"Zat?"

This is Livvy's new word...it means "What is That?" She used it tonight when pointing to something on my face...I couldn't figure out what she was talking about..."Zat?...Zat?" Then she started blinking her eyes really fast...she was talking about my eyelashes! HAHA! Then, she proceded to touch them and pull on them. I guess she has never noticed before when I wear mascara (which sadly seems to be coming farther and farther between now a days). It was so cute! I love how she is starting to notice little things and trying to talk. Makes me sad that she is growing up too fast but makes me happy that she is using more of her vocabulary.

Alright, it's late (12:15) and I have been dreading taking off my makeup to go to bed (which is probably the reason I don't wear it very often...I would much rather crawl into bed and not have to worry about washing my face). I wanted to post about this so I can have a memory of it...she cracks me up!

G'night all!

7 Years!!!

Today (April 3) is Kevin and My 7th anniversary! 7 years!!!! We have been through a lot in the past 7 years, living on base, moving and driving from Missouri to Alaska, infertility and several big hills to overcome but we are still working on it and are so happy!

Let me tell you what this amazing husband of mine did for me today...actually, it all started a few months ago...
I have been drooling over wanting a new camera for a while now and finally looked at Costco and found a pretty good deal on a Nikon DSLR. I may have mentioned it to Kevin a few hundred times and he kept telling me it was impractical, I have two neighbors who are photographers, I didn't need that much of a camera...So, I saved my money and asked him if he would give me money towards the camera for our anniversary and my birthday (11 days after our anniversary). He never would agree to that and I still got the same response as before, I will remind you that he does a lot of wood working and has LOTS of expensive tools, what is a few hundred dollars towards a camera that I want?

OK, so last night, I was getting dinner ready, we were going to have steaks and I pulled them out of the freezer, thawed them out and was just getting ready to season them to put on the grill. They smelled horrible! I wasn't about to feed nasty meat to my family. Around that time, I heard the garage door open and Kevin was home, I opened the door to the garage and saw Kevin getting out of the truck with roses...I shut the door and yelled "I'M SORRY!!" He said, just don't open the door...I will come in, I have to hide something. He came inside and I said, "I'm sorry, I accidentally saw my anniversary gift" He said "What did you see?" I said "Roses" he got all upset, threw his hat on the floor and said "I can't ever get your anything nice and suprise you"...Now, I should let you know that I am not a huge fan of roses, just think they are too expensive for what you get, over rated I guess. Ok, back to the story...We decided to just grab a bite to eat since our planned dinner was ruined. I told Kevin I would head into Wasilla to get something. I headed out and called my neighbor Sam to tell her I had accidentally seen my anniversary gift, just then she says "Hang on, your home phone is beeping in..." I was thinking OK, Livvy got a hold of the phone and accidentally called Sam. Well, she was on the other line for a long time...I knew Kevin had something up his sleeve!

So last night we had a discussion about what I wanted for our anniversary, I told him again that I really just wanted money towards a camera. He told me it was impractical to give cash to your wife, in his exact words "I am not your Uncle"...point taken! So he told me that tomorrow (our anniversary) I could order the camera and just put the money I had saved up into the account. So today, I was up with Livvy and come back to bed, try to fall back to sleep and Kevin Says, "Good Morning!"...it was 6 A.M! I don't even think so! So he gets up and I turn on the TV because I just couldn't fall back to sleep. In comes Kevin with my roses and my anniversary card. "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!" He says! I turn the light on and notice that the roses are in a 2-liter pop bottle.

I asked Kevin why they were in a pop bottle, he said that was all he had, they were in a plastic sleeve thing and he didn't want them to dry out before he got them home so he found a bottle at work (The dump) and put them in there. I told him I have a vase, we can replace them.

Then upon further inspection, I notice that some of the roses are not very pretty, they are kind of falling apart, just not very pretty...how much did you spend on these flowers? 

He tells me that he thinks they would look best out on the table, I told him to put them out there so I could go get his gift, he insists that I go put them on the table...then I knew something was up! So I walked into the Kitchen and there is a box covered in a blanket...I thought "well, that's too big to be a camera!" I thought maybe it might be an embroidery machine, since I may have mentioned it once or twice. I pull off the blanket and there it was...a big yellow box with Nikon on the front!!

 I started bawling! I hugged him and just cried! Then he says, "did you see which one it was?" All I saw was Nikon, I didn't see anything else. It was the big kit...the kit with the camera bag, two lenses (one the standard lens, the other an ultra zoom) all kinds of how to DVDs! I was so excited! Then he tells me..."the roses were a ploy to make you mad because I know you don't like roses...I found them at work." OH MY GOODNESS! He found me roses in the dadgum dump!! I laughed so hard! He said everyone at work thought he was nuts for getting his wife flowers for their anniversary out of the garbage haha! Little did they know!

Oh and the reason he called Sam...was because the only camera the Costco he went to had was the floor model but he knew he had to have something, he wanted to see if she thought it was a good idea...which it isn't, so today we will head back into Anchorage and exchange out the floor model for a new one at the other Costco in town.

That man...he gets me every time! Thank you Jesus for giving him to me!!!!

Happy Anniversary Honey!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Here we were 7 years ago today! He has been home from Iraq for about 2 weeks, didn't even know if he was going to make it home ontime for our wedding, but he did!

Hope you enjoyed my gift and story as much as I did!

First Sunshine, now this...

I just posted the last post that was from Saturday, it has been beautiful here! Yesterday it was 50 degrees...today...it snowed!! Granted we can see our driveway again but still! Why tease with the promising warmth and sunshine only to dump on us again?

I am praying for a warm summer. Last summer...yeah we set a record for the most days of consecutive rain fall...I think it was 38 or something like that. It sucked BIG time! I think we had a total of 7 days of temps over 70...BLAH! The summer before, when I was about 6 months pregnant, we set the record for the highest temps. OH MY! I was miserable!!! I was a huge, sweaty, cranky beast! We spent every weekend out camping and most days had to stay in the camper with the a/c running! We don't have a/c in our house and so my outlet was the camper. A few times we drug the dogs down to the river to cool off...they wanted nothing to do with getting in the water but I'm pretty sure they would have suffered a heat stroke because of it. This summer...bring on the heat! I am down about 25 lbs from last year and am (thankfully) not pregnant so I am ready for some warm Alaskan days!

Speaking of heat...My parents are taking my sister, her boyfriend, Kevin and I on a Mexican riveria cruise WITH OUT Olivia!!! Don't get me wrong, I am going to miss my girl like something fierce but a whole week not having to worry about changing anyone, feeding anyone, bathing anyone, getting anyone to sleep but myself?! Oh yes please! If I want to lay by the pool all day long drinking margaritas diet sprite all day...I can! If I don't want to get up until noon...that's ok too! Oh my...we haven't been on a Vacation that didn't unclude staying with my parents at their house since our honeymoon 7 years ago! I am so excited to enjoy some sun, drinks and A L O N E time with the hubs! My parents have told us, the only thing they want to do "have dinner together" Hey...fine with me!

After we get home from Mexico, the next month, Olivia and I are headed to Missouri to see my family and for my 10 year highschool reunion (OMG I am getting old!!) I am so excited to have a girls trip just Livvy and mommy before I start my year long internship! We are going to swim, play, catch fireflys and enjoy the special time spent with Nanny and Gogga! So exciting!

Well, thats all for now! Hope it is warm where you are!!

It's a Beautiful day in the Neighborhood!

This past week has been BEAUTIFUL in Alaska! It has been in the mid 40's (remember this is Alaska...this is nice for us haha!) Yesterday I took Livvy out for our first walk of 2011!

Just getting started on our walk! In front is Pioneer Peak, my favorite mountain in the Valley...we are very fortunate to have mountain views from our house!

LOVE her face here...it was starting to get sunny and she didn't want to have her picture taken haha!

The next day it got even warmer! We went out for another walk and then came back home to play with the dogs outside! Livvy LOVED being outside! She squealed, sang and laughed the entire walk! When I was throwing the ball for Ottis she wasn't too sure about him, he kept coming over and dropping the ball and would bark and she was not happy about that haha! He also kept flinging water all over because it was so wet and she hated that...is she not my child or what?!?!

Here is Ottis waiting for me to throw the ball...

Macie enjoying a rawhide basking in the sunshine!

My pretty green eyed girl!

Waiting for Ottis to bring the ball back

Ottis retrieving the ball

Livvy with Pioneer Peak in the distance...I LOVE Alaska!!

43 Degrees is WARM for Alaska in March! We thoroughly enjoyed our day!

New Olivia Pics!

I don't know if I have ever mentioned that I have not one but TWO AMAZING photographers as neighbors (be very jealous!) They love to use Livvy as their models when they have new backgrounds and if I have a new outfit for her or just want pictures of her all I have to do it ask and they do it for me! I LOVE my neighbors! They are some of my best Alaskan friends and I am so thankful to have them in my life!

Anyway, the other day Katie, (Katie Cannon Photography) set up a "Spring Mini Session" for her friends and family to see if it was something she wanted to attempt with the public. Of course I had to take Livvy over :) Katie was doing an Easter theme. I had an outfit in mind that I had been wanting to make for her to wear for Easter and Connie (aka Grandma) offered to take her one day so I could have the whole day to sew, so I whipped up (haha! It took me several hours into the late evening to finish) her Easter outfit on Wednesday, Thursday night I made her bow, and Friday Olivia had her pictures taken...here are a few from her facebook page...enjoy!

Her dress pattern is a "Apron front knot dress" if you are into sewing look this pattern up on Etsy! So easy! Her pants are "Ruffle pants" these I looked up a tutorial on Youtube.  I am not a very good seamstress and am still learning and this was not too hard for me!

This one makes me smile :) It looks like she should be saying..."Wait, come back!"

My sweet baby girl! Oh my, this girl totally makes me melt! 

I hope you enjoyed her pictures as much as I did! I will be posting A LOT more now that I have discovered how easy it is to post pictures to blogger when you use the right browser!


Good night all!!

Why didn't I think of that?!

I have been having a problem with Olivia's diapers being really stinky, even after they are washed and because of this she has been getting a bad rash. So I looked up how to strip diapers and I had tried pretty much everything that was said besides the Dawn dish soap trip. I finally got some blue Dawn and was prepared to start scrubbing but wasn't 100% on exactly how to strip the diapers, so I googled "how to strip cloth diapers" and a website came up that I hadn't seen yet. I clicked on it and was reading and it said to try just doing a few very hot washes with no detergent. I thought, what's the worst thing that can happen? The diapers are still smelly...what else is new? So today I did my normal wash and then threw in ALL of her diapers and the liners, I ran the hottest wash I could ran a warm wash twice and when I pulled them out I couldn't smell a thing! I had my nose all the way in the diapers and liner and nothing! Usually when I wash them and they stink I can smell them just by pulling them out of the wash I had my snout all the way in there and no smell! Now I ask you...WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?!?!?

Our day so far...

Livvy has FINALLY started walking! YAHOO Miss! 15 1/2 months and finally walking! She is all over the place now :)
Now that that is out of the way...Livvy has been into everything! When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING!! She likes to open all the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. We have since locked up the cabinet with the chemicals in it and have bungeed closed the cabinet with my small appliances. Today it was awfully quiet in the kitchen, I snuck in and found her playing in the grease bucket! OH MY GEEZ! This Child! For the record, I keep an old coffee can under the lazy Susan and drain meat or cooking oil into it. Luckily this one was a new one and only had some oil from frying taco shells the other night but still! She was having a hay day in it! Needless to say I had to Dawn dish soap her hands and she got a good stern "NO NO!"
Then during nap time, I hear her playing, talking and squealing (not uncommon)...then I hear this blood curdling scream! I ran to her room and unzipped her crib tent (Her ped. told me I needed to let her sleep in a toddler bed because "you can't get to them as fast" when they have a crib tent...I had no problem getting to her!) I swooped her up, snuggled her until she started crying then tried to see why she was crying, didn't see anything until she turned her face the other direction...she had busted her eye! It was already swelling huge and turning purple! :::sigh:::: she is so her parents child! Kevin is a dare devil and I...well, I am a klutz! HUGE! I have lived in Alaska for 6 years and I still can not walk on ice! Put those two together, mix them up and you get Olivia! Who in her first 15 months of life has busted her lip more times that I can count, has numerous bruises from falling and running into things and now has her first black eye. Oye Vey! No wonder mom's need a drink at the end of the day haha!

Well, enjoy your day all! I get to go to Bunco tonight with Kevin's Mom and this weekend Kevin and I are going on a date night! I am so excited :) A movie, shopping, dinner AND a trip to Alaska cake studio Oh my!