John and Nancy's Blog

Newly minted Scrabble Player

2009-06-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

Joe wanted to play scrabble with me a few weeks ago. In the last couple of months, he has been making big strides in learning to read. He loves to spell out simple words and he sounds out everything. In our scrabble "game", he played Hat and Ted and then he spelled "Fathed" and laughed and told me that this was a word that boys use! He likes to try to read to Jack and Henry.

Pooh Bear and Tigger

2009-06-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

AKA Henry (Tigger) and Jack (Pooh).

More March & April

2009-06-03T22:21:00.000-07:00

Joe became obsessed with vocanoes because of Mt. Redoubt erupting in AK. Here's a drawing of a volcano.

Here's Joe's play doh recreation of a volcano (which we erupted with baking soda and vinegar.)

The boys in Target Easter $1 stuff.

John (and friend Matt) lighting Jack and Henry's birthday cupcake tree. Our 3rd birthday party for the twins was very small (just us and our friends the Nedoms) and I only took two pictures and none included the birthday boys . Oops. John thinks he videotaped the Happy Birthday singing and cupcake eating.

Joe and his friend Maria at Jack and Henry's birthday. I hope these two get married in 25 years!

March and April: Busy Boys

2009-06-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

Riding new birthday bikes in the kitchen.

Painting.

Checking out stuff in the heating vents with magnifying glasses.

Playing with trains.

Jack and Henry watching Joe play a computer game.

Big Kids

2009-03-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

Joe, Jack, and Henry all got haircuts this weekend and they are all looking much older. It is hard to believe that Jack and Henry turn THREE in less than two weeks! (Henry is on the left in these photos.) (I bribed them with sweet tart candy if they would pose for pictures and they all eagerly sat down and said Smile and Pizza. I should have made them dress a little better!)

More March

2009-03-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

March pictures

2009-03-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

Joe and Jack

Joe

Henry

Jack (who chose his own hat)

Pioneer Peak

We played outside on Sunday afternoon - it was sunny and about 20 degrees.

Wacky Weather

2009-01-16T14:19:00.000-08:00

Our weather has been wild this week. The Chinook winds came in (the Pineapple express) and the temperature went way up. It was in the mid to high 40's this morning and the kids played outside. It was great even though it was very wet and windy. Now, there are torrential downpours.

Jumping on beds

2009-01-16T14:16:00.001-08:00

More Palmer pictures

2009-01-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

Palmer pictures

2009-01-11T15:50:00.001-08:00

Winter pictures

2009-01-11T15:45:00.001-08:00

I took these photos on Sunday at 10 a.m. The Palmer airport is just down the street from our house. My car's temp. read minus 30.

Christmas

2009-01-09T17:53:00.001-08:00

We took very few photos on Christmas morning because we were very busy opening presents!

Joe is talking to Santa who visited his class following the children's Christmas program a few days before Christmas.

Joe with his good friend, Brayden. (There are Aidans, Bradens, and Cadens, at Children's House.)

Joe during the program. He gets very shy onstage. Every child recited a nursery rhyme.

Cold Spell Redux

2009-01-06T17:11:00.001-08:00

Jan. 6th - My obsession with the cold weather continues. It is 4 p.m. and it is minus 16.1. Yesterday and earlier today, I thought it was above zero, even though it certainly did not feel warmer, because our thermometer's reading was above zero. It actually felt really cold because we had terrible winds. Anyhow, I was talking to a friend on the phone today and she said she couldn't believe it was still minus 15 at her house, which is nearby us. I said, that's weird, it is plus 13 at our house. Then I looked outside and realized that our indoor/outdoor thermometer blew away in the big windstorm the other night and it must have landed in some warmer spot. I couldn't find it, so I put another one outside and it is registering way below zero.

Jan. 7th - 7 a.m. minus 23.3 8 p.m. minus 22.0
Jan. 8th - 8 a.m. minus 22.0
Jan. 9th - 9 a.m. minus 17.3
Jan. 10th - 8 a.m. minus 17.1
Jan. 11th - minus 13 - it's finally warming up; 2:45 p.m. - minus 7.8
Jan. 12th - plus 6.3 - yeah! the end!

Cold Spell

2008-12-29T10:54:00.001-08:00

Dec. 29th - Weather update: It is 10 a.m. and the sun is finally coming up and it is MINUS 12.3 degrees at our house. Yikes.

Now it's 8 p.m. and it is minus 15 degrees. It never got above minus 10 today. Apparently, it will hit minus 51 degrees in Tok tonight. That's cold!

December 30th at 10 p.m. It is now minus 18 degrees. It was below minus 12 all day. I just got back from swimming class. The car thermometer varied from minus 20 to minus 25.

December 31st - 6:20 a.m. - It is minus 20.4 degrees and for some awful reason, the twins were up at 4 a.m. and never went back to sleep.

2:40 p.m. It has warmed up to minus 19.1. Our low today was close to minus 22.

Jan. 1st - Our temp. range was minus 22.9 to minus 13 for brief time in the afternoon.

Jan. 2nd - 7 a.m. It is minus 23. 3 p.m. It is minus 18.5. I took the kids to tot time at the sports center in Wasilla this morning. The van's thermomenter varied from minus 18 to minus 35, depending where we were in the Valley. 8 p.m. Minus 22.5.

Jan. 3rd - 10 a.m. and it's minus 23.6. 6 p.m. minus 22.

Jan. 4th - 4 a.m. minus 25. 9 a.m. minus 23.6. 2:45 p.m minus 17

9 p.m. The end. Yeah. It is really windy outside and the temperature is rapidly rising. it is now plus 2.5.

"Draw a scary bug!"

2008-12-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

Here are Jack and Henry yesterday sitting in buckets and drawing pictures on their drawing boards. They were having a conversation about what to draw. Henry told Jack, "Draw a scary bug!" and Jack said, "Okay." Then they talked about other things to draw. Thank goodness they are getting along great and playing really well together because Nana left after visiting and helping for over a month, so I'm all on my own this winter with three little boys in the house. Joe has been playing better with the twins, too. Joe bosses them around and Henry bosses Jack around. Jack and Henry sometimes play with different things, but usually, they will tell each other, Let's play this now, and the other one will say, Okay.

Cold Winter Day

2008-12-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

It is 10:15 a.m. and minus 9 degrees. Here are pictures taken a few mintues ago of Pioneer Peak out our back window and of our neighbor Mary's twin log houses. Although you can't see from the picture, Mary's place is a winter wonderland. She strings beautiful colored lights in many of the tree and bushes in her yard and garden and all over her cabins. I'll try to take pictures and post them.

Sunrise and Sunset

2008-12-12T11:12:00.001-08:00

It sure does seem dark these days in Alaska. We are almost at the winter solstice. Today, we have a total of 5 hours and 35 minutes of daylight. Sunrise is at 10:06 a.m. and sunset is at 3:40 p.m.

Happy Birthday, Joe!

2008-12-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

Saturday was Joe's 5th birthday! We had a family party on Friday night. Joe decorated the cupcakes. We had a kids party on Saturday at a new ice cream shoppe in Wasilla. A good time was had by all in the party room upstairs from the shop. Joe is getting to be a big kid. He loved both parties and enjoyed all of his presents immensely.

New Pantry

2008-12-04T17:08:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures of the (almost finished) pantry off the kitchen. John still has to put up the shelves inside it and put the molding around the door and on the baseboards, but it looks good. The upright freezer is inside. We still have a walk through between the kitchen and living room, but to make more room, we will move the double rocker and shelves soon.

Cross Country Skier

2008-10-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

We bought Joe a set of cross country skies yesterday with poles and boots, etc., and he loves them! Yeah! Skiing has kept him busy all weekend. He has been skiing really well after a lot of initial falls. John put some trails in through the woods behind our house, so we have our own cross country ski course. It was 11 degrees this morning, but it is sunny and bright and has warmed up to the low 20's this afternoon.

12 Degrees

2008-10-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

It is 12 degrees outside. It is freezing. It has been very cold all day - in the high teens. Tonight, at 7:30 p.m., I noticed that it had dropped to 11 degrees. It's only October! Winter has hit very hard and very fast. We got snow last week but it melted somewhat, but this week it snowed a lot more and it is very white and wintery outside. We had a fairly cold and rainy summer; I didn't wear shorts all summer, not even once. The fall was nice, but now, suddenly, it seems like January or February already. I put the kids in their snowsuits and hats and mittens and boots this afternoon and insisted we all go outside, but they would hardly play (well, Henry played, but not Jack and Joe) because of the cold and wind. It is going to be a long winter!

October photos

2008-10-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

Top: Henry/Pooh Bear; Jack and Henry showing off their new haircuts, which makes them look a lot older!; Henry (who refused to put on his clothes) and Jack setting up animals; close up of Jack.

Joe was at preschool when I took these photos today. Yeah for preschool! Joe has decided what he wants to be when he grows up: a can-crusher. John is letting him crush up all our old cans in a can-crusher device in the garage and now this is all he talks about. He is just thrilled with himself and even asked John's aunt Elayne for her cans and then he crushed up all her cans.

Henry is clearly the dominant twin (and he has been since day one), as evidenced by a game that Jack and Henry play after they get out of their bath. They run around with their towels as capes and play "Super Henry!" Jack plays "Super Henry!", too. Finally, I pointed out to Jack that maybe he might want to be "Super Jack!" This had not occured to him.

Jack and Henry are talking a lot more now. They talk to each other a lot, now, too. Their conversations are along the lines of, "I like this one"; "I like purple"; "Oh, I like green"; "That's my truck, Henry";"Okay, you have it." After having them be our babies for so long, it is funny to hear them talking back and forth to each other. Even though Henry is sometimes bossy with Jack, he is very easy going. He is the only one of the boys who is almost always agreeable, thus earning the nickname "Happy Henry." If you ask him to sit at the table to eat, or to go brush his teeth, etc., he always says, "Okay, Mommy" and he does it!

Costume Party

2008-10-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

We got out our box of Halloween stuff the other day. Henry loves Joe's old Pooh Bear costume; Jack claimed the Dragon; and Joe insisted on wearing an old too-small Chicken costume. They wanted to wear them outside and John said why not.

Before we got out this old stuff, I had taken the kids to the store and they picked out new costumes, but I didn't get pictures of them in those ones yet. Jack and Henry are firefighters (although Henry keeps getting mixed up and referring to himself as a fire truck) and Joe is an Army Commando Guy.

They keep wearing all their various costumes all the time.

Only 14 hours until bedtime

2008-09-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

"Only 14 hours until Bedtime" is the name of a book (if I am remembering correctly) that was published a few years ago by a mother about her life. The title made me laugh and now it makes me laugh and cry. I am busy all day long like never before because nobody naps anymore. Joe will be five years old in three months! Jack and Henry will be 2 1/2 next week. The years are flying by, but the days are very, very long. Jack and Henry only nap in the car if we are out doing errands and so I am on duty from approximately 6 - 6:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. every day when Joe goes to bed (Jack and Henry go to bed at 7 or 7:30 p.m.). It's really exhausting and it is hard to find enough things to keep the kids busy all day.

Fortunately, Joe attends his preschool three days a week. He loves it. He was going in the mornings, but there were so many kids in the class, they split it up, and Joe was assigned the afternoon section. I was thrilled with this because John still drops him off in the morning and now I don't have to pick him up until 2:45 p.m. Yeah!!! It's a wonderful Montessori daycare/preschool that the same teacher/owner has run for 40 years. Mrs. Euwer is 81 years old and a dynamo. She's also very old fashioned but very patient. There are no t.v.s or video games. She makes sure the children have proper manners, etc. etc. I wish she could move in with us. My friends whose kids also attend the school have said the same thing.

Jack and Henry's newest thing (of the past few months) is taking off all their clothes. Yesterday, I was outside with Jack and Henry and I was trying to talk on the phone to my bank about an issue with my account; I had waited on hold a while and I didn't want to end the call, so when Jack and Henry took off their sneakers and socks, and then their overalls, and ran around the yard, and began to take off their shirts and pull-ups, there was not a lot I could do. We have to have them wear one piece pajamas and pin the zippers shut or else when we get them up in the morning, they are running around their room naked. (They are now in regular beds.) I have to pin their overalls on, too, but sometimes they can Houdini out of the p.j. and the overalls.

I spent a long time making supper last night and all three boys dumped their plates over. It was Indonesian Honey Ginger Chicken. I loved it. Tonight I gave up on good food and gave them hotdogs and mac and cheese and they ate everything up nicely.

I try to take the kids out every day just to get out of the house and break up the day, but a lot of times, after I've gone everywhere I can think of and done all the errands I can do, and gone to a playground, etc, and it seems like we've been out for hours, I come home and it's only 3 p.m. and there are still 3 - 4 hours until John gets home.

In these pictures, I'm not sure why Henry is crying, but Jack gave him a hug! All day long, the boys alternate between playing nicely and fighting.