mega post

I'll start this mega post with a picture from today! We spent the afternoon out at my in-laws for a fun, relaxing day. The Iditarod re-start was going on just minutes away, but we opted for a warm and cozy afternoon... plus we've done the Iditarod countless times! Maybe next year! We haven't had a complete family picture since the fall. And Drewy made sure he could hold his baby sissy. She could never doubt she is loved.

This post is full of pictures, some dating back to October! They are pictures that I've either recently downloaded, or recently aquired! But they hold great memories either way.

I was laying on the bed next to Morgan a couple weeks ago and kept staring at her face while I was watching her play a computer game and couldn't get over the fact that I needed to capture her profile. This was one of my favorites of the many I took.

Gavin lost his first tooth!

The night before my Mom left, we completed one more project! I bought this material back in December to re-cover my couch pillows, but the project was left unstarted. So my Mom and I whipped these babies out while watching a movie, and VIOLA! New pillows for only $18!

Here are the pups at 6 weeks! We now have 2 puppies spoken for and 2 more left to sell! They'll be ready to go home in 1-2 weeks. They have been really fun to have around. We'll miss you guys!

He's still available! SOOOO cute, huh?

He's male and looks like a stuffed animal.

Here's our other puppy up for grabs... We call him Butterball.

He's adorable.

Last Sunday, Dad had us over for winter smores and snowmaching!

It was a fantastic afternoon with a spectacular view. I never quite get over how beautful Alaska is.

Thank you, Gavin for taking this one.

Isn't this amazing? It's a creek running through my Dad and Marla Kay's "backyard"!

Another beautiful, clear shot from Gavin! We weren't quite ready (or I wasn't!) but I love how clear Annika's eyes came out.

Can you imagine this out your window each day?

I love you Grandpa Louie!

Love, Annika

Y U M M Y

Family Fun had this idea in their last issue... go to their website for instructions, if you make them make the mixture stickier. (you'll know what I mean)

Tanya R. and Italy came over one morning and we made these fun bird seed creations.

This expression from my sweetie is so funny. Her eyebrows are raised and she looks so lively. Which is how she usually is, but in most pictures, she's pretty expressionless. Don't ya wanna pinch those cheeks?

I finally was able to view/copy the professional pictures from Aaron and Abie's wedding in October! There were SO many amazing pictures. Here are some of my favorites of the kids and Jeremy.

Morgan adores her new Auntie Abie, can't wait for their visit this month!!!

I never even knew a picture like this existed, so it was fun for me to see this. Uncle Aaron and his two casual-lookin' nephews. It's kinda blurry because I compressed the file too much and now I can't get it back. They are really hi-resolution photos and it would have taken forever to load. But the blurry version is still way cute!

love, love, love this

And some more first birthday fun!

Annika dove right in for a tasty bite! Don't you wish you could do that?

Anita took this one. Annika was sitting by her lonesome on the floor at the start of her first year slideshow... but I wanted to hold her during it. I love how she captured this moment! I remember how sentimental I was feeling picking her up.

Well, that's the end of this photo marathon. I've been a lame-o blogger lately, hope this makes up for it!

Kids Say...

This is sort of a Facebook-y thing to do, but I thought I'd post it on here instead! I asked my kids these questions the other night, here are their answers. They're pretty accurate, I'd say. Scarily so! The only disclaimer I have is that toward the middle and end they start answering a bunch of questions about working out and losing weight! I had just walked in the door from a workout and it was fresh on their brains! And no, I NEVER talk to my kids about losing weight. Mr. Drew is just perceptive like that and eight! :) And the coffee thing is funny to me too, I don't have coffee every day even and if I do it's usually one cup. But that's how they view me, so read away!!!

Drew, 8 Gavin, 6 Morgan, 4

1. What is something mom always says to you?
D- Drew-Bug
G- I love you
M- I love you

2. What makes mom happy?
D- Us kids
G- When we hug and kiss you
M- When I'm here

3. What makes mom sad?
D- Us bein' bad
G- When we do something bad
M- when I'm not here and when you're not here

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
D- Tickling me
G – By doin' funny jokes
M- by playing & tickling

5. What was your mom like as a child?
D- I don't know, cuz I never knew you
G- I don't know, you didn't tell us that
M- you liked to play

6. How old is your mom?
D- 31
G - 31
M- Ummm... 15 (love you, Morgan)

7. How tall is your mom?
D- approximately 6 ft. something else
G- Um 38 pounds
M- 15 pounds

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
D- email
G- I don't know... do nothing? (ya got that right!)
M- get stuff ready, like going to church

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
D- I don't know cuz I'm not around
G - Go somewhere
M- come and find me

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
D- um... for being the person who lost the most weight in one day (my Drew is the comedian)
G –You'd be a ROCK STAR!
M- for giving everyone a treat

11. What is your mom really good at?
D- losing weight
G – workout
M- making smores for us

12. What is your mom not very good at?
D- not being young
G – not drinking coffee
M- your body gets kinda tired working out

13. What does your mom do for a job?
D- you sell hats
G – workout
M- I don't know!

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
D- coffee, not sure about the food
G – vegetables
M- maccaroni

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
D- you change the diapers even though they're so stinky (!!!)
G – when she gets happy
M- I would cheer for you when you're winning stuff

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
D- Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck
G – she would just be my Mama (Awwww)
M- Princess Leia

17. What do you and your mom do together?
D- we talk
G – lots of things, games and stuff
M- play make-believe puppies, and games

18. How are you and your mom the same?
D- we both like each other
G – we both walk the same
M- we put on clothes

19. How are you and your mom different?
D- we're both different sizes
G – your feet are bigger, mine are littler
M- we put on different clothes

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
D- She tells me, that's an easy one
G –she hugs and kisses us
M- because I just love you

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
D- He lets you go out for exercisin's
G – having dates
M- playing cards with each other (all 3 very true!)

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
D- Edge Fitness
G – to Disneyworld
M- Edge Fitness (I thought all 3 would answer Target! But these places are great too!)

TV Nostalgia

Wow, do these photos bring back the memories, or what? I don't know about you, but I logged many hours tuning in to these four series in particular. What I wouldn't give to get my hands on some reruns... Blockbuster here I come!

I working on a writing project (on which I'm currently procrastinating and doing this instead) that brought up all these memories... I wanted to be Winnie Cooper, D.J. Tanner, and Rudy Huxtable! How about you? What were your favorites growing up?

Kevin and Winnie from The Wonder Years

Full House

The Cosby Show
And Theo... I think he was my absolute favorite. He cracks me up.

Ben, Mike, and Carol from Growing Pains

They just don't make funny, wholesome shows anymore. BUMMER.

Annika's year in pictures!

The night before Annika's first birthday, I was getting ready to shut the laptop and go to sleep... then the idea popped into my head that I could just "throw together" a little slide show to show at her first birthday party with all the grandparents.... 1.5 hrs. later I was done, not as quick as I had imagined, but fun nonetheless. I spent forever just looking at pictures and remembering...

So here is our sweetie pie, from birth to 1 year!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thanks, Mom for the fun new cookie press!

Me and my little helper chef!
We love Valentine's Day around here,
and celebrated with a little party yesterday...
and each kiddo got to invite one friend to the bash.
My Mom is here and brought with her an entire suitcase dedicated to Valentine's Day supplies! Decorations, cookie supplies, goodies, card making & craft supplies... you name it, it was in there!
So of course, we had to throw a party with all that!

Usually she sends a box full of goodies, but this year it was live and in person!
THANKS!!!

Happy Birthday Annika Scarlet!

From newborn to one year!

It's hard to believe that one year ago we welcomed our second daughter and fourth child to our family. It has been so fun to see our 3 "big kids" be big brothers and a big sister. They are sweet with Annika and take really good care of her. They are forever on the lookout for choking hazards and laugh at every antic of hers. We adore our darling Annika and are so thankful for her life. We feel incredibly blessed to be the parents of 4 amazing children.

We found this perfect little cake just for her!
She loved it... and this picture was just the beginning. At one point, she leaned down and put her whole face in the cake!!! All of us were laughing so hard at our dear girl, she was oblivious to it all and didn't even crack a smile. It's okay, Annika, your Mama is really serious about chocolate too. Our family plus the grandparents were doubled over in laughter at our newly addicted chocolate fan!



Present time!




This is her chocolate "afterglow" face just before bed after the party.
Happy Birthday, ANNIKA!
You are loved...
Her birthday picture slideshow may make an appearance, if it doesn't take a week to load!

But for now, enjoy Annika and her cake!

8 hour makeover

Yesterday, my Mom (who is up for a visit) and I did a crazy, fun surprise makeover to our upstairs bathroom! Jeremy and I both loved the yellow we had it painted before, but it had been 5 years and I thought it could use some sprucing up! SO... I went out looking for new towels to freshen it up and found a great shower curtain that was half off and thought it needed the whole shabang! I asked Jeremy if I could use some $$ for a surprise for the family and he said yes! And off to Target Mom and I went! My in-laws kept all four kids all day yesterday and we busted out the room and had it all put back together as Jeremy walked in the door.

He loved it! Hooray, because it wasn't going back. :)

Mom posing with her trusty brush. While I was dropping off the kids in the morning, she was busy taping, doing corners, and taking off every fixture in the room. She's amazing.

After!

I realized after we got painting that I should have taken a before shot before tearing it all apart.
I found a cute little picture that says, "And they lived happily ever after..."
Thanks, Mom for always being up for anything! I love that about you.

Annika finally getting ahold of one of the pups!

Lightning taking a snooze on my lap. They're so cozy!

Before long they'll be running around like crazy dogs, so we're taking full advantage of all the cuddle time we get. They're all walking timidly and slowly and attempting to bark and growl.
It's gonna be hard to let these 4 furballs go! I think we're all attached. But we'll have them around for another 5 weeks or so. If you need a puppy fix, let us know... they're 3 weeks and perfect for holding right now!

The puppies and more!

The pups are now two weeks old! The first one opened his eyes yesterday and they're still "crawling" around. They're roly poly and super cute. They've over quadrupled their size, it's amazing. And I'm still SO glad there's only 4!!!



Oh, and as of now... from left to right... meet Butterball, Whiffer, Rosebud, and Lightning!

She stands! Annika has started pulling up on anything and everything this week!

A picture of my kitchen island? Okay, I was up late at night and cleaning off my island... and thinking about how good it makes me feel to have this silly thing cleared and wiped down. It seriously de-stresses me! But... the one thing that seriously makes me cranky?? (And there aren't many things that make me cranky.) See below.

After staring at these dishes the whole day and never quite getting around to doing something with them, I washed them all up after taking this picture... And man, did I feel better in the morning! It might be a new tradition. You, faithful dish doers might think I'm nuts to have a hard time with dishes, but I've had a lifelong dislike of the things. :) Somedays they never get done and my dear husband walks in the door from work and does them. So if I'm gonna be a dish-hater, it's helps to have Mr. Clean as your husband who honestly "just wants to help." I just thought I'd note, though, since taking this picture I'vd proudly done the dishes each day before he comes home. Aren't I a gem? ;)

my boys

I absolutely love this picture of my boys concentrating on walking down the aisle in Aaron and Abie's wedding last fall. One of the professional photogs took it, and it's priceless to me!

They are adorable indeed. :) And the little Mr. on the right is my 8 year old clone!

8th file, 8th picture

I love randomness... I had seen this somewhere else, can't remember where. But you post your 8th (not sure why I picked 8th) picture from your 8th photo file on your computer. Do you have 8? I sure do. We have TONS of pics on our computer.

This 8th picture is of my newborn Annika and my Mom! It's so great that this is the pic that was "randomly" chosen... Why? Well, because my little bitty Annika is now not so bitty and is turning 1 in 11 days! And my Mom arrives on Thursday for 10 days! This picture captures the last time she was in Alaska. She'll get plenty of snuggle time with Miss Annika for sure!

Okay c'mon, it's your turn to post your 8th picture in your 8th photo file if you're a blogger! And no cheating just because you don't like the photo. Tell us about it! (ha ha, you're exempt from the 8th if you don't have 8 folders.. just randomly pick another!)

Family Edited DVDs

Hey guys, as promised I'm back to tell you about the movies we ordered from www.FamilyEditedDVDs.com! We got them in the mail yesterday, and as expected they were white discs with a label on them that says the movie title and "Edited for Content". They came in those paper sleeves with the clear circle. We got 14 movies, none of which he "had" to own... but thought it would be fun to see in an edited form. Plus they were cheap and have no language, etc... When you put them in, it goes right to the starting of the movie. No menu or anything.

Jeremy watched Troy today and said it was great, and was edited in what seemed to be all the right spots. So far we're happy with them! But if you want to get in on the store closing, you'd better act fast! Tomorrow, Jan. 31st is the last day!!!! They're $7.50 each with free shipping, but there's a 10 DVD minimum order. We don't watch the tube, so thought we'd stock up on some entertainment!

quotables

The other day, my 3 big kids each said their share of funny things without meaning to be funny. They were all within an hour or two of each other. Glad I grabbed the notebook to write them down! I'm so glad kids are funny.

Gavin, hot chocolate is our enemy. ~ Drew

I always feel good inside after I have sweets. ~Drew

It's not fair... they don't make fair games these days. ~Gavin

(Gavin) Mom, I think my brain needs some quietness. (Me) Do you wanna lay down? (Gavin) No, some computer time would help. (Me) hahahaha, nice try buddy. (Gavin) I'm seeweeous!

Can I cut some cheese for you? ~Morgan

Tonight after Jeremy got home from work, he was talking to Gavin about his behavior today. And Jeremy was listing some of the things he did wrong, and after Jeremy talked about him lying to his Mom.... Morgan piped up in all seriousness, "That's a problem." Jeremy and I had to hide our smiles and Jeremy promptly asked them to bow their heads so he could bless our meal and we could silently smile away!

Quadruple surprise!

Last night after our hike we came home to quite a surprise! Drewy ran out to feed Annabelle, but ran right back in without feeding her because he heard noises that he knew Annabelle wasn't making and thought it was a moose. Jeremy went out with him to investigate and what did he find that was making that noise??? PUPPIES! We had NO idea our doggie was even pregnant! SO, we have 4 adorable puppies and one very good mama dog living in our family room downstairs!
We have 3 male and 1 female, 2 black and 2 yellow! Annabelle is a lab, and that's what they look like for now, but we think the daddy is either the neighbor golden retriever or another dog that has been galavanting with our un-fixed dog! Oops, we've been talking about getting that done for a year now.... serves us right. :) But we're always up for adventures, why not puppies? So here they are in all their cuteness.

Annabelle is such a champ! We think she had them out there overnight in this freezing weather (thankfully it wasn't 2 weeks ago...) then we were gone all day yesterday. Thank goodness our boy was listening last night, or we might not have had such a happy story to tell. They were completely clean, she bit off the umbilical cord at just the right spot... what a gal. So we gave our doggie a triple wash bath today so our house doesn't smell like dog and built a huge plywood kennel on the linoleum for the 5 of them by our back door in the family room by the gas fireplace for warmth. It works perfectly. We're still a bit shell-shocked though, any one looking for a puppy?

Hmm... if you have a birthday coming up you'd better watch out, we know just the perfect gift! Black or yellow?

The last two weeks...

Here's 11 month old Annika taking a cruise around the living room. She only goes backwards, but it's a start! Her brothers and sister love to push her around the living room. She's all smiles.

This was an amazing sunset from last week! It looked like the glow of a huge fire.

Almost two weeks ago, I thought it would be fun to have a girl's night out to the movies! A big group of women went to see Bride Wars! It was a hilarious chick flick... very fun to see with friends. Carly and her mom, and Janeen left before the photo op... it was a fun night!

Yesterday Kep and Rachel invited us up to Hatcher's Pass for a hike/hunt on a great trail! The guys brought guns incase of rabbit and ptarmigan sightings, but as Rachel said on her blog.. we were a bit to much for any little critter. I'm sure they darted back in their little hole or hid behind a pile of snow while we passed. It was a fun trek on a nice day! The babies didn't make a peep on the entire walk... they're tough Alaskans already. :) And of course we had to hit DQ on the way back for lunch and ice cream! Yum! Thanks, guys for the great company and for getting us out of the house!

the Kroon family

favorite inauguration moments

Yesterday, I watched inauguration events in the morning, then again for the recap at night. I am a history buff and I found myself engrossed the process of Barack Obama becoming the President! I think I was too young before to really care about the swearing in of a brand new president. In 2000, I was busy with my first baby. I actually was in the hospital giving birth to Drew on Election day... on Nov. 7th. We watched it on TV while I was laboring! I had him 6 minutes after midnight. I don't remember anything about the following inauguration, how sad!

Today I found some fascinating pictures taken from space! Above is a picture taken 423 miles above the earth of the swearing in of President Obama on the Capitol steps. My favorite picture wouldn't download. It was zoomed farther out and showed the entire 2 million that were gathered there, they reached all the way past the Washington Monument. The White House was visible too. Someday, we'll make it there. I hear all the sights are free to get in to.

But honestly, the first thing that was a highlight for me was seeing Malia and Sasha take in the day. Not only are they adorable girls, but man... they are about to live an unforgettable life during an unforgettable time along with their Mother and Father. Yesterday, after watching some of the events with the kids on TV, we prayed for our new President as we started school. And today, we focused on Malia and Sasha.

I guess the parade ran a bit too long for Sasha. It said it was 2 hours long.



This picture reminds me of Jen and I. I was that little sister once.
I was a pest. I love Sasha's mischievous grin. As I was checking the news this morning, I came across this sweet letter that the Bush daughters left for the Obama daughters. What a gift!

Read the letter printed by the Wall Street Journal here:


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123239885943895155.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

My second highlight was seeing what seems to be a great relationship between Barack and Michelle. Seeing them dance brought tears to my eyes! Maybe because I'm a romantic. And her dress? Great choice. She was stunning.

So that's my superficial wrap-up of President Obama's inauguration! Nothing about him, but the women in his life made me smile. :)

My first published article!

Last week, I started submitting an article I wrote about Valentine's Day to various small newspapers; one local last week, then 3 out of state this weekend. I heard back from our local paper early last week, briefly stating that they were interested in reading it. I hadn't heard if they liked it or if it ended up in some inbox recylcle bin. This evening, I got a big surprise! My Dad and Marla Kay stopped by to congratulate me on the published article! HUH?? The Frontiersman published it in today's paper! I had no idea they were using it. So Jeremy drove up to the post office to snag a couple copies for us to read! I'll have to admit, I was a bit embarassed to have them read it right in front of me... At least with blogging, I don't have to sit with someone while they read a post. It was there alright, on the Opinion page... which I wasn't expecting... AND they put my personal email address on there for people to contact me! Yikes.

It was super exciting, but a bit disappointing at the same time... a sentence was mutilated when they stuck a title box over part of the article... they changed my title... and didn't write back with even a short note to tell me it was being published and when! I've learned a lot and am grateful that it was that easy to get an article published locally. It is really fun to see something you've written in print!

I've been doing tons of research on freelance writing this past month and have learned a bunch about the business. I am eager to submit more. Though it's a scary affair that isn't for the impatient! Waiting is so hard for this gal.

If you want to read it, they published it online as well:

http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2009/01/19/opinion/columnists/doc4972b85d4d7f8490302172.txt

a sweet find

Today, I received A Walk to Remember (Family - Edited Version) in the mail from Swap A DVD! It was a movie I wanted to own if a few crass words and scenes disappeared. I was able to choose the Family Edited Version on Swap A DVD this fall and I was thinking no one would ever post it on there wanting to get rid of it. Someone did last week and sent it to me. I was so excited. So when I got it today, I started wondering how many other films are available in this version. My search led me to Family Edited DVDs. We have quite the collection of clean movies and would love to add to it since we don't watch TV. And there are tons of movies we're interested in seeing/owning if they cut out all of the language and sexual content. Who knew family edited movies existed? We had heard snippets about companies making them a couple years ago, then never heard anything else.

This company is liquidating their entire collection and closing their store on Jan. 31st. We're thrilled we found them before it is too late. Each DVD is $7.50 (that's half off) and there is free shipping. The only catch is that you have to buy 10 DVDs or more because they are trying to get rid of their inventory. We started searching and had no problem finding 10. Actually, we bought 14! No movie rentals for a LONG time for us! I found this tidbit of info about the company and it explains a little more....

"Family Edited DVDs, the leading provider of clean entertainment, is finally closing its business. After 6 years of providing clean edited movies, they are selling off all of their edited DVDs inventory. The following is recent statement from them:



Due to the current state of our economy, and other economic conditions, we are no longer able to stay in business. We are liquidating our inventory and closing our store.
We have thousands and thousands of edited archival backups that we MUST clear out of our inventory. This is your absolute last chance to get edited movies.



They have over 850 movie titles that are all edited to remove vulgar language, gory violence, and sexual content."

The only thing we're unclear about is whether they come in a nice case like A Walk To Remember or if that was done by another company. It kinda sounds like they burned on a DVD-R (for you techies) and don't have an official movie case. But we'll see when we get the box. Most are movies one or both of us have wanted to see, but didn't because of the reasons for it's rating. We're very discerning movie viewers and want to keep it that way!

Some movies like Titanic are great films except for (ahem) certain parts. We bought that one along with others that should have been pretty easy for them to edit. So, if you decide to expand your DVD collection and it turns out it's not what we thought... Sorry. :) Maybe you should wait until we get ours in the mail! I'll post about how it all turned out.