Happy Anniversary!

So hard to believe that it was 4 years ago that we embarked on this journey called marriage..... Happy Anniversary to us!!

Penn State vs. A&M

Ok, ok....I know that the game was last night but considering all of the smack talk that was going on between Benjamin, my dad, sister, brother-in-law, and uncles I felt the need to mention it. Now I didn't go to Penn State (because at the time their nursing school was horrible) but I have strong loyalties due to my family but that being said I have also been an A&M fan because of Ben. I wisely chose not to pick sides and that seemed to work out well! It was a close game from what I saw of it.....
Kendall and I have been a little under the weather. I have been recuperating pretty well but Bug is so sick. She had both Ben and I running out of the bed last night as it sounded like she couldn't breathe. The joys of parenthood!
On another note.....it is so warm here in NC that we decided to take advantage of the weather and got our "beach" workout in today which includes Ben running and me biking. Feels good to get some of the holiday food out of our system!

Christmas Pictures

Our Christmas memories

I thought that I would list a few of our favorite memories from this Christmas along with our pictures. Hope you enjoy!

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  We got to be there to greet my dad on his last day of work, surprise him with a few gag gifts, and take him out to eat at "Benjamin's" which is my favorite resturant in Indiana, PA.


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  We visited with Justin, Angie, and their kids. Kendall loved having Jessica and Erin to play with for awhile!


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  Heider Christmas was on the 23rd this year. What a wonderful time visiting with our family and we were so happy that Uncle Truck was cleared after his surgery to join us!


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  Christmas Eve we had the Wonderling Christmas where Santa Claus made a surprise appearance. (Kendall still didn't like him!)
• Also on Christmas Eve, we got to visit with our friends Michelle, Keith, & Ally! It was so great to be able to see them again.


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  Yummy Christmas breakfast (we had our traditional french toast and bacon), opening up a crazy amount of gifts, and Grammy & Pappy were able to come down to visit some more.


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  The day after Christmas we had quite a few visitors to our house.....Kristie, Chris, & Hannah; Mouse, Mary, Bob, Scott, Mandy & Isaiah; Rhonda, Reganne, & Tucker; and Brad


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  Kendall had a blast playing with all of the kiddos and the new toys. Aunt Jen & Uncle Josh got her a ball pit so that was a hit with many people!


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  We opened several gifts when we got back home from our Beach side of the family too so all and all we have had a great holiday!

Home sweet home

Hey ya'll!

I just wanted to let you know that we are home to NC. We got back late last night and now are in the process of unloading luggage, presents, and all the rest of the things. We decided to take it easy on the way back since neither of us had to be back at work. It was nice to not press for time. We used some of our gift certificates for McDonald's for supper last night. Kendall was using some of her new words since as soon as we got up to the counter she said, "cook, cook!" (This is her version of cookie which she has become extremely fond of since hanging out with Pappy Bill!) We had a great time in PA with family and friends. I'm extremely sorry that we didn't get to see more people but time didn't permit it with all of the Christmas gatherings that we went to. I will blog and post pics later on when we are caught up.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry CHRISTmas! From our house to yours. We hope that you are having a safe & blessed holiday. Please remember all of our friends, family, and fellow servicemen & women that are currently serving away from their loved ones this holiday season.

Leaving in a........suburban

Life would not be the same without great girl-friends to share it!

Just a bit of cheer from our house to yours.

Well here we are getting ready to take off after Ben gets home today so I thought that I would post a little bit prior to that happening.....We are excited to see our family and friends in PA but will also miss seeing everyone else! I wish that we lived close to everyone & that would make things a lot simpler :-)


We also want to wish Claire a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY today. We celebrated with her last weekend (which is where the picture is from) but wanted to remember her on the actual date!


Also, one more thing.....please pray for a speedy recovery for my Uncle Truck after surgery. We will definately miss you guys at the Heider Christmas this year!

Beach Christmas

Tonight we opened up the last of our gifts to each other and from Ma and Pa Beach. Ben and I had a good old time but Kendall wasn't really in a gift opening mood so I guess she will still have a few gifts from us left when she gets back home. (What a shame since one of the toys that is left is a medical kit that I thought she would get a huge kick out of since she is always toting my stethscopes around. OH WELL!)

Kendall (a.k.a. Benjamin) made me a really cool mirror with pictures of Kendall and I on it so I am attaching a picture of that onto here. How neat! Ben ventured out into women's clothing and did a very good job of finding me some cool clothes that actually fit :-) I will let him fill you in on his gifts if he ever gets on here!!!

Feeling Froggy???

So today was my last day of work for 2007. Ha, ha seeing as I only work one day a week that isn't too big of an accomplishment but it feels good to me!!

I also began loading and cleaning the burb today so I know that we will be on the way to PA soon!!

Anyway, onward to my reason for blogging today...Ben and I have been opening 1 or two presents a night along with Kendall. For those of you that know Ben's crazy tradition of getting me some frog gift for the year....the frog man has struck again! I thought that ya'll might enjoy seeing my froggie slippers that I got to end the 2007 season of Beach frogs :-)

Also, we wanted to wish Sarah and Judd a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY today!!

Just a few prayer requests this morning......if you could please add my Aunt Diane and Uncle Truck for health concerns and procedures. Also, please pray for continued healing of my friend, Cybil, who is still in Greenville and will be in the hospital for awhile. Thanks guys!!

Repeat the Sounding JOY......

Today our church had the most spectacular Christmas cantada that I have ever seen! I am so glad that we were able to attend one of the services today as it restored my lagging Christmas spirit. There was so much effort put into this whole entire program and a lot of joy in both the adult and children.

We decided to let Kendall open some of her gifts every day this week until we leave on Thursday. She was pretty funny tearing into everything and tossing it aside. I would say that her "princess" cell phone is her favorite thus far! She has been carrying it with her purse that her Grandma Beach got her on their visit over Thanksgiving. I will attach some pictures soon!

Sell or Rent???

Hey ya'll!
Ben and I are busy putting finishing touches on our holiday celebrations. (Mostly just finishing up the wrapping!!) In amongst that, we just went and got new front tires on the suburban today (OUCH!!! Man I miss our mustang.), are going to a dinner tonight for our friend, Claire's, birthday, and we are doing a little research on our housing situation. We were wondering if anyone has rented out their home and/or had rental properties. We are trying to decide if we want to sell the house here in NC when we move to our new duty station next year and take the gamble on house prices when we come back here OR take another type of gamble & rent the house out while we are gone with all that entails. Any input that ya'll have would be much appreciated :-)
Another little aside.....we will be free to visit with friends during the day of the 21st, the day & night of the 22nd, and the day of the 26th for our PA buddies. Shoot us an email and let us know if we can see you!!

Kissing

Now I know that everyone has there own style of kissing and how to tell their spouse good-bye every morning....we are all guilty of it :-) So picture this.....Ben is holding Kendall, I stretch up to give him a goodbye kiss (which depending on my breath in the morning might be long or very short). Seemingly innocent until I reach to give Kendall a kiss and she sticks her tongue out to get her kiss as well....hmmmm so how do you tell her that is not how you kiss just everyone but esp. not your mommy & daddy??? How do you know when they are picking up on every little thing that you do? LOL. Thought you guys might enjoy another funny Kendall bug story.

Congratulations to our friends, Cookie & Dan, on the birth of their second baby girl, Emmy!!

Mission Impossible!!!!

As I am writing this.......picture me on a break from Christmas! I finally got the last of our cards out in the mail today, I got all the gifts wrapped and sent out to our family in Missouri and now I am working on finishing the rest of the wrapping. I hate being on a deadline (set by the postal service) to get packages out! I think that I will have our Texas and Wisconsin package ready to go tomorrow so we will see :-) Ho, ho, ho Merry Christmas.
I also wanted to let ya'll know that some of the dates will be changing around as far as when we can see friends in PA due to my (Jamie) dad retiring on the 21. I will have to write another blog later on and let you know what the dates are for ya'll to see us!

To try "mommy & me" or not to try it!

So let me know what ya'll think.......
Kendall is not going to be able to do sign and sing anymore since the lesson is going to be the same one that we just completed so I was thinking about keeping her in kindermusik but enrolling her in a "mommy and me" gymnastic class the hour before it. I have heard that some kids had a harder time transitioning to a regular gymnastic class by themselves after doing mommy and me. What is your opinion on it? Let me know :-)

For our PA friends

Hey guys!
I just wanted to holler at you and see what everyone's plans are going to be for December 21 or the 26?! Those our the only days that Ben and I will be free for visitors while we are home. (We will be getting in late on the 20 and leaving early on the 27.) Please let us know if you are free as we would love to see ya'll!

"Nell"

Ok so Kendall has decided that she likes to talk ALOT. She is doing well at so many words but sometimes she gets to talking so fast we truly wonder what it is that she is really saying. We were marveling at her crazy words last night during bath time when suddenly Ben breaks out with "Way in the wind." I am sure that most of you know the movie that is from so we have affectionately decided to call Kendall "nell" until she starts to make a bit more sense. LOL. Just thought that ya'll would enjoy a little funny about our little bug!

Our Christmas Angel

Just wanted to share a picture of our little "bug" who is growing up so very fast. The changes from last year to this year are amazing! We hope that ya'll enjoy the pictures as much as we did making the memories!

Full swing Christmas time

Tis the season!
We are now officially finished with our Christmas shopping but so far behind on wrapping and sending the gifts that it isn't funny! Besides that, we are slowly sending out our Christmas cards in shifts. Ha, ha the joy of having loved ones everywhere!
Yesterday, we had a holiday party here at our house. It was mainly for the company grade officers and their families of Ben's squadron. We had a blast and are so thankful to have such great friends to celebrate the season.
Today we had the traditional Christmas party for the squadron. It comes complete with santa being flown in on a huey (which Ben got to do last year!), a bouncy house & bouncy walk, and other activites. It is always so much fun to see the kids and adults alike staring in awe at santa flying in....yeah we are a little different here in NC!! Kendall was absolutely terrified of santa just like she was of the easter bunny so I guess we will see if that goes away with time!
We are hosting our friends, John and Jennifer, tomorrow night for a nice quiet holiday meal. They are good friends that Ben had made from A&M and we will be so sad to see them be restationed here shortly. They will be making the journey to Hawaii for 4 years pretty soon. I guess that is the way of military life.
Monday we are going to have a girls luncheon at Olive Garden for one of our friends (Erin) whose husband is deployed for the holidays. We all pitched in for a massage for her as well as a goodie basket to ease the pain of seperation during this time!
Well guess that is it for the updates right now :-)

Prayer Request

Hello all!

I am writing this tonight with a heavy and joyful heart. Many of you know the crazy deployment cycle that Ben and many of our other friends at 269 have been on for the past 3 years....that being said we have decided that it would be best for us to take orders coming the summer of 2008 for some much needed family time. We need some guidance in what is going to be best for Ben's career and for our family so what I am asking for is some prayers that we make the right and appropriate decision. Some of the options that we are considering right now are Yuma, AZ; Johnstown, PA; Marietta, GA; Cherry Point, NC; and Corpus Christi, TX. Of course as with all military decisions this is subject to change so stay tuned to the blog and we will let you know when we know. In the meantime, please just pray for God to lead us in the right direction. Thanks so much!

First attempt at "blogging"

Hey guys!
I guess we are jumping on the blogging bandwagon. We have several sites that have different stuff on them but I thought that this might also be a neat idea for us to try. (Thanks to Amy and Arinn for inspiring me!) I am sure that I probably won't get too much done until after Christmas so please be patient with me (us)!
Hope all is well and take care.
Love, Jamie