On Christmas Morning

we get starbucks...
and Papa surfs the net on his iPad...

Lola facebooks...

Uncle Drew texts...

G-Pa reads the paper...

Mamma makes breakfast...

while I get to sleep in...Merry Christmas! Love, Graciana

On Christmas Eve...

The boys hang out in the kitchen...and talk about hunting and fishing :) The girls hang out in the living room...
And then we do white elephant gifts and we never know what we are in for :)

and then Santa comes to visit!

and he passes out presents...

the little kids are happy!

and we finish the night out with a Christmas Eve shot with Auntie Dee!

Santa 2010

We went and saw Santa...

It didn't turn out quite the way we had hoped but there's always next year!

Happy Holidays 2011!

From our House to Your's...Wishing you a wonderful Holiday Season!

Stairs

When I hear the word stairs I usually think of basketball and high school...now I think of Graciana! She has found the stairs and it is a riot to watch her climb up the stairs. She thinks it is funny...so everytime she takes a step she turns around to see who is looking and the lets our a a squeal! She discovered the stairs a few nights ago in the house. Cam was upstairs, G was playing on the floor downstairs and Pauline (we gained a teenager in the house for a week) and I were sitting on the couch. G crawled over the the bottom of the stairs and started making her way up.

She climbed up 6 set of stairs to the platform. Here she is about to start the 2nd set of stairs.
We can see the top of the stairs.

Almost there!

YEA...I made it to the top...she was pretty proud of herself (and she decided to climb the stairs 2 more times after this). So now we have a pillow and blanket blocking the steps...I guess it's time to buy a gate :)

Happy 1st Birthday Graciana!

Our little peanut turned 1 today!

We celebrated last night with a great party with family and friends in Kent...we dont' have the pictures from the party yet but we will post them as soon as we can.

Today we spent a low key day hanging out...the perfect day to celebrate!
With Lola and G-Pa!

We are looking forward to celebrating in Nome next weekend!

Cousins

Graciana sure loves her cousins and spending time with them! Cousins Jayden, Aaliyah, Bella, Tiana, Madeline and Ian
Sitting on the dance floor.

The twins meeting her for the first time!

She calls these three gorgeous ladies her aunties (but they are her 2nd cousins).

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

We decided to visit the Pumpkin Patch....Carpinito Brothers has one that is close to my parents house...so we decided to pick up Tiana and Jayden and off we went! At the entrance of the corn maze...Tiana said that it was like Alice and Wonderland and she made it in about 10 feet.
Do you know how hard it is to get everyone in a picture and their face through the hole?
We finally gave up :)

Looking at the pumpkins.

SInce it was raining and our visit to the pumpkin patch was cut short we decided to drive over to a childhood friends farm to see if we could show Tiana the cows. Well his parents were home and Heidi was gracious enough to show Tiana and Jayden the cows on the farm!

22 Weeks to 11 Months

22 weeks

11 Months Old

Hard to believe that Graciana is almost a 1 year old (1 more week).
I've been reflecting back alot the past couple of weeks because this time last year

we didn't even have our little peanut...

We are looking forward to what the next year has in store for us!

A Day in Washington, DC

Graciana is in DC for her 2nd visit and this visit has been much more enjoyable!

When she first came she wasn't even 3 months old.

She has enjoyed the sites, walking with Lola and riding the Metro.

We wait for the Metro...we were riding the red line. Hanging out at Arlington National Cemetary.


We walked from Virginia to DC

Stopped off at Lincoln Memorial to take of picture with the Washington Monument behind us.

A quick stop at the Vietnam Memorial.

Made our way to the World War II Memorial.

And then to Graciana's future house :)

The White House was our last stop before heading to dinner at Georgia Browns (A great southern resturant if you are ever in the DC area).

North Pole, AK

While in Fairbanks for the week we decided to take Graciana to the Santa Claus House. She didn't want anything to do with Santa (hence the reason why we are in the picture with her).

Outside in Santa's Sleigh!

And yes there is snow there...we even got to see Santa's reindeer :)

G-PA's Visit!

G-PA's here for his annual fall visit. The guys went to Shishmaref for the weekend and came back with a muskox! Many thanks goes out to the Wilsa and Boy and their family. The guys had a great time riding the boat, spending time at camp and listening to the stories.

Back in Nome

And of course G-Pa has been spending time with G. She loves her G-PA. They have been going for walks daily, exploring Nome. G-PA is here for a few more days. We are very thankful for another successful hunt and more meat for the freezer. I have a feeling that this winter will be a great one!

Showering a Friend

What a wonderful day! I woke up to this...well I didn't really wake up to it since the sun is rising around 9ish now but it was a nice surprise to look out the kitchen window and see this! I grabbed the camera and ran out onto the deck to snap this picture. About 5 minutes later the colors were gone and it was blue and cloudy sky that then turned into snow mixed with rain but that didn't dampen my spirits since I had work to do! I decided to surprise my friend Michelle with a baby shower. Her and her husband Nick are expecting their 1st bundle of joy (and I am excited for another playmate for G). She was definetly surpised (she thought she was coming for scrapbooking party). Let's just say that there were some tears of happiness and shock as she walked into the house.
We had a great afternoon of playing games and showering Michelle and Baby Harvey (no name yet but we do know that it's a girl). Above is Michelle getting measured during one of the games.

Simple Foods (and not much left over, thankgoodness!)

A group picture of some of the guests...it is a busy weekend in Nome with a lot going on and there were a few that had to leave early and didn't get in on the picture :(

Graciana stayed awake for the whole thing...we tried to get her to nap but she didn't want to miss out on the action. Here we are with the Mama to be!