The Skinner Family Digest

Chicken pox, hernias, and pink eye.....oh my!

2011-07-15T15:42:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, none of us has any of the above! But a few weeks ago, I decided it was definitely past due to start physician shadowing. Medical schools typically want you to have "patient contact" within a "clinical setting" before applying to school. If you're already a nurse, MA, CNA, etc, then no problem-it's what you already do. For those of us without formal medical training, we're kinda up a creek. I understand that there's *some* controvercy over whether shadowing "counts" as patient contact. Most schools agree that it does, but some don't. I guess we all know which schools I'll end up ruling OUT!

So, I started calling the physicians that I had already talked to about shadowing (and they said it would be fine with them). My mom's Oncologist (who's little girl went to PNA with Koda the past 2 years).......on vacation for 5 weeks! The Plastic Surgeon that I was really excited to shadow (she is VERY involved with mentoring young women in the medical profession)....ALREADY HAD 2 SHADOWS this summer!!! CRAP! So, I was starting to get nervous. I called the kids Pediatrician-no problem...I started a couple days later. The problem? While shadowing her would certainly "count" towards hours, I KNOW that I'm not going to be doing general Pediatrics. A Pediatric subspecialty, possibly, but not general peds. My first and second days there, we had a lot of well-baby/kid checkups, a few "sick kid" visits (usually plain ol' colds), a couple conjunctivitis cases (pinbk eye), and a case of chicken pox!!! Yes....chicken pox! (For those of you who don't know....there's a vaccine for chicken pox that's been out for about 10 years.....the kid was 8....and unvaccinated). VACCINATE YOUR KIDS, PEOPLE!!!

Then I called my OB/GYN...and she was up for a shadow too :) So I've went in a few times since then, and it's actually been more fun that I thought it was. My first day, she passed the doppler off to me to find the baby's heartbeat. The next patient, she had me go in there before her, make sure the woman's measurements were close to her pregnancy's progression and listen to the heartbeat. I know, I know....nothing TOO exciting, but it IS for ME! In general, shadows are there to be just that-a shadow. A shadow shouldn't be heard, hardly seen, and never in the way. And generally under no circumstances can you actually DO anything! So to be able to DO something....well, that's pretty cool to me! Course, I think it helps that this doc has been my OB/GYN for over 10 years, and I've been with her through 3 pregnancies/kids!

Next up, I started calling around to various Oncology offices here in town looking to shadow (Oncology is one specialty that I'm really interested in!). When I explained that I would be more interested in Pediatric Oncology, but that I understood there wasn't a Peds Oncologist in the state, the office manager stopped me. There IS a Peds Oncologist!!! Technically, there's 2 (same office), but only one that really works full time and takes patients (the other one has health issues himself and doesn't work much). YES!!! Now to just get her to agree to have a shadow. I cold called, and she was insanely nice and was completely open to a shadow. Funny thing is....I haven't actually shadowed her (with patients) yet! She also introduced me to a Pediatric Surgeon, and I think I found my new obsession!

Wednesday was the first time I was able to scrub in on a surgery....and I'm in love! It was a hernia repair (actually, 3 hernias) on a 20 month old little boy. While I didn't get to actually DO anything (hello....surgery!), the surgeon was awesome in that he explained everything he was doing, pointing out specific things of note, etc. I've heard from other pre-med students that their physicians that they've shadowed really didn't do anything. You just got to watch, really having almost no clue what was going on. I went on patient rounds earlier that morning with him, and he took plenty of time to explain what each patient had, what they've already done, what further treatments they'll be doing, etc. And he doesn't make me feel like an idiot when I ask him some possibly stupid questions...which is always nice :)

So far....probably because the doctors were so awesome....I'm loving OB/GYN and Pediatric Surgery. Totally having a blast....and definitely confirming that I'm committed to becoming a doctor myself! :)

Drum roll, please.......

2011-07-11T16:17:00.000-08:00

FINALLY! I got around to uploading the pictures of Kylee's 6 month pictures. We did them right around her 6 month mark, and got them back about a month later (our awesome photog went on a much-needed family vacation for a few weeks a couple days after Kylee's pics), and it's taken me weeks to get them uploaded! But, here they are, in no particular order:

Koda was pretty much looking goofy in every picture. But....definitely captured his real personality!

Koda LOVES having a little sister!

Why we call her Smiley Kylee

Momma's little lady!

Daddy and his munchkins

Daddy love!

One of my favorites!

My little tutu lady!

And as always, a picture of George and I :)

So in love!

Brady giving his sis some lovin'

and giving daddy some lovin'

*Eskimo kisses*

My love

Brady had to join in!

Our little handsome boy....about a week before we lopped all his hair off!

Because I'm electronically challenged...

2011-06-30T08:56:00.000-08:00

My intention was to download all the video from our TWO video cameras (we bought another one when we lost our first on the plane on our trip last fall...and then AK Airlines FOUND it months later!), but alas...I just can't figure it out. With all the darn cords we have, nothing plugs into the computer AND into the camera. Just one or the other. So, it'll have to wait until George gets home from work...if he's back at a decent time...and then maybe I'll have some videos to post for tomorrow!

In the meantime, all you get are photos!

My cuties...minus our devil child (he's probably into trouble elsewhere in this picture).

First jog at the coastal trail this year! Koda lasted approximately a half mile on his scooter before complaining. Then he got to sit in the large jogging stroller the rest of the 5-ish miles!

Heading out for a jog (probably a walk since Sparky's in the picture!)

Inevitably, one of the kids doesn't want to go for a jog. It's usually Brayden.

And Kylee usually LOVES the jogging stroller! We just started putting her in this stroller with Brady a couple weeks ago, and even though she looks like a little doll strapped in...she seems to love it. She's even fell asleep a couple times, her little body all slumped over and bobbing up and down!

In other news, our plans for the weekend does NOT include heading up to the cabin, amazingly! We decided we ALWAYS end up doing that every holiday weekend, so this weekend we're actually staying in town! Saturday is fishing with Brady, Kylee, and possibly the twins down at Ship Creek. We'll see how that goes. It'll probably be combat fishing with little kids, but we at least want to try! Sunday is hiking Flattop! My MOM actually agreed to go (she really doesn't do anything outdoor-sy...she always says "I lived like that long enough, I don't need to do it for fun!"), and since Heather and Scott don't want to bring their boys on a hike (it probably WOULD be a constant fight) and they have church right in the middle of the day, it'll just be George, Brady, Kylee, my parents, and I. I haven't done Flattop since high school, and definitely not with a baby strapped to the front of me, so we'll see how it goes. I'm pretty excited! We've been wanting to get a framed backpack so that George can put Brady on his back, and this was the kick in the pants we needed. I found one on craigslist yesterday, and it's in great shape. Can't wait to try it out Sunday!

Hopefully I'll have some video tomorrow to share. Koda really mad picking up Sparky poop out back because he said "shit" twice....priceless.

Busy lady.

2011-06-28T12:05:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm looking ahead to the fall semester....3 classes, 2 labs, ALL science....I seriously have no clue how I'm going to do it. I mean, I've done it before, and I always think this....how in the world will I get everything done?! But...it always works itself out in the end. Reasoning (other than it's a lot of homework) for this mental state? I've been making lists like a crazy woman. Pretty much lists of everything that needs to be done *before* school starts again. Preferably before Koda comes home in just over 4 WEEKS!

#1-We switched internet service a few weeks ago and it has been *HEAVEN*. Much, much faster internet and with a company who aren't complete idiots and jerks (seriously, Clearwire sucks. GCI...much better so far). And now it has us thinking...should we switch our cable TV (we have Dish now)? And if we do, we might as well get a "bundle" package with GCI (because it'd be cheaper). Which means a home phone again. While I'm not crazy about the idea of a home phone...I went "phoneless" before I knew George!!!.....Dakota is going to be 7 this fall, and possibly staying at home alone for short stints. And that means he definitely needs a phone at home in the case of emergencies and to call George or I when he gets home from school.

#2-THIS is a big one. I need to start job shadowing physicians this year. Virtually every medical school requires direct patient contact experience before medical school. If you're already an M.A. or a nurse, etc....then it's easy. It's your job. If you're not....then it's not so easy. Being a receptionist doesn't count.....being a billings coordinator doesn't count...etc, etc, etc. Basically, they want you to have kinda "practiced" medicine before you start "practicing" medicine. A bit rediculous, but I get the idea-they want to make sure you know what being a physician is all about. SO.....for those without medical certificates of some sort, it generally means physician shadowing. Apparently, most students find it difficult to get a doc to OK shadowing them. I, on the other hand, have had no problem. I've talked with my mom's Oncologist (AND his little girl also went to PNA, so I saw him pretty much EVERY morning for 2 years), my OB/GYN (hello? I've had 3 kids with her!), the kid's Pediatrician (about 7 years and 3 kids later, we know each other pretty well...and I really, really, like her style), and a Plastic Surgeon in town (I went to her to have a lump removed after Brady was born). I talked with all of them over the past couple years about shadowing in the future, so I thought...no big deal, right? Apparently I just waited too darn long! The Plastic Surgeon already has 2 other students shadowing her the WHOLE SUMMER!!! The Oncologist is going on vacation for about 5 weeks starting next week. AHHHHH! Those were my first 2 choices...because so far, those are the two fields that interest me the most. Sooooo.....my Pediatrician called me back yesterday, and I can pretty much go in whenever I want, so at least I WILL end up with some shadow time! And really, while peds is NOT a general area I want to go into, a peds subspecialty is definitely something I'm interested in (Pediatric Oncology, Pediatric Surgery, Neonatal, etc), so it's a start at least! One thing I did learn (after starting to cold call other practicioners in town)? That there IS a Pediatric Oncologist in AK!!! So, I have a call into her also.

#3-With all of that shadowing stuff said, if any of the physicians have privledges with either hospital (Prov or Regional), then I have to get badges for both. Which means a background check, immunization records, professional recommends from professors, etc, etc, etc. Lots of red tape! But....if I ever want to observe surgeries, then it has to be done anyways.

#4-A million and a half half-done home projects to finish up. The upstairs bathroom needs to be finished (George needs to match texture on the wall and I need to paint the bathroom), the paint around the boy's window needs touched up BADLY. It was messed up from when the windows were replaced about 2 years ago. And then again a little when we took the window OUT to get the bunk bed IN! The new back door downstairs needs the texture matched around it and painted. There's kickboard beneath the kitchen cabinets that need to be finished. The living room needs to be either finished painted (in the back corner) or repainted (a slightly darker color....we're still figuring this out). I need to finish organizing the "dungeon" (aka: crawlspace). There's seriously a billion little things to do/finish!

#5-Get applications finished and turned in for the charter/alternative schools for Koda this year. The charter schools in our district are all lottery, and that is at the end of July. So, Rilke German Immersion School and Northern Lights ABC School are probably the 2 we'll apply to. I have a call into the testing dude to hopefully test Koda for the Gifted program at Rogers Park Elementary also. In talking with a parent of one of Koda's classmates at PNA, she seemed to think it wasn't nearly as hard to get into as they would like you to believe. They make it seem like your child literally has to be a genious. They do an assessment, and if he passes that, they order a full IQ test. She went through it with her oldest, and said it really wasn't a huge deal. In fact, she seemed to think that going from PNA to public school (even the gifted program) would be a piece of cake....the curriculum at PNA is much more advanced than public school, and Koda was even excelling at PNA. Well, I suppose we'll have to wait and see :)

On top of that....I'm called for jury duty starting the 1st of August. Right when Koda gets back, I'll be doing my physician shadowing, school starts for Koda in 2 weeks, starts for me in 3 weeks, and I have 3 kids. And NO....they won't exempt me. So I'm thinking about showing up with the kids and letting them know that it's obviously a hardship for me to be there. Maybe then they'll dismiss me!! Don't get me wrong...I've actually always wanted to do it, if only for the experience. But...this is SO not the time. And neither is anytime in the next 6 months (when they'll reschedule me for). Between classes and kids, it just doesn't work. So....any other ideas of how to get out of it would be greatly appreciated!

Ahhhhhh.....I feel like a chicken with her head cut off.

Half a heart attack

2011-06-24T08:38:00.000-08:00

I swear, yesterday I almost died. I had the panic-stricken, heart-thumping terror that mothers go through sometimes. Here's the explanation:

I got both kiddos up from their naps yesterday, downstairs, and changed diapers. Brady was arguing with me about what he wanted or didn't want to eat. So...I got Kylee's baby cereal ready. Literally, this involves pouring the powder stuff into a small bowl, adding a scoop of formula, and the warm water. It takes less than a minute. I head back out to the living room (where both Kylee and Brady were), and don't see Brayden anywhere. Finding it a bit odd (he usually doesn't go upstairs without me), I called out for him. No response. So I figured he was up to no good in the bathroom, getting into stuff he wasn't supposed to. Nope. I did a quick dash through the house, with no response, so I threw my crocs on and ran outside. No sign of him. I yell a few times, look all around the carport, and then run out to the cul-de-sac. Still nothing. My neighbor's door is open, and I yell inside really quick to see if they've seen him. They hadn't, but came out to help me look for him! At this point, I have 4 people looking for him outside, so I go back inside to do a more thorough search. Right about the time I'm about to call the police (about 5 minutes into the ordeal), she yells in to me that they found him:

PLAYING IN THE BACKSEAT OF MY CAR!!!

Oh, I felt like hugging and strangling him at the same time! He had put his crocs on, opened (and shut) the front door, got into the car (which I *thought* was locked), closed the car door, and proceeded to find a toy train on the backseat floor of the car. Actually, he wasn't even playing ON the seat-he was found hunched down on the FLOOR! And he was totally oblivious.

My first call was to George to act like a crazy mother (which at that point, I was), and to tell him that project #1 was getting some type of lock higher on the door so that Brayden couldn't just wander out on his own. He currently knows how to unlock the deadbolt.

AHHHHHH! Talk about a crapacular mother moment there. I swear, I thought if the police had to show up, that they'd better bring an ambulance, because I'd have had a hemmorage or a stroke. Or maybe a heart attack.

Needless to say, there's a big "hotel style" door lock on the top of the door now!

Freedom!

2011-06-22T12:50:00.000-08:00

I am officially finished with every math class I'll ever have to take in my life! While it didn't exactly go as planned...what university crams 14 weeks of a grueling 4 credit Calculus course in 5 weeks....I did scrape by with a B, which at this point, I am completely content with. In this class, I learned to ignore "imaginary" numbers....which is odd, since they were half of the focus in a lower course. I learned that I really don't know much about math in any amount of depth. In fact, there were a few deep conversations with my inner self wondering how on earth did the people who "discovered" or "created" (whatever it was) some of this math did it?! I mean, I was struggling through it-learning it-and they created it? I'm pretty sure they had to have some type of mental illness or idiot savant-ness in them. The more math I do, the more it boggles my mind. Once I get a concept down and understand it, I'm always left thinking....wow, how much more math could there really be? I mean, I've done everything I can think of.....and then I figure out that there's infinitely more that I'll really never understand. It's mind-blowing. Point being, now I can stop thinking about it and stop letting it consume my life, because I'm DONE!

It's nice to not have to drive Brady or Kylee around anywhere to drop them off to go to class each morning! Today we went to McDonalds and I let Brady play for a good 45 minutes. He was in heaven. Except he wanted french fries, and it was still their "breakfast" time (even if we ate breakfast a couple hours before!). So then he wanted a hashbrown. And then pancakes. So a play trip turned into a full blown breakfast for the little man, which was fine, because anything to get him to eat something is good for me! Then we went to Target and Brady picked out a few Chuggington toys (extra track pieces, a Chatsworth train, and the Chuggington train carrying case. He got a little chunk of money from his birthday, so I figured he could get a few things before saving the rest :) Plus, it gave me good bribery material for the rest of the morning...."get over here or trains go bye-bye". Yes, I'm that mean. We hit up Men's Warehouse to exchange George's shirts I got him for Father's Day...apparently he's a bit bigger than I thought. No, not fatter, just more muscular. It would hardly button up over his chest!!! He looked kinda goofy in them, so we got the next size up. Brady now knows it as "daddy's store" since we've been there so often in the last couple weeks. Next up was WalMart to get the little lady some more baby food. Nothing too exciting. Home and then naps (and me writing this blog!).

I'm contemplating heading to the gym after they wake up so that I can better calibrate my Nike+ sensor for running. It is STILL off a sizeable amount. I'm talking about a tenth of a mile for every two miles ran. Which adds up when you're going anything over 4 or 5 miles! Plus, I could relax in the jacuzzi and/or sauna or steam room kid-free after I run!

George is working late tonight :( He's coming back into town for a basketball game-he just joined a summer league-this evening at 6, and then driving back out to Trunk Rd because the stripers will be there at 8. Yes, stripers, not strippers...get your minds out of the gutter. And I have the twins this evening. Scott HAD to go to Hawaii (actually, I think he's off to Wake Island, but really....it's just a warm island with beautiful beaches around) this afternoon for 10 days, and Heather's school is in the evening. Curran has a t-ball game this evening, so I'll be lugging the twins, Brady, and Kylee all to t-ball by myself...should be a zoo.

In other news, my friend, Theresa came over last night for dinner. Now that my class is over, I feel like I can socialize a bit more. I haven't got together with non-family in FOREVER. In fact, Theresa and I haven't really gotten together since I've known George!!! It was so good getting all caught up with eachother :)

Brady had his 2 year checkup at the doctor's office yesterday, and he's growing like a weed. He's 95% for height, and between 75-95% for weight! Best part? He didn't even need shots at this visit! Kylee, on the other hand, is still teeny-tiny! They did a quick weight check on her (since she went from about the 50% in weight and 90% in height to the 10% in height and 5% in weight in just 3 months!), and she DID gain
10 oz in the last 4-5 weeks. But she's still 10%/5% height/weight. Now that we know she IS actually growing, the doc's not too worried about it...said she may just be a petite little lady! One upside? I may actually be able to keep one of my kids in the infant carseat until/past their 1st birthday! The boys had both grown out of it no later than 9 months (7 months for Koda!). Makes it a whole lot easier!

This week...looking forward to Sparky's grooming appointment (I had to cancel last week!). Finally a non-shaggy, non-stinky doggie in the house! He'll come back looking all handsome and smelling fresh, and he'll love all the love he gets from us for a week or so until he's sufficiently stinky to the point where we really don't want to love up on him too much! I know, mean parents, but hey....who wants to cuddle up with a nasty stinky dog?? And it's George's responsibility to bathe him, so unless he does it, Spark remains stinky until his next grooming!

Before and After

2011-06-18T17:12:00.000-08:00

Well, we did it! Brady went from THIS:

To THIS:

In less than an hour! Brayden was SO good getting his haircut. He sat still really well and didn't freak out at all! I'll post the video when we get it uploaded! He looks like a different little kid!

Chunk Nugget is TWO!

2011-06-18T12:08:00.000-08:00

Today is my little man Brady's birthday! He is two, and a ball of energy pretty much constantly. He's crazy, loud, and everything boy. I can't believe my mild mannered little baby turned into such a big devil child! Before I know it, he'll be asking for the keys:

This has pretty much become one of his very favorite things: Getting in any car he can and pretending to drive. FYI: if you're anywhere in the vicinity, you HAVE to lock your car door, otherwise you'll end up with little man footprints all over, your wipers on full speed, your caution lights going, and if the keys are in the car, it'll be started!

He also has a VERY serious obsession with "fuzzy juice", sometimes just called "fuzzy" or "puzzy". Anything with carbonation, basically. And since we (ie: I) have a strict no soda for kids policy in my house, he's pretty much banned to either carbonated juice or flavored sparkling water.

Not letting go of his grip on his favorite kind of "fuzzy", the Target brand flavored fuzzy water.

and no, it's not fizzy, it's fuzzy.

He also has a strong distain for "big boy undies". He wants nothing to do with potty training, training undies, or pullups. I think it'll be a while before we ditch the diapers.

And last, but certainly not least, his unwavering loyalty to both Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo. Or, in his words, "Three" (with his fingers held up and crossed....makes no sense!), and "Memo". I think we watch one of both of them multiple times a day!

Happy birthday to my little chunk nugget, my chunk-a-lunk, my boogerman, my dooberhead, my goob, etc, etc, etc. Pretty much he goes by anything.

Including the dogs name (accidentally!) once in a while.

Can. Not. Wait.

2011-06-16T12:10:00.001-08:00

Most people wait all week for the weekend. This weekend, however, is not applicable. Can it just be next Monday afternoon, already? Granted...this weekend should be fun-Brady's 2nd birthday bash and Father's Day dinner at Brewhouse, but really....who can have a ton of fun knowing that a craptacular Calculus final is looming Monday morning? Judging by the test I took this morning, I'm going to have to do pretty decent on the final to pull a B in the course, so I'm not so happy about that.

What I am happy about is the fact that after my final, I can get onto bigger and better things. Like touching up the paint around the window in the boys' room. Or finally finishing sewing the duvet cover I started almost a year ago. Or finishing completely organizing the "dungeon" (ie: crawlspace) with all the crap that we've accumulated down there over the years. I want to do some crafty stuff....hang out with some friends and family...and get this house decluttered and CLEAN for once!

In other news, my little cousin, Hanna, is getting married next Saturday, and her bridal shower is tonight! Since we won't be able to make it to the reception, I'm pretty excited to go hang out with her and a TON of other family tonight. She's 6 years younger than I, and her getting hitched makes me feel a bit old! :) But she's been through so much the past few years, and I'm so proud of her and excited that she's found the man of her dreams (minus the Beiber haircut, I heard!)!

Last night was crrraaazzzyy! I stayed up until 1:30am studying for my test this morning, and George never even came home! The poor guy worked until 1:30am, and had to be back out at Trunk Rd at the usual time (7-ish), so instead of driving home, he slept in the work truck :( Now that the road is officially open, hopefully his INSANELY long days will be behind him and he can actually sleep in a bed every night.

2 more things....I found little girl's Sanitas (just like Danskos...except Danskos don't make kids sizes) on zulily this morning, and went crazy and bought 3 pairs! Hot pink patent, black patent, and fuzzy giraffe print! Kylee won't be able to wear them for about 2 years (I bought 3 different sizes, starting at their smallest, 23 European sizing), but at less than 1/3 of their regular price (they're normally between $75-$100 a pair!), I couldn't pass them up!

And #2: I HAVE to share these pictures of the boys at Angela's wedding (George's little sister):

The mafia kids planning their next robbery.

Seriously, they're like the little rascals!

My cuties waiting patiently in the church!

Chillin' on the steps.

My little man!

The end.

T minus 4 days until Operation: Haircut

2011-06-14T18:16:00.001-08:00

Yes, that's right. Our little boy....who now gets mistaken for a GIRL often (even in VERY boy-ish clothing), is getting his hair lopped off on Saturday. While normally, his hair looks like Einstein stuck a fork in the light socket, when it is "done" (ie: wet down a bit and combed), it is amazing! This kid has little ringlets all over. George and I have some seriously straight hair, so I'm assuming it comes from my dad (who would have a half-fro if he grew it out), my brother Scott when he was little (ringlets very similar), and my brother Eric now...he'll probably be bummed we're cutting it at all! He's went from a little bald kiddo:

Brayden's almost 1 here!

To a crazy haired cutie:

This is basically how his hair normally looks. Not TOO much like a hobo child, but still pretty wild!

But he cleans up pretty darn well. What a stud. Minus the dirt on his face.

He's even cute when Grandma is a turd and sticks a barette in his hair.

Yes, Grandma....we got the point. He needs a cut!

But even after all that, he can still score with the ladies!

Must have been a pretty good kiss for a reaction like that! :)

While it is definitely time for Brady's hair to make it's exit, I can't help but be a little sad. My little boy won't look like my baby anymore! He'll be a little boy! He's growing up too fast!!!

All dressed up with nowhere to go

2011-06-12T21:28:00.001-08:00

George went to work early this morning to get what little work he HAD to do today in, so we'd have the rest of the day together! Brady, Kylee and I woke up around 8am and went to McDonalds for breakfast (well, Brady and I ate there....Kylee got baby cereal...glop as we call it...at home). Brayden played his little heart out before leaving in time to meet George back at home by 10:30.

At 11, we met my parents and Scott at Men's Warehouse. Each flight attendant got a coupon for 75% off the entire purchase up to $1000! I had fun picking out shirts and ties for George (which he promptly rejected....most of my combinations. psh.) and my dad (who trusted me enough not to steer him wrong!). I do have to say....my dad's grey dress shirt with his light pink and grey paisly tie was the best combo. George's blue shirt with an orange striped tie was a close second, though.

We came home, and Scott and Heather dropped their boys off with us so they could eat lunch in peace! George washed the car, the boys had a short-lived water gun fight followed by playing Wipeout on the Wii, and I mainly worked on my math homework. When Scott and Heather got back, they let us know that Michelle, a flight attendant friend who's staying with my parents, also had the 75% off coupon that she wasn't going to use....so we headed back! I think the ladies there thought we were a bit off our rocker. This time George got a suit....and he looked downright sexy in it! :) I jokingly (half-jokingly) told him that now he has to actually wear it. Which means he has to take me out on a nice date. So, I suppose look for a picture on the blog in the future of my hot hubby in his new suit. Unfortunately, it won't be ready (having it tailored) until the 21st, which means no date at least until then.

We ate dinner at my parents house-crab salad-yum! And then played a couple rounds of Nerts. Once Michelle figured out the game, she joined in and with 6 people.....the game was insane! We were all talking about how our ENORMOUS family reunion in 2012 will be even more insane....I think a big Nerts tournament is in store for us there! We'll need at least 10-ish tables of 5 or 6 players each! I just hope that I will be able to actually go! If we end up going to USU (Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD), then I'll be at Officer Training during our reunion
:( George and the kids will have to experience the craziness of all the extended family without me. Anyways, time will tell.

My night after we left my parents house: MATH. Only one more week. 4 sections this evening, of stuff I really can't even explain. I can't wait for it to be over so I can half-forget it to make room in my brain for more important things.

Random picture of Memorial Day weekend. One of my favorite memories growing up of my grandparent's house was when Grandpa would take some of my cousins and I out for a drive in the Berkley. Seriously, not much larger than a gocart, but it's street legal and absolutely adorable (not to mention a historic vehicle and collectors car). I loved it! And so does George, Brady, and the twins! I'm sure some cousins can relate :)

G'night All

Today.

2011-06-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

Nothing much exciting today. I woke up at 3:30am to the standard "ma ma....MA MA" until I went to Brady's door, gave him a kiss and a hug and told him it was still night-night time. Since Koda left for Kodiak, I think Brayden wakes up in the middle of the night, realizes he's alone, and wants someone! Breaks my heart. He's so darned cute sometimes. He then woke up when George got up at 6:00am, but George got him back down, and I was able to sleep until 8!!! That's definately the latest I've slept in in a looooong time! I feel like such an old woman saying that. At least I have the knees to back it up :)

We got the news last night that my brother-in-law, Evan (George's younger brother), fell while he was hiking....or climbing...we don't know and was in the hospital. We'd been checking out facebook pics that a few of his friends had taken earlier in the month of them freeclimbing rock walls. And not exactly small rock walls. Seriously....some seriously dangerous (aka-stupid) stuff. Well, it got the better of him, and while they didn't know the extent of his injuries, this morning we find out that it's a broken elbow (OW!), some good bruises and gashes all over, and a chipped hipbone. We're just happy he's alright and that he wasn't hurt worse. But seriously....who in the right mind freeclimbs (ie: climbing without ropes/harnesses/etc)???

My parents came over this morning and the 5 of us (them, my 2 munchkins, and I) went garage sale-ing. Totally struck out. IF we had the space, I would have bought Brady this super cute little play kitchen (he LOVES playing kitchen), but...alas, I have been trying to clear out clutter from the house for the past couple weeks.

When I got the kids down to naps, I was able to go to Target KID-FREE! So nice. My parent were at my place doing some work on the back door my dad and George installed a few weeks ago. When I got back (without the totes I went for, but WITH 10 1L bottles of soda....hey, they were $1 each, and Brady's birthday party is next Saturday!), my dad had not only sanded around the drywall/tape/spackle to get it ready for George to texture, but he also tightened down the sink faucet that has been driving me crazy! It seems to work its way loose every couple months! Seriously, my dad rocks.

The kids and I ran errands after their naps-dropping George's motorcycle pants off to get the zipper replaced, mailing Koda some goodies that included his National Geographic magazine, a book, and a card/letter, and hitting up Partycraft for ideas for Brady's birthday. We also stopped off at Great Harvest Bread Co, which for those of you not in AK, is THE BEST place to get bread! It's to die for. And they give you a huge hunk of bread (not a slice) when you get there. My mom has taught Brayden that it's the "Num Num store", so every time we drive into the parking lot, all I hear is "num num num num num". Too stinkin' adorable! A bit ironic that he won't even eat anything there. Crazy boy.

I'm excited because tomorrow George is only working a few hours....which means a half day off with my sweetie! And I think while he's at work, and if it's a nice day out, I may attempt a 6-8 mile run :) On the coastal trail, of course. And some math. I have 4 sections to do and an extra-credit problem to complete before Monday morning's class. On the upside....only 1 more week of class left! My final is on the 20th, and it couldn't come fast enough! This week includes: getting together on Monday with a friend I've never actually gotten to hang out with (without a group)....but we feel like natural friends. It's kinda fun to have that feeling :)......2 Calc review sessions, test #5, getting Sparky groomed (yay for a handsome little doggie!), making a cake, cupcakes, shopping for food, grilling, making yummy sparkling "slush", etc for Brady's birthday party. And, if there's time on Saturday (ie: if I make the cake Friday), go out to cheer on my brother, Scott, towards the middle and/or finish line of his half-marathon! Busy week, but I'd better enjoy it because come next Monday (the 20th) after my final, I'll feel like I'm bored and doing nothing all the time!

In other news.....THIS mop of curls will be lopped off in T minus 7 days! His birthday party theme is Operation: Haircut. Oh, and trains.

Old lady knees.

2011-06-10T16:04:00.000-08:00

Yep, apparently I have old lay knees. It started when I started running almost 2 months ago. I was fine until I started running over just a couple miles. My 1st 5-mile run almost killed me! I felt like an old, feeble little lady. I had to brace myself going down stairs, and it was incredibly painful to do squats (you know, the things you do when you move laundry in a stackable from the washer to the dryer...psh, I don't do squats just for fun!). I finally broke down and made an appointment to see an orthopedist. This was last week, before the Twilight 12k run. More on that later.

Today was my appointment, and they took x-rays of both knees and both ankles. After a barriage of questions and making me to heel raises, toe raises, walk pigeon toed, normally, etc, we then took a look at the x-rays. Basically, the cartilage between my patella and leg bones is worn down on the outside of both knees. His analogy was that of a tire tread. While I'm not running on bald tires, my tread is wearing a bit thin on one side. Nothing really medically they can do, so I'll be making hamstring stretches and working out the inner part of my quadracep (the vastus medialis...see, learning something new everyday!) more. The more loose the hamstrings are, the less tension in the knee, and the more developed the vastus medialis is (over the vastus lateralis-the outside part of the quad), the more relief I should get!

So...I can still run, and apparently it's fine just to try to run through the pain. But the more I do that, the more inflamed it can get, and the more it'll hurt later. Boo :( It's not going to stop me, though...my brother, Scott, is doing a half-marathon on the 18th (next Saturday), and as much as I feel like I want to do it with him, it's Brady's birthday, so I'll be busy making a cake and getting ready for his little get together. SO...the next half-marathon is the Skinny Raven in August, so I'm planning on doing that!

The Twilight 12k was a big success! It was the coldest evening Anchorage had seen in weeks, and was blowing pretty good too! We about froze our buns off before the race started. Speaking of which, we started right at the front of the line. We were right behind the Kenyans, and figured we'd probably get some good pictures, because, hey-everyone always checks the Kenyans out. Plus, it made us feel kinda cool to be running with them...even if it was literally only a minute or two until they were out of our sights!!! Those guys are plan FAST! Scott beat both George and I with a time of just under 58 minutes. I came in at just under an hour an 4 minutes, and George came in at just under an hour and 7 minutes! We all made darned good time, especially since it was George and I's longest race we've ever ran! Bear Tooth pizza, fruit, cookies, drinks (even a beer garden...if we drank!), etc were all waiting at the finish line, and that was a pretty nice dinner after 7.5 miles! George and I can't wait for the next race! I think we're hooked!

That is, if my old lady knees will hold out!

Summa, Summatime!

2011-06-09T13:38:00.000-08:00

Yes, I said it. We had about 10 days of absolutely georgeous weather here in Anchorage! Over Memorial Day weekend, we did our annual summer kick-off at the cabin. George and I (with Kylee) went to a friend's wedding at Alyeska (beautiful, by the way!) Friday night, so we weren't at the cabin until Saturday morning. My parents took Brady Friday, and Koda unfortunately left for Kodiak Friday morning also. He'll be down there until the end of July :( Boo. It's only been almost 2 weeks and I miss him to death. So does Brayden. He checks out pictures of Koda on the wall several times a day, points, and says Koda! Memorial weekend at the cabin brought amazing weather! My dad's 4 wheeler wasn't working, so we didn't bring the 4 wheelers (except the kid's one...that one was already up there!), but had a good time relaxing, playing games, letting the kids get horridly grubby, etc. The usual "camping" stuff.

Earlier in May I finished up 3 classes: Trigonometry, Bio 1, and Chemistry 2. End result: 3 A's, including my 2 labs! I had 2 weeks off before I started my intensive 5 week Calculus class. It's seriously hell. Thankfully, I only have to step foot in that class 7 more times (that includes 3...yes THREE...tests in those 7 days!). BUT...then I'll officially be completely done with math! This next semester (in the fall) includes Bio 2,
Physics 1, and Organic Chemistry! It'll be a brutal semester, but will be my busiest/hardest semester (until Medical School I suppose) for a few years.

In other news, Brayden turns 2 in 9 days!! I can't believe how big he is already! AND....he's seriously the devil. Yesterday consisted of about a half dozen full-on tantrums, slapping me in the face because I told him no (he got a spankin' for that one!), and just generally being a little pill. I think he must have sat in time out a cumulative of about a half hour! Ps-that's really long for an almost 2 year old. While I really, REALLY don't want him to "grow up"...he's my little baby boy....I really, REALLY would like this stage of his attitude to be over!

Kylee, on the other hand, is literally the sweetest, easiest baby every. The boys were easy, too, but not like this!! Both the boys were independent, and they would have rathered you set them in the swing or bouncer and leave them alone. Kylee....well she's good anywhere. She loves attention and being held, and she's pretty darn happy in her swing (that fails to swing anymore, BTW....so it's just a comfy glorified chair), her bouncer, or the floor. She popped 2 teeth in 2 days about 2 weeks ago, without an ounce of crying, crankiness, or any other teething maladies that usually plague babies! She literally, is almost never crying! :) Yay for happy babies!

It is summer, of course, which means we don't see much of George. This summer he's out at Trunk Rd. in Palmer/Wasilla "babysitting" the contractors redoing the road. While he *does* do some occasional "real work", most of the time is spent in the truck watching the contractors and making sure they're doing what they say they're doing. With the addition of Netflix on his phone, however, he keeps pretty "busy".
ie: unbored. The past 3 days have been expecially brutal, as he's out of the house no later than 6:30am, and he hasn't gotten home until between 9:30 and 11:00pm!! Great for the paycheck, not so great for being able to enjoy the summer and spend time with my sweetie!

In all, I'm just looking forward to MY summer, which starts when Calculus ends on the 20th! Then I get a break for a couple months! Oh yeah, and my next post might/should be Kylee's 6 month pics...we had them done last month just a few days before my photog friend left for a 2 week vacation (to Hawaii, the bum!!), so they haven't been edited yet! :) When I get them, I'll be sure to post some!!
Here's a quick sneak peek....Kylee was the "covergirl" for R&P Photography's newsletter this summer....don't you just want to squish her??!!

Happy summer everyone!

The BIG family pictures!

2011-06-08T19:16:00.000-08:00

A bit late, but here goes:

My WHOLE family!

Scott, Heather, Tristan, and Curran

All the grandkids....with none crying or throwing a fit!

The boys showing off their ENORMOUS muscles!

Eric, Kelley, Cole, and Sage

We haven't had a picture like this in 10 whole years-before we were all married and with kids!

Of course, one of them has to be a turd for pictures. I think it's a tradition that has been passed down from when I was a kid!

My bros and I

In March, my brother, Eric, my sis-in-law, Kelley, and their two kiddos, Cole and Sage flew up from Ohio to visit for a couple weeks. The ONE AND ONLY thing my mom insisted on was pictures of all the grandkids together. Doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but seriously....I think we agonized over it for far too long. With 7 kids under 7, we knew it would be a challenge! Cole really, REALLY hates to get his picture taken, Brady is kinda hit-and-miss when it comes to being cooperative, Sage just turned one and is pretty attached to momma, and Kylee is just 4 months, so who knows whether she'd even be awake. We took a few "picture worthy" toys (aka-the wooden train set) in the hopes that the kids might just be cute playing with it and not notice that their picture was being taken! In all, I'd say it was a success! We also got big group shots (my parents, my family, Scott's family, and Eric's family all together), as well as individual family shots, grandparents with grandkids, and a few others. When we got the pictures, I called my mom. She was in the car and over here immediately to grab her CD! When I talked to my dad the next day, he informed me that she already got prints done and her "brag book" updated!! Mind you, she picked up the CD around 4:30 pm, and she had to report at the airport by 5am for her flight! She was like a kid on Christmas!

OOPS....I did it again. (Not the Britany Spears version)

2011-03-27T21:17:00.000-08:00

A quick random preview of pictures:

our little princess....fingers in her mouth pretty much constantly!

Seriously, I have no clue where this kid gets his curls! His hair is crazy, and he looks like a hobo orphan kid sometimes, but George won't let me cut it until Brady's 2nd birthday. I'm counting down.

"All Done"

Since Kylee has started sitting in the Bumbo, it's now Brady's chair of choice now. Nevermind the fact that his chubby little legs are almost stuck every time he gets out!

Yes, it seem like virtually every post starts out with "so I haven't blogged in a while". So I'll just skip that part. And this time I hve PICTURES! :) Here's an update:

*Koda's been such a great wrestler. He really loves it. So far, he's had 2 tournaments (4 actually, but we've had to sit out of 2 of them because of illness). Of the 6 matches, he's won 2, and only been pinned once! Not bad for his rookie year :) One of his wins, he beat the other kid 12-0!!! And then his very next match was the on where he was pinned...and he became bit more humble again!

Brady feeding the giraffe :)

*We went to Phoenix over Spring Break for 9 days, and we LOVED it! Unfortunately, Koda was in Kodiak for spring break, so it was just George and I with the 2 little ones. We stayed at our friend's Jared and Mogan's house with their two little guys (the oldest is 2.5, and the youngest is 10 days older than Kylee, so Brady had a built in buddy for a week!). We had a blast hanging out with them (we hadn't seen them since they left Alaska 2 years ago!!), and spent a lot of time visiting George's brother, Alvin, and his family. Also, we got our first peek at my parent's new house in Surprise! They closed on it in October, and this was the first time we were down to see it! We alo went to the World Zoo in Surprise, and the hilite was when Brady got to feed the giraffes. I think the hilite for the adults was probably the tortises doing the deed. I never knew that tortises made noise! :) Seriously, I think EVERYONE at the zoo had to notice them! It was downright hilarious. We also made it to a sping training baseball game- Colorado Rockies vs. Anaheim Angels. And I got a game ball! I didn't catch it, but it bounced back onto the field, and George said I just looked cute, so the field guy tossed it up to me :) Brady loved the game too, and his hilite was probably getting an italian ice in the mini helmet! Seriously, that kid is obsessed with ice, slushies, snow cones, popsicles...pretty much anything with ice and virtually no nutrition. In all, I think we just enjoyed being in warm weather. It'll be a hard choice (assuming I get accepted to both) between USU (military med school) in Bethesda, MD, or Univ. of Arizona in Phoenix or Tuscon in a couple years. We just really love Arizona!

Proof that George and Jared really DO change diapers!

*When we got back from Phoenix, my brother, Eric, and his family were in Anchorage (from Ohio!). We got to spend a few days with them before they had to head back home, and it was great to see our nephew, Cole, again, and meet our only neice (on my side!), Sage who turned 1 when she was here! We had a little birthday party for her at Scott and Heather's house. In the works was also a big family picture, which my mom and I had been planning for some time. With 7 kids all 6 and under, we knew that it wouldn't be the easiest thing to get them all to be "ok" with pictures and stand or sit in the same place! But, it went better than expected, as you can see below! :)

The twins

Sage and Cole

The boys showing off their "muscles"

The whole family!

Pretty much Cole's biggest smile you can get on camera!

*Also, since getting back from Phoenix, we've had nothing but sickness here! First was a flareup for me of a bacterial eye infection, which required a trip to the doctor and prescription eye drops. The going joke is that I must have gotten some kind of animal poop in my eye at the zoo since it was so windy! Then Brady was "sick". It didn't really get him down, but he was coughing and had the NASTIEST snotty nose that required a kleenex every 10.4 seconds. Koda, too, had a bit of a cough. Then I started feeling it, and I went as long as I could before going back to the doctor, finding out that I had a bad case of bacterial laryngitis. I'm almost never sick to the point of almost bedrest, but this knocked me on my butt! And the cherry on top was when Koda woke up last Thursday complaining his ear hurt. I checked it with the otoscope, and sure enough, his right eardrum was cloudy, bulging, and bright red. We spent the whole next day (Thursday) waiting for it to burst and drain for some relief. We went into his pediatrician about an hour after it burst and she gave us some ear drops. It must be one heck of an ear infection, because that hasn't cleared it up in the last few days, so now we're on to an oral antibiotic. Here's to hoping that the "sick season" is officially over in this house!

*THE BED!!! Yes, George finished the boy's bunk bed he's been working on for the past 2 months! He built it from scratch, and it looks AMAZING! After fnding out that it wouldn't go up the stairs, we figured out the only way to get it into the boy's room was taking out their window and doing it that way. Mind you their room is on the 2nd floor. An the bed is made of solid oak. So.....George rented a forklift yesterday and drove it home! Once we got the large unit in the room, we put it together, and it's awesome! The boys love it, and George and I were joking that if we ever lived in a really small place, we could sleep 6 people in it! (Once he builds the trundle for underneath!). They're only twins, but the rails on the top bunk make it feel pretty spacious (plus, you can't fall off!). And I'm loving all the storage in the bed. The steps are drawers, and I unloaded all of Brady and Koda's clothes from the large and small dressers we had and STILL had one drawer left to fill! I'm in heaven! Some pictures....both of the bed, and HOW it got into their room!

The boys vegging out on their new bed!

So the next ones are in reverse order....I've been fighting moving these pictures for a while now, and am not wasting any more time on it!

That's where it stayed until the guys got upstairs to lift it the rest of the way in!

just a *little* bit more!

up, up, and away!

Brady's not too happy that dad's down there and he's up here!

Can't wait!!

George removing the window!

The boys loved sitting in the forklift and pretending!

Check out that craftsmanship! Yep, my hubby's awesome!

I know.....

2011-02-24T21:59:00.000-09:00

I've been slacking n my blogging duties. And no, I have no pictures to post with this, so you're just going to have to read without pictures. It's like you're 10 again, and someone's making you read a novel when all you want is a darn picture book. Anyways, I DO however, have some good excuses for the lack of blogging! #1-SCHOOL. It's pretty much been killing me this semester. 2 labs, and 3 classes that are all either math or science. Definately a change of pace from my all history days, and it's really hard to get used to! I mean, I seriously haven't studied any of this since high school.....which reminds me that our 10 YEAR reunion is this summer! Makes me feel a bit old. So I've both slacked on my school work at times (I had to do almost 2 weeks of math homework last weekend to catch up in that class....and to understand material for the test yesterday!), and also studied like a mad woman. Monday night, after an FULL day of classes and kids (literally, my Mondays consist of getting me and kids up and ready starting around 6:30am, taking the younger ones to usually my mom's or grandmas, Koda to school, me to my 1st class...Chemistry lab bright and early at 8:30 Monday mornings...don't ask why I did that. A break of about an hour and a half, where I have to race over to wherever Kylee is and feed her, then feed myself, then another class. Then go pick Koda up from school....and pick up Kylee and Brady. Head home to feed them something...unless my mom is here, then she fixes something....man, I love her! And then back off to class until almost 7pm!) Yep...that's my Monday. Monday's suck. Anyways, after I got home this past Monday, I got the kids to bed (8pm-ish), and started studying for my Chemistry midterm. And I seriously didn't stop until 1:30 am! Probably the most I've ever studied at one time. But....I found out this morning that I SET TE CURVE FOR THE CLASS! Yes, a class of almost 100, and I was the *smartest* (read: best guesser) in the class! Yay for padding my grade there! I DO have hope now to pull off an A in this class! Seriously, this is a huge feat for me. I'm pretty used to getting all A's and B's (in fact the only C I ever got was in jr. high....and I'd still argue with Mr. Pargeter that I deserved a B), but I'm usually not at the top of the class! I suppose if there was ever a time to be there, now would be it! A high science GPA would definately help me get into medical school in a couple years!

So yes, that's my big accomplishment for the week.

And in the course of this week, I have had the longest Chemistry lab of my life (seriously, over 3 hours), a brutal Chemistry midterm, a Biology lab exam (since when do labs have exams, anyways? stupid.), a trigonometry midterm, and I'll finish it off on this coming Monday wih a Biology midterm. Phew.

Ok, enough with school. Seriously...I have three kids too.And surprisingly, Brady has been *almost* an angel this week! He's went to bed (and his naps) fairly well, we got him to eat a few new things (almost a miracle), and he's been in a pretty good mood for the most part! Koda is the easiest kid, as always. Seriously, although he doesn't listen very well (Hello! He's 6.), he really is a pretty obedient and very caring kid. And he loves his little brother and sister to death! He's in that stage where he says "Mom, I love you" or "mom, you're the best mom ever" at random times. :) Yeah, he's pretty awesome!
And then there's my little Princess Isabella. Seriously, that's pretty much her nickname. My dad's probably going to KILL me if Isabella ends up really sticking, because he's lectured me numerous times on how to never name your kid something and then call them by their middle name. BTW-did you know his name is actually Carl? No? Thats because his parents wanted to call him David (his middle name) his whole life. It really is a pain when it comes to someone's legal name. But....Kylee Isabella is just so darn cute, and she goes by pretty much anything at this point. Kylee, Isabella, bellabug, belly, izzy, iz, ky-ky, etc. And I just can't get enough of her. She's been my only cuddly baby (so far), and the only one able to breastfeed, so it's been really nice getting to bond with her in a way I wasn't able to with the boys. She's definately a momma's girl too....she recognizes my voice and face and smell, and always quiets down if she's upset when I'm even near!

On another note, we're heading to Homer tomorrow for Koda's first wrestling tournament! It should be interesting. And we're definately taking the video camera, so if we get good footage, I'll make George figure out how to post it on here! :) I'm pretty much a tech-idiot. And.....that also means that I get to spend my 27th birthday in Homer at a tournament all day! Not that I really mind much...my little family will be together, and it's something different! Plus, Tuesday night, we leave for Phoenix for a week! I'm so excited!!! We're staying at our friend's place (Jared and Morgan), and seriously can't wait to visit them and beat the tar out of them at nerts! Yes, that's right Morgan if you're reading this....it's on. And to see George's oldest brother, Alvin, and his family. And the sun. The warm. And a REAL mall. Yeah, just overall excited!

Randomness.

2011-02-12T23:31:00.000-09:00

I just transferred my pictures from my iPhone to the computer, and here's some random favorites!

The boys playing airplane...with Curran as the captain!

Dad sure does have some big shoes to fill!

We caught Curran and Koda holding hands in the Southcenter Mall after Christmas. They were so embarassed when they knew we caught them! :) Boys.

First time sitting on the potty. Sorry for the "boy parts" flashing all over. Whatever. We've all seen it before.

He always emulates the boys (dad and Koda) going pee....this ishis version!

My main man and main lady enjoying a soak!

I really like your chocolate chip banana bread mini-muffins, mom!

It's what I came downstairs to! :)

First real smile caught on camera :) We've since captured some better ones....but they're on George's phone!

Funniest thing in a looooong time!

2011-02-12T22:26:00.000-09:00

So my new friend, Sassy, posted this on her blog, and I just had to steal it. After the day I had today (I'll blog about it later when I'm not so pissed about it and can think strait!), it was totally what I needed!

ABOUT THE WRITER
Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for the Miami Herald.
Colonoscopy Journal:
I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy.
A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis .
Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner.
I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!'
I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America 's enemies.
I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous.
Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor.
Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons). Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of sheetrock and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon..
The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose, watery bowel movement may result.'
This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.
MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but, have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.
After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep.
The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.
At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked..
Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep.
At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house.
When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere.. I was seriously nervous at this point.
Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand.
There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' had to be the least appropriate.
'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me.
'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.
I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, ABBA was yelling 'Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine,' and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood.
Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that IT was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ
On the subject of Colonoscopies...
Colonoscopies are no joke, but these comments during the exam were quite humorous..... A physician claimed that the following are actual comments made by his patients (predominately male) while he was performing their colonoscopies:
1.. 'Take it easy, Doc. You're boldly going where no man has gone before!'
2.. 'Find Amelia Earhart yet?'
3.. 'Can you hear me NOW?'
4.. 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?'
5.. 'You know, in Arkansas , we're now legally married.'
6.. 'Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?'
7.. 'You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out...'
8.. 'Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!'
9.. 'If your hand doesn't fit, you must quit!'
10. 'Hey Doc, let me know if you find my dignity.'
11. 'You used to be an executive at Enron, didn't you?'
12. 'God, now I know why I am not gay.'
And the best one of all:
13.. 'Could you write a note for my wife saying that my head is not up there?'
Pick yourself up off the floor now!

Stand Mixers: a Review

2011-02-04T10:11:00.000-09:00

When I left home, I spent about 9 months in a college dorm the size of a postage stamp. That I shared. And they didn't allow so much as a hotplate in the room. So needless to say, I lived on things that could be microwaved that year (and ice cream, because who can resist ice cream at -40 degrees F in Fairbanks?). When I came back to Anchorage and actually had my own kitchen, the first thing I thought I really needed was a stand mixer. My mom has ALWAYS had a mixer on the counter. She still has the one my dad bought her the fall after I was born (1984) from the cannery in Larsen Bay. It was a larger, very heavyduty commercial one that had only been used for one summer! And she STILL has it. It has been through more crap than any other mixer I know. We've ground a TON of meat (not lately, but I distinctly remember doing it often while I was younger), ground lots of cheese, and used it for mashed potatoes, cakes, cookies, etc. And it's still in great shape, at 27 years old!

So, naturally, the first larger purchase for my kitchen was a mixer. It was a pretty cobalt-blue kitchenaid. And I loved it. At first. Then it broke a couple years after I got it. I got it fixed....pretty simple fix, but it was somewhere around $75! Then a year later, again. Another $75. Then less than a year after that, again. I was so fed up with it...But, I lived with it because I couldn't see shelling out a good chunk of money on a new mixer. And, I knew I didn't want a kitchenaid....but I didn't know what I wanted.

But lo and behold (I knew this was my present, actually), I got a new mixer for Christmas! George and I had really researched brands, reviews, prices, etc. We both fell in love with the functionality and SIZE (i's a 7 qt!) of the Cuisinart! It's beautiful, too:

I immediately got it out of the packaging and once it warmed up (George hid it in his car!), I made a batch of cookies. The bowl was so enormous, it looked like I'd barely made anything! And if you know my family, you know that NOTHING is SMALL, especially when it comes to cooking and baking. Every Oberg recipe has to feed at least a small army (as I remembered last week when I made a batch of bread dough with an Oberg recipe I'd never made, and it yielded 5 loaves! And yes, the mixer did great, even with over 10 cups of flower). And, naturally, I'm an Oberg at heart! There isn't a recipe I've found yet that even comes close to filling this bowl up, and I love it! Plus, it has that handy "shield" so the flour doesn't "pouf" up and cover your countertops!

And even at this moment, I'm baking off a batch (actually a half batch...) of cookies for Koda's 1st grade parent lunch today!

Final word: Kitchenaid, NO.......Cuisinart, YES!

To pierce or not to pierce....

2011-02-01T07:25:00.000-09:00

George and I know that we'll get Kylee's ears pierced....we just haven't decided exactly when. Part of it is kinda procrastination and the busy days we've been having. However, my sister-in-law, Heather, came up with a really good, really compelling point the other day. If you get it done early (ie: NOW), Kylee can' consiously mess with her earrings, so they would be able to heal better. I've really been wanting to get it done (but haven't due to lack of time), but wanted to know maybe more input....especially from moms who have girls!

Oh, and the lack of time also stems from George's new big project...he's building a bunk bed for the boys. From scratch. We went and bought a butt-ton of oak this past weekend, and he's been working on it pretty much non-stop! I'll post pictures when there's something more to look at!!

Couldn't resist!

2011-01-29T12:52:00.001-09:00

AHHHHH! How can you not be happy when you spend all day with this cutie:

Kylee really has been getting into moods, usually once or twice a day, where she's all smiles! Just melts my heart! She's such a perfect little addition to the family!

Grandma and Grandpa Skinner's visit

2011-01-29T12:47:00.000-09:00

Brady LOVES his little sister. Sometimes.

A couple weeks ago, George's parents flew back from their 4 month RVing adventue in the lower 48. They were able to stay here in Anchorge visiting us and Lizzie, Alan, and their boys for almost a week! This was the first time they met Kylee, and Debbie enjoyed having a little one around again. They babysat a couple times that week while I was at school, and I'm sure got their grandkid fill!

HEAVEN!

2011-01-29T08:55:00.000-09:00

George put Kylee down last night about 8:30pm......and she didn't wake up until 2:30am! 6 hours straight. The first time I've had that kind of sleep in well over 2 months! And when she went back down, she didn't wake up until 7:30. Yep, that's 5 more solid hours! I feel like I'm ready to run a marathon! I'd probably crap out around mile 3 or 4, but hey...we're getting ready to head to the gym for Koda's "Junior Jam" class (just a bunch of fun games in the gym with other kids his age!), and for me to work out a bit (and then relax in the jacuzzi and sauna!). Amazing what motherhood/parenthood will make you appreciate!

That's life...

2011-01-28T11:45:00.000-09:00

     I just finished my 3rd week of classes. Not only is it all changed up because I'm only taking math and science classes, but I'm full time for the first time in 2 years, and we've added 2 kids since then! Let's just say I feel a little like a mom, wife, student, taxi driver, maid, cook, cow (still nursing) referee, etc, etc. I think I really need a clone.
     I went into this semester thinking I was just going to KILL it! I was ready, had my books (even started reading a bit ahead!), and wanted to go back to school and get out of the house for a while SOOOO bad. But, then I figured out exactly what Trigonometry was. It blows. Seriously, I don't think I'll ever use it again. But, alas, I think that Medical Schools want to put prospective students through misery before they get there to make sure they can hack medical school. Basically, I'm hoping that I can pull 2 A's and a B (although I'm pretty sure it'll be 1 A and 2 B's....or all three B's. who knows!). To make matters a bit more complicated, UAA may not be offering Organic Chemistry over the summer, and since they HAVE had it every summer in the past (10+ years), I really, really counted on taking it! Depending on how I work my classes and how much work I think I can maintain next year without hurting my GPA (or neglecting my kids and hubby!), the no summer O-Chem may just put me back applying to medical school for an entire year! We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I'm contemplating bribing the Chemistry chair to push to have it this summer by leaving baked goods and desperate notes in his office for him! He already thinks I'm nuts taking pre-med classes with 3 kids.....and he thinks George is nuts (downright delusional, he would say!) because he actually is looking forward to staying home with the kids (until they're all in school) once I start medical school! But, hey...If the baked goods bribery doesn't work, at least I'll ensure a great reference letter from him later on!
   On another note, Koda started wrestling this week. He has it 3 day a week (three days in a row!) Tues-Thurs for an hour and a half! It's a bit crazy, but I think he's really in love with the sport. So far he mainly sees it as some good ol' fashioned roughhousing.....but with rules. He's in heaven. And it's downright entertaining watching all these little guys (and ONE little girl....she's pretty fiesty!). The warmup of jumping jacks and pushups would make almost anyone laugh out loud. They just have no clue. I took a couple videos with my iPhone last night, and next week, I'll try to remember the real video camera to get some good footage to share!
   And as a quick update, all the kids are doing well....Koda's a champion reader and is doing 3rd grade math! We just had the kids' doctor checkups a couple weeks ago, and Brayden's 75% for both height and weight....which is great, because we've really started cracking down on his bad eating habits. He likes virtually nothing. Unless it's sweet. Then that's all he'll eat. He won't touch cheese...unless it's in a sandwich. And not just any sandwich....it has to be YOUR sandwich, because he refuses to eat one if you make it for HIM! Same with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He likes eating off of other people. Any kind of fruit he'll eat at any time. That's pretty much his only thing he'll consistently eat! So......if he doesn't eat a meal, he doesn't get anything until the next meal...including dinner. So he's went to bed pretty hungry a few times. Kylee, on the other hand, wants to eat ALL THE TIME! Lately she's been cluster feeding, which really sucks on days that I have more than 1 class! He hates the bottle, but tolerates it when she's hungry enough. Except with me. She KNOWS that I have the goods, and she'll scream bloody murder if I try to give her a bottle! Other than that, she's doing really well, and she's a great baby! She's started smiling quite a bit over the past week, and can usually catch her in a "smiley" mood at least once a day. It totally makes my day!

And unfortunately, I have no pictures to share! I've been slacking on taking pictures....but really, who wants to see me driving Koda to school, going to school myself, eating (somewhere in between stuff), picking Koda up, feeding Kylee, cleaning, cooking (occasionally!)......because that's pretty much all we've done. But...Super Bowl is approaching, and the weekend after that I'm trying to twist George's arm to spend a weekend at Alyeska. Then we'll have some pictures!

Kylee's Newborns!!

2011-01-22T09:02:00.000-09:00

I never had good newborn pictures done of either of the boys....mainly because I procrastinated past the point they could be called "newborns", and partly because they are kinda spendy! But I HAD to get them with Kylee (HELLO! She's a girl! I know....a bit choosy with my kids, but litle girl pictures can be dolled up so much cuter!), AND...when we did our maternity pictures, we ended up doing the "Belly and Baby" package, which included maternity, newborn, 6 month, and 1 year pictures! In a nutshell, Brady was semi-uncooperative, Koda was a ham, and Kylee peed twice during the shoot (without a diaper on!). Once on George, and once on the floor! Here's the results:

Some really sweet sledding!

2011-01-22T08:16:00.000-09:00

My favorite picture. George just pushed the boys down as fast as he could, they're already airborne, and I just love the expression you can only half see on Koda's face!

The last weekend of November, we all took the kids sledding. Actually, I should say that George, my dad, my bro, and sis-in-law took Koda, Tristan and Curran sledding. Brady did 2 runs down the hill before my dad and George gave up trying to convince him it was fun. I think Brady just knew that there was a warm SUV and movie to watch and thought that sounded much more fun! So he joined my mom and I with Kylee in the truck. Again, my dad's improving photography skills made for some great pictures!

Thanksgiving...

2011-01-14T17:14:00.000-09:00

So one reason (and yes, I know it's a bit "selfish") really wanted to be induced over the weekend on the 20th is because I REALLY didn't want to be in the hospital for Thanksgiving! Best food day of the year, and I really wanted to enjoy it! My dad has also become quite the photographer, and we were able to get better, cuter pictures of Kylee!

Brady's trick of the day: putting Cocoa Puffs on the lid of his cup and trying to eat them off!

Just a bit ticked!

The boys eating

Baby Kylee!

It is tiring being this cute :)

Momma and her little lady!

Being cute....this is only one of his personalities. It's a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde thing going on lately!

Grandma finally has a granddaughter close enough to cuddle with!

Announcing Kylee Isabella!

2011-01-14T16:44:00.000-09:00

Kylee Isabella Skinner was born November 21st at 3:03am! She was 8 lbs, 3oz...the largest of the three kids!! After 2 weeks of ultrasounds and non-stress tests (because I was measuring small and my amniotic fluid was getting low) at my doctor's office, she finally agreed with me that it was time for Kylee to be evicted! George and I checked into the hospital on the 20th at 8pm, thinking we were probably in for a long night (being induced!), and probably an even longer next day. They started pitocin around 9pm, and by a little after 2am she was ready! But...my doctor was at the other hospital in town checking on another patient (which happened to be a childhood friend of mine! We facebooked/messaged throughout the evening and into the night keeping each other company until Kylee was born!), so we had to try and wait until she could get to OUR hospital! Thankfully, she arrived just in time, and Kylee was born just minutes later! Honestly, she was probably the easiest labor so far (but I had epiurals with all three, so "easy" is relative!), and it was quick enough that she didn't even have a conehead!

About 10 minutes after she was born!

Proud daddy!

Brady still gets a bit jealous when someone else is holding Kylee! Plus, he really likes anything soft and fuzzy, so he frequently tries stealing her blanket!

Maternity Pictures!

2011-01-14T14:51:00.001-09:00

When I was pregnant with Brady, we really wanted to take maternity pictures. I finally called our friend, Ronalyn, to set up a time to take them... think it was a Friday, and I set it up for the next Monday. Then my water broke a few hours later, and because of my procastinating nature (I can blame it on genetics...my dad's the worst!), we weren't able to get pictures. HOWEVER....this time around, I didn't procrastinate AS much, and we were able to take some family pictures with the 8.5 month belly! We had a TON of fun, and even though I probably won't be hanging up some of these pictures in the house, I still really like them!

Halloween

2011-01-14T14:41:00.000-09:00

So once we got back home from our trip, it was only a couple week until Halloween! I've ALWAYS wanted to be pregnant (BIG pregnant!) for halloween and be a nun. I know, it's a bit cliched, but it's something I've always wanted to do! I made George go as a priest, which made it even better! He was a bit embarassed, but didn't give him much of choice, so he had to put up with it for one night! We went to our friend's house for a big halloween party again this year and had a blast! Dakota was a ninja this year, and Brayden was a little giraffe. He was incredibly cute, and LOVED his costume!

Our cute little giraffe!

Unfortunately, Koda was so excited to have his costume on and go to the party, we didn't end up getting a picture of him! :(

Aquatica

2011-01-14T14:23:00.000-09:00

Ok, so I KNOW I've been a huge blogging slacker. I never even finished blogging about our family trip back in OCTOBER! So, here's the rest. We spent about a half day at Aquatica, Seaworld's waterpark. Brady really isn't crazy about the water OR the sand, and they have plenty of BOTH there! Therefore, after a few hours, I was absolutely DONE! But Koda is a complete FISH, so George and Koda spent another half day later in the week, so they got plenty of waterslides in! Here are some pics!

Loving the water!

It's Ok to get feet wet, just not much more than that!

The ONLY slide Brady went down. And not without a fight. He was screaming the whole time!

We were buddies at the water park-I couldn't do hardly anything, and he didn't want to!

Koda having a blast!

Not to crazy about sand, either!

Disney Characters

2010-10-20T18:28:00.000-08:00

Of course, you can't go do Disneyworld with kids without "meeting" at least the main Disney characters (I could probably do without it, but the line was short, so I agreed!). Brayden LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse....it's literally the only thing that gets his attention on the TV. So, logically, I figured he'd be excited to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, etc in person. WRONG!

Yes, there are a few more pictures, but they all pretty much look like the ones above. It was absolutely HILARIOUS!!! I know, I'm a mean mom. But seriously, this was great entertainment! The only way we could get a picture without Brady freaking out was if George or I held him!

Yes, I realize an "upshot" of a pregnant woman is not exactly the most flattering picture!

We went to each Disney park twice, with the exception of Animal Kingdom (you definately DON'T need to visit it twice....it's about a half-day type of park!). We did the Epcot fireworks, which was great! Koda and George went on virtually every major ride at least twice....and Brady and I lingered around the Disney shops most of the time. Koda's favorite Disney rides were the Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith Rollercoaster (both at Hollywood Studios), Splash Mountain and Space Mountain (at Magic Kingdom), Everest and the Kali River Rapids (at Animal Kingdom), and Soarin' and Mission: Space (at Epcot). He really is our little daredevil, and would probably ride the craziest rides if they let him...I'm talking the ones at Six Flags and Busch Gardens! He's fearless!

Now on to some good stuff.... :)

2010-10-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

Since I started out with the horrors of our vacation, I suppose I should pick it up a bit with the highlite of it: Discovery Cove! We rescheduled it for later in the week because George was sick, which really was a blessing in disguise for 2 reasons!! The first being that when we rescheduled it, the reservation guy surprised me with a refund of over $50 because the "fare" was lower for the day we rescheduled it!! AND....once we got to Discovery Cove and had our quick "orientation" talk, they let us all know that it should be a great day...not only because the weather was *perfect*, but also because they were booked at LESS than HALF capacity, so there wouldn't be very many people in the "park"!!! As it is, they restrict the number of people so it's never crowded, but this was really nice as literally, it was DEAD there!

We checked in just after 8am, and they gave George and Koda a dolphin swim time of somewhere around 10:30 (I think!). You have to be 6 (or at least LOOK like you're at least 6!) years old to do the swim, and no pregnant ladies could do it either, so Brayden was my little buddy for that part of the day! We walked over and got our wetsuits.....which was interesting in itself. I wasn't so sure that I'd be able to squeeze my belly into a wetsuit, but the ladies there assured me that it could happen. After all, George pointed out, look at some of the guys with big beer guts....not much different than a preggo belly! Thanks, honey.They look at me up and down, and then give me 2 to go try on. I get into the dressing room, take a look at them, and realize that they're both regular women's sizes....XS and S. Seriously, an XS??? I try to squeeze into it anyways because, hey.....they should know their stuff.....they do this everyday. It wouldn't even fit over my thighs. I manage to get the size S over my belly and zipped up, and really, it wasn't too bad. I was comforted by the sounds coming from the other dressing rooms....grunts and such of other women trying to get their butts into the suits as well! :)

We started out trying to get Koda to snorkel in the "reef" they have there, but he kept complaining that the water was too cold. Seriously, the pool at the AK Club here at home is much, much colder. He was just being a wuss. So then we venture over to the stingray area, and again, he complains he's cold. It's like 90 degrees outside, sun beating down on us, wetsuits on, and he's cold?? Then we realize his wetsuit is a tad too big on him....it's kinda hanging off of him. So George takes him to switch it out, and they guy takes one look at Koda and says "looks like he needs a much smaller suit"!! Duh. They gave him a suit like 2 or 3 sizes smaller, and worked like a charm. Koda still wouldn't actually swim in the colder water, but he did enjoy the stingrays, even getting the courage to try touching them after a while!

George and I had done Stingray City in the Caribbean (just a big sandbar out in the middle of the ocean that is famous for stingrays!), so we were pretty comfortable around them. Probably the coolest thing about the rays was that they had a baby ray born just a few hours before opening that morning, and he was swimming around as well. Too darn cute! I'd say it was only around 6" or 7" wide at his "wings".....he was always the one Koda was looking for in the ray area!

The next thing was Koda and George's dolphin time. Koda had SO been looking forward to this since we watched an episode of Kate Plus 8 (where they were at Discovery Cove) and he discovered that the dolphins there would make a farting sound when you pressed the "imaginary" button inbetween their eyes. Literally, it was the first thing Koda tried. HILARIOUS! Here he and George is giving some love to their dolphin:

And even though technically Brayden and I weren't supposed to be in the water with the dolphins, the trainer snuck us in to get a family picture :)

The other really cool thing at Discovery Cove was their aviary. There were three different sections, all with different types of birds. While we didn't realize it, the first area we were in was the one with the largest birds, and they would almost swarm you (because we had bird food). They were very tame and gentle, but Brady wanted nothing to do with them. He literally freaked out, screaming and crying...which only occasionally caused the birds to fly away! It really was pretty funny!! After a while, Brady would tolerate birds landing on George (who was carrying him), but only if they landed on the opposite arm or shoulder from where he was!

Koda, George, and I LOVED, loved, loved the aviary! These birds were amazing, and it was such a cool experience!

Here's a quick picture gallery of Brady's day:

All suited up and ready to go!

Not much of a fan of the water....and it was literally the temperature of bath water! Sooooo warm!

This pretty much was the highlite of his day. Nice and cozy and sleeping in the stroller!

He's also not a fan of sand.

Brady finally zonked out with George in the water. Once Koda and I got back (from around the lazy river), they were both submerged in the water by the waterfall, and George and I switched out with Brady. I propped myself against the rocks next to the waterfall with Brayden, and *almost* fell asleep myself! It was heaven!!!

One of the other really, REALLY nice things was that Discovery Cove was all inclusive. That meant no $14 or $15 parking (like Disney, Seaworld, etc), and food was included! And it was GOOD food! Breakfast was great, but lunch was even better! Koda especially enjoyed it because they had all three of his favorite foods: Mac-n-cheese, grilled salmon, and chocolate cake. For him, the only thing missing was halibut! They also had great little snack shacks around the park, which was great. They had lemonade and cherry slushies, which was Brady's favorite thing (besides sleeping) of the day!

The Discovery Cove day was literally the best day of the trip. We had such a great time, and although it was also the most expensive part of the trip, I don't think we'd have traded it for anything! Well worth the money!!!

Family Vacation!!

2010-10-19T16:54:00.000-08:00

We left for a very long awaited family vacation to Orlando, FL the night of the 29th of September. While I would like to say travel was uneventful, it would be a complete lie! Therefore, I will split up my posts into a few categories. IE: Travel, Disney, Discovery Cove, etc. Here's the first installment:

The night before we left, I was horribly sick, throwing up ALL night. Plus, it was bad on the other end as well (I know, some might say TMI, but hey, you don't get the full effect of how sick I was unless you know!). Thankfully, it was over by morning (thanks in part to some left-over preggo meds to stop vomiting from the first 3 months!), but I was exhausted! I had grand plans for the day we left. IE: changing the bed sheets on all the beds/crib, making sure all laundry was done (so there wouldn't be anything to come home to!), taking out all the trash, last minute packing, getting some cash from the ATM, and lots and lots of general house cleaning. I love coming home to a clean house. Needless to say, I didn't even do a fraction of it. Things got packed, the trash was out, and I was alive. We left that night, and thankfully, the kids slept almost the whole way to Seattle, so even though I can never sleep on the plane, I could at least relax :)

We got to Seattle REALLY early in the morning (4am or so) and didn't catch the flight to Orlando until 8am, so we got some breakfast and let the kids play in the coolest airport play area ever (it's at the beginning of concourse A for those of you flying through there with kids!). Unfortunately, I seemed to have given whatever was ailing me to Brady, because he threw up mainly chocolate milk all over. And, in my fog of the day before, I failed to put an extra set of clothes/PJ's in the carryon for Brayden. So he STUNK until we got to the hotel in Orlando than night! However, another silver lining is that he was ok in a few hours, didn't blow the diaper out, and by the time we got on the plane again, he seemed fine.

Phew...only a 5.5-6 hour flight until paradise and SLEEP! The kids were great the first 4-ish hours of the flight to Orlando also, which was nice. Then.....Koda says he has to go to the bathroom. Everything's fine until about 20 minutes later when he says he has to go again. And then 20 minutes later, again! Poor little guy! And then the puking started. For an entire hour and a half. And the first time he threw up, he missed the sickness bag altogether (or should I say he just failed to have one accessible), and it ended up all over the floor, the strap of the diaper bag, and on his crocs. Gross. And being the most helpful hubby he is in times like this, George was about to throw up just at the sight and smell of it. So I got to squish my pregnant butt inbetween the seats to try and clean it up as best I could while I sent Koda to the bathroom to spend some time throwing up/going potty. This pretty much lasted until final approach when we absolutely HAD to take our seats! We get to Orlando, get the bags, the car, and find the hotel. The kids and I stay in the car while George goes to check in, and of course, Koda has to throw up again. Thankfully, he opens the car door to do so, and it's just on the pavement. The night is spent peppered with Koda running to the bathroom. But, again, by morning, he feels better and good enough to venture out to go to Downtown Disney.

We have a great day....but alas, 2 days later, George is hit with being sick. His is probably the WORST out of all of us, but I'll spare you the details. My poor hubby was up all night in the bathroom, and it lasted into most of the next day. That was also the day we were scheduled to go to Discovery Cove (the only thing we had set in stone because you have to make reservations with them!), but upon calling when they opened (and when we were already supposed to be there), they let us change the day to later in the week, which was great since it was the highlite of our trip, as well as the most expensive thing we did, and it would have been horrible to make George go while feeling so cruddy!

Then, about a week into our trip, Brayden started getting some serious eye goop. Koda liked to call it eye snot. Seriously, that's what it looked like. Neither of my boys have ever had pink eye (and neither have George or I), so I'm so unfamiliar with it. Technically, it was only snot. He didn't have pink, irritated looking eyes, wasn't fussy, they weren't itchy (or at least he wasn't itching them!), etc. Just the eye snot. Regardless, we found a "doc-in-the-box" (after I had confirmed that it was definately bacterial pink eye with the help of the internet on the Iphone!), and 20 minutes later, we left with a prescription for eye drops. By the next morning, Brady's "eye snot" had diminished greatly. I was like a crazy nazi the rest of the trip though, making us all wash our hands a billion times a day!

Our travels home were relatively uneventful compared to the trip itself. No sickness, no puking, etc. However, Brayden decided he REALLY didn't want to sleep on the Orlando to Seattle flight, and proceeded to SCREAM at the TOP of his lungs for about 2 hours until he finally passed out! We spent a couple days in Seattle, which were "bad-news uneventful", as well as the flight home from Seattle (the kids were ANGELS on that flight!). While we loved our trip and the weather, we were really glad to be back in our own bed. Nothing beats a tempur pedic and your own comfy pillows!

Kick off the End of Summer!

2010-09-20T20:15:00.001-08:00

Every year for the past few years, the beginning of summer is kicked off with camping at the cabin on Memorial Day Weekend, and the end of summer comes to a close with being at the cabin over Labor Day Weekend. This year was a bit challenging at the cabin with Brayden being mobile (but not quite walking) at the beginning of summer, and toddling all over (but clumsy) towards the end of the summer. We had to hold him A LOT....and with my belly growing at an exponential pace the last month or two, it makes it hard sometimes! But, Brady LOVES it out there, and so does Koda! We're now up to 5 different swings for the kids....a baby swing for Brayden, a tire swing, regular swing, the ring swing, and the hammock (if you call that a "swing"), so there's plenty to do for the kids. Not to mention the 4-wheelers, which is always the highlite of the weekend.

The past 2 years we've grown potatoes at the cabin. Labor Day weekend is when we "harvest" them, and the kids think it's like hunting for Easter Eggs or treasure!

My mom bought this hat at the fair earlier in the day, and Brayden had a blast playing "dragon baby" with Koda and the twins!

Alaska State Fair 2010

2010-09-20T09:26:00.000-08:00

This year we all managed to head out to the fair twice! Because we're heading to Florida (Disneyworld, Seaworld, Busch Gardens, etc) at the end of the month, we warned Koda that there would literally only be 2 or 3 rides for him. BUT....the 2nd time we went was buddy day, and we broke and bought a pack of tickets, and Koda, Curran, and Tristan spent well over an hour or two on rides! This year the petting zoo was awesome because Koda wasn't afraid of all the animals, and Brady was big enough to enjoy it too!

This was Brady's preferred method of being held for a good 5 minutes! He thought it was hilarious!

Dakota turns 6 years old!!!

2010-09-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

Today is Koda's 6th birthday!!! I can't believe how fast time flies, how big he is, and how much older it seems I am when HE has a birthday (as opposed to when I have a birthday)!! Regardless, his party was yesterday. The big thing last year apparently was to invite the whole class (which we didn't do last year), so I promised him that he could do it this year. Thankfully, his school all has very small class sizes (the max is 18), and there's 14 kids total in his class. Add that to his 4 cousins here in Anchorage, and it's over 20 kids (including Brayden!). Needless to say, there was absolutely NO way that we would be fitting (or wanting) all those people in our place, so we had it at the Alaska Club (a fitness center, for those of you who aren't in AK), and had a pool party. He wanted a Batman theme, so I made a cake with a fondant Batman logo on it (my first homemade fondant creation):

Blowing out his candles

Having a bit of fun in the rockwall room before cake and ice cream!

Time for presents! It was funny...I didn't mention legos to any of the parents, but somehow over half of the gifts turned out to be lego sets, which is great since he REALLY has been into building things with legos. I'm talking playing legos at least a good 30-45 minutes every single day!

Brayden's not much of a water baby, but he does enjoy it as long as he can cling on to someone!

Some Auntie Lizzie lovin!

Dad and Brady.....he's in LOVE with the slide. Once he's down and the water is out of his face, he usually looks at George and does the sign for "more". We're trying to teach him "again" instead, but we know what he means!

Koda on his way down!

Tristan literally HATES the water! It doesn't help that he has virtually no meat on his little bones, and the water is fairly chilly sometimes, but even when it's warmer, he's not too much of a fan. Regardless, Heather forced him to ride down the slide with her, going so far as to pry his little hands from his death grip on the bar at the top of the slide! Too funny!

Koda's birthday party was a great success, and everyone had a blast! We were all wiped out afterwards, and Brady ended up taking a 4 hour nap! Dakota made out like a bandit, with lots of Legos, books, and a couple Wii games and accessories. From most of the family, though, he mainly got $$$ to use for our Disneyworld trip! He's been saving the past few months, and with his birthday money, he now has a little over $100 of his own money to spend on vacation. We leave in 10 days, and we all can't wait!!!

Campbell Creek

2010-09-19T20:19:00.000-08:00

Only about 2 miles away from our place is Campbell Creek Park, which is such a great place when it's hot enough outside to enjoy (which isn't very often!). Koda was gone for a little over 2 months this summer in Kodiak, so he missed most of the Anchorage summer (which wasn't much anyways!). However, once he got home a couple weeks before school started, we waited for a really nice sunny day, and went for some fun! The part of the creek where the park is situated is really shallow, so even though the water is FREEZING, the kids can wade fairly well and have a blast!

Back to School

2010-08-20T16:51:00.000-08:00

Dakota's 1st day of 1st grade was Wednesday, and he was so excited that literally, for the entire week leading up to the first day, that's ALL he could talk about! He was/is so excited to be in 1st grade! I can only hope that the excitement doesn't diminish much over the next few years.

completing his "whiteboard" task-a question each morning is on the whiteboard that each of them has to draw or write their response to!

Doing his very first assignment of 1st grade!

I, for one, am conflicted about back-to-school. On one hand, I feel like we didn't have a summer because Koda was gone all but 1 month of it, and in terms of weather, Anchorage DIDN'T really have a summer! We broke the "Consecutive Days of Rain" record this year (July and August), with 32 strait days!!! But, today is the 3rd day of nice weather in a row, so we're celebrating by taking the kids to Campbell Creek Park for a dinner picnic and to play in the creek and playground!

Morphing into a picky eater

2010-08-20T14:06:00.000-08:00

Since Brayden had his first birthday, he has morphed into a little monster. He was such a great little baby, and suddenly, he's kinda moody, he's became a HORRIBLY picky eater, somewhat of a biter (only to me, apparently), plus, it doesn't help that we think he's been cutting his 4th tooth on the bottom for the last month or so. He refuses ANY and ALL veggies, with the exception of frozen corn kernels (a BIG thank you to my cousin, Lori for that suggestion) and french fries (if you can even call them veggies....I don't!). But, he will quite literally eat any kind of fruit, and he is in love with sweets. He loves dairy, except cheese. Cheese HAS to be melted (as in a grilled cheese sandwich), otherwise, he'll spit it out. So basically, my kid lives on fruit, cottage cheese, yogurt, goldfish, frozen corn, and these amazingly good (George and I even eat them!) organic animal crackers from Costco. And, of course, anything sweet that he can finagle out of George or I or that Koda sneaks him. Here's the proof:

"signing" for more!

after stuffing about 1/3 of a banana in that cute little mouth!

He loves his cookies!

and will *sometimes* share if he's in the mood. Usually, though, he just teases you!

my very favorite facial expression!

The absolute custest thing!

2010-08-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

A couple days ago, I get Brayden up for the morning, take his jammies off, and get him out of his enormously almost-over soaked diaper. I had noticed a few times that it looked like his little hips were kinda dry and might be getting a bit chafed where the diaper hits them, so I grabbed some lotion and rubbed some into his hips and tummy. Mind you, this child is a MOVER. He sits still for NOTHING, including (and probably worst of all) diaper changes. But he was just looking up at me and smiling when I was rubbing lotion on him. We've been trying to get him to do a few little signs (sign language) lately, and the only one he has down pretty good is "more" (always for food). So I get done rubbing his hips and tummy, and I begin to screw the cap on the lotion, when he looks at me, puts his hands up, and starts doing the "more" sign! He didn't stop until I rubbed his legs and arms down with lotion too! Spoiled, pampered little guy...it's a good thing he's cute!

2 Year Anniversary!

2010-08-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

Today is George and I's 2 year wedding anniversary!! 2 years later, *almost* 2 more kids later, and lots of laughs, lots of memories, and lots of big plans! I couldn't be happier that I was lucky enough to find my best friend, my other half, the love of my life!! Happy Anniversary, honey, and here's to many, many more!

On our honeymoon!

Baby Bottle Dilemma

2010-07-26T21:27:00.000-08:00

Brayden has been down to just one bottle a day, always early in the morning. If he gets up before sometime around 7am-ish, I generally head downstairs and get a bottle of milk for him, and after almost chugging it, he falls back asleep until 8:30-9am. It really is heaven. And as much as I've thought it'd be so nice to just get rid of the bottles all together (at least for a FEW months before this new one arrives!), I figured it would be so much easier to do it once school starts back up for Koda. For one, we HAVE to get up by 7am or so anyways, so I could just get Brayden and he could have normal food and wouldn't go back down to sleep. BUT....now that George is working nights the past week, he's been uber-bored, and has surfed the internet somewhere around 7-10 hours a night. For me, this equals many tidbits of information from him (it's about the only time he stays somewhat current on the news!), as well as "baby advice". Now that he's watched a clip from Good Morning America, he's convinced that we need to cut Brayden's bottle off! It's not that I don't agree with him....it's just that it's easier said than done, and really...what's another 3 weeks until school starts?! SO...I let George "feed" him the very first morning. By "let him" feed Brayden, I mean shake him somewhere around 3 or 4 times and have an almost full on conversation with him about "GET UP AND FEED BRAYDEN!" But, he finally did. He got Brayden's sippy cup/straw cup full of milk, went up to his room, and as soon as Brady saw the cup-and it wasn't a bottle-he screamed and threw himself back into his crib! Talk about attitude. He completely refused the cup! So, George took him downstairs and had an early breakfast of yogurt and banana before putting him back to sleep. It *seemed* to work ok (from what George said). So this morning, I get Brayden, bring him downstairs, and give him his sippy full of milk, and he starts screaming! He wanted nothing to do with it. He wouldn't even eat yogurt. After about 5 minutes of fighting him, he would reluctantly take bites of yogurt, but only if I let him hold the spoon. He certainly does have a well developed attitude! We shall see how this no-bottle thing goes....especially since I've already packed up every bottle and put them in storage!

Worse than horrible!

2010-06-30T16:15:00.000-08:00

So I log into blogger virtually everyday and get updated on all my family and friends and what their families have been doing. It's not like I don't get on the computer, but seriously, I've been so lazy and procrastinating at updating the blog! So, quick update on us since the last entry:

Dakota finished kindergarten! They had a day of "stepping up", meaning they got to do everything that the 1st graders did so they got a taste of what it would be like next year. He LOVED it. Probably his favorite thing about 1st grade: NO "quiet" time! But, with the end of the year brought some disappointment as well, as he learned that his best buddy in kindergarten, Kaitlin, was moving to Texas :( He was pretty bummed out about that since I told him that for his birthday this fall he could invite his class, to which he replied "YAY, Kaitlin can come!" Then I had to burst his bubble.

We got an extra 2 weeks with Dakota after school was over until he had to head down to Kodiak. It was nice enjoying almost 4 weeks of no school with him (and some great weather!). This spring he participated in Little League T-ball, which he's in love with! He was a little disappointed that it was T-ball (he had no clue what that was!) instead of baseball, because George and him had been practicing for over a year at pitching and hitting the ball! But, he did great, and even though they don't exactly play T-ball by baseball "rules" (they don't necessarily count outs and home runs, etc), when he was on first base, he almost always got a few kids out each game! He's been gone now about 2 weeks, and I SO miss my little buddy, and so does Brayden! He comes back August 7th, which we're anxiously awaiting, about a week and a half before school starts back up again.

Brayden turned 1 on June 18th! We had his little family birthday party get together the week before so that Koda could be there for it, and made a dirt and worm cake and cupcakes. He was a bit unsure what to do with it at first, but he quickly got the hang of it, especially with the help of his Aunt Heather smooshing his face into it! While he wasn't quite "walking"-just a few steps here and there-he definately is now! He can cruise across the room and into the kitchen in no time, and it's becoming more of a mode of transportation rather than a novelty now! This I'm very thankful for since my belly is starting to grow bigger by the day it seems!

On that note, we had our ultrasound on June 24th, and found out we're having a baby GIRL!! We couldn't be more excited, especially since this will be the 10th grandkid on George's side, but only the 3rd girl (and his brother, Rick, has the only other 2 girls!), and only the 2nd girl out of 6 grandkids on my side. The reining joke is that Skinners only produce boys, to the extent that my sister-in-law Lizzie and I always joked that because we BOTH probably wouldn't be getting girls, whichever one of us had one, we'd have to share! The pregnancy has definately improved, and I don't get sick nearly as often anymore. Right now we're about 19 weeks along, and everything looked good on the ultrasound, so looks like we'll have a healthy baby girl sometime around Thanksgiving. While my original due date was November 19th, they moved it back to the 23rd because that's more the size she was measuring last week.

I have been staying at home with Brayden since summer started, and it's been pretty nice. I get bored often, so I started sewing a patchwork-type duvet cover for our bed. I'm quickly finding out that it's much cheaper just to buy them, but it'll be nice when it's done, and it's exactly what I want. Plus....it's keeping me from going nuts being at home all the time!

George is back working construction engineering this summer (as always!), but NOT at the airport, which is a huge bummer. So far, he's been working on the Jewel Lake construction job, which is supposed to be finished up the end of the week. So, starting next week, we have no idea where he'll be. We're really hoping he gets put out on the Trunk Rd. project, which is in Palmer, just about a half mile from my Grandparents place. It would be nice to be able to spend a little bit of the summer out there and spending time with both my grandparents and my cousins/aunts/uncles out there! We shall see.

Here's some pictures :)

George finishing up the tiling in the bathroom! We LOVE it!!

Memorial Day weekend at the cabin!

"Check it out, Mom, a ROCK!"

Brotherly Love!

Mom and Brady bug

Mom and Koda man

After a REALLY big fall! We got a new bike trailer, and George and Koda were playing around on/in it....they took a corner too fast and it rolled. And because it was just in the driveway, Koda wasn't strapped in!! Poor guy!

After things had settled down and he was bandaged on both elbows, both knees, his forehead, wrist, and a big road rash on his arm.....and after about a dozen popsicles!

Happy Birthday Brayden!!

I spoke too soon....

2010-04-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

So in all my excitement about finally NOT being sick while pregnant, I *may* have jumped the gun a bit. With Dakota, it was horrible morning sickness from just a couple days into the 4th week until the 12th week. With Brayden, it was drastically different, not exactly having morning sickness, but more of a wretched, constant heartburn so bad it would make me throw up. And again, from about 4.5 weeks until 12 weeks (at least it stopped at 12 weeks on the dot!). So now? We confirmed this pregnancy around 5 weeks this time. If this is too much for some of you (especially the guys with no kids yet!), skip ahead a few sentences. We really weren't thinking pregnancy. Since Brayden, my...um...."friend" has been crazy irregular, and I'd already wasted 2 pregnancy tests between last July and March. I'm talking up to 10ish days late, etc. And, after about 4.5 weeks, I wasn't sick, so I kinda figured I was just late again. We agreed not to take a test until after the 10-day mark (since that's the latest I'd been yet), but of course, we are SO not the patient type of people. So, at 5 weeks, we took it. And to my surprise, I was pregnant, and wasn't sick! I spent the next, oh.....3ish weeks reveling in the idea of having a by-and-large sick-free pregnancy. Until the end of last week. And it's hit me with a vengance. It's a cross between morning sickness and heartburn. Not nearly as bad morning sickness as with Koda, and not nearly as bad heartburn as with Brayden, but putting them together makes up for it!

However.....as much as this DOES stink, I'm just thankful that I got about 3 weeks of this pregnancy, and that, if the pattern continues, I'll be done with this crap in a little less than 4 weeks. So, I suppose I'll take a month of being sick for a new cute little bundle of joy/crankiness. Plus, with the delayed sickness, along with the fact that so far, this pregnancy is still drastically different than the last two, gives us a *bit* of hope that it *may* be a girl! We shall see. And, in learning from these last two, I've discovered that (at least for my OB), the best time to go in for the 1st appt is around 10 weeks. Therefore, when you come back in 4 weeks, you can schedule the main ultrasound for the 4 weeks after that (at 18 weeks), and they won't give you any trouble about trying to sneak a peek before the "20 week" mark. With Brayden, we did it at 17.5 weeks, and they gave me all kinds of crap (the schedulers, not my OB, who said it was fine), telling me that they don't schedule them until 18 weeks along......and for some kind of scheduling reason, it was either 17.5 or more like 21 weeks, and I'm impatient, darnit! So, if my calculations are correct for the due date (November 20th), and the ultrasound is done at 18 weeks, we'll know if this little one is a boy or girl somewhere around the 3-ish week of June!! Can't wait!

Career Day

2010-03-30T20:04:00.000-08:00

This week is spirit week at Dakota's school. Yesterday, it was "Crazy Hat" day. He decided to wear his Mickey Mouse ears he got at Disneyworld a year and a half ago. When we got home from school, he didn't want to take them off, so I just let him wear them for the evening. I really could care less. When I told him to go get ready for bed, he marches himself upstairs, brushes his teeth, and then comes back downstairs like this:

Sometimes, I wonder if he may have been switched at birth!

Today, however, was "Career" day, and they got to dress up as what they wanted to be when they grew up. For Dakota, it was either a pro snowboarder (we watched a lot of Olympics and now he's obsessed with Shawn White), or a pilot. We ended up going with the pilot because we actually had a lot of the outfit already, and he wouldn't be sweating indoors! Here's Captain Koda.......decked out in an Alaska Airlines Captain uniform:

Check it out, he even has that Ladie's Man smile....just like most Captains! :) And now he's well aware of the difference between a First Officer and a Captain....he made it clear that he wanted 4 stripes on his epilets!

Improvised bathtime

2010-03-30T19:48:00.000-08:00

Going into this bathroom (or rather bathtub) remodel, there would be at least a few bathtimes for Brayden in the kitchen sink. We DO have another shower, but it's just that-a shower only-and although it works well for George, Koda, and I, Brayden's not a big fan of showers. So, demolition day started, I put Brayden down for a nap (which happens to be RIGHT next to the bathroom we're remodeling), and turn the radio up to try and drown out the sound of tile and sheetrock smashing so he can sleep. Amazingly enough, he DID get in a 2 hour nap (which is almost unheard of lately), but when he woke up, he had blown out his diaper, and there was poo everywhere!! Not generally a big deal, but now there was no bathtub, and the kitchen sink was full of dishes to be washed/put in the dishwasher. So he sat all poopy for a good 5 minutes so I could clean out the sink and scrub it clean. Once he got in, he was a bit aprehensive, but it quickly changed to curiousity when he figured out he could stand up in the sink and look out the window!

SO darned cute!

I'm soliciting advice......

2010-03-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

So we have a dillema....that we need an answer to by Monday morning. Here it is: Right now, Dakota goes to school at Pacific Northern Academy, which is a private school here in Anchorage. It is all the way across town (literally, couldn't be much further away without NOT being in Anchorage). It takes around 20 minutes in the morning (and then again in the afternoon, although the traffic isn't as bad) to drop him off and pick him up. Literally, it doubles our gasoline bill, so we spend about $100 extra a month to drive back and forth to school. Also, probably the most important thing, is that the school is really expensive. I'm talking this year alone, cost about the same as about my bachelors degree (it is just about $2,000 short of the cost of my schooling all 4 years). FOR ONE YEAR. It seems crazy, but last fall, he was ready for kindergarten. Plus, being in kindergarten meant that he wouldn't have to be shuffled yet another year back and forth, to and from, Kodiak. So that's why we did it last year. Plus, PNA really is an AMAZING school. I love everything about it....except the location and the cost. The Anchorage School District wouldn't admit him last year because he was 18 days past the age cutoff. They wouldn't even TEST him to see if he was ready because he was 4 days past THAT cutoff.

So that leaves this year. We just went to his parent teacher conference, and he's doing great. He's the youngest one in his class, and by far the best reader. He's also up there in math. Pretty much everything else he's right on par with the other kids. So he's definately ready for 1st grade. We applied for the school's "scholarship" program, and asked for 1/2 tuition assistance (basically we'd only pay half). We were supposed to hear back from the school about this Friday, but didn't. I'll find out Monday morning. We both said if we got the scholarship, Koda would be there another year.

Here's the kicker: because we didn't know if we'd get the scholarship, we also applied to a few of the public charter/alternative schools. One, arguably the best public school in Anchorage-Polaris-is really close. I'm talking we could walk to it in the summer (about a 10-15 minute walk). I would still end up driving him, but literally, it's at the next major intersection North of us. SO close. We got the letter of acceptance to Polaris today. We have to respond by Monday. The problem? Again, Anchorage School District won't admit him into 1st grade because they not only have age limits for kindergarten, but 1st grade as well because K is not required in the state of AK. Soooo.....he'd be admitted as a kindergartener. Their classes are all set up as dual-grade, meaning that his class would be a K-1 blend. So, he would get the benefit of being able to work on 1st grade work if he was ready (he'll be ready for pretty much all of it).

The dilemma, then, is do we spend the $6,500 (plus the extra $100 in gas each month) to keep him at PNA in order to NOT have to repeat kindergarten (and all the driving), or do we go with the best public school (ie: free) that's close to us, but repeat kindergarten in a blended classroom? This is so frustrating! If only ASD would just let him into 1st grade, it would be a no-brainer!

So, weigh in on this if you want to. We're kinda torn as to what to do!!!

Demolition Day

2010-03-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

Today, we started the demo on our upstairs bathroom! Actually, George is working, so my dad and Dan started the demo. And unfortunately, they started on it before I got back home this morning, so I didn't get any complete before pictures. Bummer. Just suffice it to say it was gross. The tub is almond colored (not that it's a big thing, I just really don't like almond), and the shower surround is one of those 3 piece, caulk together quick things. Not a huge deal either, except it's probably the original from when it was built in the late 70's or early 80's. AND....it was cracked in numerous places. The last time I attempted to clean it, I sprayed pure bleach on the caulking, let it set, and then scrubbed it with a toothbrush. It's still black. So nasty. So, I get home, and Dan already has half of the surround off. Although the sheetrock underneath (apparently they didn't know what durarock/backerboard was back then?!) didn't appear TOO disgusting, when they got the sheetrock off the wall, THIS is what we saw:

I almost feel like a bad mom for letting my kids bathe right next to this! (with a plastic, plus a sheetrock barrier). It made me want to puke.

Needless to say, I can't wait for our new tub and tile!

It's official!!

2010-03-24T12:21:00.004-08:00

Countdown Clocks, Pregnancy Countdowns at WishAFriend.com

Snowboarding

2010-03-15T14:50:00.000-08:00

Dakota started snowboarding last winter, which means that this is technically his 2nd winter boarding. While he DID have a lot of fun last year, it really was a "learning" year, and his boarding skills really lacked. Because he was going to learn to board, so was I, and so I bought a whole board setup (board, bindings, and boots) the beginning of LAST season (in fall of 2008), when things were on sale since it wasn't skiing/boarding season yet. Way to save some money....except before I could try out my new equiptment, we found out we were pregnant with Brayden. So, instead of beating myself up and causing who knows what damage, I decided to stick to skiing that season (and even then, I stopped that by the end of December, about 3 months into the pregnancy) since I'm a fairly good skiier. At least I like to think I'm not too bad at it. But, I did get to watch Dakota a few times boarding that year, and it was fun just watching him have fun. But THIS year.....it's been a BLAST! The first time we went, I vowed I probably wouldn't be getting back on a board again. However, because of my "cheapness", I decided I would MAKE myself go again because I wanted some use out of a fairly expensive board set! The second time we went this year, my dad, Scott, Heather, and Curran went also! This was Curran's first time on the mountain, and Scott and Heather put him on skiis. Needless to say, I think it was a long day for them!

There was a LOT of this:

But, of course, it was so incredibly cute!

One of the best things is that my dad brought his nice photography camera and documented all of us, which was great! We finally got some good pictures!! Dakota's getting to the point to where he could probably make it down the whole mountain (starting from the very top....top of chair 6) without killing himself! My boarding skills are getting a bit better as well, but the running joke in the family now is how funny it is watching me get off the lift. For the life of me, I cannot get off the lift on a board without completely wiping out! My dad had witnessed it a few times, and in good spirits, told Scott, Heather, and Curran that they just HAD to wait to see me get off the lift. So there they were at the top of the lift....waiting....and THIS is what happened:

Yes, hilarious everyone. Even the lift operator started to recognize me.

One cool thing that is new this year (I THINK it's new this year) is that they have terrain parks. They have a large one, complete with a half pipe towards the hotel, and a smaller one with a couple jumps close to the bottom of the hill (chair 3 I think). Dakota thought he was pretty hot stuff and wanted SOOOO bad to go try it out, so we let him. Before he left, I told him just don't go TOO fast....I really didn't want broken bones. So what did he do? He kept slowing down the the point that when he got to the jump, he didn't even have enough speed to make it up the hill (aka-jump). So that didn't work too well. But, once he got the hang of it, he loved it!

Unfortunately, never once did he actually land any of his jumps, but he's a great sport about it, popping right back up to try again! Here's my showoff hubby:

And here's me at my best....where I was probably 50% of the time:

And this is George and Koda waiting for me towards the bottom.....I'm always the last down. Besides Curran, I guess, which shouldn't really count at this point!

In all, it was SO much fun, and I can't wait to get on the board again. However, we've all decided that when it't just the adults, and we want a good day up there, I'll be on skiis. I hate not being able to go to the top or down any challenging terrain on a board, but I'm just not confident enough. When the kids get to go, I'll be on the board.
On a side note, I'm very proud to say that after about 18 years or so of skiing, I can confidently go down North Face now, and just last time we went skiing, we did the High Traverse, hiking quite a ways up the mountain past Chair 6, and skiing powder all the way down. My dad and I agreed that people who do that more than once are crazy. George and Scott, on the other hand, thought it was the best thing ever. The only thing we have yet to tackle at Alyeska is Christmas and New Year's Chute (which will probably never happen!), and the new Northwest Passage (only because it's been closed the couple times we've went this year)!

Brayden's growing up!

2010-03-11T15:09:00.000-09:00

Yes, he's almost 9 months now, which seems crazy to me, since it seems like just a month or two ago he was born! He's developing quite a little personality, and we're discovering that he's very stubborn, he KNOWS what "NO" means (but often doesn't really care), he's a REALLY big eater (but we kinda knew that before!), and he can officially drink through a straw consistantly now!

And he LOVES his new straw "sippy" cups:

This is a heaping cup of pasta with cheese melted *before* lunch:

and *after* lunch, YUM:

And he was STILL wanting to eat. I made him wait a bit so his stomach had time to tell his brain he was beyond full!

His cuteness:

And.....his new favorite game to play:

He LOVES to get into the diaper caddy and throw out all the diapers and if he can figure out how to get into the wipes, those too! It's a good thing he's so darn cute!

On a weird side note...

2010-03-11T14:43:00.000-09:00

I'm slightly bummed that my car rolled over 50,000 miles last week. I had to document this "momentous" occasion:

I suppose my car is no longer "new"-ish. Bummer. Still love it though!

My birthday!

2010-03-11T14:39:00.000-09:00

So some of you know that my sister-in-law, Heather, and I share a birthday. This means that we have to agree on where to go for our birthday dinner, since we all end up going out as a "double birthday" thing. It wasn't so hard this year as both of us had coupons for free dinner (up to $30) at Benihana, where virtually everyone in the family likes, but rarely eats at. We have such a cute picture of Dakota, Brayden, George, and I there, but unfortunately, George had to reconnect the network with a different IP address (or something similar, I have no clue what he does!), and now we can't find the cd or cord for the printer/scanner, so I can't scan the picture in and show you! So I suppose when we figure out the printer thing, that's when you'll see this cute picture. After dinner with my side of the family, we went over to our brother and sister-in-law, Lizzie and Alan's house for a little birthday celebration for me. Lizzie is an amazing baker, and finds the absolute best recipes for cakes and cookies and the like. So, this year it was double-chocolate mint cake, which was SOOOOOO good!

Blowing out the candles....

Koda and mom!

Alan and Tyler

Luke thouroughly enjoyed his cupcake!

And, as an *almost* tradition, Lizzie, Alan, George, and I sat down for a cut-throat game of Settlers of Catan. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the four of us looking like total "Magic"-like nerds playing a dorky (but insanely fun) game!

Also, most of the pictures are curtesy of my new camera George got me for my birthday! It's 10 MP and WATERPROOF!!! Which means we'll be able to use it in the pool or water park when we go on our vacation in November!

My domesticated side!

2010-03-11T14:24:00.000-09:00

For Christmas, I got my very first sewing machine! I think I've really only sewed a few things in my entire life, including a rudimentary backpack at my Aunt Carol's house somewhere around age 8 or so, a hideous skirt made in 8th grade Home-Economics, probably hundreds of fleece socks with my mom, a couple simple blankets, and just last fall/winter for the boys (Koda, my twin nephews Tristan and Curran, and my nephew Cole), matching "quilt"-like blankets. Those last ones were probably the "hardest" sewing I've done, and it was also with the help of my mom. In reality, what ended up happening, was that I did all the cutting, all the pinning, and all the organizing, and SHE sewed. BUT....it really got me into the sewing bug. So, that's what I told George I really wanted for Christmas! Nothing fancy, just a very simple sewing machine. So what did he get me, you ask? He took the "simple" think literally, and my machine is a "Singer Simple"! In reality, while it is a fairly simple sewing machine, it pretty much has anything I'll ever want to do, so I was happy as ever! Personally, I don't ever see myself using all 14 different types of stitching, 5 length settings, etc, but you never know! My guess is that I'll never get to the point where I'll need a fancier machiene! So, I've been a busy bee since about 3 weeks ago when I finally got around to setting the machine all up and figuring out something to create with it! I've made a purse for my sister-in-law, Heather, for her birthday, an *almost* finished purse for my friend Beth for her birthday (which was yesterday!), a baby blanket, spitty cloth, bib, and an "embellished" onesie to match the cloth and bib for my soon to be new neice or nephew! I'm not so sure I'll be so eager to continue sewing this much in the next week or so, as Dakota gets back from Kodiak tomorrow morning, and school (for him and I) start back up on Monday, so my time will again be a bit limited. But, I have been enjoying my sewing adventures thus far! Here's a few pictures of my creations:

This was Heather's purse, and because of my lack of planning skills, we had to take this picture on the way to the birthday dinner in the car. I couldn't pass up recording my very first creation on my new sewing machine!

My new baby niece or nephew's stuff....minus the bib since I haven't finished it yet!

Beth's purse.....except it's missing 4 buttons and attaching the straps!

My greatest Loves!

2010-02-14T19:19:00.000-09:00

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I'd better get on the ball and share my love for everything that I love!

#1:

My sweet, sexy husband! And because either one of the boys or I are always hanging on him, there's rarely a picture of *just* him. But I love this picture! He's such a great husband, and the best dad to our kiddos. I love everything about him....even those *few* flaws that drive me crazy! :) I couldn't have a better life partner!

My next love (the next 2 are tied!):

This perfect little booger is such a great son, big brother, cousin, and friend! He has such a big heart, always wanting to make friends and make sure people feel included. He's compassionate....especially when I'm not feeling well or Brayden's crying-he knows when people need a little extra love! And...he's a LIVE WIRE! He keeps George and I on our toes, and it seems as if there's never a dull moment!

Next up:

THIS cute little man. He's a very good baby, usually sleeping through the night, and pretty much consistently smiling! He's the perfect addition to the family, and couldn't imagine our lives without him now! He brings such joy into our home!

My Mom and Dad:

They are the best parents I could ask for! My life the past few years has been CRAZY, and they've been there for me through it all. My mom is so incredibly strong, going through cancer treatments while *still* flying when she can and watching Dakota and/or Brayden when I have class. They've helped George and I so much, and I'm just very thankful that THEY are MY parents!

There are *plenty* of other things that I love and that I'm thankful for, but really, these are the ones that matter the most! I'm thankful to live in a country where we're free, and that we live in such a beautiful state. I'm thankful that I have had the opportunity to get a college education, and that I have the opportunity to *hopefully* go to medical school. I'm especially thankful that I have the most wonderful husband to support us right now, both financially and emotionally, and the support he shows for my dreams for our family!

My new trick!

2010-02-13T22:02:00.000-09:00

Besides being incredibly mobile now-he's up on all fours, but not *quite* crawling completely...just scooting really well-he has now decided that he loves to stand in his crib! He can't quite get up on his own yet, but with just a bit of help, he LOVES to stand up! And, he thinks he's pretty hot stuff when he does.

We definately can't resist his cuteness! He's such a great baby, usually sleeping through the night, and almost always happy, unless he needs to nap or eat! And he *does* love his food! Dakota absolutely LOVES having a little brother, and he's a GREAT big brother, always helping us out with him or keeping him occupied. In fact, whenever Brayden's fussing and George or I are busy, Dakota will turn to one of us and say, "I know, I know....I'll go entertain my little brother!" They are just simply too adorable together!

Ignore George's uber-long hair. I think this was the day before a much-needed haircut!

We love his little nakedness!

Winter walks...

2010-02-10T10:30:00.000-09:00

Besides skiing/snowboarding, we really don't get out much in the winter. Even though I was born and raised here in Alaska, I still really don't like the cold much. But....I decided the other day to go for a walk with the boys. It wasn't *too* cold out (maybe around 15 degrees), and I had bought Brayden the cutest sherpa-like snowsuit that he had yet to wear, and I really want to get some use out of it! He looked so darn adorable in it!

Brayden's Room

2010-02-10T10:26:00.000-09:00

I never got around to posting pictures of the "nursery" before Brayden was born....and now he's almost 8 months old! So I'm slow, but here they are:

You can't tell very well from the pictures, but the colors are a very light, muted blue, chocolate brown, and a buttercream-type yellow. And I love the stripes. It took us forever, but turned out so great! I really should post a few pictures of Dakota's room too, because it's not a traditional paint-job either! Nothing like this, but still very original and cute! Koda would probably yell at me for just calling his room "cute". Apparently, "cute" is SO uncool now that he's in Kindergarten. In fact, he informed us the other day that he and a couple of his friends at school are now in a "Dude Club". They all "signed up to be Dudes, and there's no girls allowed!" Ahhhh, he's getting to that age!

Lots of new stuff!

2010-01-22T09:31:00.001-09:00

So I have again become a complete blog-slacker. Not to say I've been lazy, because I definately haven't, but because I haven't gotten around to update the blog! Here's a semi-quick update on our lives:

After Christmas, we drove back down home from North Pole. We were extremely lucky up there though, because the day before we got there it "warmed up" to around 15-20 degrees, and it didn't dip back down below zero until the day we left! We spent New Years Eve over at my brother, Scott, and Heather's house. George made his AMAZING homemade pizza (we've been perfecting it, by the way, and it IS amazing!), and then we did both a dark chocolate and milk chocolate fondue with a menagerie of fruit, pound cake, angel food cake, etc. Soooooo good!

Dakota came back home from his visit to Kodiak on January 2nd, and on the 3rd (I *think* it was on the 3rd) we went snowboarding at Alyeska. Now mind you, I am a SKIIER. But, in the name of adventure and learning new things, I decided I'd try out snowboarding. I bought a board setup about a month before we found out I was pregnant with Brayden, so I wasn't able to go boarding at all last year, so this was my first time since I went just a handful of times in Jr. High! George thinks it went ok, but I say it was a complete disaster! Dakota was leaving me in the dust!!! HE'S trying to "coach" me down the hill.....pretty humbling being shown up by your 5 year old! Although it was *kinda* fun, I still think I'm a skiier at heart. I may try it a few more times, but I guess I'll have to see in the end whether I end up selling my board and boots in order to buy some skis!

It was nice to get back to the daily schedule when Dakota's school started back up on the 4th. That gave me a week before my school started back up again, which was a nice little transition. I'm taking a Chemistry and a Math class, and *so far* it hasn't been too brutal. Besides the 5 week math class I took almost 2 years ago, it's been since Sophomore year of high school (which was spring of 2000) for REAL math and science. My GER's at UAF were hardly "real" math and science. I took the science class deemed "Rocks for Jocks"....yes, the idiot science. I never thought I'd need Chemistry or Biology, so there wasn't much point in taking them.....until now, I suppose. So to make things more to the point-the classes aren't killing me yet, so I'll keep at it!

And Brayden's big announcement: He FINALLY got his first tooth on his 7 month "birthday" (January 18th)! He had been sick all week with a fever and not eating. But, lo and behold, we felt in there, and when he chomped down, it HURT! So we're all excited about him having a tooth (really, just a little stub at this point at the gumline!). And then last night, Brayden was laughing at George and I almost uncontrollably in his crib (we call this around bedtime laughing being "loopy"-both boys have this!) and I noticed what I thought was another tooth coming in! So being the wonderful mother I am, I completely broke up the laughing to stick my finger in his mouth to feel for this second tooth! And it's there! So in 3 days, he got both of his bottom front teeth! And, it's a good thing since he's starting to REALLY not want his bottle as much, and if he sees ANYONE eating ANYTHING, he's pissed until you give him some REAL food!

And....in addition to his teeth, he's so close to crawling it's insane. The past 2 days went from just on his tummy trying to kinda scoot around to getting up on all fours on a semi-regular basis!

And because I simply can't post to the blog without at least ONE picture, here's 2 of the 3 cutest guys on the planet!

Christmas at the North Pole!

2009-12-30T14:24:00.000-09:00

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...

2009-12-22T17:24:00.000-09:00

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!!!

2009-12-01T18:02:00.001-09:00

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!

2009-11-30T18:22:00.003-09:00

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

2009-11-13T18:14:00.010-09:00

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!

2009-11-12T14:34:00.002-09:00

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!

Brayden and Daddy time!

2009-11-12T14:05:00.004-09:00

Two of my 3 favorite guys! George is having a BLAST being a daddy of a newborn (even though Brayden is hardly the size or personality of a newborn anymore! Brayden is such a happy, smiley, laughter-laden little boy. He has quite an adorable personality, usually happy as long as you FEED him when he's hungry! He is definately a little socialite, loving being held, talked to, and sang to.

Brayden's current favorites, besides food, are his link-a-doo's, his gloworm at nighttime, his bouncer (now that he can actually BOUNCE!), and watching tv. Yes, he has turned into a little couch potato, and his favorite seems to be football!! And he LOVES his daddy time!

Brayden's dislikes, first and foremost, is TARGET!!! Without fail, anytime we step foot into Target, or even into the parking lot for that matter, he starts freaking out. I'm not saying he's just a bit upset, I'm talking full on, red-faced, TICKED OFF! We've also figured out that Brayden simply does not like hats. Since it's gotten colder outside, I've started to put a hat on him (when I remember), and he's always pretty upset at me when I do. I suppose it doesn't help that quite a few of his hats have some type of ear flaps, which when he turns his head (usually to the left to suck his thumb) in the carseat, one of the ear flaps inevitably migrate in front of one of his eyes. That would probably piss me off too I suppose. And, he's never been a fan of his actual carseat, which was probably his very first dislike.

And to add to it, he's a big drool-monster, which makes me suspect a tooth may be soon on the way!!

The good and the bad.....there's NO ugly here :)

2009-11-10T20:18:00.004-09:00

So I'll start off with the good: I awake from a VERY restful sleep this morning to Brayden crying (as usual) for his bottle. Only it's 6:30am, not midnight or 2am or 3am! Yes, sleep from 9pm to 6:30am is *WONDERFUL* to say the least! I felt crappy all yesterday....feeling like I was coming down with the flu or something (like George, my brother-in-law Brian, and sister-in-law Lizzie.....and come to find out my mother as well!). And this FULL night's rest was just what I needed. I don't feel 100%, but much better than yesterday. All I can say is THANK YOU, BRAYDEN!!!

Now onto the BAD: George woke up yesterday morning, about 3am (about the same time Brayden woke up for his bottle), feeling rather ill. I asked him if I got Brayden, would he feed him because I was SO incredibly tired. He mumbled something about not feeling too good, so naturally, I was a bit peeved, and grumbled out of the room to get Brayden. In the middle of fedding Brayden in his room, I hear George get out of bed, run to the bathroom, and start hurling incontrollably! The poor guy. I felt so bad that I just got peeved at him for not feeding Brayden while he's trying to hold vomit back. I felt like a *wonderful wife* right about then! Our night was riddled with these trips to the bathroom, accompanied by a 5am text from my brother-in-law who insisted that he needed to go to the doctor (for the same thing George had!), and that because he hadn't slept all night, it would be safer if I drove him. HA! Yeah, after getting up at midnight JUST to register for school, then back to sleep again. Then up at 3am to feed Brayden, and every 30 minutes or so after that to help (or hear) George, and then we both drift off to sleep about the time the test message comes into my phone. UUUUGGGHHH!!! Needless to say, I was even more peeved. After I assure my brother-in-law that there's nothing a doctor could do. To that, he says he thinks it's not the flu, but food poisoning from McDonalds. Part of me wants to just ignore it and go back to sleep, another part wants me to tell him, "well that's what you get for eating at McDonalds", but the *good* part of me tells me to assure that no matter if it's the flu or food poisoning, a doctor can't do much but tell you to make sure and stay hydrated and rest.....oh, and syphion out about $150 for that advice. I should have taken a cut of that in order to save him the time and money! After telling him this MULTIPLE TIMES, he finally relents and says "ok, have a good sleep!". Yeah, thanks. As if that's going to happen-because we need to get up in less than an hour anyways to get Dakota ready for school and Brayden fed again.

Yes, so I may not have very exciting days, but the nights are sometimes a bit interesting! So to make a crappy story a bit better, we woke up this morning to BOTH of us having a full night of rest and BOTH of us feeling much better.

But George also got up this morning to pack up a few things and head out to Dillingham for an entire week :( Now that it's winter, he's in surveying for the state, which is infinately better pay and more exciting than last winter, but it also means traveling a bit. So although he's not enjoying being away from home for a week (and neither am I!), I am just a bit envious that he gets a week of not having to wake up at night (sometimes twice) to feed the cutest little guy on the planet, or to wake up to change the sheets of who we've deemed pee-pee man (Koda still wets the bed on occasion), or to really do ANYTHING domestic (laundry, dishes, cleaning....if that ever gets done, running errands, etc). Yeah, I'm a bit envious.

On a lighter note, though, there is a concert tomorrow night I wanted to take my dad to for his birthday, which I WON tickets to yesterday!!! I picked up the tickets today, which apparently are VIP tickets.....which generally means something cooler than regular tickets (although I have yet to figure out what's so VIP about them). And although it totally bites that George is gone (because he would definately be going with me if he was here), it allows my dad to go, which is great! We always have a good time at country concerts...mainly because a good chunk of my friends wouldn't be caught dead at a country concert, and I really could care less that I'm showing up with my dad :) In fact, the last time my dad and I went to a concert together (just me and him), I was 7 months pregnant with Dakota, and they CARDED me! Yes, I'm showing up to a concert with my FATHER, who already has greying hair, mind you, and obviously VERY pregnant. I don't think I'll be drinking! Anyways, I'm off on a tangent, so lets just say that I am on cloud nine that I got tickets for free and that I get to take my dad!

With that, I say since George is gone, it's 8:45 at night, and I have both kiddos asleep, I'd better get some shuteye myself!

Halloween in PHOENIX!

2009-11-05T12:38:00.004-09:00

Playing football in the backyard at Uncle Alvin and Aunt Eleanor's house. Yes, Isiah is playing in rollerblades.

Our "Star Wars" Dinosaur.

Optimus and Superman with light sabers

My parents have been contemplating buying a *eventual* retirement place in the Phoenix area for close to a year. So....with the long weekend (it was the end of the quarter for the school district), they decided to head down and take 2 days just to go look at houses. It also happened to be George's FIRST weekend off since Brayden was born, so we went with them! It was so nice to see Alvin and Eleanor again and see how much the kids have grown! And, of course, nice to be in some warmer weather! We were loving it, and Koda loved it even more since he didn't have to put a coat over his costume to go trick-or-treating! George, Koda, and the kids went swimming Friday night in the outdoor pool.....which I figured was a bit cold for me, so I stayed on the sidelines reading. I knew it was heated, but HOLY COW.....that was the 2nd warmest outdoor pool I've ever felt (the first being the one at the condos in Orlando!). We had a blast in Phoenix!

Mark's Halloween Party

2009-11-05T12:07:00.003-09:00

The coolest decor at Mark's party?
Definately the blacklight reflective chalk body lines on his concrete living room floor!

Just because he's cute.

*Almost* trying to sleep

Our little Dinosaur and his Biker-chic Mamma

Such a happy little man!

And this is the ONLY picture of the night that includes Dakota (he's Optimus Prime). Once we got to Mark's place, we lost him somewhere in the house. He only surfaced a few times to launch nerf darts at the "spiderwebs" over the fireplace with a few friends he had made.

Mark, the electrical contractor superindendent that George worked with this summer, and his wife throws a MASSIVE Halloween party every year. Apparently everyone (almost everyone) who attends are very elaborate in their costumes. George was probably one of a very small handful that showed up without some amazing regalia. And the whole time he was making fun of me dressing up as a biker chick......hey, I had everything I needed without spending a ton of time and money on a costume that I'd never wear again! I, for one, thought my costume was pretty good for creating it on the fly.

We all had a blast at the party......except perhaps Brayden, who was just simply too tired to enjoy it all! BY FAR, the best Halloween party I've ever been to!

Ethan's Birthday Party-H2Oasis

2009-11-05T11:52:00.003-09:00

Lounging......like a couch potato. In the water.

Best brother buddies!

Dakota's best buddy since birth, Ethan, had his 5th birthday party at H2Oasis In October. Since Koda started Kindergarten, we haven't been able to go have fun at toddler swim (it's M-W-F mid-morning!), and he's been pretty bummed about that. Koda and the kids had a blast, and it was Brayden's first time at H2Oasis. Brayden took a bit of time to warm up to the idea of a pool that wasn't quite as warm as his bath, but after the initial "shock", he was LOVING it! However, he wouldn't *smile* for the camera!!! But at least he's not screaming, so that's a plus!

Bathtime

2009-11-05T11:43:00.003-09:00

Just a few pictures of the boys in the bathtub. I can't wait until Brayden is a bit older and able to sit up in the bath and play with Dakota! I LOVE being a mom of two adorable boys....I can't imagine my life without them!

Happy Birthday, Dakota!

2009-10-03T15:34:00.003-08:00

Dakota's 5th birthday was September 19th, which happened to fall on a Saturday this year! He decided he wanted to go to Bouncin Bears, and then come back to the house for cake and ice cream, and his pinata! My mom and I (mainly my mom!) made a baseball pinata and filled it with some candy, sticky hands, and small nerf-like sports balls. He loved it! More pictures to follow, as all I have at this time are pics from Bouncin Bears!

Brayden!

2009-10-03T08:45:00.004-08:00

Dakota started soccer a couple weeks ago, so we all accompany him to his practices/games. It has been outdoors (we had our first indoor practice 2 days ago), and Anchorage has gotten a bit colder lately. The past week, I've really had to bundle Brayden up in order to keep him warm and happy (or at least attempt to keep him happy!) during practice. I managed to stuff him into the cutest little blue corderouy coat, and took a few pictures of him. Unfortunately, Brayden wouldn't smile for me, but he does have the cutest big blue eyes and a little puzzled look on his face! He couldn't be cuter!

Dakota's 1st Day of School!

2009-10-03T08:13:00.003-08:00

This year was a bit of a challenge to get Dakota into Kindergarten. The past 2 years, he's been attending New Horizon's Preschool, which he LOVED. It was only a couple days a week for a few hours, but he learned so much. When I talked with the Anchorage School District, they let me know that not only was Dakota past the age cutoff date (I knew that....his birthday is September 19th), but he was also inelidgible to be tested for enterance into Kindergarten because he missed that cutoff by 4 DAYS! No exception, no way to do it. It doesn't matter if your child is a genius (not that I claimed that....but he is a smart cookie!), if your child can do algebra as a 5 year old....they don't care! Soooo.....I looked into private schools in the Anchorage area. I researched virtually ALL of them, met in person with some of the administrators, toured the school itself, etc. I decided to not consider the religious schools (for our own reasons), which left only a few options for us. I went to the Montessori school, found out it wasn't for us, which left us with one viable option (which I didn't like NOT having other options). I met with Pacific Northern Academy, and instantly fell in love with the school and the people. Besides the expense and the location (it's across town with no bus service!), there's nothing I'd ever change! Dakota, George, and I all love the school. It's an Early Kindergarten through 8th grade school, but everyone knows virtually everyone else. Besides his own class, Dakota also knows everyone in the Early Kindergarten class, as well as a good chunk of the kids in 1st-5th grades! There's just a great sense of community there, and it makes for the best atmosphere. Dakota's even made some really good friends there, sisters Isabelle (in Koda's Kindergarten class) and Emily (in the Early Kindergarten class). We've had a few after school playdates, and I've even made a friend out of it, Felicity (the girls' mom). They moved here from Great Britain a little over a month ago and know nobody, and it's so great to be able to become friends with their family!

Anyways, Dakota's first day of school was great. He was so excited to use his new backpack and lunchbox. They wear uniforms there at school (just khaki's or navy pants with certain colors of polos), which are absolutely adorable. And, there's no early morning fights about what Dakota is wearing (which is my favorite part). Here are a few pictures of Dakota's first day at Kindergarten!

Labor Day at the Cabin!

2009-09-27T08:50:00.003-08:00

Every Memorial Day and Labor Day, the family heads up to the cabin in Sutton. Originally, my great grandparents homesteaded on land right past Sutton. My grandmother and one of my great uncles also ended up building homes there. Since, only my great uncle's wife remains on the property full time. BUT....when my grandmother sold her home about 7 years ago, she kept around 5 of the "back" acres. Our family friend, Dan, and my uncle, John, built a small cabin on that property, overlooking a large "pond", which now houses what we call the beaver "condo". It's much to large just to be just a beaver dam! Spending time up at the cabin has become somewhat of a regular tradition Memorial Day-to kick off the summer-and Labor Day-to say farewell to summer! Now that Dakota and the twins are old enough, they enjoy going 4wheeling. This spring, my parents bought the boys a gas powered 4 wheeler, and although the power is still a bit too much for the twins, Dakota has been practicing on it quite a bit! Brayden was introduced to the cabin this year Labor Day weekend. We didn't camp out (I don't think everyone else wanted to wake up to a crying baby!), but spent the day there. Brayden quickly found his "spot".....too cute. He loves the hanging chair, and slept amazingly well that afternoon!

Best brother buddies

2009-09-27T08:43:00.002-08:00

Daktoa has been so great with Brayden....sometimes a bit too eager to help! But I suppose that's better than the alternative! Dakota is constantly wanting to be with Brayden, giving him kisses and hugs, and helping me out by retrieving spitty cloths, throwing away diapers, and putting Brayden's clothes away. It's been such a blessing having 2 amazing boys.

The "Oberg" Girls...my wonderful cousins!

2009-09-27T08:36:00.002-08:00

In August, two of my cousins flew up to Alaska to visit the family for a week. I hadn't seen Tina or Heather in YEARS, and it was so nice to catch up! One afternoon, they came in from Palmer (where the rest of the family is!), went biking on the coastal trail, did a bit of shopping, and then we all went out to dinner at the Sourdough Mining Company. George had the evening off, so he was able to come also! Lucky guy....dinner with 6 beautiful women! I so wish the girls could get together more often! Love you!!

Brayden's first bath

2009-09-24T10:46:00.003-08:00

So I skipped ahead a little posting the family pictures. Brayden's bellybutton "fell off" right before we went to North Pole for 4th of July, so we were able to give him his first real bath! He was so cute....he loved it! He is a complete water baby-now that he's just a bit older, we take him with us to go swimming at the Alaska Club, and he is in love with the jacuzzi. George or I will take him in the jacuzzi, and he's passed out within about 5 minutes. And then he sleeps AMAZING that night! So, I've determined that jacuzzi=baby drugs! I can't wait until he's big enough to start hanging out in the big pool....it's still very cold for him! Anyways, here is a few pictures of his first bath!

Family Pictures

2009-09-17T08:37:00.006-08:00

SO For 4th of July this year, we went up to North Pole again. #1-We went to spend a little time with George's parents (and so they could spend time with the new addition, Brayden). Lizzie and Alan also went up this year again, and so we all went up to Skip and Olga's cabin at Harding Lake. Also, one of Lizzie's friends from High School, Annie, is a start up photographer, and since our friend Shannon wasn't able to make it up to Alaska for Brayden's birth :( we had Annie take a few family pictures! We all went out to Creamer's Field, so we had cute backdrops of the field, the old barn, etc. It was so funny, because Luke was so unhappy, that the only smile we could get out of him was to get George to throw him up in the air, hand him off to Alan really quick and try to capture a smile before they did it all over again! It was a fun (and hot!) afternoon!!