Dental Woes

This post is to make all parents out there feel better about themselves.  Chris is a pediatric dentist and discovered that Clark needs 4 crowns, despite brushing and flossing. Most kids need to be put to sleep to get all of that work done but we decided to give it a try without putting him to sleep.  He did quite well.  Laughing gas and a movie on the ceiling did the trick for Clark! He got one "silver tooth" and needs 3 more. He's excited to go back!

Technically we aren't supposed to take pictures, but Isaac did it.  I'm innocent.

There's the shiner!

Chris only gave him half of the numbing medicine but he got SO NUMB!

Yep, that's right.  Reward your children for cavities!

Winter Continues

Are you getting tired of seeing "snow" pictures yet??  Here's some of our latest adventures: 

Reflection Lake

 Matanuska Lake Trail - It starts at a University of Fairbanks satellite location farm. Random - but the boys loved the cows.  Isaac talked about the "moos" for days.

He kept dipping his sandwich in the snow to make it a "snow sandwich".

He was crying about 3/4ths of our walk until I taught him to knock the snow off of the trees.

After so much snow, we are ready for our trip to Texas! 80 degrees there!

Beating the Winter Blues

We try to get out and do things so we don't succumb to the winter blues. Here's a few of our latest adventures: 

We tried cross country skiing again. And that is not our dog.

This video is choppy on my computer, but maybe it'll work on yours...

This was on top of a frozen lake.

Clark did pretty good, but we also did a lot of this.

I was with the kids in the car while he skied, so I didn't get a picture.

We've been taking the kids to the building clinics at Home Depot and Lowes.  Clark loves it and sings, "Bob the Builder" while hammering away.

Building a "love note" box

And most of our days are spent doing things like this: 
 

There is no safe place to lay down. I literally could not get up.

 

27

This month I turned 27.  I was able to go to the temple by myself in the morning - peace on the way there and back. Bliss. Chris surprised me with a cake that he hired his office manager to make.  Peppermint chocolate meringue. Delicious. Then Chris watched the boys while I went to the gym to work out (actually to watch American Idol) and then I browsed the Target clearance sections. It was a great day full of some of my favorite things and a break from some of my favorite people. :) Does that sound bad??  I really do love my kids! ;)

Clark graced me some birthday yoga poses.

A few days after my birthday, I got a package in the mail from my bestie with this awesome contraption in it.

Look at that perfect snowball!

 

Extra Spring

While the rest of the country was freezing to death, we were enjoying temperatures in the 40s to 50s.  All of the snow melted and the ground was DRY in some parts. Clark was a little distraught that our sledding hill is gone. Apparently this is a fluke winter. People who have lived here for 40 years have never seen something like this. But we can't complain!  We've enjoyed some extra outdoor time without needing quite as much clothing on.

They were trying to make mud pies, but the dirt was too DRY.

They fill up the pan with dirt and then take it to that white sign to put it in the "oven". 

He's trying to get as good as me.  If I learned one thing from my childhood, it was how to use a Razor! 

Pretending to be a jaguar

Right before he "pounced" across the grass and literally bit Isaac who was supposed to be a deer.  Only moderately creepy. No more National Geographic kid books for him...

Alaska ain't so bad if it would do this every year!

Alaska Winter Firsts

When winter hit we were told it's only a matter of time until our car gets stuck in the snow.  Even AWD/4WD ones. I still thought it was just the dumbos that actually get stuck though. Well, my pride got the better of me and I have now become a dumbo.

I was 5 minutes EARLY in getting to my visiting teaching appointment. I had never met the lady before. My GPS was telling me the route and I started driving down a "road" that had some tire tracks in it. About halfway down the "road", I could see a fallen tree.  The "smart me" knew that I couldn't drive over that. So I started to back up.  I got stuck in the snow. While I was trying to get unstuck, I gunned it and ended up hitting a huge pile of snow behind me. Then I really got stuck.

After calling the lady I was supposed to be visiting and crying on the phone to her (great first conversation), I called Geico and they sent out a tow truck to pull me out. Almost 2 hours later, we made it back home having accomplished nothing.  It is times like these that I have NO REGRETS for our rear entertainment system in the van.

The "road" my GPS was telling me to go down....I hate our GPS.

The van was stuck on top of an old, crusty chunk of snow.

My bumper popped off. :(

On a happy note, I took the van to a dealership in town to get a quote for fixing the bumper. They fixed it within 3 minutes and said it was no charge.  This is the same dealership that has already fixed something for me free of charge. They have definitely won my business for all of our other car needs. 


We also built our first REAL snowman.  We built a few tiny ones in Ohio, but this was the real deal.  Unfortunately the weather got warm really quickly after we built him and he melted away. Isaac was a little distraught.

"Ice skating" on the driveway

When Dad throws a snowball and it hits your face...