A Hoppin' Friday Night

These pictures were actually from last Friday night that I just hadn't gotten around to posting. As usual, there are no pictures of me because I was taking the pictures (and making dinner). By most people's standards our Friday night was probably pretty lame, but we had a great time just being together.
Shawn spent some time using his meat grinder attachment for my mixer. His hunting buddy graciously gave us a lot of his moose meat. We had some of it processed "professionally", because it was just too much meat for a working Dad to do all on his own, but Shawn did do a portion of it himself. Praise the Lord for a full freezer. We're hoping we won't have to buy any red meat for a good part of the year if not until next moose season. And the grinder worked great!Carly did some "kool" work. (That's pretty much how it sounds when she says school.) I've been trying to have her do something academic at least once a week as a sort of home school preschool. This day she was outlining the letters of her name with dried beans. And also she counted out 10 beans into different groupings. This week she also worked on sorting small like objects from the kitchen that I put together in an empty egg carton. She really likes doing things like this and always begs to do more. Also, three other moms from church and I have also started a rotating preschool playgroup. We take turns hosting each week and do something structured with them as well as letting them play together. So far it has been great. Carly gets to take her lunch box with her and she really thinks she's going to school--even though she's just going to Michael's house.
Isaac spent time Friday night, as usual, playing around on the floor in the kitchen. He likes to be in the center of the action. So whenever I'm in the kitchen he's usually there playing in the tupperware drawer or with the magnet letters on the fridge.
And this was Isaac after dinner. It was the first time he's done this, and probably not the last.
Hope you had a great Friday night with your family too!

Not-So-Cowardly Lion

We had more sunshine today, so I took more pictures. I did a little photo shoot with Isaac so I could get a picture for his birthday party invitations. We're doing a zoo animal theme and it's just a week and a half away! So I took pictures of him in his Halloween costume for the coming year. He was much better about getting his picture taken today. So that made it much more fun. I took a ton and got several really good shots. None of these made the cut for the invitation, but I wanted to share them with our blog audience. Enjoy!

Autumn Day

Today was a beautiful day in Juneau. We woke up to discover that we had a bit of frost last night. I was concerned about the herbs I still have growing in my garden, but Shawn said it wasn't a very hard frost. And I suppose he should know since he's up all night patrolling now.
Anyway, having frost last night meant no cloud cover which fortunately lasted all day today. That made today was very picture worthy. So while Carly was at her preschool playgroup, Isaac and I had a little "momma/son" time. We took a walk out towards the glacier. (I cheated though, since I had errands I wanted to do. I drove part of the way, and we walked from the car instead of our house.) We even went down to the lake which is already getting icy on the surface. And we saw some bear prints and scat in and on the sand. Of course, Isaac didn't notice these things. No actual bears though. I did see a Forest Service lady walking around with a can of bear mace though. So that kind of made me wonder if I should be concerned, but we didn't have any problems. Besides I think I can run faster than a lot of those tourists--even with a baby in my arms!
Anyway, back to the story...we parked the stroller up on the side walk and then went down to the lake. I was hoping to take some great pictures of just Isaac with the morning sun on his face. But he was so intrigued with the sand, rocks, leaves, etc and not so much with the camera. So that's why there are so many "serious" faces. Here are some of the shots I got of him today.

Looking at the water--or maybe the bear scat? "I wonder if I can eat this? I better be fast before Momma stops me."

Trying to run away--ha, ha!

I never get tired of this view! Even though we live just a few minutes away from this spectacular sight, I never get tired of it. In fact, probably 75% of the time I bring my camera with me when we go to the glacier. And most of the time, I just can't help from taking this classic picture of the glacier. Check out the snow we got on the top of the mountain to the left of the glacier. That is fresh.

This is the stretch of road between our street and the glacier. It looks so beautiful right now with the leaves changing color. The camera just never does these types of shots justice. I absolutely love driving down streets like this in fall. It reminds me of the street in Mito, Japan near Senba Elementary School that turned a brilliant gold in the fall when the ginko trees changed colors. Love it!

Pearly Whites

Yesterday, Carly had her first dentist visit. I scheduled her appointment to follow mine, so she was able to watch everything before it was her turn. She wasn't so sure at first. In fact, several times she said the classic words, "I don't want to go to the dentist" before we even left home. But thanks to our great hygenist, Carly was fairly comfortable and did a great job. Plus no cavaties! I was a little surprised when I heard the dentist say that though, because I wasn't even expecting cavaties. I guess I was just thinking that the first visit would just be a gloried tooth brushing. But they were telling me that the day before they saw a three year old with a mouth full of cavaties. So I guess we are doing something right and have good teeth.

A Few Days of Practice

Isaac has been putting in some good practice lately and is getting more and more confident about walking. It still amazes me that he's walking before his 1st birthday. I know lots of babies do, but it still seems so crazy to me. We are also making our first attempt at posting video on the blog, so hopefully this works for everyone. Enjoy!

The Hunter Has Returned

Shawn returned on Sunday afternoon from a week long moose hunt with two other friends. They were successful and able to get one very large moose. Mark was the lucky shot that got this enormous beast. Shawn estimated that it was somewhere around 1500 lbs. It also had 7 brow tines on one side and 5 on the other--if that means anything to you. If it doesn't then, just trust me that's huge. Mark was also gracious enough to share some of the meat with us (of the probaby 800 lbs total), so we've got quite a bit for our freezer.
The picture above is of Carly with Shawn over at Mark and Connie's unloading things after they arrived via the ferry. Carly says she wants to go moose hunting with Shawn next time.
Shawn has many more pictures and stories to tell. Hopefully he will document them on the blog in the coming days.

Big Day for a Little Man

Today Isaac officially started walking--at home, in the kitchen. I was pretty excited and surprised because I knew he was close but I didn't really expect it quite so soon. It probably has to do with expecting him to crawl for about 2 months before he actually did. On the other hand, I had a feeling that Isaac would start walking while Shawn is gone on his moose hunt. Wouldn't you know it!
Anyway, I got his second attempt at walking on video. The first attempt was only seen with eyes--mine and Carly's. Then later I got the regular camera and took some still shots. We used Carly and her shopping cart like a carrot taunting a donkey. It worked pretty well, but Isaac was a bit distracted by wanting to play with the things in her cart rather than just walking to catch it. I don't know how to connect our video camera to our computer, so that will have to wait until after Shawn gets back on Sunday. For now, here are some of the still shots I got.

In mid-step

giving up and crawling for a bit
pulling up to try again
and falling down--good thing for soft tushes and cushy diapers
whoa, steady there

Carseat

Last night I pulled out the infant carseat that we used for Isaac (and Carly too) so I could get it cleaned up better. We quit using it right before we went down to Oregon, and it got forgotten about and set out in the shop after we got back. So I decided to give it some attention before putting it away for real.

Isaac also turned 11 months old on Sunday. So I guess technically he is only a baby for one more month. He has grown SO much--even though he was plenty big enough to begin with. Check out these pictures of him at 11 months and then 1 day old--leaving the hospital.

And he's done!

Carly felt like posing too.

Here's Carly at almost 3 1/2 years old and 1 1/2 weeks old--her first trip to church.

Wow, they really do grow like weeds!

Seriously

Tonight while I was putting dinner on the table, Carly told me something that made me laugh out loud. I stopped what I was doing, just so I could write it down so I wouldn't forget exactly how she had worded it. This is a direct quote from my three year old, and the whole thing was completely out of the blue.

"There was a spider on my baby doll's head. And I was like, what?! That's nasty!"

Where does she come up with these things?

Carly the Builder

Yesterday, Carly came and got me out of another room to show me the tower she built. I was quite impressed when I saw it in the family room. I think it's definitely the best "tower" she's ever built.

Here's a close up.

Today after much errand running we took Shawn to the ferry terminal to meet his hunting party. Shawn, Mark, and Norm are headed near Tok, Alaska for moose hunting. They got on the Malispina ferry and will be getting off in Haines shortly. Then it's a 1 1/2 hour drive to the Canada border. Drive through Canada for I don't know how long, and hop back over across the Alaska border and it's not far to Tok. I think it's something like 6 hours of driving one way. Anyway, they'll be gone for a week, and hopefully they'll each get a moose. Between a moose and halibut our freezer will be VERY full.

On our way home from the ferry terminal, we stopped at the duck pond. It was a perfect day to feed the ducks. I've also noticed that the ducks are much hungier and there's more of them in late summer/early fall. It's also seriously one of Carly's favorite things to do. We had a big bag of bread heels to toss into the water, so we had a good long time feeding the ducks.
This is what Isaac was doing while we were feeding. I was pretty impressed with myself for taking this picture of him while he was on my back. And it was only the second picture I took.



Carly is learning to pump her legs on the swing. It's really fun to see her grow and learn.

Cramping His Style

Last week, Isaac met the end of his free-for-all with the kitchen cabinets. We finally found some cabinet door locks in stock at Walmart and Shawn installed them. When Isaac was finally allowed back into the kitchen after Shawn was finished, he went straight for the cabinet doors. He had a perplexed look on his face and actually let out a bit of a scream when he realized that he couldn't open it. Then he crawled over to the tupperware drawer which he knew he'd be able to open, and he was.

It has been so nice since last week. There's no more battles about the doors. And he really doesn't even bother the cabinets anymore. He seems fine with it. I guess he better get used to it. I'm sure there will be other times in the future when his parents will cramp his style.

This was Isaac tonight before bed, playing in "his drawer"--the tupperware drawer.

Say What?

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in an adult Bible class listening to some comments being made about the topic we were studying. When one man was speaking, I quickly realized that after about every 4^th or 5^th word I was having to think twice about the meaning of his chosen vocabulary. He was using words like “sociologically speaking”, “post reformation perspective”, and other big words that required extra mental attention on my part. All of the sudden, it occurred to me that the words this guy was saying were coming out so easily and sounded like everyday vocabulary for him and were nothing like what I say daily.

So here’s a short list of things that I’ve noticed I say on a daily basis:

“No, sir.”
“Because I said so.”
“Leave your brother alone.”
“Have a good day, honey.”
“Go potty.”
“Come here please.”
“Not right now.”
“Quit bossing him.”
“Be gentle.”
“What did I say?”
“Just a minute” (or often in Japanese “chotto matte”)
“It’s tickle time!”
“I love you.”

Not quite as glamorous of a vocabulary as what I heard the other night, but it has a purpose that I wouldn’t change for anything.



Then yesterday, Carly said something so funny. Shawn said it was blog worthy.
Shawn was looking for his hat. When he found it, this was the conversation that followed.

Shawn: Eureka!
Carly: No, you’re eeka!

This is probably because Shawn and Carly often get into little battles of “you’re silly”/”no, you’re silly”.

As Shawn said, you just can’t make this stuff up. It’s too good.