Kylie Bug Turns ONE!!!

Although Kylie's birthday is tomorrow, we had a little party for her today. My friend Carmin was nice enough to come over last night and this morning to help teach me about cake decorating so we could make these cakes. It think they turned out pretty dang cute, how about you?



Kylie enjoyed opening her fun presents- whenever Macy would allow her to touch them. And she also loved eating her cake. Macy was a bit timid to dive into her first birthday cake, but not Kylie. She was in pure heaven. I will have to put the video up some time because she was such a doll. She knew she was being funny so she kept playing it up. She regularly would look up and grin to then face plant into the top of the cake and suck on the frosting. I definately believe that every one year old needs a three tier birthday cake. Thanks to Kara for the idea and for letting me borrow her pans!!!


This last picture of her so great with her looking stuffed and gloriously glutenous. She is quite the little sweetheart and we are so happy she is in our lives!

And serious props to Macy for being s good girl through all of this. Mostly. It was so hard for her to have to wait since yesterday to eat this cake, although she had more than enough frosting to make up for it. She also helped me wrap the presents when she just wanted to play with the toys so badly.

State Fair

Today I learned that there is nothing so wonderfully hickish as the Alaska State Fair held in charming Palmer, Alaska. We loaded up the kids, planning that they would sleep during the hour drive- they didn't- and drove up to enjoy a day at the fair. We walked around, checked out the vendors, ate extremely overpriced but incredibly delicious fair food, watched a lumberjack show, viewed the livestock and visited the petting zoo. Overall we had a good time but it would have been much better if Macy had slept in the car. Instead we had a tired, crabby two year old who refused to let me tie her balloon around her wrist and then screamed when it floated away. She did enjoy the livestock displays and she loved loved loved the petting zoo. I made Justin take her in because I am just not an animal person and you weren't going to catch me feeding goats and pigs out of my hand and touching them. My choice was confirmed later when a goat sneezed on Justin and got snot all over his pants. Thank heavens for the handwashing stations just out side the petting zoo.

Macy was happy as a clam to get to play with the animals and here are some great pictures from our day:

Te Amo, Freecycle

So I love love love freecycle. My friend, Kara, introduced me to it and I have become totally addicted. It is a yahoo group for the area where people give away free things to other people- just things they don't want or need anymore that they think others could get good use out of. My newest possession from this week was a sit and spin for the girls. All I had to do was go pick it up, scrub it down and we had a new toy that Macy was dying to play with. In this video she had just awoken from her nap and could not wait to play on it with Kylie.


Other spoils of the freecycle world:
A rain suit for Justin, two smokers for smoking fish or whatever, numerous toys and plastic drawers for kids stuff, clothes for the girls, shoes for Macy and this sit and spin. Don't even get me started with the free items I have claimed off of cragslist...

Finally... Blueberries!!!

Since we arrived in Alaska last October I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of berry picking season. What could be better than millions of free berries at our disposal??? Well, this summer was somewhat of a bust. With the cold and cloudy weather the berries have been taking longer than expected to make their appearance. We went on a hike with randy and Deb last week and lo and behold, we found a gazillon crow berries with blueberry bushes near by. I learned that where crow berries are, blueberries are usually close. Crow berries are eatable even though they are not nearly as delicious as blueberries. Unfortunately, only the occasional blueberry was ripe enough to eat but that didn't stop Macy. She loved picking the crowberries and blueberries and eating them like crazy. Randy tried to help her find the riper berries but Macy was content with the green ones.

We had great fun on our hike and the pure joy I felt at getting to finally get some blueberries will last me for a week! Plus, if you haven't figured it out by now, Alaska is the most beautiful place on Earth. Sorry Mom and Dad, we may never move back :)

Read this!!!

Hey all! Go here and read this blog so I don't have to do it twice:

All about Brie

I want everyone to know about this very inspirational and great gal!

Sunday Morning Shenanigans

K-Dawg Cruisin!

She's not too far off from walking on her own.
She is quite the doll. And here is our messy, but almost clean living room.

Why Macy Hasn't Been Sold to the Eskimos... yet

It is no secret to anyone who has spent any time with Macy that she has a ..."spicy" personality. I love my daughter but sometimes I think about sending her back from where she came from. She can be very opinionated and have a very shocking temper but for as difficult she can be, she can also be 10 times as funny and cute. Here is a list of why Macy is great. I may need this list to look back on when I am pulling my hair out again one day.

1. Her belly laugh is about the cutest giggle I have ever heard.
2. When I asked her what she wanted to do tomorrow she said she wanted to "Make cookies for Daddy." When I asked what else she wanted to do she replied with "Go to big park and make treat and surprise for Daddy."
3. After she used the potty tonight she applauded herself and reminded me that she should get a marshmallow. I went after her and she loudly cheered "Good girl Mommy! Mommy marshmallow too!"
4. Whenever Justin uses the bathroom anymore she will run in to inspect and be sure he went and then cheer "Good Girl, Daddy! Daddy pee in potty!"
5. Whenever she wants me to sing to her at night she almost always picks "I am a Child of God."
6. She regularly responds to our professions of love for her with "I love you too!"
7. She loves teaching Kylie to sign and she regularly walks up to Kylie and signs something and then tries to get Kylie to do it with her hands.
8. She is such a good "mommy." She could spend all day taking each individual baby (half a dozen) that she has and wrapping them up, dressing and undressing them, feeding them in the highchair and putting them to bed- she is always sure to burp them after they eat. She is especially funny when she tells them "Play more in morning," "Eat cereal in morning," or "I love you Baby. Night-night" as she puts them to sleep. These are all phrases she hears nightly when she goes to sleep.
9. Whenever I give her a treat she now has to take it over to her play kitchen and "cook" it before she will eat it.
10. Her new favorite thing to do with me is to bake. Her favorites are muffins, cookies, cakes or any other "treat for Daddy," even though her and I usually eat most of our creation before he gets a chance to try it.
11. If Mac gets an "owie " she can go from screaming in hysterical tears to being completely fine with just a little kiss. If she were to bonk her head she would start crying and say "Kiss head better!" at which point we would kiss it , stopping all tears resulting in a smile and her saying "Head all better!"

I will work on thinking of more but Women's gymnastics is beckoning me!



*A final note for Kylie- when an airplane flew over us today she signed "airplane." No, this was not a fluke, she signed it every time one flew by. I am amazed with how well she is picking up signing now!

"Roomies"

We finally decided to make the leap and to get the girls sleeping in the same room. Why we decided to start this the very night Justin left town for three days, I am not sure but start we did (I think it was part of his plan to get out of the stressful, sleepless nights). And for that, I deserve a gold medal. Its been rough and stressful. I have been sleep deprived and my house is still a wreck with unpacking, organizing and laundry neglected but I come before you today to announce that I have done it. Today's naps and tonight's bedtime went very smoothly with me only having to go in once to get Macy back into bed. I am very happy and excited that we will have a room and two twin beds available for both sets of grandparents as the come to visit in September. They may feel that they are stuck in a sitcom from 1957 but I am sure they will prefer twin beds to an air mattress in the living room.

The upcoming visitors can thank me later. And Justin can take the kids all day when he returns so I can take a hot bath and get some rest!

The Funniest News Story EVER!!!

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=3973416

I laughed and laughed when I read this! Be sure to read the comments!!!

When Dad's in Charge...

I told Justin to watch Kylie while I helped Macy with something and when I came back, this is what I saw:

Actually, when I found her she was standing up outside against the sliding glass door looking in at me grinning with dirt all over her feet, pants, hands and mouth. Justin didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with letting her crawl around on the deck just after a big rain storm. I just didn't want her crawling around on our new carpet with mud all over her after she finished playing with Dad.

And when I came back from putting Kylie to bed I found Justin and Macy having a little sing along. I don't know which one of them was cuter singing this song.

I am glad I have such a great family and that Justin is such a good father!

Kylie Close up

Here is the promised picture of Kylie. Her tube thing isn't too bad but it is definately noticeable. I haven't gone out much so I have had only a few "What is wrong with her face???" questions.

She is getting so big and becoming a little girl. She now signs eat, drink, more and all done. She has figured out how to fold her arms when we pray and she loves to climb up on all of the boxes and clutter we currently have around our house. Sometime I swear she is saying "Mama," but that could just be wishful thinking. ;)

I guess I hadn't really told many people that we were moving. We decided that Justin and I had been spoiled by getting into a townhouse when we were first married. That whole apartment thing was not working out for us, even though it was just a fourplex. We were tired of late night parties above us, wild children who threw balls around our cars kitty corner from us and drunk naked native ladies break car windows at 4 a.m. next door. Yes, we had fun times on O'Brien St. with the moose and heavily wooded area but we have moved on to a side by side duplex with just a single lady next door. We have a large yard to ourselves, more storage space, forced air and we live in a much nicer neighborhood (not a trailer park within walking distance). we are only two miles from the airport and we also live very close to the coastal trail. We walked with the kids over their yesterday and then walked along the coast for a little ways. This is such a beautiful part of town and I love being so close to the ocean. This house is much older and not as well taken care of but it feels much more like a home and we are glad to have moved here.


And that blog that I had mentioned is somewhat up and running although it still needs a lot of time and attention to be made into much. Feel free to post what you want as a comment and to "read along" with the book club.

Moving, moving, moving

I should be cleaning and unpacking now but I am burned out. My house is still a wreck and I am out of energy.

Our new place is good. I like it a lot better than our old one even though this one is much older and was pretty filthy when we moved in- seriously, our feet were all black. Who rents a house out when it is dirty???

And apparently I am the only female on the planet not reading that new Twilight book. I hear from several of your blogs it is good but disappointing??? I tried reading the first one and couldn't get into it- Oddly enough it wasn't the vampire thing that turned me off but the whole teenage love story thing kind of killed it for me. Are the books truly good enough that I ought to give them a second chance? Lover and haters, enlighten me please...

I am currently reading Life of Pi for the book group I started. I am creating a new blog for the book group and others who want to discuss the books we read for it or other non mom related things (we could all use a break from the "mom roll" now and again, couldn't we? This blog shall be revealed soon (that is, whenever my house is no longer a total disaster and I am ready to put some time into making it presentable).

Day Camping

While I was at the hospital with Kylie, Randy called and invited us to come up to Eklutna Lake because his family was going to be camping there for a few days. It was only 45 minutes away so we decided to head up. We really enjoyed being up the the mountains and out away from the city. About an hour before we had gotten there a black bear walked through the camp while Randy was changing his clothes. ( I love the image of Randy standing there in his underwear, reaching for his camera, hoping no one walks by and sees him) I would have liked to have seen it but it probably would have scared me to death, even though we know they are there watching us and waiting for us to leave. We went on a walk later and when we got back the bear had slashed a few boxes, gotten the garbage, thrown out the diaper that was in there and then taken the rest away.
We had a really fun time going on walks, skipping rocks in the lake, eating s'mores and playing. Macy was in heaven running around like a crazy girl. She definately seems to be in her element when we take he out to play.
*Warning, this next section may contain TMI about Macy's potty training so proceed with caution, However, it was hilarious.
Justin tried taken Macy to the bathroom in the outhouse but as soon as she walked in she turned and ran out saying she didn't have to go. When he got back to the camp she old him that she had to go again so he decided she would learn to pee in the woods- and learn she did. She was so thrilled to have done it the first time that she then went about 15 more times the entire day we were there. We went on a 3 mile walk and on the way back she had to go about every five minutes. The hilarious part is that she actually went every time (apparently she had had way too much to drink) and she was so proud of herself. She would clap and say "Yay! Macy pee on grass!" or ""Yay! Macy pee on rocks!" I ran out of wipes because I hadn't planned for my daughter to pee like a pregnant lady so I started using leaves and when ever I would she would exclaim "Ooo! Soft!" Randy said this didn't speak well for the quality of toilet paper we must keep at our house. :)
She was pretty entertaining on this trip and we had a very fun day.

Surgery Day for Kylie

Thursday morning I got up at the crack of dawn (which is especially early in Anchorage) and took Kylie to the hospital to get her plugged tear duct fixed. Although the procedure is not really a big deal I was a bit anxious just because I wasn't thrilled about my 11 month old "going under" for such a little thing. This simple procedure was supposed to be a quick in and out thing but it ended up taking much longer because the doctors were running behind and there also seems to be some funky stuff going on with the inside of Kylie's nose. They were only supposed to have her for about 30 minutes and when I checked and it had been 45 I was starting to worry. The doctor came out soon and said it went well but that it never would have cleared up on its own because of how her tear duct was shaped so I guess it is good that we had it taken care of. As the nurse took me back to her she told me that Kylie was awake and angry. I felt bad because I had wanted to be there when she woke up but apparently she awakened quickly and with her being hungry and feeling out of sorts she was not a happy camper. When I got to her the nurse was giving her a bottle to calm her down but when that ran out she became very upset again. She looked terrible because she was crying bloody tears and had a little blood draining out her nose along with purple marker on her forehead where the doctor had written on her. My poor screaming girl was such a pitiful sight to see. When she wouldn't calm down they gave her some Fentanyl which knocked her out. We cuddled while she slept for a while and when she woke up the next time she was her regular happy self. She now has a small silicone tube running through both tear ducts and down out her nose and over the bridge of her nose between her eyes. It doesn't bother her but she looks a little silly and will have to keep it in for the next 4 weeks. Apparently this is the best way to take care of this problem so we won't risk it re-clogging and then when it is time to take it out we just snip between her eyes and pull it out her nose. Sound a little gross but its much better than putting her back under to get it out later.

This picture was taken later in the day and you can't really see the tube. I will put a close up on here later. I am glad my little sweetheart is happy and healthy now!