Busted- again, and again, and again.....

This seems to happen almost every day.  I don't get it.  Baby K loves to attack the toiled paper.
 

The other day our First K girl screamed at me, "Mom, what happened in the bathroom!?" and when I told her she said, "Phew I thought Whiskers did that...." haha

Maybe she will outgrow this phase soon.  I worry she is going to advance to walking and dragging toilet paper all over the house phase. Sigh.  At least she looks cute while she does it.

A Visit with Santa.....

We attended our district Christmas party this year. It was amazing as always with delicious food, great friends and good conversation.

I always look forward to our visit with Santa.

Sis went first. Didn't she look pretty in the dress from Auntie Jeanette?

Our first K also wore a dress to the party and she looked super pretty too!  She does not wear dresses very often but this was a special outfit picked out by Auntie Jeanette for Christmas, yeah!  We might just have to hire Auntie J as our personal shopper.....

This was Baby K's first experience with Santa. I have to say she didn't take it very well. But she was tired....

Poor Santa.

I do feel a little bad at making her sit on his lap.... but I really do treasure these pictures. Really, I do.

Mom and Dad got to sit with Santa too.

Poor guy, Jon is a little bigger than him.

Santa asked if I wanted some alone time just with him.... that kind of cracked me up. Naughty Santa.

Another great party, bring on the holidays!

Skating at Aleknagik Lake

It has been a strange winter this year, actually the opposite of last winter.  We had so  much snow at this time last year, and it seems like we've barely had a flake fall so far.  We are short on snow but not on the cccccold temperatures. 

These cold temperatures have made the lakes and ponds in our area perfect for skating!  We took a drive to Lake Aleknagik to take the girls skating, it took my breath away it was so gorgeous out.

In spots the water has frozen so clear we can see straight to the bottom.  We even saw some little fish frozen in the water.

Some of us had more fun than others. I won't say whom.

I mentioned a few times the beauty, the gorgeous colors, the mountains...... to no avail.

Kalin told me she didn't like this "pond".....  hehehe.  It's a good thing her dad and I do!

Cute Couple...

We make a cute couple.

I've known him for almost 20 years and still love him like I did when I was a young'in.  Maybe a little more.  We really cherish our time alone together.

Although moments alone seem to be harder and harder to come by......

November Hike

I am so in love with this picture!

We took advantage of a warm November day (no rain!) and went for a little hike with the girls, their cousin and 2 dogs.  It was just what the doctor ordered;  a very nice afternoon getting out for some exercise and fresh air.

Halloween Past and Present

I was feeling nostalgic and went roaming through our Halloween pictures of days gone by.

This is a picture of the First K at two as the "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Adorable.  From what I remember of Halloween that year she had a fever but we had to take her to the carnival anyway, we were worried about her missing out or something.

I think I have a thing for bugs, and I didn't know it.

Sis at seven months as a bumblebee.  So cute!

Then there is Baby K as a Ladybug..... be still my  heart!

There is hope for me- look at this cute little ballerina and teddy bear.

Then there is the  Ketchup and Mustard family....

plus a kitty and a cute little witch.

 

But we are all sick at heart. We need help. This was us this year, we've gone off the edge.

(and I am thrilled I scared the tuna salad out of a trick or treater this year, a highlight of the night for me!)

Hope your Halloween was as much fun as ours!

Ice Skating!

You would think that living here in Alaska we would be able to skate a lot.  With all of our ice we also get a lot of snow and -20 below temperatures.  That combination does not allow for a lot of skating.  This last weekend was ideal skating with blue skies that stretched forever and temperatures in the mid thirties.

We took advantage!

Even Baby K!

We had so much fun!

 

If you look closely you can see that Kalin was a "tizombie" aka a mix between a tiger and a zombie

Kiley is going ice skating with a friend after school today. I hope the snow stays away for just a little longer so we can hit the ice just one more time! 

This Kid!

Baby K, Sis and myself went for a walk the other day.  Sis wanted me to take some pictures of her. So I did.

They make me smile.

She makes even the shortest of walks fun, with a twist.

 How many times have you gone on a walk with a teddy bear and a lasso? I can say I have at least once....

Oh this kid, never a dull moment!

Getting so big!

Baby K is already 8 months and 3 weeks old! She has two teeth on the bottom (two more coming out on the top!) and is crawling & pulling herself up onto everything. She just made her second trip into the big city (Anchorage) with just her mom and she did pretty well. Auntie Jeanette took care of her for two days and kept her very busy.  Nights were the biggest reality check for Auntie.... as anyone with a teething baby can attest to; waking up 5 times to a piercing scream is no fun for anyone!

Our first K is 8 and getting so mature for her age, she is really a big help around the house (some days more than others.)  She is playing soccer and still reading everything she can get her hands on, right now Garfield and Clementine are two characters she likes very much.  I am asked on a daily basis when her Kindle is going to get here already!

Second K is enjoying preschool so very much~ she comes home every day singing such awesome songs! Willoughby Wallaby Woo is my recent favorite.... She seems to be on the verge of reading because she is learning sight words and sounds at an amazing rate.  She also loves her books and Mo Willems is still a very popular author at our house- I can read about Piggie and Elephant every night.

We are still so busy every day- Jon and I are going strong every day of the week.  I think we both want to punch anyone who says they are bored.... what? Come to our house if that is the case!

Harvest!

Fall~ after our first frost, it's harvest time.

We picked our potatoes in three shifts this year, about one row at a time.  We planted Yukon Gold, red and a purple variety this year.  I picked these in the picture above from the first row after a wicked storm knocked a bunch of our potato plants flat.  I was very disappointed in the size of our red potatoes, but happy with the purple. Honestly I was very worried that I had killed all of our potatoes before I even stuck them in the ground.  I had a 3 1/2 month old and not much energy to plant potatoes so they were out on the deck getting "hardened" for about a week........

I grabbed a few of our carrots from our greenhouse- a purple haze and a Napoli. They tasted as good as they look!  Our carrots turned out pretty good this year ~ but they were mostly small, but still sweet and crunchy.  We have two more growing in our greenhouse, I think they will end up being just a bit bigger than the ones in the picture above.

I thought I would make potato picking interesting this year- $5 for the biggest potato!

The girls were enthusiastic for the first row they picked, not so much after that. They missed out! Look at the winners this year:

They are HUGE!!

 I'm so proud.

My uncle told me that potatoes are somewhere around $17 for a 10# bag here in DLG- Yikes! We will be saving a ton of money this year. The girls are already asking me to make a ton of potato dishes. Number one on the list? GB's potato burritos!

I wonder how these purple ones will taste in a burrito?

Hmmmmm....

The house was quiet (very quiet) and my nephew was visiting.  Not ever a good sign..... and then I walked into this pretty arrangement in my bathroom.

Hmmm?

My nephew looked at me like, "What Auntie?"

 "Oh my goodness! Who on earth could have done THIS?  Who could love pulling on toilet paper that much?"

"Well geez..... let me help you pick it up."

Never a dull moment, let me tell you......

It has begun....

The demolition of the old "entryway" has already taken place.

Our new entryway aka mudroom building project has begun!

It is coming together so quickly, I imagined a project like this taking much longer.  I also expected the weather (rain, snow, frost.... typical Alaska fall weather) to have more of a factor.

It really hasn't.  And yes, that is a bathtub in my front yard.  I imagined beautiful flowers overflowing in it every summer, so far that dream has yet to happen.

This is what it looks like today.  I think it might have walls and a roof before the snow flies!