Hat Game

Emma was in a silly mood this afternoon. The pictures say it all. Enjoy! :)

Bye, Grandma!

Liam woke up bright and early to see Grandma off at the airport this morning. (5:30 a.m., early!) We'll miss you, Grandma! Have a safe trip home.

Christmas 2008

What a busy week! Grandma Purdy flew in to join us for Christmas on Christmas Eve. She had a lot of trouble at the airport, though, and for a while we were wondering if Santa was going to beat her to El Paso. Luckily, her plane landed around 7:15 and we made it home in time to put some milk and cookies out for Santa and hop into bed. Liam had been tracking Santa on the NORAD website and had even emailed the "santa team" there, who told him he needed to be in bed by 10 p.m. because Santa would be in his area at that time. Let me tell you, there is nothing like the radar team at NORAD telling your kid to get to bed on Christmas eve. Liam was worried the whole time we were going to the airport that he wasn't going to get to bed in time. "Is it 10 p.m. yet mom? We need to get home! I need to get in bed!"
Christmas morning came and was very exciting for the kids. Blogger takes so long to upload my pictures. I wish I could post them all, but here are some of the highlights....

Liam will most likely be the only kid in his kindergarten class to report he got a 2 pound chunk of fossilized dinosaur poo from Santa! Along with an assortment of real dinosaur bones. He was ecstatic - just what every Jr. Paleontologist dreams of getting on Christmas morning. :)


And Emmy couldn't quite figure out what was going on. The first thing she noticed was her new playhouse (pictured below) and then she really enjoyed digging into her stocking.


But her favorite thing of all was this princess ride-on toy from Grandma. She still will not get off it!

Sharing a cuddle with Grandma on the way to church.

And lucky Grandma also got to try out the new playhouse. It's pretty big! I think Liam likes it as much as Emma.

Early Christmas gift!

Look what my hubby brought home for me today...The Willow Tree creche! I have had the holy family and the wise men for a few years now, but never had the creche that completes the set until today. Yippee! Thanks, Brendan!

ElfYourself!

Check us out. We have some fancy new moves just in time for Christmas!

ElfYourself by OfficeMax - Powered by JibJab#/owner/tAWGCWlAwBYlBlAW

Battalion Christmas Party

Last weekend was also the Battalion Christmas party. I can't begin to describe the level of work and volunteerism that went into putting this party together. I had very little to do with it, myself, but some of the other FRG ladies (FRG = Family Readiness Group) spent many hours and much love into putting together a wonderful party. There were presents for all the kids and prize giveaways every 15 minutes for several hours. Some wonderful people from Kansas, who call themselves "The Beef Battalion" drove overnight to bring us a free steak dinner - or should I say - 1200 free steak dinners! They didn't bat an eye when we asked them to feed that many people and they were just as thankful for us as we were for them. It was really an amazing thing.

Santa made an appearance and brought toys for the kids.


Liam got a spiderman monster truck.


Mommy & Emma


Here was Emma trying to maker her escape. Santa gave her a toy, too, even though she did not want to sit on his lap!

Father and son hike

This week has been too busy for blogging, but I wanted to get these pictures up before Christmas comes. Last weekend, Brendan and Liam went on a hike at the Franklin Mountain State Park. Notice Liam's Indiana Jones hat - an absolute necessity since he was on a hunt for artifacts! (Much to Liam's delight, they did find something that seemed genuine, but we're not sure exactly what it is. Success!)



They found a cave and Brendan let Liam climb way inside it!


Father and son


"Mommy, mommy, help! Daddy left me out on this rock ledge! It's so scary!"


"What a minute...let me try the scary face again. There, much better!"

Space Shuttle in El Paso!

The space shuttle Endeavour stopped over in El Paso on Wednesday on it's way from California to Florida. And as luck would have it, Brendan was out in the desert with his battery on a field exercise and he got some really great photos! This is something you don't see everyday! Here is the jumbo jet carrying Endeavour coming in for a landing at Biggs Army Airfield.



And this is something you definitely don't see everyday. The space shuttle Endeavour flying over Patriot Missile launchers! Pretty neat!

Smorgasbord

Here's a few pictures to show what we've been up to for the past few days...
Papa bought Liam a new book while he was here and they read it together on Papa's last night. It is a 600 page book full of animal pictures. (Yes, dinosaurs, too!) Liam was in heaven!


Emma likes Liam's new basketball! (And notice we finally get some "fall foliage" in mid-December here in El Paso.)


She loves the whiffle balls, too. She and Papa had some good games of catch. She has a pretty good arm for a 16 month old!


haha...ok and she loves Liam's little football, too! (Do I have a tomboy on my hands?)


Bye bye, Papa! I'll miss you!


And this sweet pose is from earlier tonight. Emma backed up and planted her little back side right into Liam's lap. It was so cute! WHY, pray tell, could I not get them to cooperate like this when I was trying to take the Christmas card photo?!

Santa & Papa

Papa is in town for a visit this weekend and it couldn't have come at a better time with Brendan out in the field yet again. The days always drag by when the kids and I are alone, so we love to have company. (Hint, hint...start planning your trips now for the deployment! Your luxury guest room awaits, with a brand new remodelled bathroom in this beautiful desert paradise.... Does that sound enticing enough? ;) )
Today, Liam asked if we could go see Santa at the mall. So he wrote his note to Santa and away we went.

"To Santa, Dinosaur Bones, Shuval. Love, Liam." The "shovel" would be for excavating the dinosaur bones. Who couldn't figure that one out, though? But of course.

I know already that some of you will think I'm a really bad mommy for subjecting Emma to this torture. She was fascinated by Santa when we were waiting on line, but the closer she got to him, she wasn't so sure anymore. I promise, this scene was but a fleeting moment. I rescued her quickly.

Liam was so happy to sit with Santa!

Talking over "the list."

"Papa, we're still a little too close to that big, red, scary man!"

After seeing Santa, we went to get some ice cream. What a treat.

Bath time before and after

Emma is still stuck taking a bath in the kitchen sink since our bathroom remodel is not totally done yet. I think tonight she might finally be able to take a real bath! The bathroom is so close to being finished. As you can see, Emma enjoyed her dinner immensely last night. Here are some before and after shots from bath time!

BEFORE with her crazy, saucy hair:

AFTER, my squeaky clean, sweet baby girl:

Sleepover

Liam hosted his first sleepover tonight with his friend, Mason. The night Emma was born, Liam spent the night at Mason's house. Somehow it took us over a year to get Mason over here! They have been talking about it for quite a long time now. The highlights of the evening were Happy Meals from McDonald's and a fun game of Monopoly Jr. It doesn't get much better than that, does it?!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a very quiet day at home today. Despite the turkey not quite thawing out in the fridge like I thought it had, I managed to cook my second successful Thanksgiving dinner. Brendan finally had a day off. He had been in the middle east for about a week, and then after being home for less than 7 hours (that's including sleep time), he turned right around and left for field training for another couple of days. He got home at about midnight last night...just in time for Thanksgiving. The joys of being back in the Army!



Emma was impressed by the old "olive-on-your-finger" trick. Most of the olives ended up on the floor, but she enjoyed playing with them. (And rubbing the juice through her hair.)





Let me explain this one...all through dinner, Emma kept looking at me, pointing at my food and screaming, "MA!" No matter what I offered her, she wasn't satisfied. When I finally got her out of her seat, she walked over to the side of the table and pointed to my sparkling grape juice. Ah ha! She won't like it, of course, because it's carbonated. Right? Yeah right, she kept asking for more. What a silly girl. Liam still won't drink carbonation! (And neither will my 26 year old brother, for that matter!)