Our Adventures.......

November, 2009

Wow, what a wonderful autumn this has been!  Having lived here in Alaska my whole life, I have seen many snow-filled winters arrive far too soon.  This year has been an absolute treat, however!  Here it is, November 6th, and there is still no snow in our yard.  The children are still enjoying playing on the lawn, riding bikes, and playing with Winchester (the rapidly growing "puppy"). 

We've been taking walks, using the double stroller to haul the two babies around (still have the foster children with us), and staying plenty busy with the extra activities that having two more children creates.  School activities, birthday parties, visitations, doctor's appointments, etc.  It's very busy around here, but every day is full of laughter, schooling, meals, games, and plenty of crayons.

Tony has been working on getting a roof on the barn, and the shed-roof finished so the boat is safely tucked away.  The weather has held out so nicely, but there have been a few VERY windy days, making it hard to handle sheet metal roofing.  :) 

I really struggle with the snowy weather making me feel depressed in the winter, so the dry, sunny days have really been a blessing.  Nothing lifts my spirits like dry grasses in the sunny breeze.   Add a smiling boy to the scene, and I'm in heaven!! :)

School has been going great and everyone's enjoying the freedom we have to learn our own way.  Oliver has been doing GREAT learning his multiplication facts while Evelyn is doing AWESOME with her reading and writing.  Celina is working through geometry and biology while Sully focuses on his mandolin, history and math.  Of course, those aren't our only subjects... but you get the picture. :)

Nothing much else to share at the moment.... or I'm just too sleepy to be able to think of anything!  :)

We're healthy, happy, and so very blessed here at the house of the Alaskan Jacksons. (+2)

If you happen to think of it, please pray for the family of the two foster children who are in our home.  They are such neat children, and I believe that God has big plans for their family...

In Christ's Grip,
Leah

The New Ride...

We've been looking for a bigger vehicle for a while now.

And since our other vehicles are already HUGE (Suburban, 8 passenger station wagon, and a vw van!), there are very few vehicles that qualified as "bigger".  ha ha

Tony and I took a little trip to Anchorage to look at this van.

And we decided it was the right one for US!  :)

We're really happy about it, and even though it's an older vehicle (94 Dodge 15 passenger van), we feel like it's the EXACT one that God planned for us to buy.

The details all worked out perfectly, our friend Jackie watched the kiddos, and voila!

Here she is!!

:)

Greetings, Friends and Family!

Hello from Alaska!  :)  

We're having the most amazing Indian Summer here in our part of the world!  We haven't had a stitch of snow (knock on wood!) and the temperatures have been in the 50*'s.  It has been pure paradise for this Alaskan girl!!

Life with 7 of us plus two foster children has been plenty busy.  We're so blessed to live in this country, where we can shop at warehouse stores and buy in bulk.  Can you imagine trying to feed your family in those parts of the world where there is so little?  I am humbled when I go shopping and fill up two grocery carts, with such things as toilet paper, diapers, wet wipes, and milk.  So many others in the world must do without.  Thank you, Lord!!

So, here's an update:

We've had A. and O. (our foster kiddos) with us for over a month now.  They fit right in with our crew and are great kids.  They are so adorable and easy to love!!   I wish I had the liberty to share pictures of them, but that is not allowed.  You'll just have to trust me when I say that they are two of the most beautiful children God has ever created.  :)

Our family continues to be super busy.  Celina helps out once in a while at a friend's bookstore, which is like HEAVEN to her!!  :)  She is an amazing help here at home, too, and does lots of extra things around here to help out with having an extra baby in the house.  She's a pro at diapers and baby baths.  God has sure blessed me with her willing spirit and capable hands.

Sully is enjoying his first year of jr. high basketball.  He assures me he'll be making the team, and I have a good idea he may be correct.  His good attitude on and off the court make him an asset to any team.

Oliver and Evelyn are doing great in school, and enjoy having A. (7 year old girl) to play with.  They spend hours drawing, making forts, and creating clubs each day.  Everyone helps out with chores, the chickens, and the barn project that Tony has been working on.

I stay plenty busy with laundry, meals (!), schooling, and the two babies.  I don't have much time for blogging, but seem to spend too much time on facebook keeping up with friends and family in short spurts throughout each day.  Feel free to look me up there, if we are IRL friends. :)

Tony's doing great at his job, and I'm so proud of the job he does working with the youth of our area.  Each afternoon he comes home and helps me out with kids, works on the barn, or helps the kids finish up school.  He's such a wonderful husband (UNDERSTATEMENT!) and great daddy!!!!!!

I'll close with just one picture of the kids I took last month.  I can't include the foster kiddos (it's the rules), so here are our 5. 

Praising God for all He does!
~Leah

Busy? That would be an understatement.

I honestly DON'T have time to blog.  Like, EVER.

So here is my very condensed version of life with the Alaskan Jacksons.

We started school.

Fall is here.

It's getting colder, and the leaves are yellow.

We got a call on Wednesday night and 30 minutes later had our first foster children.

We love them already.

It's short term.

There are two babies in diapers here at my feet.

They both want to be held.

Gotta go!

love,
Leah

Look what we got!

He's little.

And cute.

And soft!

And he looks so cute with Rem!

ZOOM! ZOOM! (that was summer...)

ZOOM, ZOOM!   (that was summer...)

IT HAS GONE WAY TOO FAST!!!

But I think that's always the way it goes here in Alaska.  Winter for 8 months, then "break-up", then 2-3 months of summer, then back to winter.  HA HA! 

* * * * * * * *

We have had a busy, fun, beautiful, every-single-day-filled-to-the-top, AWESOME summer!   I'm so sorry I haven't kept my blog up to date.  The problem has been me, but also a very slow (overworked!) computer that has been jammed up with all the photos I take.  If you know me, you know that some days I take 600 pictures.  In one day.  Then I try to work with them on this ol' box of tin, and it freezes up on me. Then I get mad.  And give up.  :)  Numerous times I have tried to make a blog post, but the computer froze and I quit.

ANYWAY, on to some pictures that briefly recap the past month or two.

Deal?  Deal.

This is "fireweed".  Alaskans know that blooming fireweed means summer is coming to an end.  It is said that when the blooms reach the top, we have 6 weeks until the snow flies.  I hope they're wrong this year!

Okay, back to the beginning of June.
Tony and I took a very quick trip to Minnesota to visit family and attend a family wedding.  It was a total surprise to his family when we showed up.  It was especially fun to get to introduce Remington to his Minnesota family.  Here he is with Papa Jackson (Tony's father)

The wedding we went to was beautiful, and it was especially fun to surprise Tony's Mom and Grandma.  (Deb, below left, and Delphine, below right).  Although Deb was highly suspcious and was looking to see if we might show up, I still think everyone was happy we hadn't told them our plans.  

It was really special to have 6 days with just the baby.  I think Tony really bonded with Remi during those few days.  No work, no job, no obligation... just time together.  It was really fun. 

We loved visiting MN, but were glad to get back to our other children and the glorious Alaskan summer.

When we returned, I had the pleasure of being the photographer for a friend's wedding.  Here is their beautiful family.  Jason has 3 children and Kaci has 3 children, and together they are now an awesome family of 8!  Aren't they beautiful!?

When we came home from Minnesota we brought Carol with us.  :)  Carol is Tony's step-mom, and she is one AWESOME grandma!  The kids just loved having her undivided attention for two full weeks.  She was such a great sport, heading to the lake at all hours of the night, reading books each morning, and helping cook meals and bake cookies.  We really loved having her here.  I joked about having my mother-in-law here for so long... but it was super easy and in fact I invited her back ANY time. 

And she even went "mudding" with the kids!!!

The day Carol left, we got to pick Kaiya up from the airport.  WE LOVE OUR KAIYA!!!!   :)   Kaiya is our cousin from MN, and she and Celina are great friends.

Kaiya was here for the 4th of July family picnic, and actually just left yesterday.  :(  We miss her already!

While Kaiya was here, we also had the pleasure of having Kerry and Julie visit.  Kerry is the awesome man who Tony is blessed to have as his step-dad.   We call him "Grandpa Kerry" around here.  :)   These two were very easy guests to have around.  They were so relaxed, and nothing seemed to phase them.  Their visit went by too quickly, but we hope they'll be back soon.

While they were here we visited the town of Seward.  We enjoyed walking around on the docks, a picnic on the beach, and time to just visit before they left.

We've also done a lot of goofing off!!

Evelyn waterskiied for her 2nd year in a row.  Way to go, Evy Jane!  :)  She's 5!

We've gone fishing, been at the lake a lot (waterskiing, tubing, etc), Sully had his 12th birthday, we went to a rodeo, we've canned fish, made jelly, gone beach combing, roasted hot dogs, and had many, many other fun adventures.  But, I'll save those pictures for another rainy day.  Right now the baby is asleep and there is laundry to fold.  OH, the sun is shining... I'd better re-think that plan.  :)

Love,
Leah

Much. Too. Busy.

Random pictures will have to count as my update.

  :)

We went to Homer for Mother's Day.

We took a boat ride.

(not on this sailboat)

We flew kites.

And saw a whale!

 This spring we enjoyed hunting morel mushrooms in our beautiful Alaskan woods.  I absolutely LOVE taking the kids and looking for these little treasures.  We have so much fun!!

And we experimented with Oliver's hair.  :)  (Don't worry- the mohawk didn't last long)  hee hee

I've been playing with silhouettes whenever I have the chance, and the other night I took this guy's picture.  I don't know him, but I did email him this photo.  Fun, huh??

 And another picture of Evelyn from Mother's Day:

 See, I've been so busy I never posted my pictures from Mother's Day!  Sheesh.  What's the matter with me...

Next up, pictures frrom our surprise trip to Minnesota.  :)

my first "I heart Faces" entry

For more fun photos, visit I ♥ Faces

http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

In the Land of the Midnight Sun

I've been having a lot of fun playing around with my camera, capturing the children in silhouette. 

First, a couple weeks ago I took a few and then edited the color a few different ways.  Here are a couple of those:

That was a lot of fun, but then I discovered I could put words on them!

Talk about my idea of fun!  Taking pictures, then playing with them!  :) Makes me altogether GIDDY!! 

As soon as I had taken the above pictures, I got an idea.  So, for a week now, I've been waiting for just the right evening to execute my plan.  It was a simple scheme, involving ME, my CAMERA, my two oldest CHILDREN, and their INSTRUMENTS.  Was it a success??  I'll let you decide.  (the following pictures are SOOC, and have not been edited to change color, lighting, etc.) 

And that was it!  The end!  A peaceful photo shoot in the sunset. These two were the perfect models.  Well behaved.  Sweet.  Nice to each other the whole time.   You can't prove otherwise... hey...what?.... WHERE DID THIS PICTURE COME FROM!?

Spring is Egg-citing.

Life sure keeps us busy, and time sure does fly by!  Too fast.  Too busy.  But it's good, too.  Too blessed to be stressed, or so the saying goes.

We had a great Easter weekend.  The children dyed some home-grown eggs on Saturday, then that evening Tony and I got to have a date.  My good friend Rhonda watched ALL 5 children while we went to an improv comedy show.  We had a great time, then hurried back to Rhonda's house so I could nurse Remi.  He did fine, and enjoyed some rice cereal while I was gone.  I started him on cereal the day he turned 6 months.  Speaking of... I have a bunch of pictures of his 6 month "half birthday" party we had. I'll have to share those some time. For now, here's a link to his birthday song. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvuUQIbDys8

Sorry, I got sidetracked.  

Back to Easter!

On Saturday,  there were lots of colors in the house!

Sunday morning we had an egg hunt here at the house, and gave the children a basket of goodies to share.  After church we came home and remembered that we hadn't checked the mail on Saturday.  It was fun to find Easter cards from Grandma Telle in the mailbox. One for each child, which was lots of fun.  Also, Evelyn got a package from her cousin Kaiya, which brought lots of giggles and smiles.

Then we had the pleasure of spending the afternoon up at my parents' house with all the cousins, aunts, and uncles. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we had good food, good visiting,  and a huge egg hunt.  Papa hid lots of eggs full of candy, and a few with money inside. 

Papa told all the kids that the $5.00 eggs were all hidden UP HIGH.  Sullivan and Oliver discovered one high up in a tree, and the race was on!  Sully tried to climb the tree first, but couldn't quite make it.  So he decided to take an alternative route and use the pole from the swings to get there.  You should have seen Oliver!  He set his mind on getting to that egg first and it was a close contest!  Guess who won??

Oliver did!  I think it was the first time in the boys' lives that Oliver beat Sully at something.  It was a good-natured contest, but imagine Sully's determination when he spotted another one in a nearby tree!  Oliver didn't stand a chance against both Sully AND Sully's pride, and Sully's resolve was rewarded with the last $5 egg of the day.  Both boys came away happy, and I'm pretty sure I noticed that Oliver stood just a little taller than before.  :)

 Nana and Papa gave all the children their own coffee mug, personalized with a photo of themselves on it.  It was the neatest gift, and everyone loved their own the best.  :)  Nana even made one for the oldest cousin, Lex, who is serving our country in the military.  He is stationed in Germany, soon to be moving to Korea.  Here are all the cousins, except the oldest (Lex) and the youngest (Remington).

It is tradition that at each family get-together I take a picture of Celina with her cousin, " T."   I tried to find one from Easter a few years back, and this is the oldest one I have on the computer.  Forgive the picture quality!

Here they are playing soccer together, probably 7 years ago?

And here are these two young ladies now!

Now I understand what our parents meant when they said TIME FLIES! 

Hope you enjoyed your Easter, and remember that we can celebrate Christ's resurrection EVERY DAY!  :)

In Him,
Leah