Christmas!

We had a very Merry Christmas! Bruce and Levi are two very blessed little boys. Instead of saying they are spoiled I will just say they are very well thought of! I actually starting getting sick a few days again and was full blown not well yesterday. I was starting to think that I wasn't going to be well for Christmas, but I am 90% better as of this morning, thank the good Lord! I had a varying fever yesterday of 100.6 - 101. Not bad, but still a fever. I'm just glad I was better today so we got to enjoy our Christmas!

Bruce loved Christmas! He even wished Jesus a happy birthday after we prayed before eating. He is very happy that Jesus likes to share his birthday! Little minds are so full of knowledge! Levi was better about the present opening the we had thought he would have been. He sat patiently while his gift was unwrapped, handed to him, picture taken and then toy gone so we could move onto the next one! Not one fuss until we were done! Bruce was very excited that many people sent him things and was glad to feel so loved! He is so funny to watch and hear!

After Levi's nap we ate lunch that I prepared. Not as much food as Thanksgiving, but Christmas had a lot more going on for us than Thanksgiving did! We had an 8lb ham, mashed potatoes, green bean cassorole and rolls. And of course we had fundge, cookies and pumpkin pie for after!

We are lucky to still be thought of although we are many, many miles away from all of our loved ones and friends. And we are happy we didn't travel back to the midwest since they got a load of snow and it was in the 60's here today! God bless and have a wonderful rest of the holiday season!

Pre-Christmas update

This friday is Christmas! We are so excited to have our Christmas here at our home in NC this year. Bruce is old enough this year to finally remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas. He told me "That Jesus is nice to let us have fun for his birthday". We are so proud of him for how smart he is and how big (physically and other) he has gotten. He is a good big brother most of the time. Levi is so smart too. He actully plays with Bruce's doodle toy and instead of "eating" it he draws with the pen! Levi also stacks blocks and plays with the giant legos! We are so excited and a little shocked at how smart Levi is sometimes! We are blessed with two smart and unique children!

This week just begun, but Matt is sick again. Just a cold really, but still not feeling well. We hope he feels better by friday because he was sick on Thanksgiving and we want him to enjoy our Chirstmas time too! Hopefully we can find some houses with Christmas lights in the next few days and go driving to look at the lights. We probablly won't be having a white Christmas here, but a nice warm one instead! The forecast is calling for 60's and rain.

Matt is off of work this entire week and we love to soak up as much time as we can. Next year at some point we know he will be deployed, so we are spending as much quality family time together as possible. We aren't sure when yet, but it may be more quickly then we had thought. We knew this time would come.

We are also coming upon two very special birthday's soon! The 5th and the 1st! It doesn't seem possible that they are both growing and getting older.

We just wanted to throw out an update before Christmas in case we are too busy. Have a Merry Christmas and safe traveling if that is on the agenda. God bless.

Gingerbread house and Ice skating...

Levi and mommy watched the bigger boys skate.

This was the "worn out" picture after they ice skated.

Teeth and growing...

Today was chilly and I am happy for that! It just doesn't feel like Christmas time to me when it is warm! It was 70 degrees a few times last week and that was nice, but not what I am used to! Levi started teething around 3 1/2 months old. The tooth would "pop up" to the surface but never break through. Finally after months of waiting he has a tooth! And the areas around his tooth are hard and sharp as well! We were joking for a while that he would have to get baby dentures, and then we have been singing to him the "All I Want for Christmas is My 2 front teeth" song to him.

Bruce has shot up an inch or two in the last few weeks. He is outgrowing his pants from last winter now! It is so crazy how quickly babies and children grow! It still seems like yesterday when Bruce was barely talking let alone singing every song he hears. Or Levi was just a sleeping infant!

I just wanted to update on Levi getting a tooth and Bruce's spurt of growing. Matt and Antonia are doing great to. Just anticipating the next few weeks of activities and fun! God bless and stay warm!

Time flies...

Today is December 10. That means that Levi is now 10 months old! It is hard to believe that our precious baby that has been rapidly growing since birth is only 2 months away from being one year old! And to top things off, in two weeks it will be 1 month until Bruce is 5! Kids grow entirely too quickly sometimes!

Matt had PRK done on monday and it is hurting and being bothersome a little more each day. The doctor told him that he would feel worse before it would be better. That has been true so far! He goes tomorrow morning to get his contact bandage out of his eyes and we will see how he does this weekend.

Tuesday we have Matt's squandron Christmas party to attend at the ice skating rink here on post. I love ice skating personally, but we know Levi is too young to do it and we aren't sure that Bruce can handle it yet (a little klutzy like his mama) but we are going to try. But santa will be there handing out presents and the boys get there picture taken with him. We will see how Levi does!

The end of next week starts Matt's Christmas leave, so hoefully we will fill the time with Christmas light looking and other Christmas time things!

God bless everybody and remember the reason for the season. Have great weekends!

More Christmas decorating pictures...

Our pictures of our house decorated. And on the bottom are some pictures of the boys wearing Christmas outfits. We also have the boys and mom and the boys and dad, along with a picture of the 4 of us. Enjoy!

We are excited for this Christmas. Have a great holiday season and God bless.

Quick NC update

The weather here is so different so far. We have the weather updates on our phones of Fayetteville, AR and Joplin, MO and we keep hearing how cold Missouri is. Just yesterday, the temperature here was 75 at one point in  the day. The coldest day we have had since being here in NC is about 45, and that was because of a 3 day non-stop rain. We really like it here for the most part. One crazy thing that we have seen in Fayetteville, NC was that a police officer stopped traffic at a green light to let a few people cross. It wasn't at a crosswalk and they defiently jaywalked, but he let them! We were shocked because green lights don't last long at all and he stopped traffic for 3 people! Another thing we have found out living here is that nobody (and we mean nobody) thats here drives the speed limit or follows the arrows on the roads! Besides the few problems with traffic it is really nice here.

Living at Fort Bragg is different, well for Antonia and the kids that is! We hear gun fire and other weapons all of the time pretty much. It isn't too bad, but sometimes we think it is thunder and then we look outside and realize it isn't! And Bruce loves hearing the bugle calls throughout the day. We don't always hear them in the house, but when we do Bruce wants to open the door so we can hear it better!

Well, that was just a jumbled update on our life in North Carolina so far. So far, so good! God bless and have a great weekend!

Thanksgiving/Christmas decorating pictures... (Image heavy)

Our table set up before we ate.

Matt watching the parade.

Antonia took a 5 minute breather from cooking to watch a minute of parade with the boys. Levi was napping so he would be ready to eat!The yummy homemade treats; brownies, fudge and pumpkin pie!

The boys waiting for Antonia to take a picture so we could eat!

The food. We didn't take a picture of the turkey, because we didn't do a full turkey, just a turkey breast. We had dressing, greenbean casserole, turkey breast, gravy, rolls and mashed potatoes(not pictured).

Levi enjoyed his food! When he was half-way done he did this!

He had to get every bite, the spoon didn't work for him so we let him use his hands!

Bruce gave mom a thumbs up on how the food tasted.

Matt took a nap after our turkey feast while the boys did too!

Bruce woke up from his nap grumpy.

So, Levi decided to tackle him down!

Then he went on to play with the bull dozer.

Levi wearing his Santa hat.

Bruce wearing a santa hat too! Mom and Bruce decorated the tree while Levi and dad watched.

More decorating...

Levi watching with reindeer antlers on!

There's mom decorating.

And dad watching football.

An upclose...

Our tree! And another close one!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend!!! More pictures of the rest of the decorated house coming soon!