Our Elf on the Shelf

We adopted an elf this year! If you haven't heard about The Elf on the Shelf before click here for the story.

On Thanksgiving we read the book that came with our elf. At the end of the book we had to pick a name for our elf and decide if it was going to be a boy or a girl. We named our elf "Ernie" after the great Ernie Harwell! The morning after Thanksgiving, the kids woke up to a letter from Santa and the elf sitting on the potpourri in the living room.

Day 1

On day 2 Ernie was sitting on the window sill. After he flies to the North Pole every night to give Santa his report on Austin and Abigail he comes back and positions himself in a different spot.

Day 3, Ernie found his way onto the Christmas tree after returning from the North Pole.

And a bonus picture of the whole Christmas tree and stockings!

One of these days I'll get around to posting pictures of the whole house!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are some pictures from Austin's turkey lunch yesterday at school.

Abigail and I pulled our chairs up to Austin's desk to eat our lunch.

After lunch, the kids read their "Angry Turkey" stories aloud. They all wrote their own stories.

It was fun to hear all the different stories they came up with! They all put their pictures up on the projector so the whole class could see them.

On to our Thanksgiving feast! It was just us again this year, but that didn't stop us from making a big dinner! I love cooking my turkey in a bag, it's so good!

All the goodies to go with it!

Yummmm, my favorite! You can't have Thanksgiving without sweet potatoes!

The turkey without the bag.

Carving the turkey!

We've had lunch and we're ready for a nap!

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This is a picture of Austin's place mat from school. I love what he's thankful for!

- My family

-Grandparents

-Frinds (friends)

- I am thankful for my pet Lexi

Love him!

And a finished picture of the napkins! I love how they turned out, I might have to make some for myself!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey day at school

Abigail and I are going to lunch at Austin's school so I made some matching shirts for them to wear! This is obviously before Abigail got her hair done for the day!

Personalized napkins

A picture of the personalized napkins for my favorite mother in law!

Feeling negative

The wind has been blowing all night. And this morning we got our first feel of what negative weather is going to feel like! While it was only 11 degrees, notice what the "real feel" temperature was! I bundled Austin up and sent him to the bus stop a little later than normal!

Fun in the snow!

The snow continues to come down here in Alaska! This afternoon the kids piled on their snow gear and headed out to play! They started out in the backyard while I finished preparing our dinner.

Then we headed out to the front yard. I did a little shoveling, of the driveway and of the yard!

Austin did some "extreme" sledding

What a white picture!

While Austin was sledding, Abigail was trying to find something to do. She thought she could play soccer in the snow! Um...I don't think so!

There he goes!

Abigail did a little pouting too!

She was mad that I got her picture in the fort because Austin wasn't in the picture.

So, Austin took a picture with her and she was happy again.

Until I wouldn't take her picture. So I started to take her picture again.

And again.

And some more. We had a mini photo shoot!

Of course we had to get some snow angels into the yard. Austin had to show Abigail how to do it.

And then she did it all by herself!

When we were all done playing (and shoveling) we came in for a little warm treat. Hot cocoa with snowman marshmallows! Yum!

Actually getting along. So cute!

Now we're getting ready to enjoy some dinner! Yummm!

2nd grade school picture

He's so handsome!

You may live in Alaska...

Someone posted this in the wives group I'm in on facebook and thought I would share.

Forget Rednecks, here is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about Alaskans:

If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you may live in Alaska.

If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Alaska.

If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Alaska.

If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Alaska.

If you know several people who have hit a moose more than once, you may live in Alaska.

If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you may live in Alaska.

If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Alaska.

If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Alaska.

If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you may live in Alaska.

If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80 and everybody is passing you, you may live in Alaska.

If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you may live in Alaska.

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction, you may live in Alaska.

If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you may live in Alaska.

If you find 10 degrees 'a little chilly', you may live in Alaska.

If you actually understand these jokes, and forward them to your entire Alaskan friends & others, you definitely live in Alaska.

The big snow plow!

I got some good pictures of how they pick up the snow yesterday. They stopped right in front of our house! Here's a big truck full of snow!

You can see the tip of the snow plow truck throwing the snow into the trailer.

See that big blade on the front in between the trailer tires?

And here's the truck with the big snow blower on it! They filled up the trailer and than sat in front of the house waiting on the next trailer. The guy driving the truck probably thought I was the weirdest lady, standing in my doorway taking a picture!

Here's our maize and blue snowman! He walked through the middle of the yard when he got off the bus yesterday!

The pictures of Austin were taken at 4 pm, it's starting to get darker around that time with the time change on Sunday.

No sign of slowing down!

So it's 5:30 {AM} and I just came inside from shoveling the driveway again! Michael and I shoveled it last night around 8:30 so it wouldn't be too bad this morning.

This was 8:30 last night

This is at 5:30 this morning

I cleaned this table off yesterday morning when we shoveled the driveway. I had to shovel a path for Lexi in the back yard. So in less than 24 hours, we've gotten a good amount of snow!



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I am so fascinated by how they remove snow here in Alaska. First, everyone shovels their snow into the street {before the plow comes}. For the life of me I didn't understand why people would do that until I witnessed the snow removal process in the neighborhood! The grader then drives around and puts all of the snow into the middle of the road in a straight path.

Then the coolest thing happens! I haven't gotten a picture yet because we went out and did a little shopping before they cleared our road yesterday. But then, they bring in big semi trucks with empty buckets on the end. The semi drives along next to the straight path of snow while another truck with a big huge snow blower on the front shoots the snow up into the truck. Once the truck is full, they haul it off and dump it somewhere. Yesterday there were 3 trucks lined up at the entrance of the neighborhood.

There goes the grader! It's awesome! Then you don't have to deal with the plow throwing snow up into your yard and driveway. They take this snow removal pretty serious around here!

This cracks me up! This is a picture of Lexi this morning. The snow goes up half way up her legs! She is loving the snow!

It's suppose to snow until about 1:00 this afternoon. We're headed to the other side of Anchorage so Austin can get his teeth cleaned at 8:00 before going to school! Good thing I grew up in Michigan and know how to drive in the snow!