- good job, Charity- look at that beautiful pumpkin!!



Daddy draws the face....



Lukey makes a cute face :)



Bradley and Kelly try to inspire him with some of their faces :)

I've Been Tagged!

MY HUSBAND

What is his name? Nathan, but I call him Nate- I've tried to change and call him Nathan, but it never sticks.
How long have you been together? we've known each other for 7 years, and 19 days; but we've been married for 6 years, 5 months and 10 days
How long did you date? THREE WOPPIN' MONTHS!!! (a very long 3 months I might add- especially the last month and a half! :) )
How old is he? 28 (exactly 5 months older than me)

Who eats more? Me BY FAR!! (even when I'm not pregnant unfortunately)

Who said "I love you" first? I'm pretty sure I did, but I'd have to double check with Nate.

Who is taller? Nate is taller by like half a foot.

Who sings better? We pretend like it's me, since I'm the one to skip out and go to ward choir practice, but Nate's definitely the singer out of the two of us. He's a pro at making up songs
Who is smarter? Nate obviously- I don't know how he can get straight A's with a job and a family and a naggy wife all at the same time- other than just being smart!!
Whose temper is worse? Mine, by far, unfortunately

Who does the laundry? I do, sort of

Who does the dishes? It's usually me, but on the rare occasion :) that they're not done when Nate gets home- he does them- what a sweetie!!
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Both of us :) but I think it's supposed to be Nate's side (I'm a little bit of a bed hog)
Who pays the bills? Well, I do all the clicking with the mouse button, but it's Nate who brings home the dough!
Who mows the lawn? well after I broke the landlord's lawn mower it was no one :) but when we bought the new one Nate took over :)
Who cooks dinner? I try to most nights :) unless you consider putting fish sticks on a tray and sticking them in the oven "cooking dinner"- then it's every night :)
Who drives when you are together? definitely Nate- and we like it that way :)

Who is more stubborn? definitely me- sorry babe

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I'm not usually wrong, but when I am he's the first to admit it :) just joking--- I'm NEVER wrong!
Whose parents do you see the most? well, we saw his most recently :)

Who kissed who first? now this one's tricky because he asked first, but I was the one that kissed him- so you be the judge :)
Who asked who out? He asked me out for BOTH of our FIRST dates actually :)

Who proposed? Nate did- FINALLY!! I would have though, if he had taken any longer :) felt like FOREVER :) just teasing sweetie!
Who is more sensitive? Unfortunately for Nate- that would definitely be me (Man, Nate has to put up with a LOT! this thing's an eye opener!) Thankfully he does!!
Who has more friends? Nate would probably say I do, but really it's him- he's the friendlier one anyway- he gets along more with people- and anyway- he's the one standing around gabbing with people at the end of church :) that's a pretty good way to measure :)
Who wears the pants in the family? Now this one just might have to go to Bradley- he's pretty much in charge around here- Brad or Charity :) Just kidding. It's Nate for sure-- I don't know what I'd do without him! I love you Nate! Thanks for being my sweetheart!!

Now I'm supposed to tag someone: Annie, Julie, Paulette, Dan, Lacey, and anyone else who wants to be tagged :) either in email or on a blog.

Daddy's Big Day

Yesterday was Nate's big test day! He finally took the ATSAT. It's been long awaited. It was an 8-hour test, the score he gets will be used in considering him for hire along with his GPA. So it was a VERY big deal. It was an aptitude test, not really using a lot of the stuff he's been learning in school, but testing his skills and stress levels (from what it sounds like anyway). So he thinks he did pretty well. We will find out his test score in about 3 weeks, so we'll keep ya posted on that.

We've all been really anxious about the test, so Monday the kids and I made him some little Good Luck signs. Don't try to read this candy gram one- it doesn't make any sense. I've never made one of these that I didn't have all planned out BEFORE I bought the candy. We just picked out the candy and then tried to make sense out of it when we got home. Didn't do too well :) But it's the thought that counts right :) Anyway- the kids wanted pictures of them :)


This one was going to be one that he would have to unscramble, but we didn't want to stress him out too much :) Bradley did the "O"s he would tell you. We had fun.






And while Nate was testing all day we decided to get the boys' hair cuts. Brad's looks SO CUTE!! Luke's looks okay too, I am just wondering if she was using real scissors on the front. It's hard to tell he even had one :)

It's starting to snow now. I'm already scared of driving. We almost died on the way to school today. So I think my driving around for fun days are over. It'll be nice to get back to the land where the snow melts. I miss that. Kelly sure makes Winter better though- she absolutely LOVES it. That's all she can talk about when we're driving around- "wook at all da beautiful shnow!!!" She said this morning that she liked Winter better than Spring- go figure :) Sure makes it more enjoyable to know that she's enjoying it :) I do have to say- I have never seen the sun rise as much as I have in the last month! That's been really cool- I've never been awake and alive early enough to twatch it everyday. Now that it comes up at like 9:30 we get to see the best part of the sunrise while we're taking Charity to school.

Speaking of- Charity's school is having Red Ribbon Week this week, so she has been having a lot of fun with the whole wearing your clothes inside out (Monday), then wearing Red (Tuesday), then she got to take her bear yesterday and today she got to dress in her old Dance leotard and tutu (couldn't believe it still fit her) for sports day. She's had fun. Tomorrow she gets to do the crazy hair. It's fun to have something to get excited about everyday because she totally takes these kinds of things seriously :) She had a cool assembly the other day where all she could talk about when she got home was the "LUNG THAT THEY SHOWED US!!!" Apparently they saw a lung of someone who smoked and then a healthy one and according to Charity the first one was "so gross I almost threw up!" Pretty effective way of teaching the dangers of smoking if you ask me- worked on Charity- she's scared to death of breathing in smoke now.

Well, I finally changed doctors- for all of you who had to hear how much I hated my other one, sorry, he's gone now :) I have yet to see my new one though- he seems pretty busy it's really hard to get an appointment and I have to keep moving mine back. But I go in on the 9th- I'll keep you posted on how this one goes :) I don't know why I care so much- we'll be outta here in a couple of months- I may only see this one twice- if that. Must be the hormones (yeah, we'll blame it on that). But everything seems to be fine with the baby. We don't have a name picked out yet, so sorry to disappoint all of you. For some reason nothing sounds good to me (we'll just blame that on the hormones too- why not). We'll see, something's bound to hit us sooner or later :) We'll keep ya posted. But I'm definitely getting bigger- felt like my belly just popped out a couple of weeks ago- right before Claire came actually. The maternity clothes are fitting now and that is a wonderful thing. I think I'm bigger than I usually am at this point though- maybe he'll be our big baby :) We'll see. Maybe it's just all the food I've been eating lately. I pretty much eat everything I see. And I crave Raisinets for some odd reason (hormones). Too bad I can't crave something healthy this time. Better luck next pregnancy I guess :)

Well, that's about all the news I have for today- I think I've rambled on enough anyway. The boys are doing good too (didn't say much about them). Brad's already talking about defending his baby brother from "Hooky hitting him"- we'll see how that goes I guess :) Luke's really a crack up lately- I tried to put a video of him copying daddy on here, but it didn't work- must not have been funny enough- I'll have to try again later. He really knows how to get a good laugh though.
But anyway! Thanks for checking out my blog- I hope the music is to your liking- if you don't like it just click the pause button. And if you have any requests- I have 60 more spots to fit music in- so just let me know :)

claire's here part 12

This is a view of Prince William Sound from the docks in Whittier. It's beautiful. This is one of the places where they start and end a lot of the cruises that come and go from Alaska.


They're somewhat cheesy :) They picked this pose out themselves.


cute little shop in Whittier- closed of course since it was October :) but cute nonetheless.


How cute.


This was our last meal with Claire- she took us out to the Alaskan Gourmet Subs restaurant, and we all pigged out. Our week with Claire was over :(
Thanks again for coming Claire!! Hope you had a blast!

Whittier (claire's here part 11)

This is the prettiest picture ever!! This is off the Seward Highway- driving down to Whittier


We saw this raven while we were waiting to go through the tunnel- the ravens are EVERYWHERE in the winter- just another one of the signs of Winter!


Here we go into the tunnel! It's 2.5 miles long and the longest in America (or soemthing like that- again- sorry for the useless information- I need to pay more attention to detail)


Here we are in the Ghost town standing by a giant Halibut :) (Whittier is a much more happening place in the Summer I'm assuming- but in October....well, it was creepy :))


This was cool though- it's basically just a small fishing town. (if you can call it a town- it was SO SMALL!)

Cute pictures of my kids- By Claire (claire's here part 10)

Cute boys


Charity's school had a little Health and Safety Fair thing on Thursday, so we took Claire with us to that :) This is a picture of Charity doing the 911 practice. She did really well- telling the lady her phone number and address. It was neat to see how much she has changed since she started school- she talks to adults a lot better and isn't so shy.


Here's Kelly giving it a whirl- she did well too :)


Now I'm not sure why we want Bradley to practice dialing 911, but he did :) Hopefully he's forgotten it. He did well though- even told her the color of his house! He's never really cared much about colors so I was surprised :)
And we would have let Luke try, but we already know how well he dials 911, and we're in the process of teaching him NOT to dial it :) (long story- so I won't go into that :))


Claire got up really close to these moose that were in someone's yard as we were walking out of Charity's school. There were three of them, but you can't see them all in this picture. It was nice to have something cool come of the 2 hours she spent in the Health and Safety Fair with us :)

claire's here (part 9)

Claire and I got to go to the temple- this is an angle I haven't put on my blog yet :)


Here's a view of downtown Anchorage from (almost) Flat Top Mountain (it was closed)


Then we went to Goose Lake to kill some time before it was time to pick up the girls. It was really cool because the very surface of the lake was frozen. Just a really thin layer. We were able to break chunks off, throw them and watch them shatter on the ice and then spread out really really far. It was really fun for the boys especially. Cold though :)


He's got a good arm :)


cute little lukey!

claire's here (part 8)

This picture was just INCREDIBLE- I wasn't there for it or anything, but Claire took a shuttle van thing down to Seward for her wildlife cruise, and this was taken off the Seward Highway at like 9:00 in the morning- SO PRETTY!!! That's the sun just starting to rise there in the distance. I LOVE thsi picture! Thanks for letting me have a copy Claire :) (I don't know why I bother thanking her- she doesn't read this anyway :)


We did lots of driving around the next day when we took Claire to Lake Hood to get on her plane for her flightseeing tour. The kids would fall asleep and wake up at random times :) But this was a funny one of Luke trying to stay awake.

cute Kelz!


Love this kid's dimples!


Here's a shot of Lake Hood. It's right by the airport (as you can see by the tower) and is one of the largest float plane docks in North America (I think :)- how's that for useless information :)

claire's here (part 7)

So another little wildlife surprise when we were driving home from Earthquake Park- this mother moose and her baby were taking a walk down the street in our neighborhood. We got a VERY close look at them through the car windows :)


Here's THE Polar Bear Gift Shop- who knew :)


we walked around Cheney Lake and threw rocks into the other end of it :) Don't usually get pictures from this view :)


Here is my son- yes, wearing a short sleeve shirt in the 35ish degree weather. I WISH I had a picture of Claire in her coat, hat, gloves, frozen nose look next to him :) He got hot so he took his coat off :) (he must be from Alaska)


This was really pretty I thought! Like I said- the leaves were just EVERYWHERE! Here's some fall for ya Julie- we have PLENTY to spare :)

Cool stuff we saw at Earthquake Park (claire's here part 6)

So Nate looks up and sees this Bald Eagle up in the tree. We were totally trying to be quiet so he wouldn't fly away, but he stayed there for quite a while even with lots of noise (aka: brad). It was quite a sight to see so close up. We see bald eagles all the time, but not so close usually. Something to check off on Claire's list of Alaskan things to see :)


Here's a closer up :)


And this was just INCREDIBLE to see- Claire got this awesome picture just milliseconds before her camera battery died - isn't that just how it goes!! But it was so neat!


Then we got to see this huge boat taking off out of the harbor there downtown. Kinda cool! I love these huge ships and that we can see them from our little walks.


We did stop to watch the planes but it was so cloudy- we could barely see them for a few seconds before they were covered with cloud. Kinda cool still :) fun picture anyway- thanks again Claire!