My great winter hats

Back when I was known as Streeeeeetaci at the Alaska Club (or Staci Play Center for those that didn't know me as well), I used to think that the kids' hats were SO COOL, and couldn't wait for the day that I had my own little munchkin to buy crazy hats for. How could I have known that I would have such a fun kid such a short time later... and even better than crazy hats that I would buy, check out these hats that were made for Kailyn!

From Aunt Jeni - a perfect match for this coat!

From Memere Beauvais - don't you just LOVE IT!!!

Doing some basketball warmups before facing the freezing wind outside.

Kailyn's Second Halloween

Carving her first pumpkin and thinking it's a LOT OF FUN! I am still finding pumpkin seeds!

She was sure to let me know what she thought of the ladybug outfit... so NOT FUN! She cried and whined and moaned...

(Can you see Bella-monkey in the background?)

Until she realized that those nice people actually gave her stuff...

Now she loves it and will wear it anytime I want!

McDonald's

If I hadn't been a hesitant participant in her birth, I would wonder if this child were mine. 'Twas her first McDonald's trip, and you know what she ate? Her apples.

She had her choice of McNuggets, tasty french fries, and, apples (who knew that they'd even heard of apples at McDonald's?).

She'd take a little nibble on the McNuggets, a taste of the fries, but what she really liked were the apples.

Not that I'm complaining! We fed the rest of her fries to the birds, which was more fun than eating them, anyways.

Even more important than the McNuggets and apples, Kailyn wanted nothing more than to share her food and snuggles with Grandma.

I'd say it was a good trip.

Texas & Florida

Though we've been home for a while, it seems that I can never make the time to get in here and post these pictures.

We had so much fun in Texas and Florida - we left when the sun was shining (well, it was green anyways), and came home to a snow-covered Alaska - WOOHOO! The timing couldn't have been better - though it was definitely hot down there, the end of October is nothing compared to summertime.

While in Texas, Aunt Nancy, Uncle Joe, Cousin Bryan, and his new wife Justyna came down from Houston. We all had dinner at the Texas Steakhouse, and Kailyn was quite the little cowgirl - check out her boots! We have decided that if we ever (God forbid) have to leave Alaska, Texas is where we want to be. The people are UNBELIEVABLE! Among several other incidences, there was a group of smokers that moved into the street to let Kailyn have fresh air. Brian and I were speechless!

Kailyn's first time at the bar. Belly up! After this, we were able to get a babysitter for the rest of the night. Brian and I went dancing with everyone and had such a good time that we had to call home to see if we could stay out "just a little bit longer, pleeeeease???"

Our Florida trip was a little different - no dancing there! We were able to get all of my stuff packed up and loaded into the connex, along with the Bobcat and the furniture for the cabin. Brian helped dad alot in the yard and shop. Apparently the bark beetles have gotten down that way, too. They've killed most all of the pines in the yard, which is really sad because my parent's house has always been pretty well shaded. They make these little holes and then get in there and eat the bark until the tree dies.

As usual, Kailyn wanted to know how she could help all the time. When Dad and Brian were clearing brush, she wanted to be right in the middle of it all, checking it all out. She is learning so much these days - she repeats everything and LOVES to read books so much that she actually pants when you get one out. It's so funny.

We took golf cart rides at least once a day to go see all of the animals around - there were goats, cows, horses, roosters, chickens, bulls.... she had a great time. No one could go in the garage without Kailyn dashing for the door to climb up on it. We couldn't decide if she liked being out in the open with no car seat, or if she liked talking to all the animals... probably a combination.

Kailyn also had her first trip to McDonald's when we were down there, but I hear her waking up, so I will post those later.

Picking out rocks at the river

Kailyn has discovered yet another way to give me a heart attack. She climbs up on her stool to peer out the window and jumps up and down with excitement now that she has a complete view of the side yard. Meanwhile, the stool wobbles all over the place and I try to control my panic. Of course, the stool doesn't stay by the window when I'm not right there, but I want her to see the world, so I let her do it sometimes...

We had another day of sunshine, so we packed up and went for a walk down to the river to collect rocks. Kailyn was a great help - she organized 3/4's of the riverbed for me, one rock at a time. Willie did his part, too, trying to remove the dead trees so we could look under them for the perfect ones. I hope that we got enough - I am hoping to do a craft with the girls on Wednesday and Thursday. I'll have them all day, so any ideas for fun stuff would be greatly appreciated!

Quilt Festival

Peggy came to visit us last weekend for the Semi-Annual Quilt Festival. We had a great time and (kind of) got alot done. We learned from last time and didn't take so many classes; she took one of my all-time favorite patterns, the Wedding Ring, and my main class was on a pattern that I've always liked but have been too scared to try, the Tumbling Block. I also took one on wall-hangings, and chose a pattern that worked with bright colors for my kitchen, which is kind of dark. I still have a lot of work to do on both, but they are coming along!

Kailyn has been growing so much these days. She breezed right through her 6-12 month clothes and now is in 12-18! I can't believe it!! She really should still be in 6-12, I think, but they are so short on her. She also skipped right over walking.... taking approximately 1 1/2 days to perfect the skill, and now she pretty much runs every where! It's great exercise for me, as her favorite game is getting chased around the house screaming and laughing while I yell, "I'm gonna getchu!" She has also discovered the cabinets and has claimed one for her own - all of her toys get shoved in there for quick cleaning each night =). I don't know who's more pleased with the set-up, her or me??

I think that she is going to be into creative stuff. My bag of fabric was downstairs, and she had a blast going through it over and over again, checking out each scrap one by one. We've also started letting her color - of course, she's strapped to her high chair so she doesn't take off with a crayon in her hand - and she's so cute. She really thinks about each color choice, as if studying the piece of art she's creating to see which color is lacking the most. It seems so strange to see my baby picking out colors....

This is her onery face - I can't believe I caught it! She's getting ready to throw the crayon on the floor after much deliberation and thought; brown does not belong in her picture. She gave it a fair chance, but it's got to go.

Blueberry pancakes

Picking Blueberries at the Cabin

We had a great time at the cabin this weekend - it was generally great weather and we were able to get some good family time in. After spending most of the week hand loading and unloading 39,000 pounds of cedar home, Brian and Jared squeezed in time to get most of the trim up and put a second coat of sealer on the little cabin; looks like we are set for winter! I can't believe how fast this summer has flown by! Although we hoped to get the big cabin shelled in this summer, time has simply run out and we are going to have to wait until next year.

Mike & Erin stopped by on Saturday and we all picked some blueberries - Kailyn LOVED it! She couldn't eat them fast enough! Tyler was a great partner for Kailyn, too, since he decided that he didn't care for them after getting a few tart ones.

We let Kailyn try her first Oreo cookie, and there is no doubt about it - she definitely belongs to us! She went nuts and shoved the entire thing into her little mouth. She had a great time hanging out in her Carhart's and playing in the dirt, too, though I am not sure I will ever get the blueberries out of them.... and do I care?

On the way back to Valdez, we took a little break and went hiking around Blueberry Lake. I was hoping to show her the Pass, but there were SO MANY tourists. I guess that other people had my same idea! She is quite the curious little girl, and had a great time studying the different flowers, rocks, and leaves while Willie ran around like a madman and I breathed in the fresh air and relished in the beauty of my daughter and the mountains surrounding her. Aaaahhh... I love this place!