My Poor, Neglected Blog.....

Seasons greetings to everyone! I have been terrible about updating my blog lately. There is really no reason for this horrid neglect, other than I am a single parent right now. Bruce is deployed to Qatar for six months. He has been gone almost two months and will be returning in early May. We have been visiting my family in Mobile, AL for a while now. We arrived on November 22nd and we will be flying back to AK on January 29th. I have a good many pictures on my camera that I will share soon. For now, here are just a few shots from Christmas.

Averie and Hailey were given play high heels for Christmas. Here is Hailey with Andrew and Austin. Notice Andrew and Austin are sporting the high heels!!

The crew sitting at the kitchen table playing with Austins new train set! These boys LOVE trains!!!!

Andrew and Averie looking super cute on Christmas Eve!!

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Potty Training....

So.....potty training. People say that I will be really glad when they are both potty trained. Really? Anyway, I decided to train them one at a time. Averie is first. She is actually doing really well. We started this past Monday and she has been in a pull-up or real underwear all week. She doesn't mind the potty at all. Sometimes she likes to read a book or hold her favorite stuffed toy. Yesterday she had been playing with my sunglasses and when it was time for her to try to potty she just took them with her. I know that she is going to kill me one day, but this picture is priceless!! She had a successful trip to the potty and looked good while she was sitting there!

Lil' Kickers

Bruce is going to be deploying to Afghanistan in late October. He is also traveling in September and early October for various training courses in preparation for deployment. I decided that since we were going to be on our own for a while that we needed to be busy. We are doing several activities this fall, but the most fun is the Lil' Kickers program. It is "soccer" for little people. They start at 18 months! The purpose is to work on listening skills, motor skills, following directions, and social skills. They don't play actual games. Andrew and Averie seem to really like it and I get to laugh a lot because it's sooooo hilarious! Averie LOVES her uniform. I even had to let her sleep in it one time because she would not take it off!! Here are a few pictures from our first "soccer game". Enjoy!

Destination.......Dallas

We traveled to Dallas, TX to visit Bruce's family over Labor Day weekend. Traveling with TWO two year olds in a plane for seven hours is quite an adventure. Coming home was much more difficult, but we made it! My favorite day on our trip was the day we went to Fort Worth, Tx. I was born in Fort Worth but I don't remember living there. So this was the first time I had visited there since I was born. We went to the Historic Stockyards to watch the cattle drive and eat some good BBQ. There is no such thing as good BBQ in Alaska. Averie and Andrew had a blast watching the cows, riding the little rides, and visiting the petting zoo. We also road down to the seminary where my dad attended. I was able to fine the apartments that we lived in when I was born. We also drove by the hospital where I was born. It was kind of cool to see all of that. We had a nice time in Texas, but I was glad to get home.

Andrew did not like sitting on the cow!

The other thing that Andrew and Averie love about Dallas is getting to hang out with Granny. She had lots of books and they read together for hours while we were there.

Camping at the Matanuska Glacier

This weekend we traveled north about 90 miles to Glacier View, AK. We camped at a place called Grandview RV Park. The weather was great and we had a great time. This area surrounds the Matanuska Glacier. This is a "valley" glacier and it is HUGE!! We have hiking backpacks for Averie and Andrew that we took with us so that we could go hiking. You can drive right down to the glacier and then walk, or hike, right out onto the ice. SO COOL!!!

Bruce hiking on the glacier.

My foot on glacier ice!!

A nice hiker offered to take our picture at the end of the hike. We were all out on the glacier together. Good times!!

Visitors from Alabama....

My parents and my grandmother came to Alaska on June 29th and left on July 9th. We packed in tons of sightseeing while they were here. We went to Whittier, Seward, Anchorage, and Wasilla during their visit. Andrew and Averie seem to be crazy about their "Gram" and "HeyDaddy". Andrew especially loved "HeyDaddy". They took tons of pictures while they were here, so there is no way that I can post them all. Here are a few of my favorites.

This is a picture of me, Bruce, Andrew, and Averie hiking out to Exit Glacier. Andrew is a GREAT hiker. He loved it!!

Averie couldn't quite make it all the way out to the glacier, so Gram stayed back with her while we finished the hike.

I think Bruce is ready to be done with this hike and Averie's crying. Haha

Andrew and Averie eating a cupcake at the Saturday Market in downtown Anchorage.

These next two pictures are of me and mom and me and dad on the wildlife boat tour that we took in Seward, AK. It was a really great excursion!

Singing....well sort of....