Ginger Bread Houses

One of our family Christmas Traditions is making ginger bread houses.  I don't make them from scratch, I buy the kits, WAY EASIER!  It is so much fun to create the beautiful houses.  The kids love it, I love it, and Ron tolerates it for us :-)   This year we invited some new friends to do it with us - the more the merrier!!

Tyson was a little too cool to participate, his loss!!

Trimming the Tree

Trimming the Tree

This year we got a very special gift - the gift of a Christmas Tree.  600 Christmas Trees were bought and donated to the soldiers at Fort Knox.  So sweet and thoughtful.  Thank you so much.

No matter how hard you try, the lights always get tangled.  Ron put the kids to work untangeling.

Tessa really wanted to put the star on top of the tree, daddy gave her a lift.

Ornaments on the tree

The Masterpiece!!!

THANKSGIVING

This Thanksgiving we spent alone with just our little family.  I was pretty sad that we couldn't be with any extended family, but Ron kept reminding me that WE were a family and it was okay to be alone. 

I just have such fond memories of spending every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and grandparents.  It just isn't the same without them (love you guys - you know who you are!)  I want my kids to have those same wonderful memories - but the Army life makes that a little more difficult.

Anywhoo.....  I figured if we were going to do it, we would do it right.  So I went all out - a huge Turkey and all the extras. Yummy appetizers,dinner,and deserts.  We decorated the table, got out the fancy dishes, and even drank sparkling cider (that was the kids favorite - they kept toasting eachother).  It would have been perfect if my children would have actually eaten what I made.  Now, I didn't make anything I didn't think they would like, in fact it was all normal food.  Almost all of them had a small piece of turkey, a roll, and some corn; for desert they didn't want any of my two gorgeous pies, just ice cream.  Woohoo?  So we had tons of left overs and I spent two days in the kitchen for nothing.  Oh well.  So I learned my lesson, and now for Christmas dinner I am taking suggestions and making everyone's favorite foods, so maybe this time they'll eat what I make!

Fall Break Camping Trip

The kids get a week off at the end of each quarter of school.  Since they started in August, their fall break came at the first week of October.  We decided to take the kids camping because Ron has lots of leave saved up and he could take the time off.  There is a great campsite called Otter Creek, just a few minutes from Post, which is so convenient!!  It was a great campsite, and believe it or not noone else was camping in October on a Tuesday, so we had the whole site to ourselves - SCORE!!

This is what it takes to take a family of 6 camping - family camping as Ron would say.  And to be fair, Ron didn't pack the trailer tight at all, but its still crazy how much stuff you need to go camping.  Bringing Hailey along did add some extra baggage.

 Everyone happily helped set up our campsite - can you tell?

Home sweet home for 3 days

The kids did get a little bored waiting for dinner and luckily we brought some cards along

Did you know that they still sell Jiffy Pop?  And did you know that its yummy popcorn?  It was our kids favorite treat, even over the smores.

 We went on a hike down to the Ohio River.  It was gorgeous country, and Tessa sang songs the whole way.

The mighty O-Hi-O River.  The kids haven't seen rivers this big before.  And I had no idea how long the Ohio River is - goes from Pennsylvania East to Kentucky.

We came back later and tried our hand at fishing.  Tessa loved looking at the worms.

Despite the fact that the kids were suprisingly quiet, we didn't catch a thing.  The kids were pretty bummed.  We must be doing something wrong because we never catch anything.

Despite the lack of success at fishing, we had a wonderful time camping.  We can't wait to go again in the Spring.

FALL BIRTHDAYS

Fall is a busy time for us for birthdays.  Mine is mid September and then Emma and Ron are back to back on the 8th and 9th of October.  For my birthday I was out in Utah running the marathon, so I got to party twice - once with my parents and brothers and sisters, and then with my family.  Ron made me a cake, and it was super yummy!!!  In Utah they bought me one of those double chocolate cakes from Costco (you know the one with the chocolte shavings on top? - Delicious!!) , I was just bummed I only got one slice.   

We had tons of cake and ice cream for almost a week and a half!!  It got to the point that I was asking the kids if they wanted any cake, because I wanted it out of the house!!  Ron got a chocolate cake with whip cream frosting and a vanilla pudding center.  Emma wanted a Barbie Fairy cake from WalMart - yeah! I only had to make 1 cake!!  Ron turned the big 38, Emma turned 9. 

Lots of fun birthday parties!!

Sunrise

We had a gorgeous sunrise the other day.  With the daylight savings coming so late in the year, our sunrise comes after the kids get on the bus.  I suppose one positive of that is I get to see the sunrise, when normally I'd be sleeping!

Halloween 2011

Halloween in Kentucky is awesome because it was perfect Fall weather, 60 degrees and all the beautiful fall colors on the trees.  Unfortunately I was pretty lax with the costumes this year.  Nobody could decide on what they wanted to be, except Zach he wanted to be a ninja.  Tessa wanted to be a fairy princess or a fairy mermaid, and we had everything for that.  So I basically didn't worry about it at all.  Until the day of the Trunk-or-Treat when Tyson and Emma informed me they wanted to be ninjas too.  So back to the PX I went and luckily they still had ninja costumes.  They didn't have one big enough for Tyson, so he had to wear Ron's PT pants because the other ones were WAY too short.  So Tyson and Zach were Ninja Masters and Emma was their apprentice.

 I strongly encouraged Tessa to be a fairy mermaid because her princess costumes are in pretty bad shape.  Thanfully it wasn't much of a fight.  She is my best poser when it comes to taking pictures!!  She is sitting next to her pumpkins.

My Ninja crew.  What is a group of ninja's called anyway?

The time honored tradition of trading candy after the Trunk or Treat.

 Pumpkin carving.  It was really hard to find pumpkins here - no pumpkin patch!!   I couldn't believe it!!  WalMart was almost the only option for pumpkins - so sad!!  We found 2 pathetic ones at a church - the boys didn't want to do pumpkins this year.

Emma's pumpkin was hard as a rock.  Ron almost had to bust out the power tools just to carve it (of course he liked that idea), but Emma was pretty bummed that she couldn't carve her own pumpkin - can you tell?

I love our trees, they turned a beautiful shade of yellow.

What a crazy group I have.

Veterans Day

On the actual Veterans Day we celebrated Tessa's birthday.  But on Saturday we went to the Veterans Day Parade.  Emma walked in the parade with her Girl Scout Troop.  It was a fun parade, and we got more candy then we did on Halloween!  I think everyone was trying to get rid of their left over Halloween candy - and we benefited.

Tessa is a total ham waiting for the parade to start.  We had an hour to kill before it started,so we got donuts and chocolate milk.

The Fort Knox Army Band was awesome.  There are several Jr. ROTC companies from the local High Schools, and they looked fantastic marching in their uniforms.

Emma loved throwing the candy to the crowd.

We had a great time.

Tessa Turns 5 (sort of)

My baby is 5!!  I really can't believe it.  I remember so clearly the day she was born, and how I would just sit and hold her all day long when she was a newborn - cherishing every second with her.  She is such a joy to our family, and so full of life.  She is in preschool every day, and it is so fun to listen to her talk about school and watch her learn and discover new things every day.  We absolutely love her to pieces. 

We celebrated her birthday on November 11th, even though her actual birthday isn't until December 11th.  I just like being able to focus completely on her birthday and not have it mixed with Christmas; and it helps that she doesn't know any different.

We started the day with m&m pancakes.  She kept asking us to sing the "Happy Birthday" song to her.  She wanted her birthday to last for "lots of day!" 

She absolutely loves balloons, so they were a must have for her special day. 

 There was no school on her birthday so we let her open one present in the morning.  We decided to give her the BIG present first - her princess scooter.  She was so excited!!

Chocolate birthday cake with chocolate frosting was her order.  She wanted it to be a Barbie Fairy cake so we threw on one of her toys.  (I really need to learn how to make cool cakes, but at least they taste really good)

Her two favorite presents were the scooter and a teddy bear that her new BFF gave her.  She loves telling everyone that she is 5 now. 

She is my little angel.

Training Update

I promised to keep you updated about my half-marathon training.  I've struggled since moving to Kentucky.  I made it to 6 miles, but then kind of got stuck, mentally. So I was really worried that I wasn't going to be ready for the marathon in 2 weeks.  But my awesome brother came to my rescue.  He came to visit for the Labor Day weekend (he's the one that started this whole thing, my big brother Macc), and he told me that he was going to help me get my distance run in.  So here is the post I put on our families training blog.



"I knew when Macc got here he would make me do a long run. I'd been putting it off, I had a big mental block about getting past 6 miles. So I mentally prepped myself all week. Saturday we did 5 miles and it was pathetic; I walked at least 5 times. So Monday was the big day to shoot for 10 miles. Macc diagnosed my biggest problem being lack of energy meaning I wasn't eating enough carbs. So Sunday was carb loading day. We fasted, so all we had was dinner. We had pancakes (2), and then 2 hours later I had a HUGE portion of old fashioned oatmeal with raisins. Then right before bed I had another piece of wheat bread with peanut butter. I was stuffed to the gills with carbs - but man it made an ENORMOUS difference.

It was a perfect morning. Nice and cool, cloudy, and a nice breeze. I felt good. First 2 miles are always hard but no biggie. I told myself I couldn't walk till getting to 6 miles. But at 6 miles I felt great so I decided to try for my new goal of 8 miles without stopping. I totally made it; even though 8 miles came at the top of a big hill- yuck. So then I let myself walk for a water break about 200 yards then the guys made me keep going and decided I should be able to make it the last 2 miles home without stopping, and I did. The last 2 miles were very slow, but I still ran and I finished at exactly 10.02 miles.

My support crew on this run was Macc, Ron, and Zachary (on a bike). It was great having them all with me; especially since Ron was my "pack man" and wore the camelback for my water breaks. Zach added humor to the run and it was nice and distracting listening to Ron and Macc talk the whole time.

So what I learned. Macc is absolutely right about the carbs. I can do things and push myself past my comfort zone. Having someone running with you is a big support and help. So glad that Macc came and made me do it. So now I know that I can absolutely do this marathon with minimal walking, and at a 14 minute mile pace. Now I'm totally psyched for the marathon. "



I promise to post pictures of the marathon and tell you all about it.  So next Saturday the 17th be thinking of me and my pain and suffering.

Trying to fight through it

Most of you know that I struggle with depression.  I have been on and off anti-depressants for years now.  Every once in a while I get it in my head that I should be able to conquer my depression symptoms on my own, so I go off my meds, like now for example.  That decision is somewhat questionable.  Can I fight through it most days and keep functioning? - yes.  Like today.  I don't want to do anything, and I really mean everything.  I have to physically make myself get up and move and do things - even simple things like getting dressed.  Right now it is 10:40am and I am proud of myself because I got a shower, got dressed, just finished my hair (that's big because I could have just put it in a pony tail), got kids off to school, sewed 4 of my placemats (current project) and finished 2 loads of laundry (3 more to go).  But I am forcing myself to do this because I know that when Tess gets on the bus at 11:30 that I am going to lay down and take a nap - hopefully until 3pm when my kids start getting home.  You might be impressed but don't be, because there are big things that I didn't do today - like going on my run for example, and eating healthy (just ate a ding dong and there is half a blizzard in the freezer with my name on it).

So you can see that I struggle.  I know logically that this time of the month is harder on my emotions, and I try to not let that get me more down, but it's hard.  It's hard to move, when all you want to do is lie down on your bed and stare out your window.  But I have to get through today, and the next day, and the next.  I keep trying to fight through it.

First Day of School

First Day of School for us was actually 3 weeks ago.  The three oldest started on August 1st and Tess started this past Tuesday on August 16th.  Unfortunately for my kids but fortunately for me they had a very short summer, only 6 weeks long.  Thats just the way it is, sometimes you get the short end of the stick.  Maybe the next time we move they'll have a really long summer.  Anyway, to the pictures.

I try to not emabaress my teenager, so I took pictures from a distance with the zoom so he wouldn't be mortified.  Tyson is now a big 8th grader, HOLY COW!!

I had to take a picture of him getting on the bus because my kids have never riden a bus to school before.  So far they still like it.  I hope it lasts the whole year!!

Next up were Emma and Zach.  They were nice and let me get their picture up close!!  They aren't embarressed of their mom yet.  Zach is a big 6th grader and Emma is in 4th. 

The Fort Knox schools are organized rather oddly to me.  Pre-K thru 3rd grade is at the Elementary School.  4-6th grade is at the Intermediate School.  7 and 8th grade are at the Middle School and then 9-12 is at the High School.  So this year I have kids at 3 different schools.  Next year I'll have all 4 schools.  I am soooo glad they ride the bus.  Oh and the bus stop is just right next door, HOORAY!

Tess was very anxious for her first day of school.  She got bored very quickly when her siblings left her all alone all day.  The only kink was that Tess has afternoon preschool so all morning long it was "Is it time for school yet?"  It drove me crazy very quickly, but I tried to be patient because I knew she didn't understand.

Isn't she just so cute!!  I took some pictures of her at school with my iPhone that I put on facebook.  It was a little chaotic at the school that first morning.  Tess also rides the bus but on the first day I drove her.  Now she rides the bus to and from school with her sweet bus driver and monitor to sit with all the little ones and keep them safe (they have a seperate bus for just the preschoolers and the kindergardners).  They say that she sings the whole way to school and home.  Apparantly the current favorite is The Wheels On The Bus.  Appropriate I think, don't you?