Knitting

I don't think I ever posted pictures of the blanket I knitted Chris in tech school back in 2005. It was his Christmas gift. I bought one sken of yarn a paycheck. I started tight and got better and than looser and looser until I relaized what I did and got tighter again..... hmmmm!!

Chris won't let me take it out and redo it. He says he loves it. LOL I think he has to but it's still endearing. :)

Taryns quilt

I quilted my friend's quilt for her. She wanted pebbles. I forgot how much time it takes. One of those squares was an average of 20 minutes. But it seriously turned out amazing. I just LOVE it!!

I made the back too. I tried to go with the design from the back.

This quilt broke my Sapphire belt. And seized Lisa's machine. I had a hard time findinga repalcement belt that I didn't have to bring into the shop to get fixed. Finally in California a shop was willing to send me just the belt. With Lisa's machine, we just oiled it and it was good as gold. Chris and I are now amazingly awesome at taking apart sewing machines!! Chris stayed up all night on a Friday to fix a machine. That's true love. I'm so grateful to have him around.

Boys

Bee and Glo Bug were playing under my ironing board! I had to stop and take a picture.

It's Chris' birthday today! Tomorrow with more pictures

Chris' elk skin

We skinned Chris' elk before we took it to the butcher's. And when I say we, it was mostly Chris but I did touch and help a few times.

This is the underside of her backbone. No one I have talked to knows anything about the stripes. If you know anything, please share!!

It looks like a zebra.

Chris shot this elk on the last day, at sunset of his elk tag. He was pretty lucky to get her.

Daddy and boys

We went and got fish this weekend. I love the boy bonding time. Bee can help with almost everything with the fish so it's fun to watch the boys.

August Updates

Chris went hunting Sept 1 for his elk. He came home Sept 2 with kidney stones. Not a good start to hunting season!!!

Bee is still potty training and doing great!!! He does better without underwear on so this is Chris coming home for lunch and the boys eating together. SOOO stinking cute!

Glo bug helping with quilt blocks!

Quilt for V and Olivia (her doll)

Louie went to a new family this week. He was being ornery and honestly, we never saw him. He would hide upstairs until Bee went to bed and then only came out with the dogs were outside. So he now lives with a little girl in El Paso.

This is the top of the siggy quilt. When it's finished I'll blog more about it.

Glo bug helping with quilting again... he helps a lot.

I recovered my ironing board!! I love it!!!!

Blocks for Natalie....one of my bees

Bee called in the military for reinforcement of his new train tracks! I bought a huge bag at the thrift store on base for 10 bucks....they had no idea what they had.

I bought myself a sewing chair!!!! I love it. It's hot pink!

Another bee block!!

An update with pictures!

Chris and my 5th year anniversary was this year. I bought us tickets to Toby Keith, Trace Adkins and James Otto!! It was AWESOME!! It was Chris' first concert. We got VIP seats, and a waitress and a bathroom with no lines!!!
Here's Glo Bug looking all cute! (He's 5 months here)

Bee wanted his picture taken. So here we are. Little ham!!

Chris graduated ALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank freaking goodness! It was a tough 5 weeks. But here we are. 2 dates in one week!!!

Chris' first ride on his motorcycle. We bought his bike a long time ago but he had to wait to take the class. But he finally is able to drive!!!!

August!!

My first try at applique for Paige. She just got baptized on Saturday! Went to a free park day and Connor fell in LOVE with the huge slide!

Shopping at Wal-mart. I told Connor to smile and this is what I got! Little turkey!

We have the internet now so hopefully I'll update this more often!
Glo Bug is rolling over and laughing up a storm. Bee is potty training. Chris is almost done with ALS (yepee!!) and I'm working on appliqueing.

Fishing

These are the four fish Chris caught yesterday.

We got up and I decided we needed to do SOMETHING. Anything I said.

Chris picks fishing. So we drove up to Inn at the Mountain of Gods (Ruidoso) and got a permit.

This is what the resort looks like. It's a 6 story building with a 3 story fountain. It has a casino, and a large enough conference center to hold concerts like Blake Shelton, and a golf course that the pros play on. It's pretty nice stuff.

Oh yeah, did I mention there was snow on the ground? It was like fishing in Alaska all over again!

We were fishing over next to that building but Chris wasn't getting anything. So we decided to hike around the lake.

So Bee, Chris, Glo bug in his car seat and I picked up everything and hiked around the lake. About a mile and half later, (45 minutes ha ha) Chris found the perfect spot. He caught 3 fish in 15 minutes.

Then his mean wife said it was 5pm and we had to go. (It was windy, our hands were frozen and the sun was going to set in 30 minutes.) So we hoofed it back to the truck.

Bee cried the whole way back because he kept tripping and his hands were frozen popsicles. Oh well...it was a family adventure, for sure.

I get the Best Wife award that day cuz I hiked, carrying Glo bug in his carseat, around the lake.

But it really was fun. And I'm so glad we got out of the house. It's easy to get cabin-fever with a newborn. You just gotta get out. I gotta make myself do it.

Update from the Desert

We had an ultrasound today. Baby is doing great. He is measuring at all the right sizes. While the tech was measuring his leg, he nailed me in the ribs!! What a stinker!

I had to do the glucose test today! It's so silly to me that they make pregnant women fast. (I get the reasons why...it's just dumb.) I think they need to figure out another way to find out if you have gestational diabetes. I get the results tomorrow.

The weather here has cooled down in the past 24 hours to a freezing 45 F degrees. (No I'm not laughing at you guys with snow days....okay, kinda I am!) I put my time in Alaska so I have the right to giggle!

Bee has FINALLY pushed his left molar through. We are still waiting on the right...there isn't even a tip of it yet.

Chris is busy at work. He works swing shift...5-1am. It's nice for doctor's appointments but crazy for Bee's schedule. We'll get it worked out one day. We have also found that Chris doesn't do milk anymore. We have switched to Lactose Free and it's made a world of difference in his tummy! So simple a change but wonderful!!

I got my schooling approved. My books should be here Monday. It will be so nice to be able to work from home. A little extra money won't hurt either! :) (We miss COLA!)

I will be induced March 11 at 7:30pm. So we will have a baby shortly after that!! It's exciting to have a date. To see the end! This pregnancy has definitely been tough. I can't wait to see this little guy!

We have a new puppy, Diesel. He is a black lab and is 12 weeks old. He is already potty trained in 5 days. He LOVES Bee and plays well with Hooch. He has a sweet face that always looks like he is smiling. I'll try and post pictures soon.

Chris' Saturday Evening

So this is such an adventure that could happen no where else but Alaska. I have to write it down.

Chris' buddy, Eric, from our hometown came to visit us Saturday night. Chris was just about to go fishing when he showed up so of course, he went with.

They picked up Slade and off they went to the lake. On the way, they start talking about food. Chris says he wants to eat a porcupine, just once. And if he sees one, he is going to kill it.

Slade and Eric laugh it off, I'm sure and go about the conversation. Some time in the journey to the lake, a poor porcupine runs across the road.

Chris slams on the brakes...PORCUPINE!!!!! Jumps out of the truck, grabs a huge rock, runs for about 10 feet and chucks the rock. Hitting the thing in the head. SPLAT!

He picks it up and throws it in the back of the truck...off to go fish.

They get to the lake and with all the guys around somehow Chris' pole gets stepped on and broke. With no fishing to do, what does Chris do....skins the porcupine.

Slade and Eric have had their fill of fishing and are ready to go home.

Driving home from this 'secret' lake, the boys are laughing and comparing fishing stories, I'm sure.

All of a sudden, Chris slams on the brakes, yells PORCUPINE!!!! ...jumps out and grabs a rock and this time has to chase the thing up a hill. He gets it. In the back of the truck it goes.

Eric is laughing his head off cuz he can't believe what is going on. Slade is shaking his head and laughing his head off cuz he can't believe the Chris is running around with a rock above his head.

Chris gets back in the truck and off they go to home. (Did I mention it was 11:30pm?)

(It's still light out at 11:30pm in the summer here.)

So down the road and Chris slams on the brakes again....PORCUPINE!!!!!!

This one was a huge one!

He chases after it with a rock above his head, but this one is smart...it climbs a tree!

Oh but Chris hits it with a rock....it falls out of the tree....AND runs away!

He chases after it until he finally gets the thing. Throws it in the back of the truck and off they go!

They are headed for home when Chris has to stop for gas. As he is filling up the tank, he hears a sniffing sound. WHAT THE WHAT??

Two of the porcupines are still alive, making noises!!

They hurry to Slade's house where they put the poor creatures out of their misery.

Seriously, what an adventure!!!!!

Don't worry, all porcupine were eaten. Animals WERE harmed in the writing of this story.

Off on our last...

We are off on our last adventure in Alaska.

We are headed out camping with our hommies, the Flitton's and Hulet's.

I hope that we don't have rain but bring on all other adventures!!

I'll tell stories next week when we are home.

In other news, Chris has a HUGE bump on his head. He got it at work yesterday and went to the ER. I was freaked out for a bit but actually there wasn't even a concussion! So now we just have to keep his headaches under control. Poor guy.

Tuesdays are park days with our friends. Each week is a different park. This week it was Campbell creek....one of my favorites.
I brought Muddy Buddies.... chocolate, peanut butter, butter and powered sugar....YUM!
We shared with everyone. It was gone but the bucket was placed on the bench.

Smart Bee knew what was in the bucket and wanted some.

He didn't get anything but a face full of powered sugar and a bunch of laughs!!

He was actually laughing in this picture. The whole rest of the day, he licked his fingers and wiped his face! It was a good day for Bee!

Bathtime was sticky but well worth the laughs!

See ya Monday!!

Happy Father's Day 2009

Oh what a wonderful Father's Day it is going to be for my hubby!

We're going to church but HAVE to leave early to take my Mom to the airport.

BLT's for lunch...his fave.

He is going to open a floating personal fishing thing. Here's a picture of one.

And a new tackle box. He is going to be so excited!!

Chris-

You are such a wonderful father. You worry about things that I have no idea about for our little man. You are counting down the days until Connor can understand fishing. He is so cute. Thank you for all the time you spend with our little man!

We love you bunches!

What did the dad's in your life get??

Journal Jar

Have you been affected by a war somewhere, somehow, sometime?

I have been affected by war, in some huge ways.

The first was watching Desert Storm on the TV. I remember watching the TV in the den with my family and my parents both just in shock that it was on TV. I don't know any of the politics behind it cuz I was so little. I just remember my parent's reactions.

They were both in Air Force. That is actually where they met.

The second time I was affect by war was 9/11. I thought that the world would awesome. I was a senior in high school. I had a steady boyfriend of 2.5 years. We had talked of getting married after high school and going to college together.

9/11 happened and my boyfriend changed. He was mad. He wanted to buy a gun. He wanted to hurt people that didn't look like him. He wanted to join the Army just to have permission to kill.

Then the recruiters showed up at the high school in flocks. He talked to them. They couldn't take him because of some "medical issues." He got even more mad.

Anyway we broke up for a few more reasons but that was a huge one.

Third reason I'm affected by a war is I'm married to a military man. One that puts the bombs on the planes. One that is going to be very much needed if drama happens over here in the US again.

My hubby was in Fairbanks for almost 3 weeks. He came home on a Tuesday night at 8pm, to tell us that he was leaving the next morning at 6am. If it had been any other day, Bee would have been in bed. He would not have seen him. It just so happens that I was quilting and last track of time so Bee was awake.

From that I learned a lot. I had never had that happen as a military wife before. Usually if they are going to leave, it takes a lot of planning and organizing so we have notice. Not this time. Yes, it was only 500 miles away. And Bee and I did go visit BUT it could have been Iraq. Or anywhere for that matter.

It made me grateful for the time I do spend with Chris. And for family time. Grateful that my hubby is brave enough to go fight the bad guys so that we can be safe here. So that I can be a mom. And so my friends and family can do what they do. He doesn't get paid well. He works long hours but I'm so grateful that he is mine.

So there. That made me all patriot today!!

PS. Sorry about yesterdays picture.....it said, "Don't pray the Book of Mormon, it's how they get you." on a Baptist church sign. LOL I thought it was sooo funny!

Fairbanks

These pictures are in reverse order cuz I forgot how blogger works!


Anyway this is a pretty mountain that I took a picture of while driving...shh!
There were like a gazillion picture opps BUT I had to drive so this was the only one I got.
This little bear was so cute. He was at the Knotty Shop! (hehehe) It's a place that is all wood and mostly made from knots in trees! (Chris thought it was dirty too and wanted to know what we were going to do with Bee. He was a little disappointed...okay maybe, A LOT!)

This is outside the Knotty Shop. It's a Hippo.

Did you know that hippos have an antibody on their skin that helps heal their ouchies!?? How cool is that?

This is Bee on a swing! He loved it. We don't have many swings that are usable in Anchorage during the winter. They are usually too low and covered with snow. I never thought about that until I had Bee!

More fun with Dad and a swing. Life couldn't be better!!

I thought that this sign was cool. Fairbanks is definitely far away from MOST places!

Bee with the elves at the North Pole!!

Santa's House at the North Pole. It was closed but we took pictures anyway!

These are Santa's reindeer...AKA caribou. That big one, farthest away...he charged us. Dancer had an attitude problem.

Bee had enough about 6 hours into the trip up there so we stopped on the side of the road and threw the ball around for a few minutes.


Chris was totally surprised that we drove up there.

Funny story to share. Chris had Tuesday off. So that means he had to get up at 7am, drive to the hotel and go back to bed. So he usually calls me about 10am when he wakes up.

Well, I was in the middle of the butt crack of Alaska...seriously, mountains on both sides. (Hehe) So he was getting upset that I didn't answer my phone. I would text him and it would go through a few minutes later or even like 30 minutes. Really there was little service. Which made him even more mad because I would text him sometimes and not others!!

So anyway at about 1pm, I was in Fairbanks with service. I told him I was driving to a friends house and that's why I don't have service. He wanted to know which friend and where I didn't have service in Anchorage. I told him it was none of his business!

Can you just hear him screaming at the phone at my text message??? Yeah me too!

He texted me back, "Well thanks for talking to me." Hear the guilt trip?

I texted him back and said I would call him in twenty minutes, on my way home.

"Fine." he says! Hehehe

He texted me 25 minutes later..."Well I guess I'm not important right now. Call me when you want to talk to your husband."

I busted a gut laughing at that!!

I took a picture of the sign that says Eilison AFB and sent it to him.

Bee and I walk into the hotel lobby ten minutes later. Ask to call Chris. He didn't answer his phone.

So I called his cell. I asked for his room number so I could send him Easter candy. He walks into the lobby with all his friends behind him, saying his number.

Then he sees Bee and stops. Bee hears his voice and runs to him. It was seriously wonderful!!!

(I guess that Chris and his friends were just leaving to go into town! Talk about perfect timing!)

So there is our trip in a nutshell. It was totally awesome. The drive was beautiful. Bee was really good. Chris was so grateful that we went up there.

AND I get to cross off one of my list thingies... <---- over there! Score!!!

Father and Son

This picture was taking last weekend of my boys. I like them best like this!

Day 23

There is nothing sexier than a dad playing with his kids. NOTHING.

Bee is ticklish on his chest so every time we change his diaper, he gets tickled!

Names

What's in a name? I realized as I was reading someone's post that I didn't know why my husband, Chris was named, Chris. And that got me thinking about how I need to write down about how I got my name and our little family. So a phone call to the in-laws and this is what we have.
Christopher John was named Christopher because it was a name his father's mother (Grandma W.) enjoyed a lot. Marie and Don were trying to figure out a name for their FIFTH son and Grandma came along and said "What about Christopher?" So he is now Chris for short. His middle name is John after his mother's grandfather. Marie wanted one of her children named after him and it was perfect because Johnathan would have been too long. (They had limits on birth names, i guess.) So that's Chris' name.
Krista Colette is my full name. I was named after my aunts. I have one on each side of the family. I was suppose to be Kristina (Tina for short) Colette but it didn't happen that way. That was the name my parent's had going into the delivery room. My dad called everyone and told them that they were having a Kristina Colette. Once they saw me, Mom said "No, she's a Krista." She'd never heard the name before but loved it as soon as she said it. Dad said "But I already called everyone and said Kristina." Mom (i'm sure plenty annoyed that he is arguing with her after giving birth) said "Well I guess you are just going to call them back and tell them her REAL name." :) Gotta love that!
Connor Anthony was picked out pretty easily concerning he was our first. A couple days after we found out we were having a boy, Chris sat on the couch and looked through a baby name book. He said "What about Connor?" I ran the list in my head of the boys I knew and only thought of a kid I used to babysit. (Which was a great kid) So I said "I like it...." (I was still if-y about it because I hadn't thought of all the mean names that he could be called with Connor, or CW or anything else. So it was on the table. Chris went upstairs for awhile and came back down and said "His name is going to be Connor." And that was that! :) It sounds demanding as I write it but it was more of a matter-of-fact thing. Anthony was a little more difficult. I wanted Anthony from the beginning after my grandfather on my mom's side but Chris knew a mean-head in high school named Anthony. Finally it came down to, he picked the first name, I get the middle name! So after we got Connor Anthony and had no bad things with CAW, we were set. We told our friend Robb and he said no. We asked why and after some thought he said "Because when you are a teenager, you test out your middle name. People will call him Tony for short and then he will be CT and there isn't a nice person named CT. It's the rule." So after a good laugh, we knew we HAD to name him Connor Anthony just to see what happens! :)

SO how did you and your family get their names?