So Blessed!

Yesterday I got an amazing phone call. A lady from the Pampered Chef called me and wanted to interview ME for our pampered chef magazine! I was/am so honored!! My director had told one of the higher ups in the company about my success and passed along my story. God has really blessed me in my business!! I had a great start in Missouri and have gotten off to a great start in Alaska. I am really enjoying it and can't wait for the future magazine to come out.

Seward

Yesterday we woke up and made the spontaneous decision to take a day trip to Seward. I love being spontaneous. Some of the best decisions Andrew and I have ever made were spontaneous life changing decisons; getting married, moving, having a baby, moving again.

This winter had started out very mild so traveling has not become to difficult yet. We decided that befor the roads gets dangerous or closed we would make the trip down to Seward. It was a beautiful 4 hour drive!!! The kids did great! Lexie wore panties the whole day and did not have a single accident!!
 Seward is a very small fishing community that is booming in the summer. Well, in the winter almost everything is closed, but thats ok. The Alaska Sea Life Center is what we were looking forward to and it was open so that was all that mattered.
We had such a great time. The place was just about empty so the kids got to run around like crazy and enjoy everything! It really was an awesome place!!
After spending a few hours the sealife center we had worked up quite an appitite. We managed to find one little restaurant opened and it was perfect. While we waited for our food we watched a sea otter swim around. The kids loved watching him float around on his back eating.

Our spontaneous day trip was a blast! We loved having the chance to drive down to Seward. Now we are ready for tons of snow to come! We can't wait for our first ski trip!

Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Friday evening was spent decorating the Christmas. The kids loved it. Lexie was just interesting in carefully looking each one over then she would hand it to Lance. Lance loved hanging the ornaments on the tree. He was a pro making sure to place each one on the tree spaced out just rite.
I got all sentimental as I pulled each on out of the box thinking about the past Christmases and the special people who have given us ornaments. Andrew made sure to place the special ones up high where nothing could happen to them.
I have found a few instructions off of Pinterest for making ornaments so making home made ornaments is definitely on our list of things to do this week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday evening Andrew ended up flying in to Kenai for work. He didn't get home till 2:30 am on Thanksgiving morning. I made sure to keep the kids quiet so daddy could sleep in. I started on all the prep work for our big dinner. It was so exciting cooking my first Thanksgiving meal. I had never made a turkey or a ham before. I decided to make a ham because I figured it was harder to mess up than a turkey.

I was a little bummed about not being able to be around family but we made the best of it. In years past we have either went to Pennsylvania to be with the Conways or to my parent's home in Missouri. We had a few friends who were unable to be with family so we had them over. We had my friend Erin who is a pampered chef consultant also and Susan and her two kids who are 4 and 1.5. Susan's husband, Marshal, works with Andrew. The kids had a blast having friends their age over. We had tons of good food. My ham turned out perfect. It was such a blessing to be able to be their Thanksgiving Day host. I am so thankful for all the wonderful friends we have made so far while living in Alaska. God has placed such wonderful people in our paths!

Team Leader

Today, I promoted to a Team Leader with pampered chef!! I am so excited and proud of myself. You may ask what does that mean. That means that I have built a team of at least 2 active recruits (i have 3) with team sales of at least $2,500. That also means that my commission goes up. I earn 3% of my recruits commissionable sales so recruiting is definitely good to grow my business.
The money I earn from Pampered Chef is great but what I get the most satisfaction out of is reaching my goals. I love having goals for myself. It feels so great to work hard and reach those goals. My goal for this month was to promote and to have $3,000 in sales. I am so close to $3,000 and I have 3 catalog shows to close next month.
Before Pampered Chef I felt like I was in a rut. While I enjoyed staying at home raising the kids I felt like I was doing the same things over and over again with no progress. It was so hard to go anywhere with two small kids so I basically had stopped. Everyday I looked forward to Andrew walking in the door and having adult conversation and being able to go somewhere on the weekend after being "trapped" all week at home.
Now I feel like I have something that is all my own. I get paid to have fun and socialize. Pampered Chef really has opened up a whole new world for me. I am so thankful to God for bringing this opportunity to me and to Carol who sees the potential in me and coaches me along the way!

Being a director is in my reach!!

Everyday life!

Anyone can tell from my post that we LOVE to bake!! Lance is such a good helper and Lexie is slowly learning how to help. She will say "I wanna make!". We love trying out all the new recipes from Pinterest and from Pampered Chef.
Lexie loves to help mommy do laundry too!!
Another thing we love is painting and coloring. We finished up our Turkey Day cards and mommy got them mailed off today. I know I am running a touch behind.
Also Andrew is still traveling quite a bit, but last week he got a little break. He had training all week so he was home everyday around 4:30 which was super nice! This week he was off again. Monday he left super early and drove to (a place I have to ask him and put the name in later lol). Yesterday he flew to King Salmon and didn't get back till almost 10 last night. I am glad the kids and I have things to keep us busy like gymnastics. Lance is really getting the hang of it and learning what all the terminology means.
Today he is scheduling and booking flights for next week. We are looking forward to a 4 day weekend with him. We are having some friends over for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Next Friday Santa and his reindeer are coming to town!!! We are definitely loving Alaska Life!
I have finally decided that my pullover isn't cutting it anymore! It is getting cold!

Sweets for my sweet

I had seen this pin on Pinterest about easy flourless peanut butter cookies. Andrew has been having some issues with his tummy so we are experimenting with cutting out flours to see if it makes a different. I thought this recipe would be perfect to try out for daddy. Andy loves anything peanut butter!
You just take 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 cup of sugar, 1 egg & 1 teaspoon of vanilla and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Super easy!! I put the cookie dough into my pampered chef cookie press and was able to make some super cute little cookies.
The cookies turned out super good. I give it ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I am going to make the batter at home and take to my next Pampered Chef cooking show to demo the cookie press. I think people will love using it to make super easy Christmas cookies!

Winter WonderLand

We had such a wonderful weekend enjoying the snow and sunshine! We especially enjoyed the sunshine. Our days here are getting shorter very quick! I heard on the news the other day that we just had 7.5 hours of daylight now 😳
Saturday we took a beautiful drive out to a place called Hatcher's Pass. It was a neat old mining town that some people still go to and pan for gold. The creek there was beautiful and so clear. We took a small hike back into the woods on a trail (Andrew had his gun like always). The kids did ok on the hike. Lexie has a hard time walking with all her snow gear on so she gets pretty wore out easy. We decided next time we would bring the kids sleds so we could pull them when they get tired. The scenery was absolutely breath taking. Alaska is such a beautiful place, it truly is God's country! I spotted a moose on a far away Mountain side. I was able to get a picture but it isn't the best. That's as far as my little camera would zoom in.
Saturday night when I was putting lance to sleep I kept hearing his stomach gurgle and noticed he kept burping. He ended up puking and I it smelt like dog food so I ask him "Lance have you been eating dog food?". To which Lance replied, "just a little". I explained to him that dog food is not for little boys and that is what was making him so sick. He then ask if it only made little boys sick because Lexie ate some too and she isn't sick. O my goodness! What am I going to do with these crazy kids!!
Lance and I was up most up the night because of his tummy ache so we ended up over sleeping and missing church on Sunday morning. By noon everyone was feeling good and rested so we took the sleds and headed to fire lake. For weeks now we have been seeing people ice fishing, ice skating and even snow machining out on the lake. Yesterday was the perfect day for us to try out the lake. We pulled the kids around in the sled and checked out all the neat things people were doing. We watched a guy clear the snow off the ice with his four wheeler so his little girl could ice skate, we checked out the holes that people had made for ice fishing, we seen where a boy had been practicing hockey, we ran into the kids new doctor who also has a golden retriever which Happy loved, we made snow angels, we tried to make a snowman but the snow was to dry to pack together, and we went sledding down the bank. We had a GREAT time!! The kids were so wore out afterwards so we thought we would take a drive around town to put them to sleep. It didn't take 5 minutes of driving and both kids were out. While on our short drive we seen three eagles in town. Eagle River is named because of all the eagles around the river. We have been told this place is a huge winter gathering for eagles.
We had such a great weekend enjoying the winter wonderland. I am actually looking forward to more snow and more fun winter days with the family! I am so thankful for all the blessings God has given to me especially my wonderful family!

What's up

Wednesday morning I dropped the kids off at preschool and headed to the dentist. I really don't like going to the dentist, because they always find something wrong. I hate it! But I know if I don't it will only get worse. Wednesday morning I had two teeth pulled. Yuck! I had three stitches put in and headed home. Once I got home I got a call from the preschool telling me that Lexie was not having a good day and had been crying the whole time. I jumped back in the car and went and got my babies. Lance wasn't ready to leave, but Lexie was walking around with her backpack and coat ready to to leave. She was crying "I want my momma!". It was pretty sad.
We spent the day just relaxing watching tv. Normally I don't let the kids watch very much tv, but I wasn't up for much. When bedtime came I was exhausted and ready for bed, well as soon we got ready to lay down Lance started puking. I sent Andrew upstairs so he wouldn't get sick and could get some sleep because he had an early flight the next day. Poor lance was so sick and then about 11:30 Lexie woke up an started in. We had a rough night. I really didn't want to bother Andrew but I did wake him up and he made a midnight run to Walmart for Tylenol, pepto, pedialyte and anything else we thought we mite need. Thursday the kids were just tired but all other symptoms seem to fade away pretty quick.
I did make a dessert that I found off Pinterest. It was called pumpkin crisp.
http://rachelschultz.com/2012/10/27/pumpkin-crisp/
I made it half with nuts and half without the nuts so I could eat it. My jaw was pretty sore so I could chew much. The pumpkin crisp was just what I needed. The kids and Andrew loved it too! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Traveling dad

Andrew has been given a new position at his work. He is now the new P.I. (product improvement) guy. He schedules and does updates on machines. Rite now the company is behind on updates so he will be making lots of trips in the next couple of months getting CAT caught up . Once they get caught up then he won't have to go out as often. It will be an awesome experience for Andy to see all of Alaska (which is 3x's the size of Texas).
Thursday Andrew flew to Homer on a small plane. He said his trip was pretty uneventful. He flew straight there, did the update and then flew rite back. He did say it was beautiful flight.
Friday he was scheduled to fly to St.Mary's, but his flight was canceled due to freezing rain/snow mix in St Mary's.
I am going to have to make Andrew start taking a camera and get some pictures of these awesome places he keeps telling me about.

Keeping track of dad

Part of Andrew's job involves traveling to different places in Alaska. I think it's awesome that he gets to see places that most Alaskans haven't even heard of. Last Tuesday he hopped on a plane early in the morning and headed to Kodiak. He did a quick update on a machine and was back home by 3 pm.
Monday morning Andrew took a small plane back to Kodiak where he got on a boat that took him to the other side of Kodiak Island to a quarry.
I couldn't hardly wait to hear all about his trip when he got in last night. I am a little jealous all the neat places that he gets to visit. People pay big money to go on plane rides sightseeing and Andy gets paid to do it.
Kodiak is know for having tons of bears so of course my first question when he walked in the door was, "did you see any bears?" Andrew didn't see any bears but he did say that while they were working he could hear something moving in the woods and he saw something brown in the brush. He said he couldn't confirm that it was a bear but he was pretty sure it was. All the guys that work at the quarry carry guns so he was safe. Andrew did Bring us home some treats. A guy he met have him 5lbs of scallops, some moose summer sausage and some ground moose hamburger.
We plan on buying a large alaska state map to put on the wall so we can keep track of where dad has been and is going.

Pinterest overload

I am kind of behind on my Pinterest a day. We have done lots of pins but I couldn't exactly tell you what day we did each one.
Here are a few that we have done

Homemade all purpose cleaner.
I love this one. With little kids I don't want anything that could harm them so I had been buying expensive green cleaner with ok results.I used ingredients that we already have and it worked amazing!!! It just uses vinegar, baking soda, dish soap and water. Definitely 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Brownie gift mix
This was lots of fun and very easy. Lance loved helping me measure and layer the brownie mix ingredients. We put them in the pampered chef batter bowl and everything fit perfect! This will be a perfect gift for teachers and they get a useful batter bowl with a lid when they are done. All they have to do is add 3 eggs, 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup of oil to make some superb home made brownies. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Name signs
This was so easy! I just used tape to spell out the kids' names on canvas and they painted the canvas. When it drys you peel off the tape revealing their name. Lance and Lexie love to paint so of course this is a huge hit! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Chicken pillows
Omg! These are amazing!!! Here is a link to get the recipe
http://www.chef-in-training.com/2010/08/chicken-pillows/
My only tip is don't use cheap crescent rolls. They don't stretch and can make it very challenging to make the "pillows"
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Pumpkin spice cookies
This was really good but very sticky. All you need is one can of pumpkin and one box spice cake mix. Seriously, that is it!!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Croc-pot baked apples
These were so yummy and made the whole house smell so good!! They taste just like apple pie without the fattening crust. Here is a link for those http://skinnychef.com/recipes/baked-apples
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Hand print Turkeys
We have already started making cards for people since Thanksgiving is coming up. We found all sorts of ways to make turkeys using the kids hand prints. It is so much fun painting with the kids. It can be a little challenging at times trying to supervise both kids, but it is lots of fun. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Applebee's Garlic Mashed Potatoes
I made these as a side to our chicken pillows. We all loved them!! Lance ate 3 helpings of them. http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/635135-Applebee-s-Garlic-Mashed-Potatoes
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Emergency contact stickers for car seats
I thought this was genius! I printed out a list of emergency contacts on address labels and stuck on the kid's car seats. God forbid, but what if we were in a bad accident. What if mom and/or dad were hurt bad. This would give them a list of people to call besides just us. There is a chance they may not see the stickers but there is a BIG chance they will, especially since I told Lance about them. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


If you can't tell, I am really enjoying Pinterest!! I am not that creative so Pinterest is a great help!