Playing Around

Yesterday we got home from Preschool and the kids wanted to play in the drive way so I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures!  The snow is here now, however we are still below average.  I think the last official total we heard was 169 inches, which is about 3 feet below average.  This weekend through Tuesday they are predicting we could get more than 24 inches, so it will be a weekend full of shoveling for us.  We have put some boards up on some of our windows where the roof shed makes it almost impossible to keep up with, we have been warned that if the snow rest on windows it can push the windows in, so we try to avoid that...

Enjoy the pictures!

The kids playing in our driveway.  

 

On a walk.

 

You can see where we had to put the board up to help protect the window...

 

This first picture was taken in early January and the second in the same spot in early February.

 

Our front yard.  This picture is taken at my eye level.



New Program

Just a test:-)

What A Week!

We have had quite a week in Valdez!  It feels like the snow would not stop, which is exciting, except that Adam has been underway and I had the job of shoveling a lot snow while watching 2 children at the same time.  I am pooped, but Adam will be home soon, and just in time!  Here are some pictures to give you an idea of how much snow we got.  I don't know the snow total, but it felt like at least 3 feet of snow feel in the last 7 days!

 

Fun In the Winter!

We have been staying busy the last 2 weeks with a bit of a lifestyle change!  Living in Alaska in the winter I am afraid we fell into the TV trap!  With some days being to cold and windy to go outside (much of December) we got in the habit of turning on cartoons (educational cartoons of course) in the morning and then watching way to much TV throughout the day.  So our New Years Resolution...  Turn off the TV!  Okay, not completely, but we are reducing cartoons to one hour in the morning and one our in the afternoon.  To some this still sounds like a lot, but it is a big help if I plan to get anything done during the day, including a run on the treadmill.  So we have been doing crafts, coloring, painting, reading, playing trains, walking and sledding.  It is taking some getting use to, but the kids are doing surprisingly well with the change.  Soon it will be our new normal and we are all feeling much better for it.  Below are some pictures of our last week!

I got this idea from Pinterest (I get most of my ideas from there...)

All three eating snow!

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.