Pictures of the Kids

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. Not much is going on here...just gearing up for the wonderful holidays! We love this time of year. Every time it snows Preston asks if Santa Clause is coming because he really wants a basketball hoop and a telescope!
Here are a few pictures of the kids. Payton will be 8 months next week. She is getting so big so quick! I love these pictures...especially the one of Preston taunting Payton with his bananna (she almost succeeded at eating it for him)! I'll try and post Halloween pictures soon...Oh, and try not to pay too much attention to Payton's outfit in the first picture...that's definately a stay at home outfit! :)

Peepee Hina

The content in this blog is slightly "x-rated" and should only be viewed by adults! :)

So, last night the kids were taking a bath together. Suddenly, Preston looks at Payton and declares, "Payton doesn't have a peepee mom!" With his serious face looking at me for an answer, I held back my laughter enough to respond, "Well, she does but she's a girl so her's looks different." He then looked down and himself and back at Payton and said, "No it isn't mom. Payton doesn't have a peepee." So, trying to do what I was taught in my child development classes, I explained that girls have vaginas and boys have a penis (this should make you proud JB)! "Oh, Payton has a hina mom?" After saying "vagina" again for Preston to say correctly, he looked down at himeself, then at Payton and said, "Ohhhhh, Payton as a peepee hina! We are the same mom...we have peepee hinas!"

As he was getting out of the bath tub a few minutes later, he was still talking about their peepee hinas! I sure love being a mom! :)

The First Snowfall

Well, believe it or not we had our first snowfall yesterday! It's been snowing in the mountains for several weeks now, but it finally moved it's way down to us yesterday afternoon. It was so beautiful. The flakes were huge....probably dime size! We had a cozy fire and watched it snow for a while. Most of it melted pretty fast, leaving only traces of white this morning. But, then it started snowing again this evening. Smaller flakes this time, but it is adding up fast! It is so pretty, and the nice thing is, it's not too cold yet...in the low 30's! Preston was so funny yesterday. I woke him up a little early from his nap so he could see the first snowfall. As he was waking up, I told him it was snowing and in a half cognitive voice he said, "Right now (or white now)....it's snowing white now? That means Santa Claus is coming!" Gotta love kids!
Here's a quick update on the kids...
-Preston is fully potty trained now (except for sleeping). So much so, that I didn't pack any extra clothes for him at church yesterday. Daddy had to drop him off at class because I had to be at church early for Worship Team practice. I think Daddy forgot to remind him to tell his teacher if he needed to potty. Sure enough, he had an accident. You can imagine my embarrasent when I peeked in on him to see him running around Sunday School class with no pants...his bright orange dinasaur underwear really stood out! Praise the Lord (literally) that another mom had an extra pair of pants and let him borrow them!

-Payton is scooting all of the floor like a little army man. She is pulling and pushing herself around, getting up on her knees, but not doing the traditional crawl yet. Preston is quickly learing to keep his things picked up off the floor! Shee pooped out a light brite piece today (from her cousins house)!

-Payton is finally feeling better after having diahrea for a week. I discovered it was because of antibiotics I was on due to mastitis (that's no fun by the way). I'm glad she's feeling better, but now she's used to waking up once or twice a night....and I'm a softy and having a hard time making her cry herself back to sleep now!

That's about it for now. Oh, my washing machine broke so I'm getting a new stackable set next week! And, I had my annual girls weekend with my girlfriends up here last weekend. We went to a little "remote" cabin for the weekend and had a blast. I'll post more about it with pictures soon!

Fall in Alaska...

I love this time of year in Alaska. It is so beautiful! It is definately "God's country" and is so easy to be reminded of how magnificant God is and His incredible beauty. I took a few pictures today to show the Fall colors and the mountains. These were both taken just down the street from my house. The first picture shows Cook Inlet and the second picture shows the drive into my neigborbood...we're the second street on the left (although you can't really see it in this picture). Notice the snow on the tops of the mountains. This is called "termination dust." As winter creeps in, the snow slowly decends down the mountain and we know that summer is "terminated" and we're about to freeze for several months! We do love the Fall though. The daylight begins to return to normal (until it's almost gone except for a few short hours a day), it's get chilly, and we can start having nightly fires in the fireplace. It's such a cozy time of year!

This is a picture of our home with all the fall leaves! We love it (except it makes it hard to keep the cars and carpets clean with all the birch tree seeds)!

Here is Preston with a "mohawk." It didn't turn out too well, but we were just having fun while cutting his hair!

My beautiful Payton has just started lunging herself forward to get things. She curls her toes and lunges herself across the floor. Between lunging and rolling, she's going places!

Payton likes to "fly" while she's playing!

We can still support the Cowboys even in Alaska! Go Cowboys! :)

By the way, I FINALLY figured out all the Html formatting stuff so I can write above/below my pictures! A little slow, but I got it! And, I don't know how I did this, but if you click on that little "x" by one of the pictures above, it will take you to a huge photo of the picture....it's beautiful!

My Thoughts on Sarah Palin

If you know me very well, you know that I am NOT a political person. I generally have my head in the clouds and don't know much of what is going on with our government and in the political world. I normally run from political discussions and feel clueless on what is being discussed. It's just not my thing. I'm not proud of that...it kind of makes me feel like less of an American...but it's the truth of who I am. However, I have been trying to slowly get more involved during this election season, and since my girl Sarah Palin is now the Vice President candidate, I've tried to thrust myself into the political world and figure out what's it all about (I'm even listening to talk radio and enjoying it)! Still, I wouldn't normally post about politics, but I've had some of you asking my thoughts and opinions about Palin since I'm an Alaskan....so I thought I'd just get them out there.

I love Sarah Palin. I think she is for the people and she brings a lot of knowledge and experience...yes, experience, to this campaign. Palin has spent the majority of her life (since High School I believe) in Wasilla (or as we call is Wasucka) Alaska. This is a small town about 40 miles from Anchorage. The population is only about 7,000 but it is in the Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough which is made up of about 80,000 people. Wasilla is also the fastest growing area in Alaska. As you've probably heard, she started off getting involved in the PTA, which led to City Council and then eventually Mayor of Wasilla. She was Mayor for two consecutive terms of three years each. She set up many great things in Wasilla, including a 2% sales tax which allowed Wasilla to have their own Police Force. Palin ran for Governor against a Republican encumbant (did I spell that right) and very well know Democrat nominee. She won with a landslide and has one of the highest approval ratings known for a Governor. She is seen around town with her family, at her childrens' school and activities, and at her modest house in her modest neighborhood. I actually met her before she became Governor. She came in to have Lasik eye surgery at the clinic I work at part-time. She was so friendly and no, we didn't botch the surgery, but she likes to wear glasses because they make her look more intellectual (I think that's what I remember her saying at least).

A few things I admire about Palin:
1) She sold the Governors jet as soon as she was in office (on e-bay I heard)
2) She fired the family chef that was being paid with government money
3) She is very involved with her kids and their lives (teenagers make mistakes...her daughter is not pregnant because Palin wasn't around)
4) She loves her baby with downs syndrome
5) She believes in Pro-life
6) She believes in drilling in ANWR to try and become more self-sufficient as a country instead of relying so heavily on foreign help
7) She believes (and has shown) that she does not agree with spending government money frugally (look at numbers 1 and 2)
8) She stands up for what she believes in, even if it "looks bad" in the medias eyes and is not the popular thing to do (the firing of the Public Safety Commissioner Monegan happened because he was unwilling to make changes.....Q: People want to know why you fired your Public Safety Commissioner Monegan. Is it because he stopped you from getting rid of your brother-in-law [in a Cabinet firing]? People want to know if this is an ethical lapse on your part.
A: I'm glad that you're asking because I never tried to fire a former brother-in-law whose been divorced from my sister for quite some time. No, it was the commissioner, that we were seeking more results, more action to fill vacant trooper positions to deal with bootlegging and alcohol abuse problems in our rural villages especially. Just needed some new direction, a lot of new energy in that position. That is why the replacement took place there of the commissioner of public safety. It had nothing to do with an estranged former brother-in-law, a divorce that had happened some years ago.)
9) Palin's life is surrounded by average Americans and therefore, I believe she knows who the people are and what we want.
10) She's a bulldog with lipstick! :)

This post is way to long, but I wanted to share my thoughts. I certainly don't claim to know all the answers, nor do I think Palin is without fault, but I do think she is exciting and I'm proud to be supporting her (McCain is a whole other issue)! :)

I'm eager to hear your thoughts and comments.....start sharing!