My greatest Loves!

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!

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...

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

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!

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!

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

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

Here they are holding hands:

George and Kenji: best buddies with their little ones!

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

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

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

Slacking a bit...

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

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

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