Thanksgiving and Christmas Decorating

The pictures are in reverse order but at least there are some this time.

 

For Thanksgiving we spent the day at our friends the Morkens who had some other Army family come for the party.  We had lots of food, kids running around and laughs throughout the day.  Will gave driving lessons to the girls in his awesome power wheel and even let Kelly take it for a spin.   The adults started playing catch phrase and lost track of time until Riley started wondering in the game eating a roll and looking like she was sleep walk eating which was followed by Molly asking to go home so she could sleep.  So at 9pm we packed things up and headed home after a great day of being thankful for the friends God has given us along with a nice relaxing family morning. 

Black Friday we went on a family hike on the Cape Fear River Trail where the girls walked 1 of the 4 miles and we learned a lesson in patience!!  Then we got to go on a double date with some of our friends who Molly call her aunt and uncle and enjoy some adult conversation and more laughs.

Today Jon graciously pulled out the Christmas decorations and we got them up.  Then he took the big girls to the movies so I could work on our family tradition of PJ's which I got finished for the entire family.  They may not be professionally done but $15 for the set of 5 is ok by me! 

And this year Douglas Fir the motion detector Christmas tree my mom got for me my freshman year of college is being loved by the girls.  For some reason the girls in my dorm did not appreciate him in all his singing glory especially at 2am when people would walk by my door and set him off.  But for the 30 minutes he is allowed to be plugged in there are 2 little people in this house that can't get enough of him and a third who isn't exactly sure what she thinks of him yet:) 

We have one more day of being all together and then Jon will be leaving for pre-ranger school.  You can pray that he makes it through the 16 days injury free and with a passing grade!

 

 

2012 Christmas PJ's

 

 

All the decorations up and stockings hung

The girls loving Douglas Fir the singing tree

Our elf on the shelf from great grandma Rumbaugh,
Molly gave it notes and presents to send home tonight.
 I guess she is learning to think of others a little

Kelly says hi in Cheerio bling

My Turkey Veggie Tray - thank you pinterest

Kelly getting some driving lessons from big sister

November update

Well it has been a month since the last entry so it is about time to update.  However due to my lack to technical ability I can't seem to get pictures easily off my phone so instead it will be and update with no pictures - not my normal MO:) 

My parents came to visit and I threw out the idea of going to a conference with Protestant Women of the Chapel (PWOC) the bible study I go to with ladies on post and my dad had some days off to use so they said they would go with me.  So a few weeks later we packed up the car and headed to TN.  Riley and Kelly got to meet my Grandaddy Head who is called Grandaddy Will by the great-grand kids.  They also got to meet all their second cousins from that side of the family while hanging out with my Aunt and Uncle and parents during the day.  During the nights I had Kelly and during the day all the girls hung out with my parents meeting most of the TN family.  At the PWOC conference I got to see ladies who love Jesus and move anywhere the Army (AKA God) calls them to.  I saw a lot of friends from AK who now live all over the place.  There is something special about our time in AK while our husbands were deployed and we all helped each other remember to go to God during those lonely times.  I loved getting to see them and catch up with them and get updates on life.  We had breakout sessions that I really enjoyed and am hoping to implement some of the things I learned. 

On the drive home we had a unique bonding experience as we became close and personal with an 18-wheeler and the van was totaled.  My parents were great and so were the girls.  It took a few hours to get things sorted out and get a rental car but we finished the trek home - all a little shaken up but in one piece.  My parents stayed a few extra days to help gets things sorted with insurance and the rental agencies.

We were by ourselves less than 24 hours before we had more help in the form of the Lewis family moving in while they transitioned to Ft. Bragg.  What a blessing to have friends with teenagers who we would leave all the girls with while we went van shopping and then on a lunch date so we left them with the kids from 9am - 3pm.  We played games at night (I won Farkel if you were wondering) and the girls played all day with Wyatt and Olivia.  Our neighbor boy was so happy to have kids to play football and basketball with that were not little girls.

We had 2 Strong Bond events, last week was a family one and this week is single soldiers.  At the family event Jon did Dave Ramsey since we saw the power of living a simple life when dealing with insurance since our car was paid off.  At my table of 4 couples only one had been married more than 3 months - talk about a great time to have a conversation about finances.  He followed it up with the 5 love languages so that couples could learn some practical ways to love each other.  One girls request for the love language of gifts was a wedding ring - let's hope her husband got the hint and makes Christmas special for her this year.  Now he is in DC with single soldiers and he usually teaches them about character and talks about what kind of legacy they want to leave. 

Well that about sums up the last month in a nutshell.  Hope I am on more this month!