A Flower Walk

We go on walks almost every day, but this day I tried to make it more exciting by calling it a flower walk.  We took pictures of all of the beautiful wild flowers we saw along the way.  It turns out there are a ton of gorgeous flowers up here just growing in the wild.  Granted we did take a few photos of our neighbor's gardens because they are irresistible, and take up at least 5 minutes of our walk each, just so Chloe can smell each flower :)  

 Chloe is a freestyle walker.  She takes every opportunity to jump on or from everything in our path.

 Silly Chloe

 Chloe got tired and need a chariot break :)

 Break over- back to smelling flowers (another beautiful garden, after this pic all the rest are wild again)

I can't say it enough, I love it here!!!!

Moose watching!

We had just put Chloe to bed and said goodnight.  I went downstairs and discovered a Mama and baby moose walking up our lawn.  I ran to get Andrew, thinking they would be gone in a few seconds.  We totally lucked out, and they stayed in our yard for almost a half an hour.  It was so awesome we even got Chloe out of bed to come and see.  I am so glad we did, it was incredible.

They were so beautiful.  It was amazing.

 The baby was so young he was still nursing.  I have never seen any animal nurse their baby, so this was really quite an amazing thing to watch.  After he was done he kept putting his little head up against her side, sort of cuddling her.  It was adorable. 

This was by far the coolest "Alaskan experience" I have had here.  I am SO GLAD we got Chloe up to  experience it too.  Even Andrew thought this was amazing, and he grew up here!  Heck he is the one who ran to get the camera!  I know I say it all the time, but I love living in our new place.   LOVE IT!!

Painting

It has been so sunny and nice here!  Like high 70's.  We take activities outside whenever possible these days.  Painting is especially messy, and we have carpet so outside is pretty much the only place Madeline can learn to paint.  This was her first time and she did so great!  I used washable tempera paint, so it is safe for little fingers.  We did have to take the paint brush out of her mouth a few times, but for the most part she kept it on the canvas. 

 Will will probably work on this painting for a few more weeks of fun.  The hardest part is getting the girls to the shower without paint getting in the house!  A kiddy pool could be a good solution although it is still a little chilly for that.  Maybe we will give it a try!

Future organizer?

Caught in the act!  Chloe is "helping me clean".........

We then cleaned up after her cleaning up :)  And I wonder why I can't keep the house clean!

Soccer Party

Can you believe soccer is already over?  We can't.  There was a big BBQ party for all of the little soccer players, and it was pretty great.  Chloe got a medal from her coach which was adorable.  All the players got medals, but it was really special because it was the first medal most of the kids had ever been given.  They were all very excited.  

Maddie was excited too because she got to run all around and play wherever she wanted.  As you can see there is a ton of space!

'

Chloe played and played and played and ran and played the whole time.  It is too bad soccer is over because she really liked it in the end!  Oh I forgot to say that she scored a goal!  Here is the video!  Her goal total for the season was 3!  Way to go Chloe!

Now I need to find another sport for her to try out! Pronto!

rediscovered toy!

We are slowly organizing our house and making room for all of the stuff we have stored at the warehouse.  Pretty soon Andrew's parent will be selling the glorious warehouse that we have been using to store: ummmm way more than I thought.....baby clothes, paintings, kayaks, tires, strollers, boxes  and boxes and boxes.....It was pretty much a black hole.  An awesome black hole.  All that stuff needs to make its way to our house (and/or goodwill).  We are prepping to bring it all home;  Imagine shelving, coordinated bins, labels...... Oh I am excited just thinking about it, seriously awesome!!  On our last trip to the warehouse we found this wagon that Chloe got for her first birthday.  Now we have plenty of space for the girls to play with it!  I am pretty sure there will be a lot more discoveries as we get a little deeper into the clean-out!

You can see Maddie was not content to let Chloe do all of the pushing.  She liked pushing as much as being pushed!  I am pretty sure we have another ball of energy on our hands!

Maddie day

Chloe spent the morning at her Grandma's house a few days ago, and it left me with some Maddie Mommy time :)  I so rarely get to concentrate on just her, it was really nice to slow down and really pay attention!  I even had time to take some pictures!  Wow! She is growing up so fast. 

In the last picture you can see her new tooth!  She has one more coming in next to it.  Wowza those things are sharp!  Also yes she is walking everywhere now, and seems to be picking up speed by the day!  It is so cool to see her doing what she wants to do, not just what I put in front of her because she isn't mobile enough to do something else.  She has even been occasionally walking over to the bathroom when she needs to go.  HUGE WIN!  Love it!  

Someone is walking!

We are back from vacation (which explains the big gap in posts) and guess what?!!  Maddie went from taking a few steps to walking across the room!  She actually walks to get places, as of today!  It is crazy how quick she learned (first step on Chloe's birthday a little over a month ago)!!  

Nice work Maddie!  It is awesome to see how excited she is to walk.  She gets so excited that she goes too fast and can't slow herself down, and tumbles.  I am sure she will find the brakes soon, or if she is anything like Chloe will just learn to steer better at high speeds.

Side note:  How is Madeline walking already?  Didn't we just have her?!  That was more than 10 months ago!!  Speaking of, I need to get planning on her big first birthday party!  Time flies when you are having fun/ running around like a crazy person/ not sleeping/ laughing all the time/ you get the picture.... being a parent!