Santa is scary (and sometimes drunk)

We've had two visits with Santa, and neither has been what we would consider a success. The first was at our Ward Christmas party, where Will watched as one of his friends from Nursery sat on Santa's lap and started shrieking. Since Will was next in line, he didn't do any better. Then we tried Ethan, who screamed as well. The only picture I got of either was Anthony taking Ethan away from horrible Santa:


Our second try was at Anthony's work party. That was a whole different experience. The boys got to learn firsthand why we do not drink. We're pretty sure some of the Airmen had started the party a couple hours before on their own because I don't think it's possible to get that drunk that fast. One guy from Anthony's shop was trying to talk to the boys, and they weren't having any of it. Will just kept staring at him, and Ethan put his head on my shoulder and stared off into space as if the guy didn't exist. Then Santa arrived, and we found out he'd been hitting the sauce as well. He drove up in his sleigh and chucked a candy cane at a kid, and when Will's turn came to sit on his lap, Anthony told me Santa smelled like a brewery. Will wasn't thrilled with this Santa either, and once again started crying.






The only way we could get him to sit was if Anthony sat with him. And even then he wasn't too happy and spent the rest of the night saying, "No Santa!"




Ethan felt the same way.


Will also heard Anthony refer to Santa as Jeff, so now he says it's Santa Jeff. Santa Jeff did a pretty good job (we'll turn a blind eye to the candy cane incident), and I was glad to at least get some kind of picture with Santa. A photographer also took pictures of the kids with Santa then printed them off for us so we could put them inside glass ornaments to take home. The rest of the party was pretty great. Will LOVED the bouncy house. Every time we turned away from him, he was off and running to get back in. Even when we left at 11 p.m., he was still begging to, "Jump, jump, jump?"









Anthony's favorite part was the Sumo suit.



My favorite part was letting him struggle to get up in the Sumo suit.


We won a couple raffle prizes, including dinner at a local steakhouse. Anthony stayed to listen for our ticket numbers because the final prize was a 32" Sharp Aquos t.v. He wasn't really paying attention to what prizes were left, but he heard our number and jumped up to claim our prize. He started to hand the ticket to the announcer, who said, "Don't worry about it. It's the only prize left on the table." Anthony took this to mean the t.v. He started to get really excited, until the announcer pointed out what the last prize on the table really was.


And to think we almost got stuck with a t.v.

So we got some free stuff, learned a new drinking game (Eggnog Flip Cup), spent time with friends, and took home some really good leftovers. All in all, not a bad party.

The boys are getting excited for Christmas (and mostly I mean Anthony), and they've been very good about not messing with the tree or presents too much. Ethan likes to rip the name tags off the presents, so I guess it will be a free for all on Christmas Day. And Will's pretty good at guess what each present is. They were playing with one and somebody found a button that turned on the siren, and Will knew it was the fire truck we had picked out a couple weeks ago. I'm going to have to be more tricky when they're older.

We've also been making all kinds of candy and cookies. Some have turned out pretty well, like the Snickerdoodles, Butter Toffee, and Turkish Taffy (although we may have pulled it too much because it started to fall apart the next day, but it tasted good!). The fudge, on the other hand, was a disaster. No Theresa, it didn't back up into a fan. I followed every step exactly, but what a mess.


Anthony said if we ever needed to make chocolate bricks, this was the perfect recipe. So, anyone planning on building a palace in India, let me know. "I will not eat my palace! I intend to live in it!" Ah, I do so love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Just to back up a little, we did have a wonderful Thanksgiving too. We spent the day playing the Wii and eating too much.






Will did his impression of Randy from "The Christmas Story" eating like a pig. Really. We watched the movie a few days before, and he was pretty interested in that scene.



And Ethan was grabbing turkey by the handful and shoving it in as if we never feed him.


We missed being around family, but it was nice to have a relaxing day to be together and remember all of the things for which we are grateful.

Will is learning so many things every day. While I was putting on his shoes for church a few weeks ago, I told him which was his right foot and which was his left. I only showed him twice, but he can still tell you which is which. He can tell you his hands, arms, ears and eyes as well. He's also learned to count to 4, and Anthony taught him to read "Mommy" and "Daddy." He saw one of those commercials for Your Baby Can Read, so he tried it out, and it worked. Who needs an expensive program?

Ethan's becoming very mischievous. His sole purpose in life is to pull out every plug in the house. His favorite is the wireless router, so multiple times a day we think the Internet is being very slow until we realize Ethan has struck again. Most of the time, he waits until you're paying attention, and then he laughs hysterically as he tries to get the plug out before you can cross the room to get him. Will likes to get involved by following Ethan so he can be told to stop too. Ethan's most amazing feat is that he's started walking. He's not incredibly steady, but he's getting better every day.




Here are just a few more pictures we've accumulated:

This is how much snow we got earlier in the week
and why Anthony had several snow days.



Since the snow doesn't melt until next Spring,
they have to cart it away in big trucks.



While my parents were here in September, my dad and I
visited Test Cell and got to sit next to an F-22 engine
while they ran it. It was loud, cold, windy, and very cool.
Yes, that is the actual flame coming out of the engine.





Ethan sporting his Cheerio's.



Will putting in his contacts.




Will throwing his moose down the stairs

Anthony & The President

A couple weeks ago, President Obama visited Elmendorf AFB. He spoke to some of the servicemen and women, and Anthony was chosen as one of 200 to sit behind the podium. Anthony said that as they were getting going, the announcer started with, "Ladies and gentlemen," and everyone's cameras went into the air to try and get a picture of President Obama entering. He continued, "Introducing Chaplain...," and the audience groaned. The Chaplain joked, "Sorry to disappoint you with just a prayer." When he finished, the announcer again said, "Ladies and gentlemen," and again, all the cameras went up. "Introducing General...". Groans again.

Here is the video of the President's speech when he finally appeared. He spoke about the sacrifices military members make, the lives that have been lost recently, and plans for the Defense budget. It's about 15 minutes long, and if you want to see Anthony, at 2 minutes 30 seconds President Obama asks everyone to applaud the terrific looking Airmen and Soldiers, and Anthony is in the top right corner. You can also see him at 6:47 when they pan across the military members again. Enjoy!

"Facts" About Alaska

Now that we've been here 7 months, I've been compiling a few things that I've learned about Alaska. I looked back at the post I wrote last December when we first found out this would be our base, and I had to laugh at some of the things I had "learned" then. What I've learned since then is that you truly have to live here to understand.

1. IT IS COLD. It's so cold...How cold is it? It's so cold that my pinky finger froze to the shopping cart that I grabbed outside the Commissary. I got about 30 feet into the building before I started wondering why my finger felt like it was on fire. It's a very dry cold (we've had a humidifier running constantly all week), and thank goodness it hasn't been windy. When the high temperature is 9, and the low is -6, you don't need to add wind. Is it sad that I'm looking forward to more snow because it gets slightly warmer? I don't want to hear anyone who is enjoying 50 degree weather back home complain that it is getting colder.

2. You get used to the darkness. We're losing about 4 minutes of light every day, but that's only going to go on for another month. By this time in January, we'll be back to the amount of sunlight we have now, which is almost 7 hours, so it's not too big of a deal.

3. You also get used to the wildlife. One day we were driving out of the gate, and I looked over and saw two eagles take off out of the trees. At first I simply thought, "Oh, there are some eagles," as if this was just a ho-hum daily occurrence. Then I snapped out of it and pointed them out to Anthony. How cool is it to see something like that when you're driving to Target?

3. Driving in the snow is interesting. I guess that would be the word. In Indiana, as soon as there is snow and ice in the forecast, the salt trucks are out covering the roads. In Alaska, salt can't be used because for several reasons. Once again, it's just too blasted cold to do anything, since salt lowers the melting point, but not enough to do anything up here. Also, it would probably attract a lot of wildlife since the roads would be one giant salt lick for them. Instead the trucks drop gravel, which helps a little. This does not help in finding lanes that are now covered in snow and ice. And there are no reflectors, so mostly it's up to you to decide if it's one, two, or three lanes.

4. For some reason, the radio stations seem to be stuck in the early 90's. I know it's hard to ship things up here, but I didn't think new music was included in that. In one hour I heard "Fly" by Sugar Ray, "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind, "Get the Party Started" by Pink, and "Push" by Matchbox Twenty. Most parents and children have a generation gap in music, but it's nice to know that the boys and I will be able to share a love of the music from my high school years.

5. Commercials can, and are, often made in home basements. Our favorite is the one below from The Mattress Ranch. This is also the most professional one. Many of the other commercials are for restaurants we don't have here. If I have to see Sonic advertising Cherry Limeades (yum!) one more time, I'm going to have a meltdown. Enjoy this jingle. It always gets stuck in my head!

Candy Overload!

Once again, a busy month. A few weeks ago, we had our very first Chuck E Cheese experience. Well, I've been there, but Anthony swears they were never allowed to go as kids, so they thought it was some kind of wicked place that respectable people don't visit. That may still be true. It sure has changed since my last visit. Does anyone else remember when it used to be called Showbiz, or does that just show my age? Now it's all lights and noise and craziness, but we had a fun time. The birthday party was for an Air Force family in our ward, the Jacksons, who have three boys. We're sad that they're moving to the Azores (Portugal) in a few weeks, and totally jealous that they're leaving winter in Alaska for a tropical island. It was nice to get the chance to celebrate with them before they go.

Will, of course, was terrified of Chuck E, but Ethan was more than willing to pose.

They both had lots of fun with the games and rides.

Will put his arm around Ethan all by himself to help keep Ethan in the car.
He's such a good big brother.

Will's favorite was probably the Whack A Mole game.




The week before Halloween, we carved our pumpkin for Family Home Evening. Unfortunately, the pumpkin had to come from the grocery store since there aren't any pumpkin patches or apple orchards here. Or none that I can find. I miss fall in Indiana! But we had a great time working on the pumpkin. Will was a little more helpful this year, but we still spent a lot of time keeping Ethan from eating the gunk.

Our pumpkin, Homestar Runner

This is the only time we were able to light the pumpkin. I put it on our porch the next afternoon, and two hours later, an animal ate the face. Usually we have to worry about punk kids, not wild animals.

We were able to go trick or treating twice on Halloween. The community center has an indoor event in the afternoon, which was nice because it was freezing that evening. Ethan was a dalmatian, and Will wore his zebra costume from last year. To say that Will was not excited about putting on his costume would be an understatement. He was sobbing and telling me, "No zebra!" I finally was able to get him into the pants, but we thought that would be as far as we would get until I convinced him that the top was just a jacket. For some reason he was okay with that.




And once he caught on that zebra=candy, he was all for it. He ate quite a bit of that candy before we left the community center.






When we went out that night, our first stop was at our neighbor, Dan's, door. Dan gets really into Halloween, so his house was all decorated, and he was dressed up as the Grim Reaper. He tried not to scare Will, but Dan's a pretty big guy, and it was just too much. Will started crying, and for the rest of the block, at every house he said, "No Dan! No Dan!"


















I had to include this video of Ethan attacking Will for his candy. This is how he growls whenever he wants food.




This is Will's version of "Trick or Treat."



It is definitely getting colder, but we're still waiting for the snow. They predict it every couple of days, but so far, we've only had about 10 minutes of it, and it melted right away. The main thing we're having to adjust to is a lot less daylight. Right now, the sun rises at about 8:30 and sets at 4:30, so we never are quite sure what time it is without looking at a clock. The one good thing is that it makes me start dinner a lot earlier than I normally do because I just assume that it's 6 o'clock. Which means in December, we'll probably be eating dinner at 3 in the afternoon and in bed by 5. Perhaps we'll move into a Senior Community. It's always an adventure in Alaska!

The Best Will Story Ever

Every night when he puts Will to bed, Anthony has been reading the Book of Mormon to him. Will loves it and never wants Anthony to stop. After a few nights though, Will started interrupting and asking for juice. This kid loves juice. He'll drink his whole cup full in about a minute and ask for more, but it also goes through him just as quick, so we limit how much he gets. Well, Anthony couldn't figure out what was bringing on the requests for juice, so he would just tell Will there wasn't any juice and go on. He then read"...record of the Jews" and got the response from Will, "Juice? Juice?" That made us laugh so hard.

I know it's been forever since I've updated everyone, so I'll try to catch up on all of our good news. First, we closed on the house at the end of August. It was such a relief not to have to worry any more that the offer would fall through, as well as knowing that it's no longer empty and not having the vast majority of our paycheck go to the mortgage. We celebrated by going out for ice cream. I know, we're living large with our new found wealth. On the same day of the closing, Anthony logged onto a computer at work to find that he had received a promotion. Four days before. We thought he wouldn't be Airman First Class until the end of October, so it was a wonderful surprise. Anthony spent his lunch hour taking his uniform to have his second strip sewn on, and his uniform looks much better with the addition.

Ethan has been learning all sorts of new tricks. He is completely crawling, so nothing is off limits any more. He even throws himself off the landing at the bottom of our stairs, just like Will does. Even before he was up crawling on his knees, I would find him pulling himself up the stairs. I don't know where he's going, but he's in a hurry to get there. He also loves the washing machine just like Will.


Each morning he is standing up in his crib, and he spends a lot of the day using the furniture to make his way around the living room. It's almost scary how quickly he learns how to do things. He even knows that under Will's chair he can find the best food that's been dropped. I found him there one day after lunch with a piece of bacon from the leftover chowder Will had been eating. His other big news is that his first tooth came in at the beginning of September, a full four months before Will's first tooth had come in. Teeth 2, 3, and 4 all showed up within a few weeks, so now he has two bottom teeth and the two top canine teeth, but no middle teeth on top. He's also doing better with not spitting up, so those of you who invested in stocks for whatever company makes Resolve carpet cleaner might want to start selling them. We won't be buying quite as much any more, so I'm sure their profits will be falling.


Ethan had his first hair cut last week, and I couldn't believe the difference it made. Watch out girls!

Before

After

Will continues to do funny things each day. His friend Brayden taught him to dance, and it's pretty hilarious. He's in a mood where he doesn't like his picture taken, so I'll have to see if I can hide and catch him on video. He's learned how to say chocolate, and everything brown to him must be chocolate.




Will's also learning his colors and has orange and yellow down. We're working on the others. He finally learned to say "You're welcome," instead of just repeating "Thank you," and now he tries to get you to say thank you just so he can tell you you're welcome. His big phrase right now is, "I think so." That is the answer to every question. Sometimes he'll throw in, "I guess," accompanied by an eye roll. Who knows where he's getting this from.

Will had a great second birthday. One of his favorite parts was the candy his Aunt Heilit and Uncle Matt sent with his present. I could hardly get him interested in anything else. He is definitely a candy freak like his dad. If ever he even thinks you have candy, he's on you like a bloodhound.


His second favorite gift was his new tricycle.














As you can see, everywhere Will is, Ethan is usually with him.

For Will's cake, we made an ice cream cake shaped like a basketball, since ball's are his life. It turned out pretty well.











While my parents were here, we were able to take a trip to Fairbanks. One of the things we were most excited about was visiting North Pole, AK, where you can visit Santa Claus any day of the year. Except apparently between September and October, when Santa takes Fall Break. So here's Ethan in Santa's vacant chair.




We also didn't see the Northern Lights, which was disappointing, but we received our first snow fall of the year!

It hasn't started in Anchorage yet, and we're hoping it holds off for awhile. We're instead getting use to the lack of daylight. The sun doesn't rise until 8:30 a.m., and it's pitch black by 7:30 p.m. I have a feeling it's going to be a long, dark winter. To help combat the boredom, we purchased a Wii, and we're loving it. Anthony got the Wii Fit for my birthday, and I've been having lots of fun working out every day. I know, that doesn't sound like a sentence that could be true, but it really is fun. I like all the different games, plus I know that I'm doing exercises correctly--since it certainly lets you know if you're doing something wrong--as well as keeping track of how much I've worked out. It's the best!

As for Anthony, he's finishing up his CDC's (career development courses), and then he'll be able to start working on college courses for his degree. He's still really considering becoming an officer, so it is going to be a lot of hard work to get there within the time frame allowed, but it will be worth it in the end. He also was able to go on his first hunting trip with a friend from the shop, but unfortunately the only animal he saw was a field mouse. I asked why he didn't shoot that and bring it home. He promised me a bear skin rug, and I at least could have made a doll size one with that. In other wildlife sightings, we saw 3 porcupines while my parents were visiting, and today I looked up at the window while I was doing dishes, and this is what I saw 50 feet away at the playground:





I took Will out to see it, and he started shouting, "Hi Moose!" Then it ran off, so he sadly called out, "Bye Moose." Every day it's something new.

A few weeks ago I received a notice for jury duty. For Indiana. It said they would pay the mileage to go back and forth each day, but I don't think they've calculated the distance from Anchorage. I'm pretty sure I can get out of it. I also have officially switched over to be an Alaskan resident. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it's done. Otherwise, I have lots of projects I'm working on, including Christmas stockings and doing some photo shoots of the boys. (Laura, I miss you! I need your expertise!)

On Labor Day, we were able to go on an amazing hike with the boys, called the Winner Creek Trail. The boys did really well, and our favorite part was at the end where you had to pull yourself across the gorge on a hand tram.



It was pretty neat, although it made me feel really dizzy. Lately, I've had vertigo, and I'm thinking of changing my name to Lucile 2. (If that doesn't make sense, you need to see Arrested Development.) Will did incredibly well, walking for almost 2 miles, but Ethan spent a lot of the trip sleeping.



That's about all that is going on in Alaska. Everyone's keeping busy, growing and learning new things. We love and miss you all!