It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We have been super busy. We had a lovely Thanksgiving, but I didn't take any pictures, so we'll skip right to December.(Poor Thanksgiving!) We spent a day decorating for Christmas and welcomed our own elf to stay until after Christmas.

Our elf, Nicholas, named after Santa.

I haven't had chance to blog about this yet, but we have a Cub Scout at our house now! The local troop sang at the WP Christmas tree lighting earlier in the week. (If troop is not the correct word, I apologize to any cub or boy scouts. I am just learning all the terms.)



After the tree lighting.

We went to the Math Department family Christmas party yesterday, where O was super excited to tell the big guy that he wants a stuffed monkey for Christmas. (News to me!)

Adoption Update: We had our first meeting with our adoption specialist at Bethany Christian Services and have started our home study. Lots and lots of paperwork. I'm feeling overwhelmed with trying to keep it organized and track of it all, but if you know me, you know how much I love lists, so I'm taking advantage of my mad list-making skills! And I know this part will be easier than the next, which will be just sittin' around waitin'.

Fall Day

We enjoyed a cool, but sunny hike/bike around post yesterday. We took the boys to Lusk Reservoir to ride their bikes and then we went for a little hike. I was able to find lots of nice branches to make our Thanksgiving tree with.

Lusk Reservoir is one of my favorite places to walk or run around on post. So pretty!

I had no idea I was married to such a monkey! On our little hike there were lots of exercise stations set up for the cadets. When we came upon this rope climb, E just shimmied right up. Very impressive!

Our Big News

We are super excited to announce that we are adopting internationally!!!! I just sent in our application, so we have officially begun. This is something E and I have always talked about and just recently have really felt God strongly tugging at our hearts to send us in this direction. I wasn't sure if I should blog about this but really I know we'll need lots of prayers (Thanks in advance!), and it will be easy to keep everyone updated about what will more than likely be a pretty long process. We are excited, scared, nervous, but mostly we feel that somewhere in this big world God is watching over a child that will eventually come home to us.

Halloween/Fall Parties

The last few weeks have been busy with Halloween and both boys' fall parties at school. And I just realized, I posted the pics in reverse order so we will start from the end.

Waiting for the firefighters to throw some candy. It is so funny how much happiness can be found waiting for a vehicle to drive by and throw candy at you. I felt the same way when I was little.

Pirate and Spiderman. Oops, I mean vampire pirate.

O at his Clifford class party.

Bobbing for apples.

S making a scary skeleton.

The 1st Graders had a hoedown, complete with vests and square dancing.



Yee haw!!!!

Stay tuned for some really big news I'll be sharing in a few days!

Ridiculousness

Most people that know me, know that I love snow. It's pretty and fun to play in, and good for getting out of school. But last year was a looooooong winter and by the time it was over I had, had my fill of snow, so last weekend when actually it started snowing before Halloween I was a little freaked out. Then it continued snowing, and snowing, and snowing until we had almost a foot. And the electricity went off for 12 hours. We survived and even had fun. So...I'm going to try to have a better attitude about the snow and have fun and enjoy it. Because it seems like this is going to be another loooooong winter.

Sledding behind our house.

Niagara Falls

Two weekends ago we went to Niagara Falls to watch E run The Niagara Falls Marathon. We went up a couple of days early so that we could do a little sight-seeing. The falls were breathtaking. Really. I was amazed by the size.

Wow, right?

The falls in the background at lunch.

S took this one!

Getting read to run!!!

Unfortunately at some point, I switched bags and didn't get the camera in from the other bag, so this is the last picture I have of E racing. : ( BUT he was amazing, finishing in 3:38, which is a super fast time to run 26.2 miles!!!! All in all a very good weekend.

Apples

A couple of weekends ago we went apple picking for a friend's birthday party. First, though, we stopped by a fall festival in Sugar Loaf, a small artisan village. The boys were excited to see this lovely lady.

Before picking apples, the boys were able to put on their own puppet show before watching a professional one.
Yummy apples! We picked enough for apple crisp and caramel apples.

BUSY Weekend

This past weekend was E's 10 year WP Reunion. Friday night we went to a banquet without the kids! (Thanks G Family! They had a super time.) E was supposed to march in a parade Saturday morning, but it was rained out. I don't think he was too upset about his.

Saturday lunch was eaten at the cadet mess hall, which we all enjoyed.

It had been a while since I had been inside and it's just as cool as I remember. Love this place!

Some of the class of 2001. Love all the babies and kids running around!


At the awesome game that was a total blow-out! Army -45, Tulane - 6!

The tailgate after the game was inside, which was nice because it was chilly outside. There was a very nice d.j. that allowed S to assist him. He loved it!

It was a great weekend and really nice to reconnect with some people we hadn't seen in a while. Now to recover from the weekend...

Army Football

September 10th was Army's first home game. Sadly, we lost but it was a pretty close game against San Diego State. Falling the day before 9/11, there were several moving tributes.

The only picture I took of the boys and they look miserable. It was only in the low 80's, but we were in the sun the whole time. (And, of course, we were wearing black!)
Here they come!

Sgt. 1st Class Petry, the most recent Medal of Honor winner was at the game.

We also heard a speech by former mayor Rudy Giuliani.





After the speech the cadets brought out the biggest flag I've ever seen.

Certainly a bittersweet day remembering those lost 10 years ago.

Pre-K

O had his first day of Pre-K on Monday. He goes five days a week from 8:30 until 11:00. On his way to school the first day he told me that he hoped there was not a doll house in his classroom. Alas, as soon as we walked in the door he spotted a dollhouse! I explained to him that some of the other kids like playing with dollhouses and he decided this was okay. Such a silly boy! He is very excited to be going to school in the same building as S.

Cute!

On his way in! I admit, I teared up. I think I'm fine every year and then here come the waterworks. I wonder if that will ever stop.