A new month!

Maybe this time I can get my act together and keep up with this ol' blog of mine!  :-)  I'm sorry for my absence.  If I'm totally honest, it's been a rough several weeks.  The combination of Tim working continuously long hours and Robby being smack dab in the middle of the terrible twos and Charlie  being, well, Charlie has left me exhausted, drained, and with no real desire to do much.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love it here in Alaska and have made some amazing friends.  It's just that sometimes I feel like neglecting the blog (which also means neglecting all of the blogs I follow) keeps me from feeling stressed, like it's one more thing I have to do.  I also feel like the blog world can be a lot of "look what I'm doing, I have it all together", when really, we are all barely holding on most days!  So I end up reading blogs and feeling worse because that mom painted canvases with her five children while they were dressed in their finest clothes, then she roasted the perfect leg of lamb AND her children ate every bite without throwing a single morsel on the floor.  I either want to hand my children over for her to train them or I want to find her three nannies and steal them!  Even though I think I'm doing a good thing by avoiding the blog world, really I find that I'm missing that outlet of sharing with my friends (most of my blog friends are college friends and I LOVE seeing what they are up to in their lives and getting to see their children grow).  So, instead of being hard on myself because I'm not homeschooling my children while running Junior League and making meals for all my neighbors, I'm going to just share my life and what we're doing up here.

So with that, here is what we did this past month.

 The boys and I went to the Alaska State Fair with some friends.  It was a blast!

 "That's a big punkin, mama!"

 As much as he loves firetrucks, he was so shy to explore this one. 

 Dusty came for a visit, so Robby was excited to have him wave to the trash man with him!  :-)

 I bought my first pair of mint jeans.  I was so excited to find these on super clearance at Target!

 This video cracks me up!  It's actually just a 1 second clip that Mandy took and I put it back to back to back to back...his voice and the way his little shoulder goes up and down just makes me laugh!

 I had to get a PSL on the first day it was back.  It was iced, but it was still delicious!

 Robby did some water coloring.  He didn't quite get the concept of what he was supposed to do, he thought he was supposed to mix all the colors in the paint pallet.  Oh well, he had fun!

 I went on a wildlife cruise with a friend.  Sadly, since it was one of the last ones of the year, there wasn't much wildlife to see.  But we saw a lot of beautiful scenery.

 The Sams Club in anchorage moved to a brand new location right outside of the base.  We had to go check it out and watch a movie about Alaska on 70+" TV.

 We had the first fire in our fireplace.  It was glorious!

 Shoes were made out of styrofoam...

 ...and dump trucks were taken in the car.

 I take WAY too many pictures on our street but every single time I drive down it, the view takes my breath away.  The mountains are actually closer than they appear in the pictures.  You can see a little bit of the termination dust on the peaks (that's what they call the dusting of snow on the mountain tops since it signifies the termination of summer)

I made lettuce wraps for dinner for the first time.  They were SO good!

 Oh, just another picture of a fire.  I'm obsessed, good grief!

 This picture doesn't do the view justice!  This is just about 5 minutes or so from our house.  I drove the boys out this way because there was road construction so Robby we could watch all the dump trucks and steam rollers.  We ended up getting stuck and what I thought would be a 30 minute thing, ended up being 2 hours!  At least I had snacks and drinks in the car!!

 We had our first real snow!  It was so beautiful!

 The boys thought the sledding was a blast!

 My boys in the snow!

 I was grateful that after 7 days straight of Tim working, he had a day off AND it was a snow day!  

 Silly boys!  At least they weren't fighting or screaming!

 Charlie enjoys "helping" daddy build the fires.

I became an Alaskan resident.  I had to take a drivers test and was so nervous I wouldn't pass!  Thankfully, I didn't miss a single question.  Can anyone spot something that is blurred out??  If we are facebook friends, you'll know what it is!  :-)

 A moment when I thought "Well, lookie here, I'm being the fun mom!" while letting the boys jump in puddles turned into a moment with a soaking wet, screaming Charlie after he fell in...

Daddy had his music too loud after church!

This was Sunday night as we were leaving base.  It was gorgeous with all of the fall leaves and the snow capped mountains in the background.

So that's what life around here looked like during September.  Nothing too exciting, but we definitely kept busy!  

Five On Friday!

This is my first time to join in on the Five on Friday fun!  

{one}
I am absolutely loving all of the pharmacists Tim works with.  We get together each Thursday night for Taco Thursday.  Each couple takes turns hosting and it is seriously a blast!  Everyone gets along so well, including all the spouses, and we just have a fun time talking, eating, and sometimes playing games.  It's nice to have a group to just hang out.  

{two}
Yesterday, we went to the grocery store and right before I got out of the car to unload the boys, I looked back and saw them trying to reach each other. They are good about sharing their snacks and things by reaching across the middle seat but this time they were just trying to hold hands.  It was so precious!  When they finally got a hold of each other's hand, they both giggled.  I love little moments like that between my boys.

{three}
Speaking of little moments, Robby has started taking it upon himself to give Charlie little lessons on the proper way to do things.  It's hilarious to hear from another room, "No, Charlie, we don't open that door" or "Charlie, be gentle with that".  Last week, they were hanging out at the bottom of the stairs and Charlie was asking for Daddy.  Robby said, "Daddy's at work, Charlie, he's not here.  He is working with pills."  It's just cute to hear him explain things in his tiny voice.  And it's also cute to watch Charlie looking at Robby with his big blue eyes listening so intently.  

{four}
Charlie is getting really good at communicating what he wants.  He's pretty clear, but generally sticking with one word at a time (except for "thank you" and "bye-bye").  He will also repeat what Robby says, same inflection and tone, but in gibberish, but he hasn't actually started saying sentences.  This morning, Tim was getting ready in the bathroom and Charlie went in saying "Hi, Daddy!  Hi, Daddy!  Hi, Daddy!"  I got so excited because it was his first sentence!  A small one, yes, but it's a start.

{five}
I'm thinking about making a weekly beauty post.  Either covering one of my favorite products or a particular look I like.  What do you think?  I'm going to try to be more organized with my blogging so I will be more consistent. 

Major catch up time!

We have been really busy since we got here and blogging hasn't really been on my mind!  Getting out and exploring has been our number one priority while the weather has been nice.  We were told that the entire month of September is rainy and it's looking like most of August is like that as well.  Here is a quick rundown of what we've been doing!

We went on a hike at Lake Eklutna.

We went to Seward to check out the aquarium.

We made new friends.

We went to Mirror Lake.

We had a visit from Aunt Mandy.

We went to Robby's first movie in a theater.

We went to the zoo.

We visited a reindeer farm.

We celebrated Tim's 29th birthday.

It is so beautiful up here!  I'm ready to stay here forever but Tim told me I need to make it through a winter first before I start scheming ways for us to stay!