The last week...

Over the last week we have been a little busy. Matt was sick (seemed to be strep throat, but not sure) for the 2 days before Thanksgiving and after staying up with him at 3:00 am Thanksgiving morning, we finally got his temperature to break from over 100 to 101 to just at 99. It slowly got better during the morning while Antonia cooked for 4 hours! It was fun and she can't wait to do it again for Christmas. The food turned out really well and it was a good time. The desert was great also. Levi tried to sneak a brownie that was sitting on a low cabinet later that night and Bruce and Matt loved the pumpkin pie!

The day before Thanksgiving Matt had his PRK (corrective eye surgery) date scheduled. He will go in and have the surgery on December 7.

We did not wake up early and go shopping on black friday or as wal-mart calls it "Blitz day" because we had no need to. We didn't want to go out in the traffic or the crowds. We did however go out the next day and we are now only a few gifts being sent out from being done with our shopping.

We decorated our house for Christmas on Friday morning and it looks beautiful! We are so excited to celebrate Christmas together the same way we did Thanksgiving (but hopefully no body will be sick).

We will post pictures soon of Thanksgiving and the decorated house.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

This weeks pictures...

This week has gone by very quickly. These are some pictures that we took a few days ago. Mainly random, but we can never have too many pictures!

Bruce is showing off his "karate" moves.
Levi was trying to get the speaker behind him. This is his "Uh-oh, they caught me" look.
A quick picture of Matt & Antonia

Antonia and the boys.

Bruce putting his arm around Levi, Levi shoving Bruce back with his hand and Matt is clueless that he is in the picture.

Antonia walked out of the room to get the camera while the boys were all 3 sitting on the couch looking nice and this is what happened! They both decided to tackle their dad!

A little update...

Matt didn't get to jump so he has had a little time off of work. The "bird" that his troop was supposed to be on had a problem and they were the only ones that didn't get to go. We will take any time we can get because we know that our time is precious in the military life because Matt could be sent away from us when they need him.

We went shopping and found the Bruce and Levi a few more presents. We are picking up a few here and there so we don't spend all of our alotted Christmas money in one setting. I have also been online shopping quite a bit lately while the kiddo's nap. I have found it is easier to hide what I am getting Matt if it is shipped here while he is at work! Christmas time is coming up so quickly and we are excited to celebrate!

We got the Christmas outfits for the boys and will take our family Christmas picture next friday after the house is finished decorating!

God bless and take care!

Middle of November

We went to the store today and bought our ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner! We are so excited to cook a yummy meal (not that we don't cook yummy meals everynight, haha) and enjoy this Holiday! We are having a turkey breast because we won't be able to eat a whole turkey with just the 4 of us! And Antonia is going to also make green bean casserole, dressing and mashed potatoes. Matt's job is going to be to watch the kids and help Antonia if needed. And for desert homemade pumpkin pie, chocolate cherry cheesecakse brownies and fudge! I am sure we will gain a pound or two if we aren't careful!

Bruce can now spell simple words that he has never spelled before. For example if you say spell green, he will sound it out and get it right (almost every time). And Levi is starting to see if he can get away with things that we have already told him no. He hasn't suceeded in that expect for damaging Antonia's phone yesterday for a minute.

Matt is going to be jumping out of an airplane tomorrow. It has been a long while since he has gotten to that and he is excited. Antonia is excited for him, but wishing she could see him do it!

All in all we are pretty great and loving life. God bless.

Almost Thanksgiving

This year we will be here in NC for Thanksgiving. We plan to travel back "home" in the summer leave time due to unpredictable weather and a 20+ hour drive. Neither of us have ever made a turkey by ourselves, so we are going to attempt it this year. Antonia isn't a huge fan of turkey, but we are going to make one for Thanksgiving since it is "turkey day". Hopefully it turns out really good and it can become our own tradition. For Christmas we are going to have ham and maybe roast, but no turkey! Antonia is getting very excited because she loves to bake and has recently gotten to show off her "skills" to Matt through the yummiest brownies ever! She can't wait to bake all kinds of holiday yummy snacks! See, due to no PT while in recruiting she never baked deserts for Matt so he couldn't blame any excess weight on her! Now that he is back to the regular Army she can bake as much as she wants! By the way, the cherry cheesecake brownies from last week were the best!

Bruce and Levi are doing well. I had to recently go through the closet and pull out the clothes that no longer fit Levi (which was a lot of things) and I went through the old clothes we had from Bruce's younger years just to see what would fit Levi. Well, he wears 18 to 24 month clothes. I am in shock! And they fit him perfectly. He still needs 12 months pants because he is more tall then chubby. He is wearing 2T pajama's now and size 3 or 4 shoe. He is so big. Bruce is also growing more and starting to look like a boy then a "baby". His body is catching up to his head size and he is getting taller everyday. No longer in baby boy clothes according to the Children's place sizes, but now in big kid sizes.

They grow so quickly! All in all we are doing great! The weather has cleared up and the sun is shining bright! God bless and have a great day!

A quick update...

November has been a good month so far for us. Since Tuesday night we have had non-stop rain. The hurricane on the coast (2 hours from us) was making progress and we got the rain and eventually some wind from it. And it was seriously non-stop, nothing like Missouri rain. In MO when it was raining it was usually storming with thunder and lightening, but here this time it was pure rain only. Actually pretty nice. Bruce can spell more words now and Levi stands up in bed now (so not ready for that yet, haha). Bruce has been practicing reading his easy reader books and is getting better. We just have to switch them up a lot because he has a great memory and tries to memorize the pages and the words rather then how to sound them out.

Matt has a basic Airborne refresher course this morning and then a special jump somewhere states away next week. Antonia is getting used to being an active duty Army wife instead of a recruiter wife and it is by far way better. Levi is starting to walk around furniture with only one hand now and we are fearing that he will be an early walker! Not really fearing, but we didn't want him to grow up quite this quickly.

Below are some pictures from last week and this week. Have a great day, we know we will!

Levi being silly under the TV stand in the spare room.
Bruce "driving" the bus at the mall.

Levi watching his brother on the carousel.

Bruce riding on the carousel.

An updated picture of Antonia.

Levi doesn't like to fall asleep being held, but he was so tired that he fell asleep early in daddy's arms.

We were getting ready to leave the house and Levi stood up by the door and kept looking like "I'm ready, lets go" haha.

Antonia's surprise flowers from Matt that he said were for being a Veterans wife.

Veteran's Day

I want to take time today to say Happy Veteran's Day to all of those who currently serve in the Military, those who have served, those who have given their lives and didn't make it, and especially to Matt. All of the heroes in the military of past and present have this day each year to remember them by. Thank you to all of those men and women.

Seasons of change

The weather is unpredictable anymore. When I was growing up it seemed that I knew what time of year it was by the four seasons. Heat, shorts and swimming meant summer; Jackets and leaves meant fall or Autumn; Coats, sweaters and snow meant winter; and flowers, rain and t-shirts meant spring. Now the seasons all meld together with no difference sometimes. Like for instance spring hardy exsisted this year because summer came quickly and then summer seemed to never want to leave. lol. I never know what we are going to wear now until I look at the temp everyday.

Well, Matt is back working today after 3 wonderful days off. He gets Wednesday off this week, so we may go looking for a desk. We need two because he wants me to have a scrapbooking "desk" so I can do more scrapbooking things and then of course the computer. We already have one, but we are going to look for another. We are also starting on Christmas shopping. The move has us behind compared to last year, because this time last year we were pretty much done with the Christmas shopping and this year we haven't really started buying yet.

God continues to bless us each and everyday in many ways and we hope he blesses all who we know as well.

Pictures of our NC house... (Some of them, more to come later)

Our couch and the side wall.
Our living room a few weeks ago before we bought the picture frames.

Our dining room table which is so beautiful to us. ( side angle) A view from the kitchen sink.

Our lovely lighting that Matt put in. We just have to buy the cord cover and it will look even better! Our breakfast nook area. Kind of boring! haha.

Our picture wall with a family saying plaque and my K from my in-laws.

One part of the living room.

The living room/TV area.

A shelf.

Our "bookshelf" that we bought for decorating only.

The boy's bathroom. Another of the boy's bathroom.

Our King size bed (we still need to make or get a headboard for it).

One of our bedroom closets. It is way more organized then it looks! haha

Our dresser.

Matt's work closet. We have a lot of closet's in our bedroom. This is for his uniforms, PT's, other running stuff, etc.

Our bathroom so far. I haven't fully decorated it all yet.Another of our bathroom. We still have to take picture of the rest of the living room, the entry way, the office and the boy's bedroom. Maybe I will do that tomorrow.

Wow

So, in light of recent event's we would like to say that our thoughts and prayer's are going out to the lost soldiers and the families of those affected yesterday at Fort Hood. Also the many people that had to witness this tragedy and the thousands or more people that have been directly affected by this.




On to a brighter side, Matt has today off which makes this a 3 day weekend for him! He then will have next Wednesday off as well for Veterans day. So far Matt seems to like his job still. And I like all of the times we can see him. With recruiting we were lucky to see him once a day. A lot of times he would leave before the boys were awake and got home right at bedtime. Now he usually gets to have breakfast here, lunch and get off before bedtime, well before dinner even! I do realize that although he his home now every minute is precious because we know that eventually he will be deployed within the next year, but we don't dwell on that so we can all enjoy each other's company.

Today will be filled with Antonia going to the commisary to get groceries on a day that shouldn't be too busy unlike the other day! Then we should be heading to Lowe's and bed, bath and beyond for the finishing touches in the dining room.

We are excited for the upcoming Christmas season! I can't wait to decorate and maybe even host a party!

That's the way the cookie crumbles

I went off post for the first time by myself today. It was a nice change to get out of the house with the boys. We went to the mall and walked around until it opened and then Bruce got to ride on the carousel with 2 other little girls. He was happy to meet new kids and I was happy to get out of the house. The drive was a short one and the mall is bigger than Joplin's.

Matt didn't get to have lunch today because they had a lot of work to do. I'm not sure what yet, but today was the first day he didn't get to come home. I would have brought him his lunch too, but when he called me Levi was already 20 minutes into his nap and Bruce had just laid down. And we try to follow the let sleeping babies lie motto. I am making a great dinner tonight though!

I love to recycle! In Joplin there wasn't an oppurtunity to because the one recycling bin was always full and in a parking lot. We didn't have the option of a reclyclable pick-up, but here we do! And they take just about everything, which is nice! I like that we are actually "helping out" the Earth a little more just by reclycling.

The park is the plan for the boys and myself after their nap. And this weekend we are getting lighting for our dining room and getting placemats and cushions too. I am so excited to have the last part of the house done for now! I can't wait until we get our first "visitor" whether it be out-of-towners or just friends that we make!

Blessed by God

So happy! Life is great and I am glad that we got to move to a brand new place that we don't know anyone! It is good to surround yourself with change once in a while. I am hoping to make new friends here and there is a huge chance I will. As long as I meet people who aren't into themselves or think they are better then anyone. I love the kind of friendships and relationships that go on forever even without seeing them or talking to them everyday.

Our kids are so wonderful. Bruce is writing things now and getting much better at spelling. Just last night he made me a "picture" that said mom love bruce. haha. So cute! And he colors inside of the lines now finally! Levi is starting to cruise around furniture and getting very fast when he walks with myself or Matt. He isn't even 9 months old yet so he shocks me a lot!

Matt went to work today and it seemed more official because he had PT and then came home for breakfast and shower, then went to work, came home for lunch and went back to work. I am so blessed to have him and our children in my life.

Our lives are falling right into place here in NC and we are glad! Our house is clean and organized and all unpacked and we are all getting into a new routine here. Wednesday we have plans to meet some other wives and kids and hopefully make some friends! We have a park right outside our house and plan to utilize it more once the cold season is over because ever since we moved here one or all of us has had a cold constantly!

Well, November is a terrific month for us because we are big holiday lovers and are glad to be settling down.

Halloween Pictures

Just some pictures of us on Halloween and a few in October! We love to take pictures and do it every chance we get!Happy Halloween!
Bruce just chillen' in his costume
Hi!

Matt being funny and pretending to sleep so Bruce and Levi could pester him to "wake" him up!

The cool little Levi lobster!

Bruce dressing in dad's Army gear

Levi showing brother who is the boss!

Levi standing up and trying to get in the middle shelf.

Snake Eye's and the Lobster