Circus

When we went to Virginia a few weeks ago to visit Daddy, he took all of us to the circus. We had such a good time. For those of you who haven't seen pictures, here are some of my favorites.

They were both terrified of being next to a clown. This was before the show started, once we got to our seats and the show started, they were in heaven, enjoying every minute. Notice, I am laughing hysterically at their reactions.

K is just dancing away to the music. She was enthralled the entire time.
This is one of Drew's favorites.
What a sweet boy!

Invasion of the Super Heroes

For Christmas, C got the Super Hero Starter Kit. It is a fun little book that tells all about how to be a Super Hero. It has stickers and a cape, and even gives tips on how to pick the best name. He has been begging me for months to do it, and it just seemed that we never really had enough time to do it justice. So, this week we finally got around to making C and K into Super Heroes.

They even picked their own names. C is now "Wonder Donut" and K is "Super Noodle" They decided that Wonder Donut fights the bad guys by throwing donuts at them and distracting them from doing the bad things, after all, who can resist a good donut? And Super Noodle ties the bad guys up with noodles.

How's that for creativity?

Sleepover

A few weeks ago, the kids were talking about how they wanted to have a sleepover for bed that night. It was a week night and we all had to get up early in the morning, so I nixed the idea. Later that night, I went to check on C before I went to bed, and this is what I found.

He found a way to have a sleepover on his own without K's help.

Pictures from Basement

I know I said I would post pictures...Well, I'm finally getting around to doing some of the things that I should be doing around here, so I thought I would show you what our basement looks like. The guys finished the drywall before Drew left. Since then, we (myself as well as my wonderful Home Teacher and his wife) have primed about 3/4 of the basement. I need to finish the last little bit of priming. Then, we will be ready to paint. Once the paint is done, we will have the flooring done. We will probably finish the rest of it once Drew gets back in August, but we should be able to start using the space soon (I hope). So, this is what it looks like.

Appreciation

There are days like today and weeks like this week when I really, really, really appreciate my husband. I know, I appreciate him all of the time, but I do so more when he is not around. It seems like its the little things that he can and does help out with that mean the most.
Yesterday, while we were at the YMCA, K was playing in the tubes (similar to the ones at McDonalds) and she hit her arm pretty bad. It wasn't looking so good, so I took her to the ER. Luckily a friend was there, and she took C home with her so I didn't have to worry about entertaining the two of them in the waiting room. After 2 and a half hours, the doctor came in and told us it was broken. She broke both bones in her right arm just above the wrist. They put a splint on it and then told us to come back tomorrow to get a cast. So, we left the hospital and went to pick up C. He was at the church for the Pinewood Derby, so we ended up staying until after 8:00. K and I still hadn't eaten dinner yet, so we ended up stopping somewhere on the way home.
This afternoon, after lunch we went back to the hospital to get a cast for K's arm. She chose neon pink (like any girl would do, I suppose). We came home and everything seemed as though it would be fine. Until after dinner tonight. She came to me and said, "Mama, my head is dying." So I picked her up and let her lay her head down for a few minutes. Thankfully I was smart enough to get her shirt off of her and send C upstairs for rags and a blanket. Not 5 minutes later the throwing up began. She had a migraine, and here I was trying to get her to not turn her head in one direction so she wouldn't puke on her cast, keep it away from the furniture, keep as much of it off of her as possible, etc. And, it was bedtime, so I had to put C to bed (pajamas, story, scriptures, the whole works) while trying to keep her from making a mess everywhere and holding onto her, because thats all she wants when this happens.
Needless to say, there are days I realize how much an extra set of hands can be when taking care of little ones, and I am so grateful that I have a loving and supportive husband who is there for me (when hes not deployed). When he is gone, it makes me realize how lucky and blessed I truly am.

Comin at ya from the beach

I figured I would take a minute to let everyone know that I made it out here fine and am doing well. I definitely cannot complain about deploying to Hampton, VA, while all of my fellow troops are deploying to the desert and other such places. In one aspect I do believe this may be a little harder. On a deployment overseas, you are working 7 days a week, long hours. Here, I am working fairly normal hours and have plenty of time sitting at home alone. I have been able to do home work and talk to Jana help the time pass by a little faster, but it still gets pretty lonely. As soon as I get together with my mom, I will have a camera and will take some photos to share.

Let me tell you something, the Army and the Air Force are different. I have always "known" of the difference, but this is a relearning experience. I drove around the BEAUTIFUL Fort Monroe yesterday looking for the gym. I had a map of the base, but wanted to see it firsthand. The map had a marking for an "Airfield." Being in the Air Force, you can imagine what I expected. Instead, it was a windsock on a running trail. I guess if you want to land a remote control airplane, that would probably work. This is a really cool fort. It was founded by John Smith in the 1600s (Ft Monroe) to protect the entrance to Hampton Roads. One of the coolest features of the fort is a huge moat in the middle. Inside of the moat, are several buildings, to include one of Gen Robert E. Lee's quarters and many other historic buildings.

Basement

After a long wait, we are finally once again making some progress on our basement. Things got put on hold when Drew started school and little work has been done over the last 6 months. But, he finished the plumbing and electrical work, the insulation was finished and today, we had a company come and start drywalling. It really is amazing to see how much four guys can get done in a day when they know what they're doing, versus us, who are learning as we go. They should be done in a day or two. Now the rush is on to finish as much as possible in the next few weeks. Drew is deploying and will be leaving on January 23rd. I would like to have as much done as possible before he goes so that we can actually start using the space while he is gone. It would be nice to have all but the flooring and painting done, because those are things that can be done after he leaves. I guess we will have to see how much we can get done in the next week or two. I am really excited because it is actually looking like part of the house-finally! I will post pictures when we get some taken.