Tagged

My sis-in-law Amy tagged me. So here goes...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper is always more fun.
2. Real tree or artificial? Ours is an artifical tree. But I love real ones.
3. When do you put up the tree? A few days after Thanksgiving.
4. When take down. around New Year.
5. Do you like eggnog? LOVE IT!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Original Cabbage Patch the first year they came out. Her name was Mallory and I loved her.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes--but it is dying. I need a good one.
8. Hardest person to buy for? My mom.
9. Easiest person to buy for? My kids.
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? A book about how to sue people if your kids get hurt!!! Definitely not a present I was wanting!!!
11. Mail or Email Christmas card? Mail is always better, but email is good in a pinch.
12. Fav Christmas movie? A Christmas Story--is there any other Christmas movie???
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Depending on the year we usually start around January--on a good year we start right after Christmas. I hate last minute shopping!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Turkey sandwiches for breakfast. Mom always cooks a turkey overnight so that is the first thing you smell in the morning is turkey!! I love it!!!!!
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear all the way!
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night!
18. Travel for Christmas or stay home? That would depend on the year and where we are living at the time!! This year stay home since we are living with my parents for this month.
19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Of course. Can't everyone?
20. Do you have an Angel on top or star? Always a star! I like the way it looks best.
21. Open presents Christmas Eve, or Christmas morning? Christmas morning...except for we always open one on Christmas eve--it is always PJ's.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Stores being packed.

Now to tag others... Jen Martin, Nicole, Veronica, Teri Le, Sarah Jones

NOT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that I am a slacker, but I have a good excuse for not updating the blog for the past month. We are not moving to Georgia after all!!! Welcome to our ever changing, hectic life!!! We are now back in Utah staying with my parents for the month of December. Last week Dave traveled back to Charlottesville, Virginia to buy a house for us since that is where we are headed now! For those of you that remember, we were planning on heading to Charlottesville before we were given the opportunity to go to Hawai'i. So I guess it is where we are meant to be. We absolutely LOVE it back there and are planning on starting our trek across the country a day or two after Christmas.

FOR MY FRIENDS IN HAWAI'I:
I was asked to provide snowy pictures. My parents live in a log house in a small town in the mountains near Park City, UT. In fact, I always worked in Park City as a teenager. Anyway, they have five acres and 2 four wheelers---which makes for a really fun winter combination! We pulled a sled behind one of the four wheelers while the other just drove around with kids holding on to grandpa! They had so much fun. The didn't want to stop even though they were frozen through! Jonas enjoyed it the most. After each turn he would say "just one more time!"

Halloweens Past

In the last post my friend Carrie commented about whether or not we do "themes" every year. The answer is yes. There has been one year that I didn't do a theme because we were right in the middle of moving during the month of October. But other than that we have had a theme since we have had more than one child. I don't have all my photos with me so I can't show you how cute London was as Little Mermaid and Teancum as Sebastian (his costume was hideous!! I did a really terrible job on his because I spent so much time making London's perfect). The next year I didn't have matching and it was very boring. The following year the kids were the Three Amigos and they won a prize at our ward Halloween party. They were sooooo cute. Ezekiel wouldn't keep his hat on for the picture though. The following year was the Wizard of Oz. I am putting on Zeke's scarecrow picture because I was especially proud of how well it turned out. And you can't get the whole Dorothy effect if you don't see her shoes--so here is a picture of London too. Teancum's was the funniest because he couldn't sit down in it. I tried to modify it after I realized my design flaw but Tank quickly corrected me by saying "Tinmans don't have bums." And right he was--so we left it as it was! Then there was last year. We HAD to be Star Wars. Teancum was supposed to be Chewbacca but the fur on his costume made him so fluffy that he looks more like an ewok. Infact, we saved it just in case we need an Ewok costume in the future. (perfect winter costume by the way. Tank was sweating up a storm. Definitely warmer than most costumes!) And of course, this year we were the Chronicles of Narnia. So that is our Halloween Costume history. The kids are already thinking up ideas for next year. Right now they are going back and forth between Harry Potter or Planet Heroes. I am sure they will think up more as we get closer. I am hoping that if it becomes a habit they will always do a theme together, but I am sure the day will come when they decide to think independently--------Until then I am going to push the "theme" concept for as long as I can!!!

Halloween in Narnia

This weekend we had a ward Trunk or Treat. The kids were way excited to dress up and test-run their costumes. In case you don't know, the theme for our kids this year was Narnia. London was the White Witch, Teancum was Peter Pevensie, Ezekiel was Edmund Pevensie and Jonas was Aslan the Lion. Most of the pictures we have are of the boys holding up their swords and sheilds and screaming "For NARNIA!!!", while Jonas roars like a lion. After the Trunk or Treat we headed over to the Ewa Railroad. It is a little historic train that only runs Sunday afternoons so we have never been able to go on. But this year they decided to have a Spook Train for Halloween. It was their first year doing it so it wasn't that great---but it was such a hit that I am sure that they will be doing it bigger and better next year. Most of the pictures are self explanatory, but there is one of London "acting" scared, one of Zeke hiding behind the shield because he really was scared and the best is of Jonas pinching his nose--He said he was doing it "so the Monsters won't see me!" I don't know where he got that from but Dave and I got a kick out of it. The one of Tank by himself was the best one of him we had. He is scared of the flash because it hurts his eyes, so he would always anticipate it. Oh well! Have a Happy Halloween!!

Yet Another Change

Well, the time has come for me to update you all on our ever changing life. I put off updating everyone until things settled down a little because I didn't want to have to make a new post every day. For the past few weeks our lives have been up in the air. For a while we thought Dave was going to be going to Iraq, then we thought maybe active duty, and then we were being tossed around between Utah, Virginia, and Georgia. Well, now the dust has settled and it seems as though we have a plan for the next little while anyway.

We are planning on leaving Hawaii the end of November!! Sorry to all of those that didn't get a chance to make it out to visit. We honestly thought that we were going to be here longer. And we could be, but that plan would require Dave going to Iraq again and we aren't ready for that. We really can't complain. The way we see it, we have had an 11 month vacation in paradise. Not many poeple get that opportunity! So now we are going back to Utah just for a couple months of training and then the Guard has been great enough to give Dave a position back in Augusta, Georgia. Dave is really excited because that is his location of choice for when we finally decide to cut the apron strings from the military. So we are taking a leap of faith and planning on buying a home so that we can do whatever is necessary to stay there long term. (long term is a minimum of 3 or 4 years for us since we have never been anywhere longer than a year and a half---and nowhere longer than a year for the past 4 years!!)

We are going to stay with my parents for December, January and maybe part of February until Dave is done with his training--and this will hopefully give us enough time to find a great house to buy!

Now that I am posting this I am probably jinxing us--and we will probably have yet another change of plans---but we hope not!!! We'll keep you updated...

Dossier Photos

For those of you that don't know, we are in the process of adopting a little girl from China. We just barely turned in the last bit of paperwork and after it has all been authenticated, etc.. our dossier will be sent on to China and the waiting process will begin (right now it is almost a 2 year wait). With the last group of paperwork we were required to submit between 6 to 10 photos containing at least me or Dave, in order to show what our lives are like. And also at least one in front of our home so that they could see what our home looks like. I have been worrying since I turned it in that I didn't pick very good photos. They don't show us as well as other photos, but they do at least show our personalities and our pastimes. Today I received an email from our contact at the adoption agency and this was what she had to say, "Your lifestyle photos are phenomenal – so vibrant and colorful, and your kids are PRECIOUS!!!" So I am feeling better about them! So I thought I would put them up for you all to see. Some of them are older. There are pictures from Disneyland and our visit to Monterey and also from our vacation at Jackson Hole. Plus Chuckee Cheese and the swat meet! I am sure I have put some of these up before--sorry for any repition. F.Y.I. when we do get our little girl from China we have decided to call her Langli (Like Langley, VA--we are trying to keep with the place names for the girls!). So if I write about Langli that is who I am talking about.

Favorite Photos

I am in the process of finding photos to send in with our paperwork for the adoption. I ran across these photos that I just loved when I took them. They are obviously old. They were taken to send to Dave while he was in Iraq. I thought I would just share a couple with you.

School Photos

Here are the kids class photos and school pictures for this year. I must apologize for London's hair. She has very difficult hair to comb because she has three MASSIVE cowlicks that make it impossible to part her hair. But Tank, on the other hand, makes a beautiful little girl!:) He was so mad when he saw the picture. He is glad that he has a boy's haircut now.

Family Photos

I have been meaning to get a family picture taken for awhile and I have even bought us some cute hawaiian clothing for it. Then Dave came home one day and said that they were doing photos on post that were relatively inexpensive so he signed us up. Then I found out that they were sepia toned 1920's and 1930's "themed" photos. I wasn't too excited but they actually turned out pretty good. We especially like how the outfits bring out the "inner rascal" in the boys.

Captain Dave

It finally happened. Yesterday Dave officially became a captain!!! We are so excited! Yes it is an increase in paygrade, but more than anything he starts to get more respect from those around him. We had London and Tank help promote him. After a nice speech from the Battalion Commander, Tank removed Dave's old rank and gave him the new one and then London replaced his beret with one that has his new rank. It was great. The kids held it together (more or less) for the ceremony but after that they were out of control! You know how it is...kids can never be good on those few occassions when it really is important! We provided pupus (aka appetizers) for all those that came to share in the ceremony. There were probably about 20 or so people there. The first “buddy” shot is of Captian Violand, Dave's company Commander. Now lots of you will be able to put a face with the name. Then there is Chaplain Mount. I call him Dave's boyfriend. He is a total athlete and Dave's surfing buddy. He and his wife are also adopting from China…but they are a lot further along in the process. Then we have the Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. Ocker. He seems to like Dave a lot...so we think he is a pretty smart man!:) In the family picture I forgot that I have transition lenses in my glasses so I didn’t take them off for pictures and ended up looking really silly!:( (I ALWAYS forget about those lenses!!) Last of all is the cake that we bought for Dave to celebrate when he got home!