Our Christmas Tree

Finally we got our tree up. I was putting the project off because of Nolan and because Joe wasn't here. It's not very fun to put up decorations without help to make it fun. We actually put the tree up without any type of argument this year. What a miracle! Our arugument usually comes about when we can't get the tree to sit just how I want it! (Not lopsided!) It is a little slanted this year still, but I just don't care as much this year. I have realized we have a nice tree and that I need to quit complaining that I want a bigger and better tree. I really am grateful for what I have. I think sometimes me and I'm sure others out there get so wrapped up into what everyone else has vs. the things we already have. I sometimes have a big problem with this. I am learning that there are probably a lot of things that I have the other people want. I don't need to mention any of them, but I know that it's true. Not just material things, but more important things as well. I will say it again. I am grateful for what I have and am very blessed at this time of year to have a healthy and eternal family that loves me.

I put the tree skirt on and turned around to see that Lauren had the stockings on her feet!

Joe shaping the branches

Our darlings!

They had fun in the Christmas tree tote!

Mommy and Lauren

Not sure where Nolan was



One of our outtakes!

Happy in love!

Our First Haircuts!

Yesterday the kids both got their first haircuts! Lauren was so excited to go! She was a little concerned when she heard the word, "cut," but was fine once she was told it wouldn't hurt! She sat in the chair that mommy always gets to sit in when she gets her hair done. I think she was maybe most excited about that!

Nolan was a champ! He did little sqirming and absolutely no crying! Jenny (our hair dresser) told me during his haircut, "he's doing great by the way!" That made me feel good that he was easy for her. I guess most kids cry and throw fits during haircuts! Not my baby boy! He is so passive I love it!

Here are a few before, during, and after shots:

Lauren

Before

During

During

After

Nolan

Before

Before

During

During

After

Santa!

We also made a trip to see Santa last weekend. I don't think Lauren really knew quite what to say to him, but she sat on his lap and gladly accepted the candy cane afterwards! Nolan was very intrigued with Santa's beard! He kept turning to look at him! Though Lauren is aware that he wasn't the "real" Santa, she seemed to enjoy her visit with him! Nolan always just goes with the flow of everything so his reaction was not a surprise.

Lauren's 1st Dance Recital!

I think it's very clear she was ready to go to McDonalds for her ice cream!

We rewarded her with ice cream with mom and dad afterwards

Lauren and her neighbor buddy Jordyn


Lauren in action doing her balancing! She is 3rd in from the right

Before her turn to dance

Lauren had her first dance recital last Saturday! The recital was a lot of fun! We were able to enjoy it even more since Nolan got to go to the CDC (child development center or daycare) during it! I couldn't see it being very enjoyable had Nolan been there! He is way to squirmy and energetic! Lauren was so excited to dance for everyone. I thought she would be really nervous, but she danced her little heart out. She did better than I had ever seen her do during practice! She usually would stick her tongue out (Im guessing that's what she does when she is concentrating or is nervous ....she gets it from her daddy!) and do a few dance moves here and there, but never as good as she did for us at the recital. Thanks to her friend Mary's mom and dad, she got a rose after her dance. It was so thoughtful of them to give out a rose to all the parents in the class who didn't buy flowers for their dancer. Thanks Amber! Now we know it's a must to bring flowers for recitals! After she got off stage, Lauren was so excited to come back and sit with us in the audience. She was so proud of herself! All the dancers in the other age groups did a really nice job as well. They have a really good instructor. Lauren will be enrolling again in January. There will be 2 recitals for the spring session. How fun!


What a doll!

Finally Together Again!

It was a long wait, but we are finally back together again! Joe got home last Friday from a 6 month deployment in Qatar. We were able to talk on the phone everyday while he was there and then every Thursday on his day off, do video chat on the internet. This helped relieve the distance, but was of course not the same. The kids liked talking to their daddy on the phone. Nolan especially loved it when the computer and phone would talk to him directly! His smile would be ear to ear when his daddy would talk to him!

The week before Joe got home I ran around like crazy getting last minute things done around the house. I did some deep cleaning and found some pretty scary things! I wanted to be sure the house looked nice so that Joe didn't want to leave as soon as he walked in the door! I'm just kidding. Im sure it could have been a complete disaster and he would still want to stay. I guess it was part of my process to prepare for his return. I didn't want him to think I lived like a slob! ...haha! He soon learned and even mentioned something about how he had observed that it's impossible to keep things picked up with the kids constantly making messes! Whew! Now I am off the hook when things aren't always in order! We (me and Lauren) also made welcome home signs! Nolan is much too young to help with such an already messy project! ...we put him to bed and then did the project! We made a sign out of posterboard to welcome him off the plane, and then a few others for when he got home. We also hung a large vinyl sign outside the house to welcome him when we pulled into the driveway. It was so windy though that day that the sign got blown off the house and was dangling to where he couldn't see it! Bummer! Oh well, I tried!....nothing ever works out perfectly! He kindly reached his long arms up and fixed it for me! Before, I needed a ladder to hang it. I now have my built in ladder back! It's great!

Moving back to the airport. We were running a little behind as always. I strapped the kids in the stroller and walked as fast as I could to the terminal. I didn't want to miss him coming off his plane. Im sure there is no worse feeling than coming off the plane from a long deployment to have nobody there to greet you! Luckily his plane was running about 15 min. behind. That gave us time to take a potty break and to get to the correct gate. It seemed like forever for him to get off the plane. Me and Lauren both held his sign together while Nolan chilled in the stroller. When he walked out, Lauren hesitated for about 2 seconds and then ran to him yelling, "Daddy!" It was so precious! Nolan really didn't know what to think. He wasn't feeling well that day (teething), but he warmed up quickly.

We stopped for lunch on the way home and then spent the rest of the day taking it easy and playing games together. I could not get a second alone with my husband! Lauren wanted to be right in the middle of us the whole time! Luckily for us, she likes the computer! Daddy lured her in with a movie he brought up on netflix instant play! Lauren did have her dress rehearsal for her dance recital that evening, but daddy and Nolan took naps while me and Lauren went. Joe has done a really good job getting back into the U.S. sleep routine! He gets tired about the same time everyday (2pmish), but always sticks it out so he will be tired when it's time for bed at 10.

We really have gotten along pretty well since he got home. Some minor misunderstandings, but nothing that wasn't resolved quickly. I probably caused the most tension last night when we were trying to get a family picture for our Christmas cards! Lets just say I was less than patient while trying to get the "perfect shot!" I learned there is no such thing! Joe was very tolerant with my moodiness! I did not deserve it! I love the extra hands and the companionship with him being back. The kids you can tell love having both their parents together. They are already really happy kids, but with Joe home, we are complete!

My hot wife!!

Camara sent me these pics a little while ago. I think she looks so amazing!! I'm sure you can agree. My time here is real short. I can't wait to be at home. I really miss Camara and the kids and they miss me. Every time I go away I am reminded of what we have together.

Camara, I LOVE YOU!! You are amazing! Thank you for being such an awesome wife/friend/mother/person. I am so blessed to have you. You have made my life so awesome. I know you don't get alot of thanks for supporting me while I am deployed, but I hope you know how much I appreciate you.

-Joe

Thanksgiving 2008

Adam and Melissa
Loren and Meg


Both of these couples are our neighbors. Meg and Loren just moved in earlier this year and Adam and Melissa have been our neighbors for over 2 years now. They are both really good couples and we are blessed to have such good neighbors.

My little family on Thanksgiving

Lauren knows how to please mommy with a cute smile for picture time!

Lauren cutting the bananas for our jello salad with her safe cutting kids knife

Lauren and Nolan love helping out in the kitchen

Though Thanksgiving wasn't the same without Joe, we still enjoyed our day. We were invited along with one of our other neighbors, to go next door for dinner. Everything tasted really good and we really had a fun time. I made deviled eggs and jello/fruit yummy salad! It was so nice to have a year off from cooking. Lauren spent the day with her "sister" and best friend Jordyn and Nolan ran around chasing their cat and getting into everything! We played a few games of skip-bo and then had to call it a night when kids started crying. In the morning me and some friends are headed to the BX to start our Christmas shopping. They are handing out free $20 gift cards for the first 100 shoppers. The store opens at 4 and we are leaving the house at 2:45. I am planning on going to bed very soon! Joe comes home a week from today! I am so ready! I have lots on my calendar before he gets home, but Im sure it will all get done somehow. If it doesn't nobody will know, but me! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Explosion in my home town (Glenrock, WY)!

Reading the news today, I happened to see this:

A few miles from where I grew up in Wyoming, there was a tractor trailer traveling from Casper to Douglas and for some unknown reason exploded. What I thought was really amazing about the story was, when the trailer blew up the it flew a half of a mile away! Amazing! From my experience with hazardous materials in my job, that is a really big explosion! It was carrying 12,500 gallons of butane! Since I work with preparing chemicals for air travel everyday, this story was especially intresting (Not really a family related post but "close to home" to me).

-Joe

Link:http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/11/25/news/casper/355aad60e824d3558725750d00078cb4.txt

New bows!

I finally ordered some bows for my poor little girl. I have been putting it off because they are so darn expensive! I finally gave in. Here are a few of the clips I got for her. There will be more b/c they are so fun! I think next will be Christmas bows! I might be more tempted to learn how to make my own, only we dont have any craft stores nearby. I would have to drive an hour just to get supplies and that is just annoying. I'll just save my gas and let someone else put the time into it!

Innocence

I thought there was nothing more innocent than a 3 year old until I had a 3 year old with the flu. She is so sweet. She says some of the funniest things. She has been talking in her sleep a lot. She woke up at about midnight last night and thought she was sneaking into my bed. I was just lying down after reading and she tiptoed in and was trying to be sooo quiet. I moved and she froze! It was so funny. I soon handed her a pillow and welcomed her into the bed. Around 4am she was burning up. She woke up vomitting and I went in to get her some more Motrin. She asked me to hold her hair while the leaned over the toilet. She was constantly asking me for drinks of water....which is really good that she wants to drink. After we got back into bed she wanted to talk. She has been asking lots of questions about God lately. Her Great Grandma is getting ready to pass away so she has been very interested in death and what it's all about. She tells me all the time. "Mommy I want to go live wis Heavenly Father and wis Daddy and you and wis Nolan." I almost cry everytime she says that. It's so innocent. Im so glad that we know the truth. I

feel so blessed to have the gospel of Jesus Christ so that I can teach my children the fullness of the gospel. I am especially grateful for eternal families. Although death is so scary and extremely sad, it is comforting to know that we will all be together as a family again someday.

Tummy aches and runny/stuffy noses...eek!

Lauren crashed on my bed before I could even get a clean set of sheets on it.
This isn't very clear, but you can see a little bit of the remains of vomit that seeped through the sheets. I need a vinyl sheet under my sheets I swear! You know the kind for bedwetters!

For the past few days the kids have had runny/stuffy noses. Nolan started first then Lauren caught up a couple days later. Lauren is my puking child anyways so when she's sick, "watch out!" Though it gives me time to catch up on homework and much needed housework, I hate the kids sleeping all the time because they're not feeling well.

A beautiful day

Today was such a beautiful day. The kids enjoyed running around outside and playing in the leaves!