The Wonderful World of Welch's

Lego Table

2012-02-09T11:42:00.000-08:00

A few years ago when Easton was just a baby I read about this idea in a magazine. I've been so excited for him to get into Legos so I could do this for him! Finally, the day is here. After being overloaded with Lego birthday presents it was time to make the transition. It was a little hard to take down his train set but he really hasn't played with it in so long. Just always hard as a momma to let go of the little boy toys and move on.

Before pictures of his train set

The after pictures. Lego Table

I bought 12 10x10 baseplates online and used double sided tape to attach to the table so they don't move around. And then I...well, that's about it. Project done! Insert one very happy 5 year old and go check F@cebook because you just bought yourself some quiet time! Now all the fun lego projects have a place to hang out.

I also ordered this because I'm a sucker for toy storage.

Dancin' with daddy

2012-02-08T08:53:00.000-08:00

I just found this draft that I apparently forgot about. I just have to post it because it's so darn cute. We love our Xbox Kinnect! If you don't have one I'd highly suggest getting one. It's all the fun of playing video games but makes you feel like you're not being a bad parent because there's so much physical activity going on.

Kairos Time

2012-02-08T08:47:00.000-08:00

I copied this article(below) from a friends blog. It was posted in the Huffington Post. I had to repost it because recently this topic comes up a lot with me and some of my friends who are in that stage of life of having a new baby along with a toddler. Now that we have seemed to have survived the baby/toddler stage life seems a whole lot easier. Challenging still in a lot of ways but if I have to be honest I'll say I did not so much enjoy the earlier stage. I wasn't one of those moms who thrived on being pregnant. I know it's a miracle and I am forever thankful to have had that experience but doesn't mean I have to say I enjoyed it. Judge me if you have to for saying that out loud. ;-) Having little ones is so rewarding but so EXHAUSTING! (Can I get an Amen!) I was talking to my good friend who was about to have her second baby and fearful of starting all over again. I wasn't going to lie to her and tell her it's not hard but I did tell her that being in the stage we are now I can look back and see how fast that stage went by. I hear all the time, like this article states, to enjoy every minute. I told my friend that that is a bunch of bull honkey. It's impossible. But if you approach parenting with a sense of humor and gratefulness then it makes the unbearable moments a little more bearable. I look back on the days when I was begging Jesus to put me in a coma and wake me up when both kids were in school. But now that those days are here and I'm just a few short months from having Easton in Kindergarten full time I'm panicking a little at the thought of not getting hugs from him every half hour. Life changed really fast and we went from being those parents with little kids to being parents of school aged kids. I don't have any regrets about those first few years. I know I wasn't always the best mom but I do know that my kids were always loved and (so far) they are turning out pretty well. I look back at some of the moments that were challenging and laugh now. (Although at the time I know I was doing anything but laughing.) My best advice to my friends in this stage is just what this article says. Have those little moments during the day, Kairos Time, to stop and thank God for the moment you are in. Document the crazy times because one day it will make you realize how far you have come, give you a good laugh, or just plaine make you realize you don't want any more children.(Kidding on that last one...) Because before you know it you'll be updating your blog while laying in bed, drinking coffee and watching Kelly and Whoever while both of your babies are in school. Enjoy the article, I feel like it really portrays the honest side of motherhood.

Every time I'm out with my kids -- this seems to happen:

An older woman stops us, puts her hand over her heart and says something like, "Oh, Enjoy every moment. This time goes by so fast."

Everywhere I go, someone is telling me to seize the moment, raise my awareness, be happy, enjoy every second, etc, etc, etc.

I know that this message is right and good. But, I have finally allowed myself to admit that it just doesn't work for me. It bugs me. This CARPE DIEM message makes me paranoid and panicky. Especially during this phase of my life - while I'm raising young kids. Being told, in a million different ways to CARPE DIEM makes me worry that if I'm not in a constant state of intense gratitude and ecstasy, I'm doing something wrong.

I think parenting young children (and old ones, I've heard) is a little like climbing Mount Everest. Brave, adventurous souls try it because they've heard there's magic in the climb. They try because they believe that finishing, or even attempting the climb are impressive accomplishments. They try because during the climb, if they allow themselves to pause and lift their eyes and minds from the pain and drudgery, the views are breathtaking. They try because even though it hurts and it's hard, there are moments that make it worth the hard. These moments are so intense and unique that many people who reach the top start planning, almost immediately, to climb again. Even though any climber will tell you that most of the climb is treacherous, exhausting, killer. That they literally cried most of the way up.

And so I think that if there were people stationed, say, every thirty feet along Mount Everest yelling to the climbers -- "ARE YOU ENJOYING YOURSELF!? IF NOT, YOU SHOULD BE! ONE DAY YOU'LL BE SORRY YOU DIDN'T!" TRUST US!! IT'LL BE OVER TOO SOON! CARPE DIEM!" -- those well-meaning, nostalgic cheerleaders might be physically thrown from the mountain.

Now. I'm not suggesting that the sweet old ladies who tell me to ENJOY MYSELF be thrown from a mountain. These are wonderful ladies. Monkees, probably. But last week, a woman approached me in the Target line and said the following: "Sugar, I hope you are enjoying this. I loved every single second of parenting my two girls. Every single moment. These days go by so fast."
At that particular moment, Amma had arranged one of the new bras I was buying on top of her sweater and was sucking a lollipop that she must have found on the ground. She also had three shop-lifted clip-on neon feathers stuck in her hair. She looked exactly like a contestant from Toddlers and Tiaras. I couldn't find Chase anywhere, and Tish was grabbing the pen on the credit card swiper thing WHILE the woman in front of me was trying to use it. And so I just looked at the woman, smiled and said, "Thank you. Yes. Me too. I am enjoying every single moment. Especially this one. Yes. Thank you."

That's not exactly what I wanted to say, though.

There was a famous writer who, when asked if he loved writing, replied, "No. but I love having written." What I wanted to say to this sweet woman was, "Are you sure? Are you sure you don't mean you love having parented?"

I love having written. And I love having parented. My favorite part of each day is when the kids are put to sleep (to bed) and Craig and I sink into the couch to watch some quality TV, like Celebrity Wife Swap, and congratulate each other on a job well done. Or a job done, at least.

Every time I write a post like this, I get emails suggesting that I'm being negative. I have received this particular message four or five times -- G, if you can't handle the three you have, why do you want a fourth?
That one always stings, and I don't think it's quite fair. Parenting is hard. Just like lots of important jobs are hard. Why is it that the second a mother admits that it's hard, people feel the need to suggest that maybe she's not doing it right? Or that she certainly shouldn't add more to her load. Maybe the fact that it's so hard means she IS doing it right...in her own way...and she happens to be honest.

Craig is a software salesman. It's a hard job in this economy. And he comes home each day and talks a little bit about how hard it is. And I don't ever feel the need to suggest that he's not doing it right, or that he's negative for noticing that it's hard, or that maybe he shouldn't even consider taking on more responsibility. And I doubt anybody comes by his office to make sure he's ENJOYING HIMSELF. I doubt his boss peeks in his office and says: "This career stuff...it goes by so fast...ARE YOU ENJOYING EVERY MOMENT IN THERE, CRAIG???? CARPE DIEM, CRAIG!"
My point is this. I used to worry that not only was I failing to do a good enough job at parenting, but that I wasn't enjoying it enough. Double failure. I felt guilty because I wasn't in parental ecstasy every hour of every day and I wasn't MAKING THE MOST OF EVERY MOMENT like the mamas in the parenting magazines seemed to be doing. I felt guilty because honestly, I was tired and cranky and ready for the day to be over quite often. And because I knew that one day, I'd wake up and the kids would be gone, and I'd be the old lady in the grocery store with my hand over my heart. Would I be able to say I enjoyed every moment? No.

But the fact remains that I will be that nostalgic lady. I just hope to be one with a clear memory. And here's what I hope to say to the younger mama gritting her teeth in line:

"It's helluva hard, isn't it? You're a good mom, I can tell. And I like your kids, especially that one peeing in the corner. She's my favorite. Carry on, warrior. Six hours till bedtime." And hopefully, every once in a while, I'll add -- "Let me pick up that grocery bill for ya, sister. Go put those kids in the van and pull on up -- I'll have them bring your groceries out."
Anyway. Clearly, Carpe Diem doesn't work for me. I can't even carpe fifteen minutes in a row, so a whole diem is out of the question.

Here's what does work for me:

There are two different types of time. Chronos time is what we live in. It's regular time, it's one minute at a time, it's staring down the clock till bedtime time, it's ten excruciating minutes in the Target line time, it's four screaming minutes in time out time, it's two hours till daddy gets home time. Chronos is the hard, slow passing time we parents often live in.

Then there's Kairos time. Kairos is God's time. It's time outside of time. It's metaphysical time. It's those magical moments in which time stands still. I have a few of those moments each day. And I cherish them.

Like when I actually stop what I'm doing and really look at Tish. I notice how perfectly smooth and brownish her skin is. I notice the perfect curves of her teeny elf mouth and her asianish brown eyes, and I breathe in her soft Tishy smell. In these moments, I see that her mouth is moving but I can't hear her because all I can think is -- This is the first time I've reallyseen Tish all day, and my God -- she is so beautiful. Kairos.

Like when I'm stuck in chronos time in the grocery line and I'm haggard and annoyed and angry at the slow check-out clerk. And then I look at my cart and I'm transported out of chronos. And suddenly I notice the piles and piles of healthy food I'll feed my children to grow their bodies and minds and I remember that most of the world's mamas would kill for this opportunity. This chance to stand in a grocery line with enough money to pay. And I just stare at my cart. At the abundance. The bounty. Thank you, God. Kairos.

Or when I curl up in my cozy bed with Theo asleep at my feet and Craig asleep by my side and I listen to them both breathing. And for a moment, I think- how did a girl like me get so lucky? To go to bed each night surrounded by this breath, this love, this peace, this warmth? Kairos.

These kairos moments leave as fast as they come- but I mark them. I say the word kairos in my head each time I leave chronos. And at the end of the day, I don't remember exactly what my kairos moments were, but I remember I had them. And that makes the pain of the daily parenting climb worth it.

If I had a couple Kairos moments during the day, I call it a success.

Carpe a couple of Kairoses a day.

Good enough for me.

Easton's 5th Birthday

2012-02-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

Easton turned 5 this past week. I don't know about you but birthdays are hard for this momma. I get all weepy and sentimental about how fast my babies are growing up. I feel like this more so with Easton since he is our baby. This year we finally gave him a big birthday party. For so many years (5 to be exact) he's kind of been overlooked when it came to birthdays. Since Ellie's is a month before we have always gone big with her parties. We're (I'm) usually so exhausted from Christmas and her birthday that we (I) tend to vote for a more low key party for him. But this year he was so very excited about turning 5 and has so many friends between church and school that we thought it was time to give him a party. We went to one of those jumpy house places that he so enjoys going to. It my opinion, these places are way over priced but they do them so well. They do all the set up and clean up so all we have to do is show up, let the kids run like mad, eat and load up all of his new presents and go home. (and then immediately take a anti-bacteria bath) Well worth it this year to see him have so much fun.

Age 4 had to be my most favorite year with him. He's always been a fun kid but 4 was a great year for him. He got out of that clingy toddler stage and started becoming his own little person. He overcame a lot of his shyness and does so much better in social situations. Both of our kids struggle with shyness. (Something me and Chris struggle with as well. But given our lifestyle we all need to learn to get a little better at overcoming this!) He has love of learning has really sky rocketed this year. He's such a thinker. He loves video games and is pretty darn talented in this area. He's great a figuring things out which is good since I'm really bad at it. (Definitely a talent he gets from his daddy.) He has become a lot more thoughtful which I contribute to his awesome big sister. He still isn't much of a snuggle bug, never really has been, but I still try daily to convince him that he really loves to do it. We are just blessed beyond imagine with this little boy. He grows so much everyday in so many ways but we're most proud of his love for Jesus and his understanding of His roll in our lives. As hard as it is to say goodbye to 4 we're really looking forward to what age 5 brings us.

Family Gun Battle

2012-02-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

Chris and I were just saying the other night after Easton received a Nerf gun from his grandparents for his birthday that we needed to get one more. This would make his 3rd gun and since there are 4 of us...well, you see where I'm going with this. Much to our excitement he received another one at his birthday party this past weekend. I think Chris and I were more excited about in knowing what was in store. After the craziness that is a 5 years olds birthday party, we rested a little and then headed outside to have a loving family gun battle.

Easton's new Razor Rider 360

2012-01-30T19:14:00.000-08:00

I just have to post about Easton's birthday present. We gave it to him a little early because we're having some beautiful weather and we're playing outside a lot this week so hated to miss the chance for me...errr I mean him to have some fun on it. My friend posted a video when her son got one for Christmas. Since that moment I was like, "we have to find one of those!" So far we're loving it. Easton is just a smidgen too small for it but can still handle it pretty well. Luckily I'm below the suggested weight limit so I get to have fun on it too! (Sorry honey, if I wasn't such a gosh darn great cook maybe you could ride on it too.)

Other thoughts...I'm ready for spring. Although I'm a little concerned that the snakes are going to start thinking it IS spring and come out of hibernation early. If they what's good for them, they'll just stay put.

Mommy having fun

Ellie's turn

Easton

Daddy proving the suggested weight limit is bunk.

Easton is reading!!

2012-01-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

Our little man, just about to turn 5 this week, just read his first book! We haven't really been pushing it, just figured since Ellie learned to read in Kindergarten that he would too. I really pushed it with Ellie when she was in preschool but as they start school the teachers have their own curriculum that they follow and it proved to work well with Ellie just to learn at her own pace. Now there are days when I can't get her to put down a book! But recently Eastons teachers starting sending home these books to read to them and said they may even be able to read some of the words themselves. Well, I suppose he can! He's pretty vague about what he does as school so part of me is just okay with him learning to be social, following rules, learning his letters and numbers and learning about Jesus. When I ask about his day his answers consist of "I played outside, I don't know, and I played outside". Okay then... Just seems like lately though something has clicked in his little brain and he's been showing a lot of growth in many areas. We've known for awhile that this boy has some serious electronic skills. He's a wiz on video games and can figure out apps on my phone way better than I can. So much so I no longer like to play video games with him because he's really damaging my self esteem. I'm kidding...sort of. Not only does he get all of his good looks from his daddy, he also gets his daddy's brains. But, I'm okay with that. All my smartness has been replaced with sarcasm and witty jokes and recipes that consist of cream cheese and butter. Sorry kids.

Just a cute little note I'd like to write down. We were taking a tour of Chris' new airplane a couple of weeks ago and Chris was explaining how the soldiers jump out the side doors when they are way up in the air. Easton pondered this thought for awhile and then whispered to me, "Mama, I don't want to be a soldier. I just want to be a pilot." I just thought it was super funny. :-)

More to come on my little man later. He has a birthday this week!

Ehren comes to visit

2012-01-29T18:16:00.000-08:00

I am so very blessed to have so many great friends in my life. My friend Ehren is one of my oldest and dearest friends. We've known each other since Junior High, became closer friends in High School and in College we sealed our fate as forever friends. We were roommates when we moved out of the dorms and into our first apartment, had the same major, worked at REI together and enjoyed all the same things. She is the one responsible for igniting my love for cooking as well!

I received a phone call one day from her saying she wanted to come and visit, and soon! Her husband travels a lot and had some down time where he could stay with the kids and she could come visit for a week. I was so excited but nervous because there's not a whole lot to do here in January! The kids had school so I still had to stick to my crazy mom schedule but we still managed to have a great time. We saw a couple of sights, got a tour of Chris' airplane, cooked...a lot, ate... a lot, worked out...a little, and talked and talked and talked. I so missed seeing her wonderful family but just loved the girl time we got to have.

Eight is Great!

2012-01-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

Our sweet Elizabeth Grace turned 8 earlier this month. Just so you know, every year I'll ask the same question...where did the time go!!? It just makes me all mushy inside to think about how she has just been the sweetest little girl from the first time we laid eyes on her. Makes me think of all those times I tried to eat candy and sweets while pregnant with her and she'd immediately make them hurl out of my body in violent ways. Turns out she was all the sweetness my body could handle. (I wonder if I made my mom vomit cheese when she was pregnant with me, being that I'm so cheesy! Ah hahahaha!)

This year she was dead set on having a sleepover. We were all pretty excited about it. The day before her party I had a little medical procedure done that was suppose to be no big deal. They left out minor details like I'd have to be laying flat for 24 hours and then all the possible side effects that could have happened, happened. I thought we were going to have to cancel but Chris said he had it covered and that we could do this. I somehow pulled myself together to be able to answer the door looking somewhat like a responsible parent while the kids arrived. I was able to keep vertical for a short while, just enough time to sing happy birthday, watch her open presents and watch them play a few Kinnect games. After that, I'm not sure what happened but I do know Super Dad took the reigns and fun seemed to have taken place. Not the party I was hoping for but all the girls seemed to have fun; most importantly my birthday girl.

The day after we opened family presents. This was from Easton. He was super excited to give it to her and then claimed all the other presents were from him too. Darn kid, if he wasn't so stinkin' cute...

These two...I'm a lucky mama.

Happy 8th Birthday my sweet girl. You are so loved.

Merry Christmas 2011!

2011-11-21T12:51:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Little Rock, Arkansas! Many of you are able to keep up with our family via Facebook so a lot of this is old news to you. But to keep with Christmas tradition as best as we can, our Christmas letter comes to you from our Family Blog. I try to keep up with it every month or so. Feel free to go back and explore our past posts and pictures. You can click on the list of months on the right and read old posts.

We moved to Arkansas in March. We bought our first house in a town just outside of Little Rock. It's been a bit of an adjustment from California but I think we're finally getting use to living in the south again. As soon as we arrived here we were welcomed by tornado warnings galore! Feels like we spent the first month here waking up to the sounds of tornado sirens, plucking kids out of bed and taking shelter. We hear from all of the locals that it was a very unusual spring so we hope that is true and next year won't be as exciting. After the storms came the floods. Homeowner lesson number one was that you can not call your insurance company the day you see 4 feet of water creeping up your backyard to add flood insurance to your policy. Luckily we were spared. But happy to say we are fully covered for next time! After the floods came then came the critters. I'll spare you all who have already heard the stories but lets just say I am now fully qualified to take on any slithering, no legged creatures. So like I said, we had quite the "welcome" from our new state. I'm sure winter will not disappoint. You can read more about our first few days in Arkansas here and here.

Ellie is now in the 2nd grade. I can't even wrap my mind about how this happened so quickly! She finished off last year on the all A's honor roll. We're super proud (and relieved) that she handled the move so well. She has been taking gymnastics at school and this fall she played on the local soccer team. Her soccer skills came along way this year and we had such a fun time watching her play. She fills the big sister roll perfectly and just dotes on her little brother. Easton fulfills his roll as little brother just as well by rejecting her attempts to love on him. (Click here to read about their first day of school this year.)

Easton made the transition to Arkansas better than expected. He spent all of his life in California! He adjusted to a new preschool quite well. We transfered him to Ellie's school this year for pre-K4. He loves going to school with Ellie and surprises us still with how well he is doing. It's been so fun watching him become more social and outgoing. We started him in soccer this year for the first time. He did so great and it was so fun watching him have so much fun. Just recently he broke his collar bone at school. I guess it had to happen sometime but still not fun to watch your baby get hurt so badly. Despite being down to the use of one arm, he's still as fearless as ever. He gives his mama great anxiety!

Chris is now flying the C-130J at Little Rock Air Force Base. He spent about 6 months in training learning to fly it. It was a great 6 months of the training lifestyle as were able to spend it together not worrying about when he would next have to leave. He is now back to a "normal" schedule working as an ADO (Assistant Operations Officer for you non-military geeks out there) in his new squadron. We got the news in April that he was selected for promotion to Major. We wish it was a quicker process but he should officially pin on his new rank this summer sometime. Right now he is working on his last class that he needs to get his Masters. I wish I could be more excited about that but now he's on to studying for Air Command and Staff College. It's never ending watching him study and writing papers. I do have to give him a ton of praise though because somehow he is able to balance all of the studying and his work duties with still being the most wonderful daddy and husband at the same time. *Insert gushing wife moment* Chris will have to go do a deployment either this spring or summer but nothing has been finalized with that yet. We've been very thankful to have him home for such a long stretch of time this year!

Other than the long drive from California to Arkansas, we didn't to a whole lot of traveling this year. We were able to escape for a few days this summer to head back to New Jersey to visit some family and down to Washington DC. You can read about that trip here. Aside from the stress of the move it's been a fairly quiet year. We've taken full advantage of the extra family time together this year. We're enjoying being more centrally located in the US now and have had a few friends come and visit as they travel through. Our doors are always open if you're in the area!

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Season!
Chris, Christina, Ellie and Easton

First Broken Bone

2011-11-21T11:51:00.001-08:00

Well, Easton wins the prize for getting the first broken bone in our family. On 11/11/11 as we were picking the kids up for school we get a call from the school saying Easton fell off the monkey bars and seems to be in a lot of pain. It had just happened as they were getting ready to be released so we had to wait through the long car pool line to be able to get to him. We took him right to the ER and sure enough, a broken clavicle. Not a whole lot they can do for that other than keep the arm immobilized for a month in a sling. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the xray but I was busy talking with the dr about how she thinks Easton looks just like Taylor Lautner. :-)
A couple of weeks into our new life with Easton I feel like we're finally getting a hang of it. He was completely helpless at first. Having to do everything with one arm was an adjustment. But now he's back to being completely fearless like before and giving me GREAT ANXIETY! I tell people that I usually pride myself in being a calm, non over reacting mother but I'm so fearful of him falling on his arm again!
So hopefully in a couple more weeks everything will be back to normal. He'll be back to playing video games properly and wiping his own butt again and I'll go back to not passing out every time I have to think about a broken bone. Motherhood is suppose to make you stronger, right? Why must I get woozy every time my child loses a tooth, has stitches and now breaks a bone? Sure, I can cut heads off of snakes but the thought of my babys broken bone makes me hit the ground!

Welch Family Pictures 2011

2011-11-21T09:40:00.001-08:00

I meant to post pictures of our family photo shoot. I put most of them on Facebook so you probably already saw them but for those who aren't on FB here are my favorites!

Family Fall Day

2011-11-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

There are many, many things I miss about California. But unless we went up to the mountains, experiencing a real "fall" was something I missed every year when we lived there. I accepted that because that meant I also didn't have to experience a real winter! Sure, winter has it's perks but once we moved away from Washington to a warmer climate I realized it was a season I definitely didn't miss.

Arkansas, despite it's abundance of tornadoes, snakes and giant spiders, has proven to have some perks of it's own. One of them is to have the experience of fall again. We realized our kids had never had the joy of raking leaves and jumping in them. We had a beautiful fall day a couple of weeks ago. We spent the whole day outside playing in the yard. (Well, some of that time was "raking" leaves out of the pool for over an hour but we won't dwell on that downside of fall.) The kids had a blast. Here are some pics of that fun day!

October Catch Up

2011-11-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

Nothing too exciting has been going on in the Welch family lately but I thought I'd at least post something so I don't get even further behind on posting some pictures and stories.

We're approaching our 8 month anniversary here in Arkansas. I still feel like we just got here! I think it's mainly due to Chris not having a set schedule yet. He finished up his C-130J training in September. Then with inprocessing and other things going on in the squadron he's finally now showing signs of a "normal" schedule. We have really enjoyed all the time we have been able to spend together. But I think we're ready to get into our own routines. I've been involved with the Spouses Club here on base and getting back into being a Key Spouse for the squadron. It's been a little hard coming into a totally different community but I think I'm starting to find my way. We have found a great church here that our whole family is enjoying. Chris and I just went on a Marriage Retreat up to Branson, MO with the church a few weekends ago. We are hosting a church small group too this semester. I love having to give the house a good "fit for company" cleaning every other week.

The kids are doing great in school. Ellie received all A's for the first quarter. Easton is doing well in Pre-K and we are amazed at his progress in these last few weeks. They both played soccer this fall and it's now over. This was Easton's first time playing a sport and we were a little apprehensive but as always, he's blown us away with his abilities and attitude. He's a super social kid now and will just go play with whoever is around. I'm not sure where that shy, overly emotional kid that we once knew went to, but this new replacement is quite okay with me. Ellie came a long way with her soccer skills this season. We're super proud of them both for always giving it their all and having amazing attitudes!!

Chris and I decided to go to the Air Force ball last weekend. We were first going to go, and then decided we didn't really know anyone so we weren't going to go, and then decided we should at least attempt to meet new people so we were back on. It's always so hard to put yourself out there when you're new somewhere. We're glad we went. Plus, I love getting to see my hotty in his uniform. ;-)

Since I'm so behind, I'm adding a lot of pictures!

One of Easton's first soccer games.

Ellie played Goalie a lot this year. She totally rocked it!

My mom came to visit for a couple of weeks. Here's one of us girls at the pumpkin patch.

Me and my Elle-Belle

Kids in the corn maze

Carving our pumpkin. Easton hates this every year. He's not one for being messy.

Helping daddy pick out their design

Air Force Ball night. (Backyard)

(front yard. I like options, k?!)

Chris hasn't been home for a few halloweens and I've always wanted to take the boys with us trick or treating. This year they got to go. They were super excited about their costumes, cantcha tell?

First day of school, summer fun comes to an end.

2011-08-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

Ellie at her new desk. Couldn't spend much time in there with her, apparently they're serious about 2nd grade work and we were politely shoo'ed out of the room.

He was super smiley and I was afraid to take a picture because we should be leaving before there are tears. But I chanced it anyway without regretting it.

Kisses for daddy
Big smiles as he put away his backpack and nap mat in his new cubby.

Walking in to school with daddy

Daddy is his same ol' first day of school outfit.

I love his first day of school pics, he's always so nice and tan!

Easton is holding his fingers in a K-4. (they call it PreK-4 here) and Ellie the big 2nd grade! First year being able to take their first day of school picture together!

I guess time really flies by when you're having fun. Summer came and went super fast! It really was one of the best summers we've had. I've said it a zillion times but we really were very thankful we had so much time to spend with Chris this summer. His training schedule was not consistent and didn't allow us to plan for much but it did allow him to be home every day and usually most of the day he had to spend with us, if he even had to go into work at all. Granted his nose was stuck in a book or flight planning on his laptop but Chris is nothing but devoted to making time for all of us even if it meant we only had time for a quick swim in the pool or a run into town for lunch together.

The kids started back to school in mid August. Ellie started 2nd grade and Easton started at her school this year for PreK, 3 days a week. He goes all day at the same time she does so this is quite a big change for me. I remember those days when I couldn't wait for them to both be in school but now that it's actually here I'm not quite sure what to think about it! I'm glad Easton isn't gone every day yet because I still have a year left to spend some one on one time with him. As with most things with him, we're never quite sure how he is going to react. He's been getting a lot better lately but starting school has always been a clingy time for him. You may recognize the drill; take kid into school, kid latches on to leg, encouraging words are said, then teacher lovingly pulls kid off of leg, kid cries, you cry, then all is repeated for days or weeks. But this year went very well! He was super excited to be at the same school as Ellie and even though they don't interact often, they do see each other throughout the day. There is a drop off/pick up system at their school so after a couple of days of walking him in we were now able to put him in the care of his big sissy. They're dropped off at the door, Ellie walks him to his class and that is that! He comes home from school in a super duper good mood and his teachers say he is doing great. He's becoming more social and we even hear him singing songs around the house. (This is HUGE coming from our non-singing child). Ellie did fantastic too. But that's pretty easy for her. She ditched us pretty quickly to go off to her own room on the first day. She's done super so far and loves her class and her teacher. My favorite part of the day is picking up the kids and hearing all about their day.

I still have about a month left of Chris being home most days before we're back to the reality of him working and then I can get back into my reality of what I do when everyone is gone. You know, like sitting on the couch eating bon bons and watching my stories. Ha! We're happy to be able to take advantage of some time together without having to pay a sitter. It's still hot as blazes here so we're still able to enjoy the pool during the weekend before we officially have to say goodbye to summer.

Summer Part 7: The Purcells return to Arkansas!

2011-08-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

Jason's sister Gabby, brother Christopher, Riley, Easton and Ellie.

Easton showing the big kids how it's done.

Ellie and Gabby taking a turn

It was so great to have these two together again.

Ellie loves to fish. I seriously have no clue why. Chris and I are not fisherpeople. We've taken Ellie like 2 times in her whole life and each time was unsuccessful. But we said we could try that day and all day she kept asking when she could. So here she is fishing. Still unsuccessful.

Me, Lauren and Riley floating in Lake Ouachita.

Jason and Chris took Easton on his first tube ride. I LOVE the expression on his face in this picture, he had so much fun!

Lauren and Ms. Riley

My boys fishin'.

Riley, Jason and Ellie doing a little princess wave on the tube. Jason sure is good at this...

Easton was all smiles all day!

The boys on the boys boat.

Me and Lauren and their "Reveal Party".

Easton loving the diving board

Easton and Riley chowing down together

The happy parents!

It's a girl!!

I can't tell you how great it has been to have seen so many familiar faces roll through Arkansas this summer. I'm a bit homesick for my friends in California. Jason and Lauren and their little princess Riley have roots here in Little Rock. They were our main source of information and advice when we found out we were moving here. They were stationed here before they moved to California and Jason's parents and siblings live here too. They helped us figure out where to live, showed us a great church and introduced us to a group of great people. Lauren even made us "the list" before moving here which is a list and description of all of their favorite places to eat. Having all of those things made our transition to this area so much easier than it would have been without their help! You military folk know how hard those things are to fine when you're new to an area.

We did not want to monopolize their time being that they had so many friends and family to visit with during their time here but we were very thankful for the time we did get to spend together. Soon after they arrived in LR Jason's parents threw them a Gender Reveal Party for their new baby that is due in January. This took more self control than I am capable of having! They had an ultrasound in California but had the gender kept a secret and put in an envelope for them to bring with them to Arkansas. The envelope was then taken to a bakery where they then made a cake with the inside would reveal what the gender is. Pink cake for girl, blue for boy. Then at the party when they cut into the cake they finally found out what they were having! And another girl it is!!! Riley apparently was not surprised by this outcome since she knew all along it was a girl. :-)

A few days later we were able to join them and Jason's family for a day at a near-ish-by lake. We didn't plan on staying long because we had the kids' school orientation that night but once we got there we were having so much fun we decided to blow it off for one last summer hoorah. We are so glad we did! The kids had a BLAST! It was such a beautiful day and more great memories were made with some great friends.

There's still one more day with the Purcells to document but I'm having technical difficulties with those pictures at the time being. Stay tuned!

Summer Part 6: Lola's first visit to Arkansas

2011-08-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

Outside the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock

The kids with their Lola at Graceland

Ellie making lumpia with her Lola

Chris' mom, aka Lola, made her first visit to Arkansas. Unfortunately it was during the hottest time ever in Arkansas! We had a all time record broken at 114 degrees. The days before and after were not a whole lot cooler either. Chris' training schedule didn't allow for us to do much of anything but we still managed to squeeze in a couple of fun outings. We checked out the Clinton Presidential Library that is here in Little Rock. We then headed to lunch in downtown Little Rock. We got stuck in a freak rain storm and had to walk a couple of blocks in it. The kids got a kick out of that. A couple of days after that we headed to Memphis, TN. Memphis is about 2 hours from here and we've been meaning to check it out. We decided to go vist the King at Graceland. It was hot as blazes but it was really cool to see the house. It wasn't quite the "mansion" I was expecting but it was still really nice.

We then headed to lunch at a fried chicken joint that some friends recommended. Oh my gracious, it was probably the best fried chicken ever! But it was also in a neighborhood that was...hmmm, how shall I put this nicely...well, been there, done that, don't need to go there again. (In fear of my life!)

The whole visit was nice regardless of the heat and lack of Chris being around. The kids always love to have Lola visit.

Summer Part 5: The Bachelors Visit

2011-08-07T14:13:00.000-07:00

The Bachelor and Welch kids together again

Jumpy House time!

Me and Shan Shan. Man I miss this girl. She makes me laugh so much!

Jason and Boy Cameron (as he is known back in Cali).

I love our life, I love the adventure we get to be a part of and I love moving! But I hate saying goodbye to friends. Leaving California was especially hard being that we were there for so long, and had such a great group of friends. Luckily we've had a few come through Arkansas this summer and visit us! I guess we are more centrally located now so hopefully this means friends that are PCS'ing will stop by more often. I was over the moon excited when great friends, the Bachelors, from our old 'hood (Browns Valley, Holla!!) said they'd be stopping here on their way to Alabama. It was a quick overnight visit but so nice to see familiar faces and let the kids reunite. Not to mention a good excuse to pig out on great bbq food! (no pun intended) It makes me happy to know they are close (er) by now and we have plans to meet up again soon. The longer we're in the Air Force the more friends we know all over. I imagine in a few years we could travel the whole country and never have to pay for a hotel room!

Summer Part 4: Fourth of July

2011-08-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

We had our first big pool party on the 4th. We've been fortunate enough to fall in with a great group of people from our church since moving here. It was fun to get the families together, swim, eat and let off some fireworks. We had a small mishap with a firework that decided to fall over and aim right at everyone who was watching, including the small children. Some minor burns earned by one brave mama, fears that some of these wee ones will never fully recover from and some exciting memories by the rest of the spectators. After all of that excitement we headed into our small town for the local firework show. (Lesson learned, leave the explosions to the professionals and not the rookies from California.)

Another great summer memory for our first summer in Arkansas.

Summer Part 3: Night swim!

2011-06-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

Can NOT believe how far this guy has come with swimming this year!

Pretty much the same 3 pics but shows some of our pretty rainbow light!

Looking at the stars. Kids are rarely up past dark so its so fun to see their excitement over little things like this.

I have to say that this has been the most relaxing summer we have ever had. Counting on Chris being home everyday does amazing things to ones stress level. (In a good way, of course!) The kids are really enjoying the new house. We love having a pool and are in it just about every day. When we moved in the past owners said the pool light didn't work and had never worked while they owned the house. We vowed to get it fixed but it required getting in the pool and dealing with electricity. Just wasn't high on our list. Well, we (Well, Chris) finally got around to doing it and the pool guy walked us through it over the phone. (Now I realize he much rather have done this then get in the water himself!) Long story short, nothing was really wrong with it. All we had to do was unscrew it, look at it for about 20 minutes and hear how expensive it would have been to replace, and then turn on the light again, and wah-la! Working light. Turns out it is a really awesome light so first thing we did was plan a night time family pool party. It doesn't get dark until 9 and the kids are ready to pass out around 7 but they still were excited. We had a yummy dinner and watched the sun set with dessert first.

After our run-ins with the snakes I told Chris I was never getting in that pool after dark. But now we have the light fixed and figured it was worth the risk. Kids were having lots of fun and it was a great memory. We laid out on our towels and watched the stars. Then decided we had enough with the bugs and called it a night. Just a simple night making great memories.

Wiley Roo Roo has a birthday!

2011-06-28T09:20:00.001-07:00

Yesterday our first "child" turned 9! Wild Wiley Welch (his AKC formal name) or Wiley aka Roo Roo, is our first dog. Right after we were married and moved away to Texas we immediately started talking about getting a puppy. We named him Wiley after our good friends back in Washington; The Wileys. (Tucker, our other dog, was also named after our other friends from back in WA!) He's been with us through everything, babies, moves, you name it! Although he hates being loved on, strongly dislikes the kids (except when they are eating) rarely shows us any attention unless it's time to eat, won't let us sleep past 7 am because he wants to eat...we still love the dickens out of him! Life gets a little crazy with little kids in the house but now that the kids are older and a little more self sufficient it's nice to spend some quality time with Wiley again. It's hard to watch him get older and slower but the puppy in him still comes out every now and then. The kids are desperate to get love from him and we call it a success when they actually get to pet him with out him running away. I think now that he is moving slower he tolerates more just out of laziness.

There was a time when Chris was deployed when the kids were real little that Wiley almost went to "live on a farm". I'm kidding of course, but it got to the point that he was driving me batty on a daily basis and with all the stress of parenting alone I could not handle his antics! But I quickly realized he must be missing his daddy too and was feeding off my stress. We've learned to understand each other better and now live in peace. We still love the pooch, no matter what. Life is definitely not dull with him around.

It definitely has been a Wild 9 years, Wiley! Thanks for always keeping things interesting around here. Here are some pics of us "torturing" him on his birthday. He obviously just tolerates us but we love him nonetheless! Happy Birthday Roo Roo!

Summer Part 2: Quick Family Vaycay

2011-06-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

As close as we were willing to get to the White House. It was hot and I, errr, I mean the kids were tired.

Visiting his dad at Arlington.
Orioles vs Nationals game. Me and Ellie still rockin' our Phillies gear. Easton said he didn't want to wear his hat. I guess we know who I love more now, don't we. ;-)

Me and my friend Renee. Meeting up for a quick and not long enough visit!

All of our kids. Easton is the newbee in the crowd since last time we saw each other.

Family time in Jersey.

Phillies game with my cousin Jamie and his wife Denise and their little precious boy, Finley! Such a cute and so glad we got to be with him for his first Phillies game!

Ellie and Finn. She could not get enough of this little guy!!

Being that Chris is in training, it's not very easy to take leave and head out of town. He only gets his schedule at the end of the week for the next week. So planning is a little difficult! We knew this going in so we were okay with just hanging out here for the summer and maybe getting away for a weekend trip somewhere close. But the one year anniversary of his dad's passing was approaching and Chris really wanted to go visit his dad's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Luck was on our side as he found out he had a break in between training programs and had 5 days off in a row. We jumped on the opportunity, started frantically searching for air fare and making phone calls and plans. Everything seemed to be working out perfectly. We decided to make a pit stop in New Jersey to visit some of my family. My cousin Jamie and his wife have a new baby that I was dying to meet! We made plans to go see the Phillies since they were in town and made plans with family and a quick rendezvous with our good friends from California who are now stationed in NJ. We then drove to Washington DC. Another good friend from our Texas and Oklahoma days was in the DC area with her kids visiting her parents. So we took a little detour and had a quick 90 minute visit with her and her kids. We haven't seen them in over 5 years! It was great. I wish we could have spent all day with them, the kids got along so well and were having so much fun. But we had ANOTHER baseball game to get to! Another perfectly aligned event; the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals were playing in DC. Chris grew up as an Orioles fan and his dad was a Nationals fan. And being that it was father's day weekend it just seemed like the perfect thing to do. We may have overestimated our children's ability to sit for 2 baseball games in 2 days but overall it went well. The game started with an hour rain delay and if it wasn't for that then we'd would have been able to make it the whole game. But turns out we only made it to the 8th inning. You can only feed children so much sugar before it starts to backfire!

The next morning we headed to the cemetery. It was the first time we had been back since the funeral last September. Needless to say it was really hard. But also very helpful in the healing process. A year ago Chris and I were frantically trying to find a way to get ourselves back to Virginia to be with his dad. He had been in the hospital with what he thought was a gall bladder problem and it quickly progressed into something more serious. When he got the diagnosis of non-cureable stomach cancer we left the kids with Chris' mom and took an emergency military hop to DC. With the grace of God on our side, we made it there 4 days before he died. It's been a very emotional year. I'm so happy we could do this for Chris and he could be with his dad, regardless of the circumstances, for Father's day.

We spent the next few hours seeing some sights with the kids. We made it back to the hotel EXHAUSTED and went to bed early since we had to wake up at 3:30 am to get to the airport. Again, we were extremely lucky as there were a bunch of cancelled flights due to weather the night before and later that day. But we made it home with no problems.

We always enjoy our trips back east. We're hoping that the Air Force will send us closer that way soon. There's just so much we like to do back there and our visits are never long enough. But for now our home is here and we look forward to experiencing all that there is to do around here. (Even if it involves killing a snake or two... or ten.)

Summer Part One

2011-06-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

Outside enjoying a beautiful sunset.
Wiley Roo, recovering nicely from a little surgery he had last week. Look at him all trim and finally at a healthy weight! Thanks to a big back yard and endless games of fetch.
The Sunset.
Handsome Dude.
Tan lines...love me some tooshie tan lines.

Ahhh, Summer!!! We're about at our 2 week mark of the kids being out of school. Chris is still in training and is home, a lot. He'll be in training until the Fall sometime so it's so nice to be able to enjoy a summer together and not have to worry about him going anywhere. This also means we can't really plan on taking a vacation but we've got our pool this summer to keep us entertained. Kids are getting along fantastically (mostly) and they're at such a fun age where they can play together and make up all sorts of crazy fun. (Note: The Title of this post is Summer PART ONE. Part 2, 3 and 4 may make we regret gloating about how well they are getting along.)

We have lots of rules for summer around here. Important rules like "don't go into the pool area without a grown up", "don't forget sunscreen", "don't pee in the pool", "Don't pee in the grass when we have company", (gotta love boys!) and the most important rule is "don't wake up mommy". Sounds like a mixture between laziness and bad parenting, I know. But heck, it's how we roll around here and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Another important rule that is more for myself is "don't eat a Sam's Club container of blueberries within a 2 day time period all by yourself." Yes, that is an important rule that I had to learn the hard way.

Seems like the snakes don't like this extremely hot weather we're having. Haven't seen any in awhile. (KNOCK ON WOOD!) Easton is becoming quite the little swimmer. I was going to put him in swim lessons this summer but Chris and I have been working with him on our own and he's learning quite quickly. I'll have to post a video of him swimming. He's come a long way in a short amount of time. Pretty proud of that little guy. Ellie is a swimming champ and we're fine tuning her skills. She starts soccer camp next week which should be awful since it's outside and it's like really, really hot here. But she's excited about it. Then the kids have a summer camp at our church for a week.

Chris just started his second to last Master's class which is exciting. We see the light! He's studying the Civil War right now which is a topic we both enjoy. He just had his first Check Ride and now on to the next phase of training. He may actually get to get in the airplane soon!

Here are some pics of us enjoying Summer so far!

Easton - Frog face

2011-05-22T06:52:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed already, we're having a lot of fun with the critters around our new house. Easton and Tucker (our dog) are very entertained with the frogs. It's been super fun watching Easton just be a little boy; chasing frogs and showing no fear.

Disclaimers: Now, even though we're telling him in the video to put the frog on his face it was actually a re-creation. He had done it on his own first but of course we didn't have the camera ready. And for some reason we can't figure out, the video is sideways. AND....Easton promptly got a bath after the frog was released, unharmed.

Crawfish in pool

2011-05-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

We had a big storm roll through here last night and I guess we should just start to get use to storms = critters. But this was a new find in the pool this morning, a crawfish! We have no idea where it came from or how it got in the pool. It kept us entertained for awhile. Seriously, I know, we have issues but it keeps the kids (and dogs) entertained for quite awhile.

More frog action

2011-05-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

More fun with frogs and dogs. I know, we need to find a new hobby...

Chasing Frogs

2011-05-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

This is what we do when the kids go to bed. We go outside, find us some frogs and let the dogs entertain us.

*No frogs were physically harmed in the filming of this video. Although I can' t account for their emotional well being after this.

Critters, critters and more critters

2011-05-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

I have to admit our first experience in buying a home was a fairly easy one. The perfect house came on the market for our perfect price and the owners even wanted to rent back from us until right before we were scheduled to get to Little Rock. We had a great realtor and everything was just very simple. The house had several selling points that made us put in an offer before we even were able to see it in person. Now, don't get me wrong, we did all the right things like the inspection, lots of pictures and video from our realtor and had already did our research via good friends on the neighborhood and the option to back out once we were able to get here to see it in person. Knowing it's not going to be our "forever" home it made it even easier. The property just has great rental opportunity for when it's time for us to move again. One of the best things we loved about it is that it backs up to "forever green space". Federally protected land that can never be built on. Great for resale potential. Well, this also means that it come with the habitat that makes their home out of this land.

I was fortunate enough to talk with the previous owners via email after we had closed on the home. She was super helpful and gave me lots of information. I asked her (reluctantly) if they ever had issues with any critters getting into their yard. She was honest with me and told me that they did have the occasional snake in their pool, frogs, turtles, etc. Well I did momentarily freak out about the snakes. According to her the snakes like to hang out in the skimmer baskets so problem solved, I just won't deal with the skimmer baskets! I made Chris promise we'd hire someone to take care of the pool and thought I'd never have to deal with them. Once we got here and saw how simple it was to maintain the pool on our own Chris thought it would be better if we save the money and he'd take care of the pool himself. Insert hysterics from me. "But what do I do when you're not here!? I'm not doing it, I'm not doing it!! I will be hiring someone and you can't stop me!" Okay, now that that was out of my system...

So the first few weeks in the house were great. We discovered lots of frogs, little lizards and a turtle. The kids loved it and were super curious. We even found that Tucker just loves frogs and we enjoyed watching him chase them. I thought, okay, this isn't so bad, I can handle this. And then the rains hit. We were bombarded with thunderstorms for a few days straight (along with tornadoes!) and then that nice little green space behind our house completely flooded. At first it seemed nice because it was like we were living on a lake. And then the water got higher. And then it got into our yard and then we started to worry. And then we immediately bough flood insurance but turns out the insurance companies are smart and our coverage would take 30 days to take affect. Darn. So then we prayed. Thankfully we were spared. But then as I was admiring our new lake front property I saw a snake in our pool. Just a little guy but nonetheless a snake. I screamed for my husband who so diligently took his time in finishing his shower, shaved and got dressed before coming to my rescue. (We later had a discussion about how this will no longer be acceptable when I scream for assistance in critter removal.) Chris wanted to kill it but I wouldn't let him, told him just to find it a new home. The next day as Chris was cleaning out the skimmer baskets (as per our agreement) he finds another little snake. This time Chris did not let the snake go with a warning. He found a home in snake heaven. I felt a little bad about this because I hate killing things Even spiders. (But not the arkansas spiders because they are huge and creepy!) I make Chris fish struggling bugs out of the pool because I can't stand to watch them suffer.

Then a couple of days went by and the water finally started receding out of our yard. I was inside cleaning and heard our dog Wiley in the backyard barking like crazy! I thought the mail was here or someone out front walking by but when I looked out the window he was barking towards the back fence where no people would be. I went out to investigate and saw what appeared to be a 15 foot snake. (Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating.) But it was big, like really big. Wiley was inching his way towards it and the more I screamed for him to "come" the closer he got. I was in a complete panic. But then I said, "Wiley, want a treat" and it was like a Scooby Doo moment and he whipped his head around and looked and me like "Huh!?" and then ran inside. (Thank you Wiley for pretending long enough like you were trying to protect me) I called our great pest control company and she immediately sent out her husband who showed up with a rake and shovel. I was like, dude, I expected you to show up with a gun! He said he would if he could. So I was like, dude, whatever you need to do, just do it. (But wait, let me get my camera first!) It was over quickly. God bless the poor snake as he was only trying to find a new home as his home was unnaturally under water but, dude, snake, you picked the wrong home. I have dogs and children to protect! So I took pictures of the now dead Cottonmouth AKA water moccasin AKA very venomous snake. I then proposed marriage to my pest guy. (Chris would not like me to tell the story how I called him first and even though he was freaking out as much as me he said he had to go in to his class so good luck with that. Nope, he would not like me to tell that story at all so I won't tell it.) My new best friend, pest dude, confirmed mr. snake was here just because of the flood waters and after a week or so they'd all go back to living in their own homes. I somehow don't completely believe this but it brings me some comfort. I know they're out there!

We did buy some snake repellent a few weeks ago and after the first snake I begged Chris to please put it out around the fence and that it wasn't doing any good in the cabinet in the garage. Then Chris responded "well, we don't have any snakes in the cabinet now do we?" Gotta love this guy. I now pay more attention when one of the dogs starts barking and very thankful we never followed through with the no barking training. I take comfort in that I know they'd alert us. We also close up the doggy door at night too. But I do still love the house and if our own private sunsets every night mean dealing with the occasional critter then so be it. I'm stronger for it. Watching Easton catch frogs and lizards just makes me smile. It's a passage every little boy should go through. Even watching Ellie not squeal and hold out her hand with a brave face to hold a frog makes it worth it. I may be cringing inside and want to smother them in germ gel but I know already they'll never forget this house and all the fun they got to experience while living here. I'm sure this won't be my last post about Arkansas Critters but I hope I continue to find humor in all things creepy crawly.

Our first snake and my hero.
He was like 5 inches long and it took me awhile to figure out if it was a snake or just a really big worm. Man, I'd like to go back to this day and appreciate this little guy more.
The Cottonmouth slithering through what was left of our flood water.

Cottonmouth - 0 Pest guy - 1

Wiley goes for a swim

2011-05-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Today is Mother's Day and after sleeping in, being brought breakfast in bed, opening some great presents from my kids and husband we decided to spend the rest of the day by the pool. It was a beautiful day of laughs and sun. I've always wished we had one of those dogs that just loves water but we don't. Wiley somewhat tolerates it but no matter how hard I try I can't get him to willingly jump in himself. Well...sometimes they just need a little "encouragement". Using my new Sony Blogger that Chris bought me for Mother's Day, here's a little video of Wiley being "encouraged".

Chris' KC-10 Fini Flight

2011-05-02T19:54:00.000-07:00

Big Sexy in all her glory.

Me with my big sexy

celebrating with a former deployment buddy

That's daddy flying the plane right behind the kids.

I need to back up a little and post a little about Chris' KC-10 Fini-Flight. For you non-military peeps out there a fini flight is a final flight in the aircraft one flies or is a crew member on. Some have fini flights when they move bases, some have them when they leave for a time but know they'll return. But in our case it may have actually been his last time flying the KC-10. It was such a bitter sweet day for both of us. Chris has worked so hard during his time as a KC-10 pilot and he enjoyed every minute he got to fly that plane. When we were faced with the decision to possibly leave it to fly something else it was a very hard decision to make. It's not just the plane that is hard to leave behind but the community as well. Even though we were faced with our share of deployments, they are fairly good deployments as far as deployments go. Relatively safe locations and definitely not as long as they could be. But for those of you who know us well, you know we're lifers when it comes to the military. It's in our blood, it's pretty much all we know and to make this career last we had to take this opportunity. We went in knowing that it was risky not knowing what he'd end up flying but anyone who know's a pilot or those of you lucky to be married to one, know that whatever they fly is the best airplane on the planet! There's always a chance he could one day end up back in the KC-10 but nonetheless it was a day we'll always remember.

I pulled Ellie out of school early that day and we got to watch Chris land out on the flight line. There is a ritual involved where his squadron mates join us out there and he gets hosed down with water and champagne. It was a beautiful California day and I had some very good friends join me in the waiting and celebrating.

Hello from Arkansas, Y'all

2011-04-28T14:42:00.001-07:00

Easton's Batman room. He talked about this room for months before our arrival. It was so great to see his happy face when he finally got to sleep in it.

Ellie's pink room. She got to pick it all out, paint colors and all.
Fresh off the road from California. The moment we arrived in our very own home!

Some pics from Easter.
The boys. I know they are dogs but they are so much a part of this family. They have been in absolute heaven since getting here. We have a big back yard they can run in now compared to the shoe box of a yard we had in California. Wiley can chase a ball on a daily basis. Tucker has discovered a love for frogs and how much fun they are to chase. It really has been one of the happiest parts of being here, to finally give them the attention they deserve!
Our family picture on Easter. Our yard is beautifully landscaped and comes compete with palm trees. It helps me not miss California so much, sometimes.

I just deleted about 5 drafts of posts I had saved to finish and publish. They consisted of the holidays, return deployments, Ellie getting her ears pierced, leaving California, etc. But I figured that most of you who read this probably follow me on Facebook so let's just start fresh!

We are now living in Arkansas!! We made the trek from California with no problems. Kids did great and even though it sucked driving two cars and not having a chance to rest during our 10 + hour days, we all survived. Our new house is fantastic and I think we unpacked in record time. Well, maybe our record time was our very first move when all we had to our name was about 2000 lbs of household goods. This time we had quite a bit more. Probably more than we were allowed by the Air Force but I think the driver was kind to us.

Ellie started her new school right away. She handled this way better than I could have ever expected. She spent a couple of weeks being a little shy but she is now thriving and has lots of friends. The work is a little different and we had to catch her up on a few things but she's doing just as super as she was in California now. Her new school is taking a little bit of adjusting for me and Chris because it requires a lot more parent involvement but that's definitely not a bad thing. Our evening routine is just a little busier now but it's definitely paying off.

Easton, our super shy guy, surprised the heck out of us by being Mr. Social on the trip here. He was all chatty with the movers and would talk to strangers at rest stops. He adjusted really well to his new school here with never a moment of having to leave him crying. His new teachers are great and we are also loving his school. Unfortunately we're having to switch him from that school next year to the school Ellie is attending. That explanation I'll have to leave for another blog post.

Chris had a couple of weeks off to help get us situated and then he started training for C-130J's. The training schedule is nice. We get to see more of him but there's still a lot of studying to do when he's home. On top of trying to finish up his Masters. But in true Chris fashion, he does it all very well and always makes time for us. We just got news this last week that he'll be promoted to Major. We're not sure when yet but being that the AF is behind in promoting the Majors who were selected last year, it'll probably be quite some time. Oh well, as long as we have the Major's weight allowance before our next move, it'll all be good!

Arkansas is going to take some getting use to. We were a bit spoiled in California with perfect weather 80% of the time. We hit Arkansas right at Spring time so that comes with Spring time storms that like to rage through the south. Turns out this Spring is a particularly bad one, says the locals. We've had to wake the kids up in the middle of the night about 4 times now to get into our safe spot. Tornado sirens became a weekly occurrence, if not more than just once a week. We had a real close call one night. Fortunately for us it missed us but our neighboring towns were not so lucky. The Air Force base here got hit really bad and it'll take some time for them to recover. In true Air Force fashion our military community stepped up and did what needed to be done. This week we're now dealing with flooding. The area behind our house that was a huge selling point because it's open green space has now become a lake. Not just a little pond but a "get your water ski's ready" type of lake. It's coming into our backyard but with relief in the forecast I think we'll be okay. We immediately added flood insurance to our homeowners but of course they don't let you do this if a flood is knocking at your back door. But we'll be ready for the next one! We again have been fortunate but it's been devastating to neighboring areas.

So the welcome to Arkansas has been interesting. With Chris in training he's not really a part of his new squadron yet so it's a little hard for me to not have somewhere I can jump into. We have found a great church though that has really been great for us. The kids love it and Chris and I love it. We're a part of a small group for couples and that has been a great way to meet some new people.

Hopefully I can keep up with this better now that the guilt of being so behind is gone!

New house and Little Rock

2010-12-29T15:18:00.000-08:00

I've been slacking lately in the blog world. Time to try to update it a little bit!

Chris came home the week before Thanksgiving from his last KC-10 deployment. We were all thrilled to have him home for the holidays this year. It makes such a difference and really helps focus on what is important.

A couple of weeks after he returned my mom came down to watch the kids for a few days while Chris and I took off for our house hunting trip to Little Rock. Although we had already found the house via the internet and our realtor, we had already had the trip scheduled so decided to still take it and at least see the house in person before we were to close on it! The trip was great. Fortunately, so was the house! Love, Love, Love it!! We know it won't be our forever house but it will be our first home we can call all ours. We don't expect to be in Little rock for more than 3 years or so, but we will hang on to it as a rental for as long as we can handle it. There's not too many opportunities in the Air Force to be able to buy property and who know's where we'll end up next so we're thankful we're able to take advantage of this opportunity.

We can't wait to get into the house and spread out a bit! The thing I was most in awe with was the storage space in this house. Closets galore! And even more walk-in attic space. We may now be able to use our garage for parking cars! Woot! The town is just outside Little Rock and even though it's a little drive to the base, the neighborhood came highly recommended. We were not disappointed with that decision once we got there and drove around the area for a bit. Little Rock is a much bigger city than we imagined. It has all the amenities one could ask for (to include a drive thru Starbucks 3 minutes from our house!) However, the schools are less than desirable. This is our first time moving with a school aged child so there was a lot to consider. We made the decision to start Ellie at a private Christian school. We found a Christian preschool for Easton as well at a church that also came highly recommended. It won't be too much longer that he'll be able to join Ellie at her school as a kindergartener! (That just blows me away!)

Maybe I need to back up and explain where all these recommendations came from! Our good friends Jason and Lauren were stationed in Little Rock before moving here to Travis. They have family in the area as well so we had all sorts of info to take into consideration. Lauren just happened to be visiting Little Rock while we were in town so she was able to take us out and show us around a little. She also made us this great list of references that included everything from a hair dresser to a photographer and the list also included about 40 restaurant recommendations! How awesome is that!? We tested out a few of them and not one of them failed to impress. Lauren took us to her church where we were able to meet some of her friends. We are so lucky to have Lauren and Jason guide us. Nothing harder than moving to a new city without knowing anyone or anything about it! We've got the house and the schools all set up so we can hit the ground running once we arrive. Chris and I also spent a good majority of the time there furniture shopping so we can have it all delivered right after our arrival. We initially thought we'd be spending our days there looking at houses so with that out of the way we were able to take advantage of not having the kids with us to do all those shopping chores that aren't so fun with kids. (Thanks Mom!)

Now that we're home our countdown begins. We have about 2 months left and about 3 months worth of projects to do before we go. Seems like we've been in the house forever. I had just found out I was pregnant with Easton 2 days before we moved into this house. Now he's almost 4! We've gone through a whole baby/toddler stage while living here. We're moving with all big kid stuff and no more baby things. We just got rid of the last of the strollers and even though it momentarily made me sad, I'm happy that we survived the baby stage with most of our sanity still in tact.

So, back to our house. We closed on Dec 15th and the past owners are renting back from us for a little while. We're quite excited to be homeowners now! But I'm wondering if base housing and our current land lord will still come and fix things for us when they go wrong? I can still send the bill to them, right?

Here's a few pics.

The back yard that backs up to forever green space. (You can't see it from these pictures but there is a building way in the background that is the Target Distribution Center. Yes, this is how I knew it was the house for me...)
The pool!! You know what we'll be doing this summer!

Another view of the back yard.
Love our back porch!
The kitchen/family room
Another view. Guest bedroom and bathroom are in that back right corner.
Front door. To the left is the formal dining room and upstairs are the kids' bedrooms, jack and jill bathroom and bonus/media room. And so many closets I'm not sure what to do with! To the right is the entrance into the master bedroom. The two doors on the right are both closets. (I'm seriously not joking about the amount of closet space!) I'm taking the picture from the formal living room.

I'll post more pics after we move in and get all of our things in place.

Halloween

2010-11-06T15:50:00.001-07:00

Easton at his animal parade at school. They do this instead of dressing up in costumes. Kind of erks me because every year I have to find 2 costumes. But, whatev...

I'm glad we were able to have a fun Halloween in Disneyland earlier in the month because Halloween back home was not so fun. Chris missed it again this year. It's just kind of been his thing to deploy in the Fall. Not that I'm complaining because this does mean I get to miss most of football season.

I was terribly sick Halloween week with the worst ever cold. I was so bummed because I couldn't take the kids to do all the fun things we had planned. Most importantly the Squadron trick or treating. We haven't missed on yet and I was sad to miss our last one. But I did pull it together long enough to walk them around the neighborhood for halloween night. I gathered up my tissues and sat outside while the kids passed out candy. No need to pass out germs with the candy too. (You're welcome other parents). So I'm glad we had Disneyland Halloween this year.

Just a couple more weeks and we'll have Chris home with us! The kids are doing great. Easton is a little confused why daddy isn't home and I think he gets sad when we talk to Chris on the computer. It's hard for little guys his age to understand why they can see daddy in the computer but not at home. I've got some great kids. I have to sit back and realize I've got the good end of the deal with Chris away. I use to be jealous of his deployments and all that time to himself but I do get to snuggle with the kids whenever I want and I know he really misses that. So when they're driving me batty I have to remember that he misses them so much and they miss him too.

Pictures are not too exciting, I really didn't have it in me this year to show much enthusiasm.

Thankful

2010-10-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

Chris left today for a short deployment. It's been awhile since we've had to say goodbye to him and we're pretty thankful for that. This (knock on wood!) could be his last KC-10 deployment which is very bitter sweet. Come March we're off to the C-130 world and with that comes a lot of uncertainty. We're thankful for the opportunities he's been given and thankful we have each other to get through these hard times. 30 days seems like nothing though after all the absences we've had to endure these last 4 1/2 years. I know it, Chris knows it, but try reasoning with a 6 year old little girl who hates saying goodbye to her daddy. This morning was tough on her as much as we tried to downplay him leaving. But as soon as the desert uniform came out of the closet we had lost all reasoning with her. She seems better now and as soon as we get in our groove she'll be fine, I hope.

I'm looking forward to taking a breather while he is away. Focusing on the kids and keeping this house together for 4 short weeks is all I want to do! We're about to close on Chris' dad's house this week which is exciting and sad all at the same time. We're thankful it sold so fast but sad to have to let that part of his dad go. We're looking forward to house hunting in Arkansas after Chris returns. I now spend my free time searching for houses on the internet. It's exciting and a little scary but we're looking forward to having somewhere to call our own home, even if it is just for a little while. I think we're going to like Arkansas.

We'll miss Chris, heck, I miss him when he doesn't make it home for dinner in time. But I'm going to keep my mind set on his return and the exciting time we have to come. I think back to how hard it was to say goodbye when he left on his first deployment when Easton was just a couple of months old. We have definitely come a long way since then. But I'm thankful for great kids who keep me laughing and smiling everyday. And as long as I'm being thankful, I'd like to give a little thanks to technology. Even though Chris is a world away I still get to talk to him and we get to see him on the computer. So that I will give thanks for!

Disneyland Cont.

2010-10-19T14:33:00.001-07:00

Disneyland pics continued...

Having fun in the rain

Popcorn and cotton candy with the Katz Kidz

Easton and his BFF Leilah. They call these two the "power couple" at preschool.

Andrew and his little buddy Easton

I met up with an old friend of mine from college. We lived together in the sorority house and had the same major. It's been too long since I've seen her and since she lives in the area we met up for coffee one afternoon.

Waiting for the World of Color show to start

The Katz Family (minus the passed out Leilah) at the new World of Color.

An amazingly beautiful show!

More fun in the rain on the raft to Tom Sawyers Island

Ellie getting all done up at the Bippity Boppity Boutique

Her reveal

Daddy and his princess

Gobs and Gobs of glitter. Have I ever told you how much I love glitter? No? It's because don't!! Poor daddy was covered it in by the end of the night because he had to hold her on his shoulders for the halloween parade and it all came raining down on him from her above.

All the kids dressed up and ready to trick or treat!

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. Mainly because Easton is so gosh darn shy and hardly talks to strangers let alone big characters! We took a break to grab a bite to eat and there was a dance party going on right by where we were eating. We were boogying a little in our seats and so I asked the kids if they wanted to go dance. By my surprise Easton said yes. And then Buzz Lightyear came out on the dance floor and Easton went up to him and Big Buzz and him danced together for a little bit. I was in awe! As many 3 year old little boys do, Easton LOVES Buzz Lightyear! So this moment was the best to see his eyes light up and for him to come out of his shy shell and dance with his hero. Truly my favorite part of the whole vacation.

Last picture inside Disneyland. Goodbye, until next time!!

Disneyland October 2010

2010-10-13T16:07:00.000-07:00

After all the tragedy and craziness this summer Chris and I decided to take the kids to Disneyland to spend some time as a family. We've had a lot going on, and most of it has to do with some not so fun stuff. Estate business, deployment, moving (although I really do enjoy moving but there's a lot of stressful things that go along with it sometimes)... So before the weather got all yucky we planned a surprise trip to Disneyland with the kids as our last big California vacation. It was one of the hardest things we've had to do but we managed to keep the secret until the morning we left! I was able to pack and do all the pre-trip shopping without them noticing. We woke them up and video taped their surprised reactions. I managed to get a couple of pictures of it too.

We spent an entire week there in blissful fun! We got some rainy weather mid week but turns out if you can brave the rain, there are no crowds and no lines! I think we made the most memories these days because we were really enjoying being almost the only ones in the parks. Bought a few cheap (okay, not really cheap, it's Disneyland for goodness sakes! That word is not allowed anywhere!) plastic ponchos and we were good to go! By the end of the week the sun came back out and so did the crowds.

We met up with some friends of ours towards the end of the week for a couple of days. By then we had seen pretty much all that there was to see and do and were able to just hang out with our friends. Chris surprised me Friday morning with a trip to the hotel spa while he took the kids. Ahhhh....that's all I've got to say about that!

I'll continue in another blog post...

All their Disney friends the morning we told them. We made Ellie read the signs and it took a few moments for it to connect.

Their excitement

Ellie and I on Thunder Mountain Railroad. This was her favorite ride. Not so much mine, but we all know I'm a roller coaster weenie.
At Minnie's house
This whole day Easton refused to pose for a picture. So this is what we got.
Fireworks on our first night there
Easton taking pics while we waited for the parade. This was hilarious. I should post all of his pictures that he took. He would just stand in the middle of the street taking pictures of people as they walked by him.
Not so much impressed with this Tinker Bell. She was a bit snobbish.
Oh how daddy loves spinning the heck out of his kids on this ride! It's why I refuse to go on it with him!
Chris' proudest moment of the whole trip! Ellie was chosen for the Jedi Academy. She got to take on Darth Vador in a light saber match. She won, of course!
Walking through Sleeping Beauty's castle
On the rocket with my litlle man.
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage

Ellie on Main Street
Amazing decorations all over the park

Tahoe Trip with Caruso's and Purcells

2010-10-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

Our friends Jason and Lauren invited us up to Tahoe for the weekend. We were also joined by our friends Katie and Joe. We did some hiking, which started out to be just a little hike but turned into a pretty big one! It was beautiful though and Ellie really impressed us with hiking the whole thing. Jason and Chris got the short end of the deal by having to carry the little ones on their backs all the way up! They were troopers though and so were the kids. It was a beautiful day and we got some amazing views of Lake Tahoe. That morning we woke up to a little visitor outside our cabin! It was pretty exciting and the kids got a kick out of it. Kept us on guard though the rest of the weekend!

The same day The Purcells and Welchs went on a bike ride. I got to test out my new bike which I was pretty excited about. It's been far too long since I've been out in nature doing all the things that I love to do. Believe it or not, I use to live for the mountains. Growing up in the Northwest was a real treat and even though I love my life now, sometimes I miss the simpler times of skipping class to go rock climbing or mountain biking. But now that the kids are older I look forward to doing these things more often with them. Arkansas is suppose to have some great outdoor recreation activities. It is the Natural State, ya know!? Back to our bike riding excursion...Ellie also did great keeping up with everyone and Easton and Riley got a free ride again in the bike trailer. (Man, to be 3 and be carted around everywhere must be rough!)

Sunday the boys went golfing and the girls and kids hit the beach. We were up there at a great time. Hardly anyone there and the weather was fabulous!! Oh, how I love Lake Tahoe. We hope to make it up there one more time this winter but being up there in the summer is my favorite time. Probably in my top two places I'll miss the most about living here.

The Hike up to Eagle Lake

Jason, Joe and Chris at Eagle Lake

Group shot in front of Eagle Lake

Family Shot
Group shot from a breathtaking view of Lake Tahoe and Emerald Bay

Chris and Jason being super heroes and carrying the little ones ALL THE WAY UP!

It's so tiring being carried everywhere

Riley, Ellie and Easton outside the cabin. It was right then that I turned around and saw the second siting of the bear across the street. I calmly ushered the kids inside the house after this picture.

This was our first siting of Mr. Bear. I think he smelled the chicken nuggets Easton left in the car from the night before. Oops.

One last family shot in front of Lake Tahoe.

Air Force Ball September 2010

2010-10-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the Air Forces Birthday with the Air Force Ball inside one of the new C-17 Hangars at Travis. It was quite a night! They did a fabulous job decorating and making it a special evening. I really enjoyed going to a formal event with my husband too! That past few events he has been deployed or TDY for so I was glad to be able to have him home for this one.

Can't believe our time here is actually ending. We have loved Travis!

Members of the 6th Air Refueling Squadron
My with my gal pal, Marlene
Jason and Chris
Wine anyone???

Me with Katie and Lauren

The Hangar

NJ/Philly/DC trip September 2010

2010-10-12T15:31:00.000-07:00

I'm crazy behind in blogging since this summer. Like, really, REALLY behind! So behind I don't really even feel like blogging because there is just so much. But, I'll give it a shot.

When we went back to the East Coast for Chris' dad's funeral, we were able to add a few extra days to visit some family and friends in NJ and also do some site seeing in the DC area. We didn't expect to have a lot of time once we got to Virginia but things went pretty well with taking care of his dad's house so we decided to take advantage of all there was to see.
When we were in Jersey we visited my family and stayed with my cousin Jamie and his very pregnant wife, Denise. They were nice enough to let the 4 of us crash at their house. The kids had so much fun with Uncle Jamie and Aunt Neesey. It's so fun being around new parents expecting their first child. I have to say I was pretty impressed with Denise and her ability to keep up with the kids being that she was a month from her due date! Jamie and Denise are going to be great parents. While there we spent time with some more family and went to Philadelphia for a Phillies game which was AWESOME!! So nice to see them on home field. I finally broke Chris and got him to buy some Phillies gear. It only took 11 years together but I finally did it!!!! We had to make a pact about how we're going to raise our children when it comes to sports. I got the Phillies and he got the Redskins. Marriage is all about compromise, right? We also took a quick day trip to Philadelphia and saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and ate some cheesesteaks. We had hoped our next move would have taken us to NJ but the powers that be (the USAF) decided that was just not in our cards, at least for now.
We then took a quick trip up to McGuire AFB and saw our good friends Ben and Erin and their little boy Sammy. They moved to Travis about a month after us. Ben was at Vance with Chris right before we moved here. We all became instant friends and have been through so much together during our 4 years here together. They moved to McGuire in August so we got to be their first visitors! They took us to the shore on Labor Day. It was a perfect beach day and we had a lot of fun. I'm glad the kids got to play in the warm ocean. It's nice being so close to the ocean here in California but it's so stinkin' cold!!
Next came our trip down to Virginia. We had the funeral and business to take care of but in between it all we were able to see some sites. We've been to DC before and there's not a whole lot the kids are interested in at this age so we tried not to exhaust ourselves. We first went to Mount Vernon, George and Martha Washington's home. Chris and I are really into American History so this was very cool for us to see. We went there on a beautiful day and it wasn't very busy at all so we got to really take our time and enjoy it. We then visited a couple of Museums in DC to wrap up our trip. I feel like we sufficiently gave Ellie enough education/history lessons to make up for the week she missed school.

Ellie and Easton with their cousins Zach and Brayden enjoying a family BBQ

Me and my wonderful Uncle Paul

I did it!!!! I converted Chris into a Phillies fan!!! Woo hoo for me!!! I'm awesome!! He's awesome!! The Phillies are awesome!!!!

Easton and his Godfather, Uncle Jamie

Ellie and Aunt Denise at a Phillies game (can you tell?)

Easton being bored to sleep by the Liberty Bell.

At the Jersey Shore on Labor Day

Chris with his Buddy Ben and little Sammy and Easton

The Rick Family

While in Virginia we had the funeral and lots of business to take care of with his dad's estate. But we made some time to show the kids some DC area sights. We went to Mount Vernon, George and Martha Washington's estate. I've always wanted to visit here. The day was beautiful and we got to experience it without a huge crowd there. We happened upon a wreath laying ceremony at GW's tomb and they were asking for any military members or veterans in the crowd. So Chris volunteered and got to go inside the tomb with Ellie, who volunteered to say the pledge of allegiance. A very cool moment. We also visited a couple of museums. The Museum of Natural History and the Air and Space museum. So since we took Ellie out of school for a week, I think we more than made up for her absence! She learned a ton (on top of the loads of homework they sent along with us) and we were able to have some fun too.

In front of Mount Vernon.

Wreath Laying ceremony inside the Tomb of George and Martha Washington

Signing the book of people who get to lay the wreath

On GW's farm

At the museum of Natural History and feeding Easton to the dinosaurs

Daddy feeding Easton to the dinosaurs. Sheesh, poor Easton, his parents are always trying to feed him to things.

There was this really cool butterfly exhibit that we got to walk into and see hundreds of butterflies.

Walking through the Washington Mall in front of the monument

Lola and Ellie at the Museum of Natural History

Air and Space Museum

Dad's funeral

2010-09-12T13:39:00.001-07:00

I know it's sort of odd to post pics of a funeral but this was more than a funeral for us. It was a military ceremony filled with so much respect and honor.

Chris' dad, MSgt Jeffrey A Welch, USAF, was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on September 8th, 2010. He passed away over 2 months ago but it takes that long to be able to get a date to be buried there. It's been hard waiting and not having that final closure but to be buried at Arlington is something we knew his dad would appreciate.

Chris' mom was able to join us and she offered to take some pictures of the ceremony. A few of his dad's friends were able to make the trip to be there which made it extra special.

As usual, I posted the pics in opposite order. So start at the bottom.

Chris and his mom

Lola and kids

After the funeral we drove through the cemetery and visited the Tomb of the Unknowns and got to witness a changing of the guard and a wreath laying ceremony while there. Got some cute pics of the kids once the sobbing stopped. Easton of course ditched his suit jacket.

Final goodbye.
MSgt Jeffrey Alan Welch
This is one of the Arlington Ladies. Volunteers attend every single funeral at Arlington. Very sweet.
Saluting the flag
Presenting Chris the flag
Flag folding
Firing party in the background
Cropped view of the firing party
Ceremony
Honor guard and priest escorting dad to the gravesite
Honor guard carrying dad and flag from the Arlington vehicle

Big News on the Welch Front!

2010-08-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year Chris applied for a program that would allow him to crossflow into a new airplane. It's called Phoenix Horizon. We've been waiting with much anticipation for months not knowing where we would go or what he would fly. We knew the opportunity would be a great one if he was accepted so we were prepared to take whatever, if anything, he was offered. Well we found out a few weeks ago he was accepted and he will be flying the C-130J. He is quite happy with this and I'm even more proud of him. It'll be a whole new life to get use to a part from the KC-10 but that's the whole fun of it, right? (RIGHT!?) I've had to stop watching the YouTube videos he was showing me because I'm not quite ready to see all that he gets to do.

We are moving to Little Rock, Arkansas and very excited about that! I of course will miss California and the friends and great times we've had (and are still having) here but we're ready for the next adventure. We are going to buy our first home which is so very exciting. I'm looking forward to thunderstorms (minus the tornadoes) good bbq food and being close to some friends that are also down south. We will be moving in March sometime. Hopefully the transition will go okay for the kids. It's a little weird that Easton has never moved before and he'll be 4 by the time we do! What kind of Air Force kid is this! ;-) Chris will have 6 months of training to learn to fly his new airplane and the training is also at Little Rock so knowing we can move there and get settled and not have to be separated or uproot the kids too many times has been a huge blessing! (Thanks Sniffer!) We're very much looking forward to so many new things. We've always loved the South and look forward to being there again. (Minus the giant size bugs, mosquitos and humidity! Oh, and tornadoes too.)

First Day of School

2010-08-25T11:21:00.001-07:00

Here we are again, first days of school 2010. Ellie has started first grade and absolutely LOVES it. Not a surprise from our little social butterfly. Despite the longer days she comes happy everyday. She's playing soccer this year for the first time. She also started piano lessons earlier this summer that she is excelling at. I have little musical talent but Chris took lessons as a kid. We have the piano his mom bought for his lessons years ago and it's finally being put to some good use besides a fingerprint and dust collector. Chris has been enjoying working with her and he's such a good teacher for her. I told her teacher to expect her to slide a little bit in October when Chris leaves because I'm not much help in that area!

Easton started his second year of preschool this year. We have been so fortunate to have had our kids at the same preschool for going on 4 years now. I truly hope we can find as good of a place at our next base. Easton's transition this year was much easier that last. If Ellie is our social butterfly, Easton is our anti-social gorilla! He's come a long way and he has a good buddy from last year in his class so that helps.

I am enjoying the 3 days a week both kids are at school. We've entered a new realm of carpool, soccer practice and late dinners but it's been a lot of fun. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself yet (besides finally updating the blog) but for now I'll enjoy catching up on the DVR and morning coffee in peace. :-)

A hard goodbye

2010-07-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

It's amazing that in a blink of an eye your world can be turned upside down and never be the same again. We lost Chris' father, Jeffrey Welch, on June 28th to a very sudden and swift stomach cancer. It was about 2 months before his dad started telling us about some issues he was being treated for. Sounded like he would need gall bladder surgery. Our concerns were there but not to any great worry. One unusual test results to the next our concerns started growing quite rapidly. But he assured us there was no need to worry and that there was no need to take a trip out. He would be fine. Then just like that he was transferred to Georgetown University Hospital in Washington DC and admitted to the ICU. It was a long wait for answers but once we got them we knew it wasn't good. His dad, bless his soul, was ever positive and encouraging and had such a fighters heart. Chris and I had made arrangements to go see him over the 4th of July weekend without the kids. But it was quickly decided we may not have that much time. So we got his mom out here to watch the kids and we flew out there via a military hop. We got there on a late Thursday night and saw him first thing Friday morning. We were actually surprised by his alertness. We were told before we got there that he was not able to communicate for very long periods but we were there the whole day and we were able to talk quite a bit. Even though the prognosis was not good he was still very hopeful. We know now that that day was a huge blessing that we will forever be grateful for. The following couple of days were not so good. And Monday was the day we had to make a terribly hard decision. The doctors advised us that there was nothing more they could do for him and that they recommend we follow Jeff's choices laid out in his living will. We are also thankful that we had time to go over that with him and discuss his wishes. Without that we could not have imagined making that decision on our own. As hard as it was, it was exactly what he had wanted. Chris, myself and Jeff's girlfriend were all there by his side, holding his hands as he passed from this world. We know God put it on our hearts to be there at that exact time, to be there to have that one last good day with him and to have the strength to make some extremely hard decisions. We are very grateful for Chris' mom to have been able to cancel her vacation plans to be here with the kids, our friends who kept them occupied and happy and Chris' co-workers that helped us get to where we needed to be and take over Chris' responsibilities at work. His squadron was able to postpone a deployment that he was scheduled for. (He was suppose to leave today, actually.) We weren't planning on being gone longer than a week but it ended up being two. Being away from the kids was extremely hard, especially for me since I've never been gone from them for very long. But there was so much to take care of and being that he lived in Virginia we knew we needed to do as much as we possibly could while we were there. Chris was his dad's only family. This tremendous responsibility is something one never really prepares for. It's going to be a very long road to do what we need to do from California and with the unpredictable life of the military we are sure to run into some hurdles. His dad will be laid to rest in September at Arlington National Cemetery. We will all be going back for the service as a family.

I like our family blog to be a source of laughter and cuteness. To keep everyone who follows us up to date of our fun family adventures. One of our most faithful followers was Chris' Dad. I didn't want to post this but for our friends we thought it was important. Mostly because our lives will never be the same. I don't mean to throw a life lesson out there but if it makes things easier for anyone, it's worth a shot. Chris' dad did not have a Will. He didn't see the need because Chris is his only family. Most assume that everything is automatic if you don't have kids or family. Let us just tell you that it's not that easy. There is a very long process that will have to take place in order for us to go ahead and do the things that need to be done. We are telling all that we can that it is important to have a Will. It doesn't have to be complicated and in-depth but it makes things go so much more smooth if you do. I'm finding all sorts of friends that have children and do not have a Will. Everyone assumes that their family will just take care of them but it is such a long process for the courts to decide who should be the one to do that. So people, make a Will! I will also say that the fact that he was able to make a Living-Will was a huge help for us. To be in that situation and to have not have had in writing his wishes, I could not imagine having to make a decision like that without one. Okay, I'm done with my soapbox.

Please pray for continued strength and wisdom. Chris is doing okay. Being back home with the kids has really helped. We really believe that even though this was so quick and unexpected we are grateful to have had that chance to talk with him and have a chance to say all those things we've been meaning to say has really helped with the grieving process. I'm sure there would have been so much regret if we hadn't gotten there in time.

Thank you for all of you that have given us your prayers and support. Please pray for continued strength and wisdom as we navigate through unchartered waters.

Rest in peace Dad, we miss you already.

Ellie's kindergarten idol audition

2010-06-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

A cute video Chris found on his phone that he took a while back. It made us smile and giggle. (Nana and Papa, her guitar is being put to good use!)

Easton's Preschool End of Year Program

2010-06-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

Easton had his end of school year program this morning. Didn't seem like such a big deal considering he's returning to the same school next year. But these things are always so cute! I realized about 20 seconds into their first song it hit me how far our little guy has come this year. Easton was able to start earlier than he should have. He was just a couple months shy of the cutoff but his teacher was very persuasive about letting him start early and seeing how he adapted. We were hesitant, to say the least. His social skills weren't the best and his speech was behind a bit. But his teacher assured me that this was exactly what he needed and she was completely right. I really wanted a chance for him to have Ms. Tami. I think God created the one perfect preschool teacher in her.

Just watching him sing and have fun with his friends in front of a crowd melted my heart to no end. Just a few months ago there was no way he would or could do this. But now he can talk and count and spell his name. He has a best friend and loves to play with other kids. Of course, he's still a 3 year old little boy and struggles with sharing and patience but really, don't we all?

We're so super proud of this little guy and love him to pieces! Here's a short little video of one of the songs they sang. (He's the one up front in the green shirt)

Kindergarten days are over!

2010-06-07T15:13:00.000-07:00

Today was Ellie's Kindergarten "graduation". We are so super proud of her and all that she has learned this year. It's been so much fun watching her learn how to read! I can't quite believe some of the things they are teaching kindergarteners these days. She was coming home with probability problems, estimation and math that I'm pretty sure I didn't start learning until the second or third grade! But she handled it all very well. She received a glowing report card from her teacher. Ellie is our little social one. She makes friends easily and it's been so fun having all those play dates this year and watching her and her friends imaginations. She's got such a sweet and caring soul and we couldn't be more proud of her and the person she is becoming.

She's a little apprehensive at the moment about moving up to the 1st grade. She's a little nervous about change; leaving her kindergarten teacher, moving up to the big kid playground...you know, all the scary things about life. But once she starts she'll do great! Lucky for her she has a great ability to make friends easily. Hopefully this is a trait she continues to have because, oh boy, in our lifestyle it will come in handy! We talk about how lucky she is to have a daddy that does what he does and that his job takes us to new and exciting places and we get to meet so many new friends. It's been so long since we've moved that I know this next one may be a little bit difficult for her but hopefully we can teach her and Easton to see the positive in the adventures we get to experience. As we wait for word on our next adventure we can only imagine for now where we will be going. But in the short 8 years we've been in the Air Force we do know that wherever that is, we'll make the most of it.

Now that I look at this picture of the 3 of us, I'm pretty sure I wore this shirt on her first day of kindergarten. Hmmm, coincidence or lack of clothing?

Ellie and her friend and carpool bud, Max.

The 3 amigos. Landon is a lucky dude to always have Kamryn and Ellie on his side.

Ellie and Kamryn, one of her best gal pals.

She was so happy to get REAL flowers!

So happy Chris was able to be there this morning. Handling a camera and a video camera is much easier with 2 parents!

Getting her "diploma"

All 110 kindergarteners ready to take on 1st grade!

Monterey/Carmel trip

2010-05-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

As usual the pics are a little out of order.

Watching the sun set

This one is at a beach in Pebble Beach. The water here was amazingly beautiful.
These two...
Too cool for his own good
One of my fav's.

This is at the beach in Carmel. We stayed here a long time just playing in the sand. Easton was loving being buried. (Dad even dug him a hole to pee in)
In little boy heaven
That's Pebble Beach Golf Course behind us. They were starting to set up for the US Open that takes place in a couple of weeks.
That's the 18th hole at Pebble Beach GC
This is the famous land mark of Pebble Beach. The Lone Tree. It's held up by a wire, you can see if you look carefully.
Back to sunset watching pictures. Ellie was scared of the waves at first but in no time she was jumping on them and all wet. We both got a kick out of this, even after our feet went numb. Not sure if you know, the Pacific Ocean is not known for it's warmth.

I like to keep our viewers on their toes. See, out of order once again. Back to Carmel Beach. And more burying of children in the sand.

My Love.
Monterey Aquarium. It took a little bit but Easton finally found the nerve to pet the star fish.
The best Daddy in the world with the best kids in the world.

Outside the aquarium

We packed up the family and headed south to Monterey County for a couple of days for Memorial Day weekend. Chris had Friday off too so we took the kids out of school and tried to beat the traffic and crowds. We did the 17 mile drive that goes through Pebble Beach first. It was amazing! It was a gorgeous day and we did succeed in beating the traffic. The scenic drive through Pebble Beach did not disappoint. Beautiful views, outrageously amazing houses and beautiful beaches. We stopped at one and let the kids run around for a bit and then headed to the Pebble Beach golf lodge for lunch. The 17 mile drive spit us out in Carmel and we found a terrific beach to spend a few hours at. The kids were dying to get their sand toys out. They were a little unimpressed with the scenic drive and antsy to start playing. We had tons of fun here. Carmel is a very dog friendly town and there were just a ton of dogs playing on the beach. We felt bad for not bring Wiley and Tucker but vowed to come back and bring them next time. We had plans to go to the aquarium the next day so we knew we couldn't have brought them anyway. Carmel is so beautiful! We drove around after the beach and looked at all the cute and amazing houses. Another vow to come back and spend some more time here.

We went back and checked in to our hotel. Surprisingly, the Best Western we stayed out was real nice. It was literally right on the beach. We had a nice dinner at the hotel overlooking the ocean and spent some more time on the beach just playing in the waves. The kids had been a little scared to get too close earlier in the day but they succeeded in getting them selves soaked by the end of the evening. We played, took lots of pictures and watched the sun set. We got the kids in to bed where they passed out and Chris and I sat on the deck with just some wine and the ocean.

The next day we went to the Monterey Aquarium for a couple of hours, grabbed some lunch and headed back to the beach. Even though the temperature was warmer that day the wind was blowing harder and it was just a bit colder than we could have fun with. So we packed it up and headed back home. Ellie woke up that morning with a break out of hives so we needed to get her home anyway. Not sure what happened but must have been a reaction to something in the sand, ocean or the hotel. Who knows, but she's getting better now.

The little getaway was just a little slice of heaven on earth. We know our time here (at Travis, not on Earth) is getting shorter and want to take in as much as we can while we're still here. Chris just got tasked with a 30 day deployment so our summer just got 30 days shorter. But it won't stop us from making the most of it!

A weekend full of surprises

2010-04-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

Never did get a group shot so here are some of the couples. (I hate this one of me btw but sucking it up in honor of the bday boy)

Marlene and Andy
Katie and Joe
Shannon and Jason
Birthday Princess. (Thank you Shannon for relinquishing your crown)

Sharing some strawberries with the birthday girl while waiting to be pampered.

My smokin hot friends!
Outside the spa
Surprise Shannon!

Friday night a bunch of us girls got to go out for a night of good food and pampering to help celebrate our friend Shannon's birthday. Her husband set up the whole surprise. Dinner at a local Indian food restaurant (one of my new favs!) and a spa night for all of us! We had so much fun with lots and lots and lots of laughing! We're trying to get Shannon's husband to do this for us every weekend!

It was a really difficult week because not only did I have this surprise party to keep quiet I was also planning one for Chris for Saturday night! It was just a simple night out with some friends for dinner in Walnut Creek. Originally the plan was to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory but the plans started to unravel as we got there and the wait was like 4 hours. But luckily we all got into PF Changs without having to wait for very long. I won't go into the whole details but gotta thank a couple of smooth talking pilots that can sweet talk their way into a table for 8 on a Saturday night. ;-) We enjoyed a fun time at dinner and then went over to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert. Luckily Chris had his sweet Birthday Princess hat on still and we were able to score a table again! It was such a fun time celebrating Chris' 30th and 31st birthday. I would have liked to have thrown him a big party last year for his 30th but he wasn't here for it. So decided to make 31 extra special. He wasn't suppose to be here for this one either so an extra special celebration was just what he deserved.

Sunday we got to spend the afternoon/evening with Chris' office at a BBQ. We had a lot of fun and so did the kids. The weather this weekend was absolutely perfect. Sunshine, good friends, good food and good times...can't get any better than that!

Car accident equals new truck for Chris

2010-04-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

Crunch

Getting her ready to tow away. :-(

But look at what he gets to drive now!

If you look carefully you can see Wiley sneaking out.

No, I don't usually wait outside to wait for my husband to come home so I can take pictures of him. I was taking pictures of the Honda for records and he just happened to pull up.

On Monday, of course a "Monday", I woke up early with Chris (yep, still doing this) and lovingly sent him on his way to work as I sat down to watch a few minutes of Army Wives on my DVR with my coffee before the kids got up. Not 10 minutes later, the phone rings. My first thought...Chris was in an accident. (I'm psychic that way) Yep, sure enough my thoughts were right. It was small, very small. He was just accelerating after a light turned green and a car two cars in front of him slams on their brakes to stop for a bunch of ducks crossing the road. That car didn't get rear-ended but Chris ran into the back of the truck in front of him. That truck is fine, just a tiny little scratch. The Honda however...(sniff sniff) was not fine. Chris calls to tell me what happened and that he was turning around to come home. (Secretly I think he had plans all along, one being that it was Blues Monday at work and the second we'll get to later) So I said, I'll call the insurance company, just come home. So as he pulls up and I gasp at the sight of the car and start dreading to tell him the next bit of bad news. We don't have collision coverage on the Honda. Liability yes, but nothing to repair our damage.

Chris' Honda is a 96 Accord. He got that brand new from his mom in high school. Ironically enough to replace his previous Honda that was totaled in an accident. (That one was much more serious so I won't insert any jokes here) So we continue on with calling around to start getting estimates for repairs. Knowing darn well it won't be worth it. The car is too old and the damage was too bad. So I had to drive him back to work and on the way we just stroll by auto row and kind of get an idea of what's out there. (Does this story sound familiar? This seems to be how we ended up with the Acadia. I think the Automotive stocks have just recovered thanks to the Welchs.) Remember a few posts back about how we JUST bought a new car? Yep, not really high on our list of things to do right now, buy a new car. We knew it was getting near time to replace the Honda. We were holding off for many reasons, maybe when we move or maybe when he magically jumps ranks and becomes a Colonel straight from being a Captain. When we got married he really wanted a truck. I really wanted him to have a truck but it just wasn't in the cards at the time and with starting a family it wasn't the wisest of choices for a family vehicle. So I said, Honey, when you make Captain (because that seemed so far away!) you can get your truck. Well, sadly that dream never came true for him. Our family SUV was slowly declining but the Honda was paid for and still serving it's purpose. So we opted to get a new family car instead.

I'm making a long story much longer. Short version...Chris fell in love with a truck. Honda is going to auction to see if we can get just a few hundred dollars at least as is. Chris is happy and uninjured and I am happy to finally see him get his truck.

We towed the Honda to the auction place today. It was like God was sad for us because the heavens opened up with rain. The lady at the place was very helpful. I think she thought I was a little crazy because I was asking way too many questions about what's going to happen to her. (and referring to the car as "her" probably didn't help with her thoughts about me) She once mentioned she may get sold just for parts. WHAT!! (No one will take her "parts" without a proper date first!) But she was patient with us nonetheless. I am thankful for that. The auction is on the 30th so we now just wait and see what we can get.

San Francisco Zoo

2010-04-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

Love this boy!
Having fun on the beach even though we didn't bring a single darn thing for the beach with us.
Growling like a lion at the SF Zoo
Love this girl too!

There is a much sweeter version of this picture but I just love Easton in this picture! It's so him.

This last weekend we decided to take a much needed family day and head to the city. With Chris' new long hours and him working on his Masters homework in his "free" time we haven't been able to do anything fun since we've all reunited. It was going to be a beautiful weekend and thought we'd check out the San Francisco Zoo. It was a really nice zoo and the weather was great. We got to go across the street to a really nice beach and hang out for a little while before heading to dinner at the Cliff House.

This is the Cliff House. BEAUTIFUL!

Playing catch up

2010-04-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

Way too tired to put these pics in order (Reference portion of post of waking up early). This is Jackson, Ellie and Easton hunting for Easter eggs at my Aunt and Uncles house.
Holding new cousin, baby Lexi
At Uncle Ethan's fire station on Easter

Dying eggs with my Aunt Julie.
At Shane's house in Bend. He went through the trouble of putting the tent up then the kids decided they didn't want to sleep in it.
Holding Baby Lexi in Bend
YUM! Roasting marshmallows.

Ellie and Jackson being silly.Wish we lived closer, these two sure did get along well.

I'm falling a little behind on the whole blog thing so figured a post to catch up is due. Since the last post a lot has happened! Lets see, Chris was deployed and about a week into his deployment he found out he got this new job at the Wing that he was up for. It's such a great opportunity for him and we were very excited about it. The best part was that he got to come home early to start his new job. We found this out about 2 days before me and the kids were to leave for 2 weeks in Spokane. Chris would be returning while we were away. We went anyway and enjoyed some time with my parents and my friends. I drove all by myself with the kids on the 2 day journey. It went very well and I am forever grateful for the dvd player. Forever....grateful... We stopped in Bend, Oregon where my cousin Shane and his family live. Bend is exactly half way so it's just so convenient! Shane and his wife Kristin had just had their 2nd baby 2 weeks before so I was so excited to get to see her! Ellie and Easton had a blast playing with their cousin Jackson and new cousin Alexis.

Kids did well at Nana and Papa's house and on Easter weekend we all spent a couple of days in Tri Cities, Wa where my dad is from and where my aunt, uncle and cousin and family live. Shane and his family also came up from Bend and we all spent a wonderful weekend together. It was really nice. My cousin Ethan is a fireman (firefighter? Not really sure what the proper term is nowadays) and he took the kids on a tour of his fire station and they got to play on the firetrucks. That...was...cool!

By the time we made it back Chris was home and had started at his new job. Even though it's keeping him very busy, he is very much enjoying it. I'm thankful for him to be home. We'll get to spend our birthdays together and anniversary which is something we haven't done in a few years and were not expecting to do this year!

We quickly got back to our routine of school, playdates and activities. I started this new thing of waking up early with Chris just to have some extra time with him since his hours are longer. So far I'm sticking with it. I'll keep you posted on how long I last though. ;-) I'll post some pics from our time in Spokane and the Tri Cities. (Actually, I didn't take any pictures the whole time I was there! I did take some on my phone, I'll see if I can post those. I did take pics though from our stop in Bend and Tri Cities/Easter.)

Next post....Chris' fender bender/crushed Honda/New Truck!! Waiting to take pics of the new truck first.

A very valuable couch (and lesson!)

2010-03-12T20:01:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had a bad habit that you know that if you don't stop something bad will happen? Well mine is playing with my engagement ring. I play with it constantly. My friend Shannon came over tonight to bring a gift basket to help with the deployment. It was so very sweet of her! We sat down and got to talking and I start fiddling with my ring. I then drop it and it goes towards the side of the couch and somehow, by an awful turn of events, falls down a very small hole that leads to the inside of the couch. We had to take the backing off the couch to only uncover it was not going to be easy to get to. It would require much dismantling of our leather couch. We called her husband, Jason, to come take a look. He pretty much came to the same conclusion. Well, as we tried one more thing by some great luck we found it! I knew we'd get to it eventually but I was not feeling very positive that my couch would survive. I'm thankful for a happy ending!

Notice something missing?

The couch before we started ripping it a part.

Here we go...

Paging Dr. Jason, Dr. Jason, your dismantling abilities are needed!

What you are about to see is a re-creation of the actual events. (We were a bit too excited at the time we initially found it so we had to go back to document)

Yes Shannon!! I will marry you!!!!

Ta Da, the bling is back! Thanks to my wonderful friends!

Another Beautiful Napa day

2010-03-01T15:16:00.000-08:00

On the winery tour. This is where the fermentation process takes place.
Where the wine stays to age.

Outside at the fountain. The kids enjoyed throwing putting pennies in to make wishes. Easton did this every time we told him to make a wish. He covered his eyes and said "Wish!". So cute. Ellie on the other hand had to think and fret on what her wish would be before throwing her penny.
I was on a mission this trip. Making a trip up to Washington and making a few stops along the way to see family so can't come empty handed!
Wine tasting with Chris' Mom
The kids with their Lola

Chris' mom is here visiting for a couple of weeks. As soon as Chris and I get a whiff of free babysitting we are usually out the door as soon as she arrives! (Sorry Mom!) But since this time we're leaving her alone with the kids for 3 whole days while we head out of town for some skiing, we thought maybe we should make it up to her by taking her drinking, I mean wine tasting. (Isn't this how all us mom survive when left alone with the kids? No? Just me? Oh...)

Have I mentioned yet how much I love living here? I know our time is coming close to an end here at this base so it's time to start kicking our site seeing in high gear! We headed to Napa for the afternoon. My goodness, what a beautiful day to go! And since everyone else was home watching USA lose to Canada at hockey we were practically the only ones at the wineries. We even went on a tour of one of the wineries which was fun and interesting. Plus they give you 2 glasses of wine to drink (hence the fun)! The kids were great, the wine was good and the sunshine was invigorating!

Valentines Day

2010-02-21T18:43:00.000-08:00

How is this for a great V-day gift for a guy! Chris' favorite beer, a gift card for Best Buy and The Hangover on Blu Ray.
Ellie took a picture of us before our date, it's a little crooked. ;-)

At the Wine Spectator at The Culinary Institute in St. Helena (outside of Napa) with Andy and Marlene.

Our Fancy Welch Valentine's Dinner.

Ellie and Daddy having a dance.

Valentine's Day to us is just another excuse to get a babysitter and go have one of our fabulous dates. This year we were lucky enough to have Chris home and he planned a very nice date. We went to the Culinary Institute in Napa. They have their own restaurant at the school. The school itself was absolutely gorgeous. If we hadn't been running late for our reservation I would have taken a picture but we were so I didn't. We went with our good friends, Marlene and Andy and had a blast! The food was fancy but delicious. The restaurant was beautiful and my date was hot! ;-) The next day was actually V-day so I made a nice dinner for everyone, Ellie helped me set a beautiful table, brought out the china and fancy napkins, lit some candles and we all got dressed up for a fancy Welch dinner at home. The kids loved it and so did we.

Easton's 3rd Birthday

2010-02-21T18:14:00.000-08:00

Light Sabers from Auntie Jen. One for each of the boys. Sadly it's the best picture I got of these.
Star Wars Obi Won or Odi Bon as Easton likes to say
Another light saber!
Star Fighter I think, seriously, don't leave these boy things up to me.

Store bough cupcake. For some this is fine but for me, one who lives to bake, it was a heart breaking moment. Far from the Light Saber cake I had planned.

Easton turned 3 on February 2nd. We had such big plans to celebrate our little man's big day but illness swept through the family followed by some bad news. On his actual birthday Easton was sick. We managed to celebrate with family presents and I bought (yep, me BOUGHT!) cupcakes. He got lots of Star Wars toys (to daddy's enjoyment!) and Toy Story toys. He is very much into both of those right now. The following day he seemed to be feeling much better so we planned a family celebration to go out to dinner. Well, then right before we left I was not feeling well and went down fast. Spent the next few days in bed. We had planned a small party at the house with some friends and their kids but since I was down (lets be real here, we all know mama is the one that does all the planning) I went ahead and postponed the festivities. Good thing because the night we had planned to have it, Ellie got sick. She was out of school for a whole week and had to miss her Valentines Day party at school, which to a 6 year old is just about the end of the world. Everyone managed to be better for Valentines Day, thank GOD! Chris was actually home and had made special plans for a special date. (Post more on that later) And then to top of the weekend, Chris fell sick. This is a guy who never gets sick. I can't even tell you the last time I've known him to be sick! So we spent the remainder of the long weekend nursing him back to health. I was all ready to reschedule Easton's party when Chris receives a phone call. (actually, I think it was a text!) He is needed to deploy on March 9th. Obviously a huge shock to us since he just got home. But the flip side of this is that he is up for a Wing job and once he moves to the wing the squadron will no longer be able to get their hands on him and deploy him when they want so they are looking at an opportunity to deploy him one more time. It all makes sense when you look at it that way and even though we understand it is still very hard to deal with. So with very little time to prepare for him to leave again looks like Easton's 3rd Birthday was a store bough cupcake and a quiet, fever filled evening. Hopefully some day when he realizes he never got a 3rd birthday party he'll forgive me.

Ellie looses her first tooth!

2010-01-24T15:51:00.000-08:00

Now, I'm new at this and all but this could have very well been the longest loose tooth in the history of loose teeth! Her tooth became loose sometime before Christmas and on Christmas Eve I was convinced Santa and the Tooth Fairy would be making an appearance the same night. It was just that loose! I was also secretly wishing that it stayed in until Chris got home because for some reason dangly teeth make me want to pass out. Give me vomit, poo, and blood all at the same time and I'll handle it just fine but give me a wiggly tooth in a childs mouth then the floor magically appears closer to my face. So I've put on a brave mommy face every time she comes to me to show me how loose her tooth is. I use my excited mommy voice while staring at her forehead and not her mouth. Chris has tried to wiggle it free before but with no luck. Well this morning she comes running in to show me that it's practically horizontal and vertical and backwards and... ohhhh, here comes that blackness again. So daddy sternly and excitedly says, "oh that baby is coming out now!" She bravely lets him yank it out without even a scream or holler. Now, if I was a better mom and was focusing more on this memorable moment in my 6 year olds life I would have remembered to grab the camera and video camera. But I was more focused on hanging on to walls and finding that inner mommy strength that we all need to find at times. So out it comes! I head back to our bedroom all proud of my brave little girl and praying to God, "thank you Lord it was Chris and not me that had to do that!" and before I knew it the vision of the gaping hole in her mouth came swirling back to me and the bells and ringing and blackness came over me and ta da, floor meets face. (Now, wouldn't that have been a great time to have the camera!?) I'm not sure how many teeth a child has. I do know it's more than 20 and times that by 2 children...well, I'm going to have to find a whole heckofalot more mommy strength to keep me off the floor. I think it will be very important to eat breakfast next time before any teeth yanking activities takes place. Lucky for her, Mommy guilt means more loot in the tooth fairy pillow.

But seriously, what a brave little girl we have! I did manage this picture to show you all. Now lets hope the tooth fairy doesn't fall asleep before her duties are done tonight!

Napa Wine Seminar

2010-01-24T15:26:00.000-08:00

On the way to Napa. Chris found he can't hook up the Xbox to the new DVD player in the car but can hook up the Wii. Put some headphones and those boys, I mean men, and Katie and I had a very pleasant ride to the wine country.

Erin didn't join us for the seminar so here is a picture of the 5 of us.
Katie and Joe
Having way too much fun!
Enjoying our creations.
The boys having an indepth conversation about eye surgery.
Me, Katie and Erin at Mondavi.

We recently became Wine Club Members that gives us membership perks at about 7 different wineries in the Napa Valley. I wanted to do something fun with Chris and some friends after he got home from his deployment and one of the ladies at the winery highly suggested this seminar. It was called Mastering the Magnificat. At this winery the Magnificat is their unique blend of 4 different kinds of red wine. During the seminar we learned so much about how to taste wine and distinguish each wines characteristics. Once we got a good understanding of what we liked about each wine we got to create our own blend. The rule is that you have to use at least 2 of the 5 to classify it as a blend. We kept track of the percentage of each amount we put in so we could create it again, if we wanted to. Now, go to Napa and drink A LOT of wine and then try and do math. If only high school chemistry was this much fun! We came out of this seminar feeling, well, a little drunk but also very schooled in the art of wine tasting. I can now go up to any wine counter confidently, stick my nose in a glass 3 times, swirl and taste and know what to look for. Before I had a good pretend act based on what the people around me were doing!

We really had no idea about wine before we moved here. We are really enjoying learning about it and experiencing the area around us. Hopefully we'll still have many more enjoyable Napa days before our time is up here!

Bunk Beds!!

2010-01-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

We finally got Easton a big boy bed. He's been in his crib for almost 3 years now and even though he was quite content in his crib we did not want him to turn 3 and still be in a crib. We really wanted to get him bunk beds but he has the tiniest room! Well, long story short, we found a good sale and figured we'd just make it work until our next house in hopes he'll never have that small of room again. Turns out it fits quite nicely. He made the transition very easily and with no issues. He goes to bed just like before and sleeps well. Best part of it is that in the morning instead of waking us up he goes right to Sissy's room and wakes her up. So far she doesn't seem to mind and thinks it's pretty neat. So who are we to stop her happiness!? We just call it sibling bonding. ;-) His bedding finally came today so I wanted to get the pictures posted. We stayed with the airplane theme. I really wanted to get the insanely expensive pottery barn bedding but refer to 2 blogs previously and that'll explain why I haven't pushed the matter. Haha. They have both really loved the bunk beds and are in there almost constantly. Whether it's playing on their video games or just playing with toys. It's been kind of nice and quiet around here in the evenings when it's usually totally loud. I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually, but now we all seem to be enjoying it.

I've attached some pictures. Of course I've uploaded them backwards again, seriously, one of these days I'll get with it.

Didn't get him a dresser yet. He's got a pretty nice closet organizer so being short on room we decided just to wait on that. Got him this nice little bookshelf (on sale at Target, thank you very much)
It's a twin over full.
The bunk beds do have a ladder but we put it away for the time being. We got these steps that attach to the beds. Each step is also a drawer! If you look to the bottom right underneath the steps is another little storage area. But the coolest part about this is that the kids (and dogs) can crawl through there and underneath the bed! The front drawers aren't very deep so the rest is just open space. It's been so fun for them. They take their DS and Leapster under there with pillows and have a great time. We were worried about Tucker because his favorite place to be was under Easton's crib. But now he's found a new place to hide and seems very happy!

Ellie's 6th Birthday

2010-01-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

So I'm a little late posting pictures from Ellie's birthday. She turned 6 on the 6th! We had her party right after school on the day of her actual birthday at a jumpy house place in town. It was loads of fun!

Ellie and her BFF, Kaitlyn at a little party we had at the house with some friends who couldn't make it to her party.

(Some day I'll realize before I upload pictures that I need to do them in reverse order, so these are all in the wrong order) Blowing out her birthday candle and Ballet Barbie cake.
Pizza and cake in the party room
Easton still has a fear of bouncy houses so he just hung out in the little kids play area during the party. (When he wasn't clinging tightly to Chris)

Ellie thanking Easton for her bday present. A DS game
Her new Nintendo DS! She loves this!

Looking like such a big girl now!

New Car

2010-01-15T22:06:00.000-08:00

There it is.
Taking Ellie for a ride. I'm sure we'll get around to posting more pics of the inside later. I wonder how old she'll be when we get rid of this car? Hopefully out of a booster seat by then!

Well, our beloved Dodge Durango was telling us it was her time. So many car issues in the last few months. We were trying to hang on to it just until we move from here but with another dashboard warning light going off on us yesterday we decided to take just another look at the GMC dealership in town. Been there a few times now waiting for the perfect car (really perfect price) to show up. I've been in love with the Acadia for awhile now. The first time I saw it it was love at first site. The inside is just like a minivan but I could still have my SUV! (No offense to minivan owners out there) I have been pretty set on a red one and we thought if we could find a used one with low miles then we'd seriously consider it. But Acadia's are fairly new and REALLY hard to find a used one with all the bells and whistles we were looking for. So when we walked onto the lot this morning the dealer said they just got a 2009 in yesterday that hadn't even been cleaned up yet. We asked what color it was and he said, red (crap!) then we asked if it was loaded and he said yes (double crap) and it only had 10000 miles on it. (crap crap crap!) So we said, okay, lets see it. (That's probably where we should have turned around and ran home) So they bring her out all dirty and used. She (I call her she even though we've barely have had time to get to know each other. Maybe she's a he, we'll look under the hood tomorrow) didn't come with a dvd player which was a must on my list. But that was an easy (but not cheap) fix. Getting one installed on monday. So we played the numbers game which is always so much fun. The dealer even pulled out the, "it's for your childs safety" card. Nice! (Umm, he really had me sold at red and black leather but had to play along for the husbands sake) I batted my eyes and said I would give up the pottery barn bedding I so badly wanted for Easton's new beds. (because that would make up the difference and all) Luckily it didn't take much. Chris really loved it too. We would never find a red, black leather, used, low miles Acadia again. It was like it was meant to be. *sigh*

Trading in the Durango was bitter sweet. Always so hard to say goodbye to something that's been through so much with us. We bought that in Abilene when Ellie was still in her infant carrier. We've been through a lot of miles together, it towed Chris' car from Oklahoma (probably what started it's slow death) and brought Easton home from the hospital when he was born. (OKAY! Forget it, this is too emotional. I'm going back to save it from the used car lot tonight!) And I have to give a huge thank you to my wonderful husband. He so deserves a new car as well since he is still driving his car he had in high school! But it's a honda, it'll be Ellie's car in just a few years.

May our beloved (and some times hated) Durango find a happy home. Someone who will love it as much as we did. All 83,333 miles of her and all her bright shiny warning lights.