Merry Christmas!

It was a Merry Christmas at the Disque household this year!  It was fun to see the kids excitement this year as we tried to put them to bed Christmas Eve night.  It was a late night because we attended our church's 9:00 pm service, it is a small church so they only offered one service and it was a bit late for our little ones, but it is Christmas Eve, so we went.  Adam's mother and I participated by playing the chimes and singing while people arrived to celebrate.  I have never been complemented on my singing voice, so this was due to the church being small and they needed some extra hands to ring the chimes not because there is any hope for my ability to sing...  It was fun and I only had a few missed chimes:-)

On Christmas Eve we made preparations for our Christmas meal and baked and decorated a birthday cake for Jesus.  It was a fun day, but we were all really looking forward to Christmas and a visit from Santa!

Santa did come, and the kids were so excited.  Our families all went to such special effort to send gifts for the kids and still made it special for us even though we are so far away.  We also are blessed having Adam's mother here, since a holiday is not a holiday without family around.  We are truly grateful she was here and made it special for us!  Hopefully the pictures will help tell some stories:-)

Merry Christmas!

We made lots of Christmas cookies this year. 

We decorated Jesus's birthday cake!

Santa surprised the kids with a Christmas Train around the the tree!  

 The stocking isn't that big, Mariah is just petite!  

It warmed up for a nice walk.

Time to play in the snow!

 Snow slide!  

Go Grammie!  

Ponzi is training to become a sled dog!

Christmas Tree Time!

It was finally time to find a Disque Family Christmas Tree to brighten up our home!  It was an adventure...  We drove out to 12 mile and stopped at the same place as last year.  This year the snow is not as deep so we all headed down the trail to find The Tree, however, even though the snow was not deep, it was cold and the wind was blowing...  All 4 of us did not make it very far, but Adam and Ponzi continued on with a chainsaw; found and conquered our tree..  It is funny that trees "don't look that big" until you bring them into your home...  However even though it is a bit wide (it was a bit tall too, but a chainsaw can fix that) it is inside, and covered in lights and ornaments!  It is funny to think next year we will most likely be somewhere that we can simply purchase a Christmas Tree from a Tree Lot, but this year we did it the Alaskan way.  Enjoy the pictures!

It's Back!

It's Back!  The snow has really come this week!  It is once again white and beautiful everywhere we look.  But it is falling fast and furious so we are inside waiting on a break so we can go out and play!  The sledding hills should be perfect now and there is finally enough snow to go snowshoeing around the local trails.  People all around town are trading in their cars for snowmobiles, you can tell that the locals really love the snow!  Once the sun can sneak out I'll get some pictures from around town.

We are quickly heading up to the 4 foot mark!

 Our path for Ponzi is getting deeper...

 We are getting some Christmas crafts done while we wait out the snow.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  At the Disque house we attempted our 3rd Thanksgiving, and yet again learned that a Turkey takes a lot longer then we think it should.  We ended up eating about 2 hours later than we planned but everyone seemed to still enjoy the food.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of our feast but people were ready to eat by the time we got it all out and after making them wait a few extra hours I just couldn't make myself ask them to wait longer so I could take pictures...  We had turkey, dressing, mac n'cheese, brussel sprouts, green beans, orange salad, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.  Everyone left the table stuffed, but we still have the best part of Thanksgiving to look forward to...  the leftovers!

We did several projects throughout the week to celebrate Thanksgiving...  Turkey Hats!

 Hand and Foot Print Turkeys

 Our Thankful Tree!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Our Week

We have had a fun and snow filled week!  It is fun to see how much better the kids can handle themselves in the snow this year!  They have both been excited to go outside and really enjoy having us pull them in the sleds instead of the stroller.  Adam left on a patrol this week as well, but it was a beautiful day and Mariah and I had fun waving goodbye (Cooper was in preschool).  He should be home soon!  Enjoy the pictures!

Cooper had fun throwing snowballs into Mineral Creek instead of rocks this time!

Cheese!

 Eating snow...

Happy Election Day!!

Happy Election Day!  This really feels like it should be a holiday...  Adam and I were able to vote via absentee ballot this year.  It has been interesting living in Alaska during a presidential election year, you can really get the feel of how little 3 electoral votes mean to the nominees...  It has been nice that we have not been inundated with endless political commercials; however, I am feeling a little left out after living in Florida for the last big election!  We also had our first full day of snow yesterday, so here are a few pictures of our fun in the snow.

 One artsy fartsy picture from last night:-)

Get Ready!

The town is busy getting ready for winter.  We are seeing the markers for the road go up, city picnic tables and trash cans collected.  The signs warning of plows are up and the streets are turning white.  There is a feeling that the snow falling now most likely will not melt for many months.  So here we go!  It is almost time to go sledding and snowshoeing!

Ruth Pond is now frozen over. 

Parts of Mineral Creek are starting to freeze too.  Soon this whole area will be buried under the snow!

Photo Shoot!

It has taken 6 and a half months, but I finally have a little red tomato!  In honor of the precious little one we had an impromptu photo shoot yesterday!  This nearly feels like a small miracle since it snowing while I type this so you must humor me...

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!

Beautiful Days

We have had several beautiful days in Valdez!  We are trying to get out and take advantage, however it is getting a bit cool!  Enjoy the pictures!

 The waterfalls are nearly frozen!