We're home

We're back! I'll try to explain more soon but for now I'll say Christmas involved strep throat for all six of us and a trip to Fairbanks.

Did you notice the snow on the blog? I love it! I am going to leave it up until the snow melts here. So when your snow is long gone you can come on over here and see ours :) *UPDATE- it didn't work out... it kept making my new background jump all over the place. So I deleted it.

Miss Macy is 6!

I realize this is going to be photo overload but we just had a crazy time choosing.
10 things Miss Macy did this year in no particular order:
1. Learned to read!
2. Lost her first tooth
3. Moved to Alaska
4. Started Kindergarten (in a public school)
5. Starred as girl #2 in the Frosty play
6. Began praying 'in her head' when she wants to talk to God
7. Road a boat up the Yukon river
8. Went to Disney World
9. Learned to swim
10. Got herself a 'motto' "I'm STRONG and I'm TOUGH and I won't give up!"

Rainbow party

For our 6 year old! Because I have too many photos (I am having a terrible time choosing) to add to her 6 yr bday post I am making this one separate. A rainbow birthday party deserves it's own post.
At her request we decided to have a rainbow party this year. Just us. A whole day marathon. We made pink pancakes for breakfast, decorated with our rainbow drawings, napped (still have one semi sick kido), made a rainbow layer cake, and dyed play silks! I even wrapped her birthday gift in the colors of the rainbow. That was a HUGE hit :)
Here are the photos...

Woooo HAPPY Bert-day!

Add food coloring to your 'funfetti' cake mix

Grease your pan

Cook your colors one at a time

Wash your dishes

The round pan didn't work... had to use a smaller rectangle 

RAINBOW CAKE!!!

Attempting to blow out the candle. She had a rough go with it. Apparently this face was going to help. LOL!

Sisters {love}

dying the play silks... more finished photos of that later... they went to bed with them.

the pretty and not so pretty

Walking to work last Monday was oh so beautiful. Joe came home and grabbed the bigs and Molly and Arwen stayed behind with me for a few more minutes (can't go to work without my tea!). It was a dark walk but, with the orange/yellow glow from the school's 'porch' light, it was nice. There was TONS of new snow on the ground and we added to the tiny foot path from the 3 before us. Molly took her time kicking snow, Arwen giggled all the way, and I thanked God for such beauty. Then we got to the steps which, like the ground, were covered with snow. Mr. Man was in town and hadn't been in to shovel in days. I curse myself for wearing my Toms instead of boots. Mountains of snow were piled high in the corners but we continue following the foot prints of the 3 before us. I again thank God for this magical time and decide right then to drop the kids off and go back for my camera. Here are some of those photos...

See the little path?

Sorry about the lighting... not exactly ideal conditions for photo taking

Toms. Perfectly lovely shoes... with frozen toes. These were to be the death of me later. 

Seems gorgeous right?  You can feel the warm air with a slight breeze telling you 'winter is on it's way back', you can feel the perfectly shaped snow flakes in your hair, and hear the echoing crunch of fresh snow. Right? Ok pretend. It's amazing and I again thank God for a wonderful start to my day. BUT in doing all this I delay tea time and inevitably get a pounding caffeine head ache. I let it go on to the point where I feel like I am going to vomit so I ask Joe to watch my class and head home for tylenol and herbs. I never made it. In my self absorbance I forgot about the bottom wood step... the one buried beneath the snow... the one you should step on carefully if you don't want to slip. I slipped. Hard. And busted my tailbone on that same step. Then I slid into the snow bank and laid there. I thanked God that I had not hit my head. You guys see the metal steps right? The ones with metal spiky things to keep you from falling in winter? I was this close { } to hitting the bottom one with my head on my way down. So no one sees. There is no one TO see. So I crawl up the steps and the pain kicks in, the cold kicks in, and so does the embarrassment. I am going to have to yell for help. Sad. I get inside the door and can't move another muscle calling for Joe to help. It takes a heavy dose of pain meds for me to be able to move again. I get home and spend the next week (and a half now) drugged and sitting on my side. Only the past 2 days have I been able to painfully sit on my bum again. And I stopped taking the pain meds... those things are addicting and I didn't want to become dependent on them. Sadly I stopped sleeping at night though... it would seem that I am dependent on them for painless sleep. Ah well. I keep going. What else is there to do?! I got sick kids (and a husband) to care for, Christmas gifts to sew, and a home to prepare for a home study! WAHOOO!

Alyeska brings Santa

Alyeska is the company that runs the great Alaskan pipeline, part of which is on Stevens Village land. For the past 10 years, Alyeska has flown Santa Claus into the village via helicopter and showered gifts on the kids living here. This year was no exception, and our kids got to be a part of all the magic of running outside to excitedly watch a helicopter that you just know Santa is flying go right over the school. It was a pretty cool way to experience the "mall" Santa, except this one actually gave you presents. Alyeska also brought boxes and boxes of fresh fruit!

Molly saw this super awesome lady elf come into the gym and ran after her  and gave her the sweetest bear hug!  The first magical photo blurred. This was second best. 

Can't have a santa without cookies and milk!

A little unsure of what is going on but happy non the less 

I can't believe how big he is getting!

Lots o fruit!!

We are still working on convincing her that Santa is not real. It's becoming quite a task this holiday season!

Joe is sick, Arwen is scared, I can hardly move because of a busted tailbone, and Molly just wants to hug the guy... not pose for a photo! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Snow much fun

The last couple weeks we have been enjoying some amazing weather! It went from -40 to 30 above... so we went to play many times but, as we have all been fighting sickness at different times, I don't think we all got to go out together more than once. There was tons of new snow (and old snow) to be knocked off the playground equipment, snowmen to be built, and kids to be buried in the sand snow. Here is a few of our favorites from the beach week.

TACKLE!

Point that thin in my direction and see what happens!

She did this whenever Joe aimed the camera in her direction. We hardly got any photos of her NOT throwing snow at us!

Macy! See her head poking out up there?

Teamwork

She really LOVED playing outside. I think she thought she was at the beach. She even took her hat off an buried it!

Dancing at a funeral

It's certainly not the way we do things, but it was a good reminder that we're not where we normally are, anyway. I mean, we are the only white people around.

A gentleman born in Stevens passed away in Fairbanks a week or so ago and wanted to be buried here. He was an Episcopal priest and had a large family in Fairbanks and they all came in for the funeral and the subsequent potlatch. We didn't go to the burial itself, never having met the gentleman, but we did brave the cold Alaskan winter for our first community gathering outside of the school that night, our first Koyukon Athabascan potlatch.

The community we were in before, Venetie, was Gwich'in Athabascan, like the overwhelming majority of our school district. Koyukon Athabascans speak a different language and have different customs, and definitely have different potlatches.

There were chairs lined up all around the walls of the community hall (a good Alaskan log structure with a "stove" to heat it, of course), and we found a spot for the whole family and settled in to wait. There was quite a bit of waiting, as the fish was still being cooked, but we entertained ourselves by talking with members of the immediate family (none of whom lived in Stevens) and seeing all the people slip when they first came into the doorway.

Before the fish arrived, an elder grabbed a traditional drum off the wall and EVERYONE jumped out of their chairs and got in a circle and started dancing and chanting in their language. A different gentleman had already warned me that I would be waved in to join if they saw me sitting on the sidelines...which of course I was, because I don't dance....but he waved me to join and off I went. I tried to get away with standing in the back, but they brought me towards the center. Women make an outer circle around the men in this culture. The dancing was a bit more complicated than tapping your front foot hard in rhythm to the drum, but I saw a few of the others getting away with just that, and no one was moving around in a circle or anything, so I went with that. I looked around self-consciously at a few people, but thankfully realized that no one was watching me, or watching anyone else for that matter. They were all having a blast, but it was a very serious fun; this was one of their customs. The drum beating and chanting caused an emotion not unlike being in the middle of people jumping up and down and yelling at a loud rock concert, but was more fun in a way because we were the ones making the music. Honestly though, it's quite hard to describe the whole experience. I survived (and enjoyed, although I don't need to do it again) the 3 or 4 songs they went through and made it back to the safety of my chair.

Gwich'in, based on our experience, don't dance with a drum. They "jig" with a fiddle. When the fish finally arrived, we found another cultural custom that is different with the Koyukon people. In Venetie, someone said "grace" and we all lined up, and it was a pretty long line in Venetie, so there was a bit of thinly-veiled rushing to get to your place in line. Here, they set out a wide strip of white paper at our feet all the way around the community hall. Someone got up and made a speech about the "soup", which had moose meat in it (brought from elsewhere; no one in Stevens got a moose this year), and was meant in a very symbolic way to be shared by the whole community out of the same huge kettle. Then, all the boys and young men got out of their places, grabbed a dish, and started serving each person, all the way around the community hall. Eventually our kids were offered the opportunity to help as well. All the dishes were divvied out to everyone, which meant you got a TON of food on your plate, way more than even a very hungry person with a large appetite could handle for a meal. I was about to protest and beg the next server to skip us when someone started passing around large resealable freezer bags to package all the leftovers in. I had 3 freezer bags full of moose meat alone, not to mention the king salmon and the rest of the food. As a side note, I hate fish. Unless I'm in Alaska. I love king salmon (and crab cakes). But don't ever try to get me to eat at Red Lobster.

So, we ate. Then the speeches began...which were, not to be rude, much too long and numerous for our poor 2 year old, especially because the community expected (and got) pretty much silence when someone else had the floor. A lot was said about the deceased and his life, some was said about God, some was said about education of the young, some was said, in undertones, about fixing the divides in the community, and some was said about holding on to the traditions. Finally the speeches ended and the FIRST part of the potlatch was over. We were done for the night; the rest of the community was going to come back in about an hour or so and REALLY start dancing. They danced until about 2 a.m. from all accounts I heard. And that, I guess, is how the Koyukon do funerals.

We don't do Santa

No. We just don't. There are many reasons why and I am sure I will get around to posting about them someday but for now... this post cracked me up! They are very close to our own thoughts about Santa. So from My Ugly Couch read elf on a shelf
With all that said... you wouldn't believe all the things that have happened this last week of school... there was a funeral (native style), I fell down the icy stairs, a few kids got sick, Joe is sick, 'Santa' came to the school, and we were visited by some amazing people with AMAZING gifts! It's just a WOW post for another day... gotta let the pain meds wear off first. ;)

New page on adoption blog

Our adoption blog is coming along nicely... well the design is lacking but we will work on that over Christmas break. Anyone do blog design for cheap?!


We added a FUNdraising page to that blog. YAY! Go check it out and share it with your friends, fam, and strangers if you'd like ;)


Joy Transferred 

Photography ebook/shopping with purpose

I was over here reading about shopping with a purpose (as I have been for a while now... she has some FANTASTIC posts over there!) Todays post was about this family and I just couldn't help but share this photography ebook for sale on their blog. They are waiting on a referral from the Congo so go on over and check it out! Don't forget to enter to win on the myoverthinking blog!

Macy lost a tooth

Yep she lost her first tooth this week.
How?
Eating an apple. It wasn't even loose!
We expected her "bruised" tooth to come out first because it hasn't grown for some time and it's "dead." Nope. That sweet little baby tooth on the bottom came right on out. "And it didn't even hurt!!!"
Did the tooth fairy come? Nah. Here, we put our teeth in jars of water and wait for them to turn into pennies LOL! Gav was confident that this is the way it was supposed to be when he lost his first tooth. But, as these things take time, the $ wasn't there the first day. DOH! She was a very patient girl though!
The tooth not only turned into a penny, but it brought 3 dollars along with it! CHA-CHING!

She has such a teeny tiny mouth. Some of the other teeth got some stretching room!

Heeyyy it changed into a penny!!

My sweet girl went and bought cupcake earrings off etsy that she is going to use for charms on necklaces she hand made for her best friend and her to have! My girl is oh so sweet! Sharing her 'winnings' with a missed BFF?! Oh my heart, it's too cute!

My baby turned TWO!!

Sweet little Arwen (or Ar-wee, as everyone here has taken to the name she gave herself) turned 2 last month!
We had a joint party with another kid in the village who had a birthday the day before. Her pops didn't make it in with either of our cakes the day before so we asked to do a joint party... didn't want anyones feelings hurt as the kids were already announcing they were coming to the Yo Gabba Gabba party :/
So here is the day in photos... in no particular order because the new blogger is confusing me.

Had a fantastic cake made! *giggles* 

Ate some tombstone pizzas!

Go ahead and sing- It's my party and I'll cry if I want to! Cry if I want to! 

Singing Happy Birthday to the birthday girls... without candles. DOH!

Tired baby big girl needs her Daddy... and my scarf.

PIZZA! It's a big deal to get frozen pizzas in the bush

Don't mess with her cake! Got it?!

We played some pin the party on Brobee's tummy. This was too funny. All the big kids cheated or missed but there were PLENTY of laughs!

I made her birthday dress out of an old tshirt and onesie.

She got a kitchen from Mom and Dad

and Green eggs and ham from one of the kids. See the ham/bacon in the background?

This big girl has been wearing her undies around the house, talking up a storm, and sleeping in her own bed (again)! She is such a cuddler and a sweet sweet girl. We just adore her and thank God often that we are her parents!
For lots of fun go revisit her birth post and 1 year bday post.