Home Again!

So, I think this has been the coldest winter since we've lived here, and I'm not just saying that because I'm used to 70 degree weather:)  It's been around -20 the whole time.  Normally it's only that cold for a week or two :P

The cold makes for some pretty pictures though.

Nondalton all covered with snow.

A couple days after we got back Ms. Regina had us all over for supper.  We taught everyone some of the new dances we learned.

We had our first Shabbat at home in four months.  

Quentin made a very cool Yeshua menorah.

When we got home our water was frozen then a week later our power was out all day.  The joys of winter in Alaska. (cooking takes longer on the wood stove)

During the school year we baby sit a little girl for two of the teachers.  She has gotten so big since the last time we saw her!!  The little boys and Sarah love playing with her (and giving her mohawks).

It took her a little while to decide she likes the swing being as how her head is at the perfect height to get hit by it every time she walks by.

Sarah and the little boys are getting used to bringing the wood in everyday again.

A one day stomach flu has taken our family by storm, picking us off two or three at a time, well all except for me:)  Now I'll get sick since I wrote that :P  It's funny how different everyone is when they're sick.  Sarah was one of a group of three that got sick one night.  She just calmly says she has to throw up then finds "her" bucket and gets sick.  Benjamin stays asleep the whole time and you have to practically hold him over the bucket.  Caleb and David freak out and call for their mommy.  While we were in Israel we all got whooping cough.  I was the first one to get it and being as how it's called the 100 day cough I should be getting over it next week.  Yay, I'm happy.  Maybe I'll be able catch my breath during basketball practice:)

I made another movie out of our video clips from our trip back to Alaska.  It shows us visiting friends and family in the lower 48 and traveling through Canada.

Trip Back to Alaska from Paul Brendemuhl on Vimeo.

Hanukkah Celebration & Caleb's Birthday

The day we left Grandma Effie's happened to be the last day of Hanukkah. Our friends, the Froeses', were having a Hanukkah celebration near Winnipeg.  So, we spent the afternoon and evening celebrating with them.  We spent the afternoon talking about the book of Daniel then we ate supper.

After supper we lit the Hanukkiyas. 

All the kids.

Afterwards we did some dancing.

The next day we started heading up to Alaska, visiting a few more friend on the way.

Benjamin and Sarah

The 31st was Caleb's birthday.  We worked it out to spend his birthday and shabbat in Whitehorse, Canada.

He turned nine and we had cake, snug in our motor home with all the windows frosted over.  

Being as how his birthday is on New Years Eve everyone celebrates his birthday.  The Canada Games Centre celebrated it with a huge New Years party.  Everything was free and they had snacks, games in the soccer field, a dance, an obstacle course set up in the pool, free skates for the ice rink, fire works and a bunch of other stuff.  It was a lot of fun.

The obstacle course was harder then it looks:P

Sarah and Benjamin had trouble with skates.

We even talked dad into going ice skating.

North Dakota

Well we've been home a week and a half.  There were record high temps in North Dakota and southern Canada and I found out where all the cold weather was hiding:P  It's been from -30 to 30 ever since we got home (and the above 0 days only lasted two days).

We spent a week at Grandma Effie's in North Dakota.  Our cousins came down for a day visit.  While they were there we took the chance to get family pictures.

The whole family.

Grandma and the grand-kids.

Dad, his sister Debbie, and Grandma.

We spent a night at the Lorentzen's house.

What happens when our family gets around video games.

This was how warm it was, Christmas Day and Sarah in short sleeves jumping on the trampoline with no shoes.

Sarah loved dressing up in mom's wedding dress.

Video

I compiled some video's from our trip into one video.  Sadly our hard drive broke half way through the trip so all the video is from the last half of our trip.  I tried to upload a high quality version on you tube but I couldn't get them to extend the length limit so here's the best I could do:)

Trip to Israel from Paul Brendemuhl on Vimeo.

Visiting Friends

We've spent the next week traveling all around the states visiting friends.

We spent the first night at the Hayes in Georgia.

 Then we spent the next night in Tennessee at Natalie's house.

We spent Shabbat at the Hood's in Tennessee.  The Hood's have 15 kids with 11 living at home so that was a lot of fun.  The little boys had fun on the tree swing.

The older kids played a crazy game of killer uno.

We spent Sunday night at the Hershey's home in Missouri.  It was Deborah's 16th birthday and Mr. and Mrs. Hershey had a beautiful cake waiting for her.

Granddad's 100th Birthday

December 2nd was my Great Granddad's 100th birthday.

Even though he's a hundred he still feeds the dog everyday and drives his golf cart to get the mail.

  We had a party for him on the 3rd.

My Uncle David and his family.

Granddad and his two sons.

Granddad with three of his grandkids.  Mom is pretending to have her arm around Aunt Carole, who couldn't be there:)

And their spouses.

Four generations.

Grandma and Grandpa Rogers

We spent a couple weeks in North Carolina at my Grandma and Grandpa Rogers house.

Grandma was always in the kitchen cooking and Grandpa cooked breakfast for us every morning.

The little kids were having fun dressing up in old wigs.

Grandma and Grandpa's new dog, Maisey, was a very popular dog while we were there.

The cat and her are good friends.

The boys spent a lot of time working on Grandpa's train set and after a few trips to the train store had it running.

Dad and the boys (and our tree climber Anna) spent a lot of time trimming trees.

It was my cousin, Brittany's, birthday while we were there.

She had her birthday party at a roller skating rink, which was a lot of fun.

We spent a night making cookies with our cousins.

Sarah had a lot of fun riding on Grandpa's horses and mules.

Our friends the Warrens came down to visit us while we were there so we saddled up the horses and mules and went for a ride.

How many people does it take to saddle up a horse?

Will had great trouble staying on his horse:)  Long story...