Cold New Year's Eve

Coldest night so far. I think last year their lowest temp of the year was -25F and was in February. So we've already beaten it this year. Our high today was -16F and the low was -27F (so far.....it is still dropping tonight). We opened the door once to grab a package FedEx left, other than that, we had a quiet day inside! By the way, that's not a real Siberian Tiger on the floor in the temperature pic background (in case you're wondering) - it's a stuffed tiger gift for Landon from his daycare. The other two pics are of me (and Landon) sporting my new "Elmer Fudd" ear-flap cap. It may look funny, but it sure is warm. It reminds me of PoPo for some reason - not sure if he used to have one or not.

Christmas Snow

We were blessed with a good 12+ inches of snow over the holidays. Places in our yard have a good 18-24 inches of accumulation. The past day and a half has been interesting with howling 65 mph wind gusts and blowing snow. Our driveway and Santa's tracks have been once again covered over with white stuff. The boys had a great holiday. Grayson was happy with food (that's KoolAid on his lip in the first picture), cars, and music. He surprised us by actually liking his big boy shoes. Landon was thrilled with a pair of IronMan pajamas and a robot. He also liked his solar system. He and Daddy got in trouble for fighting during laser tag. It was a nice relaxing holiday and hard to believe that we are blessed with one more week off before we all head back to work and school!

Ready for a White Christmas

Not sure why, but something tells us we'll definitely have a White Christmas this year. These pictures are from Dec 22nd. About 12 inches of snow on the ground (about 20 inches has fallen, but it gets compacted after time), and about 4 more inches will fall by the time Christmas arrives (next post).

Uno

With our outside activities limited....card games of UNO have become routine. Landon tends to win more often than anyone else (we keep telling ourselves it's just a game of luck, not skill), but he hasn't learned to win graciously yet as you can tell from his "taunting" antics after each game!!

Shortest Day of the Year

Here's our ski lesson and pictures from the 21st, the winter solstice. Our shortest day of the year was only 5 and 1/2 hours long with sunrise at 10:15 am and sunset at 3:45 pm. Now the days get longer - until we reach a 19+ hour day in June.

-12 F in the morning

Last Saturday, when we hosted the school Christmas party, we woke up to -12F temperatures. Layne set out to shovel the driveway and the boys and worked on the inside of the house. Check out Layne's cold weather gear, compliments of E-bay. The cold weather is interesting. Although it dries out your skin and mucous membranes there is a steady "ice fog" almost everyday that keeps the trees coated with ice crystals. We are very blessed with a heated garage. Ice crystals also form on the windows of the garage.

Christmas Show

Landon had his Christmas concert last night at school. Just a few pictures. If I can figure out how to flip the video I will post one too. Landon seemed to have a good time. Grayson had lots of fun stealing Cheerios from Ms. Amber and Eli.

We got a good six inches of snow today which made for a fun drive home for Landon and I. Grayson and Daddy spent the day at home as Grayson is still recovering from a bad cold.

Learning to Ski

We enjoyed the warm (near 30 degree) temps today by having a little backyard fun (poor Grayson missed it do to his naptime). Landon was the first one to attempt to cross-country ski, finally putting the skis that we picked up at a ski swap to use. He made a couple of passes along our backyard before he had enough. He said it was a lot of fun! Note the setting sun in the background. The pictures were taken at 2:30 in the afternoon after Navy shut out Army in this year's premiere sporting event.

The boys are getting anxious for the holiday, even though we have no major plans but will spend the holiday bundled up sipping cocoa as we do every weekend!

A World of Dark and Light

Winter workout in Alaska = shoveling the driveway!

We have been watching it snow all weekend. Our grand total might be seven inches and slick roads. Layne took a few pictures of today's snowfall that he wanted me to post.

I got to photograph my first Alaska wedding. In true Alaska fashion, it was outside in the snow! It was alot of fun and I enjoyed taking the pictures with the help of my two photography gals Ant and Katie. Thanks ladies, I couldn't have done it without you!

I find myself wondering why I love living somewhere where daylight is diminished and I won't see grass for six months at a time. It really does make you feel like you want to hibernate, but one can only sleep for so long. Seeing the earth covered in a blanket of white is really a blessing as everything looks fresh and quiet. The little light that we have reflects nicely off the white snow and grants us natures own flashlight.

Moose and Squirrel

We finally got a squirrel to come around to the feeder. We named him Rocky, and all our moose are now named Bullwinkle. I guess that makes us Boris and Natasha. About 6 inches of snow on the ground. Should get another 4 or so in the next couple of days. Studded snow tires are coming in handy! So far we've enjoyed the winter - it's been "cozy", with alot of hot chocolate being consumed. The house is amazingly heat efficient, even with all the windows. So we've been comfortable. A heated garage is a must in Alaska! Next question we have is what to do when the mound of snow along the side of the driveway we've made shoveling gets too high to add more snow? My suggestion is that we need a four-wheeler with a snow-plow attachment, but Jolene isn't convinced yet. Another couple times letting her shovel the snow will convince her I bet!

Putting up the Tree

Didn't have turkey this year for Thanksgiving - instead we had Moose tenderloin and sirloin steak. It was our first time to grill any of our Moose, and it turned out pretty good. Afterwards we put up the Christmas Tree. Happy Thanksgiving!