Emily, Daddy & the Helo

ok...these are the last pics of the two of them in their flight suits.

just too cute!!

"Dress Like Daddy Day" ...continued.

...and here she is in her outfit coming home after school.

(we're probably going to get her dressed up one more time and take her down to get some pictures of her, daddy and the helicopter. So, there will probably be one more blog post about her in this outfit.)

"Dress Like Daddy Day"

Well, first, let me start off by saying that we originally found out about "Dress Like Daddy Day" back at the beginning of the month. We had plans to order a flight suit costume online and then switch out the patches on the costume to make the flight suit look like Chris'.

Well, the days turned into weeks and by the time we got around to actually ordering a costume online it was going to take too long to ship it to our little Alaskan Island...not to mention, cost $50!

So, a little less then a week ago, we decided that we could make the flight suit ourselves! Afterall, Chris and I can both sew. Well...things went from bad to worse. We were able to find fabric here on the island, and the night we got started on the project, the sewing machine broke! We took the whole thing apart trying to fix it, but no luck. The next day Chris was on duty, so he took the cut-out-pattern with him to work and began to sew it there all by himself. About an hour or two into the project he started to become frustrated because...we had cut out the pattern wrong and the "wrongside" of the fabric was on the outside of the costume! (This was 2 days ago.)

Yesterday we had pretty much given up hope. I went back to Wal-Mart and they were out of all green fabric...I didn't know what else to do. I had heard about a quilting store that sells fabric, so I went to check it out. This store had A TON OF FABRIC in any pattern imaginable...keyword is "pattern." I searched her shelves and finally came across a solid green...and for $20 for 2 yards of green fabric...at 5pm last night...I came home.

So, after dinner at about 6:30pm, Chris ran off to his work where they have sewing machines (our's broke, remember.) All by himself, he sewed until about midnight. And daddy made Emily her very own Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Flight Suit.

He got home and pulled the finished suit out of his bag...I was so proud of him.

And the suit looks AMAZING!

Mix-Match Day

Today was Mix-Match Day at school...needless to say...we participated.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Easter Egg Hunt

.

.

Easter Baskets

Coloring Easter Eggs

Here we are coloring Easter Eggs...um...two words...A MESS!!

USCG Easter Egg Scramble

This afternoon we went to the Easter Egg Scramble on the Base. There were a ton of kids there! It was kind of interesting how they pulled this off.

They sectioned off the middle of the gym floor and had all the kids surrounding the coned-off area. Then, by age group, they dumped hundreds of eggs all over the gym floor, and at a whistle the kids went running. Emily's age group was first to go...0-2.

You should have seen her the minute they dumped the eggs...she was so excited!!! I had to hold her back until they blew the whistle. Once the whistle blew, we were off grabbing eggs and filling our basket. She had a really good time!

Crazy Hair Day at School

Friday was CRAZY HAIR DAY at school...So, being that Emily has a TON of hair and we're always doing something with it...I thought it would be kind of cool to have a little fun with her hair by putting all of it in small ponytails with bows. It was super cute!!

.

RRRaaaaRRRR!!

....need I say more...

My First Week

Well...it's been an interesting first week at the new job. As many of you know, the first week is usually filled with getting to know where things are and being introduced to everyone around the office. My first week wasn't any different.

Because this is a public forum, I really can't get into too much detail about the specific events that I've come across while learning the ropes of the new job. But, I can tell you that I love the people that work with me at this company! I think it will be a challenging and rewarding opportunity! And I am really looking forward to a long future with this company...well, at least for as long as we're on the island. :0)

So...as far as "The New Job"...IT'S GOOD!

Legos to the Rescue

.

.

Among the many awesome birthday gifts Chris received, one was from his dear sister-in-law who gave him a few hours of fun. Now, he can do his own rescues right from home with his very own Lego Coast Guard Helicopter, Life Raft, and Swimmer...and save his drowning victims from the little Lego Shark. (LOL) He had a good time putting it all together.

.

Oh, and on a side-note, with his birthday money he bought a new outdoor backpack, an ice pic and hiking poles. (For all you Californians, you may be thinking "What?" But, all of these things will really come in handy for our Alaskan Life up here...so THANK YOU!)

.

.

Drinking From a Straw

Emily is now drinking from a straw! She had a box juice today and, for the first time, was able to use a straw!

Our little girl is growing up!!

Chris' Birthday

Ya, today was Chris' Birthday (no, it's not an April Fool's Joke). He turned the BIG 29 today! He was extremely fortunate enough to get today off from work and had a relaxing day at home...getting to sleep in, going out to breakfast, and then out again for dinner (A perfect "Chris Day.")

We got home and had cake and opened presents. For those of you wondering, I made him wait to open any cards and/or gifts until today, and he is very thankful for everything he got. I made a cake which started to fall apart, but ended up being salvageable and didn't turn out that bad.

We had a bit of a "moment" with Emily tonight - I gave her her gift to give to daddy and she walked over to him, gave it to him, watched him open it...turned around to go play, when Chris said "Thank you" to her and then asked if he could have a hug...and, out of nowhere she stopped in her tracks, did a complete 360 and ran into his arms with the BIGGEST hug ever! (I didn't even knew that she could give hugs!) --- Such a moment! --- It even brought a tear to Chris' eye.

I think that it was, overall, a really nice birthday

...especially considering that we are so far away from family and friends.

Summer Cuts

I know it's kind of crazy that with snow on the ground and 26 degrees outside, the dogs got their summer hair cuts. It's different having dogs in Alaska...naturally they'd have warm winter coats, but because they're mainly inside dogs, those winter coats are shedding like CRAZY! There is so much dog hair, it's INSANE!!

So, they got a haircut today.