It's that time of year again. Glittery cards and lovely, thoughtful letters on festive paper chronicling the last 12 months. Well, ain't nobody in this house got time for that. The best you're all getting is a blog.
After 12 years in the legion, Rick finally commissioned as a Physician's Assistant--excuse me, I was just corrected, PHYSICIAN Assistant, not possessive--and dragged us all up to Fairbanks. He works long hours treating the booboos and rashes of the common soldier, and takes frequent work-mandated vacations often with little warning. In his spare time he indulges in internet-politics and lock-picking.
I (Carla) somehow maintain my tenuous hold on sanity. Homeschooling four kids, toilet training a toddler, and heimliching an adventurous baby are all really starting to cut into my Netflix time. As if there weren't enough children in my life, I was also called to be the 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency. (For those of you who aren't LDS, that means that I spend my Sundays yelling at other people's children in addition to my own.)
Our Christmas moose
Brenna is in 7th grade. She is sarcastic, pun-loving, helpful, brilliant, kind, responsible, and very proud of her new status as a legal babysitter. Her latest adventures involve crochet, candy-making, and controlling her annoyance at her mother's bad jokes. She's getting a little froggy now that we're almost eye-to-eye, but is generally a good sergeant. This Christmas morning finds her alternating between her new illustrated Fantastical Beasts guide and Great British Bake Off cookbook. I suspect pastry in our future.
Leah is barreling through 4th grade, a bit of a wild thing and a whole lot of clown. She has a natural ear for music and is learning piano; as of this moment she is wandering around with the kids' new ipod, singing showtunes very, very loudly. She has read all of the Percy Jackson and Hiccup series, and is the kid to invite to any impromptu dance party. She does not love the cold, and even after a year here likes to remind us that she would have preferred to move to Puerto Rico.
Aeryn is almost eight and wading through 3rd grade. She's incredibly helpful and the nurturer of the group; she's also the lawyer, perpetually concerned about the fairness--or rather, the unfairness--of all of her parents' decisions. She loves to make things pretty, and is looking forward to being baptized in the spring. She is reveling in her new make-up kit, bought against my better judgment.
Jane is a freaking adorable kindergartener. She is grudgingly learning to read, but loves math, possibly because numbers don't go changing their pronunciation on a whim. She also loves Tae Kwon Do with Leah, even though she's the smallest kid in the class. She is Leah's little shadow, and they rampage after each other all day long.
Echo is 3 and...well, how to describe her... Echo is like some cute wild animal that will let you pet its ears before chewing its way through a window screen and trying to eat your face. Skull surgery to remove a dermoid in November didn't have any personality-altering side effects. She loves to help, and also loves to draw on the walls with soap and markers. She also loves ocean animals, so we think she might grow up to be a marine biologist or veterinarian...or fight sharks. Whatever.
Claudia joined the madness on an icy day in March. From the beginning she's been good tempered. This may just be her temperament, but I suspect it's out of self-preservation. She's crawling now, and incredibly non-discriminating about what she puts in her mouth. Cheerios and dice are firm favorites.
Having other people do your bidding is exhausting.
The cats are as fat as ever. They split their time between the girls' bedroom and a nest of plastic bags in the pantry. They're pretty protective of their private lives, so there's very little I can divulge since signing a non-disclosure agreement.
All in all, Alaska's been good to us. The year was bumpy in places, but we've had great adventures and look forward to those to come. There are so many people we miss, but so many more we've gotten to know and serve and love.
2017 is just about done, and 2018 is on its way whether you're ready or not. We're going to make the best of it and hope that you all will too. Bloom where you are planted. Wait until spring if necessary.
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