PRC

Jon has officially finished pre pre ranger and now the pre ranger course. I will give this to Jon's unit and the 82nd - they want to make sure you are fully prepared before sending you off to ranger school. I guess it could be that 50% of the ranger class fails in the first week and they want you to make it past that. Either way we are thankful that this go round he finished and is doing well. Now to get some good family time in before he leaves for Ranger School next year.

Jon met us for lunch at chick-fil-a and was greeted by two very happy little girls to see their daddy. We had planned on me taking the girls to Disney on Ice and Jon staying home with Kelly to get caught up on sleep but the joy of seeing them and Molly asking for him to take them must have been too much because he agreed to go tonight. So after no sleep, a long shower and two meals with the family Jon loaded up on some coffee and took the big two to see the princesses. I think tomorrow will hold a few naps for him and a few errands for me and the girls so he can get more than 3 hours of sleep in a day.

Getting his certificate of completion

The long process of waiting while others congratulate him and the others from his PRC class

Brave man - taking 2 super excited girls to see the Disney princess on ice.
We loaded him up with coffee, this can't be worse than 16 days with no sleep - RIGHT?

 

Christmas tree lighting

All bundled up and enjoying the night

 Tonight was the Christmas tree lighting on post and some of the girls in our children's church had asked we come and watch them preform.  Oh my way to get out the door we had a visitor that delayed us a half and hour.  We had a rental (our new car had one thing that needed to get fixed when we bought it and the part came in today) and I forgot to get my garage door opener out so I was using the house key to get in and out so I left the girls in the car with the door open and was running in to shut the garage.  In my abscence a pit bull decided to take up residence in the front seat of my car.  Lucky for me my neighbor was out playing catch with his dog and when I screamed to please help me get the pit bull out of my car he put his dog away and came straight over to help.  We thought it might be a neighbors dog but instead it was a stray pregnant pit bull who was getting ready to have puppies.  I guess she thought my car would be a great place to have them but wasn't too keen on me getting the girls out.  Praise God they were very calm during the whole experience, I kept asking Molly to keep her legs folded in her car seat because she was closest to the dogs face.  Once I had the help of two neighbor men - one with a bat and the other with sasuage I was able to get the girls out of the car and into the neighbors garage with the moms watching over the kids.  It took awhile to get the dog out and we had one failed attempt that we got the dog out with chicken but she jumped back in before we could close the door.  The second time we got her out we got the door shut and then all backed up giving the dog space.  She decided the garage with all the kids would be her next space and even with 5 adults blocking the path - some more treats later we got her to move on down the street.  I then got some magazines to cover up the blood and headed out to cheer on the girls in my chapel.  After that we met up with some friends to celebrate their daughters 14th birthday.
On a side note, I called animal control and was told that they would come sometime during the night so my neighbors were willing to help me any non violent way to get the dog out.  2 hours later I got the call that animal control was at my house which I had to tell them I had left.  They wanted to know where I had caged the dog - HA I guess they thought I might do their job but I was a little afraid that the angry about to give birth dog might not appreciate me tyring to cage her.


The stray that tried to have puppies in my car

Molly's first school recital

Happy before leaving for the night



Not so sure about singing but excited about Santa and cookies

Molly had her Christmas school musical.  She has been practicing the songs for the past few weeks on the way home and singing around the house.  I guess she used up most of her joy about singing before the event because she wasn't as joyous to be up singing on the stage.  Her shyness came out for the 20 minutes of the concert but as soon as Santa came in the back door she got  excited while Riley kept shaking her head NO.  Riley has a great fear of the bearded man but she does have the joy of the season.  All the girls were well behaved during the recital and got to eat lots of cookies afterward.

Camera Found

So we took some photos of bubble paper fun

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!

My 3 favorite girls

Here is a quick update of my 3 favorite girls.  They each  make me laugh in their own ways and there is never a shortage of laughing with them.  Riley loves to show off and one of her favorite things to show off is her awesome belly.  She takes after her BertBurt but we are hoping before the teenage years that won't be the case anymore:)  Kelly still gets a panicked look in her eye when Riley is near but Molly can make her laugh.

Riley showing off her belly