Playing in the 'snow'

Kyin, Sophie, and Kyins buddy Jordan playin in the fake snow in the ice castle while waiting to see Santa. Soph had that stuff in her hair for days!

Santa Came :)

Santa Pic..

We originally took the kids to see Santa on a Saturday night, with the intentions of seeing Santa, then getting dinner with friends. We get to the mall and get to the Ice Castle, where Santa is at, and the line is huge...probably around a 2 hour wait. So we waited in line for 20 minutes before deciding to just skip Santa and come back on a weekday and just going to one of the restaurants in the mall--Chili's and Max & Erma's had a least a 1 hour wait. So we just left the whole mall area and got dinner.

Skip to the following Tuesday, the line was less than 30 minutes long and the kids had a blast watching the video screens and playing in the fake snow in the Ice Castle! Sophie freaked and just said "No Santa, No..." and wouldn't go near him. Kyin on the other hand, hopped right up and said "Hi Santa!" and told him what he wanted for Christmas. This is the first genuine smile I've gotten in a LONG time :)

USS Fort McHenry Christmas Party

The night started out with such promise...but turned into poo.
It was nice getting dressed up and having an adult night with daycare provided for the kids, and the food was actually really good--that could have been because I was starving though. Starving or not, the chocolate cake was amazing. The party was at the Waterside Marriot in Norfolk, and it was gorgeous! I'm bummed I wasn't able to get a picture of me and Jer infront of one of the decorated trees.
Unfortunatly more drama happened than I remember dealing with in high school. And we didn't win any of the sweet prizes this year. :(.

The fam at the Schiffners before the party.

Jerrad's engineering buddies..with Kyin & Jordan.

Jer with more of his friends from the boat.

Just a video....

Winter...

These were going to be Christmas card photos...I scrapped them because I wasn't happy with them, but I figured I'd share them on here. A few days after they were taken we went to the beach and took the ones that actually ended up on the card!

Housing...

After a few scares that we either would be in a place that we didn't want or we would have to live in a hotel for a week or two (eek!) we are signing our lease today for our new place! It's a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1300 sq foot town house. It has a fenced in backyard (small, but a yard non the less!) and a garage (So Jer is PUMPED).

Fall pics of the kiddos :)

I know...fall pictures but you're at the beach!? It was gorgeous out yesterday..around 70 and the kids NEEDED to get out and play, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

A genuine smile!?

Love the attitude in this one!

Very cute!

This one will be hanging on the wall for sure!!

As well as this one!

Sophie looking JUST like her Aunt Cassie!

cuter patooter

Taylor Farms

Today we went to the pumpkin patch with some friends. I was happy to be able to pull my camera out and actually use it! :)

I'm surprised she actually sat still long enough for me to snap this one!

I love this one..it's going in a frame

Momma & Sophers

She was pointing to a pumpkin

Waiting for the hayride..Kyin LOVED it, Soph wanted to get off and run around everytime they stopped to open or close a gate.

Baby Max

It's been forever since I've updated the blog. I'm sure all of you know we are expecting another lil nugget. His name will be Max :)

It's a boy!

Baby Max Christopher due February 11 :)

He's lookin a smidge evil in this one..

Fall?

Today Kyin and I got crafty=]. I must admit, it was strange making fall crafts while the AC was on and it was 80 degrees out! But we had fun. Kyin wanted to make his own. Of course I worked the scissors and hot glue gun, and mainly just picked out what leaves/flowers he wanted and where he wanted them. He wanted to hang his on his bedroom door.



Mine, on our front door--

Kyin with his on his bedroom door--

Update..

Seeing how we just seen everyone not that long ago, this will be a short update =]. I am currently enrolled in online classes working for an associates in Medical Insurance Billing. I can't wait to be done, seeing how I started going to school for this, ohhh...7 years ago?!

Jerrad FINALLY was able to put his crows on, and officially became a petty officer! I had the task of sewing his crows on his coveralls for work today. Crows are the ensignia of his rate.

Kyin & Soph are doing great! Just as crazy as they ever were. They really enjoy it when we go to the playground or beach on base after dinner. We recently got Kyin a sketch pad so he has his own pad of paper to draw on and he LOVES it! He's very good at it too!

Beach photos

These are about a week old..I'm slackin on the blog! We decided to take the kiddos to the beach one night after dinner. The sun wasn't blazin down on us, seeing how it was 6 in the evening. I brought my camera so I could get some pics of daddy and his babies =]. I have to say, I love love love the one of him and Sophie!

Kite Festival.

On Saturday we took the kids down to Ocean Side to the Kite Festival. It was a process trying to find parking (I only had $4 cash on me, and our cards..luckily I had some change and found meter parking) but the kids had a ball! Ky was pointing to the random kites saying "look an octopus! Look, a frog!" We got their around 10:30, and I'm glad we went early, it was HOT out. Kyin was treated with ice cream while we left the boardwalk (before lunch!). He was a big boy and told us he had to go potty before we got on the road. Soph did well also, she must have been happy looking around and drinking her juice because we didn't hear a peep outta her!

Potty Trained??

I just think he might be! Kyin hasn't had any accidents (during the day) for 5 days! The first 4 nights he didn't have any accidents either, but the past 2 he has. That means if he has no accidents today and tomorrow, on Tuesday we'll be moving the TV in our room into his. That was his reward for no accidents for a week. We are VERY proud of him!

No accidents!

Kyin went a WHOLE day with NO accidents!! We are VERY proud of him! I didn't need to remind him once to go on the potty, he told me everytime..even woke me up at 6:50am to go! Hopefully this trend will continue.... :)

Easter at the Zoo

I totally forgot to upload the pictures of Easter. Jerrad had duty the night before, so after he got home from work and Soph took a little nap we went to the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. It was a gorgeous day for it (mid 70s).

update..

Jer went through PO Indoc (Petty Officer Indoc) today! That means that he officially gets EN3 (Engineman 3rd class) VERY soon. He figures sometime next week, he has to wait for the CO to have time to do the ceremony and frock him. =) As long as he doesn't get TAD (temporary assigned duty) while his ship is in the shipyard he's planning on going back to school and *possibly* at some point going to OCS (officer candidate school). I'm just hoping everything goes as planned (as much as the military will allow lol.)

Weather was CRAZY hot the last week..high of 92! It has since cooled down considerably (mid 50s today). Ky & Soph are doing good.

Sophie now shakes her head "no" and nods her head "yes". She actually nodded when I asked her if she "made stinky in her pants" today. She also dances with Dora & Backyardigans at the end of the shows (I have yet to get it on camera!).

Kyin STILL isn't having it with going on the potty. But, I am working with him on writing the alphabet & numbers. He now recognizes him written name, can sing most of his abcs, can write 75% of the alphabet, and can draw (and knows) most shapes. He's getting too stinking smart & has QUITE the imagination! He's always talking about giants and monsters...he comes up with some CRAZY stories!

I am currently taking a photography class online (it's great cause it's FREE). And I'm working on getting a stock of hats crocheted up and baby shoes sewn to sell on Etsy. The kids don't leave me much free time to accomplish this. They're mini tornados.

Sophie Loves arroz con pollo!

Random Videos..

Finally..

I edited the video for homecoming...here it is..

Easter Pics...(edit: Sophs added)

Well, here are the 2 out of 40 shots I took of Sophie that turned out! She does look super cute though!

..well, Kyin's Easter pics :). I got MAYBE 3 REAL smiles outta him. Hopefully I'll be able to get Soph's tomorrow! We shall see..she's a little bit trickier, seeing how she doesn't slow down!

moon..

I was getting the kiddos in their jammies and I noticed the moon..nice. :)

Life..

So, life as a FAMILY (again) is great :). Jer had 6 days off, not in a row..he had to go in for duty one day. Now he's back to work (and hating it, lol). He's going to be going underway soon preparing for the ship overhaul. Apparently there's rumblings that when the ship is done, it will be assigned to a different base. We'll see if that's true, kinda puts a damper on our housing situation. We were planning on getting on the wait list for the new housing at Little Creek.

The weather has been amazing. 70s pretty much everyday! Very strange to have the ice cream man rollin around in March!! Also, the first year that we had the windows rolled down and wearing shorts on my birthday! Jer got to experience the aquarium during his week off, we might go to the zoo on Saturday..we'll see how the weather is.

Soph is totally a Daddy's girl!

Homecoming :)

firetruck..

yet another editing program..

that I've fallen in love with! Lightroom 3.

SOOC (straight off of camera):

Edited:

All Aboard...

Kyin's back on the Potty Train! I made a "treat jar" that he gets to pick out of when he goes potty..so far it's working! He doesn't get any candy or sweet treats unless he goes potty now. This morning he got to choose 2 treats out of there (because he woke up dry AND went potty). He picked out 2 suckers..and gave one to Soph! What a nice big brother :).

HOMECOMING!!

I have the date for Jer's homecoming!! Annnddd....it's that long from now :)). VERY excited to have my husband & best friend back home with us!

Virginia Zoo

Today we went to the Virginia Zoo. We had fun even though it was 40 degrees out. Kyin LOVED it!