Christmas

Our Christmas was nice and laid back.  Christmas Eve the kids and I opened presents from all our family.  We really got spoiled from you all!  I made a special dinner with all the fancy china.  If you can only use it for company, what's the point of having it?

 Christmas morning, Santa left some great gifts.  I was expecting the kids to get up super early, but I was actually awake before they were.  Kayla and Austin were very grateful for all the presents they got, and were even surprised with a phone call from Chris.  He called at 6:45 am and I asked him if the line was long to use the phone since it was 2:45 pm in Iraq.  He told me that everyone was waiting because their kids would still be sleeping, but he called because he knew that we would be up.  How true!

That evening, we went to my friend's family's house and enjoyed Christmas dinner with them.  We even brought a pinata and shared our Christmas tradition with them.  Thank you to everyone for remembering our family!

Still Alive

If you all are surprised to see me post something that is nothing compared to the cardiac arrest my wife is in for me taking pictures.  Sorry the photos are not of to many things but for security reasons I cant take photos of the camps or FOB's I'm at.  These are pics of Kuwait and if you don't know now you know that Kuwait SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!! The wind is always blowing and you live in a tent. Its like being at the beach on a really windy day minus the water, fun, and swimsuit.  The last pic is of me on a C-17 into Baghdad.  KK and Austin love you and miss you P.S. thank you for helping mommy.  Jeanette you have always been the love of my life and the strength that always brings me home safely love ya.

Family Pictures

Here are some family pictures we took on Thanksgiving.  I always have a hard time getting Chris to "want" to take pictures.  Unfortunately, Austin is becoming even harder than Chris to get pictures of him.

Well, the day came.  Chris left for Iraq today.  We spent our last day yesterday, like it was any other day as a family.  We didn't want to spend our last moments together sad, and depressed.  We went out to breakfast this morning and then hung out in Chris' office while he had to take care of getting his weapon and other stuff.  When it was time, we gave our hugs, and kisses and said our good-byes and watched him get on the bus.  It was especially hard on Kayla.    Chris is going to be taking pictures and try to post them on the blog.  We want to thank everyone for your love, support, and prayers.

Chris' Promotion

Last week, Chris was promoted from 2nd LT. to 1st LT.  The kids and I were able to go and pin on his new rank.  Besides when Chris was commissioned, I have never been to one of Chris' promotions.  The last time he was promoted, he was in Kuwait.  We are very proud of him.  

The day before Chris' promotion, he had to serve his Soldiers a Thanksgiving dinner.  As a part of that, he had to wear his dress blues.  I have been bugging Chris for a year to get a picture of him in his uniform, and I FINALLY got it!  For those of you who don't know and are wondering why the pants are lighter than the jacket, I'll tell you.  In the Civil War, the Union Soldiers would take their jackets off during the battles.  Their pants would ware more and fade, while their jackets remained nice and clean.  They wear the dress blues that way to carry on that legacy.

Peanut Brittle and Thanksgiving

It's a tradition in my family to make peanut brittle every year.  I learned from my dad and he learned from his mom.  Usually we wait until it's closer to Christmas, but we wanted to get a start on some of our family traditions to include Chris.  It is seriously the best peanut brittle ever.  Every other year, I make it and Chris helps with pulling it, but this year I tried (key word on "tried") showing the kids how it's made.  Kayla was a big help, but Austin was being a goof-ball and was acting silly.  It was one of our best batches!

For Thanksgiving, we went to Charlotte and spent the holiday with my grandparents.  We had a great time.  Thanksgiving morning we all went to the movies.  The kids and the boys saw "Bolt" and the girls saw "Twilight."  It was a win, win and everyone was happy.  We enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with fried turkey.  Really, it's the only way to have turkey.  We had fun hanging out and seeing Christmas lights.  The kids especially had fun helping Grandpa clean out the gutters.  Austin was a true boy and didn't even hesitate climbing up the latter. Kayla, on the other hand, really did try to overcome her fears.

Let it snow . . . sort of

Last week, while we were getting ready, Kayla was watching the news and told me that we were going to get some snow. We get new channels from Raleigh or Wilmington so I thought that they were talking about one of those areas. Kayla said, "No, they said Fayetteville." Sure enough, when I went outside to warm up the car, there was snow flakes coming down. Of course, it was water by the time it hit the ground or the car, but the kids were pretty excited about it.

Kayla's Baptism

Here is Kayla and Chris on her baptism day.  It was such a wonderful day.  Some of my family flew out from California to be here for her baptism.  Kayla was baptized in the same dress that I was baptized in.  Kayla was so cute.  She said it was like a dream and she was so happy and excited.  It was a very emotional experience for everyone, especially on the heels of Chris' deployment.

One of my favorite moments was when Kayla, Austin, and Blake were supposed to sing and Blake fell asleep.  We tried to wake him up, but he was out!  Kayla and Austin did a great job on the song anyway.

Kayla's 8th Birthday

I can't believe that I have an eight-year old daughter!  For her birthday, we let her invite two friends to go see High School Musical 3.  I have to say that it was so fun watching them at the movie.  They were dancing with the music and I loved all their reactions to the different scenes in the movie.  Austin loves the High School Musical movies just as much as Kayla. 

Kayla is starting to take after me and is becoming quite the cake decorator.  She wanted to help decorate her birthday/baptism cake.  She really did a great job.  I let her pick and decide what she wanted to do for it.  When I have more time, I'll post pictures and tell about her baptism.

Halloween

Halloween was, of course, a fun night.  We started off by carving our pumpkins.  Kayla and Austin were excited to carve their pumpkins by themselves.  I did help Austin a little, but Kayla did her pumpkin all by herself.

Austin took a picture of me cleaning the guts out of his pumpkin.  He did a good job.  It's only a little blurry.

After we carved pumpkins, the kids got their costumes on and got ready to go trick-or-treating.  We went with our neighbors and the kids had a lot of fun and got a lot of candy.  

When we got back, the kids had fun handing out candy.  Kayla was so funny.  She would tell the kids how cute their costumes were, tell them Happy Halloween and then she would tell them to be safe.  She sounded so grown-up.  Our favorite trick-or-treater was Chris, who came to the door and pretended to be a kid and surprised Kayla and Austin.  It was the end of a long and fun day.

Kayla's Baptism Pictures

Today after church, I took Kayla to the Rose Garden at Fayetteville Tech. College to take some pictures of her in the dress my mom made for her baptism.  My mom did such a great job on her dress and it looks beautiful.

Halloween Party

We had our ward Halloween Party last night and had a lot of fun.  I dressed up as Lucy, Kayla was Alice in Wonderland, and Austin was Indiana Jones.  We went out Friday evening to buy the kid's costumes and we had to go to several stores.  We only found Austin's costume.  I told Kayla that she could look for some other costume or I would take her to JoAnn's and  get material to make her costume.  Kayla really wanted to be Alice so we went and got the pattern and material to make her costume.  I worked on it all night and the next morning.  It was worth it though because Kayla was so appreciative and she kept thanking me.  Her costume ended up being a bargain.  Including tights, material and pattern, I spent $14 on her costume.

This week

Last Tuesday, we found out that Chris would be leaving on Thursday morning to go to Airborne school. So, Chris is gone for three weeks, will come home for three weeks and then leave on his year long deployment. I know, it stinks, but what can you do. We will be fine, and I know we will be taken care of.

On a happier note, Kayla had to do a project for her science class. They are learning about the body and each student had to pick what kind of a doctor they wanted to be. Kayla wanted to be a Pulmonolgist. They even had to take a test to become a doctor. She had to draw a diagram of the air passage and lungs and had to make a model of the lungs. I couldn't think a good way to make a model inexpensively and simple enough that Kayla would be able to do most of it herself. (Let's face it, most of the time the parents are the ones who end up doing most of it!) But, at the store, I had an idea to make an edible model. We decided to make the lungs out of Rice Crispie Treats. It was something solid that was easy to mold in the shape we needed. One of the lungs, we cut in half so we could show the inside of the lungs and used shoe lace licorice as the bronchiol tubes and mini M&M's as the avoli and avolius. It was fun to work on and it turned out really cute. Today, Kayla brought them to school and gets to recite the hippocratic oath since she past her test and became a doctor.

Austin is doing well in school as well. He loves it! He also informed me the other day that he was looking for a girl-friend. So all you single girls out there, watch out. You got to love the innocence of a child.

Family Fun

The last two weeks, Chris was on leave and it was great.  Since I was still working, Chris was "Mr. Mom."  I came home from work and Chris already had done homework with the kids, and even cooked dinner a few times.  And Chris NEVER cooks!  It was so nice to have a little break.  We have been trying to spend quality time as a family before Chris leaves.

As you can tell, Chris and the kids have been playing a lot of baseball.  The Dodgers being in the play-offs has gotten us all excited.  We just wish we were closer to enjoy the celebrations.

And no, it's not a wig!  I dyed my hair dark brown.  Thought I would mix it up a little.  The most common question I get is if I like my hair dark.  Little do people know, that my natural color is medium brown.  Who knows, maybe it will be a different color next month!  I guess you could say that my hair is a perfect analogy for our family . . . it always changes.

Some of my Cakes

My friend Krista wanted me to post some of the cakes that I have done.  So, here are a few.  Enjoy!