My 28th Birthday and a Tea Party

Last Thursday I celebrated my 28th Birthday. Wahoo!! If you know me then you probably know how much I LOVE birthdays! This birthday was loved just as much as the others. It started out with me and a few friends gathering at Snow City Cafe in downtown Anchorage for breakfast. There were 17 of us including kids! If you ever come to visit us in AK we MUST take you to this restaurant. The food is ultra yummy and the atmosphere is very diner-like. None of the coffee mugs match!

Joelle and I made cupcakes in honor of my day and ate them for dinner. No real food or health food on special days in this house!
I had a worship team meeting later in the evening so I took my birthday dinner of cupcakes with me to share. But when I arrived for the meeting there was a small surprise birthday party for me! So wonderful! We had cake, fruit, meat and cheese and drinks. I really do love my church and especially this worship team! It feels like family!

Of course the best part of my birthday was receiving TWO phone calls from Justin! What a great husband he is!

The day after my birthday I received a WONDERFUL phone call from my younger sister. She filled me in that they are expecting a little boy the end of September! That's right, our due dates are 2 weeks apart! So it seems I will have another nephew soon.

Our ultrasound is this Tuesday. But don't ask me the gender! I'm mailing the results to Justin so he can tell me if we're expecting a little girl or boy. We both think it's another girl but EVERYONE else thinks it's a boy. Hopefully we will know the answer in a couple weeks :-).

And for our last PWOC of the year we had a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. It was so much fun! For those of you that don't know, I've been stretching myself in my musical abilities for our bible study. I've been leading praise and worship each Tuesday morning which consisted of me playing the piano and singing. It has been a true joy for me (I now understand Justin's passion for worship leading!) and I have grown closer to our Lord and Savior through worship. Here is a group picture of our Ft. Richardson PWOC:

Big Sister Practice

Last night Joelle and I got to babysit Molly, our friend Ashley's 3 month old daughter. It was great practice for me to juggle both Joelle and a baby. But the best part was seeing Joelle enter the role of a big sister. She completely loved on Molly and it was so sweet! I propped Molly up on the couch and Joelle promptly pointed out her facial features to me (Joelle knows eye, nose, ear, mouth). She then wanted to sit on the couch with Molly. After I put her on the couch she showed interest in holding Molly. I wasn't too sure about letting her try it but I decided to put Joelle in the corner of the couch to see how it would go. I put Molly in her lap and Joelle immediately put her arms around her and looked up at me with a huge grin. She was beaming with joy! It was so cute! I quickly ran to get the camera to capture the moment. Of course, the smile isn't nearly as big in this picture:
Joelle also LOVES to love on other kids with kisses and hugs. So she of course extended the love to Molly:
Overall.....I am now so excited for Joelle to be a big sister to Baby #2 in October! I think she is going to be a fabulous big sister :-)!

Radio Flyer!

Joelle has a new summer ride....her PINK Radio Flyer! It has a bar in the back that I use to push and steer the trike so Joelle can actually go places. Her legs don't quite reach the pedals. It's our new stroller for the summer to get around post. We've walked twice to the post chapel with her riding on it. She LOVES it! She's all smiles!

So it has been a long time!

I realize it has been FOREVER since I last posted. I have been so busy lately! Here's a quick recap....I moved on post without Justin and the Army starting April 18. Luckily I have fabulous friends here in AK and a wonderful church. I had short notice of my move and was able to give my church a 6 day notice of my need. I had 13 men from my church show up to move me with SUV's, trucks and trailers, and even a big moving van! It was amazing! Praise God! So I've been settling in the past few weeks. Once I finally take pictures of the house I'll post them.

As for me, I'm now 17 weeks pregnant and starting to feel it. But baby #2 seems to be doing well. The big ultrasound is at the end of May. Any takers on what the gender is??

Joelle is terribly teething. she currently has 10 teeth and two more molars are trying to pop through on the bottom. She is not handling it well so let's hope they pop through soon!

Justin is doing an amazing job at work. All I gotta say.....Sappers Rock!

Here are some recent pictures of Joelle. Enjoy!

Ash shower from Mt. Redoubt

After six days of eruptions from Mt. Redoubt, Anchorage is finally gaining some ash. Right now it's just a light dusting (like what you find on your coffee table when you don't dust, which of course is so normal at my house!). We will see what tomorrow brings. I'll try to take some pictures.

Mt. Redoubt has caused some issues for me. I visited family in Spokane, WA last week and I was supposed to return on Monday. Well, that was day one of eruptions. I was advised at the ticket counter at the airport to book a hotel for when I get to Seattle so I have a place to stay in the very likely situation that my flight is canceled (the two flights before mine were canceled). So instead of booking a hotel I just stayed two more days in Spokane. I did find out later my flight was not canceled but there was no way of knowing that when I needed to board my plane in Spokane. I did finally get out on Wednesday and made it home that evening. It was a good thing too! ALL flights on Thursday in and out of Anchorage were canceled due to more eruptions. Whew was God good to me! So really it was just a matter of time before the ash reached Anchorage. No one knows how many more times Mt. Redoubt will erupt. Years ago when it erupted it was absolutely devastating to Anchorage. Way too much ash! Let's pray it doesn't get that bad. I better go shopping tomorrow for extra food.....just in case :-)

Something new.....

My laptop! I finally have my own laptop! I've never had my own computer before so this is very exciting for me. It had to be done since both our desktop and laptop have decided to go kaput on us. So I'm now very excited to personalize this into my own. But it will have to happen tomorrow. I'm tired and ready for bed. Just thought I'd share my fun news!

Lots of updates

I know it has been awhile since I've last posted. We have been so busy! So I guess I'll start with Justin's deployment ceremony. We had a special guest speaker.....the Governor of Alaska! It was very cool having her there speaking and supporting our troops.Joelle has recently discovered that she loves boxes! I had an empty Huggies box that was quickly turned into a soap box car. She loves it! One day I was on the phone for awhile and I knew Joelle was in her room playing so I did not worry about her. I later walked into her room and found her asleep in her box with a few of her stuffed animals.Joelle also learned from Daddy how to properly eat and enjoy Oreo's. She, of course, likes them!
Along with all of this fun stuff going on, we found out something else....
That's right! Baby #2 will be showing up October 2009! I'll keep you updated on our progress. My first appointment here isn't until I'm 10 weeks along so I've got a few more weeks to go before I know for sure there's a child in there and not just a food baby :-).

And our last bit of news is that Justin has left for his long journey. If you think of him please pray for him. Here are some of our last pictures: