The Big Announcement

Nope, we're not moving (but I wish!)

Nope, we're not getting another dog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We're having another baby!

 

This setup was my contingency plan if I couldn't figure out how to get all the boys to cooperate at the same time.  Luckily Ahma was up here and was able lend a helping hand.  And, she even took a picture in focus!

 

The baby is due the middle of February, but we'll just go with by March.  Once again, the sex will be a surprise.  However, I will admit the more pregnancies I have, the harder it is to stick to that plan!  I went in for a later ultrasound then I normally do and it was SO tempting to find out.  But, I also figured I'd be excited for a couple of minutes and then disappointed that I did know....so we'll keep on the surprise track.  We waited quite awhile to spill the beans, so as of today, I'm already nearly halfway done at 19 weeks!

 

#1 found the ultrasound pics so I explained to him what was going on.  He took the pics and kept saying, "I'm so excited we're having another baby!"  So I don't think he minds too much.  He also told me in May that I'd be having a baby next year, so he's had the idea in his head for awhile.

Pt.2

Other then the lammo fishing, it was a lot of fun.  The boys were pretty well behaved, with my sister and brother there we had lots of helping hands.

Additionally I found out my mom can be sneaky.  She devised this plan to have Husband drive her car back to NP so that I could hangout longer with the boys!  I stayed five additional days between camp and her house in ER.  I would have stayed a bit longer but I had a prior engagement I had to get back for.  Mom stayed here for five days and even watched the boys for 2 days all by herself so that Husband and I could go out to moose camp to pick blueberries.  With all the warm weather, all the berries ripened early and people were picking while I was gone.  It was great to get away, and while I was gone, mom helped to night wean #3, so now I get to sleep through the night!

#1 and #2 displaying a before (#1) and after (#2) eating fresh blueberry pancakes!  It was mandatory payment for leaving them.  Although I'm pretty sure they didn't even notice.

Thanks for Sticking Around! Pt. 1

So, I had no idea that two months have passed since I've updated this thing.  Gosh darn, I was hoping to do so much better!  Well, thanks for sticking with me and checking in, hopefully you didn't waste too much time on me :) 

We've been busy.  Summer has been crazy.  It started with cold and snow, and then moved quickly into bugs and heat.  The mosquitos have diminished over the last couple of months, however, the heat has not.  We have had 33 days this summer with 80+ degree days, a record.  Our house has been hot, and being in Alaska, we don't have an air conditioner....that being said, all the stores up here sold out of their stock, plus additional shipments.  Let's just say it's been so hot the boys sometimes don't want to go outside in the afternoon.  It's like we're living in the south.  We also have had very little rain, like practically nothing; last I heard we had a total of an inch.

In June we celebrated #2's 3rd birthday.  We through a joint bday/#2 and #3 were baptized bbq.  I think everyone had fun.  Ahma came up of course and the boys had a great time.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE having her around, she's an early riser like my kiddos so I get to sleep in a bit without feeling guilty about it. 

 

July Husband and I packed up the boys and headed to "fish camp" down at my parents property to try dip netting.  But first we took the two older boys on the train ride from Anchorage to Seward.  What we learned: a 3 year old will last 45 minutes on the train, while a 4 year old will 2 hours.  It was a 4 four ride.  But we all survived and no one fell off!  We didn't go to camp last year because of how things went two years ago.  I learned quickly that 13 month olds do not belong sleeping in a sleeping bag when night time temps drop to 40F.  So, after that debacle I told my parents I wouldn't be down until the kids were either older, or there was a heated place for us to sleep.  This past winter they came through and bought a toy hauler and we got to use it!!!  It was snug with five of us, #3 in a pack 'n play, but it was SO nice.  It even had air conditioning, and wouldn't you know it, it was in the 80's while we were down there so it came in handy.  The only thing to go wrong was, the fish didn't cooperate and we left with few :(

 

On the caboose!

Aunt Jenny bought chalk for the boys to use.

LOVE this kiddo!

The boys watching a show from the top bunk in the toy hauler.









Road Trip!

I loaded up all three boys and headed to my parents house in ER a couple of weeks ago.  I know, me + three boys = brave.  But, I'm happy to report that both the trip down and back (all 340 miles each way) were largely uneventful.  We've gotten really lucky with how well our kids travel.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact it's a trip we do once or twice a year?  Who knows.  A late winter storm passed over most of Alaska while we were down there, so on the 17th (my birthday) we woke to snow on the ground, and plenty more still falling from the sky.  I hadn't thought to bring winter clothes (really, who would?!?) and luckily I had grabbed their finger gloves before driving away (but managed to leave lots of stuff behind, go figure).

 

#2 trouncing around outside, getting lots of snow into his rain boots.

#3 shoveling snow off the porch.  He did a great job!

 

It snowed for two days, then warmed up quickly and by the end of the trip it was all melted and most of the grass was dry.  It was wild.  #1 went to the greenhouse with Ahma and later all the boys helped plant them in new planters.  

My little ham :)

#1 and mom.  Ahma and Grandpa bought bikes for the boys so I packed their helmets.  Unfortunately #2's bike didn't work properly, neither did the other two toddler bikes at WalMart, it sucked.  But #1 was able to ride his and rode it up to the elementary school.

He's balancing!  Little punk doesn't want to take a step, much less walk.  Wish he would though, he'd get less dirty outside. 

Playing at the school, my old stomping ground.  #1 found several older campground kids to play with, he had a blast.  He's getting to be such a grown-up kid.

 

The boys and I were down in ER for a week.  Now we just need to wait for Ahma to come up in two short weeks for #2's 3rd birthday, and hopefully catch one of #1's soccer games.  

And It's Snowing...

...enough said. 

There was a recent article in the University of Alaska Fairbanks newsletter "The Cornerstone", "The year without summer." http://uafcornerstone.net/the-year-without-a-summer/  It revealed that in fact, there have been summers where the daily temp NEVER reached 60 degrees.  At this point I'll take 59!  We are supposed to dip down into the single digits for nighttime temps, and reach the 20's during the day for the next week. 

An article in the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer today stated our average daily temperatures are 15 degrees BELOW normal this April.  What a never ending winter we're having.  Good thing we brought in more wood the other day.  Looks like Husband will need to get more.

Hope the rest of you are having better luck then we are. 

Spring

Spring is here, spring is here, spring is....well, I think it's here!  This has been one, long, hard, dark, winter.  It has been insane.  It's been cold, so, so very cold, for so, so, very long.  And then April came, and it was supposed to be warmer, but it wasn't.  Now, we've finally gotten some spring temps and the snow is melting!  Yea!  Except for, it snowed in Anchorage today, and we're supposed to get snow tomorrow, and Monday they are predicting a high of below freezing, 28F.  What the heck? 

This winter there were so many times I looked outside, seeing the dark, did I mention the cold? and wondering what in the world the pioneers of this place were thinking.  They would have arrived in the summer and then worked their a$$es off to cut enough wood and to build a house to survive the winter.  And then they did the strangest thing, they stayed.  Maybe it was to difficult to think about doing the trek back home, it couldn't have been easy getting here in the first place.  These first people, especially the women, rocked, and were super strong. 

So, back to spring.  Sunday we unpacked the bikes and did our first family bike ride!  Husband pulled #2 and #3 in the bike trailer, #1 rode his own bike!!!  And I rode my own as well.  #1 did AWESOME!  He followed all of our rules and did an amazing job.  The next day he wanted to go again and it was just me with all three kiddos because Husband was working.  And again, he did great!  He rode 1.3 miles, which doesn't seem like much, but it was just his second ride of the season and he is just 4, pretty good huh?! 

It's been wonderful getting everyone outside once, maybe twice a day, and they are really enjoying it.  They've been coming in wet from all the puddle jumping.  Let's hope this weather continues and that the forecasters are wrong (once again!).

No Way

I can't believe that my baby is nearly 1.  It seems impossible that an entire year has already come and gone.  On the bright side, #3 is still a fabulous boy and has been a wonderful addition to our family.  He was truly meant to be with us.  I'd tell you how much he weighs, but I really don't quite know, it's somewhere in the 25lb range; he has been in size 18 month clothes now since he turned 9 months old.  He is pretty close to walking, he prefers to cruise furniture whenever the option is available, has let go of the couch a couple times to lunge towards me, and has practiced balancing.  Not sure when he'll walk though, he has two crazy brothers that will surely knock him over, so his timidness is well warranted.  #3 now has four teeth, with four more breaking through, it makes him a tad bit cranky, but we're all surviving; he's a super happy kid otherwise, so we'll take the little bit of ugly.  Doesn't sleep at all like the others kids, what is up with that?  He loves his brothers, and is totally enamored with #1.  #3 already wants to wrestle and get in the thick of things so he's had a few bumps.  Usually though he just laughs it off and goes back into attacking #1.  Their favorite game is #1 laying on the ground, #3 crawls on top of him, and #1 bucks him off.  It's pretty funny!  He has shaking his head no down, can now wave goodbye, and "talks" constantly.  Look at my ham :)

Vacation Pt 2

After Indio we went down to San Diego to spend a week at Husband's sisters house.  It's about a 2 hour drive, which was for the most part a piece of cake.  The van we rented was equipped with a GPS, which kept recalculating our route, "based on updated traffic info," so we took the scenic route down, through several towns (pretty sure the stop lights made our trip longer) and through some "mountains."

 

Family story time the first night.  Husband had another sister come back to the house as well so we got to hang with her and her kids as well.

The train at the zoo.  We didn't go to the San Diego Zoo, we did that just two years ago.  But the train was fun.  The train runs at night during the Christmas season and has bunches of lights.  We went back the last night it was running, to wait for 30 minutes because it had rained, and half the lights had shorted out.  Oh well, it was fun.  And the boys love trains, so two train rides = awesome for them!

We went to the beach twice.  The first time was to the awesome park to watch the sunset.  #1 LOVED this.  The sand goes through the holes and comes out of a spout at the back.

It's coming.  The water is coming!

Yum yum, have fun changing my diaper!

Fresh squeezed lemon juice.  I guess when you live in Southern California and your friend has a lemon tree, you can afford to do cool things with your kids like squeeze lemonade.

Sleep mom with sleep baby on the red eye.  We drove back to Palm Springs to fly home.  While waiting the three hours until check-in, we killed time going to the local air museum in Palm Springs, which was actually pretty cool.  Did you know that Bob Hope was from England?  And I'm pretty sure I read that he tried to join the military during WW2 and was turned down so that he could tour for the USO instead?  Who knew!

 

We had a great time and it was a nice break from the cold we had been having back home.  The beach was really nice, even in the middle of "winter."  If we lived there I'd be taking the boys everyday it wasn't raining.  They had such a great time.  We brought some small trucks so they dug trenches and made mud sinkholes.  It sort of sucked leaving.  If there was a downside to coming back to NP, it was the realization that life could be enjoyed EVERYDAY outdoors if we didn't live here.  :(

An Eye Update

 

So the patch is actually not going too bad.  Scratch that, I should say it's going fabulous.  We got back from vacation the middle of January and started the patch from the get go.  #2 wakes up in the morning and the patch is put on within 30 minutes of waking up.  It's off at nap time, and then back on again when he wakes up until bed.  It's worn between 7 and 8 hours a day.  There are days that are a little less, but I feel we are avoiding something that does have the potential to blow his pupil, and that's all I care about.  The first couple of weeks were a little rough.  I took a page from my Mom's playbook and very matter-of-factly stated that it's something that has to be done and there's no room for arguing or negotiating.  The only time he takes the patch off during waking hours is when he's sitting in the car bored; and really even that's stopped since I got smart and put a box of reserve patches in the van.  I do let him take the patch off when we are at someone else's house and there are a lot of people/commotion around.  Because he doesn't have peripheral vision in the patched eye, he has a tendency to run into walls and such.  Poor guy :( 

 

I was hopeful this would only take a month or so, but now I'm not so sure.  I spoke with a father whose daughter had a severe farsighted eye and they did the atropine drops for an ENTIRE YEAR.  So the last time I bought patches I bought the place out, cause I think we're in it for the long haul.  At the very least, if this doesn't work, we can tell him when he is grown that we, he, did all the necessary things and that it's something that just wasn't going to be correctable.  But, let's hope it doesn't come to that.  Please think happy well wishes for this little guy.  I hope he doesn't have any memories of everybody constantly asking what's wrong with his eye.  I think we've pretty much explained it to just about every body we know and now all that's left are strangers.  And really that's not a bad thing because it has given us the opportunity to educate other parents the importance of paying attention to their child's eyes and to get them in early for a vision check.

 

And just because I can, here they all are enjoying each other's company.  I'd say this never happens but in a blue moon, but that wouldn't be true.  We have one or two of these moments a day :)

Vacation Pt.1 Indio



The McGilvary family flew to Indio, California over Christmas vacation to celebrate Husband's parents 50th wedding anniversary.  The only flight leaving around the time we needed to get there left at 1:30am Christmas Day.  For those who don't know me, I HATE traveling overnight.  It's been my experience that it's much better for your kids to miss naps then to miss a whole night of sleep due to traveling.  We arrived in Indio at 11am on Christmas day, starving.  Luckily there was an "In and Out Burger" open.  I figured we were going to California so there should be at least one place open for business.  We stayed the night at Embassy Suites (best place ever in my experience) and checked into the WorldMark Resort on the 26th.  While we stayed we had our own two bedroom suite with full kitchen, two baths, and laundry.  A lot of family traveled down so it was wonderful to have our own space to retreat to for naps, bedtime, meal time, etc.  I think at final count there were around 60 people that had come through during the week stay.

 



ALL the immediate family.  Six children plus spouses, and 18 total grandchildren.  Ours are numbers 13, 17, 18.

 

A bunch of the younger cousins hanging out watching a movie.  There are probably a dozen or so missing.  Also, this peacefulness lasted about 10 minutes.  Then the boys decided to play pillow fight on the bed and the girls got all bossy.

 

 Our family portrait.

#1 LOVED the kiddy wading pool.  He won't put his face in the water so this was perfect.  There was also a "lazy river" that he went on everyday.  The pool was heated so it was awesome.  Totally should have gone in much more then we did.

This was really cool, it's a sky tram that goes up a mountain. On top there is a national park with trails.

On one of the trails (the only short one we did).  There was about 7 inches of snow and well, this was last minute and we of course didn't bring our winter gear to California, so it was a short walk.  Down below there are hundred of windmills, pretty amazing to see them all.

 

We stayed in Indio for a week.  It was a bit chilly (yeah yeah I know, it doesn't compare to here) but it was windy.  The resort was really nice.  They had two small parks that the cousins would meet at and play.  There was a welcome bbq and then a 50th celebration.  There was tie-dying shirts, a big family breakfast, and a boys day out.  (The women tried, but they couldn't come to a consensus what to do.)

 

After Indio we drove to San Diego to spend a week with one of Husband's sisters for a week at her house.  That will be pt 2!



Merry Christmas (albeit a little late)

Trying to get a decent picture in front of the tree.  Yeah right!

This year we celebrated Christmas a day early due to a family vacation, in which we were flying over Christmas Eve, into Christmas Day.  Luckily our kiddos are still young enough they don't know the details and don't mind!  They had a great time opening presents and playing with all their new toys.  #3 liked chewing and playing with the boxes, of course, don't all babies!

The small trucks.  These went on our trip with us (and to the beach!)

Professional unwrappers.

 

My First Born is 4!!!

Yes, I understand this is (several, whoops) months late...but better late then never they say. 

Happy Birthday #1, you are now 4!  Wowza!  It has been quite the ride.  It's been amazing to watch him grow into the person he will become.  This past year #3 has proven to be quite the big brother.  He has become quite the helper with both his brothers.  He wants to play with them.  He encourages them; whether it be learning to crawl, or building a tower, #1 is always there with cheers and claps for his brothers success. 

Also, can I just say that 4 is an awesome age?!?!  I guess growing up is like a fine wine, it gets better with age.  Each new milestone is incredible.  He has all of a sudden put so much together on his own; he can spell his name, count to 15, has number recognition to 10, and recognizes all of the letters of the alphabet.  Best thing, I had do hardly anything!  I mean, I'm sure that the books, and the conversations, and the play, and all that contributed, but it's crazy how kids pick up on all these things without having to sit down and do rote memorization!!!

So happy birthday to my first born!  While I'm saddened that I can't freeze our family in time, I can't wait to see what else this year has in store for you, and what you'll teach me.