Below I posted a link to the 10 day forecast for Eilson AFB where Clayton will be this week. I promise not to whine about being cold until he comes home :) (BTW, his birthday is 12/2!!)

10 Day Weather Forecast for Fairbanks/Eielson AFB, AK - weather.com

10 Day Weather Forecast for Fairbanks/Eielson AFB, AK - weather.com

Last Day of November

Where has the month gone?? Where have the last 6 months gone, to be exact? I was thinking the other day that it's been 6 months exactly since we left TX! I can hardly believe that. Time has really flown by (with the exception of living in TLF). In fact, Clayton and I were discussing today how it will have been 2 years in January since we found out we were coming to Alaska.. crazy.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. My sister Amy and cousin Erin came up for the week and we had a lot of fun with them. Turkey day brought lots of food and a houseful: my cousin Monty and our friends the Sutterfields all ate with us. We had WAY TOO MUCH FOOD!! But lots of fun :)

This is going to be a nutty week at the Johnson crib. Clayton is going to Fairbanks for Arctic Survival.. read: living in the ice and snow and surviving. For those of you who don't know (and why would you?!), Fairbanks is WAY colder than Anchorage. It's going to be in the -20s while Clayton's up there surviving.. they'll cancel the class if it gets colder than -50F which happens from time to time. Good times. Oh.. and it's his birthday this week on top of it all :) He'll be home Friday night just in time for the 302d Christmas party. I don't know how it always happens that he leaves almost immediately after we have company....

I'll post some pictures of the T-day turkey and Amy and Erin's visit. Hope you all found much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We count our friends and family among God's many gracious gifts to us.

Sledding

So the snow is here to stay... at least until April or May, is what they say.  We're taking the advice of those who have wintered Alaska ahead of us and we're finding fun things to do outside to pass the short days.  Thus far, our sled count is 3.  We have 1 speed sled, 1 jet sled (that's what I drag Clay to Kara's school in) and 1 random Wal-Mart cheapo sled.  The kids are enjoying sledding more every time but they're not so sure about sled safety (obviously, they get their cautiousness from me).  Today, I walked to Kara's school w/Clay in the jet sled for the first time.  He threw himself out of it 3 times and was quite proud.  Believe me, pulling a sled in the snow beats pushing my *$&%^$ stroller in the snow any day!!  

I think Clayton is going to go to Alyeska to snowboard on Friday.  He checks the snow report every day to see how much they have.. I think their base is up to 85".  Last year it was over 900". I am a horrific skier so we'll see how that evolves living here :)

Here are some recent pics of Clayton and the kids sledding on the hill in front of our house.  By the way, these pics were taken at about 4:45pm.. we're good and dark now by 5:00pm.

I got Tagged by Melissa Johnson

I got tagged by my sister-in-law Melissa. Apparently, I'm supposed to post the 6th picture off my 6th Album.... here goes nothing:

Here's Clay-Clay when he was almost 18 months old. Ironically, this picture is exactly 2 years old! It was taken in 11/06, right before my Boyd grandparents joined us in TX for Thanksgiving. We had such a fun time with them and my Aunt Becky. I was pretty nervous cooking for my Granddaddy because he LOVED my Gram's cooking above all other cooking! He told me at the end of Thanksgiving Day "With a little more practice, your cooking will turn out all right". We couldn't have guessed that he would die within a month following a GI bleed and broken hip. We miss him and his death on Christmas Eve has made subsequent holidays somewhat bitter-sweet. However, I digress... I miss my kids in their footed PJs. I think that kids wearing those are so snuggly!! And when I look at this picture, it makes me miss my big eat-in kitchen in TX! We certainly wouldn't have imagined that in 2 Thanksgivings, we'd be living in Alaska.

I'm tagging Susan Miller and Suzanne King :)

Kids Say the Darndest Things.. Part Deux

Overheard 2 minutes ago...

Daddy: Clay-Clay, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Clay: A fighter pilot (no prompting there), a husband, a spanker and a daddy.

(Author's note: Clay struggles with Clayton and I and our authority as his parents. He wishes he was on the giving rather than the receiving end of discipline!)

Kids Say the Darndest Things...

Kara:  Mom, I don't like it when you wear those jeans-suit things.

Mom:  What?

Kara:  Those jeans suit things.  They don't look so good.

Mom:  What are you talking about? (I am wearing yoga pants and t-shirts like always!)

Kara:  (picking up a picture of Tawnya and I that is 9 yrs old.. where, in fact, I am wearing overalls)  This, Mommy.  These jean-suit things.  Don't wear them anymore.

Mom:  Uh.. OK.  That was a long time ago...

Kara:  (disgusted sigh)

Funny Things

My kids are always saying random things and I forget them too quickly. Forgive me if I start posting random things that they've said or done.. someday I'm going to have this blog made into book form to substitute for scrapbooking :)
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We were driving in the car not too long ago and I hear Kara and Clay arguing about who's going to do something first.

Clay: NO KARA!! I'm going to go first!! (scream this in your head for a more realistic experience)

Kara: Well, Clay-Clay you can be first but then I will really be first because God tells us in His Word that the first will be last and the last will be first. So now I'm first and you're last because that's what Jesus says. (say this in a very snooty first-born-girl kind of way)

Clay: silence.

Kara: Right, mom?

Mom: silence

Clay: I'm going to go first, Kara.

Halloween Antics

I'm finally getting around to posting our Halloween pictures.  I put some up on Facebook and kept putting off blogging... so, a few days late but here they are!  Initially, we had intended to take the kids to a carnival thing at church but we had a last minute change of plans.  We went over to some friends' who were having a get-together and the kids decided they wanted to trick-or-treat with their buds instead.  Sadly, however, I didn't anticipate this and did not dress my kids very warmly for the 9 degree conditions!!  We had jackets (well, everyone but me) but that didn't count for very much once we hit the street.  Clay-Clay was the first casualty of the night.. he fell once on the ice and was OK but the second tumble was the deal breaker.  Clayton took him back to the Feucht's and they handed out candy while the rest of us soldiered on. Kara did great until the other kids started to crumble.  Another dad ran home and got a car to pick up the big kids who were troopers until their gloves got wet, etc..  The moms walked home and I managed to wipe out on the ice myself... not so gracefully either!  Fortunately, I avoided any serious injuries thanks to my excessive body fat!  I knew it would come in handy someday :)

I'm also sticking in a picture taken at Kara's Halloween Party in class.  Alaska still celebrates the holidays in the classrooms.  Like when we were kids!  That is a good thing about being up here, so much drama stays in the lower 48 schools (where they NEVER mention holidays, only seasons).    We had a great first Halloween in Alaska!!!!

Kara is right in the middle of the picture.  I actually got to go to this party as Clay-Clay went to a friend's house to play!

Trick-or-treaters before the cold really set in....

Cheese!  A Snow Princess, Jeff Gordon and the Burger King King (ha ha)..and Mommy.