Just Chillin'

"Call it 'We Are Not Doing Stuff That We Are Not 'Upposed To Do'" -Ellora

2012-01-08T13:41:00.000-09:00

Owen:

Owen is crawling. He has been trying to for over a month but I think it was official a few days after Christmas. He is still pretty slow but it won't be long before he has full reign of the house. This morning he even climbed up the step from our den to the laundry room. He is such a Mama's boy and says, "Mama," when he wants me or if I walk in the room. He has done this for a while, but it was always hard to tell if it was volitional or not. It has been very deliberate lately, though.

Owen really enjoyed Christmas. He could tell there was something exciting going on and would get excited too. He enjoyed playing with his musical ride on train that Santa brought him and sat and played with it most of the morning. He is such a good baby and entertains himself well. He is even content to play in his saucer for a long time while I cook dinner or wash the dishes. Last night Tom and I were playing games with the girls. Owen crawled under the small table we were playing around. It has a glass top and he sat and watched us through it. He would get excited when we would because it looked like we were all looking at him.

He does not like to take baths. He doesn't like the noise that the faucet makes and will eye it nervously. The other day when I put him in the bath he grabbed hold of me and pulled himself up clinging onto my shirt. Owen has recently been constantly blowing raspberries, both with just his lips and with his tongue out. Sure it's cute, except for certain times, like when we're trying to feed him some baby food.

Owen is 21 lbs and is 95 % for weight and around 60 % for height

Ellora:

The big news with Ellora is potty training.

Ellora's hair is so long and thick that people say she looks like Rapunzel (she does look just like the baby Rapunzel in the movie) but she hates to get it combed so we have to sing, "brush and brush and brush and brush my hair" while we do it. She has such a funny personality and says the silliest things all the time. The other day she said (mostly to herself), "See my eyes? They are so tired. They're gwumpy, gwumpy, gwumpy!" This morning she came running in the den with a dress that she wanted to wear. She was giggling and when she got to me she said, "This wing (the tie on the dress) poked me. It went 'stick!'" She demonstrated by poking herself in the eye with it. It didn't poke just right so she proceeded to demonstrate several times, "It went 'stick.' It went 'stick.' It went 'stick.'"

For Christmas she got a Fur Real puppy. We named it Boppo after her imaginary friend. All Christmas morning she was feeding it fruit snacks, candy canes and cereal.

Ellora LOVES breakfast so much that she eats it as many as five times before lunch. She also loves fruit. I keep a basket of fruit on the cupboard but I will sometimes have to hide it because she won't leave it alone. Pears, bananas, apples, and oranges are some of her favorite foods.

The girls played red rover with the primary at a Christmas activity. The kids called "Red rover red rover send Ellora right over." Ellora ran to the other side but got scared just before she got there. She turned to go back but everyone including all the moms and dads began laughing. Feeling embarrassed and not knowing what to do she thew herself down in the middle of the floor and cried. So sad but so cute.

Ellora is so TWO lately and throws quite a lot of tantrums. She can be so sweet when she has had enough sleep, but it has been a struggle to get her to sleep when she needs. Hopefully now that things are slowing down we can get every one back on a regular bedtime.

Chalyse:

Chalyse is growing so much. She is tall for her age and I have had trouble finding her long enough shirts. She loves getting dressed and if I let her will sometimes change her clothes until she has worn every singe article of clothing. She's learning how to be so patient with her sister and often surprises me at how grown up she can act. She is also learning how to be obedient and is usually a big helper. She is learning how to write her letters a little bit. She got an electronic writing pad that shows her how to write letters. She also got Squinkies which are little squishy people and animals. She loves little things that she can collect and she likes to personify things, so these were the perfect gift for her. Chalyse likes to draw and is getting good at drawing eyes.

Earlier, we were printing something off of the computer and it was taking a while to get it ready. Chalyse was getting impatient, and I told her she had to wait for us to tell it to print it. "Print," she said to the printer, but it stubbornly disobeyed. She couldn't figure out why I thought this was funny.

Cowboy Casserole

2011-09-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

1 lb pasta
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 med onion chopped
1 can pinto beans drained and rinsed
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can sloppy joe sauce
frozen or canned corn
grated cheese

1.Cook pasta as directed till al dente or very firm
2.Cook ground beef and onion until meat is cooked thoroughly. Add corn and pinto beans to meat and onion until warmed.
3.Mix soup and sloppy joe sauce.
4.In a crock pot put a little bit of sauce mixture then layer pasta, sauce, meat mixture and grated cheese. Heat on low for about 2 hours or until cheese is melted. You can also cook in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 min.

Chalyse Logic

2011-06-12T11:18:00.002-08:00

This afternoon I was struggling with Chalyse to get her to obey. She was finishing up in the bathroom and I was fighting with her to wipe and then to wash her hands. Finally she accomplished these difficult tasks and we came out.

I decided to tell Chalyse a couple of stories. The first about a boy and his Mom. They were walking around the side of a wall. The Mom was several steps ahead of the boy and came around the wall to see a vicious dog ready to attack. She called to the boy to stop and immediately he obeyed even though he could not see the danger. The Mom expressed just how grateful she was that her son had learned to obey without question.

The second story was of a boy who was out playing in the yard and heard his fathers voice calling him to come. He quickly came running to his father. His father had not called him. It had in fact been the spirit warning him that he was in danger playing near a poisonous snake. The boys life may have been saved by learning to quickly obey his fathers voice.

After listening to these stories Chalyse said, "There are no snakes in the bathroom! That's silly!" and began to laugh.

The other day Chalyse said, "Mom everyone loves me." I agreed. She said, "Dad loves me, Ellora loves me, Baby Owen loves me. But Mom you don't love me."
I said, "Of course I love you. I love you very much!"
"but you don't love me because you won't let me watch a show."

Owen Chamberlain

2011-05-30T14:56:00.000-08:00

Owen Chamberlain was born after a quick labor. He was an even 8 lbs and 21 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing great.

We never had considered the name Owen until we became pregnant. Once we did, no other name seemed to fit. His first name is the surname of Tom's great (don't know how many "greats") grandparents that came from Wales.

His middle name Camille picked out several years ago after hearing her grandma tell stories about her (Camille's) Great Great Grandpa Chamberlain and what a great person he was. The night before Owen was born Camille's grandma had a vivid dream about her grandpa Chamberlian. She didn't know we had decided to use that name and was very thrilled when she found out.

His Eskimo name given to him by Patty Milligrock is Tikigaq (most closely rendered "ti-ki-awk"), the Inupiaq word for Point Hope.

Book Worm

2011-05-24T15:19:00.000-08:00

The other day as we were getting ready for the day, Chalyse evidently didn't think that just one book was enough. She pulled every single book off the shelf and started "reading."

Express Mail

2011-04-30T14:12:00.000-08:00

The other day while I was skyping with Camille and the girls, Chalyse was doing one of her favorite past times: pounding on the keys on the computer. Camille told her that if she didn't stop she would send her away (meaning into the other room). Chalyse got excited and said, "Put me in a box and send me to Dad? Please send me to Dad!"

Our Chalysie

2011-04-18T19:34:00.001-08:00

Chalyse really likes Taco’s. She doesn’t care much for breakfast but likes cereal and will often ask for it at other times of the day as well. She is very good at listening to and following directions when she wants to. She is very in tune with what people are feeling and will often observe what someone is doing and talk about why or what they were feeling. She understands complex ideas about people. She is very friendly and likes to talk to the neighbors. She makes them laugh. She like telling people her name and how old she is. She loves her sister and tries to watch out for her. She occasionally still likes tackling her to the ground to show her affection. She is so good at staying in her bed and going to sleep at night and usually sleeps very well. This is so significant because she has struggled immensely with both of those all her life. She likes going to nursery but only if Mom is there too. She gets excited when they do music time or a lesson and tries to listen very well.

Chalyse absolutely loves her daddy. Sometimes she calls him Daddio. She tells me how much she misses him every day and wants him to come home so he can hold her. She likes talking to him and Skype and can call and answers calls all by herself. She is very good on the computer and can do a lot on her own…which scares me a little. I guess I will have to keep an eye on her. She has had a lot more energy since we got to Utah. I think the sunshine and being able to get out of the house more has done her good.

Layover in Seattle

2011-04-03T19:19:00.000-08:00

Like I mentioned before on our way back to Utah we had a 12 hour lay over in Seattle and were able to spend the day with our good friends Andrea, Danny and Brixton. We went to a Children's museum, had some fish and chips for lunch and walked around Pikes Place. We had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures that Andrea took.

Settling In

2011-03-24T13:33:00.000-08:00

Our flights back to Utah went well. We stopped in Seattle for a few hours on Tuesday and spent the day with our friends Andrea and Danny and their little boy Brixton. Tom was in Utah for only 3 short days before heading back on his two day journey to the village. He made it back safe and is keeping busy with teaching, life guarding and a little more packing.

The girls and I are doing well and starting feel settled into our apartment. We are still missing a few boxes, mostly just toys but hopefully they get here soon. Like usual we are sick after traveling. We got the virus that has been going around. The cough and fever that wont seem to go away. Chalyse got it first and I think that Ellora and I are just at the beginning so it hasn't hit us too hard yet. Luckily Chalyse is usually a good sport about being sick and we haven't lost too much more sleep than usual.

My mom threw my sister Daurie and me a baby shower on Tuesday because we are both having a new gender than what we had before. It was a lot of fun and between that and trading baby clothes with Daurie I think I am almost ready for the baby. I had an other ultra sound on Monday and everything looks great. I did fail my glucose test though. It's not a big deal. I was just a little too high so I have to go back in for the 2 hour test.

Now that we are away from the isolation of the village we are planning to start a new blog for close friend and family to read. We plan to keep posting on this blog but for the more personal stories we would like to go private. Let us know if you would like to be invited to read and don't get an email from us in the next week or two.

Leaving the Arctic

2011-03-24T13:32:00.000-08:00

Our arctic adventure has officially ended for the girls and me. I am glad to be back to what I am used to: being around family, being able to drive to the store...things like that. But I have had a lot of mixed feelings about leaving. I have been apprehensive about being with out Tom for two months again but I have also been a little sad to leave this stage of my live and enter a new one.

Living in Point Hope has definitely been a huge challenge for us. On the flip side I have learned so much about myself and about other people by being there and as a result it has become a huge part of who I am now. One thing that I noticed about the people of Point Hope is how genuine they are. They do not pretend to feel one way or an other. They act exactly how they feel. This is both good and bad but it is nice to know that when they treat you like a friend it is not just because they feel obligated to. Here are some of our friends in Point Hope who will be missed.

Gail: She taught Mandy and I how to make the traditional native atigluks.

Patty: Her daughter is around Chalyse's age and the girls enjoys having her come over and play. Patty is a lunch worker and the girls liked seeing her when we came for lunch.

Kathy and Cheryl teach in the elementary

Dorothy and Lovey are a couple of Tom's students. All the kids know Chalyse's and Ellora's names and enjoy playing with them.

Susan teaches the ECE. She is so great with the kids and has so much patience and love for them. The girls loved going to play in Susan's classroom.

Shea was one of our next door neighbors and good friends. She teaches 1st grade with help form her aid Hazel.

Here are a few teachers at the school. Debbie, Shea, and Beth.

Emily was one of our first and best friends from Point Hope. The girls just adore her. She is the one who made my parki for me. She also recently gave the girls their Eskimo names. She has lived in Point Hope all her life and grew up in the old sod homes. Tom is going to have her write down the names so we can remember them. I will post them and their meanings.

Regina lived in our building and was always there when we needed anything. The girls also loved to visit her and her little dog Thumbalina and her cat Mo.

Emily was another neighbor and good friend. She teaches 5th grade.

Don is the shop teacher at the school. He joined us for church each week. The girls loved having him over and not just because he would bring them M&M's.

It's Official

2011-03-21T18:48:00.002-08:00

For all of you who were wondering...It is officially a boy!

Oven-Fried Chicken with Cheddar Spinach Sauce

2011-03-07T10:52:00.002-09:00

Her is an other recipe to try. Most of our recipes we put together ourselves after looking at several other similar recipes. Our favorite site to find recipes is Allrecipes.com. Anyway, here it is. I may add a picture later but for now you will just have to imagine how yummy it looks.

Oven-fried Chicken:

1 lb of chicken breast cut into 2 inch strips or so

1/2 cup mayo mixed with a little water

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cracker crumbs or potato flakes

Salt

Pepper

Basil

Onion powder

A pinch of ground red pepper

Coat chicken in mayo. Place in it in bag with other ingredients and shake. Place on greased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 35 min or until chicken is no longer pink inside.

Cheddar Spinach Sauce:

2 table spoons butter

1/2 Medium onion chopped

1 cup fresh baby spinach chopped

1 table spoon minced garlic

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup milk

3 table spoons flour

Salt

Pepper

Seasoning (We used fennel salt but since I had never heard of that before someone gave it to us you may not have it on hand. Make the sauce your own by adding your favorite spices or just have it with salt and pepper.)

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Cook onion in butter for a few minutes until it is tender. Add garlic and spinach and cook until spinach is wilted. Add remaining ingredients except for cheese and whisk to break up flour. Cook and stir until thick then add cheese and heat until melted.

Serve sauce over oven-fried chicken and rice or potatoes.

Too many tears on the way to the store

2011-03-03T09:11:00.003-09:00

The other day I decided to take the girls out for a walk. We planned to stop by the post office and the store and to take out the garbage on the way. The community only has large garbage cans about once a block and ours is most of the way down the bock on the other side of the street. Since Tom usually takes it out and he had been out of town there were a few bags and a box. I would have taken it out sooner but every time I thought about it Tom was supposedly coming home soon. Finlay it started to make the house smell so it had to go.

Our trip went something like this:

It wasn't too cold. Only about 6 degrees and the wind was only about 10 to 15 miles an hour. I decided to let Ellora walk instead of ride on my back like usual. That way I could deal with the garbage and she could get some exercise and sun.

You should have seen us trying to get to the road. It was hilarious! The girls kept wondering aimlessly over the mountains of snow occasionally crying or falling over and getting stuck on their backs like a bug. I had the trash that kept falling off of the sled and I had to take it a few different ways before I found a way down. I had to run between each of the girls because I couldn't get them both over the mountains at the same time and they would each fuss or cry when I would leave them. You need to be aware that our house is only about 30 or 40 feet from the road but whole ordeal of getting to the road probably took at least 10 minutes.

Once we were to the road we were off but since the garbage was on the sled I had to herd the girls along as we walked down the street. Finally they decided they wanted to sit on top of the garbage and ride. Out in the road the wind picked up and Ellora decided she didn't like the wind in her face at all. So she cried on and off the rest of the time we were out.

We never made it to the post office which is good because I guess it was closed. When we got to the store a lady asked if I needed help and suggested it was too cold for my girls. She then picked up Chalyse and began carrying her away from me and into the store. You can imagine what happened next; Chalyse thought she was being kidnapped and began screaming and crying. By the time we got inside I had two screaming kids. There were several ladies visiting inside the door and they started saying that my girls were getting frostbite and we too cold. Trust me, they were not one bit frost bitten and were plenty warm. Sometimes I wonder if people say things like that to make you look stupid. They think that because we are not from around here we don't know anything about the cold.

Anyway...I was glad that we went. It gave us something to do and at least we got out of the house.

Check out my sister-in-laws recent post "Why?" She does a great job on her blog in capturing the joy in moments like these.

Girl with a Curl Strikes Again.

2011-03-01T20:00:00.000-09:00

"There was a little girl who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good she was very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid."

Chalyse is a lot like tinker bell. She is not all bad. Sometimes she is all good. She is just so small she only has room for one emotion at a time.

(I know this all sounds a little familiar)

Chalyse is such a big helper. She likes to help me clean the house and loves to help take care of her little sister. She is so loving and kind. She enjoys giving hugs and telling people how much she loves them. She also is good at handing out compliments. The other day some one knocked at the door. I said, "I think it is Shea." Chalyse responded, "Oh good, I love Shea! She is a very beautiful person."

But...unexpectedly she will flip. Mostly when she is tired. Today, for example, I was working on a sewing project that I had put a lot of work into. I went to the bathroom and was gone probably less than a minute. When I came back Chalyse was sitting in my chair. She looked innocent enough. I thought nothing of it. Later I was going along and I found a huge gash cut into the side. AAAH! "How did this happen?" I exclaimed. I thought perhaps I had done it when I had trimmed the edges but Chalyse very proudly looked at me and said, "I cut it when you were in the bathroom." I said. "why would you do that?" Her response, "Because it was a very bad thing to do."

Now there is a good possibility that she did not do it to be naughty but when she saw how upset I was she played off of it. You see, she LOVES to push peoples buttons and watch them get upset. Whatever the reason was she still got a long time out.

Snowing Inside

2011-02-25T13:28:00.000-09:00

On the days that the wind was blowing really hard the front kunichuk door kept getting blown opened. (The kunichuk is the space between the inside door and the outside door. It helps keep the house warmer and can serve as a shelter for someone who is lost or being pursued by a bear. Most of the homes here have them.) The boys had shoveled it out the day before and this it what it looked like when we woke up.

Just a side note: the snow dune outside our front door has grown several feet the past few days. It is now almost as tall as the fiveplex.

Mexican Mac and Cheese and Slushies

2011-02-25T13:16:00.000-09:00

Here are some new fun recipes to try.

Mexican Style Mac and Cheese:

2 boxes of mac and cheese (we really like great values thick and creamy style)
1 can of Mexican style crushed or diced tomatoes
1 can of corn1 can of red beans or kidney beans (or whatever kind you like)
1 can of re fried beans

4 slices of American or Velveeta cheese.

Make up the mac and cheese as directed
Meanwhile put tomatoes, corn, red beans and re fried beans in a pan over med heat. DO NOT drain the tomatoes or the corn but drain and rinse the red beans. Heat until re fried are mixed in all they way. Add cheese and heat until melted.
Serve bean mixture over mac and cheese or mix it all together.

Slushies:
Next time you have canned fruit like peaches or pears save the juice for this recipe. UsuallyIf you use fruit with added sugar you may want to decrees the amount of sugar the recipe calls for.

1-2 cups of fruit juice from canned fruit.
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of sugar
about 1/4 packet of kool-aid

Combine ingredients and freeze in ice trays. When it is frozen place cubes in a cup and break them up by stabbing them with a fork. Add a few table spoons of hot water and mix. Enjoy!

Wind Day

2011-02-18T11:03:00.000-09:00

Yesterday the wind was blowing so hard that they canceled school. It was gusting up to about 53 miles per hour and there was so much windblown snow that you couldn't hardly see anything outside the window. One of the teachers who left for school before they got the message out even got lost in the blizzard. Luckily she was able to find a shed to warm up in and eventually found her way to the school.

Several of the snow drifts are now taller than the houses, which are even lifted above the ground several feet to begin with. Here are some pictures of all that piled up snow.

Three of us ladies from the building went to the store the other day. We pull our groceries home on the sled but this last time there was too much of a drop down to the house that we had to stop the sled and pass the groceries along to the door.

We keep telling Chalyse we can't got to the park because it is covered in snow. As you can see the snow is about as high as the fence.

Chalyse is 3!

2011-02-17T20:40:00.005-09:00

Chalyse had a birthday!

She got play dishes and food

and a new princess dress.

We had a princess punch party

We made princess hats

And had princess cup cakes

A few of Chalyse's favorite people came: Emily, Shea, Nessi, Cheryl, Regina and Don

Ellora on a Sugar High

2011-02-15T08:21:00.001-09:00

This morning I put the girls in front of a movie while I got a few things done in the kitchen. Unlike usual Ellora immediately zoned out staring at the screen and looked as though she might be very happy there for some time. I went in the other room and for a few minutes all was quiet then I heard a strange sound. It was Ellora panting and huffing. I peaked around the corner to see what was going on and found that she had spread her blankie on the floor and was dancing some sort of strange jig on it...or maybe it was a new form of aerobics.

Twirling Tutus

2011-02-14T13:19:00.001-09:00

Happy Valentine's Day! We found this in our last bag of potatoes.

Anyway, here is my latest project:

After seeing the nutcracker Chalyse was asking for a tutu. They retail for about $30 if you get a full one like this so instead I ordered some tulle for like 95 cents a yard and made some of my own to give to the girls for Valentine's Day. Each one only took me about an hour and a few dollars to make.

Here are the girls twirling in their new tutus.

If you are interested on making your own here is what I did:

I used 4 yards of tulle (in two colors, two yards each color) for each tutu. Mine were for toddlers so you may want to use more if you are making one for a little girl. I cut each piece of tulle down the middle length wise so that I had 4 strips of fabric that were each 2 yards long half the original width. Then I layered them every other color and pined them down the middle. I folded them in half and moved the pins to about an inch from the folded edge. Then I sewed along the folded side leaving a gap big enough for the elastic.

I used inch wide elastic cut it to be slightly shorter than the distance around the girls waists. I threaded the elastic through the tube I had sewed in the tulle then sewed the ends of the elastic together. I made sure the tulle was evenly gathered then I stitched a wide zigzag stitch over the elastic to keep it from sliding around. Make sure you stretch the elastic while you sew so the thread doesn't break when they put it on.

You can leave it like that but to make it more full, to separate the colors a bit and to help hide the elastic here is what i did:

I flipped the whole thing upside down (so the elastic is flipped inside) and fluffed half of the layers going the other direction. Then I sewed them down to the what used to be the inside of the elastic (but is not facing out) with another zigzag stitch. I fluffed the rest of the layers down and tacked them down to the elastic with a short stitch about every 3 inches. Then I sewed on a flower by hand.

And there you have it: a pretty tutu for a fraction of the price.

2011-02-13T09:08:00.001-09:00

This morning Chalyse asked if she could have the last little piece of bacon. I knew that Tom had, had his eye on it so I told her she needed to ask Dad and maybe he would share with her. She said, "and then he'll say 'here you can have the whole thing.' and I'll say 'Oh, thank you!'"

What a nice dad; he gave her the whole thing.

2011-02-10T18:08:00.003-09:00

The girls haven't been out in 2 weeks; Poor things! They are doing surprisingly well about it though. We have plans to go to the school tomorrow and eat lunch, visit, do gym time with the ECE and then go swimming. It is -20 today, lets pray for no wind or we wont be going

2011-02-10T08:52:00.003-09:00

Chalyse says that her ears are ringing because her daddy went to school.

A word a day

2011-02-05T14:15:00.000-09:00

Ellora is learning a new word daily. Today her new word was "sippie". We usually just call it her "milk" because that is usually all she has in her sippie but she heard us say it and started to call it that instead. I asked her what was in her sippie she said "um, milk."

Yesterday her word was "fun". In one word sentences she told me she was having fun while playing while she was supposed to be taking a nap, and later she said that it would be fun to play on the slide (a leaf to our tabel that we prop up against the couch...don't tell.)

Some other new words: "Ew" and "gross." She usually uses those words to decribe these spider rings we have left over from Halloween.

The other day, upon finding some cups on the floor I exclaimed, "Oh gosh, I just picked these up," and threw them back in the cupboard. Ellora came in and said "I see...'gosh!'... I see...I see gosh!"

Every kid loves play dough...and every mom hates it!

2011-01-29T12:44:00.000-09:00

Tom and I had some "thank you points" left over from some plane tickes we bought a while back. It wasn't much but we decided to see what we could get with them. We found something that looked like fun and because it was on "sale" we could afford it without paying anything extra. Playfoam! It has turned out to be a lot of fun and the perfect molding medium for toddlers. It kind of looks like rice crispy treats so at first Ellora, of course tried to eat it. But she its everything and it is non toxic. That's not all though, it never dries out. It only sticks to it self. Not the table, clothes or not even the carpet! It is a sinch to clean up. I even let the girls carry it around the house. They had a blast. We made play phones, jewelry, and dolls. We made some doll house accessories and even had a Playfoam picnic with sandwiches, cupcakes and juice boxes. The girls favorite part were the cup cakes and kept singing happy birthday while handing them to me and each other.

The one down side: if you touch two colors together they immediately bond and the only way to get them apart is to pick one color off of the other one tiny styrofoam bead at a time.

2011-01-28T17:00:00.001-09:00

Today at the store Chalyse decided she was tired. She climbed onto the rack on the bottom of the cart and laid there on her back the rest of the time.

When Chalyse and I walked into the bathroom at the school Chalyse said "Ew! Smells like poop candy."

Tonight at dinner Tom told Ellora, "When we eat we should put you in a big plastic bubble." Ellora grinned and said "POP!" as she poked the air with her finger.

Ellora Who Would Not Sleep

2011-01-28T16:56:00.000-09:00

Well, Ellora finally officially learned how to climb out of her bed. She has been sleeping in a playpen most of her life because we couldn't get a crib up here. Normally we would mover her to a big girl be at this point but there isn't enough room in the girls room to put another bed and I don't want to move Ellora to the other bed room for a few reasons: it gets too cold in their, we would have to retrain the girls on sharing a room at night and we only have 2 more months here. So...we are dealing. Yesterday, when Ellora was supposed to be taking a nap, I heard a lot of comotion coming from the bedroom. So I went to check on her. I opened the door to find her emptying the contents of the toy box, one toy at a time, into her bed. So I did the only sensible thing to do; I closed the door and walked away. A few minuted later, all was quiet and I thought maybe she had fallen asleep on the floor like she had the last couple of days. I couldn't help but laugh when I walked in to find her sitting quietly in the corner of her playpen up to her shoulders in toys and blankets. She just grinned up at me.

We cleaned up the toys and moved them into the other room. Then I put her back to bed.

Garlic Parmesan Chicken Pasta

2011-01-26T13:49:00.000-09:00

Here is one more recipe that we love and it is quick and easy to make. It is one of our favorites.

You will need:
1 lb chicken breast
2 large bell peppers
1 medium onion
1 lb pasta
3 Tbs butter, vegetable oil or olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp garlic salt
salt and pepper
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta. Cut peppers and onion into strips or large bite size pieces and set aside. Cut Chicken in to strips or bite size pieces. Place 1 Tbs of the butter in a pan with chicken, minced garlic and a little salt and pepper. Cook on med heat until chicken is most of the way cooked on the outside. Add bell pepper and onion and cook until chicken cooked thoroughly and bell peppers start to become tender. At this point I like to turn the heat up to high and cook it until it is browned a little.

Add remaining amount of oil or butter to hot pasta and toss with garlic salt, Parmesan cheese and chicken mixture.

You can add other vegetables to the chicken like broccoli, cauliflower or zucchini.

Alphabet Soup Recipe

2011-01-26T13:29:00.000-09:00

I looked for a long time for alphabet pasta to make some alphabet soup but could never find any. Finally I came across a #10 can of ABC soup mix in the food storage section in the front of the Macey's (in Spanish Fork). It has alphabet pasta with green and yellow split peas, lentils, barley and rice. It was $10 so I was hesitant but it makes 42 LARGE servings. It took me a few tries but I think I have found a recipe we really like and the girls just gobble it up. I though I would share.

4 servings of soup mix (1 1/2 cups)
1 to 2 cups raw, caned or freeze dried vegetables
1 can of tomato soup + 1 can of water or milk
1 can of tomato juice
4 slices of American cheese
1 cup of cooked meat cut into bite size pieces *optional
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse soup mix and add 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer for 90 min. If using raw or freeze dried vegetables boil them with soup mix. Rinse soup mix well again and drain all excess water. Add tomato soup, milk or water, tomato juice, canned vegetables, cooked meat, and salt and pepper. Heat on med heat until hot. Do not boil. When soup is hot add cheese and heat until melted.

Rocked Their Socks

2011-01-20T18:51:00.000-09:00

Tom and I were playing the Wi and did really well on a game. Without thinking much about it Tom said "We rocked their socks off!" A few minutes later Chalyse asked, "can I rock my socks off?" like it was a perfectly normal thing to ask. Then she went over to Tom who was sitting on the rocking chair and said, "Move. I want to rock my socks off."

Baby # 3

2011-01-19T09:58:00.000-09:00

Three of my favorite people are expecting. My sister Daurie is due mid April with a girl, my good friend Andrea is also having a girl mid May and my sister-in-law Cathy is due mid July.

AND I am due to have our third baby May 31st.

We had an ultra sound before we left Utah even though I was only 13 weeks along. They told us that they wouldn't be able to tell us the gender but during the ultra sound the technician suddenly said "Oh, do you want me to tell you what I think you are having." She didn't have to say we both could tell right away. She said it was not 100% certain but we were pretty sure before we went in anyway. We even had a name picked out. I had never particular loved this name but as soon as I became pregnant I couldn't think of any other names. I even researched it and found out that it was on the top 100 names list for 2010 and since I don't want my baby to have a common name I tried to talk myself out of it or at least consider other names but to no avail. Then I told Chalyse ONCE what we were thinking of naming the baby and she has been calling "him" baby Owen ever since.

So far things seem to be going well with baby Owen. I have been really sick the past few months but am slowly feeling better and better and this is finally feeling like my other pregnancies second trimester. The baby seems to be growing on schedule and has been moving a lot. I am returning to Utah with the girls in a couple months to wait out the rest of the pregnancy where I can be close to family and the hospital. Tom finishes school May 18th so everything should work out just fine as long as this baby doesn't come early.

Ellora's Alphabet

2011-01-15T08:50:00.000-09:00

Here are a couple more things I thought of:

Ellora likes to sing the alphabet. Most of the letters are "ah's" and "oh's" but some of them she gets right and she knows the tune well enough that even other people can tell what she in singing. Every time she sees a letter (or something that resemble a letter) she likes to pretend to read what letters they are. Usually "I, I, I"

Ellora also likes to count to ten. We have a little hot wheels car that you have to charge for 10 seconds on its base and then it speeds around the room. We all count together as it charges and Ellora's counting goes like this: "5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,9,5"

A White Dress From Santa

2011-01-14T14:01:00.003-09:00

I read on my friends blog about some cute things her little boy say's and it reminded me that I haven't talked much about what my girls say lately that I will want to remember.. It is too bad I often don't write them down and forget but here are some things I could think of.

Tom and I have a picture from our wedding day on our night stand and lately Chalyse has been really in to it. She talks a lot about getting married or her dolls being marries. The other day she said, "Maybe Santa will bring me a white dress like Mommy's in the picture so I can get married."

Chalyse is into adjetives a lot lately. It's fun to hear her use words like "lovely", "interesting" and "awesome." Even if she can't always pronounce it. One time I came out of the bathroom after doing my hair and she said excitedly "Oh, your hair looks horrible." She meant it as a compliment. I guess she had heard me say that same thing about my hair. Yesterday Tom was talking about going to change his shirt. Chalsye said "You should change your shirt. That is a teaching shirt." She was right. It was one of his button down shirts that he wears to school but no one had ever told her it was for teaching.

She loves asking questions. All the time! Her favorite word is "why." I think sometimes she doesn't even realize she is doing it. She asks, "what is that sound," "what do I smell." She'll look at the picuter in a book, "Why is she sad," "why is he going like that."

She also likes to give people a new name. Usually something silly like "buff, buff," but Ellora's permanent nick name is Noah. I think it is because Ellora will sometimes put an "uh" sound at the end of "no".

Her imagination has really taken off too. She has all kinds of pretend things to play with like a puppy, and a dragon that keeps her safe at night. Sometimes she is even attacked by pretend spiders. Scary!

The other day we were out in the hall with a couple of fiends. Chalyse had a pretend bow in her hair but it blew away. She chased it up and down the hall but it got a away and hid in a tree on the wall. (There is a mural of a forest scene on the wall.) She couldn't get it out so Tom suggested a saw to help her get it out. She used the saw and got it out but it got away again and this time a dear on the wall ate it. So it made sense to her to use the same method as last time. She ran to get her saw. Every one laugh and said, "You can't saw the dear." Poor Chalyse! She was so embarrassed. Of course no was meaning to be mean but you know how it is when you are little and it is so easy to get embarrassed. You don't understand that people don't really think "this" or "that" about you they mostly just think you are cute. And what a horrible feeling it is to be embarrassed! She cried and cried and I had to take her inside and explain to her why everyone laughed and that they didn't really think she was stupid but that everyone thought she was cute and very smart.

Ellora is talking a lot more to. She has even started using some 4 and 5 word sentences but I think she may be processing them as whole ideas instead of constructing them her self. She says things like "I don't want milk,"

Some of her favorite things to say are:
"Hold you," She wants to be held

"I see," When she want's to see what you are doing or looking at.

If she want's something really badly she will say urgently, "peese, peese."
"Bet," or "but" means blanket. She loves her blankie.

"Mine," sometimes she will even claim something random when she is mad to get back at you.

"cccold" She will shrug her shoulders up by her face and shake like she is shivering violently. It is so cute.

When you hand her something she always says something that resembles "thank you," but it is hard to say what. I think babies use some sounds we don't use in the English language.

Oh, and "potty." That's right. She thinks she is old enough to use the potty. About once or twice, or more, times a day she will ask to use the potty and she usually will go too. So far today she hasn't even gone in her diaper once since I changed it this morning. Of course now she is napping so I'm sure it won't stay dry.

Sometimes Ellora will find a doll blanket or bottle and climb into my lap and say "I baby." She will have me rock and shush her and sing her "Rock-a-by Baby."

Blessed Sunshine!

2011-01-13T15:50:00.001-09:00

I was debating whether or not to go to the school today to eat lunch with Tom. It is our only place to go to get out of the house and we try to go at least once a week. It had been over a week sense the girls and I had left the apartment BUT there have been several polar bear sightings near the village. One in particular was last night by the lagoon which is not too far from the school.

You know how every thing seems worse at night. I started to worry. I had all the scenarios running through my mind. Pregnant and with a toddler on my back and one on a sled running for our lives...or I guess backing away slowly because that is what you are supposed to do and of course I had more polar bear nightmares after going to bed. I was feeling like I would never be able to leave the apartment again and could not handle the idea. Then the sun came up and I began to feel a lot better about the situation. The sun makes everything better. It had been a more than a month since we had seen last but a few days ago it started rising again and already it is staying up for a couple of hours.

I began to think more rationally about things. The sunshine makes it a lot easier to see your surroundings so you are able to detect early on if there is danger. Also, bears don't like to come around during the day when there is a lot of noise from ATV and snow machines. Another comforting thought is that the dogs will go crazy if a bear is around and there are several homes that have dogs between here and the school. In fact the Eskimo people first started keeping dogs around for that exact reason. (They didn't use them to pull sleds until after contact.) Anyway, we decided to head over and I am so glad we did. The weather was so nice today with basically no wind so the walk over was enjoyable and fairly easy. At the school the girls had a lot of fun playing with their friends Emily and Emily. I am feeling a lot better about things after getting away from the apartment for a little while and I think I can face my apartment again. At least for the time being.

Ellora's Rebellious Stage

2011-01-10T14:04:00.000-09:00

Ellora has been feeling really spunky and rebellious today. She has been throwing all kinds of little tantrums to "punish us." She has been writing on her hands with pen, teasing Chalyse eating things like coloring books and envelopes and biting things when she gets upset like the couch, table or toes (this is something she has done for a while).

She wants to be a part of everything. Her favorite new phrase is "I see!" She insists on being held up to see what I am cooking, working on or even to see the dishes I am washing. No one can look out the window with out letting Ellora see too.

At breakfast her cereal was getting dangerously close to her head so i said don't put it on your head you'll get milk in your hair...I bet you can guess what happened next. Then later she asked for some puff pancakes. I gave her some but she proceeded to dip her finger in the syrup and lick it off. I asked her to eat her pancakes too. So she angrily shoved a piece in her mouth, then another and another until it was too much and it all came back out. At lunch none of her soup made it into her tummy before she turned it over and it ran all over the table. To complete the image she has been wearing her sunglasses around today; crooked or upside down usually. So with her new tattoos, sunglasses and this destructive behavior we are hoping she gets it all out of her system early.

Here are some more pictures of our spunky baby.

Playing in the Snow Dunes.

2011-01-05T19:20:00.000-09:00

We finally had a nice day. About 20 degrees with only about 10 or 15 mph wind! So Tom took the girls out to play in the snow.

Christmas near the North Pole

2011-01-05T10:07:00.000-09:00

I have been putting off posting about Christmas because it can be so fusrtating and stressful uploading pictures with our slow internet but I didn't have anything else to do this morning so I will finally get going on it.

We had a very enjoyable and relaxing Christmas with power in heat and everything! Everyone was so good to us and the girls. We got several packages from family and many friends from the school sent Tom home with gifts for the girls. Santa came to visit our house too, despite the wind. I wouldn't think he would miss us as we are so close to the North Pole.

Here are the girls in there new jammies on Christmas eve.

Chalyse got a castle doll house from Santa. Her favorite part is the magical trap door that is operated with a magic (magnetic) wand. She also loves the baby and baby accessories that came with the castle.

Ellora got a playhouse (kind of). It is just a door and one wall but it has tons of activities and parts to explore and plays lots of fun songs. Ellora loves music and dancing. She will start a song, then she will climb on the step stool that is on one side of the house and bounce up and down to the beat.

We also talked with our families and made a yummy "traditional" Christmas dinner; ham and yummy potatoes.

The girls got bath tub finger paint soaps and bath tub markers in their stockings. They love them. I wouldn't recommend the finger paints, though. The are a little too messy. Even when I only give them a little I end up needing to drain the tub then turn on the shower to get of all the bubbles. It irritates Ellora's skin a little and she also tries to eat it. The markers are fun but Ellora has a little bit of a hard time getting them to write because you have to push a little hard. I was happy that they didn't get ruined even after being submerged.

We were sad to have not been closer to family but we enjoyed our time together. Tom got just over two weeks off. We spent a lot of time playing games and watching the girls new Disney movies that Santa brought. I got Tom ticket to ride (our new favorite game) and he got me battle of the sexes, a fun trivia game with questions that are stereotypical for the opposite gender. It has been nice to spend so much time just doing what we want to do. If you are ever looking for a relaxing vacation, just stay home. :)

Making Ginger Bread Men

2011-01-05T09:48:00.000-09:00

Windy with a chance of being snowed in.

2010-12-28T12:19:00.002-09:00

Our Christmas tree did come on time and so did pretty much all our gifts. The Wednesday before Christmas Tom called me to tell me that we had gotten 6 new packages! Yay! But when he went to the front desk of the post office to pick them up it was closed even though it should have been opened. There was a sign at the desk that said, "We will be closed Dec 22th and Dec. 24th." What?! Plus they had been closed the Saturday before. One of the package claim slips said the package had been received 2 days before. Keep in mind we had been going to the post office every day. So Tom knocked on the door until someone came. They said that they were behind in things so they needed to be closed to catch up. They gave him some of his packages but said the others were too buried and he would have to come back tomorrow to get them. Tom asked if he could go look for them and so she said he could. He found them quickly on the top of the piles.

Here is our little Christmas tree and the window behind it plastered with snow.

In other news we have been having a lot of crazy wind. Gusting up to around 55 mph and not getting much below 30mph. Because of this most the teachers who were headed out for Christmas were stuck here longer than planed. One teacher and her husband, who must have been inspired, left a day early and just missed the delays. All the others who had planed to go out Friday afternoon or Saturday had to wait until Monday. This wouldn't have been so bad but because it is such a busy time to fly many of them had to wait a few days in Anchorage or other layovers for an available seat. Most of them got to their final destinations almost a week late.

When Tom and I were deciding when to come down we were both feeling a little aprihensive about going home for Christmas. This is why we decided to go home for Thanksgiving instead. When I ended up going home early I thought that, that must be the reason but it looks like we were blessed in more ways than one.

'Twas the day before Christmas and all down the street, Nothing was working not even the heat!

2010-12-28T12:19:00.001-09:00

Christmas eve we woke up to find our power had gone out. This had happened a few days before and was out for a couple of hours. Ever sense then we had, had several flickers and brief periods of no power so we were hoping this would be the case again. The power outage might have been due to the all the wind we have been having. Around 9am after the power had been out for about 4 hours Tom called the power plant. They said there were about 14 homes that were out of power and they needed to send in a line man from Barrow. He would be coming in a search and rescue plane and would get here as soon as he could.

When I was a kid I always thought it was exciting to have the power go out but with it being pitch dark and slowly getting colder and colder in our apartment some of the excitment turns into frustration. Not to mention all of our Christmas activities would be difficult without light or electricity. We of course have some flash light and a hand cranke lanturn but the dim light from those is not enough to do much of anything. As far as the heat perdiciment goes things were not too bad. Although it was -10 degree outside our small apartment did well to hold in the heat. I has tripple paned windows. The back door has two doors with an entry way in between called a "kunichuk" and the front door leads to a hallway that also has a kunichuk. We all dressed warmly and were fairly comfortable most of the time.

At 1pm Tom called again and found out that the line guy had been unable to get of the ground yet. We started making plans for Christmas at the school. As soon as we got too cold we would head over to there. The school still had power but even if it hadn't they have a back up generator. Later the principal called and informed us we could stay at his home which was all the way on the other edge of town. We had, had the school vehicle but the matenance truck wouldn't start that day so they had come to borrow the one we had. (He still has it) I wasn't so excited about a treck accross town in the extreem wind and cold and was really not excited about spending Christmas at the school.

Around 2 or 3pm we saw hope; a line truck drove by our window . By 4:30 our power began to flicker and then came back on. At first we didn't allow ourselves to believe it but we soon began to celibate and clean up our messy house to get it ready for Christmas. We have not had any trouble with our power since but our heat never came back all the way back on. Luckily, as we discovered last year, we are able to heat our apartment just fine between the oven and a small space heater. Hopefully they will come take care of it soon though.

From the Land of No Sun

2010-12-14T19:05:00.000-09:00

I guess it is time to update our blog since it has been almost a month since our last post. We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving in Utah with family. It was especially good to have Tom with us again. We all miss him so much. Chalyse would talk about him all the time and kept asking to go home to her Daddy. He flew in on Thanksgiving morning around 7:30 a.m. and then we all went to breakfast together. After a short nap we went to my parents for dinner and then Tom's parent's for dessert/birthday party. There are tons of birthdays in November and December on both sides of the family and we celebrated 3 Coxson nephews' on Thanksgiving.

We really enjoyed the rest of the time spent in Utah. We did the rest of our Christmas shopping and Tom and I were able to go on our first overnight date since Chalyse was born and probably our last for at least another year and a half. It was nice to get away for a short while and the girls enjoyed having a "party" with their Aunt Mandy and Uncle Spencer while we were gone. Tom and I went to Rodizio Grill at Trolley Square and also did some window shopping. We spent the night at Anniversary Inn. We started out in the Phantom of the Opera room but the heat wasn't working so they let us choose any other room that was available. We chose the Swiss Family Robinson room and got to sleep in a tree house and shower in a waterfall. It was pretty cool.

We were also able to enjoy a little bit of the Christmas season while we were down. Maegan had her annual Christmas party and visit to Temple Square to see the lights. My mom also had a choir concert at the Assembly Hall at temple square so they combined the two.

One of Chalyse's favorite things to do while we were down was to drive around and look at Christmas lights and since Dad had been missing his new car he enjoyed this too. We had to go to the Festival of Lights twice because the first time we went Chalyse fell asleep right before we got there and we could not get her to wake up. It was worth it though.

The trip home was supposed to only last about 12 hours but ended up being a day and a half. We left Utah at 9:30 at night and all was going well until we got to Kotzebue and found that the Point Hope flights were delayed due to wind gusts. We spent all day in the Kotzebue airport. We had few snacks so we ordered some Chinese. We got two things and it was $45! We were able to nap on the couch a little and the girls were, well...manageable...barely. The airport is first of all filthy, of course, and it has one long staircase that is "off limits to kids"...yeah right. We were glad when people decided to sit at the bottom and block the way up. The Bering Air building where we were is pretty small and was usually packed with people, but every one was very friendly. The natives have a way of taking care of each others' children. It was nice but of course I still didn't want to let the girls out of my sight. Also, people everywhere were feeding the girls. It didn't help that Ellora will always go up to people with food and stare at them until they share. All we could do was pray that they wouldn't come down with anything serious. By evening, we finally were told that all Point Hope flights were canceled for the day.

Here is Ellora playing on the stairs

Happy to have snacks

Luckily we had needed to contact the branch president in the past and had his phone number. We called them up. They were so good to us. They fed us and put us up for the night. They have a little girl who is Chalyse's age, and it was fun for them to play in a kid safe environment; although, I felt bad about all the germs we might be bringing into their home. Especially after that night when Chalyse started throwing up (I will talk about that in a minute). The next day Ellora and I were able to attend the small church in Kotz and then around 3:15 we were finally able to fly home.

Here is Chalyse and her friend in Kotzebue. They both have the exact same blankie.

It was great to spend so much time with family but we are glad to be back in our own home even though we almost never see the sun because it gets closest to the horizon during nap time (it doesn't peak above it). Soon after we got here I gave the girls a much needed hair cut. I was so sad to cut Ellora's long hair, but it was so uneven because she had lost it in spots when she had her helmet. I cut off about two inches and have cut an inch off before but it is really cute and can still go into piggy tails. Chalyse hair was in need of a trim in the back to even it up but I accidentally cut the same off the front as the back so it is pretty short in the front now. Oops! hopefully it will grow faster after having been cut.

Here are some before and and after pictures of their hair cuts.

Chalyse's before picture

Ellora's before picture

Chalsye's after picture


Ellora's after picture

From the front

The hustle and bustle of Christmas can be a lot of fun but I think this year it will be nice to have a quiet Christmas with just the four of us. The community does do a week long celebration with Eskimo games at the school so we will get a chance to see some of that, too. It should be fun.We bought a small Christmas tree and mailed it up. Oh, I hope it gets here soon. Chalyse is excited for it to get here, too. I suppose as long as it gets here before Christmas it will be okay.

As far as health goes we are all doing fairly well. The girl have had something very strange. I wish I had realized it before we left Utah, but they both seemed to be doing well at the time. It started with Ellora and Chalyse caught it about a week later. They will get sick and throw up for a day or two or even just a few hours then they will have really bad diarrhea for about 5 days or so although Ellora's first bout lasted for a week and a half. Then they get better for a few days. At first I just thought that they were catching something new each time but it is now clear that this is a pattern. I am fairly certain that they have Cryptosporidium. It is the "swimming pool" parasite. It is transferred only through the feces and usually in water. I think Ellora got it either from the water here in PH or a public bathroom. You know how toddlers touch everything. Then since I bathe the girls together Chalyse caught it. It doesn't seem to be harmful except to cause dehydration but they have been doing just fine with that. It supposedly goes away by itself with in a month or so. It has been about 5 weeks for Ellora but the last time she was sick it only lasted for a day.

The last time Ellora was feeling sick she went into Tom's and my closet and fell asleep on a suitcase

Gratitude Remembered

2010-11-17T13:27:00.001-09:00

Aside for moderate fatigue and morning sickness I have been feeling pretty good this week. I have to apologize for allowing myself to become so negative these past couple of months. I have been focusing on all the things that were going wrong and was failing to show the proper grateful attitude for the many, many blessings I enjoy in my life.

I am so grateful for the restored gospel and feel incredibly blessed to be a member of the Church or Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am grateful for knowledge of where I came from and who I can aspire to be. I am so very eternally grateful for the atonement performed by the Savior that can redeem me from my faults, and sins. I am grateful for the overwhelming power of prayer. I have had innumerable prayers answered from small and seeming insignificant ones to life changing help and guidance.

I am so grateful for my wonderful and serving husband Tom. I am grateful for the modern technology that allows me to be so close to him even though he is so far away. I so am grateful that he cherishes me and loves me eternally. There is no one else in existence that I would rather spend eternity with. I know that I was guided to him by divine power and that I am so blessed to be his wife. I am still trying to figure out what I did to deserve such a wonderful man.

I am grateful for two beautiful daughters and for their fun personalities. I am so grateful for every happy moment they have. I am blessed to be so close to them and watch them as they grow and discover in pure wonder the miraculous word around them.

I am so very grateful for the sealing power of God that seals me to my family. I know we can be together forever in immense happiness and joy if we but live up to the Lords simple commandments.

I am grateful for the health that I do have and for the ability to care for my daughters most of the time. It is a blessing to be so needed by someone and it bring some of the greatest forms of joy that can be found in this life.

During this last general conference for the church President Thomas S. Monson gave a great talk entitled The Divine Gift of Gratitude. This would be a perfect time of year to read it with your families and enjoy the words of a living prophet.

I Am Greatful For A Bed

2010-11-11T15:40:00.000-09:00

For the first couple of weeks we have been in Utah we have been sleeping on my mom and dad's couches. It has been nice to have all the help but we were ready for a little more space of our own. Mandy and Spencer are living in the apartment that we were in for the summer and they have an extra bedroom so we moved in with them for the rest of our time here. We were able to set up Chalyse's bed that was in storage and Spencer's parents let me borrow a bed from there house (Ellora is still in a play pen which she is used to because that what she had at home too). After we were all done, Chalyse was talking to Mandy and she said, "Mom has a bed and Ellora has a bed and Chalyse has a bed. That's great! That's Lovely!" I am glad that she is happy. It has been hard for the girls. When ever we are home in the evenings Ellora will ask to go, i think she wants to go home. Chalyse is often saying lets go home to my Daddy. I am glad that they like their Dad and their home so much.

Haha

2010-11-11T13:23:00.000-09:00

Ellora has a new flu this week. She has had diarrhea for about 5 days, and threw up once or twice a night for 3 night s in a row. She seems to be feeling a lot better but of course today I am sick with the flu.

Alice and the Door Mouse

2010-11-06T12:28:00.001-08:00

Here are the pictures that I took on Halloween. I didn't get any really good ones of Chalyse because the lighting was weird, or she had taken off parts of their costume. My mom took some pictures too so I will get them from her and post those as well.

Bethany was Cindy Lou Who

Hats and Coats

2010-11-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

Ellora likes to go to the closet and try to pull down my parky. She loves to get on my back underneath it. I got it down and let the girls cozy up in it.

When Bethany lost all her hair everyone gave her hats. The "kids" enjoyed trying them all on.

Way to go Austin

2010-10-29T07:14:00.003-08:00

It has been so nice to have so many helpers around. My mom has five kids living at home and they have each been so good with the kids. The oldest my little brother Austin has been especially helpful and the girls have really taken to him.

For those of you who do not know yet Austin has been called to serve an LDS mission in Honolulu, Hawaii.

I am so proud of you Austin. You have turned out to be such a great guy! I know you will be bless greatly for serving the Lord and keeping his commandments.We will miss you but I am so glad that we have had the chance to see you before you go. We love you!
.

There's More

2010-10-29T07:14:00.001-08:00

I was beginning to feel better and was finally able to get out of the house for a little while but as fate wouldn't have it. On Tuesday night Ellora woke up with the stomach flu. Then Chalyse and I took our turns in quick succession. I think that we got it at the airport or on a plane. We were lucky though, I looks like we will all be better in time for Halloween.

Pictures for Dad

2010-10-27T07:41:00.000-08:00

I was going to Email some pictures to Tom but I figured that I would just post them so you all could enjoy them.

Grandma's giant carrots

The girls eating zingers. Chalyse said "grandma made cake last night."

We had to explain that they came from the store.

The girls screaming while they eat cake

Ellora playing the piano with Grandma Jana

We love you Dad!

The Perfect Storm

2010-10-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

I have been so blessed. I have such a wonderful hard working husband. I am also so glad to live in a time when health care is where it is. True we have a lot to learn still but I am sure that all of you know several people who would not be alive today were it not for modern medicine.

For those of you who have not heard yet I am pregnant. I am about 8 weeks along and am due around June 1st. At the beginning of my pregnancy I was feeling great. Not even feeling very morning sick. I slowly began to feel dizzy and tiered, both common side effects of building a baby. As it got worse I looked for advise and found that it could be low iron, low blood sugar, or dehydration. All of which can usually be taken care of with a change of eating habits. After this did not work and I was continuing to get worse I decided to go to the local clinic to get my prenatal lab work done. In Point Hope there are no regular doctors or nurses just certified health aids.

If I was low on iron it just took a simple test and they could give me a prescription to take care of it but my iron level was normal. They did find evidence of an infection, though. They gave me a type of antibiotic that was very specific to that type of infection. Despite the antibiotic the next day I was much worse and could not even get up off the couch with out feeling as though I might collapse.

Over the next few days this came and went. Some days I had the energy to take minimal care of the girls, meaning feeding them and making sure they didn't kill them self but Tom would usually have to come home at the end of the day and wash the dishes, clean the house and put the girls to bed. On other days Tom had to come home and feed us because I couldn't.

Tuesday night I got really bad again this time with a high fever so I decided to go to the clinic again. The health aids found that I had lost some weight and that I was very dehydrated. After 3 health aids and 7 pokes they managed to get an IV in me to rehydrate me. After the IV I was still feeling pretty rotten but the woman's health practitioner was visiting. She checked to make sure the baby was in the right place and she was even able to find the heart beat! She gave me a few ideas to why I was feeling sick but said that is was probably just because I was pregnant. She suggested going to where I could let some help me take care of my girls but this was not the first time the thought crossed my mind. Tom had taken a lot of sick days and we didn't know anyone else who didn't work during the days so after praying we decided that I needed to be closer to family and doctors. As my condition was only worsening I left as soon as I could with the girls.

Before I left, Tom gave me a blessing. He said that God would place angels in my way to help me on the trip. The nurse practitioner was on the same flight out of the village. She was very helpful with the girls. After we landed I needed to take my luggage and the girls across a parking lot to check in for our next flight. Out of nowhere one of the pilots for Bering came over to take my luggage over for me. All along the trip people were very helpful and we arrive the next morning very tiered but very glad to be done with our journey.

The Doctor here in Utah told me that I was the perfect storm. Pregnant, an infection, a virus, and he diagnosed a second infection. He gave me a new antibiotic and said that when my infection and my virus clear up that if a am still feeling dizzy and low on energy that it is likely just the pregnancy. Hopefully when it does I will feel well enough to return home with Tom. He will be down for Thanksgiving.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

I'll be home for...Halloween?

2010-10-22T17:07:00.002-08:00

As most of you know already, Camille and the girls are back in Spanish Fork. Camille got sick and needed medical attention that she couldn't get here.

When the truck came to pick the girls up to go to the airport, Chalyse got scared. I told her that if she's scared, she can sing "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" and it will make her feel better. She sang the song to herself to the airport and most of the way on the first flight.

I told Chalyse that she needed to be a big help for her mom on the way home. She said she would. She told Camille that she wanted to sleep on the airplane, and she slept for a good part of it. That was probably the most helpful thing she could have done.

Animal Sounds

2010-10-16T19:11:00.002-08:00

Like the Rings on a Tree

2010-10-12T17:40:00.001-08:00

I love general conference! It is such a blessing to gather to hear the words of the living prophets. One of the talks that stood out to me is the one that President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, gave entitled Of Things That Matter Most.

President Uchtdorf talked about the rings on a tree. He said, "One of the things we learn from studying the growth of trees is that during seasons when conditions are ideal, trees grow at a normal rate. However, during seasons when growing conditions are not ideal, trees slow down their growth and devote their energy to the basic elements necessary for survival." He drew a connection between this and flying an airplane through turbulence saying that "professional pilots understand that there is an optimum turbulence penetration speed that will minimize the negative effects of turbulence. And most of the time that would mean to reduce your speed." He says, "It is good advice to slow down a little, steady the course, and focus on the essentials when experiencing adverse conditions."

So what does this have to do with life?

Presedent Uchtdorf says, "When stress levels rise, when distress appears, when tragedy strikes, too often we attempt to keep up the same frantic pace or even accelerate, thinking somehow that the more rushed our pace, the better off we will be...

"Some might even think that their self-worth depends on the length of their to-do list. They flood the open spaces in their time with lists of meetings and minutia—even during times of stress and fatigue. Because they unnecessarily complicate their lives, they often feel increased frustration, diminished joy, and too little sense of meaning in their lives.

"It is said that any virtue when taken to an extreme can become a vice. Overscheduling our days would certainly qualify for this. There comes a point where milestones can become millstones and ambitions, albatrosses around our necks."

So what can we do?

Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught, “We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.”

Pres. Uchtdorf said, "There is a beauty and clarity that comes from simplicity that we sometimes do not appreciate in our thirst for intricate solutions." He says, "We would do well to slow down a little, proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most."

What are those things that matter most?

President Uchtdorf talks about our four key relationships we have. First with our Father in Heaven, second with our families, third our fellowmen and last ourselves. He advises us to strengthen and maintain these relationships and gives some great advice on how to do this.

He then invites us to rejoice in the pure restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am so grateful that in this world of so much confusion and question that I have been blessed with that pure but oh so powerful truth that God lives, that He loves me! He truly sent His Son Jesus Christ to atone for my sins. I often get overwhelmed when I read something that explores things that we do not entirely understand. We live in a world that is so full of questions or guessing. It is a relief to have the opportunity to read the scriptures and know that it is not full of questions but answers. In this I can find peace and survive the struggles and hardship that my life may hand me.

Monday Activity, The Color Train

2010-10-04T20:43:00.009-08:00

Chalyse loves to line things up and call them choo-choo trains. She also likes to collect similar objects from around the house. She really enjoyed this simple activity.
The Color Train:

Line up a row of cups, bowls, or lids. I used the rectangular plastic baby-food containers. This will be your train. Then go around the house or rummage through the toy box to find objects of of the same color to put in each car. A red car, a blue car, a purple car etc. Here is our color train:

Also use this activity to help teach counting and numbers. Use beans, buttons, small toys, cereal, or anything else small enough then put one in the first car, two in the second and so forth.

Writing the number or color on the car will help your child begin to recognize how it is written.

Cute Girls

2010-09-29T16:09:00.000-08:00

Many people at the school keep telling Chalyse that she looks just like Shirley Temple. The vice principal gave Chalyse one the the Shirley Temple cups that she collects. She said it came out of a cracker jacks box about 80 years ago.

Here is Chalyse doing her best Shirley Temple. Tom calls this dress her Shirley Temple dress.

Chalyse helped Ellora umuk her baby

Chalyse and her quintuplets.

Cozy babes. (Two of them are real.)

Ellora posing in her stylish leggings.

Where's My Cape?

2010-09-29T15:18:00.001-08:00

Every time we fly I see at least one mother who is traveling alone with two young children. I always think to myself "Wouldn't that be horrible? I'm so glad that Tom is here. It is so easier with two parents." Hold that thought while I tell you a story.

Tom and I have decided to go back to Utah for Thanksgiving instead of Christmas. We were feeling apprehensive about going for Christmas for a few reasons like the fact that would cost around twice the amount than it is going to, to just do Thanksgiving instead. We considered not coming back at all until summer but there were a few good reasons against that. We need to buy some more groceries, and we have several Christmas presents that we have bought that are waiting in storage that we wouldn't feel good about shipping. Also I don't know if we could go that long without getting out of the village; literally we might go crazy. Not to mention the Grandmas wouldn't hear of it I'm sure. After weighing the pro and cons we have decided that Thanksgiving will work out perfectly. When I went on to book the tickets I found that traveling right before or right after the holiday is much more expensive. We also wanted to make our trip worth it so after studying our ticket options I decided that it would be best if we left a well before Thanksgiving and got home a week or so after it. This meant of course that Tom had to ask for several days off...

The district didn't go for it. They said he had to either choose the days before the holiday or the days after. "Oh, no!" I thought, "I don't want to cut the trip that short and there is not way we can come back up separate with all of the luggage we are planning on bringing back with us."

Then Tom pointed out, "Why don't you just leave earlier and we can still come back together?" It was a great idea but keep in mind he has to teach through Wednesday not just Tuesday like most Utah districts and it often can take somewhere around 24 hours to get there. This would mean that Tom would basically miss all of Thanksgiving.

"I suppose that wouldn't be the end of the word," I thought but lo and behold somehow we managed to find ourselves a small miracle Tom will travel all night and get in at around 7 in the morning Thanksgiving day. We have been very blessed and are so excited to spend Thanksgiving with many of the ones we love (assuming the weather permits.)

So, this brings me back to the beginning of my story and my one big worry: traveling alone, all night with two little ones. I just have to tell myself that I can do it. I know the airports well and the girls are seasoned travelers. I bought a new double stroller. Our old one is pretty much dead, not to mention it takes way too much to fold up. It is actually a bike trailer and you have to remove the handle and weeks before folding it. Haha... I guess I wouldn't have to worry about the handle though; it has broken off for good. Anyway there is no way I am traveling with that so I found a cheap double stroller that can actually be shipped to the village and the shipping was free. I love amazon.com! With my new double stroller and as little luggage as I can manage I think I can handle this great task. I am even a little excited to prove to myself that I can do it. I don't get to do daring things very often.

Batty Family-Monday Activity

2010-09-27T19:31:00.002-08:00

Here is a fun art activity to do with you kids for Halloween.

First trace your hands on paper at cut them out.

Cut out a rain drop shaped body and a circle head with two pointy ears.

Glue you bats together and give you bat eyes, a nose and some fangs.

You could use colored or patterned paper, fabric, craft foam, felt or any other medium you can think of. You may want to use white paper and color it or decorate it using buttons, beans, eyes, sequence, pasta, popcorn or anything else you may have.

Here is our family of bats:

There it is! I knew it was around here somewhere.

2010-09-26T13:52:00.000-08:00

After several weeks of wonderfully warm weather and sunshine fall decided to show it's nasty side. Friday the North wind began to blow. It has rainy and sleety until last night...this morning we woke up to SNOW. Chalyse climbed up into the window and excitedly exclaimed "Point Hope, I see Point Hope!"

The other day I heard Chalyse playing "patty-cake" with Ellora. "Oh, how cute!" I thought. I came into the room to see Chalyse sitting on Ellora's tummy facing Ellora's legs. "Ellora's doing patty-cake with her feet." She was clapping Ellora's feet together as she sang. Ellora just grinned up at me.

Positive Effects of Climate Change?

2010-09-25T21:28:00.001-08:00

As I have studied and listened to hysterics and skepticism over the climate change debate, I've realized that the debate boils down mostly to, "Uh, huh!," "Nu, uhh!" On one side, they are crying that the sky is falling and it's man's fault. On the other side, their saying either it's not falling or that it's not man's fault. My one critique of the debate is this: if the sky is falling, is it really going to be all that bad?

As human beings, we all to some degree or other fall prey to the "normalcy bias." This means that we think that things are the best the way they are now and any change will make things worse. What if, however, things get better?

It is the same, I think, with climate change. What positives might come through a warming change to the climate? I've made a short list of some of my own thoughts, but it is by no means exhaustive of all possibilities:

1. Milder winters=fewer cold-related deaths (which there are far more of in proportion to heat-related deaths, even in lower latitudes)

2. Vast amounts of newly arable land in Canada, Alaska, and elsewhere.

3. Greater diversity of life (even though scientists say many things are dieing out with warming climate, eras in geological history with the greatest amount of biodiversity have been much warmer than it is today)

4. Lowered cost of wardrobe budgets (fewer people will have to buy coats and long pants...but then again, I'm sure the money would be spent on ridiculously expensive bathing suits, etc. :)

5. Polar bears are pretty cute, but I don't think anyone ever thought that as they were being chased by one. Who will really miss them, anyway? (LOL)

6. Warmer seas=more water vapor=more clouds=more rain=fewer deserts and fewer droughts.

7. We're past due for an ice age, so if mankind can warm the climate through pouring trace gases into the atmosphere, lets do it. Life in all its forms, not just humans, would be much more devastated by cold than heat.

What other thoughts do you guys have? If anyone who is a firm believer in anthropogenic climate change and that we're all going to die in a fiery flood reads this, please try to consider any possible positives. The bottom line is that IF there truly is global warming, we're going to have to live through it one way or the other, and I'd rather be Polly Anna than Scrooge.

A Warm Winter Hat for Baby.

2010-09-21T14:42:00.001-08:00

When Cathy commented on Ellora's hat in a previous post it reminded me that last year I was going to post about how I had made that hat. I guess I got busy and completely forgot. But I had it almost all ready to post. I even took pictures so I have finished it up. Her it is:

Ellora needed a new hat because she had out grown her old one already. I found this super cute one at online Old Navy but didn't want to spend the money plus shipping and then wait 3 weeks to get it so I decided to make my own. I looked all over the internet for a pattern and couldn't find one so I made one up and got to make it just the way I wanted it. It turned out really cute so I decided to share. I don't know all the technical terms so I hope it is not too confusing.

I used a fleece. Measure around your baby's head then add an extra inch or two. This number I will call the circumference.

You will need to cut:

a: Top piece: two pieces that are 5in by half of the circumference plus 1/2 in for seam allowance.
(for example: my baby's head was 16 inches around. Half of that is 8 inches. Plus 1/2 inch for seam allowance equals 8 and 1/2 inch pieces.)

b. Bottom piece: one piece that is 5in by circumference plus 1/4 in seam allowance. (for mine 16 and 1/4 inches)

c. Ear cover: four pieces that are 3in by 3in

d. Tie: two pieces that are 1in by 12in

e. Fringe: two pieces that are 3in by 5in. You will cut these into 1/4in strips. You should end up with 48 strips total. Keep them stacked in twos.

All seams should be 1/4 of an inch in.

Step 1: Sew the short sides of the top piece (a) together; right sides facing in. Then turn right side out.

Step 2: Take two of the ear cover pieces (c) place them right sides together and sew up two parallel sides. leaving it wrong side out take piece (d) and sew it into a third side. It should be sticking out if the seam about 1/4 of an inch and the rest of it should come out into the tube between the two sides you just sewed so when you turn it, it will have the long piece on the out side. Do the same to the other two (c) pieces and other (d) piece.

Step 3: fold bottom piece (b) in half, right sides together, so that it is still 5 in but now about half of circumference. Sew short end to make a tube. Fold tube in half (into it self so seam is hidden in fold and you have a 2 and 1/2 inch tube with a fold along the bottom)

Step 4: Take the top piece and an ear piece. Line the ear piece up at the seam of top piece. Overlap the two pieces. The tie end of ear piece should be coming away from top piece. (This seam will be covered up by bottom piece) Do the same to the other ear piece lined up with other seam of top piece.

Step 5: Take the brim piece (b) and pin it to top piece of hat (a) about 1 inch from the bottom of top piece so you can stitch it on with out sewing over the ear piece. Sew using a zigzag stitch along the top of (b). Baby can where hat with brim down or up.

Step 6. Turn hat inside out and sew top closed. Turn back right side out.

Step 7: take 24 fringe (e) still stacked in twos so you have 12 rows and sew over the top of them to connect them to each other. Now you can fold the 12 strips half so you have 6 piles of 4 and sew it to one corner of hat. Do the same with other 24 pieces.

Step 8: Cut fringe into ends of tie about 1 inch up and about 5 cuts. Tie a knot just above fringe.

Here is what the finished project should look like:

A Paper Autumn

2010-09-20T19:49:00.001-08:00

Here in Point Hope we are too far North for any kind of trees...or most anything that grows more than two inches off the ground. As a result Fall is very different than what we are used to down in Utah.

Here are a couple of activities we have done so we could enjoy, at least to some degree, the joys of trees:

Thankfulness Tree

Last year when we were missing trees we decided to make our own. We used packing paper from various mail-orders that we've made for the trunk and limbs. The greenery was "donated" by the school. We also missed fall colors, so we made leaves out of colored paper and wrote on them things that we're thankful for. One thing that we're all thankful for now is our thankfulness tree. It is happy to have a tree in our house..

Jumping in the Leaves

Every kid loves jumping in a big crunchy pile leaves...and most adults for that matter.

I spread out a long piece of packing paper across the floor, gave the girls some markers, and set them loose to color me an Autumn. After that we tore the paper in to small leave-sized pieces. They thought it was great, especially Ellora who enjoys ripping up books and the such. Then we piled them up and went crazy throwing rolling and jumping. It wasn't quite the same as the real thing but we had a lot of fun.

Ella-Bella

2010-09-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

The Pledge of Allegiance

2010-09-18T18:10:00.003-08:00

I recently wrote a post on the Pledge of Allegiance on my blog. This has been something that Camille and I have been thinking and talking about for a while, and I wanted to put it out there for people to see. http://thoughts-by-tom.blogspot.com/2010/09/on-saying-pledge-of-allegiance.html

Teaching Landforms

2010-09-18T09:00:00.004-08:00

The social studies teacher in the high school has often bemoaned to me the lack of geographical knowledge of his students, particularly in recognition of landforms. Part of this is because the students have experience with very few landforms here in Point Hope. As the middle school social studies teacher, I've been trying to figure out a way that will help my students remember these things.

I inherited some shallow bins from teachers who previously occupied my classroom, so I decided to put those to use. They were each about 15"x24". I filled them each about 1/4 full of the little gravel that's very abundant in Point Hope. During class, I put them into groups of about 3 and went through each of the landforms we were studying and had them make them. The students got really into it. I then quizzed them, and they got really excited.

The one problem was that we didn't get to this activity until the day after I got the gravel, so it was very dry and dusty. The air filled with dust, and some students complained about skin irritation after dealing with it for a while. If it had been slightly damp, it would have solved both problems, I think. Also, I think it would have been better with sand or possibly play dough. I would be partial to sand, however, because it is a lot more land-like, so I think it would make a more lasting impression.

Monday Activity: Bunny Hop and The Hungry Alligator

2010-09-16T11:45:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I know it's Thursday but better late than never right?

Some of our favorite activities are songs or rhymes that have actions. These activities are especially good for helping my girls get enough exercise, which can be hard when it is 20 below outside. They also help toddlers develop gross motor skills, and and get out their pent up energy. I chose two of our favorites to share today. They were both taught to me by my little sister Bethany. I think she learned them in nursery.

Bunny Hop

The word and actions go as follows:

"Little bunny in the ditch, bunny sleeping in a ditch." (Lay down and pretend to be sleeping)
"Little bunny if your wise, you will open up your eyes." (Open your eyes and lift head)
"Bunny hop, bunny hop, bunny hop." (quickly get up and hop away, jumping on each "hop")

Here is a movie so you can see the tune.

The Hungry Alligator

This one doesn't have a melody:

"Five little monkeys swinging in a tree" (Put up five fingers and swing them back and forth)
"Teasing Mr. Alligator 'Can't catch me, you can't catch me'" (Put your thumbs to you temples and wiggle your fingers about)

(My girls love the next part)

(Quietly) "Along came Mr.Alligator quiet as can be" (put you hands together and move them side to side like they are a hungry alligator swimming through the water)
(Loudly ) "AND SNATCHED A MONKEY RIGHT OUT OF THAT TREE!" (Clap your hands together on the word snatched)

Continue with four more verses with one less monkey each time until you get to the last one. Then you say: "AND SNATCHED THAT MONKEY RIGHT OUT OF THAT TREE!" on the last line.

Yummy, Ooey-Gooey and Sticky

2010-09-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

Chalyse has always been a finicky eater. She will love something one day and hate it the next. She rarely will eat a lot of anything at one time. There is one thing that she would eat all day, though, if I would let her. Her very most favorite thing in the world...no, it's not hot dogs or even macaroni and cheese, she probably doesn't even like candy as much as she likes...bread dough. Every time I start making bread she pushed her bike up to the counter to watch. As soon as it looks thick enough to eat she snatches a handful and shoves it in her moth. Disgusting I know! And I'm sure it is not that healthy. It doesn't have an eggs in it but I bet it is hard to digest. I usually tell her "no" not only for health reasons but making bread is hard work and it's very compact compared to the final product. I'll bet that each handful she grabs is like three slices of bread. But honestly she can't help herself; she just like it so much. What am I to do with her?

Savoring the Good Life

2010-09-11T21:06:00.001-08:00

This semester I am taking a positive psychology class. It is a relatively new field of psychology that has only been an official field of study since 1998. Up until recently most psychologists took a more grim outlook on the human species and focused much of their attention more on what goes wrong than celebrating and enhancing what goes right. It has been really interesting to see that most of what it teaches are things that I have been taught since I was little. In the primer textbook, written by Christopher Peterson, it suggests that good character and strong values are what will bring us the most lasting happiness. Although these are ideas that are common to some, the field of study takes it to the next level with experimentation and documentation.

This past week we have been talking about learning to savor the good things in life. The following is a part of the assignment that we did in connection with the idea of savoring:

"I love taking pictures of my daughters! I want to keep each smile forever. I relish in each hug they give, and every made-up song they sing. I enjoy getting them dressed in the morning and doing their hair and even when they are hanging around in their footsie pajamas with crazy-crazy hair, I love to adore them.

"Throughout each day I make mental notes of each of the silly, clever or cute things that each of my daughters does and anticipate sharing these moments with my husband. I am so glad to be blessed to stay home with them during the day.

"Yesterday we took our girls for a walk out on the tundra and I just loved to watch Chalyse pick up the old wild flowers. She would hold it up and say “Look a flower,” then she would pick off each piece of fluff and watch as it floated away in the wind. Ellora and I pulled some moss off the ground. I let her feel how soft it was and she excitedly squealed and held it up to show Dad."

I have to add that yesterday we had the opportinity to go out and pick blueberries. They are not quite the same as the blueberries we have down in the states but, similar. They are just a little blacker, smaller and a little more bitter. One of the ladies that works at the school told us where to find some, so we took a short walk down 7 Mile Road, about half a mile, and there they were just off to the right of the road. Tons of them growing very close to the ground. It had been a beautiful, sunny and warm day but just as we were heading out of the village a cold fog set in. The girls were getting cold and kept stepping on the berries so we didn't stay long but I hope to go out again before they are all gone. We were going to maybe go out today but it was very windy and cold, so maybe we will try sometime next week.

Here are some pictures of our walk on Thursday and our berry picking yesterday.

A Gripping Tragedy of an Ancient North American People

2010-09-08T15:34:00.001-08:00

I just finished a great book! It is a gripping tragety about a people who lived on the American contenent thousands of years ago. I'm not normally one for a tragedy but this one is really fascinating. It is called "The Book of Ether" and it is contained in a book of scriptures published by The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints. It is only 15 short chapters. If you are interested in reading it this link will take you to a free online copy. Make sure you read all the way to the end. The best (at least the most interesting) part is is the very last chapter.

E is for Ellora

2010-09-07T20:29:00.000-08:00

It is about time that I posted about Ellora's 1st birthday and party.

We had guests of all ages. We invited all of our extended family and a couple close friends.

We wanted to do a Zoo theme. I saw some really cute zoo party favors that used the letters of the alphabet. They would have a tiger and say something like "T is for Thank you" or a parrot and say "P is for Party." We used this idea and personalized it. We printed off several pictures from our trip to the zoo. The main theme was the elephant; "E is for Ellora." We also had lions; "L is for Lovable," and girraffs; "G is for girlie."...etc.

In the drive way on the way back to the yard we drew with side walk chalk a big arch and "welcome to the zoo." Then we got all of our zoo-like stuffed animals and toys for other decorations.

I covered a long table with some white butcher paper that I had picked up at Partyland. I then drew in a zoo that was missing the animals. We put out a box of crayons and as guests arrived we had them color their favorite animal and it's habitat into our zoo as well as on their cups. This was a a fun activity even for the adults and coloring the cups made it easy to tell them apart. I used white Styrofoam cups so that we could use crayons. I didn't want to worry about permanent marker with all the little kids.

The cake followed the same theme, "E is for Ellora," "H is for Happy" (the hippo) and "P is for Playful" (the polar bear.) I used soft bath toys that I bought at Wal-mart for the animals and the gate into the zoo came from a train toy we had. I put pretzels around the cake and each animal for the fence. Then, I used crunched vanilla wafers for dirt in the Elephants cage and white, blue and green frosting to make snow/ice, water and grass.

Here it is...

There it goes...

We had a lot of guests I also made jungle animal cup cakes that i found on the Betty Crocker website.

.

One other activity we had was a frog and lizard hunt. I picked up a few packages of plastic frogs and lizards at the dollar store and we hid them in the grass. This activity was surprisingly very poplar with the kids. I wished I had gotten more than just a couple frogs/lizards for each child.

Mom and Dad gave her Barn and farm animals

She of course likes the bag best.

A little bit about Ellora

E is for everywhere: Ellora loves to climb on everything. I have found her on the entertainment center a few times. She is also beginning to say a few words like ball and bath.

H is for hungry: Ellora likes to eat just about anything including toilet paper and wood chips, but her favorite thing to eat is anything that Chalyse left on her plate. Almost daily I get her down from breakfast, wash her off and turn around to do something only to find her a minute later standing on the table eating Chalyse's breakfast.

M is for Momma's girl: if mommy is not the first person she see's in the morning she will complain.

C is for cuddly: She likes to cuddle (when it's her idea) especially when she is tired. She gives great hugs. She also loves teddy bears (or anything soft) and puppy's. She likes to pant and bark like a dog.

G is for girlie: The other day I put a flower in her hair. She was so proud of it and strutted around. Every few seconds she would reach up to her hair to make sure her flower was still there. She likes to play with dolls and thinks anything makes a good phone.

S is for silly: Ellora has such a fun personality. She likes to pull faces to make people laugh. Her favorite face to pull is a scowl but she is also very friendly and social and will wave and say, "haa," to everyone.

We love you Ellora and are so glad to have your bright smile and fun personality to bring us so much joy!

Monday Activity, Boxes

2010-09-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

Every kid loves boxes! and we have more than our share of them considering most of the things we have in our home, including our food came directly to us in the mail. Here are some of the fun activities that we have done with our boxes:

Jumbo Building Blocks

I took all of our recent diaper boxes, emptied them and taped them shut. They made great building blocks. We made towers, stairs, forts, and choo-choo trains. They are light weight and even Ellora enjoyed carrying them around and stacking them. They were a little tipsy when the girls began to climb on them, though. You may consider using them to store stuff in and then letting the kids play with them. That way you could save on space and make them sturdier for climbing. I like my sisters idea of storing baby clothes in diaper boxes because then you can find them easily and you can store each size in a different box.

(Just so you know, this is not an endorsement for a particular type of diapers. We actually ordered a different brand but they sent us these by mistake.)

Play House:

This is our play house that we made from a large box. I taped the top flaps up together to make it taller. I cut differently shaped windows, and some with shudders, a mail box and a door. In the door and cut a circle with one side still connected for a door knob.

After the girls began to grow tired of it I gave Chalyse a marker and let her decorate it. She loved being able to color on the walls and ceiling.
Doesn't every kid love to color on the walls? It's like a dream come true!

We also have done some fun things to recycle packing paper. Stay tuned...

Epants, Nosurnoses, and Jaffs

2010-09-03T14:57:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos from our trip to the zoo this past summer.

Noah's...Raft?

2010-09-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

I previously posted the Inupiaq legend of the first disaster and how it's suspiciously similar to a story found in 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon. The second disaster, in Inupiaq legend, is an age-old classic that can be found in virtually every culture on earth, it seems.

A certain man had a dream one night that he was standing on the top of a tall mountain surrounded by water. He couldn't see anything or anyone else but water. He called for help, and he heard a voice call to him. He saw himself come across the water to where he was. The apparition of himself told him that there was going to be a great flood and that he needed to warn everyone and to build a great raft.

When he woke up, he began to do just that. Everyone laughed at him and called him crazy, except for four men. They helped him to build the raft. When the rains started to come down, they put their tents on the raft, and the waters rose. Eventually the waters covered everything. After the flood began to subside, the people saw a rainbow, which they had never seen before. They took it as a sign that the flood was over.

The man later saw another vision in which he heard a great Voice call to him and tell him that all people would descend from him and that they would think great things of him.

Unfortunately, this story doesn't end happily. While pondering where a man's spirit goes when you die, or what a spirit is, he ends up gaining two familiar spirits and becomes the first sorcerer. He becomes evil and has many people killed. He is later outdone, however, by another sorcerer.

Wednesday book review: Mom Says I Can

2010-09-01T19:27:00.000-08:00

The book I have decided to talk about this week is "Mom Say's I Can," written and illustrated by Judy Cooley. This book made me think of my nephews and is a great mother-son book. In this book, Judy depicts a young boy who believes he can do or be anything because his Mom believes in him. Judy does a great job of bringing imagination to life with her beautiful paintings.

I would say that this book may be more appealing to mom than child, though. The main focus of the book is more on sentiment than an entertaining or gripping story, although the playful illustrations do keep small children engaged for a little while.

Monday Activity-Alphebet Soup

2010-08-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

Hi every one. Guess what, I am taking a blogging class at Ilisgvik. I am really excited about it. We are learning how to make our blog appeal to more people and get more readers. One thing I have decided to do to accomplish this goal is to have weekly post for people to look for. My first one is on Mondays. I will post an activity for you to try with your kids to help keep them entertained, engaged in learning, and also to learn how to focus.

I read in the article: Children can be taught how to cut through the culture of distraction.
July 29, 2008 - by Maggie Jackso

"Two-thirds of children under six live in homes that keep the TV on half or more of the time, an environment linked to attentional difficulties. Mothers multitask an average of 80 hours a week, up from 40 hours in 1975. Racing from activity to activity, families have little time to sit down to eat, to converse, or to be in the same room. They have no time to be together in the deepest sense of the word."

Jackso goes on to quote Ellen Galinky, president of the Families and Work Institute who said,
“We all live in an overwhelming, overstimulating, information-overloaded world,” says Galinsky. “And unless you can pay attention, you can’t think, you can’t problem-solve, you can’t learn. It’s an underlying skill that is to me front and center to success at work, and at home.”

In an article entitled "How to teach your child the importance of concentration"
by Nan Keltie she says:

"Since toddlers are often distracted and on the go, this stage is probably the most important of all in the training process. Your child's natural curiosity is a valuable tool, so use it. Toddlers love to play, and you can train them while doing something fun."

By doing focused activities with your young children even once or twice a day you can help improve their ability to focus which will later help them do well in school, be more successful at work and have more meaningful relationships.

Here is my first Monday activity. This is a silly little game but Chalyse really enjoys it and she is really starting to recognize her letters.

You will need each of the letters of the alphabet that are easy to handle and see from any side as they will be tossed around. We bought some big foam letters at Target. They can be found by the bath toys in the baby section. When we moved to Utah for the summer we left our letters in Alaska so we took 26 of the clear rectangular lids that come on Gerber baby food and wrote on them with permanent marker. Both worked well.

We then put all the letters into a big mixing bowl. Usually we talk about each letter as we put it in the bowl. We may line them up in order first.
Then comes the fun part. We mix all the letters up, using our hands or a big spoon. We sing, "Alphabet soup, alphabet soup, we love alphabet soup." or something like that.

We are not careful to keep all the letters in the bowl :). As the letters fly out of the bowl we name them and talk about them.
Chalyse enjoys being able to make a mess and I love that she is starting to recognize most of her letters. As she gets older we will begin to talk more about the sounds each letter make and start to make words with them.

Mommy Wow!

2010-08-28T23:03:00.000-08:00

Chalyse has been so excited to learn to go potty. We told her she had to wait till we got home to Point Hope because we were doing too much running around this summer to devote that much time to the bathroom. Oh! Are we ever spending time in there! I have decided that Chalyse spends at least %20 of her day in there.

Over all I am extremely pleased with how well she is doing. She has been able to get up there on her own, wipe and even wash her hands by herself; although, she can't turn the water on. She can also take her pants on and off, but sometimes she gets her underwear on upside down. Yes upside down, don't ask me how.

It's just that she gets a little distracted with things like brushing her teeth...or flossing...the best part is that she is so genuine about what she is doing. Yesterday, I went in there are she had ripped off several squares of toilet paper and lined them up along the sink. "This one is for Meese, this one's for Mommy, this one;s for Daddy, this is for Ellora..." So, many of you who may be reading this, Chalyse is saving a square of TP for you, too.

Also, because she has been so excited to start using the potty, she somehow needs to go every 5 minutes unless she is truly busy doing something else. Then, as I was surprised to find out, she can go an hour or two without even having an accident. I have started to have to tell her, "you just went potty, see if you can hold it for just a little while." Today, I was so sick of her using the potty so often that I put a child-proof handle on the doorknob.

All in all, she is doing very well and is very pleased with her self. We are also quite pleased with how with what a big girl she is.

In other news, Ellora decided today that markers make a nice snack. We found her sucking on one. Her mouth was completely black which made Chalyse start screaming and freaking out. I couldn't blame her. The sight was quite grotesque. Luckily the markers were none toxic and hopefully Chalyse has learned not to leave markers laying around.

Later Chalyse was chasing Ellora around with the camera telling her to say "Ahhh." and trying to pry her moth open to take a picture of it. Ellora didn't think is was quite as funny as we did.

Coincidences from the Book of Mormon

2010-08-27T16:34:00.000-08:00

I'm currently taking a class to finish getting my professional teaching license. It's entitled, "North Slope Inupiaq History, Language and Culture." We are studying some of their creation stories and other legends. One of them is particularly interesting.

Over the course of their oral history, they have legends of four major disasters. The first of these occurred at the end of a paradisaical period. The climate was much warmer and people didn't have to work for what they had. There was one boy who grew up and was the perfect child. He was helpful, kind, and thoughtful. Everyone loved him.

One day, as he was thinking near a pond, he heard a voice calling him. He looked around, but didn't see anything. The voice called again, but again there wasn't anyone. After a third time, he saw a man unlike anyone he had seen before with a long, white beard and hair. He was afraid because he had never seen anyone like that before, although people lived to see the 5th and 6th generations of their descendants. The man told him he was a prophet who had chosen this boy for his goodness to warn his people of a destruction to come.

He told him that to begin with, there would be great earthquakes. People wouldn't die from these. However, they would warn of things to come. Soon after, the sun would be eclipsed by the moon for three days and a nearby mountain would erupt. After that, all but very few people would be dead and the climate would change so that the people would have to wear warm clothes, deal with winter hardships, and be industrious.

The boy warned the people and they were responsive, but even so most of the surrounding populations of people were wiped out.

This story, and others of interest, can be found in the book, "People of Kawerak."

Be you

2010-08-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Chalyse said to me "Mommy I really like you."

I said "I'm glad. I really like you too."

She then said, "Mommy I want to be you." I was so delighted and tickled that she would like me so much she would want to be me.

After I walked out of the room she said "I can't be Mommy, I'm too young to be Mommy."

North to Alaska

2010-08-18T14:58:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of Beautiful Alaska that I took as we flew over

A Warm Sunny Afternoon at the Beach

2010-08-18T10:31:00.000-08:00

Back to School Night

2010-08-18T08:30:00.000-08:00

The girls are starting to learn the art of Eskimo dancing. They would stop when we would get out the camera, of course, but we did catch a little bit of it.

They are wearing there traditional Atukluks (pronounced Atooglooks). Our friend Gail help me cut them out.

Home Again, Home Again

2010-08-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

We are back in PH and I am actually really glad to have regular schedule and a clean house again. This summer has been so fun but I am ready to get back to normal life.

My biggest fears about coming back have been set to rest. Our flights went well with minimal crying and screaming and the girls are adjusting SO well. They got back onto a great sleeping schedule right away, naps and all. They are also eating well also, although, Ellora still won't drink milk. We are hoping she will start drinking it soon because alternitive dairy products like cheese and yogurt are so expensive and she needs the nutrition it affers esspecially the vitamin D.

The weather has been so nice, besides the wind yeterday and today. It got up to 72 yesterday! That the warmest we have ever experienced here. We have been to the park and the beach and the girls have enjoyed playing outside alot. I don't mind all the rocks so much just as long as the girls don't run into a rusty nail or peice of glass. (They are all over, even at the playground, but that is my only complaint for now so we are doing well.)

This picture reminds me of Daurie when she was little. :)

Over the next few weeks i will try to post some of our summer pictures but the internet is really slow here so we'll see.

I know this kind of doll makes a lot of people sick, but really?

2010-08-06T14:37:00.000-08:00

We went yard sale-ing today to try and find good deals on birthday presents. We didn't find what we were looking for, but at the last stop we let Chalyse and Ellora have a quarter and find something that they each wanted. Ellora found a Barbie doll that she liked, so we got it for her. When we got home, Chalyse was playing with it, but couldn't quite get the pronunciation down. She started out calling it a "Barfbie," but that soon became "Barfie." She misplaced it momentarily and went around the house calling, "Barfie, where are you barfie?" We tried to convince her that it was "Barbie," but she liked her name better.

A Miracle

2010-07-19T05:43:00.000-08:00

The other day we witnessed a miracle. Chalyse has been such a trial at the dinner table. She usually won't eat any vegetables, and half of the time she won't eat most of the rest of what we put in front of her, either, unless it's mac 'n cheese. The other day, we cooked up some broccoli with our dinner and put some on her plate, expecting her to not eat it. She ate all of the florets off of them, then asked to eat Ellora's as well (strangely, Ellora usually eats everything we put in front of her, but she wouldn't touch her broccoli). Then, the next night we had green beans with our meal, and she ate those, too! Hopefully it lasts.

Our Garden

2010-06-21T13:38:00.000-08:00

Last month Camille and I got our landlord to let us use a little strip of dirt in the backyard for a garden. He was planning on putting rocks in. The small strip of dirt that we had seemed ideal right next to the fence, being about two feet wide and plenty long. However, about a foot of the width, we found out, was taken up by some concrete that had been buried about two inches under the surface. Making the best of our circumstance, we made a furrow down the middle over the concrete to plant our green onions, and planted everything else around it.

We ended up getting two tomato plants, a few pepper plants, a zucchini plant, a butternut squash plant, and a row of green onions. My sister-in-law, Mandy, who is going to be taking our apartment after we go back to Alaska, planted a pumpkin plant.

For a long time, we just watered them and battled the heat (and unseasonable coldness). Over the past few days, our tomatoes have seriously doubled in size. I don't know what it was exactly. We have three little green tomatoes. Our green onions aren't doing amazingly. Everything else is coming along, though.

We were really excited to be able to plant our own little garden. There's something to be said about working in the dirt, even just a little bit, and eating something you worked to produce.

Chalyse's Lullaby

2010-06-12T08:57:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, Chalyse's doll was tired, so Chalyse put her to sleep. She sang her own little lullaby:

Rock-a-by
Rock-a-by
See all the pretty colors

Right now, her doll is getting a "bath" and her diaper changed.

Summer...Relaxation?

2010-05-29T13:41:00.000-08:00

Ellora took her first steps a couple of weeks before we came home, but we didn't tell anyone because we wanted it to be a surprise. She's made really gradual progress with walking, and now is very good, as you can see from the video (we're sorry if she damaged your speakers with her shrill scream).

Since coming home, we've been running like crazy, but it seems to be slowing down finally. We've really enjoyed the "warm" weather, and even the rain. It's probably best that it's been unseasonably cool and wet this year. We're probably going to melt in the next few days as it gets into the 80s.

The girls have adjusted to the time change. The first three nights after getting back were...unpleasant. Ellora had a hard time with the time change, but Chalyse took the prize for "Biggest Grump at Bedtime." She woke up all three nights with night terrors.

We finally have our house put together and are on a more or less regular schedule. It's fun to see so many friends and family.

We Survived!

2010-05-08T10:40:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure I'd make it through my first year teaching with my sanity, but I think I did. Then again, we're planning on coming back up to Alaska next year, so maybe I didn't. We are so excited to see grass, trees, flowers, and pretty much everything that isn't white or gray. It's gotten up to the 40s a couple of times here, but we're excited for REAL warmth. We are ready for a vacation!

Amazing Baby

2010-04-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

Ellora is now 9 months old. For Easter the girls got playground balls that are just smaller than a basketball. Yesterday I found Ellora sitting on one of them and bouncing up and down. I was astonished at her ability to balance and couldn't imagine how she had even sat down on it without it falling out from under her. She has been standing in the middle of the floor a lot lately so perhaps she was standing and just accidently sat right on it. I caught her a little while later trying to sit on it again but she couldn't get it right in the middle and slid right off.

Ellora loves to sit on Chalyse's scoot car and does really well even though she is just big enough to reach the top of the wheels to rest her feet on them (it is several more inches to the floor) In the past she has gotten herself down and I couldn't figure out how but yesterday I caught her. She brings her left foot up to the seat so that it is under her bum, then she stands up straight on that one foot on top of the seat so she can move her right foot off the wheels and over the floor. Then she lets her self down until she falls off the seat onto her right foot and brings her left foot down beside it, sill standing. (I think baby's do all kinds of amazing things when we are not looking.)

Powder Puff Wrestling

2010-04-20T18:17:00.000-08:00

We heard Ellora and Chalyse giggling and looked down the hall to find this.

Nora

2010-04-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

Chalyse has trouble with her L's and as a result she calls her sister Nora. It seems to fit her well. We sill call her Ellora most of the time and Ella every once in a while but like "Nora." It is a little more unique than Ella but still classic and like I siad it seems to fit her well. Also one of my favorite singers is Nora Jones.

She has the same bright blue eyes as her dad and sister. It makes me feel like a minority having green.

Good Morning

2010-04-18T21:04:00.000-08:00

Tonight, Chalyse was being so cute. We put her to bed, but she kept on getting up saying she was hungry and wanted breakfast. We weren't too worried about her because she had eaten pretty well at dinner, but we eventually gave her a piece of bread and milk. As she ate, she kept telling us that she woke up and that it was morning. She even gave us her own version of "Good Morning," from "Singin' in the Rain." "Morning, morning, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you." We kept telling her that she hadn't gone to sleep yet and that it was night time. She would parrot that back to us, then go on saying how she had woken up and that she was eating breakfast. This whole thing was so cute, Camille and I couldn't help but laugh.

Chalyse eventually woke her sister. It's not so cute anymore.

Shark Baby

2010-04-18T17:55:00.000-08:00

For the longest time (about 3 months), Ellora only had her two bottom teeth. She looked like a little mouse. Finally, this past week she cut...(drum roll, please)...not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR new teeth on top. It's been an interesting week for us, but all things considered, she was a pretty good sport.

Today was our stake conference. One of the speakers said something really interesting. He was speaking about blessings and trials and said, "Some people are blessed with great riches, and some people are cursed by them. Some people are cursed with poor health, but some people are blessed with it." Our blessings and trials will help us to improve inasmuch as we are humble, patient, and faithful.

Whaling

2010-04-17T19:44:00.000-08:00

Last night, our neighbor who is a son of a whaling captain invited me to go with them whaling. I was excited to go, because outsiders only get to go if they're invited. I would get to see the natives whale. They do it more or less the same way that they have for hundreds of years.

The plan was to leave at the crack of dawn (about 5 or 6 in the morning), and I could come back when someone went back to get lunch for the crew. It didn't end up working that way, though. Between members of the crew who hadn't gotten to sleep in time the night before and others who couldn't find a babysitter, we didn't end up leaving until 12:30 or 1:00.

We rode out onto the ice to their spot. It was about 1-2 miles out. There was a channel in the ice about a mile wide where crews were whaling. I got my camera out to take pictures, but of course it wouldn't work with the cold.

I figured out that the way they hunt whale is they wait for the whales to come close to the edge of the ice, then as the whale passes by their spot, they smoothly launch their boat and approach the whale from behind, then they harpoon it with a harpoon attached to a buoy. This way, they can trace it when it goes deep. They then get it with a harpoon that has an explosive in it.

It didn't take too long for a whale to come by close enough for the crew to give chase. I stood looking on as they got ready to launch their boat, when one of the members pointed to a spot on the boat and told me to get there. It's not very common for outsiders to be allowed to help out, so I was pretty honored. Over the course of the day, we chased after about 5 whales. Some of them were within about 20 yards of us.

Another whaling crew was able to get a buoy attached to a whale, but they lost track of it under the ice.

There was a period of about 30-45 minutes when no whales came close enough, but on the other side of the channel there was a group of whales playing and splashing around. It was pretty cool to see. I probably ended up seeing at least 12 whales, all of them bowhead whale.

I'm going to be really sore tomorrow!

Heavy

2010-04-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was putting the girls down for a nap. While I was feeding Ellora, Chalyse asked "Hungry piter (caterpiller)?"

"Okay, go get it." I said

"and mouse book."

"Okay we'll read mouse book too." Chalyse ran out of the room.

A few minutes later I heard her coming down the hall panting "Heavy, heavy." She came into the room with a stack of books about a foot high.

Northern Lights

2010-04-06T14:33:00.000-08:00

Mandy is going to be leaving at the end of this week, and she hadn't had a chance to see the aurora, yet. I had seen a couple of fading displays in the morning on my way to school, but nothing spectacular. Although, when I say "nothing spectacular," I mean that relatively. The first time I saw the aurora, it took my breath away.

We kept an eye on the auroral forecasts, but nothing ever worked out. Either the weather would be good and there would be no aurora, or there would be a huge aurora and be completely overcast. A couple of nights ago, however, it finally worked out. We set the alarm for 3:00 a.m. (our local midnight). When we looked out the window in the early hours of the morning, I could plainly see the aurora despite the streetlights near our house. We got dressed and went outside. The display wasn't as big as some that you see on tv, but it was beautiful.

The pale-green river of light flowed from the northeast, splitting here, rejoining there as it occasionally overflowed and dripped its light into space.

2010-04-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

Spring Fever

2010-04-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

We were getting sick of the wintery background, so here is our new, happy sunflower background. We just need to get a new family picture to go with it.

Midnight Chatty

2010-03-19T10:39:00.000-08:00

Spring is in the air. We have finally gotten out of the negatives (for now). Today, it got up to 39! They are getting ready for whaling. They just have to wait for enough of the ice to melt to have some open water.

This piece was made out of whale baleen and walrus ivory by our friend Lloyd Vincent

Ellora and I went to Anchorage last week for a well baby check and to get her helmet adjusted. The verdict: Ellora is big for her age (about 90 percentile) she is still one immunization short of being almost on track and we miss our pediatrician. Also, she is almost done with her helmet...I guess. I told the orthopedic we cant afford to make another trip but that we will be in Utah in May so we will go back to the guy we originally went to and have him follow up. The Orthopedic said to have Ellora wear it for one more month and anything that isn't corrected at that point will either take care of itself or it won't matter because she has hair. Not exactly what I wanted to here but I think all will turn out okay, anyway.

We had such a good thing going for a short blessed while. I finally got the girls on the perfect sleeping schedule. Most days they would both wake up around 7 or 7:30. Ellora would take a morning nap, they would nap together in the afternoon and go to sleep so well at 8. But then, of course, Ellora and I went to Anchorage which messed up her sleeping schedule and while we were gone Chalyse started having nightmares. They have really upset her. She talks about it all the time. We have told her that monsters aren't real and she seems to get it but she has been having such trouble going to sleep ever since. Then she wakes up, upset during the night and sleeps in because she didn't sleep well. This causes her to skips her nap.

On top of all this we had daylight savings which we definitely didn't need because we were already 2 hours ahead of where we should be because all of Alaska is on Juneau time. So now we are 3 hours ahead and the sun doesn't go down till 9, meaning it is light out until 10 but it is still not coming up until 9 or 10. "High noon" is at about 3:00 in the afternoon. Oh well, soon it won't matter anyway because it will be light out all the time. We bought some curtains so hopefully that will help.

Chalyse has been so chatty lately. Last night she woke up around 3 and when I went in there to sit with her for a while she talked and talked. She said "Dream monsters. Monsters not real. Blanket pink real. Blanket yellow real. Paizy real. Mommy real. Daddy real. Daddy sleeping. Daddy tired. Meese tired. Meese sleep." Then she would lay down and pretend to snore for a bit. She went on and on for about 15 minutes. It was so cute I was having a hard time telling her to be quiet.

Anyway, that is what is going on with us. We will be coming home in the beginning of May. We can't wait to see everyone and start working on our tans.

Here are some silly messy faces:

Garden vegetable mousse.

Ellora Crawling 2-26-10

2010-03-05T13:02:00.000-09:00

And She's Off...

2010-03-05T12:33:00.000-09:00

Ellora seems to have done SO much growing in the last...DAY. Last Friday she figured out how to crawl but she still preferred to scoot. (I have been trying to upload the video I took of it but between our very slow internet and a little girl who thinks it is funny to turn off the computer I keep running into "technical difficulties." I will try again today.) Anyway yesterday Ellora decided that she preferred crawling and was all over the house. Down the hall and into the the bathroom, into the laundry room to play with the vacuum and she even made a break for it when the front door into the main hall was opened (she didn't make if very far.) This is no all though. She also pulled herself up to the couch a few times and almost up to the wall. When she was standing up to Tom who was sitting on the couch she turned around and saw something she wanted and tried to go for it. Granted she didn't mover her feet but she is still interested in walking. CRAZY! And then, this morning I put her in the tub and turned to wash my hands. She instantly rolled over, crawled to the corner of the tub and pulled herself up. Ahhh where is my baby going. She is so eager to be grown.