Quilts galore!

So, Faith Olive's quilt is finally finished! It took longer than I thought, but I am so pleased with the way it turned out! I love it. I hope she will too. :) I'm going to mail it out to her next week. With all this volcano spewage though, I hope it will get to her by her birthday...next month! Hee hee. Check out how it turned out:

So, now that Faith Olive's quilt is done, I decided to move on to my next one. It's got 3 houses and a church and is made entirely from 2 1/2 inch strips cut into different sizes. I guess they call that a "Jelly roll", but I didn't buy the roll that the pattern is supposed to be made with. I didn't like it, so I decided to trail blaze and go off on my own tangent. (What, me make things more difficult and weird??) I picked out my own fabrics and made it completely different. The shapes of the houses are the same, but that's about it. I am so glad I did! It's going to be so cute. This one is for my Mommy. I think it's very her and that she'll love it. :) I'll post again later on down the line as it comes together more. This is just the begining stages.

Spring blizzard

This past Monday/Tuesday we had a full-blown blizzard up here in good 'ol Kodiak. I should have known that we weren't going to squeak by with such a mild winter and call it quits. I really felt like we got off easy this winter. I actually thought we would just transition from a nice, mild winter into a pleasant, fantastic spring...boy was I wrong. Mother Nature decided to dump an entire winter's worth of snow on Kodiak in less than 24 hours. We're talking record breaking snow fall. As in Kodiak has never seen that much snow in one day. Ever. It was insane. Cars were completely buried. Kids were walking up the snow drifts and sitting on roofs. Jake helped a neighbor dig out and then had to crawl back home. CRAWL! We were totally and completely stranded for the entire day. The plows couldn't keep up, and were only able to plow one lane on the roads for emergency vehicles. Our driveways all around our circle were encased in a 6+ foot wall of snow. I've never experienced anything like it, and we lived in Green Bay, WI for 4 years plus had one Kodiak winter under our belts! Check out the madness below:

Joanna and our neighbor, Jada Dang, he's cute!
Going sledding!

The snow behind our cars

This was after Jake and Dale helped dig out the neighbor. Her little car was completely buried!

Digging out

The view from my dining room window.

First soccer game

Joanna had her first soccer game yesterday. She's on the blue team, and they're called the "Sharks". :) It's so funny, because she's never officially played a sport before. She didn't really know what to do, especially when the coach had her play goalie...but she did AWESOME! She blocked a ball from going in! See, I'm such a horrible sports commentator. I NEVER played a sport. Ever. I'm not athletic at all. In fact, if there is a word for "the exact and total opposite of athletic", that would be me. Anyway, I'm so proud of Joanna for giving soccer a try, and if she likes it, great! If not, well, that's fine too. We sure had fun watching the game. The score was tied at the end of the game. Good grief, I feel awkward writing about sports. It's just not natural for me! I'll stop torturing you now and move on to things that are more my style. :)

First day of soccer

Recently, the activities notice came out with the announcement for winter children's indoor soccer league tryouts. I mentioned it to Joanna, and she was thrilled! She's never played before, but by golly, she was excited about it! This past Saturday, we went for the "tryouts", which was really just a skills assessment. Everybody gets placed on a team, but they just want to make sure the kids' skills are evenly dispursed amongst the teams. Joanna did awesome! The question is, how will I, who was always the last person to be picked for every and all teams in school, fare as a soccer mom?? I'm more inclined to the musical/artsy stuff. Any athleticism that emerges is definitely all Jake. This should be really fun! Let the games begin! :)My attempt at a soccer hair-do. Isn't this how athletic girls wear their hair? So precious
Going for the goal

Around the cones...

and back again!

Little girl in a big gym.

Sarah and I started a food blog.

Sarah called today and said this to me:

"I really wish there was a way I could share all the recipes I love to make. I wish there was a way I could cook, take pictures while I cook and put them somewhere where people could see them."

Uh...wanna blog??

So, I set it up and it's a go! It's nothing fancy, just our personal favorite go-to recipes that we like to cook and love to eat! Ch-ch-check it out! :)

http://sarahandemilycooks.blogspot.com/

What my kids think about me.

This thing was floating around Facebook. I thought I'd post it here instead of there. These guys have got me pegged pretty well. See if you can see the running theme in Nate's answers. It's VERY telling. :)

Joanna, age 6. Nate, age 3.5

1. What is something mom always says to you? Joanna: I love you. Nate: Listen.
2. What makes mom happy? Joanna: When we listen to you. Nate: Listening.
3. What makes mom sad? Joanna: When Daddy goes underway. Nate: Not listening.
4. How does your mom make you laugh? Joanna: Be funny. Nate: Can we skip this one?
5. What was your mom like as a child? Joanna: Uh...a runner? Nate: You liked skipping.
6. How old is your mom? Joanna: 32 years old. Nate: 42.
7. How tall is your mom? Joanna: I don't know. Nate: Uh...THIS tall. (He put his hand up as high as he could reach.)
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Joanna: Hug us! Nate: Cleaning up. (Mmmm...sorry, Nate...no.)
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Joanna: Do the laundry. Nate: Clean up my room. (Uh...I never do this.)
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Joanna: For being the greatest mommy ever! Nate: Singing!
11. What is your mom really good at? Joanna: Singing. Or cooking, maybe? Nate: Playing games!
12. What is your mom not very good at? Joanna: Basketball. Nate: You're not good at playing video games. (SO true! Ha ha ha!!)
13. What does your mom do for her job? Joanna: Help us. Nate: Clean up.
14. What is your mom's favorite food? Joanna: I don't know, what is your favorite food? Nate: Biscuits!
15. What makes you proud of your mom? Joanna: That you're the best mommy. Nate: I love you and you love me.
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Joanna: A "MUMMY" HAHAHA Nate: SpongeBob!
17. What do you and your mom do together? Joanna: Make pancakes. Nate: Clean up.
18. How are you and your mom the same? Joanna: We both have the same color hair. Nate: You're 32 and I'm 3. (I think he meant we both have "3" in our age. I wonder why he said I was 42 if he knew I am in my 30's...??)
19. How are you and your mom different? Joanna: We wear different pajamas. Nate: You have long hair and I have short hair!
20. How do you know your mom loves you? Joanna: Because you always say it. Nate: Your heart tells me!
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? Joanna: Papa and Grandma's house! Nate: To Grandma's house!
23. What is your Mom's least favorite place to go? Joanna: Walmart. Nate: Not at Daddy's boat.

A (rare) good hair cut experience.

Those of you who know us, know that Nate HATES getting his hair cut. I know I've blogged about it several times. Well, it was hair cut time again. My neighbor has had really great success getting him to sit and not fuss (too much) while she buzzes him with the clippers, but her boys also needed hair cuts and she didn't feel like cutting that many heads of hair. (I don't blame her.) She knocked on my door yesterday and said she was taking her boys up to the barber here on base and asked if Nate might want to join them. So, I sent him off half expecting him to come back with a partial cut or no cut at all. Well...about an hour later in waltz 4 boys with the best hair cuts ever! The girl that cut it had them each pick out a colored hair gel and spiked it up in the front...oh my goodness...the cutest thing ever. Gee, I sure love that my neighbor can get Nate to sit nice for hair cuts. Here are some pictures of the results.

Exhausted Nate Side view

What happened to my little baby??? Who is this big kid?

The 4 amigos (oh, and Manny Bunny)