February 2024

Highlights of the month included Derek's trip to DC for an allergy conference, the end of Shelby's school basketball season, the start of Brady's first indoor soccer season {and Derek's soccer coaching debut!}, Valentine's Day fun, and finally receiving confirmation that we will be moving July 2025. When we initially received our orders to PCS to Alaska, we knew it would be a three-year assignment, which would put us leaving AK the summer of 2025. But shortly after arriving here in 2022, we got word that we might be able to move the summer of 2023. Then, when that didn't come to fruition, we heard rumblings we might be able to move this summer. We now finally feel confident that we are staying put until our full three-year assignment concludes. The kids {especially Shelby!} are thrilled. Derek and I still don't feel truly at home here, but we are so thankful for the memories we're making in this chapter of our family's story. I mean, it's not every day you get to a see two moose eating over the fence after an orthodontist appointment or a giant moose casually strolling out of the movie theater parking lot in downtown Anchorage. While we are admittedly a bit over the frigid temperatures & allll the snow {although even the permanent Alaskans say these past two winters have put them over the edge!}, we are thankful for all of the experiences Alaska has provided us with. From majestic mountain views at every turn, ice fishing, snow tubing, skiing, hiking, sledding, visiting glaciers...these are things we never would have been able to experience without the Air Force bringing us here. We have experienced & learned so much during this assignment. But we are also immensely thankful to have the emotional rollercoaster of not knowing behind us & have an official end date. ;)

{curly hair for the school Valentine's dance!}

{homeschool projects for the win!}

{after all the whales we saw in Maui, we checked out lots of books at our library on whales..one of the books described the whales' baleen to a comb, so we gave it a try! I love the smile on Hadley's face here!}

Hadley is the best big sister! She made a Valentine's Day scavenger's hunt for Brady, and they both loved every minute of it! It was so special.

{Cold Stone to celebrate the end of a great basketball season!}

Grandma & Granddad sent a Lego set of roses to us for Valentine's Day, which the kids had a ton of fun putting together while I read to them before bed in the evenings.

{While reading The Adventures of Miss Petitfour recently, the author mentioned "Cat's Cradle." So we promptly watched a couple YouTube videos..it was quite the hit!}

{our church mailed us this print after Shelby's baptism in January, and I couldn't love it more!}

{nothing better than a fort!}

{went down to Shelby's room to find her knitting & listening to music...she exudes joy!}

The next picture may not seem like much, but I was so proud of these three! It snowed a good bit while Derek was in DC, and of course he does 99.9% of our shoveling. We worked together as a team while he was gone & got it all done! On this particular morning, we had somewhere to be at a certain time & I had to jump in the shower and wasn't sure we'd have time to shovel before leaving. I came out of the shower to this view. They worked together and got it accomplished in record time!

{Hadley was attending the monthly meeting of the Eagle River Spinners at our local library, so this was how these two passed the time}

{first game of the season for this guy!}

We've got lots of fun ahead of us in March, and we are ready for it!