Christmas Extravaganza

Well I decided to make Christmas one big post of fun pics! Enjoy!

Santa came!

Evan's favorite gift from Santa (he didn't want to stop playing with this all day...not even to eat)

Avery's favorite gift from Santa


NOT happy about sharing

Gifts from Great Grammie and Great Grandad Suders (they loved their books THANKS!)




Taking a break to watch the Christmas parade!

More gifts!

I think Avery was excited!

They weren't sure what to do with that big box so they used it as a stage!

We finally got it out for them!

From Aunt Rachael, Uncle Pedro, and Taylor! (they can't wait to watch their DVDs and love to doodle! Thank you!)




We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

The countdown is on again....

This time it is for the big move. We are doing some cleaning and preparation for the move today. Thankfully we had my family here visiting for a few days and they kept A&E occupied so we could get some things done. A&E loved having all that attention and 4 playmates!

Tomorrow we are running errands and finishing up the prep work for the movers. Tuesday the packers come and Wednesday the movers will be here to load our stuff. We are staying in TLF and then leaving Thursday morning. We will only drive about 8 hours the first day and then stay overnight somewhere before finishing the trip on Friday. Sounds fun, right? :-p

I will try to update later tonight with some pics from Christmas!

Computer Kids

A&E have a slight obsession with our laptop. They will climb anything to try to get to it so they can push the buttons. It drives me crazy when I am doing something and one of them hits the power button! So for Christmas Grandpa Wayne and Cheryl got them their own laptops. They don't really understand how to use them but they love pushing the buttons. They had to be taken away last night because they kept standing on them. Crazy kids! Here they are opening their very own computers!




checking their e-mail

and their stocks

Perfect PJs

We got a surprise gift last week from my friend Kristi! She had her mom make pjs for A&E (that are perfect!) and sent me some Christmas oreos (that are gone already!). What is better than a surprise gift that is personalized?? Here are A&E modeling their pjs that they love. They actually wore them all day Sunday after we changed out of church clothes. They took their first good nap in a long time so they must be good luck pjs! The pants are so soft and the shirts are adorable. I think Andy and I need a pair! lol
Thank you sooooo much Kristi! You rock!







How adorable are those? Her mom needs to go into business!

Snowmen - Columbus Style

Well we don't see much snow in Columbus and I seriously doubt we will even see flurries in Corpus Christi so we made our own snowman in the comforts of our warm home. I thought this would be a cute project for A&E. They weren't too happy when they touched the sticky glue and kept throwing cotton balls (snowball fight anyone?). This is how our team efforts turned out!

What a sad day!

Today has been such a sad day. I watched the news about Caylee Anthony. The news about that poor little girl and what her family is going through just breaks my heart. How could anyone do that to a child?

Then I read a blog about someone that was on a message board with me when we were trying to get pregnant. She struggled with infertility but she now has 2 young children. She found out she had cancer while she was pregnant with her youngest son. She is now at home in hospice right before the holidays. Here is her blog if you are interested. http://lemmondrops.blogspot.com/

If you pray, please pray for her and her family and if you aren't the praying kind please send good thoughts their way.

I can't imagine coming to grips with your own death while trying to raise a 2 year old and 8 1/2 month old. How do you explain it? What do you do to make sure they remember you and how very much you loved them? Sometimes life is just so unfair.

We are moving....SOON!

Andy had an appt today to get all the dates for when he has to be where and to start his outprocessing checklist. He discovered that his water survival training in Florida is the week before he starts class at the new base in Texas (which means we will have to move even sooner if I want to get settled in with his help). That means we need to move in a couple weeks! YIKES!! I was NOT prepared for that news. I figured he would go do water survival training after the New Year then we would move. I guess the Air Force doesn't take family into consideration. (Imagine that!)

I refuse to do another move on my own so we will be moving after the New Year, but before he goes to Florida for water survival. If Andy had his way, the house would be packed up right now and we would get on with it. I am not a fan of change and don't want to rush it. Plus I am not moving before Christmas which is just in a week! Aaaahh the new adventure begins......

Kindermusik Christmas Party

Monday we had a Kindermusik Christmas Party. Andy is off work so he was able to go with us! A&E had a great time trying their very first donut, running around, and seeing friends from class. We even had a visit from the big guy himself...Santa!

Here are pics!
Andy & Avery


Andy & Evan


Santa!! (Avery was NOT impressed)


Avery's face after seeing Santa


Evan sees Santa too!


Unfortunately we couldn't convince either one to sit with Santa and get a pic. We did win a cool book in the raffle they had. A&E also received a goodie bag with a kazoo and flutophone looking thing. They figured out pretty quickly how to make it whistle.

We are really going to miss our Kindermusik friends and our teacher Mrs. Cathy when we move!

Church Party

Saturday our church had a birthday party for Jesus. The kids went for some fun crafts and playing with their friends. A&E had a great time. They made doorknob decorations, a Christmas ornament, Christmas cookie, and had their pic taken with a big snowman.
Here are pics from our fun day!

Wow mom check out these decorations!


The next American Toddler Idol?


Working hard (what am I doing with my mouth??)


Evan and his favorite sunday school teacher


Avery & Grammie making a cookie


She loved that icing!


Avery eating her cookie by the snowman


Andy helping Evan and Elizabeth helping Jackson make a cookie (how did the two type A parents end up making the messy craft? lol)


Evan must have liked it (he ate it before I could get a pic!)

Spider Pig

Gingerbread house

Well we have been so busy since Track Select that I have been slacking on the blog. Sandy and Joel came to see us and A&E enjoyed all the extra attention. They even made a gingerbread house with Grammie and Daddy. We were all pretty impressed with how well they did. They put the candy on all by themselves!

Track Select

This evening Andy had track select. Track select is when they tell the class what plane they will train on next and pretty much what "track" (fighters/bombers, cargo, tankers, or helicopters) their career will be on. It is an all day event where we have breakfast, go to a brief, get to do flight simulators, see the aircraft (although the weather was miserable so we skipped that part) and then the ceremony where they roast everyone in the class then announce their track.

Andy got his second choice: T-44s in Corpus Christi, TX. He will actually be training at a Navy base and we will live near the beach (hello warmer weather!). He will be flying some type of C-130 once he graduates. So we are moving to Corpus Christi in January! YIKES! I knew this was a real possibility but that isn't alot of time to get moved (and for Andy to get water survival in). He is excited though and happy with what he got. He was the only person in the class to get it!

Here are some pics from our day!

Me flying the simulator (I was awful so be thankful I will never be a pilot flying over your house!)


A&E made up their own simulator


Andy getting "roasted" (they gave him a hard time about how competitive he is!)


Andy's slide


His new trainer!