New Blog

Hello everyone! In the past weeks I have tried several times to sign into my blog to post. But Shane and I got a new email address with gmail and now it won't let me sign into my blog with my old gmail account. It only will let me here at the church. This is very frustrating to me. I think what I will do is make a new blog using our new email address. So please keep checking the comments on this post. I will post a link to our new blog when I get it up and running. Also, if you don't have our new email address and want it, just comment on here and I will get my email to you.

Thanks everyone!

Missions Conference

We are so excited for the start of our missions conference tonight! Missionaries James Turpin and Russel Holland are both here along with their wives. The Turpins have been serving in Norway for over 40 years and the Hollands are on deputation to go to Norway. It's a very exciting time :-)

So, with missions conference upon us, I'd like to share my.favorite missionary quote. It is by James Chalmers, missionary to New Guinea.

"Recall my period of more than 20 years of service. Give me back all its experiences- it's shipwrecks, it's frequent occasions on the brink of death; give it to me surrounded by savages with spears and clubs; give it to me again with spears flying about me, with the club knocking me.to the ground  and I will still be your missionary."

Oh to have a love for souls like that...

God's Will For Me

Some of you may know that tomorrow (February 22) our chuch will be voting on whether or not to call Shane as Pastor. We have been without a pastor for several months now and it is time the church makes a decision. They may vote yes. If so, Shane will accept the position and we will happily serve the Lord in Inuvik until the Lord sees fit to move us along. They may vote no. If so, Shane and I will be fervently searching and praying for the Lord to direct us where He would like us to serve Him.

There were times in the past weeks I have felt very anxious, nervous, even fearful about the outcome of the vote. But I am so thankful that a friend (unknowingly) directed me to I Thessalonians 5:18, " In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

I love how the Lord puts things so plainly for people like myself. He says just give thanks. That's my will for you right now.

So I want to thank the Lord. Thank Him for my husband, my children, my friends and family. Thank Him for the beauty I see in His creation every day. Thank Him for His Word and the blessings I can receive from it. Thank Him for the church that I have been able to serve Him in. Thank Him for my salvation and for what He has done for me.

And in whatever direction the Lord leads I will thank Him that He is the one leading.

Last Minute Valentine's Day Party

A friend of ours was having a Valentine's Day party last Friday. But her girls were sick so it got moved to yesterday. The kids and I were so looking forward to it. But then William woke up Tuesday morning with an awful cough which is the beginning of the cold that is going around right now. I told Will that we couldn't go to the Valentine's Day party so he asked if we could just have one at home. I thought it sounded like fun so I got busy.

We are house sitting for my sister in law so we have a little more space which makes everything just a little bit more fun. I spent about an hour making decorations and games. First we made cookies together. With all our allergies, I found the perfect recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. It is egg free, gluten free (if you use gluten free flour), nut free, and dairy free. And super yummy! The kids loved helping to make these cookies.

First I measured all the ingredients and put them in small dishes. The kids enjoy it more when they don't have to sit and wait for me to measure each ingredient. 

Next we started adding ingredients together. They LOVED this step.

 I learned from a friend to set the mixer on a chair so the kids can reach it without having to stand on the chairs and hover over the table. It is much more enjoyable for them and for me. 

While the cookies were baking I set the table.

William made a fox mask earlier that he just had to have in the photo :-)

Now we were ready to play games. I cut out hearts (seen on the back wall in the above photo) and put dots on each one. They looked like dominoes. The game was just that the kids got to choose a heart to take down and we counted the dots on the back of their heart. Who ever got the most points (dots on hearts) won the game. They loved this and all of them were counting right along with me for each heart.

For the next game I cut three hearts, each a different color. Then I cut the hearts into 3 or 4 pieces and hid the pieces around the house. The kids each were assigned to a certain color. They ran around the house to find their color pieces then brought them to the table and put together their hearts like a puzzle. The really LOVED this game. I will do it again with all sorts of shapes depending on the theme. Here they are assembling their hearts. I saved the outline of the heart to make it a little easier for them to put it together. I made Will's into four pieces and a little more difficult. Tanner's was 3 pieces and Jenn's was also three pieces but much easier. You can make it for each kid's learning level.

Last we did a craft. I cut a bunch of small hearts and gave them each a piece of paper and crayon. I showed them how you can lay the heart under our paper and color over it. This makes the heart appear on the white paper. This was a little too hard for Jenn and Tanner but Will was really impressed by it. He loved it.

Pep was sleeping during all this, but I might as well share her super cute Valentine's Day photo:

Walk to Tuk

Shane and I made a team and joined a program called "Walk to Tuk." As a team we need to walk the distance from Fort Providence to Tuk, which is a little over 1,650 KMs. We have 8 weeks to do this. It's fun to be part of such a big project. You can see the map and all the teams involved here if you are interested. Our team name is Ice Breakers. We have 8 people on our team. One of our team members wrote a short story to be submitted on the Walk to Tuk website. I am sure she won't mind if I share it here:

My Hike Up Ol’ Baldy

As a stay at home mother of two young children, I decided to join the Walk to Tuk Challenge in hopes of motivating myself to get back into shape and to get outdoors more often during the long winter months. We moved to Inuvik only a short while ago, without a vehicle and only a stroller for wheels. Therefore, I have not had the opportunity to leave town yet. I was thrilled when one sunny afternoon, my fellow teammate and I decided to go for a hike on the outskirts of town. Our destination…Ol’ Baldy, a massive hill overlooking Inuvik. Once we arrived to the base of the hill (which resembled a mountain to this prairie girl), we began the arduous task of climbing to the top. We huffed and puffed our way up, but it was well worth it. When we reached the summit, we stopped to gaze at the picturesque view that met our eyes. In front of us lay the town of Inuvik and the patchwork of water that make up the Delta, as far as the eye could see! Once again I was struck by the beauty that surrounds us in our great Canadian North. As we rolled, slid, and tumbled our way back down the hill, I was grateful for participating in the Walk to Tuk. How lucky am I to be able to explore such beautiful territory that is literally found in my backyard! It has been such a rejuvenating experience, exercising in the outdoors and taking in all the beauty that is found in the boundless arctic landscape. Christine Cyr.

Christine (left) Kate (right)

My New Green Thumb

I am having fun with a new project. Not much of a project, actually. And it really doesn't take any skill...but it is new for me and it's fun. I found out that you can regrow green onions from saving the bottom part (I don't even know what it's called...). Anyway, since produce is so expensive up here it is worth a try! So I bought some two weeks ago and put he stems in a glass along with a wet paper towel:

Nothing special...just stuck them on the counter. It was so exciting when I started to see growth! One week later:

And two weeks later:

And they are still growing! They look even better than the ones I originally bought at the store. I am very excited about this!

Well, this post was supposed to be longer but there is a child on my lap who has recently learned to grab. That is making things a little difficult. I will post again soon about a contest I am part of called "Walk to Tuk."

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:

Busy Days

Sorry, I don't have much to post tonight. We have been super busy with normal stuff...the kids, the house, and church ministries. We've been enjoying the winter by going for walks and building snowmen. Today I was able to take the kids to the park. Slides go even faster in the winter when they are so cold and slightly icy! Anyway, here are a couple photos and I will try to get a good post together soon!

Baby Gordon

I am so sorry it's been so long since I've posted! Things are busy around here! My parents arrived on October 2 and since baby still hadn't arrived I was scheduled to be induced on Sunday, October 5 at 9 am. But I went into labor at 1:30 that morning instead. I'm so thankful I was able to avoid being induced! By 3:28 am little Pepper Michelle Jewels was born. I'm so thankful to have had my parents here for that and also for the past week as I recovered. God is good!

The day before she was born. I was 40 weeks and 6 days pregnant.

Pepper one week old.

Summer Is Gone

I remember back in the beginning of summer thinking it would take forever for September to be here. I can't believe it, but September is already here! We had a great summer. It flew by, but it was a lot of fun. The kids and I spent a lot of time at the park, taking walks, and playing on the neighbor's trampoline. Shane and I had planned a trip to Whitehorse, Yukon on July 4 for my birthday. But we had truck troubles and that got cancelled. We  figured we would just have to wait until the spring to go but we made a slightly last minute decision to go on August 18. I was 34 weeks pregnant and it was a 12 hour drive on the unpaved Dempster followed by a 6 hour drive on the Alaska Highway. It was so awesome, though. We saw a black bear, 2 grizzly bears, and one caribou along the way. Along with some foxes and rabbits. Here are a couple photos from our trip:

 At the Arctic Circle

In Whitehorse. Jenna was being so silly and wouldn't pose nice for any photo!

Me and Shane . Everytime I see this photo it reminds me of the time Michael Heilman told me I had the biggest nose he'd ever seen. HAHAHA.

So I tomorrow I will be 37 weeks pregnant. I have all the signs of going anytime now. I am at the point where every little pain gets me excited. Then it all goes away and I get dissapointed lol. Weird to get excited about pain. 

And here are my kids so excited for some snow! We got it Thursday night. 

Some Photos

Some Yummy Meals

So for the past month or so I have been trying new recipes and modifying some old recipes. The goal is to prepare for when baby arrives. I want to make a bunch of meals ahead of time and freeze them. That way while I am in the hospital Shane and the kids will eat more than Chef Boyardee and when I come home all I will have to do is thaw out the supper instead of preparing everything each night. I saved a couple of my favorites to share with you all. I am sorry, though, I am horrible at remembering to take pictures :-( I will post links to the recipes, though, so you can see the pictures by the bloggers I got them from.

First is my new absolute favorite meal. I don't know why but I can't get enough of sloppy joes lately. Mmmm...I made some up for tonight's supper and I can't wait! Here is the link:
http://www.momontimeout.com/2012/02/slow-cooker-sloppy-joes-recipe/

Some things I do a little differently: (1) I cook the meat in the frying pan first. This way I can drain any extra grease. Also I don't have to worry about whether it's cooked or not in the crockpot, just whether it is hot enough or not. (2) There is no gluten free worcestershire sauce in Inuvik so I use soy sauce or nothing at all. (3) I used canned minced garlic since I cannot stand mincing my own :-) The recipe says to add water if it is looking dry but I usually put this in the crockpot Sunday morning before church and since I am not around to watch it I always just put in about a 1/4 cup water right from the start. That way I know it won't overcook. It always turns out perfect :-)

This next one is another one of my new favorites. I never loved meatballs so much. It makes the house smell like a restaurant. Mmmm.http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Meatball-Nirvana/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=meatball%20nirvana&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page&soid=sr_results_p1i1

For this one I don't use onions (Shane doesn't like them) and I use soy sauce instead of worcestershire sauce, like the recipe above. Also I use gluten free flour instead of seasoned bread crumbs. If I remember I will add a little extra seasoning to make up for the bread crumbs but half the time I forget. Then once they are done I put them in a small pan with sauce and let them simmer for a little while. The sauce I use is basically spaghetti sauce. I use some tomato sauce, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and a bit of sugar. Then just stick them on a hoagie bun and you are good to go!

Ok, just two more. The picture on this one is sort of deceiving. It makes it look like you get a thick coating but you don't. I read all of the reviews for this crockpot Hawaiin chicken before making it and I am glad I did. I used boneless skinless chicken breast and cut them in small bite size pieces. I covered them in corn starch then fried them on the stove. If Will weren't allergic to eggs I would have dipped them in eggs after the corn starch. Anyway, once they were cooked well then I added everything in the crockpot like the recipe says. I added 2x as much of the soy sauce and brown sugar since a lot of the reviews said it needed more liquid. It turned out really well. I served it over a big pile of rice.
http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/sweet-hawaiian-crockpot-chicken/477852

Last one...fajitas! Fajitas are already a pretty simple meal to whip up but I like this one because it really can be a quick dinner. I cut the peppers up and put them in the freezer ahead of time. Produce doesn't last long up here so I do that with most of our veggies as soon as we get home from the grocery store. So anyway, the recipe:http://realmomkitchen.com/9318/oven-baked-chicken-fajitas/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+realmomkitchen/JNcN+(Real+Mom+Kitchen)&utm_content=Google+Reader

For this one I used jalapenos instead of chiles just because that's what I had in the fridge. There's nothing else that needs changed for this recipe. It is really just super good how it is!

I had another recipe but I can't find it right now :-( It was a really great one, though, so I will find it!! If any of you have any other recipes you'd like to share I'd love to hear them. I really want to have a good list of easy recipes for when baby comes. Anyway...I will try not to go so long between posts anymore! And let me know if you try any of these!
 

Enjoying the Snow and the Sunshine

We finished up our missions conference here a couple weeks ago. We met missionaries to Siberia, Argentina, and Alaska. It was such a great conference with excellent preaching and specials. After that we had our spring carnival, the Muskrat Jamboree. Now we are just waiting for summer :-)

It is warm enough to go sledding and play outside and we have been enjoying that quite a bit. Everything is starting to melt and although we hate the mud we don't mind. We know mud means summer is getting closer!

I am now 18 weeks along in my pregnancy. I am due sometime in the end of September. I am feeling kicks every day now. Shane even felt a kick the other day. William tries to feel baby. He will put his hand on my belly for about 5 seconds then give up, haha. William is convinced this baby is a boy and he won't even consider the fact that it may be another sister. He's very excited to see baby at our ultrasound in a couple weeks. 

Here are a couple photos from the past month or so. Enjoy!

Here Jennifer is wearing a parka that was passed down to her. It was made by her great grandmother using her great great grandmother's parka. It is a neat piece of history! It is so heavy and warm. You can tell Jennifer knows she looks so pretty in it by the way she acts as soon as she puts it on!

Home Sweet Home

Our trip to the States was awesome. I enjoyed it so much. We got to do so much and more importantly spend time with so many people. I'm thankful for all the new memories :-) but still, it is good to be home. It's been such a nice winter here this year. This whole past week has been -20 or warmer! That means spending a whole lot more time outside. The only downside is while we were gone our nice sled got buried under  the snow somewhere...Well that  or someone took it. I'm going to try to dig it out if I can...and maybe make a fort while I'm at it :-)

Here are a couple photos from the past month.

 I loved playing with the puppies at my parents' house.

 Will loved painting this bird house then watching all the birds eat from it in PA

 Me and Beck

 Beautiful Jennifer

Very excited big brother and big sister! 

Will's Quiet Book

Talk about procrastination! I leave tomorrow morning and I am just now finishing the quiet book! Well, finished for now. I still have several ideas for pages that I want to do so I will be adding to this book in 2014. Also I was originally planning on putting my quiet book pages in a binder for the trip. But as I was packing I realized how bulky that binder was. So I decided to ditch the binder and make my own cover. I didn't have enough time to make a nice cover so I made a 'for now' cover. I will be making a nice fancy one later. Perhaps while in PA :-)

Here are the final pages (for now) of the quiet book! (Again, sorry for the poor photo quality, one day I will figure out how to get my camera hooked up to the computer!) See you all soon!!

 The photo book all together. I sewed pages together back to back then made three button holes on each page. I tied them together with embroidery floss for now so it will be easy to add new pages.

 The final two pages. Will loves pirates, treasure, and keys so I love this page. It's very plain, as I was on a tight schedule ;-) 

 When unlocked, you find building blocks I made.by cutting a bunch of shapes and sewing two together. He can use the white page next to it to build the blocks on.