Spring!

OK, I know this is the second post in a row with no pictures. Sorry. But I changed my blog background today in honor of the beautiful weather we've been enjoying. I have daffodils starting to come up in my front yard! And all four of the kids played at the park with their friends for 4 hours today!! I know that it is only February and that I live in Alaska, and so there is a good chance that winter will be back next week. But For here and now, we're enjoying. I'm also glad that I didn't bother to buy the kids sleds for Christmas since there has only been one or two days that they could even have tried to use them so far this year.

Life is good!

It was a long and somewhat stressful day. It is now late and I'm tired, but because the house is quiet I'm not in a hurry to go to bed as that would put an end to this quiet, alone time. So I decided to Blog. I realize that my posts are generally about exciting events going on in our life, but today I'm in more of a thoughtful mood. I've been thinking lately about how good we have it as a family right now. And I'm thinking that if I put some of my thoughts in writing it will help me remember how lucky I am when I'm not feeling it.
First - I have a part time job in a world where jobs are scarce. I'm teaching preschool at the school. And although it is not my dream job, I get to take Sammie to work with me and get paid to play with her and her two friends.
Second - My husband has a job that he's really good at. His supervisors are constantly singing his praises. I love watching him do what he loves. This is his 5th year teaching, but the first year for me to be in the school and see how much he enjoys it instead of only seeing how tired he is when he gets home.
Third - My kids get to go to a school where I know they will be safe and taken care of. They are three of the 17 students currently at our school. I'm able to spend some time with them at school and when I'm not there they still have their Dad with them all day every day.

Wrestling season

Wrestling season has begun. This is Caleb's second year of wrestling and Stewart's second year of coaching wrestling. But for most of the kids here this is their first year.

Josh with his fightin face on.

Liz ready to go.

Caleb, going for the take down - he's the one in blue.

This is my favorite picture. Not because of Caleb's glowing eyes or Liz losing, but because a moment earlier Caleb had been with me in the stands, but when he saw Liz struggling he jumped up, said "Liz needs me!" and ran to the mat to coach and encourage his sister. If only such loving moments weren't so rare.

Caleb turns 10!!

Caleb turned 10 this year. He loved his gifts from his family. G&G Hughes gave him this great fanny pack with two water bottles. He's very excited to use it during his fishing and hunting trips.

G&G Richmond gave him this blue blanket.

He also got enough cash to buy a good fishing rod that he's very excited to put to use. On his birthday we had this soccer ball cake (brownie) and celebrated with the family. But a few days later he got together with his friends from church and had a pool party in Craig. They had a blast!
I can't believe I have a 10 year old. I must be getting old.

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas! The Kids enjoyed acting out the nativity scene on Christmas Eve as Dad read from the Bible. This year we had Mary, Joseph, a wise woman, and an angel.
Liz and Sammie both got some fake fingernails and play makeup for Christmas. They both had to try on the fake nails, but decided they weren't much fun to wear for very long. I'm hoping they will loose interest in the make up soon too.
They've all enjoyed the play dough that Grandma Hughes gave them. The puzzles turned out to be a little more on Mom's level. But I've sure enjoyed them!
This is Caleb's big gift for the year. One of the down sides of shopping on-line is that you don't always get all the details. This track is huge. We had to build a table for it in the mudroom. But he loves it, so I guess it's all good!
Hope you all had a great Christmas too!!! Sorry I didn't send cards this year. I've got to start thinking about Christmas cards before December hits I guess.

Gingerbread Houses

This is a family tradition that I grew up with. Every year we made gingerbread houses. My mom always made the gingerbread from scratch and the whole family would decorate them. Then they would be put on display for a month before we were allowed to eat them if we still wanted to. While I've mostly continued this tradition with my kids, this is the first year that I made my own gingerbread. That wasn't as easy as I expected, but it turned out good. And because I waited to make them until a week before Christmas they weren't even very dusty by the time the kids were allowed to eat them.
This is the kids just getting started. I would've liked to have Stewart and I make them too, but I didn't have enough molasses to make that much gingerbread.

Each of the kids posed with their finished pieces before going to bed while I put the houses together.




Here's the finished product. Left to right are Caleb's, Liz's, Josh's, and Sammie's.

Thankfully my mom's icing recipe really gets hard because even though the gingerbread was hard when they were decorating, with all the humidity here it actually softened a lot in the week that they were on display.

Sammie turns 4!

Sammie was very excited for her birthday this year. We counted down to her birthday first and then when that was done we started the Christmas count down. She was determined that she wasn't actually 4 years old until the day after though. She got two main birthday presents from us this year. One was a "fridge DJ" which is a big magnet radio that sings counting and ABC songs. She loves it! The other is a preschool wii game. She loves that she has her very own wii game and is starting to figure it out.

I also let her pick what cake I should make. She chose this lion. I thought it turned out really cute.

This Picture is just one of those extra's I like to throw in. It's the view out our kitchen window on Sammie's b-day. I love the mix of snow and forest. In Chevak, Snow was snow with nothing to break it up, so I'm really enjoying the variety.