Spring has not sprung

So I've been reading other people's blogs and I'm getting quite jealous that the weather seems to be warming up everywhere else but here! That brings me to my story. We live in Eagle River and there is a reason it's called Eagle River. There is one section of the town right by my old elementary school that is infested with bald eagles. They are there all the time and they sometimes fly down to the river that runs right by, thus being called Eagle River. Well, yesterday I was driving by this area and normally the eagles are high in the trees, but this time an eagle swooped low right past me and I almost hit it! It was carrying a giant salmon in it's claws and the fish seriously almost slid across the hood of my car! It was the craziest thing I had ever seen. The thing that made me a little disgruntled was that the fish was frozen! It had icicles on it! There is still 4 feet of snow in our frontyard! So you see, here in Alaska we are far from spring which makes me sad. So the next time you see a fresh blade of grass or a new flower popping up, sniff it for me!

Oh and P.S. I thought I'd share a fun pic of daddy and Lil' B. She was wearing a dress but Kyle tied it into a not in the back so she could crawl. She's definitely on the go at all times now!

Sabbath day drama

Well, there's really not that much drama, but a few things happened today. First, Brighton exploded out of her diaper at church and we had to rush home to get her cleaned up. While we were cleaning her, I noticed there was something on Kyle's shirt. He hadn't noticed it, but when he was holding Brighton, she exploded on him too! So that is what is on his white shirt in the picture. After that, we decided to go for a drive. On our way home, while pulling into the driveway, a moose was in our front yard! Kyle ran outside to take a pic when we got back inside, making sure he was far enough away. Well, he got a little closer to get a better pic, but the moose's ears went back and his hair went up (as a sign that he's about to charge). He started running after Kyle! It was a little scary, but Kyle was still far enough away that he could make it away safe. Anyway, it was a fun little day and I thought you all might like to hear about our Sunday adventures!

Delightful Dip

Whenever we go swimming, people think Brighton's a boy because she's just wearing her little swimmers diaper, so we decided that now was the best time to get her a swimsuit. Today was the inaugural dip and one of the few times Kyle was able to go swimming with us so it was a great photo op!

Furrowed Brows

In my education classes at school, we talked a lot about different ways you can get your point across to students with the least amount of effort. One important technique to do is what's called 'cuing'. You can cue someone by giving them the look. As an example, wives give their husbands cues all the time when they say something stupid or don't do the dishes or what have you. You all know what the look is and I must have rubbed off on little B because now she's cuing me! She must have seen me talking to Kyle or something! Well, she has perfected this cue and it is quite the scowl. When she's upset or not a fan of something, she will definitely let you know by giving you the look. You can't help but laugh when she flashes you this look. On occasion, you can get her to smile through her scowl, and that's when you know she's faking it, but for the most part, she can work you over with her eyebrows! Sorry the pics aren't at her peak scowl moments, but it's hard to get to a camera when you're laughing so hard. I'll post better ones when I get some!

What a peach!

Nothing too eventful today. We just hung out (well, Brighton hung on me! She acts like I'm her personal jungle gym!). I thought I'd show you all Brighton's sour puss face when we introduced peaches to her a while back. We took a video of it that was hilarious, but we haven't figured out how to post videos. Anyway, pucker up Brighton!!

Friends from the start

Brighton has had a best friend since her first month of life. Lillian is about 3 weeks younger than her and was born in Rexburg as well. Our friends Juliet and Ryan Belnap moved up to AK about a month after us and Brighton and their daughter Lily have been friends ever since! It's been fun to see them both develop at the same time and interact together. Thought you'd like the cute pics of them!

Aces Fever

So I've let everyone know that we're quite the Aces Hockey fans and we went to the game last weekend. Well, on Tuesday I subbed at an elementary school and 4 of the Aces came to the school to talk about staying healthy and reading! It was awesome to meet them in person! The kids I taught were pretty wild, but it was all worth it to see Later #7, Iberer #14, Metcalf #4 and MacMurphy #16! Anyway, just thought you'd like to know of my good fortune! And I thought I'd throw in a cute pic of Light Bright!

A True Alaskan weekend

So on Saturday we had fun at the Iditarod, but I failed to mention our awesome Friday. Since Kyle regularly gets free tickets to the Anchorage Aces Hockey game from work, we were able to go. But this was no ordinary game. First off, we got great seats (The second picture was taken from our seats). Next, the game was pretty intense and at one point right in front of us, one of the Bakersfield Condors checked one of our Aces so hard that, if you'll notice in the pic above, the plexiglass came out right in front of us! It almost fell on us but other fans caught it so we were safe! Can you believe it?! It was insane!! After that, as I was saying, the game was so intense that it went into DOUBLE overtime! And finally it came down a shootout. They were neck in neck....and they WON!! It was the most unbelieveable game! And my parents and Brighton were able to come as well which made it a fun time. It was Brighton's first game and she loved seeing the crowds! I think she'll definitely grow to be a hockey aficionado. If nothing else she'll always be an Aces fan through and through!

I did I did I did the Iditarod trail...

Well, give me a team and a good lead dog and a sled that's built so fine, and let me race those miles to Nome 1,049. And when I get back to my home hey I can tell my tail, I DID I DID I DID THE IDITAROD TRAIL!

Those were the words of a classic song all Alaskan elementary schoolers learn and love (me being one of them) when growing up in the AK. Today was definitely a fun day for the Comin fam because we were able to go see the ceremonial start of the Iditarod dogsled mushing race which is a huge thing here! It goes across the state, which if anyone has seen a map, is a looooong distance. First off is the Fur Rondy Festival which is a week before the actual start and the culmination of the festival is the race. The start of the race is in Anchorage and you can go cheer the mushers on at the start. These people are like local heroes so in the pics above are mushers Martin Buser who is a 4-time Iditarod champion and Dee dee Jonrowe who is a breast cancer survivor, ironman finisher, and long-time Iditarod musher (You can't see it very well, but all her dogs harnesses are pink and she's decked out in pink for breast cancer awareness). Anyway, it was a blast and the mushers are great. They even toss out doggie booties to the crowd! After that, we headed over to the snow sculpture competition and saw all the sculptures. We had Brighton stick her tongue out to lick one and it got stuck! Just kidding. But she did like the looking at all the snow and it was a fun way to finish off the festivities. Needless to say it was quite an Alaskan day!

A year ago today

We just wanted to wish our great friend Patrick Meegan a Happy Birthday! Today (well, the 29th actually) was his special day! We wanted to reminicse for a minute and show what we did one year ago today. We had a little party for him while Brighton was still in the belly! Gracie was still a baby, while now she's a toddler. And, you'll notice the Paul doll we included (How could you forget something like that?!) If only we had one of those dolls for each of our friends when we got lonely! Well, we miss the Meegans along with all our other friends we gained at BYU- Idaho and hope everyone is doing well.

Knitting Katastrophe

I started a new hobby over Christmas break. I'm now in love with knitting! I've been working on hats, scarves, and sweaters non-stop lately. Well, today I was working on a knitting project and I got up for a minute. Brighton, being the sly little girl she is, crawled over and within one minute completely unravelled the entire ball of yarn! I think she was interested in learning how to knit. She's such a curious girl. She's always wanting to know what mommy is doing. Maybe for her first birthday I'll get her a pair of knitting needles!

Trouble in the Last Frontier

Well, we had a rough President's day weekend. Brighton started getting really cranky on Friday. By Sunday evening she had a fever of 102 and had been throwing up (which is out of the ordinary for her) and had diarrhea. At 2:00 in the morning, she started screaming at the top of her lungs and ended up having a temperature of 104.2

Needless to say, we were kinda freaking out. So we called our doctor and she let us know it was a viral infection and she could be teething even more. Today her temp. went down which gave us a relief, but she has still been kinda beastly. Hopefully she'll be better soon!

Anyway, I posted this pic because speaking of teething, Brighton has gotten a ton of teeth and I don't have any great pics of them but you can kind of see the two bottom ones in this pic. Now she has 4 and 2 more coming in! I'll have to take another pic so all the other ones can be seen. As you can see, she not only loves to flash her 2 pearly whites, she also loves to splash in the tub!

Winter walkabout

So last weekend we decided to take the inaugural hike with our of new baby backpack. It was pretty fun! We found a trail that lead to waterfall, but on the way back we decided to go "off the beaten path" and hike up this hill. The snow was pretty high when we left the trail as you can see in Kyle's picture. It went all the way up to his thighs and my waist! Anyway it was a ton of fun and a memorable activity for us to start with our kids! Brighton will definitely be an outdoor baby! We can't wait for the summer when she can walk!

The Tag stops here

Well, my friend Clarissa blog-tagged me a little while ago so now my assignment is to list 6 wierd things about me. The unfortunate part about this game of tag is that I honestly don't know any other bloggers who haven't been tagged already. So here's my list but sorry for the end of the fun.
1. Before I met Kyle, I hated feet with a passion. I couldn't have anyone touch my feet and I hated to touch them myself! I thought feet were the grossest thing in the world, but I realized I had to get used to them when I got married, so now I'm okay.
2. I have this paranoia that my eyelashes are the shortest in the world. I can't leave the house without making sure they're curled.
3. When it comes to chips I have a certain eating order. I have to eat the smallest chip to the largest. It's like the last one is the biggest reward. I know it's pretty lame.
4. When I was in high school, I didn't shave for an entire summer! I boycotted it and as a result I saved a lot of time but also as a result, I didn't get many dates! What a gross way to take a stand!
5. I am very open when it comes to burping or farting. My philosophy is that if you say "Excuse me", it makes everything okay. I'm sorry that I'm a sicko, but it's true and I'm sure a few of you out there can attest to it.
6. This is probably the worst of all, but I get a kick out of people getting hurt. America's Funniest Home Videos is my favorite show and I love watching the many people get pummled with baseball bats or falling off their skateboards. I keep telling Brighton she's going to earn her college fund by doing something funny and catching it on video so we can win the money on the show. It's messed up but everyone has their wierd quirks right? And I was definitely dealt with my fair share of them!

Where's the love?

I'll tell you where the love is! It's in Eagle River, AK! Kyle did a great job this Valentine's day. First off, I've been working these past 2 weeks so today I had to get up early. He got up with me and actually made me pink Valentines blueberry pancakes! They were even in the shape of hearts! Next on the list of fun things in the spirit of the day, he made Brighton pink oatmeal for breakfast. It was a fun tradition to start. Also, Kyle spoiled me with chocolates (which is my vice!). He was so good to us! We love him and wanted him to know it!

On the verge...

Brighton is probably the laziest baby ever! Either that or pretty spoiled because she has yet to actually crawl. I think it's the fact that when she wants something, her grandparents or parents give it to her instead of making her go get it. For the most part, she gets where she wants to, but it's only by rolling and sitting up and flopping on her belly. She can't go very far but she doesn't seem to mind. The thing that bugs me is that I know she can do it! I mean she can pretty much lift herself up onto things and loves standing for pete's sake, but I think she just doesn't like to crawl. Anything to get out of it for her. The bad thing is I hear if babies just skip the crawling and go right onto walking (which she seems to want to do) they tend to be clumsy in the long run. That could ruin my plans for Brighton becoming a cheerleader! Just kidding! Well, clumsy or not, we'll still love her to pieces!

Friends to the End

After Kyle and I got back from our trip, 2 of my closest friends that I grew up with were in town visiting from school (Vanessa on the left goes to BYU and Evelyn on the right, goes to the University of Alaska Fairbanks) and we had a pow wow together. It was super fun! We rarely get to see each other so it was great to finally catch up! I love them! It's good to see the different paths we've all taken but can still reconnect. Reunions are always surreal!

Christmas continued

Sorry to be so late on getting these christmas pics out, but life picked up right where I left when I got home. I've been subbing a lot and my calling has been taking a lot of time. Hopefully I'll get the hang of this blogging thing eventually and become as die hard as Clarissa or Beth.

So here's the skinny on what we did during our vacation in Utah. Sarah Comin is the last of the Comins to tie the knot and we were able to see it which was great. She got married to Mike Baker who is a tax lawyer in California and is like 10 feet tall! They were sealed in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple on Dec. 26, 2006. It was beautiful! They are shown in a pic above with grandma and grandpa Comin along with Van and Wendy (the Comin parents)and Will (Kyle's little brother). Also on the list of events planned for the week were a baptism and a baby blessing. Jenna Comin, Jeremy and Cerissa's oldest (Jeremy is holding Brighton in the pic with Kyle) was able to be baptized the following Saturday. She is such a strong and faithful little girl! She is a great example to all her cousins because she is the first to be baptized and has such a great testimony! She is shown above holding Brighton (Brighton doesn't seem to be happy but Jenna is beaming!). Also, Landon Joseph Hatch was blessed the same day. He is a cute little football player-looking baby and it was so fun to finally meet him. You can see Jacob and Olivia(Brighton's cousins) with Brighton in a few shots above as well. So it was a trip well worth it! Brighton was pretty fussy the entire time due to jet lag I think, but other than that, we had such a wicked good time. It made us realize how much we want to live closer to family down there. We love them all so much and wanted them to know we miss them already!

Family Festivities

So a ton has happened in the past month and I, unfortunately, have been a slacker when it comes to keeping up on the blog. So here is a quick rundown on what has been going on in the Comin home. In the beginning of December Kyle and I went to his company Christmas party and it was pretty funny. It was like prom for older people. Everyone was dressed in these huge dresses and danced the night away. Needless to say, we left a after the dinner was served. But it was a fun time anyway.
Also, Christmas was a super fun time for the whole family. Brighton was loving her life with all the wrapping paper. She liked what was on the presents more that what was in the boxes. We had Christmas on Christmas Eve with my family (including my sister who came from Montana) and then we were off to Kyle's Family's house in Utah for Christmas. Above are a ton of pics of our trip including Sarah's (Kyle's sister) wedding and Brighton's cousins she got to meet for the first time. It was fun with all the babies together. It was especially fun with the entire family together. I took a ton of pics and more will follow in the next few days, so enjoy! We hope everyone else had a fun-filled holiday season as well!

B-day fiesta

Yesterday was my Birthday and Kyle surprised me by taking me to a nice restaurant and then to an Alaska Aces Hockey game. They are a professional team part of the ECHL and used to love going to the games in high school. It was super fun! We had such a blast and they are a pretty good team so it was definitely a memorable evening. Something kinda funny as well was that they played against the Idaho Steelheads, so I would have been happy with either team winning, but my hometown/favorite team won which was great. Well, needless to say, we had a fantastic evening. Sorry I've been way behind on the updating of the blog, but getting Christmas stuff done on time has been crazy! I'll be better! Hope all is well with everyone!