Where have I been??

Obviously I've been horrible about writing the past few months.  Things around our house have been status quo.  Excited that there is only 6 weeks left of school up here.  The girls and I are coming home to Texas for part of the summer!  My niece is graduating from high school, so we don't wanna miss it!  Here are some picts from the past few months of activities to catch up:

 

Sport Season's are short here.  Volleyball was only 2 months long.  Cailin had fun taking a break from swimming to participate in school volleyball!

 

We went sledding up at Hatcher's Pass.  We bought a GoPro over Christmas, so we've had fun capturing our adventures on it!

Jenna took snowboarding lessons in Feb.  She did awesome and loves it!

Valentine's Cookies

Valentine's Dinner

 

Chinese New Year's!  We had some neighbor's and friends over.  Please notice all the boys decided to make funny faces! 

 

Red envelopes for Chinese New Years!

 

 

Jenna went to her first school dance :)  It was beach theme.  I had a good giggle because all the kids wearing snow shoes and coats just to come to the dance.  Let's just say the coat check was full.

 

Ice skating with friends!

 

St. Patrick Day...Jason was sick but I still made some yummy things.  Homemade Irish Soda Bread, Guinness Cake and Shepard Pie

 

The Moose are out, but so are the bears :(  Haven't seen one yet luckily!

 

Jenna celebrated her 9th Birthday :)

 

Jump Rope for Heart at School

 

We went to Hawaii for Spring Break!  My parents met us there and we got to visit my best friend :)  Jason and I also celebrated our 14th year of marriage while there :)

 

Acting silly

Family Photo!

 

Tour in Hawaii of where Lost and Jurassic Park were filmed.

 

One of my latest cooking things...Spicy Mexican Chocolate Cookies. 

 

We are finally starting to work on the yard!  We are hauling in LOTS of soil....More picts to come of the finished product!  Of course, we still are waiting for more dirt (they only had a portion that was unfrozen!)

2014 Holiday Season

Here and gone too fast.  That is how the holidays felt.  It went by so fast I hardly had time to process it all.  We spent Thanksgiving in Alaska and went home to Texas for Christmas.  Well, the girls and I went home.  Jason had to work so he stayed in AK and held down the fort (thank you Jason!!...he knows how much it means to me to be home for the holidays). 

November:  Thanksgiving was spent with our wonderful neighbors!  Chris and Doug Studer - I am thankful for your family!  We split up the cooking and of course ate a ton.  It was a wonderful time and I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of it all!  I went to lots of craft fairs over the month of November looking for that perfect Alaskan gift to bring home. Cailin completed the Red Cross Babysitting Course and Jenna made Student of the Month!  Jenna wrapped up her soccer season and will start snowboarding lessons in Feb.  Cailin is still swimming, but will take a break to do school volleyball in Jan/Feb.  We finally got some snow!  It was only 3 days and a couple of inches, but still fun.  The weather warmed up and so it pretty much melted afterwards. 

December: The girls and I traveled back to Texas for Christmas Break.  It snowed the day we left and continued for a few days.  Again it warmed up later and melted the snow.  So, it's pretty much ice right now.  Being home for the few weeks was so wonderful!  We were able to see a lot of friends and spend lots of time with family. I loved having my Mom cook for me :) We did eat out when we were visiting friends.  All our favorites (Chick Fil A, Chuys, Buca di Beppo, Panera, Shipleys, Dim Sum, the list goes on...) I miss having a variety of food to choose from!

Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year!  Stay warm!

Some moose (meese?) near our house

Chris and I Black Friday Shopping!  Thank goodness for handwarmers! Standing out in the freezing temps is a new experience for me!

Aces Game!  Our friends invited us to a game.  I forgot how much I like to watch hockey!

 

Student of the Month!

 

Another positive about living in AK...it's so cold you can keep drinks cold in your car or food on top of your car to stay frozen!  I took this when I went and got ice cream while waiting for Jenna to finish at piano and it needed to stay cold.  I sat in the warm car with it on top.  Luckily I remembered it before I drove off!

Cailin and Iona

Jenna and Abby

Cousins!

No license picts for a while...the cars are sooo dirty with the snow and mud.