Snowmen Family

Since it's been so warm (30s and 40s) we've been outside most afternoons. It's a bit tough as the snow is melting! Very strange for Alaska in December! Here's a shot of Katie exhausted from trying to walk through the deep snow... (instead of the nice paths)... The boys are hard at work each afternoon adding onto their snowmen family. It's not an easy thing with this melting/freezing snow we have on the ground. Here are some shots of today's masterpieces... White on white aren't the best pics of the snowmen, but the boys look happy in them so I wanted to post the true happiness! The dogs grabbed their carrots before I could get the pic taken. Katie won't let the boys use the scarves, she claims them all for herself! It's amazing how much the boys have grown, that they can do this all by themselves, I remember having to help them before!

Holidays

It was a busy time over Christmas. We had lots to check off on our list. Katie just went with the flow of things and as always asks when it was her turn to do it!

We made cookies for Santa and some for ourselves too! Here's Katie taking on the serious business of cookie cutting.Even with a stool she was just too small to reach the counter so we opted for the sit on the counter to sprinkle.The boys did their share of cookie decorating as well, but I didn't get them on camera as I was busy keeping other little fingers out of their turn as she always wants to "help". Here's my helper doing dishes, a job she loves but she gets very wet so we have to disrobe! We did our drive around the town and looked at lights. Then put 4 cookies out for Santa (I don't know where the boys get the number 4 but the remember that each year) and 10 carrots for reindeer, in case Santa brings an extra one, according to Sammy.

The boys were up hourly on Christmas Eve, checking to see if Santa had stopped by to fill up their stockings... Katie asked before she went to bed if Santa was coming that night... When they heard Katie making noise at 5:30, they came running. After Nana and Pappy came over around 8, the kids opened presents. It was a bit much for Katie on her first Christmas, way overstimulation from all the excitement. She did about 2 presents and then was done opening and just wanted to play with those 2. We managed to get them all opened though and she loved her toys and big girl bike. The boys got their legos, bakugan and scooters.

We crashed for a nap at 10:30 and it rejuveniated everyone before we headed to Nana and Pappy's for many, many presents. No worries this time Katie had the hang of it and was opening presents as fast as the boys.

We've taken the past few days to enjoy the warm weather (another post) and enjoy the new toys. Katie's favorite are the singing tea cup and her baby that crawls and talks. Alex is in Bakugan world and Sammy would spent 24 hours a day building his legoes if we let him.

Hope you had a merry christmas with all your loved ones...

Singing with the Moon

It's been beautiful weather this week with the temps in the 20s and 30s, making play time outside a great thing... Alex dug the swing set out of the snow so Katie could swing, one of her favorite activities. He's such a good big brother. Yesterday she was outside on her swing singing Christmas Carols. Because our days are so short the moon was in the sky in the afternoon. So Katie was singing to the moon.

"Moon. Are you listening?"
Katie sings her version of Frosty...
"What'd ya think moon, like Frosty"
"Listening moon? MOON, are you listening?"

Moose

The moose are impacted by the deep snow as they move into the neighborhood. Here's a shot of our local baby moose. He was licking the salt off of Mark's car. His Momma was watching him from the safety of the woods....

Santa Claus is coming...

To Home Depot anyway... All 3 kids got to give their wishes to Santa today at Home Depot. The boys were super excited about it and planned and schemed all day. Alex wished for Bakugan toys and said it was scary to sit on Santa's lap. He was more fearless when he was little! Sammy had no fear and I bet Santa was sorry he asked anything else, as Sammy's wish list was lengthy... Mainly Legos, very descriptive examples too!

And Katie had no fear, she saw the man and I swear she was going to push the other kids out of his lap so she could go first... Santa gave her a candy cane that she loved and when it broke she went back to him and told him to give her another one... He did!

Hope you get to see Santa too!

Gingerbread Houses

Hard at work, building gingerbread houses. The boys worked for 2 hours, Katie spent an hour on hers! Hmmm. Eating more than building. Note the order and symmetry to Sammy's house. It totally fits his personality of making everything line up perfectly.

Alex's perfect house, complete with a whole family of gummi bears lining up the whole way around it.

And Katie's first gingerbread house that she did all by herself. I can't believe how hard she worked and patiently filling in all the candy...

Winter Wonderland

16 inches of snow in the past 24 hours. Driving conditions are very difficult as the snow and some fog make it near white out conditions. Of course we still had school though... A snow day would be nice to play in it... Katie keeps calling it snowman...

Girls are smarter than Boys

Katie brings me her sippy cup and asks for chocolate milk. I tell her to drink her water first. She takes a sip and brings it back. I tell her it must be all first. She goes in the other room and shakes it upside down a few times on a plant and brings it back with a little less water in it. I tell her she has to drink it all. She goes and gets a napkin, takes a sip and spits it into the napkin and preceeds to do this until the water is all. Now she wants her chocolate milk.

What I've learned...

Don't stand between a girl and her chocolate...
Girls are MUCH smarter than boys...
I think we are entering the interesting 3s!

Birthday Pics

How he's grown! Here's a shot of the new 7 year old. Yes he needs a haircut, seems like they always need one! Let's get this birthday going!! Katie was great at singing Happy Birthday!

Dr. Sammy got his own white coat and doctor's kit... He LOVED it! And has a willing patient in Katie most of the time. She'll sit still for him to torment her...

Happy Birthday Sammy!

Sammy turns 7 today!! Katie's been singing Happy Birthday for an hour already!

Up on the Housetop

Sledding in the back yard. This was a few weeks back when it was bitter cold. The boys are speed demons and love to jump and go... Katie just likes to be pulled around... Katie is loving all the new stuff that is coming out with Christmas. She loves the songs... Up on the Housetop is her favorite right now. We're all getting a little tired of it ;) Here she is decked out in her Santa hat... She loves the rudolph nose too! A year ago we were in Russia meeting her for the very first time... Time goes by quickly!

Picture Time

Computer Time

The boys each read and quiz on a story a night from the website raz-kids.com. It's a subscription that their school has and they love it. Especially Alex who isn't that fond of reading... Well in the world of fair sharing, Katie has to have her computer time too... So she is working with starfall.com It's what the kindergarteners use in our district and does letter sounds, words of that letter and has some music and dancing dolls in it. She loves it and will beg for the dddd or iiii throughout the day. It's a race to the computer at night to be the first to get their activity done for the night. At least they are fighting turns over something educational! Thankfully, Mark built them a computer a few years back so they can use their own in a relatively quiet room without destroying my computer!

In other news, it's just plain cold this week... Unseasonably cold... -25 the other day in the morning and if we are lucky getting to zero...

Sweet Hope

Now is the time to buy your chocolate and support Khabarovsk Baby Orphanage #1 in Russia at the same time. Katie was lucky enough to get a toy last year for Christmas from this fundraiser. There is only a little over a week left to get some yummy chocolate and do a great deed for some kids at the same time!

http://sweethopefoundation.org

Bad Moose

A few weeks back the moose were visiting at Nana and Pappy's house. They were eating the flowers that had died outside. Nana said "Bad Moose", so Katie said "Bad Moose". It's been her theme for quite a while. When we were off with Sammy after his surgery... Look who came visiting... And Katie said by the window for 2 hours! telling the moose how bad he was for eating our stuff. She rambled on and on lots of stuff, but it was a repeat of "bad moose"...

Snow Pics

First snowfall pics, we got about 7 inches total yesterday...

My snowplow shovel helper, Alex. The frontyard in the dusk falling snow...

Sammy helping to shovel by making snow angels on the deck...

Little Miss Katie wtih her first Alaska Snow... She is shocked everytime she goes outside that it is still there... (Not going anywhere anytime soon) She loves the snow

Snow

We got our first winter snowfall very late this year. Monday we received 4 inches with more forecasted for the next few days. Katie was so excited, we were outside at 4:30 am playing in the snow. She calls it Snowman, we have to work on that one, but I think she has the gist. She woke up the 2nd day so happy that it was still here... When I was shovelling it she yelled at me, no, want snow. I think she thought I was getting rid of it... Wait til we pull out the sleds! My little snowbunny will never want to come inside.

Sammy is doing better, it's a slow process to get him back up to steam. He is back at school full days, but exhausted at the end of the day. Still having some issues with the ears as one of the tubes appears not to have set up right. The tonsils and adnoids are healing slowly. He should be back to regular food by the end of the week.

On the flip side, Alex has been out of school with strep throat for the past 2 days. So it was a quiet first snowfall around here! Once all are "healthy" I'll get them outside and get some pics posted of the pretty white stuff!

Fairy Tales

I never realized how scary fairy tales could be to children. The boys just ate them up. Katie was a bit traumatized this week, when we read Goldilocks and the three bears. She thought the bears were going to eat the girl, since she broke their chair. Her eyes were quite large as I was reading it! Thankfully no long term stress as now she brings the book over constantly to be read. She's mastered saying Goldilocks, Too hot, chair broke, and ah-o! I was going to read a different book this weekend, but I think I'll let this one sort itself out in her brain for now! It is great that she has 2 big brothers as they can take turns reading it to her as well so she can now get her Goldilocks all day!

It's a small world

There is a great lady who has adopted from Khabarovsk Baby Orphanage #2 who runs a fundraiser each year to benefit the orphanage. She sent me a picture she found with Katie in it from last year's gifts that were presented to the orphanage. It's such a small world...

The big fundraiser starts again next week. You can help the orphans in Khab Baby Orphanage #2 by buying chocolate (Yum). All proceeds go directly to Khab Baby Orphange #2. Click on the link below for more information!

Trick or Treat

Doctors

Dr. Sammy operating on little Katie... They play this for hours... Dr. Katie...

PS Thanks to the Swine Flu, lots of free masks all over the hospital... ;)

Brave Boy

Sammy did so well at the hospital this morning with his surgery. The staff was amazed that they didn't have to use the happy shot just to calm him down. He was matter of fact about it all. I asked him if he was scared and he said no mom they are doctors they KNOW what they are doing. He was whisked off to the operating room asking questions along the way. He woke up and they released him quickly as he seemed to recover pretty fast. He has probably eaten 12 popsicles today, soup and mac and cheese. I believe the real pain is starting to sit in and we may have a bit of a restless night, but we'll see. I've been taking it easy on the pain meds as they said as needed and he hasn't been complaining but he's not a complainer either so it's tough to judge.

Tomorrow our plan is to make a book all about his visit, he said he saw lots of neat things in the operating room he wants to write about. He's bummed about not going to school...

Medical Updates

The stomach flu is making it's way through our family. It hits hard and fast, Ug!

Sammy has surgery on Tuesday for tonsils, adnoids and tubes in his ears. Coming off a weekend of the stomach flu it's going to be tough going on him. I think he's also going to have a hard time with the medicine post surgery as well. 16 days of no activity after surgery. What a month this is going to be...

Frosty in Alaska

Still no snow in Alaska, not even a flurry so far! A very abnormally long fall, but that's okay with me... We've had a few heavy frosts lately and the wind is bringing in the colder air, so it is probably just around the corner. Chance of rain the next few days so don't be surprised if I post that we got snow from some of it.

Movie Night

The boys and I headed to the theater this afternoon to catch the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. They've only been to the theater one other time so it was a treat.

Of course, Alex was worried the whole time as we had the entire theater to ourselves. He just didn't think we should be there because no one else was and what if we got locked in...

Sammy took offense to the artistic license of the movie as they changed the script from the book and my bookworm was quick to point out every difference...

It was an interesting date night with my 2 very different boys!

Picture time at Nana and Pappy's house

Or what I do when Mommy is working...

We take walks in our wagon... Pepe always get the best seat... I wash my dishes...

I cook...

I love to paint!
And curl up when I'm tired...

7 going on 13

Alex... "It sucks mom, our gym teacher was out today"

Mom... "hmmm"

Alex.. "I said, it sucks Mom our gym teacher was out today"

Mom... "Okay"

Alex... "Mom, I said it sucks..."

Mom... "Yes Alex but we don't use that word in this house"

Geez, what they learn in school!

Night time

We are putting more effort lately into getting Katie to sleep in her own bed. She's doing a pretty good job at going to sleep in it. However she still gets up in the middle of the night and wanders downstairs to find us. She's clearly awake when she does this as she usually comes with a pile of goodies. Last night it was her bear, baby and her socks that she puts on the floor by her bed. It was all carried in her little hands downstairs and to our bed and I never heard a peep in the baby monitor!

Sammy Update

We had a visit with a specialist this week to evaluate Sammy's hearing loss and large tonsils. I ws not very impressed with the doctor. He couldn't find the x-ray we had done at the hospital. Didn't even look at the tonsils until I begged him too. Just looked in his ears, said wow he has a lot of water in them and needs tubes in them. Then I said what about the breathing problems and swollen lymph nodes.. Pretty much ignored me. Said if I could prove that Sammy had sleeping problems he could remove the adnoids too? I'm not feeling confident in the doctor.

Long story short, we are getting a hearing test done soon to make sure it is nothing else. Then we will proceed with surgery. I'm hoping to talk the doctor into removing the tonsils and adnoids at the same time to solve all problems.

We'll see it amazes me how doctor's make diagnosis without fully evaluating the patient...

Referral

Oct. 7, 2008 at 8:12 am, we got the e-mail from our agency with this picture of Viktoria, a little girl in Khabarovsk Baby Home #2. At for the record she is still way smaller than any picture makes her look!

fall in Alaska

Rainy and damp today in Alaska. If it were just a little colder all this rain would amount to a substantial snowfall. So we've got the bouncy house going, halloween costumes out for play and have been doing our share of drawing today to pass the time. I've been cooking soup all day from our garden harvest and it should be a nice warm dinner with our baked bread.

We've had 3 moose sightings today just at our house with different moose each time....

Here's a shot of Mama Moose. And the baby moose hovering around the liliac bush...