This Guy Can't Wait for His Long-Awaited Hugs!

This will probably be my last post for awhile. We are SUPER EXCITED for seeing our loved ones over Christmas, and then settling down in our new home at Bragg! This little guy is currently on my lap... and he is READY for his hugs and kisses from family! See you soon!

Love, Us.

Final Gatherings

Over the past week, we have fit in some wonderful final gatherings with our Bliss family. They have been wonderful times and good goodbyes to great people. Here are some pictures of the fun.

Every good occasion with the Librandes currently includes a dance break to the tune of "Love Me Again"!

Love, Us.

Packing Up

Joe was kind enough to allow me to try a full DITY for this move. For those of you not understanding all of the acronyms I throw out, that means we are moving all of our own stuff from our current post to the next, and then having the Army reimburses us, based on what they would have paid to move it. Usually, you can make a bit of money doing this. It is definitely work-heavy, though. 

The big day of packing up the truck arrived on Saturday, and we hit it early. Joe invited all of the muscle he could find to join him at 7am. They came willing and ready to work, and we were done before 10am! It was awesome!

First, here are the kiddos and the truck.

Joe and the working men.

And here is the working woman. Our awesome neighbor, Nicole, kept 8 kids under control while we packed (including Romeo!). You are the BEST, Nicole!

Love, Us.

Pictures with Families of Friends

We are packing up our last little things today (like the computer), so I'm going to do just a few last posts this morning to share the pictures of our last moments with friends.

First, here are a few last families of kiddos that I made sure to snag a picture of with our four. Much fun has been had over the years with these guys!

 Oldest to youngest: James, Terry, and Erica

Bella and GG

The best neighbors EVER! Jamie, Maggie, and Lilie

Steven and Natalia (with Isa arriving in a couple weeks!)

Love, Us.

You Know They are Buddies When...

...in the midst of preparing for a move across county, they go to sit down for a Sunday afternoon movie. They realize that all comfy chairs have been packed up in the garage except for one. The solution to this problem, to them, is obvious and easy: without a moment's hesitation, they all pile on for a snuggle!

Love, Us.

Diaper Buddies Reading a Book

The title pretty much tells the story today. The only detail that needs to be explained is the diaper that P is wearing. "What?" you say. "Maria is always talking about her kids being potty trained at about 12 months old!" Well, not that early, but my kiddos do enter underwear earlier than the average munchkin. However, I now have the first less than 2.5 year-old male in the house who already has a baby brother. So... I've decided to take it easy on myself at night (and the washing machine during the day) by putting the big P (both the boy and the unmentionable night-time happening!) back in Fuzzi Bunz at night. We'll conquer that hill another day... maybe after we are settled after the move. 

But enough diaper talk... here are two cuties in their PJs and diapers sharing a good read.

Love, Us.

Locks of Love

The time had come for T to get a haircut. At first I was just going to trim a few inches off. However, Joe and I had recently noticed that T had fallen more and more in love with her hair. She spent increasing amounts of time looking at it in the mirror, and almost seemed to be waiting on compliments when we saw family friends. Vanity had struck our sweet T! So... Joe had an amazing idea that would both deal with the luscious locks and hopefully encourage T to give of herself in a way that was a bit difficult: Locks of Love! And, after much deliberation, she accepted the challenge and said goodbye to her hair. She now has a super cute hair cut, but hopefully the fact that it will take a lot less time to manage will keep it out of her mind more. 

We are proud of you, T! This may become our tradition of giving to others while killing pride every couple years.

Love, Us.

A New Favorite!

When I was attempting to do a self-clean of our house last week, I spent almost 4 hours cleaning our oven, and that was after the self-clean feature was done. Yeah... it gets real dirty when you cook meat as much as I do! After that, I didn't allow us to use it until after our pre-inspection. So, we had to go without eggs or omelets for 3 days, which is crazy around here. It forced us to find a great alternative, though... pumpkin waffles! If we were truly paleo,  they wouldn't have any flour in them. But, we were fine with just one cup for an entire blender full of goodness! Who knew that bananas, lots of eggs, a ton of peanut butter, pumpkin left over from Thanksgiving, and yummy pumpkin pie spices would make AMAZING waffles? Needless to say, we aren't too upset that we may be forced to eat these for a day or two more before we leave in order to use up our last can of pumpkin!

Love, Us.

T's First Cross Stitch Blanket

Our family friend, Paula, inspired me to start making baby blankets for friends and family about a year ago. And, for a blanket here and there, T has taken the time to add a hand-stitched family portrait. She recently took up cross stitch, so she decided to attempt her first cross stitch blanket a few weeks ago for one of Joe's colleagues. It turned out great!

Love, Us.

Patrick's Got a Good Grip!

If there is anything that makes a home-schooling mom happy, it is seeing her 2 year-old holding his crayon properly! 

Way To Go, P!

Love, Us.

Happy Advent (Almost a Week Late)!

Yes - We are celebrating Advent around here. I just didn't put the picture up until today. We are doing the awesome Sticker Advent Calendar, which Great-Grandma got us hooked on and we all love and look forward to doing every year. And... our candle is lit! 

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

Love, Us.

Knot Lessons

A common past time with dad around here is a weekly lesson on tying knots. In fact, yesterday the kids created a swinging rope in the back yard, and T proudly informed me that she tied the slip knot herself!
I can't even knowingly tie a slip knot! Well done, dad.

Love, Us.

School Online!

T has always enjoyed Math... now she LOVES it! We just started having her practice her basic skills and learn some new ones on the online "Khan Academy". She LOVES it... and so do I! This is really her first time using the keyboard or mouse, so she thinks it is the BEST!

Love, Us.

Little Joe

This guy definitely has the most of his dad's looks, compared to his siblings. The other day he decided to try on dad's Eye Pro and hat in order to look even more like him.

Love, Us.

The Many Faces of Romeo

Unfortunately, I haven't captured his super cute big smile on camera yet, but here are a few expressions that he shared with us over the course of a few moments the other day. Enjoy!

Love, Us.

Our Thanksgiving

We had a splendid Thanksgiving yesterday! We had TONS of wonderful good food, made it to Mass, had a dear friend join us, and the kids even got over their recent illnesses for the occasion!

What we did NOT do, however, was make a turkey! I'm very thankful that Joe was OK with this. I, simply put, am no good at cooking turkeys (or any large piece of meat, in fact). So, I stuck with what I knew I could "hit out of the park". We had three main courses: Country Style Ribs, Primal Lasagna, and Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Chicken Breasts. We also had tons of french bread, squash, roasted veggies, applesauce, and cranberry sauce. We topped off the meal with pumpkin pies and apple bars. We were STUFFED!

Our friend, Mr. Williams, was wonderful to have join us. He even entertained Patrick and David - playing with cars and army soldiers while keeping up with conversation.

We burned off some of the sugar with a quick dance break after dessert.

And these two tackled the dishes as a great team!

Love, Us.

Bath Time War Paint!

Thérèse was gifted some bath tub coloring crayons a while back with which the kids once in a while created beautiful masterpieces on the shower walls. However, the other day T and P realized that they could be colored just as easily as the walls! Luckily, they were washable.

Love, Us.