We salute you!

So, if you are reading our blog you are probably wondering right about now why we are paying tribute to the Marine Corps. Well, we will tell you...Our Cousin,Lance Corporal, Michael Johnson, was deployed to Afghanistan a few months ago and is bravely fighting for our freedom. In support of him, we have decided to have a Marine Corp background until he safely arrives home to the arms of his wife. This is Michael and Katie's first deployment and they are continuing to be extremely brave and lean on God for strength. If every time you see our blog you could say a prayer for Michael and our men and women serving overseas, we would be deeply grateful.

We would also like you to remember our brother, SGT. Eric Dirkes, as he is honorably serving our country supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom with the Army National Guard. We are so very proud of him and are anxiously awaiting his return home, as well.

We love you Michael and Eric!

Happy Birthday, Jesus and Merry Christmas, everyone!

Happy Birthday, Jesus! In order for the real meaning of Christmas to not be lost in the shuffle of presents, we have decided to make a cake for Jesus each year and sing Him Happy Birthday.

Jesus' Cake

We have been keeping the Post Office, UPS, and FedEx delivery folks busy the last couple weeks with all the presents coming in from you all. Thank you so much!

Putting cookies and milk out for Santa

Christmas morning started dark and early at 5:30. We got the girls up early hoping that Ellie would take an early nap prior to Christmas dinner with some friends. Thankfully she did nap so it was worth it.

Here is the big reveal...Santa brought Gracie a bike and skates, while Ellie got a tricycle and popcorn.

Santa might bring popcorn again next year...it was cheap and she loved it. Between that and her "lips" (chapstick) she was very satisfied with Christmas.


The bikes were a hit! Gracie has been asking for a princess bike for months and never once changed her mind. She immediately wanted her helmet aka "seatbelt for her head" and pads on so she could look like a pro.


It rained all night last night and when we got up this morning the snow was gone! That allowed us to get out of the house and ride in the driveway, which was a rutted ice sheet yesterday. The girls had a blast and Gracie even started getting the hang of pedalling herself.






Mamaw and Granddad sent some blocks which only took Santa about 3.5 hours to put together. However, they have been a big hit! The girls have been building roads, towers, castles, and houses down in the basement. Ellie has also been enjoying the new-to-us furniture we got for the study.

Is she a boy? Caught in mid-launch...

Crash!

Though we were not able to celebrate Christmas with our family in California, we had a great day and great evening with friends. We were also able to drop some goodies off at the local Fire station here too. We wanted to thank them for allowing us to feel safe in our homes with our families while they spent the day protecting us while being away from their families. It was the first time we did that and I think it will become something we do every Christmas.

Merry Christmas, everyone and may the New Year encourage you to live more, love harder, and laugh often. God Bless you and yours!

Happy Birthday to Ellie...and it's SNOWING!

It is amazing how fast time flies... Our little "beanie" is 2 years old!

December 19, 2007

December 19, 2009

Ellie was VERY happy to see us this morning. She was jumping in her crib when we walked in. Happy Birthday Ellie! You are 2!

Her birthday started with her present from us: a ball pit! She loves jumping and balls so it is a perfect match.

What a wonderful experience for the girls! We have been hearing about this huge storm approaching the east coast and figured we would miss out as usual. Well, we didn't! I think D.C. is getting it worse than us, but this is a fun amount of snow rather than dangerous. I feel a little cheated but the girls can't play in 2 feet of snow...they did great in 6 inches though!

After breakfast full of pancakes, strawberries,and whipped cream, we got bundled up in what we have for snow and headed outside. Both girls did REALLY well. We played for about 45 minutes; far longer than we expected.

We are ready!


We built a sled run first...

Ellie was kind of a lump and wanted us to move her everywhere. Once Mom taught her how to eat the snow she liked it a lot more...you know Beanie; she loves to eat!

We built a snowman last. Apples for eyes, a potato nose, and olives for the mouth. Not traditional but you use what you have. It came out pretty well!

A half hour before we were to go pick up Ellie's cake, the bakery called and said due to weather they would not have a cake ready for me that day or even the day after...we all know how well that went over in this house...What is a birthday without a very special cake? So, we had to improvise...mom and dad went into cake decorating mode and this is what we came up with. Not too bad for scrounging things together last minute and end the end our birthday girl was very pleased with her cake and that is what is most important.

Happy Birthday, to our special Ellie..Mommy and Daddy are so blessed that God gave us you and is allowing us to be your parents...You and your sister are the best little girls anyone could ask for and our greatest miracles. We love you!

Strollers

This is for Nanny and Papa. Thank you!

Christmas farm visit

We found out about a farm in the area that puts on a Christmas theme so we went to check it out. It was awesome! It really helped us feel like Christmas is coming. The owner definitely showcases the real reason for the season. We had hot chocolate and cookies, looked at horses, goats, pigs, and turkeys, roasted the girls first marshmallows, got pony rides, and met Santa. It was just below freezing, but we all got bundled up and everyone did really well.

Pony rides were fun for Gracie, but Ellie took a lap to get un-scared. We let her start without Dad so that caused some of the problem.

Hot chocolate wasn't a big hit (maybe too hot?) but the cookies made Ellie smile!

Nice to see some Christmas decorations that aren't Santa!

The girls loved the horses and other animals at the farm.

This was a really friendly goat!

Santa was the last stop of the night. 50% of our child population likes Santa...which is up 50% from last year! Maybe next year everyone will smile?

Christmas comes a little early

Well, we decided to split Christmas up a little bit this year. Santa Daddy stayed up late last night putting together a new kitchen/fridge from Papaw and Meemaw. It only took about an hour and a half, so as construction projects go it wasn't too bad. Pretty good construction and is very sharp looking.

We got a good reaction from the kids so I thought we could post it up here. You will notice that Gracie is staring at the kitchen from the corner of her eye as soon as she comes in, but is such a camera hog she can't stand not being in the center of the viewfinder!

We also attempted a gingerbread house with less than spectacular results. But we had a good time, and the girls sampled all the ingredients as well as the house itself once it imploded at the end. My hands aren't made for delicate work...I crushed the roof trying to hold it together long enough for the frosting to set. The package says 1 minute...it's a lie!

Wayne's Final Flight

Tradition in our flying world is that you get a special treat after landing on your last flight in a unit. My "fini" flight was Monday and here are the pictures...

Lindsay and the kids showed up early and I wound up landing late due to an issue getting refuelled, but it worked out fine. I knew it was late and didn't think many people would stay to see me land, so I wasn't expecting much. I made it out of the helo and then saw the hostile crowd approaching, led by my flight engineer from my last deployment. I tried to fight them off but wound up duct taped and dumped in a bin full of ice water and sea dye anyway. Did I mention it has been cooling off at night lately?

After the dunking they painted my feet green and gave me a ceiling tile to leave as my legacy.

Thankfully, the sea dye did not turn me green (as my flight engineer was hoping) so I wound up relatively unscathed, other than a few bruises.

Happy Halloween!

We had a "pizza picnic" on the floor and then got dressed up and went trick or treating while it was still light out (before it gets scary). The girls did really well this year: both of them said "Trick or Treat" at almost every house (with some prompting) and were very good with their thank-yous. Gracie kept asking "Can we do that house?" so I think she was understanding a little more of what was going on this year. I wore a Spiderman shirt because Gracie wanted me to, and Nanny even dressed up. Gracie decided long ago that she was going to be "Spider-Girl, to the rescue, save the princess" for Halloween and Nanny was the princess. Gracie's friend Ellianna joined us, wearing a fall fairy costume.

Our neighbourhood got mobbed again this year but there were more little kids and less teenagers, which was nice. Lindsay and Katie made 140 treat bags (which made us "the best house ever" in the words of one little boy) and we could have used probably a hundred more. We had a good time although it was pretty warm and muggy (high of 85 yesterday and pushing 100% humidity).

The wagon was a big hit. All the girls took turns riding and pulling.


Here's Nanny "Save the Princess"! What a good sport!


Gracie wasn't the only Spider-girl around


The girls loved handing out treat bags!

Making Pumpkins!

We were finally able to make our pumpkins since Wayne was here! Well, I was going to help the kids make them anyway, but it was more fun with the whole family. The girls had a great time pushing face parts onto "Funny Pumpkin", sticking jewels on "Princess Pumpkin" and putting Daddy's hat on "Air Force Casper Pumpkin". It was gorgeous outside today so we all sat on the patio and had a ball.

Base Halloween party

Wayne came home last night and surprised us at 3AM. Everyone was happy to see him even though he goes back tomorrow. We went to the base Halloween party this morning and the girls had a great time! Gracie is "Spider Girl, to the rescue, save the princess" (that is how she introduces herself) and Ellie was a gorgeous little Cookie Monster. They both got a lot of compliments, and Ellie even won the costume contest at the BX later. See for yourself...

Pregame show

At the party in the helicopter maintenance hangar