Finally, Photos

Well, here are a couple photos.
Anyone who knows Abby well, knows that she runs on all fours as much as possible. It has long been known that she uses her hands as feet. But check out this use of her feet as hands. She was holding the bowl, so she could stir the cookie dough.
If the evolution community wants a missing link, we may have found her. HAHA! Figures the missing link would turn out to be a woman.

Thanksgiving weekend, the kids were off school. Jared Wood came over and the boys made a siege tower out of Legos. They had a lot of fun, and the photo is supposed to go to some contest they wanted to enter.

Photos

Well, I've been trying for three days to get photos up. Between me and the computer, it doesn't seem to be happining, but it will. We've been very busy - as usual for everyone this time of year. We went to Anchorage for a couple days for a mini vacation. That was fun. Today, the kids and I are going shopping for Daddy's Christmas present. That should be fun.
Debbi

Photos

Well, I got these photos out of order, but here they are anyway. The kids on Scott's sixth birthday. He had chocolate chip cookie cake, pizza for dinner. He really isn't as sad as he looks in the photo of all the kids - he was in the middle of asking a question.

Photos of Abby

Here's Abby on October 22, playing in the snow. They had a blast, even though there wasn't much. It's amazing what kids can do with an eighth inch of snow.

It has snowed more since then. Chad was saying today he hopes we get a foot this time. We didn't get that much, but it's coming.

Abigail did a fashion show with my sarong on Sunday after church. I had worn it as a scarf, and she spent the evening trying it on as dresses and other apparel. This seems to have been her favorite. She wore it while watching a movie.

Let it Snow

No pics today. Soon we'll post a couple of us in the snow. Yep, on October 22, right after we finished the last post, it started snowing. It looks like it's here for the duration, too. We have an inch or two right now. We have already built a snowman and started on a fort. Abigail built eight tiny snowmen and lined them on on the side of our front steps - Christmas decorations. Unfortunately, they didn't make it through the second snowfall.

Legos and A Rainbow

This is a rainbow we saw outside our front window last week. We get a lot of rainbows up here. This was one of the brightest we have ever seen. Photos just do not do rainbows justice.

As you can see from the trees, they had not lost their leaves yet. The leaves are all on the ground now. We are waiting for the first snow to fall. Chad and Scott are making plans for a snow castle. The weather man said it could snow tomorrow - YAY!!






This photo is of Abby and Scott with some of their Lego creations. Legos is what we do on rainy and cold days. Scott's Legos in this photo are a couple of snowmachines, and Abigail's is a snowplow - you can tell where our minds are.

Church, Etc.

We are having special meetings this week at church. George and Carol Ragsdale are here with us. She is an awesome singer and he has been preaching and sharing the mission field with us. They have been to Ghana, Africa, a few times and are hoping to go back in a year or two. This photo is of the Ragsdales and the Bickishes last year.

Abby's best friends are teenagers - much to Daddy's frustration sometimes. She can preen with the best of them. Deep down, so far, she is still Daddy's little girl, though.

This Week in AK

We have been very busy lately. Dad has been leaving for work before we get up in the morning, and getting home as we're going to bed. Mom has had to drag us along to run errands for the business. Hopefully, today things will start to settle down. Of course, that means we won't have any excuses to not get ALL our school work done.

We had fun at dinner time last night telling what super power we would like and why. Abigail wants to be able to be invisible so she can be safe. Chad wanted speed. Daddy announced he would like to have Inspector Gadget gadgets for a carpenter. Scott then announced that he would be Inspector Gadget, Jr.

Abigail built a Lego home for herself this weekend. She did her daddy proud - she built the garage first.

Have a wonderful week!!

House of Cards

We've had a very busy fall so far. Besides school, we have been running errands with Mom for the business, getting in our last minute outdoors activities.

During our indoor time, Chad has been practicing his card house building. Here are a couple photos of how he's doing.

Hope you enjoy them.

Heritage Place

We visited a nursing home yesterday. It was fun. Mom tried to tell us what it would be like, but we still all imagined that we would be visiting a big white room with rows of beds, and people in the beds. It was much better than that.

When we got there, there were some people getting ready to have coffee. We had brought some peanut butter cookies, so one of the aides helped us hand them out. Then a lady was talking to us. Scott was shy, so he kept hiding from her. She chased him around in her wheelchair. They played peek-a-boo for a while.

The nursing director gave us all candy. We had fun. Mom said she would take us back again sometime.

Russian River Falls

We had Family Night last Sunday. After church, we drove up to Cooper Landing to hike the Russian River Falls trail. Oh, it was beautiful. Fall is just setting in, so there is a little color going on. It was a peaceful hike/ bikeride. Dad and the kids rode, Mom walked.

When we arrived at the Falls, there was a brown bear fishing for his dinner. We watched for about fifteen minutes while he caught and ate a couple fish. Then he caught one and ran into the forest. We were truly blessed, because not everyone who goes to the falls gets to see a bear. Oh, we also got to watch the salmon jumping up the falls. :).

The photo is of the boys at the beginning of the trail. Dad and Mom forgot to take the camera on the trail - that seems to be a theme this year. So, no photos of the bear or the falls. Sorry.

August Photos

Hey - it finally worked. I have been trying to post these photos for three days. For some reason it hasn't worked.

Anyway, this first photo is of the kids on Abigail's seventh birthday. She had a jungle cake, in case you are wondering. On her birthday, we ended up at the beach, where, although it was cool, the waves were lazily rolling onto the sand, and Abby announced it was her best birthday ever. Of course that was hours before she did a face plant into the pavement while riding her bike. Yes, she was wearing her helmet. She ended up with a bruise on her knee. Poor birthday girl.

This photo was taken last week when Brian got his trailer for his business. The kids helped him clear-coat it, then he added shelves and hangers. It's his pride and joy. The kids had a blast "painting."

Scott

The other night, as the kids were getting ready for bed, Scott started asking me questions:
"How come you work so much, Mom?"
"What do you mean - like dishes and laundry?"
"Yeah, and cleaning and taking care of us?"
"Because that's my job - to take care of you."
"And Dad goes to work to get lots of money?"
"Yes."
He got quiet, so I thought he was done, and went back to what I was doing.
When he and Chad were giving me their good-night hugs, Scott said, "Thank you, Mom for taking care of us all the time." Of course, put me close to tears.
But you should have seen Chad's face. I have yet to figure out if the look was "What a little suck-up." or "Shoot! I wish I'd thought of that." Either way, both boys were priceless that night.

VBS

The kids had a blast at VBS last week. One of their craft projects was tye-dyed T-shirts. They have enjoyed wearing them.

They came home with lots of stories each night. Abigail's favorite part was the food. They ate things like snake eggs (grapes), monkey tails (bananas with chocolate and sprinkles), tiger milk ("some type of milk" with whip cream and chocolate chips), ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins). She's a little gross.

Chad's favorite part of VBS was the bridge he made at craft time. He also really enjoyed the games.

Scott's favorite part was the games. His age group played ring around the rosy, London Bridge is falling down, tug of war and "What time is it, Mr. Tiger?"

Mount Marathon

Okay, the photos are up. Computer is going very slow today, so I wondered. This first photo is of Chad with Mt. Marathon in the background. Mt. Marathon is 3200 ft. elevation. And we start at basically sea level. The full hike is about three miles. The boys, Chad and Jared, made it to the top. Rebekah and Kaylena made it a ways past half way, and Mom (Debbi) made it about half way. We spent a total of about five hours on the mountain, but it would have been a lot less, if Mom hadn't been along.

This photo is of the four kids (l. to r. - Chad, Jared, Kaylena, Rebekah) standing at the Mt. Marathon board - maps and warnings were posted here. The reason there are only photos from the bottom of the mountain is that Mom forgot to take the camera out of the van. We had a beautiful view of several miles of Resurrection Bay and the surrounding mountains. There were about a dozen sail boats and many motor boats and cruise ships. It was amazing. Next year, we will take the camera to the top of the mountain.
We had a lot of fun this week, and some of us are tired. Others (Jared) are already making plans to climb the mountain again in a couple weeks. He also wants to race it next year on July 4. Mom told him she'd go - to cheer.
Chad will be nine on Friday, and this was basically his birthday party. He was very happy with it.

August

chad: So much is happening this month. The sixth, me, Mom, Jared and his sister are going to climb a mountain in Seward. The 12th is my birthday. Mom is going to take me to
a restaurant, shopping and go-carting. We were going to the movie theater, but mom said no. That is all.

Berry Picking

We went berry picking yesterday. Us kids could only pick the currants, so Mom picked raspberries, then we all picked enough currants so we could take all the raspberries home.
We also played in the lady's playground that she keeps for her grandkids. We had fun. Scott slept through church last night.

Kenai Landing

Mom dragged us to Kenai Landing Saturday. It's a bunch of tourist shops, not much to interest us. The only thing that kept it more interesting this time was that she bought us ice cream. We all got "Bubble Gum" flavored.

Today, Chad is watching a documentary on space - Oma and Poppop brought it for him from Kennedy Space Center. Abigail and Scott are playing LEGOs quite contentedly, which is why Mom is writing this blog.

Kids at Abby's 6th birthday

Yes, this photo is almost a year old, but I wanted to post one. I'll get a more recent one up later.

Blah - Blah

The kids chose this title because this is one of Scott's favorite sayings. He actually wanted to name it the "blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blog." I told him no. They are in rare form today. Chad wants to use the computer, Scott wants to play with Chad and Abby wants to play with Scott. This - as usual - is resulting in a lot of squabbling and pouting.

CHAD: "We got to go to a ball game last night with my friend, Jared. One of the Oilers (our team) gave Jared a ball. I found one in the woods. After we took Jared home, we saw a caribou, whose antlers were taller than he was. They were almost four feet tall, not counting him.

Today I built a LEGO spce shuttle, with a launch pad and a rover.

Yesterday, when we were running in the woods, the mosquitos were trying to eat us alive. As soon as we killed one, another would land on us. I think I'm gonna be scratching bug ties for ten years."

SCOTT: "I typed my own name today. That's it for today."

ABBY: "I'm having a tea party with Cheer Bear for lunch today. Maybe later we can post a photo of our party."