June

June was an exciting month. As Tom noted, every single picture here for June is from our phones. My response: "with three kids, we can't bring a camera, too!" 

Tom participated in the annual bike-to-work Anchorage day. He bike commutes a few times a week anyway, but on bike-to-work day, he gets free food at different stations on the way. He also got to pose with this fish who was wearing a matching bike-to-work shirt. Adorable.

Tom and his dad did another fishing charter this year. This time they went for King Salmon. Tom caught one small King. (It was pretty slow fishing, of the twelve of us from our charter who went out on two different boats, I was the only one who caught. The after all that, once we cooked it, we all decided we like our Kenai river sockeyes better.)

The girls also got to see some fish and other animals at the new Cabela's while Grandpa was here.

Also in June, our friends invited us out to go kayaking at Goose Lake Park and the girls went swimming while we all took turns kayaking.

The girls discovered a field full of dandelions on the way to the neighborhood park and went exploring.

My mom came to visit and babysit while I drove up to Girl's Camp for a couple evenings. We went downtown after the kids went to bed one night and got dessert. We took this selfie around 11pm. 

Girl's camp this year was the first ever all-state Alaska girl's camp. I was in charge of all the transportation for getting 1000 girls from all over Alaska to the fairgrounds for the week-long camp. This involved a few hundred plane tickets and several dozen ferry tickets. Because Caleb was still so young, I was only able to go up to camp for a few evenings, but it was an amazing experience. We even got a shout-out at the general women's conference from Sister Marriott who was in attendance for the whole week!

On Father's Day, Tom proved he had this whole parenting thing figured out.

We took several bike rides this summer. Celia rode on the half-bike attached to my bike and Sabrina and Caleb were in the bike trailer. At one point, mid-ride, I managed to reach my phone back and snap a picture of Celia without looking. She looks angry, but it turned out pretty good. I always tell Tom it's like riding with a female Olaf on the way out. She's full of energy and talking non-stop. She's observing, asking questions, making up songs, etc. On the way home, she is still super happy, but pretty quiet. This picture was taken on the way back. Her mouth is closed. 

And here are Tom and the other kiddos on one of our trails from our house. We love how great the trails are here and love riding tons every summer.

May

Things warmed up around here early this year, and by the beginning of May, we were ready to plant. I used cans for basil in the window and after they got holes drilled in them, the girls had some fun stacking them up in the middle of biking.

We took lots of trips to the park and this picture was taken on the first day of summer after school ended.

My boys in orange and my cutie in pink were enjoying some sunshine on one of the many days we spent outside.

We also went to Railroad Days which alternates years between Anchorage and Fairbanks. The girls got balloons and frizbees and we got to explore some trains.

May means youth conference and for the second year in a row, we made all 200 shirts in our garage. Youth and leaders were supposed to come out and help, but the only one that showed up was the girl that designed the shirt. So, I called up some good friends and the sister missionaries (one of whom happened to be in my seminary class in Tillamook). The Sisters recruited two sets of elders, and we were ready go to.

In one of our first bike rides of the year, we rode to Fred Meyer on the Saturday before Mother's Day. As soon as we walked in the door, the girl's jumped into a cakewalk thing they had set up and Celia won me this beautiful hanging basket of flowers. I carried it home, as pictured, in my bike bag.

Tom used Celia and Sabrina's expired infant carseat, sawed off the sides, and put it in the bike trailer to keep Caleb safe and comfortable next to Sabrina. It worked great.

Easter

We pulled out the photo studio to get pictures of the kiddos in their Easter outfits. This first one is my personal favorite.

Iditarod 2014

We're finally getting around to catching up around here. Not quite a year behind...

Back in March my mom came up for a week soon after Caleb was born. She flew in the morning of the Iditarod start, so we headed downtown after we picked her up from the airport. (That is, Celia, Sabrina and Tom. Marel and Caleb stayed home since Caleb was only a few weeks old.) On the way there we stopped at Gwennie's for breakfast. It's one of the big tourist spots because it's very rustic and old-fashioned-Alaskan-style, where the servers all dress like they work in a prospector's saloon. But in the case of Gwennie's, "rustic" and "old-fashioned" translate to "dingy" and "outdated." They've got the whole stone and timber thing going for them, with the bears and the moose heads and all that, but the lights are this strange yellow color, which makes all the food look like something out of a 60's cookbook. Despite the light, the food is fine there. Not the best, but not bad.

After breakfast we went to the race. It was warm and sunny that day (warm being high 20's), quite comfortable compared to some of the other years we've been, so we were able to stay outside much longer than we might otherwise have done.

We always enjoy seeing the true Alaskans come out for the Iditarod, like this guy whose hat matches his dog.

As usual, the girls had a good time playing in the snow.

Also while Mom was here, Celia had a concert at school called "Hats." All the kids wore hats and sang a bunch of songs about hats. Celia really enjoyed herself.

We also took a drive down Turnagain Arm, and went all the way to Portage Lake. There were a handful of cross-country skiers there skiing the whole length of the frozen lake. We didn't go too far out because it was quite windy and cold, but we did walk out to some big chunks of glacial ice.

Because of the wind there were areas of snowdrifts and areas of bare ice. Overall there is something of a barren, outer-space feel to the landscape this time of year, as opposed to the summer when the water is clear and blue and the mountains are vibrant green.

Caleb: 11 Months

How time flies. First off, Caleb is still the easiest kid to photograph ever. The snowman picture? We took exactly two pictures. In the first one, he realized he didn't have any hands in the costume, so he put his face right in the bowl of ornaments to eat them, then he sat up and smiled all perfectly for the picture you see above. Then we put him in the Radio Flyer from his baby pictures and he posed all perfect and smiled. And frankly, I was planning on something a little more like this:

I've got no stats for the cutie, but he has taken quite a liking to food this month. He's never full. In the morning, I nurse him for about five minutes (he's not nursing for a long period of time ever), then he eats a big bowl of banana/applesauce and then whatever else I'll give him. Then lunch is a giant bowl of pureed veggies followed by whatever else I'll give him. And then dinner is lots of whatever we give him followed by a big bowl of oatmeal mixed with applesauce. About half the time, he sleeps 12 hours from about 8 to 8. The other half of the time, I nurse him for a couple of minutes when he wakes up around 6:30 and then he sleeps until 9 or 9:30. He takes two naps. The first one is about 2.5 hours after he wakes up and he sleeps for about 1.5-2 hours. His second nap is about 3 hours after his first nap and only lasts 45 minutes to an hour. He nurses after both naps for a few minutes. Weaning him should be easy if he likes milk. He still isn't a champion of any kind of cups, but we can sort of feed him out of a sippy cup like a bottle. He is crawling all over the place and pulling himself up on everything. He has let go of things and stood by himself a few times, but no other progress there. He does like to push anything he can like a walker. Especially the rocking chair. But he also uses the walker toy we have. He just doesn't hold onto it like normal using the wheels; he pushes it from the side so it scoots instead. He's still hilarious. He hardly ever cries and he loves the occasional cuddle. He waves at everyone, but still doesn't really get clapping. He acts a lot like a puppy. He likes to pull his sock off, put it in his mouth, and then crawl around with it hanging out of his mouth. If we're eating anything, he'll crawl over and pull himself up on our leg and beg with strained grunts. As pictured, his tongue is still always hanging out of his mouth and I often think it's something small in his mouth. He babbles things like mama, mumum, mah, dada, bah... but nothing has been assigned to anything yet. His favorite time of day is between 7:30 and 8 when his sisters are in bed and he gets to stay awake for a bit. He does his fastest crawling then because he knows his sisters will leave him alone. He explores everything so fast and happily. It's hilarious. And he loves pictures of himself. He's currently sitting on my lap eating puffs and laughing at his snowman picture. He wants to grab it. So I guess I'm done here.

Caleb: 10 Months

This has been an exciting month for little Caleb He now officially crawls and pulls himself up on everything. It happened slowly and meticulously. He never really got around by rolling around and he never tried to do an Army crawl or anything. He would get himself into crawling position and work hard. Eventually, he could move forward, and now he’s just jet-setting all over. As always, Caleb is a happy, easy going guy. He still flirts with everyone. Caleb has always been very aware of a smile. I could keep my entire body and face exactly the same, but smile, and when he was quite young, he would smile back. It was funny. Now, he loves to tilt his head to the side and smile like he’s pretending to be shy. He has also learned to wave in the past few days and he thinks it’s the greatest thing. He gets excited and flaps his arms. Everytime we pass a mirror, he gets really excited and starts waving and smiling. His schedule is the same. He sleeps from 8-8 or 9 and wakes up to eat for just a few minutes between 5-6:30. He naps twice during the day for a total of 2-3 hours (each nap length varies) usually about two hours after he wakes up in the morning and then again about 2.5 hours after he wakes up from his first nap. He sleeps with just his legs swaddled and a light blanket over him, which he loves to pull up and rub into his eyes to fall asleep. When I go get him when he wakes up, he’s often in crawling position with a binky in his mouth and a blanket on his back. He eats a blend of banana applesauce in the morning, 5 ice cubes or 1 pouch of veggie baby food for lunch (depending on if we’re home or out and about) and then a giant bowl of applesauce oatmeal for dinner with table food. He’s still not great with table food, but we give him some. He does NOT like cheese or mandarin oranges. His favorite food ever is a 49er flapjack. He can eat those unassisted and very quickly. With everything else he’s eaten with his hands, he only eats 3 or 4 and then is done. We do feed him a bit of whatever we’re having for dinner, which he enjoys. He ate quite a bit of our smoked salmon chowder and loved it. The past week or so, he has been getting a bit clingy. He wants to explore a bit and then crawl back and hang on to the top of my shirt. But I love the cuddles. 

Disclaimer: I realize this whole blog has become the Caleb show, but I will get around to documenting all the other exciting things we did this year... but probably not until after Christmas.