knitting is my new addiction

So, as you may remember I said that I wanted to knit my own Christmas stockings this year.  Well I have made progress and to my amazement figured out how to do it!  Thanks to all of the help over the phone from Amber and from you-tube tutorials I have some finished stockings!  They are really big, and super bright and happy.  I have two more to go, but got distracted by other fun projects so they are on the back burner for now.

You can see the scale here.  Chloe could almost fit in one of these they are so awesomely big!

 This is one of my distractions.  My first ever sweater!  You can get the free pattern here!  I made this for my adorable pregnant friend Amy and her soon to be born baby girl.  I made the arms extra long so she could fold them up now, and fold them down later for a much longer sweater lifespan.  I absolutely love the bright colors in this noro yarn.  I actually loved this sweater SO MUCH that I went out and bought even more of the same yarn and made a bigger sweater for Chloe.  It looks super cute on and I will post some of those pictures later on!

 I had also been wanting to do a Baby Surprise Jacket designed by Elizabeth Zimmerman.  I found a preemie pattern online and decided to use that one, since I wanted to use a thicker yarn and was afraid if I made the regular baby size it would be way too big.  I love how it turned out and can't wait to see it on our little baby girl once she arrives!  I was right about the sizing too.  It looks like about 3 month size (from what I remember of tiny baby sizes).  I think I will try the long sleeve modification next time, since we do live in Alaska after all!  I used noro yarn for this too and love how the colors turned out.  The quality of this yarn is so far above the quality of stuff you can buy at Michaels or other craft stores.  I will NEVER again buy nylon yarn. NEVER EVER!

I am having so much fun learning to knit!  I have made a few hats along the way too, and will be making more soon!  I am so glad that I went beyond my comfort zone of scarfs and blankets.  The outcomes are so much more rewarding.  Although I am still a super beginner, I feel like I am off to a pretty good start! To anyone who wants to start knitting I say: you-tube is your best friend!!!!!

Melting snow

Finally!! We can see some concrete! The days are getting warmer and the snow is slowly but surely melting away! For some reason these last few weeks of winter seem to take just forever to go away. There is still no visible grass in our yard, but some of our neighbors have some peeking out. We have been doing nightly walks after dinner, and it is the best part of the day- by FAR.

No matter how stressed I have been during the day (which is usually pretty frigging stressed lately), it all just melts away as we get away on our adventures.

Chloe has grown extremely fond of puddles and wants to be in them all of the time. We just bought rain pants for her yesterday so she could splash to her heart's content. The rain boots help but the way this little girl puddle dives we may need to get hip waders!

"Chase you Daddy" (or Mommy or Chloe) is a new game that results in lots of running, laughing and squealing. "Got you!"

"Chase you!" She says this when she wants us to chase her too. I think it is because we say 'Do you want me to chase you?'

There are swings in the little neighborhood park. Also a fav. Although I do have to say I must be old because swinging is no longer as fun as it used to be. I get dizzy after only a few minutes! Maybe I need more practice, or more dramamine :)

I wish there was audio with this pic. Chloe is squealing super loud! A lot of noise comes from those tiny lungs. Maybe opera is in her future.
Next stop after swinging was a quick walk home, bubble bath for Chloe and bed time stories. Another perfect night.

Snowy day activity

We are still here, and this little baby girl in my belly is kicking happily away. It has been snowy and slushy and snowy and slushy lately so I have had to be a little more creative than usual finding fun activities to do. Don't get me wrong Chloe absolutely loves to go outside and play but it is Mommy who wants to branch out!

I don't know about other parents, but for me cleaning up the house is a constant and never ending chore. Lately I have noticed that crayons are a major contributing culprit. They hide everywhere. I wanted to put a stop to the madness of broken crayon bits strewn about. I remember when I was a kid my parents melted down the bits into giant crayons. They didn't remember how they did it, so I headed off with an idea, in search of a way to make it a reality. This is what I came up with!

Step 1: soak crayons in warm water, and the wrappers magically come off. The colorful wrappers were so vibrant and beautiful that I decided to dry and save them for later use in a painting. (The first attempt at this left me scraping and peeling off the wrappers for hours- warm water worked miracles!)

Step 2: rinse off the crayons and make sure any glue residue is removed. Chloe liked this step the best. Normally I would estimate about a minute or two on this, but Chloe made it into a 30 minute affair. Parenting tip: put towels under the "work station".
Step 3: break up the crayons into little pieces and mix however you want. I used a silicone brownie square mold to make my crayons but anything would probably work! Just make sure it is silicone so you can pop those puppies out when they are done.
Step 4: bake in the oven at low heat until all of the bits are melted
Step 5: Pop out the squares after they are cooled and solidified and play with your new crayons!
I did notice a little bit of the unpigmented wax accumulate on the tops of each of the squares so I just trimmed that off with a paring knife so that when Chloe colored she would see pigmented wax, not clear wax.

As for de-cluttering this worked wonders. NO broken crayons anywhere. Plus they are fun to color with :) This project was so much fun I went out and bought several boxes of new crayons to make even more colorful squares.

So much fun!

It's official!

It is official, we are having a baby and we know the gender!!!! It was a fun morning at the doctors office as we got to see continuous ultrasounds for about 45 minutes. Andrew's parents were there, and so was Chloe. For almost the entire time this little bundle of joy was facing away from the camera. We got a LOT of back of the head shots! Here is one of the few profile pics. When we asked Chloe what it was she said "fish" then tired again with "mommy" then "daddy". I think she will figure it out when she can feel the baby move in my belly. Right now she just pets my stomach saying "gentle".

They also did a little 3D imaging for us, and again only got one shot that showed any part of the face. Pretty adorable right????? The baby slept through the entire appointment.

So what do you think does this baby look like a boy or a girl? Hmmmm........

.....

.....

.....

.....

.....

.....

.....

.....

Well we are going to have to start picking out baby names for a ......................

.....

.....

.....

.....

.....

.....

.....

GIRL!!!!

What I want!!!!

If anyone is thinking......What could I get Carmen and Andrew for their second bundle of joy- here it is!!!! My friend Amber is an amazing professional photographer, and just look at the amazing photos she took at a recent newborn shoot!!!! Seriously AMAZING!

check it out here!!!!

Also here is a pic from dinner at the Double Musky in Girdwood :)

Iditarod begins!

Chloe enjoyed watching the dog teams come thru Anchorage last year during the ceremonial start of the Iditarod, but this year she LOVED it!

It was awesome! We had a sunny clear day, with temps in the habitable range around 32. Tons and tons of people come out to see all of the dog teams and their favorite mushers. Chloe loves dogs, and other kids so this was a perfect combo!

You can see her excitement as she sees a dog team coming up the trail.
I wish there was audio with this :)




After the dogs went by she would try to run after them saying "Doggies back! doggies back!" Luckily the teams came thru every few minutes so she got to see plenty of action.

We played in the snow during the down time. Chloe especially liked poking the snow with sticks because she saw some of the older kids (3 year old) doing it. Here she is making a tree. I know this because right after I took this picture she said "look mommy! Tree!" and signed tree. So adorable.
She also gathered plenty of snow (away from the dogs) to eat. Yum snow.
It was a pretty great day, and I think I had almost as much fun as she did!
We can't wait for next year!

Birthday Boy

Andrew turned the big 30 last weekend and we had a BIG PARTY for him! We hosted the event at an awesome local restaurant called Spenard Roadhouse. This place was super awesome! We had a whole section of the restaurant reserved for our very large group. I am still not sure how I swung that, seeing as how this restaurant does not even take any reservations, but somehow they were convinced! The whole night was really a lot of fun.

As you can see we made some fun swag for the birthday boy, and although at the beginning he didn't want to wear it, by the end he was owning the look.
Elena and Donna helped me make the cupcakes and cake. We decided on a golf theme. I found an AMAZING recipe for coconut cupcakes and made the most delicious little bites of heaven. Elena is a whiz at fondant and made the fondant putting greens to top them off. They looked professional, and tasted so good!
Here is a close up of the cake that Elena made. The giant golf ball is actually a cake! I told you she is a whiz with fondant!
No birthday party is complete without a few embarrassing moments for the guest of honor. Elena supplied a full dose of laughter with this little gem of a gift.
Not only is it practical (did you know you can use a tv remote or answer the phone without having the annoyance of removing your blanket?) but it is also personally customized. "I'm 30"

I think this snuggie says it all- "its all down hill from here". Just kidding Andrew! Thankfully this has not made an appearance around the house yet :)

We all had a great time, and I can not believe how many people came! At the peak there must have been more than 30 people there for him. How awesome is that?! I wish I had taken a picture of the whole group. Afterwards we went to this weird tiki themed blues bar called blues central. Again I wish I had taken pictures. Imagine a vivacious 70 year old cougar giving Andrew a strip tease on the dance floor..... can't imagine it? Thats why I wish I had taken a picture! It was hilarious- the whole bar agreed!

Did I say I didn't have pictures? My mistake, here are a few. :)

Careful lady, he is a married man!

Do you think Andrew minds the attention?

I'd say he had a pretty good birthday! Happy 30 babe!