Our Winter Fun

I LOVE ALASKA!!! Being in Anchorage is A MILLION times better than Fairbanks. We can actually be outside and do stuff and not freeze to death in negative 50 below weather. We went to the Downtown Tree lighting ceremony. The first time we have ever gone to one of these. We didnt realize how far away we parked so we were glad it was decently warm outside!


Here we are waiting for the ceremony to start!

It got a little chilly standing there! Good thing Madi has an awesome jacket!

We went for a drive up the mountain. Why we didnt do this in our truck I DONT KNOW. But we took the car and drove as high as we could. We finally got to a point where the car was just rolling backwards so we decided to turn around before we went off the edge!!

It was so beautiful up there though!

We finally took Madi Ice Skating. This is her first time doing it. And this is her saying look mama i can do it all by myself..

She finally got brave enough to let go of the wall...

And then she got brave enough to let go of me!

She would fall down and say Im ok and get right back up!! She is one tough cookie! One time she fell and just laid there for about 2 minutes and finally said um mom i am cold...

Here she is doing it all by herself... Next time we will see if she can actually skate instead of walk!!

The next morning we went and had breakfast with Santa. This is one girl that has NEVER been afraid of talking to Santa and sitting on his lap. Well actually with anyone. She will go up to anyone anywhere and strike up a conversation...

THey had little crafts for all the kids to do!



Madi and Jason getting the tree stand ready for the tree. This is our 4th christmas together and the first time we have went and bought a tree and put it up! The first Christmas I was in Arizona getting ready to have Madison while Jason was deployed. The 2nd Christmas Jason had just got home from Deployment and we were going to TN for 2 weeks so we didn't get a tree. The third Christmas we were in Arizona with Jason home on leave from deployment and this year is our first year with no family around but our own! I am so excited that we get to be together this year because once again next year Jason will be gone....

Sad that this girl is 3 and its her firs tree! She did a great job in helping us pick it out. Also my sister Mandy made our stockings and tree skirt for Christmas a few years ago and this is the first year we get to use them!!

Its always been tradition in our family to have the kids put the start up on the tree. Here we are passing on the tradition!!

So festive!!