The Jordans- Cherish, Sean, Autumn and Emelia

I was able to get my hands on a picture of my niece, Jordan. I hope it is OK that I say she reminds me of Autumn (minus the fact that Jordan has dark hair and A LOT of it!!!). I cannot wait to get back to the Creek and meet my niece in person. Jordan On a different note, today we are going over to Autumn's BFF birthday party. I am awfully excited about this and hope that Autumn does not behave like a savage. I will update this post later today and hopefully have some pictures to share!

You ever have one of those days where the stress just feels toxic? That is how I feel. My head hurts, my stomach hurts and I cannot figure out for the life of me how to feel better. I know I am not sick, I am just that stressed out. Autumn has been especially cranky the last few days. She seems overly tired and extremely hungry. I do not know if she is going through a growth spurt, or if her first tooth is finally going to make an appearance, maybe it is both. It hurts me deep down to see her so upset though when she is normally such a happy human. This is the main source of my stress. Sean leaves on Monday for awhile. He will miss our anniversary (again) and Valentine's Day. I was planning on going out to a nice dinner and even lined up a babysitter which I will now have to cancel. It is so disappointing to me. I cannot wait for Sean to retire. It is so difficult without Sean around and my heart misses him so. I guess it is good practice for Autumn to say goodbye sin...

Congratulations to my sister, Sarah Marie. She welcomed a baby girl into the world today around 4 pm. Jordan Nichole weighed in at 7 lbs 12 ounces and has a head full of hair. I will post a picture as soon as I get my hands on one. I love you Sarah and cannot wait to meet little Jordan!!

For dinner this evening, we enjoyed Pork Tenderloin with a Plum sauce over Somen noodles. Not sure if ya'll noticed, but Pork Tenderloin is one of our favorite meats to eat around here. It is so versatile, easy, delicious and not very expensive. I digress. Autumn seemed to enjoy the meal quite a bit. She loves noodles and she ate the pork right up. I had given her some black beans while we were waiting for her noodles to cool down, so I sit down to this: A few minutes later, I look up to this: Poor Autumn. One day, she will have hair. For now, we shall call it, "Angel Hair."

Autumn attended a birthday party today for a little girl who turned one. It was a long birthday party, but I figured a few things out. When we do Autumn's party, we will have it wrapped up in under two hours. I am not inviting any older children (I mean much older-that party was geared towards children over the age of five). After 3.5 hours, I decided to call it quits. Autumn missed her nap and was tired. Angela gave us a few cupcakes for the road which I gave to Autumn after dinner. Man alive, my child loves cupcakes. Sean graciously offered to give Autumn a bath and I was so happy about that. I was cleaning up the dinner mess downstairs when shortly after Autumn began her bath, she reappeared downstairs. Sean informed me that Autumn had gone on the "log" ride and that the bath was cut short. Enough said. Long day. I am ready for bed.

So I had a hankering for some Coconut and chocolate. Oh what to do? I went to one of my favorite websites, Food Gawker, and found a recipe for Chocolate Chips, Coconut and Almonds. After reviewing the recipe, I got to baking. This recipe was absolutely delicious. Here is the end result: Chocolate Chip, Coconut and Almonds. For the recipe, go here.

Autumn watching history on TV. Our favorite part of the ceremony, the music. Pepper wanted to get in on the action as well.

Even though it was **Raining,** we decided to go for a little hike today. Getting ready for our trek. The trail we headed out on. Stopping for a quick picture. We happened upon a lake. Walking on water. This picture epitomizes what I think of, when I think of Sean. I can imagine in the future, plenty of father and daughter camping trips (unless it turns out that Autumn hates nature like I do). The solitude, the nature and family = Sean. Walking on that ice was scary. You could hear it cracking underneath your feet. I did try to take a photo of it, but the conditions were not favorable for a decent picture. My heart was pounding and I could not wait to get off that stuff. Sean laughed at me!! Cherish and Autumn. Autumn practicing for the summer Olympics.

Today is Grandpa Jordan's 60th Birthday and we wanted to do something special. Not so Happy! ha ha ha Little Miss Attitude! FAIL FAIL Again! This one is cute. Finally, after 29 pictures. #30 Happy Birthday Grandpa Jim We love you bunches!!

Sean and I enjoyed some Jerk Pork two nights ago. It was truly one of my favorite meals. Cherish's rating: 9.8 Sean's rating: 8.9 Jerk Pork over Rice Pilaf Tonight we had Spaghetti and Meatballs. I love Sean's homemade Spaghetti sauce. Cherish's rating: 8.5 Sean's rating 8.3 On a "lighter" note. Why do children love to play in cabinets and pull EVERYTHING out? I guess it is OK because this is Autumn's very own cabinet, but good grief!!! What a mess! Autumn in her cabinet. Autumn's tongue!

I finally made it down to the college today and although I feel a little closer to going back to school, it also feels far away. I have to apply for admissions online and get all of my transcripts together. I intend to start this summer and registration for that is 23 Feb. Until I know which of my credits will transfer, I have no idea what will happen with me and college. That will take a few weeks to figure out. SO, hopefully, I will be going to school this summer!

Autumn and her dad having a little fun. NO AUTUMNS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THESE PHOTOS. Autumn and Sean. Sean and Autumn. Autumn loves being tossed around.

If you grew up in the 80's, you know what this is. I put Autumn's pant in a tight roll so that they would be out of the way for her to walk and just thought it was funny. Don't pretend you don't know what it is!!! Autumn and the tight roll. Isn't she the cutest!!

After weeks of subzero temperatures, the last few days have been above zero. Normally, Anchorage does not close down for weather, but today it was as if time stood still. We got up to 37 degrees and then came the RAIN. Since the ground was so cold, as soon as the rain hit the ground, it froze. The base was shut down as well as schools. It kind of cracks me up that when it was negative 30 we were walking around business as usual, but now that there was a warm up, watch out!!! Anyway, the evil part of me wants to laugh at the lower 48 for the subzero temperatures they get to enjoy for the next few days, but the other part of me holds back. We still haven't hit our coldest part of the year. Anyway, here are some photos of our wonderful icy roads. The Drive way. My feet on solid ice. Our personal icicle. Our Street. Make no mistake, that is ALL ICE! All the roads looked exactly like this. Just total Ice.

Sean and I tried something we have never made before, Chicken Kiev. There were just a few problems. One-I did not read the directions thoroughly enough. Two-I was debating between two different recipes and sort of melded the two together. Three-If you use corn flake bread crumbs, bake the chicken in the oven. If you use regular bread crumbs, frying in oil on the stove top works just great. Our rating system is as follows: Scale of 1 - 10. 1 being the worst thing you have ever put in your mouth. 10-the best meal you have ever had. Cherish's rating: 6 out of 10 Sean's rating: 6.5 out of 10 We put the Chicken Kiev on a bed of rice and had roasted asparagus and Sean's home made whole wheat bread as our sides.

In our house, we write out a meal plan for each week which we subsequently make a grocery list from. In our meal plan for this week, we decided we wanted some good old enchiladas. While Sean was cooking our dinner, we were trying to decide what on earth to feed Autumn. I did not think she would care much for enchiladas, so Sean came up with something from ingredients we had on hand (We have not been buying any "baby" food- Autumn will not eat it anymore). So, we had enchiladas, which looked like this: Whilst Autumn had Roast Beef Carbonara, which looked like this: My dinner was delicious, but I must say, Autumn's looked much better!!! Bon Apetit!!

We went to an exhibit in Anchorage today called Freeze. We did exactly that! It was minus 3 degrees and that is the warmest temperature we have seen in weeks. We had a really good time, but decided to call it quits when Autumn's snot started to freeze to her face. Here are the photos: Cherish and Autumn Sean and Autumn Opps!! Forgot the flash. Sean was holding a snowball with a red light. I think it is Autumn's heart!! Autumn in the field of lights. Sean and Autumn at the fire. We had to walk through a snow maze to get to the fire at the center. LOTS of Fun!!

January 10th always makes me pause to remember certain things. It is hard to believe that ten years ago today, I experienced one of the most emotional things I have ever endured, miscarriage. My due date was August 9th. A few weeks prior, I saw an emergency room doctor for possible complications with my pregnancy. The ER Dr said that everything looked fine and showed me the baby's heart beat. This was just before Christmas, then about two weeks later, I could barely walk. Sean had to carry me into the hospital because I was doubled over in pain and could not even walk. The Dr put me in a room and left me there. A short time later, I miscarried and I knew it. The hospital treated me with a cold, clinical callous. I don't know that it occurred to anyone other than me and Sean that our baby had just died. I do not understand why these things happen, I only know that they do. I am sad that our baby died, but I came to an understanding about several things. One-No one c...