Happy Birthday Henry!

After what seemed like forever of waiting, we finally got to meet our little Henry! I should give him credit, he actually came 2 days before his due date. But when you move to a new state, start a new job, sell one house, buy a new house, and celebrate several holidays - all while being pregnant - it has a tendency to warp your perception of time...

But he was on his own time table, which included going in to labor right before I was ready to go to bed for the night. Luckily Brittney and Duncan were back from Hawaii and we were able to take Thomas and the girls over there and get everything arranged before heading off to the hospital. And after only a few short hours in the hospital, little Henry made his grand entrance into the world at 3:32 in the morning on February 19th! (That should explain why I look a little tired in this first photo...)

As hard as it was for me to believe, Henry was a "big" baby. Having a toddler skews  your perspective on baby size I guess, but they were right! He was 8lbs, 13 ounces and 21" long. He beat Thomas by 12 ounces and 1.25" inches even though Thomas was past due by eight days. I'm guessing he'll be outgrowing his brother at some point - maybe about the same age I outgrew my sister? :)

Our first "night" in the hospital wasn't all that restful, but after a quick nap, I was ready to take some photos of my little guy. I mean, what's the fun of having a fancy camera if you can't start taking photos from day one? Plus I get harassed all the time about making sure I have lots of photos of child #2 since I was a #2 and constantly complained about the photo count discrepancy growing up. ;)

A few things have changed since we had Thomas (or maybe just because we were in a different hospital). They don't even try to weigh the baby or get the vital stats until after he has had plenty of time bonding with mom. And the first bath isn't until after he's been around for more than 12 hours. They did take him to the nursery to check his blood oxygen and take some blood for tests, but since I went with him he never left my sight the whole time we were there. They even did his first bath in the room:

Henry wasn't letting the nurse use that washcloth on him without a fight, but he loved getting his hair washed. Look at that contented look on his face. Of course he didn't open his eyes at all - this boy has been hiding his baby blues almost the whole time he has been in the hospital. The pediatrician had to startle Henry to get a look at his eyes at all... I guess he was worn out from the early morning entry into the world as well!

We opted out of staying an additional night in the hospital because we were ready to be in the comfort of our own house and not being woken up for checks every few hours. So after passing all the newborn tests and filling out all the paperwork, we were ready to go!

Welcome little Henry! We're so glad you joined us after the long, long wait...! :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Tommy's school has a tendency to celebrate as many holiday and events as possible. I try to go to as many as I can, but work has a tendency to be scheduled at the same time. I missed the Christmas party, so I figured I would try to go to their Valentine's Day party. They asked all the parents to bring snacks, so I made Rice Crispy Treats with freeze dried strawberries - it felt a little more festive to have the strawberries in there than just plain. Of course I couldn't find freeze dried strawberries, so I bought a box of cereal that had them and dug all the strawberries out. Hey - you get creative when you live in Alaska... :)

When I got there, Thomas thought it was time to go and was a little upset with me that I kept putting his jacket back in the cubby and showed no signs of leaving with him. So he sat in my lap mad for a little while. I finally got him to cheer up by taking photos of us and showing them to him - the boy loves his technology!

Then it was party time! His classroom is only five kiddos, and they are all boys. So they probably didn't appreciate all the pink snacks as much as I did, but they certainly chowed down on them! I think all of them licked the icing off before eating their cookies. And my son refused to share his goodies with me! His teacher put extra on his plate and he would only let me eat the raspberries, not the cookies. Which isn't to say I didn't risk the wrath of my pint-sized man by stealing them off his plate. ;)

And since it was a party, the boys all got juice boxes. It was apparently the first time they got boxes to drink out of and the results were a bit mixed. I had read online that if you pull the tabs up on the side, it gives them something to hold on to that won't make them squeeze all of the juice out of the box. Apparently that only works for older kids... but Thomas sure had fun with his box of juice anyhow. And he didn't spill *too* much of it!

And although he had enough sweets to last him for a while, they gave them all cupcakes to take home. He was pretty excited about carrying his cupcake out to the car. His dad ended up getting the cupcake in the end, but that was long after Thomas had forgotten about it. If I had wanted it, he probably would have remembered - I swear those boys are already sticking together!

The Northern Lights

We've been wanting to see the Northern Lights since we moved up here. Well, honestly before that - we were really hoping for a show when we were up here visiting Brittney & Duncan for Thanksgiving. But it just hasn't worked out. We subscribe to several Facebook sites that notify when they are out and they have stubbornly been hiding from the Anchorage area. Until yesterday...

Of course the auroras seem to prefer to be out in the wee hours of the morning. Luckily for me, Matt is a night owl and happened to see the notifications. He found the one window in our house that looks north and had a momentary freak out when he realized he could see them even with all the lights in the neighborhood. I got woken up to come see them and we had a moment that most parents know well. Do we wake the toddler up at midnight to drive elsewhere and try to get a better view of them?

Of course we did...

Tommy didn't know what the heck was going on, but he was along for the ride whether or not he wanted to be. We decided to head to Flat Top - Matt said there was a nice viewing area from the parking lot, so we figured that was our best bet. The drive over to Flat Top actually had the best views. There were green lights cascading and dancing all across the sky. I'm pretty sure that Matt and I were giggling like little kids at the sight. :)

Of course when we got to the viewing area, the lights had calmed down. And the parking lot was iced over enough that we didn't feel safe for the 9 months pregnant woman or the toddler to safely cross it. The hubster confirmed this by slipping and falling multiple times checking it out. So we only got a few pictures of the lights that don't do what we saw justice. I figured I would share them anyhow, just to prove we saw them. But they were so much more amazing in person.

Bubble, Bubble, Boys are Trouble...

Since we're having another boy, I have become more aware of situations that throwing a third boy in the mix will probably up my anxiety level. But so far bath time hadn't occurred to me. Until I left Matt and Thomas alone for literally two minutes when we were testing out the jets on the Jacuzzi tub and came back to this:

Matt thought that he would make Thomas some bubbles (since he loves them so much!) and squirted waaaaay too much shampoo in the tub with the jets on. I think both of them were a little shocked and overly excited about the bubble pandemonium that followed.

I love that the bubbles flying through the air make Thomas look like he has puffy bubble eyebrows. He thought the bubble flinging was hysterical. And quickly came after me and my nice camera with his bubble hands!

Sorry for the booger in the nose shot - by product of him having the flu... At least he is in such good spirits, most of the week he has been running a high fever and not wanting to do much more than cuddle. Not that I mind the extra cuddle time! I do kind of mind that I am starting to feel sick... "/

Not content to merely play with the top layer of bubbles, both of them ended up in the tub. Here Thomas is about to be attacked with a bubble hug. Or Matt will get slapped with a bubble covered squeegee - any bets on who succeeds?

I hope you didn't bet on the squeegee. Hugs almost always win in this family! So we had a bit of a mess to clean up with all the bubbles - that many bubbles take forever to pop themselves by the way - but the two of them were having such fun, how could you not just laugh and go with it? I am sure these things will just escalate to grander and grander things as both (all three?) of the boys grow up. I'll just try to be there with the camera to document and laugh from a safe distance...! :)

Happy AB Day!

That's Happy Alton Brown Day for those of you not down with the lingo. :)

And for those of you *really* not in the know - I love, love, love Alton Brown! I discovered his show Good Eats sometime in college and watched it religiously the first few years Matt and I were married. Most everything we ate was from Good Eats episodes and most of the kitchen gadgets I acquired were thanks to recommendations from the show. Many a gadget was purchased only after I assured Matt that Alton said I needed it. In all those years the only time he let me down was that Hot Chocolate! And technically it wasn't his fault, it was a misprint on the recipe booklet that came with the DVD (of which I have 27). Once we re-watched the episode and found that it was a "pinch" of cayenne, not "1/4 tsp" everything was right again in the world.

Except years later when Good Eats went off the air. Tragic. I could still catch Alton on Iron Chef America and recently on Cutthroat Kitchen, but it just wasn't the same as hearing all of his scientific explanations for how cooking worked and loving all of his crazy props like when he made a pie "bed" to demonstrate why the lemon meringue top doesn't stick to the filling.

Then Alton went on the road! His first tour completely bypassed Texas and it just didn't work out to fly to see him. Cue the 2014 tour schedule - he was coming to Austin! As soon as the tickets went on sale (yes, I sat there and refreshed the browser until the very first second I could buy!), I bought two VIP tickets to his show. This included front row tickets to the show (in the poncho required - splash zone!) and a meet and greet with Alton! I was so excited! I knew there was a slight chance we *might* be in Alaska, but I figured we would just fly back for it.

Except one small detail...

Airlines generally don't let you fly after you hit the 36 week mark, which happened a grand total of 8 days ago. I did this math long ago though and sadly handed off my tickets to my mom and sister. They know who Alton is, but they are nowhere near as obsessed. I'm sure they've both been forced to watch Good Eats shows while at my house, but that's probably the limit of their exposure.

However.

They loved the show and told me that Alton was super cool in person. And supposedly there is an autographed posted on it's way up here for me. I'm really glad they got to go and even better my sister found all the Good Eats shows available on Amazon Prime (the last 5 seasons!) and is a convert. Yes, really happy for them!

But this still makes me just a teensy bit jealous:

In order to ease some of the sadness, Brittney suggested that we have a Alton Brown dinner party that same night, so I could at least be there in spirit. Of course, Thomas comes down with the flu this same week, so the Hydens bailed on us. (Understandable - they have a trip to Hawaii coming up!) But Matt and I persevered without them!

I handled the soup, side and dessert while Matt cooked the main dish. And we chose the menu based on our most frequently used recipes. Trout was a little tricky to find up here in the land of salmon and halibut, but Matt managed to find a whole trout. After a quick YouTube lesson on filleting trout, we were ready to rock and roll.

There you have it - our AB faves! The trout is covered in a caper-lemon-butter sauce (When I tried to find it, the recipe is no longer available online! Luckily I have all three Good Eats cookbooks - feel free to ask for the recipe if you want.), cheese soup, and roasted asparagus. I might have cheated and bought the sourdough bread, but the bakery at our Carr's does such a good job, I figured AB would approve. :)

Oh and let's not forget dessert! One of our eternal favorites - Tres Leche cake! This was always a favorite at work and super easy to make. I hadn't made it in a long time though, so I swear it tasted even better than before. Absence makes the heart grow fonder...!

While I may have missed my culinary hero this time, I am hopeful that he will bring his Edible Inevitable tour out for another run and perhaps get somewhere closer to our new home. Seattle would be perfect, but I have nothing against flying to Hawaii as well. I'm pretty sure the tickets are about the same price. :)

That Wind

It can get pretty windy in Anchorage. The hillside and along Turnagain arm can easily get up over 90 mph wind gusts. Our neighborhood isn't quite that bad, but the other day it was pretty windy! We had already decided to take a walk up to the park so the dogs could get some exercise and Thomas could check out the new exposed playground equipment. It was probably not the best time to go...

It was sooooo windy! Eliza's face shows it the best. Then Thomas got blown over just trying to walk across the playground. He was certainly not impressed. I was pretty unimpressed with it when trying to pull a wagon up the hill with the wind pushing me back. It was a nice boost on the way down though. :)

As for the newly exposed equipment I mentioned - it's been there since we moved in, but has been covered in snow and ice. Due to very unseasonably warm temperatures here, we lost all of our snow! It's likely to snow again (we hope!), so we get to go through two snow melts this year. I was not impressed by the first snow melt - yucky roads, yucky yards and filthy cars every time we drive. The only positive is that the ice all melted out of our driveway, so it's not as much of an adventure to get the mail. (I'm ok with that!)

The Days Are Getting Longer!

We've passed the longest days of winter and are starting to add 5 minutes of daylight every day. Which is especially nice because it's no longer dark when I am leaving work. Still dark on the drive in, but I go in pretty early most days. Anyhow, the other day we were driving home and saw an awesome sunset with really odd looking clouds. It's been super cloudy lately, so it's been awhile since we've seen the sun setting. Thought you guys would appreciate the pretty awesome view of it from our back yard. :)

This Boy...

And his obsession with remotes:

He knows which ones work and which ones don't, but he just likes to hog them all. And he's figured out how to turn the TV and navigate to Netflix. I was pretty embarrassed he found the shortcut key on the remote before I did. "/

Birthday Cake!

It's a bit of a running joke in our house how many times Matt has promised to make me a birthday cake... Which has no far not happened. The conversation about it usually has him reminding me about the time he had me pick up the stuff from the store for him to make a cake. Which I remind him I used to make his cake the following week.

This year he promised again - with the addition that he was going to make it from scratch! He asked what kind of cake I wanted - my favorite has always been chocolate cake with chocolate icing. He then asked if they sold chocolate flour. Hmm...

All teasing the hubster aside, I know he can read and follow a recipe, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he would pull this cake thing off with no problem!

And he did! Ok, so he iced it while it was a teensy bit warm, so he stuck it outside to make sure it cooled off before the icing melted off the sides. One benefit to living in such a cold climate!

Look at that beauty! And we had company coming over for the fondue birthday celebration and they were all quite impressed by Matt's baking ability. We didn't even really need the ice cream Brittney bought (just in case!), though I don't think any of us turned down having a scoop on top! :)

Doesn't he look so proud of himself and his awesome chocolate cake? I finally asked him which recipe he used and it was the one on the back of the Hershey's cocoa box. My favorite chocolate cake recipe!! What a great hubby, huh? I'm pretty sure he got some ribbing from the other guys there about making them look bad, but I did point out it took the better part of a decade, so they had some time before they had to get around to it.

It was totally worth waiting for, Matt! I love you and your cake!

Christmas Day

Last year, I bought all of us quasi matching pajamas for Christmas because Matt was always super jealous of how cozy Thomas looked in all his footed pajamas. Quasi matching because I couldn't find any footed pajamas that came in both baby and adult size - but they were all dinosaur print. Well it turns out for hot natured people, footed pajamas sound better than they are... So this year, I went with normal pajamas that really did match - for the *whole* family. :)

And of course the dogs just loved their pajamas as you can tell by their refusal to look at the camera...! Ha! Your cuteness is still noted, my furry babies!

After the obligatory picture in front of the tree, it was on to breakfast. Matt requested donuts. But not bought donuts and not made from scratch - he wanted biscuit donuts like his mom used to make. I figured, why not? We rarely even fry anything at home (because I love fried food way to much to make a habit of that), but it was a special occasion! I googled techniques online but could decide between big biscuits \ little biscuits or glazed \ chocolate \ cinnamon sugar.

So ! did a combination of everything!

My frying skills aren't that great, so the big ones turned out a little underdone as nice as they looked - I made holes after all! But the smaller ones were delicious. I think the cinnamon sugar coating was my favorite. But it's hard to beat fried dough dipped in butter and coated in sugar... ;)

Thomas entertained himself while I was making breakfast by playing like he was cooking. He kept pretending to dump spices into a bowl, then he would stir them and eat a pretend spoonful and say "Mmmmmm". It was pretty adorable. I can't wait until the little guy can help for real. It's going to be so fun!

Later we took Thomas out to play on his new sled we got him for Christmas. I insisted on the one with the belt since we're all new to this sledding bit and it seemed easier for him to sit up in with the high back. Matt ran him up and down the cul-de-sac in it. I think Matt might have been a little more into it than Thomas was...

And you might have noticed his gloves don't quite match. His Aunt Heather gave him a new set of matching gloves and hat for Christmas while she was here at Thanksgiving:

Well we kinda already "mis-placed" one of the mittens, so we had to scrounge around to find something for the little guy to keep his left hand warm. So he got one of Matt's gloves. We really should invest in several pairs of mittens - if the parents can't keep track of them, what hope does he have...? "/