Justin, Lisa, Brianna, & Ryan

MY CHUNKY MONKEY!

2012-02-10T06:25:00.005-09:00

Oh my lands this little guy is growing so stinkin fast!!! I don't know why I say "little" cause there's nothin little about this Chunky Monkey. ;) But like I always told Brianna, you better live it up cause it's the only time in your life were it's cute to be so roly poly.

Since I stink at posting here's his stats for his 2 (1/2) month check-up on Dec. 2nd.

Weight: 15 lbs 1 oz (95%)

Height: 24 2/8" (85%)

And then now from his 4 (1/2) month check up on Feb 6th

Weight: 19 lbs 9 oz (98%)

Height: 27" (98%)

Teeth: 2 - he cut both his bottom front teeth on the 5th

Pure Cuteness: 100%

FUN RYAN FACTS:

*He loves to eat! ;) He's like in 6-9mo clothes already!!!

*He's really "talkative".

*He has the cutest baby laugh! (Oh, makes my heart happy)

*He's got this super high pitched squeal which is way too funny.

*He's the most slobbery baby ever! He's always wet - hands, shirt, chin, along with the person holding him at the time.

*He has a LOVE/HATE relationship with his hands. He loves to suck on them - way more than a binkie. But the darn things just go crazy sometimes and hit him in the face - usually while sleeping which wakes him up.

*He's sadly on the cranky side a lot - which I think right now has to do a lot with teething.

*He is the PERFECT fit to our little family! We LOVE him so much!!!

*Oh and we sing the MOTO MOTO song to him all the time. It's his little "Theme Song". It's a song off Madagascar 2 about this big stud hippo. It goes something like this:

I like em BIG

I like em CHUNKY

I like em BIG

I like em PLUMPY

I like ROUND

With SOMETHIN SOMETHIN

I like em BIG

Seriously, how cute is this little guy?!?!?

In his cute deer camo outfit Grandma Anderson bought him.

I L-O-V-E those cheeks!!! I just can't get enough of them! I kiss these squishy things about a BA-Zillion times a day!!!

I was looking back at posts of when Brianna was this age to see how they compared. Ya, we thought Bri was a little porker when she was this age, but he outweighs her by like 4 lbs! LOL!!! Speaking of Brianna, she's still doing really good as a big sister. She loves her baby brother, expect when he's crying/yelling and she can't hear her show that she's watching. :) She's super protective of him and let's everyone know that they can't take her baby brother and she gets upset when other people hold him. She is also a really big helper for mom which I'm loving!

My big girl.

(She's having a hard time smiling lately. Basically it's a pretty scary grimace! LOL!)

So here's the best picture that I've gotten in the past 2 months!

Oh I LOVE my kiddos!!!

HALLOWEEN

2011-11-10T12:41:00.008-09:00

Well this year for Halloween, I was going to be the "good" mom and make sure we got pumpkins to carve (we didn't last year). But Halloween just kinda snuck up on me and it was quickly Halloween day and no pumpkins were carved... Blah! So instead I got out the markers and let Brianna have at it. To be honest I really think she had a lot more fun doing this than she would have if we'd ended up carving them. She loved drawing on them and even ended up drawing on them every day for about a week.

Creating her masterpiece.

She was SO happy!

She wouldn't even let us save the big one to carve later - she was having so much fun.

Our little monster. (Thanks Kristy for the cute outfit!)

Giving his Halloween "Growl"

Oh I LOVE these cheeks!!!

We decided to go to the zoo this year to go trick-or-treating. I thought it sounded like fun and Brianna was super excited to go get candy AND see the animals. Well... it was a total bust. I didn't realize that they actually put all the animals away before they let the trick-or-treaters in. DUMB! I mean what's the big deal about having trick-or-treating at the zoo if you're not going to let the kids see the animals???

Posing with dad before we headed into the zoo.

Trying to get a picture of Brianna and her horse Pinto.

She's so silly.

Here's what Ryan did the whole time trick-or-treating.

This random boy wanted to be in the picture. (And yes, it's a boy - I totally called him a girl and his mom got mad. Um hello - he had this long, beautiful ponytail - How was I supposed to know?)

There were different Halloween scenes set up around the zoo that were sponsored by the companies that handed out the candy.

She wanted to be eaten by the shark.

I think Ryan got so scared he had to cover his eyes. ;)

In the spooky smoke of the dragon.

She was so concerned about this spider and wanted to set him free.

She got a little scared of the moving trees.

Checking out the fairy's forest.

Take a bite, my dearie.

She was so over trick-or-treating at this point. She was tired and didn't want to walk anymore and was complaining that she was hungry (someone wouldn't eat her dinner before we left the house). She even started telling the people that were handing out candy that she didn't want any, that she just wanted to go home.

We ended up stopping at McDonald's on the way home and got her a Happy Meal. And she tells me to turn around and says, "Look mom, I'm happy now!". Sadly I think this was her favorite part of the night! LOL!!!

SISTER LOVE!

2011-11-09T12:09:00.004-09:00

Brianna is the best big sister. I was really worried about what she would do when we brought Ryan home - I mean she loves babies, but she doesn't really love mom with other children. I was really nervous that she would be jealous, but so far she has been great! You can tell she doesn't get quite as much attention, (she'll want to sit right next to me when I feed Ryan, she asks to cuddle with me more, or she's really loud when she's playing, and she's been more on the whiny side lately) - but she's never been mean or mad at Ryan. She's such a big helper too - which mom is loving. She loves to hold her baby, give him a TON of kisses, and is always concerned when he's crying (which she's getting a lot better at tuning out... he cries a lot :(). There was even one morning Ryan fell asleep so I put him in his crib and went to take a shower. About the time I put the shampoo in my hair he started to cry. I heard Brianna run by the bathroom saying that she'd help and take care of him. She tried to give him his binkie, but he just kept spitting it out and the crying kept getting louder and louder. As I was hurrying and getting out of the shower she comes into the bathroom crying herself. I ask her what's wrong and she sniffles, I just can't get Ryan to stop crying. :) She's too sweet!

First time holding Ryan.

Smoochin on him.

She kept telling my mom that you had to "pat" him.

She loves to hold him and asks me ALL the time.

This is her favorite, when I leave him sitting on the couch and she can crawl up next to him and "play" with him.

More kisses!

I've had to correct her a couple of times because she likes to "make-out" with him. LOL!

Another time I was in the bedroom for a minute while Ryan and Brianna were on the couch together. He started to fuss and I asked Brianna if he was ok. She yells back ya, he's good. He stopped crying so I thought she'd put the binkie in his mouth, but when I come back to the living room she's all smiles. She says to me, "Don't worry mom, he started crying so I just stuck my finger in his mouth!". She was so proud of herself. (We had to have a talk about that too.)

She also wants to be in every picture with him. :)

And sometimes just like him. Ha,Ha,Ha!

Can I just say I HAVE THE CUTEST KIDS EVER!!! I love them so much and am just so blessed to have these two little munchkins be mine. My heart is full!

GRANDPARENTS

2011-11-08T16:12:00.010-09:00

So my parents came out when we had Ryan to take care of Brianna. It actually worked out perfectly! I had originally had told them not to come, that we had some friends Bri was going to stay with, and to wait and come when Ryan was about 2 wks old. We just really wanted to have some "family" time with just our new little family of four before we had everyone come visit. (This is what we did when Bri was born and it worked out really good for us).

But unfortunately our sweet friend that was going to watch Bri ended up having a family emergency that she had to go back home for. So I got on the phone with my amazing parents and they were so so so nice and changed their plane tickets to come out early, after I had just told them no don't come then. This was such a blessing in disguise for me - little did I know at the time, I really couldn't have done it without them here.

So the day before we had Ryan my parents took us to the State Fair. (I say they took us to the fair, because when we got there we went to go get cash from the ATM and realized that the card in Justin's wallet was expired. So after making them go to the fair with us, we then made them pay for everything too! :) Nice!) It was, well... ok. Basically it was hot, I was huge, swollen, and in pain - I'm not sure what I was thinking. But we did get to eat some yummy fair food and Brianna had fun, so I guess that's all that counts.

Found some shade to eat our lunch at.

(I love how you can't see Bri's face behind her stroller.)

Bri's all time favorite ride - she didn't want to go on anything else.

LOL!!! (The funny thing is that it was Justin's idea to get the fairy picture!)

We bought crazy expensive tickets to ride the big ferris wheel because it was the only thing that we could all go on together. Well, they wouldn't let me on! I guess they were afraid of me going into labor on their "wild" ride. :)

Waving to mom.

All the way up at the top.

Waving with grandpa.

After a forever long walk, we finally found the petting zoo.

She wanted to hug all the animals. Too cute!

Give me a HUG!

And she got to ride a REAL horse!

This is the next morning after we sent the first text telling everyone Ryan was here.

My mom said she was so cute, she just couldn't stop smiling and staring at the phone.

Oh I am so grateful that my parents were here - like I said I couldn't have done it without them! First, it was so nice to have Justin stay the whole time with me at the hospital and not have to worry one bit about Brianna. And second, it was a such a blessing to have them here when I got home. (I didn't quite realize how down and out I would be after a c-section). It was so nice to have meals cooked for us, the house cleaned, Brianna taken care of, and the best part - I could go take a nap whenever I needed. Oh and not to mention they totally spoiled Bri and Ryan!!! I was so sad to see them have to go home because they were such an amazing help to our family.

Snoozing with grandpa. I mean if you're not old enough to golf, what else would you do with my dad! :)

Oh I LOVE my parents!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

About a week after my parents left, Justin's parents came. They were on there way through to their winter "home" in Arizona, so they only stayed a few days. And since Ryan was still so little and I was still pretty sore, we had a really low key visit with them. Just sitting around visiting, playing with Brianna, and cuddling with Ryan. It's so nice being able to see them more now that we're down in the lower 48 - they were only able to come see us once the whole time we lived in Alaska. It's fun to watch them watch their son be a dad - I'm positive they first, never thought he would be one, and second, they never imagined he be this good at it! :)

Cuddling with Nanny.

Snoozing with Papa. I'm pretty sure Howard was never the "baby" type of guy, so it's really cute to see him always wanting to either hold Ryan or play with Bri.

(Oh and this is the great man that Ryan's middle name comes from!)

We love our family so much and were so happy that both sets of grandparents got to come and share in our excitement of our new baby boy. We are so thankful for all the love and support they give us!!!

RYAN HOWARD WALKER

2011-11-07T10:54:00.010-09:00

Well I guess since that last post was about me pregnant with a boy, I might as well finally post about this little man of ours! ;)

Well let's start at the beginning... (Warning: This will be long!)

Way back when we had our ultrasound (the last post), they discovered that I had a low lying placenta (this is where the placenta is really close to the cervix). The doctor told me this at my following appointment and said not to worry too much about it because it would most likely move up and away from my cervix as my belly grew bigger. He also told us that the radiologist had seen something wrong with one of our baby's kidneys - something about a double renal pelvis, whatever that meant. My OB said that he had never seen or heard of anything like this before and referred us to a Perinatologist to help us figure out what was going on. When I went online after we got home from our appointment to see what this condition brought up, all the references to these findings were in older men with kidney cancer. Needless to say, I was totally freaked out. I remember crying on the way home, and then crying again and again every time that I thought about it. I was just so worried that my little boy was going to have something wrong with him.

We waited for what seemed like forever to get in with the doctor, which really was only about 1 1/2 weeks. They did another ultrasound at this visit and then the doctor came in to talk with us. Our fears where quickly set to ease when the doctor explained that what the radiologist had seen on the first ultrasound was just some fluid backed up in our baby's kidneys - which he told us was either kidney reflux or a "kink" in his ureter. He said that this is really common in boys and it's something that they usually will just grow out of. He told us that it was actually really rare that they even found this on the ultrasound, it was something that they usually find after the child is born and had had a lot of urinary tract infections (they only saw it because our baby was peeing right when the tech was looking at his kidneys). He also told us that only 1-2% of kids that have this will end up having to have surgery to fix the problem. Oh were we so so relieved!!! He did also mention at this visit that he thought I had partial placenta previa (where the placenta is covering a little bit of the cervix), but again not to worry that it would probably move. We just needed to come back at about 32wks and check it and our little man's kidney's again.

Fast forward to 33wks when we had our next ultrasound... We found out that are suspicions were correct and that my placenta had not moved - I actually now had a complete placenta previa - which meant I would be definitely having a c-section. Like I said, we were already pretty sure this was the case because about a week before my appointment I had some really really bad hemorrhaging. I started bleeding so bad one night that I ended up in the hospital. It was one of the scariest moments of my life - I was positive that I was losing the baby. I just kept bleeding and bleeding - like gushing on to our bathroom floor, it really looked like someone had been murdered! Anyways after rushing to the hospital, the bleeding slowed down, the baby looked good, and I was sent home to be on bed rest until my ultrasound the next week. The Perinatologist recommended that since I had already had hemorrhaging that we take the baby early at 37wks. They don't want you to go in to labor at all because of the danger of bleeding and possible separation of the placenta which can both be life threatening to the baby and mother. He also said that our baby's kidney's were looking better (not as much fluid back up in his kidney) and that he would most likely be just fine and normal when he was born.

Fast forward again to Sept 20th / 37wks. / Baby Day!!! We arrived at the hospital about 9:00am and got checked in. Now I have to admit I was pretty darn nervous. Having a scheduled delivery is kind of nice because you get to plan everything, but on the down side it gave me way too much time to think about it. (I mean when you go into labor naturally you're nervous, but don't have time to really think about it because there's so much other stuff going on). When they rolled me back to the delivery room I was actually so sick to my stomach because I was so overwhelmed with nervousness! But the nurses were really sweet and tried to keep my mind off of it. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me my spinal (which actually took 2 times to do) and then I finally started to relax and feel ok. Then Justin and the doctor came in a things got started. C-sections are definitely a very weird thing - being sliced open, but still awake = very weird. And then about 15 mins later - Boom you're a mom!!! PURE JOY - Our little Ryan was here!!! I do have to admit it was kind of sad when Ryan arrived for me, everybody else in the room got to see him except me, as I lay on the table behind the sheet. But Justin was really good about going and taking pictures and then coming back to me and showing him to me. And then those first precious cries came and I couldn't hold back the tears anymore - I think that HAS to be the sweetest sound in the whole wide world.

So while they were sewing me back up, Ryan was getting weighed and measured - we were really surprised to find out that he actually weighed more than Brianna did, who was full term. And he was super long - he missed the record for the hospital by 1 inch, which the doctor was sure he would have been at if he'd gone the full 40wks.

Meanwhile, I started feeling really weird. You've always heard that expression, "It feels like there's an elephant on my chest.", well this is exactly like I felt. I just couldn't get a breath, it became really really uncomfortable, so I asked the anesthesiologist if this was normal. She said that my oxygen levels were normal but this does sometimes happen and that she could give me some medication to help, but it would most likely make me go to sleep. I really didn't want to go to sleep, I mean I hadn't even had a chance to see my baby yet, so I tried to tough it out. The feeling kept getting worse and worse, I swore I was suffocating to death. I was so close to asking her to give me the medicine, but she saw that I was getting really uncomfortable and was really gasping for air, so she tried elevating my head to see if that would help. Thankfully it took just enough of the pressure away that I was able to tolerate the feeling and not have to get the extra medicine.

So while all this was happening Ryan's chest started retracting so he had to be put on oxygen. His O2 sats did eventually come back up and then he just had to be monitored for a couple of hours. I finally got put back together and the doctor came up and talked to me for a little bit. He said that they roughed me up pretty good (Ryan was way on my side and they had to really pull to get him out) and that I had a lot of bleeding (because of my placenta), so I would have a lot of bruising and pain - Yay me! (I even actually ended up having a bruise of some one's full hand-print on my thigh. LOL!)

But right after that, the nurses finished cleaning me up and got me covered and then there was this perfect little boy in my arms and all that crazy stuff from before went out the window. Oh he was just perfect!!! I know it sounds cliche, but your heart really does grow so much bigger when they put that baby in your arms, you just can't believe how much you love this little thing that you just met. They delayed cleaning him all up because they wanted me to just keep him skin to skin on my chest for a couple hours and watch his oxygen levels. So I just got to cuddle with my little guy for awhile which was amazing. His levels never dropped again and he did great!

Oh we are so blessed to have this little man. He is just the sweetest thing - even though he's a pretty grumpy boy :) We are all so in love with him!!! He's the perfect fit to complete our little family!!! (Oh btw, Ryan had an ultrasound of his kidney's when he was one day old and everything looked completely normal - yay!)

Ryan Howard Walker

Born: Sept. 2o, 2011 @ 10:41am

Weight: 7lbs 14oz

Height: 22"

Here he comes!!!

We were actually really surprised that the doctor let us take this photo (because of all the legal formalities). Justin had been schmoozing him for weeks to let us get a picture and finally he gave in and said he'd allow it.

He's HERE!!!

First cry.

Oh he's so sweet!

Getting his little footprints.

Me feeling a lot better after my head was propped up.

Loves those cheeks!

Getting some oxygen.

Finally able to meet my little boy.

PURE LOVE!

Our new addition.

IT'S A BOY!!!

2011-05-19T06:27:00.011-08:00

Well we found out on Monday that the little "critter" in my tummy is going to be a BOY!!! We are super excited!!! I was pretty sure that it was going to be a boy - just that "mom" feeling, you know. But that morning when we woke up I started having doubts, but in the end I was right and now get back massages for a week straight from the bet Justin and I made. :) He was positive that it was a girl and was completely shocked when they said it was a boy!!! Brianna was really funny - when the tech first said it was a boy she yells in the room, "NO, I don't like BOYS!!!". But when we got out to the truck afterwards she said, "I'm SO EXCITED for my baby brother!!!". So fun - I'm so happy to get one of each since we're only planning on having two kiddos! YAY!!!

First baby picture.

Nine weeks old.

Heart Beat.

The "skeletor" picture. :)

Little toes - so sweet!

Profile.

He's pretty handsome if I do say so myself!

He was so curled up during the ultrasound that the tech had a hard time getting that good "money shot". She was positive that it was a boy, but Justin and I wanted to be sure so she kept trying to get get a better angle for us - which wasn't working. But even though we didn't get that perfect angle (so there was no doubts in our minds), there were definitely some "family jewels" between those legs. LOL!

The "manhood" shot.

Face and arms.

Oh I'm already so in love with this little boy!!! Now to the finding him a name - oh it's going to be so hard, so keep your fingers crossed that we find one before he's born. We had such a hard time deciding on Brianna, or should I say compromising! :) I know it's going to be even harder finding a boy name that we agree on. Oddly, I don't even have a boy name that I'M even really liking right now, which is weird. All the ones that I thought I liked just don't seem right now that I'm preggo. I guess the same thing happened with Bri too, the girl names that I'd had picked out forever I didn't like at all as soon as we found out she was a girl. (But hey I guess there's a reason for that cause Brianna turned out to be perfect - none of those other names would have worked for her). So I guess we'll all just have to wait and see who this little guy is going to be! :)

FIRST HAIRCUT

2011-04-11T08:08:00.005-08:00

Ok so I uploaded these pictures into blogger probably over a month ago just realized that I never finished this post. Well even though it was awhile ago - here are pictures of Brianna's first haircut.

Before shot. See how straggely it is in the back. I would seriously never leave the house without her hair being pulled up because she looked like a homeless kid! :)

Front before shot.

Getting one last "call" in before he started cutting. :)

Holding still.

Ready to be done. She did really good except right at the end she got really fidgety.

She was such a good girl we went for ice cream after.

The after shot.

Side view.

The back.

I can't believe how grown up it makes her look. She almost doesn't even look like my little girl anymore. (tear...) But - she is so stinkin adorable!!!

CATCH-UP (Part 3) GRANDMA & GRANDPA

2011-02-23T09:15:00.010-09:00

So over New Year's Grandma and Grandpa Anderson came to visit for a few days. We had a really good time with them. Since they weren't here for very long so we mostly just hung out, played with Brianna, and well of course ate a lot of food. :) Oh and of course we all got spoiled with some belated Christmas presents!!! (Thank you mom & dad!!!) They came in on New Year's Eve, and since Justin had to work, we went to Cattleman's Steakhouse for dinner - the steak was SO good - definitely the best steak I've ever ate at a restaurant. Then we just hung out that night at home and watched a movie. Justin did make it home right before midnight, which was fun. Although we did try to watch the famous ball drop on tv, the stupid local Oklahoma station cut to some live feed of people here in town - so it was a little anti-climatic.

Justin arranged to get one day off while they were here so we took a little trip down to a drive-thru zoo. It was really fun / funny! There were a couple of crazy animals that made the whole trip - we couldn't stop laughing!!! The big hit though was the giraffes - you could actually feed them by hand without being scared they were going to bite your fingers off - Brianna loved it!

So here's some pictures of their trip.

Playing with Mrs. Potato head with grandma.

SMILE!!!

She calls this her "Santa Clause" beard.

My dad let her wear his glasses - which she thought was awesome. This picture is just too funny!!! LOL!!! Oh I can't stop laughing!!!

She's pretending to being grandma in this picture. (For those of you that don't know, my mom has terrible arthritis in her shoulders so she always has a pillow to rest her arms on.)

We went to a local diner one morning before Justin went to work for breakfast.

(Bri wasn't up for pictures)

Had to add this first one cause well, it just cracks me up! (Can we say bitter beer face?!?!)

A little bit better.

Trying to entertain Brianna on the drive down to the zoo.

I hate looking at people's zoo pictures, so I just added the funny or cute ones. (These are the animals that made the trip)

This is the inbreed llama!!! LOL!!! We couldn't stop laughing... we named him Bucky!

Open WIDE!

These weird some sorta cows came begging for food. The would just stand there with their mouths open waiting for you to dump food in. Their breath stunk SO bad - and the one I was feeding totally burped in my face which literally blew my hair back!!! YUCK!!!

Justin just ended up dumping the rest of his food cup into it's mouth.

This is the meanest/craziest ostrich ever. We hated it. It followed us down by the giraffes and kept trying to stick it's head in our truck while we were feeding the giraffes. We let it out of our sight for just a minute and it stuck it's head in and was trying to attack Brianna - everyone was screaming and beating this dumb ostrich in the head. (It makes me laugh now cause it must have looked so stinkin funny)

I took a picture of it's feet cause they are so disgusting!!!

Bri decided to drive for a little while. She did pretty good! :)

The best part - feeding the giraffes.

She had so much fun - she could have done this all day.

The whole family.

We stopped on the way home for dinner. Here's Bri with her Sweetie dog.

Just a cute family picture that my mom took.

Bri got a hold of the camera and went around taking pictures of everyone. The pictures that she took actually turned out pretty good.

Here's grandma.

And grandpa.

And daddy (he was fixing our vacuum)

And of course of of Daizy.

Showing off her slide for grandma.

Taking a chips and dip break. :)

Showing off her "skills".

We had such a fun time with them - and are looking so forward to seeing them again in April!!!

CATCH-UP (Part 2) - NANNY & PAPA

2011-02-06T11:06:00.007-09:00

The first couple weeks in December Nanny & Papa Walker came to visit. They spend the winters down in Arizona, so during their trek in the RV down from Vermont they stopped to see us. Although it was cold and Justin had to work most of their visit, we had a nice relaxed time just hanging out. Brianna got totally spoiled while they were here! She got so used to them bringing her presents every time she saw them that if they didn't have something in their hands when they walked through the door she would ask them, "What you bring me?". :) Kinda embarrassing and cute at the same time!

Here's Bri and Nanny cuddling. It was so nice to see Barb feeling better this time. Last time we saw her she was really sick and could barely get up and walk around. It was amazing to see the transformation - she even was able to chase or be chased around the house by Brianna.

Hanging with Papa! She loved climbing all over him!!!

Getting a little horsey ride.

Playing with one of the many presents she got.

I couldn't help but include this following one. (Check out where Bri's hand is!!! Crazy child!!! LOL!!!)

While they were here we got the house ready for Christmas. Justin's parents were even nice enough / sneaky enough to buy us our Christmas tree!

Bri helping mom out.

Nanny was the ornament hand-er-outer.

The bottom of the tree was very well decorated. The rest was done by me cause the men were too busy hanging up lights around the house.

I don't know why, but after each ornament she hung up she would sprint to the kitchen and get a drink from her water bottle and then sprint back.

Me and Barb.

Holy "CHEEEESE" face!!!

Posing for a finale picture by the tree.

I had to include this "evil stare" one too! She's too funny - man that kiddo makes me laugh!!!

We also went to see Santa Clause at the mall, but since you can't use your own camera and to get a picture it costs 4 easy payments of $49.99, we decided to just take these pictures next to Santa's house.

Bri wasn't too fond of Santa - she didn't cry, but she did not want to sit on his lap. So she sat next to him on the bench with me sitting on the other side. The Santa there was so lame and barely even talked to her. No "Ho,Ho,Ho" of even a "What do you want for Christmas?". I think we only got a couple "ok's" out of him. Dumb!

We look forward to seeing Nanny & Papa again in April. It's such a nice perk to live back in the lower 48 and get to see family more often.

PLAYING CATCH-UP : CHRISTMAS

2011-02-04T15:21:00.013-09:00

Oh how I've been slacking on blogging!!! And I don't even have a good excuse - I just never get around to it. But anyways here's a little look at our Christmas - I know, I know, it was forever ago!!! This year it was so fun because Brianna is now old enough to kind of understand the whole Christmas concept. She was so fun! This year she asked Santa to bring her a black horse (not sure where she came up with this, but she thought of it all on her own), and a Mickey Mouse phone (she wanted it at the store one day, so I told her to ask Santa for it). So here's a ton of pictures of our day.

Getting Santa's cookies out. We didn't have any carrots for the reindeer, so we went with some celery sticks.

Opening her Christmas Eve presents.

She got a little Christmas book and these cute little jammies.

Christmas Eve - man did this kid get spoiled. It looked like we had 5 kids! :) Every single present you see was for her!!!

Opening her stocking.

The Mickey Mouse phone.

Gotta love her shoes! :)

Playing some tunes for dad to sing to. LOL!!!

The "Black Horse".

She was is so CUTE!!! She ran to go get a present and was bringing it back to sit by me and open it when she stopped in the middle of the living room, looked at me, turned around and looked at all her presents, ran back and grabbed another and brought it to me and told me, "Mommy, you need to open a present!". It was just so sweet to see her not all about her and thinking everything was hers - she just wanted to share.

Being super silly with daddy.

Of course the big hit of the day was the box that Justin made into a fort.

Peek-a-Boo!

Here's a little video of her getting her kitchen - sorry it's so dark.

It was such a fun day. It took her forever to open everything. We just let her take her time and play with everything in between. I'm pretty sure we could have gotten her 2 presents and she would have been just as happy. I was telling my parents that it looked like we had 5 kids and they just laughed and said the funny thing is even if you had five kids there would still just be the same amount of presents But oh well, I guess she'll only get spoiled for so long, so she might as well live it up! :) Man I love my little family - I am so blessed!!! And a BIG THANKS to all of our family that helped make it a special day for Brianna!!! Even though we were far away from home we still felt loved!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

2010-10-31T16:42:00.030-08:00

Okay so I realize that it's literally been FOREVER since I blogged. We've been busy busy busy packing, moving, and now unpacking that I've just been a big slacker. But I had to get these pictures up on here for the grandparents! So here you go - they're so stinkin cute if I do say so myself! :)

So Brianna went as a cowgirl on her trusty steed, Pinto for Halloween!!! She was so cute and so much fun this year. It's so fun to have a little one now and see how excited they get for holidays. I have to admit this wasn't my first choice in costumes for her. But she worked it - and pretty darn good I would say. :) We were at the store looking for costumes and I was thinking maybe a cute little witch or fairy when Brianna spotted this pony. And that's when she fell in LOVE. She wanted it so badly that I finally gave in - she was so not letting me leave the store without it. It was really cute though because she had already named it and was introducing her new pony Pinto to all the customers by the time we got to the check-out line. She is totally in love with her pony and has been riding it around the house ever since we brought it home.

Here she is posing for a few pictures before we headed off to go trick-or treating.

She wouldn't wear the cowboy hat so we opted for some cute french braids.

Giddy up!!!

Trick-or-Treating at the mall. (Even though most of the stores were already out of candy!) We also went to the Halloween carnival at the church, but it was really small so we ended up leaving early.)

Posing with mom after trick-or-treating.

We couldn't get her to smile so we went for the good old tongue picture. :)

The day before we went to a local pumpkin patch. It wasn't very Halloweeny, but it was a fun place for Brianna to play.

Riding the horses with her awesome dad! LOL!!! He was such a great sport - I love that he loves being a dad!!!

Merry-Go-Round

Petting zoo

"Feeding" the bunnies. She thought the mulchy stuff in their cage was food.

This bunny went CRAZY after she was done holding it. It leaped from my arms back into it's cage - I guess it wasn't a fan of the Walker family!

You can't tell in this picture, but this sheep is literally scaling the gate to get to the food in my hand. (As you can tell by my "lovely" face, I was a little surprised!)

SLIDES!!!

Going down the BIG slide with mommy. (She was mad at me cause she wanted to go all by herself!)

Jumping on the big bouncy.

Pony rides!!!

Trying to get a picture of her with her pumpkin. Oh it was so not happening!

I guess they had a bad pumpkin growing year cause only the kids got a free pumpkin with their ticket purchase and they were all little tiny ones. But it was okay cause it was the perfect little peanut size!

Here are a couple of videos we took of her at the mall. She literally could have cared less about the candy thing, she just wanted to run free on her pony!!!

If you can't understand her at the end of the video she says, "Hi Partner! I'm Brianna!" Oh man she is so cute. LOVE THAT LITTLE GIRL!!!

HEROES UNAWARE

2010-05-31T18:52:00.000-08:00

I first saw him on a park bench
I've seen him every day
Sitting in a shady grove
Where my children come to play
Sometimes he feeds the birds and squirrels
Or whittles little toys
Sometimes he just sits and smiles
At the laughing girls and boys
And I never paid him any mind
'Till one day just this year
I noticed that he wore a frown And on his cheek ... a tear.

Well I asked him why he seemed so down
He looked up, began to say
I lost half my friends 60 years ago today
He told me of the terror
As he fought to reach dry land
By the time the beachhead was secure
Half his friends lay in the sand

That was just in one long day
He fought on for 4 years more
And the 60 years from then to now
Have not dimmed His sights of war

He said they have reunions
Just to keep in touch and share
And for each comrade who has gone on
They leave an empty chair

Well, His park bench has been empty now
About 6 months or so
And if I'd never took the time
Then I never would've known
That sitting on that simple bench
With bread crumbs and little toys
Was a man who gave his all
To guarantee my daily joys

So give thanks to all the men and women
Who're still here or have gone before
And made the highest sacrifice
In both Peace time and in War
Because they bought our freedom
Paid their own blood, sweat, and tears
Then endured the heartache of those empty chairs
For all these years

So please do not ignore them
Or speed by without a care
'Cause you never know
When you might pass by
A hero, unaware

By Mark A. Wright, HMC(SS)22 June, 2000

NO, FREEDOM ISN'T FREE

2010-05-31T18:36:00.007-08:00

I watched the flag pass by one day.

It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,

And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform

So young, so tall, so proud,

With hair cut square and eyes alert

He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him

Had fallen through the years.

How many died on foreign soil?

How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?

How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?

No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of taps one night,

When everything was still

I listened to the bugler play

And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times

That taps had meant "Amen,"

When a flag had draped a coffin

Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,

Of the mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands

With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard

At the bottom of the sea

Of unmarked graves in Arlington.

No, freedom isn't free.

CDR Kelly Strong, USCG (Ret).

RADIO FLYER

2010-05-18T16:32:00.011-08:00

My mom was wondering where these pictures were on the last post - but I wanted to get some cute pictures on our walks outside, but kept forgetting our camera. So here's the awesome Radio Flyer Wagon from Grandma & Grandpa Anderson that Bri got her birthday. She LOVES it!!! Every time we go outside she runs over and tries to get in. SO FUN!!!

"Helping" dad assemble. :)

Pretending she's taking a nap.

Being a goof ball!!! Gotta love the Mr. Potato Head tongue!!!

"Let's GO!!!"

She also loves to give her animals rides!

Every little kid definitely needs a Radio Flyer!!!

LOOK WHO'S 2

2010-05-12T14:21:00.032-08:00

That's right my little peanut turned two back on April 24th!!! I really still can't believe it - it's so crazy!!! Well on her actual birthday we were all packed into the truck driving to Seward, so we had her little birthday bash the following week after we'd got home. It was so fun to have Grandma & Grandpa Anderson here to celebrate with us.

We ended up having a Dora themed party. She would have probably liked Diego better (since he's her boyfriend) but I couldn't find any Diego decorations.

But none the less, I think she liked it.
I think we could have just gotten her the balloons and she would have been just as happy.

They were definitely the big hit of the night!

She is so grown up!!!

Playing with Grandpa - or Dale, since that it what she called grandpa for part of their visit. It was so funny.

The Triple Chocolate Birthday cake. (I think I was way more excited about the cake than she was! It was so delicious!!!)

She even blew out the candle all by herself!!!

DIG IN!!! Ha,Ha,Ha!!! She cracks me up!!!

I tried to see if she'd use a spoon...

But of course hands work so much better for this task!!!

YUMMY!!!

Present Time

She got some Dora & Diego books and DVD's. (Which we all watched about a million times on the trip down to Seward. UGH! "Isa turn the wheel - Turn the wheel Isa!" :) This was stuck in all of our heads for most of our trip.) Some match-up books, cup stackers, and a couple of cute cd's.

A cool marble castle.

A ton of cute clothes. She liked these shorts so much she wanted to put the on right away!

College funds from Nana and Grampie Walker!

Some awesome rain/mud boots. Which had to put on immediately.But were soon trumped by these cute little flip-flops.

More clothes - which even included a I Love Softball t-shirt - cuteness! She's set for summer!

Time to play!!! (She was jumping up and down screaming while the balls rolled down)

And well I guess we had a killer party...

Cause both guys were racked out after the presents were opened! What dorks!!!

Thanks to everyone for the gifts - sorry you all couldn't be here with us to celebrate. :( Maybe next year!!! Oh how I love this little girl. She is such a blessing in my life. I always knew that I wanted to be a mother, but I never imagined it would be this rewarding. I truly LOVE my little Bri with all my heart - I know it sounds cheesy - but I always think my heart can't get any bigger, and then the next day comes and it expands just a little more. Brianna is one of the most amazing little wonders and Justin and I are so eternally grateful that she's ours!!!

LOVE YOU BRIANNA!!!

Here she is the next morning. Still in love with the balloons and sporting her rain boots.

She is too funny!!! (One of her quotes about herself)

JUSTIN DAY!

2010-04-11T10:52:00.008-08:00

Even though he's not feeling good today and has been asleep on the couch for most of it - Bri and I still wanted to wish this amazing guy a Happy Birthday!!! (and feel better soon)

Man he's HOT!!!

I LOVE this guy so much!!! He is such a great husband. Sadly I sometimes I forget how good I have it. He is such a generous and thoughtful husband - always putting his needs and wants on the back burner to make me happy. I am so lucky to have him as my husband! I am truly truly grateful every day that he picked me to be his wife!!!

Best daddy ever!!!

Brianna loves her daddy so much! And he loves her even more!!! They have so much fun together. Justin is seriously the greatest dad any kid could ask for. I always wondered how Justin would deal with being a dad - (he himself proclaims he hates children) but he is amazing!!! He is so protective of his little girl and wants to teach her about everything. I love to just sit back and watch them together - it just one of those things that melt my heart!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN FACE & DADDY!!!

WE LOVE YOU FOR ALWAYS!!!

THIS ONE'S FOR KRISTY!

2010-04-01T14:45:00.007-08:00

Okay to give most of you a little background, this is one of my funny family stories from my childhood. When my little sister, Kristy, was about 5 or 6 she sat down in a 5 gallon paint bucket and got stuck. No matter what she tried she just couldn't figure out how to get out. She yelled for us siblings to help her and so we ended up pulling her out. Well being the mean older sister that I sometimes was, I somehow convinced Kristy to sit back into the bucket again. She eventually did and to my humor she got stuck - AGAIN!!! She just couldn't figure out how to get herself out. We all just sat there laughing and laughing at her forever, we even busted out the camera and took a picture of poor Kristy, crying and screaming for someone to help her. Finally about 20 minutes later we finally told Kristy the "trick" to getting out of the bucket was just to lean to one side and fall over, then you can easily get out. Every time I see that picture from our childhood I just laugh! It was so mean but so funny at the same time.

So the other day I was in the kitchen when I hear Brianna yelling, "HELP, HELP, I STUCK!". I turn the corner and there she is - stuck in her little Easter bucket. And, well, being the mean mom that I am, thought back to my little sister and grabbed the camera for a few pictures...

Here she is all stuck. I love the look on her face - like, "Hello mom, I need help, not a picture!".

Then to my surprise she started to lean...

Fell over...

And she was out!!!

Well I just had to post this and tease Kristy that my little Brianna was smart enough to figure out how to get out of the bucket and she's not even 2 yet!!! HA,HA,HA!!! Love you Kristy!!!

PS. Sorry for being a mean sister sometimes - even though it was just a little bit funny!!! :)

DOG MUSHING

2010-03-22T08:33:00.000-08:00

A week or so ago I took Brianna up to base for a quick dog mushing ride. She was so stinkin cute. It was nap time when we went so I didn't know how well she would do, but she ended up loving it! When we got there, we headed down the hill to where they were doing the rides and was informed that the dogs were too tired and they were ending the rides early. A little disappointed that I drove all the way to base and woke Brianna up for nothing I told the lady we would just stay and watch the last 2 runs because Bri loves puppies so much. We stayed a little off to the side and watched the dogs - Brianna was so excited. Every time the puppies would come around the bend she would yell "Go puppies!!!" and clap. The guy that was in charge kept watching her and smiling and when the last 2 runs were over he called me over and told us that they would make one more run for such a cute little girl. I was going to go with her, but as we were about to get on another girl named Natalie walked down the hill wanting a ride too, so I asked her if it would be alright if she held Bri. I kinda wanted to go but I'm sure the dogs were glad they got to carry Natalie instead of my large behind - but it was good cause I got to take pictures instead.

At first she freaked out because I just threw her on Natalie's lap (a total stranger) and started taking pictures. But after I calmed her down and showed her that she was on a sled with the puppies she was ok.

Happy again and ready to GO!!!
And they're off!!!

Natalie said she laughed and yelled the whole time.

Here they come! The trainers had to run out there to keep them on track - they were so tired after they made the last turn they would try to run up the hill to their truck - I think they were ready to go home.

My Little Alaskan Dog Musher

Puckered up to give the puppy a kiss!

She LOVED it!!! So FUN!!!

JUSTIN & LISA DAY!

2010-03-17T13:51:00.002-08:00

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

That's right it's been 4 wonderful years since Justin and I got married. Man oh man I love this guy so much. He is one of the best things that has every happened to me. He is the bestest husband (I know everyone thinks that about their own husband's, but I'm positive he is the BEST!). He is such a thoughtful, fun, good, caring, supportive and loving husband. He is the greatest dad - I love watching Brianna and him together! They have so much fun and Brianna loves him so much!!! I am so thankful that he picked me to spend forever with! I don't what I would do with out him in my life!!! Simply babe - Thanks for being mine!!! I'm sure a "LUCKY" girl on this St. Patrick's Day!!! LOVE YOU BABE!!!

I wanted to share some other pictures from our wedding day, but all our photos are already packed, so you'll just have to look at the ones you've all already seen. BTW - holy crap how we've aged in the past four years - we look so young. I don't know if it's marriage, Alaska or kids that do it to you put good grief we're getting old!!!

LOVE YOU FOR ALWAYS!!!

Well Justin is still hanging in there - another one of the many reasons why I love this man so much. I'm positive his stress load with everything going on right now is at least double than mine and he's always the one to stay calm and reason with me. He has had such a rough road these past 6 or so months with his back and he never complains. He's always willing to help me out with Brianna, help around the house, cook me dinner, or even give ME a back rub when he's hurting so much. He is so unselfish and always thinks of my happiness and comfort far before he considers his own. He got another MRI this week and when he was leaving the tech came over and shook his hand and said he's got the worst back he's ever seen where the person was actually still up walking around and not crying in pain all the time. He's just amazing!!!

In other news, we still have absolutely no idea what we're doing - STILL!!! Yesterday we were sure that Justin's orders were canceled and we'd be here in Alaska at least until November. Well today it looks like his orders are still going to be canceled, but we're going to get orders to a new base in the next couple of weeks and still leave in May. So who knows - I'm sure it'll change by tomorrow. At this point I almost don't even care where we go or if we stay here, just someone tell me what it going on - PLEASE!!!

Oh just and little update on the whole weight loss adventure. Justin is down 34 pounds, that's right 34!!! What???? He is doing so good - he has the best will power (yes, little jealous). But I guess it has to do with the fact that we're eating about the same amount of calories, but because he's a guy and 6'4" he's really supposed to eat almost double the calories a day that I am. I don't know how he does it, he's my inspiration to keep going. But my pitiful number is only 12, but hey it's still progress and I'm proud of those mere 12!!! :)

MY "MONTHLY" BLOG

2010-03-03T15:25:00.011-09:00

Good grief I am so stinkin at updating this blog lately. I don't know why - I guess it's cause nothing really exciting is happening, so I can't think of really anything to blog about. Anyways I thought I'd just post a couple of crazy pictures I found on my camera this week. Some of them are a couple months old, but they made me laugh.

Brianna in her dad's bunny boots. She LOVES shoes and will try on every body's shoes when they're here. These suckers were so heavy she couldn't even walk. It was so funny!!!
My little Hannibal Lector!
This picture makes me laughs so hard every time I see it!!!
Playing in her toy box with her little buddy Christian.

Heading to church when it was almost 40 below. She looks like a bag lady!!! :) Ha,Ha,Ha!!! (I did take the outer green coat off before we walked into church so she wasn't quite so homely.)

She loves her little table for anything but what it's intended for. She loves to play under it, on top of it, and enjoys pushing it around the house - but will hardly ever sit down and color on it.

She thinks the spray bottle is the coolest toy ever!

She loves to unpack the drawers in the kitchen and climb/sit in them. Last Saturday morning I was in the shower and Justin was watching TV. He noticed that the microwave was running so he went into the kitchen and there Brianna was sitting on the counter top (she used the drawers as a ladder) playing with the microwave. She pointed at it and said "Cookin!" Glad she's picking up on her mama's awesome cooking skills! :)

In other news, we're sitting pretty much at a stand still with the whole PCSing business. We're not sure if we are headed to Wyoming anymore - yep I might be stuck here forever. :) Since Justin has got these back issues we're not really sure if our orders are going to be approved. It's leaning to the side of we're going to stay here until his back is fixed - but who knows. It's getting kinda frustrating not knowing what the heck is going on, but I guess there's nothing I can do about it - except complain, which I sadly do probably too often. Justin had a steroid shot about a month ago and hasn't seen any effects from it, so we think he's probably headed for surgery. We're waiting on a second opinion with a neurosurgeon down in Washington, so we'll see how that pans out. We're just worried that he's going to get kicked out of the military - what a waste with only 5 more years until retirement. UGH!!! We're just praying they can limp him along for the next 5 years or medically retire him. It's just scary thinking we could end up with no job and no insurance by the end of the year. But hopefully we'll get some answers in the next couple of weeks.

On a lighter note it's been really warm (for you non-Alaskans that's like 20-40 degree temperatures! :)) It has been wonderful!!! I even went outside yesterday with no coat on!!! And not to mention it's getting lighter and lighter every day. I definitely have spring fever going on.

Brianna is growing like crazy - I know I say that all the time, but I still catch myself staring at her wondering how she ever got so big. She is talking up a storm. Not all of it I catch or understand, which is quite funny sometimes. For example we were out to eat a couple of weeks ago and she was standing in her chair pointing at people and yelling what I think was yes - except that her yes sounded more like an "@$$". Here both Justin and I were laughing, turning bright red while people were staring at our unruly child. (On a side note - I am positive that she wasn't saying the swear, cause really I don't think she's ever heard this one. If Justin or I slip and curse in front of her this is definitely not the ones we use!) But for the most part she can and will repeat almost everything you say - oh except thank you and I love you - what's up with that?!?!? She is still seriously crazy about babies!!! She thinks everything and anything are her babies. I even caught her "rocking" the bear on her pj's the other day. Oh and she told me yesterday that one of her alphabet magnets from the fridge was crying as she tried to console it. She just cracks me up every day at the crazy little things she comes up with.

Well I guess other than that we're doing pretty good. Justin and I are on a diet, which is kinda nice to be doing it together. I could say we're helping each other along the road, but he has wheel power like mad man, so basically he's dragging me along kicking and screaming. BTW - I hate men!!! I'm pretty sure I've lost 2 maybe 3 pounds since we started two weeks ago, while Justin has lost 15-20. It's really like that commercial on tv for some women diet drug where the wife says with disgust "What!!! - Do you want to weigh nothing!" cause it's so easy for her husband to lose weight. Oh well I'll catch up some day! But hopefully you'll see a skinnier lookin couple in the next few months!!!

IT'S OFFICIAL...

2010-02-02T08:24:00.003-09:00

We're headed to WYOMING!!! We're going to FE Warren Air Force Base, which is near Cheyenne. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet. I'm excited, scared, happy, disappointed, grateful and worried all at the same time. But it'll be good - I guess things are just as good as you're willing to make them - so it's really up to me in the end. The good thing is that we'll only be 6 hours away from home (yay - finally within driving distance!). So at least when I get sick of it I'll be able to come home and visit for a couple of days. Now just to start packing... UGH!!!

CHRISTMAS

2010-01-08T17:43:00.024-09:00

Man oh man it's been a long time since I last posted anything. Even Justin has been giving me a hard time for not updating the blog - "We're missing memories!" he keeps telling me. Other than it being cold and dark here not a whole lot has changed. We find out where we're PCSing to later this week. I'm getting kind of nervous - I really hope that I won't be regretting saying how much I hate living in Alaska when we're stationed somewhere even worse - cause yes, I do realize it could be much worse!

Brianna is growing like crazy! I just can't believe she's not my little baby anymore!!! She is talking up a storm these days. I swear she learns a new word almost every day. She loves to dance/jump - it cracks me up every time she does it. She'll play the music on her toys over and over again and dance to it. She loves to color, she colored last night for an hour - but it must be with a pen or she throws a fit. Speaking of fits - she's definitely my daughter :) - she is becoming a "great" temper tantrum thrower!!! UGH!!! She's in this "mine" phase and it's driving me a tad bit bonkers!!! She is going potty on the big girl potty here and there, not really consistent, but we're headed in the right direction. Her hair is getting longer, but it's even worse looking than a couple of months ago (as you'll see in the pictures)! If I don't do her hair, she looks so homely, so I have to make sure her hair is done whenever we leave the house. She still hates things in her hair - so thanks to my friend Nicole advise, we still do the tucked under piggy tails. She loves to climb... everything!!! She's even learned how to climb up into her crib - hence the busted lip in the pictures from one on her attempts! She loves nursery, but only when her mommy stay in with her. She doesn't even want to sit by me, she just wants to make sure that when she looks up I'm still there across the room. Gooper!!! She is obsessed with babies! She tries to hold, hug, touch, kiss all the babies at church. She treats all her animals like babies - she'll pat them on the bum, rock them, wrap them in blankets, feed them, and try to change their diapers. She is so stinkin cute! Justin always teases me and tells me, "Well I'm pretty sure our daughter was born a Mormon cause she already thinks she's a mom." HA,HA,HA!!!

Justin is doing good. He is a trapping fool!!! Even though he hasn't caught anything worth while yet, he still seems really excited about it. He talks about it non-stop to me (and yes, it's "so interesting! LOL!) I just can't believe anyone would go out in the cold like he does and call it fun??? And when he's not out trapping, he's preparing to go trapping. Our house almost always smells like trap dye (which is a earthy, dirt, woodsy smell) and is always humid from the constent boiling. His back seems to be doing okay. He's supposed to get steroid injections sometime in the next couple of weeks - the military is taking FOREVER to get anything done - not really a big surprise there. He saw a pain specialist the other day and she told him that he would never get feeling back in his foot. She said the nerves aren't pinched like we thought, they're completely severed - so we were pretty disappointed with that crappy news. He's so sick of not being able to feel his toes, he calls his foot "my club" because he just feels like he has to almost drag it. Poor guy! He's so not ready to leave Alaska, but he's a nice hubby and ok with the decision cause it's not for me. But he does tell me almost every day that he's going to miss something or other about this place.

Daizy is still alive - barely! :) Man this dog is starting to drive us crazy. She seriously is costing us more than our child, which is pretty pathetic. I think Justin and I have agreed that the next time she costs us over $300, she's got to hit the road. I guess we'll see how we "really" feel when that time comes - and yes I'm sure it'll come - it's not if anymore, it's when!!! So she's had this growth on her tummy for awhile that kept getting bigger, so I finally scheduled to have it removed the week after Christmas. Well so for a fun surprise on Christmas morning she ripped it open and it was bleeding all over the house. Nasty!!! We didn't want to pay the extra money to have it dealt with over the holiday so we just patched her up the best we could and waited until Monday. Anyways she got the thing removed which cost an arm and a leg and then the incision got infected - blah, blah, blah. I swear it never ends with this dog!!! Well she's fine now and hopefully she'll be good for a very very long time!!!

As for me, I'm just here. This winter has gotten to me more that the past ones. I just want out of here. The darkness just makes me so lazy, I have no motivation for anything, which is annoying!!! Oh and did I mention I hate being cold? Blah!!! Well we've decided to move ourselves when we leave, so I'm trying to pump myself up to start packing this place. UGH!!! But if it works out, we should make a pretty good chunk of money by doing it ourselves. Oh and by the way, I am NOT preggo, if "anyone" was wondering!!! (ha,ha,ha - that's for you Nicole :))

So that's what's up with us for the moment. I'll try to catch up on some of the events I've missed in later posts. But here are some pictures of our Christmas. It was pretty low key, we just stayed here and enjoyed it with just our little family. I had a terrible headache that day, so it was kinda miserable. And since I felt so crappy, we ended up cooking Christmas dinner the next day which was much more enjoyable. Brianna had a fun day - holy moly she got spoiled!!! Thank you everyone!!! She loves to unwrap, but would get sidetracked and just want to play with what was inside instead of opening more presents. So we took our time and unwrapped presents for what seemed like forever!

Brianna in her Christmas dress. I could not get her to stand still for a picture, so this is right before she tried to climb under it.

Christmas Eve! Yes all those presents are for Brianna!!! Justin and I didn't get each other gifts cause we got an auto start put in our truck, so that became our present to one another. We didn't want to dig in our crawl space for the stockings, so Justin decided we could just use a mukluk. :) We're in Alaska right?!?!?

Digging into her "stocking" Christmas morning!

My peanut!!! (trying to run away)

Lounging on her gifts! What a nut!!!

After Christmas breakfast we gave Bri some juice and this is where she ended up again! :)

PRESENT TIME!!!

Justin opening his present from my mom and dad. They got him a little helicopter and to my surprise he loved it. He's like a little kid flying it around the house, into walls, into my head!!!

She didn't want to open this one - just wanted to climb on it.

College fund!!!

Brianna with all her gifts! And yet again I couldn't get her to sit still for the picture, she wanted to PLAY!!!

Thanks again to everyone for making Brianna's Christmas so fun! WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!

THE WEDDING

2009-11-28T17:38:00.027-09:00

Here are some cute pictures of my little sister Kristy's wedding. She was so so so gorgeous!!! Even though the day was a little hectic and crazy - what wedding isn't - the wedding was so beautiful.

The Bride & Groom

The Bridal Party

Anderson Family

Mother of the Bride picture - so cute!

Sisters = Best Friends

Bride with the Flower Girl w/her stupid binky! :)

Getting ready.

Getting my peanut ready.

Walking down the aisle.

The First Kiss!!!

Mr. & Mrs. Beier

The Anderson Kids - LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Beier & Anderson Family

Forever & Always

We're so happy for you them - CONGRATS!!! Welcome to the crazy family Dustin!!! :) Love you guys!!!

STEREOTYPES

2009-10-21T15:03:00.011-08:00

NERD VS. DIVA

I'll let you decide. :)

Brianna loves to play on the computer. Sadly I know it's from watching me - maybe this should be a sign that I spend too much time on the computer!

But she's pretty good - I usually have to close a bunch of programs that she's opened - even some things that I've never seen before.

She even knows to use the mouse.
And then there's this little princess! She came out of her room one day with this bag around on her shoulder wearing her sunglasses. It was so funny!!! By the time I grabbed the camera she didn't want to wear the glasses anymore, but she carried this bag around for almost an hour.
I tried to put some things in her bag but she got very angry with me. I guess it's good that she's frugal in her purchases.
This is her waving and yelling "BYE" at me! I guess she was ready for a night out on the town!

NAKED BABY!

2009-09-18T14:56:00.008-08:00

Well Brianna has become quite a little "stripper" that past couple of weeks. She just can't seem to keep her shirt on. :) This is how the sequence goes...

And this is what she looks like for half of the day. Justin and I think she looks like a little hillbilly boy! :) It's too funny!!!The other morning I set her applesauce on the table while I was cooking her some oatmeal for breakfast. I turned around and to my surprise found her helping herself.

I guess it's just hard for me to realize that my little baby is growing up and can do things without my help. Since then she has also become very insistent that she feed herself. (She's feed herself finger foods for a long time, but with liquidy stuff I've always just fed her). Although it's very messy, it seems I can get her to eat better if she has some say in it. We usually both arm ourselves with a spoon, so she can feed herself a little bite and then I'll feed her a big bite - it's working pretty good.

In other news Justin is off moose hunting. So the girls are just hanging here at home. It gets pretty lonely here at night without daddy, but I guess we'll take 2 weeks of him being gone rather than a deployment (so I really shouldn't be complaining!). We are headed down to Utah next month and are so excited. We're going down for Easton's baby blessing and my little sister Kristy's wedding!!! Yep she just got engaged!!! CONGRATS KRISTY AND DUSTIN!!!

PIZZA NIGHT & MOMMYHOOD

2009-09-15T21:39:00.007-08:00

So I have discovered a new hair styling product to patent - pizza grease! Yep that's right folks pizza grease!!! See here's the proof...While we were eating homemade pizza for dinner the other night, Brianna kept running her fingers threw her hair. And well - this is what she looked like after she was done eating. If any of you are interested in some fabulous hair styling gel be sure to call me. :)

Brianna has also started to do a little role playing. It is so so cute. She thinks her little giraffe that Nana Walker got her is her baby. She carries him around, wraps him in a blanket (really an old pair of pj's), pats his bum, rocks him, hugs him, and tries to feed him from her sippy cup.
She is was so adorable!!! I love my little mommy-to-be!!!

WHAT'S GOING ON - NOTHING

2009-09-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

Well I know I haven't really posted anything for awhile - my mom made sure I realized this too the other day on the phone. :) But we really haven't been up to much. Justin's been off hunting and fishing (I'll have to post pictures of him later), but Bri and I have just been boring for the past couple of weeks.

Brianna is growing like crazy. She is a full on toddler and I'm just trying to keep up with her. She is always on the go and loves to climb everything. She is a total daredevil and has no fear of anything. I think she about gives Justin and I a heart attack at least once a day. She is such a talker, but I think she learned Chinese somewhere along the way instead of English. Her mouth is constantly going, but most of it's unrecognizable. She loves loves animals, and knows a lot of the sounds they make. She loves to read - it's really cute/annoying that whenever I'm not paying attention to her she will go grab a book and hold it up to me for me to read it to her. I get suckered in every time - I just can't resist how cute it is. She has become a really bad eater, much to her mother's frustration. Except for breakfast - she'll eat breakfast with no problems or complaints - don't ask me why??? She used to eat everything and anything I would put in front of her, but now it's become quite a battle. She's really into brushing her teeth, but only if she gets to do it herself (don't worry mom does a follow up brushing). She loves babies and will sign baby whenever she sees one and then reach out her arms because she wants to hold it. And she gives really good hugs and I just can't get enough of them.

As for boring old me, I've started working out again. I know, I know - it's about freakin time!!! I decided it's really about time I lost this baby weight, hello my baby is 16 months old for crying out loud, so I'm pretty determined. I told myself I can't get pregnant again until I lose the weight cause if I got pregnant now I would end up looking like a house at the end. So I guess you could say I'm trying to lose weight so I can gain weight again - kinda warped, but whatever gets me off my behind.

So sorry we've been so boring lately. I've even been slacking on picture taking so I don't have many to share. But here's a cute one of Brianna eating pasta. The picture doesn't do it justice, she was a MESS! But a cute mess!!!

I'M FINALLY AN AUNT

2009-09-03T21:13:00.008-08:00

Well even though my sisters and brother have already got to experience the title of an aunt or uncle, I now finally get to claim the title too. My brother Brad and his wife Hilary had the cutest little boy on Aug. 27th. He weighed in at a whopping 8lbs 4oz (pretty big considering he was early), and 20" long. And although he went nameless for awhile - here is a look at Easton Bradley Anderson.

The cute new family.

Proud grandma.

Look at those big dark eyes!

A couple of days old. I think he's a really good mix of both Brad and Hilary. I can definitely see both of them in him.

I am so super bummed that I live so stinkin far away and can't hold this sweet little guy. :( I guess I'll just have to wait until November to squeeze him.

FUN, FUNNY, & JUST PLAIN CUTE

2009-08-14T19:26:00.000-08:00

So here are just a bunch of pictures from when my parents were here that I didn't get into the last two posts. But, I just had to share. Most of them are of Brianna - but what can we say, that's basically 99% of the pictures we take around here.

Brianna LOVED grandma's flip flops. She'd walk around in them until they went up over her ankles and then she'd just drag them around.
Brianna sucking on her brush.

And the "stunning" hairdo she did with it after it was wet.

Just runnin.

"No one can see me if I hide behind this man in the striped shirt".

Brianna found her belly button on the trip while she was eating in the backseat of the car. These are a sequence of pictures that followed. So funny!

She found grandpa's belt at the hotel and wandered around with it for 15-20 minutes like it was her pet snake.My mom and dad were just trying to get a picture of themselves on the tour bus - and Bri's head just happened to pop in it.

I love this one of her eating the chair. :)

I think she was asking for some water. Hilarious!!!

CRAZY hair! (After taking her hat off when we got back on the bus from seeing the ocean.)

Brianna waved goodbye to all the bus passengers at the end of the tour...

Except for 2 of them. It was so funny she was waving at everyone, mostly elderly couples. And then these 2 Asian tourists came by her and started waving at her. She stopped, scowled at them, and then stuck her tongue out at them. Ha,Ha,Ha! I guess she doesn't like crazy tourists either.
Our little Alaskan.

Brianna getting ready for bed. She grabbed her pj's and kept wrapping them around her like a shawl.

A "native" came by our cabin to tell us about his culture. (That's a lynx skin on his head in case you were wondering - I don't know about him sometimes. ;) )

We had a ladder into the loft of our cabin so Bri learned to climb it.

Who's that pretty girl?

This was a stop light on the Dalton Highway (they were doing road construction). It was just weird to see a stop light in literally the middle of no where.

This is the ugly/crazy smile Bri started doing on the trip. It was so funny - you couldn't help but laugh when she did it, but really inside you wanted her to stop because it was so hideous. It was really funny on the tour bus she kept pulling this "smile" at the lady behind us. You could tell the little old lady thought this was so ugly, but she was trying to be nice. So instead of saying how cute our little girl was, she said, "Oh my... what pretty teeth you have." Justin and I just burst out laughing!

We all got tired one day and let Brianna drive.

Grandpa "seat belted" her into the lawn chair.

Snoozin away.

HELLO - I'm down here!!!

One night in Anchorage we went out for pizza at the Moose's Tooth. It was really busy so we had to wait a long time for our dinner. Our waitress left our pizza holder on the table and Brianna kept wanting to play with it. So Justin took it away from her a found somewhere to "hide" it.

It was so stinkin funny!!! He acted like it was some kind of brace and let's just say he looked "challenged". We couldn't stop laughing as people kept walking by trying not to stare and the freak wearing the pizza holder. Oh my husband - at least he's always up for a good laugh.

On our way home!

GRANDPARENT ADVENTURE - PART 2

2009-08-09T15:00:00.001-08:00

So after we got back from Prudoe Bay we took a couple of days off and just relaxed. BTW - I think I need to have my mom live at my house cause she's the bestest dishwasher in the whole wide world. She did my dishes everyday that she was here, it was so nice!!!

Bri chillin with grandpa. (I think she wanted to get down and run around - hence the ornery face. :))

Talking grandma into giving her sips of water from the "big people" bottle.

A mama moose and her twins came to say hi to the Anderson's.
The next weekend Justin got a call from one of his old co-workers asking him if he could come down to Anchorage and marry him and his girlfriend. In Alaska basically anyone can do this function by just enrolling on the internet.

We stayed in a hotel where Bri learned to do a few new tricks. Like climbing up on chairs. (Our kitchen chairs used to be too high, but since then she can climb on them as well).

Well let's just say she basically climbed on everything.

So Justin (a now official "Marriage Commissioner") married Dan and April. I don't really know these two all that well, but I tagged along to watch the ceremony anyway (really more to see Justin than anything). We're not quite sure that this is the best woman for Dan to marry (she's more like his mom than girlfriend), but whatever makes him happy we support - right? It was a pretty informal gathering on their back porch. Notice the dogs that are walking through the ceremony. Oh and check out the dress! I got a little case of the giggles when she was walking down the aisle - um can we say boobies! HA,HA,HA!!! :) Justin kept giving me the stink eye because I was starting to make him laugh too. It was even scarier in person watching everything... let's say move.

While Justin and I were at the wedding, Brianna got to hang out with her grandparents for the afternoon. They took her to the park where she got to go swinging.

And talk to strangers. :) (I have no idea who this woman is... I think I remember my mom saying she was a lady that worked at the plane tour place next door)

Play on the hotel beds. I guess she laid down and wrapped herself up in the blankets. Such a cutie!

And watched grandpa sleep. Too funny!

On the way back Justin and I stopped at the store to pick up some things and found these "awesome" Barbie glasses for Bri. She loves to put on her dad's sunglasses, so we thought we would get her her own pair.

Although they don't stay on too long, I think she likes them.

On Sunday we went to the Wildlife Conservation Park. It was pretty fun to see all the animals and watch Brianna "bark" at everything. (She thinks all animals bark)

It was kind of funny because there was a worker stationed outside of the grizzly bear cage making sure everyone kept their distance and didn't feed the animals (I guess you usually can't see the bears because they're back in the woods most of the time). Well this worker was telling us how the bears are on strict diets and how they've had people feed them things like pepperoni and it's made them sick - blah, blah, blah. All the while she is throwing them pieces of her own lunch, a cheeseburger, to get them to do tricks. Um for some odd reason I don't think cheeseburgers are part of their "strict" diet.

On the way home we decided to drive into Denali National Park. There's something like 14 miles of road into the park that everyone can drive on (the rest you have to take a tour bus).And I spotted this scraggly beast.

Venturing across the road. My mom and me were pretty happy we got to see this bear in the wild. We were so sick of being in the car and when the boys told us we were driving into the park on the way by we were both pretty put out cause we weren't going to get home until even later. So luckily this nice bear decided to make an appearance.

And finally on the last day that my parents where here my dad got to golf at the "farthest north golf course". Sadly this is the only picture we have and it's not even one of him golfing - my mom and me were too tired to wake up and go with him, so he golfed by himself.

It was so good to have my parents here, it's makes me sad that we live so far away. I hope they had a good time even though we were riding in the car for most of their trip. We love and miss you guys!!!

I have a ton more pictures - so I'll try to post some more later.

GRANDPARENT ADVENTURE - PART 1

2009-08-03T17:49:00.035-08:00

Okay I know it's been forever since I've posted anything - I'm either way to busy lately or just way too lazy to post. Anyways, my parents came up to visit last month and we went on a couple of "adventures". First we decided to trek up to Prudoe Bay. To get there you have to drive almost 500 miles on a dirt road - we ended up with 3 flat tires, cramps in our necks from looking out the window, painful legs and bums from sitting in the car for forever - but we did see the Arctic Circle and the Arctic Ocean so all in all it was totally worth it. Here are a ton of pictures from the trip.

The start on the dirt road, more commonly known as the "Haul Road".

The fields on fireweed were so pretty.
The Yukon River.

First piggy-back ride.

It's kinda funny when you hit the Arctic Circle this is the only thing there is - just this lonely sign out in the middle of nowhere.

A stretch of the road commonly seen on Ice Road Truckers.

Our "hotel"(if you can even call it that) at Deadhorse.

Our room was the window on right under the air vent.
Showing off our $120 bed. :) Yep these lovely rooms cost $240 each. Really we weren't expecting them to be nice - we just didn't realized it would cost quite expensive. It was really funny because minutes before this as my mom and I were sitting in the car waiting for the boys to check us in, we were plotting to talk them into taking us out to dinner. That was until we realized just how much we'd spent on a bed. Ha,Ha,Ha! We ended up grilling hotdogs on the tailgate.

On the tour bus of Prudoe Bay.

The Arctic Ocean.
Needless to say it was pretty chilly. The wind was blowing like crazy.

This picture is pretty accurate on the way you feel when you finally drive into town.

Our first flat tire. Luckily Justin was a great handyman and has now become a little expert on patching tires.

Grandma taking Bri for a walk while the boys were changing the tire. I thought it was a pretty neat picture of the "nothingness" that you see when driving through the tundra.

Yes our car was white at one time.
The boys washing the car outside our cabin in Wiseman. We really didn't care about a clean car - it's just that we'd all would get so filthy getting in and out of the car.
Having a nice relaxing evening outside on the porch of our cabin in Wiseman. Wiseman was the weird little old mining town right outside of Coldfoot. I think it has something like population 13.
We decided to stop and eat lunch in Deadhorse while we had one of the tires professionally patched. We were running out of good tires and we wanted to make sure we'd get home.

This was taken just a couple of hours before we got home. I think it's a pretty good image of how we all felt by then. Just plain FED UP!!! :) Bri did a really good job on the trip considering we locked in her car seat for 4 days. She's such a trooper!

Well we had a great time even though I think each us wanted to scream at one time or another. But I think it's pretty cool that we can all now say we've seen "the end of the road" in Alaska.

More to come later...

INDEPENDENCE DAY

2009-07-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

THE BRAVE WARRIORS

They all fought for the Red, White and Blue.
The white men, the black men, the Indians too.
They were all heroes, or so it is said,
When the blood flowed, it was all crimson red.
They all fought for freedom, side by side,
Some of them lived, and too many died.
They were all valiant soldiers, every man,
They gave what they had, to the last stand.
We shouldn’t forget them, not one single soul,
And we should make sure their story is told.
They fought for the freedom of every man,
Their bravery is known, across our great land.
For those up in heaven, or hell here on Earth,
We all thank our fathers, for our life since birth.
They all are our heroes, a much treasured lot,
And we should thank them for all we have got.
So raise up your hands, give thanks to a-high
For all the brave soldiers who lived and died.
As our lives go on, and in freedom we live,
We thank every soldier, for what he could give.

OldWolf

AND SHE'S OFF

2009-06-29T19:02:00.008-08:00

Even though Brianna took her first steps over one and a half months ago this is the first video I've gotten of her walking. Just this past week now has she really started walking around everywhere all day long. Sporadically she would walk across the room, but she seemed to prefer crawling most of the time instead (it probably was much faster). So to the much anticipation of the family here she is...

Sorry - you'll have to tilt your head.

Here she is doing a little dance before she started to walk.

So there you have it - my crazy monkey is on the run!!! Wish me luck! :)

DAD'S DAY

2009-06-24T14:55:00.013-08:00

For Father's Day Justin wanted to go camping - big surprise huh? :) So we headed down to the Klutina River to do some salmon fishing. Even though the fishing was a total bust (the fish hadn't made it to the river yet), we had a really fun, relaxing weekend.

Brianna cruisin around the campground - well until she face planted it into the dirt. Ouch!

Since we weren't catching fish we headed down the road to the Copper River and checked out the fish wheels - they weren't catching anything either.

It was so blasted windy down there - I was freezing!

On our way back to our campground we came up quickly on a fire truck with it's lights flashing.

Yep we had to slow down from 80 to 40 behind this stupid truck. (I'm so glad they were in such a hurry to get to the fire!) We had to laugh, I mean can you legally pass a fire truck that has it's light on???

And this is us finally passing the truck. It had pulled over to the side of the road to make a u-turn. Yep that's right we had passed the campground that was on fire about 5 minutes ago!!!

Justin fishing even though there were no fish. I think the whole 3 days that we were there there was maybe 5 fish caught.

Brianna and I chilled out on the sidelines and watched daddy.

Hopefully we'll have better luck 4th of July weekend when we head back down there. But like I said it was still so much fun just hanging out with the family.

Love you babe! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!! (Seriously he's the greatest dad ever - Bri said so!:) )

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTY!!!

2009-06-22T14:33:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to my little sis Kristy. She's such an old lady!!! Oh wait - if she's old that means I'm Old Mother Hubbard. :) Well I can't say enough good things about Kristy - I love this chica!!! She is one of my bestest and closest friends, we can tell each other anything, she watches scary movies with me (Milo), loves to fall asleep on my couch after 5 min into the movie, she rode in the big blue van with me and picked up guys, she got stuck in a bucket, and she just makes me laugh all the time. Thanks for being such an great sister and an amazing friend! Love you Kristy!!!

MISS INDEPENDENT

2009-06-18T10:53:00.006-08:00

How funny are these? I found these pictures of Brianna on my camera that I'd forgotten about and just had to post them. So a couple of weeks ago she was in her room playing and I hear her start crying. I walk into her room to find her "stuck" in a pair of pj's. She had been unpacking her dresser drawers (one of her favorite games) and I guess decided to play dress up. The only problem - she got her little hand stuck in the foot hole and couldn't figure out how to get out of it. And well the mean mom that I am had to snap a few pictures before I went and "rescued" her. :)
On a side note those aren't boogers on her nose. The little munchkin took a flying leap of the bed in the hotel room and did a very nice face plant.

SEWARD

2009-06-07T13:27:00.027-08:00

For Memorial Day Weekend we went down to Seward for a little git away. Other than the really really long car ride it was really fun.

Brianna helping mom pack the coolers.

Brianna in a semi-coma. When she got really irritated we throw on Baby Einstein to help pass the time. This is her watching - as you can tell she's super thrilled. :)

The first day Justin's charter boat got canceled so we went out to Exit Glacier. It was a little cold and rainy but we still had a good time. I'll have to post pictures of that day later cause I forgot our camera so the pictures are on our friends camera. That night we headed out to some friends house that live in Seward for dinner. We ate some yummy surf and turf and enjoyed some good company.

Brianna playing with Kate. I think 95% of the time we were there these 2 were at the windowsill playing with the dogs outside.

A picture from the shore.

The next day the weather wasn't any better so Justin's charter boat got canceled again. So our friend, Hill who owns a charter boat, took us out on his boat to do some bay fishing. He said it would be a really easy, calm trip so Brianna and I should come along. It was kinda neat because although Bri wasn't the youngest person ever to ride on the boat (Kate's been on before), she was the youngest that had gone that far out. At first it was really nice, Bri loved looking out the window and she even fell asleep on the way out. Then the captain took us out into the rough ocean for a couple of trips to see if we could catch some cod. Well we did catch some cod, but the 10ft seas weren't very enjoyable to some. Although Brianna slept through most of it, I don't think she was a fan. She started crying and got really hot, so I took of her hat and jacket and she seemed to calm down a little. But about 5 minutes after looking around she puked all over the place. The poor thing must be like her dad and gets sea sick. :(

Goofing off with dad on the boat.
Looking at a sea otter.
Our catch of the day. (yes I look like a dork with my eyes closed, but it's the only one we have)
The next day Justin went out on the charter boat while Brianna and I went to the sea life center. Justin had a pretty miserable day. The seas were again really rough and he got sick a couple of times. Our poor friend Patty and her son didn't even fish they were so sick. But he ended up catching a 50lb and a 30lb halibut to stock our freezer with. Brianna and I had a good time at the sea life center. Even though I think Brianna was still a little too young to really enjoy it. She was more interested in people watching than wildlife watching.

Saying hi to the sea lion.

Scoping out the big fish tanks

Watching the seals eat lunch.
We also were fortunate enough on the ride home to see Mt McKinley. It's usually hiding behind cloud cover, so we were really lucky to see it as we were passing by. (By the time we got back in the truck it was covered again)

About an hour from home Brianna hit the wall and was done with riding in the car. So we took a little break playing in the back of the truck.

And finally Brianna continued to be a good helper and helped unpack the coolers when we got home. She's such a funny girl!

FOUR WHEELING

2009-05-30T19:59:00.015-08:00

Okay first off, I'm so behind on posting it's a little bit ridiculous. Oh well - what do ya do???

Second, Brianna still isn't really walking just yet. She takes a few steps here and there but she's just a big fraidy cat! :) When she's not thinking about it she does great and will walk half way across the room, but as soon as she realizes no ones holding on to her she's back on her knees. I'm still trying to get a video of it, but it happens so sporadically, it's hard to ever get a shot. (I guess I shouldn't have been so worried that I didn't have a camera when she took her first steps :))

Anyways, we went on a four wheeler ride a couple of weekends ago. It was so fun!!! I strapped Brianna into her Snuggie and we were off. Now don't worry when I say four wheeling - we're talking a really really easy ride - we're not quite that bad of parents. :) We went up on a logging road, so basically it was just a dirt road in the mountains, so no real hairy trail riding. (Not to mention that's my kind of riding too - I hate scary trails - I'm such a chicken!) Brianna had a great time looking at everything, and she loved the bumps. We stopped half way through, had a campfire and roasted some hot dogs for dinner.

Just startin out.
Looking out over a beautiful ridge.

Our attempt at a family picture.

Dad cooking dinner.

Brianna's first hot dog - she loved it!

"Hey dad - can I drive?"Daddy's redneck girl.

So tired after a day of riding. She was asleep the whole last half of the ride - what a cutie!

It was such a great day!!! We're going to have to do this more often.

HERE SHE COMES!!!!!!

2009-05-11T18:06:00.003-08:00

Oh you've got to be kidding me!!!!

Justin's out of town...

I don't have a camera...

And my baby girl just to her 1st steps!!!!

(Maybe I'll try to capture something with my cell phone - I'll post pics as soon as I can!)

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY

2009-05-08T15:54:00.001-08:00

Okay so I know that Bri's birthday was like 2 weeks ago, but I've been crazy busy around here and haven't had the time to load her pictures. So I finally have had some time today to get around to it so here are a TON of pictures of the fun filled day.

This was one of the cute new birthday outfits she got - I love the little alligator named Daisy.

She got Fox & the Hound and 101 Dalmatians movies.

A fun See & Say

Again like Christmas, she loved the wrapping paper!

A Leap Frog Music Table - a great noise maker. :)

She also got some cute bunny ears and this hilarious pink bunny that flops it's ears to music.

College fund money - perfect! :)

And a ton of adorable clothes. My parents couldn't wrap anything because they were coming on a plane. So she got to "unpack" a whole bag of clothes - literally one of her favorite things to do. She would grab something out and throw it over her head onto the floor.

I made cupcakes for her party. Here's a picture of the crazy "flowers" - I say crazy cause they were really cute as long as you looked at them from the top - from the sides they looked ridiculously stupid!

She wasn't too fond of her party hat.

Needless to say - she LOVED her birthday cake. It took her a minute to realize just what to do with it. But as soon as that sweet frosting touched her lips she was in heaven.

After she ate her cupcake she went CRAZY. It was so funny she cruised and cruised around the house for about 45 mins just jabbering and jabbering away - let's just say someone was one one heck of a sugar rush.

We also went to her 12 month check up this week - so here are her 1 year old stats.

Height: 29" - 50%

Weight: 20.7 lbs - 30%

Head: 18"

She did really good at the doctors, even though those darn immunizations stung really bad - poor thing. She also had to get her finger poked to check her iron level. They ended up having to poke her twice because she wouldn't bleed very well. It was really funny, she didn't cry at all, but after the 2nd poke she looked at the nurse gave her this scowl and screamed right in her face - it sounded just like "OOOWWWW". The whole room busted out in laughter - well except for Brianna.

Anyways that's about all - I still can't believe my baby is 1??? I swear just the other day I just found out I was pregnant - time goes way too fast. But I'm so blessed to be her mom and I'm so happy she's all mine. LOVE YOU FOREVER LITTLE MISS BRIANNA PAIGE - Our Little Brown Eyed Girl!!!

SO BEHIND

2009-04-23T13:29:00.010-08:00

Holy Moly I'm so behind on posting! And I so don't have the time to be doing it now - my parents will be here in a few hours and I really need to finish cleaning. Anyways I wanted to share a couple of pictures of Brianna in her pretty Easter dress. I was a little disappointed to not be able to get her pictures taken out on the green grass with spring flowers everywhere - there's still like 2 feet of snow on the ground. Oh well she's still a doll! Man I love this little squirt!!! I also braved making prime rib for Easter dinner for the first time. Even though it was a little hectic getting everything together it turned out really really good. Considering my terrible cooking skills, I think I out did myself. :)

Wow - can you believe that this little monkey will be 1 year old tomorrow. Seriously, where did the time go. It's so weird to think that I would be going into labor tonight 1 year ago. Crazy!!!

Anyways I really need to get back to work but I just wanted to give a quick shout out to my little bro that had a birthday yesterday. Brad really should have been us girls older brother cause in a lot of ways we all really look up to him. Also congrats to both him and my cute sister-in-law, Hilary, who just found out they're having a little boy! I'm so excited for them - they're going to be such good parents.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN FACE!

2009-04-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to wish a Happy Birthday to my favoritest person in the whole wide world. Man I love this guy!!! I know everyone thinks their husband is the best - but I think I've got you all beat (at least in my mind anyways :)). I am so lucky that he's mine and that he picked silly old me to spend forever with. And even though he's pretty rough around the edges he's the most loving, thoughtful and generous husband any girl could ever ask for. Not to mention he's my bestest best friend. He's a great father and he loves his little "poop stick" (his new nickname for Bri at the moment???) more than anything. We hope you have a great birthday. And we LOVE you for ALWAYS!!!

BRIANNA NEWS

2009-04-09T10:28:00.000-08:00

Little Miss Brianna has become a Little Book Worm these days. She loves looking at her books - it's so cute. I'll notice that she's being really quite (which usually means she's gettin in some kind of trouble), but every so often I find her just flipping through her books. Nana Walker and Aunt Aubrey got her a couple of really sturdy books and she loves them. The ones Aubrey got her are those Touch and Feel books. At first she wasn't interested at all with feeling the different textures - but now if you look through the books the "hair" on all the animals is sticking straight out because she pulls on them so much.

We took Brianna on her first four wheeler ride on Saturday. Even though it was about 25 degrees outside we only lasted about 10-15 minutes. It wasn't that it was too cold outside, it was the little bit of wind that we created that was freezing. I ended up turning Bri around to face me so the wind wouldn't hit her in the face. But she seemed to enjoy it - she was looking around at everything and talked to me the whole time. I'm sure we were a sight to see - two bundled up adult with and even more bundled up baby smooshed in the middle. Even though it was short, it was really fun to get her out riding.

She also is getting over her first cold. We're lucky that she's gone almost a year and has never been sick, but it's still sad to see your little one not feeling well. She ran a fever for a couple of days last week, she was really clingy and basically slept all day long on my shoulder. But then she seemed to get better for day, but now has really bad runny nose. It was so sad, one morning she woke up to eat and she couldn't breath through her nose. I bulb suctioned it out to see if that would help, but she still couldn't breath very well. She'd try and suck, turned bright red, and then finally take a deep breath in through her mouth and start crying because she was so frustrated - she eventually figured it out after a few rounds of this. :(

And finally I had to add these cute pictures of Bri. Her Great Great Aunt Jeanie gave her this outfit and I thought she was so stinkin cute. Although she wanted nothing to do with this adorable hat on her head, I distracted her long enough to snap a couple of pictures.

NEW NEIGHBORS

2009-04-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

Living in Alaska we sometimes get some new neighbors that decide to move into our yard temporarily. These two were here pretty much all day Thursday and Friday - which made taking the dog outside a very interesting task. But they did some free pruning while they were here, so I guess it's okay. :)

Here's momma moose right outside our kitchen window.

And here's baby moose. I was actually only about 5 feet away from him inside the truck - I literally could almost "pet" him. I actually got stuck in the driveway for about 10 minutes because I was afraid if I moved I would tick off the mom because I was so close to her baby.

(On a sad note we think baby moose got hit by a car Friday night after they left our house.

:( We're not sure if he was okay or not - moose tend to be the ones that walk away from the accidents rather than the cars and their drivers.)

And we've also had a couple of these running around. Just in time for Easter! Pretty cute. :)

BIRTHDAY WISHES

2009-04-07T14:35:00.006-08:00

Just wanted to wish one of my bestest friends a Happy Happy Birthday!

Chantel has been one of my best buds for forever! Sadly we met because we were both friends with a way stupid girl (we will call her "V" :)) - but luckily she introduced us so we could be friends. She's always makes me laugh - even when things aren't so funny to laugh at. She's a very thoughtful friend, a good listener, and a great mom - I just wished we still lived closer to each other. But here's to Taco Head, the hatchback, licking your face, getting dressed in a hot small sweaty closet at Lagoon to get old western pictures of us together, "GO EAST" (gotta love naked Lima), being roomies at Cobble Creek, and holding hands with your man at the same time you did. Love and miss you! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

ICE PARK

2009-04-03T12:10:00.020-08:00

Last Saturday we ventured out to see the annual Fairbanks Ice Park. We had waited until the last weekend it was open to see if we could get some warmer weather and luckily it was about 25 that day. It was really fun - even though we only made it half way through the park because Brianna and her daddy were getting cold. (Yes - Justin was cold and I wasn't!!! I did have on long underwear, 3 shirts, winter boots, gloves, and my huge winter parka - so I was nice and toasty. Justin on the other hand thought he'd be fine, but he was freezing after about an hour. So I finally got the chance to tease him for once about not wearing the "proper gear" outside. He, he, he!) I can't believe how talented these people are that carve these amazing sculptures. We really wanted to go at night because they light all the sculptures up, but we didn't want to go after it got dark because it would be way too cold. But here are a couple of pictures we took that day - okay a lot of pictures.

This is the gateway to get into the park. It was a huge fort with an archway that you had to walk under.

Here are some of the sculptures that we saw.

I don't know if Bri had much fun. This was the look on her face the whole time we were there. Like, "Hello, I can't move (she did look a bit like Ralphy from the Christmas Story) and it's cold. Can we go now."

I think this was the only "smile" I got from her the whole time we were there.

We stopped in at the snack shack to warm up and grab some hot chocolate. This was a huge sledding hill made out of ice. I wished Bri was a little older so we could have taken her for a couple runs - it looked like a lot of fun.

Instead I took her on one of the little kid slides. It was so fun - and actually pretty fast considering it was made for younger kids.

Riding on the ice-snow machine. One last quick smooch after taking off all our layers to get back in the truck.

PHEW - GLAD THAT WEEK'S OVER

2009-03-24T11:45:00.019-08:00

Oh what a week we've had here at the Walker house. Well last Tuesday (our anniversary), I had a wonderful, relaxing time at the spa, then Justin took me to a amazing dinner at Pike's Landing which was so yummy, and then... Our great day was over! Daizy ended up getting injured. She was limping really bad, so we took her to the vet on Wednesday. They took some xrays which showed that her hip was dislocated - the poor thing! They had to knock her out, and after many tries, finally got it back in. $760 later we headed home with a bandaged up, comatose, "three legged" dog. She is on strict "bed rest" for 4-6 weeks and right now has her leg in a sling for 2 weeks. We kept her pretty "high" on pain medication for the first couple of days, but she's seems back to her old self now. I think she's already sick of laying on her bed all day and just wants to go run through the woods. We have to be really careful with her for the next 6 weeks because if her hip pops back out we will have to take her to Anchorage to have surgery where they'll have to put a pin in her hip. So to try an avoid the $1500-2000 that the surgery would cost, not to mention the money we'd have to spend to get us to Anchorage, we're making her take it easy. We have to put her on a leash when she goes outside to do her "business", and since she's three legged and it's icy outside, we have to wrap a towel under her belly and help hold up her back end so she won't slip and fall on her hip. We've been making many visits back and forth to the vet to make sure every thing's healing okay, and as for now things look promising.

And if I didn't have enough to worry about with an injured puppy - I got a call Wednesday night and was asked last minute to teach the Relief Society (class for the adult women at church) lesson on Sunday. Okay so it's seriously been like 10 years since I've taught a lesson at church and I think the last one was to the Sunbeams (2-3 year olds). So let's just say I was a little out of practice. But after a lot of planning, worrying, and a frantic call to my mom to ask for help, I think everything went okay. I was so freakin nervous! I'm pretty sure I was bright red, shaking, and sweating through the first half of the lesson. But by the end I felt pretty comfortable and thanks to a lot of good class participation everything ended up fine. I even had a couple of people come up to me after and say I did a really good job - not sure if they were just being nice, but it was still nice to hear. I also got a new calling at church on Sunday. I am now the Visiting Teaching Coordinator. I'm not really sure what I'm doing, but I'm looking forward to it.

Brianna's doing great. Holy cow she turned 11 months today! Man, where did the time go. She is missing her play pal Daizy though. She'll go up to the baby gate that we have across our bedroom door and talk to her. And every time we get ready to take Daizy outside, as soon as the gate comes down she makes a B line for Daizy's bed.

She used to use Daizy as a pillow, but now has to use her boppy instead. She'll pull the boppy off the couch and then "lounge" - too cute. (They aren't the best pictures cause every time I'd try she'd sit up)

I've also started her on a lot of finger food. Instead of pureeing everything, I'm just chopping it up into little pieces so she can feed herself. She's doing really good at it. I just need to be more patient - It takes forever! After about 15-20 min of her feeding herself, only half of her food gone, she gets bored and just starts playing with the what's on her tray - so sometimes I just end up feeding it to her myself so we can just be done. But she's enjoying some of the foods that she wasn't very fond of before, like peas, carrots and meat. I guress things just taste better when you can put them in your own mouth???

She also found her diaper stacker. She thinks it's a dang fun game to unload it. Needless to say the diaper stacker does not hang on the side of the crib anymore. :)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

2009-03-17T08:25:00.007-08:00

That's right, not only is March 17th the day of the Irish, it's also Justin & Lisa Day! I am so absolutely, positively, utterly, and completely in LOVE with this man. He is so amazing and I don't deserve him. I am so thankful to have him as my best friend, husband, and father to my children. I am so happy that he picked me to share his life with and that he's going to be mine forever. Simply - I am one lucky girl!

Even though I could go on and on - I don't have time. Well you see that amazing husband of mine just surprised me with a day at the spa! (I actually started crying when I found out - he's so thoughtful.) But he's going to be home soon from work to take care of Brianna so I can leave. What an amazing guy!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABE! I LOVE YOU FOR ALWAYS!!!

GETTING OUT

2009-03-11T15:53:00.018-08:00

Justin and I have hit our wall of feeling cooped up. I think I have literally driven him bonkers the past couple of weeks being inside all the time. Luckily I got out of the house one night, but he's overdue on a "boy" day. We're both so ready for spring - but hey were in Alaska so it just keeps snowing and snowing. :( I can't wait until it's warm enough to take Brianna outside and play. At this point even I am looking forward to camping and fishing this summer. Ha, ha, ha!!!

On Thursday some girls from church invited me to go with them to the movies. Justin was a great hubby and volunteered to take care of Brianna for the night. (He actually later admitted that he had a lot of fun with her. :)) We ended up seeing Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was an okay movie, not really my type of thing - it was funny but something that I'd much rather waited to rent. But it was so fun to get out with the girls - I so needed it. The only bad part of the night was when I went to take one of the girls home I got stuck in her driveway. It was snowed like crazy the whole entire day, and we probably shouldn't have even gone anywhere, but we all wanted to get out of the house. So I pull into her driveway, which is absurdly narrow and slipped off to the side and got stuck. Her husband had to come out and help us get out, so I pretty much felt like a dork. I was telling Justin about it when I got home and he's like, why didn't you just put it in 4 wheel drive low? And I told him that I had tried and it just kept beeping at me and I was afraid that I was going to break something. He gives me the "duh" look and says, Yea - it beeps to tell you that it's in 4 low. And then, well I felt like even a bigger dork.

Brianna has been going a mile a minute. She's everywhere and anywhere you can think of. She absolutely loves her dog Daizy and is always crawling all over her. Daizy loves it for the most part, except when Bri tries to sit on her head. They are so funny together - Daizy will lay down on her side and then Bri will scooch up and lay on her tummy and she'll just talk and talk. Too cute! She also had found the kitchen cupboards and loves to go through the pots and pans. This weekend she decided to help her daddy cook breakfast by getting every pan out for him. :)

Saturday we went to the Ice Dog hockey game with some friends. Brianna did really good, she had such a fun time watching everything. And she LOVED all the music they played - she was dancing like crazy. The only bad thing was that half way through the game both Bri and our friends little boy were so tired because it was way past their bed times. They both fell asleep for a little bit, but then they scored a goal and they both got woken up. The game was tied and went into double overtime, so we just ended up leaving before the end of the game cause the kiddos had had enough.

I obviously am really bad at taking pictures that you can tell where we are at. These ARE from Bri's first hockey game, even though you can't really tell.

After all the action from the hockey game she was so tired the next day. She woke up, ate, and then fell right back to sleep. She looked pretty pooped.

CHICKEN LITTLE bit gross

2009-03-05T15:06:00.007-09:00

We started Bri on meat a couple of days ago. I'm still making her baby food at home, and it was a little bit of a challenge. We started with chicken and the first day she did okay, it's just a weird chalky texture. The second day we struggled a bit. I froze the chicken in ice cube trays, just like I have done her fruit and veggies, but it didn't thaw out the same. When I defrosted it in the microwave it turned into this extremely dry ick. I tried to add some water which didn't do anything, now it just had water in the bottom and dry chicken still on the top. Brianna hated it! She would make this awful face and then scrape the chicken off her tongue with her little fingers and pull it out and hand it to me. I guess I can't really blame her, it was pretty disgusting. I even tried mixing it with some veggies and she still hated it. We only made it through about a fourth of the serving and I didn't want to torture her anymore, so I threw it away. Before I gave up on making meat baby food myself I decided to try again. I thawed a couple of cubes out in the fridge over night and then pureed them again. It worked a lot better, I just have to be careful when heating it up because it sucks out all the moisture really fast. I still don't think Bri really likes it. She'll eat it, but she doesn't look like she's enjoying it very much. I hope I didn't ruin chicken for her forever.

These pics are from the first time she ate the chicken. Even though she looked like she was going to cry the whole time, she actually did pretty good and ate it all up.

In other news we finally joined the real world and bought ourselves a printer. I know, we're so slow at keeping up with the times. But I guess the fact that we just barely purchased our first computer last year (which was second hand), it's not so weird that we just barely bought a printer. I'm pretty excited cause we can now print pictures. And since I'm a total slacker at getting pictures developed this will help out a ton. Hey, maybe I'll even start something crazy like scrapbooking now that I have pictures to do it with! :)

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

2009-03-04T15:23:00.006-09:00

Well let's see - what have we been up to? First we have been very busy child proofing our house the past week. I know, I know, my child is 10 months old and I should have been more prepared, but holy cow she's into everything!!! And why does everything have to go in their mouths? I know they're curious, and it's fun to find new things, but really - do you have to taste it too??? I'm pretty sure Bri's eaten her fair share of rocks and "stuff" off the floor - cause I've dug out more things that I can count, so who knows how many I've missed. But I think we've got most of our bases covered for the moment. (Even though she finds new things every day that I hadn't realized were going to be a problem). Our only dilemma right now is - How do you leave the dog water out so the dog actually has water to drink and not have your child sticking her hands and face in it constantly? I'm open to any suggestions. :) As of right now we put the dog bowl in the bathroom, gated the bathroom off, and just let the dog in every so often to get a drink.

Justin doing okay. He's super busy at work, which is stressing him out a lot. He's taught the snowmobile course on base a couple of times this past week which I think he enjoys. He's also been working forever trying to fix his own snowmobile and finally got everything working Monday night. He took into work to teach the course on Tuesday and... it wouldn't start. I think it might have been the cold, but needless to say he's pretty frustrated with it at the moment.

I'm doing really good. The Relief Society President Julie Beck came and visited Fairbanks this weekend, so I went to hear her speak on Saturday. It really put things in perspective for me. Basically - I NEED an attitude adjustment. She hit a few key things that I've been really struggling with and I really need to work on. They're just simple things like be happy. Everyone knows that I hate Alaska and want to get out of here as soon as possible. But in her talk she said that we need to remember that our worst day is better than most other women's best day. How true is that? I've realized that I just need to make the best out of the situation and enjoy myself. It's not hard, I just need to do it.

She also touched on being a good mother and wife. She talked about how being a housewife is just like a job and we should treat it like so. Looking back since I've quit my medical assistant job, I think I've done really poor at my housewife job - I'm pretty sure I would have been fired by now if this was the real work field. Cleaning, cooking, taking care of the kids is OUR job. Most of you know I really don't enjoy cooking, I don't know why - I just don't. But I realized that it's MY duty to provide a healthy meal for dinner when my husband gets home. And this doesn't mean thawing out some meat so my husband can cook it on the grill when he gets home. :) It doesn't have to be something fancy every night, it just has to be something. Along with this I've decided that we are going to eat dinner at the kitchen table every night. We are terrible at this and usually eat in front of the tv. But what a change has happened in our house the past three days. It's so much more peaceful, Justin and I get along better, and we actually sit down and really talk to each other at the end of the day. It's been great! Now I know there will be days when there's a pile of dishes left in the sink and we're going to being eating mac 'n cheese - but that's okay. I just need to do the best I can. And I have to admit, I've actually enjoyed cooking the last few meals because I realize how much it has affected the dynamics in our home for the better.

Anyways - I hate posts without pictures, so here's a couple of Miss Brianna letting me know she wants a bath. I was actually in the process of undressing her to go get in the tub when I got a phone call. I put her down on the floor and ran to answer it. When I came back in the room she had crawled under her changing table, where her tub sits, and got right in and was playing. I guess she likes baths, even when there's no water. :)

OUCH

2009-02-26T09:25:00.000-09:00

Well just call me Gimpy (after my sister's cat - j/k), cause that's pretty much what I look like this week. I needed to start a load of laundry Monday morning, so I filled up the basket and headed to the laundry room. To get to our laundry room you have to go out through the garage and there's a step down as soon as you open the door. Well a day earlier my husband had been working on his snowmobile in the garage and he kept tracking in this nasty black stuff on the kitchen floor, so I'd asked him to take his shoes off. Well he did what I asked, but being a typical male, he left those shoes on the step right in front of the door. So here I go to do laundry and trip on one shoe with my left foot and start falling, I try to catch myself with my right foot and trip on his other shoe, well - I was a goner. Laundry goes flying as do I, and in the end I have huge bruise on my knee, arm and shoulder and am 99% sure I've broken one of my toes. OUCH!!! Men are such goobers sometimes - they just think so much differently than we do. I know that my husband was only trying to be nice and do what I had asked him to do and take off his shoes, but hello! - you don't leave them where people are going to trip over them.

Speaking of husbands being typical males - on Sunday when my husband was out in the garage fixing the above mentioned snowmobile, Brianna and I had headed for church. That morning I had woke up late and had been tearing through the house trying to get us both ready on time and out the door. I had left in a hurry leaving our house looking like a tornado had blown through - not to mention the pile of dishes that were in the sink and the hundreds of baby toys laying all over the floor. I get home and the house looks exactly the same - really no big deal because I was the one that had made it look that way and I really didn't expect my husband to clean it up. BUT... he'd asked one of his co-workers to come over and help him fix the snowmobile. Now don't get me wrong I really didn't expect him to spend 1-2 hours cleaning everything before he had company over but he could have at least picked up something... anything! For example, just off the top of my head, his wife's dirty pj's and underwear that were thrown on the bathroom floor! Nope - he even let the guy use the bathroom with all my stuff still out for him to see. Yep just a "little" embarrassing having your husbands co-worker see your underoos. Crazy men!!!

Just to sum everything up - I LOVE my husband so much, he's really the best!!! I know for a fact that most of the time he really does try to help me out, but sometimes he's such a guy - okay, okay I'm not really complaining about that either. It's just men think so different than we do and it's sometimes hard to accept that fact. I'm sure they think the same thing about us most of the time too. But I like ever other woman out there will still dream of the day when their husband just "gets it". Ha,Ha,Ha!!! :) Love you babe!!!

MOVIE NIGHT

2009-02-23T10:06:00.008-09:00

I have been going a little stir crazy here at the house, so this weekend I begged Justin to take me out to a movie. The only problem - we didn't have a babysitter. But I convinced him if we went to the early movie there wouldn't be a lot of people there to bug if she was noisy. I wasn't really worried about Bri crying during the movie, I just worried that she'd talk (...really loud) during it. We ended up seeing Taken which was good and Brianna did great! She did talk a little too much, but since the movie was loud it didn't really matter. So much to Justin's pleasure, we probably should never take her to see a drama/girl movie and just stick to loud actions. :)

Though you can't even tell that we're in a movie theater, I had to snap a picture. Doesn't my husband look so excited to be there? At this point I think he was still worried that he'd have to spend the whole time out in the hall holding a crying baby. (Not to mention that fact that he thought I was a dork for taking a picture! :))

All in all we had a great time - we ate a ton of popcorn (and I mean a TON), watched a good flick, and spent a fun day together.

I also had to share this cute picture. I initially took this picture for Justin because Brianna found his bunny that he had as a little kid and was playing with it. (Not quite sure why he had a pink bunny??? But he did tell me there was also a blue one that matched it.) Anyways I love her cute grin with those little baby teeth showing.

VACATION

2009-02-18T16:48:00.038-09:00

Well there's not much to say about our vacation other than it was so fun, nice, and relaxing. We got to spend time with family and friends, shopped, and ate a lot. :) I sure didn't want to come back to normal life. Here's a bunch of pictures that we took - and in true Lisa fashion I was horrible and didn't take nearly as many pictures as I should have - but with that said there's still a lot.

Brianna grew leaps and bounds while we were there. She learned to pull herself up, she can say "da, da", she got four new teeth, and my mom taught her to wave "hi" - it is so stinkin cute. She was the hit at the airport on the way home, she was waving to everybody that we saw. This picture is the first time she pulled herself up - I went to go get her from her nap and when I opened the door she was standing there looking at me.

She got to spend time with both grandma's - she loved it! My mom had these cute books at her house that had animals that made noises. She couldn't get enough of them. Nana Walker gave her the cutest sippy cup with her name on it and this crazy little devil that talks - even though the dogs thought it was more of a chew toy.

Grandpa Anderson volunteered to feed Bri one day. It was hilarious - let's just say it got a little messy. :)

After eating one day she stuck her purple spoon in her mouth so we called her the "Giraffe".

She got to hang out with Great Aunt Jeannie and Great Grandpa Flint. Grandpa Flint turned 90 while we were there, but we sadly missed his birthday party which was thrown on the day we left. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Brianna got her first balloon at Warren's when we took Jeannie to dinner. She LOVED it! I wouldn't let her suck on the balloon itself (I know, such a mean mom), so she settled for the string.

We went to Hardware Ranch with my family to see all the elk. Brianna didn't care at all that the cold wind was blowing in her face on the sleigh ride, she just wanted see everything. (I so need a copy of everyone elses pictures!)

We spent a week with Justin's family in a gorgeous condo near Powder Mountain. Brianna got to meet her Aunt Wendy and Uncle Chuck for the first time. She was mesmerized by Wendy, if she wasn't with her mom, all she wanted was Wendy. (For some reason this is the only picture of them on my camera - I so stink at taking pictures!) Wendy and Chuck were our own personal chefs while we were there - it was wonderful!

Justin taught Miss Bri how to play the drums.

Justin's mom tried to teach me how to knit. I only say try because I was horrible at it. She did give me my own knitting needles to continue at home - the only problem is I'm not sure I know how to do it now that she's not there to help me every minute. :)

We don't have stairs anywhere in our house - so while we were there Bri attempted to learn how to climb them. She did okay, she'd climb up about 3 steps and them would want to go back down - which she hasn't learned how to do. :)

We had a fun send off dinner the last night that we were there. We got both families out for food and fun.

Thanks to both of our families that were so very generous to us while we were there - we very much appreciated everything!!! We love you all and hope to see you again sooner than later.

7 YRS BAD LUCK

2009-02-13T08:44:00.005-09:00

Well we're back from vacation. :( After being gone for 3 weeks I was ready to be back at my own house - just not a house quite so far away from everybody we love . We had a really fun time and it was so good to see everyone. More on that later.

I did have to post one cute picture that we took in the airport on the way home.
So I think I had the scariest moment yet as a mom yesterday. I was folding laundry in my room and Brianna was on the floor playing with the "cute baby" in the mirror. We have a full length mirror in our room that we've never hung on the wall, it's just leans against it (hello dumb mom - not smart!). Brianna has played with it a million times with no problems, so I really didn't think too much of it. I had even went and pulled on it five minutes earlier to see if I thought she could knock it down, again I thought everything was okay. Oh was I so very very wrong. I was putting clothes in the closet and all of a sudden I hear this super loud crash behind me. I turn around to the horrifying image of my baby crying underneath a huge pile of shattered glass. (Oh it makes my guts hurt every time I think of it). I ran and picked her up, and with tears in my eyes, frantically checked her all over for blood. I was sure we were going to be heading for the hospital for stiches -but luckily all that she ended up with was one little poke on her lip and a tiny scratch on the back of her hand. She actually stopped crying the second I picked her up, so I think she was more scared than hurt. Phew - thankfully she's okay. I think I have now won the prize for the dumbest mom of the year - I feel so bad and not to mention so very stupid!!!

On a less traumatic note we have had a really busy week since we've been home. While we were gone our furnace went out, which caused the pipes to freeze and break in our garage, which then caused the water softener to freeze and break. Oh what a pain! Luckily the damage was just out in the garage, so we didn't have any water damage. But it's now all fixed - too bad our list of things we wanted to buy in Utah got cut real short because of it. :(

Well I need to go get everything ready for taxes tomorrow - so I'll write more about our vacation later.

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

2009-01-17T11:36:00.003-09:00

Brianna and I are headed to Utah tonight! WAHOO!!! I'm am really nervous how she's going to do on the flight. Oh I'm hoping she'll just zonk out and sleep the whole way, I so don't want to be the one everyone hates on the plane. She just doesn't sleep well unless she's in her crib, every time that we're at friends houses she refuses to go to sleep because she likes to watch everything going on. Cross your fingers for us!

We will be at my parents house visiting my family for 2 fun weeks. And then on the 3rd week Justin will meet us there along with his parents, sister, and brother-in-law for another fun filled week. I'm so excited to see everyone and have everyone see Little Miss Bri. I don't know how much blogging time I will have while I'm there - my parents computer is slower than death, so we'll see. But I'll be sure to post all about it when we get home.

Well I need to go finish packing - I'm such a procrastinator! :) BTW - I sure am going to miss my two bestest friends that won't be in Utah for this trip. Talk about terrible timing, I think we missed Nicole by like 1 week.

ROUND TWO

2009-01-14T10:19:00.007-09:00

Well we said goodbye to our Alley dog AGAIN on Saturday. The people who we gave her to called us after 2 weeks and said that Alley and their dog weren't getting along very well. I guess they'd gotten into some good fights, so they felt like they shouldn't keep her. So we had her back at our house for about a week, but luckily we found some new owners for her. They are a retired couple who don't have any kids our other pets so I think it will be good. Hopefully this one works out cause it's killing me to have to say goodbye over and over again. They said that they'd keep in touch and let us know how she's doing, so we'll see in a week or so how things are working out. I think Brianna noticed that we were sad that we only had one dog so she thought she'd help comfort us. :) She's such a goof ball!!!

It's finally warmed up here - it like 25 above today - Hallelujah!!! (That's like a 70-75 degree difference from last week) The bad thing is when this happens here it makes the road conditions terrible. Since Alaska doesn't know how to plow roads (don't ask, they're stupid!) the ice on the roads start to melt and then it re-freezes at night and turns everything into a very slick ice skating rink. But at this point I don't even care, I'm just enjoying the fact that we dare to go outside again.

I went to the doctor on Monday for my neck. I've had on/off neck pain for about 5-6 years, but it's just gotten worse the past 6 months. Even to the point just laying in bed on a pillow hurts. They told me pretty much what I expected it to be, that it's probably muscle issues and I need to go to physical therapy. She told me that when this kind of thing happens it usually has been a long road to get to this point and it's going to be a long road getting it better. I know that I've always had terrible posture and this is probably a big part of the problem. So basically I have to teach myself how to sit/stand/walk properly. Now I know that this can be done, but I'm a bit skeptical. I mean I've been sitting like this for 29 years for goodness sake, so it's going to take a lot of discipline - I guess time will tell.

Brianna has been a sad little grouch the past 3 or 4 days. I know the poor thing doesn't feel good, but I'm not quite sure what's going on. I'm guessing now probably teething - even though she acted totally normal with her first two teeth. She has been really cranky, waking up multiple times screaming uncontrollably at night, pulling at her ear more than normal, very clingy, and then she started running a fever yesterday. So I decided to take her to the doctor and have her checked out, I was pretty sure she had an ear infection. Nope - they said that her ears were a little red and had some fluid in them, but no infection. So we've just been dosing her up with Tylenol and bearing through the bad times. She seems a little better today, so hopefully we're on the mend. It's going to be a long flight to Utah on Saturday if she doesn't start feeling better. Poor little monkey! :(

Speaking of Utah - I'm so EXCITED - I can't wait!!! I'm so looking forward to getting to see ALL my family in one trip!!! YIPPEE!!!

BANANAS, BIRTHDAYS, & BRRR

2009-01-07T13:14:00.010-09:00

First off little Brianna started fruits for the first time this weekend. I think we've got her through almost all of the veggies and she's is doing GREAT. She is the best little eater, we haven't had any problems at all. She gives us a big open mouth for every single bite. She actually might be a little too good at eating (I wonder where she got that from??? :)) I think even when she's full she'll still always open her mouth, so I really have to watch her eyes when I feed her. She'll give me this big eyed look like, "Mom, I'm goin' to be sick", and then I know she's had enough. Here's a couple of pictures of her trying her first bananas.

Second, I didn't have time to post this on yesterday's, but I wanted to wish one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world HAPPY BIRTHDAY earlier this week. Nicole (aka: Ginger - really don't remember how that became your nickname???) has been one of my best buds since way back in middle school. Oddly enough I think we were always considered the "weird" girls in our group of friends, because we were the only "normal" ones that didn't get caught up in all that caddy girl drama. We have a pact with each other that when we're old and gray, we're going to live together and be the crazy cat ladies on the block. :) She's a great friend, a great mom, and a great listener and I'm so happy to call her my friend! Here's to "licking your face", guard rails, hiding staplers, New York, solidified organs, stupid boys, and Russian hats!!! (BTW: we are getting so old!)

And lastly, it's still freezing here. I don't think it's got over -45 for over a week now. They've even canceled church the past 2 weeks because it's been so cold. We've been having stupid furnace and car trouble this past week, but I think we've got everything working for now - cross our fingers. Things are just not made to work when it's this cold (including people), I think every thing's protesting that they've just had enough. Here's a couple of pictures of us trying to stay warm. I love her pink little snowsuit - thanks Heizer family - we were headed to the grocery store and she reminded me a little of Ralphy from The Christmas Story. And then one cuddling with her daddy - too cute.

CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON

2009-01-06T09:24:00.010-09:00

How cute is this? Nana & Grampie Walker got these beautiful Chinese pajamas for Brianna. She looks adorable in them!

She likes playing with the bottom of the shirt and showing her belly off. The little flasher. :) THANK YOU!!!

READY TO GO AT 50 BELOW

2009-01-03T12:52:00.003-09:00

"Dad, do we really have to check the trap line today?"Hope it's warmer where you're at.

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

2008-12-30T13:00:00.001-09:00

We had a great Christmas! I must admit Christmas takes on a whole new meaning and excitement when you have a little one to enjoy it with. Although Brianna didn't fully understand what was going on, it was still a lot of fun.

She really loved the wrapping paper - a little too much. :) She really didn't care about the presents, all she wanted to do was eat the paper, and she got upset when I took it away from her.

Here's a shot of her cute pj's - the saying was definitely true. (Sorry they're dirty - she got sweet potatoes on them :))

I got the job of helping Bri unwrap the gifts and Justin had to open all the packaging and put everything together. I looked up and found him like this - what a goof ball.

After opening presents both Justin and I were talking to our parents on the phone and Brianna totally zonked out in her dad's arms. I guess opening presents took a lot out of her. :)

We also had a very yummy Christmas dinner together as our little family of three. I tried my hand at the Anderson tradition and made clam chowder, ham and rolls. I do have to brag and say it was delicious!!! But Justin doesn't like clam chowder so we made him some stuffing and mashed potatoes to go along with it. The rest of the day we just relaxed and played with Bri's new toys. It was a wonderful day and I'm sure one we will always remember.

A SAD GOODBYE

2008-12-29T13:50:00.003-09:00

Well it's official, we found our Alley Dog a new home. This past week she has been at a new home on a "trial run" to see if she fit in with their family. So we got the word today that she is doing great, the family liked her, and that they wanted to go ahead and keep her. It was a really hard but a very necessary decision that she had to go. We had always been worried about how Alley would do with Brianna - she's never been a really good kid dog. (She gets freaked out when small children are pulling on her and will usually end up trying to bite them). But we were hoping she would get used to Bri and they would grow to like each other. Well she had been doing great with little Bri, even letting her pull on her ears and face as Bri sat in our laps with no problems. She even did okay when Brianna started playing on the floor, she'd sit by her, smell her, and let Bri pet her legs. We really thought we were in the clear. But the problem came when Bri was old enough to roll over to Alley's bed - which I guess Alley considered "her territory". She growled once at her and she got in trouble. But then a couple days after that she snapped at Brianna, which was the deciding factor that she had to go. We just couldn't risk the chance of her biting Bri, I mean how guilty would I feel if our beautiful little girl ended up with a big scar - I would feel terrible. So as much as I didn't like it, we had to start looking for a new home for her.
We were actually getting a little worried that we wouldn't find anyone that was willing to take her - and I was not dealing well with the alternative. But luckily Justin happened to be talking to his Commander and found out that they had been looking for a new dog. He talked it over with his family and they decided they wanted to give her a try. So we took her over last Sunday and dropped her off (what a miserable day!). The new family has 3 teenagers and another dog - which I knew she's do great with the older kids but was a little worried how she'd do with their dog. But it sounds like she's doing great and getting along with everybody. So after many tears at the Walker house I think everything worked out for the better. I know she's in a loving home and will always be treated good and know I don't always have to have an eye in the back of my head making sure she doesn't bite my little girl. Even though we always teased that she was our "challenged" dog, she was so sweet and just loved any attention you'd give her. We loved her and have been through a lot together. She will be missed, but at least she'll still be happy.

WATCH OUT WORLD

2008-12-26T13:10:00.002-09:00

Check out the "Christmas present" Brianna gave Justin and I.

The first time was on Christmas Eve over at a friends house - eight months old to the day. (I couldn't get a good video then, so I took this on Christmas Day). I usually don't put shoes on her when we're around the house, but I'd put her boots on to go to the party and I think it helped her get some better traction. She can still roll faster than she can crawl so she usually only does it when she has to. But she's getting better and better every time she tries. She's such a big girl!

I'll post more about Christmas later.