Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas. We had a new experience around here, Christmas with a baby. Milo starting celebrating about 3 am and never went back to sleep until around 11 am, boy was I feeling in a daze this morning, so sleepy. Here are a few pictures of Milo in his Christmas outfit and a few of Christmas Eve at the Fejes family house.

A family of 3!

Life with the addition of Milo is going well. I would say we are pretty calm, maybe one trip out of the house a day, seems pretty good to me. Melissa just left this morning so we are going it alone. It was great to have her and Mom here for 2 weeks each, sure helped us ease into the routine of parenthood. Melissa made it to Christmas Eve dinner last night and my did we have quite a time, prime rib, pavlova and presents. Milo charmed his Aunts and Cousins, he even opened his eyes for a while and fell fast asleep.

Seth and I packed him in his carrier under Seth's jacket and Milo went on his first ski last night, he slept soundly through the entire thing, I doubt he ever knew he left his house.

Now we are having a quiet Christmas night here at the house, a walk through all the fluffy snow and a quick visit with some neighbors to drop off thank you notes and chicken eggs. Hope your Christmas is relaxing too. Now to take a nap? Ah sleep, how I miss you so.

11/30/11

Here are a few pics.




Well, he made it. Milo is sleeping in Grandma's arms as I type.
It was great, he is amazing.

Life is settling down, although if there is any schedule to our new life I am yet to understand it. With the terrible weather outside it feels like a great time to be at home resting. Lucky we took that picture on Tuesday night because those were his last hours in that home! That same night he decided to make his get away.

41 weeks

Hi,
This is what 41 weeks pregnant looks like, looks like I quit wearing real pants and that would be correct. Yoga, walking, spicy soup and eggplant parmesan been there, ate that. We are supposed to be in for a large storm in the next few days, sounds like good time to hole up on the couch with a good book and enjoy some long dog walks.

Well, I know that my blog readership is at an all time high, one shouldn't fool themselves, I know what you are waiting for...... me too. Until that time, whenever it happens I will just humor myself and keep busy with documenting life around here. I remember a time when Mo wrote on Skpye, "talk to me people, I have nothing but time." Oh, Mo, those words are certainly ringing true around here.

Seth is working on a model of our cabin in Homer, I am loving every quality minute with Elna. Oh, Elna? She is my new sewing machine. Mom gave me an early Christmas present and my do I enjoy spending time with her, the decorative stitches, the easy to thread needle, she is just lovely.

It is cold around here, really cold, -3? No wonder the little fellow won't come out. Seth says we will have an entire lifetime with him so we should just enjoy our quiet time now, yeah, that is true.

I took two pictures of my favorite book my friend Becky gave us, "Hatched." It's too funny.

Thanksgiving

Well, we didn't make plans for Thanksgiving hoping that life would be very different around here, in fact it is not. This house is running very smoothly. I don't think I've ever had every errand I could think of done before like this, it is actually quite nice.

For Thanksgiving we headed to Grandma's house, as usual it was full of family and dogs. Grandpa was feeding Ginger from his plate, he noticed she didn't like eating off his spoon so he hand fed her, on the way home from a hike yesterday she didn't want to sit in the back seat so Mom let her sit next to her, I think Ginger would be insulted if you called her a dog anymore, she is The Princess.

Thanksgiving was fun, here is a little poem Grandpa wrote about our impending family, take it with a grain of salt, Seth is quite fond of it, and my Mom laughs as it so I will post it here:

A Little Drop of Brandy

3 years married and not a child in sight.

Becky whispered to daughter Bonnie, "Is husband Seth alright?"

Oh Mother dear Mother, Seth is trying so,

My dear Seth is so tired he is always on the go.

You must build him up dear daughter on vitamins if he be low.

Be sure he has plenty of ventilation, jockey shorts will have to go.

Give him a dram of brandy before you go to bed, it worked with your father that is enough said.


No baby yet, 41 weeks and counting. We'll post as soon as there is some action. Until than I spose we will keep the fire going and enjoy all this new snow, go on long walks and catch up on reading.

The pictures are of the Thanksgiving table and of Seth making his eggnog. Seth makes this eggnog every year, fresh raw eggs and lots of sugar are the key ingredients, Grandma even gets special cream from the local dairy for the occasion.

39 weeks

We'll we've made it to 39 weeks and no baby, he is hiding from the cold! Ashley put money on his birthday being today, since it is only 7 pm she still has a chance I spose. As a birthday present she bought me a Skoop, for those of you not involved in the revolution, it is an insulated skirt you wear outside, while walking the dogs or cross country skiing, THANKS ASH!!!!!

High winds batter already frigid Southcentral

High winds batter already frigid Southcentral
Northerly surface winds colliding with an upper-level jet stream have produced gusts of wind up to 70 mph in some places in Southcentral Alaska, sending already freezing temperatures to sub-zero degrees with the wind chill, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasts for tomorrow call for single digit temperatures with winds expected to decline moderately.



Yeah, it's nasty here. All that beautiful powder we were skiing and walking in is blowing around, it's cold!! Seth and I did a little pre-Christmas shopping today and than he came home and started a fire and worked from home while I practiced napping, it's too cold to work at his drafty little office. Ginger and I Spy and I we stay near the fire and relax, it' s what this weather calls for. That and drinking lots of egg nog! The chickens and ducks haven't come out of their house either, they are not that dumb, I added some new straw and feed them lots of corn, they are going to get fat.

With such weather I don't blame Milo for not making his appearance, his home is much nicer, generally surrounded by fancy wool long underwear as a present from his father to his lucky mother. Seth and I put together a list of people to text when he is born so no one will be left wondering, although the calls have started coming in daily, people just wondering how we are doing. We're good, we just keep running out of egg nog.

A walk in the new snow

Ginger and I take two or three walks a day, this morning was really beautiful. We received 6 inches of snow and it is light and fluffy. The sunrise was really great. We spent the weekend in Hatcher Pass and the night at the Van Hemert cabin, really nice. Now it is running errands and getting things cleaned up around the house, on the weeks I work things really get ignored.

I have only this Friday and next Friday left of work, oh the excitement is hard to contain!!!

Good news, the chickens have been laying up to 7 eggs a day! Seth designed a very fancy duck water bucket to reduce their mess and made some really nice cozy hay beds for chickens and ducks alike.

The bad news, when Ginger and I went to check on the flock this morning I realized Mrs. Hitachi is missing. She must've flown out of the yard is all I can tell? Yesterday while reading National Geographic on the couch something hit the window and scared us, it was Shipper, she flew out of the chicken yard and straight into the front window! She seems fine, she did have a flat spot on her head there for an afternoon. So it has been a rough week for the ducks. We will just have to keep an eye out for Mrs. Hitachi on our walks, although it is very cold and snowy out so I feel sick that she is not doing well. Domesticated ducks just don't do well in deep snow with no corn and heating light.

I also include a picture of my two chummy pets Spy and Ginger, they give each other a little sniff in the morning when going out but lately Spy has taken to rubbing up under Ginger, Ginger is unsure what to do with such public displays of affection.

Chicken chair

What do you think of my chair? I made it up in Talkeetna a few weekends ago, hard work. It's good to see that the chickens appreciate it at least.

The pumpkins were carved earlier in the week, Scott's is scariest for sure.

baby cooking

Here are two pictures of the future heir to the Andersen empire. The first is I think 36 weeks and the second is 34 weeks, can you tell the difference? I certainly can! The baby room is done, the baby shower was so great and now just a little more cooking until we meet our son!

R.I.P Rue McClanahan

She was a funny chicken, had a hard time hatching, we had to help her. She might have never laid an egg, and she was often thought to be very low I.Q. No matter, she was sweet chicken who made some really crazy seagull like noises and she will be missed. Here is her official baby chick pic, sigh, sad to loose a pet.

A role in the hay

Ginger has taken to napping in the hay Seth spread in the perennial beds. The chickens and ducks love to root around in the hay and so Ginger doesn't get much quality sleep.

Projects for a rainy day

The weather this weekend was terrible so I started some projects, might be a little nesty ah? Well, when inspiration hits better run with it. As someone who has no patience for straight lines or exact measurements sewing is not generally my bag but I found a neat book with really simple projects. Made some little bibs, simple giraffe shaped rattles, burp rags and ribbon teething rags.

Menagerie of pets

With a little sunshine the farm animals really start to look beautiful. For your viewing pleasure here is Ginger in her fall glamour shot and the chickens dust bathing in my flower beds. On a similar note I just opened up the linen closet to put away a towel and out jumps Spy cat like it's her usual to be in the closet all morning, she just rubbed my leg and walked over the food bowl, as if to say, "Good morning Bonnie, I'm simply famished, have you eaten yet?"

The picture of the dog and the chicken happens to be our newest friendship. David Green, something of a loner chicken has developed a taste for Ginger's canned dog food and stops in the arctic entry around 6 ish each evening to clean-up whatever Ginger doesn't care for, David Green is the first up every morning, last to bed and now her plucky resolve has been rewarded, she is the only chicken eating beef in a rich gravy each night. Yes, she may look like a cross between a taradactal and a drowned chicken but she is very smart. She is named after a local fur coat retailer because she wears a fur coat and owns no feathers.

Baby Room

A few weekends ago Seth did the most amazing job transforming our extra room in to the baby's room. He put in new flooring, painted, new furniture and than we did a bit of decorating! So fun, now just to add the occupant. Looks like Seth wins the best dad on the block award from me.

September

Well, it seems August has morphed into September here in Anchorage and hopefully it starts to be a little less rainy around here. You know it's fall in Anchorage because Ashley and Scott are back in town, school has started and now Pat and Caroline are back in town, I guess it's time for schedules, snow and darkness here soon.

On a good note the blueberries were great, I don't want to brag but I really made a pretty good haul for someone who can't bend over very well. My salmon haul was good too but turns out not worth it, I pulled a ligament in my belly while lifting a backpack full of fish and now it won't heal, with a large belly it turns out this is becoming more painful and more of a pain, just rolling over in bed is becoming an event, poor Seth.

Over the last weekend a trip to Homer was made to pack things up for winter and add stairs to the new dock. Seth found some incredible bolts, wires, rock drills and epoxy to make sure the dock won't float away in the ice this winter. While working we watched an otter clean himself obsessively every morning, a baby eagle learn to soar (not gracefully) and Kingfishers chase each other. It was relaxing to have no appointments or job, a quiet evening playing cards and reading sure helps to calm you down.

Now, it's back to the race, Seth and I should be well schooled after childbirth class and hypno birth class with a little breast-feeding class thrown in for good measure. Let the crazy times begin.

Here are a few pics of the deck all buttoned down for the winter, hope your fall is swell.

Dock progress

Looks like in all the family visits I forgot to include a few pictures of the dock Seth and I built a few weekends ago out at Bear Island. The area is aptly named as we saw at least one bear if not two every day. The dock is up and very steady, we are headed back down to add stairs to the dock and to the island itself and to prepare for next summer's big adventure of cabin building. Building the dock was actually really fun, learning all the terms for the beams and creating something from just wood is so cool, I have to admit I was totally hooked and really excited to see what Seth had planned every day. We floated all the wood for the following day over from Dad's beach to our rock outcropping at high tide and Seth had a great itinerary so we would stay on schedule. Now, hopefully it is all there and as we left it when we go back in two weekends.