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....

Camping...

We took the camper out for a test spin on Memorial Day weekend. I was nervous because Averie and Andrew had never slept in a bed that was not a crib or a pack-n-play. They slept in the double bed in the back of the camper and they did GREAT! They had a hard time going to sleep, of course, but once they were asleep, they slept all night. This first photo of them sliding together at the playground.

This picture is of Andrew and Bruce having breakfast at the table in the camper.

This picture was taken outside, under the awning of the camper. We were just sitting outside relaxing and they started to laugh at each other. VERY CUTE!

Precious time....

I know that it does not look like night time, but this picture was taken at about 8:00 pm. I had been sitting on the floor playing with them and I got tired of the floor so I hopped up in to Averie's mini chair. Those are really comfy, by the way. Over the course of the next few minutes they both crawled up into my lap. They crawl, climb, roll, and slobber on me all day. Sometimes I get really frustrated with them, but at night I am the only one that will do. They don't want anything to do with their daddy or anybody else for that matter. At night, I am on duty no matter what, and I love it!!

Warm days....yeah!!!

Our weather has warmed up quite a bit. Andrew and Averie want to be outside every minute that they are awake. I feel like we have been set free from the snow and harsh winter. When it is sunny outside there is no place on earth more beautiful than Alaska. We are really enjoying being able to go outside and play. I took this picture on one of our walks the other day. I know that she is my child, but I think she is the cutest little girl...hehe!!

Bright nights....early mornings....

Way out here in Alaska we have really short days in the winter and really long days in the summer. Right now we are having days that last about eighteen hours of daylight. When we arrived here last year it was the same way, but the babies didn't seem to have any trouble with the long days. This year, however, we are having lots of trouble. I can't really blame them because the light really tricks you. Really sunny days are harder because the babies get sun in their rooms until about 9:00 pm. I have black out shades on their windows and that helps a TON, but it doesn't make the room completely dark. Tonight we attempted to put them to bed about 8:00 pm. As you can see in the first picture, Andrew was having none of that. This is him standing, looking out of the window at 9:20 pm. It is still really bright outside.

I took this picture a few days ago at 11 pm.

The sun starts coming up by 5:00 am. Andrew is already an early riser and because of the long days he sometimes will get up really early. On this particular day he was awake and ready to party at 5:45 am. I took this picture of him sleeping in his car seat at 11 am. He didn't make it to lunch. He was really tired and out of it the entire day. I usually try to get him to go back to sleep but that day he just wasn't having it!!

Cookie Monster

Andrew has a bad sweet tooth. I can already tell that he is going to be a picky eater like me. For those of you that know me, you know that is really bad. Anytime I ask him if he is hungry he looks at me and does the sign for "cookie". He would live on cookies if I would let him. Sometimes he might only eat a little bit of his main meal and then start asking for cookies. It is times like this when I regret trying to teach him to talk!! Anyway, the other day I accidentally left the cookies out on the table. Before I knew it, he was up in the chair and opening up the package. I wanted to tell him NO, but he was so cute that I just took his picture. As you can see, he has a cookie in his hand as he is going for another one. I guess it's more fun to have two cookies so that both hands are occupied.

Birthday Blog!

All I asked for was a cake. I wanted a real birthday cake ordered from a bakery with my name on it. Bruce came through with a lovely cake with red roses. It tastes really good as well. The babies love cake!!

However, I got a really big present. It was not for my birthday, but we did pick it up today. We have been talking about getting a camper since we found out that we were moving to AK. All of the places that you can travel too around here are tourist kind of places and it is very expensive to stay in a hotel. We are not sure how it will be to "camp" with the babies, but they are very good sleepers and I am just going to be optimistic. Worse case would be that we don't use it all that much and we sell it. People around here are always looking to buy campers like this one. I am going to start working on getting the camper stocked ASAP. We are very excited!
Just to brag on myself a little, I pulled it home from all the way across town and I backed it in myself. If my dad is "King of the Road", I am definitely the "Queen"!!

Baby Yoga

We went to the "Double Cruisers" playgroup at Providence Hospital. We have only been to this a couple of times, but Averie and Andrew really seem to enjoy themselves. Anyway, a lady came in while the kids were playing and started to do baby yoga with them. I have never laughed so hard in my life. At first Averie and Andrew didn't know what to make of this activity. Then Andrew started to participate. The first picture is Andrew doing the "Cat" pose. He couldn't quite arch his back correctly, but he sure was trying.

This is Andrew's version of "downward dog". SO FUNNY!

Andrew as a "tree". I'm telling you that I was on the floor laughing. They were so cute!

Breathing treatment entertainment....

Andrew and Averie have both had a little bit of a snotty nose. Andrew nose is a little better, but he sounds a little wheezy so I decided to give him a breathing treatment. He was a little antsy during his treatment, so I started to try to entertain him. At first I was holding his hands, but then he decided he could direct the "band" all by himself. To funny!

Star Wars

First of all, I apologize for these pictures being a little blurry. Today, we went to the Anchorage Museum to see the Star Wars exhibit. We have been meaning to go for a while and finally got down there today. It was very interesting. There were lots of costumes and robots and starships on display for all to see. I could tell you the movie that the costume belonged to before I read the display details. Pretty sad, I know, but I do love Star Wars. Anyway, the babies rode in their stroller for most of the trip, but we did let them out for a little while. In this first picture they are sitting at a display that allowed you to build your own robots. While they were not great at building robots, they were GREAT at pushing the buttons.

Andrew LOVED wielding the Light Saber. It was by far his most favorite moment of the outing. This trip was more for mom and dad. Andrew and Averie were just along for the ride.

Averie and the Storm Trooper. Sorry it's so dark :(

Andrew did not like the Storm Trooper. He burst into tears the second he started walking toward us. I tried to make it better by shaking his hand, but Andrew wasn't having any part of it! It was kind of funny.

Where is Your Button?

Easter 2010

We spent Easter in Alaska this year. I played my bassoon in a small instrumental ensemble at the church we have been attending. Easter was very low key for us. However, Andrew and Averie had fabulous clothes courtesy of my mom. She made every stitch that they wore. I am so grateful for her abilities and willingness to sew for Andrew and Averie.