Christmas at the North Pole!

We got back from spending Christmas with George's parents at the North Pole just a couple of days ago. First, a quick disclaimer: there aren't any actual "Christmas" pictures in here because I forgot to get my camera for Christmas morning/afternoon, but I'll post some once I get copies of my mother and sister-in-law's pictures! Dakota was down in Kodiak for Christmas, so there's no pictures of him. We had "our" Christmas on the 20th, as we made a call in to Santa and requested that he come a few days early!

Probably the best highlite for Brayden in North Pole is meeting some new buddies. Kenji and Christina's (Kenji has been George's best friend since grade school, and was best man at our wedding) little girl, Jailynn, was born just 10 days after Brayden (we actually had the exact same due date!). Brayden really hit it off with her. All she was interested in was trying to gnaw on his shoes, but he enjoyed her jumper (he REALLY missed his jumper on this trip!), and eyeing her sitting up on her own.....he's still working on that!

Here they are holding hands:

George and Kenji: best buddies with their little ones!

Brayden also got to meet Ellinor, our friend Tessa and Gabe's newest addition. She is about a month younger than Brayden, and really could care less about HIM, but he sure was fastinated by HER! We didn't get pictures of them together, but it's hilarious, because Brayden is MUCH larger than Ellinor. I'm talking about a full head taller, and very noticibly heavier! She's on the small side, and he's on the very tall side, so together, it's just funny!

Yet another interesting development while in North Pole was discovering that Brayden frequently now sleeps on his tummy! Normally I wouldn't really care, but he is a constant nighttime/naptime thumb sucker, and he only sucks his left thumb. This has left him with a considerable flattening of the left side of his head! His doctor doesn't see much of a problem with it (yet!), but has suggested we try coaxing him onto his other side. That, of course, never works, as the minute we leave him alone to sleep, it's right back onto his left side. Now back to the tummy-sleeping.....because he sucks his left thumb, while on his tummy, he lays his head down on the RIGHT side! YES!! Finally a little bit of natural help with his poor mis-shapen head! Here's the proof:

Let's all hope for a more rounded and uniform head shape in the next month or two!

Slacking a bit...

So almost every day that I've logged onto the computer, I've been thinking how I really need to update my blog. I love reading everyone else's updates, yet haven't posted anything myself in over 3 weeks! I suppose the barrage of pictures in my last post held me over! We had Christmas on the 20th (just 2 days ago) because Dakota had to head down to Kodiak for 12 days yesterday. Which actually turned out to be today because the weather in Kodiak has been horrible the past few days. But he touched down there just about 2 hours ago! So now it's just me and the little stinker until George gets home from work. The three of us leave for North Pole in the morning to spend Christmas with George's parents. Lizzie and Alan and their boys are going up also, so it'll be nice to have another car to drive along with. We'll be back on Sunday, so it's just a quick trip, but it'll be nice to get out of town for a little bit. Plus...we're planning a Chena Hot Springs day while we're up there too, so I'm REALLY looking forward to that since I haven't been there in close to 5 years! Unfortunately, I'm a horrible photographer (actually, it's mainly my camera that's horrible!), so all the good Christmas pictures of the kids opening presents are on my dad's camera, so posting those will have to wait until we get back from North Pole. However, here's a few FUNNY ones to hold you over:

And THIS is what happens when you are congested, have a bit of a cold, HATE the nasty peas that mom's feeding you, and sneeze. EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW!

One of the few pictures I got of Dakota and Brayden meeting Santa at the Alaska Airlines Kids Christmas Party before my camera battery died!

New Family Portraits!!!

We went to get family pictures done on Sunday with Ronalyn, and she did such a great job! She had all of them edited Monday, and I picked up my CD today (Tuesday), so she's super quick too! Dakota especially had a blast posing for pictures...he's a great big ham! Brayden did amazingly well also considering he's been pretty unhappy lately teething! Ronalyn edited them all and gave them to us both in color and B&W too! There's a LOT of them, and these aren't even all of them, but here they are!

Down with the bottle!

Hi. My name is Brayden, and I'm a milkaholic. I've had this "problem" for about 5 months now, and have slowly started alleviating this problem by sometimes resorting to a sippy cup. This allows about half of the beverage to leak down my chin and onto my bib and shirt. I also am trying to cut back by eating "food"-if you can call it that. My mom provides me with this liquidy "mush" she calls carrots. Or bananas. Or Sweet Potatoes. It looks nothing like actual food, but it's a nice respite from the milk.
Here I am, off the "bottle", enjoying a dribble of the good stuff.

Yes, it is THAT good.

THIS is why it's a problem. I suffer from milk-induced comas.

Oh, and PS-in case you didn't realize, I'm cute.

Alaska State Fair

Koda and Tyler made a little friend who wanted to go with them on the big swing!

These pictures are in no particular order because I have no clue how to easily organize the pictures around text I've already written. Anyways, here they are!





I suppose you could call this Brotherly Love, but Koda has a really cheezy look on his face, and Brayden's screaming his head off!













Brayden and I......he's such a cutie. And he's about 2 months old here.



They think they're so cool!




You DEFINATELY don't want Koda behind this puppy!




Best cousin buddies




Definately brothers!







He's actually not too bad hula hooping for a 5 year old!

Ok, ok, I'm sure you're all thinking "holy cow, seriously.....the FAIR?" Yes, seriously, the fair. I COMPLETELY forgot to post any pictures of the State Fair this year, and we went 3, count them, THREE times! Or at least Koda, Brayden, and I went 3 times. George got to go twice, which is great, considering he usually doesn't get much time off in the summer. Sorry that it's 3 months late, but as they say, better late than never!

Highlites: it sounds stupid considering all the rides and food and everything, but Dakota is in love with the new "hula zone". It's really just an area roped off with a ton of hula hoops, but it probably would have kept him entertained for hours if we would have sat there. Plus, George and Alan took to it as well, proof is in the picture! Lizzie and I also took a turn at it, but I think George didn't take pictures on our camera, so I'm spared the photographic embarassment. The new reptile/exotic animal exhibit was amazing too, and Dakota especially liked the different nasty trantulas. eeewwwww. Also, the National Guard had a pretty cool setup with an inflatable obsticle course, which Koda and Tyler had to run about 5 times each. And, they also had to get up in one of the military hummers fully equiped with the machine gun on top as well. Koda also enjoyed all the "big boy" rides, especially since our trip to Disneyworld last fall where he REALLY got to experience his first big boy rides, and would have went on everything, if not for the height requirements! Also, Koda wasn't a wuss this year at the petting zoo! He actually would touch virtually all the animals, which is a HUGE change from years past. He used to FREAK OUT if he so much as got closer than an arm's reach of anything, including cute little fuzzy bunnies! But he was probably most afraid of the pygmy goats (which I LOVE!). However, this year we all actually got to enjoy the petting zoo, which was a nice change! Brayden didn't do much but love his front carrier and the stroller, but he did great, and wasn't too upset. It was amazingly a very warm, very nice day, which if anyone is familiar with Palmer and fair time (August), is a miracle in itself. It is almost universally colder, windy, and usually at least drizzling at fair time, but this is 2 years in a row now that the weather has cooperated!

our BIG boy!

Brayden had his "4 month" well-baby checkup on Monday....yes, about 3 weeks late, so really, it's more like a 5 month checkup, but who's counting?! The result: he's perfect! And BIG! I've never really looked at him and thought he was all that big....he doesn't have the Michelin-type baby rolls or anything. But apparently, he IS very tall. Like in the 95% tall. Which would make his weight on the higher side--75%--as well. Officially, he is 27" tall and 16 lbs, 2oz. And who would wonder why he is growing up so fast? Perhaps the fact that he's LOVING actual food now! Today alone (in one sitting), he ate a good cup and a half of baby cereal, and then the ENTIRE container of peaches! YUM!