Took these on the way to Anchorage the other day to pick up a friend!  It was only -31 below out!!!  Emma came with me for an eye exam and we found out that she is a little far sighted so she was having trouble reading....since then she has really taken off!  I also think it has helped having a tutor to work with Emma and Madison, just because they don't argue with her as much!  Anyway we spent the night in a wonderful hotel on the 15th floor with amazing views went to the doc. and then headed home!  Our weeks have been busy and weekends even more so...the girls had a swim meet last weekend and they have another one next weekend!  They have been working really hard to improve their times so this next meet will be exciting to watch.  Heidi and Mason have been taking swim lessons again and they are both swimming really well.  It won't be too long before they get onto the swim team too!  Chad has been going to Ju Jitsu for several hours most week nights and enjoying it, although he is often pretty sore...  Overall we are trying to stay warm in the fridgid temperatures....thankful that they are not the -75 with windchill that the northslope has!!! 

Some pictures of the sunrises we have been having lately!  With the temperatures being well below zero for several weeks now they have been beautiful! 

Snow and Sunsets

Last Saturday Chad Emma and Madison spent the day plowing, while Hiedi Mason and I hung out together.  So the little ones and I went to town, then went to wagon train to take some pictures and then back home again where they wore my hats and posed for me to capture their adorableness!  The sunset was beautiful we now have more than 2 feet of new snow....and now it is -20's outside so we can't really enjoy it....at all!  For school I am teaching Emma and Madison how to sew and use the sewing machine and these are the bags that I and each of them made!  They turned out amazing and I am ready to make one for myself as the other one was for Heidi.....we made ours for swim bags and lined it with duct tape so it was waterproof~!

Our Christmas Break!

The kids had lots of fun playing in the snow, making cookies and eating them, opening presents, playing with friends, staying up late, going to snow camp, and sledding!  I enjoyed spending time with friends from far away, my family, baking, staying up late and sleeping in :) I must say I am a little glad school has started back up because I am now getting to bed before 11pm where before I was lucky to get to bed before 1 or 2 am just because of all the teenagers here! :)  We had fun at a cookie exchange party, celebrating our exchange students birthday, having friends over on Christmas Day and Thai dinner the next night, and playing games all the other nights, mostly mario cart that I got for my christmas present.....but really haven't gotten to play yet! :)  So to say the least we had a very full, exciting, jam packed Christmas Break!

Heidi and Mason have taken to dressing up in our snow gear and wearing it on all different parts of the body!

Our kitten Crush decided to climb a tree and it took a few hours for him to climb back down....The kids were convinced that the cat was stuck and in dire need of rescuing! 

Mocha and Crush like to play together, and sometimes it looks like Crush might die, but Mocha is usually pretty gentle with him.

A friend was kind enough to make the gingerbread for the houses and brought them over for the kids and I to decorate!  We had such a fun time.  Made me miss decorating them with my mom when I was young.

For Cecile's birthday party all of her exchange student friends came over and played broom ball

The cake I made for her 18th birthday

Cecile and her cake!

The day after Christmas in the morning the kids got out their sleds and we took them over to our big hill and let them sled down.  Then we pulled them back up to the top with my vehicle!  Some of the kids went for a sleigh ride while they waited their turn for a sled! 

The last day before break ended I needed to get a family picture taken, and I conned my friend into taking it for us.......it was -20 degrees outside :)  this was right before we jumped back in our cars and headed home! 

So I have been again trying to upload photos to the blog from a little before Christmas to now. It keeps acting up and kicking my photos out.....so I am working out the kinks! Anyway in the meantime I have started a new wordpress blog for my photography. You can click on the link on the sidebar of this blog to head on over there to see them. I only have a few pictures on at this time but will continue to add more as time goes on. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and have a happy start to the New Year!!!

Christmas decorations

I absolutely love christmas lights and would love to do a whole bunch of stuff outside, but cost is a big factor, and I already use so much electricity during this month (which Chad is quick to remind me about :)), so I really do try to limit what I do.  So here is our house with the christmas decorations all up!

I had to add these last few pictures just because we have had the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets making the sky full of pink! I was even privilaged enough to see the Lunar Eclips last weekend and the northern lights the next evening!  I have always loved being outside to see all of God's creation and every season brings a new beauty to capture.....sometimes only with my eyes, and I shoot myself when I forget my camera, but still awesome all the same!

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!                                              

Christmas Tree Hunting

Every year as I was growing up it has been a tradition in my family to hunt for our christmas trees on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and I have tried to keep that tradition going in my own family.  Some years, though, I have bought our christmas tree from Home Depot so that I can get a beautiful full one (because I like that in a tree) but this year I decided to let the kids have some in their bedrooms and I wanted a few tiny ones for downstairs as well.  So off we went to go and hunt for our trees!  It really did not take us very long, the trees are so cute and compact and perfect for what we needed them for, and there is always an abundance of them, but each of the girls picked one out and I picked a few and we cut them and brought them back for Mason, Mocha, and Chad to inspect (for they had stayed at the car waiting on us girls)!!  We had a wonderful time and now they are all set up and decorated and I will post pictures of that soon! But for now you can see the ones of our adventure for the day!

Birthday #3

November 21st was Mason's birthday and we had lots of fun!  Emma and Madison helped me pick out the cake design and then did a few of the frosting things as well, I think it turned out really cute!  Mason loves balls of every kind so this was pretty fitting.  He also loves trucks....and that is an understatment!  He got a really cute bowling ball set from my parents and lots of trucks, and a couple of books about trucks, which is he pretending to read in the picture below!  I love my little man and I can not believe how big he has grown.  3 years already!!!  He can talk so very well and is very particular in how he wants things done, which I am sure he got from his father......:) He has also become very independent and wants to do everything by himself, so if you try to help him it is the end of the world and he lets you know it! (much to the dismay of his mother!)  He loves his sister Heidi and they are almost inseperable, except when he is trying to punch her....then she doesn't love him so much....but otherwise they get along very well and do lots of things together!  He is a very sweet little boy and we are so blessed to have him in our lives!

November 19th Homer Swim Meet

Saturday November 19th Emma and Madison swam in their first meet of the season.  For Madison it was her first swim meet ever and she was just a bit nervous about doing her events.  Emma has done this a few times, but she was doing a new event (the 100 IM which is swimming 25yrds of each stroke, butterfly, back, breast, free in the correct order) and she was nervous about that.  We had to get up at 5:30 that morning so we could be down in Homer at 8:30 to start warm ups.  Luckily it was a small meet and we got through each event quickly!  Madison did great and is excited to improve on her times in the next meet, and Emma is wanting to do better in her next IM since she did it a little wrong the first time and got disqualified or DQed!  Not so fun, especially if you win your heat because then you get a mini rubber ducky, and at this age they are cherished if you get them!  Both Emma and Madison came fractions of a seconds close to winning their heats to get that ducky, so they are practicing hard now so that when the next meet comes around (Dec. 10th) they will be ready!  December 10th is the next meet and they call it Sprints Championships so it is an extremely big one, with 5 or more teams competing against each other it should be exciting!

Emma starting her 100 IM

Madison starting her 25yrd  freestyle