Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from Batman and Batgirl and their two kids, Rapunzel and Pascal. That's how Rapunzel smiles. She told us.

Salmon Dinner: A Tribute to our Biggest Fillet

We cooked up our biggest fillet last night... 39 ounces. Topped it with crushed almonds, honey mustard, and put carmelized onions with fresh basil on top. As Tom said: "tastes fancy." The recipe can be found here from Whole Foods.

Celia: Writing Names

Celia has been really into writing names.  If your name is: Celia, Sabrina, Nana, Papa, Mom, Dad, Allyson, Billy, Evan, Chris, Hilary, Balo, Grandma, Grandpa, Jack, Clara, Grandma, Grandpa, Sophie, or Claire, can you find your name?

Celia: Tonight's Prayer

"Our Father who is in Heaven. Please bless our family that is on Earth. Please help us to not make bad choices about Earth because that is bad for Earth. Please bless to keep our house here. Thank you for the prophet. Thank you for Jesus. Please bless our family. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Sabrina: 12 month stats

Sabrina went to the doctor on Monday.  She weighs 19 lbs (25th percentile) and is 30" tall (75th percentile).  She doesn't talk still.  Lots of grunting and lots of screaming.  I thought she started to say "ma ma ma ma" last week, but then I realized it's just the noise that she makes when she's blowing spit bubbles.  Disappointing.

She is still quite hilarious.  Just now she put on a bib all by herself and went crawling around the house laughing.  She also just found the remote and changed Celia's movie to French while it was on (I don't even know how to do this).  She still doesn't walk.  But she can stand up when she's holding on to a toy.  Or Celia's stool.  She'll just grab that stool and hold it up to her head and stand up.  Impressive standing skills.  But if she has nothing in her hands, she won't stand up.  And she really doesn't care to walk because she can crawl so fast.  Sabrina is still clingy.  Sometimes she plays really well by herself, but most of the time she just wants to be held.  Since she is a constant mover, she gets really bored being held and will point and dive in the direction she wants you to take her.  The picture below is from October 1 when Sabrina found one of my tank tops and put it on like a necklace.  And the only thing she'll let us keep on/in her hair is a clip and only for a few minutes at a time (headbands and hats come off immediately).

She sleeps from about 8:30-8:30 with a 6:30AM feeding (something I don't want to give up because I'm afraid she'll just be awake then and that can't happen).  She eats everything and then throws leftovers on the floor and shakes her head because she knows she's not supposed to.  Her favorite times of day are still when Celia wakes up.  They'll play in Celia's room for 20-30 minutes in the morning while I make breakfast.  I love these little ladies!

Alaska: This is Home

This week marks our two year anniversary of living in Alaska.  Yesterday was Alaska Day (yes, smart of us to move up the week of Alaska Day... helps us remember) and Tom had Monday off (because of his awesome every-other-Monday-off schedule) and so it made for a four-day weekend.  To celebrate the anniversary and Alaska Day, I felt the need to blog all the reasons I don't want to move out of Alaska.  Our first full year was exciting and we loved it, but I was still ready to move if an offer ever came up to do so in the Northwest.  Now I'm not sure I would.  (It helps that a lot of Alaskan perks kick in after you've lived here a full year.)  Here are some of the things I love about it here:

 (peek-a-boo Moose!)

• It's gorgeous:  This is true for a lot of places, I realize.  But we've got it all.  Within a one-hour drive of our house, we can see an ocean, an inlet, lots of glaciers, gorgeous mountains, thick forests, lakes, and plains.  What are you in the mood for?  We can take you to see it.  
• Tom's work benefits:  It would take a pretty amazing job to beat out Tom's.  And we're realizing it's probably impossible to do so.  Tom comes home at 4:30 everyday.  He never has to stay late.  And he gets every other Monday off.  He also gets 5 weeks of vacation a year that he can actually use when he wants and has a $1000 out of pocket medical maximum for each of us.  Not shabby at all.  
• Salmon: Once a week we eat wild Alaskan salmon that we caught!  With a big net (because we're Alaskan)!  How lucky are we?  It's so delicious and the girls love it.  (Sabrina eats so much Salmon.) Pictured is one of the many great recipes we've been using from the Whole Foods website (though we took this picture). Salmon is so versatile.





• Free Money: We pay no sales or income tax.  Though things are a bit more spendy up here, the lack of taxes makes up for it.  And every year, each Alaskan gets a cut of the big oil money.  This year it was $1174 for every man, woman, and child.  It will be pretty easy to save for the girls' college funds when they each get a big check every year.  
• Wildlife: While I'm partially convinced I may die of bear mauling whilst camping someday (if I don't die in a bush plane...), it's amazing to have so much wildlife.  Bald eagles, moose, magpie, and caribou are so very common.  If you'll recall, we even get moose in our yard occasionally.  
• Club 49: Okay, this isn't a huge deal... definitely not a deal-maker... but Alaska Airlines just announced Club 49 yesterday (on Alaska day).  This means that Alaska residents can now check 2 bags for free on Alaska Airlines when flying to or from an Alaskan city.  Tom and I spent the day yesterday dreaming of all the liquids and razors we can now bring on our vacations.  And we're super pumped to fill the extra suitcases we each get with IKEA and Trader Joe's goods whenever we go "outside."
• Bike Trails: I've mentioned this before.  But the bike trails are amazing.  And Tom still bike commutes 2-3 times a week year round.  The rest of us enjoy the trails in the spring and summer.  
• Culture: Fur Rondy, Iditarod, low-budget TV commercials (seriously hilarious), Alaska Native influence, ice skating on frozen lakes, solstices, dipnetting, Northern Lights... we've got some great stuff happening.  Also, people are different up here.  It's like we're all on this big Alaskan adventure together.  If you move up here, you become one of "us" and we've got your back.  

What Rapunzels do

Celia's now really into what Rapunzels do and don't do (I had to convince her that in the winter, Rapunzel wears pants and shirts under her dress).  Above is the picture where she is looking happy like Rapunzel.  "Rapunzels don't laugh.  They don't show teeth."  And below is her looking at the floating lights.  At least she looks intrigued.

This has been going on for some time now. Often when we try to do her hair a certain way or get her to do something she responds by saying, "No, Rapunzels don't do that!"

Rapunzel Dress

We finished the dress (minus the lace-up cord which we still need to purchase and the hemming of the sleeves).  I'm proud.  Seriously proud.  Like: other than my Master's Degree and Natural Childbirth proud.  Didn't think a princess dress would be the third biggest accomplishment of my life.  Thanks to Joy Huffman for swooping in and doing the zipper for me (on my machine so I feel like I helped).  Celia has been wearing it all morning.  And then, of course, wanted to wear it watching the movie.  She tested its twirling capabilities (excellent), jumping capabilities (sufficient), and the looking-like-Rapunzel factor (also excellent).  Did I mention I'm pretty proud?  Yeah, I've sewn curtains.  And now this dress.  You'll be seeing (much) more of this little beauty as Halloween approaches.  

Happy Birthday Sabrina!

Sabrina turned one yesterday.  Crazy.  We had Taylor and Travis over for Sabrina's favorite dinner (salmon!) and some cake.  Unlike Celia on her first birthday, Sabrina knew just what to do and was totally into that cake!  She was loving it.  Then she slid the cake off the plate so she could play peek-a-boo through the plate.  Funny kid.

Sabrina continues to understand so much but communicates very little.  And I don't know how to teach her boundaries.  She knows exactly that she's NOT supposed to do.  She throws her food off her high chair and looks at me very seriously and shakes her head.  That's what she does with everything she's not supposed to do: does it anyway and shakes her head to say "no."  Still no walking, but she does levitate up and down when she wants toys.  It's pretty funny.  

Happy Birthday, Sabrina.  We love you.

Celia: The Mom Around Here

Celia finished her movie this morning.  I was wearing my bathrobe over my clothes because I was cold.  Here was our conversation:

C: I think we should go to the store now.
M: That sounds like a good idea.  We'll go in a minute.
C: You need to take that off (referring to my bathrobe).
M: I will when we're ready to go.
C: Are you wearing clothes?  Show me that you are wearing a shirt.
M: Yeah, I'm wearing clothes.  See?
C: Well, you need to take that off.
M: We're not quite ready to go yet.
C: You take your arm out of the sleeve and you take it off.

At least Celia will keep me from wearing my bathrobe to the store.  Sad she thinks I've become THAT person.

Fall Family Pics

Last week we took advantage of a nice fall day and some artistic cousins and had some family photos taken. The girls are at an age where we can't get them to sit still very long so we didn't end up with any photos of all four of us smiling or looking in the general direction of the camera, but we still ended up with a few good pictures.

As we were finishing up, a moose showed up right across the pond from us. So even if we didn't end up with perfect family photos, we at least get to add to our growing collection of moose pictures.

Celia: Sabrina Works

Last night, Celia was going to work, she said.  In a whiny voice, she kept saying: "I have to go to a-work.  I'm so sorry.  I'll miss you, I promise.  I can't do that thing.  I'm so sorry.  I have to go to a meeting.  I'll be back."  Then she would give me lots of kisses and hugs.  Then she declared that Sabrina was going to her "tiny work.  Sabrina is going where babies work."  Tom said: "Where do babies work?" and she said: "If you want to go to Sabrina's work.  It's a tiny work.  It's called a hospital."  And there you have it.