owen

Owen is growing and changing so fast! He had his first rice cereal this week, rolls like crazy, sucks his thumb more and more and is just beginning to sit.  Sweet little one...where has the time gone?

harvest

We have been enjoying garden carrots at most of our meals for the past few weeks.  Mmm...They're not huge, but I still get happy as I crunch them knowing we grew them ourselves!

the trick

Tom has done "the trick" with each one of our babies, holding them high in the air as they balance both little feet on just his hand.  They are always so proud of themselves and it tickles dad as well!  I could barely watch as he did this with the girls, but have relaxed a tad bit over time...4 children will do that to a mom! 

blessed

As we were finishing supper, I saw a swan fly over the woods.  Grabbed the frozen bag of bread crusts I keep in the freezer and ran with the kids to the lake.  I am amazed each year at how fearless these trumpeter swans are.  They swam right over when they saw us coming and the girls had so much fun feeding them.  Thomas laughed and put his little arms out, asking to hold them.  All I could think of was how blessed we are to live in such an amazing place.  Thank you God.

go ella!

Ella ran in her first cross country meet today.  She did super and seemed to have fun despite falling on the course.  Tom & I wondered what happened to her and afterwards she explained that she fell and got freaked out by everyone running around her and jumping over her, so she just waited until they all passed and then started running again:)  Way to be polite, girl!  We celebrated with caramel apples afterwards...

shiny shoes

The girls and I had a "girly" day and went shoe shopping in Anchorage last Friday.  Laughed when I came home to see what Tom bought Claire while we were away...This mom and dad take delight in shopping for different things! There's nothing like the shine on a new pair of shoes.

pink shooter

Tom bought Claire a PINK 22 and she shot it for the first time this weekend.  A pink gun.  Only in Alaska.  Only our Claire.  Ella has her own 22, but it looks like a standard gun.  Not Claire's...Love all her pink in this photo...boots, coat, gun.  And check out that smile...she was pretty proud!