Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day I made Lila a special Kuspuk. 

Here we are posing in front of the HUGE snow drift outside of her house.  That is a boat behind the snow drift.  In case you are wondering!

The kids and I went to Libby's house because she had the pattern and was going to teach me how to make it.  I have never sewn a garment in my life and I am hooked!

Here is a picture that Lila took of me sewing.  That is right, I am sewing.

We had to cut out the pattern.  Libby helped me make it fit Lila.

Libby and Lila with one of Libby's kuspuks in the back.

Lila was my helper/photographer.

Will just walked around the shop being cute and playing with crab pots and whatever else he could find.

Some friends were there to visit, and Lila took their picture.  In fact she took a TON of pictures.  She is quite the photographer!

Crab pots.

Maddie and Wes.

The finished kuspuk.

We had a great time.  It took two days to make the kuspuk.  Don't I work with some great nurses?

Lila wore it on Valentine's day to school and she was so excited.  She looked really cute too!



Happy Valentine's Day from Nome, AK!



Kugurock Road

Last fall and friend of ours asked my hubby if he would like to go hunt Musk Ox.  You can find some good information on Musk Ox here at the Musk Ox Farm Website. 

So they left one morning at dawn (9am) and drove down Kugurock Road in search of Musk Oxen.  They did actually find a herd of Musk Oxen but they were too close to town and so they couldn't hunt them. 

He did get some great pictures so I wanted to share those with you.

Isn't Alaska beautiful?

-30 below and a blizzard!

We have had a cold winter in Nome.  For a long time, the temperature has not gotten much higher than -30.  There were a couple of nights it got down to almost -50.  That's right. Negative.  It is funny when it is that cold.  We stay covered up.  Your fingers freeze quickly.  And you can feel your nose hairs freeze.  I'm not joking.  It feels weird.

People are tough here.  School has not been cancelled once.  The kids have indoor recess when it gets below -20.  And they are troopers.  When I dress Lila for school, only her eyes peak out so she is warm when she waits for the bus. 

Earlier in the week, I met my husband at the Recreation Center with the kids.  I took them down, and he met me after work to take the kids home so I could work out.  It was -30 and I ran the truck for almost 20 minutes before we got in.  I still dressed them in all of their winter gear!  This is how they look for a car ride in -30.

I took the pictures with my phone, so they might be a little blurry!

Then after these freezing cold temperatures, it finally warmed up.  I drove myself to work on Saturday and it was a little windy, but the 20 degree temperatures felt almost balmy!  It wasn't beautiful for long.  Soon the winds picked up and the snow started to fall.  There were white out conditions all day!  I couldn't even see the buildings across from the hospital.  Luckily I got a ride home from work.  I wasn't even going to try to get home!  The drifts were scary and I had to walk from the highschool to our apartments.  But it wasn't too cold so that was okay. 

My hubby drove me to work on Sunday and by Sunday night I was able to get home on my own.  A few drifts caused our smaller truck to zig and zag but I think I handled it well!  I didn't end up in the Tundra!

Here are some pictures I took this morning of "Big Red" after the storm.

The snow had drifted chest deep up to the apartments.

The driver side of the car was covered with snow.  The passenger side was clear!

Here is a snow machine that was parked next to us.  It was almost covered!

Will must like the warmer weather because he didn't complain at all when I got him ready and took him outside.  Usually he is prett whiney when I get him dressed to go out.  He must have been happy that it was a beautiful 30 degrees today and he didn't need his snow pants!

Will and I picked Lila up from school today then went to my friend Libby's house where we started a project.  I will tell you all about this project next Monday!  But here is a little tease.

Can you guess what I am making??





Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley came to visit us in Nome this week!  Flat Stanley is a project that my neice Grace is doing for school. 

When Flat Stanley arrived in Nome he was cold! So we made him a warm Kuspuk.

 Lila showed him how to use an ulu to cut salmon. She learned how to do this in school!

Flat Stanley also got his picture taken with a traditional basket that was given to Lila when she was in the hospital in Anchorage.

Flat Stanley went out and saw White Alice up on the mountain. He wondered how they got those Big Satellites here in the 1950s.

 Then Flat Stanley went to the grocery store. He saw a pet reindeer named Velvet riding in the back of a pickup truck. Those antlers are huge!

We took Flat Stanely to see the sea ice on the Bearing Sea. 

Here is a picture of the Healy and Renda bringing gas to Nome!

Flat Stanley also got to go with Lila to Nome Elementary School.

Here is Flat Stanley with some of Lila's friends in Mr. Collin's Kindergarten Class.

We loved having Flat Stanley come and visit us in Nome, Alaska! 

Valentine's Day Craft

Well, I must admit, I haven't been too good at keeping my blog updated.   I must say, I am very busy, with two little kids, a husband, and work.  Sometimes I can bearly keep it all together!  But I do want to keep everyone updated on what we do here so my goal is to update every Monday.  So check back next Monday and see if I can keep it up! 

So today I'm doing to do something a little different.  I saw this really cute Valentine's day flower on Pintrest.com and wanted to make them for Lila.  Because we live in Nome we have to do things a little differently.  First I ordered my supplies from Amazon.  When they arrived I realized the card stock I ordered was too big for my printer!  Since it takes too long to return, I decided we just had to make do.  I then went to: www.skiptomylou.com and downloaded the pattern.

We gathered the supplies.  Will helped open up the glue...oops!

We have the patters for the flowers and the leaves, card stock, glue, scissors, and yummy Tootsie Pops!

These are the colours Lila choose.

Lila wrote her name on the leaves.

Because the card stock was too big for my printer, I printed the flower pattern and leaf pattern on to regular paper.  I then cut them out and used them as a pattern.  I then wrote "Happy Valentine's Day" on the flower since it wasn't printed on.

We poked holes in the center of the paper and stuck the Tootsie Pops through!

Then we glued the leaves around the stick.

After putting them together we realized we lost some leaves!  So Lila just wrote her name on the flower.  That worked well too.

So the petals wouldn't bend, we put them in a box upside down.

Now we're ready for Valentine's Day!

I'm linking up to my sister Melanie and her sister-in-law Ashley's blogs today! 

Playing in the mud!

Before the snow came we woke up one morning and wondered what we would do today?

Why not go outside and play!

It was so muddy, but out we went!

This is Will making his first treck across the parking lot.

This walking is fun!  He explored the dog sled.

And the cars.

Lila found a puddle.

And soon Will found it too!

And that is what we did that day!