The First Batch

I was inspired by Crystal over at The Longest Year to try and make Kinley's baby food. CLICK HERE to read her post on how to actually do it. She made it seem simple enough that even I wouldn't screw it up! I am not an organic lover and everything we put in our mouths doesn't have to be healthy. But I did want to start her out on the right track. It was actually really easy and a lot of fun to do! Not to mention it is cheaper. I love a good deal! I am sure I will still give her Gerber food along the way but for now we will start with homemade sweet potatoes.

 I love the Ninja blender! If you are looking to buy a new one I would recommend it. It has one blade in the middle and one at the bottom making blending so much faster! I bought ice cube trays to fill up with the sweet potatoes. I know they make specific trays for baby food but they are basically the same thing. And the ones I bought were a lot cheaper!

 I chopped them up and steamed them.

 

 The put the sweet potatoes in the blender to puree them.

I filled up each little 'ice cube' hole with taters! Each little cube is 1 oz. Great to know if you are tracking how much your baby eats.  I only made one tray to start out. Once they freeze up I will take them out, put them in a freezer bag, label and date them. Kinley is sleeping but when she wakes up, she will get her first taste of sweet potatoes. Hopefully she will like them. If not, there is always next week to try something new.

The Northern Lights

I stole the following photos from my friend, Christie. Don't worry, she knows! Aaron and I have seen the Northern Lights but they haven't been this clear and I haven't gotten a good photo. Christie lives in Fairbanks which is about 6 hours north of us. She gets to see them quite a bit. The temperature and time of night have to be perfect for us to see them this far south. She has been able to see these amazing lights right from her back porch!

Aren't they beautiful!? The lights always seem to be dancing across the sky. I told you AK was magical! Thanks Christie for letting me share your pictures with my friends back home. I don't think I could ever describe how beautiful they are with just words!

Two Years

I am not sure how time flies by so fast. April will mark 2 years living in Alaska. It does not feel like I have been here that long. Even with all the dark snowy nights during the winter, it doesn't feel that long. The military brings a lot of headaches in life but one of the great things about it is moving to new places. We have been blessed with living in some great states.

If I could take the ladies from New York, the weather from Kentucky, the lighthouses and shorelines in Maine and mix it with the scenery here in Alaska, I would have the perfect place! We won't be leaving here for a little while longer but I am already wondering where God will take us next! Alaska will be the place we have lived the longest since Aaron has been in the Army. It has been a great place to live!

If you ever get the chance to come to Alaska you should do it! And as crazy as it sounds, the winter is a great time to visit. The mountains come alive with snow. They are magnificent! The only downside is a lot of the touristy things are closed until after Memorial Day. Just an FYI if you are planning on visiting at any point.

Here are a  few ramblings about what I enjoy about Alaska:

There is wildlife everywhere. Heck, there are moose waiting on the corner of 6th and Fairbanks Ave in Anchorage waiting to cross the road. I have seen it! When my mom was visiting we saw over 50 caribou on our way to the North Pole. You are probably wondering, how close you could get to a moose. You could try to get close (not the most brilliant idea) but you might get kicked. Just ask the dumb lady who got kicked a few weeks ago downtown because she was violating the personal space rule.

You drive 10 mins outside of the city and you are in the middle of nowhere. Ok, so maybe not in the middle of nowhere but you better have used the restroom before you start your trip to the next major city. Anchorage, Wasilla and Palmer are all kind of close together but other than that, you are in for a nice road trip. Fairbanks is the 2nd largest city in the state and it is over 6 hours away. But you will see beautiful mountains and previously mentioned moose all along the way!

The daylight in the summer is one of the coolest things I have ever experienced! When you are outside at 11:30 PM you would swear it was 11:30 AM. All the darkness in the winter is more than worth it for all the daylight we get to enjoy in the summer. And contrary to popular belief there is daylight in the winter. It just doesn't last long! Random side note: When they shoot the fireworks off for the 4th of July, they do it at almost midnight. And you still can't see them because it is too light out!

The Northern Lights freak me out a little. They are so beautiful but so mysterious! I always feel like I am going to have a close encounter of the third kind, if you know what I am saying! I have only seen beautiful splashes of green across the sky. But I do hope to see more of them before we leave.

The people here are very welcoming! There are not many people I have come across native to Alaska. I  can probably count them all on both hands. And I am pretty sure there are all from the same family. The people here are always happy to meet new people and hear their stories. They have really big hearts to go with the really big state! And I have never heard them say one bad word about this place. I have even met people who went away to college and couldn't wait to get back here. The only complaint is about the lack of certain restaurants. But let's face it; if that's the only complaint in life you are living in a pretty great place!

There are many more reasons I love this place but this is just a few. I am so thankful we have gotten to experience this great state. And how fun that when people ask Kinley where she was born she can say Alaska!?

Wordless Wednesday: Evolution of a first meal

Chillin

Our church held it's winter luau last night. It was a lot of fun! It was a great excuse to wear flip flops. My toes were freezing just getting to the church but it was totally worth it! Here is Kinley in her outfit. The pictures were taken on my iPhone so the quality stinks but you get the idea!

She wasn't big on the sunglasses. There were way too big! So I only tortured her with them to take this photo.

Practice makes perfect or at least less crappy photos

In the past 6 months, I haven't spent much time with my camera. Aaron, for a Valentine's Day gift, signed me up for an Outdoor Photography Workshop. Very cool and creative gift I thought! The workshop was this past weekend both Saturday and Sunday.

I learned all about f/stop, apertures, shutter speed, etc... I learned a lot about how do everything manually with my camera. Not easy. Now that I have learned some valuable lessons, it is all about practice. I am not posting any pictures from the workshop because I didn't really like them. I was working so hard on figuring out the histogram, I didn't really get great shots. Oh well. This gentleman's pictures are pretty cool CLICK HERE.

[Side Bar: Some of you were asking if the title picture was from the workshop. Nope. That butterfly had landed on our driveway in KY (2007) and I couldn't help but try and capture the beauty of it's wings.]

The workshop also made me realize how much I missed my camera. It isn't easy in life to focus on yourself but this is one thing I really love to do and am looking forward to learning more. Not too mention practicing A LOT! I like photographing the outdoors but I am hoping to get better with humans! I don't need to be great just good enough to capture our life's journey.  I hope Kinley is ready for it. ha ha! Poor girl.

Here are two pics of the pumpkin I took today. I am posting these as a jumping off point. In a few months hopefully, I will have much improved pictures to share.

(tedddy) BEAR ATTACK!

 There was a teddy bear attack at our house tonight. It was a little touch and go at first.

They both fought hard.

 In the end they called a truce.

And someone is a little bitter about it.

* Dear Blogspot,

You are really starting to irritate me. My photos were not saved that way so why you are showing them sideways, I HAVE NO IDEA. This is only one of many issues lately. Keep this up and I am moving my blog to Wordpress. You have been warned.

Sincerely,

Irritated in AK

A Trip to Seward

Aaron had a four day weekend, so we thought we would take advantage and go on a little road trip. We traveled to Seward, AK which is about 2 1/2 hours south of Eagle River. It was a great time to visit the town. It was off season, so the streets were peaceful and we were able to take in all the beauty without all the hustle and bustle of too many tourists. Here are a few pics from the trip...

 Poor girl, she has no idea how many pictures she is going to have to be in during her life!

 One of many cool murals in the town.

  Awesome tile art. It was all about organ donation which I am a big fan of!

 Hanging out with the beautiful scenery.

 I can't remember what this is but I thought it looked cool!

Headed out to sea...

  A Seward Christmas tree :)

 Kinley enjoying the ride.

I didn't know this was the original starting spot.

Beautiful boats everywhere.

The start of her first sea life experience. She slept the whole time! The following are some of my favorites. And don't ask because I don't remember what most of them were called.

It was only an overnight trip but it was great family time. We stayed at the military lodging in town. It was a great place with friendly people. I would recommend it to all other military families up here!

Moose 1, Rosebushes 0

We have seen a lot of moose since moving to the great state of Alaska! We have however, only had two moose in our neighborhood.

This baby moose was born in my neighbors back yard Memorial Day weekend 2009.

My friends who live on post had a moose visit there house the other day. CLICK HERE to navigate to Ginna's blog. The pictures were too great not to share with all of you! You won't be disappointed!

4 Months Old