There are so many pictures that need to be uploaded. We did a little traveling in September and then there's the pictures from Gavin's birthday.

Things are going great. Thomas was recently promoted to CW3! We're so proud of him!

The boys are gearing up for Christmas already and we haven't even celebrated Thanksgiving! Brandon has been bugging me to break out the Christmas decorations. Although I'm not quite ready yet, I think we will bring some out of storage this weekend. I almost forgot that soon we're hosting the appetizer portion of our unit's Progressive Christmas Dinner so I need to get started on decorating for the holidays.

Our laptop is on its last leg so I'm hoping to upload pics to our desktop and get some new ones posted soon.

Brandon's Birthday Pics

Here are a few pics from Brandon's party.



Thomas is giving "first-aid" training to the "recruits".

Here, Thomas is showing them how to carry a wounded soldier.

Brandon is doing the low crawl under the "barbed wire" on the obstacle course.

The birthday cake


The birthday boy blowing out the candles.

And seven months later....

I'm finally blogging again. So much for using this to keep in touch. :)

Brandon just had his 7th birthday. I can't believe he's seven! He has grown so much and he's such an amazing person. He loves riding his bike, skateboarding, swimming, camping, and playing video games, of course.

We had a great time at his party! This year he decided on a GI Joe/Army theme. (He is so into GI Joe now!) I made up the invitations to look like an "official" letter from the Army calling the "soldiers" to report to duty for a special assignment. Upon arrival, the recruits had to swear in and receive their "gear" (a canteen, dog tags, and a hat). Then they went on to have their faces painted and get tattoos. Thomas took them outside for physical training (push-ups, running, etc). They had grenade target practice (water balloons), and received "training" in first-aid and rescuing casualties. We even made up a little obstacle course for them! Of course the sprinklers came on just in time for the recruits to get wet! Everyone received a training certificate and goodie bag before they went home. All in all, the kids had a blast!

San Onofre Beach

On Mother's Day, we left to go camping at San Onofre Beach, near San Diego. The boys absolutely LOVE the beach. They would never get out of the water if they had a choice.

We had just enough time to set up our tent before the sun began to set.


Yay we got fire! Now where are those marshmallows?!

The next day

Peaceful brothers...a rare moment!

Yipee!!

Finally...the water

This is ALOT colder than I thought!

Rock-climbing

Thomas went rock-climbing yesterday in Barstow. He went with a couple of guys from work. He's trying to get in as many climbs as he can before it gets too hot. Although I think it's already too hot. The temp was 100 today!! I don't think he ever got to climb when we were in NC so he's glad that he's back at it again.

The Beginning

I am absolutely horrible with really keeping in touch with everyone. I figured that I should create some sort of website just to reassure everyone that we are alive here in the desert! Besides, I think it might be fun to document our life.