Grandma's Visit....

We've been having lots of fun with Grandma here :)

Grandma was able to be there for the boys first day of school, it was very exciting :) We have been pretty strapped close to the house during the week so we can be around to drop off and pick up the boys from school.

We drove to the glacier one day and had lunch while Tristan was at school. The place was full of stuffed bears and foxes and moose etc etc etc. We took pictures with stuff but Jacob decided he was NOT looking at any of them lol. He wasn't crying at all but didn't want anything to do with them. It was so funny (see pic of covered eyes below).

We also drove out to the Wildlife Rescue to show Grandma all of the animals. It was neat! The bears were out in an area we could see and the Moose were next to the fence, it was insane... I've never seen them that close.

We'll have more pictures in a couple days I'm sure to add, but here are just a few we've gotten so far :) - ok more like ALOT OF PICTURES :) lol

Alaska State Fair

Yesterday the boys and I took a quick trip to the fair.
We're are going to go while Grandma is here and once Daddy doesn't have to work but me and the boys were bored yesterday so we went down there.
We had a great time.... ate some cotton candy and pizza, rode some rides, played some games, got our faces painted (well the boys did, not me lol), all of that fun fair stuff
Here are a couple pics :)

Lots of exciting news!!

We have lots of exciting things happening in our house the past couple of days!!

First of all, and most important..... Tristan can tie his shoes on his own now!!! I needed to teach him for school and to our surprise, he learned in just one day. Amazing! He is so smart :)

We are extremely proud of him!

Second of all....... we have our fish tank all set up and finished. It looks so pretty. The boys are loving that its not in the kitchen behind the gate so they can go look at the fish any time they want and enjoy them all swimming around. It's really fun! I find myself going over to look at it all the time. And we have our kitchen counter back now too, woo hoo :) John and I are both very exciting about that!
Here are a couple pics of it all set up and beautiful...






Our next order of business is the catepillar/cocoons/butterflies ;) lol. Two of our butterflies emerged today!! The first one did it without me even noticing. But I got the second one on video and the boys sat and watch her come out too. It was so neat!! Here are a couple pics of them.
The first pic is before she rolled her wings out fully and the second one is after she climbed up near the top of the net cage. The inside of the wings are an amazing bright orange and black, they are so pretty and the boys are ecstatic they are coming out now.



And last but not least...........

2 MORE DAYS TIL GRANDMA IS HERE :)

School Lunches

I need some ideas!!

The boys and I ran to the grocery store so that Tristan could pick some stuff he would like to have for his lunches for school. We decided 1 or 2 days a week we'd let him have lunch provided by the school because I was reading the list to him of what they were having and he wanted to eat some of the stuff they were making. So we decided each week we would look at the list and decide that week which days he would eat the school food.
Anyway, we got some little applesauce cups, pudding, things like that. Then we went over the to produce section and Tristan decided he wanted me to get him some broccoli so that he could eat it with some ranch with his lunch lol. And we got some other odds and ends.
Now I know sandwiches are the easy thing to do, and I can do a million different types of sandwiches and cut them in different shapes and such but I want to do other things too. I have a few ideas but would love to hear what everyone else's ideas are..
So bring 'em on!!!

I've been slackin' for a few days here :(

Sorry I haven't updated anything from around here. Hasn't been too too much going on. We've just been relaxing.

Although so far this week's been crazy! And the rest of the week is completely busy too!! Yesterday John finally decided he wanted a bigger fish tank, and so he found one and ran right over and go it. It's a 45 gallon BEAST! Full shelf unit and all. It really is beautiful. Well while he was at work, the boys and I went to get some decorations to fill it up and make it pretty :)

This morning Tristan and I went to his school for our meeting with his soon to be teacher, Mr. Clayton. We chatted and then he gave us a tour of the school. Everything is super organized and the kids are never without a teacher which will make this whole process easier for me. I have just a wee bit of anxiety over it. My baby going to big boy school, not really sure where the past 5 years went. Ok, getting teary now, so I'm stopping.
Anyway! After our school appointment, Tristan had yet another doctors appointment for this dang cough we can't get rid of! His lungs are still awesome. We have a few more days of antibiotics left and they gave us some saline drops to try and clear out whatever is causing the cough in there. While we were gone, Daddy and Jacob got the whole fish tank cleaned out and started setting it all up! So when I got home, John and I finished up the set up process, minus a few things needing to be replaced and got it running! We'll have to wait a couple days before we drop our fishies in there though, just to make sure the tank is healthy and clean :)

So that was today... Tomorrow we are having our carpets professionally cleaned, so me and the boys have to get outta here for a few hours during the morning time. Then on Thursday we have Jacob's preschool orientation (another milestone I'm not mentally prepared for). Friday is my only free day so far, but that will probably change.

Then on SATURDAY.......... GRANDMA WILL BE HERE, YEAH!!!! Grandma Costa comes in on Saturday evening, so actually the boys will wake up to her. They are soooo stoked that she's coming. We have a little countdown calender for when she's supposed to be here, they rip off a paper each day so they can tell how close it is!! Grandma will be here for 2 weeks and a couple days. Kinda stinks that Tristan will be in school most of the days, but that's ok, we'll make the time we have awesome!

That's about it for us lately :)

(our cocoons are still unhatched, I'll post pics as soon as they start emerging)

Here are a couple pics of the tank being installed.

Anyone need a tent?

I kept trying to remind myself to post about this, but, well we all know about my memory :)

A couple weeks ago at church the pastors wife spoke about something that really touched me. It really made sense and I wanted to share it with everyone. I'm going to try my best to remember it all but I'll probably leave something out.

The "sermon" was basically about living your life in a way that was completely devoted to God, and to keep our positive outlook and our positive mind so that bad things couldn't slip in and take us over.

She spoke about a past Sunday about herself where they did a prayer group after church. And she left before the group gathered and went home. And on her way home she felt bad for not being a part of the group and "wanting" to be there. And she prayed and tried to figure out what her deal was. Why was she in a funk? She kept replaying her last week trying to figure out where she went wrong, why she was feeling uncaring about being a part of something she usually loved!

Well as she prayed she got the vision of a tent. And the message she got was that sometimes we need a tent, that tent is our resting place. Sometimes there is so much going on and you fight so hard for whatever your life is bringing your way and you deal with so much, that sometimes we need to rest. Now she made a point to also say "don't spend TOO much time in that tent or else you'll get lost in the anger or bitterness and it's hard to come back from".

As soon as she explained what the tent meant, I sat there with Jacob on my lap and Tristan sitting next to me and bawled. I completely lost it. Because for me, I have so many times that I just wish I could find the darn tent. My personal experience relating to this mostly has to do with my illness. It seems as though I fight and fight and fight the disease, I fight the doctors, I fight the nurses, I fight the medication, I fight the symptoms, the side effects etc etc etc. And I just need to rest sometimes. Her lesson really spoke to me that day, it's like she was giving me a personal talk about bitterness and anger and not letting that enter your head because you haven't taken the time to rest and refresh yourself and be ok with everything.

I am sure everyone can relate to this in some way. Everybody struggles with something!

So I want to say rest, go into the tent and lay down for a bit. Take a break, breathe, relax, refresh and then get up and start over. I learned its ok to rest, and take a break from the "battle", then go back and live again.

TIMBERRRRRR.....

Well..... guess those big ol' "sturdy" forest trees, just aren't so!
The top half of one came tumbling down today! Good thing the kids or dogs weren't outside at the time!!

Also a good thing John has lots of spare fence wood ha ha!

A reason, a season or a lifetime...

Fairly recently a good friend of mine and I stopped talking. And for some reason lately I've been thinking about it alot and missing her. We had an awesome friendship and everytime we did anything together all we did was laugh until we damn near wet our pants. It's been extremely painful for me to not be able to call her when something exciting happens or go see her when I need a shoulder to cry on. I came across this a while back and thought of it the other day and its helping me push through the crappy parts of letting the friendship go and learning to be ok with it...as ok as is possible.

People come into our lives for all different reasons, for different experiences...

A REASON, A SEASON OR A LIFETIME

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrong doing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person/people (anyway); and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Hey! Who turned out the lights?

We're in a changing phase here....... and it's very exciting!!

All of our catepillars except for one are in their cocoons!! It's so neat to see this change and to have the boys see it. It's not usually something to get to experience day by day and it's been so fun for us to see where they are each day and what they are doing. Thank you Auntie Sara!!!! I really think this will be something they will remember.

As soon as that last one is fully in his cocoon then we will change them over to the big butterfly cage and wait for our pretty butterflies :)

Nice relaxing Sunday

Well this morning we decided to take the boys down to the park BEFORE naptime because the weather has been so dreary here lately we figured "the sun is out now lets go".
So we went...
The boys rode their bikes down.... played for a while and then we went home. Just a nice sunny relaxing Sunday for us :)

Oh yeah, and as usual, Jacob got lazy and wanted to walk home so Momma got the job of pushing the stupid bike home again ARGH! ha ha ha