A New Year

I have been thinking about my blog for a couple weeks now. I want to be posting more often and I want to be posting interesting things that are worth reading. I have been working on post ideas and I will be posting more often. In the meantime, I will catch you up on what has been happening the past few months.

Over the summer and fall Shane had the opportunity to be going to Aklavik once a week to preach while the missionary there was on furlough. He would fly there every Thursday night and come home Friday morning. We were so thankful when the ice road opened early in December because then the kids and I got to travel with him. It is over $100 for one person to fly to Aklavik and back (a 15 minute flight) so obviously we couldn't all go. But once the ice road opened we drove. It is a 90 minute drive and beautiful the whole way. The photo above is the kids on the ice road. They thought it was the coolest thing to be standing on ice. When they got out of the truck William warned Jenn that it was going to be slippery and they both were walking very carefully until they realized it wasn't slippery at all.

So anyway, the missionary to Aklavik has to be out of town for another couple months starting this week so Shane and William will travel over every Thursday evening. I wish I could go with them but I recently started babysitting again and I won't be done Thursday evening until too late. So Shane and William can enjoy that ministry together. 

I attempted to do as many homemade Christmas gifts as possible this year. I made these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle hats for my nephews and the infinity scarves for my nieces. I made the braided infinity scarf for Brenda. Her's matches Natalie's. I was very proud of these projects and it was so nice to see them all wearing them. 

I also made and canned apple butter and apple jam for gifts this year. My sister taught me how (via facebook) and I loved doing it. Everyone really loved the jam and apple butter, too. It is definitely something I will keep doing. Especially since Shane just finished the last jar of apple butter...I will probably be making more very soon. 

And last for this post, a new friend of mine introduced me to wood burning. My brother does it and is very good at it but I never had the desire to try it. But now I am in love with it! Shane got me my own for Christmas and I have been having a lot of fun experimenting with it.

And this post wouldn't be complete without a super cute photo of my kids: