Cheesy Beards!

The beard is SOOOO bad it almost reaches the realm of awesome!

The Cheesy Beard.....an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

Here are a few of the weapons we have collected. Yes that is a live AT4 thank you very much!

One of my personal weapons, a Baretta 9mm.

This is a shot in my workshop. It may not seem like much, but it's probably one of the best in the entire country.

Well hello everybody! I happned to be checking my email this evening and saw I was getting a 2Kbs connection to the internet! I thought of all the cool things I could do with a  Dial-up modem speed and decided to upload a few pics! I should be back state side within a week(fingers crossed!) so I hope to see you all very soon.

Christmas

Christmas morning we went to the Thueson's for breakfast. We had fun and everything was yummy (even though the eggs had cinnamon & garlic in them). We also played their new game Buzz Word - lots of fun, I highly recommend it. And for dinner, we went over to Marla's. That was yummy too and we watched one of my many favorite Christmas movies - Elf. If you haven't seen it, you need to, it's hilarious! I'm glad we have such good friends to spend Christmas with! They did a good job of helping us forget we didn't get to open any presents yet!
Christmas morning, I also attempted to get pictures of my adorable kids, since I Always forget! I got pictures, but every one of them turned out silly. I even tried to get myself in one...that didn't work either.

Christmas Eve

As you can tell from my other posts, I forget to take pictures a lot...I either remember right before we finish something or leave somewhere or I don't remember at all. But I share what I have, and steal pictures when I can...so maybe I'll have more pictures of everything later.
For Christmas Eve we went to the Bush's house for dinner. They are some of our best friends here. I can't really describe them in a short post...Ann is pretty much crazy and, as you can see, her kids are too! Her husband, Chris, is pretty normal though. They invited a few other families too and we had lots of fun (and ate really well) We were going to go Christmas Caroling, but it ended up raining...I think the guys were actually relieved.

getting into Christmas

We decided to postpone Christmas until Spencer gets home (Jan 5th, I hope) so he can see the boys open their presents. But even without presents, we still did lots of fun Christmas stuff!
On Monday night we had a really fun family home evening with our friends. We did a board game gift exchange and attempted to make gingerbread houses. They may not have turned out the best, but it was entertaining...my friend took pictures of our "gingerbread village" but she didn't send them yet so here's just mine and Jamin's.....

On Tuesday, Jamin made cupcakes. He cracked the eggs, poured everything in, mixed it together, he did everything! He even smashed candy canes to put on top (that was his favorite part) They ended up tasting really good...even though he was licking his fingers the whole time.














Later that night, we went over to our friend's for dinner. That was lots of fun. It was the Halls, the ones I mentioned earlier who sing amazingly. Jamin always loves to go over there because Connor is into Thomas the train too and has lots of cool toys. And Kiersten and Kaylee are always great with the kids, they'll make good moms someday.

Wonderful Week!!

My horrible week transitioned into a pretty good next week. One of my new friends, Susana, got baptized (yeah!). I'm so glad I got to be there for it, it was a wonderful experience. And her new fiance got to be there too, they got married on Christmas Eve (Congratulations!)
And then, on Sunday, Church was wonderful. It was mostly music...everything sounded good, but my favorite was our friends Chris and Kiersten Hall. They sang and sounded amazing! Kiersten is only 12 but she's one of the best singers I've heard. They were the only ones who brought me to tears (and that's pretty hard to do)
And of course, this week was Christmas - also wonderful, but that will be a post of it's own!

Worst Week!!

So, the week started out good...Haylee came over and we had a slumber party - that was fun!





...but the fun didn't last long. We had a pipe freeze and then burst when it thawed in our duplex. So there was a huge waterfall coming down from the ceiling, probably for days. And the water had to drain somewhere...through the heating vent and into the furnace - I'm not gonna count on that working anymore! Don't worry, the water is turned off completely so that won't happen again any time soon.
And then, I went to Lowes to pick up some stuff...large things, so I took our truck. It made it there fine without any problems. But then, it wouldn't start when I tried to leave. I had three guys out there trying to figure it out, but no luck. So I had to haul everything back inside, return it, and hitch a ride home. Still not sure whats wrong with the truck...it's still sitting in the parking lot at Lowes...
Then, later in the week, another surprise happened. For some reason, Levi woke up in the middle of the night. So I went to make him a bottle...and no water came out when I turned the sink on. In case you're wondering, no, it's not fun finding out your house has no water in the middle of the night while trying to make a bottle. The pipes into our house all froze so it was a day-long process fixing it to be able to take a shower, brush teeth, wash dishes, and do laundry again.
What a horrible week, I'm hoping it can only get better because it can't get much worse. I think maybe all of this is happening so I'll appreciate Spencer more when he comes home!

Winter Sucks

For those of you who don't live in upstate NY, this is what it's like...


I know it's not Thanksgiving anymore, but be thankful!!

Santa? Santa Who?

Last night was our ward Christmas party. And guess who was there? Santa! As you can see Levi was totally fascinated and Jamin could care less, he was only worried about the candy canes. One of our friends was taking pictures too, so hopefully he got a better shot!

Future Photographer

Jamin found my camera again. I really think he may be a photographer some day. He went with more of a creative view this time...more abstract. He covered all the important stuff: Levi eating, a cheerio that Levi dropped on the floor, and mommy sitting on the couch...the life of a photographer is just so exciting!

Gas is less than $2!

I can't believe how cheap gas is! The other day, I only paid $1.92...and today I saw it for $1.88. I don't know that I've EVER paid that little for gas. I can remember (older) people saying "I remember when gas hit $1 and I thought that was so expensive" That would be cool if it went below a dollar again, but I'll even settle for it never going above two dollars again. Wishful thinking...I know...but we can dream, right?

Domestic Graffiti!

For those of you who don't know...Domestic Graffiti is the name of the vinyl business that I started with my friend Margie. I may be partial, but it's awesome! Our website is finally up...there are still a few kinks to work out so it's still somewhat under construction. But check it out and tell me what you think! www.shopdomesticgraffiti.com

What a good big brother!

Jamin thought he would be helpful and give Levi some more cheerios. I don't think Levi was as hungry as Jamin thought....and he's supposed to be on a diet!

ashes, ashes.....

Jamin loves to do ring around the rosy. One day, I caught him doing it like a ballerina...twirling around in a circle singing "ashes, ashes" until he realized that I was watching him - then he got mad and said "no!"

Jamin found my camera...and my boots!

Surfs Up! & Trick or Treat

Happy Birthday Jamin!

Jamin was a surfer for Halloween so that was the theme of his costume birthday party. I don't have very many pictures...the morning of the party I went and bought new batteries for my camera, but they were rechargeable batteries..which I now know are not pre-charged. These are pictures I stole from my friends blog. (thanks Roxanne!)
ps- didn't I do a fabulous job on the cake?



And what 2 year old wouldn't want to help open presents?


Jamin is such a ladies man. I don't know where he learned that...maybe he bribed them with cake!

We're Still Alive!

Yes, we are still here. No, we are not ignoring anyone. And we are still alive. We've been very busy lately...and for those of you who don't believe me, I made a list of the top 10 reasons why we've been MIA for the past several months
not in any particular order:
1. I'm currently a single mom (thanks Spencer)
2. I have a 2 year old (love him, but he's crazy)
3. I have an 8 month old (4 teeth + 4 more coming= long days)
4. My new vinyl business (yeah for me and Margie...& KC)
5. Our (now my) real estate ventures
6. For some reason, my dishes and laundry never stay done
7. And my house never stays clean either!
8. New York Winters
9. Did I mention I have a 2 year old? (yes, that counts as 2 reasons)
and last but not least...
10. Everyone is busy, aren't they?

Me and the boys

Jamin's Pre-Birthday Party

This party was pretty much for me. While I'm over here in Afghanistan I'm missing a bunch of cool things, like Jamin's Birthday(which is today!) So our friends decided to throw him a bash so I could attend before I left.

Here's most of the little guys all decked out in their Halloween costumes.












Jamin's awesome cake! We have some creative friends who know how to put that to good use!

A beach cake? Its SEE-Food!!

Cake? What cake? I have no idea what you are talking about?

Hehe. I really don't remember what Jamin was so excited about, but man he is into it. I'm sure thats Levi's "Mom, get me out of here!" face :).

Easton is 5th groups newest ODA member specializing in awesome. Hes pretty much the US's answer to the war on terror. (ps: That is most defiantly NOT a costume from a teddy bear , oh wait yea it is :)













Here is Madelin showing off here new Lai and hula skirt made at the party. Pretty cool.

Showing off!

This is what happens when four toddlers get together and one of them is Jamin and the other three are girls...he shows off! (not that he has anyone to compete with, he gets all the girls and he knows it)

Getting the most out of our last few days of summer

 

Jamin and Addie playing at the Splash Park at Ft. Drum.

Hey Liam! Look in that hole! I promise nothing will squirt you in the face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where does all the water go?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haylee and Jamin enjoying an afternoon treat.

Levi Steals the Show

Levi getting some Great-Gram love at Uncle Larry's house. Great-Gram Maxine loves to hold him even if her arms are about to fall off by the end of the day.

 

 

 

 

Mommy has a new laundry buddy! Levi loves to help her and ride in the basket just like Jamin used to. (Jamin still likes to help but he is too big for the basket now!)

 

 

 

 

DROP! and give me 20!
Levi's been trying to build his muscles and get rid of his chubs because he's supposed to be on a "diet".

A long trip to visit my cousins

Here's Jamin with some of his cousins during our visit to Uncle Larry's house.

Rocking out on cousin Crystal's electric piano.

Jamin HATES to get his nails cut :)