Sunday, November 29, 2009

The rest of the story

Friday evening, we got the house ready to set up the tree. Jaymee and Raigan stopped by to help. I had some heavy lifting to do, so Jaymee helped me and Elliott and Raigan stood by the door and cried until we came back inside. Elliott loved looking at the ornaments in the box. He kept reaching for them and would touch them, but didn't pick them up, he just giggled. After both babies melted, Jaymee left, Elliott went to bed, and Ethan and I got into our comfy clothes. Then, Ethan and I finished putting together the Christmas tree. I get the feeling it's going to be a long, hard season for us. I asked Ethan if he liked the stockings, and he said "No, I don't like that my dad's reminds me that he is gone." Then he cried, and I held him and I cried. After a few minutes, I pulled it together and helped Ethan get it together, then we decided we would have a special Christmas when Jason gets home. That made it better. Nothing else got accomplished, we just sat and cuddled for the rest of the evening.
Saturday, Ethan didn't have hockey, and I cannot tell you what a relief that was. We sat around in our pajamas and just played and hung out until about 11! Then Jaymee and Dereck brought Raigan over to hang out with us. The boys had so much fun with her here. She kind of had a hard time for a few minutes after she realized she was "alone", but Ethan rushed to her side and held her hand and played with her until she was comfortable. It was adorable. Elliott didn't really like her until later in the afternoon. He thought I was trading him in and wouldn't let her come within 2 feet of me without throwing a HUGE fit. He's a little clingy. haha.

They played by each other for a while. They are not to the play together age yet, but it's cute to watch them, watch each other. Raigan just knew Elliott was going to get in so much trouble, I am a bad mom though and let him do it, Ethan did too when he was little and he turned out ok.
Then it was snack time. Ethan held the snacks and the babies chased him down to get their share.
Saturday evening, we went to Shannon's for game night. It was so much fun! We were out late, but had such a great time.
This morning, we hung out in our pajamas again until Ethan had hockey at noon. I couldn't help taking a few pictures of Elliott. He is big enough to climb onto the couch now, and thinks he is so funny.Ethan and I finished decorating the tree tonight, and it looks awesome. He is a great helper, and had fun putting the ornaments on.
Here are the stockings. Ethan has the special one, but is not happy that it's also the smallest one.
And lastly, here is our beautiful Christmas tree. I still believe it is the best $5 we have ever spent.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Worth the wait..............

I decided on Wednesday, that since Toys R Us was going to open their doors at midnight, I could totally pull an "all niter" worth of shopping, all I needed was an accomplice. Erica swore I was only using her for her handicap sticker and good parking. Even my grandma knows that this could be true. haha. I wasn't though, I really wanted her to go, but her family wanted to go too, so I called Jaymee. She was on board, the harder part was finding a sitter. Lucky for me, Erica's step-daughter Presleigh said she could sleep on my couch. Jaymee picked her up for me, and we were on our way. The line at Toys R Us was long when we got there, but grew twice the size by the time they opened the doors. We snatched a cart on our way in, and lucky we did, we got some amazing deals, but we also stood in the LONGEST LINE EVER! Seriously, it weaved around the entire store and up and down almost every isle. They actually needed a guy holding balloons so people could find the end. Jaymee and I both were there for some things, but it was not life or death, so we were able to lay back and just enjoy being in the moment. We found the line, then did our shopping while we waited in line. This is obviously the way you should do it if you are going to go. The line did take forever, but we had a blast!
Here is the line in front of us. Luckily, Shannon saved us a spot, and nobody complained when we butted in. This doesn't paint a very accurate picture of the CHAOS that was the inside of the store, but you get the idea.Here is our cart, by the time we checked out, there was more, but we got some awesome deals. Ok, please keep in mind that we were running on zero sleep and had stood in line for at least an hour at this point. The SpongeBob Pineapple Gingerbread house was the funniest thing on earth.It was at this point, that i no longer cared who saw or heard us, we were there to enjoy ourselves. I serenaded Jaymee for a few seconds, and then continued to sing the theme songs to the shows of the characters we saw on the journey through the rest of the store. Yes, she tried to take a self portrait, and with no luck, the lady in front of us took the next one.We look great, right? After we were in line for half of forever, we realized that we were kid free, yet we had the cart, and the people behind us had been holding their sweet little girl the whole time. So, after our light bulbs came on, we decided since we were going to all be together for a LONG time, they should put her in the cart. : ) DUHYES! This is the end of the wait. Too bad our checker didn't seem to care, and was just mad at the world. We still had a blast!Finally, back in the car. This was not the end of our road, Old Navy opened at 3:00am! We hurried over, got in line and went in to brave the madness for the second time.We were in the middle of the checkout line, and they were not nearly as organized as Toys R Us, so after waiting for 15 min or so, we both decided we could get the same deals (things we didn't NEED anyway) another time. We dropped our bags and headed out. Dereck wanted to go deer hunting anyway.

All in all, it was great. We had so much fun, and we are definitely going back next year. Now we have to have our "After Black Friday, Gift Wrapping Party".

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

rain rain go away

Funny story. So we had this helicopter that was red x'd (meaning it was not allowed to fly) because it was missing the pilots windshield wiper. We were waiting on a part to put it back together, which happened to be no where on post. Go figure, I guess they thought that they didn't need to stock helicopter parts on a base that fixes helicopters. Any who, I told the Sergeant in charge the deal and he laughed, "It doesn't rain here." That was mostly true. It hadn't rained here at all that i could remember. May be a sprinkle is all. The decision was made to downgrade the status to a circle red x (meaning it can fly with some limitations) limiting it from flight during rain. Lone and behold, It rains today. LMAO! Oh well. I guess that bird really wasn't supposed to fly.
By the way when it rains here. It gets muddy!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Thanksgiving Begins

Ethan got out of school at 12:00pm today, and doesn't have to go back until Monday! Yay! I spent today cleaning house and making some jewelry.

This idea came to me last night, and after I started on it, I realized I was missing some key things to finish it. I could not stop thinking about it, and it kept me up until 1:00am! UGH! Because of that, Elliott and I went to Hobby Lobby as soon as they opened this morning. It turned out exactly as I pictured it.

I couldn't resist having a bracelet to go with it.

Anyway, now it's on to the rest of the weekend. I am making BBQ ribs tonight for dinner, and I don't know what our plans are for tomorrow. We will have hockey in the evening, and then a spa party at Shannon's for Jaymee and me. The boys will be staying with Erica. For whatever reason, she thinks that keeping the boys will be less stressful for her. Hmm. More pedicure stuff for me I guess. HAHA. Even though we are unable to go to see Abby and Chris for Thanksgiving, we were not short on invitations for Thanksgiving dinner. We are going to go to Jackie's house, but I appreciate all of the other offers. If my pants were not already a little bit snug, I might have been able to take them all on. Friday, I may brave the shopping experience, and maybe get our Christmas tree up! I am trying to get into the spirit, but with Jason gone, it's not easy. I'm hoping if I just jump into it feet first, the spirit will take me over. Elliott has been walking all over the house today, he still gets around much faster when he crawls, but the walking is getting sturdy and faster. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, and don't forget to remember all the things we have to be thankful for.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Birthday Parties Update and a lot of pictures

Thursday evening was a lot of fun. We got to have a small party with the Foster's and us. Ethan had a GREAT time. He loves Chuck-E-Cheese, and sadly so does Dereck. Two pizzas, and 100 tokens later, we got to go home.
I am pretty sure they played every game in the place.

Raigan and Elliott loved the pizza, and they were so amazed with all the lights and sounds and kids running around.
Yes...........yes it is a Red Ryder BB Gun. Don't worry, I won't let him "shoot his eye out". Dereck bought this special, just for his little buddy. He can not (still) stop talking about it, and all the things he is going to shoot.
Raigan and Elliott had fun on the rides. Elliott wore slick pants, and kept scooting to one side.
This is Elliott's FAVORITE. He kept going back to it over and over, and didn't even care if it wasn't going. Sadly, it looks planned, but I put him in a Batman shirt, not thinking he would be in the Batman car.
Ethan is riding this wrong, but it was too funny to tell him.
Then, today, we had his party at the ice rink. We had a great turnout, and everyone had so much fun.
Just look how happy he is.
And Raigan too! She didn't fit in skates, but she had a great time sliding around on the ice with her daddy.
We got blowup hockey sticks for all the kids. Of course they needed blown up right away.
And the hockey birthday cake. Dang I'm good!


YUMMMMMMMMY!

The kid MADE OUT! Just wait, this is only part of the stuff he got. I would list it all but I don't want to sound greedy.
This bag is from Jackie. How funny is this picture? It looks like that kid is sitting at the table. Cracked me up, had to share.


And Erica cracks me up too. She got him a magazine subscription, so she gave him a card to tell him. She wrapped the card in packing tape. While the adults laughed, Ethan was less than impressed about trying to open it.

Ok, that's it. He had a great 6th birthday! Thanks to everyone.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

It happened...........again.

No matter how hard I try to avoid it, my babies are growing up. It's weird. Six years ago, I couldn't picture Ethan as a 6 year old, and now I have almost forgotten what it was like to have him as a baby. Ethan and I have a special bond. He doesn't know it yet, but he is my rock. I don't know where I would be today if I didn't have him to push me through. I might not have fought so hard for the things I wanted, because I only wanted them so he could have the best life possible. He is my little, best friend in the whole world. When it was just him and me, everything revolved around him. EVERYTHING! Still, today, I want to give him the world. He amazes me with his drive to succeed at such a young age. He is the light of my life, and brings a smile to my face every morning. Usually, that is before I have to start getting after him to hurry up and get ready. I miss him while he is at school, and I can't wait to pick him up and get the biggest hug ever, and listen to the excitement of his day. He is having his birthday party on Saturday at the ice rink. He can hardly wait, but was a little disappointed that we were not going to "do anything" for his actual birth day. Since Jaymee thinks that her photography business is more important than Ethan's birthday, she was going to have to miss his party, but being the awesome mom that I am, we are going to go with Jaymee, Dereck and Raigan to Chuck-E-Cheese tonight. He doesn't know yet. ;)

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Did you notice?

I just wanted to know if anyone had noticed the picture Jason made at the VERY bottom of the blog. It cracks me up.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Ziggurat of Ur



This is what happens when a Black Hawk runs in to another Black Hawk while taxiing on the ground. It gets sling loaded by a Chinook.




A view of the airfield hangers. The one I work out of is the large case band in the far back.





Seen from almost all parts of the base, Ziggurat of Ur. Ur is where Abraham was born. Land of the Bible.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

A new obsession in the making

First of all, I have to say, I had a MUCH better drive home. : )While in Helena I had to check out the bead store. She had some stuff I hadn't seen, such as "Paper Beads". My friend, Christine, was with me and when she saw them, she told me that she could show me how to make them. I am not that patient, so when I got back to the hotel, I googled "paper beads", and came up with several sites showing how to make them. This is one variation. It's SO easy, and they look awesome!
Step one: find a magazine page with the colors you would like to use, and cut it into triangles. I did mine one inch wide, and the length of the page. Step 2: starting at the wide end, wrap around a toothpick, and use a small amount of glue when you get to the point to hold it in place.Step 3: Remove from the toothpick and put on a string to dry, and spray with clear varnish. Let dry. Aren't they great? I love the way they look. I can't wait to use them. Ethan loved helping.