Santa's Visit

Grammie Bonnie come out for a visit over Thanksgiving. We had a great visit with her and even sent her home with the cold that we all have had. Your Welcome Grammie! The visit was nice and low key along with our Thanksgiving. We took it easy and just spent time playing with the girls, that was really nice. As always the trip went by really fast and she was on a plane headed home before we even knew it.

The following week and weekend were extremely busy for all of us. Paige got sick and spent most of the week at home. By the weekend she was feeling better so we all went to the MEU Christmas party to see Santa. That was crazy. I greatly appreciate them having the party for us but don't think that I would ever go to a big holiday party like that again. We were in line to see Santa for over an hour. As you can see Izzy didn't like visiting with Santa. She was tried and it was her naptime. She was also not feeling well but I didn't know that just yet. As you can see Paige really enjoyed seeing Santa. She was on his lap for awhile telling him everything she could think of besides what she wanted. Both of the girls were given gifts that they opened, Izzy got some stacking blocks and Paige got a Bratz Horse. Paige proudly announced that that was what she had always wanted and was really excited. On our way home Izzy got sick in the car and that started another week of the girls being sick. So so far the month of Dec has not treated us very well. As of right now both girls are doing better and I am feeling better too. So cross your fingers that we are sick free from her on out, because we are leaving in a few days to drive to Arkansas to spent Christmas with my parents. It will be a lot of fun just the drive out is going to really suck! We'll get through it and it will be a great visit. I will also be getting away for a few days to see some great friends in TX. That will definitely be my reward for making in through the last couple of weeks without having a breakdown.

Well these last 2 pictures are of the girls being silly. I really love that picture in the tub because they were just having so much fun that day playing and it also shows of Izzy's big cheesy smile that she does now for pictures. She is so her Daddy. I swear every day she is more and more like him. She has his temper which she showed me the other day when she was playing by herself and got mad at the toy yelled and threw it. After that I could tell she felt better because she started playing again because that toy was no longer there to bother her. The funny thing is that I have seen Mike do the same exact thing too. The last picture was when Paige was at school. Izzy decided to try on her hat. She was just too cute for me not to get the camera. I am not sure what she is doing with her arms but she does look cute you would have to admit.

Well we hope that you are all doing well. We won't be posting anything else until we get back so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. We love you and stay safe! See you next year.

Weekend Festivals

On Sat. Paige's school had there annual Fall Festival. Paige had been looking forward to it all week long. Each class had a game set up in their classroom, so she had lots of games to play. They also had hot dogs and pizza, tattoos, hair painting, bounce houses and a silent auction. Paige and Izzy weren't as excited about the silent auction as my Mom and I were. We both went home with a basket from the auction. Izzy was a trooper through out the whole day because she couldn't play many of the games but she enjoyed doing the cake and cookie walk with her Grammie and big sis. Here they are doing the cookie walk. Paige liked to play over and over until she won. Izzy just liked running around the classrooms mostly.
Ring Toss, if I realized that for the number of rings she got on the soda was the number of 2 liters she got she wouldn't of played. We had 2 bottles we were carrying around, I thought that she would win a toy, boy was I wrong.


Sun was her Soccer Party. They had it with all of the U-5 teams so lots of preschoolers running around. The Sharks (Paige's Team) broke off to do our trophies and Coach gifts. Her trophy was a bobble head type of trophy. She was sitting waiting for pictures and just about twisted the soccer ball head bobble off. After picture we sat the girls down for hot dogs, well I guess Izzy didn't like the trophy on the table and threw it off. Of course it does not hit the grass or anything soft it hits the 3 inches of concrete next to us. Yes it broke. It's not bad from a distance so it will be a top shelf trophy for now.

Paige and Coach John

Here is the team. We told them to hold their trophies up, so Paige covers her ears. Not really sure where she was going with that. Crazy kid!

They had some bounce houses and an obstacle course bounce house. The obstacle course is what she is flying out of in the picture.

We had a great time this weekend, I am glad that we have 2 days of no school to recoup. The bummer of it all is that my Mom had to go home yesterday after the soccer party. We had a great time with her here and she helped me out a lot even though she drives me crazy most of the time. We love you and thank you for your visit we loved having you here. Until next time...

Happy Birthday Marines!

Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! I know this is out a little late. My Mom is in town and I just haven't made over to the computer enough to update everyone else. The girls had a great day with a parade at Paige's school and trick or treating at night. Izzy wasn't as excited about trick or treating as Paige but went along with Grammie and Paige. I stayed home handing out the candy because right before trick or treating I hurt myself. I couldn't walk very well so I couldn't go with the girls but I am good now so no worries. Izzy wore a witches hat all day long, I was quite impressed because she normal will rip it right off. She also was wearing a cute halloween shirt and socks. As you can see she really enjoyed watching the parade.Here is our Paige and her class. She was so proud of herself. Her little face just lit up when she saw us watching her walk by.

Monster Izzy coming to your town!

The girls posing for pictures out front. Izzy was a little grumpy after her nap, it shows in the picture.

Me and my girls after they got back from trick or treating. Paige wanted to go out for more and Izzy was ready for bed. This was the best picture we could get because would not stop kissing my cheek not that I am complaining. Until next time....

Pumpkin Patch

Paige had no school on Mon and Tues so we took advantage of some off days with some fun things. Tues we went to Mike's Farm and took a hayride to the pumpkin patch and enjoyed some yummy cookies from the bakery. The girls also checked out the animals that they have as well donkeys, goats, and chickens. Enjoying their yummy desserts. Izzy is having a jackolantern cookie and Paige is eat Moo Pop. It looked really gross and after she ate all of the chocolate off she didn't like it either.
After we found the perfect pumpkin, something light enough for me to carry along with Izzy while trying to keep Paige on task and not with a ton of green worms crawling all over it. That was my perfect pumpkin!

I love this picture! They did so good.Me with the girls on the hayride


Paige's gymnastics class all dressed up to have class. It was kind of funny seeing super heroes and princesses spinning on bars and doing cartwheels. Very cute!

A day at the park and pumpkin decorating

On Monday the girls and I went to Wilmington to do a little shopping afterwards to keep my sanity on the way home we stopped at the park. The girls has a blast running around playing on what ever they could climb on. They both slept on the way home, yay me! Izzy thought that is was much more fun to go down backwards.
Paige climbed up this then would get herself stuck at the top, then down the slide and right back up to do the same thing all over again once she got to the top.

HMM-264 Pumpkin Decorating Party

The girls had a lot of fun. Paige colored her pumpkin and put stickers on it. She was standing there for probably an hour before I made her stop to eat and drink something. Izzy was just having fun running all around. She stayed out of trouble for the most part and was easy to keep track of even with all of the kids that were there. I was able to talk with some friends and catch up on what they are all up to, so that was nice for me.

Izzy eating some pizza, she was actually quite clean afterward to my amazement. I thought that I would have to take her outside and hose her down.

Here's Paige with her pumpkin that she soo desperately wanted to carve. If Izzy wasn't there I would of had no problem with it but that was just too much for me to handle. She did enjoy it, she colored pretty much the whole thing and stabbed it a couple of times with one of those poker things. We are going to carve our pumpkin on Halloween when my Mom is here so I have someone to wrangle Izzy while we are knee deep in pumpkin guts. It will be fun so be looking out for another blog on our good time.

I did it!

I ran/walked my first half marathon on Sun. Let me tell you it was tough. All was going fairly good until I had 3 miles to go. I didn't think that I could make it those last few miles but I did.
Yesterday I wasn't sure if I would be able to get out of bed but when I woke up I felt great. I really wasn't all that sore, except for my toes. Weird! I don't know if I want to do one again or not but maybe Mike will talk me into doing one with him we'll see. I think I am more of the 5k/10k distance but not very good at those either. I am glad I did it and I am super proud of myself that I completed it. Thank you secret sister(if you read this) for the power bar gel and the sport beans those helped out at the hour and 2 hr mark.
Enough about how cool I am. The girls and Mike are all doing great. I will have more updates on all of them soon. We have lots of things planned for the next couple of weeks. Take care and until next time....

Fire Station

On Friday Paige's preschool class had a field trip to the Jacksonville Fire Station. She had a lot of fun, Izzy and I were able to go to and enjoy the morning with Paige. They started off with a climb through the fire truck which they all enjoyed. Then one of the firemen gave a demonstration of putting on all of their gear and for kids not to be afraid of them, smart! After that we went up stairs to watch a video about fire safety. The video was really corney but I know that the kids really enjoyed it and I think that was the only time that all 3 classes were completely quiet. One kid did stand up in the middle of the video when the video mentioned something about fire detectors and proudly announced that he has 3 in his house. It was really funny because he was so serious while saying it, to bad his parents weren't there to witness. To end the field trip, the firemen got a call and took off with their sirens going. The kids were very impressed and confused to why the firemen where leaving without saying goodbye. They did wave to them as they were driving away. Paige kept asking me where are they going? It was fun to go with Paige's class, I am sure that Izzy and I will be crashing more of her field trips in the future. I am just glad that they allow parents to bring their other children along.

4 of a kind

This is by far my favorite. Mike just sent this to me and I haven't stopped laughing. These are his roommates. Paige picked these glasses out to sent to him and I think that Bonnie (Mike's Mom) sent the staches. As you all can tell they hate them. I am glad that they are having fun with them. Izzy tried the glasses on before we mailed them and she looked just like Mike does minus the stache, scary. Sorry no pics of the girls playing with the glasses. Enjoy my goofy husband and his friends!

Band of Mustaches

Right now he is at port. He doesn't think much of where they are at. He bought both of the girls rugs and is mailing them home to them. It is really nice when they are at port because he calls everyday. It worked out really well this morning he called before the girls got up so I put him on speaker so he could wake them up. Paige was really funny because she was talking to him as if he was sitting right there. Izzy woke up in a really happy mood. She did talk a little bit, with a huge smile on her face the whole time he was talking to her. It was a great way to start out our day. Enjoy the pics. Until next time...

I wish that he was looking up!

Flowers

My sweet husband sent me flowers today! It couldn't of come at a better time too. The girls were getting crazy because it was right before nap and the doorbell rings, and now I have beautiful flowers from Mike. It is always a shock to get flowers from him because he doesn't like them because they just die. So I know that he is truely doing something for me and knows how much I like them when he does it. Thank you Mike, I love you very much!

Where have we been?!

We sure have been busy since the last time I posted. Well first the reason why I haven't been posting, the monitor broke. I wasn't sure that it really was broke so I turned it off for a week, then we had visitors, you get the picture 2+ weeks later and I finally got a new one today. I think I was in denial because I really didn't want to buy a new monitor. We also picked up an external hard drive and now I feel so much better about our family photos. (Yes, Pam you need to get one!)

So in the last few weeks Paige has been busy with soccer, gymnastics and school, Izzy has been busy getting 4 new molars and learning how to climb onto the table, and I have been busy with Stampin Up. Mixed in there I had that nasty stomach flu that was going around and missed my first half marathon. Paige had a 24hr stomach bug that she shared with the backseat. Somehow Izzy has avoided all of it thank God. We also had some visitors Pam and Noah. It was a surprise visit for everyone but me, which is good because I may have had a heartattack if she surprised me. It was a lot of fun having her and Noah out here for a week. We saw a lot of friends and ate out a lot. It definitely reminded me that I don't call my friends enough or plan time for us to hang out as much as I would like to. We loved having them here and were very sad to see them go. On the good side I will be ditching the girls to go visit after Christmas, don't worry the girls will be partying it up at my parents' house with their cousins.

Well that is it for now. I will hopefully have some pretty cool pics from Paige's upcoming field trip to the Fire House. So until then...

Soccer Game

Well Paige finally had her first game today. She did well but was so excited when ever she did something that she would turn to look for me and forget about the ball. Her team did very well if they were keeping score her team would of won. One little boy on her team is really good, he score 4x. I am really proud of her and the way she played, she didn't let her team down at all. Another thing that I was proud of was that she cheered her team on when she wasn't playing. Izzy hung out watching the game from her stroller, which she wasn't happy about because at practices she is allowed to wonder around. She didn't fuzz to much which was nice. It was a lot of fun to watch all of the kids play and I just wish that Mike could seen his little girl play for the first time but I do have some video of her best play unfortunately she was going the wrong way. They had just started a new half and she forgot that they were going to the other goal. She also was throwing in the ball and dropped it behind her head, that is the picture, the second time she hit herself in the back of the head and then finally on the third try she through it in to her team. After the game we played at the park that they have for a little while. Izzy is all about doing things on her own so this her climbing the stairs to go down the slide all on her own. Enjoy the video and pictures, until next...

Coloring time gone wrong!

For starters we are all doing well. No photos from the soccer game due to the fact she didn't have one and her coach forgot to tell us, but that is OK she has one next week for sure.

Soo, coloring time, I sat the girls down to color at there table in their new chairs because Izzy can't sit on the benches yet. No big deal they are doing well coloring their witch and Frankenstein. I run downstairs to get them some water when I come back this is what I find.... Izzy had colored on her face and Paige thought it was really cool so she colored on Izzy's face too. If you look close you can see the mustache that Paige gave her. Thank goodness that they don't make anything permanent anymore because it all came off with a baby wipe. I did tell the girls not to color on each other anymore and that was about all I could do because they were just so proud of their masterpiece on Izzy's face!

As for Mike, we got our first phone call yesterday. It was very exciting for all of us. I haven't seen the girls so excited, they were actually gheddy. We talked to him for about 10 min. He is doing good. They made it to their first port and today he is going on a tour of Jerusalem which should be awesome. All of the history, it just amazing to me that he is there. Hopefully he will send pictures soon for me to up load and everyone can see where he has been. Until next time...

Busy as a Bee

I am offically a soccer mom with soccer magnet and all! I love watching her play and all of the other kids. It is so funny, none of them have a clue and most of the time they are running in circles because I think they think the object of the game is who can keep the ball the longest. She hasn't had her first game yet because it was cancelled due to the Tropical Storm. This Sat the Sharks(Paige's team) will match up against the Termites, that will be fun. I will do my best to get video but we will see with little Miss Izzy. Izzy enjoys the practices too, most of the time she is trying to get out on the field to play too.

Izzy girl is doing good as well no sports yet but she loves to be outside playing. She is back into the stage of everything goes into my mouth. Yesterday we were out playing in the yard and every 2 secs I was telling her, "no get that out of your mouth or don't put that into your mouth." It doesn't make it much fun for me but I know that she is having a good time. She likes to explore. It's fun to watch when she is really into it because she is just walking around picking things up, tasting them, then realizing that it is gross, then she tries to get it out of her mouth and throws it. Very comical!

I'm sure that some of you are wondering how we are doing after TS Hanna. We are fine, the house is fine. We didn't get much here, it seems like it really beat areas more inland than us. We only got 2 inches of rain. I did bring everything in the backyard in and had a neighbor help me with a few things. Thanks Dan!

Mike is doing well. The internet in his room is finally working so communication is way better now. He has been busy with classes, the gym and flying very little. I have no idea where they are at and haven't asked. I am looking forward to the first phone call it seems like it has been forever but it hasn't even been 2 weeks yet. I think that he may try to post somethings on here but we will see. Until next time... Mike we love you and miss you!

BOOHISS!

Well the day finally come and he is gone. It's tough to know that he will be gone for so long but we have handled it much better this time than last. After I dropped him off last time I was driving away sobbing like a crazy person and Paige in the backseat telling me, Mommy it will be ok, which made it worse. We are adjusting! The girls are doing good with this. Paige is being very mature and understands why Dad is gone. Izzy I don't think she will realize until next week or so. She walks around the house saying Dad, Dad. When I get her up in the morning that is the first thing she says as she is looking past me wondering why I'm getting her up and not Dad. Which is really funny to me because I get her out of bed 95% of the time.
Well anyway he is on his way and we miss him terribly, we will keep all of you posted on his adventures and on what we are doing back her. Paige starts school next week, soccer and gymnastics have started already so we are going to be plenty busy with her. Izzy will start Mom and me gymnastics in Oct when she is old enough so something to look fwd to for her as well. Fun times ahead! Please keep Mike and the rest of the guys in your prayers. Until next...

All Back Together

We are all back together again! Paige spent a week in Wa with Grammie Bonnie and Gpa Ron visiting with everyone. She went to the zoo with Papa Mike, Auntie Marti, Uncle Erik, and of course Mr. C (Colten), Gpa Ron took her out on the boat with all of her cousins and a ton of other fun things that she didn't tell me about because she was too busy playing. She had such a great time that today she asked "when can I go back for another visit because Grammie said it would be ok as long as I asked my parents if it was ok." I thought that was really funny that she is already packing her bags to go back. Mike also went out there for the weekend for a quick visit. He was able to see his grandparents and uncle and aunts along with some friends. Now they are both home and Izzy and I couldn't be happier. For the next week Mike will be on leave so you probably won't hear from us until after he leaves. Hope you are all doing great and we would love to hear from you all before Mike leaves on the big boat trip.

Izzy's 1st Birthday Party and Paige's big trip

The Barnyard party! Just before everyone showed up we took some pictures on the John Deere tractor. We had a lot of fun, it was hotter than you know what so we mostly stayed inside. Most of the kiddos that came were in the 0-2year range so they all played very well together. It was crazy to have Paige be the oldest at a party.



The party was a Barnyard theme we had a barn cake and a cow pinata. Izzy's cupcake had a farmer on it and we had a few other that had cows, pigs and sheep on them. No I didn't make the cake or cupcakes, I leave that to the professionals. Izzy didn't really enjoy opening the presents so Dad would open them then Izzy would want to play with it right then. We did learn in the opening of the presents is that Izzy doesn't like to share! She got mad at one of the kids and put her little hand out like stop and gunted at him. What a turd!


Her she is opening her first present, she didn't really care after this one but sat pretty still and was completely done by the last one. She loves every thing she got, so thank you to everyone. She has played a little with every thing today. I love watching her with the shopping cart because her little head just barely sticks out above it. The train is something that she has played all day with she loves the noises it makes, and I like it because it isn't very loud. I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone that came to the party it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed visiting with all of you. I feel like we should do stuff like this more often with all of us. For those of you that couldn't make it, we wish you were here!

This is this morning before we left to take the Grandparents and Paige to the airport. We took some quick picture with the girls and this is the only good one that I have. Paige is going out to Washington for a week to visit with everyone out there. Mike is flying out on Fri to meet up with her to visit with his Granparents. The will both be back on Sun. I'm doing good right now but in the morning might be different Paige always sneaks into my room in the morning to wake me up. This is the first time that she has been away from me, before this it has only been overnight. So just me and Izzy during the day for a week, what will we do?



Her is my little girl just before her big trip! She was so excited, she was walking around with her carry-on backpack on all morning. After dropping them off at the airport Mike kept asking if I was if I was ok and I am I just miss my little stinker. Paige I can't wait to hear all about your adventures at Grammie's. Have fun, we love you and miss you!

Birthday Week!

Happy Birthday Mike and Isabella!

First present

It's a lawnmower

What a great week, Mike turned 31 on Wed. and Izzy 1 on Thurs. We took Izzy out on her first bike ride with the fam. She loves it! Izzy got a lawnmower to play with in the backyard with big sis. They are already fighting over it! We got Mike a digital picture frame for the boat so that he can see his girls. I made a cake for them to gooble up which they did. More cake to come at the birthday party at the end of the month, this time I'm not going to make it! We are very excited for the party it is probably going to be another one of our blow outs but we always have so much fun. Well enjoy the video of little Miss eating her cake. Wow she is 1!!!