Black Friday!

Ah yes, everybody's favorite day of the year...the day after Thanksgiving shopping madness! It wasn't too bad for us though. Today we took the girls to see Santa. I wasn't sure how the girls would react to him, but both did very well. Allison was a little unsure, but once she saw her big sissy sitting on his lap, she figured it was okay. Caitlyn told Santa what she wanted for Christmas (just a princess dress like Belle's!), and then we took some pictures.

To celebrate Allison's birthday a little early, we took her to Build-a-Bear so she could finally have her own bear! She had so much fun through the whole process. If she got her way, she would have had one of every animal in the place to take home! Her bear is really fuzzy and has some colorful patches on her, so we called her Patches! Caitlyn got to help make Allison's bear too, so that was really special. Caitlyn's bear is Bearemy, and since the day we got him, has been a boy. She brought him along to the store so she could pick out an outfit for him. Once she saw the pretty dresses to choose from, Bearemy instantly became a girl...she cracks me up. Her bear even has "glass slippers". Needless to say by their faces below, they both really love their bears!

Since Christmas is approaching and Bear doesn't exactly have the means to go shopping himself, he told me what he wanted to get for me (some diamond earrings), but asked that I go and pick them out myself. Talk about a dangerous task...sending me to a jewelry store to buy something! Today I found the most perfect ones! What a sweet guy I've got, huh?!?!

Today was a long day for all of us. Both of the girls fell asleep in the car on the way home clutching tightly to their bears. We were all grateful to come home and get into our jammies!

Bear, Caitlyn wanted me to tell you that she loves you and that she misses you! I guess Allison was saying the same thing when she was hollering for you earlier today. We all love/miss you like crazy and can't wait til you come home!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Okay, I finally decided to sit down and do some updates (sorry it has been a while!). That being said, bear with me as this may be somewhat of a book! Our flights went very well overall. The girls did so good with all the juggling of our stuff we had to do, and even enjoyed the flights. The worst part was trying to get through security check points since everyone had to take their shoes off, and everything else that is metal. I had to take Allison out of the stroller, and break the stroller down to send it through the scanner. But thankfully the staff were very helpful and patient with us. When we finally got on the plane, the girls were glued to the windows, though Caitlyn got upset every now and then because Allison was trying to kick her out of the way so she could sit by the wind0w. But, once we were up in the air, we put the little tray tables down and the girls got a snack and drink, and colored almost the whole way there! Caitlyn and her love of checking out new bathrooms of course just had to go potty when we were on the plane. Yes, we squished all 3 of us in a tiny airplane bathroom...reminded me of clowns in those little VW Bugs! It was even snowing in Minneapolis, so the girls were tickled to see that. The second flight wasn't near as cheerful. Allison didn't get a nap because there was so much going on, and it was very hot on the plane. She let the world know she wasn't happy about it! But once we got going, I laid her down on the floor where it was a little cooler and let her play around with her blanky and bear, and life was better for everyone within listening distance.




Our first day in Oshkosh, we decided to rake some leaves and of course make a big pile for the girls to jump in. Even Grandma did a belly flop on the leaf pile! The girls played hard, and of course now their coats are wet leaf stained and need to be washed...oh well. We had lots of fun!



The next night, we went to try on dresses with the bridesmaids for Dan and Misty's wedding. Since the moment Caitlyn found out she gets to a flower girl, she has wanted to go dress shopping and find some mittens (the long gloves) to wear with her dress. Needless to say, she was very excited! Almost immediately, she came across this dress, and it is just perfect! She looked so grown up...hard not to tear up with a beautiful princess in the room! It took a lot of convincing to get her to take the dress off and understand that she will get a new one of her own in a little while.

So, here we are today and we have snow! The girls were so excited to see the snow! Caitlyn wanted to make a snowman right away, and Allison was content to try to eat them as they were falling near her face.

It's Thanksgiving, and our family is very grateful for many things! Even though Bear is far away, he was still able to enjoy a good dinner! He said the command went all out for the festivities. The chow hall staff were dressed in costume as pilgrims and indians, and they had more food than imaginable! They had oven roasted turkey, smoked turkey, whole hog on rotisserie, baked ham, trout fillets, lobster...and that's just the meat! And here we are stressed out over cooking for a group of no more than 20 with a menu that doesn't compare to that! Tomorrow some Secretaries of something or other (Bear couldn't remember who it was) are coming around to visit, as well as the USO tour. Coming with the tour are Fezz from That 70's Show, some band he didn't know, and a comedian that is supposed to be very good. He was excited today to have the day officially "off", not like he has a lot to do any other day, but today he got to wear civies! That's almost enough to make you feel like a real person! Anywho, I hope all of you have the most wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thank you all for your love and support for the girls and I and of course for Bear!

My Turkeys!

I just couldn't resist taking some pics off my turkeys today. They were up in their room playing very well together, and then they came downstairs wearing these outfits! The one that Allison is wearing is actually Caitlyn's gymnastics outfit, of course made of spandex, but there was no stretching needed to fit on her! How can you not help but laugh/smile with these two around?!?!





I was very surprised, and excited, when I looked out the window and saw snow flurries! It only lasted for a couple minutes, and of course, it didn't stick, but we got snow!!! When it gets cold out, the snow somehow makes it seem worth being cold.

I really got spoiled today by getting to talk to Bear for a little over an hour! He got the ipod today and was very relieved to be able to have some music to listen to that doesn't have the F word, every other word (that's apparently mostly what they play in their common areas). And now he has some more pics of me and the girls too! He had the day off today as they were just now recognizing Veterans Day, so he didn't have to show up for his 2 daily check ins. Anywho, it's late, and I am trying really hard to kick this whole not sleeping very well thing.

Love,
Erin & munchkins

89 days to go!

Hi y'all, just wanted to give a quick update on Bear. First of all, he only has 89 more days in country to go until he can come home, yeah!!! As you may have read in past blogs, he was told he would be doing his missions in Uganda. Not anymore. He was told just the other day that now they are wanting to send him to Ethiopia!. The real kicker is that the missions for Ethiopia don't even start until January and will last maybe 2-3 weeks! How ridiculous is that?!?! And, there are four medics that belong to that unit normally coming in this Thursday, so his replacement is essentially already on it's way! He has also been told that when/if he ever makes it to Ethiopia, he won't have much of anything to do. Apparently they are going to be going to a really nice area, and the only reason they need him to go is so that they can say there was a nurse present. They should just send him home til they really need him! So what will he be doing with all this spare time? Well, today (last night for us) he took the convoy operations officer course, and as part of that had to use a satellite phone and call someone so he could prove he knew what he was doing. So he called me about 0500 this morning, and don't get me wrong, I love to hear from him, but it was the first night in a long time I had actually been sleeping all night! Darn the luck. He's hoping he won't have to do too many more classes...he said that he hopes he doesn't ever have to use the things he learned in this last class! All in all he is doing pretty well and is taking advantage of the down time to read some new books, go to the gym, and eat 4 meals a day! The poor guy always gets such terrible sympathy cravings...even when he's 8000 miles away!

Today Caitlyn insisted on wearing her boots with spurs to school. Hopefully she doesn't get into trouble for wearing them...guess we'll find out as the day goes on! Anywho, we have just five days until we fly to Wisconsin. I am a little nervous, as this will be the first time flying with both girls by myself, but thank God I can bring the stroller! That puts my mind at ease quite a bit since I won't have both of them to chase around, and we'll have a place to store all the things we are going to need to bring with us instead of me having to carry everything! I should be able to post more updates from my parents house, and hopefully some new pics!

Thank you all for your loving support and prayers; they really comfort us!
I know this is a couple days late, but thanks also to all the veterans and Soldiers still serving for everything you provide for this country...you are not forgotten (at least not where this family is concerned)!!!

Erin & munchkins

Fish and things!

Oh, it's late! It took me a while to figure out how to add the family video links on here. I hope you all are able to access the links I put up. Caitlyn had to sing her favorite 1, 2, 3 song and gave me a terrible headache with her tambourine. Allison just started to sing that "all aboard the choo choo train" song from Disney...it's kind of hard to decipher, but for those of you who have heard it, you may recognize it a little bit. Hopefully this post won't be too long so I can hurry up and sleep. It's a school night you know!

Anywho, the girls have a new fish tank in their room! The other one's light got completely fried, and I'm not the most electrical savvy person, so instead of electrocuting myself, I opted for something safer. They love the tank, and their new fish! It duals as a nightlight for them. Right now, there are 6 platte's and 1 sucker fish in there. Allison was even kind enough to share her cheese & peanut butter crackers with them! I'm sure they were hungry...she just wanted to feed them! We'll see what else shows up in there.



I finally had to put the quilt away that Granny made for us. Some of the stitching was coming apart, and the seams were starting to fray. I would hate for it to fall apart...we love it so much! So, I ordered a new bed set for us. When we got the new quilt, it was too small, even though it said online that it would fit a queen bed, ha! I had to order a king size one, and it is a little big, but much better than the other one was. I love all the little deco pillows too...they're cute, and Lord knows I need as many pillows to sleep with right now as I can get a hold of! I even fixed our broken bed post! It only took an hour at the hardware store the other day to get the correct threaded stud! They didn't have any that were pre-ordered, so the poor guy helping me had to take a longer bar, and cut it down to the length that I needed. He apparently was having a rather hard time with it (hence the hour long wait!). I still want to cut the legs off a little bit...that bed is just too tall! Oh well.

As for my Bear, not much has changed. He is still hurrying up and waiting to find out if he will ever leave Djibouti! He should receive his second package by this Sunday (I hope). He has been finding comfort in going to the different church services they offer on the base, and every now and then going to the area where they play music so he can try to relax a little. As always, thank you all for your loving support and prayers! We are under 100 days til he comes home to us!!!


Only 2 people have died for you...Jesus, for your soul, and Soldiers, for your freedom!

12 weeks!!!

We are now 12 weeks along with this pregnancy, and life is starting to get a little better for me. The nausea has almost completely subsided, and now I am just hoping to get some energy back! Sleeping better would really help too, I suppose. My midwife said that if I'm still having a hard time sleeping once I reach the second trimester, she wants to test me to see if my thyroid is overactive. Personally, I think it's related to the stresses of Bear being deployed, and me being home with the girls by myself. But, what do I know? I am still not showing yet, though it is very uncomfortable to wear regular jeans, so I have been mostly sticking to athletic pants, and that sort of thing. Caitlyn loves to come over to me and kiss the baby...she's so cute.

Bear is still stuck in Djibouti. He is working on getting his security clearance, and has yet to receive his new passport. At the rate things are moving, he might be in Djibouti for the majority of his time over there! That being said, for those of you that have requested his address, please keep using the old one since he doesn't know when he will be moving. If you have sent something to the new address, I would hope they would sent it to him up in Djibouti, otherwise it may sit there until he arrives. Go figure, the Army is making him hurry up and wait yet again!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and remembered to turn their clocks back. (BTW, they don't do the whole daylight savings thing over where Bear is, so he is now an extra hour ahead of everyone)

Love you all, and thank you for the support and prayers!
Erin & muchkins