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.