A new friend....

 

Since we are moving and I have a lot of food storage to use, I have been looking online for some new easy ways to use it. I came across this site and I was so excited to try her recipes after watching her how to videos. Click here for the site! So far I have made her bread, hot pockets, and the cinnamon rolls are currently rising and I can't wait to eat them later this afternoon. I am so glad that Crystal, my new friend, enjoys cooking so much and is willing to show us just how she does it. I am always scared to try to recipes because I don't know what it will turn out like. She shows you just how to do it and what it should look like along the way. She has lots of other recipes besides breads and recently just released her very own cook book. Go check it out!

Today is our 5th Anniversary!

Where it all started........

Love you!

The next chapter

 

5 years ago today, I was giddy with excitement and nervous as could be. I knew that the next day my life would be changed forever. I would graduate from college in the morning and later that evening be married to the man of my dreams. Oh what a day it was. Honestly, I don't know what we were thinking having such a busy day but I wouldn't have changed any of it.
For our honeymoon we made our way from Idaho Falls to, Pittsburg, California where we stayed through August. Luke was a bug boy there and sold pest control for a great company. I enjoyed my lazy days in the California sun while Luke worked like crazy everyday except Sunday.
Our next adventure would take us to ALASKA. When we were engaged we went to a job fair in Tacoma and met the HR director for the Kenai Penisula School District. He let us know how great Alaska was and just thought we would fit perfect in a little village called Tyonek. I taught grades k-2 and Luke taught grade 6-12 all subjects except math. We stayed busy with our first year of teaching and loved our time there. We had great people to work with and all became really good friends. We enjoyed watching The Amazing Race and always looked forward to our weekly game nights. While there we had a very slow paced life. Grocery shopping was a breeze we called or faxed in an order for groceries and it would come on a plane that afternoon. We also participated in church via a phonecall to a ward in Anchorage.

The next school year we were able to get jobs on the "roadsystem" and moved to Kenai. Luke taught English and Spanish in Nikiski and I taught first grade at Sears Elementary. During this year of teaching, Luke was the head wrestling coach, we were expecting a baby, luke started his Masters Degree and we bought a house---that we eventually made our home after a summer of lots of work.
In July our sweet Micali girl joined the family and I chose to stay home with her and let Luke bring home the bacon for our family.
Since then Eli joined our family a short 18 months, we moved to a new home 6 weeks later and are working to fix up another home.
Luke has been co-teaching with a great friend the last two years and has loved that.
He has however had a strong desire to continue his education and we both wanted to get back closer to family. In December we started looking for other job possibilities so we could fullfil these desires.
We have prayed throughout this search that we would be led to what would be best for our family, and were also very willing to stay here if it was what was best.
Two weeks ago Luke interviewed for a job in Monticello, Utah and we decided to accept the position. So our lives current chapter of living in Alaska is quickly coming to a close. We both think we will be back sometime though!I am excited for what lies ahead but, I have grown fond of the beauties that surround us here and will really miss them.
It has been a wonderful 5 years and I am excited to see what the next 5 years brings!

15 months

 

Eli turned 15 months yesterday. His new favorite thing is to ride the little scooter car around the house. He can't get on it by himself but once he is on, he can move like crazy. I put him on it to walk down and get the mail on Friday. He just smiled and giggled the whole way. His new signs are banana and milk. He is starting to give kisses, can climb the stairs and unfortunately he still likes playing in the toilet if the door is left open.

Out of the mouth of Micali

 

I just want to post some things Micali said today because the things she comes up with just make me smile. I have a lot more to blog but I will get to the other 100 pictures later. This morning we were waiting on Daddy to come back from church and jump our car because the battery had died once again. (I didn't even leave the lights on this time but I think that battery is shot because of all the other times during the winter that I did leave them on.) As I tried to start the car and it didn't work, Micali said What happened? I said the car is broken, and I hear her say Oh poor car, its okay! Daddy fix it.
Then after church I had the keys in my hand that I forgot to put on the table right inside the door. I held them out for Micali to take to set on the table for me and she looked at me and said, "My hands hurt"....and kept walking. She didn't say NO but she definitely let me know she didn't want to help me out.

A great thought at Easter Time

This talk by Elder Holland was given at our recent General Conference last weekend. This is the shortened version but still very meaningful and touching at this Easter season.

Happy Birthday Dad!

 

Dear Dad,
I want you to know how special you are to me. I wish I could be there to share in this special day for you. I thank you for your kind and quiet example. I thank you for your unending support, and for always being there ---even at the FUN band concerts when I barely knew how to play the clarinet. I am sure you enjoyed watching our sporting events much more. I am grateful for the love that you share with me and all of us kids. I am grateful to know of your testimony of the gospel and that families are forever. I love you dad!!

Photo shoot of The LITTLE MAN!

 

Here is Eli at 14 and a half months weighing 25lbs. He is pulling himself up, cruising, and has started using a real crawl more than his army crawl.
He has is working on cutting his molars. He has one through, and two others have poked through a little. He is signing "more" and "finished" at meal times. There is nothing cuter than his little CHUBBY fingers signing more the second he has finished the food on his tray and his mouth is still stuffed with the last bite of banana!
He says, mama, dada, byebye, sasa (sasha). He is still my super easy going little boy most of the time but he can really have a temper if you do something he doesn't like. His temper shows nightly when it is time to be finished brushing his teeth. He never wants you to take his toothbrush from him. He also loves books---reading them on his own or being read to.

Micali's "moo"

 

Here is the friendly neighborhood moose that comes around quite often. Micali loves it and will stare out the window forever when it is close to our house. When it moves out of her sight, on more than one occasion she has put on her boots to go find "moo." We told her it wasn't safe that moose weren't nice and she could get hurt. Now when she sees a moose she will say "moo not nice, moo hurt me?" At least this way she hopefully won't be out in the front yard trying to pet it one day.
Which reminds me of her love for another animal too. The SQUIRRELS in our back yard. She watches them, then knocks on the window and ask them to come here. It hasn't worked for her so far but maybe one day.

Daddy's helper

 

Micali continues to want to be involved in anything her daddy is doing. Lastnight they put together the sliding closet doors for the entryway. It looks really nice. I got the camera out to take a picture when I heard Micali repeat her Daddy saying, "you need to use more pressure" She was holding a track wheel in place for him and it kept sliding. So she kept saying "more pressure, yes, more pressure" It was cute to hear her use those words.
I wanted to make a quick list of things Micali has said lately and what she is doing.
-"don't help k?" Tonight she didn't really need me in the room with her while she was putting Eli down for bed. She sang to him, prayed with him and gave him kisses and hugs. The only thing she "let" me do was put him in bed.
-praying at meal times and bed times
-she is singing songs like crazy. All day long she seems to have some song in her head
-she says PERFECT. When I fill her juice cup, get her something she can't reach, or when she likes anything I do. "ahh Perfect, thank you mama"

I love my sweet girl. A few weeks ago we had a Relief Society Enrichment meeting and one of the mini-classes was on parenting. A guest speaker who is a teacher at BYU-Idaho came and presented. Afterwards a friend and I picked her brain a little on parenting a two year old.
One thing she said was to give them choices. They are striving for independence at this age and need to have some choices. So for example in the morning when she is getting dressed you say pink shirt or purple shirt? If she hasn't answered in 10 seconds or less you repeat the question. If she still hasn't answered you make the choice for her and move on to the next thing.
This has worked so well for Micali. She has started making up her mind really fast and realizing that is she doesn't make a choice than mommy or daddy are going to.
So at nap time now instead of just telling her to go to lay down and go to sleep, I ask her if she wants books or no books. Some days she feels like looking at them some days she is just too tired and wants to go to sleep right away but she seems to realize she made a choice and then is more okay with what is going on.
I LIKE IT!!! It has made my life A LOT easier and Micali a lot happier! I just have to accept her choice when I give her one. Do you want your nice, clean pretty church shoes, or your dirty tennis shoes to wear with your dress to church-----I will take the dirty tennis shoes THANKS mom! oh well--we made it out the door that morning at least!