Crazy fun Friday

Chloe had the idea to go to the bounce house place today.  Although the weather was amazing, and I wanted to go to the zoo, she was just so excited I couldn't say no!  What a good choice.  Not only did Chloe love it (and not stop running around for the 2.5 hrs we were there) but Maddie also had a great time crawling around and exploring in the little kids area.  Oh did I mention she can stand up now?  Oh yes and she can do it without holding on to anything too.  Her balance is shocking!  

 Since Chloe was on a roll with the decision making, I let her choose what she wanted for lunch.  "Pineapple rice and noodles"  Okay Thai it is.  Thai food here is really good and the wait is usually pretty significant.  We called it in and went to a nearby lake to hang out while we waited.  

The lake is still frozen, although it does look a little slushy.  We will be getting those kayaks out in no time!

 After lunch I decided to keep the good time going, and get out the tent.  It has been a long time since it has been out.  Distance makes the heart grow fonder for sure!  This is the first time Maddie has seen it, and she loved it!  They were laughing and squealing and having a great time.  I had to grab the camera. It is so darn cute when they play together!

If you have kids, a tent with a tunnel is definitely a good investment.  In fact Chloe is asleep in her tent right now.  We dragged it up to her room.  Loaded it with blankets and pillows, read stories and she was out!  Now I have to go clean up all the remnants of a day well spent.  What a fun day!  

Gorgeous Break-up

We call the start of the spring season "breakup" as the snow starts to melt and the ice breaks up.  The roads are clear for the most part and the temps are rising.  It is wonderful!  Since it is sunny and nice we are getting outside a lot more.  Yesterday we went up to powerline pass (5 min from our house) and hiked around.  I never remember just how stunningly gorgeous it is out there.  There is still a ton of snow, with probably a good few weeks to a month of xc skiing out there.  

It was just one of those days to remember.  Amazing!  And we were lucky to share it with Ben and Shereene who are visiting from DC.  Ben is one of Andrew's best friends from high school.  

Speaking of amazing: "Uncle Bent" is awesome with Chloe.  She just adores him.  The rest of us get shunned when Ben is around.  It is pretty adorable!

Here's hoping this awesome weather continues!

Case of the Missing Puff

"Where did that puff go?  I swear I just had it!"  

Puddles

The temps are rising and the snow is melting!  YAY!!  We went on a walk last night to break in Chloe's new rain boots.  Puddles are the best thing ever for her so it was a very fun walk.

 Along with the rising temps we are getting drastically longer daylight hours.  Around 5:15am it starts getting light, and isn't really dark till around10:30pm.  (official sunrise at 6:45, and sunset at 9:34 but dusk lasts a long time here!) These photos were from 8pm.  It makes me excited for summer!

Morning Time Fun

While Maddie naps in the morning I unpack and organize.  I try to keep Chloe busy doing things that won't cause my organizing time to be turned to clean up time :)  Stickers and puzzles have been pretty time consuming for her lately so I am sticking with that!  (Sesame Street is also a life saver- I am not super Mom after all!) 

 With all of the windows, we get amazing light.  AMAZING.  This is 8 am.

I see a lot of very well lighted photos in our future!  (Now I just have to sit down and read the camera book to brush up on my photography skills.... I have been meaning to do that for more than a year, but maybe just maybe I will get around to it before my kids are teenagers). 

Now I am off to Lowes to get some extra shelves for the playroom.  It is ridiculous how many toys there are all over the floor.  This room is begging for kid friendly organization!  And I am here to deliver!  

Hope to be able to show you an "after" photo soon.  

Finally HOME!!

It is official.  All of the paperwork has been signed and the checks have been written!  We are finally officially done with the home selling/buying process!  I can not tell you how excited I was when we went in to sign the papers....I think Andrew may have been a little embarrassed by my giddiness, but in the end he did pose for the photo, like a good sport :)  All the hard work has finally paid off!  Honestly it felt like our wedding day, thats how crazy excited I was (Andrew was too, but only let it out when the last paper was signed).  So practical!

Chloe celebrated with a yummy ice ream cone.  She got to choose the flavor....

And without further delay, here is the house!  I didn't want to show pictures before it was official, especially since it was still someone else's house.  But now it is all ours!  Yay!

The architecture is modern and everything that we had been looking for.

The kitchen is big, with a great granite island.  The appliances are from the 80's but that will change soon.

The living room is awesome for running.

Well pretty much the whole house is awesome for running!

Wohoo!  They ran and crawled for several hours- by that I mean 6 hours.  Chloe even had me running laps (over and over and over).  I think I will loose those last baby weight pounds pretty quick here.

After work Andrew came home and our amazing friends all piled in the house and unloaded these two trailers containing every single thing we own!  If you look closely at the photo you will see that every box is color coded for room and labeled with contents.  It made the job of directing helpers super easy.  In fact I didn't need to direct at all!  I did all of the packing (with the exception of the garage) and Andrew was in charge of all of the moving.  Perfect!

We moved in just in time for easter!  Luckily the easter bunny found our new house and was able to leave candy filled eggs around for Chloe to find.  I did hear the easter bunny say he had to go to the store at 11pm to get some of the easter basket goodies though :) 

 Maddie enjoyed finding the eggs, although she didn't get to enjoy the contents :)  Next year!

We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for easter dinner, which was wonderful!  Especially considering we still have boxes absolutely everywhere, and it looks like a clothes bomb went off in our bedroom!  Lucky little Chloe got to hang out at Grandma's house all day while the rest of us stayed home and unpacked. 

They made a very delicious and very cute bunny cake for desert.  Donna did let me know that Chloe snuck out to the garage and took the huge cake and tray out of the fridge, unwrapped it, and then licked all the frosting off the ears, all by herself.  If she hadn't been caught early in the act I imagine this poor bunny would have lost all of his frosting :)

 Ah and one last picture.  This is absolutely why we love our house.  It is on almost an acre, and this is the view from the dining room.  It is magical.  There are trees all around, and the property backs to a massive greenbelt, and we can barely see any other houses from our windows.  It is like being in a cabin in the woods, but still in town!  

 I am constantly looking out the window for moose.  The neighbors said they saw a moose delivering her calves in their backyard!  How amazing!! 

We are so happy!!!  It finally feels like home!!

day 7!!

Seven in a row!  It is for sure a new record.  Phew!  I can say for sure that I won't be posting again until we are in our new house!  Almost all of our furniture is out already, and I am scrunched down on the floor typing this post- the office chair and desk are gone.  The computer is next to be packed.  All we did today was pack, and load, pack and load. 

Chloe woke up excited for the day!  This is about 5 minutes after she woke up!  

 I also got Chloe involved in the packing process.  I figured she would probably be less likely to be upset that her things are going into boxes if she is the one who puts them in.  I was right she totally loves it. She says "its okay to pack this, I don't really use it that often...."  She said that about everything.  I even had to pull out a few of her stuffed animals because she wanted to pack every last one!  As you can see she packs like her dad.  

 Conor took the day off work to come help Andrew load up the trailer.  We are SO LUCKY to have friends who have trailers, and are willing to help load them with our stuff!  The boys will be doing a second load on Thursday morning, with the final scraps.

 It kind of looks like the grinch visited our house.

 Last of all we voted!  There was a mayoral election, but the big draw was a ballot measure to ensure equal rights for gay, lesbian and transgendered people in Alaska.  Believe it or not there is tons of debate about this issue here, and shockingly there are people against it.  They even stand on street corners holding up signs.  You would think it is only the crazies, but there is a pretty even split.  It is expected to be very close.  Really?  Come on.  Actually so many people came out to vote that they ran out of ballots at all of the polling stations and we had to do write-ins.   It is quite conservative up here, but  it isn't until there is an issue like this that I really notice the difference.  Marijuana is legal but somehow this is a problem?  (Actually I think it is just not illegal) Anyway enough politics!

Glad to be almost done packing, although I think the last few odds and ends will probably take more time to pack than I expect.  Maybe if I use the Chloe method I will be done sooner :)  Wish us luck!  Andrew reminds me that it isn't done until the paperwork is signed and the checks are written, and that doesn't happen until Thursday.  I am still excited!

Day 6

It was another day requiring large amounts of coffee due to our adorable little sick night owl, but now that Andrew is back from his "man-cation" it all seems a little more manageable.  

The girls both got up about the same time around 7 or 7:30, and the playtime began almost immediately. Today was extra special since Andrew brought home presents for them.  

 This is "Monster Eye"

 He is already a member of the family :)

 Maddie got a mini ugly doll.  This one is yet to be named.  

 Woohoo the snow is melting!  Do you see there is even a puddle!  We LOVE puddles!!!

 Today was a major packing day since Andrew is loading up the first moving trailer tomorrow!  I have packed nearly everything in the house, and now am breaking down the furniture!  

 Bye bye bed and bookshelf!  See you at the new house!

The dining room is starting to be the collection area...Most of our stuff is already at the warehouse (these are by no means all of our boxes)...I do want to take a picture of all of the stuff all together though.  It is highly organized, and even color coded to room.  Oh I love that I started early enough to really to it right!  There will be no random "crap" boxes this time!

Adorable.  Bedtime stories.

It is so nice to have Andrew back!  Goodnight!