Our new house

These pictures were taken on Wednesday when we moved in, so basically we had nothing in here.  Shortly after the beds and kitchen table were delivered and we've since had the computer and TV and the rest of our unaccompanied baggage delivered. And we bought couches and shoe racks and some other shower stuff.  But here are the pics:

From the kitchen into the dining area. Half wall on left towards back covers stairs that lead to the garage.

Turned around in the kitchen into the family room. Door on left leads to back yard.

From back door. Our yard is fenced and there is a gate on the right that leads to the park.

From hallway to stairs to the garage.  Bathroom on left, kitchen is on the other side of the wall on the right.

One car heated garage, above where I'm standing is a loft for storage.

If you turn around the in hallway, to the right is the living room. Stairs on the left lead to the basement.

From the hallway to the left is the family room (Also seen from the kitchen) Stairs lead upstairs (we have split stair cases).

From the half landing on the staircase leading upstairs to the bedrooms.

The girls bathroom, now decorated in purple, blue and lime green fish and octupi!

Master bedroom. Master bath is on the left and walk-in closet on the right.

Master bath.

Walk-in closet... hey, I'm excited! Its been FOREVER since I've had a walk-in closet!

Ruby and Karis' room.

Sierra's room (and the new baby in about a year).

Basement - HUGE laundry room! This is the only room without drywalled in walls.

This will be my scraproom. There is a solid wall on the left that is shared with the playroom - its a nice sized room for my scrappy stuff!

This is the girls' playroom. Its about 10x14 feet.

And here is a sunset from the parking lot of the Lowes in Fairbanks. It was much prettier, but I made Dustin drive around the HUGE LOWES sign so it wouldn't be in my picture, and by the time we got the girls in the car and did that, the sun had set more :(  Oh well... I have three more years to get the perfect sunset shot :)

ALASKA!!

We got into Alaska just fine Tuesday night. By Wednesday night Dustin was quite upset he hadn't seen any wildlife. We were told it was Moose Hunting season, so they were probably hiding. So Thursday morning we were leaving the base to go house hunting and look what we saw on the side of the road - on base even!

A Momma and Baby Moose. Dustin stopped and I snapped two pictures before the Baby (on the right) bolted and Momma started eyeing us. I didn't even use zoom on the pics, straight from the car window - LOL! And then we headed on our way because we weren't sure if the rental car had Moose Insurance :D

And when we left Friday morning for MORE house hunting, the same two Moose were in the same section of the road but on the left hand side of the road this time.

So we're still searching for a house. I think I've locked in on my favorite - but we haven't actually seen the inside yet (other than pictures). Dustin has his favorite, but it has no room for my scrappy stuff.... and I NEED! space for that! Pray for us that we find a house by the end of the week!

5 New Holes!!!

Well, between all three of the girls, we have five new holes!  Ruby and Karis got their ears pierced on Wednesday (Sierra chickened out!)

We walked into Claire's because the girls have been asking for a few months about getting their ears pierced.  Ruby and Sierra both said no way, but Karis said, I want Ear Pretties!!!  We couldn't convince Sierra or Ruby otherwise, so we left.

We got about 2 stores down from the Claire's in the mall and Karis grabbed Daddy's hand, and said, I want Ear Pretties!! I told her she had to convince one of her sisters to do it too.... so she turned to them and said Pease Sissies!!!  Awww.... she kept pointing to the piercing chair and saying, I want Ear Pretties!

So Ruby said if she could sit on Daddy's lap while they were doing it she would get them done. And they both went through with it (with a bit of crying and comforting) and had HUGE smiles and love their new earrings!

Ruby has pink flowers:

and Karis has white flowers:

And even though Sierra didn't get ever get her ears pierced (she said maybe when she's 12 or 13 - lol) she did lose another tooth last night!!! And boy was she lucky, the Tooth Fairy and Grandma's house pays way better than at Mommy and Daddy's - LOL!

SURPRISE!!!!

Well, we are officially in Arizona! The plane ride was so rough! But the girls were awesome and barely even fussed!

And we have a surprise for everyone! We have Baby #4 on the way!!!! EEK! Dustin had a vasectomy but the last three months the girls have been asking for a baby brother. Dustin and I told them that Mommy and Daddy were done having babies so if they really wanted a baby brother they would have to pray to Jesus. And they have been!!! Never underestimate the power of prayer!!!! LOL! I am due the end of March 2009!

We're Off!!

We totally moved out of our house on Monday, the cleaning ladies are getting their money's worth today!!! We are in a 2 bedroom temporary apartment until Friday and then the fun begins!!!! We leave for the airport at 9:30am German time, and will arrive in Phoenix 9:30pm... factor in the time change and the drive to Gold Canyon, and that puts us at about 23 hours of traveling!!!! OH JOY!!!! (that was a SARCASTIC 'Oh Joy!' in case you didn't notice)

I am at the library right now using the internet, going to try to get on one more time on Thursday to check my email before we leave. And then I will rejoin my online community on Saturday - LOL!

Please keep us in your prayers during our travels!

Happy Birthday Kare - Kare!!!

So my baby is two... sniff sniff!! She thinks she is three though <eye roll> EVERY TIME! you ask her how old she is, she says "FREE" (3) and then when you tell her two, sometimes she'll say, okay, two, and sometimes she says, NO, I FREE!!!! lol

blowing out the candles... I threatened Sierra and Ruby NOT to blow... and what does Sierra do on Karis' third try... she blows out the candle!! GRRR!

We took Karis to the local toy store to pick out some things last weekend. She wanted a baby - because the 15 I have at home don't cut it for her! And then we let her pick out some farm animal duplos from Grandma Patty and My Little Pony books from Aunt Amy (thanks for the checks! the rest will go into her savings :D)

We kept having to tell the girls that it was Karis' birthday and they had to wait for their birthday to get gifts. But we said tomorrow Karis has to share her new toys.

Already reading her baby one of her new books! She's definitely her Momma's child... she was more interested in the books than the toys - hehehe.

The 15 Euro Ice Cream Cone

So the first night in Italy we stopped for some Gelato (of course!) It was 50 euro for our whole family! YIKES!!

Mine was the most elaborate. I THOUGHT I had ordered a two scoop cone... this is what came!

Just for a frame of reference, 15 euro is about $22!!!!!

Sierra lost her first tooth!!!

My baby lost her first tooth tonight.  Here are some before and after pics.

 

This was taken a few days ago when it was just a little loose.  Notice the bump on her nose, she hit something in the hallway and her eye was a little pink too.

Here she is with it so loose its barely hanging on!  The bump on her nose has now gone down and been replaced with a black eye!!

She can basically lay down the tooth straight forward!! Mommy was afraid that she was going to swallow it overnight, so I just barely pulled and it popped out!

OUR TOOTHLESS WONDER!

And her little tiny baby tooth! Sierra informed us that the Tooth Fairy leaves a dollar AND a quarter these days! LOL!

Vacanza di Roma!

Okay, here are the posts complete with pictures from Rome. I put them all in the order we took them, Monday to Thursday! I took 193 pictures in 4 days... but don't worry, I only posted 69! ENJOY!

Vacanza di Roma! Monday

We are back and we had a blast. Bear with me, this is going to be a long post... 4 days in Rome! The kids were so good considering it was EXTREMELY hot and no air conditioning anywhere.

We got up before the butt crack of dawn!!! We left the house at like 3am to get to the airport in time!!! The kids were a bit cranky, but they did good! Then we had our flight to Rome. We flew Ryan Air, so we had to walk out to the plane, which the girls thought was pretty cool!

Once we got to Rome we got on a bus to the metro station and then had to ride two metros to the apartment stop. It wasn't too bad, but did I mention it was HOT!!! And we all had been up since 3am so everyone was tired, even though it was only 9am. We got to our apartment about 10:30 and were scheduled to drop off our bags at 11am, so we had to wait a bit. Angela was meeting us at the apartment and was supposed to be there shortly after us... so we started getting worried that she was either lost, or her plane was delayed.

We dropped off our bags and got something to eat at a Panini shop across the street (that's Italian for sandwich). After lunch we walked across the street to the apartment to leave a note for Angela, and she showed up!! Great timing!!! Her flight ended up being delayed, but we were able to do some grocery shopping and get settled in the apartment. After a rest for EVERYONE! we headed out to the Piazza di Spagna (rhymes with lasagna - hehehe) and the Trevi Fountain.

After the Trevi Fountain we stopped for Gelato! YUM! But boy was it expensive! Ang has a pic of it, and as soon as I get it from her I will post! Apparently we stopped at some gourmet Gelato place and my two scoop cone came with a sparkle pic, like 4 scoops, wafers and was 15 euro!! WOW! Total bill was 50 euro for just our family!!! We had pizza, pasta and salad for lunch for less than that!!! LOL!

Okay, I'm done for tonight... will post more tomorrow!

Vacanza di Roma! Tuesday- Colosseum

We woke up on Tuesday and got ready to see the sites of Rome! First stop, Colosseum

Right outside the Colosseum was the Arch of Constantine:

We stopped right outside the arch for a snack before we headed to the Roman Forum (right across the street). Sat in the shade, and even saw a bride and groom getting a picture taken outside the arch.