Ava's Necklaces

So here are some remarkably cute pics of Ava and her necklaces.

The story with the necklaces began a few months ago. Evan had recieved a couple of mardi gras necklaces at a B-day party and I tried to put the on her then, but she wouldn't have it. She didn't like them and didn't want them on. Flash forward to last week. Those two necklaces were in th eliving room one day and that little tot crawled right up to them and figured out how to get them around her neck on her own and from that moment one she had to have them on. We take them off when she sleeps, but as soon as she wakes up she points and grunts that she has to have them. All 8 of them!!!

No Slowing down

So things have not slowed down all summer long and I have neglected my blog. Sorry. Her is a little overview.
At the end of June there was an airshow here at Elmendorf and the kids and I had a blast. (Pics to Come) Then all through July we just played and played and played some more. Keeping up with James crazy 12 hour shifts from 7am -7pm or vice versa is just another thing we do.

In April, right after General Conference, the stake added a ward and changed ward boundaries so now we belong to the Arctic Valley Ward. We have to drive about 10 miutes further than before to Eagle River, but this ward includes our whole side of Elmendorf AFB and Ft Richardson Army Post. I am soooo grateful for that, I can't even tell you. There are so many more Sisters on base now and it is great to be able to not have to worry about how they are going to get on and so forth. I love it. My callings in the ward are not too difficult and have allowed me to be in Relief Society which frankly, is a relief. I really needed to be around the Sisters and to get to know them at an adult level instead of just through their children. AND our RS President is great. I love Jessica so much. She has alrady become a good friend and I appreciate all she does. I am the RS Pianist and the Activity Days Leader. So I still serve in Primary, but not on Sundays.

Now School starts on Monday for Evan and I can't wait. We get to meet his teacher, Ms. Armstrong tomorrow and I'm already ready. All the school supplies are bought. New shoes, a few new outfits and such are ready to go and I am excited!!!! YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ava has decided that she will now grace us with her walking abilities and is getting better by the day. She has also decided that she is a girlie girl. I had suspected this for quite some while but we now know for sure. She where's necklaces all day everyday, except for naptimes and bedtime and when she wakes up she immediately reaches and points for hre necklaces and puts them on. All 8 of them.

I guess that's it for now. Pics to come of all the summer events and of a few other things!

Evan's Birthday

So, today is Evan's 6th birthday. We didn't do anthing for him today, however, because we had a big honkin' party for him a couple of weekends ago when Mom was here. He has known for a while that he wanted it to be a tropical fish theme, so I was able to get decorations and such way in advance so I wouldn't be spending a fortune at the last minute. Thank goodness Anchorage actually has a really good party store. He had a really great time with friends from church and from school and it was AWESOME!!!!

Alaska WILDlife

So, A few weeks ago when Mom came to visit, Mom, the kids and I went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center down the Seward Highway near Girdwood. It was my first trip down or up, for that matter, the Seward and it was gorgeous. What should have beena 45-50 trip took 1hour and 15 minutes. The ocean was on the right and beyond that and the all around us were the mountains and I just couldn't believe how beautiful and majestic these works were. To the left was mountain and rock wall that had the melting snow and ice falling out of it. Evan kept saying, Look, Nana!! Another waterfall. Did you see it? Did you see it?"

Then we got to the wildlife center and boy was it windy, but it was neat to see the animals. It was made up of animals from alaska and that were endangered somehow. My favorite were the wood bison, not to be confused with plains bison that we all know and love from Texas. They got so close to the fence and just stared us in the eye. There were also moose, elk, musk ox, black bear, reindeer, an eagle named Adonis and there were also brown bear, but they didn't wanted to see us I guess. They didn't come out. It was a really cool trip.

Ava's Birthday

Ava's Birthday was on the 2nd and mine was yesterday on the 18th. Both of those weekends James had to work so we split the difference and had a b-day party together on the 9th. It was mostly for Ava of course since it was her first and boy was it fun. We invited our friends from church that also live in the neighborhood and all of them have kids of different ages including one who is only 3 weeks older than Ava, so the house was full. We ate and ate and then sang to Ava and gave her the cake. A tradition I sort of kept from growing up that my mom did was a strawberry cake with whipcream instead of icing. I did this for Evan on his first birthday too. So we sang and Evan blew out the candle, which she was completely mesmerized by and the she dove into the cake. At first, it was just the whipcream hand over fist. Then she realized there was something underneath that white stuff and went crazy devouring that cake. She was totally opposite of Evan. He wouldn't touch the cake at first. He was scared of it. After I pushed his hand into the whipcream and put it to his mouth, then he went crazy. She also got a few gifts including a hand made bracelet from Sabrina and Reagan. It was great.

Evan and his stars

Evan is in Kindergarten and he loves it there.

They use a card turning system for discipline. You start on green and if you stay there, then you never got in trouble. 1 time in trouble you turn your card to yellow, 2 is blue, and 3 is red. Then the teacher marks whetever color you got in your folder for that day as a star and writes next to it what you did wrong. So everyday when he gets off the bus we ask or he tells us what color star he got. Yes, he has come home with red stars before. I have no quams about my son not being perfect. Trust me, I know he isn't. But lately, he has been coming home with an array of colored stars, except green and it has all been becuase he was talking. His folder basically looks like this for a week:

Monday-yellow, talking

Tuesday-red, Talking x 3

Wednesday-yellow, talking

Thursday-yellow, talking

Friday-blue, talking x 2

and so on. Needless to say his folder looks like a rainbow.

He would get in trouble at home if he had to turn his card for talking back to the teacher or not playing nice and such. One time he got in trouble for yelling at someone, so he got in trouble for that too. We haven't been too hard on him in the past if he had to turn his card only for talking, but now we are tired of him not getting any green stars, So today was the first day that he is getting disciplined at home for stars other than green even if it is just for talking.

Yellow Star-no TV

Blue Star-no TV and no X-box

Red Star-no TV, no X-box, no computer and he has to talk to his dad.

He got a yellow star today for talking and he hasn't watched TV all day. He did want to watch a movie, but we told him that's watching TV and he got upset so maybe he will get the hang of it. We are going to have to keep up this kind of discipline over the summer because I will not have a crazy kid running around all summer long.

Ava learns

So Ava is going t0 be ONE year old tomorrow. Actually, she was born at 12:03 am, so I guess she will officially be one in a little less then 2 hours.

I can't believe a year has gone by that fast. It was just last February that we got up here to Alaska and now Ava is one!!!!

She is getting her first two teeth right now-the two front bottom ones. She is cruising and crawling all over the place. She is still very weary about walking, even when we hold her hands but, if she learns how to walk the way she learned how to crawl, it won't take very much.

The other thing is that she doesn't sleep through the night yet. She has never slept through the night on a regular basis and therefore, I have not either. She has been waking up about every 4 hours. But, lastnight, we started letting her cry it out or using the ferber method. this is when you put them down and give them their comfort item and them let them soothe themselves to sleep, they sleep longer and understand that they don't need to eat, or rock or cuddle, etc. to get back to sleep. As long as they are crying, you go back in every 5, 10, 15, lay them down, no talking and so on, until they fall asleep. Then on night 2, you start with 10 minutes and so on. When she woke up at midnight lastnight, I only had to go in at the 5 and 10 minute intervals. When she woke up at 4am I had to go in at 5, 10, and 15 minute intervals.

Tonight so far, she doesn't like being in there at all. Since 10pm I have been in there twice and boy was she not happy when I didn't pick her up and hold her.

It's hard on me. I never thought I would be one of those mom's that got all sentimental and stuff when my child cries. But boy do I. I did the same thing with Evan when he was a baby too. Almost time to go in again...Ahhhhhhh!!!!