but he is ever so cute!

Buckwheat sees the world! As we head up to Mt. McKinley with my mom, Buckwheat gets to come too.

And he got to go camping with us!

Back in May we offered to dog sit for six months for my friend Jayci.  She and her husband had to go to a temporary assignment that did not allow dogs at thier living quarters so she needed a home for her Schnauzer/Yorki mix (aka Snorki), named Buckwheat.

We did it for a variety of reasons. One was because my kids have always wanted a little dog and I kinda did too...I must have been feeling some sort of mothering void in anticipation of Olivia going to Kindergarten....  and ever since Champ chewed Ethan's favorite pair of cowboy boots 6 or 7 years ago, he has held a grudge against the giant slobbery canine we already share a home with and had a romantic idea that a little dog of his own would heal that grudge.

The other reason is it was really no big deal.  Really, it is no big deal and even after everything you read it, is still seriously no big deal (Jayci, that means you, seriously. No.Big.Deal.).  Life is messy, busy and fun and in all honesty, Buckwheat has done nothing but add to what is already great and wonderful in our house. In spite of everything I blog about and all of the foibles of life that keep me from my magazine page looking house and shaved legs, I sort of like the crazy that seems to find me everywhere I look. When I really take a moment to sit back and look at my crazy, I am happy...and then I blog about it ;)

While Buckwheat is adorable, he is a quirky little guy.  First up he only likes me.  Seriously. He follows only me around all day. In the kitchen, on the couch watching TV, on the floor by my bed (or in my bed when I am not home, thanks to the little dog hairs he leaves behind on my pillow I figured that out). If anyone besides me tries to put him out to go potty he runs and hides under the bed or yelps like his leg is getting bit off by an alligator if they grab him.

It is actually kind of funny to watch him follow me.  For instance, the morning dash out the door is ever so much more comical with the little black fuzzball at my feet.  Done getting dressed, walk two feet out the bedroom door and remember phone. Turn abruptly and almost trip on Buckwheat as I head back in. Get halfway down the stairs and forget sunglasses. Turn and almost trip on Buckwheat again as I go back to my room. Get all the way downstairs stop, so does Buckwheat, and tries to lick my face as I am down on his level while I and get shoes. Forgot to turn off bedroom light so run back upstairs with Buckwheat happily prancing after me...

You get the idea and Buckwheat is there every step I take. I am beginning to think I wear a dog collar with all the jingling of dog tags that surrounds me these days!

Second wierd thing: He only eats if I am in the kitchen with him.  Seriously.  So twice a day I give him a scoop of food and he eats mostly out of his bowl now. He used to take a few pieces out at time and hide under the dining table and eat them. I am not sure I am cut out for a constant companion like this. It is sickeningly reminiscent of having a newborn...you know, being his only source of food and all.

Third, he annoys my cats and they likewise, stand outside of the glass door and taunt him.  He goes nuts until the door actually opens and then he gives them a wide berth.  He is smaller than both of them, after all. But he loves Champ. Actually maybe a little to much.  Shortly after Buckwheat arrived we heard a new bark from Champ. Its the I'm-Not-Gay-Bark as Buckwheat tries to hump his leg.  That and a few nips at Buckwheat has curbed that behavior and also sparked a lesson on the birds and the bees with Ethan (Its OK, 10 is when I told Carter too...)

Fourth, he revenge poops.  When he doesn't get his walk or if he feels he is left alone too many days in a row he poops in the house. Luckily it has all been on the hard floor and is the size of tootsie rolls (I am afraid I may never eat those again). To solve this, Buckwheat gets to spend time in solitary confinement (aka Champ's giant dog crate) while I am gone, or he gets to ride with me on errand days and is happy in the car.

Fifth, he also loves salmon and will dig through my garbage to lick up bits left on paper plates.  It is also the only thing that will entice him to leave my room at night and trot downstairs for a foray through the garbage.

Sixth, all dogs shed or I don't vacuum enough.  I am sure I could vacuum more, but I don't need any more hair in my house.

Buckwheat has, however, won JaDee over.  JaDee has taken to calling him Bucko, Buckaroo, or even Bingo.  But most often he calls Buckwheat, Useful Dog.  His usefulness is compounded by the fact that I do not want a little dog anymore.

Buckwheat is a great snuggler though. He loves to be behind my legs on the couch. He is ever so glad to see me when I come home. Once when I was gone for a long day and JaDee and the kids were home, they hardly saw Buckwheat as he moped under my bed. Until he heard the garage door open and he bolted down the stairs and jumped up almost high enough to lick my face.

He also smiles this crazy grin and begs for his little bone to chew everynight.

But the funniest is the Shivers. He never jumps up on the couch with me unless he "asks." To ask he props up on his hind legs and gives me the big puppy eyes and starts to shiver.  The first time I saw this my heart melted and I said "Oh, JaDee, he's cold! Let him up here with us."

Ever the logical JaDee said, "No he's not. Look." JaDee reached down to pet him and instantly Buckwheat stopped shivering. When JaDee stopped petting him, the shivers started back up again. So every night when Buckwheat starts to shiver, I know he is asking for pets and snuggles. But if he was really smart he would have attached himself to Olivia who wants nothing more than to mother Buckwheat to death. As a result, Buckwheat is terrified of her and runs for cover whenever he senses a tea party or hair bows nearby.

All in all he has been a delightful house guest.  My kids love him and will be sad to see him go in November.
And even sadder that we don't get a replacement puppy.  I just don't have the time to make the kind of commitment a little dog needs.

We love you Bucko Buckaroo!

ma mere

Its nice after your visitors leave to be able to rummage through your laundry looking for underwear in the upstairs hall totally naked...

Not that I did that or anything today after my mom left from her week with us.

Not that I would ever do that...I'm just saying it's nice to be able to if you wanted too...

Anyway we had a great time with my mom on her first trip to Alaska. The best part actually came about an hour before she left when she told us that while Ben was showing her Maine a couple of weeks ago on her visit to his house, he said, "I bet Nicole is going to try to top this."

What Mom didn't say was, "Well of course, Ben. It is Alaska after all."
What the good mother that she is said was, "I didn't know it was a contest!"

What dear mother's everywhere ought to know by now is that it is ALWAYS a contest amongst siblings.

Here are the highlights (of which I won):

Northern Lights
Mt. McKinley
Carter's high school debut as Young Rip in the play Rip Van Winkle
Seward Sea Life Center
Kenai Peninsula
Fall foliage
Lots of lunches out
Grandkids of which I am the proud owner of 3/4 of those and in which Ben has none.

All documented with our camera we recently got replaced...free of charge :)

ps- I love you Ben!

but Alaska will always top Maine...just sayin'

...still: the farm

I wish I had a picture of the  giant, (but safely buried) rectangular trampoline and the 11 more kids that were on that at the time of this picture! And take note that it is Carter GETTING the underdog and Ethan JUMPING off the swing and flying through the air.

a perfect wyoming sunset

I recently filled out a get to know you survey at a church activity and one of the questions was "where is your favorite place to vacation?"  This was actually my hardest question.  I thought back to trips as a kid to Ocean City, MD or the Adirondacks.  I thought of my girls trip to San Diego this past spring.  I have never been to Europe or Hawaii but would like to go someday. I remembered our fun family trip to Seattle when the boys were little. All of the times in Jackson Hole, or Vail, stuck in Sidney, Nebraska in a blizzard (remind me to tell you about that sometime...), the camping and adventures here in Alaska...

But what I wrote down was The Farm.

Oh the farm is quite possible one of the least relaxing places on the planet too!  This year there were LARGE portions of our trip where at any given moment there were 17 children and only 2 moms to be found.  We had a revolving door of visitors outside of our immediate family that constantly changed the routine of daily life.  We had dads Jeff and JaDee go home leaving me and EmRee husbandless.  There are ditches full of water for children to fall into.  Little boys asking for matches (which we have to hide). Big boys wanting to shoot air soft guns and fireworks. Pirate ships and broken arms (that happened after I left).

And of course 3 meals a day.

Plus snacks.

But as hectic as it is, I guess when I think of where I would choose to spend my airplane tickets, I would almost always choose to do it here.

Snow Machines

Carter

The snow was really deep.  Our little Enticers got stuck occasionally. Ethan is waiting for Carter to come help him lift the back end out of the deep part.

It was so fun to see the boys working together out there.

Here comes Ethan!

Can you see Olivia?  Oh there she is her giant yellow helmet!

It wouldn't be the New Year without fireworks!

Here I am with my buddy Heather!  Our other friend, Kim, who was our host, stayed in the cabin to watch the fireworks.

Here is most of the gang that was there for New years.  6 adults and 14 children.  Most of these kids were teenagers and so fun with our little ones.  They were awesome.  The boys even slept in the cold attic of the cabin for us!  Thanks boys!

This is what we are snow machining on.  A frozen lake.  Here is a shot of under the dock where the snow isn't packed on.  It was pretty cool!

OK those were obviously videos of the lake we were on. This lake is owned by our friend's family.  Like it is an original homestead site from back in the day.  If you are looking on a map we were just west of BIG LAKE, about an hour from our house.  Now let me tell you about BIG LAKE and the ice.  We took our machines over the land to check out Big Lake.  It was so cool.  The lake really is gigantic.  Not Great Lakes gigantic but certainly Utah Lake or Oneida Lake gigantic.  In the winter Big Lake plows roads and grates the ice on the lake to make roads you can drive on!  Like with your car.  Snow machines stay off the ice roads and zoom in the open spaces.  It was crazy! The town of Big Lake (named after, well, the Lake!) names the ice roads and cuts  the same ones every year. We went out to this island that has a restaurant on it.  You can only reach this restaurant by boat in the summer or snow machine in the winter.  There were tons of homes on the island too and cabins all along the shore of the lake.   I didn't bring my camera for that part of the trip and I am totally kicking myself now.  We are hoping to go over Martin Luther King day and I will for sure get pictures then.

Here is our host and buddy and snow machine extraordinaire, Skeet, along with JaDee and Nate.

Ethan gets ready to take his ole Mom out for a spin!

Thankful for sushi

So this year we went out for Thanksgiving dinner.  I just was not in the mood to cook a meal for 2 days that we only enjoyed for 20 minutes and then spend as much time cleaning up after it as I did to prepare it.  We went to Tokyo Gardens, which is a buffet that has Japanese and Chinese cuisine.  Usually they have a hot section of the buffet with hot Chinese dishes like Low Mien, which I love, and I was planning on getting full on that and Tuna rolls.  Well we got there and the hot section was full of this attempt at an American Thanksgiving feast complete with dry turkey and a watery ham.

But the tuna was fresh from the sushi bar!  But not exactly filling.

While the kids said it was the best Thanksgiving ever, [and Ethan even said that why we were in the spirit of trying new things, do we have to have a pine tree for a Christmas Tree? (yes, Ethan. We do have to have a pine tree for a Christmas tree.  No willows or birch or alders. Just pine, but glad you are adventurous)]
I had a bummer of a day and have since had string of bummer days.

I just missed being home.  You know playing 5 Crowns with my siblings and mom.  Or dishing a 22 nieces and nephews some leftover turkey and mashed taters at the farm.  Laughing with my sister over her near holiday disaster of a still frozen turkey.  Even giving my grandmother and Step mother a bad time for not including rolls on the menu (which they now have every year since I made a stink about it 8 years ago...bear in mind we had driven 20 hours to see them, but Carol, bless her heart, even ran to Wal-mart 15 miles away to get me rolls Thanksgiving morning).

Anyway, I don't know if I just wasn't busy enough and got a reality check that as "full" as my life is here and as much "fun" as we have, is this all really a poor substitute for what really matters most to me?  But my kids are always going to remember the Thanksgiving we were the only people who spoke English at the Chinese restaurant. Is this really enough.  I used to laugh at girls in college who pined after their family (in American Fork for crying out loud while mine were in New York).  But it seems these last few days I have been one of them.

I have even been thinking how there are only 370 days (didn't really forget that countdown even though I haven't mentioned it lately) until we could move home. And with Obama putting a freeze on federal paychecks over the next few years (oh and I have a blog post about that one especially since our insurance is going up like a lot this year. ) maybe we should just go home...

General Conference...the anticipation

This weekend marks the 180th Semi-Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. When I was a kid this weekend meant sitting in a dark chapel while we watched the speakers broadcast via satellite to us in New York.   They were painfully boring weekends where we had to get dressed for church even though none of my classes were held that day in lieu of the world wide broadcast.  It was dark and hard to see my crayons as I sat at my mothers feet trying to draw and keep from dying from boredom.

When I went to BYU I was faced with my first conference weekend in Utah.   The internet was in its baby stages (BYU didn't even have its own e-mail accounts back then) and it never occured to me that  we could watch it on TV in our own homes (or packed around the dorm room television or plugged into the local radio station). So I got dressed and walked down 9th East to the church building and sat in a dark chapel with about 3 other people.

I wondered where everyone was.

Turns out they were in packed around TVs all over campus.

I was better prepared next time.

Later as a newly married couple we were in Delaware for our first General Conference together.  No TV, no radio out there and the Internet still a baby, I showed JaDee the art of getting dressed for church to sit in a dark chapel (they always listened to it on the radio in WY).  Our ward did a massive potluck in between the morning and afternoon session and it was a great weekend.

Then even later still and back in UT I grew accustomed to rolling out of bed at 9:45 and wrapping up in a blanket to watch the 2 Sunday sessions in our home on local KSL channel 5.  Saturday sessions were heard in the car on the way to soccer, or while I was painting a bedroom or while we cleaned out the garden and the garage.   October Conference is when we always dug up the tomato plants whether they were ready or not.  It was time to winterize!

Now in Alaska and the age of Dish network and the Internet, we can still get conference in our home.  Our first conference here the website was so jammed we couldn't get it but we logged on to radio KSL and listened.  The last conference we had Internet connections for every session and it was just like being back in UT tucked under a blanket on my couch.

I kind of miss the old days in the dark chapel.  The thought of recreating it for my kids and taking them to our own local chapel (which always broadcasts the event for anyone who cares to wander in) makes me a little ill.   I mean, look how easy it is to just stay home in our jammies and unwashed hair to listen to the voice of our prophet and apostles?  Why would I make more work for myself and drag them in our Sunday best to the church?

I guess I really appreciate all the hard work it was for my parents to get all 5 of us to each and every conference growing up.  Little tote bags packed with crayons, snacks and paper.   Countless trips to drinking fountains and bathrooms to break up the monotony for little bottoms, older siblings being separated with a parent in between, and even better when I, as the oldest, could take either Courtney or Stephen, as babies, out to the hall to walk around, get drinks and explore dark classrooms and the stage in the gym. I remember when Ben and I used to fight over the job to do that!  Thank goodness there were 2 of them!

The bottom line is my parents taught me that General Conference was important.  They taught me slowly and patiently that it was important.  They taught it to me so that when I was on my own and faced with the choice to watch or not that I chose to go.

Now I have to figure out how to show my children that this is important for them.

Happy Conference!

PS- if you have BYU TV on your dish network plan you can watch conference at 10 AM and 2 PM Mountain Standard Time.

PPS- we always have cinnamon rolls on Sunday morning.  Thanks Linda for the great recipe!  It is now in our family!

Guess what!

Courtney and Blake hanging out on this day

I found out where Olivia gets her toilet paper fetish from! It is my one and only sister!

Now, my beautiful sister could have shared a number of things with me. Most importantly some of her 5' almost 7 inches. See all of the women in our family are about 5' 2" - 5' 4". Except for me and her. Except I am 5' 0" and she is almost 7 inches taller than me!!! She could have shared just 2 of those inches, and still been so much taller than me.

(you should see family pictures. My 3 brothers tower from 5'11" - 6'2+" with JaDee at 6 feet and Blake at 6'4"! I am always in the front. And usually alone unless one of my kids are with me...But now Katie will be joining me on the front row. Again, another reason to thank her for marrying Ben, besides that he is a pain :0)

And at 8 years younger than me she had to share a room with me. Ugh! When I was a teenager there was nothing worse than a baby sister in the bottom bunk. Except when she woke up in the night and wanted me to crawl in bed with her to help her feel better. Then it was OK.

In fact I used to take her to the park all the time. And while I did enjoy the little walks in pushing her in the stroller or holding her hand, I must admit I had an ulterior motive. See there were boys that also played basketball at the park. And I may or may not have had crushes on them.

I was also using the outing to get out of chores.

So when I was telling my mom about Olivia taking trash to school for show and tell she says, "Don't you remember Courtney with Kleenexes?"

Apparently Courtney used them as blankets for her little animals or tied them up as dresses for them and flew them around the house as well.

And a trip to our Grandmother's house was pure heaven for her. See Grandma matched her tissues to each room in the house. So we had pink, green, blue, peach and white to spice up the fashion shows. I guess she could empty a box of Kleenex faster than the average swine flu patient.

Me and Brooke back in April when I was there for Wicked.

I hope I gave my niece, Brooke, my love of Scotch tape. My mom has stories about that too....

And since I am feeling particularly homesick, for no apparent reason, enjoy these pictures of the most delicious baby!