Goodbye sweet curls...sniff sniff!

Dane got his first haircut today! He's been visiting the barbershop with Daddy the last few times Dan has gotten his hair cut and today Dane climbed up on the barber chair and settled in on his own accord. He didn't complain or squirm when Rhonda started combing his hair so we went for it! He did great - no fussing, no crying, no screaming and most importantly, no blood! ;)

Before:

During:

The Tootsie Pop and his favorite "guy" definitely made for a smooth hair cutting session.

After (posing with his hairstylist, Rhonda):

As much as I loved your sweet curls, I think you look adorable with your new big boy haircut!

Boy vs Mosquito

Mosquito 1
Boy 0

Unfortunately, I think the score will only get worse for Boy! :(

If you can imagine, Dane's eye actually looked worse! It was almost completely swollen shut when I took him out of his crib. Poor little man.

24 days and counting!

It's hard to imagine that in just three short weeks, Dane will not be our baby anymore! I was hang drying some of the boys' clothes and seeing these two sleepers right next to each other just about made my heart melt. I can't believe that we're going to have a tiny little love buggers in our house again!

Happy 4th of July!

The Blackwells once again invited us to their annual 4th of July celebration at Auke Rec. The weather was perfect, the food fabulous and the company divine. What a great way to celebrate the 4th! Dane is still talking about "curse & whenee" (Curtis and Wendy) at the "beets" (beach).

I love Dane's cherry stained chin!

Wendy and her niece, Katrina

And my 3 boys! (Soon to be 4)

One of the benefits of living in Alaska

We were the lucky recipient of a sockeye which was happily swimming the seas mere minutes before its receipt. Now, we call that FRESH!




Here's the final product - Baked Dijon Salmon And if I do say so myself it was pretty darn yummy! We had so much salmon, that we've happily been eating it for a few days, so we tried a few other recipes as well. Another winner was Maple Salmon. I, of course, can't take any credit other than following two awesome recipes which both came from my favorite online recipe resource - www.allrecipes.com





Dane's still not feeling 100%, but he couldn't resist helping Mama in the kitchen! I was more than happy to have such a great helper. (The mosquito bite on his cheek is one not so positive benefit of living in Alaska! Little buggers get him just like they get his Mama. Poor trait to inherit from me!)

My poor little man

woke up at 1:30 Monday morning with vomit all over himself and bed! He continued to throw up 4 more times and is now entering the fever stage. It just breaks my heart to see him so sick. All he wants to do is be in my arms or in this chair watching Word World. Thank goodness for our DVR and the three episodes we have taped which we've watched over and over for the last two days.

More O'Brien Fun

A big THANK YOU to our good friend, Erik, for taking the O'Brien's on a crabbing adventure. They got to see the life of a true Alaskan crab fisherman by pulling the pots themselves. They also got to experience how to cook and shell the crabs. Talk about a good lesson in where your food comes from! I think everyone really appreciated that crab after how much work it was to get all that glorious meat out. We made crab cakes, crab fettucine alfredo, the "Uncle Dan" special, a wonderful crab cold pasta (thanks Grandma Wendy!) and of course, plenty of plain crab while we were shelling it.

Dan and Dane watching the action from the tugboat

Hiking up to the John Muir Cabin

A great O'Brien family picture!

Tim and Zach kayaking on Mendenhall Lake

Bubba & Yaya on the kayaking adventure