Avery=Horder

For the past couple of months I have noticed Avery collecting things and stashing them. Sometimes she will put her collection under a table or in a chair, but recently the dog crate has become her favorite nook. Seriously, I have to empty out the dog crate at least once a day. She collects things from all over the house. Keys, shoes, clothes, food, toys, you name it and it will end up in her stash. Now I have been known to be a "pile-er" as Sam says. I do not know how the heck something like this behavior is heritable, but maybe it is simply not my fault. It must be in my DNA.

Avery proud of her collection.

she has no idea :(

Poor cute Avery has no idea that starting tomorrow morning all of her precious pacifiers are being collected and hidden away for good. Cold turkey is the only way I think that I am capable of doing this. I know I will give in if I try and wean her slowly and I have tried cutting the tip off. That simply made for one seriously pissed off 12 month old. I chose a Friday in case she decides to scream all night. Hopefully, she will simply forget. Out of sight, out of mind...right? Why am I doing this? The pacifier has no longer become a soothing tool. If she wants to scream she simply screams with it in her mouth and as of late she has become obsessed with the thing when we had had it just for naps, sleep and car rides. Wish us luck.

I love my Skhoop skirt!

It was not even 10 minutes after my arrival to Alaska when I saw a woman wearing one of these insulated skirts and I knew I MUST have one. It is basically a jacket for your legs. Wonderful! I searched all the name brands trying to find these insulated skirts, but failed. North Face and Patagonia are missing out big on this. The Anchorage stores are sold out and I was totally bummed, but I was able to find out the name brand: Skhoop. It is Scandinavian and made in Sweden, but it just so turns out that the distributor lives in downtown Anchorage and we were able to order one offline. I freaking love the thing! They are on the pricey side (thanks Mom for understanding my NEED for fashionable outer wear and funding this), but if you live somewhere cold it is totally a must have. I just put it on over some long underwear and wham I am dressed for the day :)

I have the long original one, but will be in the market for a mid length one next year. Maybe a cute print or color and I definatly need to get some cute long johns to wear underneath. It is so functional! I will be wearing this thing regularly for the rest of my life.

Did someone say slumber party?

This past weekend Lillian was staying at my parents. Amanda had a big event in Anchorage for the charity she is involved with and Sonny is at work. My mom was on call Sunday morning and my dad was taking a test for his volunteer firefighting. So Avery and I went and stayed the night to be backup sitters in case Kooka got called into work Sunday morning. Avery had lots of fun playing with Lillian. They played, ate and even did a bit of coloring.

Avery attempting to give Lillian a kiss. Lillian wanted nothing to do with it.

March already?

We found this AWESOME little park less than two miles from us. There are some serious sledding hills and a couple great sets of playground equipment (one for tots and another for older kids). There are also courts and baseball fields! Avery might not look like she is enjoying herself, but the following day when we went back to this park she threw a fit until I figured out she wanted to bounce on the teeter bouncy thing-a-mi-jig.

Tasha and Wilson are also enjoying the snow. The both love bounding through the deep snow. Tasha just looks funny doing it because she is much shorter than Wilson.

All is well, Sam's AK license to practice has finally been issued. The state is even going to issue a refund for the temporary license since it never was issued. Avery and I have been keeping ourselves busy. The story time at the library seems to be popular. There are also a few other things I am going to check out. There is a Kindermusik program, some tot class at a dance/karate studio and maybe some swimming (I have yet to call the pool).

This weekend we are going to make an effort to get to Anchorage and attend a few Fur Rendezvous events. The question is: Will we brave the crowds? The Iditarod starts this weekend.

We are excited for next month. The temperature should start to rise in the next couple of weeks! Olivia and Jan are visiting AK for 10 days and then towards the end of the month Gigi and Grandpa Rick are coming!

Avery's First Tat

Avery decided she needed some ink and took care of it herself.

Check this out Mom!

A closer look @ Avery's artwork.

Looking a tad guilty.

17 months!

Time has been flying by and Avery is a whole new kid just about every week! She is still not saying a whole lot, but understands just about anything. It is hard to believe she will be 1 1/2 next month.

17 month accomplishments:

• she says about 12 words and knows 10 signs
• she has finally figured out how to run without face planting
• has begun to climb
• her hair is thinking about growing
• she has cut 14 teeth (just her top 2 canines and all four 2 year molars are left)
• she is still under 20lbs
• she knows where a few body parts are: hair, head, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, eyes, shoulders, hands, toes, knees, feet and belly button. she can also point them out on someone else or the dogs
  
• she knows a couple animal sounds: bear, dinosaur, cow, horse, pig (she tries to snort), dog and cat
• is officially down to 1 nap, but some days that is even a fight

I will try to get back to blogging at least once a week :) We are finally getting into a routine here and settling in.

settling in

I have everything we have unpacked and in a spot for the time being. Laundry is done and for the most part things are picked up. I need to get some sort of toy bin for Avery's things. Right now they are just in a large pile in the living room. Avery has been good. She had a blast yesterday and refused to nap. Not cool when I had like 15 billion things to do. Today we went to the library for story time and there were a lot of people there, even with 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground. I guess it is a big hit here and we will continue to go. Avery was not in a good mood. We ended up leaving early because she was about to throw herself on the ground and make a huge scene. Next week will hopefully be better. She has been messing around with her nap schedule so it is a guessing game at this point when/if she will nap. I want to get her on a 1pm nap schedule because the activities I have found in the area are either late morning or late afternoon.
The place we moved into is alright. The paint colors are downright awful and the carpet in the main area and hallway is a little funk to say the least. It is super close to Sam's work (he walks!), it is affordable and month to month. I really don't want to up and move anytime soon, but if something spectacular came up we just might. I am waiting on Sam to get the PO Box and will get you all the address when I get it. That should happen tomorrow. We are also planning on going to a 1st birthday party in Anchorage tomorrow. I think Avery will have fun with all the kiddos!
I will get some photographs up eventually. The truth is I have not taken very many because we have just been so transient lately.

the saga continues...

As most of you know we have literally been nomads for the past 2 months or so. I am not going to lie....it has been a royal pain in the arse! We are living with my parents for the moment, but that is a good 30 minute drive to work for Sam. We thought that we might start looking for a place to rent closer to Chugiak. I figured it would take us awhile to find something affordable, pet friendly and close to the clinic. I opened up Craigslist and wham...there is a place less than a 1/4 of a mile for rent that is affordable, pet friendly and even month to month. So we are on the move yet again. Sam can even walk to work and I will have free reign of the truck. We will move in next week and HOPEFULLY settle in. I have been warned that the place is ugly, but clean and in good condition. I can deal with some fugly. It will be nice to get to see Sam an hour extra a day and chill out on the fuel consumption. I am bummed because now the coaching job is not at all feasible and I will have to quit. I was really liking it and now feel like a total jerk having to up and quit on these kids, but it is just more complicated with Avery and too long of a commute for a small wage. Basically, it would cost us money for me to do it. That is where we are at and I will apologize in advance for the lack of blogging, but I am busy and I only get one nap a day to do stuff now.

Whole Once Again

Sam and his dad made it up to AK this past Tuesday. They drove about 33oo miles from Colorado Springs, CO to Wasilla, AK. They were able to see buffalo, moose, caribou and even a wolf. Fort Nelson, BC was the coldest with a temperature hovering at a whopping -30 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wilson and Tasha at the beginning of their journey north.


Onward to Canada.


Buffalo walking down the highway!




Caribou


Moose


Somewhere in the north.

Avery was SO EXCITED to see her Daddy and her dogs. She had a blast with Grandpa Smith as well. It is nice to have Sam back and he will start work next week at Alaska Equine and Small Animal Hospital. I started coaching with my old club team out here in the valley. It is just a few nights a week with a novice group of kids, but it is really nice to get out of the house and do something for myself. Other than that we are trying to settle in and get our feet on the ground. It has been a hectic 6 weeks or so and things are finally falling into place. I will try to be better about blogging now that my computer has arrived safely :)