more Florida

Here are some more pics from the vacation. We were able to swim with Rays, and touch them, snorkel in a coral reef, with all kinds of exotic fish, swim with the dolphins--ours was named Capricorn. It was the best week ever. Emmaline had so much fun, as did the rest of us, but she was so happy, never complained, never cried, never whined, walked for hours on end, and was a real trooper!!

The beach was a blast. We built a sand castle, body surfed, and just had a wonderful relaxing day.

I can't wait to do it again.

Walking in the pool with the rays.

Jarl in the coral reef

Emmaline in the coral reef pool at Discovery Cove

Emmaline in the sand and waves.

Sophie and Emmaline digging for more shells to put on the castle.

Giveaway

Just found this cool interior decor blog....

She is having a great giveaway....

http://roomremixblog.blogspot.com/

check it out.... I love the mumkin.....i think i need to try it.

Florida

We finally went on a vacation!! I am so sad to be back, but we had so much fun!!
Here are a few of the picutres.....

Shamu. totally awsome. the girls were amazed.

Sophie and Emmaline inside an aquarium at Sea World.

Sophie at Discovery Cove.

Sophie at the beach.

Sophie pulling Emma out into the waves. They had so much fun.

Spinning on the Tea Cups. Jarl was a bystander on this one, he doesn't do spinning rides.

Dumbo ride

One of the few characters we acutally saw.

We will have to post more pics later. Disney World was fun. The beach was good. Sea World was amazing. Discovery Cove was the best day EVER! we can't wait to go back!

hi jules....from jarl

Yesterday we took the girls and went boating, skiing and tubing with our stake president, Pres. Stucki.  The last time I went water skiing was at como lake in MT.  It has been too long.  I am so sore today.  I think I used every muscle in my body to get up on the ski.  The kids were great!  Little Emma was so afraid of dropping off the wake.  You can see her concern on the tube in the picture.  Talk to ya later family.jarl

Easter Dresses and more

Ok, wow, I have been a little busy or something, and forgot that I had these pics uploaded.
anyhooo
Here are some pics of dyeing Easter Eggs. always a fun time!! Marin was not involved in this process this year. She can start next year. :-)


Emmaline
some of our tiedyed eggs, Jarl did awesome! Sophie.

Marin liked the grass

The girls in their Easter Dresses. They look so cute and springy! By the way, this is the day that Miss Marin decided she could sit up on her own, without falling over.

Easter

I love Easter.

It is my favorite holiday.

This year, I decided to do a little something different. Instead of the traditional ham, "funeral potatoes", and other yummy comfort foods, we fixed a "traditional Jerusalem dinner". Our festivities took place on Saturday, since I had to work Sunday night. It all worked out perfectly!

It was fabulous. the menu consisted of:

• Lamb and Barley
• Lentil soup
• Roasted Chicken seasoned with Tumeric, Cumin, Salt and Pepper.
• Olives
• Dates
• Figs
• home made Flat Bread
• Hummis
• Yogurt sweetened with Honey
• Grapes
• Grape Juice (in lieu of wine)
• Cucumbers and Carrots
• Yogurt dip

The 5 older children (ages 5 to 10) all liked the feast. Everyone tried all of the dishes. It was very good, and suprisingly very filling.

Afterwards, we had a giant Easter Egg hunt out at the park, and finished the night with Angel Food Cake, with strawberries and Whipped cream. delightful!

Spring Break

This year for spring break, we stayed around Louisville.  Both Jarl and I had to work, but we still had fun.  On Tuesday, my sister and her kids came in from Lexington.  We went to the Louisville Zoo.  It was not a warm day, and quite overcast, but the crowd wasn't too big!  that was a plus.

Emma compared to a gorilla

Sophie compared to the gorilla.

  One of the first exhibits we always visit is the Giraffes.  They were inside, and up close.  Sophie and Emma took pictures.

Another fun thing we got to see was the Siberean (sp?) Tiger.  It was training time for him.  His trainer was feeding him horse meat meatballs, when he performed a task correctly.  It was so neat!  This guy is SO HUGE!!!  Sophie was very impressed that his trainer was a woman.  She wants to be a zookeeper/vet when she grows up :-)

Another fun thing we did was to go Kentucky Down Under.  It was our first time, and we had so much fun!!  I can't wait to go back.  

During the "walk a bout" we got to pet an emu:

sophie and the emu
We also got to pet a kangaroo.  They are so soft!  we learned that a kangaroo's tail is all muscle.

Marin just loved being up close with all the animals.  She would get so excited. 

Marin and the kangaroo's tail

   Emma and the Kangaroo

There were also two aviaries where we could feed birds.  The first aviary had parakeets and some other smaller birds.  

Jarl and some birds.  Thats Emma's little hand.

Emma and some birds

Quick update

Well, things have been busy, and I have fallen behind. I need to upload some pictures, but this is what is going on:

Marin is 6 months old now. she is cruising around the house. rolling and inching her way to wherever she wants to go. She is trying to get up onto her hands and knees, but still needs a little practice, thank heavens. Today, I was doing some laundry, so put her in the toy room- with everything there was to play with, she was more interested in the vacuum cord than anything else.

Sophie and Emma are doing great in school. Emma is thinking of starting Karate soon. I just need to find a place around here to do it.

2009, ice storm

Life has been a little bit hectic lately, and hard to keep up a blog.  For those that don't live here in Kentucky, we had an ice storm a couple of weeks ago.  It started out as a beautiful snow storm.  In fact, I was watching it come down at work, in big beautiful flakes.  We were all wondering if school would be canceled..... Then, the temperature dropped, and freezing rain started to come down.  It didn't stop.  School was canceled, and a little after midnight Tuesday night, our power went out.  It didn't come  back on until Saturday morning.  

I was up most of the night wondering how I was going to keep the kids, especially Marin, warm.  I even woke Jarl up, to let him know, so he could stress with me..... 

Louisville shut down.  Trees broke under the weight of the ice.  We spent quite a few hours on Wednesday at McDonald's play land, to warm up.  and slept under lots and lots of blankets on Wednesday night.  Jarl thought we would all sleep better in our own beds.......he slept in Emma's bed, Emma slept with me and Marin.  Jarl snores.....Sophie ended coming up to sleep with us, until she got tired of Emma thrashing at us and beating us about the heads because she was squished......and I was worried that Marin would be smothered by the blankets.  so, Jarl got sleep that night. 

 Thursday morning, he was going to work, and the girls and I decided that we were going to take Audra (Jarl's cousin) up on her offer to come out to Goshen and stay with their family.  Their neighborhood did not lose power.  The girls had a blast, since it was a house filled with little girls....and Marin was hardly ever put down, just passed from one person to the next.  She loved it. 

Here are some pictures of the aftermath of the ice.   it was absolutely incredible.   

Looking out across the street

Our holly trees were bent in half

Our dogwood...I hope it bounces back


This was our first ice storm.  Incredibly beautiful.  Incredibly destructive.

New Years Pictures

I just wanted to post some of the pictures that we had taken this past weekend.  I just love my girls!!  They are fabulous!  

Marin just loves being with her big sisters

She is growing so fast, and is a huge flirt and smiles lots, until the camera comes out.  We really lucked out with her smiling in these 2 pictures--the rest are of her serious side.

Sophie is so beautiful!!  I look at her, and wonder where my little baby went, and when she turned into a big girl?

Emmaline sparkles.  I hope she never loses her individuality.