Amanda's Latest Project

My last few months in Alaska, I was working on a VERY big, but EXCITING project!! I've wanted to write about it on our blog for a long time, but had to refrain, because I was using my "project" as Christmas presents for my family. For my project, I recorded my very first CD! It's been quite the experience, and took quite a bit of work. I think every emotion possible has gone into this project at some point. Matt and the boys have been so patient and supportive through this whole thing, especially toward the end, when I was practicing a lot more and messing around on the computer trying to create a cover/label I liked. (My brother, Leonard, came up with the design I chose though). I started this project around the beginning of summer, and recorded the week before Thanksgiving. I didn't tell very many people what I was doing, because part of me wasn't sure it would actually happen (pregnant, new baby, moving prep, etc.), and another part of me wasn't sure I'd like the results. But overall, I am pleased with how it turned out. I can pick out technical flaws in every single song, but I'm trying not to dwell on that. :) I already have plans for 2 more albums, due to Matt's request (I have a great hubby!). Anyway, if I can figure out how to post a sample or two of this CD, I will. In the meantime, you'll have to just look at the cover!
If anyone would like a copy of my CD, email me to make sure I have your address, and I'll send you one. Who knows, maybe someday I'll be famous, or at least be a real opera star! That would be awesome!

Our House.........

K, so here go - pictures of our very colorful house! We officially spent our first night in our house on New Years Eve. It was SO nice to crawl into my own bed! I slept so much better! We still have so much to do to make our house functional before Matt starts school on Monday. Our movers were terrible and the boxes are incorrectly labeled, and have stuff from multiple rooms in the same box. It's so frustrating trying to find things. GRRR! Oh well. We'll find it all eventually. Anyway, enjoy the sort of tour of our very bright house!

Here's the front! I love that we get lots of shade!

Here's the back! That's a pecan tree full of lots of yummy pecans - we have 2 trees of them!

The backyard! Darren absolutely loves it! He has lots of room to run, and doesn't need a coat!

Our bedroom! Matt kept trying to sneak into the pictures. What a goof!

Another angle of our room. I absolutely HATE the pink!

Joseph's room!

Darren's room! I actually like this blue for his room. It matches his stuff!

This is the boys' bathroom! Good thing they're too little to care about the color! Pink has it's place in this world, but the walls of my house should NOT be that place! Maybe it's a good thing I have boys!

My teeny tiny orange kitchen!

The living room reminds me of an orange creamsicle! And, as a bonus, this is the beginning of Matt's little "troll" dance! It's very funny, and makes me laugh every time he does it! Next time you see him, persuade him to do it for you!

Moving and Change of Plans.....

There is light at the end of the tunnel in our moving process! Although we have a VERY long list of things that have gone wrong with our move, making this BY FAR the hardest and most stressful move we've ever done, we have also been very blessed! So, rather than ramble on about all the yucky stuff that's happened the last few weeks, I'll dwell on the positive! From the beginning, I'm very thankful for friends who called and offered to take the kids (really just Darren) overnight, so Matt and I could pull an allnighter cleaning for our housing inspection (long story as to why the all nighter was necessary). And I'm thankful for another friend who took time out of her busy day to come over and help us clean. By a great miracle from a loving Heavenly Father, we somehow passed our cleaning inspection- ALL of the floors were still gross, and we still had a bunch of crap in the garage. Then, we were very blessed that the ferry was equipped with a vehicle battery charger since jumper cables wouldn't have worked with the location/position of our vehicle (the joys of a door not getting shut all the way!).

Once we reached Oregon, we were very fortunate that we were staying with my Dad and stepmom during the first of their many ice/snow storms. Though that storm did delay us a day, and played a part in our change of plans, it was one more day to spend with family! So at this point, we felt like we needed to change our plans and head straight to Texas rather than stop in Utah to spend Christmas with our families (both of our moms, Matt's Dad, and all of our siblings). Matt and I were both very sad about that, since that was the highlight of our move/vacation, but we thought it was more important that we follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

En route to Texas, we got stuck in another snow storm outside of Los Angeles, CA, that closed ALL roads to/from the town we were passing through. But, I am very thankful for a tech savvy brother who basically became a GPS system for us since we couldn't read street signs and we had no clue where we were going anyway. He also called around, and after several attempts, found a vacancy at a hotel and reserved a room for us. By the time we got to the hotel, the line in the lobby was so long, they weren't accepting anymore reservations, and all the hotels were filling up VERY quickly, or were already full. THANK YOU, Leonard!! The roads opened up the next day, and we were able to make it to Texas without further incident.

Now that we're here, we are starting to see little by little why we needed to just come straight here. One of the biggest reasons I think, is so we could get into the best house for us at this time. Somewhere between California and here I had a dream where I saw the house for us. I remember HATING the color schemes, but LOVING the backyard for Darren, and that it was very clean with some nice modern updates. Anyway, the last house we looked at, totally fit everything in my dream. It was awesome! Unfortunately, there was someone else ahead of us that wanted the house, so we had to wait to see if it was going to go through. Fortunately, she changed her mind, and we got the call on Christmas eve that the house was ours!! Merry Christmas to us!! The colors inside this house are amazing..... I don't think there's another word that would quite do it justice, and the landlord does not want us to repaint. The kitchen, dining, living rooms, and hallway are all a really bright tangerine orange! Our bedroom and the main bathroom are a very bright fuscia/pink - disgusting! Joseph's room is the brightest yellow I have ever seen, and Darren's is a bright blue. Darren's room isn't too bad. Everything else about the house is great though, and fairly modern, so I can't complain - especially since we'll only be there for 6 months. When we get the key I'll take pictures, and post them! Anyway, we don't have a move-in date yet, but I'm sure I'll let everyone know when that happens! Since we first looked at the house, a couple other people have already contacted the owners and want the house. So, had we gone with our original plan, we would not have gotten this house. I believe it's meant to be! There is a light at the end of the tunnel of this moving process! Hooray!

Alaska Top 13

As we get closer to moving (2 weeks 'til the movers come, 3 weeks 'til we leave) Matt and I seem to have frequent discussions on what we love about living in Alaska and what we'll miss when we're gone. So, we have come up with our top 13 favorite things (couldn't narrow it down to just 10) about living here, and in no particular order, here they are:

13. Great views of the stars - not too many street lights to interfere up here!
12. Crazy street names! I think my favorite is: "Go Thatta Way" in Moose Creek.
11. Watching the northern lights - I know of a couple really great places to watch them, if anyone wants to know.
10. 24 hours (basically) of daylight in the summer -LOVE that!
9. Throwing boiling water into -40 degree air and watching it vaporize instantly. The first year Matt tried this he took a pot of boiling water outside and tried to flip the water out and up. Unfortunalty, the handle somehow caught on his coat sleeve and he ended up dumping the entire pot on his head! Luckily, in that short instance between leaving the pot boiling and landing on his head, most of it had vaporized and the water that hadn't was only luke warm. -40 is cool! (pun intended.)
8. Moose making frequent visits to our backyard (we even had one sleep under our bedroom window one night!)
7. Making up your own parking places in the winter.
6. Dipnetting! (Thank you Crandell family!)
5. Airplanes/airstrips literally in the backyards of some people!
4. Having a heated garage, auto start, etc., basically those things that are major luxory items everywhere else, but fairly common (dare I say necessary) here.
3. The tolerant/accepting nature of most people. Fashion - anything goes! Homes - nice/new mixed with the barely livable - sometimes on the same street, with everything else in between!
2. Our ward and friends we have made while up here. For me, this is huge! Friends are necessary, and up here, they have been abundant!
1. The PFD! Need I say anything about that?!

Brotherly Love!

Darren just adores his little brother. He always has, but really has just wanted to quickly hug & kiss the baby, and then be on his way.... that is until this last week or so! Now, he likes having the baby sit right next to him on the couch, hold the baby (even if he's crying), and feed the baby a bottle! He will pull Joseph's socks off and try to do "This Little Piggy" in order to get him to smile! If Darren's holding the baby, or sitting right next to him when he starts getting fussy, he will pat his stomach to try and get him to settle down (he can't reach his back). He is such a GREAT big brother! I hope they will always be buddies as they grow up together! (I know, I'm probably just dreaming!) All of these pictures were taken just within the last week, but all on different days! I love it!

Best Buddies!

I love the tenderness on Darren's face in this one - and their matching outfits!

Darren - What a goof!

Do you need to smile today?!

WARNING: The more you watch this very short video, the funnier it gets! Watch Darren's face!

Halloween Part 2

This year, for trick-or-treating, we went to a ward party where they had all the classrooms decorated by various people handing out candy. Anyway, at my favorite door (Darren's too) the person had made a dog house out of a big cardboard box, put a light inside the dog house (all the other lights were off), and the kids had to crawl inside to get their candy. It was very cute. When it was Darren's turn, he of course was eager to crawl inside, and when candy was thrown at him through a little window in the back, he said thank you, and threw it back! And he kept doing this for a couple of minutes. Everyone that could see what was going on was cracking up! It was pretty funny! Darren did eventually keep the candy and we had to pull him out so other kids could have a turn.

Every year for our costumes (starting last year!) we try to come up with a fun and creative theme for all of us. Last year Darren was Curious George, and I was the man in the yellow hat. This year, we went with another "hat" theme! Matt's costume doesn't really fit with the rest of us, but he still looks awesome!

The Cat in the Hat is in the house! Thing 2 has blue hair! Thing 1 is on the loose!

Yes, that's Darren's real hair!
Darren wouldn't stand up
Green plastic army figurine toy for protection!
Don't shoot the baby!!!