Snow Day

Macy and I went out to shovel for a bit, here are the pics from yesterday's blizzard:
Keep in mind I got home around 1:00 yesterday and there was no snow on the truck then. This is 9:00 a.m. today.




Macy wanted to help me shovel while Kylie slept.




And Macy was walking through the path I shoveled, shocked at all of the snow.

And we thought we wouldn't get any use out of my sorels that we bought in February...

Last night Macy insisted that Kylie wear the princess crown. It turns out that Kylie enjoyed feeling like a pretty princess and she wasn't too happy when her sister tried to take it back.
I just thought these were cute.

And check out the Altman's blog. She has pictures of Wednesday and then last night. We got a psychotically large amount of snow. We are supposed to go somewhere today but I don't think we will make it out of the parking lot. So sad for the end of April. Such a bad time to not have a husband around to shovel...

Anniversary part 2

I also wanted to write an "Ode to My Husband" for our anniversary because he is wonderful and people should know what a great husband he is. Here are some examples:

1. He is always the one to clean the toilets and I never have to ask him to. He just does it. I don't think I have cleaned a toilet in years. Isn't that great?
2. He is happy as can be to sit or lay on the ground and let the girls climb and crawl all over him. I personally do not like to be climbed on but he could do it for hours.
3. He is always quick to tell me that I am hot or that I look nice or pretty, etc. I think he uses the term "hot" the most and it makes me smile because he always says it with such enthusiasm and a very big grin.
4. He always takes out the diaper genie as soon as it is full. He takes out the other trash too and never needs to be asked to do so.
5. When he is home and not needing to sleep for an early flight, he usually puts Macy to bed. It is so nice for me to get a break from that when he is around, I really appreciate it. He usually comes out once she is down with stories of cute things she did or said. He is quite smitten with his girls.
6. He never "expects" things from me and understands that things come up with the kids that might interfere with things like cleaning, laundry and cooking. He always appreciates when I get those things accomplished but he never makes me feel like I have failed as a wife or mother if I couldn't get to them.
7. He also always eats what I give him and he never complains. Even if I overcook or mess something up, he finds a way to choke it down and be grateful for it.
8. He really likes to go out and do activities with the family. He likes for us all to go on walks or to some event and he doesn't make the rest of us feel like we are just tagging along. It is an activity for all of us.
9. He is very patient with me and my out-of-shapeness. He encourages me to work up to being more in shape so I will be able to go on bigger hikes with him. He is always positive when we do exercise and I feel bad about myself because I am huffing and puffing after 2 minutes. He knows how to make me feel better about myself when I get down about my shortcomings.
10. He is always willing to apologize when we have a disagreement. While I am often working myself up to say I am sorry he usually comes and does it first.
11. He is very responsible around the house and takes care of things that need to be done. He keeps up the car and other maintenance items. All winter he would go and shovel a path to our car so the kids and I wouldn't have to walk through a foot of snow anytime we wanted to go somewhere.
12. It shocks me how extraordinarily silly and can be with the girls and how long he can keep it up. Sometimes he will start playing with Macy and she will want him to keep doing what he is doing for an eternity and he will often do it until she wares out.
13. He is very responsible with his church calling. He goes to his meetings and makes visits without complaining even though I know there are lots of things he would rather be doing.
14. He will often finish cooking dinner when I get interrupted with diapers or baby feedings he just asks what to do and picks up where I left off. He never complains about this.
15. When Macy has run me ragged and I don't want to deal with her anymore or I am too tired to care if she misbehaves, he will come home and take over with time outs or playing with her to distract her. I love him to the moon and back when he does this.
16. Sometimes he will sing to and dance with me just because he wants me close and wants to have fun. I usually roll my eyes because I am often trying to clean or take care of something at the time but I really love it.

I could go on all day but I should probably clean the house up. I have a fantastic husband! I love you Justin! (although it will probably be a month before you look at the blog again)

Happy Anniversary to us (yesterday)

Yesterday was our fourth wedding anniversary, hurray for us! I got Justin a picture of an old WWII plane flying over the Aleutian Islands by this Alaskan artist that he really likes. James Morris, the artist, does a lot of Alaskan type aviation pictures. The military commissions him to do these as presents and awards for people who are retiring or returning from deployment. I got one of the last few copies of this one, which I thought was pretty cool. He is working on a C-46 (Justin's new plane) picture for Everts right now and when that comes out we will have to get one for Justin.
Justin surprised me with Various Kitchen items that I had been wanting for a while (meat thermometer, souffle dishes, spatulas...) and some roses. Yeah, he rocks my world. :)
Last night Carmin came to brave my cold inflicted children and watched both of them (by herself) while we went out to eat. I was nervous because Macy had been very crabby all day and Kylie is super clingy to me but Carmin never ceases to amaze me. When we returned home, both kids were in pajamas, ready for bed and happy as can be. We really appreciated her help so we could have a real date. Now about that date...
Kara had recommended Simon & Seafort for dinner which is this very nice downtown restaurant that overlooks the Cook Inlet. She also provided us with a $20 gift card that she had received in the mail and swore she wouldn't use. This allowed the extremely pricey menu to become just moderately expensive so we decided to give it a try. It was a very beautiful environment and I loved that we could easily see the ocean from our table and that they had decorated out table with rose petals for our special occasion. We splurged and Justin ordered a Cesar Salad and I got a great Creamy Tomato Basil soup to start. Justin then got a pretty large and very tasty Prime Rib and I ordered a Petite Sirloin. What should have been a medium well stake was actually more of a burnt jerky flavored hockey puck. The server quickly took it back and brought me a replacement. This one was still not medium well by any means but it was delicious anyway and totally melted in my mouth. The server noticed that it was still overcooked (although I really didn't mind because it was wonderful) and she took it off of our bill. Sweet. We decided to order desert because my $30 steak didn't cost us anything and Justin let me pick a chocolate cake that made me want to cry with joy. He is such a great husband to let me indulge my chocolate love when he would have much preferred something light and fruity (but not because he is- he's tough and manly :) hee hee). When we got the bill they hadn't charged us for the desert either so we only had to pay for the soup, salad and Justin's prime rib. We felt kind of bad because it was still so delicious but the server assured us it wasn't a problem. So after our gift card the credit card slip read a whopping $24. We both laughed because we were stunned that what would have been close to a $100 meal only ran us 44 after tip. We totally scored last night and it was awesome.
I dropped Justin off at the airport last night at 1 (it was supposed to be 12:30 but we didn't wake up to his alarm, oops) so he could go to Utah for graduation. We look forward to seeing him when he gets back!
And here is Macy in her new sunglasses posing like a little supermodel. She actually prefers to where them up on her head like her mother does. She's a sweetheart!

Best pictures ever

We worked hard to stay busy while Justin was off for 6 days for flight training and we ended up having a lot of fun. The nicer weather helped us to survive also. Anyway, I thought that I needed to show off some really fun pictures from our action packed week.


On Wednesday Debbie was wonderful and watched Macy for me so I could go to the Chocolate Lounge with Carmen and Kara for Kara's birthday. It was a little boutique type place that served fancy chocolate truffels and "drinkable chocolate." It was an incredibly enojable experience. The first picture is Carmen holding Kylie after I gave her her first taste of the drinking chocolate. I think she was a fan.

I also think that she became upset when She didn't get anymore, her selfish mother finished it before she could have seconds. You can't blame me though. It was like drinking chocolate fondu. The truffles were very exotic. There was a blueberry chocolate one with a dried anchovy on top. A little crazy but delicious once the little fish was removed.


Due to the long, cold and very dark winter I have become an outdoor junkie. We go outside whenever possible. We went to the zoo again on Friday with my cousins, the Wrights, because Jeremy and Jaime were in town visiting. I had bought a jogging stroller off of craiglslist the day before and it was exciting to get to try it out. It worked so much better that my duo glider for outdoor activities. I highly recommend getting one if you are one of those multi -little children families. Macy wanted Randy to carry her around most of the time. I think she missed having a guy around to play with but fortunately I don't think randy minded too much because he seemed to be having as much fun throwing her around as she was having being tossed. Here they are as Randy helped Macy to get over her fear from Monday of the sea otter.

Kylie was a little trooper and just hung out in the stroller, happy to get pushed around outside.

Macy was pretty excited to have her dad come home on Saturday night. I was too, It's amazing the difference an extra set of hands a few hours a day can make for my sanity. Plus, I really like my husband. He can be very entertaining :). His energy, jump roping with a toy snake, funny voices and enthusiasm with the kids has had us laughing a lot since he returned. He did really well in his class, scoring the highest grade on the test out of the other trainees. Yeah, my husband is a rock star pilot. :) He can't wait to finally get the hands on training part going so he can actually fly.

On Sunday Macy informed us that she had to go Potty. We rushed her onto her Elmo potty seat, hoping that she would stun and amaze us and figure out what she was supposed to do. She never went but we got some really funny pictures of her contemplating the wonders of the universe.

Kylie had her six month doctor's appointment this morning (almost 2 months late- I am a neglectful mom, I know) and she weighs 18 lbs 13 oz. She is a chunk but that is only around the 50th percentile so she really isn't all that big. I am just used to Macy who was in the 2nd% since she was born. Kylie also has to get her plugged tear duct fixed, which I am not excited about. Something about putting a baby under with anesthesia is just a little worrisome to me. I will be calling the specialist soon and will let you know when the fun day for the procedure will be here.

That's all for now. Enjoy spring, where ever you are!

More Animals

In order to survive a week with Justin away, we have to keep busy. Fortunately, Kara has invited the kids and me to several activities for the week. The first was yesterday's trip to the zoo with her 2 year old Bentley, twin 9 month olds and her two cousins with their little ones. It went surprisingly well. The three toddlers loved running all over the trails to see all of the animals. Of course Macy again favored the Moose, but she enjoyed most of the others as well. She also insisted on eating as many of the twin's Nilla Wafers as she could manage to shove in her mouth (Have I mentioned that she is finally eating and gaining weight?) and she stayed happy as long as she was eating some.



I am not sure what the kids found so interesting on the ground.









Finally, a Macy- Musk Ox picture.










And here is a picture of Macy and Bentley as the watched a pack of wolves "play" with their food- they didn't need to know they were fighting over a side of moose that had recently been thrown in. Macy would have been devastated.
Kylie was a little angel and slept in the stroller the entire time. Macy did very well to, She did get the scare of her life, however, when she ran up to a window that allowed us to see underwater. Right as she got there a sea otter popped its head up and swam around 4 inches from her face- she screamed in absolute horror. It was pretty amusing for the adults to see the kids get excited/ frightened by the animals. We never knew which reaction we would get.

And here is one last picture. Macy decided to bring my shoes out and line them up in the living room yesterday while I was getting us ready to go. I got a kick out of her love of shoes.

We had lots of fun! Thanks, Kara for inviting us!

Bad News- Good News and three baby bears

So the bad news first: Justin is going to be gone all of next week. This is a very sad thing to have sprung on us with such little notice. However, the good news makes up for it. He is now a first officer on the C-46 planes at his work. We have eagerly anticipating an upgrade from Flight Engineer since we moved here and he finally has it. He will actually get to fly now and he is extremely excited. Career-wise this is a very good thing because this is multi-engine flight time which will allow him to get a much better job down the road. We will also have the option of staying with this company or going to another in Alaska if we want, which is a good thing because the industry is kind of struggling right now. Here is a picture of the plane he will be flying. I think this one is named "Maid in Japan." There is also "Dumbo" and "Salmon Ella" with nose art of a mermaid salmon named Ella (one of my favorites). These planes are just as greasy as the DC-6 he was in but instead of being built just after WW II this one flew in WWII. So I am not thrilled that my husband flies antique airplanes but the FAA says they can still fly so they must be okay?

Justin didn't have to work yesterday so we decided to go out and play. I was happy when we returned from our trip outside to see that the snow had all melted. Unfortunately we have received almost two feet of snow since then. Apparently this is the snowiest April in 25 years. Lucky us...
We decided to drive 45 minutes south and go the the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. They take in wounded and orphaned animals and help them to recover. We were able to walk right up to the fences and see moose, elk, deer, bison, a coyote, muskox, a great horned owl and more. We saw the moose first and when we would go see other animals Macy just wanted to go back and see the moose. He was definitely her favorite except for when he scared her pants off when he sneezed. Fow some reason she really did not like the elk or the deer. I don't know what was so terrifying about them since they barely moved but there is little I understand about Macy's wild little mind. We also saw three very playful bear cubs and Macy wanted to run over and wrestle with them- she had no concept of the fact that they could devour her in two bites.

We had a very good time and it was totally worth the beautiful drive down there. We got the call about Justin's job as we drove back. I devided we need to celebrate so my wonderful Cousin Randy and his friend Debbie agreed to babysit the kids so Justin and I could go out. We went to Humpy's downtown because we had been told from several people how good it was. We went in and sat down only to get carded because apparently it was a bar that served food not a restaurant that served alcohol. Silly us. Well in my excitement at not needing to take a bag full of diapers, toys, wipes, etc. with us I decided not to bring my wallet. Yeah, I got us kicked out. I felt pretty dumb and really bad because I think Justin was excited to eat there. We ended up at a restaurant across the street that was a bit more pricey but very good. It was a nice date and thanks again to Randy and Debbie for watching the kids!!
One last picture of Macy helping Daddy to shovel the parking lot the other day. Happy Mid-April!

Convertable car seat

We are probably going to be buying a convertible car seat in the next couple of months for Kylie and I wanted some input from people on what they have used and what they thought of them. I had been planning on going with the Cosco/Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite but now I am not so sure. Any of you mothers or grandmothers out there want to give any advice?
thanks!

Pig Tales!

For several days I have been wondering if it was possible and it turns out, it is! Macy got pig tales for the first time today! They are so cute I don't know what to do. I am just hoping that she keeps them in until Justin gets home from work so I can show him! I had to bribe her with chocolate to get her to hold still long enough. What do you think?

Blog Counter

Yesterday I decided to put a Counter on my blog. I was apprehensive at first and thought that it would only go to show me that I am the only one who ever reads what I write but today I was happy to see that it had gone up a fair amount from yesterday. I at least now know that someone somewhere out there is reading this. Lets just hope it isn't some random pervert stalking my family by reading my blog...Hmm, maybe I should make this a private page.

On another note, Macy has been saying "okay" a lot lately and I think it is really funny. I went to the store this morning and when I got back Justin told me that she had been sitting Kylie's dolls down on the floor and having a "conversation" with them which ended with an enthusiastic "okay!" She then put the babies into the booster chair so she could feed them. Apparently she had been asking the dolls if they wanted to eat lunch, and I guess they did.

Here is an adorable picture of my Kylie. I was particularly impressed with how she crossed her legs for the picture so that it would not be too scandalous to post. Seriously, how cute is she?

I would also like to take a minute to celebrate the end of the Hollywood Writer's strike and the beginning of new episodes of my favorite shows. I kicked of my celebration with a new episode of "Criminal Minds" last night. It was wonderful in every sense of the word. It allows me to live out what my life would have been had I not chosen to be a mother. There are many many professions I would have loved to have gone into (including but not limited to a doctor, a lawyer, an actress for local theater- not many people know about that one, a therapist and so on) but the one that definately tops my list would be working as an FBI profiler. Justin think I am deranged for enjoying the "Silence of the Lambs" books and movies so much but I just want to be Clarice and work with real psychotic serial killers. If you share this interest I highly recommend the book My Life Among the Serial Killers by Helen Morrison. Its gloriously creepy.
Anyway, I am very eagerly anticipating the return of Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, House and The Office. They complete me :)

One last thought before I get Macy out of her crib; what is it with toy manufacturers that they don't put on/off switches or volume buttons on noisy toys? I finally took the batteries out of Macy's car because every time Kylie would fall asleep Macy was drive on by, blasting the horn and blaring the music. It's similar to this one here. I think I will giver her the batteries back once Kylie and I are both sleeping again at night. Until then, I need to make the most of naptime.

And here is a cute picture of Macy and Ellie playing in some buckets at Grandma and Grandpa Smiths. Hope it makes you smile!

And we're back!

Its obviously been a while since any posts, partially because we were gone for a month and I didn't feel like I had time to sit and blog, and partially because I haven't had a chance to think since we got home. Kylie and Macy have both had colds and Kylie decided that the whole sleeping through the night thing was very overrated. She now wakes up 4-5 times a night leaving me very irritable and sleep deprived the next day. So, as a result, I have been holding whining kids for the last week when all I really want is someone to hold me so I can sleep :). I definitely miss all of the extra help I had while we were "outside" (the Alaskan term for anywhere outside of Alaska). Here are some highlights of our month long trip:
-Macy says a lot of words and she usually only signs for emphasis. One day i was trying desperately to understand what she was trying to say when she looked at me and did a sign as if to say "I am saying 'bus.' How much clearer do I have to be???"
-Kylie can now roll over although her chunkiness often gets in the way and she gets stuck on her side.
-Macy not only slept on both planes rides but she fell asleep in her stroller three times. I was completely shocked that my child who will only sleep locked up in her room with no distractions, actually fell asleep at the mall. Maybe she is learning to be a more laid back child.
-Macy had her first Haircut. The ringlets in back were getting to be too mulletish so I had Heather fix it. Unfortunately, people then all thought that she was a boy.
-Several weeks later Macy then had her first ponytail on top of her head. She saw her cousin getting her hair done and pointed to her head and said "Tayla." So now she gets a ponytail like Tayla everyday and she loves being told how pretty it makes her.
-I am sure she lost weight because with everything going on Macy refused to eat for almost the entire month. I think she survived off of Froot Loops from G.G. and ice cream from grandpa. One night, in an effort to not go to bed, she ate all of Grandpa Rod's vegetables from his dinner. each time she would stop we told her it was time for bed and then she would ask for more. We let her get away with manipulating us because we were manipulating her right back in order to get her to eat some veggies.
-Thanks to Grandma Brenda, the girls both now have cute new wardrobes. Lots and lots of shopping went on on that trip. I also used up the rest of my birthday money and I should win some great prize because I had a very large amount of cute clothing for a limited amount of money. We have forever 21 and the Park city outlet mall to thanks for that one.
-Macy enjoyed her first great Easter Egg hunt and visit with the Easter Bunny. She was a natural at picking up the eggs and going for the candy. The picture with the pink dresses shows one of their multiple Easter dresses.
-The girls loved playing with all of their new friends including Ellie, Cody, Tayla, Owen and Bella. The day after she played with a friend she would walking around the house asking "Ellie go?"
-Ashley's wedding was a lot of fun. The girls were very cute in their Flower girl dresses And Macy learned about the world of chocolate by eating scores of red and white M&M's from the tables at each reception.
_Macys says Grandpa really well but she either signs Grandma or yells Mama. For a while she was calling both Grandma's "Mommy" which made for some nice confusion.


Well, I better shower while Kylie is asleep. I am sure I will think of more things about our trip alter that I will want to add. It was great seeing everyone that we did! We felt bad that we couldn't see more people or spend more time with friends while we were there. Between the wedding, receptions, trying to get our house ready and re-rented and Justin taking his final for his last college class, we were swamped. It was a great trip but definitely not a vacation!