May 15th
Here is a picture from after Jason's Graduation Ceremony as promised.
April 19th
Jason's graduation from the fire academy was last week, he has officially been on the department for over a year.
He will no longer be referred to as a "probi" by his fellow firefighters, but will most likely be washing the dirty
dishes until another class of probationary firefighters are hired.
Spring is quickly moving in on us.... and our back yard looks like a small lake. Ok, maybe I'm
exaggerating a tad bit. It might be more similar to a marshy swamp. Either way, it is off limits
for Reuben until we don't have to fear he will drown if left unattended.
Levi is getting bigger and bigger every day. He is a little over 3 weeks now, and quickly growing out of the newborn stage.
Reuben still doesn't know what to do with him, but I guess that is better than Reuben wanting to do too much with him. (I'm envisioning Levi being
used as a ramp for Reuben to drive his cars on)
Our house project has hit a few more delays. The city just enforced weight restrictions for the roads (Spring thaw), so that means we can't get the crane up our road
for the pile driving company to put our foundation in. The city is expecting the restrictions to be lifted sometime in the first week of June, so now we just wait.
We were a little nervous at first, because our insurance wants the house rebuilt by the end of May. However, we decided to lay our trust in the Lord.... and shortly after
our insurance adjustor decided to extend our deadline until the end of October. Praises!! Sometimes I'm amazed at how quickly God will take care of us, all we have to do is trust.
I'm going to have to wrap this up for now, as Levi is wailing in the background. Gotta love a little chaos...
Here is a picture of Reuben looking absolutely loveable.
Below is a picture of Kayta, our 3rd dog. The one that I told everyone about and never posted a picture of.
April 3rd
Announcing Levi Michael Jeffers
Born 3/27/09 at 12:30pm 8lb 8oz.
Everything went great and we are back from the hospital. Here are a few pictures of the newest member of the Jeffers household.
March 12th
I'm Back!!
Due to the house fire we had 11/6/08 I was forced to take a short
sabbatical from website updates. For those of you who didn't know, our house was
completely destroyed (except for the new addition) in a fire. The fire took place at 10pm on our 3rd anniversary, and was cooking pretty good before the firefighters arrived.
The cause of the fire was an overfilled propane tank, Thank You Tesoro, that was ignited by the pilot light on our hot water heater. We all made it out safe, but lost everything
in the fire. What a mess!! In hind sight, I should have at least grabbed the
marshmallows since we had such a magnificent blaze.
Since the fire, we were able to relocate to a rental house in Anchorage. No simple task when you have three big dogs. We are starting the rebuilding process, which is always slow and tedious,
and anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new baby boy. I have included some pictures of the house after the fire,
and the house demo. I am
planning on keeping the website updated with new pictures as the building project progresses, so keep checking back. I will also post some pictures of our baby when he arrives.
October 11th
Here is a picture of Reuben standing in his box, while watching Veggie Tales. He LOVES Veggie Tales, and likes watching while standing
and holding onto my rocking chair. It is really cute.
Yes, he is wearing his coat and no pants... we were in a hurry to get him in the house
and his diaper changed, so his coat didn't come off until after Veggie Tales was over.
Reuben took his first steps last week!!! We were very proud, excited, and happy. Being a parent is such a weird feeling, you can have so many
emotions all at once and feel like you are completely "normal". It is kind of like PMS... in a strange, strange, way.
Now that Reuben is officially walking, it is time to buy him some official walking shoes. I might try and keep and eye out for
a pair of Keens in his size (p.s. Grandma Jeffers- his size is 6-7, just in case you were curious)
October 5th
Winter is here!!!!
If you don't believe me, just take a trip to our house. I'm very excited to have snow on the ground, and NO... I'm not being sarcastic.
I get so drained when winter arrives but there is no snow... oh wait... I think they call that
Fall.
Now that Winter is here, shopping can officially
commence! After all, I am in ever great need of a new coat (casual and backcountry), new boots (dress and backcountry), new gloves (dress and backcountry)
new shirts, pants, hats, scarfs, etc... You get the point! I LOVE WINTER!!!
Oh yeah, and I get to go skiing. That's pretty great too!
September 15th
I just finished a long weekend of dog training. Our Schutzhund club had Anne Marie up for a dog trial, and then we followed up the event
with a full day of training. The exciting news is that...... team Jeffers got a BH title!!!!!! After 2 long years of training it is starting to
pay off. Next summer we will proceed to obtain a SCH1 and SCH2 title, that is if the new baby doesn't get in the way of my plans.
That's right! We are
expecting the newest addition to the Jeffers family trio on April 6th, 2009.
Congratulations to us! We are very excited to have so much going on around here, Jason has been hard
at work building a small house addition to make room for the newest member.
Being pregnant is always frustrating for me...... after working so hard to keep oneself
thin and attractive (oh yeah) the beer belly begins to grow. People don't know it is a baby, they simply think you have "put on a couple". Afterall,
she has a kid, she's married, it's what happens with old age. Why do you think pregnant people wear t-shirts that have witty little comments printed on the front.
It's so people don't assume "she has let herself go"!!!!!
What's worse than the beer belly is the nausea. Your boss already thinks you've been knocking one too many back, and then you call in sick. Why?
"I've been throwing up all morning"
Yeah, that will go over well.
I blame it all on the pregnant lady beer belly. Maybe I should make a t-shirt that says
"It's not a beer belly! I'm pregnant"
Speaking of new members to the household. I purchased a new little puppy, she is 11 weeks old now. She is a bundle of energy, and such a sweetheart.
I have high hopes for her, as she will be my competition dog. I am hoping that in another 3-5 years I will be ready to compete at a regional or national
level. Call me crazy, but I love dogs.
I will post some pictures of her in another couple days. We have some pictures from the Schutzhund trial
that I will also try and get loaded.
September 2nd
What can I say, time flies when
your having fun. Reuben's big b-day party was on the
17th of August, we celebrated in royal style. Balloons,
candles, cake, presents, friends, and family. Here are
some of my favorite photographic moments from the party.
Below is Reuben opening presents, he was Soooo.... ready for a nap by the time presents rolled around that I'm surprised we made it through the entire process.
He is wearing his new hat that his Aunt Diana got him.
And here are some pictures of Rueben having fun around the house. He has discovered how to open all the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen, oh what fun.
August 14th
The Jeffers rafting trip down lower Eagle River
We had a blast, enjoying the river as a family. I
don't know if Roman had as much fun, but he doesn't get
much of a choice in the matter.
A lynx killed off all but ONE of the ducks. Bummer for them. The last duck went to live with Roman in his dog run, I think the duck
was a little stressed out the first day.... but then she discovered that Roman was about as harmless as a mosquito. Grant-it nobody
wants to live with a mosquito, but when the situation arises.... it is a lot more appealing than facing the lynx again.
Oh, and don't tell Roman I was comparing him to a mosquito... it would hurt his feelings.
In case I haven't told you already, we just completed the new dog runs. I have a picture
here. They took a lot of work, and much more time than I anticipated. Since when have we ever started a project
that was easy and quick????
Also, if you haven't noticed already.... I reworked the website. It took some considerable effort on my part, since I really have no
clue what I am doing. It has been optimized for Internet Explorer 7, so please give me feedback if it looks weird in your browser.
I know the Mac people sometimes see things a little bit different, hence why they own a Mac.
E-mail: marilyn_jeffers@hotmail.com
July 28th
I guess Reuben decided to start getting
more active. Sunday night he was laying down and sat himself
upright. All under his own power!!
This afternoon he decided to start combat
crawling. He lies on his belly and pushes himself forward with his
feet while grabbing onto the grooves in the floor with his fingers and
pulling. It is pretty funny to watch. He looks like he is
preparing for the next World War. The way he uses his fingers to
pull forward makes me wonder if we are going to have a rock climbing
champion in the family.
July 24th
Haha! It didn't take me a whole month to update the page.
A lot has been happening at out house.
I can't remember what just now, but I'm sure if I start writing it will
all come to me.
Let's start with the ducks. Why??
because they are a hot topic, especially with the brown bear that is
living in our yard. I don't think he is actually after the ducks,
instead he eats all my EGGS. Argghhhh!!!! That bear makes me
wish I still had my dad's old sawed off shotgun. Actually, it was a
shotgun specially made for us girls to take hiking with us on the really
bad (aka bear infested) trails down in Cordova. That bear had better
stay away from Axel (my sister-in laws puppy that we are watching for the
month) or I will have to feed him to my dogs.
Speaking of the dogs..... we
just got done building 3 brand spankin' new runs for them. And YES,
when I saw "We" I mean Jason AND myself. Just thought I would clear
that up, in case anyone was confused.
Why 3?? (I'm sure you are on the
edge of your seat). Because we are in the process of getting another
dog. I wanted to even out the dog to human ratio. You can
shake your head if you want.... but we are going to write it off on
our taxes as a home improvement. It will be similar to installing a
really expensive security system. Right?
Somehow I don't think the IRS will go for
it.
Oh, let me back track a little bit.
I forgot to mention that I recently added 2 more ducks to my flock.
They are some sort of mix, that I got off craigslist. *sigh* gotta
love craigslist.
Ok, let me try and wrap things up a
little faster. I am almost done with my summer class, I guess that
means that the summer is almost over. Ugh!! Work at the Blood
Bank is going slow, but Jason's job with AFD makes up for the pace.
Did I already say that Jason LOVES his job?
And now..... I tried to save the
best for last!!!
REUBEN HONKOLA JEFFERS
Approximately 20lbs with a head that is
in the 80th percentile. He is getting in his two top teeth, so that
makes a sum total of 4. I hope the rest of his teeth decide to take
their sweet time, I need a break.
Reuben has recently discovered two
things. One, the joy of holding my hands and walking (my back is
killing me). And two, the joy of his tongue. I've included the
pictures of his tongue, not because I thought you would think it was cute.
Simply because I don't have any pictures of him walking (mostly because it
takes both hands to walk him around in circles).
June 25th
Reuben was eating some duck eggs today.
Normally that isn't a super exciting photographic moment, but this time I
turned my back for a moment and came back to this....
It is hard to see from the picture, but he had bathed himself in egg.
We both laughed out loud and then I proceeded to clean up the mess.
On a different note. I just got done taking a weekend long seminar
on Schutzhund dog training. It was fantastic, our instructor was
flown up from California to do a special weekend event just for our club.
I learned just enough to realize I had a lot of work ahead of me.
Good thing I love it.
June 9th
Whoops. I'm down to 2 ducks.
Apparently, someone (or someone's dog) decided to break into my duck pen.
I don't know how, that thing was built like Alcatraz. THIS IS WAR!!!
After all.... that animal ate my Thanksgiving feast.
Reuben's second tooth is busting through.
Our favorite teething toy is a bottle of infant Tylenol. What can I
say, I do what it takes. Don't worry, I haven't resorted to
Whiskey.... yet.
My sister gave us Hana's old
highchair, so now Reuben can officially start eating solid foods.
The highchair eats up (*grin*) a lot of our precious floor space,
but we all must make sacrifices for the greater good.
Well enough about me. Does anyone
actually read this thing? Why don't you give me a short e-mail and
tell me about what's going on with you. I promise to be fascinated,
try me.
May 28th
I get a big kick out of Jason's schemes.
Last weekend was spring yard cleaning and yes, he is tying electrical wire
to the back of his truck. The electrical wire was still frozen to
the ground ( that's right, I said FROZEN). We wanted the wire moved,
so the logical conclusion is to tie it to your truck and put it in gear.
Here is where Jason puts the truck in gear.
IT WORKED, of course. Who would have
doubted my extremely handsome, intelligent, tall, firefighter husband for
a second.
It was also the newly appointed
Jeffers family Carhartt yard work day. Even Reuben got into the
spirit of the day. It isn't such a great picture of me, but then
again I'm married so..... what does it matter what I look like?
May 10th
Sorry for the delay between postings. I
have been really busy with the puppies. However, everyone will be
off to their new homes 5/23 and then I will update Reuben's page with more
pictures.
Oh yah, in case anyone didn't notice.....
SUMMER IS HERE!!! (boom.)
April 16th
If need to get off my
butt and take some more pictures of my son. We have been
expecting a tooth any day, since he has been teething for the last
3 months.
I didn't get Jason to stain the
staircase on his last break, but we did get to go skiing. Reuben got
to "chill" (literally) in the backpack with Jason. I also found out
that if I tell someone what my husband does for a living, I should say he
is a firefighter. NOT, a fireman. Apparently is isn't
very PC to refer to his job as a gender specific position. I don't
know who sits around and gets offended by calling Jason a "fireman", but
they need to find a new hobby.
Yeah, for puppies!!
April 4th
Ok, Maybe I will like Jason's new job after
all.
Now that he is FINALLY out of the academy, he
had his first 4 days off (with the Kelly Schedule each 9 days you get 6
days off, 4 of those days are off in a row). I put Jason straight to
work on the house, you know what they say about idle hands. Jason
put some more countertop in ("temporary" of course) re-organized the shed,
fixed the storm door, put some more shelves up in the kitchen, put another
cabinet in the kitchen (again... "temporary" until we can afford the
cabinet that matches). I am very, very pleased. And you know
what they say about happy wives.
Hhhmmmmm.... Maybe next break in his
schedule he will finish staining our wood staircase.
I'll keep you posted.
March 30th
The
puppies
click here.
Jason found out he will be at
station 3 for the next year. He graduated #1 in his class (big
surprise), what can I say... I married an over-achiever. The
competitive streak in him runs fairly strong, and he hasn't had a good
challenge since graduating #2 in his Engineering class at LeTourneau
University.
His first 24hr shift is tomorrow (Monday 3/31)
and then he gets 4 days off. I am hoping we can all get in some
spring skiing, my skis have not had nearly enough time out of the shed
this year. Ah, the changes/sacrifices people make for a baby.
I'm still deciding if it was all worth it, I'll keep everyone updated.
Ok, I guess when you see a picture like the
one below it makes it all worth it. His cousin thought it would be
fun to decorate him with her stickers.
March 20th
Time for an update. Below
is a picture of us standing inside a huge bubble at the Imaginarium.
Reuben loved all the kids running around, we went during Spring Break so
there were tons of people/kids.
This last few days everyone at the Jeffers
house has been VERY sick. We caught a stomach virus going around and
have all been throwing up, so Reuben has been getting a lot a baths
lately. We have also been celebrating the long running Jeffers
tradition of popsicles. Popsicles will make everything better.
March 11th
Reuben has been having a lot of
fun in his newest, borrowed toy (Thank You Gracey Family!!). He
loves that he can now dictate what direction he goes. I love toys
that allow a child to be independent of their mother, and nobody can make
me feel guilty about it, either. Oh, and he has started eating
cheerios. More to follow....
March 2nd.
Hip Hip Hurray!!
Jason is in the last month of
the Fire Academy. We can OFFICIALLY refer to this time as the "Home
Stretch." He will be all done on March 27th, only a few days before
we expect puppies from Chaco. Below is a picture of the dogs out for
a sled run behind the house. I stumbled across a ski sled children's
pulk on Craigslist (I love that place) for a price we could afford.
It is made by Wilderness Engineering and is GREAT for taking your kids out
in Freakin' cold weather. Poor Reuben, by the time I'm done bundling
him up for an outing there are hot water bottles, heating pads, and down
goose feathers galore. I am usually sweating up a storm before I
even set foot outside the house. But in the end, it is all worth it!
And the ski sled has made the whole experience much more worthwhile.
Anyone that is living with a small child that loves to ski should get
one!!!!! Did I already say that I LOVE IT!!!
Below is a picture of Reuben devouring his
first teething biscuit. There was cracker everywhere, but he was
loving it.
February 19th
Reuben is sitting up on his own.
I've included a picture to prove it.
He is still tipping over on occasion, so needs a little bit of a safety
net behind him. But he was on the floor for about 15 minutes today,
and only 2 tip-overs. He has also decided that the case to my camera
was a great teething toy. I guess we will have to let that dry out
before the camera goes back in.
Yesterday, he had his first experience in a pool.
We went t H2 Oasis, which is an inside kids water park, with a friend and
her little boy. It was crazy in there, so many little kids running
around. Reuben was a little overwhelmed by it all, including the
water. He had a hold of me with a DEATH GRIP the entire time.
new pages
February 15th
Reuben in his EXTRA cute new shoes that his
Grandma bought him. Reuben's Grandparents were up visiting last week
and as a result, we scored some great new clothes.
If I had to put a caption under this picture,
it would be "Get ready, Get set..... GO!!!!"
Unfortunately, unless he is sleeping, such is my life!
February 14th
Happy Valentines Day!
A lot has been going on at our
house, hence the LONG lapse since the last update. I now have a
small flock of 5 ducks, I got them for fresh eggs... and eventually
fresh meat (Yum). I named them Easter, Thanksgiving, X-mas etc...
(you get the point).
Chaco
bred
stud dog
Schutzhund
And now, let me take this moment to remind all
of you to be responsible pet owners and LEASH you dog when you go on
walks. I don't care if your dog is friendly or not, there is no
excuse for a dog running around off leash. My favorite thing in the
world (*my words are dripping in sarcasm*) is when I have my dogs on leash
and here comes a dog running up to me, with the owner trailing shortly
behind yelling "don't worry He's friendly". That's when I yell back,
"I don't care if HE is friendly, does it look like my dogs are?" Of
course, by this point, I am ready to just let my dogs off leash to prove
my point... but I try and refrain from the temptation.
Alaskans are infamous for letting their dogs run around on hiking trails
loose, which is not allowed. So PLEASE, leash your dog... for
the sake of other pet owners trying to be responsible.
On the brighter side of life, Isn't Reuben
cute!
