Merry Christmas!!

Well, it's Christmas morning and the girls are enjoying their pile of presents. They are busy building a Lego castle with Daddy at the moment. Hopefully they have enough new stuff to keep them happy and busy during the move and trip to WA. We are going to celebrate Christmas again up there - this time with a tree and stockings. Ellie was so worried that this wasn't going to be a real Christmas because we had no decorations!
The movers will be here tomorrow morning. Although we're pretty ready for them, I know that there are going to be plenty of little last minute things to do tonight in preparation.
So, I probably won't get a chance to blog for a while. We will be heading up to WA before the New Year and Andy will be on his way to Alaska on Jan 8th.

Goodbye

Ellie had to say goodbye to her friend Rhiannon the other day. We sure are going to miss our friends!!

Hard Day

Here is Nick after a long day. It's hard work being a baby!

Walk Like an Egyptian

Yesterday, we had to drive up to Richmond (near Oakland) and drop Andy's Explorer off to be shipped to Alaska. On the way back, we decided to stop somewhere that we've been meaning to go to for ages - the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose.
Ellie has wanted to be an archeologist for some time now and she has always been enamored with Ancient Egypt. I thought she was going to explode with joy when we surprised her and showed up there.
It really was a neat museum - filled with artifacts and some replicas. It even had a replica of a tomb that you walked through under the museum. Ellie was in heaven :)

Nick's first steps

Yes, Nick has discovered that he can stand without holding onto anything. He has taken a step or two a couple of times in the past few days. Watch out world...here comes trouble :)

Change of Responsiblity

Andy had his Change of Responsibility today and he is no longer the First Sergeant for Delta Company. He had a hard time giving it up, but I keep telling him that it's not a big deal - he's going to be a First Sergeant in Alaska also! Just take a break for a while and outprocess :)
The picture is of the frame they presented him with this morning. Isn't it cool? He's going to need an entire room of his own to hang all of these things up when he retires!
Everything seems to be going smoothly so far. The passports are sent away for, we drop his truck off on Thursday to be shipped, and we're doing tons of little things in preparation for the move. On top of it all, there seems to be a ton of parties and get-togethers since it is the holiday season :) We have the homeschoolers party today, the company party on Friday, and the Hail and Farewell on Saturday. Busy, busy, busy:) Time is flying - we have 2 weeks before the movers come!

The Nutcracker

Anyone who has met Kate knows that she can't sit still for more than a few seconds. She is constantly dancing, hopping, skipping, and prancing through the house instead of walking. She throws herself on the floor during conversations and she twirls around while she's talking to you. That's just Kate. Ellie's Brownie troop was singing at the Christmas Tree Lighting for Seaside last Friday and do you think that Kate could sit still long enough to watch? Not a chance. Of course I was crazy to take Kate, Lexie, and Nick by myself with no stroller or anything. They were wiggly....
Anyway, my point in all of that is that Andy took the girls to see the Nutcracker yesterday and he said that she actually sat still. She was so intently watching it - asking questions about what part of the song it was and just enraptured with the whole thing. So, it has been proven that she can sit in one spot for 2 hours. She just has to be VERY interested in what she's doing :)
The girls had such a good time. They got to sit in the front row, so they saw everything up close. Ellie came home with a blue Nutcracker, whom she named "Major Mint" and Kate got Barbie as "Marzipan" from the Nutcracker. They have been busy playing with them all day.

Mug Shots

We actually all have to get passports to go to Alaska - since we have to go through Canada. Here are the kids in their passport photos :) They are so excited about getting their own IDs.

One more trip to the Aquarium

This week was free week for Monterey residents so we ended up getting to go to the aquarium one more time. We had a busy day yesterday. We left at 9:30 and didn't get back until about 5. We went to the commissary, the aquarium, a Christmas store, Target, and the farmer's market! The kids were so good :)

Freecycling :)

Now, first of all, I have to say that I love Freecycle. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a yahoo group in your area where people post things they are getting rid of or things they want - all FREE. I actually got an antique piano off of the site last year so I can attest that it works.
Anyway, although there are some really good finds out there - people post the WEIRDEST things sometimes. The other day, someone posted that they were getting rid of 6 Barbie doll shoes - none of them matching. That in itself is weird. I would think that if you had 6 non-matching shoes you would chuck them in the trash - but that's just me. What is even weirder than that is someone went and picked them up!! What??? You can't tell me that 6 non-matching Barbie shoes is worth the gas that it cost and the time required to pick them up.
I am convinced that there are some very strange people in this world.
If you want to check to see if there is one in your area, go to www.freecycle.org But, if you decide to freecycle, remember that you have to sift through the junk to find the treasure :)

Family Puzzle

We had blank jigsaw puzzles the girls were drawing on today. This is the one Andy made - our family portrait. I sure wish I could draw, but all I can do are stick people. Hopefully the girls will get his drawing talents instead of mine :)
In case you can't tell who is who - Ellie of course has her nose in a book as always, little Lexie is holding a sign that says "I'm so cute" (she's our little "Mouse"), Kate is in her typical pink tutu, waving a sword, I've got Nick curled up in my arm and Andy is Super Sarge :)

Drill Sergeant Woods

I just found this picture that one of Andy's soldiers drew and posted on the board at his work a couple of years ago. I just love it :) It's hard to believe that it's been that long since he was a drill sergeant.