Crazy Alaskan kids!

The kids decided it would be a fun challenge to see if they could brave the cold and spend the night outside in their tent. Mom didn't sleep too well...possibly wondering if they were warm enough??!! But apparently they were because they slept all night despite it being 15F! And then they came in this morning quite proud of themselves having conquered our Alaskan winter in a tent!!

And the weeks go by....

A whole month flies by and not a single new post...hmmm, that's not good! Our weeks just pass so fast as we are busy with school, work, and play! After the almost complete thaw in January and then it froze again, the kids got in several days of ice skating before it snowed too much for the ice to be any good. As the weather changes...new snow, below zero, above freezing and wet snow...the kids have something new to do outside. One day it might be building snow forts or snowmen out of wet snow, then flying around behind the snowmachine on a sled, and now they are building a snow fort town complete with "paved" streets and a bakery. They have such great imaginations when they are all playing together outside!

School consumes most of our days and the funnest part of the day is reading books out loud to the kids. We always have several books that we are reading at one time...the Bible, a missionary story, history books, and a just for fun book...and the kids each have their own book that they are reading for literature. So not sure how we manage to keep 'em all straight, but we do and we look forward to hearing the next chapter in each book!

This year we have been going through World History...a simpler lesson for the younger four and a harder book for the older two, but somewhat the same for all. It makes it so nice to somewhat be studying the same thing for everyone. So for the younger ones we just completed the Roman time period. They really enjoyed learning all about the Roman Empire, and the movie Ben Hur really helped bring it all to life. Adams and Alyssum were always drawing pictures of Roman ships and the chariot races!

So now we are on to the Medieval time period with castles and knights... I love the hands-on that we get to do with homeschool and bringing the time period to life in so many ways. For the older kids they recently finished reading about Martin Luther, so we rented the movie about Luther's life and accomplishments. Reading so many books has really helped us all to understand history so much better.

Aside from school we have also been making several trips to Anchorage for Adams to get fitted with a palate extender and headgear. Adams has not had any more surgeries for his cleft since the initial ones to fix the cleft lip and palate, but we have been taking him yearly to the Cleft Clinic in Anchorage to be seen by a team of doctors. This year they recommended that he get started with the palate extender and headgear to widen his palate for a future bone graft and the headgear to correct his underbite. He has been a great trooper and really doesn't seem to mind the inconvenience of his new mouth piece and headgear. His palate extender is a large piece of metal on the roof of his mouth that is glued to his teeth. Twice weekly a little screw is turned to widen the palate. Hopefully this will do the job within a years time and then he should have the bone graft surgery sometime soon after that. He "gets" to wear his headgear all night and half the day!!

Last weekend we spent Valentines Day with our cousins! Katelyn and Bethany, and Sela and Damon came to spend Saturday with us as their parents went to Anchorage for the day. The kids had fun playing with playmobile, building snowmen outside, and decorating cookies for Valentines Day. We all had so much fun, but this mom was very tired by the end of the day!! :)

Steve has continued to stay busy catching up from our galavanting around the world the last couple years. He has found plenty of projects that had been put aside as we traveled the last two years this time of year. We have several employees that are staying busy for a couple days a week, taking down winter lights and getting equipment ready for summer jobs. He has also been helping out with grading school papers and keeping track of Ann Marie and Ethan's math and science...answering questions when they don't quite understand. We all love having dad around and he makes such great breakfasts for our school days!!

Determination...

...gets the job done! Our two determined six year olds both had loose teeth and they both decided they needed to get them out tonight...so they did!!! Watch out world, when these two decide they need to get something done there is no waiting around...they get the job done!! And boy, does this mom know it!! :)

Crazy weather!!

What a whip lash in weather we have gotten the last few weeks! First our thermometer dipped to a bone chilling -20F and we thought we could never warm up. Then after two weeks of freezing cold temps the weather decided to do an abrupt change and rose to over 40F! The clouds let loose a lot of moisture and we were hit with very strong winds. The storm lasted for several days with trees knocked down, electricity out for a few hours, and our snow disappeared! What strange weather for mid-January... Our temps have finally gotten back to a nice normal range between 20-30F...after flooding the pond water receded somewhat and is now frozen and great for skating once again...the green grass is showing, and it looks like spring is just around the corner...but we are not to be fooled. We still have many months of winter ahead of us!

Kailee's Golden Birthday

I'm just a little late in updating my blog, but better late than never! We have been celebrating Kailee's birthday the last few weekends! On her birthday which was the 8th, she celebrated with her friend Emerald and they had a girl party complete with dolls, a girl movie, strawberry cake, painting nails, a tea party, and a sleepover. Oh, we had lots of giggling, but they had so much fun! Those little girls are not so little anymore! Almost every year since they were born we have taken a picture of them together...my, have they grown up!

Since we have lots of family around us our kids get to celebrate their birthdays over and over again! So last weekend was the Veldstra birthday gathering and it also included other cousins and an aunt who were having birthdays this month. This coming weekend will be the other side of the family celebrating January birthdays...the fun just keeps going on and on!

Party time!

What a bunch of goofy kids! It was time for our annual Christmas party with the Beachy, Miller, and Veldstra gang. We take a couch picture every year...it is so fun to see how much the kids have grown...goodness won't be long before we have more than a couch full, but more like a living room full of teenagers!
The kids went sledding and snowmachining despite the really cold temperatures. By the afternoon it had warmed up to just above 0 so they could last outside even longer without freezing fingers and toes! While the kids were playing the moms got a chance to visit for a few hours to catch up! It was declared a fun day by all!

Freezin' cold

and then some! We have been waking to really cold temperatures every morning this week. It has been -15F in the morning and gets up to 0F at the warmest time of the day. We normally don't have temperatures quite this cold, and thankfully it probably won't last too long...but while it is here we are very thankful for a warm house and a furnace that keeps us warm. The sky is a brilliant blue every day and we watch the sun just barely come up over the horizon, make a small arc, and then dip back down again. We are gaining sunlight every day now, but only by small increments. The last two years at this time of year we were packing our bags and heading for a warmer climate, but not yet this year. The winters in Alaska get long and cold, but I guess we will just enjoy it for now anyway!