my first bird.

A bitter sweet Thanksgiving it was. How wonderful that we had a nice dinner on the table and a healthy family to eat it but the lack of family and friends around proved to be heartbreaking. I can only say this - I am truly thankful for the family that I call my own and the happiness and joy they give me every day. I only hope in the years to come, I can share this with others.

I must say despite the small gathering, my attempt at my first turkey was a success and proved to not be as bad as I thought it would be. Mike and I will be eating leftovers for days however!

Carving the bird.

The spread. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures before we had already dug in for the evening. Oh well, there is always next year. :)

national pie making day.

A good friend of mine informed me that today is National Pie Making Day. :) Well, being I didn't know that, I decided that I had to enlist the help of my most involved chef to get a start on our T-Day pies.

Thank goodness for the apple peeler or we would have been peeling for quite a while.

Apple and Pumpkin pies. Did I do okay for my first attempt at National Pie Making Day? Have a great Thanksgiving to all!

the nutcracker.

Yesterday, Elizabeth and all of her fellow Daisy's got the privilege to go see the Nutcracker ballet. How cute are they all in their hot pink shirts! Anyway, it was great to see them all come out excited about what they just saw and trying to imitate the ballet moves of dancers. Such girly-girls!

something is wrong with this picture.

My baby is no longer a baby. Tonight we transitioned into a "big boy bed" after a few acrobatic moves he attempted from his crib. Does he know what he is doing to his mama - growing up and changing so fast?

It was a novelty to get out of bed and come say "night-night" for about 45 minutes but since then there has been peace and quite. I think he likes his new bed. I, on the other hand, was not ready for this. His crib was the last thing we had tying him to being a baby and now no more. Oh well - I guess it had to happen sooner or later.

Love ya little man!

sunset at the beach.

I had a photo shoot on the beach at sunset this past weekend so I asked Mike to bring the kids at the end so I could try and take their pictures. Let me tell you - it was like herding cats but man is it a pretty time of day there. The colors are amazing - these pictures don't do it justice!

I am pretty sure they had a good time despite the fact that is was in the mid-forties. Who knew in Florida?

I AM a military wife.

I know some of you out there have read this but I thought it was worth sharing with everyone. It hits home and sums up so much. I AM a military wife!

What is a MILITARY Wife?

A Military wife can be tough to describe. She is a southern belle, a northeastern Mets fan, a California 3rd generation recycler, a Pacific Islander. She is short or tall, a tomboy, a fashion diva, a physician's assistant, a Republican, a Democrat. A Military Wife is a career gal, a home-schooler, a scrap-booker, an accomplished cellist, an auto mechanic.

What IS a Military Wife? WHAT is a Military Wife? What is a MILITARY Wife?

They may look different and each is wonderfully unique. But, this they have in common. They have THIS IN COMMON! Lots of moving---moving, moving, moving! Moving far from home, moving two cars, three kids and one dog----all riding with HER, of course. Moving sofas to basements because they won't go in THIS house. Moving curtains that won't fit. Moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours. Moving away from friends moving toward new friends. Moving her most important luggage; her trunk full of memories. Often waiting---waiting, waiting,waiting! Waiting for housing; waiting for orders;waiting for deployment; waiting for reunion; waiting for phones calls; waiting for the new curtains to arrive; waiting for him to come home for dinner----AGAIN!

They call her "military dependent", but she knows better. She can balance a checkbook, handle the yard work, fix a noisy toilet. She is intimately familiar with drywall, anchors, and toggle bolts. She can file the taxes, sell a house, buy a car, or set up a move, ---all with ONE Power of Attorney. She welcomes neighbors that don't welcome her. Reinvents her career with every PCS; locates a house in the desert, the arctic, or the deep south and learns to call them all "home". She MAKES them all home. She is fiercely IN-dependent!

Military Wives are somewhat hasty. They leap into decorating, leadership, volunteering, career alternatives, churches and friendships. They don't have 15 years to get to know people. Their roots are short but flexible. They plant annuals for themselves and perennials for those who come after them. Military Wives quickly learn to value each other. They connect over coffee, rely on the spouse-network and accept offers of friendship and favors and record addresses in pencil.

Military Wives have a common bond. The Military Wife has a husband unlike other husbands - his commitment is unique. He doesn't have a job, he has "mission" - he can't just decide to quit. He's on-call for his country 24/7, but for you, he's the most unreliable guy in town! His language is foreign ---TDY, PCS, OPR, ACC, BDU. And so, a Military Wife is a translator for her family and his. She is the long-distance link to keep them informed - the glue that holds them together.

The Military Wife has her moments. She wants to wring his neck, dye his uniform pink, and refuse to move to Siberia . But she pulls herself together. Give her a few days, a travel brochure, a long hot bath, a pledge to the flag, and a wedding picture. And she goes. She packs. She moves. She follows. Why? What for? How come? You may think it is because she has lost her mind. But actually it is because she has lost her heart. It was stolen from her by a man, who puts duty first, who longs to deploy, who salutes the flag and whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her military husband, she will remain his military wife.

I am proud to call myself a military wife! This is what I do for my country. I love you, Mike!

new do.

So, Elizabeth's school pictures came home Friday and I had forgotten how she looked with long hair because.....
.....I recently cut her hair into a bob. She loves it and it is so much easier to handle. However, I am a little disappointed that her curls didn't come back. I guess she has out grown them.

2 Years.

1 week old

2 years old

Oh, how life can change so much in two years! You are now a talking, self feeding, active little boy. As I call you my baby boy, I know you are no longer a baby but how I want to stop time and treasure all of the hugs and snuggles you give. To hear you call "Mommy" from your room in the mornings to the "night, night" at bedtime - you warm my heart every minute of the day. How precious time is and now that you are growing from a baby to a child, I realize that I must give you some independence but you will always be my baby. Happy Birthday little man! I love you with all of my heart!

monkey girl.

Since Elizabeth started Kindergarten, she has been facinated with the monkey bars. Almost every day, when I ask, "How was your day?" I am answered with, I learned new tricks on the monkey bars.

So, the other weekend we headed over to the park and off she went to the monkey bars to show us her skills.

Way to go my little monkey!

a curse or a blessing.

I guess it would depend on who you ask. I am assuming if you would ask my kids, they would say it was a curse. I, however, believe it is a blessing.

With Jacob's birthday right around the corner, finding the perfect gift for him has not been easy. I do think though that my mom came pretty darn close. (It was a great gift for me too, I might add!) She got him a working, cordless, light weight vacuum cleaner.

Not only does he love to vacuum with his new vacuum, I have also implemented chores that the other kids have to do with it! Elizabeth has to vacuum under the kitchen table at night after dinner and AJ has to vacuum by our shoe bin (we don't wear shoes in the house).

I must say, I am pretty darn happy with this gift - even if it is for Jacob!

family of seven.

Well, that is what we became this weekend - a family of seven!

Good friends of ours entrusted us with their kiddos as they got away for a weekend in California.

So, what is it like to have five kids six and under in your house? Well, a little louder than usual, a little messier than usual, a few more temper tantrums but a heck of a lot more snuggling and love!

We had a lot of fun this weekend guys!

boys will be boys.

Do I need to say any more?

the dilema.

When you take pictures a lot, your kids are your guinea pigs. Because of this the novelty of the camera wears off and the bribery doesn't work so much any more. Jacob however has taken to saying cheeeeeese when he even sees me pick up the camera. Now if I could only get them to look and not make silly faces....

not liking day light savings so much.

As most of you know, AJ is my early riser. He gets up when the sun does. Now that time has rolled back, his arrival into our bedroom is about 5AM. This is not sitting so well with either me or him (but I doubt you would get him to admit that). The exhaustion is wearing us down!!!

gamma and the beach.

While my mom was visiting, I decided to take advantage of the extra set of hands and head out to the beach to try and capture some family photos for our Christmas card. (I will post some out takes later.) Anyway, the kids got the biggest kick out of how many shells there were up on the beach. We usually don't have that many here. Gamma got in on the shell finding action when we had to take some breaks from the shoot itself.

Get a load of that diaper crack. Poor kid can't even look for sea shells without his little behind hanging out.

On our way back to the car. Jacob had a bit of an incident with the water (fell face first into it) so off came the shirt and we ended the shoot that way.

I am pretty sure mom enjoyed the beach and I know we got some good photos for our Christmas card. Miss you already Mom!!!!

anniversary in a box.

So, you all know that my mom came out for a visit, right? Well, she generously gave up spending her anniversary with my dad to be with us. The sweet man that he is send her this huge gift basket with a card attached that said something like, "If I can't take you to Italy this year, I thought I would send you a little bit of Italy." The basket was a Taste of Italy.

With that being said, we decided to have a little "taste of Italy" party at the house with our good friends in order to celebrate my parents 28th anniversary. This is how the kids ended the night... as we adults stumbled around the kitchen. Boy, does Italy have some good wine!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad! Here is to many many more happy years!!!

new addition.

I think I may have mentioned in a previous post that we had a new addition to the family. Sarah, you hit it right on the nose. I got quite the treat on Halloween when Mike showed up as the kids were trick or treating with a new van. And can I say I am in love! I love my husband for taking the time to do this for me and his family and yes, I love the van. Sorry, this is the only picture I have taken so far - didn't want to take it out of the garage for a photo shoot yet. Man, I have issues! :)

little theives.

"Here Elizabeth. Would you hold the candy dish while I check on AJ?"



Hey sissy, what's that? Anything good in there?

I suppose it wouldn't hurt to test out one of these. What do you think?

Seriously! What was I thinking letting little ones be in charge of the candy. I suppose the taste testing was predictable - a good start to trick or treating!

princess, fairy, ballerina, angel.

I had mentioned in a previous post that I would explain Elizabeth's costume. All I have to say, is don't try and outsmart a determined 5 year old girl!

Elizabeth came to me about a month ago and told me that she wanted to be a princess-fairy-ballerina-angel for Halloween. I thought to myself, why can't she just choose one of these. In my attempt to try and prove to her that this kind of costume didn't exist, I sat her on my lap and typed princess fairy ballerina angel costume into the Google search and wouldn't you know..... there it was...listed on ebay. Ugghh! That back fired!

Needless to say, now that she saw that they existed, it was bound to be. I bought the costume and she has worn it now to four parties and trick or treating.

I guess I learned my lesson. Never underestimate the power of imagination and the Internet!

a treat....a treat...

"a treat...a treat." That is what this little monkey quickly learned to say as he waddled up to the doors of our neighbors and asked for his candy.


Get a look at how big that bum is! I couldn't help but giggle all night as I followed from behind and saw him run from house to house.


Ooh, ooh, aah, aah! I love you, my little monkey!

trick o' treat.

Halloween. What a day! My mom came in from California so that she could see the kiddos trick or treat this year. Amazingly, she has never seen the kids dressed up for Halloween or able to go trick or treating with them. It was a beautiful night! We trick or treated for about 1 1/2 hours, until the kids were asking to go home (or at least some of them we were with). The kids did great and got A LOT of loot! The candy witch arrived shortly after bedtime to relieve them of all of the "yucky" candy, so now we are down to a manageable amount. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Halloween!

explanation.

I suppose those of you that check here on a regular basis for an update of my wild and crazy life, deserve an explanation of my absence.

It is true. I have been missing from the world of blogging for a while. As I would love to say that I was off on some grand adventure without access to the wild world of the Internet, the only adventure I have been on is that of life itself.

I found myself living my life for my blog rather than blogging my life. Does that make any sense? As I would go through my day, I would think, hmmm, I need to do this or that so I can blog it.

Anyway, so for that reason, I decided to take an unannounced break from blogging. It has been a nice break, but now I am ready to get back to blogging again. I have been busy with photo shoots, kids sports and activities, family visits, trick o' treating and a new addition to our family that I want to share with everyone but for now I must say....

Until tomorrow....