Long time coming

Well, most of you have already heard, but I figured I'd put it on here to make it "official", we are pregnant (or I am anyway since I'm the one with the right anatomy ha ha!) and we're having another girl! I was so sure it was a boy, had a name picked out and the nursery theme all thought up but hey, what are you gonna do? More tutus and pink for me I guess. :D I am just under 22 weeks pregnant and starting to resemble a whale again. But I'm loving every minute of feeling this perfect little girl growing and moving inside me. The girls are so excited. They keep asking if they can give the baby hugs and kisses and they ask what the baby is doing, if she's hungry, ect. It's so fun to have them be so aware of this pregnancy. We just got through Christmas and let me tell you, I'm not usually one to rush to get the Christmas stuff put away, but this year, the day after, I brought in the boxes and started getting stuff packed up. We have a lot of stuff to get through in the next few weeks, I need to pare down on our belongings. I mean, after 4 years of living in one place (basically anyway), we have accumulated a lot of JUNK. A new move is really my chance to declutter, simplify and organize. I'm pretty excited about it. My mom will also be coming up here in a couple weeks to help me get the house ready to move out of. I am so excited to see her and so grateful that she's coming since Tyler won't be able to help me a ton because of his recent ACL surgery. He is, however, recovering nicely and we aren't worried about loss of movement or anything. I have a bunch of pictures to share with you! 

 The girls and I got to go see The Nutcracker at the beginning of the month. And afterwards, the girls got to meet all the ballerinas! It was pretty fun, even for me. :D

 One of our heavy snowfalls. This is our backyard.

 All bundled up for the ice park.

 Tyler in his snazzy brace

This lady walking behind us asked us if she could use our camera to take a picture of us walking because she said we looked really cute. Her words. lol! Anyway, so these two were the result of that.  

Getting ready to go down the slide... 

Wheee!! 

Jill's turn!! 

 My cold little Jilly

 There was this cool ice train (didn't move, of course) that kids could climb on. Jill thought it was just the coolest thing.

 Kari thought it was pretty cool too.

 Looking out the conductor's window. 

 A LOT of snow had fallen the past 48 hours and it hadn't been shoveled/packed down yet. Some places were pretty rough going.

Sitting on mr and mrs Claus' throne 

 Love my two cheesers

We went back a little later with a family. 

Jill's favorite sculpture 

 Contemplating a large pile of snow (yes, I did climb up on it)

 Christmas morning!!

 After all the presents were opened.

The dollhouse won coolest toy this year I think. 

The girls each made their own gingerbread houses (with help). Jill's is on the left, and Kari's is on the right. 

We sure hope that your Christmas was wonderful! Merry Christmas from the Haueter family and we hope that 2013 brings you all joy and love. :-)

We're moving!

WE GOT ORDERS TO ARIZONA!! Woo hoo!! A little less than 13 weeks until the land of never ending summer. I'm actually really excited, despite the heat. It's a 20 hour drive home, or you can get tickets for 40 bucks back home. Much more doable than 850 per person. Plus the economy is so bad there, we can get a really nice rental for super cheap and end up pocketing the rest (sad for Arizona, but a nice little plus for us). Thanksgiving is next week! Christmas just a few weeks after that! This year has gone by so fast. Yesterday we had to say goodbye to a really good friend of ours, he's deploying and won't be back until we've already moved. I HATE goodbyes. I can't stand them. Makes me so sad, and up here I've met so many amazing people, and made such a great Alaskan family, I have many more goodbyes coming up. When I left McChord, I was only attatched to a few people, and I was kind of like, okay, see ya! But up here, my heart just wrenches thinking about leaving. Despite the cold and snow (which I pretty much hate) Alaska and her people have really dug their little fingers into my heart. I love it here and I love the people. They're the friendliest, most wonderful people. My theory is that they have to be in order to survive the extreme climate. I honestly don't think I'll find people like these again. But I am excited to go somewhere new, have new experiences. We are also planning to go to Disneyland since it's only a 5 hour drive from where we will be living. Tyler and I have both never been, and so it will be a fun experience for all of us. Anyway, just wanted to tell you all that we're alive and we have orders for our new base. I suddenly have the overwhelming urge to go clean and dejunk everything. Laters!! :D

Kari's 4th birthday Tea Party!

So the party prep and party went as follows:

 The fabulous teapot invites

 Putting up the ceiling canopy

 Finished product

 The dessert table (There were also sub sandwiches and a veggie platter)

 The petit fours

 Fruit for the fruit pizza cookies (I spent a few months beforehand slowly collecting tea cups and saucers)

 The ceiling across the room (and Mel)

They did so good with the china! I was impressed.

 Love this one of the sisters. :D

 And all the girls ran over to see the present after it was opened. :D

Good picture of her dress, still need to do a photoshoot one of these days.

 Kari with my very favorite childhood game. Pretty Pretty Princess. :D

Trying to get a look at her cake.

 Got her a little individual Cinderella cake.

From Safeway! I was impressed.

LOL! The look on her face here cracks me up.

 Happy birthday girl.

Big breath!

And blooow!!

 Blue face

 Messy cake faces

 The favor bag (which I'd forgot to take the picture until all the girls were already gone)

The Royal crowns each girl got to wear as they came in the door.

The party went off great! It was our last Alaskan girlie birthday party. Lots of hard work, but I loved every second of it. I love giving my girls great memories. Next year I'm thinking I'm going to have to figure out how to do a My Little Pony theme......*sigh* ha ha!