Bowling

It is cold out!  So we are doing a favorite pastime.  One that is indoors and warm!  I have posted bowling pictures before, but I just love the last picture of Eli too much not to post these.

Snow, Snow, Snow!

You would not believe how much snow we have had this year!  In fact, we broke the all time snow record for Anchorage this year.  133.6 inches of snow!  These pictures were taken long before the record was broken, but it shows a good bit of the snow.  The month before the last snowfall was fairly warm (20s-30s) and sunny, so a good bit of the snow melted.

Standing in the gap by the side door that was created by the roof.

Ben had to be helped out of the snow.  It was too deep!

Wading through the snow in the backyard

This is the pile of snow made by the guy who plows the driveway.  Notice how high it is compared to James and the shed!

The pile is over six feet high!  It never got taller, but grew closer and closer to the front of the house as the snow plow guy piled more and more snow in front of it!  He filled an entire area meant to park an RV (the big kind!) with over six feet of snow!

A Sledding Birthday Party!

We have some great friends who were stationed with us in Oklahoma and then moved up here about a year after we did.  I love that the kids get to have friends like these for more than just a few years!  This is Tori's birthday party.  Since it is January, we all went sledding right on base!

James taking Eli down the hill.

  

The birthday girl!

KT (She is from a different family than the birthday girl, but we were also friends with them in OKC)

KT's parents!

William on his penguin sled!

Tori and her mama!

William again

Ben!

First Day of Second Grade

Life has gotten in the way of our little blog here.  I'd love to share lovely pictures of the spring in Alaska, but first I feel like I should catch up on the first few months of the year. 

This is William on the first day back to school after Christmas break.  I took this picture because he is entering a new grade on this day!  Second Grade!  This process started around Halloween when his first grade teacher, Ms. Steiding, approached me and suggested that we think about moving William into second grade.  Ms. Steiding is a wonderful teacher who had previously taught third grade.  She had been giving him harder work in Math and Reading than the other kids in the class were doing.  He was doing reading and comprehension at a third grade level.  We took some time to think about this decision, but we have known for a long time that William was an extremely smart and bright boy.  We knew he could do the work in second grade and ultimately decided that since his birthday falls in October he would only be younger than many in his class by a couple months and that he would be ok socially.

After Thanksgiving, William began going to the second grade class for math in the afternoons.  It gave him a chance to meet his new teacher, Mrs. Flagg, and to get to know the students.  He did great and really liked it!  So here he is on the first day back to school after Christmas and he will be in Mrs. Flagg's class full time!

By the way, this picture was taken at 8:30 am,  Look how dark it is outside!  The light in the smaller window to the right is from the porch lights.