Me and My Long Lost Sister

Renae hated her pictures, so here's an updated one she just emailed me!

So, people are ALWAYS asking if Renae is my sister. I have to say, "well, Sister in Law", and they always look so surprised. "Really? You look just like sisters". But this last week was the funniest. Renae came and worked a few hours for Matt on his Opening Night at the new store, and apparently all night, people kept confusing us. Kenny Petersen (of Allen & Petersen) kept saying "Jenn, (do this) or Jenn (where's that?) and Renae just kept ignoring him. Other's made the same mistake, till finally, a bunch of the guys confronted me and asked if that was my sister. I said "no, she's my brother's wife" and they absolutely did not believe me. We had to bring my mother over to convince them, but I don't that even that worked. So, what do you think? Sister in Laws? Or Twins, separated at birth without the mother even knowing?

Random pictures from my 35mm.

I LOVE my Cannon 35mm. I don't care if its not'digital'. I still love it. Here are some pictures from the film that I recently had developed, and put on CD.


Gabe's first day of school. His teacher had TONS of zebras in the classroom, all ready for their up coming "Zebra Day". Sorry about the eyes, but this was the only shot I had of my little cutie with her bucket full of our very own raspberries. Jealous all you Arizona relatives and friends?

Morgan picking raspberries in our backyard this summer.

Nope, I didn't doctor this photo at all. He really is that pail. Don't look at me, I'm only that white when I'm about ready to faint.

The kids racing their bikes and scooters down to grandma's house. Gabe riding his bike. He LIVED on that thing this last summer.

Swimming at the Alaska Club

Jense at the pool. His favorite thing was to have me pull him around on the kick board. He's such a miniature Jacob!

Last week, I took Morgan, 3 of my nephews, and Renae to the Alaska Club to swim in the afternoon. I think the kids all had a blast. I know Morgan and I did. Carson, enjoyed the kick boards.

So did Clayton.

Jammin' with the Carters

The returned missionary and his possy. My kids totally look up to Jeremy, and I'm so glad they have such an awesome role model as a cousin that they can look up to, and try to be like. Lately, we've been able to have Jeremy stay in our house over night, as he's been working for Matt with the new store, and studying at my brother's lab to become a soil tester this summer. Its been so fun having him. Morgan and Avery saying goodbye. They had so much fun playing together. I wish we lived closer to this little cutie.

I think my SIL Karin is one of the luckiest people in the world. She gets to wake up every morning to this view. Isn't it awesome? This is from her living room, but her bedroom window has the exact same view. Love it!

Jeremy, Chandler and I jammin! Morgan LOVED all the instruments, but thought the guitar made her look the "coolest"

Me, trying to figure out the guitar. I'm a gamer newbie, and I'm admitting to you all now, that I'd never played Guitar Hero till that night. But once I got the hang of it, it was really fun.

The girls had fun with Aunt Karin.

Morgan and Aunt Karin singing Baby Baby! Jer trying to figure out the drums.

My little Gabe working the strings on his Guitar!

Family Photos

We all got together last Sunday before the guys took off for the summer to work around Alaska, and Jayme and Jense left for Cali, to get an updated picture of the entire family. Do you even know how hard it is to get 12 kids ages 1-9 to all look at the camera at the same time? And our photographer was in the pictures as well, so she would set up the camera on a timer, run over to us, it would snap, then we would try another one. Thanks Jayme, they turned out great!

Burglery and FHE

I went to the gym this morning, then ran some errands, then took Morgan and my niece over to the new store to warm up some lunch for Matt. When I got there, I was met with grim faces, and a broken back door. The store was broken into last night. Yup, some punk broke a side window, couldn't get in that way, moved to the front door, broke it, but didn't get in, then finally went to the back door, next to the kitchen, and went to work with a crowbar. The intelligent people took all the money they had in the store, (which wasn't a ton) and a significant amount of checks from the grand opening on Saturday that were in the deposit bag. So Matt spent the whole day on the phone, calling costumers to get new checks written, and since it was also a delivery day, he was dealing with those issues.

We thought when we moved into this beautiful new store, all our problems would be over. What kind of a person does this? And after they hit our store, they moved next door to the Salvation Army. Obviously a very thoughtful person. Oh, and did I mention that they have to be completely out of their old store by tomorrow? Ya, nice. So after I picked up the kids from school today, we headed over to the old store to spend some time with daddy for FHE and help him clear out the old store. Then we went back to the nice new kitchen and I made dinner for everyone. I took a few pictures of the broken window, but they're on my camera phone, and I can't get them off right now. I hope they catch this person, but it doesn't look super promising.

This other photo is of Karin, teaching a lady from the radio station how to make home made pasta. It was great having her there for the day. Matt really enjoys working for a company where he occasionally gets to see his sister, and have her come do classes in his new store. Thanks Karin! The whole store smelled great all day because of you and your awesome cooking!

Chandler enjoying the "french fries" he made with his Aunt Karin in her Kids Cooking Class

NO, that's not me in the add, but I play her in real life. I'm a soccer mom again. Morgan and Gabe both decided they wanted to play soccer this year. (yeah!) Chandler's also decided he would like to do Karate. Morgan is in soccer, and starts dance in the fall, and Gabe is always in swimming lessons and now soccer. I called my mom the other day and told her I wished there were 3-4 of me sometimes. Just so I could be everywhere I need to be, and still get all the little mundane things done that needs to be done every day.

Saturday was the only day I had to sign the kids up for summer soccer who wanted to do it this year. Our season starts early, in May, before the kids are out of school, but as long as Matt's not having another Grand Opening or a private letter sale, I should be good to go. We were on a time crunch to get them resisterred, so everything had to go just right. Saturday morning we got everyone up and dressed and out the door by 8am. (a big deal for our family on a Saturday) We stopped off for donuts and bananas at the grocery store. (what can I say, nutrition's of most importance to me:)










Then we headed to the store to help Matt do last minute things before his opening. I tagged appliances and mopped the Kitchen store, (isn't my job glamorous?) while Matt tried to get the heating fixed, (we walked in and it was freezing) and the kids watched a DVD on my computer in the Kitchen. Then Karin called and needed a different dough for her Kids Class she was teaching at 10am, so the kids and I took off to get that, then ran it by the store for her, than we ran back to the middle school, got signed up, and came back for the Kids Class. They made April Fools Day French Fries and Ketchup. It was so cute! Then I took the kids to Grandma's so they could show her what they made, then we ran to get the babysitter, and I was back to the store by noon. I worked for a few hours there, enjoyed listening to Karin and Matt do radio spots, then I took off to help a friend get her wedding cake set up for that night. Then I came back to work for a few more hours till we got word that Redoubt had erupted, was hitting Anchorage, and the wind was expected to shift the ash our way, so I took off with my parents and told Matt he'd need to leave no later than 6. To his credit, he was out of there right on time, and home with us for the evening to wait out the ash fall. What a crazy day! But a good one. I think now we can take a breath.

We've been ashed on!

Its been happening all week long, but yesterday, we finally had a big enough eruption, and the wind was just right, and we got ashed on last night. We live up in Wasilla, so you can see on the map, how far away we are from the volcano. Apparently, we're supposed to have another month of being on volcano alert. To give you a little idea, about 15 years ago, when we first moved up here, Mt. Spur erupted one summer, and we got about 1/2" to 1" of ash that fell on us in Anchorage.

I think this will be the only chance I have to blog this week. Its going to be another crazy one. Matt's store is in the process of moving, so every spare second I have is spent over there, helping him. In the meanwhile, I have a wedding cake to do for Friday night. (square, 3 tier, plus a little round one to have at their guest signing table) Then, I have a Scentsy party Thursday night, another job Wednesday, and piano lessons that now take up my entire Tuesday. Whew, oh, and I also have kids. LOL So wish us luck. I think the only time I'll see Matt this week is when I go in to work for him, and even then, he's running all over the place putting out fires. But I am so excited for him and his team. They have an awesome looking new store. Wednesday night is their private letter opening, so I'll be there helping out once again. I love it though. It reminds me of when we first met while his family was moving their LDS bookstore. I have fond memories of moving from that, and love being there to help my hubby.

What is it with boys right before they start into the teen years? Chandler stayed home with me today because he had some weird rash from I think, an allergic reaction. Anyway, I had to take him with me to A&P's while I worked. He decided it would be a good idea to stick a big this wire into the light socket. Sparks, pops, and Chandler's hair standing a little bit stiffer than before. Oh, and Matt's boss having to reprogram the kitchen store's TV. Nice. Then we come home, and I leave him alone for 5 minutes, and he's decided to test my bear mase to see if it still works. Good news. It works. (I've had it for over ten years, for when I go running by myself, and never had to use it once) Now I've got red pepper spray on my wall, and we all hack and cough whenever we go in the room where he sprayed it. Oh, I love this child, but sometimes, I wonder who was responsible to handing out the silly pills on any given day.

Gabe was introduced to chopsticks by his 2nd grade teacher this year when they celebrated Chinese New Years. So he was very excited when I made Chinese one night, and he was able to show off his newly acquired skill.

Chandler showing us not only how well he holds his chopsticks, but also a little too much of his "see food"

So, Matt and I have decided not to give into the whole competitive problem with ward Pinewood Derby's. Apparently, the idea is not to let the kids build their own car, but for the dad's to design, cut, and only let the kids sand it enough to say they had a part in its being built. We believe in letting our kids do their own cars. (as much as possible) The boys both designed their cars completely on their own, and also painted them. I think they did great! Chandler's is the gold bullet shaped car, and Gabe made the one next to it, with yellow, green and red stripes.

The group with their cars.

Chandler placing his car at the starting line.

Chandler was so excited. He placed second out of the whole group. The kid who took first was the only one who could beat his gold bullet.

I had 1/2 and 1/2 just sitting in my fridge. It was St. Patricks Day, and the kids wanted dessert. What's a mom to do? I got out the handy dandy ice cream maker, and made some festive green vanilla flavored homemade icecream. Not too bad.

Morgan enjoying her ice cream