November 2017

November brought new "neighbors" to Alaska.  The Wilson's (Aunt Darla and Uncle Scott) decided to make the move to the great last frontier.  What a crazy time to move up but it was so fun to help them unpack and get settled.  

We got to take the older kids to the symphony and enjoyed a pretty amazing concert.  We love music and this kind of opportunity doesn't happen as often in Alaska as it did in other places that we have lived.  Ksenya is playing the Violin and mandolin and Kabe has started playing percussion in the Mat-su Youth Orchestra so this was a great experience for all of us. 

It finally happened - Ksenya has solidly outgrown me in height.  She probably won't be the last but she is definitely the first of my kids to be taller than me.  

The house is looking amazing!  We finally finished the wiring which was a whole new adventure - we learned a lot and took way longer than we had planned.  Sheetrock happened thanks to not us and it is ready for paint!

The outside will look like this for a bit with the weather, but it's nice to have garage doors and windows to make the inside quite a bit warmer to work in. 

Paint was a beast, and at one point as we were masking trim we finally hit our breaking point - drove straight to Dave (our friend and builder)'s house and said, "We are done."  He took it from there and got us across the finish line.  The cabinets were such an exciting point and they are beautiful!

We have so much to be thankful for and since we spent every spare minute this month at the new house - the kids designed this beautiful thanksgiving tree on the wall - complete with lights.  

We've been dealing with a little sickness in our house so we decided raw garlic is a great way to combat yucky bugs.  The kids got pretty good at eating it and it's a great way to make being sick look less appealing. 

Kabe is active in his scout troop and keeps earning merit badges. 

Thing 1 and Thing 2 are the best of buddies when they aren't driving each other nuts.  These two are so easy to love, always happy with whatever we are doing and content to just entertain themselves and each other. 

Tyler got to go moose hunting with a friend (Dan Fritz) and they ended up dropping one rather close to the road.  This provided a ton of meat for our family and we learned quickly that we prefer moose to beef!

Our homeschool co-op had a fun concert around Halloween and it was so fun to sing with them.  Mom (Toni) is the director for the choir class and we sang some spooky songs and some fun ones.  One of our favorites was "I Love to Laugh" from Mary Poppins. 

Kabe has been advancing in scouting again!

 

October 2017

 Happy Halloween! Not sure what happened to the pictures of the older three but here's the line-up for this year's dressing up: 

Brigham was Rocket from the Guardians of the Galaxy

Darla was Snow White

Leisl was Elsa from Frozen

And Noah was our little monkey.  

For the boys' birthday adventure we went to the Dinosaur museum in Anchorage.  Kabe immediately found the room full of rocks and fossils and wanted to tell us everything about all of them.  He is seriously so smart I don't know how his brain holds all the facts.  He has also been developing his love for photography and we are trying to teach him that pictures are better when they have people in them. 

We liked looking at all the fossils and laughing at all the pseudotheories. 

Brigham is really into dinosaurs right now. 

We also had a field trip to the fire station and the kids got to climb up in the fire trucks. 

This was a beautiful sunset we caught one night when we were working at the house. 

Speaking of house - the project keeps moving forward and we love spending time out there working together as a family and learning how to do new things.  

Kabe doesn't like having his picture taken and will usually hide his face when I try to sneak up on him. 

But occasionally I get a really great shot like this one.  What a fantastic kid - I love his smile, his freckles, his sweet heart and his great brain. 

We finally finished the office remodel and wow!  What a difference.  It is so beautiful and peaceful and inviting.  We really love the new colors and the front desk is really a work of art. 

This month Emilie came up to visit and I was able to take some family pictures for the McKenna's.

We took a family camping trip to Ladasa and enjoyed a few days out in the woods. 

Silly kids playing with my phone again!

It's fun watching our kids grow and learning about how their personalities are changing.  I have never been excited to mother teenagers, but I have a feeling these ones are going to be a lot of fun. 

The little girls earned an adventure so we took them to the reindeer farm just around the corner from where our new house is being built. 

It was so fun to be so close to these interesting animals.  Leisl got really close (one of the reindeer tried to mount her) and was a little uncomfortable, but she loved riding the horse!

September 2017

This silly dog has all our hearts.  He goes with us basically everywhere and has proved to be the best dog ever.  

Fall is in the air - and on the trees.  It comes so quickly and is over so quickly that we have to document it.  It's beautiful to see the colors on the trees, especially out in The Butte!

This funny guy thinks he is about as hilarious as everyone else does and when he is cracked up by something we have to do it about 300 times just so we can enjoy watching him enjoy it. 

Brigham makes the best faces. 

This month in our school studies we have taken up bird watching.  There are so many amazing different kinds of migratory birds here.  Daddy likes to sing "Migratory Birds!!" and we are all on the watch for them. 

Ksenya is so sweet that we have to document when she shows even a little bit of sass - this look made me laugh so hard! 

We went up Hatcher's Pass and found a new trail that we haven't taken before.  The views from the top were spectacular and the world felt so BIG from up there!!!

Kabe set a goal to learn how to make something new so we got on the phone with Aunt Jeri and he was given specific instructions and look what he made - all by himself!

Exciting progress is being made on the house.  We can now go down into the hole in the ground!!!

We have been learning to sew and each of the kids made their own pillowcase this month.  They are so smart and it is fun to learn new skills together.  

Look!  Walls - above ground and window wells waiting to go in.  

Brig continues to progress in his scouting and really loves his activities. 

Framing is so fast.  It's amazing to watch the progress and we will start helping a lot more now that there are actual walls in place. 

The little three decided that they were pirates and their bed was the ship.  They kept making each other walk the plank and it was a fun game to watch.