Cousins

One of the best things about getting together with my sisters and my brother is that Junior, Em and Abs get to spend time with their cousins. Just a few pictures of my little sister's kiddos, more to come since my mom had a slew of kids....okay, just four, but I couldn't imagine having that many!

Who hearts Justin Beiber????

The picture of Abs is somewhat blurry, but she is less than impressed with the fact that Em got a JB cd and poster. Why you ask??? (Cause I know you are waiting with bated breath) Em showed Abs a video and while Gunner and I were Christmas shopping, and we got a frantic call from Em that Abs said she was going to marry JB. Apparently this wasn't fair, but we hear Abs in the background yelling "I called him first" and Em was trying to argue that JB was tooooo old for her and Em was trying to argue that there was no possible way for Abs to "call him first".

Please commit me before these two are teenagers.

What's become of Sammy?

He's still alive.

He is the most patient dog in the world.

He doesn't know that if he was in a normal family that he wouldn't be hauled around like a baby doll loves our family.

 He got car sick on the way down here and is riding back with Gunner, in his car. 

Ab's Gingerbread Experience

An artist in the making????

Not even sure what she was doing here...

A quick flip of the hair....

Can you tell which one is hers?

Busy Busy

We've seen a lot.

We've eaten a lot.

I've listened to a lot of whining. 

We spent today skiing.  I'm in love and have every intention of becoming a ski bum. 

Who needs to work anyway.

Hopefully my sister got some great shots! 

I'm exhausted and my kids are talking entirely too much tonight.  I don't think that they have come up for air.

Now to figure out what is going to happen tomorrow!

Christmas Faces of Junior

The house of joy & love

My mom rented an entire B&B for the week after Christmas. A week of togetherness for all 15 of us. Oh the stories. So far we are at least a few miles from the correctional facility, not far past the hour motel, before the trailer park, and next to the tie-dye buses. But.....the house is beautiful. The company is great. The wine is flowing....


-- Post From My iPhone

Merry Christmas!!!

Can you identify all of us?  This was our Christmas card this year, and I think Abs did a great job, even if it does look like the tank is going to run over us!

Merry Christmas, from our house to yours.  We are thankful that Gunner is home with us this year....

I am scheduling this to post at 6 am, and I hope that we will still be fast asleep.  Wishful thinking, right?

Christmas Eve in our house...

As I was writing the title, she ran upstairs and left a screaming Junior downstairs.  We ran to the basement and found that she was upset with him and had left him in the dark.  Not cool.  She is sitting in time out.

Yesterday Abs went outside to take Sammy for a walk.

Gunner went to check on her....

Gunner:  Abs....Abs....
Abs:  Yes?
Gunner:  Sammy is not a sled dog.  He is not going to pull you around the neighborhood.
Abs:  Oh man.

The spirit of the season has possessed her. 


After her bath, the bathroom looked like this:

 Em forgot to put up her shampoo and conditioner. 

Will we ever get a break?  We called 1-877-HI-NORAD and the nicest volunteer answered and let us know where Santa was, when he was expected in our area, and Abs started in with the questions.

Abs:  I have a dog, will Santa be scared?
Man:  Nope, he likes dogs and all dogs like him.
Abs:  Will Santa come even if my dog is awake?
Man:  He'll come as long as all the boys and girls are tucked into bed.
Abs:  How do you know that?
Man:  Santa let us know!
Abs:  My dog likes to to lick people.
Man:  Santa won't mind.
Abs:  Are you sure?
Man:  Yep, he is friends with all the dogs and cats.

She had a bout a dozen more questions, and I finally had to chase her off the phone.  Then I had sent a video complete with her name, hair color, eye color, and that she was working on not throwing tantrums.  My little firecracker was mesmerized.

Surprisingly, this helped calm her down after she pretended to ride her cardboard house and ask for volunteers to help her break horses.  While she was in her room at one point, I was in our room wrapping presents.  I heard Abs through the vent, so I stared talking to her and telling her to hold it down.  She got really upset and started screaming, wanting me out of the heater.  Junior latched on to this and got upset because "Mommy is in the heater!". 

I'm opening the wine.

Junior's Christmas Eve

Gunner and I needed to hit the mall, so we took Junior with us since the girls had no interest in venturing out in the cold and snow.  It really wasn't that bad, and the mall was practically empty.

We tried to find something specific, but it wasn't available there, but we walked around for a bit.  We rarely have Junior by ourselves, and I think he loved being an "only child" for a few hours.

First we had to convince him to get dressed, which was no easy feat.  Next, Gunner tried to talk him out of wearing the "monkey on his back".

Yes, it's a bear.  We compromised and he just had to take it out of his shirt in the carseat, and then got to put it back up his shirt at the mall. 

We rode every "alligator".

At one point in Sears, he let go of my hand, I looked down, and he was turning and fell before I could catch him.  Gunner was three steps back and broke his fall, but he cried and we had half the store surrounding us.  He was crying and everyone was asking if he was okay and he kept saying "Can you see I'm hurt?" while sobbing on one of the beds.  Poor kiddo.  It happened so fast.  After that he still wanted to ride, but clung to our hands and refused to look anywhere but straight ahead.

There was a Christmas play-land.

A coin operated train.

A larger train.

And the boy kept asking for a run to Starbucks the whole time.  He loves the cold hot chocolate with whipped cream. 

We finally managed to use our gift certificates and get a family present that will be a big hit tomorrow.  Gunner just ran out to get more batteries.  More pics to come of our afternoon adventures...

Christmas Eve

Gunner's present has NOT arrived.  I'm not too happy, but at least my neighbors will be home next week in case it decides to come.

Since it was supposed to snow Tuesday night, what else would we do but hit the pool.  Abs took her swim test to get the green band and passed!  She had tried several times and so it was a long time coming.  When we got to the front of the building to turn in her lock and band to get her id, she had this conversation.

Abs:  Maybe you didn't notice, but I am turning in a green band instead of the yellow one.
Guy:  Great!  Congratulations!
Abs:  Yeah, so do you want to make an announcement about it over the loud speaker or something?
Guy:  We don't usually do that, but I will change it in the computer so that you when you swipe in, they'll know right away that you need a green band!

Thank goodness he was nice and made a big deal about it, because she was so proud of herself!

Em and I had a day out and went and got our hairs cut yesterday.  She got a cute razor cut, and I had mine trimmed and straightened.  How much can you really do with a pile of ringlets?

I started sewing gift bags for Christmas, in order to maybe, possibly, save some time next year when Gunner is deployed.  The key is that I got the idea and I started.  I now have piles of fabric on the kitchen table and Gunner looking at me funny every time I come up with something else to do.

Today Gunner and I are going to head out with Junior to spend two of our Heroes at Home gift certificates.   Can't wait! 

Gingerbread houses were marked down to $3 so we picked up two more so that each of the kids can eat their own make their own.  That's on the list of things to do today. 

The list that keeps growing and growing and growing.  My brother and his family will be here tomorrow and my little sister and her kids are arriving tomorrow night.  Then all of us are meeting my mom and my older sister and her kids at the Christmas cabin.  15 people......it will definitely be interesting!  Actually, I am really looking forward to it, and I am not just being nice because they read my blog saying that!

Merry Christmas Eve!  (And another Abs story to come later today when I have more time!)

P.S.  Not all my Christmas cards have gone out, but I want all of Ab's hard work to stand out, so if you get it after Christmas, that's why.  :)

Preparing for Christmas

Gunner and I spent the day getting the final things for the kids.

Tomorrow we take the kids shopping for each other....and Sammy.  Abs has requested that nothing be bought for for her, and instead use all funds to buy presents for the dog.

We got home and finally decided to put up the tree.  Junior saw the stockings and wanted to put them on so that he could be Santa.  The next thing we uncovered was a santa suit--size 12 months.  That didn't stop the boy from wanting to wear it.

 Way too small.  We used the flip and shot video of Abs and Junior dancing.  My mom asked who Junior was watching dance, because he can really shake his booty.

Then Junior went downstairs and stumbled on a mask.

Which reminded me of what I shot a picture of the night before when he was supposed to be sleeping.

The bow tie makes the outfit, or maybe it is the trash can on his head?

We finally got the tree up....

But, we were missing the chimney again, so Abs took care of that for us so we will have a place to hang the stockings. 

I did take some pictures with my camera instead of my phone, but you know how LONG it takes to download them, and I'm lazy exhausted. 

Tomorrow we have a few more errands, presents to wrap, and we have gingerbread houses to decorate.  I love Gunner being home this year!

Sammy

Do you notice anything new on Sammy? Designed by Abs, and the poor dog just takes it. Maybe he really needed a tail warmer?

Poor Junior

What you get when you cross one Abs with a compliant little brother.

Video of Junior and Abs.

Ignore the mess, we were out and about all day and don't have time for stuff like that!  I did get laundry folded, but haven't hit all the socks.  Please tell me someone else out there has a sock bucket??????

VACATION!!

The kids are out of school.

Gunner is on leave.

We have plenty to do to keep us busy. I voted for the fiber optic tree, and Gunner wants the whole nine yards. Considering he missed last Christmas, I should be going all out this year. But now we have waited so long, the thought of packing it all up again in less than a week.....and we know who will get stuck packing it up! Maybe we can do the fiber optic tree next year when he is gone again.

Someone who stumbled on my blog saw the pictures of Gunner and thought he looked exactly like his buddy that he served in Desert Storm with way back when. He was talking about my BIL. Small world!

We have a few last minute gifts to get, and then we are done. I am all done buying for my niece and nephew whose names I drew this year. I keep adding to their piles. My brother mentioned that his son likes hand-me-downs (he's 1--my nephew, not my brother). I can help them out there, because Andrew is going to mysteriously outgrow all his noisy toys before we see them!

Our list of things to take on vacation is growing faster than I want it too.

Gunner got a flip phone for our anniversary. I'm such a good wife. :)

Abs got behind the chair where our wireless modem is and "might have accidentally pushed it out of the way, really carefully, with her big toe, which is always gentle." It's broken now.

Abs has tied up the fan in her room with yarn, and it stretches from her bed to the fan to the door. I don't even want to know what she was trying to create. The other day Sammy came out of her room with all her socks tucked into his collar so that he looked like a lion. She was shocked that I made her "un-decorate" him.

Em finally got her door back, and we haven't had any slamming yet. Let's hope it continues.

At school, Junior made a snowman out of a sock. It's really cute, but he wanted to put buttons on the back. I let him, and the teacher noticed and told him that he did a great job with the buttons on the back. He told her "My snowman has buttons on his back like I do after my accidents". They make him dress himself, and he always puts his clothes on backwards, so he thinks the buttons should go in the back.

Never a dull moment!

Happy Anniversary Gunner!

15 years of marriage
14 hundred pounds of TA50
13 pressed uniforms
12 years living stateside
11 years of actually being in the same country
10 pairs of boots
9 months since you got home
8 military houses
7 months till your Afghanistan deployment (sorry, it fit!)
6 cross country trips
5 P-C-S-es
4 year long deployments
3 cute kids
2 strange inlaws
and 1 puppy named Sammy.

Thanks for the first 15 years Gunner, here's to the next 15....

D-O-N-E!!!!

I *think* I have finished school for the semester.  I finished my gigantic project and submitted it.  Unless I find some glaring errors that I didn't catch the first 500 times I reviewed it, when I review it again tonight, I won't resubmit it.  Hopefully she won't send it back and ask for clarification on anything.  I don't want to see it again.

I did a quick paper for my other class to tie up the loose ends, and submitted that too.

I have such a weight off my shoulders.

Nine days till Christmas, and now I can get busy and get everything done that I need to! 

Is it bad that I want to buy a 3 foot fiber optic tree and call it good?  I was so wrapped up in school, I couldn't even think about the holidays.  Maybe my motivation will come out tomorrow morning when I wake up and don't have this black cloud of school doom hanging over my head. 

I'm too happy to even nap right now.  Wish I had had this energy when I was working on my stuff!

Wordless Wednesday

I was looking through old drafts on my blog, and I found this one that I was going to do for a wordless Wednesday over 2 1/2 years ago.  

Gunner in Iraq during 2nd tour.

500 pictures

What does Abs do at 3 am?  She takes pictures.  Hundreds of them.  No kidding.  Over 500 pictures of the lights. 

Then Junior was up, so he became her focus for a bit, and we have about 100 pictures.  Looks like she was trying every setting.

I kind of like this one.

I guess she won him over in the end, because he was participating a little bit more and we have about 50 of these, but only a handful where you can see Junior's face, usually it's just a mouth.

At least it looks like she got better in time.

North Pole--Home of Santa's Workshop

Since it was supposed to be a nice day, we decided to head to the North Pole Home of Santa's Workshop.  (They give a military discount, and you know how I like discounts!)  I went when I was 6, but all I remembered was a bumpy slide on a burlap bag.  On the bright side, I remembered that we went!

I wanted to get there early, but as usual, life gets in the way.  (We won't even get started on how my project that is due in a few days is in the way too, since I obviously through that to the side to venture out)  Anyway, the whole park is kind of old and cheesy, but the kids loved it.  Junior could go on every ride which was nice.  We could always tell when he was enjoying a ride as he yells out at the top of his lungs "WEEEEE-HAAAAWWWW". 

About 2 it started to snow, and it really came down for the rest of the time we were there.  The nice part was that most people left during the first few minutes of the snow, so we never had to wait, and could stay on the rides. 

Even Em and Abs got along well enough to ride on almost every ride together.















I took a ton of pictures, of course, and I think Gunner even took one of me once.  Junior was asleep before we pulled out of the parking lot and slept the whole way home.  A quick dinner, and we had all the kids in bed by 7:30.  Let's hope they sleep!