Ethan's birthday

We are going all out of chronological order here, but we will try to put more in as we go through our pictures.  A few weeks ago we celebrated Ethan's fifth birthday, and had a lot of fun.  We went to the zoo to see the new baby polar bear (yes, that is snow that still hasn't melted in the background!), We hosted an army party with his friends with some rigorous boot camp activities and anything we culd think of to burn off preschool energy, and finally had a family party with some cake and a movie night.

He is really growing up!  He enjoys reading and being read to, he loves attempting everything Julia reports to have done or learned in Kindergarten, he is always praying to be a good example to his younger brothers, loves being a superhero and sword fighting with Dad, and doing anything crazy.  I am always impressed with his ability to succeed in whatever he wants to, whether it be learning to do a headstand he saw a cousin perform, memorize an Article of Faith or scripture, hitting the ball, or learning school things.  He is confident and cheerful, a wonderful helper, and silly and fun.  Here is some typical Ethan:  the other day (a few days after we had talked about how the Atonement works), younger brother Christian had hit him, for which the consequence is take a time out in the bedroom.  After I reminded Christian to go to his room for hitting and hearing Christian cry about the consequence, Ethan asked if he could go to his room for a time out in place of Christian.  So sweet--the big brother superhero.

Ethan is starting Kindergarten this fall and is ready to take it on--we love him and are so glad he is part of our family!

Elliott's Birthday

So I know this post is hugely belated, and Elliott is doing all kinds of new tricks now and must weigh a few more pounds as well, but at least I'm getting it on here.  We celebrated Elliott's first birthday back in January, and I think he had a perfect day.  We didn't do anything fancy, just made sure to give him extra attention, let him feed himself some cake, played some chase on all fours, and got out our especially baby toys (as opposed to having him just play with whatever the big kids have gotten out) and I think it fulfilled all his birthday dreams.  He really did smile and laugh a lot, which was so fun to see.  He is such a happy, cheerful baby.  He loves his siblings, loves interacting and playing games, still snuggles a little bit, is a great sleeper, and has lots of lovely chubs to squeeze.  We just love having him in our family, and it is the sweetest thing to see his bright, smiling, little face in the morning as I get him out of his crib.  He has begun to say quite a few words now too, and walks a few steps here and there, although it is not his main form of transportation yet.

We love you Elliott!  Happy Birthday handsome boy!

And the Total Is...

Julia accumulated a total of 12,469 pages this month for her school's read-a-thon. Way to go Julia! Thanks to those that donated!  Julia had a fun time reading to support her school and just for the fun of it.

Read-a-thon

Julia's school is doing their annual fundraiser. Instead of going door-to-door selling candy bars or something like that, they are asked to find people to sponsor their reading. If you are interested in sponsoring Julia, here is how it works. You pledge a certain amount of money (maybe a tenth of a penny, or a penny, or somewhere in between) for each page she reads or is read to in the month of March. We then read with Julia as much as we can. In the end the money goes to the school for things like improving their library collection. If you are thinking about pledging just send us an email. And just so you know she averages about 10,000 pages in a month, but we are really going to go all out this month, so maybe even a little more than that.

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!