A New Year, A New Look!

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

Luke had been asking for a haircut for weeks. However after the temperatures were so cold I convinced him that he needed all that hair to keep warm. We finally got around too it lastnight. Since I was going to be cutting hair I decided Eli needed a hair cut too. I put him in his booster seat and Luke fed him fish crackers. He didn't mind at all. It turned out much shorter than I thought it would be because I cut it the same length I do for Luke's at the top. Eli's hair is obviously much thinner so it looks shorter. I like it though. He looks all grown up and ready to turn one year old in just another week!

A new phase......

There is no picture for this post! I don't want to mess up a good thing. So far in my experience as a mother, it has been very hands-on and involved. Actually, it still is except for the small windows of time I am about to tell you about. The last three mornings have been different for me. After breakfast Micali has asked for Eli to play in her room. I put him in there with a pile of toys and then leave. She has kept him totally entertained for about 20 minutes each morning. I just hear laughter and giggling coming from the room. The first morning this happened I wondered what I was suppose to do. Surely one of them needed me....they always have so far. So, I went in every few minutes to check on them. The last two mornings I have quickly put Eli in Micali's room and then went about the house getting LOTS of things done without interruption. It is weird for me not to have a baby on my hip or tugging at my clothes!

2008 Year In Review

This post was a lot of fun for me to make. I just finished trying to pick a picture to post for every month. Since I had hundreds of pictures taken each month it was quite difficult. So the really fun months have more than one picture.

 

January: Eli joined our family. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to love this next baby as much as Micali. I worried that I wouldn't be able to handle having two kids. Then by the time it happened I was just so HAPPY not to be pregnant that the adjustment went smoothly and Micali welcomed Eli with open arms. She has been an amazing big sister! February: Daddy went back to school and enjoyed the moments he had to snuggle his little man. March: Mom and Dad Peless came up to meet their newest grandson and were astonished at the size of him. They were able to be here for his blessing at church. Then they helped us move around the corner to this house. I know we couldn't have done it with out them. April Micali had cabin fever and couldn't wait for the snow to melt to be outside.

 

May:We enjoyed having longer days and warmer weather. The picture is of Micali snuggling Eli, something she takes seriously as his big sister. June and July: These months were filled with tons of excitement. My mom and dad were able to come up and meet Eli. Unfortunately it rained daily while they were here but they got to enjoy spoiling their grandkids, which was the purpose for coming. Then my sister miraculously was able to get us down to Utah with her airline miles just a day before my sister's wedding. It was great to be able to be with her for that special day. Since we were in the lower 48 we decided to make a trip of it. We went to Kansas to see the rest of my family and then spent two weeks in Michigan and got to see Luke's side of the family there. Oh how I LOVED the heat. You didn't hear me complaining one bit when it was 100 degrees in UT!!! (oh dreaming of that now in my -32 degree weather). When we got back home Micali and I celebrated our birthdays. August: Back to school for Luke and back to reality for Kristen. I LOVE having my husband home and being able to be so unpredictable and spontaneous in the summer months.

 

September: We started our remodeling of this house. We put in new windows. Thanks to Bro. Brenner and his muscles. He saved me from carrying the windows most of the time. October:We had a nice day and were able to paint the outside of the house. November: Micali and Daddy enjoyed a Rib dinner. We also ripped out all the carpet and put in new laminate flooring. We spent the night of Thanksgiving painting until 1 in the morning. We were able to get most of it done. We are still waiting on tile in the kitchen. That is the planned project for this weekend. I will let you know how successful we are. December: We continued working on our projects, stayed home for the holidays, enjoyed our little family, spent quality time together and tried hard to stay warm!
What a busy year. I was sure I had been in REMODEL mode much longer than since Sept. That actually makes we feel good that we didn't start tearing apart the house until then. We aren't doing so bad on our pregress! Looking forward to good times in 2009!!

Thoughts and other randomness

Well, Luke is out working late tonight trying to get someones heater fixed so, their pipes don't freeze. It is really cold so I am hoping they are able to figure something out. I can't believe it is already 2009. I wanted to do a year in review post before this new year but now it is a little late. I still might try to do that though. It would be fun for me to look back and see what we have done. We have had a great Christmas break. This last week I watched a friends 3 little ones while they were able to thaw out in HAWAII!! Their kids are very well behaved so that made it nice and Micali enjoyed having friends around most of the time. She is still learning what sharing is all about. It seems that being an oldest child where everything has ALWAYS been hers this sharing thingis a whole new concept. We had a lot of fun with them though. Last night for New Year's Eve I told them we were going to have a party (we really were going to go to a party but because of the cold that was cancelled). All day they wondered when the party was going to start. Finally after dinner they still seemed confused about this supposed party we were having. We had sparkling cider with dinner(steak quesedillas as requested by TJ)and then later had rootbeer floats. The only kind of party they could think of had games, cake and balloons. After we told them this wasn't a birthday party they seemed to be okay with our kind of party especially after being served a rootbeer float. This morning we handed them back over to their parents and since then it has been strangely quiet around here. ;)
In other news our current projects underway are: our furnace is being replaced, our kitchen floor and entry way are ready for tile, most of the touch up painting is finished and one SWEET day our windows will once again have trim (hint, hint to Luke if he reads this :)
Alright I hear my husband coming in! GOODNIGHT!

Christmas

Here are the pictures of us opening up our gifts on Christmas Eve. The kids enjoyed opening their presents from cousins and we opened ours from Luke's brother Rerun and wife Kirsten. We were so excited to get an emergency radio and candle. Both very useful gifts and especially for us here in the winter time. Current temperatures since Christmas have been hovering in the negative 10-20's BRRR!

 

Micali got to enjoy Christmas over a few days and was thrilled each time she was able to open another present. She has enjoyed playing with her new toys and her imagination has just run wild!

 

Eli loves these little cars and trucks. Soon he will be making car sounds and zipping these things all over the place.

 

Thai Lotus

 

The Peless Family has a tradition of eating Chinese food on Christmas Eve. We called around to all the local places to find our options knowing that many may be closed for the holidays. Last year we had some really good Chinese food at a local restaurant here and were looking forward to this night to order from them once again. Well, they were our first call and their answering machine said, "We are closed until further notice." BUMMER!! So, we tossed around a few ideas....going and getting the fixings and doing it ourselves, looking in the frozen aisle to see what we could just warm up in the oven or calling more restaurants. We and already been working on projects all day and didn't want to have to make food for ourselves so we called around some more. We ended up going with Thai instead because they were the only restaurant in town open and we didn't want to risk driving far away and then having grumpy children when we got there. As you can see from the pictures we were the ONLY ones in the restaurant. We felt kind of like on the movie "The Christmas Story" and realized that this tradition wasn't shared by too many people here in Alaska. In Michigan the Chinese place we went to there was PACKED on Christmas Eve. The food was fine----quite spicy---and we enjoyed that we were able to leave the mess there. The kids were GREAT, we actually might take them out in public again sometime. After our bellys were full to our satisfaction we drove around town looking at the Christmas lights and then went home to open one present and read the story of the Savior's birth from the Bible.

Such a pretty pony---Micali's best friend

Micali has recently developed a new love for her pretty pony she got for Christmas last year. She rocked on it all the time when she first got it and even had to kiss little Denali goodnight before bed. Then we moved houses and Denali found a home in the play room downstairs. She would ride him and listen to him sing occasionally but now.....her relationship with Denali is at an all time high. There is no where she goes around the house that Denali isn't right at her side. Denali even has a special blanket and pillow and sleeps right at the foot of Micali's bed. The other day I was upstairs feeding Eli and Micali was playing downstairs. Next thing I know she has Denali cradled in her arms and was bringing him upstairs with her. It is fun to see her little imagination run wild. She used to hold a little stuffed animal and rock it while I was singing to Eli before naps and bed. Now she picks up this pony and rocks him back and forth--it doesn't really bother her that it is almost hersize. Well, as you can see from the pictures of her on Denali last year she has grown quite a bit. Especially that crazy blond hair she has. I should also point out in her recent pictures she has also started dressing herself. Mommy can't help(this is only allowed when we aren't going anywhere). This morning after showering she put her pajamas back on all by herself. Both of them inside out and backwards.

 

pink eye 11 months

 

My poor little boy has had a rough week. Monday he woke up with Pink eye and he has also been try to cut a few teeth. He is on the mend now and we are hoping for two healthy weeks while daddy is home with us for TWO WEEKS of Christmas break. Have I mentioned I LOVE being married to a school teacher? Back to Eli--I am thinking he is going to be on the move anyday now. He is trying the backward inchworm and started a little army crawl today. We seriously need to get the rest of the flooring done so we can get all the tools out of this little boys reach. Watch out world ELI is coming!

Kindergarten art class

 

I feel like a little kid in art class every time I get out my sculpey clay to make ornaments. I am only able to make these by looking at a picture. Actually the ornaments that have step by step picture directions are even more helpful. I first learned how to make these at a craft day at church about 2 years ago. My first experience wasn't that great but, I did ask for more for Christmas that year in hopes that someday I would be able to make a masterpiece. I had a lot of fun making these ornaments this year and compared to my first ones these look pretty good. I made a chubby baby under a blanket for Eli, a ladybug for Micali, and a Penguin family sledding on a candy cane for all of us! We will have to wait and see if anything else gets made this year.

10 am SUNRISE!

 

I remember my mom coming in and waking us up in the morning SUPER early and telling us it was time to get busy we were burning daylight. I think if I were raised in Alaska it would have been sweet to be woke up at 10 o'clock in the morning because we were finally burning daylight. Only two more days until the shortest day of the year and we will again be gaining hours that the sun will grant us with its presence!!