Easter 2014

 We had a Easter party with everyone from Reese's command yesterday.  We had a big egg hunt, games, and food.  Estelle did really good egg hunting this year!  It was cold and a little windy as you can see in the picture but thankfully the downpour held off til after the hunt!

 Lane was quite focused.

 There was an egg throw competition.  Lane is intense and has a good arm :)

 Estelle and her very best friend Emmy.  This picture really shows off these two's personalities.  Oh my.

My two sweeties.  Next year we will have another!  Can't believe she'll be here soon!

Home Improvement Project

The previous owner of our house was a glass artist.  So she had made a backsplash for the kitchen that was removable and she took it with her.  So it left us with no backsplash which was fine, but I always thought the kitchen would look a lot more finished with something there.  So in January we went to the local home improvement store.  We picked out some mosaic tiles and ordered them, they said it would take about 3 weeks.  Well It is now April and the backsplash is finally complete.  No, not because Reese and I are procrastinators.  Because the company that the home improvement store ordered the tile from, "lost the order."  So we went to pick that up when it finally did come in in March.  But they were the wrong tiles... So we ordered them again. And finally last weekend we got them and put them up the same day!  Such is life in Kodiak.  Don't even ask me about the couch I ordered on March 1st.  Another "lost" order, which has delayed that too.  Thank the Lord we didn't buy a fixer upper!

BEFORE

 Well, I do love the new backsplash.  It was a super easy project (says the person who didn't do all the work), and it didn't cost too much.  Click on the picture to make it bigger and see it a little closer :)

AFTER

Master Bedroom and Bath

I am finally getting around to posting the pictures of our bedroom and bathroom, my favorite room in the house.  I have never had such a large master bedroom. That was one of the draws for me in buying this house, and the jet tub, which I hardly ever use (booo).  The first picture makes every thing have a bit of a green tint to it.  But the next pictures are more true to color.

The chair in this room was once in Case's room, then in Estelle's and now in ours.  I love that chair, and it sits in one of the sunniest spots in the house.  When the sun is out... it usually shines in the window so I can soak up some vitamin D while I read.  When the sun isn't out, I use a light box, yeah for real...

I picked up a couple of windows from Reese's parents shop before we moved up here.  LOVE!!  And the canvas, it's from Walmart.  It's a faux canvas and for that one I think it's a 16x24 is was $29.99.  That's what I call a deal.

 I have never had such a large bathroom.  I better enjoy it before we move back to base housing in a couple years!  There is a walk in closet off to the left of the bathtub too.

13 years

It's was 13 years ago yesterday that we had to say goodbye to my mom.  When I look back some words that stick out in my mind are sudden, lost, and unreal.  It was all so sudden that it truly did seem unreal. I think we all felt lost.  I know I was.  I was a little less than 2 months from my wedding day, I was not even a year out of high school.  How do you do all that without your mom?  It was a loss that we all needed to deal with in our own way.  Reese was in boot camp at the time.  He couldn't leave so the next time I saw him was the last week in May at his boot camp graduation, we then got married June 2nd.   Our marriage started out with me grieving and I'm sure Reese wasn't sure what to do with that.  I think all of us got through it one way or another and for me it prepared me at a very young age for things that were to come.  

I just went through some old pictures and found these gems.  Picture are so important.  I have realized that more and more as time goes on!

 

I had no idea when my mom died that a little over 11 years later I would find out that I have the same heart condition that killed her.  Nobody knew when she died that this was a genetic thing.  As I have gone through this heart journey I have so often thought of my mom.  She was my age when she started having some major arrhythmia's that would cause her to pass out.  She had just had her 5th child.  She was busy.  They did not understand why her heart was doing this.  She was in the hospital for 2 weeks before they found a medication that "worked" for her and felt comfortable sending her home.  My condition was caught before I've had anything major happen.  I am blessed because they now know what this gene does and why I have what I have.  I still don't understand why she had to die at 45.  I don't understand any of it.  But I will say this, because she died I understand the severity of my situation, my family's situation.  It would have been easy for me to ignore, I mean I feel fine, my heart isn't doing crazy things...  But because she died, I know that if I want to live I have to take the necessary steps to live.  It is real to me.  When I found out about all this I had to kind of relive my moms death, grieve again.  Grieve for what this means for me, my siblings, my cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, my kids.  My mom lived a healthy life despite what was going on with her and the doctors lack of knowledge about her condition.  So can I, so can all my other family members who might end up with the same thing we have, and we can continue to live with proper treatment.  27 years  after my mom was diagnosed with this, the medical knowledge has come so far.  I am so thankful for that and it gives me hope.

21 Weeks and Spring Break

That 20 week picture I was planning on turned into 21 weeks.  Such is my life.  I'm feeling good, this is the point in pregnancy that's good.  No more nausea and I haven't been quite as sore as I was.  I'll enjoy it while it lasts!  And the debate continues in our family over a name for this baby girl.  Reese has no suggestions, I have lots of suggestions, Lane doesn't care, and Estelle things we should name her Hazel or Abigail (two of her cousins names).  We usually don't know for sure about a name until near the end anyway so why even bother :)

 It's Lane's spring break this week.  We had two really nice days, sunny and in the 40's.  So yesterday we went on a little hike on the Near Island trail.  The kids had fun and it was a perfect distance for Estelle to walk.  She always come dressed for the occasion, notice the beautiful dress and pink rubber boots.

 My little man Lane, flannel shirt and travel mug of hot chocolate in hand.  He cracks me up.

Snow Days

We have finally gotten a good bit of snow in the last month or so!  And snow means snow ice cream!  Lane's job is to go collect a bowl full of fresh snow.  Then I mix in one can of sweetened condensed milk and about 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla.  Mix it up and enjoy. It keeps in the freezer pretty well too.

Estelle loves the "No Ice cream"

 She got a little more sledding in too!

Lane and the neighbor boy Sage love to make forts etc in our neighborhood.  This time they got to make a snow fort!

 Nothing like hot tubbing in the snow!  Lane can't seem to make a normal face for pictures these days...

It's A.....

GIRL!!!!  We did a silly string gender reveal on Saturday with the kids.  We had the 20 week ultrasound on Friday and waited until Saturday to find out.  My friend Kaysia came over and took pictures of the whole thing.  So I had cans of blue and pink silly string waiting in the house.  We all went outside and Kaysia stayed in and looked in the envelope from the ultrasound and took the appropriate cans of silly string to the kids (with no lids so we still couldn't see the color).  The kids sprayed us and we all found out when the pink silly string landed on us that it's a girl! 

 It was a little chilly.  While we were waiting, Lane tried to keep Estelle warm.

 This was the first shot of the silly string coming out.

 

Another girl!  That was our reaction.  A lot of excitement and a little bit of "oh my, what did we get ourselves into."  Estelle is a little over the top, dramatic, bossy, etc.  So that's been our experience with a girl... need I say more.

 Oh look, here's a great example of the drama.  Reese sprayed her with silly string.  Oh my... end of the world!

 Lane wanted another brother, but he will be a great big brother to two little sisters!

 Some family shots afterward.  Estelle's still a little unhappy about everything.  This will be fun, a little sister for Estelle to play with. And as challenging as Estelle has been, I have so loved having a little girl and watching her do all the girly things.  I am excited that she will have a sister too, because I know from experience that sisters are pretty awesome!