Lots of random photos

Sorry, this is all I can muster for now. We're doing great here. Just busy busy busy. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Because I'm a slacker...

I just realized that even though it was a month ago, I forgot to post a picture of the kids for Halloween. I guess that shows how really behind I am. Adrianna was a Vampiress, Kenneth was a Lightning McQueen pit crew member, and Lilly was a pirate. They had a great Halloween with friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Today, I was lucky enough to have 2 Thanksgiving feasts with great friends. The kids had a blast playing and running around with their buddies. Thank you ladies for having us over. We had a great time and all of the food was wonderful!

In honor of the holiday I thought I would share a few things that I am thankful for.

I'm thankful for:

• My wonderful husband who is serving our country on the other side of the world.
• My super sweet, albeit super crazy, children who keep me insanely busy, and just a bit insane too.
• Great friends who put up with us during the holidays. This includes Lilly's many peeing on the floor incidents, and many messes.
• Delicious turkey and green bean casserole. Yummy!
• Chocolate
• Christmas trees that are just so pretty that I want to curl up and sleep underneath them.
• Family movie nights with popcorn, cookies, and cocoa.
• Cooler weather! It's so nice to be below 80 during the day. It feels like the holidays almost.
• My mom and dad who made sure to call and tell me Happy Thanksgiving.
• My mom in law who calls and checks on me regularly just to make sure I'm okay.
• Wine
• Twilight, because what would I do everynight before bed if I didn't have the series to read over and over and over?
• Flowers, letters, and emails from my wonderful husband.
• LIFE

This is an unrelated photo, but I thought I would share because it was kind of cool.

USS Georgia gold crew

I'm trying. Really I am!

I know it's been too too long yet again. But I just can't do anything about it. Chris has been gone for just over a month so I'm throroughly exhausted already. When I have a few minutes to just take a breather I rarely want to sit at the computer. But when I force myself to sit here it's not normally to blog. I've got a real update coming soon hopefully. We've got pictures and maybe a video or two. For the most part we are all doing good. We're hanging in here trying to stay busy, as if I have a choice in the matter. The kids and I have been spending lots of time together so that's good and bad all at the same time. And we really miss having Chris around. Only a few more months to go. I CAN do this!!

Fun

Chris has been gone one week so far. One down and only like a million more to go. I really try to keep busy while he's away. It helps us pass the time if we have lots to do. So far we've had soccer, lunches out with friends, lots of park playing, picnics in the park, pumpkin painting, and lots of crafts! I'm having fun, and so are the kids. So here are a few pics of our adventures so far.

These next 5 are from our picnic we took to the park on Sunday. The weather was perfect and we spent a lot of time outside.

We were trying to do a craft I saw in a magazine with glue and yard to make a bowl of sorts. It didn't work out too well. But it was fun getting all gluey. (is that even a word?)

I love this one of Kenneth. We were in Walmart and he was riding on the side of the cart pretending he was skateboarding. He's wearing his safety glasses he got from Lowe's to use when we do their building workshops. Walmart is dangerous I guess. You need to protect your eyes! He's so cute!

Kenneth had his school's fall festival last week. The booth that I volunteered to work had the kids eating cupcakes with no hands involved. The picture proves it, Kenneth was a pro!

Soccer star in the making!

I just have to brag a bit about my big boy. He had a soccer game this past Saturday, and I have to say that it was his VERY best game EVER!! He's usually pretty calm about the whole team sports thing. He'll take the ball down a bit if it comes to him, or he'll occasionally stick his foot in to try and get it. But on Saturday, he was a mad man! He was running all over that field. He was taking the ball from the other team and going all the way down the field with it! He even scored his first goal ever! And not just one goal either. He scored 2 goals that last game. He was so proud of himself and he kept turning around giving me his thumbs up, which is what he does when he knows he's doing great. :) I just wish that Chris had been here to see it. Chris had made it to every game that Kenneth had had this season, up until this one. It was a real bummer for Kenneth too, but he got to tell his Daddy later on Skype. But you all had better watch out for this one. He's a big soccer star on his way up!

Here is one of our newest family photos. We have others too but this one is my favorite for some reason. I think it really shows our personality as a family...just kind of goofy. I will hopefully get them out to family soon.

Our last weekend

Chris has left us again. But this time I don't have a photo of the boat leaving to post about it. This time we dropped him off to catch a bus to catch a plane to go and meet the boat. It was different than we've done before, and still just as hard. He's off doing what he has to do for us, and I'll be here holding down the fort until I can next see him. We got an unexpected extra weekend so we took advantage of it by going and getting our family photos done, having yummy dinners out, and just hanging out being a family. We will miss him so much while he's away. Here's to hoping that the time flies by.

We made homemade pumpkin pie play doh to play with. It smells so so yummy and is completely safe in case someone eats it. :) Not that my kids would do something so goofy as to eat play doh.

We took the time to pick out a pumpkin and carve it before he left. The kids loved it.

My boy

Lilly really liked doing the pumpkin this year. Last year she was just over a year old so she wasn't really into putting her hands into the pumpkin. But this year she dug right in and got dirty. What fun!

Holy guacamole...that's a lot of pictures!

Okay, so I know it's been a really really long time. Again! And again, I have no excuse other than I was just busy with life.
We have had tons going on. So hang on tight!

Pretty self explanatory right? I had a birthday, and Kenneth, Lilly, and Chris made me a cake. It tasted wonderful! Adrianna was gone for a girl scout campout though.

We've been building...

...fire station visiting...
...Titans game going...

...Crazies!!

We went to a pumpkin patch. It had an awesome petting zoo for the kids. Lilly really took to the baby chicken.

We climbed some hay bales,

And put some kids in the stockades! This should should be punishment in our house.

We fed some cows,

and rode some cows.

Then they played in the corn. Because what visit to a farm is complete without laying in the corn? They loved this! I almost want to put a big ole trough of it in my backyard!

And of course, there was MORE soccer!

Grandpa came to town to visit! We had lots of yummy treats, like ice cream from Cold Stone. Mmmmm!

Kenneth's favorite...mini golf!

Oh and yummy Osaka for dinner!

Adrianna is keeping me crazy busy with girl scouts. She's had meetings, ceremonies, and campouts galore!

I went to my first dining out. It was so much fun! We went to a yummy Italian place called Maggiano's. It was a fantastic evening!

What a handsome group of men huh?

And a gorgeous group of ladies!

We went to Sea World and had a blast!

Kenneth and Adrianna rode their first big roller coasters. Kenneth went on the Journey to Atlantis with me. It's similar to the log rides, where you plunge down the big hill into the water at the bottom. He was pretty scared, but he really loved it! He even went on it a second time before we went home. And Adrianna also rode the new roller coaster there called Manta. It's a huge one that goes like 60MPH and does lots of loops. Oh, and you are laying facing the ground the whole time. It was AWESOME!!

We love Sea World and look forward to hopefully going back next year.

We are enjoying every last minute of the time that we have left with Chris before he goes. I will most likely be able to keep up better when all of this slows down a bit.