Ginger Bread House

 

This year we bought a kit to make a gingerbread house with William.

 

Just like any toddler, he sat and ate the candy while Nick and I decorated for him.

 

Either way, it was fun, and created some great memories.



Decorating For Christmas

 

With a little begging, I got Nick to hang up some lights on the house. William was more than happy to go out and help in any way that he could.

 

The next day we decorated the inside of the house.

 

William was so excited to help set up the tree with us.

 

It is so much fun now that he is big enough to help us decorate for all of the holidays, even if he can only do one or two little things.

Although he wasn't really much help actually decorating the tree, he did have fun pulling all of the ornimates out and spreading them around the house.



Gymnastics

 

 Nick was able to come with us to gymnastics the week after he got home.

 

 It was so much fun to have him there, and not only did I not have to chase William around, but I was able to get some good pictures.

 

William really enjoyed this class, and it was fun to do it with him.

 

Although now he treats our house like a gym, hanging and swinging off of everything, rolling off of the couch and jumping onto anything he can.



The First Snow

As we got ready for our ward Thanksgiving party, we got our first snow storm of the season.

William couldn't wait to get outside and play in it, and of course, eat it.

We didn't get much, but it was plenty for William to enjoy for a bit, and to get us all excited for the upcoming season.

Home Coming

The farther in November it got the more excited we all got to have Nick home. The second week is when they were scheduled to arrive, so we waited (not very patiently) for the phone call telling us that they had left Europe and were headed back to the states. I can tell you, my phone rang more in that week that it does in a normal month. Finally we got the call (after a few "test" calls, talk about teasing). Within 72 hours, I would have my husband back, and our children would have their father. I eagerly began preparing everything, thinking I still had a couple of days. The next afternoon however, I got a call saying that they would be home the next morning, at 4 am. Having lost an entire day I quickly cleaned the house, bathed the children, made signs and got everything ready. I got a babysitter for William and packed up everything to take Kaelyn with me. We got there 2 hours before the ceremony started, luckily I had a good friend with me to keep me entertained. There was a screen separating where the families were, and where the soldiers would be forming up, with a gap big enough to see their boots as they entered. As soon as the first row got lined up, the tears started rolling. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself! They were smart and kept the ceremony short, and within five minutes of it starting, the soldiers were released. We had a planned meeting place, but he was on the other side of the formation so he fought (what he said felt like every other soldier) to get to the side I was on, but we finally found each other.

 

 

It was such a sweet reunion, and the media quickly caught wind of the fact that he had never met Kaelyn before and came over to interview him.

 

It was heart warming to see him meeting Kaelyn for the first time, and although he will never admit it, I could see immediately that she had him hooked.

 

 

 

Halloween

This Halloween was a pretty laid back one. Kaelyn was a pumpkin and William was a dinosaur. We didn't go trick-or-treating since Nick wasn't here but we did go to the ward party where everyone was in love with Kaelyn. 

William spent the evening wondering around slightly confused by all of the costumes.

Coming Home

Pretty soon Nick will be making his way home. They can't give an exact date of when they will be arriving because it all depends on the weather. Their stormy season has started, so a bad storm could hold things up for day or even weeks. If everyone could pray that the weather cooperates, and that the planes have no problems so that all of the soldiers can get home safety, and on time. I will let everyone know when he is home, as soon as we are allowed to give any information out.

Milk and Cookies

William loves cookies, so I decided one day to show him how to dip them in his milk.

He has more fun dropping his cookies in, then playing with it rather than dipping and eating.

We had a good time though, and that is what matters.

The Joys of Fall

Now that the weather has cooled off, it is so much more enjoyable to be outside.

 All of the crunchy leaves have brought so many new adventures.

And of course, it is always more fun to enjoy things like this with a friend.

Our neighbor has two dogs and William loves to go over and play with them.

This boy would live outside if I would let him.

Gymnastics

William had his first gymnastics class this week, and it did not turn out at all like I thought it would!

He didn't really have much interest in much of what we were doing as a class, everything else looked so much more interesting.

He was very proud of himself whenever he did do anything though, and wasn't not ashamed to give himself a round of applause.

I ran out of space on the camera, so there will be more pictures from the next class!

Kaelyn's Newborn Pictures

 

I finally found the disc of pictures from Kaelyn's newborn photo shoot we did.

 

She was about four weeks old, so it wasn't the typical photo shoot, but I still loved the way they turned out.

 

I have such great kids, they do so well in front of the camera!

 

We made sure to get Nick included in this as well.

 

This one is my favorite one out of them all. 

Decorating for Halloween

This year William was big enough to help me decorate for Halloween this year.

 

I put him in charge of putting the window clings up, and he was so excited!

 

 

He had a blast doing it, even though about half of them got ruined in the process.

 

The house looked great by the time we were done.

 

I can't wait for Christmas so that Nick will be home and the three of us can all decorate together.



Our Next Adventure

After weeks of rumors and pending orders, we finally have official order determining where our next adventure is going to be. We will be going to Wiesbaden, Germany! We will be leaving in August of 2014, so luckily we have some time to prepare.

 

 

We will be in Southwest Germany, 30 minutes south of Frankfurt, and about five hours from Paris!

 

 

We are so excited for this new journey we are going to be taking. Although it means being so far away from our families for the three and a half years we will be there, we already have a big list of things that we want to see, and experience while we are there.

 

Kaelyn's Two Month Checkup

Kaelyn's two month checkup was actually a couple of weeks late because I was in Canada when she hit two months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, when we took her in the doctor was extremely pleased with how well she is doing. She was very impressed at how strong she was, the amount of control she had and how alert she was.

 

 

She weighed 11 lbs, 8 oz which put her in the 45%. At 22 1/2 inches tall she is in the 35% and her head is in the 15%. She is getting so big and smart. She is already starting to talk, and like most babies, loves blowing bubbles. It's been so much fun to watch her grow, it's such a different experience the second time around.