Blue Moon

The new year is coming and will be ushered in by a blue moon. How cool is that? Maybe that is a sign that the new year will be a special year. (For those of you who do not know, a blue moon is not blue, but rather it is a second full moon in one month. This is a somewhat rare occurrence.) While the whole blue moon thing is exciting, I'll admit that I don't really care for New Year's. I do not really like celebrating the passing of another year. Time is moving all together too fast. I would rather slow time down than to party at the end of a year. But really, that's probably just me.

I cannot help but share this adorable photo of Pat and Ryan. I wasn't the only one to get a Patriots jersey for Christmas. (Santa thought it would be wise to wait until Sean's growth slowed down a bit before he could have a jersey to match.) Here they are, and don't they look cute?

In the new year you can expect to find some photos of the tile backsplash Pat put in the kitchen. I think it looks amazing, and when it is complete you'll be able to see it too!

I Was Spoiled

I said I'd post about my Christmas gifts, and I think I was spoiled this year. Here are some of the things I received from my boys and from Santa Claus.

A cobalt blue Le Creuset dutch oven. I am so excited to cook with this.

I guess Santa thought I should have more to match my dutch oven so he also brought these Le Creuset casserole dishes.

A Coach wallet. I knew about this one though because it was part of our black Friday shopping that I mentioned a while ago. The PX was having a special sale, and we got a really good deal. I am so happy to finally be able to use it.

I was very surprised by a Keurig Elite coffee maker under the tree. Now to those that know me this gift may seem a little odd. I do not really drink coffee. I do however drink tea and hot cocoa. I will sometimes drink specialty coffee drinks too. I bet during the next deployment I may end up with a coffee habit out of necessity though. I cannot wait to try some of the k-cups. Maybe I'll review this product sometime in the future too.

Other non-pictured gifts included a New England Patriots jersey as a ploy to make me want to watch football. I also received some lotions and a digital coin counter. (Right now I have $11.80 in coins!)

So as you can see I got way more than I ever deserved. Pat figured he should spoil me now in case we do not get to celebrate together next year. I only wish he had told me this before I had only a few things for him. What were some of the things you had under your tree?

p.s. Happy 300th post to me. I'm sure there will be many more to come.

Our Family Christmas

Even though Patrick and I have been married for many Christmas celebrations now, this was our first real family Christmas. Growing up I always loved spending Christmas with my family, and hoped that when I was married I would have a very similar celebration with my own family. The only down side to having my own family Christmas now is that I don't get to see my parents and siblings because we live so far away. While it was sad not seeing my loved ones, it was still my favorite Christmas yet. It was the kind of Christmas I've been waiting to have since I married Patrick. Our family cuddled together watching Christmas movies, we baked sugar cookies, we had a tree completely surrounded by presents, we had a delicious dinner, and we really enjoyed being together. Here are a few photos of our celebration.

The boys on Christmas eve in their holiday pjs.

The tree surrounded by all the presents.
Ryan waking up and seeing all the stuff Santa left.
Seeing his face light up was magical.
Ryan got a trike.
A basketball hoop too.

And many, many other toys.


I felt bad that I didn't have more for Pat under the tree, especially after I realized how he spoiled me. (I'll make another post about how he spoiled me later.)
Sean had many gifts too and was a great sport while we all opened presents.


And at the end of Christmas night we had some chocolate peppermint stick ice cream pie.
This Christmas was even better than I ever imagined. I hope everyone had as wonderful a holiday as our family had.

2 Years and 2 Months

The boys had their checkups a few weeks ago. We finally found a great pediatrician thanks to a referral from a friend. Our new pedi is up in Hopkinsville, which is a bit of a drive, but I'd definitely say he is worth it.

Now here are the stats:

Ryan at 2 years

31 lbs (in clothes)

35" tall

Sean at 2 months

16lbs

24" long

Sean is completely huge! Although I will say that he hadn't pooped for about 4 days before this appointment. He is a bit heavier and a little longer than Ryan was at the same age. I was a little surprised by this because he doesn't seem to nurse as well as Ryan did, but I guess he's quite efficient the way he does it.

It was a great appointment and the boys were troopers with their shots. I'm happy I finally found a place I like.

Santa

As we approach Ryan's 3rd Christmas, we thought it was finally time for him to meet the big guy in red. He's never once met Santa Claus in the past. We didn't have high hopes for Ryan's reaction, and I'm glad we didn't expect a smile. I didn't even bring a camera, but I was able to snap some blurry photos with my cell phone. Here's what Ryan thought of Santa:

Maybe Ryan will have a greater appreciation for Santa after he brings all the gifts for Christmas morning.

Sweet Smiles!

Crazy BAH Rates!

I've noticed that the BAH rates here at this post fluctuate a lot more year to year than they did while we were at our other duty station. (I now wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that they deploy the entire post together usually) I noticed this trend before we even pcs'd here. Just after Pat came house hunting the BAH rate went up a lot.

2008 +260

2009 -104

2010+188

The good thing about BAH rates is that even if the rate goes down, like it did in 2009, your current BAH rate is grandfathered in. So since we moved here with the big increase back in 2008 and didn't lose any in 2009, we're only going to see an extra $84, but I am very excited about that. I wasn't expecting much of an increase, and had forgotten to check for a while so this was a very pleasant surprise. Yay for more money in our pockets. ;)

Oreo

Ryan isn't all that big on sweets. I know, whose kid is he anyway? He'd much rather have a piece of fruit than most other things. However, one night after dinner I gave him an Oreo. He seemed to have fun eating it and really enjoyed the middle. He really only wanted the cream and not the cookies, but he was super cute!

Butchered

Why didn't anyone warn me? I am going to say that in my opinion the book Twilight was butchered to make it into a movie. I'm only halfway through the movie and am finding it almost unbearable to watch.

I know that it always happens that if you really like a book, the movie just never will compare. However, I'm finding that they totally rewrote everything of Twilight to make it into a movie. Yuck! I think I'm just too meticulous about the story line for this to not bother me.

I definitely recommend the books over the movie.

Joining the Ranks

My dear friends, the Mroszczyk Family, gave me a gift card for my birthday. I decided that I was going to see what all the hype was about and read the Twilight Saga. I ended up getting sucked in and really enjoyed the books. It was probably the fastest I've ever read that much.

So now I find myself joining the ranks of all the teenage girls obsessed with Twilight, in love with the character of Edward, and having a crush on Robert Pattinson. I haven't seen the movie Twilight yet, but I am looking forward to watching it tonight while Pat has duty.

Hopefully now that I'm done reading, I'll be back to posting more often.

O Christmas Tree

This weekend we picked out and set up our Christmas tree. You won't find a fake tree in our house. We love the tradition of picking out a tree each year and the smell of the pine. I even made our own stockings this year, and that is a tradition I'd like to keep by making us new ones each year. (Although this year I only made one for Pat and the boys. I was too tired to make another for myself.) It was really nice to be able to do these traditions considering that last year Pat was gone for Christmas and next year he'll be gone again. Here are a few photos of our Christmas tree and stockings.

New Floors...I'm in Love!

A while back Pat and I replaced the kitchen flooring with wood laminate. We were very happy with our purchase. Over the two years we've been living here we've noticed that our living room carpet had gone from a nice cream color to an ugly, dirty beige with lots of stains. It didn't matter how often I steam cleaned the carpet, the stains would be back out shortly after I did all the work to clean it. After we saw how sturdy the kitchen floor was with Ryan and the dogs, we decided to extend that floor into the living room and entry way. We bought a beautiful rug from the PX and our living room is gorgeous. I am so in love with the rug and floors. It will definitely hold up better for the children and dogs too.

Tired Boy

I'm currently playing post catch up of the stuff that has happened recently so there may be a few posts today.

We had new floors put in our living room and entry way. I'll post about them next. While they were putting the floors in, I had to stay out of the way up in the bonus room. It isn't a very big room to be locked in all day long, especially if you are sharing it with two children and three dogs. By the end of the first day Ryan, Sean, and I were exhausted. Sean had had trouble napping up there because of all the commotion. Ryan never took a nap, which is what I expected. Missing that nap and playing upstairs, which hardly ever occurs, took it's toll on Ryan. By the time dinner rolled around it was clear that Ryan was way overtired. He wanted to get down from the table but just wasn't happy. He came over to me for comfort and fell asleep STANDING UP!

Anxiously waiting with my ear to the ground...

I am anxiously awaiting the Presidential Address tonight. The projected increase in troops to Afghanistan will directly affect Pat. I've been reading all of the rumored plans, but I really want to hear it from the Commander's mouth. If I go by the latest headline: Obama: 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan by Summer, then I know my husband will be leaving sooner rather than later. I was prepared for this news, but I never like to actually receive it. Next month (January 8th) marks a year home from his last deployment, so in one way we are lucky to get more than a year home. However, no amount of time feels like enough to be okay about sending your loved one back to war. I know I have no say, and it's my duty to support him. I also know that this is his job, which he loves. When things are finalized and I can share more info, I'll let you know.