Giving thanks

We are so very thankful for our beautiful, wonderful family & friends!

Beautiful Weekend

We were very grateful to spend the weekend with friends. We had JT, Kelly, their kids, Beth, Rob, & their kids over on Saturday night. It was a bunch of ruckus but fun! We had an uneventful Sunday at church and Sunday school with friends as well! Today we are preparing for our journey to my sister's tomorrow.

Since we probably won't be on the computer all that much while we are at Jen's, I just wanted to wish ya'll a happy Thanksgiving and tell you how THANKFUL we are to have each and every one of you in our lives.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, - Hebrews 12:28

Kendall's korner & Isaac's inch by inch

Kendall has been keeping us amused with her new sayings every day. Some of the newest ones are...."Kendall missing, Isaac missing." (in regards to a picture of Ben and I before children!Don't bother trying to explain to a 2 year old about before she was born! It doesn't exist.) Asking her to do something now elicits the response, "SURE!!!", When asking her about a broken foot stool.....I said, "What is this Kendall?" "Weeeellllll it's broken mama!"

If ever there was a moment when I ABSOLUTELY knew she was Ben's daughter & not mine.....

Time out for a cheesy moment :-)
He loves to smile at mama! Isaac is starting to move a lot now. He kicks his legs & waves his arms whenever Kendall is near. I also found him completely perpendicular in his crib from the spot that I put him in.

He is so sweet when he sleeps. (Esp. if it is more than 2 hours in a row! I guess he has his figure to look after!)

Kendall loves bundling up to ride in the stroller while daddy gets his run in.

WHO ME???

Isaac had his 2 month well check-up on November 7th. He weighed in at 15 lbs 3 oz (95%), 23 1/2 inches long (75%) and his head circumference was in the 75th % as well. He is such a funny guy. Here he is in his outfit from Papa.

The kids have been keeping us very happy and busy. They have truly been such a blessing this year!

Finally....

Papa and his crew

Sharing popcorn with Papa

The pictures from Jim's visit :-) Thanks for coming to NC, helping us out with some household projects, and for visiting!!

Michelle

We hope you have a great day!!

Feeling exposed......

Since it has been about a week since I last posted, let me start with what is on my mind. I got a phone call from Ben this morning that started with...."don't get upset....." Never a good sign as usually Ben is about to drop something crazy that the military has sprung on him. Today it was that 2 out of 3 of our cars were broken into last night. It looks like the thief/thieves only got the radar detector. I am not sure why they didn't take the dvd player in the burb but I am extremely thankful with 2 long drives ahead of us in the next few weeks. Ben filed a police report with the cop that was out there this morning. By 0730, the cop said it looked like 2-3 people on our street & 4-5 people on other streets in our neighborhood had been hit. We are not holding out much hope to receive our stuff back but it could have been much worse as sometimes I leave my purse in the car when I am super tired so.....

On that happy note.....we had a very nice but short visit with Ben's dad. They got some things done around the house like putting crown molding up in the family room (Ben just has to caulk, fill, and paint it to finish it up) a new ceiling fan/light in the living room, and they also rented an aerator for the yard then spread fertilizer & winter seed. (Our yard will forever be a work in progress but is about 200% better than this time last year!)

Ben and Jim got to go on 2 runs and a few errands together. I was hoping to give them some alone time but Kendall was bound and determined to go along most times. Of course I am sure that Papa and Daddy were much more fun than old mom and Isaac. We also got to take Jim to Cherry Point so I hope that he enjoying that!

Unfortunately, we also had to take Kendall to the doctor while Jim was here. She has been running a fever, cough, cold, and junk. Kendall is much better but Ben has now picked up the bug. We missed church and sunday school yesterday because everyone needed the rest & we didn't want to spread any germs. I will post pictures from Jim's visit hopefully tomorrow.

We went to a get together of our Sunday school class on Friday night. I think starting in December we are all going to try to get together every Friday night for a small group. The weekend was pretty low key as Ben had to have class all day on Saturday for his EWS school. (I missed a girls night on Saturday night with Stef and Natalie.....bummed that I didn't get out to hang out girls!!)

There you have it.....now Christmas shopping, cards, and decorating are in full swing for me. I am determined to be done early this year so I am not a big stress ball!

celebrating some more birthdays!!!

Happy Birthday to Aunt Diane on the the 17th and to Aunt Anita on the 18th!

2008 Christmas Portraits

Happy Veteran's Day!

Birhday Wishes

Happy Birthday Becca! Hope that you are feeling well. We can't wait to see pictures of the newest member to your family!!

The week in review continued.....

2008 Marine Corp Ball Family Picture

"The Flame" in New Bern

Papa put to work within the first hour he was here

Farewell and Good Luck Juli!

Mom's morning out crew

Fun at the St. Anne's Fall Festival

2 months old: 15 pounds 4 ounces, 23 1/2 inches long

I love my daddy's cover!

Diaper cake for Beth.....lost my pictures of the ones for Ashley & Kimberly!???

The week in review.....

Even though the presidential race didn't go our way, Ben and I enjoyed voting together for the second election in a row. We had a great time as we were in and out in 5 minutes. I am so glad that we weren't waiting for hours like some people.

We had Ben's ball on Thursday night. I must say that the guest speaker was the best that I have heard ever! It was very entertaining. It's also kind of exciting to be apart of all of the "firsts" for the squadron. The ball was in New Bern which is about an hour from our house so I was nervous leaving the kiddos but it went very well & we are so grateful to have such great friends. Thanks Kelly and JT!

Friday night I went to another going away party for my friend, Juli. As much as it stinks, it just seems like that is what our life is going to be for the next decade or so......lots of hellos & goodbyes. It was nice to just be out and be me......not someones wife or mommy, etc. I guess that it was good in that aspect!

Saturday, we went to Kendall's fall festival at St. Anne's. (Her PMO school.) She had a blast as did we since we got to visit with friends that we hadn't seen in a long time. It was great until Kendall wouldn't get out of the bouncy house and dear sweet mom had to climb in to get her! We picked Papa (Ben's dad) up on Saturday night. Kendall was VERY excited!! She shouted, "Papa come down here!" when the plane flew over the airport. We relaxed and visited on Saturday night.

Sunday, I had my first nursery desk duty for the committee that I belong to at church. I was nervous as I still don't know where everything is in our church but it went well. I had a baby shower for our friend Beth on Sunday afternoon.

Currently, we are getting ready for our annual family Christmas picture. I will be glad when that is done so that I can work on Christmas cards :-)

I will soon post pictures from all the recent activities....just bear with me as it has been an insane week!

Happy Birthday Marines!

HAPPY 5th Birthday!!

To our sweet niece Naomi! We wish that we could be there honey :-) We love you tons!

My favorite Halloween pictures!

This and that...

Rainy Monday here in Jacksonville for us so as I listen to Kendall screaming and giggling with joy while she is in the bathtub I thought that I would get ya'll up to speed :-)

We had a great visit with Lori & George last week. They finally made it to see Isaac before he was toddler size. Hee,hee. We have had a pretty fun weekend. Friday night we went to the neighborhood Halloween party. They had 2 moon bouncers, a slide bounce, the DARE police car, a fire truck, hay rides, a parade, and some other fun stuff. Kendall wasn't super cooperative for pictures but she did have a great time once we got there. We went and ate supper at JT & Kelly's afterwards then only hit 3 houses for trick or treating.
Saturday, we went to Lowe's and spent a large sum of money for some household projects to be completed when Ben's dad gets here next weekend. I will post about those as we go along! We also "winterized" the outside of the house. Dumping plants, fertilizing the grass, clean-up, etc.
Sunday, we did our normal church and Sunday school then watched Brodi and Colbi so our friends could go to a concert. I think that all 3 kiddos were tired after chasing each other and playing really hard. (Ben and I were pretty exhausted as well.)
Other than that, I have been a baking queen! I made muffins for our sunday school class, I just made brownies for Kendall's fall festival at school, and I made a chicken bruschetta to take to Ashley and Joel.
I am getting the axe on compter time since it is time to put Isaac in there! Stay tuned for more news and everyone get out there and VOTE tomorrow!!

CONGRATULATIONS Dan and Nikki!! Adam is beautiful.
CONGRATULATIONS Amanda and Andrew!! Quintyn is handsome.
CONGRATULATIONS Dana and JP!! Many blessings for the next 50 years or so :-)
CONGRATULATIONS Ashley and Joel!! Alex is precious.

Halloween 2008