Savannah's 4!!!!

Our little girl, our "baby", our Savannah Morgan is 4! This is so hard to believe but we are enjoying each day God blesses us with our Sweet, Sassy, Smiley, Sharing and Silly Savannah!

Savannah loves (stuffed) animals so she was pumped to get this turtle that shines stars up on her ceiling! Here she is totally excited to own a horse for Kit... spent with Target birthday money!
We got to celebrate her actual birthday with Great G'pa/G'ma Hogan and the Stahles. When I asked Savannah what she would like for her birthday dinner, she replied with "hmmm, I'll have to think about that!" haha~ she is growing up! After thinking for a minute she blurted out "Chicken" with a twinkle in her eye. Seriously!?! But, the next morning she asked if her bday dinner could be "Tacos"! Then, since we were celebrating her little girlfriend party on a different day... she got French Silk Pie for dessert!


Savannah, the 4 year old ballerina! Thanks to Aunt Connie and Cuz Hannah!

Easter 2012

On Good Friday we woke up to 3 inches of fresh powder (yay!) and it continued to snow HUGE flakes the remainder of the day! We had spent the last 10 days opening our Resurrection Eggs and reading the Jesus Storybook Bible to help narrate each object in the eggs! In the morning, I was again brought to tears while reading to the kids about Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross. And, then I realized how extra cool these big flakes were on Good Friday... "Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow"~ Isaiah 1:18

Here's our Easter trio dressed in blue, by coincidence! They are proudly standing in front of one of our huge snow drifts to mark 2012's record snowfall... 133.6 inches!!!



What a special Easter we had! Each year, Resurrection Sunday is more meaningful as the kids understand the sacrifice that our loving Savior made for each of us!

after school ski

What an amazing spring we have had... over Easter weekend we got fresh snow and ever since we have had blue skies. Both of these make for great spring skiing so Kep jetted out of school one afternoon so Parker could get in one more backcountry ski!

Parker spelling out all the names in our family... "Savannah" is a long one to spell out on skis!
UH~mazing! Every time we hike around in Hatcher's Pass we are amazed by this gorgeous view we get to enjoy!
Parker is getting so independent which makes these outings more fun than work, for dad!


And, off he goes down any slope (so different than his mom)!!!

gettin' independent and a growin' appetite

Parker is 7 1/2 and his appetite is finally growing! It's perfect timing as he is getting quite independent in the kitchen! He now makes his own breakfast and eggs and homemade toast happen to be his fav!

3 weeks of check marks= VoLcAnO cAkE!!!

Our darling girl has a will and we are praying that we are shaping it correctly!!! ;o) This li'l gal was just a couple months shy of turning 4 and she still had yet to successfully eat a bite of chicken or fish... which are staple meals at our home! We had tried many reward systems and consequences and none seemed to matter to our Savannah as she just did not want to swallow chicken or fish. Our last resort was to try Dr. Dobson's method of reheating the dinner over and over for each meal until she would choose to eat it. Well, I think she would have gone on forever but after 24 hours... I just couldn't do it... I gave in and let her eat the next night's dinner with us! Then all of a sudden, something switched in her will and she decided that she would start eating fish and chicken. So, I made this chart for her and told her when she filled it up with 21 pink check marks... I would take her to Chili's for "volcano cake".

Here we are at Chili's and she's just a tad~bit excited for the cake! I had prepped Savannah on how to order, just say "Can we please have one 'volcano' cake?" So when the waiter came to take our order Savannah ordered her own way, "We need 2 'volcano' cakes!" Haha, you are my kind-of girl with your love for chocolate but there is no way we both "need" one of those cakes!

Yup, she's a fan!

Then, Popeye had to join in on the celebration and took all of us out to Red Robin for Savannah to try a Mud Pie! One might say this girl has a strong strong will or you might say... she is one smart girl to hold out for "volcano" cake and Mud Pie!

And, wouldn't you know it that she just turned 4 and when I asked her what she would like for her birthday dinner??? She quickly replied with "CHICKEN" and she was serious! Oh girly, you keep us guessing and smiling! ;o)

braids!

Savannah's hair is slowly but surely growing! This week I attempted to put her hair in 2 french braids... and it worked! She was so proud of her new due! At bedtime, I was joking with her and told her that she was gonna have to sleep on her nose so she didn't mess up her braids. Well, she took me seriously and when I walked in to sing to her, she was laying on her face! Too cute!

I still need to learn how to braid super~fine baby~hair... but fortunately she doesn't care!

1st Easter Tea

I had the honor of taking my little girl to our first Mother~Daughter Easter Tea at our church. We had so much fun shopping for her white (high~heeled) shoes and then getting ready, the next morning, for our special date! The Tea was extra special as we got to have Mo~mo and Great Grandma Elmer come along!

Savannah's favorite part of the morning was sitting next to one of her "best friends", Annika! And, her next favorite part was filling her own plate at the buffet line with tortilla chips and anything chocolate~ a girl after my own heart!

What a sweet morning and I look forward to many more!

Savannah's a "downhiller"

After our last "backcountry" ski, where Savannah tried "climbing" in skis for the first time, she wanted to try downhill skiing! So, we jumped on her idea and headed down to Alyeska as soon as we could! On the trek down, we were amazed to spot five mountain sheep! In my 10 years of living in Alaska, I have only ever seen sheep during the summer months on these rocky slopes. So we stopped and enjoyed watching them scamper along the rocks!

What fun to be able to zoom~in with our new camera and catch a close~up for the kids!
The drive down was fun, gorgeous and sunny and as soon as we turned into Girdwood, the skies clouded over and we got to enjoy big, fat snowflakes for most of the day! Kep was thrilled to be back at the magic carpet teaching his li'l girly to ski!

Ha~ this pic cracks me up, could she be any more proud of herself!?!
Savannah didn't last long at the first magic carpet before she decided she wanted to ski with everyone else, too! Such a girl~ everything is a social event! So, Kep pulled both the little ones up the hill over to Chair 3 and the other magic carpet.
Kep and Savannah stayed at the magic carpet for a little bit but it wasn't long before she was asking to get on the chair lift like her brothers! That was a shock for all of us but we didn't question her... we just went with her idea!

Kep and his 3 li'l skiers who he has done a very good job teaching!
These posed pix of sissy crack us up... check out her girly poses!!!
especially this one... oh my, hands out and knees bent! too funny! Our first family skiing shot and there will be many more to come! You might notice that the all pink snowsuit did not make the trip to Alyeska... yup, that would have been Kep's input to the day! ;o)
and this is where we ended our day, back at the magic carpet learning to snowplow! Good job Savannah, we could not believe how you skied from 10:30 til 4:30 and we are so glad to have you join us on all our future skiing trips... good times!

Savannah loved every part of the day but I think her two favorite parts of the day... were lunch time, when she got to take her boots off, AND the chocolate milkshake at Lucky Wishbone on our way back through Anchorage.

Oh, and my only regret from the day was I forgot to take a picture of cousin Brittney skiing with us. At the last minute, she decided to join our family ski day and it was so fun to have her along!

family backcountry skiing AGAIN!

Seriously, another backcountry ski post??? I know... it doesn't seem possible! But, each time we go up there, we add a different twist to the day, it gets photographed and we just have to remember the "firsts"! On this particular Sunday, the younger 2 got to climb with skis because we brought along the skis that snap~on their comfy snow boots. It was so cute to watch them be so proud and they did really well on these little slopes.

Our goal was to make it to this big boulder so they could all take turns jumping... dad showed them how fun it could be when they decided to be brave enough!

Kep and his li'l girl~ this shot will be a keeper for years to come!




Another great day in the mountains as a family~ we are blessed to be able to do this together!