Here We Go Again

Don't be fooled, I haven't posted these pictures before. Just ones that are eerily similar. The reason for them is the same. If you've been keeping up with our blog for the past several months, you may remember my post about being avalanche victims. Last April, an avalanche happened south of town and took out some of the towers that bring our nice, cheap hydro electric power to us. So the entire city was on diesel generated power while the lines were repaired. We also paid something like $0.52 /kWh! Yikes! I remember how at the time we were all saying, "At least this didn't happen in January."

Well, actually now it has. Almost two weeks ago, another avalanche took down one tower. So were are back in conservation mode. The good news is that they may be done in about a week with the repairs. And the other good news is that since diesel is much cheaper than it was last spring, we'll probably only be paying around $0.25 /kWh. It could be worse. Here's the latest local newspaper article about it all if you're interested.

So just in case you thought your daily chores were tough to fit into your schedule, just be glad you aren't hang drying your laundry.

Surprising Lela

On Sunday afternoon, we attempted to give Lela a surprise baby shower. But being that her oldest daughter was in on the planning, she figured out the idea beforehand. Mother's intuition is strong in this one. And it doesn't help that Katie randomly asked her questions like, "Do you like white or yellow?" Hmm...Lela thought, "cake or roses?" You get the idea.
Lela was a little shy about the attention, but we all enjoyed spoiling her a bit. Since this is baby #6 and boy #5, the theme of the party was diapers, wipes, gift cards, or gifts for mom. We had a salad luncheon, followed by a few games (led by yours truly), and then presents and cake. All in all it was a great time for everyone.

Katie was quite proud of her cake decorating skills. She did a great job and Dana made a delicious cake.

Kathie S. accidentally dropped her keys inside her gift bag only to have Lela find them when she was opening presents. I'm guessing she had a momentary thrill, but then reality was too obvious of an explanation. I'm sure that after 6 babies and numerous baby showers this has to have been the most unique thing she's ever found in a present.

I was feeling the urge to be a bit creative for Lela, so I made her a set of 25 baby announcements. The white space on the card front is big enough to be a matte for a wallet size photo. The baby's birth info can be printed on cardstock and mounted on the back to make it a postcard. Or she can print it inside a card sized piece of cardstock and mount the blue announcement card onto the front of the card. I really enjoyed doing something creative and the only thing I had to buy was the brown polka dot adhesive riboon towards the bottom.

Bookworms

Over the past few weeks, Isaac has really gotten in to reading books. It's so nice that he is finding another way to "play". Of course, this brother and sister duo love to do anything together. (I'm sure that won't last forever, but it's really sweet while it lasts.) So they are often reading together. These are a few pictures of them that I've snapped over the past few weeks. One of their favorite spots to read is on Carly's bed, but any place will do. Wherever they can get their books to.

Playgroup Fun

This week I hosted Carly's playgroup at our house. It wasn't actually my turn, but Morgan's house was under a cloud of sickness (she didn't get to come this week), and Justus's dad is still recovering from his hernia surgery. For some reason Lela thought four three and four year olds would be too much for their house this week. (I can't imagine why.) It actually turned to be a great time for our house though. Lee is in Sitka this week, doing some training, so he wasn't trying to sleep in the next room. And Shawn's shift has changed for the new year, so he wasn't trying to sleep either. He actually was out doing some errands most of the time.
The kids had a good time. For our project, we put together some candy necklaces that came in a set I picked up on sale after Christmas. (I'm not sure why they were on sale, because they aren't Christmas-y, just winter-ish.) I realize that candy necklaces aren't the best project from a mom's perspective, but it was a great chance for them to practice some fine motor skills and have fun. I let them eat the leftover candies that didn't fit on their necklaces and then told them they had to ask their mom's before they had any more. They did a great job and enjoyed this project a lot.

The look of concentration

Justus the speed demon

Michael--a little slower, but mostly because he enjoyed the eating part first and then strung the candy beads

The weekly favorite--lunch from their own lunchboxes

There was a little less than thirty minutes left by the time we finished cleaning up after lunch. So I opted to put in a veggie tales movie. They seemed to enjoy the quiter chance to wind down. Isaac also took the opportunity to go on a belly button hunt. He was successful! Our little hunter--Daddy is so proud.

Rejoice

Monday night, we had a great reason to rejoice. Slader decided to dedicate his life to Christ. We are really proud of him and his decision, as I'm sure his parents are. It has been really amazing to work with Slader and the other teens at church for a little over a year now. It's been great to see them all grow and mature in their faith. In fact, in just over a year, our church has been blessed with 5 baptizms of our teens. It's been an amazing year of seeing God work in their lives.

Here's Slader's dad with him just before he baptized him.

Slader was pretty cold. I told him that I still had him beat though. I was baptized in the Yamhill river over Labor Day weekend at 11PM (Faith Quest).

Slader's mentor and friend, Cy, took his confession.

Slader's family during our welcome circle after his baptizm.

The group family shot

First Down

In honor of the College Football Championship Game that our favorite team, the Oklahoma Sooners, is playing in tonight, I thought I would post this video of Isaac.
A few weeks ago, he said his first two word combination: "first down". Shawn and Lee have been teaching Carly a bunch of the football referee signals and apparently Isaac was paying attention too. Just before Christmas, they were watching a football game and getting Carly to practice all the signals she's learned so far. When they got to first down, Shawn realized Isaac was saying it too. And to make it even better, he memorized the hand motion for it.
Isaac has said several words so far, but he really doesn't repeat them for very long. He hardly says "momma" or "daddy" anymore. But, of course, "first down" has stuck like glue and is said almost everyday in our house. Makes you wonder what sport will be in Isaac's future.

Snow

Since January 1st, Juneau has received 20 inches of snow. Being that it's only January 7th (and I haven't heard exactly how much it's snowed today) that's a lot of snow! We've tried to get out an enjoy it. Yesterday, we played in the front yard. Isaac couldn't take his eyes off of Knox. Not even long enough to look at the camera for a picture.Carly's working on perfecting her snow angel making skills. She's got plenty of snow to practice in.

This picture gives you an idea of the depth of the pile on the side of driveway. It's well over Carly's head.

Unfortunately our "new" snow blower has had few troubles recently. Not a very good time to be "out of order". Shawn's been working hard to get it fixed. So he and Lee have been doing a little more shoveling than usual lately.

I took the kids on a short walk down the street in the sled. I guess they just love the feel of winter wind in their faces.

Bill, our new preacher, was over for a while yesterday. He was helping Shawn pull some of the snow off the roof. Doesn't that fit into your preacher's job description?

2008 Faves

I went through all the pictures we took in 2008 and came up with my top 12 favorites. They aren't in any particular order, but every single one of them has one of my children in it. I guess that ought to tell you what my favorite things are!

July--walking to the glacier

May--my boys at the beach finding a treasureMay--at the glacier
(I know Isaac isn't really looking, but I just love the carrier I have him in.)

March--at Victoria and Jesse's in Anchorage

May--playing in our backyard

June--on a walk

July--in Oregon at my parents house

July--in Hood River, giggling with Aunt Shannon

July--fresh from a paddle boat ride on Lost Lake

February--happy and fresh from a bath, 4 months old

December--watching Shawn use the snowblower

August--out at the glacier, showing Uncle Lee the sights