Christmas Greetings

Christmas Travels

WOW...it's been awhile since I lasted blogged! Things have been CRAZY around our house...my parents & sister came for a week, Thanksgiving, decorating for Christmas, Creative Memories Open House, shopping for & making Christmas gifts, PWOC Christmas party, MOPS activities, AWANA, along with all the normal day-to-day things a mom does!! It's been a wild couple of months!!

My first trimester is officially over! YAY!! I was pretty sick from week 9-13, so I must say I'm glad to see it pass! I will be 15 weeks tomorrow. We should be able to find out what we're having in late January, early February, although if it's not a boy, Adam & Todd have already decided to send it back! HA HA!!

Adam and I have been involved with our church's Christmas Cantata. We are singing a duet in it. Tonight was our first performance...tomorrow is the last! YAY! I can't say that I'll be sorry that it's over...it's a lot of work!!!

Tomorrow night, Adam signs out on 16 days of leave and we drive to Texas for the holidays! YAY! I'm excited to be going "home" for Christmas this year...although not so excited about the 20+ hour drive down there! We're praying for decent weather, traffic, etc!! The kids are very happy to be going to see all the grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins... this is going to be a fun year because all the kids are old enough to really have fun with Christmas...and really be able to play together.

So, I close this post with a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all and your families! May God richly bless you in the New Year!!

Updates

Well, it's been a few weeks since I blogged last! I even missed Tori's 3rd birthday!! YIKES!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TORI on the 30th!! She is working hard towards getting potty trained...and doing a pretty good job so far! YAY! We had the kids' Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday on the 25th with LOTS of friends over. Every year I say "Boy I'm not doing THAT again," but I guess it's just one of those things! LOL We had a fun time playing games like "Find Pluto's Bones," "Pin the Bow on Minnie" and "Guess the Mouskatool".

We're looking forward to Mom, Dad & Hannah coming to visit next week. Mom will be speaking at the Post Prayer Breakfast here, so they all decided to come with her!

Wednesday is my first Dr appt. We're hoping to be able to at least hear the heartbeat...and maybe even get an ultrasound?! This will be the last time I have to go to Bethesda until later in the pregnancy. I'll be able to be seen by the midwife here on Ft Detrick in the meantime. I've been feeling OK so far this time...been sick a couple of times, but nothing like with the first 3 kids! YAY!

Page #4

We found out this week that Page #4 is on his/her way! It looks like I'm about 8 weeks along (although I'm not 100% sure of that!), which makes the baby due May 28. I'm feeling great so far...just tired a lot. Guess that's to be expected chasing around 3 other kids in the meantime!! The kids are excited about "the baby in Mommy's tummy"! However, it took them a couple of days.....the day we told them, we paused the movie they were watching, said "We're going to have a baby. THere's a baby in Mommy's tummy." Todd said "Oh." like it was just one of those things you hear everyday and Tori looked at us and said "I wanna watch my movie!!!" I did hear Todd telling one of his friends' about it today though, so they are warming up to the idea! Todd is praying for a boy. Tori wants a sister. LOL We're just praying for a healthy baby!!

Todd is 5 tomorrow!!!

Five years ago tonight, I was in full blown pitocin-induced labor with Todd (after my water breaking at 7:30 am and NOTHING happening until pitocin that evening!!). What an event! He was finally born at 5:50 am on Oct 11...Germany time! So that's 11:50 on Oct 10 our time here in Maryland. So...I guess technically, he'll be 5 in 3 hours!! WOW!! He has brought SO much to our family! I can't imagine life without him! He is such a wonderful kid...funny, happy, ALL BOY, sweet, sensitive to others! I can't wait to see what God has in store for him!! THANK YOU, LORD, FOR MY SON!!

For all you parents out there...

It is inevitable that one child will always get into mischief. While Todd & Tori NEVER colored on the walls, Audrey LOVES to!!!! She will color with anything she can get her hands on....and while most of the time it's just a pencil which is an easy fix, today it happened to be a bright blue Dry Erase Marker. And while those are fantastic and easy for Dry Erase boards, they are NOT meant for white doors!!!!! It was quite a stunning display of artistry! However, not such an easy thing to clean off! I tried Magic Erasers because they get EVERYTHING off.....except Dry Erase marker!! I tried baking soda paste because that's what everyone said to do online. NOTHING budged it. Until I got out the nail polish remover....and Q-tips. There is still a lovely blue tint to Todd's white bedroom door, but I guess at least it isn't huge sweeping lines now!! TIME TO LOCK UP THE WRITING TOOLS!!!!!!

Marriage Retreat

Last weekend, we were able to attend a Marriage Retreat made available to us through Adam's Unit Chaplain, James Choi. We spent 3 days in Lancaster, PA. Childcare was provided, so we were able to bring the kids with us. They had a great time in the pool, playing games at a local shopping center, and playing with all the other kids in the hotel. We even got the experience of a "Family Style" meal, which we shared with James & Christina from New York City, and Kathy & her 2 sons from New Jersey.

Great Frederick Fair

We had a great time at the Great Frederick Fair today! The kids got to see all kinds of cool tractors, animals, people's entries including photos, jams & jellies, baked goods...even bug collections! After about 3 hours of walking around, Audrey was wiped out and asleep on Adam's shoulder! Enjoy these photos of the kids!!

Follow my Blog

You can now sign up to be a FOLLOWER of our blog! Scroll down to the bottom on the left side and follow the links to sign up! Who will be first?!! HA HA!!

Also, our Ft Detrick PWOC Chapter has a new blog page. Find it at www.fortdetrickpwoc.blogspot.com We will be updating it with upcoming events, photos from past events, and other 'need to know info'!

MOPS

Our MOPS Kick-off is today! We've had some great MOPS trips over the summer and now it's time to start back with our school year programs. We have some great stuff planned....speakers, crafts and other fun things! If you're in our area and not part of a MOPS group, feel free to contact me for more info!

PWOC

Our Protestant Women of the Chapel (PWOC) Kick-off was yesterday morning! We had a great time worshipping our Lord together and getting back in touch with each other after the summer break! We'll start studies next week. I've decided to fully jump in and do the Beth Moore study being offered. This will be the first time I have completed one of her studies. I know it will be lots of work, but I'm ready!

Last night I stopped by my friend, Kim's, to return some candleholders and we ended up at her house until 1am doing HAIR! LOL Our friend Stephanie came to get her hair touched up and we ended up highlighting mine too! Guess we needed a girl night!! We had a great time visiting and laughing with Kim's daughter, Anja, too.

Todd's 1st Day of School!!

Todd started Kindergarten today!! I'm homeschooling him using Rod & Staff and Alphabet Island curriculum. This is our trial year to see if homeschooling is for our family or not! He did a great job this morning! He's excited about learning this year! We took him to Applebee's for lunch to celebrate...it's his FAVORITE!!

Audrey woke up from her nap yesterday with a red, swollen eye. Not sure what's going on with that, but it's still swollen today. I guess we'll take her in to the dr tomorrow if it's not any better.

If anyone has any ideas about what it could be, let me know!!

Funny Todd

I had to share this...Todd is just TOO funny!!! I was sitting on the couch and Todd, laying beside me, looked up and said "Mom, have we ever aten (eaten) chicken pox?!" HA HA HA HA I sure hope not!!! These kids keep me laughing!!!

MMMMM.........

Do you know how YUMMY Brisket is?!!! We had some tonight at a birthday party and boy was it AWESOME!!!! The family is also from Texas and boy did they do it up right!!! THANKS for making these Texans happy, Amber!!!

I'M BACK!!

Well, the first blogging didn't start out so well (as you can see it's been over a year since the first...and last post), so I'm here trying again!!
Hang on while I get the muffins out of the oven.....
OK....what's going in in our lives today?!!
Daddy is at work...again....gotta love shift work! He tells the kids "I have to go to work so we can eat dinner tonight!" Poor Daddy! LOL
Toddster is going to be starting school on Tuesday! He misses the cutoff for public school (and I'm not ready to send my baby off ALL day), so we're starting homeschool Kindergarten! I have all his books...have I looked at them yet? NO.....but I'll get to it. Monday night. HA HA! He is looking forward to being in school....we have the calendar & map posters hung (well, as much as they will stay on the wall...it's been pretty wet here the last couple of days and they keep falling!).
Little Princess Tori is running around with her crown on this morning. She doesn't care that it's a little crooked and hanging on by a few hairs!
Audrey was my early bird today. We got up and came downstairs where she proceeded to drink half of my tea left over from last night! OOPS! Guess she needed her caffeine fix early! She was SO excited when Todd came downstairs. I suppose I'm not quite as exciting as he is!!
We have a birthday party this afternoon. What to get Joshua?? I keep asking Todd and it's something different every time! Guess we'll just go look when everyone gets dressed.... Off to beat THAT challenge of the day!!!!