Daddy's Home!!!!

After 4.5 months of Daddy being gone, he's finally home!!! And home earlier than we expected!  My parents were wonderful and watched the littles so I could go to the airport and pick up Joe by myself.  We were able to have a couple nights alone before we went down to Gig Harbor to suprise the kids.  It was such a treat to be able to have him home early and in time for Christmas.

 My parents recently got a new fridge, so we had them hold on to the box!  It was the perfect thing to hide Joe in.  Nana took the kids out to lunch and when they came home, this was in the living room.

Each one of them took a guess as to what was inside and at one point the "box" moved...  oops!

So happy to have Daddy home!!!!



Nicholas and Daddy got to go to thier first Seattle Seahawks game together the a couple days later and had so much fun!!!

Happy Birthday Caroline!!!!

Today we got to celebrate Caroline turning 8 and one of her bestest friends Matt, turning 9.  We did a birthday party when they were turning 4 and 5 at Pump it Up and they had so much fun that we decided to do it again. 

Instead of birthday cake and because our party was early in the morning, we did donuts!  

Caroline and Morgan

Caroline and Taylor

Caroline and Zachary

Molly, Madi and Emma

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to Caroline, Happy Birthday to you!!!

 Nicholas and his favorite boy cousin, Ben!

Getting her snuggles in and feeding baby Ben!

Christmas Decorations

We're busy getting in the Christmas spirit around here.  It really stinks that Joe isn't here to enjoy it with us, but seeing as we didn't get to decorate last year, we're all enjoying putting up the decorations anyway.

The last few years we have had an Elf come visit and watch over the kids everyday and then report back to Santa on whether they have been good or bad.  This year, Max, our elf, got lost or decided to go visit Joe in Iraq and we couldn't find him...  SO, we went on the hunt for a new elf.  The boxes all have descriptions on the outside of what the elf inside should be... ie, blue eyes, brown eyes, light skin, dark skin, brown hair...etc.  Our original Elf was light skin, brown hair and blue eyes.  We went to Target and looked at every box that said "light skin, blue eyes, brown hair" and what we found was the elf on the left...  ummm.....  Today I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up a box that said the same thing and the Elf on the right looks just like Max did.  When the kids came home from school today, they found Max on top of the kitchen cabinets and were VERY excited to see that their max returned!  

Here are a few pictures of our decorations around the house (excuse the pink bowl... that's not part of the everyday look...oops!)

 

Caroline and I even put up lights outside too!  Daddy would be proud of how much she helped me!  In the last 3 years, we have hardly had decorations inside the house, and it feels great to finally go beyond and put some up outside too!

This is our back fence...

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was the first year we have not had any family around to celebrate with.  Thankfully, we have some awesome friends that may as well be family! And they were all around to celebrate the holiday.  We had fun planning out the menu, planning out the drink menu (and testing it), and everyone pitched in and it was definately a team effort.  There were many delicious appetizers and by the time dinner rolled around, most of us were still full from snacks.  But we all did our best and there was still plenty of left overs to take home.  I threw on Christmas Vacation and we all sat around stuffed, and had a few laughs.  I was sad that Joe wasn't here to take part in all the fun, but I know we'll make up for it next year!!!

The ingredients for some of our holiday martinis....

The kiddie table...  They had fun being able to have their own space and place to craft and eat.

Caroline takes after her daddy... She loves the turkey leg!

Cute little turkey sugar cookies for the kiddos..

Hope everyone had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as we did.  We have so much to be thankful for this time of the year!!! 

Lady Antebellum

Last night Caroline and I got to go out for a little early 8th birthday celebration and we saw Lady Antebellum.  Caroline has enjoyed listening to them on my ipod and in the car, so I thought, what a perfect 1st concert for her to go to.  When I mentioned it to my friend, she said her daughter was turning 8 six days after Caroline and what a fun little night out it would be.  Caroline and Emma hit it off right away and the 4 of us girls had a fabulous night watching Josh Kelley and Lady Antebellum.  Here are some pics from the evening!

Happy Veteran's Day, Daddy!

Veteran's Day was really emotional for me this year.  The one Veteran who is closest to my heart is gone, and is doing the job that he has been called to do.  It hit a little too close to home.  And for some reason, it was a hard day.  I see so many people express how thankful they are for all that have served our country and allowed us the freedoms that we enjoy on this one day, but the other 364 days of the year it doesn't seem to matter.  Being on the side of having a deployed spouse, it was just a little different this year and hard for me to see and hear some of the hoopla when the next day was just going to be another ordinary day to them.  But, to me and my kids, we are living this day in and day out.   We are SO proud of our daddy, and husband, and can not wait for him to come home!!!

Molly's teacher was so thoughtful and had her class make a card for Molly's daddy!



Halloween Fun

The kids and I had some pre-halloween fun with a kid/family party last night and after party #1 mom got to run off to an adult party.  We had a fun time with all the kids and families that got dressed up. There was all kinds of fun stuff and fun food.  I was almost too worn out from the fun to go to the adult party.  But, thankfully, I went and had a blast with some friends and Joe's co-workers who ALL were dressed up.  It was fun weekend for all of us!  Could have only been better if Joe was here :)