The best day ever.....

Our baby is THREE! (she wore her birthday dress for three days in a row... thanks Gram!)

She will remember this as the birthday that went on and on and on! Birthday packages with candy, money and lots of cool things. She is so spoiled :)

We had a "Super Why" party for her this year-- she also wanted "Scoobie Doo" and "Tom & Jerry" too. "Super Why" won out.


It was supposed to be a simple little party.... then it turned out to be a beautiful day and I had to make everyone go sledding.

And when you end up with this many kids at a party, it is never that simple. Fun, but not simple. It was such a fun day..... perfect for our three year old!

Cousins

How Kiley and Kalin enjoy their cousins. Every one of them. The ones that are close and the ones that are far away.... and even the ones that Kiley thinks are her cousins (a totally different post, but if someone is Camryn's cousin, they are automatically Kiley's cousin too).

The week that Rikki and Olivia were here it was heavenonearth for every single one of them. I just wish they had more time like this together.

Silly, happy, girly.... all the time

Two weeks apart....

This group played so hard allllll day I think it took them about 2 minutes to crash into a deep, deeeeep sleep.
See?
We didn't have to make one threat or talk to them even once....
I couldn't help but think about what it is going to be like in 10 years, when they are all teenagers or really close to being teenagers.

BRU 2011

Beaver Round Up 2011 in beautiful Dillingham, Alaska! The traditional time when our trappers headed back to Dillingham to sell their furs (mainly beaver) and congregate in the big city. This year marked the 51st celebration and it was one of the best, ever.

What a week with gorgeous spring (Alaska) weather! Blue skies going on (dare I say it?) at least 2 weeks now with temperatures hovering around 20 degrees. We couldn't have asked for better weather for our spring vacation. To top it off we had cousins from Anchorage come for a visit.

We did everything and anything you can do outside in Alaska in March. The amount of activities for BRU alone were mind boggling.

Let's see if I can list all we did outside during our break.....

1. Skiing
   
2. Sledding
3. Towing w/ Snow Machine
   
4. Snow-machining
5. Dog Mushing- watching
6. Skating
7. Snow-Machine Races
8. Building Snow Tunnels

I wish we would have been able to go out ice fishing but we just couldn't fit that one in. We will have to save that trip for another day.

Sledding at our favorite hill- with two of our favorite cousins

Dog Mushing

Kiley racing her snowmachine

Kalin trying skating for the first time, can you see the joy?

Introducing.....

The 2011 winner of the Beaver Round-Up Baby Walk!

I thought this was going to be just one of those events where I got to dress up Sis and let her do her thing, just for the fun of it. We found out that there were prizes involved once we got there, whoohoo!

Sis was so excited about doing the "baby walk".... mainly because we promised her Gobstoppers if she did it. She was so excited to get out on the stage, and walked out waving and smiling. Then, as I was talking to someone back stage she decided she wanted to go back out so she ran back on to the stage (when it was another baby's turn) to wave and smile some more. Geez :)

So to make a long story short miss Kalin won in the 23-36 month division- she got a prize and was disappointed when going through her loot that there weren't any Gobstoppers in her bag. Her Dad made sure to get her Gobstoppers on the way home :).

Skiing

The skiing has been unbelievable for the past few weeks. Blue skies, 20 degree temperature and all the snow I want. Heaven. February and March are such awesome months in SW Alaska- tons of light and temperatures that allow you to do all kind of fun things outside.

I went out a few days ago and decided to take a different skiing route than I am used to. It was a little longer than I anticipated- I was out skiing for about an hour and a half. Not that I am complaining, it was an amazing evening. Evening opportunities like this justify exactly why we live here. Where else can you strap on your skiis and literally ski from your house for hours and hours?

I wanted to get closer to those mountains.

My pictures just can't do justice to how pretty it was out there!

I wanted to get closer to Warehouse Mountain, and there it was, *sigh* engulfed in a beautiful sunset.

Now my master plan is to find skis for my girls and get them addicted- then we will be skiing partners for life!

Posers

Ah we are such posers.

We each got a new hat from Amma Bossy and had to show her how good we looked in them.

Some of us are getting pretty good at this posing thing, and look pretty darn cute.



Then there are those of us that have been doing it for a while.



Toothless and all!

It's very addicting.....

The iPad, its very addicting.

She jumped all around me and asked to play it until I gave in.

Then she had to do some business.

But it was vitally important to keep practicing her letters.

Technology at its finest.

You Can't Stop Time....

36 candles..... wow. The cake says "Happy Birthday Mommy From Kiley & Kalin." It includes a ton of sprinkles, imagine Tinker Bell throwing up.... that is kind of what happened to this cake. Two little girls decorating, it can't be helped.

I spent the morning of my birthday in Juneau, where I got surprised by a group of librarians , and a friend of mine, who sung me "Happy Birthday." I got to spend some time with an old friend and his significant other and then the rest of the day was spent trying to get home. Delay after delay got me home at about 7:30, very pooped. Two excited girls "helped" me open my presents, and despite the fact that I had a beautiful cake to eat the girls had to go to bed.

We celebrated in a simple way today with a taco dinner with cake and ice cream following. Kiley asked me two or three times today when my "party" was going to be and "which kids were going to be coming" hahaha. I told her Mommy was too old for parties and it was just going to be her and Kalin at our house.
It was perfect, I am so lucky. Lucky the house didn't burn down too from all those candles. My Dad told me that time moving ahead is much better than the alternate. Yeah, I'm kind of lucky.

Child Labor....

It has been snowing so much we had to enlist the children of the household to shovel snow.

They don't seem to mind the first few times it snows. It is kind of fun. But then it becomes something like work and chores. Blah blah wah wah.....
We all must do our part and they look so cute doing theirs :).

Guess who was Student of the Week!?

I never wanted to be one of those parents. I said I never would be. As a teacher, of course before I had my own perfect children, I vowed to never, never do it. I would never be the parent to question why my child hasn't been chosen as Student of the Week. But I did. *Sigh* I think Jon and I were more excited for Kiley to get chosen than she was, we couldn't wait! And she wasn't even sure what it was... or what it meant.

But I have to question no more. My baby was Student of the Week on Friday! She got to stand in front of the elementary school and get a certificate. She really didn't get the whole process, but she thought it was pretty cool to stand up there and get a pencil.


I was as proud of Kiley as if it was me standing up there getting that certificate, I even got a little teary eyed. Her teacher said she was enthusiastic, positive and a big help with the other students in her class. Words that make her parents hearts sing.

S~N~O~W!

It has been dumping snow on us like you would NOT believe. I hardly believe it. It seems like we haven't seen this much snow for a long, long time. One of my friends in New Stuyahok used to tell me when it would snow this much, "Good, lots of snow means lots of berries this summer!" If that is the case we are going to have a record number of berries this year!

No where in the forecast were we warned that we were going to be getting this much snow.... I think somewhere around 12-14 inches in one night. Jon stuck a tape measurer on our deck to see how much had fallen.

Usually when we get this much snow it warms up to the high twenties or thirties, but it has stayed cold. Our temperatures have been fluctuating between 10 and 15 degrees, which is perfect. Just the way we like it. Now I just need a trail and I am off to go skiing!

Our little bird feeder can't handle much more snow!

Sis is actually sitting down, but the snow easily comes up to her mid chest.

The trees are gorgeous with their frosting of snow

The trail to the woods....

This much snow fell in one night! Poor little Tracker....

Heading to the Bus

I adjusted my schedule to do some different things at work this week, so I am working mid-day. This means Kiley and Blake have to catch the bus in the morning, which is a little bit of a hike from our house. So we all geared up, gathered our flashlights and walked down to the Bus Stop.

Geared up? Every morning the girls wear their snow pants, boots, warm coat, hats and gloves just to leave the house. When it is in the 20's outside, or colder I caution on the safe side and dress for the weather. I just know the one day I decide they don't need all their gear on their bus will break down or the truck will.... just the mom in me I guess.

It was a gorgeous morning, hovering around 20 degrees with some fresh snow.

Did I say Kalin walked to the Bus Stop? HA! She took about 5 steps and then into the sled she went.
We have so much snow it is almost covering up the little house they built for the kids to wait in!

It feels good to get out and stretch our legs, get a little color into our faces first thing in the morning!

Cousins

Our K's and C's.... aren't they adorable?

Toothless

This is tooth #3 that has gone missing. What a difference one missing tooth makes on this girls face. She looks so much older!

There wasn't too much drama after the first one came out. We got the string tied around that one AND tied to the door. As I was heading to get the camera to document the serious event of losing the first tooth, somehow Kiley "forgot" turned her head and out it came.

I seriously thought she was going to lose it with the second loose tooth. There was much screaming and freaking out , tears beyond anything I could comprehend and even some body shaking. But it came out.

This third tooth, loose on the top, stayed loose for what seemed like months. I think in its final days it was hanging by hope. Jon got it into his mind that it was going to get infected, and convinced Kiley that if she didn't pull it out she was going to have to go to the Dentist and not only get it pulled but get a shot too.

He won (he also threw in there she could go to a movie, get candy AND drink pop if she let him pull it).

The Box

A while back Jon brought home a box.

Not just any box, but a big box. The kind of box that kids love. The kind they can't get enough of. The kind they make into forts, get to color on and hide in.

Do you know what I am talking about?

The kind of box that if you were to get something big in it for Christmas or your birthday and you were about 2 you would probably play with the box rather than the "something."

Kalin loved it, loved hiding in it, hiding her "stuff" in it and she really liked drawing on it.

One day she decided that she would stick her hand out of the box and wave at me. See that cute little hand there? I wish I had an arrow to point to it.

"Hi MOM!" she said. "Guess where I am?"

Very soon her excitement turned into tears, then screams for, "MOM MOM MOM!!!"

Please. Don't. Judge. Me.

You know you would do the same thing. I got the camera before I helped get her unstuck. This picture is priceless.

Introducing.....

Baby Boy LeClair on 1-11-11, what an amazing, awesome birthday!

*Sigh* he doesn't have a name yet, but he's finally here. Three days past his due date, but better late than never right?

He weighed in at 9 lbs, 2 ounces and 22 inches long! 2-2-2 perfect!