Photography

I love taking pictures and it gives me no greater joy than to photgraph my children! I plan on taking a couple of photography classes so I have a greater knowledge of what I am doing, but I thought these two of Mason were really cute! I also love the scenery around us here in Alaska...so there is always something to take a picture of!

As for this picture...I took it for my parents so they could see how beautiful it was and maybe get an idea for one for their own entryway! This chandalier belongs to our camp director and hangs in the entry way of their new house!! They found it in an ally thrown away...how lucky is that! Anyway mom, you should get one like this...I think it will fill the room perfectly! :)

Christmas Day

Mason hanging out with daddy.

Heidi enjoying a baby bottle for her dolly!

What a beautiful and glorious day it has been, spending time with our family and enjoying the gifts this Christmas Day has brought us. Emma and Madison both recieved digital cameras to explore the world of photograpy and a nail thing that applies glitter and sparkly stones to thier nails...thanks so much Auntie Leah!!! My wonderful husband always out does himself and bought me a new bike for my triathalon training and races!!! We also were blessed with about 10 more inches of new snow today with the possibility of more to come! It is definately time to go out and cross country ski and build a snow house to sleep in. Hopefully we can get started on those projects tomorrow!! The girls got bundled up and went out to wade through the snow today and came in with very rosy cheeks. Now we are getting ready for some hot chocolate and cookies by the fire before we head off to dreamland for another night! Thank you all for your letters and gifts and are wishing you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

My new bike!

The girls in their new PJ's

December Moments

So I have been having the most terrible time getting pictures put onto my computer and so I have not gotten any new ones on here. We have been adjusting to Chad going back to work, which has not been that bad if you don't count having to get school done. That has been the biggest thorn in my side either not being motivated myself, or 4 kids screaming and having severe meltdowns due to colds, sudden fear of having to learn new things, needing mommy or needing fed! Math has proved to be the easiest subject to get done along with science, but history, reading, writing, and art (actual learning about...not the doing...the kids love to draw and color etc.). We are gearing up for Christmas...no real plans to speak of yet, but we are last minute people anyway so who knows what will happen! We did talk about staying in a cabin in the middle of no where for a night but not sure if it is still available or not. The kids have even done a great job staying out of the presents and not telling anyone what their gifts will be.
Every day we are thankful for our new little bundle to care for and watch over. He gets bigger and bigger every day and I don't even feel like he is a newborn anymore. He is now well over 11lbs now and is only a 3.5 weeks old! He is doing a good job of sleeping for more than 4 hours at a time at night so my sleep is not too interupted anymore. I usually only get up once in the middle of the night to feed him!
We wish you all a Merry Christmas.....

I need my memory back!!!

I went to Fred Meyer yesterday to get our Christmas pictures printed so we could send them with our newsletter. When I got them back Chads head had be croped and the picture looked bad. So I asked the picture guy if I could get them without them cropping off the head and I had to put my SD memory card in for him to see the picture. We solved the problem and the receipt was printed and I walked over to give it to the guy who would be handling the prints, and then I went on my way to finish shopping. When I got home that night I went to the computer to download my pictures I realized that my memory card was still at Fred Meyers. We called them and they could not find it........which to make a long story short made me very very sad. The picuters were just a few becuase it was a new memory card, but they were some of the best that I had of our family. I hope that we can take some more that will turn out just as good or even better. At least I have a few of them that we printed to share with everyone. I will post them tomorrow because I have to scan each one onto the computer!

Our Christmas Tree

For Thanksgiving this year we decorated our tree and spent the day together as a family instead of going to someone's house. We had made our Thanksgiving meal the night before because my mom was still with us for a few hours before she had to jump on a plane and get back to MT. We had spare ribs, mashed potatoes, salad, apple pie, and pecan pie that I made (the pies at least...Chad and mom made the rest)!! It was a delicious meal. The girls did a fantastic job helping me decorate the tree, and I did the mantle above the fireplace. Heidi has even done a great job keeping her hands off the tree!

Mason laying in front of the fireplace with the cat by his side to keep him warm. Chad warned the cat that if he layed on Mason he would be a dead cat....so the cat layed as close to Mason as he could get without being on top of him!!! It was very cute anyway and they napped together for over an hour. Oh what a warm fireplace will do for a nice long nap. :)

Heidi was having a great time coloring with her sisters. She is such a cutie pie!

Madison wanted to pose for a picture too so here she is!

Emma's Science Project

Emma is very proud of her science experament that she did with grammie Esther! Her beans are growing very well. Now all we have to do is get them in the soil....maybe we will even get some beans off of them! Mommy would be really impressed with that!