Merry Christmas!

Wow, it has been awhile since I have updated (Sorry Nana!). Lots has happened in the past 2 1/2 months, so I will try to do a quick recap!

• Hans and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by going on a cruise while Jacob spent the week with Hans' parents in Colorado.
• Hans surprised me with a trip to North Dakota to go and visit Megan and Mike while they were in Bismark! 
• November brought the start of the busy holiday season, and with that visitors! My mom and youngest sister (Sara) came to visit us for Thanksgiving.
• December came and I went to Minnesota for Megan's baby shower on the 10th. We had a great girls weekend, and I can't wait for baby blueberry to come into the world sometime in late February or early March
• The following weekend, Hans had a "boys" weekend in Minneapolis with some friends. They went to the NHL game on Saturday night, and the NFL game on Sunday. This was his first time seeing a NFL gave live, and it was is favorite team playing as visitors (The New Orleans Saints) 
• This bring us up to Christmas! 

Jacob enjoyed coming downstairs this morning to find the family room full of new presents! He has enjoyed playing all day with all his new stuff!

 Stockings before Santa came

 The tree before Santa arrived

 The tree after Santa visited!

 Jacob's new train table and play kitchen

 Stockings after Santa visited!

 My new toy! Thanks hubby!

 The aftermath

 

Pumpkin Picking fun!

Tonight we had a great time going out to a local pumpkin patch! I have never been to one since they are not that popular in AK so this was a great new adventure for all of us! Jacob had a blast walking through the patch trying to pick up all the pumpkins. :) He was so cute stopping at one and trying to pick it up, and then saying help get it! He was able to find 2 small ones that he could carry and brought them home along with 2 larger ones.

The beautiful pumpkin patch!

We had a great time, and I am looking forward to making this a yearly tradition!

Now for an update!

Tomorrow our kitchen update will be completed! We order new cabinets in late August that match our current ones and they have finally come in. So tomorrow the installation company will be out all day to do the install. I am really looking forward to having an actual pantry cabinet in the kitchen!

Next week Thursday, after Hans' is off work we will start our drive down to his parents house in CO to drop Jacob off for the week that we are on our anniversary cruise trip! I am so ready to be on a vacation that we are completely unplugged! I know that I will miss Jacob while we are gone, but we are so ready to have a vacation that is just us! We will get to Mark and Diane's on Friday and then we fly to Tampa on Saturday. Then Sunday we board our cruise ship and sale away for 7 glorious days to the Western Caribbean! Then once we fly back to CO, we will start the drive back home that same day since Hans has to leave that Monday night for a class for work for the remainder of the week. So needless to we have a busy October!

I promise we are alive!

We have been busy! After closing we jumped into some home projects and are still trying to finish some up. Hans' parents came to visit on Friday the 15th and stayed until the following Thursday! They helped us complete so many projects, and we are forever grateful for that!

The projects started with a work bench for Hans' in the 3rd garage space. They were able to complete that in an afternoon and Hans enjoys having an area to keep all his tools.

The next project was to put together Jacob's new playset for the back yard that my mom bought for him when she was here. The directions said that it should take 2 people 4 to 6 hours.....but they lied. With no real issues it took Hans and his dad 16ish hours over 2 days to get it all done! And to make matters worse, they were working outside when we were having record high temps of 100+! But thankfully they got it all together and Jacob LOVES it!

The next project that we tackled was painting the upstairs of the house. When we had made out large trek to Menards to get the wood for Hans' work bench, I checked out the paint they had and we found colors that we liked better than the other stores we had already been checking out. So we decided to go ahead and pick up the paint and supplies so that I could get started with the help of Diane. So over the course of 2 days while Jacob was at daycare, we painted the formal living room, dining room and kitchen! It looks so good, and I am loving the color! I will get some pictures sometime next week once we have all the new curtain rods hung up and maybe even some art! Diane also tackled hemming some of the curtains for the bedrooms that I had bought at Kohls when I was in Colorado.

This week has been a little hectic because Hans' best friend Richard mom passed away last week Friday. He drove down to Omaha, NE on Monday night and then flew down to Dallas, TX and then drove over to West Monroe, LA for the funeral that was today. He was also one of the pallbearers as a request of Richard. He will be flying back on Friday, but this weekend is when we were going to head to Iowa so that I can go to a scrapbooking mini convention. So when he lands in Omaha, he will be driving over to Des Moines, IA and Jacob and I will drive down to meet up with him. We are going to be able to meet up with a friend that Hans' used to work with as she lives in Des Moines now! Then on Saturday, Jacob and Hans will hang out for a bit and then head back towards home while I finish up at the scrapbooking event.

Holiday Fun!

We had a great time this past weekend with all our visitors! Megan and Mike arrived very late Thursday night last week and stayed until early Monday morning. They had to head back for Mike to work the night shift (he is a cop.) We enjoyed seeing them again as it had been a while. They are getting very excited as they are also closing on their house next week!

On Friday night, my mom and sister Kim arrived. On Saturday, Megan, Kim and I went to the city pool (where I got nice and sun burn!), while Mike and Hans made a trip to Mitchell to go to Menard's and Cabellas (boy stuff!). Mom stayed here at the house with Jacob so that he could take his much needed nap! After the pool, we stopped and looked at a local store that was advertising their patio furniture at 50% off. I was able to find a really good deal on a table with 6 chairs. This was a house warming gift to us from my mom. She also bought Jacob a play set (swing, slide) for his late birthday / early Christmas gift! That was one of the items that Hans and Mike picked up at Menard's. It will be built once Hans' parents come the weekend of the 15th and Hans has his dad's help.

We really enjoyed having the patio table, and ate a few meals outside since having it. We also enjoy it in the evenings when the sun is going down and it isn't so hot outside. :) On Saturday night, Mom, Megan, Mike, Hans and I all went to watch the fireworks! Kim wasn't feeling well, so she stayed home with Jacob as he was already in bed. We enjoyed the show and did our best to not be eaten alive by all the mosquitoes!

Sunday we just had a lazy day after Church playing games and visiting. Then we had to say goodby to M&M early Monday morning. After they left, we were able to get a few more hours sleep before Jacob was insistent on us being awake (Grandma wasn't keeping him entertained enough I guess). We hung out and then went down to check out the 4th of July celebration festivities going on. Most of the stuff had already ended, but we were able to walk around some booths that were set up in the park down town. We then came home and Jacob had a blast playing with Grandma and Aunt Kim in his play room!

Then after dinner on Monday, Mom got a couple good family pictures for us!

Next week we have some exciting things going on!! On Monday 7/11 we will be signing the papers to officially own our house!!!!! I am so excited! Then on Friday 7/15 Hans parents are coming for a visit!!!

I am also happy to report that Jacob is doing very good with sleeping in his own bed and for most of every night! I was worried that he would regress with the full house, but he did great!

Visitors!

We are having a influx of visitors starting tonight!!!! Megan and Mike are coming to visit for the weekend!!! I can't believe that it has already been almost 6 months since Jacob and I have seen Mike, and 5 months for Megan! Then on Friday night, my mom and sister Kim will be arriving and be here until Tuesday! Then we will have a break for a week and a half, and then Hans' parents are coming for a visit!


I have been keeping busy with my normal work, but I also opened an Etsy store to sell my hand made cards! I received my first custom order for some baby shower invitations and they are going to be going out in the mail today! If you would like to read more about them go here....

Well I hope you all have a fun and safe 4th of July weekend!

2 years 2 months 1 week and 1 day

Is how long Jacob nursed for! I have been so ready for him to be done for a while now, but he just wasn't ready to stop. Well last week we finally hit a wall with his sleeping issues and we had to start some sleep training. Thankfully that has been going very well! And with him sleeping in his own bed every night all night he doesn't ask to nurse! He will now fall asleep on his own after being tucked in and given a good night kiss and hug and a story read to him. I am so proud of the improvements that we have all made in the past couple of days!

On another note, I started my 90 day challenge at Curves today! I am really excited about this challenge and am looking forward to the results.

We are going to have quite the busy house this coming weekend! Megan and Mike are coming for the holiday weekend and so are my mom and sister Kim! Then on the 15Th of July, Mark and Diane are coming for a while! And of course on the 11th we close on our house!!

Happy Birthday Hans!

Yesterday was Hans birthday! After he got off work, we had a girl from our new church come over to watch Jacob while we went to dinner and a movie! It was nice to be able to do something together on his birthday.

We are settling very nicely in our new house and town. We have found a new church to go to, and I even went to an event they had on Saturday. Everyone that we have met has been really nice and think that it is cool that we are from Alaska. We have been getting ready to close on the house, which will happen on July 11th! One of the first things that we are going to do once we actually own the house, is have a fence put up to keep Jacob contained. We have been getting quotes and looking at different options for the fence. This past weekend we went to Mitchell to Menards (like Home Depot or Lowe's) to see what they offered and we were very happy to see that they actually sell 8 foot fence panels! So instead of having to have each board attached here at the house, all that would need to be done is the posts put into the ground, and then the 8 ft panels attached! We have decided to go with panels that look like this.....  

 

We are hoping to have the fence installed shortly after we close on the house so that Jacob can play outside a little more and be safe! We are also looking at putting up a playset for Jacob. We priced them out when we were at Menards and can get him a pretty cool one for a good price.  

On onto some pictures! These pictures are from when Jacob and I were in Colorado. One afternoon, Oma, Jessica, Katherine, Julianna, Jacob and I went to a farm that is open to the public. Jacob was just fascinated by the chickens and spent a lot of time by their area. He also liked walking through the little creak they had. The last picture is of Jacob trying to take Oma's new puppy Baron for a walk. 

Another Update!

Hi! We have been busy! We are all back together and in our new house in South Dakota!!

Last week Wednesday, Hans took possession of our new house! On Friday, all our household items were delivered by the moving company. So on Saturday, Jacob and I packed up and left Colorado. The drive was about 10 hours of driving. We split the trip into two days, and drove the first 6.5 hours or so on Saturday. We did this for a couple of reasons. The first being that I was making the drive by myself with a 2 year old! The other was because we had a graduation to be at in the morning, so we didn't leave until after lunch time. I thought that I might have been able to push it and make it in one day, but when we got the the town that I was planning to stay the night, I was just ready to be out of the car for a while. Then on Sunday, we finished the drive and arrived around lunch time at our new house!

After seeing the house for the first time in person, Hans took us on a tour of our new town. It is a pretty small town, so that only took about a half an hour! We then got some lunch, and then headed back to the house to do some unpacking.

On Monday, Hans' started his new job! He has really been enjoying it, and is looking forward to a successful career with this new company.

I have to give a shout out to our good friends Megan and Mike as they put an offer on a house and it was accepted! This will be there first house as well! If you would like to read about there house journey you can do so on there blog here.

As we are still putting stuff away, I have not taken many pictures of the house, so I will only be able to leave you with one of our new kitchen curtains that Diane made for me!I am in love with them!

I will do my best to get back on track this weekend of posting weekly for my 52 weeks in pictures.

Last day with a 1 year old! (and 52 weeks in pictures!)

Hi!! Well tomorrow is the day....my baby will be 2! I can't believe it! Tomorrow I am taking Jacob to Chuck E Cheese for a play date with his two good friends and as a treat since it is his birthday. Our move week has also arrived.

On Tuesday, I will meet the movers at my mom's house in the Valley to pick up/pack the items that we have in storage. Then on Wednesday they will come here to our apartment and pack up everything. Then on Thursday the movers come back to load all our stuff to make the 3,033 mile drive. On Friday morning, Jacob and I will take off and fly to Colorado to stay with Oma and Boppy until all our household goods are ready to be delivered to SD! Hans will then start his drive on May 2nd, as he is working until May 1st at AK USA. His dad is flying up here on Tuesday to drive my van down for us, and will be bringing it to CO so that I have it and when the time comes can drive up to SD. Depending on when that is, Oma should be coming with Jacob and I to help us get settled into our new house.

After Jacob's bath tonight, I took some pictures of him on his last night as a 1 year old! Here are some of the better ones! 

I don't want my picture taken!

 OK, I guess I will take one with Mom!

 But, I am not feeling the love for Dad tonight.

52 weeks in pictures, and a moving update.

Well actually there isn't a picture for this weeks post, as once again I didn't take any pictures. I will however be taking pictures this week as all our stuff gets packed up and ready to be shipped to South Dakota.

Move update: Movers will start packing next week Tuesday! Yes as in a week from tomorrow! They are going to start with the stuff that we have stored at my moms house in Wasilla. So that morning I will get up and head out to her house to meet them and supervise the packing/loading that is to take place there. Then on Wednesday they will pack the apartment here in Anchorage and load everything on Thursday! Then Jacob and I will be flying out on Friday morning. We have to be at the airport at 5:30am :( but on the flip side we arrive in Colorado at about 4:30ish pm.

Hans dad is flying up here next week to drive my van down. He will be leaving by Friday and will be doing the drive by himself. Hans is working until May 1st and then will hit the road on May 2nd.

On Saturday, we put in a offer on a house in Huron and on Sunday the offer was accepted! The sellers even agreed to allowing us to move in early/before closing! This was a huge help as the mortgage company wants Hans to be on his new job at least a month before they will let us close. If the sellers had not agreed to the early move in, then Hans would have to live in a hotel and Jacob and I would stay in CO. Now Jacob and I will be in CO until our household goods arrive at the house. Hans will be taking the air mattress so that when he gets to Huron and he can take possession of the house on May 11 he has a place to sleep. This makes him only having to be in a hotel for about 5 or 6 nights depending on when he arrives from driving. He will then start his new job on May 16th!

I do have a picture of the front of the house that I was able to save to my computer from the listing.....

  We absolutely love this house! It has 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, a 3 car garage (as you can see!) and approximately 2350sf! It has a formal living room upstairs and a family room down in the basement. There are 2 bedrooms up and 2 down. The yard is really nice and we will be putting up a fence sometime this summer or next as well as as play set for Jacob. I am really looking forward to having a family room that all of Jacob's toys can stay and all the space!!! Our current apartment is about 950 to 1000 SF, so this house is going to feel huge when we first get moved it.

Oh and in case you were wondering....Jacob will be 2 in a week from today!!! 2 I tell you! I can't believe that his birthday is already next week. My baby is growing so big, and isn't a baby anymore. He is turning into such the big boy.

Guess what????? We are moving!!!! (and my late 52 weeks in picture post)

It is official!!! We are moving! Hans was offered a job today with a company in South Dakota. The company had set up a conference with him for 7am our time to discuss an offer! So by 7:05 am we knew they wanted to hire him and were learning all the details of the offer. They are helping to pay for our relocation, which is very nice. Plus they have great benefits. 

We have scheduled movers to arrive on April 21, and Jacob and I will fly to Colorado on April 22nd to stay with Mark and Diane until Hans can secure housing for us in the town we are moving to. Mark will be flying up to help drive my van down and help us pack the last couple of days and then help load the truck before hitting the road to drive. Hans will be staying behind here until May 2nd as his last day of work at his current job is May 1st. So needless to say, the next few weeks is going to be crazy!

I realized that I never took any pictures in the last week, but here is a picture that I took when we took our day trip last weekend and I thought was a funny picture. :)

We were in the elevator at the Sealife center and Jacob was looking up at the ceiling as it had mirrors on it. He thought that it was pretty cool.

Week 13 of 52 weeks in Pictures!

This past week we had a pretty easy week around here. On Monday, we had to say bye to Oma and send her back to CO. :(  We really enjoyed our time with her, and she enjoyed her trip up here! Jacob and I had a few playdates with our friends, and then on Saturday Hans, Jacob and I all packed up in the van and had a day trip to Seward, AK!

Seward is about a 2 hour drive south of Anchorage and is a really cute town. In the summer time it is a big destination for people wanting to go fishing. We wanted to go down to visit the Alaska Sealife Center. The Sealife center is a rehab facility for sea creatures. They usually have seals and sea-lions to see as well as other fish. So we headed down for a fun family day!

This is how our day on the road started:

Yep that is fog....but we were driving right along the coast (the only way to drive to Seward), so it isn't that unusual. Thankfully the weather got better about 45 minutes into our drive when we reached Girdwood, AK.

Thankfully our weather stayed this way for most of the remainder of the trip!

 Touching star-fish and other neat things!

 Sleeping Lady Mountain

On Hans job search....he leaves on Wednesday night to fly to South Dakota for a in-person interview with a company! This will be his 3rd interview with this company!!! He also has a phone interview scheduled with another company for this week!!! I am so excited that we may be close to knowing where we will be moving to!