new pictures

Timmy playing with shaving cream

Timmy, he looks like Cori!

Pirate Tim trick or treating with a zombie baby

Sammy Penguin, Benji Eagle, and Timmy Pirate at the Halloween Festival

I don't have much time to write today, so I thought I would just add a few new pictures.  I did write a letter to Annie earlier today, and posted it on here.  I don't think it says anything new, but it might be a fun read

letter to Annie

I wrote a letter to Annie earlier today, and I thought ya'll might like to read it.  nothing really new.
Dear Annie,
So how the mission?  I have to admit i am a little jelous!  I really wanted to go on a mission before i met James.  I think I will still go after James retires.
Life here is pretty good.  Benji is turning 8 on Friday and is being baptized on Saturday.  Its a little scary to me to think that he is old enough.  He is really excited, and has a really warm testimony.  He is so good with his little brothers, and he is such a good example to them, I am excited to see him baptized.  It just hard to believe its been 8 years!!!  He has a really witty sense of humor right now too, and it always hard to figure out weither he is kidding or not.  He adores reading.  a true "Olds".  Right now he has discovered Harry Potter and just finished his first book.  I noticed the other day that he was really tired after school, and I couldn't figure out why.  He has been up all night reading.  James slowed him down by reading the book to him....but James loves Harry Potter too, and now they both are tired in the morning.  oh well, I tried.  He just started the 2nd book, and I am hoping he looses intrest after this one.  Although he is smart enough to read it, he is not mature enough to understand all of it.  I think I will try and get him into The Narnia series.
Sammy is doing well too.  He started kindergarten at a local charter school, and is loving it.  It focuses on science and art, and its been really fun watching him grow.  His teacher thinks he is super optimistic and excited about life.  She said that if she told him to pretend to be a rock, he would shout for joy, and try and be the best rock he could be.  hahaha, he is really funny that way!  He is also getting into board games.  today we taught him to play uno, and he beat everyone.  first time.  its alittle embarrasing to say I was beat by a 5 year old.  He is obsessed with penguins too, and tell you everything you ever wanted to know about them.  He sleeps with about 6 penguins and carries one in his backpack to school.  He was so excited the other day when he got off the bus, because his "bus buddy" gave his 32 cents to buy a live penguin.  Benji explain that wasn't quite enough.  we are hoping this summer that we can visit a zoo in the lower 48 that has penguins in it, and I am working on finding someone in the artic that he could talk to and ask questions about penguins.  I think he would be trilled to learn from a real ecologist, or a zoologist.  He told me that he wants to be an ecologist, study penguins, and grow a cactus on the artic.  I have a feeling he might actually do it.
Timmy is wonderful.  He will be a year and half this week, and he is a delight.  He is learning sign language, and is picking it up fast.  Infact he is trying to tell jokes with signs.  His favorite is to shake his finger at you and say "no no no", then he laughs and laughs and does it again.  truth be told, I didn't teach him that, I was fussing at him the other day for coloring on the walls.  I guess i must of looked pretty funny.  He is also in love with music.  He sings ever were we go, and loves to sit at the piano when ever anyone is playing.  my favorite is watching him dance.  It doesn't matter where is in the house, if i turn on the radio, he comes running, and starts doing his thing.  His favorite song right now is the star wars theme song.  yup, I am really sick of that song.  it doesn't even have words!  Ben and Sam sing it a lot too....I use to like Star Wars....
James and I are doing well too.  James is the Stake Young Mens President, and he really enjoys it.  Yesterday he organized a group of kids to go the Senior Center and play board games.  He had such a blast.  He is working for Tesoro as an engineer and really loves his job.  He is constantly playing pranks on his coworkers, and he coworkers have got him pretty good too.  The other day they made him think he might be fired, and a few days later he made them think that he was going to quit.  The whole thing made it to the plant manager...oops.  actually, everyone envovled, including the plant manager, has a really good sense of humor, so it ended up being a lot of fun. 
I am doing well too.  I am homesick for the lower 48 every so often, because i feel like i am on an island of snow and ice, but I wouldn't move back.  There is too much adventure here!  Right now the sun is rising late, and setting early, we are about 7 hours of sunlight.  So every day i get to see the sun come up and down, and they take a long time to do that.  So the whole world seems pink and blue for most of the day.  We also live a few blocks from the ocean, and although its a very cold ocean, its very beautiful.  We get to see dolphins and seals and otters.  I hear there are whales too, but I haven't seen any near our house.
Annie, I think it really wonderful that you are serving a mission.  I know that sounds super cheesy, but it will be one of the best things you ever did with your life.  While I was moving all over the place as a kid, I got to learn that the gospel was true everywhere, and that it really was ment for everyone in every cercumstance.  God loves you, and wants you to feel successful, so just listen to him, and trust that he has got ya covered.  I love you so much, and I can't wait to see you when you get back.
Lots of Love
Cyntha and the gang

Hey all!  Sorry its been so long since I last wrote anything, I didn’t think anyone was reading it!  A lot has happened sense I last wrote, so I figured I should just start with what is happening right now.

Sammy

Sammy is recovering from  Chicken Pox.  Yuck!  Luckly it was very mild, and he is back at school today.  When I took him into the doctor to have him checked out, the doctor wasn’t really sure what to do, because she hadn’t see chicken pox before!  Its funny to think that a what use to be a common disease is no longer around.

Sammy also made it into a local charter school called Kalidscope.  He is really loving it.  The emphisis at this school is science and art, so most of the stuff he learns is hands on.  They walk to the creek every month to see how the weather is changing, and he sings songs about butterflies and habitats.  He loves to paint and to play games, and the kindergarten teacher gets just a kick out of Sammy’s optimism.  She jokingly told me the other day that if she asked Sammy to pretend to be a rock, that he would be so excited about it, and try and be the best rock he could be!  That sounds like Sammy.

Benji

Benji is rocking at school too.  He has the same teacher as last year, and she is wonderful.  She does an awesome job at keep Benji engaged.  There isn’t a Gifted and Talented class for kids in 2^nd grade, but she set one up for Benji.  He goes to it every Wednesday and he loves it.

Benji has discovered a love of Eagles.  We have quite a few eagles here in Alaska, so it s been fun to learn all about them.  This year for Halloween he is dressing up like an eagle,  and he looks great!  As soon as the Halloween is over I will post a few pictues of him.

Benji is turning 8 next month and is preparing for baptism.  I can’t believe that my little one has gotten to be so big!  It s amazing to see how much faith he has in God’s plan for him.  I am so excited for him to make this big step.

Timmy

Timmy is growing like a weed.  He is 17 months and is getting ready to go into nursery. Last week he loved it in there, so I don’t think we will have much of problem when he is 18 months.

Timmy is finally walking!  He loves his indepence, and runs away from when ever he gets the chance.  He is getting fast!  He is also learning sign language, and he loves it.  He is picking up really fast, and he likes to talk to the dog.  Poor Charlie!  He is all giggles right now too, and laughs at anything some one says.  And he likes star wars. Yes, I know, why does a baby like star wars.  Ben and Sam love star wars, so naturally Timmy is going to pick it up.  He likes to sing the Star Wars theme song when we are shopping through the store.

James and I

Life for us is crazy as usual.  I am no  longer teaching is Relief Society and  I am not Cub Scout Commity Chair.  I am still not 100% sure what I am suppose to be doing, but everyone seems to be real nice about teaching me. 

James is still the stake Young Men’s President and he is really excited about next summers Youth Confronce.  This  is the Trek Year, and he can’t wait to take the Young Men on it.  I have never done a Trek , so hopefully I will get to go with him.

Recently our Hot water heater and boiler are acting up.  Followed by a leak in the roof.  And ofcourse I am sick and the kids have been sick.  Not to mention Midterms. And Halloween.  I  miss hot water and heat!   The plumber is coming over on Thursday, but I am hoping James can fix it before then so I can take a shower.  Say a little prayer for us!

Disneyland Vacation

Sorry it's been so long sense our last post.  Life has been busy!  Sammy just turned 5 years old, and made it into the local charter school, Benji made his first goal in soccer, James is getting ready for a shutdown or turn around or something like that that takes a lot of time, and we just got back from DISNEYLAND!!

Grandpa Farrer, Benji. Grammy Farrer and Timmy, and Cynthia

 We had an amazing time!  We got to spend 5 days in the park and at night we got to see Great Grandma Ackerman.

Stitch with mom's hat

It was so warm and beautiful!  It was nice to get out of the snow for alittle while.

Sammy at the puddle park

awww, so sweet

     We got to eat at all the Character Breakfasts, and met some really cool characters! 

Benji trying to pull the sword from the stone, I think he almost got it!

Goofy cook breakfast for us one day, he put mac and cheese and hot dog on his pizza!  for breakfast!

James, always with a smile.

Sam with Swampy, Benji and Cynthia, enjoying a magic book

Grammy and Timmy

Benji Dancing with Phineas and Ferb, Rock on!

Timmy with light saber

 

 

 Aunt Trish, Grammy and Grandpa Spoiled the boys rotten!  they got so many toys and loads of attention!  this is Timmy sucking on a new light saber they had bought him!

Sammy Driving a car

Sammy (in stroller) Cynthia, Grammy with timmy, Grandpa and Aunt Trish

The Whole gang in Radiator Springs

Benji Showing Grandma Ackerman all of our Alaska adventures

James with his new camera, we came home with SO MANY pictures! 

 

Happy Winter!!

January has turned out to be a fun fill month!  Winter in Alaska are long and dark, so the locals try to find things to do to keep them busy.  So we have had a lot of fun learning all the new thing to do in the winter.  We went to the winter festival, and had an amazing time!

Benji and Sammy with an ice sculpture at the winter festival

One of the coolest things that they do here is ice sculptures.  they are all over town, and some of them are really detailed and beautiful.  and some of them were just a lot of fun!  this years theme at the winter festival was coal and gold.  Benji and sammy are stand next to a miner.

Timmy in a ice coal cart

Benji in an ice COLD cart

Sammy in a ice coal cart

 You can kinda see behind sammy in the picture above the ice slide that the artist had made.  It was so much slippier than a regular slide!  they kids could really get some speed!  all together the artist had made 3 slides on the top of a snow hill, and beneath it he carved out a tunnel for the kids to crawl through. the boys had so much fun!

Benji and Sammy in the ice tunnel under the slides

Benji in another ice sculpture

Benji and Sammy also got to take a shot at Kick Sleds.  Benji came in 2nd place!!

Go Benji Go!!

Lets go Sammy, lets go!!

Timmy and I got to spend most of our time inside or in the warm car.  it was only about 3 degrees that day.  which, even with a snow suit, is a bit to cold for him.

James just loves Alaska!

snow shoeing lesson

out on the trail snow shoeing

 James got to take Benji and Sam snow shoeing.  Benji LOVED it, but Sammy was disappointed.  he thought James said snow SHOOTING, and he thought that they would be shooting snowballs out of a canon.  poor kid.  I think it was hard for him to keep up on the trail too.

All in all, its been a fun month.  the whole family loves the snow.  well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.  although the winter is beautiful and fun, I am ready for a little bit more sun and a little less snow.  To keep me sane James got us some tickets to sunny California to visit his family in march.  I am so excited!  I am ready to soak up some sunshine!!

Hope your winter is as fun as ours!!

Cynthia

End of a great 2012 and on to 2013

                                Happy New Year!!!

Cynthia survived

What a great year!  we moved, had a baby, and changed jobs!  But all in all, it was wonderful!  I look back on this year and see it fill with loads and loads of blessings.

New Years was fun.  I was the only one who stayed up until midnight.  Traditionally, locals shoot off fireworks at midnight, partly because its too sunny on the 4th of July.  It was fun watching out the window.

Christmas was a blast too.  The kids took their time opening each present and then playing with it before moving on to the next one.  it took most of the day getting through all the gifts.  The best present this year was a Wii (video games).  When they opened the box, looked at it, and then brushed it aside.  Benji then said, "wouldn't it be great if it was a real wii?"  I tried to explain to them that it was a real wii, but they didn't believe me until the opened up the steering wheels.  I guess it wasn't really a video game system until it had steering wheels!

Me and my main squeeze

I really am trying to get a good family photo

I really don't know why I try

infact, I give up.  this is what we look like in real life anyway

James and I are coming up on our 10th anniversary, and this has always been a fun time of year to celebrate memories.  We celebrate our marriage, our first house, the first time we became parents, james first big job, and James graduating from college.  I am still in aw of how far we have come!  Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who helped us get here!

Tiny Tim

Watching the boys play video games

Me and my christmas pjs

mom likes this one, but benji says i look like a girl

right after my bath

mom says I just keep getting cuter and cuter!  I liked Christmas.  except for all the yelling.  I don't know why everyone was so excited...

The best Christmas Ever!!

on christmas day, we got a wii for chirstmas.  we made a snow goon from calvin and hobbs.  its has two heads.  the wii is so much fun.  thank you for reading my blog. love benji

teaching timmy to read

playing on the wii

Sammy favorite Wii

Thank you for the Wii.  I love it so much! thank you for the plasma car, i love it!
THE END love sammy

Benji and I on the plasma car

Toasting the new year...at 8 PM

The best Christmas tree ever

Another fun Christmas...Wii!!

Well this was probably the whitest Christmas ever!  Lots of snow all day, it was awesome!  The holiday mostly consisted of playing the Wii while it was dark outside mostly Lego Star Wars and Mario Kart, playing in the snow, building a fort, shoveling, snow wrestling, building a snow goon by the front window to scare Cynthia, and some cooking.  The plasma car was a bit small for me, but still managed, the remote helicopter was a blast while it lasted, and the whole time was filled with enthusiasm.

Burring the kids in the snow!

 

Lets see if this video works.