Our Christmas Wish!!

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I found my new favorite Christmas song for this year (thanks Laurie!!) It is truly the Christmas wish of each person at this house and I know Derek's too. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and pause the music there (the little square in the top left hand corner with little bars) then come back up here and click on play (the circle with the arrow) to hear the song.

I even got the boys to draw pictures to go with the song. So here are their drawings of their Daddy in his "dress blues."

Brian's Picture (it says "Daddy1" cause thats what he calls him when they exchange emails)






Andrew's picture (he got a little carried away with the blue marker, and actually was having more fun drawing on the counter than his picture-- silly kid!!):



Jodi's picture (she doesn't draw she uses a camera):


We love you Derek and wish you a very Merry Christmas in Afghanistan!! If you see Santa don't forget to jump in his sleigh!

Santa

We got to see Santa Claus at a Brigade Holiday Deployment Fair. The boys were very excited to finally get to sit on his lap. They really wanted to tell him that they wanted Star Wars toys for Christmas. We didn't have any crying or screaming this year from any of them. Here are some pics of them. There was a long line behind us and I didn't want to take too long so the pictures aren't that great. But at least they are something. You can't tell in the pictures but they really were happy and excited about the whole thing.

Andrew & Santa

Brian & Santa

Timothy & Santa

Gingerbread House

Brian made a gingerbread house at school. He was so proud of it. Here are some pictures of his masterpiece. I think he used enough frosting!

Tuckered Out!

We had a very busy day and poor Timothy didn't get a nap. Then we went to a friend's house for a birthday party and he ran around all over and had lots of fun jumping on the trampoline. He must have totally wore himself out because this is how I found him shortly after we got home:

He was so tired that I think he must have just crashed in motion. Notice the loaf of bread next to him that he was getting into. Silly kid!!

Timothy

The other night while I was getting the boys ready for bed I realized that T was being way too quiet which meant only one thing-- he must be getting into mischief. So he needed to be checked on for sure. I found him in the kitchen happily eating the last few crumbs of our Upsidedown Fudge Cake. (Which I might add is delicious and totally "Andrew Safe"). It had about 3 small helpings left in the dish before he got to it. He mananged to finish it all off. He was eating the last few bites when I found him. He quite enjoyed himself and thought he had gotten a great bed time snack. He's definitly no dummy-- the dish was on top of the microwave and covered with a glass lid. So he must have pushed over the bar stool and crawled up on the counter and gotten it down, opened it, gotten a spoon (which is in the drawer on the other side of the kitchen), and then made himself comfortable on the stool to eat. Notice in the pictures that he had to have the largest spoon he could find too. Silly kid!!
I added some other funny pictures of him too. Most kids keep a sippy cup around in case they need a drink. Well, no need for one here, he just goes in and helps himself to the dog dish when he gets thirsty. It so funny, he crouches down on all fours and dips his face in and sucks it up. If there is ever water on the floor he gets down and slurps it off the floor too. No need to mop up after the kids get out of the tub-- between him and the dog they take care of it. (Ok I don't really let him but he always tries and I have to stop him).
He found one of the boys hats and put it on. I found him sitting here playing with cars with his hat on looking all cool. He thought he was pretty hot stuff too. Enjoy the pics!

Christmas Tree

When Brian came home the other day he was said we needed to get ready for Christmas and he was adamant that we had to have a Christmas tree. We haven't put ours up yet and I wasn't planning on putting it up. Before Derek left we were straightening up the garage and I had him put the tree and the box with the decorations up on the top shelf behind everything--oops! So I can't even get it down. I figured we would be okay because soon enough would be enjoying Grandma's tree anyway. But that wasn't good enough for Brian. He wanted one and he wanted one now. When I told him I couldn't get ours down he told me to get the ladder-- he's no dummy. But even that wasn't enough, I not only needed height I needed more muscles too. I had gotten a flier in the mail that day for a place that had little 18 inch trees on sale. So I tried to talk him into one of those. At first he wasn't going to have anything to do with that. He wanted our big one. Finally I showed him how high it would come up on his body if he stood next to it and he realized that it wasn't a "miniature tree" but a "medium sized tree." He thought maybe a medium sized one would be okay. So he reluctantly went out to the car so we could go get one. When we got to the store and I showed them to him he fell in love with one. He carried it all through the store and held it on his lap all the way home. He now refers to it as "his tree." I let the kids pick out some ornaments and lights and stuff for it. They had fun doing that. Then when we got home we decorated it and they loved that. They are so excited to finally have a tree up. But apparently it still doesn't take the place of our other one. In an email that Derek exchanged with Andrew, Derek asked him what special thing he wanted to do with him when he got home. Andrew's first response was that he wanted "to decorate our big Christmas tree with you and then we can give our little one back to that girl." I'm assuming that maybe "that girl" is the cashier, but I'm not sure. But none the less the kids do enjoy it. Brian wants to plug it in first thing each morning and they enjoy driving their cars and trucks all around it. And yes-- thanks to Timothy it has been redecorated several times already.

Favorite Commercial

I have had several people tell me that when they see this commercial they think of me. I had never seen it (I rarely ever actually watch TV) but enough people had mentioned it to me that I went online and searched for it. I just had to see it. Once seeing it I must admit, I can see why they think of me. At least I only have 3 boys and not 4, but I do have a dog and that counts for something too. I thought it was so funny and cute and found so much truth to it that I sat here and watched it over and over laughing every time. So I decided I just had to post it for those of you like me who haven't seen it. My two favorite parts are when the boys pull the drapes down and just as she is closing the door you can see a red ball bounce off her head-- love it!! Oh and I love the crash you hear after the door is closed too-- so I guess I have 3 favorite parts. She is truly the epitome of how I feel some days. But I do love my little boys!!!
(Keep in mind that I am in no way trying to endorse Progressive insurance-- I just love the commercial. Also, before you view it you will may want to scroll down and pause the music at the bottum so you can hear it).

Thanksgving in Afghanistan

Yes-- Derek did get to have Thanksgiving in Afghansitan. He said it was pretty much just a normal day just with a really big dinner. The head cook takes a lot of pride in his work and Derek says that it shows. So he says that the food was pretty good. There was a reporter there from the New York Times (the above picture came from his story). Here is a link to the story he wrote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/world/asia/23afghan.html?_r=2&ref=world&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Derek is not mentioned in the story but he ate dinner with the reporter and SSG White, the soldier it talks about at the end of the story, is one of Derek's Fire Supporters and is his right hand man right now. Also if you view the slideshow the soldier holding the tray in slide #9 is another one of the guys Derek works with.

The picture below was also taken by the reporter but not printed anywhere. It is some of the guys Derek works with and the French soldiers. (Derek is in the backrow, just off to the right of the middle. SSG White is the first US Soldier in the back row on the left). It was taken on the roof of their building. (And, YES-- that really is the way the French wear their barrets. Derek thought they were just joking when they first put them on. But they weren't).

Happy Thanksgiving!!

The boys and I enjoyed a nice little Thanksgiving dinner together, with just the four of us. I didn't cook a turkey because even the smallest ones would have been way too much for us. So we had a chicken instead. The boys didn't care. In fact they were excited to eat the chicken. It fell apart when I pulled it out of the crock pot-- thats why it looks funny on the plate. But it tasted wonderful-- it all did.

Here is Brian and Andrew showing off our dinner. We had chicken, rolls, corn, candied yams, stuffing, carrots, and pumpkin pie. One very special thing about this dinner is every dish is totally "Andrew Safe"-- no milk, eggs, or nuts in our Thanksgiving dinner, not even the pumpkin pie!

Here are the boys eating their dinner. They actually ate it really well.

Brian thought he needed to have his mouth open if it was a picture of him eating.

So then Andrew thought he had to open his mouth too. Silly boys!! (Notice his black eye. He fell and hit it on a display case at the store. He cut it open and it bled all over. What a shopping experience that was!!)

At least Timothy kept his mouth closed. I think he is the only one of the boys that polished off his whole plate. He loves food!

Brian's Program

Brian's class put on a Thanksgiving program. It was about the Pilgrams, Indains, and the first Thanksgiving. Brian was a pilgrim. He did a great job and said his part perfect. After the program they had a Thanksgiving feast.

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to me!!! Today was my birthday. It was a just another normal day until three of my closest friends from church showed up with a cake. They sang Happy Birthday and we shared cake together. It was even a cake made special so Andrew could eat it too. :) They were only here for a short time but it was so nice and it really made my day. How lucky I am to have such great friends. I am so blessed!!

(No, thats not the right amount of candles but its all we had. Brian did make the comment though that we would need "a lot of candles." Silly kid!)

Thanksgiving Tree

Making a Thanksgiving Tree is a holiday tradition that we have for this time of year. We take turns writing the things that we are thankful for on a leaf and then placing them on a picture of a tree. Each thing can only be said once so everyone has to think of something different to say. Its fun and a great way to think about and remember your blessings. The boys have lots of fun putting the leaves on-- even Timothy.

I thought you might like to read the things that the boys said they were thankful for. Some of them really made me smile. Keep in mind that I didn't help Brian and Andrew at all-- they came up with these things all on their own.

Brian:
Daddy
Games (his playstation ones)
The number 5
Timothy
The letter F
My Best Friend Conner
Lightbulbs
Trees
Leaves
Ears

Andrew:
Puzzles (no surprise there)
Football
The Raiders (Daddy will be so proud!)
Brian
Scissors
Swords
The Jeep (the powerwheels)
Painting
Daddy's truck
Mommy's Hair (he's loves to play with it)

Timothy

Spiderman

Because of Halloween I didn't get these pictures posted until now. There was a grand opening of a new store at our Toy's R Us and Spiderman was there to help celebrate. Andrew loves Spiderman (although he doesn't really know anything about him) so we had to go see him. The boys thought it was cool but Andrew wasn't too sure what to think about Spiderman in real life. Thus no smiles in the pictures. Anyways, he was a very nice Spiderman and even game them autographed cards.

Trying this out

Well, Jodi says I can contriute to our blog simply by sending an email to it.  I guess we'll see how it works.

Things continue to grind on here in Afghanistan.  My body is telling me that it's time to get ready to go home, which would have been the case had we not been extended.  Instead we still have a good stretch to go.  As far as the country goes, I love Afghanistan.  It's very beautiful.  Too bad there are so many people that want to kill us.  Anyway, I'd better get to bed.  (5 hours of sleep is a good night.)  Hopefully these pictures come through.

Trick-or-Treating

The boys had lots of fun trick-or-treating. We only made it through maybe a third of our neighborhood before they got tired and wanted to go home. But thats okay we didn't need anymore candy than what we got. After we got home I hurried and pulled out all the candy with nuts that we can't have and gave it away to the trick-or-treaters that came to our house. So now we have no "bad candy" as Andrew calls it. Once again our pile of "Andrew safe" candy is slightly larger than our pile of non-safe candy.
The boys were very polite trick-or-treaters. Not only did they say "Trick-or-treat!" to everyone but they also said "Happy Halloween!" to everyone too. The people giving out the candy thought it was very cute, and it was!!
Oh and by the way in case you think you are doing a double-take-- yes, these are the same costumes that the boys wore last year. And yes, I did make the dinosaur ones.

Carving our Pumpkin

Well since I have such a great track record with using knives (I always cut myself) I wasn't sure if we should attempt to carve our pumpkin without Derek. But I got brave and we did it anyway and I am glad to report that we all came through with all of our fingers intact. The boys designed the face. Lucky for me it was something easy. Brian kept telling me throughout the whole process that he wasn't so sure if we could really do it without Daddy. I wasn't sure either but we seemed to make do. But it was definitely a time when we all noticed his absence. As I have mentioned before this is the first time since even before we were married that Derek and I have not gotten to carve pumpkins together. It was our first date so it is something that is very special to us.
Brian is my budding photographer. I was busy working on the pumpkin so he took several of the pictures for us. So you actually get to see me in some pictures for a change.