December Already!!

I can't believe it is December already. We had a great Thanksgiving. Brett's mom and stepdad, Peggy and Joe, came and spent the holiday with us. The kids and I went to Valley Forge and met my cousin, Michelle, and her family. It was fun, but super cold. I think Valley Forge is meant to be seen in the springtime, at least that is when I am going to go back. It did make me appreciate what those Revolutionary soldiers went through surviving a cold eastern winter! We all got to go to Philly with Peggy and Joe and see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell again. M was so excited to see the Liberty Bell again. That was her favorite part. We did get to go through a detour of Chinatown on our way to historical Philly. GPS's and some of the roads around here are not very good friends! We are now just getting ready to go to Utah for Christmas!!! Yeah!!! Now if I can get everything done that needs to be done before we leave, it would be great! We are so excited to go home and spend the holidays with our family. I think they are more excited to see Brett and the kids than anything else. My family is going through Brett withdrawals because he didn't get to see everyone this summer and hasn't seen some of them in a couple of years. Speaking of a couple of years, we hit our 2 year mark in the Air Force next week. Brett probably disagrees with me, but I think it has gone by so fast. Well, I am off to bed, but I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas because I probably won't have another post before then. Have a great Christmas with your families!!!

Halloween

Our kids didn't go trick or treating on Sunday night, but they more than made up for it at the Ward Trunk or Treat, the squadron Halloween party, and a carnival my friend put on. For the family that didn't buy any pumpkins this year, we ended up with 4. Go figure. Anyways, here are some pictures of the kids in their costumes. I am sad that I didn't get more of T, but he wasn't really cooperating! M's school had a Halloween parade at her school. She was so cute and thought it was really funny that her teacher was a present.

A Recap

So, we have had a few fun things happen for us in the last month. M started preschool! She was so cute and excited the first day. I thought it could get a little iffy because she doesn't always do so well in new situations, but she gave Brett and me great big hugs and kisses and sent us on our way home. She also rides the bus everyday and I was worried about that too. Nothing to worry about!! She gets right on the bus and is on her way. She is too cute for words. Here are a couple of pictures of her on her first day:
Brett participated in a Mud Run here on base with some people from his squadron . The kids and I went and saw Brett go over a couple of obstacles. It was fun and Brett was covered in mud!!
Brett and I got go to up in a C-17 last weekend. I have been in the plane a couple of times but never in the air, and Brett is on them all the time. It was a lot of fun, but I got very airsick. There are not any windows in the C-17 except in the cockpit. We did get to go and hang out in the cockpit for a little while, it was awesome. I was a little worried at times that someone wasn't flying the plane though!!! So to see the sights, the back was lowered. It is something that was a ton of fun, but I don't know if I will be doing it again any time soon! There was another C-17 flying in formation with us, so the pictures of the plane are of the other C-17 (ours looks exactly the same though). The people sitting on the end of the ramp were crew members. It was fun to watch them, but I was glad I wasn't out there hanging out like they were. The last picture is a C-17 with Atlantic City in the background. Look at the horizon in some of the pictures and then you can see why I was so airsick! Here are some pictures so you can see what I mean.

Photography blog

So I started a new blog that will hopefully help me keep going on my photography. I love photography, but I go through stages where I don't take a lot of pictures or edit them. I am going to try to add at least one new photo every week. So go check it out here.

It is about time!!!!

I know this is what everyone is thinking!! It is about time I updated our blog!! Things have been crazy the last couple of months. The kids and I made it safely back to Jersey after our little vacation. We had a lot of fun and were finally glad we made it home. We have been here for just over a year now. It has made me think about all the things that have happened in the last year and all the first we have had here. It is the first time I have lived 2200 miles away from my family, first time I have driven almost across the whole country, first time to NYC visiting Central Park, Times Square, and Rockefeller Plaza, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois (yeah, covered a lot of country driving home!), just to name a few things. M had her first day of school a couple of weeks ago. She absolutely loves it! Brett and I took her to school on the first day. I expected to see some tears and an "I don't want you to leave!" but all I got was a hug and kiss and a wave goodbye. She was so excited. She has also been so excited to ride the bus every day. She is on the bus for maybe 5 minutes to school and 5 minutes from school. Yes, we really live that close. She is the last stop to get on the bus, and the first stop to get off. M also started gymnastics last week. She had so much fun. I don't know what it is, but I have always seen her as a little gymnast. T has been getting so big. He doesn't say much, but somehow, we are able to figurehim out, sometimes. He does things that constantly surprise and amaze me. The other day he was trying to get his toothbrush out of the drawer and kept getting M's instead, so he pulled the stool over to the drawer so he could look into the drawer. I thought it was so darn smart of him. Well, there is the recap of our lives for the last couple of months. So here are the pictures I know you are all wanting to see.

Vacation Time!

Changes in plans, flight and baggage agony, family, camping, riding horses, herding cows, MOUNTAINS, sewing, picture taking, driving, the feeling of being home, no sleep, very cute niece and nephew, new used car, laughing, beautiful landscapes, fresh mountain spring, coyotes, campfire, starry nights, MOUNTAINS, more picture memory, friends

Just a few things that I have felt and experienced in the last 6 days since I went on vacation. Pictures to follow when I get home!

A Long Time Coming!

I am finally posting pictures!!! Our computer, that has all of our pictures, has been getting fixed, so I finally downloaded pictures onto our other computer. T turned 1 last week. He is the stinkiest, cutest kid ever. Both of my kids are adorable, but I am their mother, so I can say that all I want! So to make up for being horrible about blogging, here are some much anticipated pictures of my adorable kids (because really, everyone just wants to see them!) Oh, I decided to just use my kids initials when I blog about them! And to make you all jealous, the beach pictures were taken in April!

I am horrible about updating my blog. I am so sorry. This month has been an eventful one. My cute little daughter turned 4. I still can't believe she is that old. Last week I registered her for preschool. She will go to preschool 5 days a week for 3 hours each day. The preschool is ran through the school and she will even ride a bus down the street to school every day. She is an energetic, active, playful little girl. She loves her brother and is always excited to see him and hold him. She loves to make Ty laugh and most times laughs right along with him. Micole still says "lasterday" for anything that happened earlier than right now. It is so cute and adorable. My parents were able to come and visit us and be here for Micole's birthday party. She had to have a Tinkerbell party, and it was a lot of fun. She had a lot of friends come to her party.

I was so excited to have my parents come and visit. I didn't realize how much I had missed them until they were here. It was hard to see them leave, but we had a fun time with them here. We went to Philadelphia and got to see a lot of the historical things there. It ended up being a beautiful day and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, my mom and I both forgot our cameras, so we have no pictures to show for it! This month, Brett was put on 12 hour shifts. He now works 4 days and has 3 days off. Those are really long days for me and Brett. After a couple of days of 12s, I am jumping in his arms as soon as he gets home and then heading out the door for a little time off. It has sure been a different experience.

We are car shopping also this month. It has been another interesting experience for us. We have a very small budget and are finding it hard to find a car that is not a totally heap pile on wheels or being sold by someone so shady you are scared to get out of your car! Not really, but you know what it is like. We have seen some pretty shady ads on craigslist. So on top of car hunting, our computer upstairs decided to spaz out and needs to be fixed. Needless to say, there are no pictures to be had because they are all on the computer. We are getting ready for warm weather, Easter, and Conference. I wish you all a Happy Easter!

I Made This!!

I am so excited tonight. I made a shirt for Ty!! It is really the first article of clothing I have made that isn't way simple, like a skirt. Give me a bag to make and I am all over it, but clothes, scare me. I found this tutorial on MADE for a 90 minute shirt, so I decided to try it. I really think it turned out cute. I definitely learned a few things about working with knit, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. And because I am starting to be harassed by my family because I haven't posted pictures of my kiddos recently, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and use my cute little Ty as my model. Micole took some pictures of Ty and me, and I must say, she did a pretty good job. The lighting in these pictures is not great, but that is also because it is too late to edit them and the lighting was bad this afternoon. Another major snow storm for us!!! I thought I left the snow in Utah, but apparently, it followed me!!
I hope this display of pictures will tide over my friends and family for a little while. Oh, my mom and dad are going to be here in one week and I don't know who is more excited, me or Micole!!!

The Funniest Thing

So, I was checking out craigslist for a couple of things, and I saw this ad:

For sale Snow Panic Toilet Paper per roll - $10

Did you goto the supermarket today? Disappointed that all the toilet paper is gone due to the impending snow storm. I have a great deal for all you last minute supermarket visitors. Forget the crowds, forget the lines, forget the madness. If you live in Gloucester, Camden, or Salem counties I will personally deliver rolls of toilet paper to your home for the snow special of $10.00 per single roll. WOW! What a deal! You can rest assured you won't be snowed in with no butt paper if you act now. Interested buyers act in the next 30 minutes and we will include for free a single dryer sheet so you can have a fresh finish. Hurry while supplies last. I am not full of crap, this is a legitimate offer.

I cracked up laughing. I don't think I have seen anything so funny in a long time! I wonder how many people took him up on it!!

Deals, Deals, Deals

I don't know about you, but I love getting a good deal. I have tried the coupon thing and am not very good at it. I usually forget my coupons or don't know what is on sale (base grocery stores don't send out sales fliers). So, I usually get my good deals elsewhere. This week the deal of the week was at Target. I was there with a friend and we were walking through the home section (you can find some great deals in the home section). I had decided I wanted a white comforter, so I was looking at anything white and found a down comforter on clearance. It was marked to 29.99 from 59.99. I debated and debated on whether to get it or not and just decided to go for it. When I was checking out, much to my delighted surprise, it rang up for 15.00!! I was so excited. I love it when that happens! 75% off, now that is what I am talking about!!

Thank You!

I want to thank everyone who voted in my poll. I really appreciate it and was so excited that I had 18 votes! Yeah!!! Just in case you were all wondering, the boat came in first and the sunset came in second. Those two are my favorite too, but it was nice to know that other people liked them! So thanks to everyone!!

I Need Some Help

I am taking a photography class and we had to bring in what we thought was some of our best work. I found some pictures I liked and my class decided which ones they liked. I don't know if I agree with them on which ones were the best, so I am asking you, who read my blog, which ones you think are the best. If you want to leave a comment as to why you like it, that would be helpful. If not, please take my poll. I don't mean to sound desperate, I just want to know what everyone thinks. There is a poll on the side of my blog for you to vote for your favorite. Without further ado, here they are:

(I tried to make the pictures bigger, but this is as big as I could make them without cutting the pictures off. I hope this helps!)

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What an Example!

This morning I got an e-mail from a member of the Relief Society presidency asking everyone to donate items for some refugees from Haiti that are right here at McGuire AFB. It really hit home that what happened in Haiti is horrific and there are so many people who need help. The list of things was very basic: diapers, coats, toys, books. Little things for the kids who lost everything. Well, I really felt that I needed to do something, so I gathered up a couple of things like diapers and some blankets. I thought it would be a good teaching moment to ask Micole if she wanted to help. I told her there were some little kids just like her that lost all their toys and asked if she wanted to give something to the kids. She went over to one of her toy bins and found a couple of things to donate. We weren't able to take the stuff over until tonight. In the meantime, Micole ended up adding a couple of things because "Those kids need a bunny rabbit," she said. I took Micole with me to the base gym, where they are housing the refugees that came in today, and made our donation. She was so cute. She wanted to stay at the gym and play with all the kids. She did so good giving her stuff to the Air Force personnel. Micole was a huge example to me today. Disasters happen all the time and I haven't really given them much thought in the past, but being right here, less than a mile away from people who really need help, made it real to me. Let us all try and do all we can to help those in Haiti and others around us that are in need of a little service. It really will make you feel so good.