February

Just a few cute photos of the kids!

I love this photo and I love this little girl something fierce!

Sisters

So sweet

Troop and Alta laying in Zanna's bed.

Troop loving up on his little sis as always. The poor thing gets smothered by her big brother and I have to keep a real eye on him! When I was doing the dishes the other day I heard him say as he walked up behind me "look, cute baby" He had her in his arms in a tight bear hug. He had somehow gotten her off my bed and all the way into the kitchen. Oh my heart was a pounding. That gave me a good scare!

Look at those lips!

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HAHAHA! This picture cracks me up!! I was trying to get a cute picture of all the kids for Valentines... it did not go so well. The photo is out of focus... not that that really matters... none of them are smiling, Zanna's headband is falling off, Alta is ticked and they all look like they came out of a photo from the 1800's.

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Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.

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I could gobble him right up! He is such a handsome little devil... and yes devil is the right word! He is full of mischief and naughtyness but he is also so funny and loving and stinking cute! He is going going going all day long either making me giggle or making me crazy!

SOCCER

Zanna started playing soccer a few weeks ago. It is pretty cute to watch all these kids run around a gym chasing a soccer ball. She is not all that competitive and it is kind of frustrating/funny to watch her play. She sings to herself, pretends to be a butterfly, Kangaroo, Cat, Eagle... and many other animals as she runs with her team. We pretty much have to bribe her to get her to pay attention and kick the ball!

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She is always waving at us as she runs by. She will run up to me and give me a big fat kiss as she passes me. When she kicks the ball she looks at me and hold up her fingers counting how many times she has kicked the ball. Cute little girl.

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Troop loves going to her games and playing with the extra soccer balls. He also likes to throw the extra balls onto the gym floor as the game is going and throw himself out onto the gym floor. He is a busy little body!

An action shot! WOOT WOOT!!! GO ZANNA!!!!!

Altas first few weeks.

Here are some photos of Altas first few weeks. She has been so fun! She is a great eater, a wonderful sleeper, she is really calm and is cute as can be!! I am eating up every moment with my sweet girl!

Sweet baby feet!

My mom came to help me the day after Alta was born. She was able to stay two weeks and it was two weeks of pure bliss!! It was so nice to have my mom all to myself. That is unheard of! There are so many children and grandchildren that she is constantly running and always stretched so thin. I felt pretty spoiled and so did my kids!

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Zanna getting a pedicure from her grams.

My kids adored having their grandma with them all day! I was a little nervous that they would not let her do things for them and want me... but no way! They LOVED having grandma take care of them.

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This picture is so funny! Troop is constantly snuggling Alta and is always rubbing his lips over her hair and forehead. He must like how soft she feels.

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Zanna helping with the cooking!

Snuggled up on the "little sak" as Zanna calls it.

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The boys.

The girls.

Don't mind all my post pregnancy weight in my face... ;)

My mom woke up early every morning with the kids and would get up with Troop in the middle of the night when he would wake (he is not that great of a sleeper), Made us all carrot-apple-celery juice every morning, made big beautiful salads, delicious healthy smoothies, she made whole wheat pancakes with fresh ground flour for breakfast, she cleaned, did laundry, dishes, scrubbed all of my carpets on her hands and knees, and waited on our all of our needs. Seriously I got spoiled. I had a nanny, maid and cook all in one amazing woman. I barely lifted a finger!!

My little love sleeping. She is too funny, she always has a scowl when she sleeps!

Snuggled up with daddy.

Jathan is such a wonderful dad & husband. He helped so much with the kids and was right alongside my mom with the cooking. I am thankful he was able to take a week and a half off.

I love that MR.

We sent my mom home with lots of Salmon, Halibut, Moose and Buffalo for our families as a thank you.

Look at all that meat!

It was so hard to see my mom go. I sobbed!! I am so grateful she was able to come help. It was an interesting transition having her leave. Plus she really spoiled Jathan... Now he is use to all of this great healthy food! I have a lot to live up to.

Thank you so much mom. I love and miss you!!!

The Birth Of Alta June

I am finally getting around to writing about the birth of my beautiful new baby!

I went into labor at 3:30 in the morning. My contractions were 15 minutes apart for the first 2 to 3 hours. It took me awhile to know if I was in labor for sure because I was progressing so slowly. At about 6:00 I called my midwife and told her I was in labor. There was lots of snow from the huge snow storm we had the day before so I wanted to be sure she made it in plenty of time and I was thankful we had decided to have the baby at home so I didn't have to drive anywhere in such weather.

I labored in the tub most of the morning. My midwife arrived at about 7:30 and a neighbor came and picked up the kids at 8:30. It is funny, Troop woke up, saw me and wouldn't come give me a hug. He did not know I was in labor but he sensed something was different. It made me kind of sad to send my baby off with out some luvs.

This labor was so different than my last. I expected it to go super fast because Troop, start to finish was 4 hours. I progressed slowly and my contractions were not getting intense. I kept saying, I hate to complain, it is nice that things are not intense but come on lets get this show on the road!!

I get back labor and Jathan is usually pushing on my lower back super hard with each contraction. Well I was given a Navajo Sash from Jathan's Uncle Julius when we got married. It was used back in the day when Navajo women would labor. Jathan got an idea to tie it around the post of our bed so that I could use it for a back support and push against it to relieve some of my back pain. For my intense contractions Jathan still had to push on my back but it worked wonders for most of my contractions!!

I was in and out of the tub a few times, walked around the house, used my Navajo sash, went back in the tub, and so forth. Finally I was at a nine and thought things would surely start moving but still, I was not ready to push. I got back into the tub and I think the baby moved positions a little because finally my contractions started getting stronger.

The midwife broke my water and after about 7 minutes of pushing my little baby was born. Oh this time around pushing was crazy! Troop came flying out of me after one push so I was totally spoiled with that labor. She had a much larger head than he had and she must have been in a funny position as she mad her way out because the poor little honey had bruised blood shot eyes and her face was all purple. But man when she came out she was ticked at the world for taking her from her nice warm home! She was just a screaming!

Here is my wonderful sash I used for my back labor.

Here I am practically swinging on it. I just pushed against the post and laid all my weight into it. Jathan was thankful too because usually he is exhausted during my labor, pushing on my back as hard as he is physically able. He got a little break.

And there she is! Totally ticked!! Sweet thing!

How cute is this? This is how they weighed her, hanging in a blanket over my bed connected to a little scale. She was born at 11:57, weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz. and was 20 inches long.

The kids were so funny when they came home. Troop wouldn't come into my room for a while. When he finally did he asked me "What is that thing?". Zanna was excited to meet her new sister but her hair still had vernix in it and Zanna was not pleased that she was "dirty". But after a little while they were both smitten!

Having the baby at home was so nice! I really loved it! It was so calm and peaceful and comfortable. I loved not having to go anywhere after the baby was born. Loved being in my own comfortable bed and especially loved not having to go out into the crazy snow with my new sweet baby. I think the biggest thing I missed about not being at the hospital is simply not having my kids crawl on me all day long ;)

Oh here is a fun little fact about Alaska. The national average for births out of a hospital is less than 1%. In Alaska over 30% of births are at home or in birthing centers. Interesting eh?

Zanna Turns 4!!

My little girl is 4!!!

We let Zanna open her presents on her birthday, then had a party for her a few days later.

She loved her horse... she loves anything that has to do with horses. Mostly she likes to try to ride her new horse. I am amazed it has not broken yet.

She also got a cute little doll that can ride on top of her horse.

Jathan is always teasing these kids! Here he is pretending he loves the doll and Zanna is fighting him for it!

Zanna had a few of her little lady friends over for a butterfly birthday party.

It was s fun day! I got online and found some cute ideas for activities to do with the girls.

We did the life cycle of a butterfly, so first they pretended to be caterpillars and squirmed all over the floor. Then each girl got a turn getting wrapped up in toilet paper to become a chrysalid, after they were all wrapped up they broke through the toilet paper and became a butterfly and flew around the house. Once all the girls had a turn we made little headbands with antennae and they each got those little party favors that curl up and then blow out. This was suppose to be like the butterflies curly tongue.

I think they all had a fun little time. I wish I would have taken photos of the girls all wrapped in toilet paper and photos of them making their headbands.

Happy Birthday my beautiful Zanna. We love you SO MUCH!!