Happy New Year!!!!!!

I really love how things work out sometimes, we ended up having two families over for New Year's Eve. We began around 2pm so snowmachine riding could happen with some day light. After the riding we ate some yummy fondue, sandwiches, veggies and some yummy desserts. Then the kids went back outside for some fireworks.




Watching from the viewing platform outside


We only get to view fireworks here in Alaska for New Year's Eve, we have too much sunlight for Fourth of July fireworks. They still sell them, but I think it is pretty useless.



Indoor viewing with a couple of the little guys here, we had two babies here tonight, so precious. I enjoyed some baby preciousness this afternoon.

And we will still get to bed before midnight since we celebrated early.
Welcome 2011!

The Crib Comes Down Today

Benjamin has been sleeping on the bottom bunk for about two weeks now...and the crib sat empty, just in case.
Today, the crib comes down and goes home with another special little baby boy.
All four of our babies have slept in this crib, it is no longer new and pristine, my husband had to make a modification due to all the years of use.
I cannot believe that the baby is out of the crib.

Unlike us

We have had a different kind of week here. For three afternoons this week the three oldest Blessings have been going to a skate clinic. I have pictures and video to upload, but that is for another day.
Tomorrow is a home day but I have a busy day of homekeeping before me....
But, the Christmas trees are taken down!!! I left up the other decorations until Saturday.

Exported and Imported

My Homeschool Blogger blog has been exported from over there and imported here at blogger!!! This makes me happy to have my blog all together again! I could be really proud of myself, but I can't be. What I am is thankful for people like Sally who do all the challenging work and are kind enough to post about what they have found. I can say that I opened the two links she linked to and my blog was exported and imported easy peasy. Thank you so much Sally!

Past Gingerbreadhouses!

Here are the pictures or links to past gingerbread houses.
                         2005, I think this was a kit gingerbread house

The Train   2006

 2007  our attempt at a log cabin... looks more like an Alaskan trappers cabin, but it fits us and we had fun!

2008    No house, we had a baby instead!

2009   I cannot find any pictures of a house, so must have something to do with that one year old!



The 2010 Gingerbread House

I purposefully waited until close to Christmas Day to get the gingerbread house made. I had not intended to be working on the gingerbread house on the 23rd and the 24th. But, it was what it was. As I said a couple of posts ago...it was a wonky week.
Ta Da, here she is....OUR HOUSE in gingerbread. I drafted the pattern pieces and My Wonderful Husband got the roof pattern pieces just right. The girls and I rolled and cut out and baked gingerbread pieces. All the Blessings and I assembled the house and the Blessings decorated. Dad built a couple of temporary supports for the roof and she was finished! I am very pleased with this family project. Benjamin ate the gingerbread and candy after it was all finished!

Sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak of our gingerbread house...does it look like anything familiar?



I will post more pictures of the house once the icing has hardened and the supports have been removed and the finishing touches have been added!
Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Eve Eve

This is how I bundled up to head out for my last minute shopping. I usually have all my shopping completed by now and usually Christmas Eve Eve is the day I set aside for preparing food for Christmas. This year everything just seems a little wonky. I headed out around 9am and I didn't return home until around 5pm. Crazy. No, I didn't shop all that time. I visited with a friend for a bit and I helped a friend who just returned to Alaska to live clean carpet in their rental house. I also ran a couple of errands for my wonderful husband. The temp was around -25 to -30 all day, so my fur hat came in handy for keeping me warm!
My husband snapped these pictures before I left Thursday morning. He loves fur and seeing his wife warm!

Ice Skating

A friend of mine called Tuesday morning to let me know that their family was going ice skating and asked if we would come. I almost didn't but I am so glad we went. I was able to walk on the walking track up stairs for almost an hour, and boy do I need that! Plus, the kids had a great time skating.

These pants are great for ice skating to protect those knees!

Christmas Eve

Well, so far Christmas Eve has not gone as I have planned. I could not sleep last night and then Benjamin decided he could not sleep around 4:30 this morning. I finally got to sleep around 6:30am this morning and my wonderful husband let me sleep until I woke up, which  I cannot remember what time that was. We had to make a quick trip into town for a necessity so while I was waiting in the van for the shoppers I made my to do list and that helped me put things into proper perspective and helped me realize that the list isn't too long. Benjamin is eating some lunch while I am typing this post. Once he is down for the nap count, we will begin to chop away at the list while the menfolk cut firewood.
For our weather update, it has been around -35 degrees for a few days but it is somewhere around -20 today, and believe me, it makes a difference, just that little bit of warmer weather.
Merry Christmas to all!

Whew!

This weekend flew by! Benjamin had his two year well child check on Friday morning and  after appointment the Blessings and I hung out at Wal-Mart while my husband had a project to take care of, then we went out for lunch because we were all famished. Then, a quick trip into Joanne's for me before heading home. Once we returned home I spent some time on the couch with my wonderful husband and I didn't have to cook dinner since we had a late lunch, every one grabbed something as they became hungry. Later on I made the peanut butter part of peanut butter balls and the peppermint pattie part of peppermint patties.
Saturday my wonderful husband and the older Blessings went Christmas shopping for "my" gifts so I was home alone with the little fella. Once he went down for his nap I started dipping peanut butter balls. Once the big kids and my wonderful husband came home I started making dinner which was chicken fried moose, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn and biscuits. Once the kitchen was cleaned up from dinner I finished dipping peanut butter balls and dipped the peppermint patties. Then another kitchen clean up while my wonderful husband and the Blessings kept Benjamin busy and they picked up around the house and my husband vacuumed the entire house. I love that man! Then all the Sunday clothes were picked out and Benjamin bathed. I then went to bed while everyone wrapped my presents! I got up and packed away all the chocolate covered goodies and turned out the lights and went to sleep.
In between church services, Elisabeth baked chocolate chip cookies with nuts for a couple at church and I made more orange fudge and plain ole fudge. While Elisabeth finished baking cookies and Levi and Judith spent time searching the globe with Google Earth, I slipped off to the couch for a short nap while Benjamin was napping.
Now, everyone else is in bed and I am right behind them all.
Tomorrow? NO SCHOOL and laundry! AND, we will make the gingerbread for our annual gingerbread house. Pray for me, we decided on a replica of our house, so I have to make the patterns myself this year!

Baking and decorating cookies

We had friends over for the afternoon so I had cut out cookies planned. The girls enjoyed the cookie making process and were very patient with the waiting between steps and clean up between steps.
We made sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies.

The boys never touched a cookie cutter, they were waiting for the finished product.

The rest of the day

The big kids were watching television this afternoon after Benjamin woke up from his nap and he found his space with them. It is funny that he will now watch something with them.

Getting ready to blow out the candles. I do not have a picture of him blowing out his candles because I took a video of that, but it was cute!

 

The happy birthday boy eating his cake and ice cream.

Since it was Wednesday we cleaned up quickly from dinner and dressed warmly to head to church in

 -37degree temperatures.

for now

You can find me over here...I will probably stay there

http://athomeonthelastfrontier.blogspot.com

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More Birthday

This is really his first time ripping open a package with gusto.


Enjoying some playtime after opening the presents.

In Which Benjamin Turns 2

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Benjamin breaking through his door decorations

 

Playing with his balloons after breakfast

And that was his morning. More to follow....

In which my wonderful husband uploads pictures from his travels around Alaska

My wonderful husband travels on occasion for work and here are a few pictures he uploaded tonight.

This is Fort Yukon, Alaska at -40 degrees.

Caribou crossing the highway

Blurry Caribou

Can you find the caribou in this picture?

More Caribou on the move

A very young bull moose bedded down

This is what it looks like when you meet up with a plow truck!

Finally

We finally finished rummaging through the Christmas decoration boxes and I called it quits and said we are finished. I could have kept going but that would mean that the boxes would still be sitting in my dining room floor and the fall boxes would still be sitting by the front door. My husband has always taken care of the boxes going out of and into storage. I decided that since my husband has been sick and not quite 100% yet that the Blessings and I would take care of the boxes while my husband was at work. Levi and Judith descended into the crawl space and Elisabeth and I passed all of the boxes down. Whew! What a difference getting all those boxes out of the dining room has made. We got some of the house back into order yesterday and today we get to finish up and then we get to enjoy dinner with some friends that the Army brought back to the great state of Alaska!

Break

We are now officially finished with school until after Christmas. Two weeks to bake, cook, watch movies as a family, whatever we need to do. I am probably more excited than the Blessings!

What is the little guy up to?

The little guy looking through the camera case while I got a few pictures tonight. He is such a precious little guy. He is learning so much every day.

Playing Piano at The Denali Center

Our wonderful piano teacher planned for her students to play Christmas songs at The Denali Center today. I am thankful for this opportunity for my children to play in front of an audience and provide an activity for these people.