Baby Brayden is here

So my last post was a bit of a very late update, and since much has happened since the Disneyland trip, I'm going to skip it since I know I'll never catch up! So the evening of my last post, the 17th of June, I went into labor with Brayden. George and I went into the hospital about 3am on June 18th, and eventually had him that night, at 8:20pm. Brayden George was 7 lbs, 9 oz and 19.75 inches long! He was absolutely georgeous, and AWAKE for a few hours, so family could actually see him alert that evening! He did have a bit of a lumpy head (which was George's first comment as he was born!), but not a hint of "squish" on his face, which I was excited about! We left the hospital the next late afternoon. Dakota was so excited he got to be at the hospital right after his little brother was born, and is the best big brother. He helps with pretty much everything except the actual changing of a diaper! Brayden is such a joy to be around, and he's such a good baby. He sleeps well, is a pretty calm baby, and is just now starting to smile more. More updates to come!

Disneyworld

The beginning of October, the entire family went to Orlando. We spent 3 full days at the various Disneyworld parks, a day at Daytona Beach, a day at Wet and Wild water park, and one at Universal Studios. Besides a couple "war wounds", a chunk of my skin was removed at the bottom of a waterslide, and George got stung by a jellyfish in Daytona, it was a great trip. Dakota and the twins had an amazing time at Disneyworld. They got to meet all their favorite characters, and Koda was old enough (or tall enough at least) to go on most of the rides, including the "twilight zone tower of terror" at Disney's Hollywood Studios, in which he had a blast, and I about peed my pants! The "big kids" (George, my dad, Scott, Heather, and I) left the little ones with my mom, grandma, and Dan while we went to Universal Studios one day and Wet and Wild another day, so that was a nice break as well! We had a blast, and afterwards, George and I sent Dakota back to Alaska with everyone else while we went on our belated honeymoon in the Caribbean!

So much for not procrastinating.....

So I completely forgot that I had even made an actual blog until this afternoon when I was together with my sister-in-law Lizzie and friend Sara! So....I guess I need to update this a bit! The next few posts will just be catch-up on the major events that have happened since last September (and there's quite a few big changes!).

In the Beginning......

So George and I are completely new to the blog world outside of myspace. I've been seeing more and more of our friends and family start blogs and create amazing pages to share their adventures, and so we figured since we have family and friends all over the country (and a few spread across the world), starting a blog would be a good way to share OUR adventures.

So to get those who don't already know caught up: George and I met January 1st, 2008. A couple of my friends, Sara and Lizzie, had set us up (yes, kinda like a blind date). And as an added bonus, Lizzie is George's sister-in-law. Little did I know that she'd be family! We instantly hit it off, and even though he still lived in North Pole, we spent every single weekend from January until May (when he moved down here) together! George spent every Friday afternoon either driving or flying down to Anchorage to see Koda and I. And a few times, Koda and I drove up there and spent time in the frozen North!

I think it was around 10 days after we met that he flew down to see his brother and sister-in-law in Arizona. I had an extra ticket (thanks to my mom working AK Airlines!), so I flew down there for my weekend to meet some of his family. It was then that we really decided to get married. We had talked so much about life, marriage, children, finances, etc in 10 days, and we just knew. We started looking at rings there in Phoenix, but he eventually found a setting we both loved from a private jewelry maker from Georgia.

For Spring Break, George flew down to hang out with Dakota and I for the week. On March 13th, my roommate, Liz, George, and I went to Alyeska. I knew he had the ring, and was waiting all day for him to pop the question somewhere. The weather was amazing, we all had a great lunch at the lodge overlooking the valley, but he didn't ask!! So we went home, got Koda, and started driving to dinner. He "took a wrong turn" and we ended up at Beluga Point. I already knew that he was going to propose to me, but it was really sweet anyways. He grabbed Dakota, whispered something in his ear, got down on one knee, and Koda pulled the box out of his pocket and asked "mommy, will you marry George?" It was one of the sweetest things ever. And....of course I said yes!

In fact, we had already set the date for August 2nd. Primarily, we had picked that date because it was the date with historically the least amount of rain!! That's it-we just didn't want it to rain! And.....it didn't! The entire summer here in Anchorage was horrible! Completely cloudy, rainy, and apparently officially the "coldest summer on record".

The wedding was perfect. We got married in the backyard of a school teacher here in town. He actually was a substitute in my 5th grade class for a week, and he remembered me! Crazy. But him and his wife were awesome hosts, and the garden was amazing! It was featured a couple years back on HGTV gardens, and it's by far the most beautiful garden I've been to in AK. Even my grandmother, who is the queen of gardening, was amazed!

And for now, we're counting down the days (4 more, by the way) until we all leave for Florida. My family had planned this Disneyworld trip for a little over a year for Dakota and my twin nephew's birthdays. So we're spending a week in Orlando having a blast with the ENTIRE family (almost!). My parents, brother Scott, his wife Heather and their twins, family friend Dan, Grandma Esther, George, Koda, and I are all going to spend a week at Disneyworld, the beach, Wet and Wild, and Universal Studios.

And then.....George and I get to send little man back up here with Grandma and Grandpa, and we get to go on our honeymoon (albeit a bit late)! We fly down to Miami, spend a few days there, and then hop onto a cruise ship to head to Grand Cayman, Belize, Honduras, and Cozumel before heading back to Miami for a few days. In all, we get to be gone from AK for an entire 3 weeks!

So, hopefully I won't be a procrastinator and I'll actually keep this blog up! Keep posted for more!