New Year's Eve

I'm hoping that the present moment does not reflect what the new year will bring...we are a household of sick people...with the exception of Caleb (right now). I have been in and out of bed most of the day with body aches and congestion and coughing and sore throat. Poor Riley has snot dried to his nose and Shawn is in the early stages of complaining and taking Sudafed and insisting that taking double doses of Vitamin C will make him better. So in short, we are not out partying till 2009. We were suppose to have friends over for dinner tonight (sorry Benefields and Bahers) but I woke up with a terrible sore throat and it only got worse as the day progressed. I however, didn't want to give up my plans so I took everything out that was needed for dinner only to have to put it back after I couldn't raise my head to change Riley's diaper. It's so hard to be sick when you're a mom. Caleb must have watched 6 movies today and Riley sat in a pee diaper for longer than he ever should have. Thankfully, Shawn got home around 3:00 and I went to bed for about 2 hrs. Our big New Year's Eve dinner became frozen appetizers from the commissary.....Poppers, mozzeralla sticks, spinach/articoke dip and chips. Ugh...

It's about 11pm on New Year's eve here and I know that we are the first to celebrate the New Year of all the people we know around the world...so happy New Year!!!!! They celebrate the New Year here on base with 15 minutes of ships blowing their horns and flashing their lights. It gets pretty loud, but I think I'm heading to bed before the big show. It's just not the same to watch local Japanese t.v. bring in the new year as it is to watch the ball drop in New York (on t.v.) so I'll wait to celebrate when most of you celebrate...eastern time, I'll be watching the ball drop with you! Besides, I just took a Sudafed PE and it makes me crazy tired.

Christmas Moments

Christmas Eve, we had friends over for dinner. Before our guests arrived, we couldn't resist taking some pictures of Riley in his Santa outfit. If you look real close you can see his two new bottom teeth.

He loves to get his picture taken; he starts clapping his hands and giving out smiles.

All my boys

Who looks like their mommy??

Christmas morning we came down the stairs to find that Santa must have gotten stuck going out our front door because we found his hat hanging in the door jam.

When Caleb seen all the present under the tree, he started dancing and clapping his hands and screaming, "Oh my, Oh my!". Our tree looked so little buried behind all the gifts. Caleb was definitely spoiled by Santa this year and by Grandma and Poppy and Grandpa and Aunt Missy. It took us all day to open presents. Caleb would open a present and want to play with it for awhile before he opened another one. Shawn says, "enjoy it now because next year he'll be tearing through them without even looking at them"....I don't think so, but maybe...

Riley didn't want to play with any of the baby toys he got from Santa. He wanted to play with everything that Santa brought for Caleb.

Shawn was very happy to see that Santa brought him a remote control helicopter.

Shawn was not happy, however, about all the struggles he had opening the packaging of the helicopter and all the other toys that came in metal ties or screws, or plastic that required a small armory of tools to dislodge.

But Shawn kept pulling and tugging at the toys because every time he got one opened, he got the best smiles for his hard work.

We had an awesome Christmas. And we have REALLY enjoyed Shawn being home and on vacation. We've gotten a bit spoiled and will be sorry when he goes back to work on Monday. We hope that everyone had an awesome Christmas and we hope for a wonderful New Year for all.

Fundraiser Day is over

Today was our FRG's fundraiser. And I am so glad that it's over! It has been so time consuming that I've neglected my own family to finish some of the products we sold. The "Cookie in a Jar" (all the dry ingredients to make M&M cookies) and "Christmas mix" (Crispex and Cheerio cereal, m&ms, peanuts, pretzels, all cover in melted white chocolate) and "Homemade Hot Cocoa mix" were all my ideas put into motion. And it has been a rollercoaster motion too. I had a lot of help from other FRG members, but "Wow", it was some work. We had an awesome time selling products, and singing (actually, I was the only one singing) and wearing our Santa hats, and being together. It was fun. And we made some money for our organization.

These are the "Cookies in a Jar"

This is the Hot Cocoa. I didn't get a picture of the Christmas mix...

These are the Christmas trees that Shawn made out of cardboard boxes for our decorations at the fundraiser. Thank you honey.

After I got home this afternoon, it was family time! The weather was beautiful so we took advantage and spent some time outside.

This is what happens when boys have extra time and extra pieces of cardboard (left over from the Christmas trees) in their possession. This is the steep hill behind our house. It's so steep that Caleb had a very difficult time walking up it to only come right back down.

Shawn wanted a turn to try out the slide, but as he was sitting down to ride, Caleb jumped on his back and they both came down in a spiral roll.

Santa, friend or foe?

Riley woke up in the middle of the night with a fever of 104. I didn't think we'd make the Children's Christmas party, but the thought of Caleb missing the only chance he'd have to see Santa this year was more depressing than the thought of taking Riley to a party feeling sick. By the time we reached the party, Riley was miserable, tired, and feverish while Caleb was bursting with excitement over the possibility of getting to see Santa.

We wondered what this year would be like. Every year since Caleb was born, we have taken him to see Santa. His first 3 visits with Santa did not go very well (lots of kicking and screaming). This 4th visit, we watched with weary eyes to see how Caleb would react. Much to our surprise, he went right up to Santa and grabbed his hand and started talking.

The first thing Caleb did, (of course) was ask Santa for a "big train!".

Caleb was so happy! Riley, on the other hand, didn't care. I'm not sure he even noticed Santa. And as you can tell from the pictures, this was no warm and hugable looking Santa. I'm not sure if Riley didn't react because he was sick or not. Riley's personality is so calm and collected, I'm thinking he REALLY didn't care!

The magic of Christmas has begun for Caleb now. I see it every day! It starts in the morning when he comes downstairs and turns the Christmas tree on and looks at all the ornaments and then watches "Polar Express" with the same excitement he had the first time that he watched it. And then in the afternoon when he moves the little wooden star in our advent calendar to the next number in our countdown. And of course I see it at night, when the house is dark and you can see the Christmas lights shining in through the front door from outside and we're listening to Christmas Carols and making cookies. He's trying to sing along and really the only word you can make out is, "Santa". I love seeing his wonder and excitement and innocence. I love being his mom and being able to create the magic that I remember feeling as a kid. I LOVE IT! I love Christmas! How fun to have kids!!!

No gifts for Riley

It has been so difficult buying Christmas gifts for Riley. He doesn't need anything because he has all the toys from Caleb. And it's not like the toy industry has come out with some new exciting toy in the last 2 years for infants. So for now, Riley is getting a music table and that's it. I know that he's not going to know the difference now, but at some point in his future he's going to realize that Caleb gets new toys for Christmas and he gets all the hand me downs...

What have you moms' of multiple kids done to solve this unjustice to the younger sibling(s)? Or if any of you are the younger sibling in the family, what did your parents do at Christmas?? I have a younger sibling, but I was always too concerned with myself to be concerned about how my parents solved (if they did) the problem for my younger sister.

FRG Christmas tree

Remember the ornament party I blogged about a couple posts ago? Well, we had the opportunity to use those ornaments tonight at the tree decorating party. The tree turned out awesome!! I can't wait for all the kids to see their ornaments and their picture on the tree.

It's an 8ft. tree and every inch of it is covered.

I have really been enjoying my moments working with the FRG. Before we moved here, I never heard of FRG in the military, but I am glad to have heard of them now. I get to work with some great ladies doing some awesome events for the families of our ship. It's a really great way to associate with others who are going through the same daily struggles when the ship is deployed.

Early Christmas for me.

I got myself an early Christmas present, a KitchenAid mixer!! I love it!! Who knew how easy making cookies could be? I've always wanted a stand up mixer, but never thought I'd spend the money on one.

I've got to tell you the deal I got. I'm so proud of me!! Black friday at the NEX the mixer went on sale for 179.99 (which is a GREAT deal in itself) and then I got another $30 off...so I only paid $149.99. It was the BEST DEAL EVER!!

Happy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was a bit difficult for me. At 32 years old, I've never spent Thanksgiving without my parents. Even when Caleb was born in New York, my parents came up north for Caleb's birth and then stayed on till after Thanksgiving. So this morning, I woke up with my husband in Hong Kong, no Macy's Day Parade, no roasting pan out being filled with stale bread for stuffing, no smell of onions and celery being sauted in butter, no mom and dad. Thankfully, our FRG had a Thanksgiving potluck. I started my morning baking loaves of bread that rose over night and preparing green bean cassarole and candid yams. I was so glad to have somewhere to go, people to spend the time with. That's what I was most thankful for today, my family away from family. That's the one thing that I've learned being a military family that you have to be able to accept friends as your temporary family and hope that they will always be a part of your life. I've been very blessed in having families away from family all over the world now. And I just want to say to you all that I love having your friendship and support. I love you all so much. And to my mom and dad, I missed you dearly and recounted all our traditions. It's funny...when you do certain things you don't really think of them as traditions, but when it's missing, you definitely feel like all those little things are traditions. All those things like; giving a toast at dinner, sitting around the table with a cup of coffee pulling bread apart for stuffing, getting out of doing some tasks to watch the Macy's day parade, the card and board games that are played after everyone has digested food and taken a nap, the beautiful table setting we always use...the pictures of the meal that never seem to change year after year...except this year. The pictures are different, the meal was a bit different (there was some sushi) and the people were different. But it still had the same meaning, that everyone came together to be thankful for something, whether is was for good health or money in their pocket, or for having somewhere to spend the holiday. It was a meal and time that I am thankful for being able to enjoy.

Here are some of the pictures from around this year's table.

Amy, me, and Jen

Riley had some mashed potatoes, which he didn't seem to enjoy very much.

"It's gossip time around the cooler"

These are the boys..Amy's son Zachary, Jen's son John, and mine.

This is the only picture I got of Caleb looking at me. He was on the go the whole time we were there with all his little friends.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. May you continue to be thankful the whole year through.

Christmas Ornament Making

Our FRG (family readiness group) had a pizza party to make christmas ornaments. Our organization will get a 8ft. tree to decorate and we've decided to cover our tree in our children's art work. We had an awesome time! There was pizza and music and games and lots of crafts. I helped some of the kids make snowmen out of empty toliet paper rolls and cotton balls. How fun!

Here's my snowman...

Caleb really enjoyed painting dixie cups that later dried to make christmas bells. He probably painted 4 cups and was covered in paint.

Thank you crayola for washable paints.

And this is what Riley did from 4:30 till about 7:00. He is the best baby ever!! He really enjoyed just watching the other kids playing.

It was an awesome time.

Sick of Sushi

Okay, so I've had my first experience with bad sushi and it was BAD!! As soon as I put the scallop in my mouth I said, "oh, that could have been fresher". I should have known right then and there that I was going to be sick. Well, it wasn't too much later that I got sick, unfortunately it was in the back seat of my girlfriend's minivan...yep that's right, vomit down my shirt, down onto my pants, into my shoes, on the seat, on the floor, everywhere!! It was awful! And then I was sick the following day with the wonderful nausea and diarrhea and just exhaustion. So for now, I'm sick of sushi. I'm not about to let one instance ruin my like of sushi, but it might be awhile till I'm ready to take the risk.

If you can get bad sushi in Japan, you can get bad sushi anywhere..so be careful.

Caleb's 3rd Birthday Party

The party plan went into action at around 1:30. This picture is Caleb as he's walking out the door to go to Mrs. Amy's (who he currently has a crush on).

We (me and Marsha, a very loving friend who brought her mini van over to help transport party supplies) got to the party room around 2:30 (it took so long because I misplaced the key to the party room....I was going crazy!) We had only 30 minutes to get everything ready before guests arrived. Needless to say, we were sweating to some Thomas music and getting down to business. Thanks Marsha..

3:00pm

The room looked AWESOME once we got everything up. There were balloons EVERYWHERE! Caleb arrived at the party alittle later than everyone else did so when he walked into the room everyone shouted, "surprise!" and then started singing Happy Birthday. I couldn't believe how wonderful it had all come together. I looked behind me as everyone was singing and all I could think about was how special the moment was and how lucky Caleb was to have so many people there to celebrate him. Of course, Caleb didn't see it that way at first. Actually, he was a bit overwhelmed and fell to the floor to hide. Little Synclair (his little girlfriend) came over to help him up. It didn't take long for Caleb to warm up to all the fun.

Our first activity was a train hunt. There were 40 trains laying out and about the room and the kids were given brown paper bags to collect as many trains as they could...kinda like an easter egg hunt.

Caleb only found three trains, but he was happy with that. His little friend, Alex found 12 trains and won the prize.

Our next activity was pin the number one (because Thomas is train #1) on Thomas. The kids liked this game, but it was a bit too easy to peek through the eye mask so most of the kids kinda cheated on this game....no prize was given out because EVERYONE won. And then it was time for PIZZA!

And then presents...

He loves the music cards, hence why he's reading this one....

Riley had some fun too, until he passed out asleep and Marsha took him upstairs to her apartment.

All the kids LOVED the bounce house! I was a bit worried about taking it only because I wondered if it would withstand all the abuse from so many kids at once. The directions suggest a limit of three kids at one time, but it took all the abuse very well. So if anyone is looking to buy a bounce house, Little Tykes is an awesome purchase for only $200.00.

And then it was Pinata time! Liz was brave enough to hold out the pinata for the kids to swing at. The only incident that we had was John smacked himself in the leg with the stick. We actually had to pull the strings for it to open.

Caleb got two pieces of candy and was completely content!

This year, Caleb sang "Happy Birthday" along with everyone else and blew out the candles with no prompting. It's amazing to see how much they learn in a year.

Once the candles were blown out, Caleb picked up the train that was on the cake and trudged it through the tracks (which were just icing). It was too cute!

The icing on the cake was SO GOOD, but it left your mouth alittle "thomas blue"...(thanks Amy for taking such a great picture of me)

5:30pm

The best part of the party was the bounce house. We literally had to deflate the house in order to get the kids to leave. And I just want to say, that I did barely any clean up because all my ladies did such a wonderful job of doing it for me. Thank you so much for all your help!

Later that night, the boys had all the new toys spread out all over the floor playing until it was time for bed. It was an awesome day.

Preparation for the big day

Caleb's birthday party is tomorrow, so we were in preparation mode tonight after he went to bed.

I ordered this awesome Thomas the Train pinata and bought all this candy to fill him with. I know for a fact, last year I made the comment that I should have bought Halloween candy on clearance for Caleb's party. Well this year, I forgot again!! So I'm saying it out loud and now you all are responsible for reminding me for next year!

FYI, skittles will not fit in a pinata...

Here's a picture of Thomas before he gets smashed tomorrow by 12 little kids with only the thought of candy on their minds.

Here are all the balloons we blew up...by mouth! Yes, I think I may have passed out for a moment between different colored bags of balloons. And there is an additional 4 trash bags of balloons in the kitchen because no more would fit in the bathroom for safe keeping.

Fortunately, my friend Amy is watching the boys so that I can decorate and Caleb will be able to come into his party and see everything all at once. He is going to be so excited!!! We've been practicing and now he's able to hold up three fingers and say, "I three!". I'll put all the party pictures up tomorrow. Wish me luck. Shawn has duty and won't be able to attend or help out with the party, just like last year.