Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving

This year we had Pilgrims and Indians join us for Thanksgiving dinner! We wanted to teach the kids about the first Thanksgiving, so they helped make the feather head bands, and I made the (extremely authentic, as you can see) costumes! It was a lot of fun!

So cute!! Ma and Pa PilgrimOther Ma Pilgrim and Chief Cooookee







Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving Eve

Auntie Christy has come for the week! The kids are enjoying their special days with her-each kid gets a day and night with her by themselves (except for Ashlen). In this picture we went for a walk on the breakwater at Thomas Basin, which the kids call the "otter walk" because sometimes we see otters and otter poop! It was very cold and windy!
The preschool classes and parents were invited to join the rest of the school for their annual Thanksgiving Lunch.
The kids each made a hand print turkey for our banner which we add to every year.
Happy Thanksgiving!


Monday, November 23, 2009

Worship Conference

Matthew and other members of the worship team recently attended the Overlake Christian Music Summit in Seattle. It was 2 full days which started out with a worship time led by different Christian artists and song writers, then lots of classes and workshops to choose from. Everyone went to different classes for their instruments, vocal classes, sound system classes, and also ones about playing as a team. Everything was very practical, and everyone learned some new things, but the overall focus of everything was worshiping God. Matthew said he learned the most from a vocal class. Everyone especially enjoyed the worship times. There were 2300 people attending, all great singers and musicians, singing, harmonizing, and really worshiping the Lord together! It sounded amazing, and they all felt like they got a small taste of what Heaven will be like!Here is a picture of some of the group with Paul Baloche. (Krista, Rick, Paul, Matthew, Tiffany, & Carla) Another fun part of it all was hearing and meeting some of the current song writers and musicians such as Paul Baloche (Open the Eyes of my Heart, Above All), Brenton Brown (Hallelujah-Your Love is Amazing, Lord Reign in Me), Brian Doerksen (Come Now is the Time To Worship, Refiner's Fire), Matt Redman (Better is One Day, Blessed Be Your Name), Laura Story (Indescribable), and others. The group was very impressed to find that most of them were very sincere, humble fellow Christians, and it was nice to learn about their lives and families, and the stories behind the songs. Paul Baloche has been one of Matthew's favorites, and many of the new songs we have been singing in church are by him, so Matthew was excited to get to meet him, and invited him to Ketchikan. He said Alaska is the only state he's never been to, so we'll see! Each night ended with a concert with several different groups performing: some of the ones already mentioned, the great guitarist Doyle Dykes, New World Son (which was really fun to watch) and a few others that I've never heard of, but all very good!
Everyone came back very encouraged and excited, and can't wait to go again next year (hopefully)!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Logan and Daddy

We are all happy to have Matthew back after being gone for several days! He went to Seattle over the weekend to attend a worship conference with 10 others from our church. They had a wonderful time, learned a lot, got to meet some of the singers/song writers who have written many of the well known worship songs we sing, and attended some great concerts each night! I'll post more on that later when we get some pictures from other people. He didn't bring a camera. Then he was home one day before leaving again to Metlakatla to finish a tiling job with his dad! They didn't finish in time to get the last flight home, so they had to stay overnight. Thankfully they made it home this morning in between snow squalls!
Logan has been having a hard time with daddy being gone, so today they worked on a project together, putting down non skid stuff on our stairs. Logan really loves helping daddy, and often talks about the things they've done together. Of course he's very happy about the snow too! (Even though it's wet and slushy!)



Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Gingerbread

Today we made gingerbread men and ducks. It was fun. The kids ended up eating most of their frosting and sprinkles, of course!


I was having them say "frosting" for the picture, but Meadow said "raisin" instead. As you can see, that doesn't make the right kind of smile!

Here are mine! They had yummy cinnamon icing.



Monday, November 09, 2009

Oh so very 2!

Ever since sweet little Brennen turned 2, he has made sure he fulfills his obligation to be "terrible"! I can't look away for even 3 seconds without him getting into some kind of mischief! Pouring water everywhere, drinking soap, splashing in the toilet, and coloring himself and furniture with markers (which he always finds when I think they're put away) are some of his daily rituals. Somebody please help me! Well, here's what he did today: he tried to feed the fish all by himself, and dumped the entire can of fish food into the aquarium! I found him by a very red tank saying "too much!"
I took a picture thinking maybe someday I will see it as funny. Not today. Then, after I got the fish out and started siphoning out the water, he was trying to grab the bowl the fish were in and almost pulled it off the counter!

Now here's a funny picture! I know, I'm a bad mom to let my little guy out in the wet and cold with no pants on, but he got himself all ready to go out with Meadow and Logan. He just forgot one little detail! It was cute. He's in his new "choo choo" underwear!
Then we had a nice little picnic in the rain. (with pants on!)