Tropical Weather Hits Anchorage

The week started off with really cold weather. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all hit -10, which isn't too unusual for Anchorage, but is more common starting late January. This year we just haven't had much snow or any clouds to warm things up.

So on Friday things did get warmer and when we were outside Julia was commenting on how nice it feels. She even started to take her coat off. It was after all a balmy 6 degrees out. Luckily on Saturday we got some snow and the tropical weather has stayed--I think we hit the 20s today. Nothing like Alaska weather to provide some perspective.

Primary Program

Today was the annual Church Primary program, one of my favorite Sundays!  Julia and Ethan are part of our Church's primary, and once a year the Sacrament meeting is set aside for the primary children to teach about Jesus, giving talks and singing songs.  Julia and Ethan memorized their parts and did a wonderful job saying them by themselves in front of the whole congregation.  They both wanted to wear their "future missionary" name-tags, and I couldn't wait for Christmas to bust out Julia's new Christmas dress (courtesy Grandma Little) to wear for the occasion.  We are really proud of them and their testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and willingness to share them.

This guy still has another year before he starts Primary.  Christian would have loved to participate though.  At least he got to go to the program practice yesterday and sit up on the pews with them.

The whole crew before church.

Julia's 6th Birthday

We celebrated Julia's birthday last weekend, and it was the first time she wanted to have a party with friends.  She invited a few from her school, some from church and one from the neighborhood.  Her main concern for her birthday party invitations was making sure no one felt left out, including her brothers.  Joshua headed up the games, which included pinning wings on Tinkerbell, popping balloons, doing a scavenger hunt, going to Jerusalem, and a few more.  It was so fun to watch the kids interact with each other and to talk with some of the parents of kids she mentions from school.  I think the kids all had a great time, and Ethan and Christian really loved participating too.

Her actual birthday fell on a school day, so we sent her to class with oatmeal raisin cookies, since there is a rule in the school district against bringing cupcakes or unhealthy snacks for birthdays (sad!).  That afternoon Joshua took off work and Julia opened presents (thanks Grandmas and Grandpas for the wonderful things you sent!), and we went shopping and came home and, at her request, did some family tackle and painting (not at the same time).  She has been really into drawing and painting and dancing and anything art related, so she loved having a new easel and art/craft supplies to try out, and a dance instruction video to dance to.  After cake, we let her stay up after the boys went to bed for some one-on-one checkers and painting with Mom and Dad.

We feel so lucky to have Julia in our family.  She is so smart, considerate, caring, unselfish, affectionate, creative, and has a desire to always choose the right.  She is a wonderful sister, and a great helper in our home, and always amazes me with her complex thoughts and ideas.  She loves beautiful things, but at the same time loves to roughhouse with the boys and play pirate ship with them; and she loves to read (about any topic).  We love you Julia!

October

October went by really quickly around here, ending with the first layer of snow on the ground and way too much candy!

Elliott is 10 months old now, and crawling everywhere.  He is pretty much the cutest thing we have ever seen (spoken like a true mother, right?).

The kids had their first face painting experience--and LOVED it--at the Fall Festival hosted by Julia's school.  Christian requested Batman, Ethan Spiderman, and Julia a cat.  They held still for the whole painting and were bitterly disappointed when they found out they could not leave the paint on overnight.

This is Julia's pumpkin--she drew a cat face pattern for me to carve out.  Joshua did a scary face for the boys.

Everyone with pumpkin faces!

Joshua and the kids (minus Elliott) heading out to trick-or-treat, Alaska style.  We stuffed them in as many layers as possible, so they looked like little marshmallows with a costume pulled tight over the top, then with hats, gloves, and boots on top of that.  It was in the mid 20s after all, which gets chilly after staying out for an hour and a half.  Christian's bat costume, which was heavy lined fleece, best lent itself to the bundling process because it was roomy on the inside.  I am always surprised at how many kids venture out every year in the weather, but they still seem to.  I got the lucky job of manning the candy post at home with Elliott.

Highlights from General Conference - Part 2

Another talk that we both really liked was Elder Nelson's talk on missionary work. You can read it here.

Ask the missionaries, they can help you!

We both served missions for our church. I served in Taiwan for two years starting at the age 19. Rebecca served in Brazil for 18 months starting at the age of 21. At the start of this conference the church leadership made an announcement that young men can now serve a mission starting at age 18 and young women can serve starting at age 19. If you have ever been curious about what missionaries in our church do, then you will want to read this talk. In this talk Elder Nelson gives some background on missionary work and then describes many of the ways that missionaries might be able to help you.

Highlights from General Conference - Part 1

General Conference was great. We thought we would post on some of our favorite talks, so if you didn't get a chance to watch it all you can check out some of the ones that we liked.

The first one that we wanted to post on was a very touching talk by Elder Shayne M. Bowen titled "Because I Live, Ye Shall Live Also." You can access it by clicking on the following link.

BECAUSE I LIVE, YE SHALL LIVE ALSO

In this talk Elder Bowen addresses the subject of coping with the death of a child. He shares his own experiences from when his child passed away and how the gospel changed his sadness and anger into hope and gratitude for the resurrection. Although he is specifically talking to those who have lost a child, the talk has application to anyone who is grieving with the loss of a loved one.

General Conference

This coming Saturday and Sunday we will be watching General Conference. General Conferences are held twice a year and are composed of talks from our church leaders including the Prophet and members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. If you are interested in learning more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, this would be a great opportunity to to do so from your own home. Sessions are broadcast at 10 am - 12 noon and 2 pm - 4 pm MDT on both Saturday and Sunday. Sessions can be viewed online at lds.org or on BYUtv. Click on the link or use the widget below to learn more.

October 2012 General Conference

Visit from the Littles!

Last week my brother Trenton and his sweet little family came up for a visit!  Trenton comes up on business sometimes, but this was the first time we got to have his whole family up.  We had so much fun, but it made me wish we didn't live so far so we could get together all the time.  While they were here, we mostly hung out and let the kids play, and after the kids went to bed we played games and talked.  It was such a great time!

 Cousin Brooklin and Elliott

 Playing on the stairs

Our kids always fought for spots on Trenton's lap.

Julia's first day of School

Julia started school a couple of weeks ago at a charter school here for half-day Kindergarten!  We are so excited for her and proud of her.   She was a little anxious about it all summer, wondering if she would like it, and now she just loves it!  She has a great teacher and looks forward to every school day.  I have dreaded this day for a long time--it means she is growing up--and we miss her at home (Ethan feels a bit left behind), but I am glad she is so happy experiencing new things and learning so much and so that makes me happy.  Plus Ethan gets to be the man of the house for a few hours, which I think he is starting to enjoy.

The school's open house is this week, and we are all really looking forward to attending and seeing more into what her day and her classmates are like!

Summer Fun

We didn't end up going anywhere this summer (outside of Alaska that is), but we enjoyed our time here.  We spent it exploring local hike areas and the back yard, growing a garden, doing a little camping, and spending as much time outside as possible to stock up on Vitamin D before the long winter.  Towards the end of summer, we did a lot of raspberry picking, and the kids got a lot of practice riding their bikes or scooters to and from our secret raspberry patch.  Julia is now a pro at riding without training wheels!

 Christian would wear this shirt or his Spiderman shirt every day if we let him.  

New favorite pastime:  climbing the tree in the front yard to keep a lookout for Dad riding home on his bike or to play pirates. 

I love Elliott's smile and sweet little spirit! 

The kids snuggling up for a movie/blanket eat-a-thon.

This was our first year we were eligible to dip-net as Alaska residents, so Joshua went out in July for a go at it.  The rule is you have to be an Alaska resident and buy a fishing license, and then there are a couple of locations you can go with a big net and catch salmon.  You have a limit according to your family's size, but it is very generous.  Joshua went down with a friend from Church to the Kenai Peninsula, one of the approved spots, and started fishing right after they arrived around 11:30pm.  They put on chest waders and took turns heading out with a dip-net, which is a five foot diameter net with often a thirty foot pole.  Depending on whether the salmon are running or not (it seems they come in waves, depending on the tide and other things), it can take five minutes or hours to catch a fish.  As soon as they caught one, they would come back in and kill and gut the fish while the other went back out.  There were hundreds of people camped out there, all doing the same thing.  We thought about going as a family, but figured it would be hard to keep track of the kids and they would probably get bored after a while anyway.  We would like to go as a family sometime in the future though.

The mouth of the river at the Kenai Peninsula

Lots of people there, gutting the fish and whatnot.

Washington Trip

A couple of weeks ago Julia, Elliott and I headed down to Washington for my cousin Juli's wedding while Joshua held the fort with the boys here.  It was wonderful to see everyone--all of my brothers and families were there, along with many cousins on the Little side.  I got to relax while people passed Elliott around and Julia loved the attention from aunts and uncles and everyone else there.  We enjoyed some time with the Swifts too, and Julia got to meet cousins Andrew and Mallory, and also got to do a date with her aunt Talitha for her very first pedicure.

Joshua, Ethan and Christian lived it up here going camping, hiking, doing building projects at the home improvement stores, and visiting the library (reading 200+ books for the summer reading program), with unlimited treats and movies to boot.

Julia and cousins with Juli the bride

Julia and Elliott with Grandma and Grandpa Swift and Andrew and Mallory

At the temple with my immediate family

Summer Activities

For Memorial Day we tried a new hike as a family up in the mountains east of Anchorage called Wolverine Pass.  It was a great trail, but long and really muddy near the end, so we stopped after a couple of miles, had a picnic, then headed back.  Julia and Ethan walked almost all of it, and Christian would have loved to, if he hadn't been strapped into the stroller.  All of the trails around here have signs at the beginning warning hikers of bears, and so we are always on the lookout but haven't seen any to date.  We are glad.

Ethan's Birthday

Ethan turned 4 in May!  As a family we went to a kids' bouncing place, and a couple days before his birthday he had a superhero party.  It was a lot of fun--Joshua planned it as a scavenger hunt where the superheros (all the kids) had to follow the clues and do different heroic activities to be able to ultimately find a stolen treasure.  The activities included popping balloons, sending parachute guys off the deck, musical chairs, and looking through superhero sunglasses.  Everyone had a lot of fun, and there were only minimal fights, mostly in the last 15 minutes of the party, so I would say it was a success.

The Birthday Boy and siblings (minus Elliott)

Eating Batman cupcakes at the party with friends

Looking super handsome in his new suit!

Record Breaker

It's official. We beat the record for most winter snowfall this year! So finally we have bragging rights as compensation for our hours and hours of shoveling the driveway. Below is a picture out our winter yesterday as the record breaking last three inches fell, bringing it up to 133 inches to date.

In essence, we got twice as much as average seasonal snowfall. We can't wait for spring!!

Easter fun

Who would have guessed that we could enjoy not only a white Christmas, but a white

Thanksgiving and a white Easter as well! We began some Easter festvities yesterday with a lunch/Easter egg hunt at the church. Luckily the lunch was indoors, but after we all headed to the parking lot for the hunt, or should we say mini Mt. Everest climb. It was quite a challenge, and more than a few eggs got lost in the snow, but the kids still had fun.

The terrain:

The Easter bunny also visited our home yesterday afternoon during quiet time. The kids were really excited to hunt eggs, even the second time around.

And this picture is from this morning, with everyone in their Easter best!

IDITAROD

One of the unique perks about living in Alaska is getting to be part of the Iditarod and other cool winter events. This was our first year getting to watch the start of the race because we were closing and moving into our house last year at this time. So FYI, the Iditarod just has a ceremonial start through Anchorage; after riding through town, the dogs and mushers are flown to Willow, where the race officially starts. The race is from Willow to Nome, and has an interesting history. It commemorates a rescue trip made by early mushers to bring medicine to dying children in Nome when bad weather prevented any other form of transportation to the city. In Anchorage the race goes through the town, and people cheer all along the way. Here we are watching the dogsleds about a mile from the starting line.

The Iditarod coincides with Fur Rendezvous, which we posted a little about earlier. Fur Rondy started with trappers coming together around this time of year from the villages to trade and sell their furs. This week we went to the snow sculptures, which were pretty amazing. The first prize was a giant-size polar bear playing a piano which was balanced on top of a walrus. Pretty creative, and I don't know how they managed to balance the snow just right so the whole thing wouldn't collapse. The one below is one of the simpler sculptures, but we liked it because we were celebrating Christian's second birthday and it seemed appropriate. We also went to a fur auction, and watched it for a while. The bidding ranged from about $200 for fox skins up to $650+ for bear skins. I didn't know this kind of thing still went on, but I guess people have to acquire all their animal furs somehow. We see furs on the walls of many of the homes we've been to up here. Check out some of the characters we got to rub shoulders with at the auction: one guy had a white wolf hat, a fur coat, and then two wolf heads for gloves. These are actual dead animals! His thumb went in the lower jaw, and the other four fingers were in the nose section, kind of like a puppet. And...they wanted to picture with us! Actually they thought their grandchild would like Christian's froggy hat. Maybe they thought it was a real frog. :) Honestly though, there were quite a few sporting the furs, and it was a unique experience being part of the true Alaskan crowd.

Christian's Birthday

Last week we celebrated Christian's birthday. I can' t believe our baby is two! Of course, he hasn't been the baby of the family since Elliott was born, but sometimes he still wants to be, and he definitely still has plenty of baby chubs to squeeze. A little about Christian: he loves to do whatever his older sister and brother are doing, even if his little body can't quite do it at their speed; he is a pro-climber, gives great hugs, likes to look at books, and loves anything to do with Cars (note the huge Cars swimsuit he is wearing--Ethan's, but he insists on wearing it all the time, even to bed). He has some awesome facial expressions, likes to throw things, and loves to help cook and go outside. Here are some pictures of the birthday celebrations, including his train cake and a few presents.

Winter Fun

Since the weather has been really nice (high 20s) lately, we have been able to attend some fun community events these last few weeks. The first was an Ice Fishing Jamboree put on by a local boy scout troop (we think). It was held at a local lake, where the scouts? had drilled dozens of holes in the ice and also cleared a large area for racing, provided fishing poles and bait, a warming tent with hot chocolate and snacks, and prizes to boot! Although we didn't stay for too long, we had a really good time and were impressed with the work put into it and the focus on children. The kids fished for a little while, then warmed up in the tent and played a little on the big toy (half covered in snow) before we headed out.

This last weekend was Fur Rondy, which is an annual city event to kick off the Iditarod. There are sled dog races, ice and snow sculptures, trappers trading furs, fur bikini contest (true!), outhouse races, footraces, snowshoe softball, and a big carnival to give you an idea. We went on Friday to see some of the sled dogs race around the town and the ice sculptures. It is still going on, so we may attend some more events next weekend.


And some pictures at home:
Did we mention we have been getting record-breaking snowfalls this year? This picture doesn't give it justice really, but the snow in our yard is currently above the kids' waists and would be much higher if you counted the snow that has melted and/or packed down. We all had to literally wade through it last week in making a snowman. Christian couldn't move through it at all (it was about as high has he was) and had to be carried to wherever he needed to go.