Here is another, but with our pretty Christmas tree in the background! :) Merry Christmas! And remember that Jesus is the reason for this whole joyous season!

15 Weeks Already!!!

Here I am! Just thought I'd share a quick picture with you all! I am now officially 15 weeks along! Wow how time flies! AND I can now say that I am FINALLY feeling like a functional human being again! PRAISE GOD!!!Last week at the Dr.'s it was officially confirmed that I had lost 20 lbs since becoming pregnant... yikes! But now that I am feeling better they aren't too concerned and all is well! We finally got to hear our baby's heartbeat... and it was amazing!!! It was beating at 160 beats/minute! It was awesome, and it's finally getting to the point where it (kinda) seems like all this is real. :) But we are so happy and just thrilled that soon we will have a cutie patootie running around our home.

Hope everyone is having a joyous CHRISTmas season! We are really missing all of our family... but we do know that God has placed us here for a reason! We have our wonderful church family here and we will b joingin some of our very close friends for an Italian themed Christmas dinner! We are looking forward to it! Well, We love you all so much! I'll pop up more pictures soon... sorry it's been so long! Merry CHRISTMAS! xoxoxoxox

~Cortney, Brandon, and Baby Jellybean!

Watch This Video Before it Gets Deleted!!!

This is a scary video that needs to be distributed around our country before it gets deleted!!! Watch and share with others!


http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tCAffMSWSzY#t=28

We're Having a Baby!!!

Yup, yup... it's true! So I hope that everyone has heard by now that our lives are forever changed! On October 5th, the morning that I was leaving to visit familia in Arizona, we made the surprising discovery that we were pregnant! Wow, what a surprise it was. lol. It has already been quite an exciting journey, and we couldn't be any happier to expecting a little bundle of joy into our happy and blessed little family! Yesterday we had our first ultrasound (which was amazing!!!) and found out for sure that I am 9 weeks and one day along today! Lil jellybean is 23.5 mm long with a really strong heartbeat and the Dr. said it is really surprisingly active for such a little one. Brandon just had the BIGGEST grin the whole time, it was so special! And it really makes it all much more real to have an actual visual of the little blessing forming perfectly inside of me! Wow. Still feels crazy. I have been battling some horrid morning (hah- all day) sickness and have lost quite a bit of weight, but am praying that it will go away soon! And hey, research says that the sicker I am the healthier the baby is, some say it will have a higher IQ too... so I'm thankful for it -kinda. Well, we're so excited to be going on the new journey into (ahh) ...parenthood! :) And can't wait to share it with you all! We love and miss you! Have a blessed day, and I promise I'll be updating this more often! (This is the first day I've been able to look at the computer without puking... ug) Feel free to call anytime, I'm not doing much. Ok, God Bless you today! xoxo ~Cortney, Brandon.... and lil baby bean!

Kodiak Fall!

Happy Fall Ya'll!!! Hope everyone is having a great start to this fall season! Here are just a couple of our our recent fun photos! Enjoy! Love and blessings to all!

Pics of our Saltry Trip!

A beautiful lake out there!!! We just sat there and watched red salmon and the cloudss with Ray and Wanda!!! Awesome!!!
Gotta love these waders! LOL!
Awww.....
Beautiful on the go picture! Those flowers inthe foreground are fireweed. And supposedly when the fireweed bloom, summer is over... :( At some points on the trip whole mountainsides were covered with blooming fireweed! Breathtaking, yet a bit sad.
Ray and Wanda and Brandon and I on our 4-wheelers!!! I know I look silly... :)
Out at Saltry!
He has majorly been bitten by the fishing bug!!! :) This is a hole with many many pinks, and ONE silver! He's caught it twice now and it's broken the line both times... hmmm.... :)

The Adventure of a Lifetime!!!

We were blessed beyond measure yesterday and had the opportunity to go to Saltry creek on Kodiak!!! It is a half our ride in the truck out to the trail and then you hop on a 4 wheeler and go on a little muddy trail up and over a mountain, it's 40 miles round trip just on the 4-wheeler!!! It was amazing! We went with an amazing and inspiring couple from church. They are in their 70's! Awesome people! The beauty and adventure we experienced yesterday was AMAZING! It truly was a once in a lifetime experiece!!! Execpt that we plan on doing it again within the next couple of weeks!!! YAY!!! I guess it was rare that we didn't experience a bear up close and personal, but that's ok with me! Maybe next time! We went out to see if the silver salmon have come into the rivers yet, but they haven't.We did spot a couple though, among many, many ugly pink humpies. The masses of the silvers will start running in a couple weeks! But Brandon and I each caught one( you could see it flashing silver under the water and Brandons jumped way high!), but it broke our lines.... I know, the typical fishermans tale, but it's TRUE! :) Anyways, enjoy some of these pictures. They just did not capture the awesome beauty that surrounded us, but hopefully you can tell just a bit. It was amazing to see first hand the awesome beauty that God created here in Kodiak. ONLY God himself could have created such amazingness with just a breathe!!! He is so good!!! Well, enjoy and leave comments, please! :) There will be more to come!!! ...Oh and yes I know I look funny in that helmet. But I wasn't going to not wear one and the only thing that we had was Brandon's Coast Guard combat helmet...lol. I know, silly, but I was at least a bit safe. :) Ok, God bless you!!! And enjoy this video of us going through some deep water!!! :) FUN!!!!

Pink Salmon and Their Transformation!!!

Here are some pictures to show you how the Pink Salmon transform when they go from being in sea water to fresh water. As you probably know (or might not) salmon come here to Kodiak to lay their eggs. I believe it is many millions of salmon!!! Crazy! But they swim from the ocean up into streams around the island. The video I posted previously showed some of the masses of Pink salmon. Different types of salmon come in at different times. First the Red salmon ran the rivers, now the pinks are running the rivers, and in September the silvers will start to run. The pinks here are called trash fish and all you do is catch and release them because their meat is yucky.... BUT down in the states pink is prabably the only type of salmon you have ever tasted. We are extreamly spoiled here and only eat red or silver or king salmon. lol. Funny. So anyways, pinks are also called humpies because when they go from the ocean water to the fresh stream water their bodies completely transform!!! It is amazing!!! In the ocean they are just another beautiful looking fishy, but.... when they are in the fresh water they turn NASTY! Dr. Jackle, Mr. Hyde type of thing, lol. Sooooo....... without further delay.... here they are!!!Here is a normal pink salmon that has lived it's life thus far in the ocean. Pretty!

Just me and a fishy @ the dock!
This pink is kinda in the middle stages... you can kinda see (if you ckick on it to make it bigger) that it is starting to get a hump on it's back.... weird.

Fishing just for fun at Brandon's dock. Catching these guys are fun because they put up a good fight!

A yucky pink Humpie!!! See how even it's mouth has changed? And it's coloring and back? It is just amazing how God designed these creatures!!!

A Fun Filled Day of Kodiak Adventure!

(Above: WW2 bunker!)

(Below: all of my yummy salmonberries!!!)

(Above: Bad picture of me, but can you spot the little blur running for me as fast as she can?)

(Below: Beautiful Chiniak!)

(above: My Beautiful salmonberries!!!)
(above:LOTS of pink salmon!)
(above: My first salmon! The line was in for like 10 seconds...sweet! The puppies love it! That is Lucy's dad Sam in the background and her brother Snickerdoodle next to her!)

(below: AMAZING amount of salmon!!! Just incredible!!!)
Jenny and her 3 awesome kiddos took me and Lucy out for an adventure to Chiniak yesterday while Brandon was @ work! We did everything from catch and release some Pink Salmon(they're garbage fish up here, lol, but fun to catch!), pick LOTS of yummy salmonberries, go in an old WW2 bunker, watch sea lions eat salmon, and just have an overall wonderful time! Chiniak is the other "end of the road" place on the island that we had never been to before and it was really neat and beautiful! It takes about an hour from our house to hit the literal END of the road(and it's a dirt road at that!) Hopefully you can tell in the video how many salmon are at this one place that we stopped... it was AMAZING and I've never seen anthing like it! There was thousands and thousands of fish just sitting there!!! Wow! Very cool! And aren't these salmonberries beautiful? Jenny has a "secret spot" that she's gone to for years and it was overflowing with these scrumptious berries! I found one that filled up the palm of my hand! So neat! I ended up with nearly 2 gallons full in about an hour( and I would have had a bunch more if I hadn't had the philosophy of 2 in the bucket 1 in the mouth, lol!). We'll be having lots of salmonberry pies and cobblers this winter! Yay for living off of the land! Well, Brandon and I are off to enjoy a lovely walk with our 2 puppies, now that I finally have the boot off of my ankle! Yay! Have an immensly blessed day and remember that you're more than welcome to come and experience this Kodiak adventure for yourselves any time you'd like(although I'd reccomend to plan for a summer visit, as we do not know what the winter has in store for us yet, lol)!!! We love & miss you! ~Cortney, Brandon, Rascal, & Lucy

A Big fish, Brandon Heath, and good friends!

Hola! Just wanted to share some of our busy last couple of days! We went fishing Thursday with an older gentleman from our church who wanted to take us to some of his "secret" spots. He ended up catching a big ol' 90 pounder and I ended up catching some HORRIBLE seasickness. OH MY GOSH. It was absolutely horrid. It was out in the actual open ocean and yup, enough said. And then later that night we were blessed with the opportunity to go to a Brandon Heath concert! Brandon Heath is the Male Vocalist of the year for Christian music and it was just AWESOME that he came to little Kodiak, Alaska! He was totally NOT what I had pictured him to be(he was very geeky), but it was a very fun and personable concert. He was funny and very down to earth. And his piano player looked like a girl; But he was a guy. :) Also, here's a picture of my Kodiak chickies! This is Thea, Sonia, and Jenny. The wonderful ladies that took me out for my Birthday lunch! :) Sonia is VERY pregnant and i'm waiting for the call that she's going into labor! How exciting! Yup, yup! Well, Have a blessed day and keep checking out our blog for more updates on us! :) God bless you in whatever you're doing today!

On top of the world!!!

Our BEAUTIFUL Kodiak, Alaska!!!

More Birthday pics! :)

Just a few more birthday pics!!

Don't mind the hair! :)


Some lovely decorations!!!

And my BEAR!!!
!

WoW! 22 is OLD...

...Just Kidding!!!

My birthday bear!!!
My babies!!!! (she's getting SO big!!!)
My special card that he picked out!!!
Yay!!!... A vanilla cupcake yankee candle, that he picked out ALL by his self!!!
My amazing hubby!!!... And his OLDER wife... lol!!!

I had a wonderful, wonderful birthday yesterday! Thank you so much to everyone who wished

me a HAppy happy Birthday! And a special THANK YOU to my hubby! I just have to brag on him

a bit. He is amazing! He worked hard yesterday to make my day very special! Yay! He even baked

me a cake!!! And a tasty cake at that! He decorated the house and wrapped and hid a bunch of

presents around the house and EVEN wrapped up our front door in cool birthday paper!!! I'm SO

blessed! :) Also, some of my wonderful Kodiak girlies took me to lunch at the Powerhouse and we

too had a wonderful special afternoon eating chocolate and window shopping! They also convinced

me to eat my very first SUSHI!!! Ahhh! BUT, I actually kinda liked it! Never thought I'd say that,

but I did!!! I even especially liked the little yellow fish eggs that it was rolled in!Yuck, but kinda Yummy!

Not sure that I'll order it ALOT, but I did try it! I continue to surprise myself! :) Again, I'm SO

VERY blessed to be surrounded with such wonderful people!!! After I opened some presents,

Brandon took me on a bear hunt! (LOL, we go looking for bears basically every week, but we

never see anything!) We drove around for an hour and didn't see anything, but right before we

got home...THERE HE WAS! Just a little guy looking for some salmon, but we saw him!!! Yay!

It was a special birthday treat!! My first Kodiak Bear sighting!!! :) I ended the day with my

favorite ice cream EVER and some yummy cake! Well, I'll update with more later. We are going

halibut fishing tomorrow and we also have a Brandon Heath concert tomorrow night! The island is

very excited that he is coming to Kodiak!!! Another special treat!!! Oh! I forgot to say what Brandon

got me! He over did it a bit, lol, but I got: some Bath & Body works lotion and soap, 2 C.G. tee shirts,

a Yankee Candle, a cool bucket thingy that matches my kitchen, some candy and gum, the new Wii

Sports Resort (which I'm a bit upset about b/c that's what I was getting HIM for HIS b-day),

and a very special little mirror plaque thing that is very special. I will post a pic sometime.

Yup, yup. So my husband really spoiled me! I married a very special guy! :) Ok, I will try to be updating

more often. So sorry! Love you all!!!

~Cortney, Brandon, Rascal & Lucy!

HALIBUT!!!

Josh's fish... aka Flappy! Ty's fish! Sweet! All the fish we kept!

Yummy! :)

Brandon kissing his yummy little one! lol!

Tyler enjoying whacking it! ...I guess you have to do that, and all the boys really enjoyed that! lol!

The Skipper and his Navigator! Fun stuff!

WoW! We had such an amazing time on our first Halibut fishing adventure!!! The Lord blessed us and we now have 30 lbs of yummy halibut fillets in our freezer!!! The boys all caught a halibut and I caught a couple of cod and lots of some ugly bass thing. Josh and Tyler caught BIG ones! It was SO fun! They had a great fight pulling them up from about 200 feet down under! Halibut is a pretty ugly, bottom of the ocean fish and both of it's eyes are on the top of it's body; they have pure white underbellies so when you're pulling them up all of a sudden you get a glimps of this big white/silver fish down there... it was awesome!!! Josh's was like 50-60 lbs and Ty's was like 40! SO fun! I got video of Josh pulling it up, which I hope to post later here! So fun! Yup yup! Hope to have everyone up here to catch halibut soon! We took out one of Brandon's rental boats and it was absolutely perfect!!! Lucy even came with and enjoyed sleeping in the Captains seat the majority of the trip! We had made fresh halibut fish 'n' chips the night before we went out fishing and it really wet our whistles to catch lots more for ourselves! :) Now we have a freezer full! Yay! Seriously, it was SO MUCH FUN! :) Yup yup, so PLEASE come and visit so you can experience this for yourselves! It is so worth it! And this was only our first time, so we'll see what we get next time! :) God bless you and thanks for checking out the blog! xoxoxo