My two loves

Happy Easter!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

After Dinner

 

I really need to quit taking videos with my iPhone. Sorry the quality stinks. I will get out the video camera next time! I was being lazy.

Dyeing and Riding

This weekend was a busy one but full of fun! Saturday I went to the Salvation Army Trash for Treasure Auction/Luncheon. I don't know if you have ever attended one or if it is just an AK thing, but if you get a chance you should go. Every year people buy stuff from the local Salvation Army's and turn it into something amazing. I have seen jeans, bowling balls and garden equipment turned into the most beautiful things. I am certainly not that creative but it was a fun experience!

Later that day, we headed over to Tyler and Ginna's house to dye Easter eggs. I don't think I will ever be to old to dye eggs. Even at 33 years old it is still a lot of fun. And since we have Kinley now I can pretend we are doing it for her and not just for me! :)

 Averianna and Amanda getting started. 

 Cadence excited for her turn!

 Kinley not excited about bundling up to go outside.

 She is loving the blanket! She didn't dye any eggs but she had fun watching.

 Heather and Ian enjoying eggs and sunshine.

 Poor Declan just couldn't keep his hand out of the dye. We have been calling him the Hulk!

The finished product. Each kid got to dye a dozen eggs. Thanks G & T!

Sunday, Aaron and I went horse back riding. It was part of my early birthday gift. Aaron will be hunting bears on my real birthday. I don't mind. I figure how many people get to hunt bears in AK?! My day can be celebrated any time!  We rode for an 1 1/2 on a beautiful day. It was a lot of fun! I had almost forgotten how much I like to ride.

Me riding Duke. Appropriate right!?

Aaron is on Rusty. It was a lot of fun riding horses with the mountains as our backdrop. It was a gorgeous day! I would recommend Horse Trekkin Alaska to anyone wanting to ride horses.

UPDATE: The First Batch

 "That doesn't look so good."

 "There are you happy?"

 "I don't know how I feel about these sweet potatoes."

"Oh, cool! What is this?"

The verdict: She really didn't seem to care. She paid about as much attention to the sweet potatoes as she does the rice cereal or oatmeal. I will keep trying though! (Sorry the pictures were are so bad. I had it on the wrong setting and was just trying to catch any picture I could get!)

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.