Super Ice Festival

Ahhhh, the sweetness of Alaska comes in the form of the Ice Festival. I love this time of year, the super coldness is going away...slowly and we are able to spend more time outside. Even though you must bundle up like crazy and it's more tolerable for us than for Charlie...it's good to get outside. Especially when there are giant ice sculptures. They are simply amazing and I love them.

This year, the Ashcrafts took us. It's nice having friends. Last year at this time I was waist high in sewing iMaxi's and we didn't have any friends. What a difference a year can make.

Susan in the ice maze.

ON YOUR MARK...GET SET...GO!!

If you are not here you really, really need to take a look at the website. I wanted to get photos with some perspective, and failed plus there are SOOOOO many incredible sculptures...some even had already broken by the time I got to see them.

Here are a few that I liked.

These last two are my favorite, the birdcage was absolutely fantastic, jim and charlie are out of focus but I had to show the size. There are several awards, this one won 1st in "realistic". 4 chicks from Japan carved this.

Most of you know my fascination with things oversized and undersized. I keep telling my dad to build a life size chess set in the backyard, if not his backyard...then I guess I will have to do it. Well, this year there was a HUGE chess sculpture. It was awesome!! If only I could move the pieces.

Happy Ice Festival everyone, only a few weeks left in March to visit. Don't miss out.

Super Two

We have been sick for several weeks so when Charlie's Birthday rolled around...3 weeks ago needless to say there was no cake there were no presents and there was no birthday. Good thing she is 2 and has no idea.

Our dear friend Susan happens to have the same birthday as Charlie so we talked awhile ago about getting together to celebrate. She was sick too. Crappy. Anyway, we FINALLY got it together and had a little party last night. I'm just glad I made it still in February. I didn't want Susan to have to make her own cake so I went to her place on Saturday and made a red velvet cake. I have never made one before, but it was a special occasion so I gave it a shot. It was kinda complex, but it seemed to turn out pretty good. You can't really tell, but her cake pans were in the shape of a flower. I'm realizing now that Charlie didn't even get a bite of cake, she was too involved in her new toy to care. Guess I'll have to give her a bite of leftovers today...*update* tried to give her a bite and she said, "no" and kept eating her apple.

I took a few videos of her playing with this toy, but they aren't loading so the day after photo will have to do. These are wooden balls that you hit with a hammer and it rolls down and out the bottom. She did nothing but hit these balls all night. She even got tired of the hammer and started hitting them with her hand. They also gave her this fun puzzle...thanks so much Susan. In the bottom left corner is a mini pool for her fisher price little people set from aunt bizis. Those are more for me than Charlie....I love FP Little People.

Got her some new food for her fridge and a few "cars" books and she is a happy girl. She had kind of a month long birthday as a few things came in the mail. I saved some for yesterday, but every few days I would bust out a new present...it was fun.

Thanks to all who sent her such sweet and thoughtful gifts. Totally unnecessary, but very much appreciated. Grandma gave her an owl that you can name a star after, I still need to get online to find Charlie a star...but how fun is that? Now if only we can figure out how to see this "Charlie" star.

Happy Birthday baby girl, you are getting to be so big and are always, always so much fun. My favorite part of her little personality right now is how much she loves to dance. I'll be at the computer while she is watching..."dogs, dogs, dogs" Then all of a sudden she is at my side yelling "dance, dance dance" which doesn't sound anything like "dance" but I hear music in the background and I say, "you want to dance?" "Ya", she says and I scoop her up and we dance to Lady and the tramp.

Oh this is the night, it's a beautiful night

And we call it bella notte

Look at the skies, they have stars in their eyes

On this lovely bella notte.

Side by side with your loved one,

You'll find enchantment here.

The night will weave its magic spell,

When the one you love is near!

Oh this is the night, and the heavens are right!

On this lovely bella notte!

She likes it when I dip her the best...I like that part too.

Super Cats

The last several months have been sad ones in the cat arena. I have 2 childhood cats that were both still around until last year. They were both around 18 years old. Patches and Tiger. Tiger lived with my sister Elizabeth and Patches was with my mom. Tiger died several months ago, followed by my other sister's cat, Jasmine. If you are friend's with my sister than you probably read her sweet post after Jasmine died. She was with my sister before they had kids so that was difficult for them, then today...Patches dies. I adore cats. I am heartbroken.

I can't believe they both grew up to be that old. We had so many cats as kids, well into the teens. Patches was the sweetest cat, always wanted to snuggle and be wherever you were. Tiger wasn't the most friendliest cats. I always thought she loved me the best cause she would sleep with me. But then in the morning I would wake up and my sister would say that she slept with her. So Tiger would spread the love around I guess. In the end she loved Elizabeth the best, Elizabeth nursed that cat for several years as a grandma cat...Grandma Stinky became her name. She was like a secret sweet cat that didn't want to admit it. This was I believe how she felt about Patches. Jane on the other hand could care less about the cats, but Patches wasn't partial she loved everyone.

This is a common site, they would be in the same room, but wouldn't talk to each other...tolerated each other is more like it.

Tiger is on the left. Patches on the right.

One night patches was outside doing her thing, she was a tough cookie. We lost several cats to the coyotes, but never her. Anyway, one night Patches was out and we would usually call her in when we went to bed cause even cats need curfews. Nothing good happens after midnight. She never answered our calls and we went to bed. In the middle of the night, Tiger comes up to my face and meows until I wake up. She continues to meow until I realize that Patches is crying outside and is at the front door. I rush upstairs to let her in...all is well. You're not fooling us cat, we know you love Patches too.

Excerpt from my mom's FB page

Patches Is Gone

The last few days Patches really started to decline. We talked about having her put to sleep. We asked for advice...it was pretty mixed. She didn't seem to be in pain. She didn't do her loud meowing. But, even after giving her wet food instead of dry, she wouldn't eat it. Then she quit drinking her water. We went out to dinner on Friday, but when we got home she had some how gotten from the laundry room to under the bunkbed. I figured she was looking for a place to die. Saturday I called the vet but we decided to wait until Monday to take her in. We made her bed as cozy and comfortable as possible. She had lost so much weight and was so boney. Poor little thing. Late last night she just couldn't move at all...not even her sad little drunken walk. We held her and talked to her, told her that she was a sweet kitty and that we would miss her. This morning I carried her in her box to wherever I was (because that's how it always was with her...she would be where we were). When we got home from church she was gone.

Sad day.

I have lots of fond memories with these cats...

See you on the other side my sweet feline friends.

Super Swimmer

Well, the time has come for Charlie to start taking classes in something. I thought this stage didn't happen until at least 3, but last year there was a mommy and me swim class that I tried to get into but they didn't have enough people sign up. So when the sign up sheet came around again I saw a little toddler class where mommy's weren't invited. I couldn't imagine just letting her go like that, is she really old enough for this? Well, other kids are doing it so might as well. I also get a discount for working at the gym and well, there really isn't much else to do. I also feel lame that I cannot swim properly so might as well have my kid able to do it.

Here we go. There were 6 kids signed up, but only 5 were there. One little boy has to be like 4 or 5, I have a feeling he won't stay in this class long. He also has a little brother, so maybe it's just easier to have them in the same class. The other two kids are older than Charlie, but she seems to get along fine with them so it looks promising. I was amazed how she just sat on the side of the pool waiting her turn. She only dove once into the pool while no one was looking, she swallowed a bit of water but there was no crying, so that was good.

The class is 45 minutes long and she was having a blast for about 1/2 of it, she got cold quick (cause she doesn't kick her feet) she just floats along. I think once she starts actually swimming she will warm up. She only panicked a little when the teacher walked away from the mom's, so next week I hope she's cool when I leave for the whole thing. They don't mind if you stay, but I'm sure it's better if we are not there...at least if the kids not crying.

She was super cute, always holding out her arms for another turn. She had them out practically the whole time. She didn't have any problem going to the teacher, we just need to get her to kick and blow bubbles. Good times. Jim had to work, so I was texting him pictures as we went. I have a feeling he is going to change his schedule so he can go next week, he was pretty sad that he wasn't there.

By the end of the class she got them to all hold onto the q-tip without them holding onto her. Good Times.

Super Dan-it!

We have been cursed with the sickness plague of late. I can't remember anytime in the last few months where I have not been sick. It's driving me absolutely crazy. The other night somewhere in the 2am neighborhood Charlie begins to cry. I am in the midst of my nyquil stupor. She asks for some milk and I oblige. I leave her and the cup of milk in the pack and play while I go fetch her some more tylenol. Bad idea, I all of a sudden hear her say..."uh, oh". Oh crap I think, but when I get to the bed the milk is all over her sheets and animals..."damn-it!" is what I actually say. Charlie proceeds to say "uh oh damn it" for the next 10 minutes...only is sounds more like, "uh, oh dan-it."

Just another proud mommy moment I guess. When she woke up in the morning that was the first thing she said to me when I went into get her. I knew I had to figure out a way to record her saying it without me prompting her. Since I haven't said it since it has morphed a little, but the sentiment is still there.

Since this escapade, friends have warned me of outbursts to come, the best ones are the ones from church. Here's to the future I guess.

Super Buzz and Jessie

I love love love Toy Story. I didn't get a chance to see 3 in the theatre so when the DVD came out I was super psyched. This is saying a lot I know, but I think this franchise is absolutely brilliantly genius...too much? I could, and have watched these movies over and over. I laughed so hard at this last one...not to mention cry my eyes out too. Every once in awhile I have concerns about the creativity of Hollywood and wonder if they are running out of ideas, but this revved up my faith in what is still out there. Not to mention Jim can't stand Disneyland, but the ONE ride he actually likes is Toy Story in California Adventure.

I digress, I am watching it with Charlie and the movie ends and the credits roll...she starts to dance along with Buzz and Jessie and not just her regular dancing she is really getting into it. Then when it's over, she signs "more more"...we watch it again and she dances again, then it's over and she signs "more more." We did this at least 5 times. It was hilarious. I couldn't figure out what it was about the scene. Was is the dancing, was it the Gypsy Kings, was is Buzz and Jessie? Then Jim reminded me that before we had the waves sound machine we would play the Gypsy Kings when she went to sleep. I guess the combination of dancing, singing and toys was a great combination.

I've attached the dance, in case you haven't seen it...it makes me laugh every time.

Here is Charlie, this is during her 3rd time seeing it. The first two she was just getting dizzy and falling down.

We went to Wasilla this past weekend and knew what we could play over and over to keep her calm. We had no idea she could dance in her car-seat.

Super Halloween

Oh how I love Halloween, but for some reason I always seem to be in a bit of chaos and don't get to really enjoy it these last few years. And well, this year was no exception. I'm just super grateful, that when I was in Arizona earlier this year Wendie gave me the costume. I do love the idea of me making great creative costumes...but I have years and years of that stress coming, why start now?

I am still timid to volunteer myself to take pictures or when I actually take the photos I get all sweaty and nervous that I'm going to royally mess us. I'm a complete stress case until I get home and upload the photos on the computer and I can inspect them up close.

Last week our Relief Society President said the we were in charge of the photo booth and she had a few ideas, but she was having a hard time with her hard drive and you could just see the stress on her face. Her husband is running for State Senate and I can't even imagine their schedule these last few weeks until Election Day. Anyway, I raised my hand and said "I can do it." OY!!!! Luckily, the back drop was in her garage from last year and was perfect. The only imperfect part, was I forgot to iron it. I spent the last few days "ironing" the moon with the iphoto brush tool. Good times. One of these days I will learn photoshop right?

Anyway, we set up and take a few shots to check the light and wait for the backdrop to show up. Got a few fake trees from the RS room to add a bit of depth. We used Jim's big balloon lights to be the moonlight. I wanted the list to simulate the moon, but then it ended up being too dark to really see the costumes and the faces. Needless to say I had to adjust almost all the photos post. Oh well.

I love this face, she scrunches her chin back, her eyes get squinty and she gives this wet throaty chuckle. It's adorable. She really liked sitting on the stumps.

I was kinda stuck in the photo room for the night, so Jim got to walk around with her. I was going to close the room for a few minutes to walk with her, but she is still so little and doesn't really get what is going on. So, I didn't end up doing that. Plus all she did was walk around the gym anyway. The costume was so great, the tail would waddle when she walked so it looked like she really was swimming.

There was this cute little boy dressed as a shark. They were "swimming" way too fast to get a good photo, but they were cute.

Cute Logan helped her play a little hockey...she had a fun time at that booth.

Since most of you, in fact probably all of you do not live here I thought I'd let you in on the friends we've made.

These are the Tanners, this is who we cut meat with. Fun side note, Jon's little brother Rob (who is working in Alaska for a few months) went to Tucson on his mission. I told him that's where I was from and that we housed missionaries. He said, "do you have a tennis court?" Uh, yeah! He totally went to my house when he was on his mission back in the day. We even have a few mutual friends. Fun small world eigh? Anyway, Jon is a dentist...cute appropriate costumes.

These are the Nursery Leaders. Charlie has a great time going to Church, and aren't they so cute? They hung out with me in the photo room and passed out candy for me.

This is Sarah, my Visiting Teacher. I loved their costumes, probably my favorite of the evening.

This is Kyle, our babysitter. Three Men and a Baby...get it? At first it was just the three friends getting their picture taken, but since they really weren't dressed up Kyle was like "I need Charlie, I need Charlie." He's a great kid...I mean guy!

These are the Ashcrafts, Kyle's parents. They have been super helpful in being our friends and including us in activities. They were a key friendship when we first got here making us feel so welcome.

I think it's kinda early for Charlie to have a best friend, but you really can tell who she likes to play with. There is this 3 year old girl at the gym named Ryan who squeals Charlie when she comes in. They always hug hello and goodbye. Even the other kids in the gym with call to Ryan when Charlie comes in. "Ryan Ryan, Charlie's here." It's cute. Anyway, I have only heard her say one name and that is this girl, Jillian. She calls her "joojoo." And, seriously what's not to love?

How sad is this picture...all alone. I was only testing the lighting again, but of course I didn't get a picture with all of us. It's not like we were all dressed up or anything, well, I had cat ears and painted whiskers on my face. Which turned out not to be the best idea, I kept rubbing the black on my nose on the back of my camera, Hello! Lame.

It's not Halloween without candy.

Well, there you go. Happy Halloween!!

Super Blocks

I have been working on a quilt for my sister for over 6 months now, luckily the baby is only a few months old so I'm not THAT far behind.

I have only made a few quilts in my history of sewing and this one made me feel like I was really quilting and not just tying.

My sister is delicate, lovely, girly and her new babe would be too so I had to make an appropriate blanket to match. I get excited about fabric, but I never felt like this before with any other project. Am I professing my love to fabric here or what? When I bought my new machine the guy selling it to me was like, "how do you feel about fabric, do you get inspired by fabric?" I thought he was a little over the top, but then I had this quilt experience so I guess I did slightly have an affair with doll fabric. You will agree with me in a minute.

I took a visit to AZ while I was making the iMaxi and went to a few fabric stores. I already had these two fabrics so I needed a few more to go along...

this fabric was from my fancy quilting store so it's nice and durable and the most adorable vintage print of little red riding hood, goldilocks and the three bears. They also had ...

these paper doll girls. Oh, how adorable right? I thought they looked just like me and Annie. If you know our family we all have different color hair, light brown, dark brown, blond and red.

But then, oh but then in Arizona I found Strawberry Shortcake and Raggedy Ann. PERFECT!!! I found my fabrics and I was ready to go.

I got this great book at a book fair selling old library books and saw the pattern for the blocks. I talked to several quilters and they all suggested that I NOT start with this quilt, not exactly a beginners quilt. Well, don't tell me what to do. I figured if I sew and cut straight it wouldn't be that hard.

Well, I always have to make things more complicated so I add not only different fabrics to the mix but different textures and thicknesses...

So the different piles made it difficult but what was weird is to make this design you can't sew all the way to the end. You sew 1/4 of an inch from the beginning and then stop 1/4 of an inch from the end. Anyway, it was complicated to piece to say the least. Annie said that she was only going to have 2 kids, I might only need to do this once so difficult was okay. Now if she decides to have another I will be thrilled, but they might get a more crappy gift.

Okay you do this in cubes first then sew the cubes to each other.

At this point I was afraid it was going to be too hard so I made a mini version to see if I could actually do it. This worked out great, not only did it allow me to practice but I made a small doll quilt for her in the process. I top stitched it in red, which didn't look that great so I did the bigger quilt in white and it looked better. For that reason alone I'm glad I had a practice quilt.

In the beginning she said she wanted red, she was being nice and said just use your leftover iMaxi fabric of which I had a crap load of red. Then I thought red and ivory would be pretty, but then the fabrics had pink so i added pink...BUT then I needed one more color. I really like red and purple together, but knew this was a bit too much to use all over so I just added a few accent pieces and really liked how it tied it all together. It also matched the Raggedy Ann material so it all worked out.

I made it almost too big to put through my sewing machine, stitching the top turned out to be more difficult. I made it harder than it needed to be. You apparently stitch in the ditch to top stitch and I went about it a little hap hazardly when hindsight there was a much easier way. I just didn't want to overlap my stitches so I had to stitch a section then turn it over and see where I missed. It took forever and (Annie don't read this part) I caught the backing a few times so it doesn't look that great from behind. Blerg, so if we're talking about mistakes the corners looked really crappy so I put fuzzy corners over my mistakes.

My photos for this project are horrible and I took this one on a dark day and was going to retake it the next day but it also was cloudy. Anyway, I had waited too long to make it I had to get it in the mail so it went off without being properly photographed. Oh, and then I did stitch Audrey Anne into the corner. Hopefully Annie will take a few photos of the cute lady on her new blanket.

Super Northern Lights

Ok, I had never heard of Northern Lights before I came here and man was I missing out. I still am not sure if this is a daily occurrence or if it's a bit more rare. A few weeks ago, we get a text from Devon that the Northern Lights are out. We don't see the text until the next morning and we have missed it. We did see a little bit of it that night before we went to bed, but it just looked like a long white cloud. Kinda like the Milky Way. Anyway we were bummed.

Last night at about midnight we decide to stay up and just sorta wait to see what would happen. We saw the same white long cloud, we get bundled up and just stood outside. It was almost pitch black and then it happened...the most magical thing I have ever experienced. We live kind of at the end of a cliff and the stars are always out and soooo shiny. You know when you live in a big city and then decide one day to go camping and one night while you're camping you look up and you can't remember the last time you saw so many stars. There are no buildings around just trees and you can see for miles in all directions. That's what it's like for us everyday, and it is glorious. Now imagine that and seeing the Northern Lights.

Back to the lights. The lights start to move and then there are more and all of a sudden we are standing directly under 5 white rainbows. We run back and forth from the deck to the driveway, because it looks different from all angles and the cabin is in the way. Then there is this beam of light that resembles a huge spotlight that stretches across the entire sky. We stood on the porch in silence and our mouths gaping open and Jim says, "I'm going to cry." I was already crying at this point. Words can't describe the sight, I said to Jim that it made me think of what the Heaven's will look like opening. I can only imagine what the first people to see this thought, it was fascinating. Then the light would change and we would run to the back of the house.

Seriously, the most breathtaking thing I have ever seen and cannot wait for more. I found this video on youtube, and the women speaking (for as crazy as she might sound) was almost our exact conversation and experience last night. I'm afraid it doesn't do it justice for experiencing it in real time, but it's a start. It's about 5 minutes.

Super Anniversary

I feel this summer we have been major tourists of our little town, I just hope we didn't already do ALL the things that are to be done already in our first summer.

Anyway, it's always good to have friends in high places so we scored ourselves two free tickets to the Arctic Circle...by air. Perfect timing too, cause our anniversary was a few days away and it was the best present.

The trip was set to leave at noon and arrive home around midnight, so a great couple in our ward said they would watch Charlie...even have her spend the night so we wouldn't have to worry about waking her up. The day before, we got a call from the tour company and they had changed it to 6am-6pm instead. Blerg! Luckily, our friends were super nice and they took Charlie anyway. We have a great kid. She took her naps when she needed to and never made a fuss or anything ALL day. It's always nerve racking to leave your child with someone else, hoping they are behaving. But I wasn't worried the entire day. I love that about Charlie, so carefree and easy going.

Anyway, we start off in a very small plane.

It was about an hour flight. The sunrise was awesome to see from that perspective

and I got to ride shotgun

This photo is totally not taken on purpose. I just wanted to get a shot of the pilot and it just so happened that it was while he was blinking. In no way was he asleep or not focused. I didn't notice how it looked until we got home. Funny.

I felt bad after I volunteered myself to ride up there cause there were 2 kids in our party from Indonesia. I'm sure they would have loved it. But then mid ride I noticed one kid was asleep...I didn't feel bad after that. I was totally nervous in such a small plane, so I specifically made note on how the pilot was communicating with air traffic control..you know, just in case. It was funny, cause Jim was having the same thoughts and was mentally trying to figure out how he would get the pilot out of his seat if necessary.

What was so great about the flight was seeing these remote cities where you only have access via plane. I can't remember the name of this town, but I think it would be kinda neat to live there. I couldn't get over how cool the place looked from the air. There's probably only 30 people there or something, but the waterways just looked so interesting.

Another fun thing was landing on the tiniest dirt air strip. The city of Coldfoot has a population of like 4 people. Very remote. Anyway, once we get there we start our tour via bus back to Fairbanks...with a few stops along the way.

Our tour guide, Michelle was incredible. I almost wanted to ask her a question just to see if she knew the answer. She new EVERYTHING. What an amazing wealth of Alaska knowledge, who I can't wait to hang out with. Such a cool cat.

In the group was a couple from Australia, Peter and Janet and a family from Indonesia...there were I think 14 of them. Fun family. They didn't speak a lot of English, but they must have understood a lot more cause the old lady sitting behind me would throw out random words for me to ask Michelle like, "tundra?". Yes, old lady from Indonesia...that would be considered a tundra. Out of all the words in the American language to know?

We had the best time talking to Peter and Janet. We talked about politics, the different animals our two countries have and the similarities and differences between us. It was very fun. BTW, when will we start implementing 4 week vacations? Come on America.

We stopped off to see the countryside...

This baby is not only for sale, but they had two of them.

the pipeline...

dug a hole to touch the permafrost...

Alaska tip #1: The wise man built his house upon a rock. There are places in Alaska where the ground a few feet down is permafrost. The ice underneath just never gets a chance to melt. If you do built a house on it, you have to jack your house up every year because it will start to sink. So we walked on the permafrost, it was all squishy...like those soft play mats at fancy parks. You'll drive along the road and see houses sinking due to the permafrost. The land is cheep...but there are consequences.

Stopped at Finger Rock...Jim made the comment "I wonder why they didn't call it Middle Finger Rock" This gave me an idea...

Finger mountain was more like finger little stack of rocks. I think we're a hard up for attractions here.

Gobblers Knob...

And of course crossed the Arctic Circle...

The ever cool Michelle.

Peter and Janet.

Well, there you go. And in case you didn't know (i didn't) the Arctic Circle is according to Wikipedia...

The Arctic Circle marks the southern extremity of the polar day (24-hour sunlit day, often referred to as the "midnight sun") and polar night (24-hour sunless night). North of the Arctic Circle, the sun is above the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year and below the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year. On the Arctic Circle those events occur, in principle, exactly once per year, at the June and Decembersolstices, respectively.

Class Dismissed.