Christmas Step 2 - Fairbanks

On Christmas Day, after we made cookies for Santa, the boys got to open one present. My mom had gotten each boy a Pajamagram. The Pajamagram came in a little cardboard dog hose and contained a stuffed puppy, named PJ, and a pair of pajamas. It was so cute! The company does Pajamagrams for everyone and I am definitely considering giving one as a baby gift to a dear friend.

Opening thier gifts. I love the look on Jonathan's face, such a watchful older brother.

All decked out in their matching PJ's sitting in front of AG's (that's what they call my mom) Christmas Tree.

Since we arrived in Alaska on Christmas Day we didn't actually open all our gifts until the day after Christmas. So we got all dressed up in our Christmas best and headed upstairs to see if Santa had come.

Our family coming up to see if Santa had come. We didn't get a picture of Jonathan's face when he realized Santa had come but believe me he was very excited. Jason didn't really care, he was more interested in playing with the sock that he took off coming up the stairs.

Jonathan opening his stocking. That thing was loaded down. He got a Cars flashlight, a paperweight with a moose on it (his half of the boys room is decorated in moose), some candy, a stirring spoon to use when he helps mom in the kitchen, some baseball cards, and a bunch of other stuff that I don't even remember now.

After some convincing we were able to get Jason to stick his arm in his stocking and pull something out. He got silverware that matched a plate, cup and bowl that was under the tree, a little stuffed bear and a bear paperweight (his half of the room is decorated in bear since he is our Baby Bear), some baseball cards, and t-shirt that says "Mischief is my business and business is good".

Honestly we didn't really take a lot of pictures opening presents. Jonathan was going a mile a minute and Jason wasn't that into it. The boys got totally spoiled as did Dan and I. Our big gift this year was matching University of Idaho watches from my parents. We opened gifts in two shifts so that the boys could take a nap and my mom and I could run to the store to get stuff for dinner.

Jonathan got 4 different sandwich cutters from my parents. I think this was his favorite gift of them all, he was so excited that his sandwich in his lunch could be cut into different shapes. Jason just liked the bow and I like his expression.

Just before nap Jonathan started to go a little crazy and started sticking name labels and stickers all over himself. At that point we knew it was time for a little break but he sure was cute!

Jonathan also got a few more cars from the movie Cars. He was really excited about them.

I know there aren't very many pictures of Jason and non of him opening gifts but he's little and wasn't really that into the day. Just wait until next year!

Our day wasn't done when all the gifts were done. My two best friends from high school, who also act like my older brothers since I'm an only child, came over for dinner that night. Chris was leaving for Las Vegas on the 27 so this was our only opportunity to see him. Since we hadn't seen him or Jack in over a year we pulled together a great dinner for everyone. Then after dinner and putting the kids to bed Dan and I went out with Jack and Chris to watch a movie and catch up a little. It was a wonderful day!

Not Me Monday!

I have not totally been slacking on my Not Me Monday for the last I don't even know how many weeks.

I was not writing my Not Me Monday while watching my my husband empty the dishwasher.

I have not been taking full advantage of the fact that I am still on Christmas Vacation and staying up until 2am. And I am not dragging my husband, who has gone back to work, down with me.

My husband and I have not been staying up playing Lego Star Wars 2.

I am not a little sad that my last semester in classes starts Wednesday. (I'll post about that on Wednesday)

I did not send Jonathan back to bed when he woke up at 6 am on Saturday. And when he got up again at 9, Dan, Jason and I did not want to sleep so badly that I kicked Dan out of bed to put in a movie for Jonathan to watch.

Nope, NOT ME!

Sleepin' on a Jet plane

I had Christmas morning planned perfectly. The boys slept in matching PJ's and we were going to wake them at the last minute and let them sleep as long as possible. Then after we got through security we were going to dress the boys and get on our way. Oh it was a great plan... Jonathan woke up needing to potty and somehow wasn't able to get his PJ's down and ended up having a huge accident. He was very upset and woke up the entire house including is brother at 4am. You can imagine how happy everyone was about that. So we got the boys dressed and headed out. My FIL dropped us off at PDX and in hindsight he really should have come in with us, we needed the help. We had 3 suitcases, 2 carseats, 1 stroller, 4 carry-on bags, 2 adults and 2 kids. We needed more hands. Fortunately, with the exception of one person (who will not be mentioned again) we ran into a lot of really nice people. At PDX after you check in you have to take your bags over to a different line to be x-rayed. Well a boy, maybe 8 0r 9,offered to help as did another gentleman. Then when we got in the line a soldier offered to help Dan move all our luggage while I stayed with the kids. Then a TSA agent came up to Dan with a HUGE cart and took all our stuff.

Remember the weather out in the PNW was terrible back around Christmas. Well it looked like our flight to Seattle was going to be ok. Then just as they were about to close the doors on the 7am to Seattle (ours was for 7:30) the cancelled our flight. Fortunately God was with us. The 7am was pretty empty so almost everyone from the 7:30 got moved to the 7am. From there the rest of our trip was absolutely smooth sailing. The boys did great. Jonathan got a little bored and the toys I thought would be a hit weren't but oh well. We ate breakfast in Seattle and planned on lunch in Anchorage but everything was closed. But I'm a smart mom and I had granola bars and crackers in my carry- on. We snacked and then boarded our flight to Fairbanks. We got into Fairbanks right on time and headed home for dinner.

The boys (including Dan) slept quite a bit on the plane. I slept a little but with Jonathan sweating all over my leg, and not being able to move the leg out of fear of waking Jonathan, I didn't really sleep much.

Jonathan pulling his Lightening McQueen backpack/suitcase (his words not mine) through the Portland Airport. He looks so grown up!

Jason sleeping in Dan's arms from Portland to Seattle. How sweet is that. I coudn't lean back far enough to get Dan in the picture but he's sleeping too.

Jonathan sleeping on the "big airplane" from Seattle to Anchorage. Notice the popped button, I think those pants are getting small.

Jason sleeping again. How can you not love that little face. He just looks so sweet. He totally had the flight attendants wrapped around his finger.

New Hair

I had my hair done over Christmas Break. If we are friends on Facebook then you've probably seen the new cut but I wanted to share the pictures here too.


Before: Self-portrait taken while stopped on I-84 during our very scary drive to Portland.

After: I absolutely love the cut and the color! Its a big change for me but I wanted a big change.

My Secret Closet

We're all friends here, right? Good I thought so. So I can share a little secret with my good friends and y'all won't judge me right? Awesome!

I'm not the best housekeeper in the world, hence why that is one of my New Years Resolutions. I want a nice clean spotless house but I've realized that is impossible with two kids. I just don't have the time to make my house spotless, so our house has a nice lived in feeling. If Dan and I don't work together the mess can get really overwhelming and make hour little house almost unlivable. Our goal is for the living spaces of our house and the boys bathroom to always be clean enough that if someone stopped by we wouldn't be embarrassed. I keep the boys room clean because it gives them, especially Jonathan, a lot of security and a clean room has less scary shadows at night which is a big concern for Jonathan. But there is one room in our house that is a complete and total disaster and that room brings me so much stress that I often close the door to that room and hope no one asks what's behind the door that's always closed.

Any Friends fans out there? Remember "The One With The Secret Closet"? Yeah this room is kind of like that. It's the room where everything goes that we can't find a place for in the rest of the house. And that room is...

Our Guest Room/Home Office. I took pictures to show y'all just how bad it is. Brutal honesty.

Wow! It looks even worse in picture that in real life, or maybe I'm just in denial. It's supposed to be a guest room, does anyone see the guest bed. Its over in the corner near the window under the towering pile of suitcases still not put away from our vacation. I really hope we don't have an earthquake because if we do those suitcases are toppling over for sure. I also see the baby swing in this picture that Jason outgrew in July. 6 months later it's still in our house and not out in storage. Lets see another picture.


This picture is supposed to be the office space. Yes that is my Christmas Tree box in the middle of the room and the Christmas Tree is still in our living room. I know I really need to take it down soon. Our paper recycling is overflowing. This is really bad.

What's even worse is that my dad stayed in this room in November when he visited which means all this disaster has happened in the last 8 weeks. Ouch!

So why am I sharing this with y'all? I have made it my goal to have this room completely tidied up by the end of January. My mom is coming in March and I don't want to be frantically cleaning right before she comes. So ask me at the end of January how it is going and hopefully I'll be able to show after pictures that are a vast improvement over the before pictures.

Thanks for listening. Love y'all!

Christmas Step 1 - Portland

The first part of our Christmas trip was going to my in-laws. I've already told the story of our snowy, scary drive through the Columbia River Gorge, no need to revisit that. On Sunday there was supposed to be a baby shower for one of my friends over in Vancouver, Washington, right across the river from Portland. The weather wasn't too bad (remember I'm from Alaska so my perspective a little different) so Dan and I headed over to another friends house where the shower was being held. Sadly the shower had been canceled because of the weather however, Dan and I spent over an hour with our friends Ben and Katie. We hadn't seen them in forever. They have been in Germany for several years with the Army and just separated from the Army and moved to Vancouver. It was wonderful to catch up with them. The friend that the shower was for lived really close to Ben and Katie so we drove over and visited with them for a few too.

The next day we took my MIL shopping. The roads were crummy but I drove and when we got home I was congratulated on knowing how to drive in the snow. I laughed a little inside. I learned to drive in snow and much prefer it to rain.

We did Christmas with my in laws on Christmas Eve since we were jetting off to Alaska on Christmas day. Jason had about as much fun a an 8 month old is going to but Jonathan went wild. He was all over the place he was so excited.


See I told you he was excited. My SIL got Jonathan gloves that have the fingers out for Christmas. He thought those were pretty cool. He also got 3, yes 3, tents. Last year it was play dough, everyone got him play dough. This year we all got him tents. At least play dough can be put in a cupboard. :)


Isn't he cute? Oh goodness those cheeks, that hat, the little curled toes, the baby blue eyes, heavens it's almost more than one person can stand. I love this kid!

After we opened presents we put the boys to bed and then stayed up until 3 in the morning playing games with Dan's family. Then we got 2 hours of sleep and headed to the Airport.

The next part: Alaska!

Procrastinating

I need to blog about our trip. I need to sort the 600 pictures I took on our trip and choose which ones I want to share. I need to get this done but its intimidating and I'm procrastinating. I will get this done, not just for y'all but for me to look back on later. I can do this... stay tuned :)

I have one thing to say...

GO GATORS!

Wordless Wednesday - Brothers

New Year Resolutions

This year I've decided to work on the housekeeping things that Dan and I really struggle with. Posting this is as much for me as it is with you. I'll let y'all know how its going!

2009 Resolutions
1) Make the bed every morning.
2) Wash dishes every night.
3) Load and run dishwasher right after dinner.
4) Empty dishwasher before bed so its ready to go for the next day.
5) Keep up on laundry.

I think that's a good list and if we can accomplish all of this during 2009 then I think our house will have a lot more peace. Dan was very efficient and took care of number 1 this morning while I was dressing the boys. Now not only is the bed made but because I didn't want to undo his handy work I'm not going to get back in bed now that the family has gone for the day. Although it is tempting!

Two posts in 10 minutes. Not bad since its still before 8am out here in the Pacific Time Zone!