It's been a long week.  And sadly, I've not been feeling all that inspired.  Not for any particular reason, it's just been one of those weeks. The snow has landed here and falls quickly.  We've been waiting for the snow to come, but the actual arrival of winter still seems so sudden. We are now moving around town at a much slower pace, shielding our faces from the blowing snow when we go outside, and there is no more heading out of the house quickly without bundling up. It feels refreshing though, in a way, to see the white all around us, to feel the chill on our cheeks, and I sure do love watching the large white flakes flutter outside our window.  When winter comes here, I am generally glad to greet it as I love the season, but it can be a bit difficult for me too because it hangs around for half of the year. But here we are, diving head first into Alaska's gorgeous winter.
Last week I was busy at the birth center, welcoming two babies to the world. We also took Henry to a little Halloween festival at a nearby elementary school that our friends work at. He loved looking around and we had such a good time imagining what it will be like some day when Henry is the one going to school.  We wondered what he would want to dress up as, who his friends would be, which holiday activities he would have wanted to try. This year, the trick-or-treat bag making station was the highlight for the wee one.  Of course, the mama was the one to make his little bag, and Henry sat there sucking a marker. He loved it though. Who needs toys and festive fun when a marker is such a great time?  We've been walking the trail that is literally in our backyard, and I think I'm just in love with it.  We had a trail near our old house too, but this one is literally in the yard, and it leads straight to a little pond that I can't wait to skate on in the coming months. I think Henry will love to watch people slide around out there. For now we have enjoyed watching the ducks who are still silently swimming along in the quickly freezing water, and the moose that walk about.
I'm happy to break the quiet streak that was this last week-- I hope you're all well. Stop in and say hello!

Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with me everywhere we went-- so I'm sharing some blurry iPhone photos. I hate that, but c'est la vie I suppose!

Our new backyard...

We were watching a bull moose cross the trail and then the road. He was moving happily and slowly,  as cars waited patiently for him .

Making the trick or treat bag at the elementary school

First snow fall

We've been eating a lot of toast with avocado recently--scrumptious!

And a LOT of kale. Kale+sprouts+champagne vinegarette=wonderful.

I muse move the candy from the house. I have no control. 

My not-so-favorite activity

That would be moving. Oye. I think we can all agree that you  never realize how much stuff you have until you box it up and move it out. We drove to Alaska two and a half years ago pulling a little trailer behind our Subaru.  Whatever we could fit in the wagon and the trailer is all we brought with us.  Seeing as the mattresses essentially took the entire trailer, it really didn't seem like we moved with much at all.  We have tried to be frugal and didn't think we had acquired much in the years we have been here, but apparently the stuff came from somewhere.  Maybe we just hang on to every bit of junk that crosses our path.  But there was a LOT to move.  Henry and I tried our very best to pack things up and move what we could, but with a baby attached to you ability to lift, move, and go in and out of the house/car over and over is limited.  We moved a car full on our own, and the following day with the help of our wonderful friends got another big load to the new house.  It was an interesting sight, as this friend has a baby the same age as Henry.  We spent some time moving, and even more time visiting and playing with babies. This weekend, though, Eric and I hauled every single remaining belonging out and moved it across town.  Except the plants. I think we have to go back for the plants still. As I mentioned earlier, I was emotional about leaving the house but I am feeling very positive now.  This space feels new and fresh, and it was a really good opportunity to see what we own and what we can do without.  We have many boxes to unpack, but with just a few things already in place (our maps, rug, lamps, etc.) it is starting to feel much more like our area.  Pretty good for just two days here!  I'm looking forward to seeing the progress over the next few weeks.  It's a little strange renting a house for a limited period of time because we can never fully make this home, but I think it will be a fun little chapter of our story.  Living on the opposite side of town I feel like I can explore all over again.  There will be new routes to everywhere I go, new places we like to eat, new neighborhoods to walk, a different trail behind the house... I realized just how much that excites me when tonight we went grocery shopping at the store on this end.  It's a little odd how much I love to grocery shop, I love mulling around the store.  It makes me sound a bit dorky which is ok, but I was beyond thrilled when I walked in to a giant bulk section, a big area to make our own peanut/almond butter, a really nice bakery etc.  I was a happy lady.
So that is my little update, I will share some of my favorite parts of the new place soon.  The hardest part of the move is over, and now we are just trying to settle.  I think we will be happy here.
Hope your weekends were beautiful and fun.

Get ready for a lot of pictures of H and B playing during our time "packing"... I believe I did mention that we spent a lot of packing time playing with babies. :)

Riding the bin upstairs to fill it with more stuff!

Packing my hats

Helping with the garbage bag.  See? We were working!

Judging by Henry's face, packing is way more fun when you don't have to do the work!

The Midway Point

I've been a bit quiet this week as things have been a little crazy around here.  We are at the odd stage of moving where there are half-filled boxes all over our house, everything is in a different location that I cannot find, and yet I'm here living like everything is normal and we aren't moving at all. We were supposed to move to a new house across town this past weekend, but Eric had to leave to be with family so Henry and I have been holding down the fort for nearly a week.  I have tried to move things over to the new place, but it's difficult to move boxes with a baby strapped to your chest. We've done what we can, but it should be a very busy few days with Eric home trying to quickly pack the rest of our house and head out. It has been strange spending the last week in our house without the husband. I had imagined it as the three of us together, soaking up all the time left in this house that has become our home.  For the past few years that we have lived here, I have been dreaming of whatever house would come next, and now that we are about to move out of this one, I am feeling sort of emotional.  I know that it's just a house, but it is the house that we brought Henry home to, and the house that has seen his every day since then.  Although cheesy, we became a family here.  I'm still looking forward to the new chapter though, a fresh start in a new place.  There is a large yard, a creek in the back, and nice carpets so should Henry choose to continue launching himself head first off of things like he did today, there will be a soft place to land. Did I mention that? Henry took a spill onto his forehead today while I was at work.  Just a bump, luckily.

In other "news", we took some time this week to get outside and into the mountains. It was a cloudy, rainy day in Anchorage, but when we got above the cloud blanket, it was beautifully sunny, and snow was covering the ground.  Henry was born during one of the last snows of the season, so this was the first time he's seen it when he was able to actually notice.  Friends, I am tired and a bit stressed so before I babble any further, enjoy some photos of the little love.

Comments

I've been told by multiple people this past week that commenting on the blog has been difficult.  I tried to fix that problem tonight.  So if you find yourself writing anything to me, let me know if it works out better than it did previously! I sure hope it does.
Have a wonderful start to the week everyone!

One more little thing

Henry got his first toothbrush and tried it out for the first time tonight. Very exciting, and I now have that as a wonderful distraction for after-bath lotion application and jammies time. He tends to get a little over-tired and cranky when I put lotion on him, but not with a new something to chew in hand!

Let the games begin!

Something new has happened in our house this weekend, making the place a whole lot busier! Mr. Henry is on the move. He hasn't mastered crawling, but he has started to army crawl, and let me tell you, it gets him around plenty fast.  When he's fully up and moving on hands and knees ( he can get up but not move like that) it'll be tough to keep up!  All of a sudden though he is just scooting across the entire room, and the boy is on a mission.  He wants everything.  I have literally been chasing him about (okay, maybe he's not that fast, but much faster than he was when he was just flailing about on the floor!) all the while realizing that baby-proofing needs to take place quickly.  No more loose change around the place, no more small items at all in reach of certain small boys. He became mobile so quickly I'm a little nervous (excited too!) to see how quickly he advances to real crawling.  No doubt that our job just got a bit tougher because he can go where he wants to, but just like every change he makes I'm very excited for him.  The world must seem even more exciting now that he can spot what he wants and go for it. I can't wait to see what interests him. So far only "non-baby" items. Food, drawers, etc...

I absolutely had to include this photo. He was just taking off which is apparently a lot of work. 

Have no fear, my tea was cold and he just wanted to put his mouth on the cup-- he didn't drink it!

Wiped out!

I've Got Em'!

Ever since the first morning I saw a little pinhole in Henry's lower gums, I've been trying to catch a picture of the little teeth that have pushed their way through.  The day he turned six months old I saw the first, and the very next day came the second.  It took no time at all for the teeth to rise to the surface, but waiting for them to come up a bit further has taken longer than I expected.  But a couple of weeks later and here we are, and today I finally got that boy to show off the pearly whites!  Aren't they adorable!? I thought I would be incredibly sad to lose that gummy smile (the majority of it is still fully gummy), but of course now that the teeth are here I'm just tickled pink by them. His smile melts me into a giant baby-loving puddle. I have a feeling it won't be long until the next tooth comes... the chewing/drooling/chin & cheek irritation is still here in full force.  Such a fast growing boy he is!