Happy Birthday Lucy!

December 21st Lucy turned 1! I decided to make meatloaf and give her a little as a treat. The kids wanted to buy her presents so we decided to make a little party out of it. We wrapped dog treats in with her present, but the smell of the meatloaf was so distracting she didn't know what to do! In the end we opened her presents and she had fun destroying them!

Tyler's Arrow of Light

We finally had Pack meeting and Tyler was presented with his Arrow of Light. In the past I have seen really nice ceremonies and it was a big deal, but there were some unexpected things that kept delaying our pack meeting and in the end the big ceremony didn't happen. However he still earned it and I was pinned for the last time (From Tyler anyway) and now I turn over the scouting stuff to Zach! Yippee! Only one Cub Scout to help now! Tyler worked very hard and we are very proud of him. Not many really work to get this rank in Cub Scouts, but it is the only one that carries over with him to Boy Scouts from what I am told so I am really happy he stuck it out and earned it. Congratulations Tyler!

Happy 11th Birthday Tyler!

The big 11 has arrived! I still have mixed feelings on how this transition to teenage years is going to go, but I have 2 years to figure it out now! Zach did the cake again. I am not an artist! Zach can take a picture and do much better than I could ever dream so it's always his job. This year we didn't let the kids pick what they wanted their cake to be. We wanted it to be a surprise. Tyler didn't really have a response to the cake or presents for that matter, but I think he liked it! I am chalk it up to the whole 11 year old attitude/ego thing! Any with boys feel free to pass on any and all advice! I am more than ready!





He wanted a pocket knife since he earned his whittling chip in scouts, but Zach decided that since he will be in Boy Scouts now he needed something that will be more useful. Hopefully he will be doing lots of camping and getting use out of it!






The R2D2 cake! At first we thought of doing Darth Vader, but that is a lot of black frosting! Zach was running late from work, but I think he did a good job. Someday I will learn not use cake mixes becuase they crumble!

So Happy Birthday Tyler! Can't believe 11 years ago at 11:01am you arrived weighing in at 7lbs 13oz!

12 years and counting!

Zach got me 12 roses, one for each year we have been married, while I was battling the line at Toys R US! Come to think of it, it wasn't so much the line as it was Cody. He get the older two to deal with. I didn't know and he said he couldn't beleive I didn't smell them in the van on the way home. I put my nice table cloth on the table and my pretty roses so I could take a picture of the dining room since it's one the few rooms that we have decorated. It's not finished, but at least has curtains and things on the wall. And it was somewhat clean! Cody didn't like the table cloth being back on and said "Mom Thanksgiving is over, take it off." He wanted to play playdough!

It often feels like longer than 12 years that Zach and I have been married. We've had our ups and downs, but it's been a great adventure and I can't wait to see what comes next!

Cody Sayings

I was just called to be the primary chorister at church so as I sat my first Sunday in primary this was what I heard. The kids were learning about being good examples.

Teacher: "If you are out on the street do you think other kids still watch you to see if you are being a good example?"

Cody: "Nooooo, if you in the street you will get run over. You shouldn't play in the street!"

I about died of laughter! And just now this was the conversation.

Cody "Mom I need batteries for my gun."

Me "We are out of batteries Cody and the stores are closed for Thanksgiving."

Cody "Dad, I need batteries for my gun."

Dad "I will go to the store and get you batteries for your gun....(Cody gets excited)...tomorrow. Today is Thanksgiving so the stores are closed."

Cody "Man I hate Thanksgiving." He walks away with his head down and dragging his gun.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Once again we are spending Thanksgiving just the 5 of us, but it's kind of fun to hang out in jammies and not have to worry about the house being clean. I am sooo happy to have a nice big oven after three years of a tiny german oven! I made two pies at the same time! SO much easier! The turkey smells great and I can't wait for dinner later today. Zach is happy he can acutally watch football live and not a recording or stay up really late! Since it is Thanksgiving I asked each of the boys (Zach included) to name 5 things they are thankful for! And they couldn't copy each other. And they thought watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was torture!

Cody
1.Turkey
2.Pie
3.Dad
4.Lucy
5.Playdough

Ryan
1.Family
2.Friends
3.House
4.Food
5.Clothes

Tyler
1.School
2.Commisary
3.Toys R Us
4.Bed
5.Church

Zachary
1.Big Red Chevy Truck
2.The wife who let me by my big red Chevy truck
3.House
4.Thankful I am not deployed.
5.Thankful work gave me the day off.

Marie
1.Three boys that drive me insane!
2.The Air Force for providing us with a house and steady income.
3.The crazy guy who has stuck with me for 12 years!
4.The freedom we have.
5.The gospel and a loving Heavenly Father who knows what we need before we do.

We miss all of our family and friends, but are grateful for the technology we have to communicate with them even when we are miles apart! At least this year we are on the same continent as most of them!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Leave cancelled so no Thanksgiving trip to Florida

This week seems to have a theme.......bad. Zach went to fill out leave paperwork just to find out they cancelled it. I guess they had two others already taking the time off and they requested first so they get it. That is the hard part about moving this time of year. Leave around the holidays is already taken up! I had thought about going on my own, but 16 hours is quite a distance and the idea was to have a relaxing getaway, not a stressful week with the kids on my own. Soooo now I need to make a list for Thanksgiving dinner. Zach will have to work so we will have a late meal with just the five of us. I know there is still plenty to be grateful for, but we have had so many hopes crushed with this move that it just seems like everything is working against us right now. We will try and make it to Florida for Spring break in April and he has the month of July on the calendar to go to Cheyenne so we hope that works out. When we got here they said to plan on Zach being deployed next Septemberish so I would hope they wouldn't take our leave away for July. Usually they are pretty nice about getting guys time off before deployments. We won't know for a while if he really will go next year since he still has a lot to learn on this new plane, but when they feel he is ready he will take his turn.