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!