Grandma Morgan sings to Alana

Thought Grandma Morgan would like to know what went on at the other end of the phone while she sand to Alana...too cute!

Oh, the trials of broken bones...

So, June 7th, two days before the nice long 10-day TDY (work trip for those of you who aren't familiar with military terms...) we were having a great dinner with great friends who were leaving for the lower 48 the following weekend for good...Pizzas were baking, conversations were going, kids were laughing and bouncing on the couch...and then...Alana crying. She had bounced right off the couch onto the floor on all fours. So, at first, we thought it was nothing...then as the crying never seemed to stop, James and I wisked Alana away to the ER while our friends spent some quality time with, obviously not us, but with Lucas. We were in and out of the ER with Alana in a quick 3 hours, splinted fractured leg and all, home to say good-night to Lucas who was still a bit upset with us for not giving him kisses, noses, and hugs before we snuck out of the house...pic is below of Alana when returned. She had a very rough evening! Grandpa Morgan did a digital signing of the photo on her splint.



The splint was replaced on June 10th with a lovely pink cast, the color of which was picked out completely by Alana! She was brave and did well that day! Beware...she may get you feeling completely sorry for her in this upcoming video!



I spent the first two weeks keeping her off her splint and cast...it wasn't too difficult since it caused her pain to walk on it before. However, she still enjoyed bike rides to the park (shhhhh...don't tell Grandpa Morgan! He'd freak out!) and swinging on the swings (again...don't tell Grandpa Morgan!). At least she was off of her leg, right?!?! Here is Alana having fun on the swings! Believe or not, she could swing just as well with a cast on as with it off! It was only 2 or so weeks ago that Alana was scared to swing and would only swing just a little itty bit! But because Alana wants to do EVERYTHING Lucas does, she kept asking to go "bigger" and "Bigger" and "BIGGER"!



Here's another video...this time Alana is sharing her joy of a cast with our furrier kiddos.



So, case settled...Alana is doing wonderfully. We can't keep her off the cast now and it has become a part of her. She has worked her magic and learned to live with it. She can basically do everything except take a bath, go swimming or play in the rain, or walk up and down the stairs (although she has already tried...). She will be out of her pink pretty and into a walking cast on the 8th of July. SO glad it will be off before our trip to Oregon!

First Camping Trip

We took Lucas and Alana on their first camping trip! At Rose Hip Campground along the Chena River. The kids had a GREAT time! Alana is such a little explorer and Lucas had no problem finding a multitude of things to do that scared the living daylight out of us; luckily, we found ourselves home the next day having all survived. Lucas loved walking through the brush, with Alana shortly behind him. They jumped off benches, dug in the sand, walked in the water and roasted hotdogs! It was a great time! With a little drizzle and sunshine mixed in between. Unfortunately, it got a bit too cold during the night and we booked it on out of there around 4am! Must go b/c Alana has found me with the computer...

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Easter festivities...

Another Easter down...the fun is over and on to another week. Festivities commenced when littles one arrived Saturday evening for dinner, egg dying and the much anticipated egg hunt! Kids ran around screaming in delight, eating...or not eating...dinner because of hunger or excitement. Lucas's friend Alejo and Torin attended as well as Curt who is Alana's age. Alana kept up with the bigger ones while Curt observed, as he hadn't been to visit in quite awhile.

This was my first Easter-egg dye with a bunch of little ones. We cleared the floor, covered it with newspapers and sat the kids down around 5 plastic tupperwares for the eggs. They all eagerly sat and waited patiently while trying their best to put rubber bands around the eggs awaiting me to get the colored water ready. Each got their turn at putting food coloring into the water and each had plenty of eggs to put in as well. Because they were toddlers, one solid color with white lines from the rubber bands weren't good enough...they had to take them from the green to the yellow to the blue to the yellow to the orange to the red...until the red spilled...then there were only 4. Anyway, the eggs turned out totally awesome, almost like dinosaur egg colors. Very earthy and hippie! (see above) Here are a few pics of the event...





And here is the egg hunt...a little story behind the incredible amount of eggs we "hid"...we were at Walmart a couple weekends ago and just hanging out in the toy section when Niki and her son, Torin, ran into us. Not 5 minutes later did someone come over the announcements stating that there would be an egg hunt in the infant section in 5 minutes. "Well" we thought, "Guess we are doing an egg hunt today". So we grabbed each kid a basket and off we went...needless to say, each kid, to include Alana, completely filled their basket with eggs and had an absolute blast. So home the eggs went. I'm sure there are eggs buried in the snow that we'll find when everything finally melts! And so...on to the egg hunt photos!

Florida Trip

A wonderful trip to Florida happened last month to visit James' family and to take Katie on a Disney World trip. She has been such a great daughter and wonderful big sister! We thought she deserved it after all the attention we've given to Lucas and Alana the past few years! He are some pics and videos for the trip...We had a family get-together, playground time, great day at the beach, and a dinner out with the older neices and Katie! Some Disney World, etc, pics/videos will follow along with some of Lucas and Alana at SeaWorld. I hope you enjoy the update!

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So Cute!

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Had to post these tonight! I hope Alana and Lucas play this well most of the time in their lives!

Lucas had swimming lessons this morning and did wonderfully! He really, really wants to swims, even after a few times going under. He's definitely ready for the next level! And Alana is her own person and testing the limits. Lucas and Alana were in the tub this evening and she knocked Lucas's cars off the side of the tub. After telling her it would be time to get out if she did it again, she then did it again! So, out we went, up went the gate to keep her out of the bathroom and to eat dinner we went. After some hamburger and ketchup in the hair, we were back to the tub only to find out she was a bit (okay, a lot!) too fast for mommy and into the tub she went, shoes, socks, and...lucky for us she was a diaper girl at the time!

Sometimes Lucas will get up before Alana, turn the light on, and him and Alana will play for awhile. It is the cutest thing and James actually got it on tape! Go Honey!

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Hello All! Only a week and a half until we leave for the warm weather of Florida! Very exciting! We have planned a vacation with just James, Katie and I to go to Disney world, Epcot, and Hollywood studios while the littlest grandkids visit their Castleberry Grandparents. Hopefully they will have fun...I know we will! I am looking forward to meeting my newest neices (one is over 3 years old!) and nephew born last spring. Time sure flies.

Up here, weather is warmer, days are longer...my favorite time of year up here. We can finally see the light, with summer right around the corner. Ice carvings are happenin' and the Ice Art park and slides will be open next week. Fun, fun, fun! Trip to Florida, Visit from my parents shortly after that :)

Must be off...I'm surprised I had enough time to write all the above! Until next time~