Termination Dust

'Round here we call that first dusting of snow on the mountain tops termination dust-meaning ofcourse, summer has been terminated.

Last year it hit September 1st. I was OK with that. It was, after all, September. And it didn't snow until Thanksgiving. Sooo, imagine how unhappy I am that the "dust" hit August 11th this year!

But, no matter what this winter may bring, there is something so beautiful about that first sprinkle of snow on those mountain tops. It's like God dusted them with powdered sugar.

The Deck

If you recall, we moved in last year and set to work on putting in the yard. This year, Tim's goal was to get a deck put in. I have to tell you, I'm always impressed by my husband's ability to get jobs done-but this time he outdid himself. It's a great deck!


Now, here's my favorite view of the deck!!!!

It's OK Sloane...

I felt the same way when I met your Davis side of the family. Don't worry. They grow on you.




Introducing Sloane Renata

Born 01 August, 2006 at 1:25 in the afternoon

Weight: 8lbs., 1 oz
Length: 21 inches

If you wanna see more pictures, just click on the Paige's Page link to the right.

Welcome to the world little one. I can't wait to meet you.

What cha know!?!?! Here's another blackmail photo

Just "waterin' the trees". If you can't tell, we are in the beginning stages of potty training. So far, gigantic "YEAH!!!!"'s and clapping seem to be all the motivation Jamison needs. Now, the next step is to get him to go....hhhmmmm....more than just pee-pee in the potty chair. THAT will earn him a new Thomas Train.

Photos to blackmail our sons with

Here's one of Jamison and Jeanne's baby boy Hayden. This one is quite tame. I'm saving the "non-ballon" pictures for the day they come home with mohawks. Then I'll blow up those pictures and plaster them all over the town-until the mohawk is gone.

Happy 4th of July!

We went last night to the local celebration and fireworks. The fireworks don't start until midnight because of the extended daylight. Here's a quick picture for you to get an idea of the light around here. We had a wonderful time and we all didn't get into bed until after 1:00 in the morning. I'm telling you, the light here is just crazy. I was wearing sunglasses after 10:30!

Boogie Boardin'

Us girls spent an afternoon at the beach with some boogie boards trying to conquer the Pacific Ocean. By far, LeighAnne was the winner. At one point she told me-her frustrated moma to "just be ONE with the waves" Honestly, another week in California and she'd been voting Democrat and living in trees!!!

Dona...you just travel AGAIN across the world with 3 kids...what are you going to do next?

I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!

Do you know the way to San Clemente?

So, the kiddos and I got on a plane at 0240 Sunday morning (yes, that's 2:40 IN THE MORNING for you non-military) for beautiful, sunny warm California. My wonderful, bestest, favoritist, beautifulist friend-from-Germany Jeanne picked us up in Los Angeles and drove us to her parents beach house in San Clemente (famous for Richard Nixon's R&R's) To say it is paradise isn't even close. Crashing waves, beautiful fragrant flowers, sea lions on the rocks in the water, and young Marines running shirtless on the beach (oops, didn't mean that!) I'm still not sure I want to go to Disneyland.

Tim is joinging us first thing in the AM on Friday and we check into our Disney hotel later that evening. But in the meantime, here's a picture of the kids on the deck of the house.

Train Boy

Our train boy finally got to stand next to a moving real life train. Tim had last Friday off and Jamison personally requested to go see "big trains" so we went. He took the whole thing so seriously that I don't have one picture of him smiling...he was overwhelmed and so sweet.

Here's a picture with his newest obsession....the CABOOSE!











And here he's getting ready to fuss at Kenai for walking on the tracks. He has a train movie that warns of the dangers of playing on railroad tracks, and my newest and youngest safety officer had to work hard to keep Kenai in check.

Is this the face of summertime or what?

For those of you that remember...

the picture seen around the world...

Here's the updated version...

Poor Doug

He didn't know how deep his was getting into it all when he flew his toddler and pregnant wife to visit 1 rowdy dog, 1 naughty toddler, 2 whiny girls, a (slightly) grumpy sis-in-law and an over worked brother in law.

Dumb Dog

So, it's warming up and staying daylight pretty late now, but it's still Alaska, so no green lawns and only the pussy willows are blooming. However, the ground is nice and dry now after all the snow has melted and the rivers and creeks are breaking up. I took the dog and kids to a park last weekend. Being a boy, the first thing Jamison wanted to do was throw rocks in the creek...being diligent sisters, the girls stood right beside him and made sure he was OK...being a dumb a$$ water dog, Kenai hopped over the ice chunks and played in the water. It was a misty cloudy day...there is NO WAY she was cooling off from too much sun on her black coat...

Airborne Humvee

Here's a picture Tim took of a humvee exiting their C-17. The picture is on the front page of the post newspaper. And a quick clarification, the other airborne pic down below was NOT taken by Tim.

More moose on the loose

OK, I guess if I confess that I went out to dinner and a movie with my neighbor (whose husband is on a ship in the middle of the south seas) the very night Jamison got terribly sick, I might not convince you all that it's all "woe is me" all day long. But, I'm willing to sacrifice your pity so I can show you what we encountered on the way home.

On Northern Lights Blvd...a 4 lane busy road we came to a stop to allow 2 moose to cross the street and then head down the other side with traffic. The pictures aren't that clear, but you get the idea!

E is for Easter and.....

Emergency Room.

Yep, that sinus infection kept us up all night long and prompted a trip to the ER instead of a photo op in the parking lot of church. Here's what Jamison thought of the Easter Bunny's special delivery. And the ER trip got him a breathing treatment and some meds to try and clear his lungs. So far, so good.

How to tell when Daddy is gone

Match the illness to the above creatures:

A. Sinus Infection
B. Recent Head Trauma
C. Ear/eye infection

Never fails!!!

The muse is loose

Yep, he's gone again. Jumped into Donnelly Training Area yesterday. I haven't talked to him, but he sent these pics this morning. I'm guessing he used his new camera!

No, really, it's not April Fools

OK, for those of you that actually still come and see if I actually posted anything new, try not to have a heart attack.

I guess my problem has been that my muse has been gone more than home, so without inspiration I lack motivation.

None the less, it's 45 degrees here today and we are slowly starting to see the ground. There is still 2 inches of packed snow/ice on my driveway, but I have hope by this time next week I will have been able to chip through it all.

The sun is a wonderful old friend that has come to join us again. By 6:00 AM the sky is starting to glow and we all are usually out of bed before 7:00...even during Spring Break over a week ago. We also had a suprise visitor a couple of days into the break-look below for the picture. I should add that the girls Spring Break started off with atleast 6 inches of fresh snow but most was gone by the end of the week.

As I said before, Tim is just a novelty around here lately. Looks like it will continue that way until May. We had our 10 year anniversary this week and it was a biggy for me because I got 2 phone calls AND an email!!!! I also went and bought myself an anniversary IPOD, so when you combine that with a new house, new car and new couch, I'm coming out on the good side of it all.

Jamison gets to go to a birthday party this afternoon. This is his second big boy party in the last month. He's very excited.

The girls got their report cards this week and I'm so proud of them. They have really improved since the first report cards came out. Not that those were bad, I just knew they could have done so much better-and now they've proved it. I'm proud of their efforts, improvements and accomplishments. They even managed not to kill each other during spring break.

Alright, no April Fools here...you actually got an update...and I promise to be better-muse or no.