Merry Christmas!

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! This was our first Christmas away from home and I was very worried. I was very pleasantly surprised! Anthony hung up all the lights outside and then decorated the tree! It made me realize that we would definitely have a great Christmas. We started shopping and it was soo fun! We both got clothes and then it was secret time! I have never been very good at keeping secrets or wanting them kept from me! I knew that Anthony was getting me some gifts that I knew nothing about and I was fine with that, until he wrapped them and they were under the tree! I wanted to know what they were! I did very good this year and didn't peek though! It was very different not waking up at my mom and dads and opening gifts. Then not going to Aubrey and Andreas before heading to Georgia. It was different but then I think of how great it was to not have anything planned. We woke up, after sleeping in, opened our gifts, then hung out until lunch time. Then we went to Vicki's and had lunch and hug out over there all afternoon. Don't get me wrong we definitely missed not being with everyone, but knowing that we will be there in about 2 weeks makes it not so bad! We are very excited about coming home and cant wait to see everyone! It will also be nice to get out of the snow! We have probably 3 feet! I'm sure Anthony is tired of shoveling it all! On Christmas Eve we had to say goodbye to our friend Chris who was leaving for Iraq the day after Christmas, I remembered how happy I was Anthony decided not to go! We went to TGIFridays and then everyone came over to watch Christmas Vacation! It was nice to spend time with him before he left. We will keep him in our thoughts and prayers! I realized this Christmas how truly blessed I am! I have a GREAT family and FABULOUS husband that just wants me to be happy! I cant wait to see what the future holds for us! We only have one year left in Anchorage and we are very anxious to see where Uncle Sam wants us to go next! We will see everyone in about 2 weeks! We love you all!

Halloween

The Holidays are hopefully going to fly by. We will be coming home Jan. 10 and we are soo excited! Halloween was a lot of fun. It is a lot of fun living in a neighborhood where we get a lot of trick or treaters. There were a lot of creative costumes and some not so much. We built a fire in the fire pit on the front yard and just got to hang out and meet new people. It was pretty cold so the trick or treaters loved getting warm by it! Maggie and I dressed up as pirates but she had to call it an early night, she got cold. Erica sent me some pics of Olivia in her Halloween costume and I have to say she is the cutest lady bug in the WORLD! I hope that everyone had a safe Halloween! With Thanksgiving right around the corner it makes it a little tough being away from our families. This will be our first Christmas in Alaska and without family. We are looking foward to making new traditions and keeping the old ones too. We will definately have more snow than we have ever had before. We have fabulous friends and they will make it a little easier to be away from home. I think we have a lot to look foward to this Holiday season. We love and miss you all! We are looking foward to seeing you in Jan!

Snow in October

Well, it is only October 6th and we got about an inch of snow yesterday. We knew it would come early this year because it never really warmed up this summer. The snow is definately pretty though. It lightens everything up so at night it isnt as dark as usual. This was Maggie's first snow and she really didnt know what to think! She was just running around enjoying it! We have also booked our plane tickets to come home in Jan! We will be letting everyone know exactly when we will be to see them. We are soo excited to come home and see everyone! We were hoping to bring Maggie home with us, but it is going to be too expensive. It would cost the same amount for her to fly as it is us! That is just crazy! Anthony started his new shift and so far so good! We have so much time together in the afternoons! As you all know I had a car accident on Thursday. Everything is alright and thank goodness for insurance! We have been paying for years and we finally get to use it lol! We hope that everyone is doing well! We love and miss you all so much!

My Birthday Weekend

I had such a fun Birthday weekend! On Sat. Anthony decided to surprise me and take me to Seward, I love going there! It started raining on the way down there, but that didn't matter we are used to the rain now. When we got there, we had to go buy some sweatshirts because it was colder there than Anchorage. We also had to buy Maggie a shirt cause she was cold too, lol, it says "Alaskan Dog Gone Wild"! I think she really liked it too! We didn't stay down there too long it was wet and cold. So for dinner Anthony took me to Benihana which is Tepiyaki where they cook japanese food in front of you on a big grill. I love that restaurant. Then when we got up Sunday morning he made me breakfast. We had strawberry pancakes, cheesy grits, and sausage links. It was delicious! Then I got to relax the rest of the day and then we grilled steaks for dinner. I had broken my bracelet that he got me last year for Valentines Day, so he got me a new one that is a little different. I had such a great weekend! Tonight, however, I made my first batch of chicken and dumplins and man were they good! It was soo nice to have a taste of home! We are hoping to be come home at the begining of the year, we miss you all soo much!

Labor Day Weekend

We have had such a fun weekend! First we went camping, and let me tell you how wonderful it was to get out of Anchorage. We went with our friends Vicki and Lonnie who have a camper. It is the kind that goes in the bed of your truck, and now I have camper fever! It would be so nice to travel the US when we come home in a camper! They have a dog named Sophie who is still a puppy as well, so needless to say Maggie had the time of her life. She got to run around without a leash, play frisbee, and go swimming, well get her feet wet (the water was FREEZING!)! Anthony was trying to find some gold, there is a lot of unfound gold here. Then on Saturday we just drove around the town of Hope looking to see how small it really was! I think it had a population of maybe 50! On Sunday we went with Shane, Robyn and the kids to the Saturday market and the mall. Then grilled hamburgers! It was so nice that Anthony was off all weekend with me! That hasn't happened in a long time!

Tonight we grilled porkchops and I made my first brownie triffle! I bet my mom is soo proud! That has been my favorite dessert and I had never made one! I hope it is half as good as it looks! We are starting to notice that we are really losing daylight! It is getting dark at about 9 o'clock now and not getting light until about 6 o'clock. It is also starting to get colder which means that winter is right around the corner. I am not looking forward to that at all, but we only have 1 and a half winters to go! I hope that everyone is doing great! We love and miss you all!

Starting off!

Wow! This is going to be fun! The only blogging I have done is on Myspace, but now all of our families can read this! Right now, Anthony and I both are very busy working. He is working 12 hour shifts which is pretty hard on him. When they went to the 12 hour shifts they said that they would be leaving early alot, but that hasn't happened. Anthony is one of the only ones qualified to do the "special handling" stuff like with ammo and bombs, so he has to be there to hand the keys off to the person working it at night. They are in talks of going to 8 hour days instead. We hope that if that happens, he gets day shift! I am still at Curves and pretty happy there. We just installed the "smart" equipment" which remembers who you are individually, like a personal coach. It is a lot of fun, but has kept me very busy putting people into the new system. We could really use a vacation! Alaska has been very tough this summer, or lack there of. We haven't had very many good days at all which is making us homesick even more! We have been in talks about coming home in Jan. but because there will be inspections going on at Anthonys work, we don't know for sure yet. We would like to say hello to our new nephew Kaedin Gauge! Buddy and his new wife Sarah just had him on Tues. Aug 19th! He was 7 lbs and 4 oz, and from what Ive heard VERY cute! We can't wait to meet him! Olivia turned 2 on Aug. 15, she is growing up soo fast! We hope to hear from all of you soon and hope that this will be an easier way to keep up with us! We love and miss you all!