An explanation

and apology. Last summer, the boys and I packed up (after an amazing, beautiful May) and headed south for a month so Rich could tear out the kitchen. When we got back, we settled in and I fully intended to blog away like normal. At some point the first week back, I headed to the computer to look up a picture to show someone, and it told me it could not find the file. Excuse me? I stayed calm as long as I could, but eventually had to panic. My hard drive, where half of the boys lives were photographically recorded, had crashed. It was irretrievable. The only think that kept me from vomiting was that I had copied over a mass amount of pictures to Grandma Jerry before we headed south.

I don't know about you, but when disaster strikes, I choose to bury my head in the sand. We got copies of the pictures from Grandma, bought a new server with backup, but I couldn't face it. I didn't want to know what was gone. The files were a mess, so I ignored it and blogging. Well, I finally faced it. God was smiling on me, and amazingly, only about a month and a half of pics are unaccounted for (and a few months of videos). So, we are wiser, have a better system and are ready to go again!

My new blogging plan is that for every recent blog I post, I'm also going to post and older one, starting from last May. Eventually, I'll catch up with myself. Enjoy!

My little German boy, Avery REITER. Doesn't he just look like the perfect little alpine boy?

Hat and a snack. May was GORGEOUS! Sunny and warm, they wore short sleeves and shorts most of the month, and loved being outside.

He's a tree! See his branches?

Beautiful Noah!

Can you see the Noah for the trees? I love our little forest of a backyard. Yes! This is our yard!

Hanging with Eagles

In our lovely little Alaskan town of Eagle River, there is a local woman who feeds the eagles on Sundays throughout the winter. This is the first time we've actually gone to see it happen (we've driven by before when all of the eagles were hanging out post meal) We invited Jill and Lucy, packed a picnic for the kids, and headed over.

Car picnic. Sometimes, ok, most times, it pays to be almost 3.

The pictures don't really do the experience justice. About 10 minutes until 11, eagles started flying in in groups from all directions. The woman hadn't arrived yet. How do eagles tell time and know it's Sunday?

We probably saw fifty eagles in this one place today. It was very cool. Most were mature, I think there were one or two juveniles who hadn't completely turned white on their tails and heads. It was really neat to hear them "talking" in their high pitched chirps while they were waiting for the woman to arrive.

I think we're going to go back again before Easter and park in a different spot, so the sun is behind us. Come visit in winter, we'll take you with us ;)

The boys favorite place to be...

is in the dining room. This is where we do crafts (or craps, if you're Avery). You name it, we do it. Coloring with crayons or markers, stickers (thanks Aunt Becky), paint, play dough, cutting with scissors. The boys love it all, especially Avery. I want you to notice the hutch, though. Whew, messy!

We made some salt dough ornaments before Christmas and painted them. I began to fully realize what sort of student Noah is going to be, and must remember to warn his teacher. "Instructions first, then pass out supplies"

Notice Avery's paint...

and Noah's. Avery kept his colors separated for about 20 min. Noah's were mixed immediately. He painted the paper, not the ornaments (I had to urge him to do that). When he was done with the paper, he began to paint up his arms. This is where mom had to walk away and let dad be in charge!

For Christmas we asked for art supplies. The boys got these groovy smocks from Nana and Papa. Thanks!

Finger paint!

Now, back to that hutch. We basically ran out of room and it looked terrible, so we found a new to us cabinet on Craigslist for our crafts. It's really a TV armoire, but my oh so handy husband did this...

and we now have room for all the stuff!

Even these!