Enjoying Our Family Time

The past ten days have been so fun and we've really been trying to enjoy our time as a family before the upcoming deplolyment.  I realize that the silly little things that Gunner and Grace do all the time, sometimes I forget to blog them.  Gunner loves to run around and be "superman" after his bath (with his hooded towel on his head).  It's quite adorable. 

But what was even more adorable was when one night he wanted to sleep with his "superman."  I took a big gamble and snapped a picture while he was asleep (luckily he didn't even budge with the flash).

Last weekend we decided to do "Christmas" so Nate would be around to enjoy it with us.  We didn't bother wrapping the presents, we knew Gunner would be obsessed with the train table so we covered it with a blanket so he could enjoy the other toys for a little while before he discovered the table. 

The kids were very exciteed about their new toys (of course!).  But just as we suspected, the train table was the biggest hit.  We rearranged our living room so the train table is our new "centerpiece".  But it works great because the kids love it and play with it all the time!

Nate and I bought ourselves a Christmas present later that night... a brand new 2012 Kia Sedona minivan. :)  We are in love with it!  We've already put 400 miles on it in a week (just trying to break it in, haha).

The next day we ventured to Wilmington (an hour and a half away) just to try out the new van and go to some stores that we don't have in Jacksonville.  We went to one of Nate's favorite restaurants Buffalo Wild Wings.  The kids were surprisingly good.  I got a pretty good picture of Gunner, but the best part is he's sporting a pocket tshirt just like Grandpa always does, it was cute!

Before Thanksgiving we ventured to the aquarium to enjoy some fun just for the kids. 

I love watching Nate get to enjoy the kids.  They are sure going to miss each other.  We've really been working hard with Grace to get her walking (hopefully before daddy leaves for 7 months).

But the cutest thing is Gunner always asks to hold her hand now and cheers for her whenever she takes steps.  Such a great big brother!  I did get a video the other night when we were bribing her to walk with mini marshmellows (whatever works right?!).

Friday night we ventured to Swansboro for their Flotilla which is boats decorated with lights in a parade and then Santa comes by boat, there were churches giving hot cider and popcorn and such and lots of Christmas music, it was wonderful.  The weather was cool but actually pretty nice. The kids had so much fun. We missed most of the boat parade, but were able to catch the tail end.

And we attempted to get a family picture, but that's harder than it sounds.

Yesterday Nate had to go in to work for a little while so the kids and I went to the Christmas parade on Emerald Isle.  Gunner was all excited because they threw candy. :) And they had these mini semi trucks that were driving circles as they drove down the parade path.  They were pretty cool to me, I can't imagine how cool they were to a two year old.

 We have a few more days to enjoy Nate before he has to leave, so hopefully we can squeeze in a little more fun before then.  We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  We appreciate all the prayers as we get ready for deployment!

Travel, Travel, Travel

The last two weeks have been filled with travel, travel, and more travel.  Nate made it back safe from his training in California and the kids were ECSTATIC to see him.  I tried to get a good picture of Gunner’s initial reaction but this is the best I could get.

Gunner and Grace both bombarded him on the bed and were so happy he was home. 

He got home early Sunday morning so he was sleeping while they were playing in the morning (they had no idea he was home).

But when Grace finally saw him, she just laid on him for about ten minutes, barely moving at all, it was adorable.

Nate had a long week at work that week but the kids always find time for books.

 I did get some great pictures of the kids playing outside while we were loading the car for our road trip.  Gunner was pushing Grace around on the motorcycle (mommy accidentally overcharged the battery so it doesn’t work anymore).  They were having so much fun together.

About 6pm on Thursday we hit the road for our travels.  We drove through the night (through the first four states) to get to Ohio to see a friend of mine I haven’t seen in almost two years.  I was SO happy to see her and enjoy the few hours we were able to spend with her.  I didn’t get many pictures but I did get one of Grace playing with the train tracks that Tammy dug out for Gunner.  She’s such a great host!  I wish we could have stayed longer.

But we were off to finish the next three states to finally get to Wisconsin to see Nate’s family.  But we finally made it (Nate, Me, Gunner, Grace, Baxter, and all our stuff crammed in the Altima). J  On Saturday all of Nate’s family got together to spend some time together, it was wonderful!  The weather was gorgeous (for Wisconsin).  All the kids went outside to enjoy the weather for awhile (all except Baby Alexa, as she’s only 6 weeks old). 

This picture they had Gunner’s little play tools and were “fixing” the fence, I thought it was precious.

Then it was time to get family photos as all Nate’s siblings and nieces were there.  Here’s Nate with his brothers (Jamieson and Jared) and his sister (Vanessa).

Then we tried to get a picture of spouses and kids too, I only have one picture on my camera, so it was easy to pick which one to share on the blog. J

I have a few shots of us trying to snap a picture of all five grandkids, but it was a lost cause.  Gunner and Grace were exhausted by this point so cooperation was nonexistent.  But I think this picture pretty much sums up our attempt.

All in all, we had a fantastic trip to Wisconsin and were so happy to see everyone!!  The kids had a blast playing with all their cousins and Grandma and Grandpa.  After our trip to Wisconsin, we decided to head to KY for a few days.  My mom was nice gracious enough to keep the kids for a few nights so Nate and I could enjoy some quality time together (sans kids), it was heaven!  We were able to do some Christmas shopping and enjoy a good night’s sleep.  Then last night we headed back to NC and made it home safe this morning.  We’ve had a completely lazy day, the house is destroyed with toys and we’ve yet to unpack, but we’re okay with that.  The kids were exhausted after all our travel, they napped for 3 hours today (and Nate and I enjoyed a nap too).  We feel so blessed to have been able to see all our family!  We have one more week of Nate being home, so hopefully I'll get lots of good photos to share. 

Halloween and such

How has it already been ten days again since I blogged?!  Man oh man, I really need to stop slacking.  It’s been a busy ten days to say the least and the saddest part of all is that on Halloween my camera died. L So sad!  So we’ve been camera less for a few days so I’m gonna squeeze in a few phone pictures, hopefully they’re not terrible quality.  So in the days past we enjoyed some Halloween festivities including going to a little church pumpkin patch.

Of course the kids didn’t want to both look and smile at the same time.  But that’s nothing new.  Gunner ended up picking out a cute little pumpkin and Grace was fascinated with a gourd so I bought her one of those. Instead of carving (seen we had little pumpkins and carving is not much fun for Gunner’s age) I had him paint the pumpkins one day while Grace napped.

One day we went to a Halloween craft day with some of the other mommies in the area and Gunner made some adorable little crafts.  He did so well with the baby glue bottle (I was very impressed).

The bat is his hands and the thing on the right is just a monster that he got to create with whatever he wanted to use.  I didn't help at all on the monster, that's all Gunner.  I was pretty proud. 

Of course, it just wouldn't be Halloween without costumes and trick or treating.  We actually didn't do any "trick or treating" we went to two "trunk treating" events.  Basically what happens for those that have no idea what trunk treating is, people decorate the back of their cars or trucks and hand out candy from there.  We did one even with Nate's unit from work and another at our church.

Incase you couldn't tell Gunner was a spider and Grace was Little Miss Muffett. :)  I was completely bummed when my camera decided to take it's last picture as we were on our way to the church trunk treating.  But I was able to get one last picture before it died (of a rainbow).  The back story is that it was raining that day and when we went to go to church there was a beautiful rainbow and Gunner has never seen one (at least not since he's been able to talk so well).  He was absolutely fascinated with it!

So needless to say, I don't have any pictures from the Hallelujah Night as they called it.  It was a lot of fun though, besides the trunk treating they had games set up inside where the kids could win candy instead of just ask for it.  They had a bounce house (always a hit!) and a cake walk (Gunner won!).  It was a lot of fun.  Today we went to Jacksonville for their Veteran's Day Parade.  It was freezing this morning so the kids were able to wear their new winter jackets and hat (they looked so cute!).  Here's a cute one of them sitting on the curb watching...

It was a long parade (almost an hour!)  And unfortunately they didn't throw candy.  But they did have firetrucks (a 2 year olds fav) and marching bands and motorcycles...  It was really cute.  I broke down and bought a camera tonight too because Nate gets home tomorrow and I hope to catch the kids reaction to him being home. :)  I can not wait to see him either, it's been a long 5 1/2 weeks!!  Then we're headed to Wisconsin next weekend.  Before I sign off for the evening (I need to change those clocks back YUCK! and pick up the house) here's a few photos from before the camera died, that way I can start with a fresh memory card this week. :)  Enjoy!

Look, they do get along sometimes. :-)