Who's excited about Santa?!?

So it's 7:30 am Christmas morning and I'm hearing voices...nope...I'm not dreaming! Where is that boy at? Michael and I jump out of bed and head to the living room with expectations of finding Lance talking to himself and awing over the presents Santa has left. Again...nope! I try to quietly move up and down the hall in search for Lance and his conversing. Unfortunately I trip over the doorstop and boooinggggg...not so quiet. The talking stops. Michael and I giggle under or breaths and start to his room. There is Lance laying in his bed having a nice conversation with himself! We asked what he was doing and he complained that he couldn't go back to sleep because he forgot to turn his lamp on last night (have no clue). Then we ask if he had gotten up to see if Santa had visited us yet. "No I haven't." "Well are you going?", I say. He jumps out of bed and briskly walks to the living room. He has this blank stare. Then sees the gold! He lifts his little knee up and slaps it with his hand as he yells, "Oh sweet! Ben 10 Creature Creator!" I remind him that he has a sister and he takes off down the hall yelling at Celeste to get up. I think it's funny that we had to get the kids moving this morning. I'm not sure from the their reactions but Michael and I were EXTREMELY excited about Santa's visit!! Wanna see why????Not only did we have a great visit from Santa; we had a white Christmas too!! We were even lucky enough to get out and do a little sledding in between snow falls.
We had a great meal and even more so it was eaten on disposable plates...Merry Christmas to ME!!! We had dessert (lots of it) and finished the party singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. What a fun day!!!

So as I'm finishing up today's blog Michael was putting Lance to bed. He has a conversation with him that goes like this:

Dad: So Bub did you have a Merry Christmas? Did you have a good time today?
Lance: Yea. (in a solemn voice and then with a pause) I wish I could be a kid forever.
Dad: I wish I could be a kid forever too cause it's pretty fun when you're a kid but if I was a kid forever I would have never had you 'cause kids can't have kids. So what cha' gotta do is have the most fun while you're a kid and enjoy life as a kid. Okay?
Lance: Okay. (all skippy sounding)

You see kids, if we didn't have you guys then we'd probably look kind of stupid playing Rock Band all by ourselves! Thank goodness for kids! I love toys!!! :)

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Okay so here we are 11 days after my first post on the snow. We got more snow last night! That puts us around 17-19 inches in a weeks time!!! There are some negatives to say the least (like I haven't received any mail since the first snow) but overall we are truly having a BLAST!! We've got this great hill next to our house that the kids have been up and down sledding their little hearts out! Okay....so Michael and I both have been sledding away! I'm just so glad Michael has been able to enjoy the snow this year. In the past two years we've been stationed here the ship has always left just missing it all. I have to admit, I'm glad he's here to help dig out the driveway too!!I've had such a wonderful time watching the kids smile and giggle and having such spectacular views all around us! The evergreens just glisten with the snow and when the sun sets it's just breath taking!

USS LINCOLN'S Christmas Party

We were finally let out of the house without children! Now I love our kiddos but oh how nice it was to just check out for a break! It was the first time Michael and I had a night out since prior to his deployment....so over 300 days...but who's counting..right!?! The party was held at the Tulalip Casino and boy was it grand! With Michael's career on submarines and small ships we've never experienced such a huge party as on the carrier. There were some 2,200 people and over $15,000 worth of prizes and drawings given out. (Unfortunately we didn't win a stinkin' thing) WOW is right!

We were so glad to be able to share the night with good friends! It was also a great chance to meet new people and a lot of Michael's division. He has some hoots that's for sure!

Okay so I have to talk about "the shoes"! I saw these shoes in September and just couldn't resist!! So when it come time to pick an outfit for the party I KNEW it had to work around the shoes!! I had so many people give compliments on them at the party. They were a conversation or two for sure! I was so happy to wear the zebra printed shoes that night.....of course the next morning my feet DIDN'T quite agree!

Now there was one more thing I was truly excited to wear...my early Christmas present from my WONDERFUL husband! Look around my neck...see it? Yep...a gorgeous 3.14 ct Journey diamond necklace! He's making sure to say out of the dog house for a while! I'm so stinkin' lucky to have him!

WHAT A GREAT NIGHT!!!! :)

Look what's happening right now!!!!!!

So all week the weather dude has been saying to prepare for snow. I was truly hoping to see lots of it this year. One, because after 2 previous years of practice I feel somewhat safe in it now--well at least I can continue to function. Two, because we only have one more year here in Washington and I want to make sure to take advantage of "real" seasons while I can.

Today I was waiting in the driveway for the kids to get off the school bus so we could head out to the grocery store and post office. So at this point my pantry is stocked, bills are paid, and we have gas heat so we're guaranteed warm! Every few minutes I walk past the window to pier out....guess what I saw at 1 am (Friday night for me still)??? SNOW!!! It's been going for about 45 mins now-----KEEP SNOWING!!!! KEEP SNOWING!!! Let's see what it looks like in the morning....I mean, after I go to sleep, LATER in the morning that is!!! :) This picture was taken after 15 minutes. By the current pile of snow on my deck I would say we're up to about 1/2 an inch. It's only 34 degress right now so I'm not sure how much will stay on the ground; however it's supposed to continue all day tommorrow. Our high for tomorrow is 34 and the low is 22 so I'm feeling pretty positive we'll be out sleding down the hill sometime this weekend!! :)

Hat Day!!

Apparently today was "Hat Day" and I wasn't invited! My children decided to go get themselves dressed after lunch. (Yes that means we were still in PJs at lunch time) I could hear them doing some talking in the hall but really wasn't paying that close of attention. Around the corner they come all decked out....

I guess my invitation got lost in the mail..... :)

Annual Ornament Party

For the past 6 years I've hosted an Ornament Exchange for the ladies to just detox and kick back. With so much on every one's plate these days it's sometimes difficult to get away and give ourselves breathing time. I LOVE hosting these parties every year and I'll have to admit I use my dear friends as guinea pigs! I normally always have some new recipe that I want to try but never have a good reason to make some 10 pounds of candy or huge cake that only 3 people in our house will eat. So a Christmas party sounds like a great reason to me! It's also a good thing I out different items because I have friends like Aimee who remember exactly what my menu included from the previous of year--thanks Aimee! :) It's my friends that keep me on my toes and require me to push forward...make everything...and be so stinkin' perfect (inside joke)! Thanks girls!

I had such a wonderful time with the ladies who were able to make it out this year. I can't wait until the next one! Could we do Christmas in July? Okay...okay...maybe February!

Celeste and Girl Scouts

This is Celeste's 4th year in Girl Scouts and my third year as her leader. I think each year as we learn more about the organization we get more excited and have lots more fun! Today we had our Troops Court of Awards Ceremony. It's a time for each girl to be honored on all the events, service projects, and awards they've earned over a certain period of time. This particular ceremony covered items from June '08 to November '08. Celeste had a wide variety of projects she had accomplished. We are all so very proud of her.

A few of the items she received patches for are Piston Cup (box car races), Food Drive where she went door to door and collected food for our local food bank, 3 weekend camping patches where they learned how to put up their own tents, cook with dutch ovens, and completed service projects by cleaning up the camp grounds. She also earned patches for Save Our Sound with is an environmental group we helped out by protecting the Puget Sound in planting native trees around water ways. Some 700 trees were planted that day! Celeste received her Summer service star when she completed a service project by picking up trash along CR 479 in the blazing summer heat of Texas for 1 mile. She received patches for marching in the July 4th parade with our local VFW sponsors and completing 30 hours of reading over the summer months (that was TASKING). Girl Scouts earn triangular patches called Try-Its where the scout must complete 4 tasks associated with the each badge. Celeste earned 5. They range from writing our troop pen pals in England, learning to eat right and stay healthy with food, and exercise as well as manners and cooking! Celeste has worked with extreme diligents and has gone above and beyond to complete her list of accomplishments! WAY TO GO CELESTE!!

Mt. Baker and Friends

We were so very lucky to be able to take a day trip up to Mt. Baker with some family friends of ours-the Yorks. It's always nice in the middle of the hectic holidays to just "check out" and go have some fun! It also amazes me how quick the weather can change in such a short amount of distance! It was a gorgeous drive all along the way with short stops from the bottom of the hill where it was around 46 all the way to the top of the mountain where the temp dropped to around 28!

However nice it was mid-way up the mountain it didn't even compare to the coldness just a few minutes up at the top....... needless to say warmer clothes are A MUST next time!!! You know...something that will TOTALLY cover my entire body and resemble the little boy in The Christmas Story!! :) It was a GREAT day with GREAT friends and GREAT family!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot of 2008!

Oh yeah, pictures!!! (Hear the sarcasim in that?) No really--I love taking candid snapshots of the kids while their playing or just doing daily things, but getting us all set up for family pictures is a whole 'nother ballgame!! It's kind of like pulling teeth--to say it nicely! With the ship coming home in October and Michael on some extended leave we decided to take family Christmas pictures early this year. Okay, truth be known, it's so our snot isn't freezing into cartoon characters on the side of our face in December! Well, and that Michael also wanted some facial hair for a change!!! I know--I know, but he's got to show it off while he can! We all get ready and thank our lucky stars that it's NOT currently raining at the time in the lovely state of Washington, then head out to the swamp grounds I've scoped out PRIOR to 5 days of straight rain--another big yeah! The wind is blowing my hair and it's sticking in my lipgloss, the sun is going down, and it's starting to get quite cold---come on kids---quit goofing off and smile for me! YOU TOO MICHAEL! I don't care that your sitting on a rock that's crammed 2 inches into your butt! Let's just get this done!














So, a couple hours later and the idea that shooting myself in the foot sounds like more fun; we have our pictures! At least I think so........

Next year, instead of going somewhere to HAVE our pictures taken, I'll be asking myself all over again why in the world I do this! Hey, at least this year I remembered to take the tripod and didn't have to prop the camera on the top of the van!!! Baby steps, Bob; baby steps!

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!!!

After years of pulling and prodding I am now in the blog world!! WOO HOO for me!!! Thanks to some of my dearest friends Jessica (The Ottely Crew) and Jenny (Once Upon A Lusty) I can now stay connected with the whole world all behind a computer!!! Thanks girls for helping me find something else to be addicted to! Just what I needed right?!?!?! :)