Thankful...

...so much to be thankful for! We asked the kids the other night, "what one thing they are thankful for?" They had a really hard time naming one thing...they all said they had so much to be thankful for! Our perspective has changed on being thankful...we are realizing more and more that we do not need what this world is telling us we need. The world tells us we need the latest toys and clothes, newer car, bigger house, and on and on; but do we need all those things to truly be thankful. No, we don't, although it can be hard not to think that way! I am thankful for all the material things that God has provided, but I am also very thankful for my family and friends...the relationships we have with people and the amazing things that God has taught us through each friendship! Those friendships mean so much to us than anything this world has to offer!

We had a fun day with family yesterday as we spent Thanksgiving Day at my mom and dad's house. A nasty storm started in the night and continued through the day yesterday. Our power fluctuated all day, but it stayed out all day at my mom and dad's house. They have a generator to run most of the power to the house so we were still able to get the turkey cooked for dinner. It was only a couple hours late, but not too bad considering we had to get creative on how to cook everything. The stove took too much power to run so they could only use one burner at a time. The turkey was cooked in the camp trailer oven, the ham on the grill, and the potatoes boiled on the stove in the camper! It was a yummy dinner!

My grandpa, Harold Engebretsen, is here for a couple weeks and it was a joy to have him with us for Thanksgiving! We all enjoyed listening to his stories of past adventures!

Kailee, Alyssum, and Adams made Pilgrim hats and wore them most of the day. Don't they make such cute little Pilgrims?!

Let It Snow, let it snow...

Let it snow!! Winter has finally arrived in Homer, Alaska! We have had little bits of snow here and there, but nothing that stuck around until last week. And then yesterday it got serious about snowing and snowed all day and into the night!! It sure is pretty outside as the everything is covered with a blanket of white!

The kids have so much fun in the deep piles of snow! They love to use the shovels and make trails in the deep snow. This morning before church Ethan and Tyler went out the door at 7:30 to shovel a path to the car, but they were having so much fun that they stayed out to shovel paths to everything! We ended up with a maze in our yard! Steve commented this morning how thankful he is to have big enough boys now that can do the shoveling so that he doesn't have to! (And they enjoy it too!!)

With the snow comes more work as Steve has spent the afternoon plowing out our driveway and parking area for our house and business. Steve is always quite glad that the snow doesn't come any sooner in the winter because it also makes it much more difficult to put up winter lights.

We are grateful for the snow though...it adds the right touch to the holiday season! And it looks so beautiful! Seeing the different seasons of the year and the kinds of weather it brings always makes me think of how much joy our Heavenly Father and Creator must have had creating it all...and to think it is for our enjoyment. Not only the seasons for us here in Alaska, but also the creativity around the world. Each part of the world has its own beauty and uniqueness! We are enjoying the snow for this season, but soon we will be flying across the ocean to enjoy the beauty in the Philippines! Warm sunshine, beaches, palm trees, and thunderstorms sound like fun too! What a Wonderful Creator we have that created it all!

Hair Extensions!

Ann Marie wanted to do something different with her hair, so I did some research and found a place to order extensions! I love doing the girls' hair, but this was something new and I really had no idea what I was doing or what exactly I needed to order. I had a few ideas from other people and the rest was up to me to figure out! So here's the outcome...
Ann Marie loves the new look and so do we! It is fun for something different! I didn't do too bad for not really knowing what I was doing!? The extensions should last for a couple weeks at least and we are hoping maybe longer!

Bull Moose

We had a guest stay in our yard for several days last week! This bull moose showed up one morning and stayed for the day and then came back again another day. He wandered away when the kids went out to play, but as soon as the yard quieted down he reappeared. We had some leftover plants in the garden that he was enjoying immensely and he didn't want to leave until it was all gone. The bull moose spent several hours eating slowly then he laid down on the lawn to enjoy his meal over and over again!

Amazingly we get to watch moose in our yard all the time but never get tired of the view...especially a large bull moose with a beautiful rack! Although we have lots of cows and calves in our yard we rarely have bull moose, so it was a rare sight. We all had so much fun watching the bull moose and was a good excuse to be distracted from our school work!