What a weekend!

Wow! We have had quiet the birthday weekend. Caroline woke up Friday morning to presents from Mom and Dad. She got to spend the morning with Nana and go out for lunch. They went to McD's and her friend Mattie was there also with his dad. (They have the same birthday!) and soon after Papa showed up. That night we had cupcakes, sang happy birthday, and got to open one more present. Saturday morning Caroline and Mattie had their birthday party together at Odessey 1. It was quiet chaotic, but they had so much fun playing with all their little friends. Both of them were very blessed with wonderful gifts! Saturday night we had sticky rice (Caroline's favorite) and a small birthday party at home with Aunt Courtney, Uncle Mike, and Courtney's friend Chad. Caroline had fun opening a few more presents.... Sunday morning we got up and met Mattie and his parents and brother and took a drive up to North Bend. There we hopped on an old train and went to see Santa in Snoqualmie. The kids had so much fun looking at all the old trains. Mattie got to ask Santa again for his christmas presents and Caroline ran the opposite direction...

Anyway, here are some recent pics from the weekend, and I'll post more later! xoxo

2 YEARS!

OH MY!! Where has all the time gone??? In just a few hours Caroline will be 2 years old! Just seems like yesterday I was laying in the hospital watching Myth Busters and West Coast Choppers in the middle of the night while in labor!

Caroline is having a birthday party on Saturday with her good friend Mattie and the we will be doing a small party at home with the family. I can't wait to see what she thinks of all these presents.

Well, the little one is fussing... of to bed for me!

Happy December

The christmas decorations are starting to come out at my parents house. Caroline sees trees or lights and says "christmas"... We took the kids up to see Santa yesterday. Nicholas did fine. He really liked Santa's beard. Caroline hated it and had the most paranoid look on her face. She had to sit on the rocking horse next to Santa. Should be fun to see the pictures once they get here. We went up to Seattle with a few friends. There were two moms who were pregnant, one with a 1 year old and one with a 2 year old, and two of us with 2 little ones and, my sister Courtney. It was SO nice having an extra set of hands. All the kids did really well. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets. This is the 3rd year in a row that we have all done this together. It's turning into quite the tradition.

Nicholas has been scooting around quite a bit this past week. Last night we were over a friends house and Nicholas was playing on the ground on his tummy. I turned around to check on him and he was sitting up all by himself! They grow up too darn fast.

Caroline has been trying to sing her abc's.. it doesn't make any sense when you listen to her, but somewhere in there is the real song. And you can tell when she gets to the end because she starts to clap and says "yeah!"..... silly girl. She tried to ask Santa for M & M's and "choo-choo's." She really seems to like trains and tractors..... doesn't help when all her friends are boys!

Hopefully this week we'll go get a tree with Nana and Papa..... Hope everyone is doing well. We're still waiting on word to see if Joe will be home for Christmas or not. It definately would be wonderful to have him home! :)

Other pics

Here's the pics from the other post below.................................

Finally, a new update!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING... a little late... Here are some recent pics.. We had a great thanksgiving even though it was small... just my parents, the kids, and Joe's brother Mike. But the food was still good and we decided that we needed to have thanksgiving all over again once Joe comes home... yippee.. more turkey sandwiches! Caroline loved the cranberry sauce, marshmellows on top of the sweet potatos and the cool whip on top of the pumpkin pie.










We had some friends from Oregon come visit with their two little boys. Caroline had fun playing with Josiah. Nicholas and Jeremiah are 6 days apart. It was fun to catch up and see the little ones next to each other.







Saturday night we went to the zoo to see Zoo Lights with some other friends. Caroline and Mattie got all bundled up and ran around with Chris. Becky and I bundled up Nicholas and Brady and followed behind the goofy ones...
This afternoon we watched the Seahawks game. Caroline came downstairs and sat with Papa and had her peanut butter and crackers. Later we got dressed up in our Steeler gear to get ready for Monday Night football tomorrow night. ......... GO STEELERS!!!!! I'll add the other pictures later.... the computer is being stupid!!

Go Cougs!!

I promise I will post more pictures! I haven't figured out how to best use my Dad's computer for that issue... our computer back home was easy...
Caroline got to hang out with Papa this morning while we went to the grocery store. She watched Nemo and Papa taught her how to spin around in his computer chair...

We're watching the Apple Cup today and have sung Caroline the Fight Song for WSU. She says "Go Cougs" and dances to the song, but that's about it.

Nicholas' personality is really starting to come out. He is mostly a happy baby and rolls all over the floor. Today Caroline was next to him and you could just see that he wanted to interact with her... she isn't too happy sharing her toys with him yet, but we'll work on that.
Happy Saturday!!! Here's a pic of Caroline and Mike from the other night :)

tuesday night

Good evening ~ we are settling in quickly back in GH... Uncle Mike came over for dinner tonight and got to hang out with the kids. It was good to see him and catch up a bit. Caroline has been able to play with her friends a couple of times since we've been back and we have a lunch date tomorrow.

I know you all enjoy hearing about our kids bowel movements, but we are now really working with Caroline on her potty training. She actually went #2 in the toilet today... getting her to do it again will be another story, but she did it. So, I keep hoping that we are on the right track...

Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week... where has the year gone already???

WE'RE HOME......13 states and 3130 miles later

Wow ~ what a whirlwind!We are finally home after 5 days of travel. This all started Tuesday night in Birmingham with a quick visit at Joe's sister's house. Then up in the morning, early and off towards Chicago... 4 states later we arrived in Chicago about 10 miles from Kendra's and sat in dead stopped traffic! I think it took us an hour to go that last 10 miles. We left Kendra's the following day at noon with high hopes of making it to South Dakota.... NOPE! It took us 12 hours to get 412 miles. Somewhere in Wisconsin (or maybe Illinois) we had to stop and give Nicholas a bath in the gas station/rest stop sink.... It just seemed to be one thing after another.... We managed to wake up in the morning after spending the night in Albert Lea across from a Starbucks! Halleluiah! Off to South Dakota we went! Made a stop at the Corn Palace and Wall Drug.. an absolute must if you are travelling through South Dakota... We made it yesterday 1031 miles... 18 hours (yes we are crazy) but I think we filled up on lattes as often as we filled up on gas. Starbucks owes us something.. at least a free latte.... we will ALL be going through detox/caffeine withdrawls tomorrow... We made it all the way to Bozeman, MT... pulled in about 1 in the morning thinking that we would have no problem finding a hotel room. I mean, it's MT and Bozeman.... no big deal... yeah right, State Volleyball tournament! oopss! We found a room. Woke up to snow this morning and somehow managed to miss the Starbucks on our way out of town. It took us 12 hours to get back to Gig Harbor and we did manage to find two Starbucks along the way. (yes we are hooked!)

Came home to the Coug game and Caroline very excited to see her little brother. I was excited to see her, but she was more interested in him... oh well, at least she was happy. Not quite the same being home without Joe. Will take some getting used too, but still hoping he'll be here sooner than later. Nicholas did GREAT on this trip for being stuck in his car seat as much as he was. I'm sure he will just enjoy staying home tomorrow and rolling around on the floor all day long. No more crazy adventures for a while...

And We're Off!!

After a busy day of packing and loading the trailor, Joe and I were able to spend one last night together and enjoy some pizza. Nicholas hung out with Joe this morning for a little while, and we got all the last minute things together. Courtney is on her way to Birmingham, and we'll leave from Birmingham tomorrow morning and head to see Kendra in Chicago. We hope to be back in Washington on Sunday.

Quick update on Joe.... looks like he will be coming home sometime in early January. We are still holding our breath for some rock solid dates, but we'll see what happens as we get closer. Keeping our fingers crossed that maybe he'll be home for Christmas... Joe will keep this blog updated on our travels for us. Please pray for safety and that Nicholas will be a great little traveller even though he'll be stuck in his car seat for most of the day.

See you all soon!!!!

Early Morning Adventures

At 4am (eastern time) she just couldn't wait to play with her toys!























Just a little tired looking at this point! She was up at 6:30am pacific time ... poor Nana!

Safe and Sound

We got Caroline and Nana off yesterday afternoon. Joe had fun playing with Caroline Friday night and reading lots of books before she went to bed. She got up with him in the morning (6am) and helped him get ready for work and sent him off with big hugs and kisses. He was supposed to work all day yesterday and a wonderful guy he works with came in for the 2nd half of the day so Joe could drive with us to Atlanta to say good-bye. We played for a little while at the airport and then off Nana and Caroline went. Joe and I stood back and watched as they went through security, and Caroline never looked back. She looked like such a big girl helping/watching Nana get everything through. They were fortunate on both flights to be able to get an extra seat for Caroline and bring the car seat on the plane. Here is an excerpt from my mom's email...

"OK so it's now 3:40am Atlanta time...we are home...and Papa and Caroline are upstairs playing with the farm singing old mcdonald...she wanted him to sit by her and wanted him to come in the room to get ready for bed and read books in the big chair...she is raring to go, but said no when we showed her her crib and said no when we showed her Katie's bed...so it could make for an interesting night if she ever unwinds...I'm a zombie!"

Can't wait to hear what my mom has to say once they finally get up today! I have lots of packing to finish up. We'll pick up and pack the trailor tomorrow and be out of here on Tuesday.

up, up, and away

Quick update ~ Caroline has a sinus infection.... she threw up a couple more times last night. We went to the dr. this morning and she gave her the okay to fly. The only glitch now is the diarhea.. the last thing Nana needs to deal with on the plane. She's on an antibiotic, a decongestant and some pedialite to help with the other issue. We had someone come check the washing machine this morning also, and according to him, it is broken, but at the moment it's working... So no running off to the laundromat..... thank goodness!!!!! Hopefully Caroline will clear up before tomorrow morning and Nicholas will stay healthy and be good for the drive home.

Nana made her famous meatballs for dinner tonight. Bummer that I can't have them. They have Parmesan in them..... guess Joe gets to be the lucky one to have them all to himself. I'm sure he won't mind.

Late night adventures

Good morning, or should I say, middle of the night? And this time we're not up with Nicholas, but Caroline. She has been fighting a terrible cold and has had a horrible cough, especially at night. Last night (the pic) at 1am she went and sat outside with Joe trying to help clear up her cough. Tonight she woke up at 1:30 after throwing up for the second time... 1st time in her bed earlier tonight (and our washing machine is broken) and the second time in the pack-n-play in our bedroom. Fortunately that was easier to clean than her bed. We have a laundromat up the street so we'll be making a visit tomorrow after the dr. Caroline is supposed to go home on an airplane with Nana on Sat. but she may be too sick and have to drive back with Courtney and I. We shall see how the day goes. But for now, we're sitting downstairs watching Nemo. Joe has to work in the morning and needs to get some sleep, hopefully I can grab a nap at sometime..... may just be a visit to Starbucks instead.

Ladybug and Bumble Bee

Happy Halloween!!

Here's the gang... all ready to go out. We had the most perfect night for Trick or Treating (sorry to all of those in the NW getting drenched!). Caroline had fun knocking on doors and saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you". We ran into our little neighbor who is just a month or so older than Caroline and she was a bumble-bee. Caroline had fun holding Jordan's hand as they walked around together. When we got back home Caroline helped Nana hand out candy to all the other people who came to the door. We sat out on the front porch and watched all the people come by. When we finally came inside, she asked for more "people". Silly girl! Now on to watching Monday Night Football.. GO STEELERS!

(little hats knitted by Nana) It's the day before Halloween, the kids are getting their costumes all ready. We'll carve the pumpkin tomorrow. Should be interesting to see how Caroline reacts to all the costumes. We're going to wander around the neighborhood in the early evening, but probably won't go up to the doors... just go for a nice walk in our costumes. Nobody around here really needs the candy anyway.

On another note, still haven't started packing and still no word from the Army... keep praying that we get one soon. It's going to be a very busy week, but can't wait to get on the road......

Big milestone for Caroline ~ no more binkie!!! She had a little "accident" the other day and her binkie's needed to be thrown away or cleaned thoroughly, so they got thrown away.. I think it was Thursday, so we've gone 4 days now without them. It wasn't something we had "planned" on doing yet, the opportunity just presented itself. First day was a little iffy, but tonight she went to bed without a fuss! Yippee! Now on to Nicholas... hopefully he won't have his till age 2, we'll see.......

Caroline and Nicholas....
Growing like weeds!

Our First Post

Never done this before... just testing