Unbe-leaf-able!!!

Admit it I am FUNNY!! :P Back to Thanksgiving Day cause Jason took so many fabulous pictures while him and the kiddos were outside. It seems like they were outside forever without us but really it was only about 45 minutes. But I guess Hannah and I really missed out on all the fun. After the pictures of the cat and the umbrella Jason wanted to teach Cameron the joy of jumping in a leaf pile. To be honest neither one of us thought he would get very far. With the whole not getting dirty thing outdoor play with Cameron has proven to be limited. But he so got into it!! Jas caught some great action shots that cracked me up!!

A little love to the Nipper family who dressed Cameron this day!! lol I know Aunt Brenda is looking at the pictures saying 'Hey I know that shirt!!' well you know the jeans too. And the socks ;) Pretty much we just bought the shoes :) This tree still has a lot of leaves for Cameron to play in. Jason had to bring him back in the other night cause he wasn't 'helping' very well!! Poor Cameron came back int eh house with tears in his eyes and leaves in his hair. That is never a pretty sight!

Thanksgiving was a week ago and I am still sharing from that day!! Can you imagine how bad it will be after Christmas!?!?! LOL

Weaving the Blanket of Freedom

Well he will be for 6 more years. His last 6 years as a matter of fact. Jason re-enlisted today. It was honestly up in the air if he was going to. 8 months gone from his family and 6 months in Iraq definitely makes you question some things. But in the end Jason knew that with only one enlistment left til retirement he really didn't have a choice. Besides the fact no good jobs had panned out fast enough to really consider getting out. So here we are 14 years later and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. A military career is not very long. Only needs to be 20 years. You can go longer but it's not in my man to do that. And I am perfectly fine with that. 20 is enough. In just these 14 years alone we have had three kids, 4 states ( not counting Illinois ) 7 homes, to many TDY's and one Deployment to Iraq under our belts. I know there are no more kids in our future ;) But who knows what homes or states or TDY's we have left. And unless we have a miracle there will be more time in Iraq. If these next 6 years are anything like the last 14 it will be over before we know it!

Jason thought it would be cool to ask 2nd Lieutenant Sowell to do his re-enlistment because she has never done one before. Her first his last. She was so cute! I love her anyway cause she is a hugger!! I love huggers! I am a hugger. Can I have a hug?

Um yeah I cut Jason's hair this past weekend and kind of used the wrong guard. Which of course I didn't discover til I did the first swipe across the top of his head. Thank goodness it isn't cold here cause he is a wee bit bald :)




Magnum GI doing the infamous eyebrow! To know Jason is to know the eyebrow. He is exaggerating a bit here :)



I didn't realize Jas had sent word out about Lt Sowell's first enlistment. I am yakking my head off and come into a room full. So not expecting it. But to know Kara is to know her yakking :)

She had memorized the whole statement!! What a trooper. She was shaky in the middle but she came through. Of course Jason just has to repeat things so he gets no slack! And of course I am at the age where I ask. How old was she when we started this gig? Doesn't matter she hugged me :)

I had a 'official' Combat Photographer take our picture!! Pretty much it just sounds cool. Considering Johnny Stevens was next to him with his camera phone and probably got the same shot :) Cameron wouldn't look at them no matter who was taking the picture.

Not the best shot of Jason but it was the best shot of me and since it is my blog.........

Captain America saving the world from bad video!!!

OK is the 6 years over yet?

Oh yeah and Jason pointed out by the time he gets out Hannah will be the age he was when he got in. The man is trying to kill me!!

Cameron under his Umbrella-la-la

These pictures where taken at the same time Guadalupe and Zoe were captured. Cameron found one of our beach umbrellas and decided to have some fun. And for those of you who know the song admit it it is stuck in your head now ;) More Thanksgiving fun coming soon!!

Zoe versus Guadalupe

So our neighborhood has a stray cat. As most neighborhoods do. This one is very sweet but has gotten quite used to the outside world so she would be hard to take in. But my girls are quite twitterpatted with this cat and she gets my poor Zoe all rilled up whenever she struts her stuff in our yard. Zoe bounces on the door and whines ever so loudly!! This Thanksgiving morning Jason, Josie and Cameron were outside playing and of course the kitty wanted to participate. I like getting Josie all frustrated and I call the cat Guadalupe. I guess Josie doesn't find that name to be fitting. But it doesn't matter what we call the cat Zoe wants to chew on her!! lol No we don't necessarily think it is chewing but she definitely wants to get closer!!

So here is a series of pictures Jason took while I was getting ready and Zoe was getting herself all in a fit!

Guadalupe sniffing and saying 'HI!!"

Zoe on the other side of the door whining quite loudly by now!

I know you can't hear her and it is hard to see in a picture but she is straining! Her whine is quite high pitched by now. You all probably heard it but was unaware of what it was.

Don't ya love it? Jason takes her outside and Miss Guadalupe starts strutting her stuff. She knocks my plants over all the time. Oh well it is what cats do.

She could care less that this dog is getting frustrated!

Could she be more bored by it all? Jason tried taking her in. I kind of accepted the fact we were going to be adopting her. She came in very sweetly and sniffed around. But like I expected the minute our front door was open she streaked out of the house and she hasn't been around. A very independent lady already.

Josie still hates the name Guadalupe. Such a fuddy duddy ;) After this Jason got some cute shots of Josie and Cameron playing in the leaves. I found such humor in these pictures because of Zoe Bug. Our sweet girl just wanted to nibble on the cat for a minute!!

Thanksgiving Morning

Did you know that every body's Thanksgiving Day started off with the whole world a little better because this new creature is in it!?!?!

Lillian Grace Day the newest production of Jenny and George Day. I find great humor in the fact that I have been calling her Butterball most of the pregnancy and she decides to come on Thanksgiving. It makes Aunt Kara very very happy.

I wanted to introduce her in a quick blog and here soon I will share our Turkey Day festivities. Congrats to Jenny and George what a way to start the holiday season!!

Cameron is thankful for.....

Miss O and Miss Simmons!!! The beautiful ladies who spend every school morning with our little man. In hopes of bringing out what we all know is in there but Cameron is taking his time to show us all. So here is a side view of the Little Indian that Could!! :) He wouldn't look at the camera. Stubborn baby!

We were invited to come to Cameron's classroom for a lovely Thanksgiving lunch. I feel like my talents were wasted because I only had to bring tea. But there was allot of love in that tea and every drop was drank!! Cameron only ate cornbread. Not from lack of effort on his parents part :) But we can say we tried. p.s. the letter of the week was M. Can you tell by his band? :)

Oh good heavens if it isn't one woman smooching on him it's another!! And he still has to go home to his Grandma's for Christmas!!

Just a little proof that I make this kid earn his allowance!!

Poor Josie raked for almost 2 hours to try and get our yard caught up! By the next morning the tree had shed more leaves and we actually got wrote up for not raking. Every bit of yard was covered. And our tree is nowhere near done!!

Here she is a thing of beauty!! We decided to upgrade our van. Sorry I don't have a better shot. I sent Josie out with the camera. She is normally so much more reliable!!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! I will take pictures and of course share our day with you!! Much love to all of you have an extra scoop of potatoes on me!!! :)

Josie's Celebration

Thank You Thank You Melanie!!

I have to say that because that darling woman came in and saved the day!! Josie's Birthday celebration was fabulous. With fabulous friends and what I have to admit was fabulous food ;) But was it crowded!! I love having a houseful cause it reminds me that I have filled our lives with great people. But when you are in charge of the gathering you are side tracked by every little bit and I almost got no pictures of the event! Melanie stepped up and asked where the camera was and went outside to get pictures of the kiddos. We had already eaten by now and the kids were getting to roast their marshmallows.

There is no documented proof of what I will sadly refer to as the 'incident' of Josiepalooza 2007. Let me side track for a second and tell you a story. Imagine, if you will, a woman who has been running her mouth for a couple of weeks now about her prize worthy pulled pork. It has been established that this said woman is pretty good when it comes to a pork bum so she felt comfortable bragging. So here it is Saturday night and her house if FULL let me count......30 people in my house ready to be fed. And thee pork bum was NOT cooked all the way through!!! Slight panic settles in. Jason saves the day by running to the store and buying Lldoyd's BBQ. Yes this woman was bummed she didn't get to share her pork bum of destiny and yes she got quite a bit of teasing for the rest of the evening she can proudly say no one in her house left hungry!! And in the end that is all that matters!!

Back to the birthday festivities!! This is where we all are grateful to Melanie!! I am inside cleaning up dinner and getting the hot chocolate ready. I am so glad she got these shots of the kids roasting marshmallows. They all loved it!! And the hot chocolate!!

I know this picture is blurry but it still cracks me up!! Another thank you to the Buytas family for letting us borrow this fire pit!! It definitely made Josie's night!

This kid caused numerous mini heart attacks all evening. NO fear of fire!! He actually had to be put to bed early cause it became quite the struggle to keep him safe.

Josie opening her gifts and cards. She gave me no clues at all to what she wanted for her birthday. I told everyone gift cards and she is actually quite excited with all of them. The Buytas family gave her a new wallet and she thinks she is ever so cool with a wallet full of birthday money and gift cards. I thought for sure today (Sunday) she would be driving us crazy to go shopping but I think she wants to keep her wallet fat for a little bit longer. Definitely NOT my kid ;)

I am just impressed at how calm cool and collected I look in this picture!! And of course the proof I actually attended one of my kids parties. Usually I am the wizard behind the curtain ;)

Now this is where I get to tell everyone that Jason literally Rocks my world......sometimes ;) Josie wanted a Grill Cake. Her idea. I thought about it for quite sometime and then just admitted I was stumped and tried to tell Josie that a Grill Cake just wasn't my speed. So Jason stepped in and said he would do it. He did everything!! I didn't even go with him to the store to buy any supplies. Start to finish this rockin' cake is totally Jason's.

Oh yeah he even made a lid. Don't you just love it!?!?! Josie sure did and that is all that matters!



Parker playing with the kid's Carnival.

The Mills family

The Hart family

The Buytas Family
The Tibbs family

George and Jenny

Danielle and Emilie

Felisha and Kyra

The Cross family

and of course Melanie!!!

Thank You all so much for coming and celebrating Josie's 12th birthday!!! I owe you all some fabulous pulled pork!! lol and no I will never forget it!!