It's been 2 1/2 years

Since my kids have seen the dentist. And that's just an approximation because I'm pretty sure we took them before we left Alaska, but I'm not exactly sure when. Well, I finally took them today and it went super great! I preped Kemiah telling her how easy it would be and that she would just need to open her mouth when they asked her to. I wasn't worried about the other kids but she doesn't like going to the doctor and she's never been to the dentist so I wondered what it would be like. Fortunately, she was last so she watched the other guys all climb into the chair, get the bib, lay down, and all the other fun stuff. I pointed out that it didn't hurt and it was actually fun. When it was her turn I think she got a little nervous, but then she climbed up into the chair and that was it. She was so brave and did so great! It was really a great visit and went really smoothly. All 5 kids were seen and only 1 cavity in the whole bunch. We do need to work on our brushing - I guess I need to be more of a participant in that activity so the next visit will go better!

I am really mad at myself because I actually took my camera out of my bag when we left to go to the dentist so I don't have any cute pictures of my little kids in those big chairs. Arg! I do have this really cute picture of Domonique playing with her toothbrush when we got home so this will have to do.

I'm 36!

I'm sure I don't look a day over 28 but really, I've been around for 36 years! Don't talk to my husband about it because he has a warped sense of time and age. Anyway, I enjoyed my special days. Yes, I followed the tradition from last year - My Fake Birthday (27th), Almost My Birthday (28th), and My Real Birthday (29th). The only thing that I do to really celebrate is pick my three favorite dinners and desserts to enjoy those three days. Sunday we had Mexically Soup and mini-cheesecakes with cherries on top. Monday we had crepes with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, and chocolate lava cupcakes with ice cream. Tuesday we had Cafe Rio Pork and Tres Leche Cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Yummy! It was fun! As I sat down at the table to do the cake stuff Kevin asked if we were going to do candles. Sure. So we lit some candles and sang the song. Then I was ready to eat cake but Kevin asked about presents. Emily got down and brought me a couple things that she made for me. Then Kevin brought in a box. It felt really light so I was very curious. I opened it and all it had were the packing peanut things. Then he brought in a dozen red roses! Beautiful! Then he brought another box that felt heavy. I opened it and was delighted to see a Blu-ray/HD DVD player/burner! Hooray! Story behind this is: we have an HD video camera so all our memories can only be watched on a Blu-ray player. I'm so excited to watch old videos of just before we left Alaska and then all the memories on the island! It will be so great!

On My Real Birthday I made special pancakes - with stars and swirls. We followed tradition and ate them with ice cream and syrup. Yummy!

Project Day

Last Monday, the kids finished their school work early so I encouraged the girls to work on the projects they received at Christmas. Emily had already started her wooden firetruck so she was able to finish putting it together, and started to paint it. Marissa's doll house is a little more labor intensive but she was excited to get started. It was a little overwhelming for me, as I read the instructions - sealing the wood, sanding, wallpapering, etc. I decided not to worry so much about that stuff and figure she'll be fine with the level of work she is capable of doing right now. I hope to make more time for that because we didn't get very much done on her little house. Ben has been busy building the military lego stuff he received for his birthday. I helped him with the first thing but he has done the rest all by himself and really enjoys setting them all out in his own little set up.

Latest Trick

This is what she loves to do now-a-days...

She loves to stand and pull up on anything.

What happened to Spring?

All the snow was melted. It was gone and the temperatures were warming up. I'm sure it was like that for several places all over the world. Or maybe it was just here... We were so excited. Kevin and the kids worked in the garden to clean out the leftover stuff and Kevin took down the bails of straw around the chicken coop with the grand thoughts of Spring! Then WHAM! The temperature drops, the snow falls and then it freezes. Wow, it got really cold. Bummer. No more working outside. The poor chickens got stranded out in the yard. I found some sitting around the bails of straw with snow and ice on them. Poor things. I put them back in the coop so they could warm up. I will say that I have been happy with the amount of sunshine we have had the last couple days. Although it has still been cold - the wind is a killer - the warmth of the sun shinning through our windows is really nice. Spring will come, I know it will. It does every year and so it will come... I just wish it was already here. I did enjoy hearing the sound of the clinking branches when I took these pictures. I do enjoy listening to the snow crunch under my feet. I do like the cool, crisp scent in the air. I do like the clear night skies so I can see lots of stars (when I happen to be outside at night). There are good things so let's just enjoy them!

This last picture is the view out the kid's bedroom window - completely frozen over.

Date Night

Kevin and the three older girls went to choir practice today. Ben, Kemiah, and I were just sitting down to dinner when they came home. Ben asked a question about why they have choir practice on Sunday. Kevin said, "It's the best time for everyone to be available. Monday is for Family Home Evening, Wednesday is activity night at Church, and Friday is date night." Ben said, "Date night? What's that?" Kevin's response was, "Every night is date night." I just thought it was funny that my son doesn't know what that means because we rarely have official dates out of the house. Recently we have been watching nature movies and drinking strawberry orange smoothies after we put the kids to bed so I guess we do have a date every night.

Birthday Boy Celebration

It was a very anticipated moment - he talked about it all week. He helped make the pancakes - smiley faces and all. We all enjoyed too many pancakes with ice cream. He was done first so he opened his card from Grammy and Gaffa.


Kevin and I played Settlers of Catan with him and I think he enjoyed the time alone with us. Then Marissa joined us for the second game. I'm so glad they enjoy the game. Then I made mac and cheese for lunch. I seriously can't remember what we did in the afternoon. We had BLTs for dinner. Ben asked me to pull a tooth before dinner but it didn't come out. I guess I made it worse because he wanted to try again halfway through his sandwich. We tried again and it came out so Ben could finish eating his sandwich.


Grandma and Grandpa Nichols showed up after 6 pm with the dragon cake that he had requested. It was really great!


We lit the candles and sang to the birthday boy and watched as he blew them all out. Then he blew the smoke at his sisters across the table. We moved on to the presents and Ben was very excited about them all.




Marissa decided to give him the duck she had made out of her air dry clay and painted with her water color paints.


Generic lego military set. So cool!


Model helicopter that screws together - no glue! Rock on!

More Hardy Boys books.


Volume One of the Work and the Glory series. We are excited to read it together as a family.


Yummy cake (that I didn't have to make)!

We had a nice time celebrating with Ben. I am so grateful for his hard work and determination. He is always thinking and creating in his mind and wants to share it with me no matter what I'm doing. He loves to play with his sisters and really enjoys being outside! I just can't believe he's 9!

Me and my baby!

I had Kevin take this picture because I thought it was just so funny - Domonique with the wrong end of the pacifier in her mouth. She loves to play with it, and it helps her go to sleep at nap time. Silly girl.

It's a what?

Kemiah came to me the other day and said, "I made a hat." I was excited to see it so I asked, "Where is it?" She held up a piece of paper and said, "This is my hat." Then she put it on her head and stood there for a moment. Then she said, "I have to walk slowly or else it will fall off my head."

We have had these things since Christmas time but the kids don't play with them much (probably because the glasses were broken and they are in my messy school room). Kemiah asked if she could play with them the other day and so she did. It was very funny.

She is such a funny girl.

Bath time fun!

I decided to give my baby a bath and had Kemiah join her. Kemiah was certainly cheated out of her baths as a baby because we only gave showers in Dominica. It was fun to see her in the bath again. (All our kids take showers.) They both really enjoyed it and so did I.

I should do this more often.

Thank You and Sorry.

Yesterday, after dinner Kevin mentioned the chickens. I confidently said I had already taken care of them. He pointed out back so I looked out the kitchen window. There were two chickens out of the chicken yard and the hatch that we use to get the food and water was open. I thought I must have just not latched it, so I headed out to close it up. I actually had to toss 4 chickens back into the yard. Once I was in the chicken yard, I found an egg on the ground. I decided to check the nesting boxes to see if they had laid any more. They hadn't. I almost went inside but was prompted to check inside the coop. Some of the chickens have started to lay eggs on the lowest level, so maybe they laid another one there. I almost dismissed the prompting because I have to move a hay bale and some cardboard to access the hole in the coop just so I can get the eggs. I decided to go ahead and check. To my surprise I saw a possum sitting where the eggs might have been. Oh dear. I ran back to the house and hollered for Kevin. He came out and we were able to chase the possum out and then got it out of the chicken yard. I ran back into the house to get my camera - assuming I'd never see it again because it had decided this was not the place to be....


This is what the inside of the hen house looked like - lots of feathers that aren't normally there.

Today, I went out to feed and water the chickens and gather eggs and to my disappointment the possum was back in the same place but had a dead chicken next to it. It was sitting on several eggs as well. (At least it hadn't eaten them.) What was I supposed to do? Kevin wouldn't be home for several more hours! All the chickens were wandering around the yard and I noticed that both the food and water feeders were still full so I had some hungry chickens. I did call Kevin just to get his opinion on the matter. He suggested I try to catch it and put it in an empty trash can so he could help deal with it later. I decided I would need help in taking care of this critter so I went over to my neighbor's house. Fortunately he was home and was willing to get on some boots and come over to help. I gathered some tools that I thought might be helpful. When my neighbor came over I showed him where it was. When he saw where it was he asked, "How would you feel about me shooting it?" I still can't believe what I said... "Would you?!" Knowing that it came back this time I knew there was no other way to stop it from coming back again so my neighbor got his hand gun and took care of the critter. We bagged it, and the chicken, and then I bagged it again. What an adventure (if you can call it that). All my kids ended up outside... maybe I shouldn't have told them what was happening when I asked them for the trash bag.

So, I am thankful that the Spirit prompted me to check for eggs. I'm thankful that I actually listened and obeyed the prompting. I am sorry that we had to kill the possum. I am sorry that my chickens have been tramatized - several of them are sleeping outside the coop tonight.