Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Molly is 5!!!

Today we celebrated our baby girl turning 5.  So crazy to believe that 5 years ago we were living in Alaska and Jon was getting ready to deploy for a year and we had just become parents.  For the past 5 years we have been praying for her to be fearless - 2 Tim 1:7.  She is such a joy and is an amazing little lady.  Her love of following rules and helping others follow those rules are great to watch.  She loves her sisters so much and making sure that everyone is included.  She is good at sharing which is good since she has a great desire to shop.  Here are some fun pictures from the past 2 days of celebrating her life.  We are having their birthday party this weekend for the girls and are excited to celebrate all three amazing girls God has blessed us with.
 
 
Top Molly
Middle Riley
Bottom Kelly
Pictures of the girls on Jon's uniform with his unit patches (so I can remember where they were born)

Last day of being 4

Year of the Horse!

Driving her sisters around already

The chimp threw his poop all over the girls

So we let his stone brother know we don't like have poop thrown on us

Happy Birthday!!!!!!

Getting ready for a day of celebrating our special oldest child!

Donuts and juice - brought some to her classmates

Played at the beach before school

Dressed up for her birthday dinner at Chili's

Excited to eat on her special day plate!

Daddy got her a panda purse - she named it Bob Hope.
Next year she will be going to Bob Hope Primary and they are the pandas
School was named after the comedian Bob Hope who visited on USO tours.

Dessert!!!!

Loved celebrating her life today!

Everyone got to wear new PJ's!

Storytime with daddy.  Best way to end each day!

Friday, February 14, 2014

Valentine's Day and Strong Bond Retreat

This weekend we celebrated Valentine's Day with a Strong Bond Retreat.  Jon got to lead 20 families in his unit in ways to make their marriage THRIVE during deployment.  We stayed at another amazing hotel that had at least 15 pools some indoor some outdoor , a public bath and a spa.  As always when going to new locations on the island we find things that should be normal but still throw us for a loop - like a platform with chairs on the ground that move for pull out beds.  We got to the hotel early so Jon could run over a few things so the girls and I went swimming for a few hours.  There is one interesting thing about places of "culture" and that would be its artwork.  For instance the pool had a dome ceiling with a painting across the entire thing filled with mostly naked people.  Kelly kept looking up and laughing while the other two would point out and yell very loudly what they were looking at and then pointing out that we don't show other people our privates.  Lets just say I am glad that the pool attendant didn't speak English to know what the girls were giggling about - I know this because the 2 of us tried to communicate with each other with zero success.  After a few hours in the pool we went back to the room to shower and get ready for a fun filled night. 
The hotel wanted to make dinner special and boy was it!!!  It was a buffet of uncooked meat!  That is right you would go up to the buffet line get your uncooked meat and take it to your table and cook it on the table top.  Great idea for a date night - not as great for a date night with the kids:)  Molly who loves fire and cooking was super excited.  Riley who cried the entire time we ate at a restaurant where you cooked the meal at your table with fire - well she did the same thing again.   Jon was doing a lot with the retreat so the girls and I had a blast cooking the food and having a good time.  After dropping the girls off for child care we had a date night walking around the hotel, seeing the sights and watching a eisa drum show.
Today Jon taught the families how to THRIVE during deployment.  It was a great time to meet other families in the unit, hang out at an amazing hotel and just relax as a family.
Molly showing Kelly the acceptable hand gesture here - all the kids in preschool do it mom!

kid sized seating - for adults??

Indoor Pool!
Again with the international sign of take my picture

having fun on the stairs

An "indoor patio" where Molly chose to sleep

Outdoor patio

Family Dinner 

I love cooking the meat!

I hate fire! No fire! 

Blury but this is what dinner looked like for us
 At one point I went to get some more rice and other pre cooked things for the girls but left a plate of raw beef I wasn't ready to cook.  I probably should have done things different but left the girls to get it and came back to find Kelly chewing on the raw beef that she managed to grab.  She didn't get sick but still don't think I want her eating raw meat.
Cooking the meat

Watching the Eisa Drum show

Super excited to wear the hotel PJ

Thought she was so big sleeping by herself on the indoor patio