Christmas Day 12.25.12

 The night before we set up Jeralyn's gifts around the tree.  We didn't wrap any of them since it would be more fun to have them set up.  I enjoyed it so much!  It brought back sweet memories of Christmas morning when I was a child.  I think it's exciting to wake up Christmas morning and see all of the new toys under the tree!

At 7:30 the next morning I got Jeralyn up while Quent set up his camera to get Jeralyn's reaction when she came out into the livingroom.  Unfortunately, he forgot to turn the mic on, so it's a silent film.  She bypassed all of the toys and walked straight to Quent saying, "Dada!"  And then she turned and saw the kitchen, which she then played with for the next 10 or so minutes.  She didn't see anything else.  Quent went downstairs to get something and when he was gone we both heard her exclaim, "Car!"  She saw the tractor to her Little People barn.  And then she went over and kissed some of the farm animals.  So sweet!

Here she is playing with her kitchen. I think she likes to cook with a messy counter.

I love her expression!  Eyebrows raised!

Here she is kissing the animals!

Quent was opening up his presents from his stocking while Jeralyn played nearby.

My favorite picture of her for the day!

Her little push car came with a "smart phone".  I showed her one time how it is used and then she must have figured out it's like what I use to talk on the phone.  She kept saying, "Hi!" and "Bye-bye!" (which sounds more like "Bah-bah!"  Hilarious!  She walked around with that phone for a long time just chatting away.

For the first part of the day (before her nap) she played and played!  After she woke up our friends came over and we had a wonderful dinner!  I made a whole chicken in a slow-cooker and it turned out so amazing!  Yum!  I also made stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, Quent made cranberry salad, and our friends brought food, too!

Our friend Mike brought over some wine and they were trying to figure out how to open the wine bottle.  We don't have a cork screw as we don't drink wine.  They figured it out...eventually!

Jeralyn eating her dinner.  She hardly touched the actual dinner food, but did real well with the sweet cranberry "salad" and cookies.  (=

From left to right: Will, Taryn, little Jake, Jason, and Cassie

My friend Jamie and her family. Jake is 10 months, Taryn is 3 years old.

All of us!  We had a great time with them!

Jeralyn started making these grumpy faces, so Quent thought it would be good to kiss the grumps away.

Merry Christmas!!

Birthday Dinner 12.23.12

We made pizza for my birthday dinner.  While Jeralyn's pizza was cooking I gave her a bowl of pureed vegetables/fruit (which is a rarity now since she eats a huge variety of food).  It's fun watching her use a spoon.

When she was eating pizza she got some part of the crust/cheese on her face and it looked like...well...a booger.  It was cracking us up, so Quent took a picture.

I had a very nice birthday!  Quent got me a new camera, a Canon 7D, which you will be seeing pictures from soon.

Little Helper 12.23.12

Jeralyn helped me cut out some of the sugar cookies.  After awhile she just wanted to eat the dough, so it didn't last too long, but she was so cute!  I love doing these kinds of things with her!

Skiing December 22-23, 2012

Last year Quent bought me some skis and I was only able to use them one time because of circumstances (such as having my appendectomy).  I don't feel comfortable on skis as I don't really know how to ski.  So Quent is slowly helping me learn how to use my skis.  It will probably be awhile before I'm ready for the big hills.  So far I've been using skins on the skis, which help get good a good grip.  So we ski around muskegs. It's like snow-shoeing, but with skis.  I'm finding I have a love for muskegs.  The land has it's own personality and I just enjoy the adventure of not knowing what comes next in the winter wonderland.  There are bumps and dips (which I found myself in once), and it's just so beautiful!  So for my birthday (December 23rd) and the day before, we skied.

These first few photos are from the 22nd.  Both times Jeralyn was in a backpack on Quent's back.  She loved it!  We took some video which I will have to upload soon.  She loved going down the little hills with her daddy.  We bundled her up nice and warm!  She had mittens on, and then over the mittens we put some of Quent's socks to help her stay extra warm.  She was nice and toasty!

We had to go up an incline that was steeper than I was used to on skis, so Quent had to show me how to get up it.  I was making a dorky face as I was working my way up.

And then I got too warm and had to take off my hat and unzip my jacket. It's a good workout!

December 23rd (aka, my 31st birthday):

Apparently, I liked it!

We were in the same area as the day before, but across the road on an old ski slope that's no longer maintained.  The slope is probably more like a bunny hill in most places, but it was scary looking for me.  Ha!  We went up it and then down.  When we were going down there were some snowmobiles (known as "snow machines" in Alaska) coming up the hill, which made me a little nervous.

Sweet girl getting ready to go down a more exciting slope with Daddy.  Video to come soon!

And here's a picture I took with my phone.  It was gorgeous!

A ski day 12.21.12

Quent went skiing with some friends on Brown/Dude Mountain.  It was a gorgeous day!

His friend Shawn.

And then there was some pretty light on the mountains as the last rays of sun said their goodbye.

12.20.12

She likes to come up to us when we are sitting on the couch, and then she pats the couch, lifts an arm and says, "Bah!" (which means "help").  I'm trying to teach her that the furniture is for sitting on...not a jungle gym.  Ha!  She must save her jungle gym antics for her crib because it sounds like she's having a party in there with Shelly. Silly girl!  She was so cute sitting on the couch this day, so I captured some precious expressions:

These are the last photos I took on my Canon Rebel XTi...happy birthday to me!  I'll post about that later!

Harbor 12.15.12

Stuck 12.12.12

She's learning how to climb over things; which is what she did to get underneath this bar stool.  And then she got stuck and she didn't like that.

Determination 12.12.12

This little tyke who has been walking for a few weeks now is finally able to maneuver up the stairs.  The deal was that she could go up the stairs by herself (with us close behind) once she started walking.  And here she is doing just that:

Sunrise 12.12.12

We had a beautiful sunrise!  Just gorgeous!  I also figured out around this time that we have about 7 hours between sunrise and sunset...short days!