Christmas is coming!! (Nicholas)

Christmas is practically here!! We have started buying and wrapping presents, buying food and making plans! It's so exciting now that I have some presents and all the decorations are up in the stores (even though it's not even Thanksgiving yet.) I love being this busy! And I love Christmas!!

Pictures, finally!!

"Fang Face"

"Kipper" at her puppy party

Not too keen to show off her new hat

Ethan's Halloween costume

Mukluks!

cute boy

Winter!! (Bridget)

Forget summer being over...it is now winter! Amazing how short fall is here and how long it's been since we've blogged! Apologies all over the place! Lots has happened since you last heard from us. School is in full swing and going pretty well. We've been able to establish a decent routine even with Ethan in our midst. He can definitely be a distraction from school work, but a good distraction. I've come to realize that entertaining and enjoying a younger sibling is at least as important as any of the kids' school work. If I didn't know that now, I'd be sure to find out soon since we'll have another to enjoy by the end of the school year. Yes, you read that right. Another little one will join us in mid-March.
This month we celebrated Ethan's first birthday and Molly's 7th! I'll get some pictures on here very soon. Next month the kids will all start Nordic Skiing again and Molly will begin violin lessons. The boys have already made some money shoveling snow as we've gotten several inches in the past couple of days. I love the feeling of coziness our house gets when it's snowing outside and we have a nice fire going in the woodstove, soothing music in the background and comfort food in the oven. Aaaahhh. There's nothing better than that.

Can Summer Really be Over?? (Bridget)

Wow. I know it's been a long time since I blogged but really nothing eventful has taken place this whole time. We've had a non-summer as far as weather is concerned with nothing but rain and cool temperatures. I feel like we're back in Southeast. Now we're headed toward fall. The chokecherry leaves are already turning gold and falling. It's really unbelievable when you think of the rest of the country having the hottest month of the year. Oh well, this is Alaska after all.
Having an early fall helps get me geared up for school which starts this Wednesday! We've received pretty much all of our school stuff so all that's left is to do some planning. It'll be tough homeschooling all 4 kids for the first time and keeping up with Ethan who is starting to walk now. I'm hoping to get Molly's work done in the morning and have the boys get their tough subjects done in the morning so we can do our reading and projects in the afternoons. We'll see how that works. As usual, I'm excited about the new curriculum we're trying out and happy about the tried and true curriculum we've come to appreciate. Having allotments for 4 kids gives me leeway to buy some frivolous and fun things this year like a bunch of cool art supplies from Dick Blick, some games, some arts and crafts and logic puzzles and workbooks. I also bought tons (not as much of an exaggeration as you might think!) of classics. The boys are going to be involved in the Young Statesmen Club where they will read classics and discuss one per month with other boys their age. Even Molly will be getting together with 2 of her friends to read some Five in a Row books and do lapbooks and cooking projects associated with what they read.
So, it's goodbye summer and hello school. I don't have many school supplies to buy, like pens and notebooks and all that but I couldn't resist buying a few new clothes for the kids - especially Molly. To me, that's what "going back to school" is all about! You have to have a new outfit and new supplies for the first day!! The boys couldn't care less about new clothes and Molly isn't as enthused as most girls would be but by George she's going to have new clothes anyway.

Garage sale! (Daniel)

Whoa! Talk about payday! We just had a VERY successful cul-de-sac garage sale! Everyone in the neighbor hood got together the day after 4th of July (which means the 5th of July for all you not so bright people out there...) and set up tables and tables of stuff. Nicholas, Matthew, and I gathered up all of our Legos that we didn't like and sold them for good prices! I made a lot of money selling lemonade to people! In all we made over $40.00! Not bad, eh?

~Daniel

Fire Pit! (Bridget)

Lonny's Father's Day weekend project was constructing a fire pit on one side of our house. I admit I was skeptical about it but I love the way it looks! It's a big improvement over the half grassy, half gravelly area it used to be. The rocks around the pipe came from our neighbors who happened to be tearing out their fireplace at the time - luckily for us. The kids all pitched in and helped, knowing that a hot dog roast and s'mores would be their reward. The project was complete by Sunday night, June 16, and we christened it with, of course, hot dogs and s'mores and invited all our neighbors over. A good time was had by all. This weekend we'll hopefully get some more logs for the rest of the perimeter and some really big logs for benches inside so we won't have to bring chairs out and take them in every time.

Next project: reseeding the lawn!

Our little "Ether Bunny" (Bridget)

Here is a recent picture of Ethan. He'll be 8 months on June 15. He's a very happy and affectionate little guy and gives lots of kisses, especially to Matthew! He has 4 teeth and is working on two more. He really keeps us on our toes as he is crawling all over the place, pulling himself up on anything he can and cruising. Some of his favorite things to do include playing in the dogs' water, dumping everything off the coffee table, getting into the papers in the computer desk and the DVDs in the entertainment center and destroying any Lego creations the boys are unlucky enough to leave within his reach. He loves dogs and other kids, pictures of people, especially babies. He gets very excited by vacuum cleaners and Daniel's old stick horse, "Hank." He likes to imitate us so we often have fake-coughing and squealing contests with him. He is sometimes content in his playpen or jumper and he loves being in the backpack or stroller. If I feel like gardening without him on my back, all I need to do is put him in the stroller and pretty soon he's besieged by neighborhood girls begging to take him for a ride. Pretty sneaky, huh? :)

Long Time! (Bridget)

Okay, I know it's been a long time since we've updated this blog but there were gardens to plant, leaves to rake, sunshine to enjoy.... I've really been enjoying outdoor work. The chokecherry trees in the back yard are in full bloom and the air is perfumed with their lovely scent. As soon as Ethan goes down for his nap, I'm outside planting, weeding, starting a compost pile, digging a new flower bed, hanging out clothes, anything to be outside in the sun! Now it's cooler and overcast with a forecast of rain for the next week and a half so I can get indoor stuff done.
I planted my first real garden this year. For the past couple of years, I've only done containers but I've been really wanting more of a harvest so this year I dug out one of my big rhubarb plants to give to a friend and transplanted all the delphiniums which were hogging garden space and planted lettuce, beans, radishes and carrots. The lettuce and radishes are already up. I also planted peas and beans in containers. Hopefully by next year I'll have another small raised bed to work with. In the meantime, it's nice to start small until I really know what I'm doing.
I got some really disappointing news last week - my dad and sister are not going to be visiting this month after all. My dad is having some health problems and the trip would just be too much. I didn't realize how much I was looking forward to some of my family visiting, for once, until the visit was canceled. Next year though, my whole family will be getting together in VT and we will be there, by hook or by crook!

IT'S SUMMER!!! (Daniel)

School is out!! It's time to try to cram in all the fun you've been wanting to have all winter!(but couldn't because of school)And how better to start it than movie at the theater and a birthday party the next day!(Which happens to be Saturday the best day of the week...otherwise known here as cartoon day!) Ahhhhh......makes you want to sit down with a good book and soak it in! I plan on spending whole DAYS doing things like building Lego's, playing video games, or reading a book!
~Daniel

School's Out! (Bridget)

Whether we're ready or not, school is finished for the year. I went to the Kindergarten Celebration at Molly's school today. It's hard to believe she's not in Kindergarten anymore. I'd be really sad but I know Ethan is just around the corner. Molly showed no sadness whatsoever as she informed a friend this afternoon that today was her first day of 1st grade!! Who needs summer? I know, I certainly do.
I'm very glad that summer is here because I just wasn't able to get the things done around the house that I really need to do while doing school and keeping up with an actively crawling baby. I'm sure I won't get all the things done that I want to get done because of said crawling baby even during summer break but I'll definitely have more time than I had.
On the other hand, I always feel a twinge of regret when summer rolls around because I never feel like we've gotten enough "school" accomplished during the year. There are words the kids can't spell and books we never read and Matt might not know all his times tables cold.... I have to remind myself of the things we did accomplish. We added another member to our family and folded him right into the midst of us. We've all commented that we can't imagine life without him now. The kids have been especially great about giving him lots of love and attention. We've read lots of classics, both individually and as a a group and have been touched by some very special people within those classics. We've learned about honor, perseverance and other positive character traits through them. Father, Mother and Ralph from the Little Britches series have really moved us and made us want to be better people. I find myself thinking about how Mother would react when I'm faced with a trying situation. I think we've learned that education doesn't end when the school year ends but that we should be pursuing our interests and setting new goals continuously. We'll continue to read throughout the summer and our shelves are stocked with new enticing books for those lazy days in the sun.

NEW 4-WHEELER!!! (Nicholas)

We got a new four wheeler!! It is black and silver and goes really fast! Yesterday we went to show it off to our dad's friends and we ended up driving it all around creation (not that I had a problem with that)at high speed. We also plan to go hunting as soon as possible so it should be fun!

4-Wheeler! (Daniel)

We bought a new 4-wheeler! My dad and I went down to Anchorage yesterday to get it. Boy, is it COOL! It is really big(the kind that can fit two people)and it is silver. We're going to have a lot of fun on that this summer!

Warning: TJEd May be Dangerous to Your Health!!

I spent hours and hours organizing my bookshelves on Saturday. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea - to make more room on the shelves by grouping books of the same subject in tubs, like unit studies. I stacked and I piled and I went and bought tubs. By midnight, I had the shelves all nicely organized with classics. I'm not sure whether it was last night or this morning that I noticed the bottom shelf had fallen and was resting comfortably on the books below it. Okay, that was frustrating but not that bad. I tried to lift the shelf and put the pegs back in... big mistake. The shelf above it fell on my hand. Still not that bad, just a tiny cut and a few choice words. What happened next, I'm not entirely sure, but a chain of events occurred in which all but the very top shelf cascaded down onto my head and then books ended up all over the floor. See picture. I had to apologize to Matthew and Ethan for the hissy fit that followed. :( Fellow homeschoolers, this is what happens when you have too darn many books!!! Now I'm faced with taking every book out and trying to find pegs that fit tighter so this never happens again!

Happy May Day! (Bridget)

It's hard to believe that it's May and we still have snow on the ground. We had a very depressing snowfall on Tuesday but it turned to rain in the afternoon so it's basically gone but we still have some from before. The kids are demolishing the snow hill and kind of having a race with the neighbor girls who are demolishing their snowhill.
We went to the IDEA Curriculum Fair Monday and again on Tuesday and I came away with about $700 less allotment for next year. I mostly bought lots of Jim Weiss CDs, Teaching Textbooks Math for all 3 boys, some books, and some TJEd CDs and booklets. I wish I had gone to some of the workshops, but I didn't want to try to work around Ethan's naps and feedings so I didn't even bother. Next year!
Well, Matthew is itching to bid on a Lego Set on Ebay so I'd better go.

The Fields of Home (Daniel)

The Ralph Moody books are always very good, but I think tis one was the best! the basic story is, Ralph gets in trouble in Medford and has to go away to his grandfather's farm in Maine. Grandfather lives with a woman named Millie and a dog named Old Bess. He is very stubborn and he hates machines. Ralph has a hard time convincing him that machines are the only way to keep all his fields plowed!
On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate this book a 10!!YOU should read this book!
~Daniel

Archery (Nicholas)

Matthew and I are finally going to get our longbows that we have been wanting forever! The idea to get bows was mine since I took archery at a place called King`s Nock and liked it. But if anyone wants to take archery, DONT TAKE IT AT KING`S NOCK!The teacher is really mean and makes up dumb rules! It`s best to just buy one and teach yourself!

This picture is me at age 3 in VT at my grandparents' house. I was into archery even then but had to make do with sticks.

L.O.T.R Diaries (Daniel)

For writing we did diaries of people in Lord of the Rings. I did one on Sauron titled "The Journal of Sauron the Great."Nicholas did one on Saruman and Matthew did one on Lurtz. It's fun to do stories from another point of view, especially if it's from the point of view of a villain!

To make one I typed it out in a funny font(like this) and printed it out. To make it look more convincing, I took some black paper and crumpled it up to make it look like old black parchment. I used this for a cover. Here is the finished product:

~

New Bloggers! (Bridget)

I've been so inspired by all the blogs I've been reading lately that I couldn't wait to start one for our family. Actually, Daniel has taken on the task of getting us started but has graciously allowed me to post this entry.

My intention for this family blog is for us to post the goings-on of our family, of course, and for the kids to have a chance to post about things they're doing or learning about. We just bought a new camcorder so we'll make good use of that on here as well.