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Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
CELEBRATION!!!!
Birthdays are great! I love January 27th so much! I'm having an awesome 33rd birthday and still have 7 hours to go. Off to the Moose's Tooth to celebrate!
This is my co-worker, Todd. I heard he does a great birthday dance/song on your birthday. I was not let down.
This is my co-worker, Todd. I heard he does a great birthday dance/song on your birthday. I was not let down.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Back to normal...well, kinda
Root canal...complete.
Carpet...installed.
Dishwasher...repaired.
Trip to Kansas...over.
New TV...GLORIOUS!
So like I said last time, life around here has been hectic. Last week we were juggling night shifts and babies while trying to get the house ready to be re carpeted. It all went pretty good considering the circumstances.
The root canal was surprisingly not nearly as painful as I was expecting. The procedure itself went by pretty fast and the following days were helped along with some strong pain killers. I'm almost back to feeling normal...still the occasional pain when I bite down.
The new carpet looks GREAT! Well worth it. This was something we've been wanting to do since we moved in. When we bought the house, we put every bit of extra cash we had into the down payment and didn't want to put 5K on a credit card for new carpet. Well finally after a little help from Governor Palin and the girls PFD checks, we decided it was finally time to treat our feet to some new carpet. I won't go into the whole story, but the guys from Lowes (while very entertaining and very good at what they did) were painfully slow to arrive both Friday and Saturday. Initially, it was going to be done by Saturday afternoon. Since they didn't show up until almost 2pm on Friday, they backed that estimate back to MONDAY!! After I pleaded my case about our situation with the babes, they agreed to come early Saturday and finish the job. They were again late by 2 hours on Saturday but stayed until it was done...almost 9pm!! Lisa and the girls stayed next door so besides being exhausted, they did great.
What few things still remained upstairs piled in the living room while they worked on the bedrooms.
Here's George ripping up our old carpet padding.
The 'after' pictures in a minute.
We had quite the change of weather last week. From bitter cold to record breaking warm. If you're wondering how warm it has to get in mid January to be break records...the answer is mid to upper 40s. Yep...we even reach 50 degrees one day. That's ABSURD!! These next few pictures were taken during the warm up. We had lots of rain which in the middle of a cold Anchorage winter will result in very slippery roads. They actually cancelled school for 3 days last week because of the warm weather. It's funny to think that the kids here have to pray for rain to get out of school but it's true.
I tried to take a picture of the orange rainbow but missed it. You can barely see what's left of it on the left. It was so cool...there was so much orange coming from the sunset that you couldn't even see the colors of the rainbow. It all looked orange.
Here's a shot of how bad the roads were in the neighborhood.
How bout some cute baby pictures?! These are shirts that my M&D got the girls for Christmas. They are hilarious! You'll have to click on one of them to read what they say.
Oh...and that's Alyssa's attempt at a smile.
Finally...the new toys!! In addition to the carpet, we decided to upgrade our entertainment center. The Samsung arrived before I left so one of the first things I did when I got home was hook that bad boy up. It is GORGEOUS! Here's a picture of the new carpet and the new tv.
I couldn't hide my excitement when we got the tv. I was giddy. Real giddy. So Lisa took a picture to capture my giddiness.
...and now for the bad news. I brought back a cold from my trip to Kansas. I've been feeling terrible these last couple of days and even though I was as careful as I could be, it seems that I have spread my germs to Lisa and the babes. Alyssa is suffering the most right now and has already woken up once this evening. It could be a difficult couple of days while we all fight through this cold. Yuck.
Carpet...installed.
Dishwasher...repaired.
Trip to Kansas...over.
New TV...GLORIOUS!
So like I said last time, life around here has been hectic. Last week we were juggling night shifts and babies while trying to get the house ready to be re carpeted. It all went pretty good considering the circumstances.
The root canal was surprisingly not nearly as painful as I was expecting. The procedure itself went by pretty fast and the following days were helped along with some strong pain killers. I'm almost back to feeling normal...still the occasional pain when I bite down.
The new carpet looks GREAT! Well worth it. This was something we've been wanting to do since we moved in. When we bought the house, we put every bit of extra cash we had into the down payment and didn't want to put 5K on a credit card for new carpet. Well finally after a little help from Governor Palin and the girls PFD checks, we decided it was finally time to treat our feet to some new carpet. I won't go into the whole story, but the guys from Lowes (while very entertaining and very good at what they did) were painfully slow to arrive both Friday and Saturday. Initially, it was going to be done by Saturday afternoon. Since they didn't show up until almost 2pm on Friday, they backed that estimate back to MONDAY!! After I pleaded my case about our situation with the babes, they agreed to come early Saturday and finish the job. They were again late by 2 hours on Saturday but stayed until it was done...almost 9pm!! Lisa and the girls stayed next door so besides being exhausted, they did great.
What few things still remained upstairs piled in the living room while they worked on the bedrooms.
Here's George ripping up our old carpet padding.
The 'after' pictures in a minute.
We had quite the change of weather last week. From bitter cold to record breaking warm. If you're wondering how warm it has to get in mid January to be break records...the answer is mid to upper 40s. Yep...we even reach 50 degrees one day. That's ABSURD!! These next few pictures were taken during the warm up. We had lots of rain which in the middle of a cold Anchorage winter will result in very slippery roads. They actually cancelled school for 3 days last week because of the warm weather. It's funny to think that the kids here have to pray for rain to get out of school but it's true.
I tried to take a picture of the orange rainbow but missed it. You can barely see what's left of it on the left. It was so cool...there was so much orange coming from the sunset that you couldn't even see the colors of the rainbow. It all looked orange.
Here's a shot of how bad the roads were in the neighborhood.
How bout some cute baby pictures?! These are shirts that my M&D got the girls for Christmas. They are hilarious! You'll have to click on one of them to read what they say.
Oh...and that's Alyssa's attempt at a smile.
Finally...the new toys!! In addition to the carpet, we decided to upgrade our entertainment center. The Samsung arrived before I left so one of the first things I did when I got home was hook that bad boy up. It is GORGEOUS! Here's a picture of the new carpet and the new tv.
I couldn't hide my excitement when we got the tv. I was giddy. Real giddy. So Lisa took a picture to capture my giddiness.
...and now for the bad news. I brought back a cold from my trip to Kansas. I've been feeling terrible these last couple of days and even though I was as careful as I could be, it seems that I have spread my germs to Lisa and the babes. Alyssa is suffering the most right now and has already woken up once this evening. It could be a difficult couple of days while we all fight through this cold. Yuck.
Monday, January 12, 2009
More than a week??!!
Yeah it's been more than a week since my last update. It has been HECTIC around here. This week, we are getting ready for new carpet!! On top of that I'm working night shifts and have a root canal planned for Thursday morning. WEEEEEE!!!
Tons of stories to catch you up on. First, the girls graduated from PIC (Programs for Infants and Children). The speech and physical therapists came by last week and said they are caught up and don't need services anymore. In fact, they even had language skills of 22 to 23 month olds if you included their sign language. It seems like they are doing something new every day. During the therapists visit, Alyssa said "yes" for the first time. A day later, she said "no". I have to admit I wasn't as excited about the "no", but it was cute at the time. We asked if she wanted her blanket and she very calmly said "no". Lisa and I looked at each other like "who is this baby"??
Pictures...I have more stories but I know you just come for the pictures. Here are some new outfits...Lisa said they are Christmas jumpers from her mom.
These next series of photos are a result of being unable to keep up with the girls...or maybe it was cabin fever from all the cold weather. I had a headache and finally gave in and laid down on the couch. Lisa was cleaning up or doing something in the kitchen (did I mention our dishwasher broke last week...something we run EVERY DAY!!). The girls found a basket full of clean laundry and decided they needed to be in that basket and everything thing thas was in it needed to be out. The girls were victorious. All the while, you can see me laying on the couch beside them with a pillow over my head.
Cute pictures of the girls looking at the eagle pictures and video. They LOVE that video of the eagle and are always asking to see it again. In the first picture, Alyssa isn't sleepy...I just caught her mid blink. Click on the second one to see a bigger size...it's a GREAT picture of my girls (all 3 of them).
These last two pics were during bedtime. It was typical shenanigans...this time they wanted to wear their hats and mittens. Okay.
Now...if you EVER need a laugh, come back and watch this video. I don't know how you can watch this and not laugh at Katy shaking her arms. Lisa called me one evening at work frantic trying to figure out how to work the video on the new camera. Slightly annoyed because I was working and it sounded like she was having a great laugh with the girls, I walked her through it. I don't know that I ever admitted that to Lisa but I was in a bad mood and it made it worse to hear how much fun she was having. When I got home that night, the girls were already asleep and I was grabbing a bite to eat when Lisa reminded me that I needed to watch the video. Reluctantly I watched. You'll see that in the first 20 seconds that they just stand there. I had no idea what to expect and then BOOM!!! I laughed so hard I about woke the girls up. I had never seen them do anything remotely close to this dance...it just seems so random and funny.
So enjoy. This is one in a million. Oh, and if you go to the video on youtube, you can click on "watch in high quality" just below and to the right of the video. That way you can make it full screen and it not be so grainy.
Tons of stories to catch you up on. First, the girls graduated from PIC (Programs for Infants and Children). The speech and physical therapists came by last week and said they are caught up and don't need services anymore. In fact, they even had language skills of 22 to 23 month olds if you included their sign language. It seems like they are doing something new every day. During the therapists visit, Alyssa said "yes" for the first time. A day later, she said "no". I have to admit I wasn't as excited about the "no", but it was cute at the time. We asked if she wanted her blanket and she very calmly said "no". Lisa and I looked at each other like "who is this baby"??
Pictures...I have more stories but I know you just come for the pictures. Here are some new outfits...Lisa said they are Christmas jumpers from her mom.
These next series of photos are a result of being unable to keep up with the girls...or maybe it was cabin fever from all the cold weather. I had a headache and finally gave in and laid down on the couch. Lisa was cleaning up or doing something in the kitchen (did I mention our dishwasher broke last week...something we run EVERY DAY!!). The girls found a basket full of clean laundry and decided they needed to be in that basket and everything thing thas was in it needed to be out. The girls were victorious. All the while, you can see me laying on the couch beside them with a pillow over my head.
Cute pictures of the girls looking at the eagle pictures and video. They LOVE that video of the eagle and are always asking to see it again. In the first picture, Alyssa isn't sleepy...I just caught her mid blink. Click on the second one to see a bigger size...it's a GREAT picture of my girls (all 3 of them).
These last two pics were during bedtime. It was typical shenanigans...this time they wanted to wear their hats and mittens. Okay.
Now...if you EVER need a laugh, come back and watch this video. I don't know how you can watch this and not laugh at Katy shaking her arms. Lisa called me one evening at work frantic trying to figure out how to work the video on the new camera. Slightly annoyed because I was working and it sounded like she was having a great laugh with the girls, I walked her through it. I don't know that I ever admitted that to Lisa but I was in a bad mood and it made it worse to hear how much fun she was having. When I got home that night, the girls were already asleep and I was grabbing a bite to eat when Lisa reminded me that I needed to watch the video. Reluctantly I watched. You'll see that in the first 20 seconds that they just stand there. I had no idea what to expect and then BOOM!!! I laughed so hard I about woke the girls up. I had never seen them do anything remotely close to this dance...it just seems so random and funny.
So enjoy. This is one in a million. Oh, and if you go to the video on youtube, you can click on "watch in high quality" just below and to the right of the video. That way you can make it full screen and it not be so grainy.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
catching up with some pictures from 2008
It is still cold. We're on our 7th day straight now of sub-zero temperatures. It is currently -14.8 at 10pm. We got down to -20 again this morning and will probably be in that same ballpark in the morning. BURRRRR!!!!!!
I need to catch up with about 2 weeks of photos before Christmas. I have a couple videos that I need to download too. I'll make that happen in the next couple of days now that I know how to download the D90 videos. Speaking of...if you actually go to youtube and watch the video, you can click on the button that says "watch in high quality" to see a better version. I think the one that is embedded is the lower quality version of the the eagle video.
So the story is...we bought a new plasma tv. It won't be here for another week but we didn't know that at the time. The first step was to move the top half of our beautiful entertainment center downstairs so that the bottom half could serve as the new tv stand. After the movers left (no way I was moving that myself), Lisa put the runner on top and then put a baby or two up there too. It looked like the perfect JC Penny setup so I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures. We got a kick out of it, obviously Katy was not as happy.
I accidentally loaded the full versions of those pictures so if you click on them, you'll see exactly how big the real photos are. Sorry bout that.
I'm not exactly sure of the story here...Lisa was feeding the girls and they decided that they wanted to hold hands so they REACHED over as far as they could. Lisa also said they had a "twin moment" the other day where Katy walked into the bedroom and looked at Alyssa...gave her a face then nodded...and Alyssa nodded back and then followed Katy out to the living room. She said it was pretty freaky.
I know in this one Alyssa is signing "chicken" so maybe they were trying to share their chicken with each other. I'll have Lisa fill in any gaps. Lisa here...actually the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" was playing on the CD player and Katy reached over for Alyssa's hand so they could dance. When the song talked about Old MacDonald having a chicken on the farm, Alyssa showed Katy the sign for chicken. It was TOO cute!
That's all I have for now. The full size photos took a lot longer than I wanted to. I think Lisa is making cookies so gotta go indulge. By the way, it's -15.4 degrees now.
:)
I need to catch up with about 2 weeks of photos before Christmas. I have a couple videos that I need to download too. I'll make that happen in the next couple of days now that I know how to download the D90 videos. Speaking of...if you actually go to youtube and watch the video, you can click on the button that says "watch in high quality" to see a better version. I think the one that is embedded is the lower quality version of the the eagle video.
So the story is...we bought a new plasma tv. It won't be here for another week but we didn't know that at the time. The first step was to move the top half of our beautiful entertainment center downstairs so that the bottom half could serve as the new tv stand. After the movers left (no way I was moving that myself), Lisa put the runner on top and then put a baby or two up there too. It looked like the perfect JC Penny setup so I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures. We got a kick out of it, obviously Katy was not as happy.
I accidentally loaded the full versions of those pictures so if you click on them, you'll see exactly how big the real photos are. Sorry bout that.
I'm not exactly sure of the story here...Lisa was feeding the girls and they decided that they wanted to hold hands so they REACHED over as far as they could. Lisa also said they had a "twin moment" the other day where Katy walked into the bedroom and looked at Alyssa...gave her a face then nodded...and Alyssa nodded back and then followed Katy out to the living room. She said it was pretty freaky.
I know in this one Alyssa is signing "chicken" so maybe they were trying to share their chicken with each other. I'll have Lisa fill in any gaps. Lisa here...actually the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" was playing on the CD player and Katy reached over for Alyssa's hand so they could dance. When the song talked about Old MacDonald having a chicken on the farm, Alyssa showed Katy the sign for chicken. It was TOO cute!
That's all I have for now. The full size photos took a lot longer than I wanted to. I think Lisa is making cookies so gotta go indulge. By the way, it's -15.4 degrees now.
:)
Saturday, January 03, 2009
a little extreme...even for Alaska
It's been a little bit on the cold side lately. As I'm writing this, the temperature outside is -10.1 degrees at 8:45pm. This morning, we broke our record for the 4 years that we've been here. We reached -20.5 degrees!!! That is COLD!! We are currently at 6 straight days below 0 and counting!
So with all this bitter cold weather, what did I decide to do today? Go ICE FISHING!!!! What else would I do but go stand out on a frozen lake with no shelter! It actually ended up being a great time. Nate and his dad (who is visiting Alaska for the first time from North Carolina) joined me for several hours of standing and staring at a line in a semi-frozen hole.
Nate and his dad were troopers and showed up early and drilled the hole for us with an auger. Some Alaskans might laugh at us but we got an auger for free. We weren't complaining but from the sound of it, a gas powered one would have been nice. Nonetheless, they got the hole open (about 2 feet of ice) and started pulling in the fish.
By the time I arrived, they already had a good thing going so I threw in my line and pulled in a little 5 inch fish within the first couple of minutes. What was a very pleasant surprise was the couple that was standing by watching us...a pair of bald eagles!! The lighting was just right for some fantastic pictures.
So with all this bitter cold weather, what did I decide to do today? Go ICE FISHING!!!! What else would I do but go stand out on a frozen lake with no shelter! It actually ended up being a great time. Nate and his dad (who is visiting Alaska for the first time from North Carolina) joined me for several hours of standing and staring at a line in a semi-frozen hole.
Nate and his dad were troopers and showed up early and drilled the hole for us with an auger. Some Alaskans might laugh at us but we got an auger for free. We weren't complaining but from the sound of it, a gas powered one would have been nice. Nonetheless, they got the hole open (about 2 feet of ice) and started pulling in the fish.
By the time I arrived, they already had a good thing going so I threw in my line and pulled in a little 5 inch fish within the first couple of minutes. What was a very pleasant surprise was the couple that was standing by watching us...a pair of bald eagles!! The lighting was just right for some fantastic pictures.
Nate...master baiter. And a master fisherman. 
Nate and his dad. Doesn't look too cold, does it?
So leagle (misspelling intended) or not, we "accidentally" dropped a couple of the fish we caught off to the side and guess who swooped down to pick them up? It was AMAZING!! At one point, I think I was only 10 yards or so away when they picked up the fish. It was so cool to be that close to a bird of that size.
and a video from my D90. First time I've downloaded a video from the new camera...it's a bit of a pain but we'll see how good it looks.
All in all, I caught maybe 8 fish and Nate caught a dozen or so...but none were keepers. They ranged from a tiny 3 inches (Nate) to the catch of the day which must have been a good 6 inches (also Nate). I think I caught the same 5-inch fish 8 times.
How cold was it??? This cold. If you can't tell, that's ice on my eyebrows! Part of me wishes I wouldn't have worn my balaclava so I could see how much ice would have formed on my beard. The other part of me is glad my face didn't freeze and fall off my head. I think it was between -5 and -10 while we were fishing.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
FINALLY...Christmas pictures
Alright...finally got around to it. Here are the rest of the pictures from Christmas morning. I was tempted to just post them all...but I took almost 100. That might be a little extreme so I'll narrow it down to these.
And THANK YOU to everyone who sent presents for us or the girls. As you'll be able to tell, the girls LOVED unwrapping and playing with their new toys/books/clothes.
And THANK YOU to everyone who sent presents for us or the girls. As you'll be able to tell, the girls LOVED unwrapping and playing with their new toys/books/clothes.
The girls were initially very excited about Elmo but then once Elmo starting talking and dancing...things got a little more scary.
Notice how they are keeping their distance now.
You can see how fast she was trying to unwrap the presents. I was really surprised how fast they got into it.
We had a white Christmas! Second year in a row it has snowed all day on Christmas. This year, we picked up almost 6 inches during the day.
Alyssa taking a break to look out at all the "moh".
I got the girls a book...it's a great story about a raccoon mom and baby. The pictures are great but I got it because of all the different animals in the book. The girls love to point at all the animals.
Katy looks pretty happy with her new clothes.
A real surprise...and treat...is Lisa's Dad and Terri made the girls a book of ours and their pictures. It's amazing! The girls really love it!
And finally the girls helping open DahDah's present from MahMah.
A new tripod!!!!
Obligatory babies playing in the boxes that the presents came in pictures
Later that evening we hosted our first Christmas dinner for some friends. We didn't time everything quite right so everyone had to wait a little extra for dinner to show up after we put the girls down for bed. This was the result....
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!!
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