Applesauce Mess

This child can get into ANYTHING!!

Case in point:

She wanted some applesauce but I was making dinner so I grabbed one off the shelf and gave it to her to appease her whining until I could open it to eat with dinner.

Off I go to finish dinner.

Off she goes to what?  Get into the applesauce of course!

By the time I realized what she was doing, she had punctured a hole in the top, made it large enough to scoop out applesauce and was having a grand ole time eating her applesauce.

I might note that nothing she does is clean either.  So, she had applesauce all over herself, on the floor (where Tipz promptly licked it up...thank you Tipz for liking applesauce), and on my couch where she climbed up, rolled around, and then rolled off only to get on again, roll around again, and roll off again.

But seriously...how can I get angry with her when she looks at me like she did when I was taking the pics?!  Her smile seriously melts my heart

...I am in so much trouble.

Peninsula Winter Games

Every year the Kenai Peninsula sponsors the Peninsula Winter Games and they do a bunch of fun things for the community and kids.  They have ice sculptures all over town at different businesses which are fun to see and then they have a fun day for kids at the Sports Center.  They have different booths, like the cookie booth, and then an ice sculpture slide and other sculptures outside for the kids to play on.  And per the usual it was like -15 degrees this weekend.  Yuck!

But, the kids love it!  We had a free hot-dog lunch, decorated a sugar cookie (want a little cookie with those sprinkles?!), and played on the slide outside.  Thanks to Kiernan for taking Tiny down the slide...she's an awesome babysitter too!

Even though it's ridiculously cold outside it's still so nice to take the kids somewhere to get out, socialize, and have fun!

Workin' with Dad

Mr. Shordy McGoo got these fun little tool boxes at the Peninsula Winter Games so as soon as we got home he and dad proceeded to put them together while Tiny was taking a nap.

He sure had fun using his little wood hammer to hammer in the little nails.  So glad he has such a great daddy that likes to do this sort of stuff with him.

Coloring

Our little miss Tiny Girl has all the sudden shown an interest in coloring.  She loves to get out Shordy's backpack and pull out the bag of crayons and ask to color.  It's pretty cute watching her figure out how to hold the crayons and get them to write.

As long as I'm watching she's great just drawing on the piece of paper on the floor...but don't turn your back b/c she likes to sample the different colors...and write on my slate.

I've already changed diapers with flecks of blue, red, and purple.

Awesome.

New Wood Stove!!

Yes that's right!!!  We have a brand new Jotul F3CB Wood Burning Stove in our house!!  I'm so FREAKING excited I can hardly contain myself!!!

Our house, built in 1983, only has gas heated, electric forced air furnace.  It is not very efficient...and I have 2 dogs in our house.  Can you just imagine the dog hair that blows when the furnace is going?  Gross huh?  Sorry.

Not only is it not my favorite b/c it blows hair, and dust, and dries out our house (which doesn't need any help when it's -25 outside), but it's also freakishly expensive!!  For the last 3-4 years we've put plastic up in our windows during the winter, we re-seal our doors, I've put the little foam covers inside my outlets, I put blankets at the bottom of doors to keep any possible draft out, and still our house seems cold and we pay out the nose for it to not feel warm.  It doesn't help we have almost zero carpet in our house.  It's all either slate or laminate, even in the bedrooms.  I love this and I hate this.  Did I mention we have 2 dogs?  I love that we have to carpet...it doesn't smell like dog in our house (at least I hope it doesn't!).  But it's cold.

Anyway...after living here for over 6 years we finally realized we could put a fireplace in the corner if we sold the piano to make room.  I was VERY sad to sell the piano, but it is so worth it to have a wood burning stove.  I also love that we will have a secondary source of heat.  The electricity goes out for a significant amount of time at least once a year and in the past we bundle up to keep warm.  Now I can just keep my fire going!!

I wanted to get it installed before Christmas, but it didn't happen until the 2nd week of January.  It's all good though.  We had a professional installer come in and install it (b/c Shayne is not an installer of chimnies or wood stoves), and it only took about 6 hours and that's with a lunch break.  I was impressed.

Anyway...we had to pay for split wood, but hope to get our own next summer.

It's  not a very big stove, I think it may be almost the smallest one they make, but I'm happy to report I got the stove going and had it up to 77-78 degrees in our house and it actually felt warm in our home!!!  Our upstairs is so hot I have to close our bedroom door just to cool it down enough to sleep at night, and usually our upstairs is the coldest part of the house.  I can dress my kids in t-shirts and let them run around without socks...they won't know what to do with themselves.  :)  And...Obviously our furnace doesn't come on all day too...so saving some money!

I'm in love.

This is seriously the most exciting thing to happen to me in quite awhile!!

Making a "cake"

This kid has the greatest imagination.  He seriously must have gotten it from his Aunt Maysi, b/c he didn't get it from me.  Maybe Shayne?

Anyway, he's always creating things with his blocks, or legos.  and he loves to improvise and pretend to do all sorts of things.

This particular evening he raided one of my three kitchen drawers...wait one of three drawers in my whole house (not kidding) and pulled out a bunch of cooking utensils to "Make a cake"  He totally "made" his cake and then proceeded to eat it, making sure he shared with all of us.

This kid seriously cracks me up!

8 Years

Normally I post a picture of me with my awesome husband, but this year it didn't get done.  Whoops!

But...that doesn't mean I don't love him any less than I did last year...in fact I love him more.

We've been through quite a lot in our 8 years...and it's amazing how the love and respect I have for him continues to grow and deepen.

He truly is my very best friend...