Happy New Year!!!

I can't believe it is 2008 already. Time sure flies, even if you aren't having fun, though we did have a few great weeks in Indy. It's been quite a crazy few weeks in our house or out of our house. Things really never slowed down since Thanksgiving, truth be told. One Christmas party after another, then we all had a bought with the stomach flu, sans Jack, lucky dog. Right before we were heading home to Indiana for Christmas no less. Our trip to Indy was an easy one, fairly uneventful. Made great time, only took 12 hours, which is awesome. Especially with the three little people in the car who can never agree on when it's time to stop and use the bathroom. But they were all troopers and really didn't even argue much along the way. We got into Indy the Thursday before Chrismtas, and then were joined by my brother Jon and his family on Friday, we had lots of fun with them before they headed to Michigan to be with Lori's family on Christmas Day. We all went to church to listen to my Dad's solo in the choir, which was by far the best of everyone, and I'm not saying that because he's my Dad. I'm saying that because there wasn't much competition. :) Love you Dad!!! (LOL) I know a joyful noise. :)

Then after church that first Sunday Dad and I drove DJ to downtown Indy for the Colts/Texans game. A first for both DJ and I. I'd never seen a pro game myself, but DJ was as close to heaven as he's ever gonne be I think on earth. He loved everything about it, and was listing off everyone's stats and everything else he knew about football. It sounds very impressive to his Mom even if I have no idea what he is talking about most of the time. Here is a picture of he and I at the game.


Then we had Christmas morning at Mom and Dad's with my other brother's daughter's. It was lots of fun to have so many kids there on Christmas morning, always makes it more exciting. My mom loved having everyone there I'm sure. And it helped take some of the sting away that Bruce wasn't able to be with us. But he was there in spirit and in voice, as he made these before he left for Iraq to give the boys for Christmas. He did the voice boxes and I stuffed them after he left. I can't seem to post the video so here is a pic of the boys with them.





Jon and Lori and the kids came back down from Michigan and joined us a few days after Christmas, when we threw Mom and Dad a surprise 40th wedding anniversary party. Thier anniversary is actually at the end of January, but since this is the first time we've all been together in like 5 years we decided to do it now. It was a great turn out, and it was nice to see so many of my parents friends and families come out to help us celebrate. My parents were so excited and really surprised, it was so fun seeing the look of disbelief on thier faces. It meant so much to them to see all those faces looking at them when they walked in to the restaurant. So kudos to Lori who really did a great job pulling this off. I'm so glad Jon married someone so organized. :) And it was a great time to get pictures of the grandkids together. Who knows when that might happen again, with all of them growing up and going off to college!!! Here is a pic of the whole family, except for of course Bruce, who was surely missed by all. :)


Then of course we all rang in the New Year together at Mom and Dad's. It was great, we had a Texas Hold'm tournament, which Jon and I won. We had so much fun. We had some old friends there and some new ones too. It was a great visit over all, and we all had a really great time. I always love going home. And it really made this holiday bearable with Bruce being gone. So to all my family, thanks for putting up with me and my rugrats for 2 weeks. I know it's never quiet when we come home, and secretly you are glad to see us go, so you can get your house back and some peace and quiet, I can't blame you. So until next time, we love you guys and miss you all. Thanks for making this such a wonderful Christmas and New Year's for the boys and I.

Life's Been Busy!!!

Can you believe how busy it is around the holidays? I have tons to write about but no time to sit and actually type it all out. So will be back soon to get that done. So keep checking back and I promise there will be an udate soon!!!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and wishing you all a Happy New Year!!!

Shoveling Snow....

I hate it.....that's all!!!

Christmas Tag stolen from Patty's Blog

1. WRAPPING PAPER OR GIFT BAGS? For Christmas, I always wrap more fun to watch them rip it open, for birthdays I do a lot of bags, just becaue I'm always last minute

2. REAL OR FAKE TREE? Fake

3. WHEN DO YOU PUT UP THE TREE? Whenever I can find the time and energy to do it, we put ours up just last weekend this year

4. WHEN DO YOU TAKE THE TREE DOWN? Sometime after Christmas.......

5. DO YOU LIKE EGG NOG? It's alright, not my fave

6. FAVORITE GIFT RECEIVED AS A CHILD? I remember getting the Atari, and not being able to play it because we were grounded from the TV

7. DO YOU HAVE A NATIVITY SCENE? I have 2, a Home Interiors bear one and the Little People one and I would love to have the Willow Tree set!

8. HARDEST PERSON TO BUY FOR? DJ since he's getting older he doesn't really do toys much anymore.

9. EASIEST PERSON TO BUY FOR? Adam because he loves so many different things

10. WORST CHRISTMAS GIFT YOU EVER RECEIVED? It must not have been too bad as I cant' even think of one that I've hated. I do remember really disliking these jeans I got with Minnie Mouse on the back when I was too old to wear them. :)

11. MAIL OR EMAIL CHRISTMAS CARDS? I mail them, but I'm way late this year

12. FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIE? A Christmas Story, "you'll shoot your eye out kid"

13. WHEN DO YOU START SHOPPING FOR CHRISTMAS? I'm always late, so I'm just now starting

14. HAVE YOU EVER RECYCLED A CHRISTMAS PRESENT? I'm sure

15. FAVORITE THING TO EAT AT CHRISTMAS? How much nicer people seem to be, if only they could keep it up all year round

16. CLEAR LIGHTS OR COLORED LIGHTS ON THE TREE? Clear.

17. FAVORITE CHRISTMAS SONG? Mary did you know?

18. TRAVEL AT CHRISTMAS OR STAY HOME? We alternate, since Bruce is in Iraq this Christmas we are headed home

19. CAN YOU NAME ALL OF SANTA’S REINDEER? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen,Comet and Cudid, Donner and Blitzen and then there's Rudolph. Yep, I can name them! ( I couldn't but luckily Patty already did it for me )

20. ANGEL OR STAR ON THE TREE TOP? An angel that a friend of my family made for us from the materials she used to do our wedding flowers, I love it and use it every year

21. OPEN THE PRESENTS CHRISTMAS EVE OR MORNING? Christmas morning

22. MOST ANNOYING THING THIS TIME OF YEAR? How busy life gets

23. WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT CHRISTMAS? It's one of the few times of year people actually think about Jesus, and what He did for us


24: FAVORITE CHRISTMAS TRADITION? Reading out of Luke in the bible about Jesus' birth and then we also read The Polar Express, going on 6 years I think this year, someone different reads it every year, then we write inside the book who read it and a little tidbit about that year's Christmas

25. UP OR EARLY OR SLEEP IN? I love getting up early, I'm normally waking the kids up

26. DOES SANTA WRAP YOUR GIFTS? Yes, but I'm thinking of not this year

27. DO YOU TELL THE CHRISTMAS STORY? Absolutely

The Busiet Best Day

So we had a jammed packed day yesterday. We started out going to the battallion Christmas Party which was a huge success. We had over 100 people there with kids. The kids crafts were great and the food was yummy, even my dump cake that Adam accidently stepped on top of in the car. Santa came and passed out presents to all the kids, it was fun. Then we had to run to the Boyscout Christmas party, which we ended up missing most of due to the first party. Then ran back to the BN party to finish up with Santa and help clean up. Then we got to go see this good looking guy on TV:



We did our VTC (Video TeleConference) with Bruce in between parties. We got an hour to sit and talk to him and just be able to see him. He looked great. I thought he looked skinny, but he said he hadn't lost any weight. Must have been the short hair cut. He's anxious to come home for R&R though. He will be home for 18 days, I can't wait. The boys don't know when he's coming it's going to be a surprise, all we know is it will be sometime in January. I really missed him yesterday after we left, the boys did absolutely fine. I cried all the way home, silently of course so the boys wouldn't notice. It just sucks he is gone, and yesterday I was feeling it.

Anywhoo, here are a few other pics from yesterdays festivities!!!


This was at our BN Christmas Party!!!




Then we had our PWOC Christmas party which was dress up. Everyone looked beautiful and we had so much fun. The food was delicious and the games we played were hilarious. :)

30 isn't OLD, not that Old anyways...

This is what I keep telling my good friend Marie. We had a little party for her last Monday for her 30th birthday. We had a good time, for the most part. I was in charge of food, so I told her I'd make my chicken enchiladas. Which I did, and then on the way to the car I promptly dropped on my kitchen floor. Not one pan but two, it was not my day!!! So with a quick stop to the local Mexican restaurant we had a little party at the community center on post. Here are a few pics from the evening.






HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANOLA GIRL!!!

Time for Thanksgiving!!!

I know this is really late in coming, life has just been so crazy busy lately it seems. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. It's hard when Bruce is gone to enjoy the holidays much, but we have some wonderful friends who invited us to stay with them at West Point that made it a great one. We have known Brad and Angela for 5 years almost now. We were stationed together at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland a few years back. In 2005 Bruce and I headed off to Ft Lee Virginia for a few months before ending up here in New York. Brad and Angela stayed a few more months in Maryland then headed off to Bloomington Indiana for Brad to get his Master's degree. This worked out nicely, because whenever we would go home to visit Mom and Dad we still get a chance to hang out with the Fenske's as well. Then last summer '06
Brad graduated, and they headed to West Point so he could teach. Turns out West Point is less than 5 hours away from Drum. You gotta love the Army in that respect anways, you always get to run into old friends. So last year Brad, Angela and the boys came up here for Thanksgiving, so they hosted this year. Here is a pic of all of us right before we enjoyed our Thanksgiving feast!!!




I'd never been to West Point before last week, and I can't believe how beautiful it is there. We took a tour on Friday and the views are absolutely breathtaking. It is in the Hudson Valley and thier is one spot that looks over the Hudson River that I was amazed at it's beauty, and of course you know me, I wanted to take pictures forever there, but it was particularly cold that day. We also visited the Cadet Chapel, where obviously the Cadets that attend there worship, it's architecture was gorgeous, and again the view from there unbelievable. Here are a few shots I got of the campus.





After we ate dinner on Thursday, since it was so warm out we took the boys down to the football stadium where the Army Black Knights play. This was definately the highlight I think for DJ. He is so into football right now, it's unreal. So we went down there and they played forever. I even got in on the action a little bit.
Unfortunately these pictures didn't come out all the great, but you can see the action in them.






So we all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as you can see. I just wanted to thank Brad and Angela again for welcoming us into your home for the weekend, we had so much fun. And I loved learning how to play Settlers.