First Week in Alaska - Homebound

December 26 - January 1

After arriving here Kyle had to go to work and work the next three days. The kids and just hung out at the house exploring the house and wearing our pajamas all day long. We weren't going to go outside it was to cold and the kids only had their winter coats. We did eventually decided to go outside but we but layers and layers on. But we mostly played card games, watched movies and drank a lot of hot chocolate. We only had one car. The van was being shipped up and still in transit. Kyle would take the car to work, which I did not mind at all. I had never driven in the snow and was very nervous to do it, especially since we didn't have studded tires on the car. 

 Some where along the way we caught a bug and brought it home. It ran through the house quickly. Jaron got sick the second night that we were here and hung out near the bathroom. Kallie got it next, Kyle, Karlee, and then Kelsie. I thought that maybe it had passed me by but it hit me in the night, luckily in the morning I was just weak but on the mend.

Kyle finally got to his days off for the week and he had four ahead of him. On the first day, (it was also Jaron's actual birthday too). I spent the morning reading the driving manual and then we headed to the DMV so I could get my lincence changed. I didn't pass but that is okay because they would of not given it to me anyway, I didn't have my marriage licence to prove my name. I had to mail away for it and wait.While out we went to Walmart on the hunt for winter clothes for the kids. We found an awesome price on winter kid boots only $2 each. The clerk had to do a double take as she rang them up. I was grateful because on something that I thought would break the bank on buying four pairs for the kids. Ended up being cheaper then one pair, so I bought two pairs for each kid. We found snow pants for all the kids and gloves. The lowest temp it got this week was -10 and that was only one night, we had highs of 18 degrees. But it was really cold for us folks coming from Oregon with the norm being in the 50's. It is really nice to see the come out for the few hours it does. It only came out once this week, the rest of the week it was overcast.

The 21st of December was the shortest day of the year and so things could only get brighter from here. It was weird because it would not get start getting light until 10am and it would start getting dark about 3:30 p.m. With it not being light very long makes you feel like you have to get everything done quickly while it is light. I am grateful for the lights in the house that makes it seem brighter when it is dark outside...oh and for the heat in the house to keep us all warm and toasty.

The kids are playing outside in this picture but I was to get it of the house. This is the place that we are renting just for about three months, so we in the search for another place. But this is a great place. It has 3.5 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. It over looks the river that seems to be getting smaller everyday. On Sunday we went to church, everyone said hi, I also had a couple people (one in front of RS) asked if I was here to stay or just visiting, I thought that was a funny question. We also got invited over to one of the people Kyle works with and happens to be a member of the church. His wife Julie is so nice, and very welcoming to me, I really appreciative of that. We had a yummy homemade pot pie and tossed together salad it was great, I still need to get that recipe for the pot pie. The kids enjoyed playing with their kids, they are all about the same age. Karlee I think found a lasting friend in their daughter Kami.

Fun fact about Alaska, or at least our house: Water smells like rotten eggs. I went to wash the dishes and it started to smell like rotten eggs. I was very confused by the smell. Turns out that it is the water causing that smell. I guess there is sulfur in the water to make it have that smell.I wonder... since I shower in that same water do I smell like rotten eggs??

Little Mixed Up

I have updated my blog but it is a little out of order. I guess that is what you get when get in a hurry and you want all the pictures just to get on, and you have a slow connection. The order it should go is:

Christmas Eve Party at G3
Christmas Morning (part 1)
Go Go Going on an Adventure
First Time Plane Riders
Christmas Morning (part 2)
Our Miracle Trip to our New Home
Adjusting to the Snow
New Year's Eve

I have also started a new 365 blog but it is on a different site then the one from 2011. To find the 2012 365 blog it is at this address http://guppiebee.blogspot.com. It was the same one as my 2010 one.

I have to make another apology, the pictures that I am taking are off my phone and are not turning out that good. The charger for my camera is in the van, which had shipped up and haven't got it yet.

New Year's Eve

Happy New Year!!

On New Years Eve we had a fun little family party. .

We started the night off with a yummy dinner of party finger foods and a fun punch.

We played Uno and Skip-bo

Watch the movie Car 2 as we waited for the new year to come.

Some of our party was getting kinda grumpy and we had to get up early for church at nine. So we did an early version of the count down at ten o'clock (pretending it was midnight). At the end we blew horns, popped our poppers.

And gave a cheers to the new year!

Kyle, Kallie, Jaron and Kelsie went to bed. Karlee and I stay up to watch the ball drop in New York. I hope that you all have a Happy New Year and that 2012 brings you Happiness.

Adjusting to the Snow

We got into home to Soldotna on Sunday, we settled into the house. Kids picking their bedrooms and I unpacking so there would be things for them to do inside. Since it was so cold outside (we came right when they were having a cold streak, the lowest I have seen it is -25) and  a ton of snow all around. It does look like a winter wonderland. My parents had gotten the kids and I warm winter coats before we left Oregon. I waited till we got to Alaska to get the other warm gear, I was limited on space to bring it on the plane, or so I thought and I thought they would have better selection for the weather in this area. 

Kyle had to work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday so the kids and I stayed at home inside and play lots of card games and watched lots of holiday movies and drank a LOT of hot chocolate. On Thursday (Kyle's day off WooHoo). We went to Wal Mart in Kenai, Wal Mart and Fred Meyers are the two biggest stores in this area until you go to Anchorage two an half hours away. Looking for Snow gear for the kids. We got snow pants for Kelsie, Jaron and Karlee, Kallie has a pair coming up in the van- I should of packed it in my luggage not the van, my bad. We found gloves for everyone. But the highlight of the trip to Wal-Mart at least for me, the kids would probably disagree and say that it was the new toys they got to buy with money from Grandma, was that Kyle had found these boots that were only two dollars each-the pair not each boot. What a find! The reason they were marked down to two dollars, they were last years model of boot. I got each kid two pairs of boots, I got eight pairs of boots for sixteen dollars-what it would of cost me for one. 

While we were out on our adventure we went to the DMV so I could change my license. I couldn't change it because I needed my marriage license, which is in our Storage unit in Oregon. I had to mail away for it and wait 7 to 10 days, hopefully it will come soon.  

Once we had gotten all warm clothes for the kids they really enjoyed getting out there and playing. As you can see the blue hat came in handy again. 

Our Miracle Trip to Our New Home

You may ask why did she call it the miracle trip. As I said before we were not able to get a rental van and all we had was the Camry which is a five seater and we had tons of luggage. When we went to bed the night before we still didn't know how we and all our stuff was going to get in the car. There was the option of me taking a hopper plane from Anchorage to Kenai and meeting the family at the airport. But that plan got eliminated when we found out there was only two flights that day 6 and 8 am and I was already wasted from yesterday that I didn't want to get up at 4 to get to the airport to buy a ticket and stuff. Kyle went down to the car and started trying to get the luggage in like a puzzle. It was miracle: he made everything fit in the trunk.We checked out of the room and made one last bathroom run and then squeezed everyone into the car for the drive to Soldotna. The drive from Anchorage to Soldotna is regularly two in half hour drive, but Kyle was being extra cautious, it had just snowed the were slick and we had regular tires.

This the view of the Cook Turnagain Arm, it is a body of water. But in this picture it has huge chunks of ice all in the water. I bet now it is probably covered completely in ice. 75% of the drive is driven right along the edge of water.

This is the best picture I could get of all of squished in the car. 

Tight as a bug in a rug.

The mountains looked so beautiful that were all around us.

 We are at sea level, they looked so tall to us. 

Here is the sign that Welcome us to Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. 

The little inlet we live on.

This is what the roads looked like what we drove on all the way home.

We finally made it home.

Here we are on our front porch of our home.

As we tried to unpack the car, Kyle had done so well that we couldn't get anything out of the trunk. In order to get it out we rip one box open and inside the trunk and took the contents out of the box and then we were able to the rest of the stuff out with no problems.

This is a picture of our Home Sweet Home.

(or at least until May.)

Christmas Morning (part 1)

We did Christmas morning on Christmas Eve with my family, because that evening we were flying to Alaska to be with Kyle. 

Here is the first shot of the morning in our matching pajama pants.

 This year Jaron was the one who got to pass out the gifts.

 He was so excited.

Under the tree has been cleared out and we start on unwrapping the gifts.

Kelsie came to me after she woke up, in the morning of the party at G3. Told me that she had a terrible dream that Santa got hurt and didn't bring her the Lite sprite. I said "are you sure it was a lite sprite you asked for not a Light bright". She said "no a lite sprite", (but I swear it sounded like light bright).I said "what if Santa doesn't know where to get one or what it is", she said "He does he knows everything". My heart sank. But luckily Santa does know everything or at least has some helpful elves that found the light sprite. And as you can see from the picture above it made Kelsie day and belief in Santa. By the way Santa also brought her a Light Bright.

After the gifts we had the yummy Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls and fruit salad. Then we enjoyed the rest of the morning playing with our new toys. And I packing up everything, excited that I now had the option of having 10 FREE checked bags.  

Later that afternoon we went over to Grandma Kenners and had Lunch with her and Russell. We opened our gifts from her and her from us. As 2:30 approached we said our goodbyes (or as we put see you later) to Grandma and Russell and headed back home to head to the airport.

Christmas Morning (part 2)

We woke up and headed down to the yummy continental breakfast in the lobby of all kinds of breakfast items, still dressed in our pjs. We weren't the only one still in our pjs enjoying our Christmas breakfast. After we were done with breakfast we open up the gifts that Santa had left in our room.

Santa had remembered the MP3 player that Kallie really wanted.

 I love the smile she got as she opened it.

Jaron and Kelsie both got mini video cameras.

 Jaron was excited so he could make movies of his Transformers. Sad part about it is the camera didn't end up working.

Kelsie was very excited and has been feeling since has got it put together. She has been making video dairies for her cousin Lulu, calling it "Good Luck, Lulu."

And I opening my gift.

Karlee got a Tangle Barbie, she got a little freaked out as she opened her gift and wanted nothing to do with it. I guess Santa didn't know I guess Santa didn't know that she was scared of barbies Santa didn't know that she was scared of barbies.

As you can see she ended up liking the Barbie, at least for this picture. She ended up giving the barbie to Kelsie to have.

First Time Plane Riders...

...That they can remember. Each of the kids have flown on a plane when they were under the age of two and free. But today this was the first time that they could remember and they were so excited. I had Jaron and Kallie in the row in front of me, luckily no one brought the seat between them. That made it really nice for them. Karlee, Kelsie and I were on the row behind them. Each of us had a backpack filled with things to do. The plane ride with the kids went well half way through the plane ride one of the flight attendants told me that my kids were very well behave, that was nice to hear. Kallie and Jaron with the stuff in there back packs were kept busy. In my row; Kelsie sat by the window, then me , then Karlee next to the aisle. They looked so small in the seat maybe I should of brought their car seats on the plane, but I think they had fun sitting in such a big seat. Half way through the flight they switched seats which is good because Karlee had gotten stir crazy and was all over her seat. The things in their backpack did keep them busy, but they had a shorter attention span then Kallie and Jaron. In the middle of the flight we all got to try out the bathroom on the plane, Jaron twice. The descent on the plane was horrible on our ears, very painful -Kelsie was in tears but we did get all back to normal. I waited to be one of the last group of people off the plane.  We gather our stuff and the kids all wanted to put their blue hats back on. And I told them to say Thank you and Merry Christmas to the flight crew as we walked past and the flight crew got a kick out of their outfits. The kids were amazed that the stroller was there as we got off the plane :0).We headed to the baggage claim to get our bags and Kyle met us there. The hotel where we were staying the night at, had a shuttle to the airport and back. That was so nice. We got into the room, and order a pizza to be deliver to the room. The kids had not eaten since lunch and the snacks we had on the plane. We ate pizza at 10:30 (11:30 Oregon time) and then got in bed and watched The Christmas Story till we all fell asleep.

Kelsie drawing a picture of the plane we were flying in. With her Alaskan moose that Kyle had given at Thanksgiving.

Kallie doing her puzzle book. The air got drier as we flew closer to Alaska, either our hair was flying about or stuck to our heads.

Karlee wiggling about her seat. 

 I pulled out candy and that made her sit still for a little bit.

I am glad that the arm rest went up and make it like one big bench.

My best friend put together this awesome care package of things for the kids to do on the plane. And she had stuck pipe cleaners in there. I thought what a terrific idea. At  the very end of the plane ride, we had gone through all the activities in our bags and then I remembered the pipe cleaners and that kept the kids busy until till the end creating things. Thank you so much Heidi.

Here is a shot of the kids walking to the baggage claim.

Karlee reminds me of a turtle with her back pack as big as her, all grown up yet so small.

So grateful for the safe and calm flight.

Go Go Going on an Adventure

After Christmas breakfast, I went to town packing my luggage. With the help of my mom and sisters we were trying to collect everything from around the house. But as you know with packing you never quite get everything, but you know you always forget something. Since we are moving to Alaska and have a permanent resident we were able to join the 49ers club. Being in the 49ers club you get two free bags for each flight, since there is five of us we got ten free bags. Woowhoo, I was so excited because I was stressing the cost of $25 per bag.

Jaron is weighing himself as we did numerous times with everyone. We would weigh ourselves and then hold the box or luggage to make sure we stayed under 50lbs. Heidi stop by to say goodbye, it was good to see her before we left. Kyle and I had a plan (it seems like you can plan everything to a T, but something always seem to go wrong.) to rent a mini van in Kenai and drive to Anchorage to be able to fit everyone and everything in the van. When Kyle went to rent it, it didn't work out. He called me stressed out and so that made me stressed out. I was already in tears leaving everybody (excited though to see Kyle). Kyle ended up going back to the house and got the camry and headed to Anchorage. Both of us wondering how we are going to get everyone and everything in the car- but that is what we had to work with.  

Everyone (Dad, Mom, Serena, John, Alycia, Cody, and Lulu) took us to the airport. I am so grateful they did because I was trying to stay collected and focus so it helped to have help. Thank you. We check in five bags and two car seats. Each one of us had a back pack and then I had two other carry ons. It was a sight to see us come in the airport.

When we found out that we were moving to Alaska, anytime I told some that they would say it will be such an adventure. As I heard it over and over I was reminded of the intro song from the cartoon The Cat in the Hat Knows A lot About That... "Were gonna Go Go Go on an adventure". I thought that it would be fun if I had the kids dress up as Things and I the cat in the hat. About 10 years ago my cousin Lisa made this fun purple yarn hair hat for Kallie. So I asked if she could make four blue yarn hair hats for the kids, she did and did an awesome job. I made red shirts (Kallie: Thing 1, Jaron: Thing 2, Kelsie: Thing 3, and Karlee: Thing 4) and the Cat in the Hat hat (for me). I thought that it would be something for the kids to do and keep their minds off the move.As we posed for the pictures we had a lot of people stop and look at us and also say things to the kids all through the trip, which made the kids feel special. 

In this picture we are dancing as we sing the song. Karlee wasn't really into it, she had just woken up from a short catnap. After we finished our photo op, we headed to the security check point. Said our goodbyes, dad was able to come help to the gate and it was so nice to have that extra set of hands. The kids were so excited to go. Luckily there is a new rule if the child is under the age of 12 they don't have to take their shoes off. That was nice, but unfortunately dad and I still had to remove our shoes and belongings into the buckets. We kept waving until we couldn't see the family anymore as we rounded the corner. Went to the gate and waited until it was time to board. Said goodbye to dad and we loaded the plane to start our Alaska Adventure.

Christmas Eve Party at G3

Being preoccupied with moving my mom and sister took over the planning and carry out of the Christmas Eve party at G3 and they did an awesome job, it was so much fun. This year the McClellands (Paula, Kerry, Laurel and her kids, and Shawn and his family). We started out the evening with a yummy ham dinner. Then I gather all of grandma's towels and the great grand kids and perform the Nativity as Kerry read from Luke 2.  

L to R: Wiseman: (and a women) Hailey, Jaron, Brandon, Angel: Kallie, Sheperd: Mason , Shawn two little boys, Mary: Kelsie and Baby Jesus:Karlee)

Karlee really wanted to be baby Jesus, she is almost as big as Mary. The kids did a great job, just being thrown into there roles. And I was glad that I had the backdrop of the stable from last year. After the Nativity we sang Christmas carols and a special visitor came: Santa. Laurel's kids sure had some tough questions for Santa and kept him on his toes. Anyone who wanted to could go get their last request in with Santa.

Kelsie was excited to see him and told him to make sure to bring her a Lite Sprites, every time else we went to see Santa and she would talk about her list I thought she was saying Light Bights. I am glad that she made perfectly clear with Santa. She also made sure that Santa reindeer had something to eat for the trip back to the north pole, she gave Santa eight baby carrots. 

All the kids visited with Santa and got candy canes. This is the attempt of getting Karlee to sit on Santa's lap, you can say her grip got tighter on Serena's neck the closer they got to him. Maybe next year she will like him.

As we said goodbye to Santa the dessert table open up and there was so many yummy treats- I didn't get to try them all. We then headed down to the basement to make gingerbread houses. You could see the creative juices going with each group and their building.

Kelsie showing her house to G3

Cody and Jaron's Awesome two level house

Kallie and Brandon's great ranch house, 

Karlee was just waiting to help eat the house.

After the construction of the gingerbread house, we gather back in the living room and had a White Elephant gift exchange. The hot gifts of the night were the tin box dad had put together at work and the barbie princess movie. It is always fun to see the great gifts that get unwrapped. It was such a fun night, thank you G3 for letting us have it at your house- it wouldn't be Christmas Eve without it and your popcorn balls.