Watch Out!

In addition to a new tooth, Kylie chose Sunday night to discover another new activity...hands and knees! It won't be long before she's crawling all over....

'Tis the Season

Christmas is coming quickly! We took the time this morning to head over to visit with the big guy. Will was SO EXCITED to go see Santa, but he was all business after breakfast. He made two lists; one for himself and one for Kylie, which he delivered to Santa's village.

We've never had the whole afraid of Santa experience, and Kylie was no exception. She sat on his lap with Will and without Will, completely amazed at this new guy. She wouldn't crack a smile for the camera but she wasn't upset either.

Santa took one look at Will's list and said, "So, you want some trucks for Christmas?" Will was SHOCKED that Santa knew that.

In addition to meeting Santa today, Kylie woke up with her very first TOOTH! Here she is, celebrating the occasion.

Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving morning, after the turkey was stuffed and in the oven, we began waiting for our guests to arrive. Will was convinced that since Grammie and Grandpa took an airplane here, it would be landing in our front yard momentarily. He didn't quite understand the whole rental car concept.



We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while the turkey cooked and the house filled with laughter and yummy smells. Will learned a lot about Thanksgiving at school so he insisted that we all play football before and after the meal.



Some of us just combined the whole football and eating thing. She's efficient at this holiday stuff.



Will was so insistent about the football factor that the men-folk headed back outside long after it was dark for some post-dessert football. Miss Kylie took the time to receive a spa treatment in the tub from Grammie and Mommy.



The kiddos were back at it this afternoon, this time with baseball. Will is a real lefty slugger, hitting line drives up the middle like it's no problem. Kylie, on the other hand, prefered to eat the baseball.



We are so glad to be back on the East Coast this year where we are so much closer to family and friends. We hope to host many visitors in our new house soon!

Thanks-iversary

10- days we had to plan the wedding
9- days we spent in Utah for a honeymoon one year later
8- days we lived in a hotel when first moving to CA
7- months since Josh's last deployment
6- days driving across country one month after our wedding
5- years of marriage
4-times we've moved
3- deployments
2- beautiful, happy, healthy kids
1- HOUSE to call home

Happy Anniversary to us!



This was Will's answer when the teacher asked, "How do you cook a turkey?"

We let him punch it this morning before it went in the oven. He was pleased.



Happy Thanksgiving!!

Feast Photos

Here are the pictures from the big Preschool Feast on Tuesday. Thanks to Smith's mom for being our photographer for the morning!

5 Years: Wood

In honor of our 5 year anniversary which is also Thanksgiving Day this year, we decided to celebrate with the traditional gift of something made of wood.

A house should do the trick, right?

That's right! By Christmas, we should be homeowners and we are so excited to have found this beautiful house in a quiet neighborhood with a huge yard. We are ready to fill it with memories (and furniture).

A Preschool Feast

Today was Will's Thanksgiving Feast at school. The two three year old classes split up the roles, and Will's class was the Native Americans/Indians. Each kid in Will's class got to choose his or her own Indian name. Will was Chief Mickey.

Mommy was supposed to attend the feast and help out as a volunteer but a last minute change in babysitting plans meant Kylie got some one-on-one Mom time at home. Will was a bit disappointed by the change, but it has been reported that he recovered enough to do the hokey pokey and eat a cupcake.

Chief Mickey was all smiles when Mommy and Kylie came back to get him after the feast and playground time. One of the other moms took pictures for us, so hopefully we can get those up soon.

Christmas Tree Farm

Starting next week, the next month is going to FLY by for us in a whirlwind of holidays and exciting events. Knowing this, and seeing the beautiful weather this weekend, we headed out to Snead's Farm to stake our claim to a Christmas tree. See, you can write your name on a piece of ribbon and tie it to a tree and as long as you go get it by December 15th, it's your tree.

It's a real 'do-it-yourself' kind of place. We've been there twice before already and plan to go back a lot more in the future.

So, since we were headed out to do such a Christmas oriented activity, we thought we might get a Christmas card photo out of the day. No such luck. These two just were not feeling all that photogenic or cooperative. The farm dog was quite a distraction as she ran in and out of the trees, trying to play with us.

We managed to get a few individual shots that look good, but the bright sunlight and bounding dog made it difficult to stay in one spot with good lighting for too long.

After our tree choosing, we headed over to say hello to the animals. Daddy surprised us with his ability to speak cow, as he mooed to the cow and the cow came closer and closer, responding with various mooing sounds. It was the weirdest conversation I've eavesdropped on.

Hopefully this coming week will bring many more opportunities for photos.