Where did this weather go?

A couple of months ago it was warm enough for this in Fairbanks... now we have 5 inches of snow and it's FRIGID!

Jordan's First Swim Meet

Today was Jordan's very first swim meet. We arrived at the pool bright and early at 7:30 this morning. Jordan had 2 events to swim. A 25 meter butterfly and a 25 meter backstroke. He was so incredibly nervous that I thought he was going to run and hide in the locker room. He did great! He placed 3rd in the 25 meter butterfly with a pace of 33.28 seconds and 2nd in the backstroke with a pace of 32.38.

I forgot the big camera, so these were taken with my phone. Jordan is in the water doing the backstroke.
Getting a pep-talk from his coach.

Batman says "BOO"

I joined Brady and his friends for a Halloween party. We decorated cookies, played all sorts of games, and even had a pinata. Brady is Batman this year and his fake muscles crack me up.

Creating New Smiles

Jordan and Ava had their braces/space makers installed about 10 days ago. What an adventure it has been. I remember having braces and I remember my mouth being very sore. So first 5 days I pureed, made homemade soups, and bought baby food for my little munchkins. Jordan thought they were super cool to have for the first 5 hours. When the pain kicked in... he was DONE. Begged to have them taken off and I was the meanest Mom E-V-E-R for making him get braces. Ava did much better than Jordan but she only had half of the devices.

Halloween Preview

We joined some friends from the past (our first time at Fort Wainwright) for a Halloween Party last weekend. Enjoy!

Snow

It started snowing about 10 days ago and as I write this, we've accumulated another inch tonight. Beckett stood out front for a photo. The backyard accumulates faster because of a weird heating/sewer system that runs under our front yard. The backyard is definitely more beautiful (just don't look to close or you might see Harley's poo).

SMILE!

I've reached another parenting milestone.... the ORTHODONTIST. I can't believe how much money it costs to have a beautiful smile these days. I just keep telling myself that "Teeth last a lifetime!" I have sticker shock right now and I even told my 8 and 6 year old that they might be getting smiles for Christmas..... For.the.next.10.YEARS!

They are not getting actual braces on just yet. Jordan will in about 12 months and Ava won't for quite a while still. They are both getting palatial spacers that will expand their upper jaws to accommodate all of their adult teeth that don't have any space. Basically... it is going to widen their jaws by 1 millimeter every day for 1 month. Each evening I will turn a key to make the spacer expand. After the month is up, it will stay in for 6 months to keep the jaw in place. YIKES!

Swim Team

Jordan is officially on the Midnight Sun Swim Team here in Fairbanks. He and his little friend, Grace have been practicing their lap swimming for the last couple of weeks. Last night was the team try-outs. Although, he didn't say he was nervous... he did ask what would happen if he didn't make the team and Grace did? I told him that he would just be playing basketball. But, they both made the team!

The best part of the whole thing is that the swim team practices at night and not super early in the morning. For Jordan's age group, he will be practicing twice a week. I'll take them on Tuesdays and Grace's Mom will take them on Thursdays.

Equinox Marathon

Charlie and a few guys that he works with ran the Fairbanks Equinox Marathon two weeks ago. The Equinox is the 2nd most difficult marathon in North America. They climbed over 2000 feet of elevation and went up and down hills for 26 miles. The race is all done on trails and it crosses roads at certain points, so I staged out all of the places we could give snacks and drinks. All of the kids enjoyed playing in the woods while the ladies waited for our runners to come through.

The guys after the race!

This is how the Equinox Marathon starts out.... by heading up this steep hill on University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Charlie coming down the finish line chute.

Indian Summer

We had an Alaskan Indian Summer that lasted about 10 days. It was fun while it lasted. Today, our high temperature was 41. It felt more like 21! Snow is in the forecast for September 30th, but meteorologists are always wrong up here. Which means 2 things... it's going to snow before that or after.

Our Fairbanks Fall lasted about 10 days from the time the leaves started turning, until today when they are ALL off the trees.

Brady had a field trip to non-profit farm that supports the food shelter. We (me and Beckett) joined him for the day. Here is my big, preschooler feeding the sheep.

September Happenings

It is hard to believe that we are already mid-way through September. The leaves are changing and are falling quickly up here in the great state of Alaska. By my estimations... we have approximately 3 weeks before we are freezing our patooties off and shoveling snow. Aside from the shoveling part, we are ready. Every kid has boots, ski pants, warm jackets, gloves, hats, face masks, and mittens.

Jordan and Ava are adjusting well to their new school schedule. Brady has started preschool/speech and we are falling into a nice routine. I've become Queen of the Copying room at the elementary school. I need to bring my camera, but Beckett has taken more than one nap on the floor with the copier buzzing in the background. He sleeps through anything when he is tired enough. I copy, cut, paste, and laminate for Jordan and Ava's teachers during Brady's speech sessions at their school.

I am still running our FRG (Family Readiness Group) for Charlie's company and I am counting down the days until it's over. He comes out of command in December so only a few more months!!! While I generally enjoy helping people/new Army spouses out... it's exhausting and sometimes I feel like it has taken over my life. Last month, I logged 65 hours of time toward it! Between fundraisers, sending out emails, going to meetings, etc., the time adds up fast.

More detailed posts coming soon... but I have a much-needed date with a wonderful man tonight that I need to get ready for.

First Day of School!

Jordan and Ava started traditional school on Wednesday. Jordan is now in the 3rd grade and Ava is in 1st Grade. They are getting so BIG! It was a very difficult decision to make in regards to traditional school vs. homeschool. Charlie will be away quite a bit over the next 6 months and then he will deploy to Afghanistan for 1 year in the Spring, so we decided that it would be best to let the kids try traditional school. I enjoyed every bit of homeschooling, but the days can be very long when Charlie is away and I just don't think I could do it with him away. After first semester is over we will re-evaluate and if traditional school isn't working out, then we can always bring them back home. We are continuing with our homeschool Math curriculum and history in a process that I am kindly referring to as "afterschooling" or "beforeschooling" because it doesn't take too long to do and the kids enjoy both of them.

There were other factors that went into our decision as well and the other big piece is that Brady will be attending speech therapy sessions 3 days a week at Jordan and Ava's school. He is showing improvement already, but he really needs some quality time with me as we work on getting him ready for reading next year.

After I shed my first day of school tears, I went home with Brady and Beckett and taught Brady how to tie his shoes and say the word "Yellow" properly.

Worth a pack of Wipes

We've had a few wildfires in the Interior of Alaska this summer... so when I asked Ava and Brady what happened to the moose? They told me that he was rescued from a forest fire.

Great-Grandparents!

My Grandparents visit Alaska every summer, but they usually are in Anchorage to visit my Aunt and Uncle. Anchorage is 5 hours from Fairbanks, so they flew up here for a quick visit. We had a wonderful visit and truly enjoyed our time with them. We played games, did puzzles, and visited a local park with them. Here they are with our kids right before we took them back to the airport.

Jordan's Fish

Jordan is so proud of this, that I thought he deserved a post of his own. He was our only child tall enough to go on a charter boat and fish for Halibut and Cod with Charlie. They went out on a 12 hours fishing tour and caught 4 halibut and 1 Ling Cod. When I asked Jordan his favorite part of the trip... he said that he liked to stomp on the fish when they put them on the deck of the boat. Apparently, you stomp their tails to keep them from wiggling around and it helps end their lives. Being that he was the only kid on the boat with 12 adults, he was allowed to be the official "Fish Stomper". Our freezer is full and we will be eating fish for a while.

Seward, Alaska

In the beginning of July we spent almost 2 weeks on vacation and part of it was spent in Seward, Alaska. Seward is a small fishing town on the Kenai Peninsula that is about 9 hours south of Fairbanks. It was wet and rainy for the entire week that we were there, but we still had a good time. Here are a few of the pictures from our week in Seward.

A view of Exit Glacier.
A close-up of us at Exit Glacier.

Brady showing off his Junior Ranger badge from Kenai Fjords National Park.

Jordan and Ava on our boat tour in front of another glacier. Charlie took this picture, so I don't know what Ava was so unhappy about.

A humpback whale waving "good-bye" to us.

Waiting to board our boat.

Ava and Brady in front of the harbor on a sunnier day.

Wild Raspberry Jam

On Friday afternoon we spent a couple of hours picking wild raspberries in the forest. Ava was a bit frightened that we would get eaten by a Mama Bear. She spent the first 30 minutes in the van, scared to come out and convincing Beckett that the bears were coming. After some coaxing, we got her out of the van and then she enjoyed her time. It was sort of an impromptu picking, so we didn't have the camera to take pictures. Then the boys were not as interested in making the jam as they were picking the berries. Ava spent the morning making jam in her jammies with me and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Just Keep Swimming...

Our kids have spent an hour a day for the last 4 weeks in swim lessons and their progress has been amazing to watch. Brady was deathly afraid of the water 6 months ago and wouldn't allow me to let go of him at the pool. Now he is a little fish!!! He can swim to the bottom of 3.5 ft of water to retrieve dive sticks, he can swim alone and without any floatation devices for a distance of about 12 feet, and he is loving it!!!!

Ava and Jordan are both progressing for their ages. Ava will be joining Jordan in a level 3 swim class next month because she just passed her level 2 certification today. I was shocked that she passed because she is more of a social butterfly in the class than anything else. :) She is a bit nervous about moving up because she will have to swim in 12 feet of water for most of her level 3 class.

Jordan will repeat level 3 for the 3rd time because he can't seem to fine-tune his breathing patterns when his face is in the water. He is a strong swimmer, but just doesn't have the breathing part down. I bet he will pass the level 3 test next month because who wants to have their little sister in the same class?

I am proud of all of them and I am so thankful for the opportunity to have them in swim lessons.

10K Midnight Sun Run

Last night I ran in the annual 10K Midnight Sun Run in celebration of Summer Solstice. Summer Solstice in Fairbanks, Alaska means you literally get 24 hours of daylight. The daylight is awesome! You either love it or you hate it. But if you are like me, you love it because you are well aware that winter equinox means hardly any daylight.

4,000 people ran in the race last night. There is a costume contest as well and my goal was not allowing the man in the big, fat bagel costume to beat me. Thankfully, I beat the bagel! More than just a race, it is a celebration of summer solstice. Almost every house along the route has a crowd of their own as they barbecue, drink beer, soak runners with water, and play music.

Here are a couple of photos of some folks from our Brigade and Battalion that ran the race with me. Charlie was missed, but we are alternating race events for the summer and he had just completed a 100 mile bike race last weekend. These photos were taken 11:30 pm!

Inspired by Kristina

Last summer I helped a good friend plant a vegetable garden at her house in Germany. This year I decided to see if I have a green thumb of my own. I am pleased to report that we have zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes on the plants. They are very tiny, but still flowering. I can't wait until we can eat it!

PROJECTS

When I take on projects like this:

Something has got to give, like this:

I started painting Brady and Beckett's bedroom two nights ago and it turned out to be a much larger project than I had anticipated. I had no idea how hard it was to move bunk beds from one side of the room to another and turn an area rug without another set of hands. Now it's done and I have some other household chores to catch up on....

By the way.. the window photo was taken at 11:46 pm! Loving the AK daylight!

Caribou

We drove to Anchorage for Memorial weekend and on our way, we were able to catch a close-up of 2 caribou. They were lazily grazing on the side of the road and were not at all phased by us.
I wish I had more pictures to share with everyone from our trip, but I forgot my camera and my phone took this caribou picture and that is all I have for pictures.
We spent the weekend with some Army friends and then had a chance to meet up with my Aunt and Uncle who live in Anchorage. If I could choose between Anchorage and Fairbanks... Anchorage would win. After all... they do have a Target! (And of course... friends, family, and more mountains!)

Big and Little

How to Bake an American Pie

We spent our afternoon baking an apple pie together. Tomorrow the post commander will be reading the book, "How to Bake an American Pie" by Karma Wilson to our kids at a story hour put on by The Military Child Education Coalition. There is also an American Pie bake-off at story hour, so we decided to enter and the kids did the majority of the work and I supervised.

Step 1: Peel those apples!
Step 2: Cut the apples (I did most of that, so no picture).
Step 3: Squeezing some fresh lemon juice and shredding the lemon for zest.

Step 4: Measuring the yummy stuff: sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.

Step 5: Rolling out our dough that we made the day before.

Step 6: Adding the top crust.

Step 7: Adding egg to the crust.

Step 8: Bake at 425 degrees for one hour and....TAH-DAH you have and AMERICAN APPLE PIE!!!!