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!)

Reflections Awards Ceremony

Emma and I went to Liam's school this afternoon for a special awards assembly. Liam's school participates each year in a nationwide PTA sponsored arts competition called "Reflections." This year, the theme was "Wow" and Liam decided to submit a photograph that fit the theme. (You can look back at my October 29th blog entry to see the photo!) I was a very proud mommy, as Liam won 1st place in not only the kindergarten age group, but also the lower elementary age group, which is K-2nd! Take a look at his strut across the stage. I think he was surprised and excited to hear his name called.


Liam after the assembly. The medal around his neck is for winning his grade level and the trophy is for winning the lower elementary age group.


And this is what happens when I forget to take the stroller with me when I'm out and about. Emma was walking around talking to everyone and generally acting like she owned the place. I guess when you're 15 months old, you can get away with that sort of thing. :)

It's the weekend!

Hope you have a lazy Saturday! I know I'm going to. Love, Emma.

SIX!

My baby boy turns 6 today. I don't know where the time went. I know it sounds cliche but it seems like just yesterday that he was a little baby sleeping in my arms. He is getting too big too fast. I wish I could freeze him just the way he is right now! He is very excited because he gets to wear a crown at school today. I am going in to eat lunch with him (it's Thanksgiving dinner day, yeah!) and then read a few stories to his class. Here are some pictures from before school this morning.

Happy (early) birthday to Liam!

Warning, this post is not for the faint of heart! It's going to be a long one. :)

Yesterday was such a fun day. We celebrated Liam's birthday a little early (the big day is on Tuesday!) since Brendan is on a trip this week. Instead of having a big birthday party, we decided to go to Toys R Us for a little "shopping spree" so that Liam could pick out his own toys. What a great time we had! Liam was very deliberate in what he wanted. I thought he would choose something really big and expensive, but do you know what his favorite thing was? A basketball! He absolutely loves it and we are already in the middle of a tournament. The only problem is his basketball hoop is a Little Tikes hoop made for toddlers. The regular sized basketball doesn't actually fit all the way through it, so we have to knock it back out through the top. (This sounds like an issue for Santa to solve, perhaps.)

After Toys R Us, we drove to Fabens for dinner at Cattleman's Steakhouse. This restaurant is where we bring all our guests who visit us. It is way off the beaten path, but it serves the best steaks you will ever eat. It also has a small zoo with an eclectic variety of animals. (ostriches, rattlesnakes, bunnies, bison....) We looked at the animals before we headed inside to our delicious steak dinners!

We finally went inside to eat. Emma tried to eat a lemon....

I don't think she liked it!

One last picture back at home. It seems the Incredible Hulk followed us home from Toys R Us, too! The hands make noise when you smash them together and the eyes glow green. Again, not something I ever would have picked out. ;) I thought Emma would be scared, but she thinks it's fun to wrestle with Liam when he is dressed like this, haha! She hits her hands against the floor, too, thinking they will make the same sounds, but of course they don't. :)

Playtime

I just thought I'd post some pics since it's been a while since my last post! This is part of how we spent the long Veterans Day weekend.

(Evidence below that one of my children actually acquired some of my DNA. Notice how straight Emma's hair is?!)

Liam no longer fits in the cozy coupe...but he still tries.

Once in Charlie Battery, always in Charlie Battery

Today was Brendan's change of command ceremony. For the last month, he has been preparing to take command of a patriot missile battery. It was a job that he knew he probably would be doing if he got back into the army. It's a very demanding, yet rewarding experience. I think when Brendan was a civilian, he always felt like he had ducked out of taking on this role. He thought about what he had passed up many times. So when he got back in the army 2 months ago, he jumped at the chance to take a command position as soon as it was offered to him. Here are Brendan and the kiddos right before the ceremony this morning. (Liam will excitedly tell you, "They said my name THREE times, mom!")


The outgoing battery commander, the battalion commander, and Brendan.

Brendan received the guidon from the battalion commander. The guidon makes a symbolic pass, starting with the 1st Sergeant, to the outgoing commander, then the battalion commander, then to the incoming commander, who finally passes the guidon back to the 1st Sergeant.

Brendan in front of Charlie Battery. I never did get a picture of the entire battery. Or, rather, I should say, the Lieutenant Colonel sitting next to me never did. He took over photographer duties for me when Emma started getting fussy!

Public speaking - ahhh! He was nervous, but you couldn't tell. He did a great job.

The coolest thing (in my opinion) was that Brendan's old battery commander from his Lieutenant days was at the ceremony, MAJ Schulke. She had been transferred to the D.C area after she left command, but just recently came back to Fort Bliss. She was Brendan's commander during the start of the war back in 2003. Their's was the only Patriot missile battery that shot down a scud missile from inside Iraq (as opposed to Kuwait or other nearby countries.) And what battery do you supposed they were in back then? Why Charlie battery, of course! Different battalion, but it's still neat that Brendan is now commanding another Charlie battery. MAJ Schulke's daughter goes to the same school as Liam, so we see her often!

Afterwards, we headed over to the day room to have a little reception. We had ordered sub sandwiches and chips to feed 100 people, plus a cake. ALL the food was gone by the end of it. We didn't run out, it was just enough, but everyone ate it right up.

Liam took this picture when we got home. I was presented with a dozen yellow roses at the ceremony. I think it was to thank me in advance for all the...hmmm, how to say it...*junk* that I'll be putting up with for the next 18 months or so. What a lovely consolation prize, lol! Just kiding...they really are beautiful flowers. And I won't be the only spouse dealing with hardship in the months ahead.


Liam is a silly photographer. He makes me laugh!

Election Day

It's hard to believe that Liam hasn't seen a presidential election since he was Emma's age. And as he just told me, next time around he will be 9! (Actually 2 weeks from TEN...oh my goodness....) He was very excited to get the chance to vote at school today. Way to practice your civic duty early, Liam! I hope you picked a winner! ;)

Trick or Treat!

Here is a small sampling of the many pictures I took of the kids trick-or-treating last night. If you want to see more, you will have to become my facebook friend and check out my latest photo album. ;)
Liam has been counting down the days to Halloween for over a month now. Every day, he would ask if he could try on his costume, but I seldom let him because I didn't want him to ruin it before the big day. He was so excited about being Indiana Jones. I tried to convince him to be a bee keeper so he could tend to his little bumble bee, but he would have no part of that! His friends, Mason and Carden, came over so they could trick-or-treat together, which was great because we haven't seen them since before kindergarten started! Emma began the evening in her stroller, but after a few houses, she got out to see what this trick-or-treating business was all about. At first she didn't know what to do, but by the second house, she was beginning to catch on to the fact that she was collecting things in her pumpkin. She wouldn't let me hold her hand at all, she wanted to walk up to the houses all by herself. As soon as the candy got deposited, she would reach right in because she wanted to hold it. She was quite content with her few pieces of candy, so she soon got back in her stroller and watched the big boys run from house to house for the rest of the night.


Is there any doubt these two are siblings? I caught them both mid-blink - they have the same exact expression on their faces!

Emma thought the lollipops were the best!