More Snow Pictures...

I wanted to post lots of pictures, so please be sure and read the post after this as it explains a lot!

The base of the giant snowman.

Snoopy and her preppy-dog coat.

Sledding at our neighborhood park.

Caroline made this snowman ALL by herself.

Snowy picture of our house...Go Air Force!

Congratulations to my husband who was selected for SAASS, an advanced school that will start in July in Montgomery, AL. You can imagine how excited we are to be moving so close to friends and family.

You may have seen that a huge winter storm is making its way through the country. We woke to about 3 inches of snow today and enjoyed playing, sledding and making snowmen. Caroline spent the majority of her day outside. It was a dry snow and the air was very still, so it wasn't particularly cold.

The girls worked very hard on their snowmen. This one is Mattie's. After they made two smaller ones, they made one that was so huge it required Derick to put it all together. I didn't get a picture before they decided it would be fun to knock it over. :(

We always attempt to decorate our tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. This year we ended up getting started before church and finished later in the day...

Tomorrow Nana arrives and Thursday D and I leave for Las Vegas. It is a combination vacation and opportunity to see friends at Weapon's School Graduation.

Catchin' Up!

I know I am behind on the blog--but I am ahead with Christmas!! Here are some things that have been happening here in Leavenworth.

We went camping for Thanksgiving. It was unusually cold and Cebu spent a lot of time under the covers inside the camper. We will have a traditional Thanksgiving meal tomorrow (Saturday), but on the real Thanksgiving Day, we had fajitas for supper and hot dogs for lunch!

We had our first snow of the season here in Kansas. It was a light dusting that melted quickly, but it was still very pretty to see.

Leavenworth hosts the largest Veteran's Day celebration West of the Mississippi. We enjoyed a parade that lasted two hours!

Caroline's preschool entertained us with a selection of Thanksgiving songs on Monday. Afterwards, we were served "Stone Soup" and dinner rolls and enjoyed having lunch with Caroline and her friends. P.S.--She was the cutest pilgrim there!!

Our Weekend

This was a great weekend--the perfect balance of productivity and relaxation.

Saturday we took off for some shopping. Mattie had a few birthday gift cards burning a hole in her pocket and D had promised the girls some ice cream. Soooo....we took of to Legends and had Stone Cold Creamery for dessert at 10:43 am (before lunch). Then we headed to Books-A-Million where I totally enjoyed watching Mattie make her selections and purchasing books with a gift card. Caroline still had some money left from her birthday gift card and she bought a new Webkinz. Derick and I also bought books (and, since I skipped the ice-cream, I got a great SF Latte).

Our third stop was Target. We hit the jackpot in the kid's clothing section. Both girls got much-needed jeans and sweat-type pants. Caroline even got a new "everyday" coat since she had been wearing Mattie's worn-out old one this fall. Mattie spent more birthday money on a new DS game while I perused the Christmas section. Then, home for football and homemade pizza. Roll Tide and Go Air Force. A good football day!

Sunday, we enjoyed a lazy morning before church, birthday cake at a friend's house and (for me) handbell rehearsal in the evening. Now we are waiting to see if it really is going to SNOW!

PS--I got lots of Christmas shopping done, too!

Sleepover Survival!

Mattie chose to celebrate her birthday with a trip to the movies followed by pizza, cake and a sleepover! We had a great group of well-behaved girls and I enjoyed the evening. I will admit that I was pretty tired the next day. I insist that the girls go to sleep since I don't think 7 and 8 year olds should stay up until 2am. I managed to get a giggling Mattie and a loud Gabrielle to go to sleep between 11 and 11:30. Caroline and Olivia fell asleep about 30 minutes earlier. The problem was with Cebu. He woke at our weekday hour of 6:20 and proceeded to investigate the new people sleeping in his house. Soooooooooo...our day started about 2 hours earlier than I had hoped and about 3 hours earlier than needed.

Pizza, cake and ice-cream were served on our girlie dishes in the dining room.

Mattie loves the PowerPuff Girls and I was lucky enough to find a from-home baker who made a custom cake.

Leaving home to go to the movie theater. Mattie is proudly displaying her newly legal ability to opt-out of a car seat of any kind. Her nervous mother made her get back in the half booster for the ride home!! Luckily we did notice that she didn't have the seat belt on correctly!

Our Week In Review...

After Halloween, it seems pretty boring around here. Glad to report that we are all well. Preparing for Mattie's birthday party tomorrow. She is treating several friends to a movie, returning home for pizza and cake and two little girls will be staying for the night. Wish us luck! I really think it will be a lot of fun.

I had a physical fitness "work up" done this week. It is a benefit offered to CGSC students and their spouses. I am extremely pleased with my blood work results (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.). However, I am afraid my cardio output is lacking (too much focus on strength training perhaps?). Also, my BMI is far too high. Irritating since my weight is right on for my height. So...I am altering my eating habits and taking the family along with me. It is true that I have gotten lazy--both physically and in the kitchen. I think some of it is a normal transition to learning to balance working (writing) more and all of the other stuff required to be a mom and run a household. Some of it is just laziness.

Thoughts and prayers to the families affected by the events at Ft. Hood. I can barely even grasp what has occurred. I cannot imagine the panic that families who were separated felt and I wondered how many people had trouble getting to their children or their homes while the post was closed. So very sad. Life can change forever in an instant.

Halloween!

We had a party on the 30th.

Birthday donut!

Birthday loot!

The cutest trick or treaters in town!

Parties!

The girls had really fun Halloween parties at school!

Wackadoo Zoo

Thursday night we were treated to a rather elaborate second grade musical, "Wackadoo Zoo." There were seven songs, speaking parts and my favorite, the special dancing monkeys (Mattie was one of them).

Here is the monkey, dancing, in the best photo I could get from a distance.

The kids dressed in colors appropriate for their zoo animal and then wore masks they made in art class. Check out the ears!

Pumpkin Carving!

Knock on wood, we are all well! Monday night we carved our pumpkins. Derick had each girl draw their pumpkin face on a piece of paper and then he drew the faces onto the pumpkins and carved them.

Caroline's Pumpkin!

Pumpkin carving is such hard work...

Scary sisters...

Mattie's pumpkin!

SICK

Soooo, we have decided to get all of our illness over for the fall, winter and spring THIS MONTH. Now Caroline is better and Derick has a stomach bug. We assume Caroline has already had it. So now, Mattie and I wait...

So we'll be in touch once everyone is well ;) Hopefully that will be before the end of the week when we want to celebrate a birthday and Halloween.

Autumn In Leavenworth

It has been a long time since I experienced the full-blown beauty of fall leaves, and Leavenworth may have one of the most spectacular displays I have ever seen. The camera doesn't do it justice, and I waited a few days after the leaves had peaked, but here are a few shots...

This is the view from our back deck.

My favorite view of fall leaves...

The streets were lined with trees just like this...gorgeous!

Week(s) In Review

It's been a rough week and a half. Over Columbus Day, Derick went to New Mexico on an elk hunt and I got a cold. The "cold" apparently was a virus and at any rate, I sort of let myself get too run down I guess. Things culminated with a trip to the ER Saturday morning, but my medicine has helped and I am finally on the up swing. It was one of those nagging illnesses where you think you feel OK, but you really should be in bed.

During that time, Caroline was also sick. We went to the doctor's office on Thursday and Friday, the ER on Saturday and back to the doc on Monday. Luckily, Mattie has been fine. Here are some of the things we have done since Friday the 9th.

Caroline had a field trip to the fire station and I joined her. This fire station was new and so very nice. I was impressed. The kids got to use this water hose to put out an imaginary fire on a wood cut-out building, climbed on the fire truck and watched a movie about stop, drop and roll.

This is before we got sick!!

We have had an incredibly cold stretch of weather that started on the day of the fire station trip. We are talking 38 for the high. I attended the coldest soccer games of my life...
Mattie playing soccer on October 10!!! Look at all of those clothes. Brrrr.

Is this soccer season or football playoffs? Good grief!

Caroline's game was at 3 and still brrrrrrrrrrrr!

Fast forward a full week to this past Sunday. We ventured out to the pumpkin patch. It has warmed up and the leaves are beautiful, but it was windy on Sunday. This cute pumpkin patch is only a few miles from our house. It is nice and small and we enjoyed a hayride to the patch to choose our pumpkins, the girls (and the adults) walked through a couple of haybale mazes, petted a draft horse, fed a goat some raw pumpkin, petted a donkey, saw pigs and sheep and came home with a haybale to put on our porch for our "fall display."

Whew. I'll try to keep up better with posts now that I am feeling better...

Honk-Choo

On days when Caroline doesn't have school, I let her sleep in. On those days, she typically wears her PJs in the van when we drop of Mattie and I figure she can eat as soon as we get back home. One day last week, Mattie is finishing up breakfast when Caroline appears in the living room. Bleary-eyed, Caroline crawls onto the sofa and with a very serious faces says, "Mommy, I was in my room 'honk-chooing' for a looong time."

Honk-choo is snoring.

I hope I remember that moment forever.

Brownie Investiture Ceremony

Mattie asked to join Girl Scouts this year. Having not been a Girl Scout myself, I had no idea what to expect. However, it is right up Mattie's alley. She comes home from her troop meeting with a craft in hand every week. They have neat books with all kinds of fun ideas and she earns patches and pins for her vest.

WE WILL BE SELLING COOKIES STARTING OCT. 31. PLEASE ORDER FROM US!

These photos are from Mattie's investiture ceremony. Each girl had a line to say and then they lit their candles. Mattie did very, very well with her line. Here she is holding a certificate that shows her participation in the ceremony.

She also earned a safety patch and a pin for work they have already done this year, as well as her Brownie Girl Scout pin.

This is before school on the morning of the ceremony. Yay Mattie!

Sunday, October 4

It seems that there is every kind of festival imaginable here. From Irish Beer Fests to Apple Fests, this area has it. Last Sunday we went to the neat little town of Weston for their Apple Fest.

Caroline enjoyed the pony rides...

The girls pose in front of a fountain in Weston City Park...

Mattie modeling her new dress before church...

My Birthday

I am way behind on posts, but instead of cramming everything into one post, I will spread it out a bit.

So, it appears that the only pictures of me on my actual birthday were made early in the morning, sans make-up. Lovely.

I love Mattie's outfit, so I threw that picture in for good measure.

I invited four other couples to celebrate my birthday with me last Saturday. After eating at one of my favorite restaurants, we went to an "all adult" bowling alley. It was so much fun. Posh furnishings with couches and a bar. My score was embarrassing, but I had so much fun!

I know, I know, I am probably in trouble for waiting so long in between posts, but when you're busy, you're busy!

Now, this picture is very random and was supposed to be the last picture of the post so that you could leave with a smile on your face! This is not posed, she actually came out of her room looking this way one morning! Gotta love second graders.

Look at our beautiful baby on a hayride at Alldredge Apple Orchard in Platte City, MO. Her class went on a field trip to the orchard and I went, too. It was so much fun. Caroline was allowed to feed chickens and goats--they ate out of her hands. We picked apples, learned about honey bees and got to pet barn cats. The children in her class were so sweet and well-behaved. What a great day.

I enjoyed the hayride, too! The weather was beautiful. The only thing missing (besides Derick and Mattie) were pumpkins!

The Air Force Ball was on Saturday, September 19. AF Balls around the globe(?) are held each year to celebrate the birthday of the AF. My dress rocks! I haven't had a new formal in years and I was so excited to have an excuse to go shopping. I really did try to do something different with my hair, but it looks exactly the same as it always does.

We went to and from the ball in this stretch limo with these friends of ours. My only regret is that we removed the "Just Married" magnet from the rear of the limo BEFORE we had our pictures made!