Catching Up Again

 Way back in late February our baby turned three years old!!  We just had a small gathering with a few good friends.

We enjoyed some specially requested raspberry cake.

Opened a few gifts but the birthday boy insisted that everyone cover their eyes while he opened each gift..I think this is a birthday first.

We were also treated to one of Nancy's fabulous sky lanterns. This may have been the best one yet, it cleared the tress and just kept on going. We wondered what the neighbors would think if they happened to see this drifting by.

Every year one of our favorite winter activities is to make a trip to the ice park in Fairbanks.

And every March we host the Delta Dog Daze ski/skijor/dog mush race. We had a small crowd this year but a good time was had by all.

Wyatt and Torleif had an especially good time getting rides on the kick sled.

Happy 5th Birthday Wyatt

We celebrated Wyatt's 5th birthday back in January, January 6th to be exact. Wyatt decided he wanted a pirate party so that is of course that is what we did.

We had a special guest appearance, our favorite librarian came over and read the kids a pirate story,

we dug for treasure,

smashed the pirate piñata,

scrambled for the loot,

ate some fancy pirate cake,

had the pirates sing birthday songs,

made wishes for strong winds for sailing and bountiful treasure,

then swabbed the decks.

A Very Merry Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and the house was overflowing with excitement of two small boys. The stockings were hung underneath the window with care. The cookies and milk were set out in hope that Santa would soon be there.  Mama and Papa spent the night fretting about what time they would be awoken the next morning.

Everything is ready, the elves worked their magic and got the presents set out and the stockings filled.

Wyatt had strict instructions not to go downstairs before his light came on (we have a lamp set on a timer that comes on at 6:00am to let him know he can get up) and to come wake us when he left his room.  Well, of course that didn't work and he came busting into our room at 5:30 jumping up and down saying "Santa brought me a pirate ship!!!"

The Pez and the Lifesavers that Santa left in the stockings may have been the most exciting part.

Santa brought ice fishing poles!

 I am not sure why the kids get so excited about Santa when the pile of gifts from the Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles is so much bigger! Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful gifts.

All that excitement really wore papa out!

We had about 12 friends over for dinner on Christmas day. We cooked up our homegrown ham and everyone brought a dish to share. We always wish we could be with our families for the holidays but we are very lucky to have such a good group of friends to celebrate with, we had a wonderful Christmas.  Unfortunately I did a pretty poor job of taking photos of it all. 

It is Official!!

The Getting of The Tree

 Going out a cutting a Christmas tree is something I really look forward to, this year was no exception but it ended up being kind of stressful getting there. I don't know why it was so hard to do this year but with only a few hours of daylight, sick kids and lots of other things going on it just kept getting delayed, and I kept getting frustrated- I wanted my tree!!
So thankfully it finally happened and it was a wonderful outing but...the tree is still not decorated- ARRGH! We got it last Friday left it to thaw out and went to decorate of Saturday but the lights didn't work. Sunday I went to town but the only store open is the grocery store which of course was sold out of lights, so had to wait until Monday to get the lights. But Monday night I have book club so it didn't happen, tonight the neighbor kids came over to decorate cookies and tomorrow Jeff has a meeting in the evening so it looks like our next chance is Thursday. Oh well, at least I got my tree.

The boys felt it was important to bring the heavy machinery.

I felt it was important to bring a rugged Alaskan man to chop the tree down.

Alaska is not the mecca for the big full beautiful trees that your used to. You will never find Black Spruce for sale an any parking lot at Christmas time. But this one was free and growing right on our property.  And even though we had to cut down a 30 ft tree just to use the top 8ft, the base is only 3inches in diameter so it is a real pain to get to fit into any normal stand, and its a little thin and scraggy- this is the kind of tree we have come to love.

We brake for snow angels.

The rugged man also comes in handy for carrying the tree home because the sled is filled with boys and their machinery.

And who knew rugged men could be convinced to build wreaths??  Notice how he is holding it out using the "big fish method".

Stay tuned for the decorating of the tree!!!