How did I forget this important news in my past blogs???

Saturday October 22nd at approx. 7:30 am we felt our first earthquake... It only lasted a few seconds but it was really weird. I was in our bathroom fixing my hair and Matt was playing with the kiddos in bed when it happened. Before I realized what was going on it had already stopped and Matt yelled "BABE, That was an earthquake" ... I have to admit that it all happened so fast...  before he said it, It hadn't even registered  :-) 

Earthquakes happen all the time here... almost constantly... We have heard that you can feel the ones that are around 2.5 if you are really close to the epicenter or 3.0 if you are a little further away. The one we felt registered at a 4.3 Magnitude. This map shows other earthquake epicenters... 24 Earthquakes within an hour of the one we felt!

*Crazy* 

October 16th - 23rd

So.... The beginning of this week was really fun, we went to an indoor water park and of course Laela loved every minute. We went to Chili's for dinner with a couple we met through the mommy group - Julie, Jarred and their daughter Everleigh... and then we had them over Wednesday and I cooked 15 bean soup and we made luffa tutus for the girls! It was fun to hang out and let the kiddos play; we had a really good time... they are a really awesome family! 
Thursday morning we started a whole new journey! Both kids have been sick and we have been staying home. Bubba was sick for about 3 days and Laela is on day 5. I am hoping that they are completely healthy soon; Im ready to get back into the swing of things. I guess the only good thing that has come of us having to stay home is... Laela is now in 'Big Kid Panties' we have a little accident here and there but overall she is doing really good. Im still putting her to bed in 'Bed time panties' = pull ups BUT during the day has been all panties :-) Potty training Laela has been a trip; its not over BUT I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I don't even want to think about potty training bubba... Maybe I can get Matt to deal with it ;-D
Matt went to the slope Sunday but its a short trip, he gets to come home Friday! We have been able to Face Time every night so that makes it a little easier! 
I have really cute pics of Laelas tutu so I will post those soon... It seems that I can find time to write or upload pics but never at the same time :-) o'well.. 

October 10th - 16th

Things have been going really good! 
We are getting to meet up with tons of new people since we got connected with the mommy group that we started going to. Thursday we went to our first home play date; 'Dress Up with Isabella' Laela had a really good time... her favorite part of the whole play date was snack time (of course). Then Friday we went to a place called 'Bouncin Bears' its basically a huge indoor inflatable toys park. To say that Laela loved it is putting it mildly... she absolutely LOVED every minute of it. We got there 30 minutes earlier than any of the other moms and then we were the last to leave... I was trying to get ALL of her energy out but now I know its basically impossible :-)
Saturday we got invited over to watch the OSU game with a whole bunch of OSU alumni that Matt works with; we had such a good time.. Kayla and Ryan are so awesome with the kiddos and were super friendly to open up their home to us! The best part was OSU won :-) ohhh and the food was amazing! Sunday was actually a milestone for us... it was the very first day in over a month (Since we moved here) that we woke up with no plans of leaving the house! We finally got to work on a home project that has been needing to get done; we did major demolition on the huge box built in our living room wall... Its coming along nicely... Im guessing we will get everything just the way we want it... about the time we are ready to move again :-D

Wasilla and Palmer - North of Anchorage!

We headed North again; this time we made it to Wasilla and Palmer! 

The views are incredible; we headed up originally to see an old mine... but it was closed for the season so we made the best of it :-) 

I love it when we get family pics... Thank you random guy for taking them! 

I always get really nervous handing over my very pricey camera to a complete stranger... I always think in my head "if they take off running with it, what am I going to do"  :-) 

Life is as easy as a walk in the park!

This trail is right by our house!

Look how cute this is!

Aren't they such a good looking crew!

Lake Eklutna, about 30 min North of Anchorage!

Its not normal to see signs like this in Oklahoma!

We have plenty of parks to pick from!

We have been playing outside as much as possible!

Love this pic!

Pure Happiness

New Accessories for Wilson and the Hoe

I guess you could say we are all Alaska now! We have really ugly yellow tags on our vehicles... not just the back, but the front too! 

Im not really behind; just slow to post!

October 7th


Its been over a week since I have posted; I just can't seem to find any extra time here lately. We have been on the go x's 10. We were super busy socializing last week when Matt was on the slope; we are now part of a mommy group here 'South Anchorage Fun Moms'. The kids and I basically went to play dates and to the park; I only worked on the house here and there BUT it was worth it.... Laela is adjusting very well and is meeting several new friends. She has gotten really good at introducing herself, she says "Hi, my name is Yaeya" sticks out her hand and says "your name" but it sounds more like a statement than a question :-) then most of the kids just look at her in confusion and run off... no worries, she follows! 
Since Matt got back we have been doing all kinds of home projects and getting the house a lot more organized. He is really close to finishing up the garage and I was able to get both kids rooms put together. We bought Laela a new bed (twin size) and she loves it. The smaller bed gives her more room to play which is nice! We also painted our dinning room table... well, just the top! We basically copied off of our good friends Ashley and Leroy and painted the top of our table turquoise and I LOVE IT. I have been begging Matt to let me paint it forever... :-) he said when I started threatening to buy another one he figured a little paint would be cheaper!!! lol
Along with the house work we are also getting to enjoy the outdoors a lot more than I expected. We were able to gather some really nice gear for us all so its chilly but completely doable for a nice walk or some 4wheeling!!! There are trails everywhere here, especially in our neighborhood and the surrounding areas; we just jump on a trail and a few hours later realize that we have been gone for a while. On our walks Laela has been basically running along side the stroller while being pulled by Lady while Bubba typically sleeps! Its really nice being able to let Laela get some energy out; we all know she is FULL of energy! 
This last weekend we drove up to Eklutna Lake to trail ride; it was absolutely beautiful. Its crazy how pretty it is here, everywhere we go is breathtaking and pictures do not do it any justice. Eklutna Lake was an amazing blue green color with snow capped mountains surrounding it and of course trees and lots of wildlife! We came across a few hunters; they were bow hunting a bird about the size of a chicken called a Grouse... he said "they are good eaten" - looks like we will have to put that on our list of things to try! 
Overall, we have been having a lot of fun. The kids and I missed Matt while he was on the slope but it is really nice when he is home for a solid week. We have been non stop here lately; early mornings and late nights make for exhausting fun... Im not sure that the Hamm family could function any other way :-) 

Sept 24 & 25th

This weekend was fun filled constant chaos; thats usually the best way to describe most of our days though! Bubba started crawling....... just thought I would get the BIG news out first!
Saturday we started out looking for garage sales (of course) then enjoyed the OSU game... which was at 11:30 am here :-) We went over to 'The Peanut Farm' which is a local restaurant that has pretty good food and has tons of TVs so people can watch the games. The kids did so good; they are OSU super fans.... well at least Laela is. We happened to be in the back watching on a huge projector with like 30 A&M fans and 8 OSU fans; we were happy we won to say the least! Laela loved the fact the everyone else in the restaurant could yell so she took advantage of it; she yelled "Go Pokes, Theres Mr Pete (aka Pistol Pete), Go Cowboys, and I wanna see Bullet" the entire time... everyone LOVED it :-) 
We wrapped up our day with a trip to the park, Lowes, and Wal Mart. 
Sunday we took our time getting up and about; we did breakfast then worked on organizing the house some. Matt left for 'The Slope' so we spent time doing laundry and getting him packed. He will be gone till Friday which is a short trip... it will give us some time to adjust. Speaking of adjusting; Laela was showing absolutely no signs of anything bothering her until Sunday night. After a full day of playing at the park, playing in the back yard, coloring, painting, helping me cook and clean, and acting completely normal she kinda had a melt down at bedtime. As most of you know, Laela is the best sleeper I have ever seen. She usually goes down so easy with no objection and sleeps around 12 hours every night. BUT something upset her terribly; she was so upset it broke my heart. Her Daddy came to the rescue though... a phone call later she finally went to sleep. Its hard being a mom at times like that; you want to help so bad but no matter what you do it doesn't seem to make anything better. Its just so hard seeing her upset; mommy had a bit of a breakdown herself... again, Daddy was there to rescue me :-) 
Overall the weekend was a success and we are all doing just fine..... Im guessing Laela will be okay; she has just had so much happening all at one time, its so much for everyone to process! 


Ill post pictures tomorrow... its late :-) Night! 

Sept. 16th - Sept 22

Sept. 16
Wow. We made it! Yesterday (Sept. 15) was incredibly busy to say the least. We got up and started the day pretty normal with breakfast and baths then took the pups for a walk. At about 10am all the fun started. We loaded up the truck with everything and before we finished it started to rain; so. .  I made a mad dash to the store for huge trash bags to put over our bags (all 10 of them). Once we made it to the airport (thanks to my dad) we had to get tags made for 8 carry ons, get 10 bags checked, 2 Dogs checked in for carry ons, and get our boarding passes which sounds like no biggy, but took forever! We made it through security and to our gate in time for bathroom breaks and to grab some food; we loaded up and headed to Dallas. Once we got to Dallas we had just enough time to run to our connecting gate... we jumped on that plane and headed to Anchorage.  

Sept 17
Second day in Alaksa, we took a LONG trip down to Homer, AK. Next time we will make it a weekend trip instead of a day trip. We left out around 9am and will be back in Anchorage around 2am. We did get to see some very pretty views though. We went to see Portage Glacier, saw a Moose (Jeron spotted it), drove out on the Homer Spit, ate some amazing doughnuts at 'The Moose is Loose', ate at 'Cafe Cup' probably wont do that again :-) lol, and drove over 10 hours in one day... Now thats a trip! I think it was worth it; we got some amazing pictures and the kids did really well on the drive. 

Sept 18
RECOVERY DAY... after the air plane ride the day before and the car ride yesterday we are sticking around Anchorage today, going to eat at some local restaurants and show Jeron and Annette around the town. 
Afternoon -
So... we enjoyed Anchorage today... We went to the Zoo for a few hours which was super fun, its completely different from the OKC Zoo. The Zoo here has a lot less, but has a much more natural setting. The polar bears were really awesome! 
After the Zoo we headed downtown to eat at 'Glacier Brewhouse' - Matt and I had been there before so we wanted to take Jeron, Annette, Dave, and Karen. Everyone really enjoyed dinner and dessert. 

Sept 19 - 21
Move, unpack, organize, repeat.... im exhausted!


Sept 22
Today marks the first day of semi normalcy! Annette and Jeron had to head back to OK last night so we are on our own. I got up this morning and made breakfast; Matt was very happy to get his egg white and bacon sandwich!!! We were all so happy to start the day off around the dinning room table together; Matt said the blessing and we started to eat when Laela started choking. Matt and I both jumped up, he did the 'pat' her on the back a few times... she was turning red so I ran for my phone while yelling "get it out" - Matt did just that, he stuck his fingers down her throat and pulled out a piece of . . .... bacon. Yep, thats right... Bacon. She just about gave Matt and I a heart attack. Once it was all over and she realized she was okay she leaned over and kissed her daddy, it was so sweet.. a sort of silent Thank You :-) 
Once I stopped shaking I almost cried, I didn't have time to cry while it was happening - So Scary! 
You would think after all of that drama we wouldn't have anything else to talk about BUT of course there is more. We finished breakfast, then we played and cleaned till lunch. After lunch I put Laela and Colt down for a nap; their dad followed suite so I organized. I was a busy busy bee putting things away as fast as possible trying to get stuff done while I didn't have kiddos to watch. I got about 2 hours to work in peace (that rarely happens). Once everyone woke up I asked Matt where the pups where... I thought they were sleeping with him. He proceeded to tell me that he hadn't seen them, "Remember I was sleeping" he reminded me. 
I immediately panicked because I remembered looking out the back door several times and not seeing them laying there. Matt jumped in the Tahoe and I gathered the kids so we could search the neighborhood. We looked and looked; I called the animal shelter and they had no news. After about an hour of searching... I was panicking, and Matt was driving all over South West Anchorage we finally caught a break. Matt talked with some guy that gave him a number to the animal control in Anchorage; he called and at first they said there had been no reports of 2 missing pups. A few minutes later... they called back and said that a lady just called to report that she found them :-) uhhhh we were so happy to see those mischievous dogs. 
Dinner was good; I made Taco Soup. We sure were missing home cooked meals! 
Overall we had a good/ stressful day...  

August and September Happenings

Alaska Adventure.

Well about every few months Matt would come home and say 

"what do you think about moving to _____"

 Then I would say "whatever you think babe." It's been everywhere from New Mexico and Texas to Canada and Australia! The day he came home and said "what do you think about Alaska"  i said "it's so cold there, but whatever you think" in the back of my mind I just assumed it was small talk. . . Well, I was wrong. 

August 23rd
Leaving Elk City. .
It was very emotional! We had build a nice little life in our nice little home in Elk. We met amazing people and were very content with how everything was going. For me it was hard leaving the home that I brought both of my babies home to! The hardest things though was saying goodbye to some amazing friends. It wasn't a true goodbye though; just a 'see you later' BUT it was still hard! We are very excited to start a new adventure but equally sad to leave. 

August 24th
 Today was the first day living back in Lexington; only 23 more days till our family will be Alaska residence in our new house. So crazy!

August 29th
Being in Lexington has abled us to see lots of family! The kids and I are staying in Annette and Jerrys basement and it's working out great. Thinking about Alaska and knowing that we only have 18 days left is strange. It's coming fast; before we know it we will be on a plane headed North till Christmas. I'm excited to see what Alaska has in store for the Hamm family. ;-)

Sept 5th
Matt is on his way to Alaska!
It is crazy to think. . . He is actually on his way home. Anchorage AK I hope you are ready for the Hamm Fam! We will all be there the 15th to start our new adventure; it's all happening so fast. 

New Endeavors

The Hamm family is about to embark on a whole new experience ... Follow us on our journey! We will be blogging so everyone can keep up with our adventures!