Addison turns 1

Yesterday we went over to Nick and Kim's house to celebrate Addi's first birthday. It was a blast! She looked adorable in her lady bug dress and she loved her cake! Andrew had fun chasing Trevor through the bouncy house too. I took my camera, but didn't take a single picture! (I don't know how that happened) Anyway, head on over to Kim's blog to see all of her pictures.

Andrew's Birthday Party!

Yes, I know Andrew's birthday isn't until the 15th of December, but we wanted to have a couple of his friends over to celebrate since we'll be on the mainland with family for his actual birthday. It was the perfect party for him. He had so much fun! The big hit of the party was the bouncy house courtesy of Granna and Paw-Paw. (We let him open this one BEFORE the party, so all the kids could play) Here's Andrew taking the first trip down the slide!
He was so excited. He exclaims, "My bouncy house!"
Here are all the kids playing. McKenzie Turner, Andrew, Addison, our neighbor Mackenzie, Calvin, and I think Trevor is on his way down the slide.
Getting the kids to get out of the bouncy house so we could do the cake and presents was not so easy. Everyone seemed to understand except for Andrew. He was heartbroken when we unplugged it. He thought it was broken.
Time for cake! Kim made a cute Mickey Mouse Club House cake and a #2 smash cake just for Andrew. He tore it up.....after we gave him a fork! He's too busy eating to smile for the family photo.
This is all that was left of his smash cake!
Andrew opening presents...
Andrew opened them and Trevor voiced his excitement!
Opening this one was a group effort.
Even Drew got a present. His friend, Garreth, got him a Disney princess coloring book!
The party was a lot of fun. Thanks for all the gifts. Andrew has had tons of fun playing with them! After everyone left, Mommy and Daddy put together all the big ticket items. Here's Andrew playing outside with his sand and water table. He thought it was a good idea to take the water and dump it INSIDE his bedroom door!
While Daddy finished the train table, Andrew and I decorated his very own Christmas tree that Grammy sent. Here he his "trimming" his tree.
And here we are putting the train together. 10 seconds after I finished, Andrew had already knocked it over!
Little man had a very busy day, with no nap, so he crashed hard at the end of the day. But it sure was fun!

The BEST husband EVER!

Can I just take a moment to brag on Drew? Things have been pretty busy around here since the week before Thanksgiving and they really won't let up until we get back after Christmas. I've been totally exhausted lately and I think he noticed. When we got home from the Christmas party it was already after 9pm. The house was a DISASTER! My kitchen was still full of dirty pots and pans from the 6 cakes that I had made and Andrew had strewed things from end to end across the living room AND all the Christmas decoration boxes were in the floor. I wasn't going to be able to go to bed until it was clean because we're having a birthday party for Andrew tomorrow.

Well my sweet husband told me to forget about it and go to bed. I was confused....I said "Honey, you know I can't relax until the house is clean." Again, he told me that I shouldn't worry about because when I woke up it would be spotless. He told me that I should take a bubble bath and go to bed and get a good night's sleep and that HE would clean the house. (I was still in a state of disbelief) I mean, he's helped me around the house before, but NEVER has he cleaned it all by himself. He said to trust him, so I did.

I took my cup of coffee, a chocolate truffle, and a Nicholas Sparks novel upstairs and enjoyed our whirlpool tub for only the 2nd time since we moved in. It was so nice. I went to bed at a very decent hour and I woke up to a SPOTLESS house! He stayed up til 2 am cleaning for me. Is he GREAT or what! On top of it all... It was HIS BIRTHDAY!

(Sorry guys for making you look bad!)

Ugly Angels Christmas Party

Tonight was our squadron Christmas party. (Drew will tell you it was his birthday party!) We had fried turkeys, bouncy houses, Santa, cake walks, karaoke, and crafts for the kids. It was a really good time.

Andrew got into the Christmas spirit by wearing reindeer antlers, which he called his "moosey hat."

Zaro got into the spirit by wearing some nice plaid pants!

Once Andrew got tired of his "moosey hat" falling off, we put it on Addi!

Drew and some of the guys sang Karaoke.
Julie was kind enough to take a family photo. This is where Santa was, but you know Andrew wanted NOTHING of that, so we waited until he left and snapped a picture where he was sitting. *You may see this picture again soon! Sorry there aren't anymore pictures, but my camera battery finally died. Gotta get it charged before Andrew's birthday party tomorrow!

Happy Anniversary/Drew turns 30!

Today was our 4th anniversary. Unfortunately, Drew had duty (the 24 hour kind), which meant that I wasn't going to get to see him. That's a sad way to spend your anniversary, so Andrew and I decided to surprise Drew. We drove an hour over to the marine corps base and took Drew some yummy steak scampi from Zia's. He was genuinely surprised, and if you know Drew then you know it's hard to surprise him because he always figures it out. I baked him a homemade German Chocolate Cake (one of his favorites) for dessert.

It was a good time. Our makeshift romantic anniversary dinner was a success. Andrew and I headed for home, but not without making another surprise stop. Tomorrow Drew turns 30! Since this is one of those milestone birthdays I decided to decorate his office. We hung up Happy 30th Birthday signs, streamers, and several "over the hill" type decorations. Here's what we came up with.

When we finished decorating, I noticed Drew's car in the parking lot. Uh-oh! I was changing Andrew's diaper in the back of the car when he came walking out. He had to do "rounds" at the hangar. He said he wouldn't have seen me if I hadn't said anything to him, which I doubt because he was parked 3 cars away. BUT he promised not to go into his office until the morning.

Thanksgiving Week

Ok, so my whirlwind of the past two weeks is over and I'm trying to catch up, but the next two weeks (ok, the next MONTH) is pretty jam packed. But it's still "the most wonderful time of the year."

My sister (Aunt Gracie) and her husband (Uncle) came to visit on Nov. 21. They arrived at 9:30 pm after a 10 1/2 hour flight straight from Atlanta. This is Annah's first 10 minutes at our house.They took a while to adjust to Hawaii time, so for the first five days they went to bed between 8:30 and 9.

One night they took Andrew to the pool so I could get some things ready for Thanksgiving dinner. He came home in a cute robe telling me all about how he went under water.
We had the pleasure of hosting some of our friends to our house for Thanksgiving. Since we're all so far away from family it's nice to get together with good friends. We had a good turn out (21 counting babies) and we had SOOOOOOOOO much food. Here's our spread.
It wouldn't all fit on the counter, so some of it had to go on the table.

Here's Heather and Kristina fixing their plates with Kim and Merrill in the background.

We cleared the bar and refilled it with desserts. I think it's safe to say that we all ate too much! Nick had so much that he had to take a break.

The kids had a blast playing all afternoon. Here's Addi in her pretty orange dress.Wyatt liked playing with one of Andrew's puzzles.Wyatt stealing a hug and a kiss from Addison.

Andrew says "Man, there are a lot of people here."He had so much fun. Once Trevor showed up, I practically never saw him again. He said "Bye, Mama. I go upstairs." They played hard! It was so nice to have everyone over. (So thanks for coming guys)

The next day we went to the water park to celebrate McKenzie's 11th birthday. As usual, it was a blast. This is by far my favorite picture of the day. Annah and Andrew on the kiddie slide...

Drew showing off his muscles.Trevor and Addi having a snack after a long day.

Julie and Drew

Little man was pretty tired after this trip. I came back to our table from riding the Shaka with Annah and I found him chillin' while enjoying some Cheetos. Going...

Going...

Gone!

And ok....I fell asleep too.The next day (Saturday) was a very un-eventful Iron Bowl. (I don't wanna talk about it) We were all smiles before the game...

After the game Drew and I went to get a tree and what a beauty! We got home only to find that 4 out of our 6 strands of lights no longer worked. Therefore, this is as far as we got with decorating...I took some pictures of Annah and Jefforey on the beach before they left. It wasn't the best weather. It had rained all day and was still pretty cloudy, but it stopped raining long enough to snap a few pictures. As we were leaving we managed to see a little pink break through the clouds. I'm so glad they came to visit. It was nice to be around family for Thanksgiving. I miss them already. Andrew has been asking for "Gracie and Uncle." If you ask him where they went, he'll say "Alabama." It's pretty cute.

So since this is the longest post in the history of the world and it's WAY past my bedtime. I'm going to ice my cake that has been cooling as I type and GO TO BED!! I've got a long 3 days ahead. Stay tuned for posts about Drew turning 30, our squadron Christmas party, and Andrew's birthday party!

My Silly Goose

Every day with Andrew is an adventure. You never know what he's going to come up with. Today he was having some fun with some plastic pots that I bought to plant my pineapples in. He likes to wear it on his head and run around the house blind.

His new favorite saying, "What's that Mama?" He's a very inquisitive little boy. He loves to figure out how things work. He likes to help Daddy in the garage. He gets a screw driver and starts sticking it places, trying to "fix" it. He still loves to help me in the kitchen. Every time he hears the kitchen timer go off, he'll say, "Cookies ready Mama." (So I like to bake, but I promise it's not always cookies!)

Another new thing: he loves to put the word "is" at the end of his sentences. For example, "There Andrew ball is." "Mama, where Chicky is?"

When I sneeze, he'll say "Bess you Mama." And he's very polite, using please and thank you at all the right moments. I like it when he say thank you because the inflection in his voice is adorable! The "you" part is very high pitched. Too cute.

Enough rambling....just wanted to give you an update on all things Andrew!

Do you SEE That?

Take a look at what's going on in our backyard....

Did you see it? Let's look a little closer...

And closer...

We have GRASS!!!! (well, sort of) Slowly but surely, little blades are springing up everywhere. Soon enough we'll have an actual back yard. That is IF I can keep the birds from eating all the seed.

Marine Corps Birthday Ball

Last night Drew and I attended the 233rd Marine Corps Birthday Ball. We had a blast, but my day started earlier than that. I decided that since I NEVER get dressed up, much less wear make up anymore, that I would do my best to look good for Drew. (I mean seriously...some days I don't get a shower until Drew gets home!) So I went and had my hair and make-up done! I had forgotten how nice it feels to get all dressed up.

When I got home it was time to get dressed. Andrew thought he'd help me and break in my shoes for me!

We dropped him off at our neighbor Polly's house. He was fine until we left. Then he screamed! I called to check on him before we got to the ball. Polly's husband told us he was fine and they were on a walk to the mailbox. When we got home we found out that he was really good for her. He even went to bed right on time at 8:30. (And slept til 8:30 this morning!!!)

Now back to the ball....

We had such a good time. We don't get out much by ourselves anymore so we enjoyed the time together. The girls did too...
Kim, Lesley, Me, Kristina.
Kelly and Kristina Attwood.
Eeek! There's something in the bushes!!.........oh, it's just Nick!~
Me and Drew (without Nick in the bushes)
The Ladners with the Turners.
Zaro showing off his dancing skills....

Zaro taking a picture of Drew, taking a picture of the girls.
One of my former students was there!!
Here's me and Kristina after a little "cha-cha slide" action!
Don't ya just love a man in uniform? Well here are quite a few...actin' the fool. (except for Drew, Nick, and Garreth...they look normal!)

As you can tell, we had a BLAST. Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I always enjoy going to the ball. Personally, I'm already looking forward to next year! Semper Fi! If you'd like to see more pictures you can visit Kim and Lesley at their blogs.