To the Mailbox!

Having the warm weather definitely makes taking little walks to the mailbox with Kasila a much smaller task. Not having to put on snow pants makes such a difference! 

She loves to be outside. If we go downstairs, she immediately goes to the door and looks back expectantly. She also likes to walk on the ice and in the puddles if I let her.

The End of January

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty glad that January is finally over! It has been somewhat of a stressful month for us, but we did have some great moments.

It was a lace kind of day…even if you can't see mine very well.

Some of the stress from January was from our fridge going out. We put everything out in coolers on our back deck, which was working great until we began reaching temperatures in the 50s! We had our delivery date scheduled, they showed up 2 hours after the time frame we were told, then they decided that our driveway was too icy to risk backing their truck down, so they left and told us to either get it sanded or wait till the ice was gone. BOO! Scott and I were both fairly ticked off. Luckily, we have some awesome friends that came to our rescue! After a drive to the warehouse in Anchorage, some heavy lifting and directing…we have our new fridge!

Kasila all snuggled in bed.

Apparently, the fork just wasn't working well enough.

Kasila still loves to help with groceries. She dragged her bag all the way up the stairs and into the kitchen.

13 Months

Scott asked if I'm still going to be taking pictures of Kasila with Sparkles when she is 18 years old. I said, "That's the plan!"

 Kasila at 13 months:

- loves to eat, basically anything! I think the only thing that she hasn't really taken to that we've given her is olives.
- signs Please and Thank You consistently
- gives high 5s and knuckles
- sings and dances along during Singing Time in primary
- will put her clothes in the dirty clothes hamper
- goes through her bedtime routine like a champ and rarely cries when put down. She will even kind of brush her own teeth.
- runs to the other parent in the room when she's told no by the other.
- realized that she can move her eyes brows and has a pretty darn cute scowl
- helps with putting groceries away by dragging the bags to me at the pantry
- is finally growing out of 9 month bottoms
- can sit/walk down stairs on her own but prefers to walk down the stairs holding your hand
- moves her arms correctly to put on/take off shirts and coats
- still isn't really talking but does imitate, and it is getting clearer

Thanks to Pete the Cat (a fun to read book series) Kasila knows where her belly button is and loves to show you! She also knows where Scott's belly button is, and she has to lift his shirt to find it. 

So Far in 2014

Kasila and I enjoy to take walks to our mail box. She really likes to stomp on the clumps of snow.

She loves to eat! It is like Kasila is a bottomless pit. She will her own little meal and then beg anything she can off us.

Relaxing in her wagon, reading a book. Just a normal activity for her. 

Just the adorable face that I get to enjoy every day!

Making cookies with Daddy

…The Rest of Winter Break

Naps….They both like their naps. At least they nap at the same time :)

Because our jeep is pretty much totaled and it would be a massive inconvenience and hard to see each other ever, we decided to replace it. We thankfully found our little mint green "Mitsy" in our price range in good condition. She's an '07 Ford Focus with less that 80,000 miles on her. She's going to be very nice on the gas budget as she is Scott's commuter car to Anchorage for school 4 days a week.

Scott had been home with Kasila for about a week before I got out of school. During the day, while I was gone, Scott came up with a bunch of fun ways to entertain Kasila and himself. This was probably pretty close to his favorite and I would say most definitely her favorite. I mainly took video of it, so this is the only photo I have. He took our 6' folding table and leaned it against the couch, creating a slide. She sits on the blanket and slide down. If we have it on a lower slope, she'll even slide down on her belly head first. This child has no fear. She seems to be willing to try anything!

She got some adorable dresses for Christmas! I was trying to get a picture of her in one but she refused to really get me a chance. This is the best I was able to capture.

Bubbles! We've had lots of fun playing with bubbles!

Since Kasila has so much fun with the indoor slide, we (meaning, I) decided take her out and try a real slide. We stopped by my school and played for about 15-20 mins. It wasn't super cold, but still chilly. The Alaskan air gave us all a nice kiss on the face.

Scott forgot his heavy coat, but he was made for Alaska. The cold didn't bother him as long he didn't fall down in the snow. Hence, him slowing himself down instead of sliding off the slide into the snow.

Cute girl!

Happy New Year! We spent the evening with the Summers and the Fowlers. It was a night filled with fun, games, laughter, food, fairly happy babies, and sparklers!

I don't know know if I should be proud of this or not, but Kasila has become very proficient at maneuvering through the iPad. She is very precise and uses her index finger to touch apps and arrows. She know the PBSKids app and the Baby Sign Language app. 

**Which by the way, she has learned how to sign 3 signs consistently! More, Please, and Thank You are the specific signs that we've taught and reinforced. Got to have a well mannered child! She seems to do Milk & Want but I can't quite tell if she's signing or just doing a natural baby thing. 

Yum Yum Yum! She likes her food!

Today was my first day back and it went pretty well. I missed my little girl. Scott missed having 2 of us home with our girl who is becoming more and more demanding as she starts knowing what she wants. Most of my students seemed to miss their beds. However, it seemed to go fairly smooth and I feel a little more invigorated for the last half of the year!

Merry Christmas 2013

I love this time of year! Family is most important to me and it is great to have a time of year that is basically designated family time. Not only do I get to spend time with the people I love most, we get to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! He is truly the reason for the season and I am so grateful to him for all that he has blessed me with.


We spent most of the day playing. While we don't have a lot of pictures from it, we do have some great memories starting on Christmas Eve…

Kasila decided that ripping the paper was more fun than just carrying present around like she previously had been doing. Because of that, I got an early Christmas present from Ashley on Christmas Eve. Lucky for me, the new scarf matched my outfit for the evening perfectly!

Christmas morning/afternoon was spent Skyping with both sides of the family and taking the traditional Christmas nap. We had to be up early due to the 2 hour time difference between us and everyone else. 6:30am and I are not friends to those who know me and my love of sleep, even with having Kasila. (Scott has been a great husband and has been the one to get up her in the mornings. He prefers to have a happy, rested wife. ) We took our family nap around 8:30-9:00am. It was lovely. :) 

Kasila starting to unwrap her presents.

I'm pretty sure my Aunt Duie went and found the noisiest toy she could possibly find for Kasila! I'm ok with it and Kasila really likes the keyboard. She will take her pointer finger and press keys individually. I'm hoping that means that we will have a willing musician!

The evening was spent with some close friends. We enjoyed a fabulous meal and some friendly competitive rounds of "Scategories," which I won 2 of the 3 rounds.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from us to you!

The Beginnings...

…of a great family Christmas break!

So far we've played in the snow...

and created our own playground inside.

I love my family!