Christmas happenings

Here's a collection of December pictures of the kids and what we've been doing.

There's cutting down our Christmas tree. All four of us did that together.

Rosie Riding piggyback on Squeakums. I still don't have a final screenname for her. I like Rose in it, perhaps RosieCheeks or Rosebud (Grammy's suggestion).

Making Squeakums gingerbread house with his neighbor friends. They enjoyed that very much. Now there's just a few graham cracker walls still standing. Most all the candy has been torn off and eaten, stale or not.

We've lost our camera sadly this week. So no Christmas pictures will be taken unless we find the camera tonight.

I do have pictures from last Sunday's Christmas play though. He was a shephard. Almost didn't get up on the stage, he was too shy during rehearsal that morning. And had missed the last two rehearsals on Sunday mornings. But when it cmae time, he was in a good mood and did great. He swayed to the songs while the other kids stood still and sang. (He wasn't singing however). And he was left looking at baby Jesus after the other shephard had exited the stage - they forgot him. As the youngest kid up there, the older ones were looking out for him and making sure he faced forward, etc. It was cute and he seemed to enjoy it.

Merry Christmas everyone. Thank you God for the gift of Jesus to us.

Harvest Carnival

Squeakums was so excited to go fishing for the first time at the harvest carnival. And he caught something (a toy, a candy, and a paper pad), he still talks about it. In his little mind he actually went fishing.

But every day a few times he'll tell us he went on an airplane. Not sure why that thought it constantly on his mind. Maybe he dreams about it. Maybe God is trying to tell us something.

His simple costume was a football player, football is one of his favorite everythings.

More grandparent visitors for baby girl

Had more family visitors last month. Here's some of those activites...swimming with Uncle B, both kids hearing about Petee landing on pouter's lips from Aunt Rackle. Grandparents sleeping with baby girl. And our family hike on the Homestead trail on a recent SUnday afternoon.

Squeakums new toddler bed was an exciting transition for him. He was ready to take his nap an hour early that first day. And he loves to have most if not all his stuffed animals around him when he sleeps. And don't forget all his blankets and a few books, maybe even a box of legos as well.

Pregnant Brain

Where did I put my pregnant brain? I thought it would be left at the hospital where I gave birth. But I keep finding it again and losing it. I go outside in my slippers and around the house in my shoes...even after I've told myself "I am putting on my shoes to go outside." Six weeks now and I think the pregnant brain is on it's way out. At least I've put it somewhere and hoping I don't find it again.

Our little girl continues to be an easy one. She's hit her next growth spurt and kept me up all night trying to nurse. In a couple of days that should be clear and then we'll let her sleep all night long if she wants...and I'm sure she'll want to! She doesn't seem to like taking baths yet, but immediately has taken to getting massages from mommy. We started cloth diapers and elimination communication again, with great results already. She doesn't usually poop during the night anyway, which is lovely for us.

Gma-inlaw in here this week and the rest of BearHunters family arrive on Monday for a week and a half more. Unfortunately we had our first freeze and suddenly summer is gone. Heater is running more now and I've closed the french doors to our entryway to keep the heat in.

YWAM dug potatoes yesterday for the base and we received a few large bags of lettuce donated. I'm still eating raspberries off our little bushes here but most friends in town had a really bad year for red raspberries.

Back to life.

Baby Girl Born

Today she was born. What a different experience than with Squeakums. All of the difficulties and complications at his birth were not there for hers. We are so thankful for God's blessing in this. She was born 5 days "late" but came naturally.
I labored from 8pm til just after 2am. And was in the warm tub for the end of the labor. Usually this hospital has moms get out of the tub once the pushing stage arrives. Somehow I transitioned to pushing and crowning and birth within 15 minutes, and was still in the tub. So we had an underwater birth to our own surprise. Getting out of the tub was only a little bit of work, but the water had been so comfortably warm and let me lay and float holding onto my husband during contractions and pushing, which was wonderful. He wasn't able to catch her as she was born, due to holding me, but was able to at least feel her head as she crowned. She was born at 2:47am, what a relief. I was tired and still am 13 hours later. Trying to get some naps in while still at the hospital. Delivering the placenta was real work, too, but it finally came out all in one piece (a drastic improvement from last time as well).

She is a beautiful 19 inches long, 7 pounds and 7.7 ounces (777, eh?), latched on great and nursing well already. Also taking some good 2 hour naps. Passed the hearing test and got her vitamin K. Down to changing diapers and nursing now.

We'll have to think of another screen name for her, as we did for Squeakums. Open to suggestions...

Salmon

Dipnetting on the Kasilof. Our first time dipnetting on a big river. There were tons of other people out and we went with a few other families from our home group. The wives and kids played while the men did the work. The kids "helped" filet at the end of the day. We came home with 5 red salmon I think...it's been a couple of weeks and I forget sorry!

Just this weekend I canned some salmon that had been given to us by another friend. THat was a long day! But it's fun to be learning these skills and to have some quick grab meals.

More pheasants

We've eaten pheasant three times now. And BearHunter shot two in one day, today. He cooked the first in a peanut sauce with peas and rice for dinner. And the second he shot after dinner and I'll be giving the meat and a beautiful tailfeather to a friend I'm visiting tonight. There's not much meat on the birds but it's fresh, wild, free, and fun to catch. Even squeakums gets involved. He likes holding the heart!

Birthday pictures: went to McD's for the big dinner with grandparents and home to a football cake afterwards. He ate pretty pretty much all the icing off the top before digging into the cake and sharing with us. S'mores at the campfire. His new haircut can be seen in the photo of him in the high chair with yellow pants.

Two year old changes

So much happens in a toddler's life every day. He had his first scratched knee today...and pretty much had a meltdown when he finally saw it. He was fine walking to the kitchen and up the stairs...until he could see his knee. It wasn't even a deep cut.

And Squeakums had his first haircut ever last week and looks so much like a boy now. Amazing what a difference that makes.

BearHunter leaves on Sunday for a way too long camping trip...mama's not looking forward to the hundreds of times that Squeakums will no doubt ask "Where's daddy?" all week.

New YWAM school started yesterday with 7 students originating from New Zealand to Alaska. Said goodbye on Monday to our last graduate from the winter school. Always saying hello and goodbye to new people...it's a lifestyle in YWAM.

We enjoyed grammy and grampa's visit for Squeakums 2 year old birthday last month. Everyone had a good time I think. Grandparents checked off our TO-DO list, THANK YOU, and treated us and a friend to a lovely glacier cruise in Seward. We also were able to visit briefly with some family friends here on vacation as well.

I think potty training is close to being done. He hasn't wet his pants in a couple of days and is starting to indicate needing to go potty by attempting to take his pants off. We were asked to quit using the split pants for awhile, so we've put him diaperless in normal pants. However, he also has started taking his bedtime diaper and pajamas off at night....hmmm. Growing independence.

Mother's Day Pictures

Some fresh pictures:

Squeakums and mom
Squeakums with rose on Mother's Day.
Toilet Paper art by our creative explorer
Mama's 28 week belly

BearHunter is out huntin bear this weekend across the bay with a couple other guys. Squeakums and CalaLilly are missing him already very much.

Pheasant and Ash

Here's his pheasant. And the other picture is of the first ashfall from Mt. Redoubt in Homer, covering our deck, tarp on the car, and the adjacent church roof.

Pictures of Baby

Squeakums is changing so much. He's talking in almost sentences. He understands that there's a baby in mommy's tummy and not one in his own! He can occupy himself for a good twenty minutes peeling crayon labels or other minute detailed work. Like mixing dry beans and rice in a bowl is a favorite activity now.

We've pulled out fingerpaints a couple of times (see pictures) and playdough more frequently....it's easier to clean up.

It's fun that he recognizes people by name and remembers teammates who have left. He even realizes when there's abstract art of Jesus. Or other things spiritually he'll pick up on, too.

Since the weather has been beautiful this week (in the 60's, which is as hot as it will get all summer) we've been enjoying the outdoors. Our team of students has been on outreach to Saint Lawrence Island for over a month already. Life is quieter now.

BearHunter shot his first pheasant and we ate it. Tastes like chicken, but it was a bit tough from being overcooked. Fun to have a hunter in the family anyway. This month he heads out bear hunting again. Spring bears are best and not fishy tasting. Last year's bear is now a rug hanging on the wall, pretty impressive.

Potty training is almost done. He's great most of the time. Occasionally he'll mess on the floor, but usually he takes himself to his little potty. We have him in split crotch pants all the time (at least at home and on short outtings) so it's real obvious if he tinkles on himself...he doesn't like it and will speak up right away. We also encourage him to go use the potty if it's been awhile since he's gone.

Christmas photos

Here's a couple Christmas pictures I've been trying to get on the blog. Squeakums with Grandpa and Great-Grandma from two different sides of the family. He loves being read to, and playing drums.

His new words are "hot pocket" and "big truck." Everything is "BIG" or "little" these days. Now mind you we haven't ever fed him a hot pocket. But the term came up at dinner at the YWAM base yesterday because there's a youtube sketch that's very funny about hot pockets, and some people like to quote it.

Baby number two is moving around now. I've felt it for a week or more now. No kicks, just rolling I guess. 15 weeks along. Another 5 til we can get an ultrasound to see the gender. Then the name picking starts all over.

2009 on the go already

So Squeakums is pretty smart, that’s what everyone says. The lady at the grocery checkout the other day was amazed when he pointed to a poster of a bear playing guitar and said “guitar”. “He has such an advanced vocabulary for his age” she said. At last review, his vocab is expected to be between 10 and 50 words for his age. So this morning I decided to count how many words he can say…I got to 90 without too much effort! So our little “messenger” is a good communicator, as we have prayed for.

Living in our own house is beginning to feel like home. The energy efficient lighting is dim at first, taking 20 or so seconds to warm up. Warming up the house is another issue altogether and I won’t go into that frustration right now. We put the bear rug up on the wall last night, BearHunter doesn’t really want people walking all over it.

He feeds himself well, but likes to put his utensils in his drink and now also likes sloshing his cup around (after watching dad shake up a capped mug). He’ll repeat anything he sees us do. Dad used his leatherman as a hammer briefly, so how Squeakums wants to hammer everything with the leatherman too. He loves vacuums and hammers. Though his yellow blanket has been an attachment object for a long time, he has a new addition: a baby sized rubber football. He sleeps with the ball and takes it everywhere he goes pretty much.

Life revolves around baby so that’s what I primarily write about. I do now attend and sometimes host a ‘moms and tots’ group. Our babies range from 5 weeks in the womb to 3 years old. And one mom is over due one day as I write. I think that’ll be a fun group. I’m really hoping to find a network of women friends that we can all get deep and real together.

BearHunter is super busy and involved in everything right now. The new school has started excellently. BearHunter heads up the weekly community outreach event, trains football receivers twice a week.

All the snow melted in the middle of January. But the last couple of days it has snowed and is so beautiful. I love the fresh white blanket everywhere. Squeakums loves getting out too.

P.S. The island pictures are of some of the kids we got to know while on outreach. The girls dancing are doing ESkimo dancing, which is a community activity available most Satuday nights in Gambell. We just went and watched. Though some of our more bold group members joined in an occasional dance, trying to copy the moves. I just watched!