Christmas 2006

Unfortunately we did not have a new baby to share Christmas with but we had a great holiday just the same. Christmas Eve we stayed in Delta and went for a nice ski during the day and had a quiet dinner at home.





Christmas morning we opened a few gifts from friends and family- the dogs were excited to get their presents too!

Later in the afternoon we made the trip to Fairbanks to have dinner with friends. We had an amazing feast complete with King Crab, tamales, stuffed eggplant, salmon cakes, cranberry sauce, salad and homemade truffles. Julie also fired up the hot tub and Stacia mixed up some of her famous margaritas. This baby better hurry up so I can join in the fun again!

Cookies

It just wouldn't have seemed like Christmas without decorating sugar cookies. Jeff doesn't get too excited about colored sprinkles so Ellen and Rachelle came over to help out.

Great News!!!

Jeff's sister, Liz, had her baby on Sunday!! Little Ana Kathryn Mellone weighed in at 6lbs 9oz and we are happy to report Mom, Dad and Baby are all healthy and happy!!!! We can't wait to meet her.

Tick tock, tick tock.....

Less than a week to my due date! I have taken time off work to get ready for the baby, I think we are pretty much set so now we are just waiting and practicing :)

Proud Papa

Big mama

Adrian and Dan came for a visit a couple weeks ago and Jeff and Adrian made a bet on the baby's gender. Adrian says girl, Jeff says boy. If its a boy Adrian will deliver us chocolate baked goods every month for 3 months, if its a girl Jeff owes Adrian several pounds of wild Alaska game meat. I hope its a Boy!!!

Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree

We went out on Saturday and got our Christmas tree off the back 30. Luckily it was only 10 below zero, heat wave!

It's a good thing I went along to supervise, birch trees do not make very good Christmas trees!

That's looking a little better...

The final choice- it turned out pretty nice.

Big weekend

When you live in Delta Junction you gotta do what you can. So, on Friday night Jeff and I went to watch the Delta Huskies hockey game. We are proud to report our little Huskies stomped the opposition 8-1! On Saturday we went out to Quartz lake for some ice fishing...my dad will be proud he raised a daughter that will go ice fishing when 9 months pregnant :) he would be even prouder to know that it was actually my idea! But we did rent out a fishing hut which has a wood stove in it- if only it had a window and some fish below it.

The Hut- nothing fancy but it was warmer than sitting out on the ice.

I am not quite as big as this jacket makes me look!

Mancha- patiently waiting for her fish.. or at least a chance at some of the bait.

The Sweeties!

Thanksgiving

Sometimes it is hard living so from away from family but we are very thankful for the wonderful friends that we have come to know and love here in Alaska. We really are one big happy family and if we keep eating meals like this our family is sure to grow :)

Steve, our gracious host and turkey chef, inspects the spread

In Alaska- potluck meals are definately the way to go!!

The smiles say it all!!

Taking some time to digest

The Tryptophan starts to take hold

Getting in some quality time with the girls

Calliope is still going strong!

Almost done.

Delta Shower

The ladies at work and some friends from Delta also threw me a fablous baby shower. I was really impressed with the all the effort put forth for us- food, gifts, decorations, games and prizes. Thanks ladies, everyone should be so fortunate to have so many wonderful friends! Plus they were nice enough to spare me from too many embarrassing games. But I have to say I am a little disappointed NOBODY cut their string smaller than the actual circumference of my belly! I was also very surprised to find gifts that my family had mailed in for the occasion.
What a fun evening, thanks everyone!!

Great spread!

Baby cake- by Joyce

Just a few of the great gifts- our kid is set!!

Everything so so darn cute and snuggly!

Baby swing

The ladies

Baby Shower

The fairbanks crew threw a potluck baby shower for me on saturday night. It was wonderful, so great to see everyone and I was overwhelmed with the generosity. In addition to lots of great presents many folks gave us homemade casseroles, soups, etc. that we can freeze and just re-heat during the first few weeks after the baby arrives. People keep telling us we are going to be stressed out and too tired to do much of anything those first few weeks....How hard can it be??

Our friends are so talented!! Shiway made the first 2 hats, Julie the middle one and Lauren the last one. Our baby is going to be stylin' this winter.

Shannon's son, Owen, was the token baby at the shower, he is quite the little flirt and managed to keep a dozen woman entertained.

Cletus also did some entertaining
I was really surprised by this gift! The whole gang, including friends from Anchorage, all chipped in and got us this stroller. It also converts into a bike buggy and can be outfitted with skis! We are really excited to test this out- THANKS EVERYONE!!

Getting bigger- 8.5 months and counting!

Gotta have your girls

I left Jeff at home and spent the weekend in Fairbanks hanging out with the ladies. On friday Brook hosted a girls party in Shiway's honor (she was back in town from Seward). We had a blast, Brook was brave enough to share the photos she took. I only posted the tame ones :)

The ladies

Girls night is never dull when Jenny is around- she spiced up the party with jewels, glitter and of course the pole!

Brook and Laura- early in the evening :)

No party is complete without a little friendly leg wrestling

Things are starting to liven up a bit as the night progresses......

Brook will probably never share her photos with me again

Adrian steps up to the pole

A few ladies start seeing double....

Now everything is a blur (unless you are the sober pregnant lady)


Like I said- things are never dull when Jenny is around!