Friday, September 30, 2011

Woot! Woot!

I have a computer! My favorite computer did not survive the move back to the heat. I'm quite certain it wasn't the bumps they hit on the way. The case of salmon jars, that were not packed in anything other than the case itself, survived. I haven't found one broken thing yet. Must have been the heat that fried the thing. Back to my usual easy photo processing software this morning and hopefully back to the world of blogging or blog hopping.

We're renting a house in north Phoenix. We've gone about as far from our living situation as we possibly could. Scratch that. We should have a community pool and gym ... that might do it! We're in a house that is almost half the size of what we had. I'm anticipating much less cleaning time and much more crafting time in my world. The back yard is the size of a postage stamp. Enough grass for Duke to roll around on and scratch his back, little enough to mow it in about 5 minutes. We do have a guest room. That was a necessity!

The heat. It was suppose to be done before we got here. I was quite looking forward to temps under 100 and it hasn't happened yet. Maybe a day or two. The evenings are wonderful. Several months ago if you told me that I would think 86 degrees in the evening felt good ... I'd have had your noggin examined! Ask me now and I'll tell you I have a pretty good memory recall of waiting for the sun to go down and the cool to complete our day. I laugh to think that we will probably be wearing our wonderful Alaska State Fair Carhart Clearance purchases! Good thing!
The girls still aren't in school. It is beyond ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. First we had to find a place to live before we could find a school within its boundary. Either that or drive them to the other side of town. At some point that might work (or not) but at present I'm hoping to be working in the very near future. Driving kids probably would work ... picking them up would not. Regardless, the high school we're near is right around the corner and a good school. It worked out perfectly. The problem is that the office couldn't get transcripts from the previous schools last week. This week the administrator (who we must meet with for admission) is at a conference Mon thru Wed of this week and there was no school Thurs or Fri. Monday? I'm hopeful. So are they. Enough vacation even for them!

More later.
For now ....
a small slice of beauty from a visit in Fairbanks.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Some photos of the girls...

Attempt at a photo shoot... Hailey 5 months and Heidi 2 years 5 months.





I just love little hats, Miss Hailey isn't quite the fan of them, but they are so cute for the short time I can keep them on her head.
 Had a garage sale in September... Heidi was harboring the books. She is a book worm, will try to read anything she can get. Love it when she reads to her sister, some of the stories actually resemble the book and other times it is about their day.
 Heidi has learned to LOVE fishing. She is has slowed down a little bit on asking to go, but used to ask everyday if we could go fishing. She picks the worms before we leave home. Notice the worm she is holding. Our FISHING consists more of feeding the fish worms. She doesn't ever want to keep the fish we do catch, but rather insists that I throw them back.
 Over Labor Day weekend we went to Brainerd. "Pappa" took Heidi, Shawn, and I fishing. Jen and Grandma stayed home with Hailey. Heidi had been telling everyone for days prior that she was going fishing and in a boat. She was so excited.
 "Pappa's" fish!!!!!
 Shawn told Heidi all about the big blue cow... we had to go see it. Heidi was disappointed that it wasn't real! It had an impact on her, she keeps asking to go back to see the big blue ox and tells everyone she touched the ear and the horn!
 Feeding the horses at Bob and Lorraine Lee's. Heidi is quite the animal lover!
 Miss Hailey checking out Ruth Lake wishing she could go fishing :)
 Heidi has also not yet learned her fear of heights!! How many of you, remember being on this slide? It makes me sick to my stomach! It might be that my 2 year old is standing at the top of it, she would have climbed it all day long if she had anyone to keep going with her.
As for life: Miss Heidi is doing well, she accompanied me to work on Friday and worked hard. She got rewarded by many co-workers and others in the building with all sorts of treats!

Miss Hailey got her first tooth a couple weeks ago and the second one has popped out already. Guessing she is going to be getting many of them in a short amount of time. She is on the move, was just scooting backwards, but now goes forward too. She just now went from laying down to sitting up on her own, we won't be able to keep her still. She goes on all 4 and rocks and tries to move her feet! She was in to the doctor the other day and is at 17 pounds. She has her 6  month well child check on Monday. Will be fun to see how tall she is getting!

Shawn has been busy with work. It had been slow, but picked up as of recently. Hoping he gets all the jobs done before the snow flies. He is currently over at Randy's as someone is combining our barley we planted there. He has mostly finished up with haying. Got a lot of bales this year again, which is good.

My life is pretty consistent, go to work, come home and be with the girls. Doesn't deter much from that! Still loving my job!

Shawn turns the big 40 this April! He has been complaining that he is too old for our little children and doesn't have the energy it requires...So the ultimate birthday gift to him is possibly the birth of our 3rd child on his birthday. I am almost 12 weeks and baby is due on his birthday! Heidi says she is having a sister! We shall see.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Connor William Kuoppala Baptism

An easy date to remember for Connor's baptism, 9-11-11.  Another child was also
baptised, after Connor.  Then to 500 Main St. in Farmington for some good lasagna
and salad and fruit.  Day was beautiful.  These old timers were a little tired by the time
we got home!