Sham!

So Dr. Sutley treated all of us girls in the office to a fancy-shmancy dinner and fashion show here called 'Sham'. It is actually a benefit woman's organization, but was really a prom for grown-ups. We got dressed up, did our hair and took a hummer-limo around town. It was so much fun! Here are some pictures.

So super busy...*

It has been forever since I've blogged, so I figured I would give a quick update.....

Gabe: Gabe started 1st grade and is already off to a great start! He hasn't needed any help this year with reading and actually did above average on his first reading and spelling test! I guess that extra help last year really paid off!! He has made new friends in school and really we didn't need to be so worried. He also made new friends in the neighborhood, so he is a pretty happy little man. He lost both of his front teeth, so he looks just like the jack-o-lanterns in the front :)

Mia: Mia has been doing great in 5th grade so far. She is adjusting to having lots more homework that is a little more challenging. We are looking into a math tuter to help with the stuff that mom can't figure out! That show 'Are you Smarter than a 5th grader' really takes on new meaning for me ;) She also started playing the oboe in band this year and is loving that! She seems to have a real talent for music. She is still asking for piano lessons, but having 'mom' do that isn't such a good idea! We are looking into the possibility of gymnastics here, since they have a real program.

Cory: Cory is loving the new job...and growing weary of the FTO. For those of you who are non-police families, this is field training. It is a really long program here, so he is looking forward to being off that and being on his own. It seems like a really good department and is way more exciting for him ie; dangerous! He is loving being around his brothers again, which is pretty comical to watch and makes me more aware of the saint that Debbie is for having put up with them growing up!

Me: As for me, I started a new job. I work for an oral and facial surgeon doing surgical and treatment plans. It is a long day (10 hours, 5 days a week) but it is also very nice to be back in a social atmosphere. All of the people I work with are really fun and very great to work with. The doctor is a great Christian man, who starts every morning meeting off with a prayer. He spoils us girls in the office (there are 18 employees, of these 1 is a man, not including Dr. Sutley). I am still working for the medical clinic in Homer doing transcription, so if you wonder why I am so anti-social, it is because I just work and spend time with the family. I have begun scheduling my breathing and peeing time too! Just kidding ! :)

Momentus occasion

My little man is so grown up. He just learned how to tie his shows all by himself. He has also lost another tooth, his front tooth! Now he is just a gap toothed adorable little man who is getting all grown up!

Fishing at Chena Lakes

Here is the crew! We all went fishing at Chena Lakes. The kids had a lot of fun. Papa Rick and dad were good teachers and all of the kids got to catch and release fish. The largest was caught by Mia at a whopping 11".

First day of school

School starts today!!!!!! Oh, maybe I'm not supposed to sound so enthusiastic :) The kids were so excited to begin school today. We got them all set up and they were ready for us to leave. Here are some pictures of how adorable they look!

My son, the spy

Okay, I had to show this. Me and Lauren were having a girl-to-girl talk and Gabe decided to spy outside of our door. Instead of getting 'the scoop', he fell asleep. Rats, his plan is foiled again!

Babies!

Carries little sister had twin babies and we got to visit them! They are so incredibly cute and I kept harboring thoughts of how I could sneak one out :) Here are some pictures of me and the girls enjoying our baby time!

Meteor Shower

So last night was supposed to be the best night to view the meteor shower, with 200 meteors seen in a 1 hour time period. Of course, being the old farts that we are, we went too early when it was too light, being that it was way past our bedtime. Even still, we could see the stars, 4 satellites, Jupiter and a few meteors. Some changed colors, some did not. They went by so quickly. With Rick's fountain in the garden, and the stars above us, it was a (cold) and magical night. The girls were diehard, determined to stay up to watch the entire show. It was about 40 degrees outside, so they got comfortable on the patio furniture with every blanket they could find. Lauren even fell asleep out there (which she still denies). I looked online and discovered that the best viewing time was between midnight and 5 am, when it would be darkest. I finally surrendered at 1 am, but still got to see 2. It was pretty cool.!

North Pole....so far!

So our time in Fairbanks is going really well so far. We've been having a good time visiting with the family and with Grandma Joyce and Aunt Tana who are up from California. We've been enjoying the sun (especially since the smoke has cleared).

Today we went for a 10.5 mile bike ride to Chena Lake.

Chena Lake

Grandma Joyce aka 'Mother Joyce', Papa Rick aka ' Captain Davey Jones' and Aunt Tana aka 'floosy sue' gettting ready to "Skype".

The one and only swimming pool!

Some catching up to do.....

Well, now that we are somewhat settled in to North Pole, I suppose I can finally catch everyone up. I have been especially bad about keeping in touch with anyone, especially by phone. Aside from the fact that every time I get near the phone, all of the kids need something now, I am struggling to keep everything going and make more decisions. Funny thing....we thought we were done with life in limbo! We have to figure out which school the kids are going to, since there are definitely more than 1 here! Since we would like to stay in North Pole, that narrows it down to just 2. Unfortunately, the one that we are zoned for now, while we are staying with Rick and Deb (Cory's parents) is not the same one that we will likely be zoned for when we finally find a place. ugh! I am trying to avoid moving the kids into 2 schools in 1 school year, but it may be inevitable. Other than that, I am able to continue working with Homer Medical Clinic, and have begun that this week. Cory started his job this week and is really liking it. He is learning the ropes of the computer system and how different things are done in a real city :) Everyone seems to be very nice and I think he is really going to like the department.
Otherwise, we are just enjoying the weather (it got up to 86 a couple days ago) but we are not so enjoying the smoke that just keeps on coming. We got to see it when we drove up here. It was kind of cool because it was dark outside and all of the sudden it was bright red. Apparently they have closed down the Parks Hwy and the airports, so it is not looking good. It did rain today though, so hopefully that will help.
The kids are eager for school to start (the 17th). Lauren will be flying back the end of this month, since her school starts September 6th.
Well, that's all for now. I will post pictures soon!

We're moving!

Well we finally got the news that we are moving! Cory will be starting his first day with the Fairbanks Police Deparment August 1st. We are officially moving from Homer 7/30, which doesn't give us a lot of time for packing. We will be staying with Cory's family, who graciously invited the noise and energy of the Rupes into their house, while we search for the perfect place for us. We'll keep you updated as we go along.

My little fisherman

I know we all already know this, but my little boy is so incredibly cute! This is his very first time fishing and he outfished everyone on the boat! He first pulled up a Cod and an Irish Lord, both of which went back, then he caught and lost a halibut. Here is the 30 pound halibut that he finally caught! He was so proud of it. He had a huge grin his whole way back and couldn't wait to show me his catch. Cory tells me he kept asking to touch the eyeballs (gross).

More pics

Diamond creek. It was so warm and so hot there today, with no wind...it is our absolutely favorite place to go. The kids were standing on a rock while the tide blasted them with water. They originally got me to join in until I got completely soaked!

Our little pilot. These are from her birthday where uncle Corey and aunt Linda took her to a special birthday breakfast. She got to fly the plane on the way home.

4th of July

Our 4th of July was lots of fun. We started out at our church carnival, complete with a dunk tank, bounce house and a cake walk..which netted us 4 cakes! The kids wanted to keep going, but enough was enough ;) Later we went to the parade, which is always fun. The kids came prepared for the candy that was thrown by bringing extra large bags to carry all their 'loot' in. Lauren got to ride in the back of a police car, complete with the prisoner jumpsuit and a mugshot picture of her. I will post those as soon as I get the copies. Now the kids are all sugared out...here's hoping they crash and actually sleep tonight! Okay....here are a couple of Lauren's pictures. She and Abbey got dunked in the dunk tank!

Mia's surgery

Well we had a little bit of a scary experience while we were in Anchorage. Mia went to a pediatric urologist for some bladder issues she has been having for the past 2 years. The doctor needed to get a better look at what was happening, so Mia had to undergo a cystoscopy to get a good look at her bladder, kidneys and everything else in there. It was very scary for me, because she had to be under general anesthesia and scary for her because she had to have an IV. Nonetheless, we were both excited to get to the bottom of this problem. The doctor discovered that she has malformed ureters and that some of her urine is flowing back into the kidneys. She has to go back to Anchorage for a Cystogram, which is a special type of imaging with contrast dye that looks at how things flow, to give them a better idea of what is happening and how to best treat it. She will have to be sedated for this too, but not general anesthesia, which is a relief. After that we will have more information on how to treat it, which could possibly be surgery.
She was excellent during her surgery and the placement of her IV. I was pretty impressed because they didn't place it after she had been lightly sedated. I took some pictures, but will have to post them later. She was so tiny she had to wear a toddler gown, which was actually too big!

Locks of Love

Mia just donated 10" of hair to locks-of-love. This is the second time she has donated and plans to continue doing this every time her hair is long enough. She does this in memory of a family friend who died of ovarian cancer, who Mia was horrified to find had lost all of her beautiful dark hair. Since then she has decided to continually grow her hair out to help make wigs for those who lose their own hair from illnesses. To find out more about this, please visit www.locksoflove.org

It's been a while.....

Well it's certainly been a while since I've posted and so much has been going on! I'll have to summarize now and put most of the pictures on later, as I'm still waiting for most of them.

So we've been very busy gearing up for Barth's fundraiser (see http://www.barthandpam.blogspot.com/ for information on how to help and what we've done so far). His fundraisers were both huge successes and Barth is planning to go to Seattle for continued treatment. We all had a good time working on that, the whole family got involved. Mia even made $105 for Barth from a bake sale!

Cory has applied with Fairbanks Police Department and has finished with all of the testing, so we are waiting on pins and needles to find out about that. It will be nice to be around family again, even if it does get -50!

June was a very busy month for our household...first we had Gabe's birthday (he turned 6, see previous posting on that). Next was my birthday, where I turned 29 or as Cory likes to call it "almost 30"! Then came Father's Day, which was spent in Fairbanks by Cory and the kids, as I had to stay behind and work :( They had a good time and Cory loves the new BBQ! Last was Lauren's birthday. She turned 11 (I can't believe it) and we celebrated her actual birthday at a wedding...Shahli (my aunt, who is actually younger than me) got married on the 27th, so we were at the wedding. Lauren and Mia stayed the night with my aunt and uncle, who the next morning took her to breakfast in Talkeetna. Did I mention they flew her there? They live in Eagle River and my uncle has a plane and a pilots license, so off they went. On the way back Lauren even got to fly the plane! I'll have to post pictures of that when I get them. Here are some from the wedding:

Bride and bridesmaid. Isn't she beautiful?!

Lauren striking her 'Model' pose:)

Tooth #2

I realized I forgot to blog this and felt it was absolutely necessary. I also don't have any pictures, but I will post his toothless grin soon!
So, soon after he lost the other tooth, we realized the one next to it was also very loose and ready any day. While at worship practice at our church on Thursday night, Gabe decided he was ready for it to come out. Mostly because the church recently acquired the worlds most gigantic gumball machine and Pastor Greg offered Gabe some free gumballs if he lost his tooth. Gabe was all for it and Pastor and I begged for the opportunity to be the 'puller'...(of course I won that;)
Now, lets all take a minute to reflect on the quirks of Gabe in regards to pain, blood and panic-leading-to-vomit. Now that we all have the mental picture in mind.....I knew that I had to get it on the first try, or chaos would ensue. Unfortunately for me, Gabe's mouth was working against me. Both of the bottom teeth had grown in alread, so there wasn't much room for a grip. Taking deep breaths, praying under my breath and holding tightly to the paper towel, I pulled....to no avail. The tooth was still in there. I had failed. Soon after this the hysterics began. Not only did it hurt, but there was now blood and total panic on Gabe's part. The tooth was halfway hanging out, so there was no going back; however, no amount of gumballs could calm Gabe down enough to allow anyone hear the tooth. Tears, blood and near-vomit came on. I begged and pleaded in my most soothing voice and began promising him more gumballs than he could possibly eat. I offered to let Pastor have a shot, naming him a Pro-tooth-puller. Gabe shot me an 'I'm-not-falling-for-that glance and continued with his tears/bleeding and almost vomit. I finally got him calmed down enough to allow one more chance at 'the pull'. I wiped the sweat from my brown, said a quick prayer and got a tight grip. He gave it a good slow yank (since Gabe had began pulling away, which was very unhelpful). He yelled and cried and bled, but I got that sucker out. It took a while for him to realize it was done and it took even longer for him to calm down after the blood came. Once we cleaned him up, he cleaned us all out of quarters and bought himself tons of gumballs, which he chewed, swallowed and followed with the next. No doubt between this and the bribing with gum from his potty training, he has a wad of gum the size of venus in the pit of his stomach. :)

Gabe turned 6!!!

My baby has just turned 6 years old! Today was his 'special forces' army-themed birthday party. It was a huge success! He had lots of friends, lots of sun and lots of cake :)

Gabe is taking the first whack at the tank pinata.

Gabe with his buddies Zach and Ridge. They are having much more fun than it appears ;)

Scooping the cotton balls blindfolded. They found out it was much harder than it looked!

Dropping clothespins into the jar.

Blowing out his candles.....all 6 of them!

The table.

Gabey with his mama!

Opening gifts. Isn't he cute ;)

Running with the eggs... Remarkably none of the eggs broke!