Oh, the irony!

What are the chances that Brad would get an email from Panama saying that he will be hearing from the woman who sends out contracts on the same day that we finally got the curio from Ashley Furniture that we ordered for our knick knacks from the Middle East?

I'll tell you. In our world, there's a pretty darn good chance.
Catie says, "Mommy, mommy! Take my picture!"

And Nick says, "I want to take a picture, too!" But I think he meant he wanted to actually hold the camera. :)

I'm an aunt! (again) (again)

Last Tuesday, the 23rd, I became an aunt again! Logan Alexander was born to Brad's brother, Brian, and sister-in-law, Laura. He weighed 8 lbs 1 oz.

Here is the happy family:

And my in-laws, the proud grandparents:

So, so sweet.

Sigh.... I got to get to Illinois soon!

Out and About

Brad's sister is in town with her youngest, and we've been out and about exploring our backyard. We've resumed our nightly walks to the playground after a week of sickness then a week of rain. Who wouldn't love this view, just a 10 minute walk from our house?

And, just beyond the lake is our favorite playground in the city. It's built especially for toddlers.

Catie's new "thing": running with her arms stretched out behind her. Maybe it makes her go faster? :)

Nick is always experimenting with new ways to go down the slide. Ooh, look. Woodchips.

Catie adores her Aunt Brittany and cousin Brindy. Here she is laughing at her aunt.

I can do it myself! Catie makes it up the climbing wall for the first time on her own! (Brindy is in the background looking cute, too.)

What a fun aunt!

I can do this too!

Today, we headed out to Girdwood, to the Alyeska ski resort. It was a dreary, cold day, but we had a lot of fun taking the tram to the top.

Brittany and Brindy on the tram:

The sun's not out, but Catie sure looks cool in her shades (upside-down, of course.)

Are we there yet?

The views from the top, when the clouds cleared, were beautiful.

We ate lunch up there and all agreed that it was a fun trip!

Better than an exploding cigar

After pulling this hot baked potato out of the oven and putting it on the stovetop, it exploded with a burst of steam in my face. Perhaps not the scariest thing that's ever happened to me, but it certainly was startling. (And, of course, completely blog worthy. You're welcome.)

A morning at the farm

We had a wonderful time this morning at one of our MOPS mentor's farm. It's tucked away inside Anchorage. It was so fun, surrounded by trees and full of animals. You'd never think that you were right next to one of the main roads through town.

It took Catie 2 hours to get dressed yesterday. (We were in no hurry.) When I told her that we were going to a farm to see lots of animals this morning, she got dressed in record time.

Here's farmer Nick with the chickens.
And farmer Catie petting the goats.

Down by the pond.

Wow, it's so fun for a little boy to throw things in the water. :)

She has 14 peacocks, only one male. Here he is on top of the chicken coop.

We had a little drama getting on the pony (Nick opted not to ride, and Catie wanted to ride another horse) but once she got on, she was a pro. :) Here she is with me and Mary, the MOPS mentor.

Giddy-up, cowgirl!

Time to go home!

Surrendering our security

We had an unreasonable dream, I suppose. The dream to stay in one place with the same company for a good long time. Brad recieved notice yesterday that he is being released (laid off) at the end of the month.

I'm resisting writing a "why us, why again?" post, but, really, why us? Why again?

Brad has worked so hard since he's been here, learning so much about oil and gas construction and giving away countless hours of his time to the project.

God is in control. We know that; we believe it, and we're trusting Him.

In the meantime, Brad has applied to a few jobs in Anchorage, as well as a job in Panama working with a mentor of his. We'll keep you posted.

The blog post I should be writing

I should be writing a blog post today all about our picnic yesterday. About how we drove up the hillside to a scenic picnic spot. About how you could see all of Anchorage from up there. About how gorgeous the clouds were where the sky met the water. About the little hike that we took and the many wildflowers we saw. About the fellowship with our friends. About the yummy hamburgers and hotdogs that Brad grilled even though we forgot the spatula. And about the twins frolicking through the grass that was almost as tall as them.

I should be writing a post about all that. Except I'm not. Because I can't do it justice with words. And I remembered my camera. But I left the memory card in my laptop.

The Sorry State of Our Backyard

This is our tiny backyard. It has some issues. First of all, the only way to get to it is through the gate, so you have to go around the house to get in. Part of our rental agreement was to get steps put in. Hopefully that will be happening soon.

Perhaps more importantly, though, is the grass, if you can call it grass. When we moved in, we thought that the grass hadn't been mowed before the first snow last year. Now we know it has probably never been mowed. It's basically a fenced in version of the wooded area behind it.

On the positive side, we have some pretty little wild flowers growing back there along the fence.

And because my dad believes that no post is good unless it includes a picture of the twins, here is Catie after devouring a chocolate cupcake.

Conversations with a two year-old

Me: "Catie, do you want to wear your princess underwear today?!"

Catie: "Sure, Mommy, sure!"

Me: "Now, Catie, when you wear your princess underwear you have to go on the potty, okay?"

Catie: "I want to wear my Elmo diapers."

When two year-olds play quietly

Yesterday I came home from a disappointing garage sale expedition to find Brad sitting on the couch watching a movie.

"The kids have been upstairs playing together quietly for the past half an hour," he tells me proudly.

I didn't say much, so he assured me that all the doors were closed, "so there was nothing that they could have gotten into."

I called to them, but while they were excited that I was home, they wouldn't come downstairs. Finally, Nick came down and I immediately noticed that he was soaking wet. On my way up the stairs I met Catie, who was also wet.

They had pulled the tank off the humidifier and were happily splashing in the water.

Daddy learned an important lesson:

Two year-olds + playing quietly = a BIG MESS!

I'm an aunt! (again)

My brother and sister-in-law had their first child on Thursday* evening. He's a whopper, too, 9 lbs 10 oz! I just think he's the cutest little thing.
Here are the proud parents right after he was born.

This is one proud grandma, my mom.

So sweet.

As soon as I saw the pictures I clicked over to AA.com to see how much it would cost to fly down there right away. Hopefully we'll be holding this little man in our arms sometime soon.

*Sorry. I got my days mixed up because Brad had Friday off. :)