Fall Fun

There's an atuk(Eskimo dance) tonight and everyone is at it so the Internet should be faster. I'm going to try and finish off our vacation photos. Thanks for being so patient. This is a long one...feel free to scroll quickly:)

I really like the fall and all the festivities that accompany it. We spent a lot of our time at farms and festivals this fall.

Trick or Treating with their cousins in Ohio. The boys both wanted to be robots. This was their first real time to ever go trick or treating. At about the 4th house, before handing out the candy, the man said to Logan, "What do you say?" and Logan said, "Thank you."...nooo...that comes after the "trick or treat"...He was very optimistic though:) They had a great time and it was fun to hang out with their cousins.


Owen bobbing for apples.


Landon(cousin) chasing Owen through the leaves in Jacob's backyard.


Logan enjoying a popcorn ball.


Owen driving the tractor with Logan at Malibar Farm.


Owen feeding the chickens. They take after their father and discovered they could feed the chickens grass for free and not have to spend money at the feed corn dispenser:) I think I sat there for at least half an hour while they fed the chickens grass.



Logan with the goats.




We spent many hours raking leaves and jumping in the piles in Jacob's mom's backyard. After all that raking, she had more of a mess when we left than when we arrived:) This is Logan jumping off the wheelbarrow...just turn your head a bit to view!


Owen in the leaves.


Logan in the leaves...yes, I do believe his shoes are on the wrong feet:)


Owen picking out apples at the orchard.


Logan picking out apples.


Logan with Kingwood Center behind him...an old mansion/gardens that we always visit when in Ohio.


A family shot in front of the big house.


The boys in front of the "plant bug".


Many more hours were spent feeding the ducks:)

Merry Christmas!

Celebrating Christmas seems to feel a bit different when a member of your family is a pastor! Last year was really busy and I didn't like it. This year was quite mellow and beautiful, but certainly not the traditional Christmas:) We spent Christmas Eve visiting with friends and preparing for the Children's Program and Candlelight Service. When we told the boys they could take their "walking sticks" to church if they were shepherds, they enthusiastically jumped at the opportunity. They were great. When it was time for the shepherds to enter, Logan ran right up onto the stage and promptly stood right in front of Mary. Owen got stage fright and didn't want to go, but when I pointed out that Logan was all alone, he dutifully joined Logan on stage, being the faithful twin brother that he is:)

After putting the boys to bed, we had the candlelight service and then Jacob and I stayed up visiting with people until 3am. I decided this morning that we would stretch out the Christmas festivities so that I could enjoy time with the family today rather than slaving in the kitchen all day. We had a leisurely wake-up, I threw the breakfast casseroles in the oven, and rejoined everyone upstairs. Later we went back downstairs to find a house thick with smoke. Woops...I'm not any Martha Stewart. Apparently all of my substitutions didn't go well with that recipe!:) The boys and I hung out in the church while Jacob aired out the house. Somehow, the casseroles were fine (one just ran over in the oven...really badly!) so we enjoyed breakfast, opening gifts, drinking wassail, and playing/visiting all day followed by the Adult Christmas Program tonight. I just shared sushi and brownies with friends for a late night Christmas dinner. It was great. We'll do the big dinner tomorrow. One's not so enslaved to the calendar when you live in the Arctic. Merry Christmas!

An Oversight

Something always seems to happen during church that is blog worthy...or maybe it's just that church is the boys and my one big outing each week!:) Anyway, last Sunday, we had our typical last minute rush to get the boys to the potty and then get their shoes on and quietly walk up the aisle to our pew in the front row by the piano (yep, I'm still playing!) We sat down and I breathed out a sigh of relief that we made it and were all settled in for an hour plus of church. That's when I noticed...my green sweater, my black pants, and my pink fluffy slippers (why I have pink fluffy slippers is a whole other story!) Woops! The dangers of living in the church.

Christmas Break

Today was the beginning of Christmas Break which really means two things for me. The first is that it means my closest Savoonga friend ditched me for Belize. I hope she didn't suffer too much frostbite as she waited for her plane in her flip flops and sun hat at 10 below plus windchill. Ah Mandi!:) Really, would you want to haul your massive pile of snow gear to sit on the beach for 10 days? She did leave us with two bags full of fresh veggies (they pay for a box to be shipped up each week)and Bob Dylan's Christmas CD which meant we had some amazing pizza tonight while enjoying some great music (okay, I enjoyed Bob...Jacob suffered through him!) and I was only left to miss a good dark beer on our dry island.
The second thing that Christmas Break means for me is that we enjoyed our wonderful meal while fighting off loads of hovering children!:) (No school means many more kids at our house attempting to find a warm gathering place!) No, only a few needed constant urging to let us eat in peace. The rest hung out in other corners of the house with our 4 house guests. We've had 4 people from YWAM staying with us for a week or so. They wanted to reconnect with people in Savoonga, so they are spending their YWAM Christmas break with us. It's been really good to have them around. One is a girl who has stayed with us 3 times before so we're beginning to know her well. Another is a girl from New Zealand who just spent a month with us. The two guys are both from Anaktuvuk Pass, a village farther north than us. They all have sarcastic, blunt, yet sincere personalities, so we are enjoying each other's company:)

The Smiths

We spent a weekend in Dayton with Jacob's aunt, uncle, and cousin. It was great to see them again. We spent a day at the Cincinatti Central Station (old train station turned into many different museums). Before heading back to his mom's house, we spent a few hours with Steve, Erin, and their 2 boys. (I didn't get any pictures!) The boys had fun playing with 2 boys about their own age.


Logan, Cousin Alex, and Owen


Owen driving a loader in the Children's Museum. I think the boys would have moved in and spent the rest of their childhood there if it were an option!


Me, Owen, Logan, and Jacob on a camel:)


Logan enjoying the leaves.

Super Dad/Husband

Yesterday, I awoke with a relapse of the flu that I had last week! Ihhh! As I made my way from our bed to the toddler beds to the chair to the futon back to the toddler beds (you get the picture) all day long, I enjoyed watching Jacob with the boys. He didn't just do the bare minimum to get by...One time when I came downstairs, he had already helped them cut out an entire airport with runway and airplanes from a cereal box and they were busy painting it and then later played with it! He built a "house" with them out of boxes filled with clothes awaiting the next church rummage sale. He fed them 3 meals and countless snacks! At the end of the day, as I lay on the futon and he sat on the couch making up stories for the boys as they all drew pictures of the stories, I noticed that it was quiet for awhile. I opened my eyes to find the boys happily drawing while Jacob's head was back and he was sleeping. After awakening, he said, "I haven't really been feeling 100% today." News to me! Thanks to an amazing dad and husband.

Last Sunday

I'm going to interupt the vacation posts with a current post or two. This one highlights Logan...my dear child:) We were sitting in church last Sunday when Jacob asks, from the pulpit, "Are there any other announcements?" It is this moment that Logan decides to tell me, in his typical loud Logan voice, "My foot hurts." I heard a few giggles from the pews behind me. Perhaps that would have been better if stated after, "Are there any other prayer requests?" Later that day, the boys were playing upstairs when I hear Owen crying an "I'm hurt" cry. As I went upstairs to see what was going on, Logan intervened in my path, put his hand gently on my arm, looked me in the eye and said, "I just wasn't thinking Mama." Hmmm...so would you like to elaborate a little bit more on what you did to your brother?!