Month: November 2010

At what point in your life is it time to start having Christmas on your own? I stress out so much over what to do for Christmas every year. This year we had a plan in place, we were going to stay home. Then we found out we would be leaving for Italy in March. We will probably be there for the next three years, so I found myself re-evaluating our holiday plans. But it doesn’t seem like a financially smart decision for us right now to spend $1000 on plane tickets to get home when we just saw everyone only a few months ago. At the same time though, should we decide to come home from Italy at any point, those tickets run $1000 a piece…for three of us that’s a bit painful. So I think we will probably be sticking with the plan at this point. We may try to get back west in February, when the tickets are cheaper than holiday ones. But we’ll see.

Then there are the brothers…Cody is out on his mission and won’t be back until June or August. So we won’t be seeing him for five years! This might happen with Taylor as well…we are scheduled to be in Italy until after Taylor turns 19…

The moral of this story is, don’t move so far away from family unless you are a millionaire!!! haha. We do miss and love everyone…wish we could see your faces more often.

This Thanksgiving Jen, Jonah and I made the long drive from our home in Maryland to my Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Steve’s house in Cincinnati Ohio. We started out the day before Thanksgiving around 7pm and didn’t make it there until around four in the morning. I was pretty tired by the time we got there but Jen woke up for the last few hours and helped me stay alert. The next morning after all three of us got some good sleep, we headed upstairs to say “Hello” to our gracious hosts. Jonah was at first weary of their Yorkiepoo Sammy, but quickly warmed up to her as soon as Sammy stopped being so excited!
As you can see, Uncle Steve greeted us with a calm disposition.He quickly regained his composure though, and began to slice up the turkey! This year they brined the turkey, which made it about the moistest, most succulent turkey Jen or I had ever tasted!Soon we found ourselves sitting down to a traditional Thanksgiving spread, complete with food, family, new friends, and good conversation.After dinner we all played Catchphrase, adults vs. children. It goes without saying the adults wiped the floor with their kids.In my mind the highlight of the evening came when we played a game in which a paper bag was set on the floor and you had to pick it up with your mouth without touching the ground with any body part other than your feet. Even Jonah played (albeit from mimicking and no real understanding of the rules, but it was cute non-the-less).


The game ended in a three way tie between myself and two much younger cousins. I think I won for my height and weight category!

Anyway, we were SO grateful to our wonderful hosts who took us in over Thanksgiving. It was wonderful being around family, especially since we will soon be leaving for Italy and probably won’t have much chance to see any family for quite a while. Happy Thanksgiving!

We were told a few weeks ago that we would be told by the end of this month when and where we will be PCSing (permanent change of station = moving).

Today we found out that we will be going to the land of pasta, leather and gondolas.

Our report date: March 10, 2011.

I almost had a heart attack on the report date…we were thinking May or June. Nick’s marathon is March 26th and we thought there was no chance we’d be PCSing before that…sooo much to do!!!!!!!!!!

Word has finally started to spread that not only are we cheap, but we’re actually pretty good too. 🙂 We’ve had lot’s of photo customers this week and I just had to share this photo with you…it’s my favorite. Go Nick. (And thank you Mom for the awesome frame…don’t you love it??!)

Who doesn’t love a good bubble bath? (Or a cute bum…)

Congrats to my wonderful hubby who found out two great things yesterday, first that his name was cleared from the felony that is a speeding ticket in Virginia and second that he has been accepted to BYU’s online GS program to finish his degree.

Since our house at this current moment is three stories, I tend to yell for Nick a lot (his computer is in the basement). Well Jonah has been listening because now when he wants Daddy he says “Nnniiiiiiiiii!”

Just had to share.

Nick is now officially 26! I am sooo grateful we could actually be together to celebrate this year. To start off the birthday morning, Jonah and I tiptoed around making breakfast while letting Daddy sleep. (My man gets up every morning at 6am to go do his required physical training…not many guys can say that their job forces them to work out every morning, Nick doesn’t even complain about it, in fact he is now training for a marathon!) Then we served him breakfast in bed. We also opened presents in bed. Clothes, money and a new heart rate/GPS watch for his marathon training. (Thank you to all our family for the wonderful birthday gifts, thoughts, cards and calls.)

We headed into DC later that day to go for a little hike around the Theodore Roosevelt Island.



We were going to catch a museum but we couldn’t find parking. We thought we had a spot, but really could not understand these signs…

So we headed to the yummy sushi place Kotobuki, where we enjoyed good sushi and beatles music. After which we stood in line to try the fabulous Georgetown Cupcakes, super yummy. Then we fought through traffic to get home and pass out from our wonderful day.

Happy birthday my man! I love you so much! May you have many many more years ahead of you. (But don’t worry, we can stop counting soon, since you are getting closer to 30 now.)

I hate holding him down for shots…it hurts me more than it hurts him I think.


Oh yes and the measurements. 28 lbs. 32.5 inches. Moving up into the 24 Month/2T clothes!

Found a good use for those food storage Lima Beans…

If I could do it again, I would use a WHITE foam wreath thingy (couldn’t find one) or at least spray paint it white before I start, and maybe the smaller lima beans…I dunno though because it took me hours using the big ones, so small ones might kill me.