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.

Just having fun

I'm not sure what we've been up to this week. Time has flown by so quickly. We've just been having fun I guess. The weather has turned cold so we've been hanging out with our friends and we've been hanging out inside playing and coloring Christmas pictures and preparing for Caleb's birthday party on this coming Saturday and I've been planning a fundraiser for our FRG (Family Readiness Group). So here are some pictures of our week...

Pampered Chef

I feel like I'm bugging everyone with my Pampered Chef show, but I keep getting asked the same question over and over, so I thought I'd reach everyone easier if I just put the info out on my blog. The show date is printed wrong on the invitation. The show doesn't end till the 16th of November. So everyone has plenty of time to order (only if you want to).

matchie matchie

It is too much fun to dress the boys in matching clothes.

As you can see, Riley is offically a sitter upper...or an upper sitter...you know, he can sit upright without assistance!

Where do kids get the idea that smiling means pulling their face back till all their teeth show? I don't think I smile like that at Caleb...

I don't know if Caleb is getting teeth (do 3 year olds get teeth?), but he has his fingers in his mouth all the time. And it makes him a wet, stinky, mess. I wonder if he does it because he's bored. At times, I don't know that he knows he's doing it. Does anyone have an suggestions other than putting red pepper on his fingers to stop this wretched habit?

Where were you??

So, as we all have been hearing over and over from the media, Nov. 4th will go down in history and I'm asking the question: "Where were you when you heard that Obama had won the election?". With so many of us being in different time zones, I just thought it would be interesting to hear your story. Here's mine:

I spent most of the morning, into the afternoon at the commissary trying to buy two weeks worth of groceries. And with two babies, this is no easy task. By the end of the shopping trip, Caleb has had enough and is starting to act out by talking very loudly and pushing Riley down the isle in the shopping cart (which he knows is a VERY BIG NO NO!). So I find myself scanning my shopping list one last time while trying to calm Riley down and yelling at Caleb to stop grabbing food off the shelves and shoving them into my cart. At that moment, the radio station being played throughout the commissary says, "And President Elect, Obama..."and that was all I heard. I get home to quickly unload babies, and then groceries so that I can turn on the t.v. and see what's going on...and as I'm finishing up, my friend, Jen pulls up in her car and asks, "your not glued to your t.v.?" and I'm thinking, "I've been trying to get there" and she tells me that Obama has been elected as our new President.

So, there's my story. I'm wondering if the experience would have meant more if I'd had been in the states. It just didn't seem to effect me the way that I thought it would. I almost feel disappointed, not that Obama won, but that I wasn't there (stateside) to see first hand the reaction of our first African-American President being elected. Was it a different experience than other elections for those of you in the states??

Happy Halloween or not....

Here's Wall-E!!

Shawn made this costume with a box, some paint, lots of tape, flowerbed edging, safety glasses and wheels from a tricycle. Caleb was very excited about his costume until we were ready to walk out the door to go trick or treating and then he wanted nothing to do with it!! Hence the look of disgust on his face.

Riley was not too happy with his costume either.

We hit the road running. Happy kids or not, we were going trick or treating!!!

There were so many kids on base. I guess they open the base to the Japanese nationals as long as they have a sponser (anyone with a military pass). It was crazy!

Caleb did better this year than he did last year. He went up to houses, but wouldn't say trick or treat and had to be persauded to say "thank you". There were several times that he'd go up to someone's house and then stand there with his hands over his eyes. He can be really shy sometimes.

Riley got use to his costume and gave everyone the cute, baby, innocent look...which drove all the ladies into giggles.

Happy Halloween or not.....

Caleb had a couple of meltdowns. This meltdown was saved by a neighbor who was giving out grilled hot dogs instead of candy. Caleb was all about that!!!

The box was the only thing left of the Wall-E costume by the end of the night.

At last, Caleb was done. He said, "home" and started his way there...

All in all, the night was a success. Trick or treating was okay, but the real fun was had when Caleb got to give out candy to all the kids. He loved it!!!