The Alaska Haws Family
November 26, 2012
On Thursday Haley and Kayla were excited that they were able to finally put up the Christmas tree. They have already wrapped some presents from their toy box to put under it. Later that day we enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner at the church with members of the ward. On Friday on our way out to do some shopping we saw a moose in front of a neighbor's garage. It was crazy! Andy of course wished that he was able to shoot his guns on post, because that would have been a perfect shot (for those of you who may not know it is legal to shoot moose in Alaska, just not on post). About 3:00 am Saturday morning I was able to see the Northern Lights again. This time they were a lot brighter and more active. We can tell from week to week that our days have been getting shorter. Saturday the sun did not rise until 10:03 am and sat at 3:12 pm. We will be losing 6 minutes of sunlight a day until December 21 when we will have less than 3 hours of sunlight, but then we will start gaining 6 minutes a day. With not having as much sun it is a lot easier to sleep in. Kayla gave a talk in primary on Sunday about being a missionary now. I also received a calling in church to be a Young Woman advisor for the 14 and 15 year olds. I have not been in Young Women’s since I was a teenager, so I hope that I can be a good example to the girls I will be teaching as my Young Women teachers were to me. I am guessing that Andy will be getting a calling soon because they don’t keep you on the sidelines very long at church.
November 12, 2012
These past few weeks have been a little crazy between the girls going to different Halloween parties, gymnastics, and sledding. I also took Haley and Kayla to the eye doctor and to our surprise Kayla needed glasses! So now she is looking just as stylish as Haley is in her new eyewear. The best part of last week was having Andy arrive here safely. It only took him four days to drive from Fort Lee, VA to Fort Wainwright, AK. Of course if the girls and I were with him it would have taken two weeks. I should be starting work at the elementary school soon, but only while Haley and Kayla are in school. On Saturday Haley pulled out her top tooth by herself. Now that her tooth is missing she reminds me of Ellie off of the movie “Up” because of her missing tooth and also she keeps saying “You don’t talk much…I like you!” It has been a little chilly last week with the weather being in the negative 20’s, but we seem to get use to it.
The Pennsylvania Haws family
My apologies for always being behind. We have been very busy over the last several weeks since arriving in the US and I think that everything is progressing well.
The boys are in school and participating in the ESL programs. A major challenge for them is that the ESL programs provide a significant emphasis on Spanish speaking language learners. Of course the number of Spanish speaking immigrants is higher than Portuguese speakers so it makes sense but it provides only a second challenge for the boys as they must learn Spanish to better understand their English classes.
Derick finds the USA to be amazing and loves it. His favorite place is the Disney store at the mall and Renata fully supports visiting as she loves all of the dolls and stuffed animals. He is doing well in school and is possible a little advanced in math over his peers which is good as it will let him focus on English and reading a bit more.
Lucas has been doing well though he misses soccer. We have tried to contact different soccer coaches for club soccer in the area but have not received responses back. School has been going well and he has been learning English very quickly.
Felipe has had a tougher time at school. While Lucas is in 8th grade and gets to go to Middle School Felipe is in 9th and is in High School. There is quite a jump in expected responsibility between High School and Middle School and Felipe has been a bit more lost. To make things worse he Felipe did not have a math teacher at his school in Brazil for the last year and a half so he is behind on his math as well as his English. On a positive note, P.E. is swimming in an indoor pool and he is getting great swimming points. I have tried to see if he would like to participate on the swim team but have not gotten a response yet.
Renata is doing well. Sometimes she feels a little locked in and is trying to find things to do. She has been walking down to meet Felipe at school every day and they walk back together. I think that has been very special for both of them. Being the oldest often Felipe gets less attention and some one on one time is great.
We have ordered a replacement cable for our camera and I hope to send some pictures up in the next couple of days. We visited NYC a couple of weeks ago and have some fun pictures from that trip plus some others that would be fun to share.
Love
Jeff
The Wisconsin Haws Family
In the last couple of weeks we have enjoyed some wonderful days. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day with Julie, Jeff, Alex, Grant, Lanette, Logan, Mom and me. We enjoyed great food and time together. Later that day and for several days thereafter we delivered Thanksgiving dinners to wonderful people in our area. They were some of our favorites including Dave Drabek, Milda Atwood, Lueva McCrite and Joan McSweeney. We always come up the being uplifted by our friends.
During the last several weeks we have enjoyed time with Julie and Jeff. It is fun to see Alex walking around and chasing Molly. We look forward to the upcoming visits of Henry, Stacie and Kevin and the much hoped for visits of Jeff, Renata, Felipe, Lucas and Derick.
We have set out the Christmas lights and Grant has decorated the home interiors with a wonderful glowing Christmas spirit.
Lately we have enjoyed watching Logan play basketball with the Columbus Dons. I missed the big play but he recently shot a three pointer. It must have been great.
Lanette has been busy with school and attending Tiny Tigers. Right now the big distress, her Victor (recorder) is on the blink. She hopes to have it repaired before the Christmas holidays.
Thanks to those that have submitted their paragraph 2012 update. I hope to compose a Christmas newsletter to send out to our friends.
