Morgan posing next to the tree.

Gabe and his wild new hair. We died it, and it turned out kind of blonde, with lots of red in it.

Morgan decided to trim her bangs one day, instead of waiting for me or the hairdresser to do it. So, we had to do a little repair work. What do you think?

The BIG BAD WOLF!

No Twi-fans, I don't been Jacob Black. Its our very own Gabe! He earned his wolf badge last month at Pack Meeting, and I'm just now getting around to posting pictures. He was so excited, and just busting with pride. (Gabe was excited too:)

Team Edward, definately! (unless Jacob is shirtless)

I hosted Bunko this month, and it was great! Our Bunko night fell on the 21st, (the day after New Moon came out!) So our theme, of course had to be Twilight oriented! Here' s our group, minus one Anna. :)

I made Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting, and splattered them with danish dessert, in order to look like blood.

I printed off Twilight quotes and framed them for the table. Then my friend Rosie added the red table cloth and candles.

Water bottles filled with red Chrystal light, and I printed off blood labels.
Close ups of the cupcakes.

As part of the prizes, I made shirts for everyone. (bought plain shirts and Michael's, and Matt helped me design Twilight logos for them, then I ironed them on) Jessica and Renae are modeling theirs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving at the Stastny's house was a little bit different and unconventional. (seeing as we didn't spend it at our house, but at hotel pool instead) With all family out of town, or spending Thanksgiving with their in-laws this year, we decided to take it easy, and checked into the Courtyard Marriott for the night. There was a pool there, so guess where my kids wanted to spend all of their time?

Gabe having fun jumping in. Over and over and over!

Morgan is reluctant to swim on her own. Maybe its because she's the baby of the family, but when it comes to swimming pools, she's like a little Koala baby. Very clingy.

Other than the pool, we had fun staying up late playing Clue (very fun to play with kids who can't keep secrets to save their life), eating pizza and other junk food. Then for the actual Thanksgiving dinner, we opted for Cattle Company. (can't beat a steak dinner on Turkey day, right?) The best part of our weekend? No family fights, no 24 hours of prep cooking, no dishes, and we still came out with turkey dinner leftovers for the next day. (the kids had the 3 course turkey dinner at Cattle Company.)

Riding Sun Dance in sub zero weather.

The kids and I visited Aunt Sally at the horse arena a few weeks back, and they each enjoyed a little time on Sundance. (had I known when I left the house via the garage it was about 0 degrees, I may have chosen warmer cloths for me and the kids. Like long underwear and parkas) Morgan riding bareback.

Gabe was all excited about it, till he actually got up on the huge horse, and then he got very nervous. We had to keep telling him to sit up straight, as he was very tempted to lean forward and grip the mane instead of balancing.

I had to sneak in this picture of my gorgeous little niece Christa. What a cuty, hu?

Chandler found this hand towel in the warming room right before his lesson, and since he'd forgotten to wear a knit hat, thought it would help keep his head warm under his helmet.

Chandler has always loved riding horses, and has recently started up lessons again with Aunt Sally. He is very comfortable up on Sun dance, but says he can't wait till he gets to ride in a saddle so he's not walking bull legged anymore. Sally told him it wouldn't matter. Either way, he needed to learn to get some "balls of steel". To which he replied, "where can I get me some of those? Cause easy trotting really hurts my tenders". Yeah, what can I say? he's all boy, and these are direct quotes, so I'm sorry if it offends anyone.

I'm thankful for....

...the fact that my children choose to repeat the minor infractions on my bad language, instead of the major.

Let me set the scene. We're cleaning the boys room today, almost done. I'm trying to get the boys to understand the meaning of "putting our cloths away". Which does not include, setting them on the dresser and leaving it for months, jamming them into the bottom of the closet, shoving them under the bed, or leaving them in various corners of the house taking much more time to find these hiding places verses actually taking seconds to put them away in the right place. Chandler gets sick of my ranting, and starts singing. "We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!"

Morgan chimes in: "we wiss you a mewwy Kismas, we wiss...."
Gabe corrects them all on their grammar usage.
Chandler: Now bring us some yummy pudding, now bring us some yummy pudding, now..."
Gabe: No Chandler, its Figgy Pudding!
Chandler: "Now bring us some Figgy Pudding, now bring us some figgy pudding..."
Gabe: No, Chandler, its "bring us A figgy pudding"
Chandler: " Now bring us A figgy pudding..."
They all start to sing together, but the only thing I hear is Morgan's rendition.
Morgan: "now bring us some freakin' pudding, now bring us some freakin' pudding..."
Luckily, I was turned around with my back to them, so they didn't see me crack a smile. But I'm afraid my "Shelby shake" gave me away to the older ones.

A Crafting Retreat

From left to right: Me, Bobbie, Brandy, Kerri, Sally, Teresa, Renae, Heather, Mom, then on the bottom is Tyan, Rosie, Karlie and Jessica. A couple of us decided to organize our own little make and take weekend at LaDaSa last week. We had a blast! There were countdown blocks, place mat purses, beaded watches, and all kinds of other fun things to do. We reserved the lodge for an overnighter, and crafted till we couldn't keep our eyes open, then got some sleep and woke up to craft again the next day.

My friend Rosie sanding her countdown blocks.

Karlie working on her beads.

My Halloween Countdown Blocks. Cute, hu?

I do have the word Countdown on the bottom block, but its turned around in this photo. Oops. If you want to see some of our other projects, feel free to visit the blog we created.

www.craftingsisters.blogspot.com

Halloween NIght.

First of all, these are horrible pictures, and as soon as Matt gets home with the memory stick, I'll put better ones on, but here's our crew on Halloween night. We had the Three Musketeers (yes, we know their not supposed to be different colors, but the boys liked having their own color each) Then Morgan was a Fairy Princess, and I was Miss Diagnosed, a beauty pageant reject.

We're not in Kansas anymore Todo.

We've had a couple of really sunny but windy days out here in the valley. I took this shot of Wasilla Lake one evening on my way to Matt's work. On a normal day, you can see the reflection of the trees and mountains in the lake. Check out all the white caps this day! All through our neighborhood, people had trees coming down. My neighbor actually had a big cotton wood between our two properties come down right on her garage. I went to take a picture a few hours later though, and they had already hauled it away. This is what our yard looked like at the end of a really windy day though.

The tree hit the trampoline so hard the top half snapped off on impact. The pad was blown off, and notice the chairs all over the yard? Ya, we've gotta get them all stacked back up now.

Even Matt's store was not immune to the weather. He lost one of his lights. Notice the one on the far left? Yup, snapped right off in the wind. (there's supposed to be 4 lights.)

A Love Hate Relationship.

OK, so first let me say, I like it when the kids all have their hair combed and styled before they go to school. There, I said it. Call me a horrible mother, but I do. I'm a control freak I guess, but there you have it. So this morning, we over slept, and were rushing to get everyone ready for school. I did Morgan's hair first, with little to no problems. (ie: screaming, whaling, gnashing of teeth, clutching at the back of her head, etc.) Then, I moved on to Gabe. He's easy, cause he likes to look good for the ladies. Then came Chandler. "No! not the moose, just spray it with water. The moose makes it sticky. Look, Its all smooth now, and your gonna make it sticky!" Unfortunately for Chandler, he has Matt's hair. Which is great, in that its really thick, and there's a lot of it, (for now) but its also a bear to get it to stay in one place....thus the usage of moose. I just ignored his pleas, (like I said, we were late) and sprayed a bunch of moose into my hand, than attacked his hair with it. Morgan stood by watching in horror. When I was all done, and his hair was combed, Morgan came up to me, and with her hands on her hips said "his hair was all smooth. I felt it, and it was all smooth, and you ruined it!" Then she turned, with her back to me and walked out of the room. I tried not to laugh. (see, I told you I'm horrible) But it was also nice to see her coming to her oldest brother's defence. They've been butting heads quite a bit lately. (Reminds me of when Chris and I were younger)

So I start up the stairs to go tell Matt what had happened. And I hear a shriek from the kitchen. Morgan and Gabe had discovered the cupcakes I had made the night before for their class parties today. (pictures to follow tonight) She came running into the living room all smiles, and saying " Thank you thank you mommy. I love them. Even when I hate you, I still love you!) I thought Matt was going to die laughing.

Falling for the Alaska Zoo, all over again!

We had Thursday and Friday off last week, so Friday was spent as a family, in Anchorage. We took the kids to the zoo, and they had a blast. We hadn't been in over a year, and loved seeing all the new additions. Gabe thoroughly enjoyed watching the seals in their new exhibit.

The boys and I in front of the Polar Bear exhibit.

The whole gang in front of the swan pond.

Over all, Morgan did pretty good, but she still got kind of tired, and needed some mommy hugs every now and then.

You know you're a TRUE ALASKAN when...

d

What's cool to one kid...not so much to the other.

Okay, first I have to give a little background...

At the risk of being a name dropper, I'm just going to say it. I live in the same community as Sarah Palin. There, I said it. She is a normal person with a normal family, and they do normal things. Like Sarah going to Walmart in her jeans and flannel shirt, or Todd Palin pumping his own gas at the station down the road. Well, another normal thing us women like to do is work-out. I go to a gym that (I have come to understand and appreciate) is the "who's who" of Wasilla. Real estate owners, Bankers, Board members, and the former Governor. Its not a big commercial gym. There is one owner, who is also the class instructor, personal trainer, and mentor. Her name is Alina, and she does it all! But it is a small gym. Only 2 elliptical, 2 treadmills, and one workout room. I think some people prefer this, because you don't have 50 people staring at you while you sweat, and they like the personal touch that Alina gives. The cycling class accommodates 20 bikes. I have been going here for the last 2 1/2 years. (since it was opened) And for the most part, I know everyone that goes there.


So, the other day, Chandler turns to me and says, "hey mom, how come you don't go to Alina's Gym anymore?" I tried to ignore the implications of his comment, and instead said "I do go, you just don't see it, because I go early in the morning while your asleep, or later while your at school. In fact," I said "I was in cycling this morning, and raced with Sarah Palin" (Alina has two rows of bikes, and divides us up to race each other in order to make us better and more competitive.)
"who's that?" he said. (I know, I need to work on this kid a little more) Thinking I had failed as a parent, I hear Gabe yell from across the room "NO WAY! You don't know who Sarah Palin is Chandler?" Chandler shrugs his shoulders. "Chandler, she almost became President!" Gabe exclaims. "Chandler, you don't understand! She was THIS close to becoming the almost President of the UNITED STATES!"

I just shook my head, and laughed. I thought it was hilarious that my one child didn't have a clue about politics, and the other, got excited about the mention of a former candidate's name even a year after the elections. So I guess to Chandler, I don't exercise enough, and to Gabe, I'm the coolest mom ever because I sweat next to a former VP candidate.

Christmas in October.

I hope my mom and SIL Jayme don't mind me steeling this picture, but I just had to show it off!!! Can you believe how adorable?!!! Morgan is the littlest angel. Chandler is Joseph, and Gabe is the Wise man in the middle. I don't want to spoil all of Jayme's secrets from our photo shoot, so I'll just say, She's Good! Either that, or my kids and all my nieces and nephews are the most angelic group of kids when it comes to taking pictures.

Cupcakes and Crafting.

I helped out the YW in our ward this week with a little cupcake decorating activity. They wanted to make 3 different kinds. Panda Bears, Pumpkins, and Butterflies. I hope they had fun, cause I had a blast!! I love doing creative things with the youth, and seeing the excitement in their eyes as they create something cute all by themselves. This is also something I've been working on with a friend. I saw these individual nativity blocks on a blog, made with stickers, but the stickers are now discontinued, so you can't get them. And Renae and I really wanted to make a set of "cute" nativity blocks. So, my friend who does vinyl designed these cute characters for us, I just put them on their own blocks.

Then spent a few hours painting inside the lines. It was fun, and I forgot how relaxing painting can be. Its been so long since I've been able to really "craft". I miss it, and can't wait for the upcoming holiday season to let my crafty side back out. What do you think? Cute, or Corny?