Lem's 30th Birthday

Lem and I enjoyed a mini-vacation getaway to Vegas to celebrate his 30th birthday a little early. We left Anchorage on Friday night, and then returned home Tuesday night. The girls stayed with Nanny and Papa for their first, semi-long stretch away from mom and dad and of course, faired remarkably well and probably missed us a lot less than we missed them! We did get to talk with them on the phone, send them texts (especially with pics of sites they’d enjoyed and would recognize from Vegas) and we also skyped one morning from the hotel. Traveling without kids was such a change from what we’ve become accustomed to. Just getting out of the car, checked in, through security and on the plane was such a delightfully easy relief! No unloading car seats, and tons of luggage, juggling a double stroller, bagging car seats, unloading and folding the stroller at security, reloading the stroller, re-unloading to get on the plane…what a difference! Not to mention the actually flights- we had free reign of the computer, we could watch whatever we wanted, and read and talk, and SLEEP…all uninterrupted! After getting off the plane we grabbed some delicious (and cheap!) fresh fruit for breakfast and go right to outlet shopping. Yes, my husband really does love me that much! We had a scrumptious lunch at Olive Garden, took a much needed nap and got ourselves ready for some Aces on the road hockey. After a tiny mix-up with our tickets we joined a few hundred other blue clad, cowbell ringing Aces fans in section 118 at Orleans Arena. It was so fun to watch our home team boys play on the road and to be surrounded with plenty of Aces fans not afraid to proudly show their support. Our section was by far louder than the Vegas fans and it didn’t hurt that the Aces won 5-1. Lem tried his hand at a little more video poker this visit and came out another $9 ahead or something like that. We enjoyed eating at some fun places and had some tasty drinks too. We spent some time exploring the Paris Hotel and had lunch there. We also had a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity, made famous by the movie of the same name (one of our all-time favorites.) For Lem’s official birthday dinner date we ate a cute Italian place, in the courtyard area around the big fountains at Caesar’s Palace. We walked from Caesar’s to the Bellagio and spent some time checking out their amazing gardens. The flowers and displays were totally different than when we were there this summer and they had live butterflies in some of the greenhouse displays. We did lots more shopping including a super successful Gap Outlet experience which involved the outlet store prices, combined with crazy sale prices and then combined with a 30% off coupon-score! We also spent one morning at the Titanic exhibit which was super cool. It includes replicas of areas of the ship, items recovered from the site and even a huge piece of the side of the ship itself. We of course, made a few stops at Sonic for some yumminess. The weather didn’t exactly cooperate and give us much in the way of sunshine or warm temperature which was little bit of a bummer, but the freedom to go, stay, eat, and sleep when and where we wanted was sure a fun change of pace for us. We also celebrated Lem’s birthday a week later, on his actual birthday. Several of his students made him a happy birthday banner and a few brought in treats for their classes. Ella and I took him lunch, and one of his colleagues bought fancy cupcakes for us all. Sycely just happened to have that day assigned as her day to bring snack, so Lem was able to go over and share snack with her class and see her do “author’s chair.”

That evening we ordered up some Moose’s Tooth pizza and had a shared celebration with Jesse, (Lem’s twin cousin) his fiancée Rachel, Nanny and Papa, Ian and Kathryn (fresh off their honeymoon in Spain). We had cake and opened presents, celebrating the start of their 4th decade.

The Weddin'

Like alot of Alaskan weddings the pre-ceremony excitement started long before the wedding day. As Ian and Kathryn's nuptials approached, family and friends started arriving. Here are our house, we had just two extra guests-my mom and Aunti Eris. Rod and Bonnie were hosting Grandma and Paul for two weeks, their neighborhood put up Kathryn's dad and uncle, while her mom stayed with her and a few of Ian's friends bunked up at his place, with their families, and local hotels. It was fun to have dinner with some most of the visiting family on Wednesday night, then to get a chance to visit more with family and all the wedding party friends at the rehearsal dinner on Thursday night. Friday was WEDDING DAY! I got Sycely's hair washed and into curlers and Eris worked on Kathryn's make-up, while I got Kathryn equipped with snack and water for the rest of her busy day. Jesse and Rachel and Bonnie all stopped by, which added to our numbers which already included us four, Eris, my mom, Kathryn and her mom! It was such a fun time of excitement and anticipation that we will always look back on fondly. Just watching it all transpire around me in our home, brought a prayer of praise to my heart as I again saw how God was using this big, beautiful home he's given us as a place to pour out his love.

While Ella napped the rest of us girls got ourselves ready while Kathryn went to get her hair done. We got Ella up from her nap, did her hair and headed off to the church to get the girls changed into their flower girl outfits. They watched the guests file into the church from a window upstairs and waited in the girls' dressing area, anxious to do their job and get this "weddin'" (as Ella called it) started. Kathryn got a tear in one of the layers of her dress minutes before show time, but her friend Jaime and I used an emergency sewing kit and got it stitched up and ready to head down the aisle in no time.

The girls were simply adorable heading down the aisle, dropping red petals in their giant tutus and ruby red slippers. Kathryn and Ian exchanged vows in a lovely, touching ceremony in front of the fireplace, surrounded by family and friends. There's no better way than to start your marriage journey.

After the ceremony and some photos, everyone headed to the reception location to enjoy some local Chinese food, dancing and gourmet cupcakes. Lem gave a very touching, tear-jerking toast and we danced the night away celebrating the newly married couple.

We are so excited that Ian has found his perfect bride and we joyously welcome Kathryn (officially) into our family with wide open arms. I'm already so blessed by my new sister and our growing relationship. We pray God will continue to bless their union with His abundance and faithfulness and wish them the best in all that they will encounter in this incredible journey called life!

(February and) March Madness

The rest of February and ALL of March were a whirlwind of activity around our house! We celebrated Valentine’s Day with the girls. Lem brought each of them flowers and each of them got a little bag of treats and presents. We had a special fancy outing (that doubled as our Valentine’s date) to the Dare to Care Gala where we assisted with the auctions. Jesse and Rachel tried their hand at babysitting the girls, and even put them to bed in what was quite possibly the most successful babysitting experience ever!

We also celebrated Papa’s birthday with family dinner, cake and presents. To add to the flurry of activity, Fur Rondy took place in mid February so we took in some of the winter celebration’s activities, like the dog sled races.

Speaking of dog sled races, I got to be behind the ropes at the staging and starting area of this year’s Iditarod. It was a pretty awesome experience getting to be right in the throes of all the barking, excitement and hubbub. I got to meet lots of mushers including Rick Swenson, the “mushin’ mortician” and rookie, Scott Janssen, and Lance Mackey’s, 19 year old step-son, Cain Carter who was also running his first race. I got to spend quite a bit of time with Cain and his team and he quickly became one of my favorite musher’s to follow in this year’s race. I was able to be with mushers as they unloaded and hitched up their teams, got into line and headed down the shoot to the starting line. It was one of the most memorable events I did as Mrs. Alaska and something I’d love to continue to be a part of, behind the lines, in the future. For more details about this and other Mrs. AK events, check out my blog at: www.mrsak2010.blogspot.com.

February brought the state Model UN conference for Lem and his students. This year he was honored with the Advisory of the Year award and was celebrated for his hard work and commitment to the Model UN program. February and March brought not only a slew of Mrs. Alaska events and appearances, but also Special Olympics Local and State Games. Another successful season in the bag for these inspiring athletes. Spring Break was an event in itself that included tidying up, organizing and getting ready for company around the house. Next came the arrival of my mom and Eris, Grandma and Paul, Kathryn’s family and friends of Ian and Kathryn, all here for the wedding. Though it wasn’t quite the exotic vacation you’d dream of, it certainly was full of fun and visiting with family and friends. We did have one downer in the midst of all the happiness; we lost our beloved Mabel (our pet turtle.) She passed away a few days before the wedding, and as low maintenance of a pet as she was, her not being here took some getting used to. St. Patty’s Day, as usual, brought about a flourish of green. The girls had green, shamrock pancakes, green eggs and green milk for breakfast. Sycely and Ella both enjoyed their respective green lunches. The girls had green jello for snack. Dinner included green pasta, broccoli with green cheese sauce and green shrimp, and was followed up with bright rainbow cupcakes for dessert. Of course, they both dressed in their finest green outfits for the day’s festivities.

Lem and I finally got to take in some Aces hockey, enjoying one game with his parents, Uncle Gary and Aunt Lynda and Jesse and Rachel. It was fun to extend the wedding celebrating with dinner and the game with family the next night, and my mom being here allowed us to enjoy a kid-free date with all our usual babysitters!

The girls, are of course, continue to grow and develop quicker than you could imagine. Sycely is thriving in school and is reading and writing with gusto. She’s gained so much confidence in her spelling skills. This Sunday she wrote and illustrated (even numbered the pages!) of a book of Five Little Speckled Frogs during church. She got into the Open Optional Program at her school, so she will move into that pod in the fall and will be in a 1st/2nd grade class next year, and will have the same teacher for the next two year. We’re super excited for her to get to reap the benefits of this teaching method for the next 6 years and look forward to Ella being able to join her someday not too far off. Ella’s quite the character in her own rite. She’s really developing her imagination and dramatic play skills. She loves playing with babies and will doctor just about anything. She tells some pretty elaborate and detailed stories (the most recent about her friend in Hawaii and all her siblings and pets-which all had names and physical descriptions.) Watching our girls’ relationship blossom is such a blessing. Sycely is so eager to teach Ella things and Ella looks up to Sycely so much. Their sisterhood is such a tender thing to see growing. We’re so blessed for every moment and memory we share with them.

Governor's Inaugural Gala

Lem and I attended Governor Sean Parnell's Inaugural Gala last weekend. It was a much different affair than what we experienced 4 years ago at Sarah's ball, a different program, different setting, different crowd, not necessarily better or worse, just different.


I think Sean's personality is so much less exuberant than Sarah's and it was certainly a different political election season and it felt like maybe those things played into the planning of the event. It was not quite the celebrating party we went to 4 years ago and was more of a formal, ceremonial event.

There were photo slide shows from across the state, a formal, sit down, multi course dinner, and a dance presentation including hula, native and ballet dancers. After the formal program was finished the dancing started, but most folks had cleared out around then.

We did enjoy getting to visit with lots of friends from the Governor's office and picnic committee as well as our pastor and his wife, old family friends including the Colianders and former Lt. Gov Loren Leman and his wife Carolyn. We did do some networking and meet some new folks as well.

January

January was a full month for us with several Mrs. AK appearances for me, back to school for Lem and Sycely and plenty of exciting milestones for Ella. Ian and Kathryn are in the throes of wedding planning for their upcoming March 11th nuptials. The girls' flower girl tu-tus got here last week and they're stoked; they've been practicing with some silk flower petals around the house. Kathryn's wedding dress arrived and Bonnie, Aunt Lynda, and our friend Jaime were able to attend her first dress fitting. She's going to make a beautiful bride, and an even more lovely addition to our family. Ian and Bonnie both celebrated birthdays this month, too. Dimond hockey finished their undefeated, perfect season with a surprising loss at state this year, but we love them anyway. We got to see some great games this season and we can't complain about one post season loss too much, though we would have loved to see them take the triple crown-the season, region and state titles.

Sycely's big accomplishment is learning to whistle, a skill we sometimes wish had not developed, but it's newness is wearing off and it's becoming less incessant. Sycely has been producing some incredible artwork and her literacy skills are really developing too. She's reading so well and really finding her niche in the world of using invented spelling for writing and sounding things out so well. She celebrated her 100th day of school last week. Here are some pics of her recent work: a picture of her performing in Nutcracker, a picture of Rapunzel from the movie Tangled and a Mrs. Alaska business card she recently made for me: Her and I modeled dresses for Anderson's Bride for the Wedding Expo again this year. She was so proper taking measured steps and carrying a sign with info about which store we were representing. She was quite the sight and everyone stopped us to comment on how adorable she was in her fancy dresses; I'm not sure many folks really even noticed mine! I think I could have been wearing a t-shirt and sweats and no one would have noticed!

I was invited to be a presenter at the Alaska Music Awards (think Alaska's Grammys) Lem was able to attend this red carpet event with me, where I presented the awards for Best Country Artist as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award.

We had my cousin Danny's girls over for babysitting so their parents could have a much needed date. I know it sounds crazy to spend a Saturday night voluntarily outnumbered by 5 girls 6 and under, but they always play so well together it doesn't really seem like there's any extras in the house. We fed them dinner and made popcorn as a special snack before they went home.

Ella, our little firecracker of personality has had an exciting month too. She decided that she was ready to be done with diapers and accepted the invitation to wear panties one morning, and that was that. She had one accident the first week when we didn't get her help to get on the potty fast enough (she's still too tiny to climb up on her own on most toilets) and otherwise has had full potty trained success ever since! What a nice surprise to not have to go through that transition, I'm one happy Mommy. She's really getting into dramatic play, dressing up and playing with characters. She has quite a few stories being narrated to her characters involving her mysterious "grandmother" who apparently does things like drop her off at school and take her to the grocery shop.

The Bunnies have settled in and made themselves at home. Now that they're settled and used to the lay of the land and all the smells and noises they're pretty friendly, sometimes overly so when the fridge is open! They know where their snacks come from and they follow us around, at our heels, begging like a dog, until they stand up on their hind legs poking into the produce drawer. So far their favorites are spinach and cilantro. We finally introduced them and Charlie, he pretty much ignore them and does his thing and they do theirs except when they get sniffy and try to groom him. That's when he turns tail and books it into another room or out of reach. It's pretty funny to see a big cat like Charlie being herded from the room by an exuberant tiny Silly Billy bunny.

Home for the Holidays

Well, the Holidays have come and gone and now it's time to share with all of you the fun things we did and the memories we made. We followed up Thanksgiving with attending the downtown tree lighting ceremony, which of course, got us in gear to get our own tree up and decorating done around the house. The girls are getting big enough to help with alot of the Holiday prepping which makes for special memories for all of us. Lem also continued his tradition of doing 25 Days of Christmas for me. This year he gave me encouraging words and scriptures for each day, and threw in a treat or two here and there too.

We had lots of special events this year (most of which got their own blog entries) including our Annual Wheeles Christmas Party (for grown ups only), Sycely's dance school's performance of Nutcracker Sweets, our Church's Children's Ministry's Christmas musical production and my participation in the Christmas skating show at the mall (all the same weekend, and Sycely had two birthday parties that weekend too!) You can see more pics and read up on the skating show on my Mrs. Alaska blog at: www.mrsak2010.blogspot.com. We were sure to get in plenty of time drinking tea and hot chocolate, watching Christmas movies and enjoying our fire place and hot tub though.

We got to enjoy lots of time with friends visiting Anchorage for the Holidays. The girls had fun playing and visiting with our friend Christina's kiddos, Cailey and Caleb, who were up from Texas. After sharing dinner they decorated a gingerbread house together. We also did our annual Christmas light looking with a dear friend Alaina who was up from Portland. Looking back, we realized we've been sharing this tradition for probably 7 or 8 years now.

The girls enjoyed helping me with the Holiday baking and fudge making. We made about 5 batches of fudge (trying our hand at peanut butter this year for the first time), coconut, candy cane crunch cookies for Santa and gingerbread cupcakes. Lem had the stomach flu on Christmas Eve (likely courtesy of Ella who had it two days before) which gave us lots of uninterrupted (for the most part) time in the kitchen for being girly.

On Christmas Eve we also made reindeer food to sprinkle on the driveway. The girls did well choosing their colors and working together, sharing the glitter. Sycely was a very good helper to her little sister. It was a frigid night, but we got our Christmas duds on and headed over to Nanny and Papas for a family feast of homemade pizza. We went to church after that for our candlelight service. Lem was feeling mostly better, thankfully, so he was able to enjoy those holiday traditions with us. When we got home from church we quickly (did I mention it was -10 degrees!) sprinkled our reindeer food on the driveway and came in to warm up, put out cookies and milk (and apples, at Sycely's insistence that last year she heard Santa was trying to eat healthier-hence the coconut/oatmeal cookies as well) Once the girls were tucked in for the night Lem and I got to "play Santa" and get ready for Christmas morning.

Christmas morning was, as always, a joyful delight with the girls. We opened stockings first and took a break to get our cinnamon rolls into the oven (and a very special LIVE present under the tree) Santa got the girls bunnies this year. They came to us from an adoption/rescue farm in Wasilla and are about 4/5 years old and a father-son pair, even though they look nothing alike! The box was wrapped and ready under the tree so with the girls otherwise occupied we slipped them into the box before we started opening presents, and of course, the girls opened them first. They enjoyed checking things out and exploring their new home while we opened the rest of our presents. Sycely has decided to name her bunny, the white Holland Lop, Mr. Hopps (and I'm thrilled by the originality of the name as it was the name of her pre-school class' bunny last year!) Ella, on the other hand, decided on Silly Billy for hers, the Netherland Dwarf with the black and white dutch markings.

After we finished up with our family Christmas here, the rest of the day was spent at Nanny and Papa's celebrating with them, Unlce Ian and Aunti Kathryn (now that there's a wedding date set we've officially added the Aunti title.) We spent several hours opening presents and stockings there and played some games, napped and watched Christmas Friends episodes until it was time for our Christmas dinner of tasting steak fajitas. That night I ended up with the stomach bug and spent the night NOT sleeping and the next day trying to make up for the lost rest.

Our post Christmas time was spent enjoying our time together as a family, playing with new toys, having fun with new presents (like the bunnies), breaking in the backyard sledding hill, more hot tubbing, and taking in some yummy Tastee Freez ice cream. I did take Sycely to the doctor due to a linger and nasty sounding cough, but they sent us home assuring us it was super common right now and should, as I expected, work itself out, which it did in a matter of days. Sycely and I went on a movie date with Kathryn to see Tangled and then did a trip to the bridal store for a little looking, too.

We shared New Year's Eve with Ian and Kathryn. We had a yummy Mexican dinner at a restaurant downtown then took in the City's New Year's celebration fireworks. We headed back to our house, had some scrumptious cheesecake, then enjoyed sipping pina coladas in the hot tub while taking in a pretty spectacular neighborhood fireworks show. This year the muni allowed fireworks for a few hours on New Year's Eve (they are usually illegal in the city) and though we saw a pretty good (illegal) show in our neighborhood last year, this year was even more festive. We literally were surrounded on all sides by fireworks as we had a relaxing soak.

2010 was a pretty great year for us and we're exciting to see what God has in store for us in 2011. So far, we're already enjoying the abundance of His blessing and provision as Lem has taken on an online class for some extra money (think trip to Hawaii). We're excited to be welcoming a new member to our family on March 11th as Ian and Kathryn start their married life together, and we are certainly looking forward to celebrating our 10th anniversary with a cruise to the Bahamas in just a few months! Hope that your Holidays were warm and that 2011 brings you many blessings of joy!