Kyin's Christmas Recital

Tonight was the Christmas recital at Kyins preschool.  He was SO excited, he was singing Christmas songs literally all day. The picture quality is not so good :/ The lighting was so bad in there that I had to have my camera's settings all wonky and use my speedlite which I'm not really all that used to using. 
I'm thinking it's going to be years before the videos upload, so I'll add those when they're on youtube.

Kyin & his best buddy Jordan

Singing songs

During prayer

And singing more songs

Elfie the Cookie Monster

It took Kyin a while this morning to find Super Elfie, he actually thought he didn't come back.  About 15 minutes after he woke up he found him.  Although, he thought Elfie got stuck in the lights while flying around the room. He was also worried about Elfie's safety-he got up on one of the dining room chairs and told Elfie it wasn't very safe for him to be up there and that he could fall and get hurt. <3 that little guy!

Tonight Elfie thought the cookies I made looked tasty and decided to try some. He's a messy little elf and left crumbs on his collar, and chocolate on his face...although I don't blame him, those cookies are amazing.

Its a bird..it's a plane..it's SUPER ELFIE!

Kyin has decided to change Brighty's name to Elfie. He was hilarious all day today-he would steal sideways glances at Elfie in the tree and say "he moved his head. He was looking that way, and now he's looking over there".  He also made a few things for him and carefully placed them next to him on the tree. When Kyin was playing games on the computer Jerrad collected the papers Kyin sat next to Elfie and put them in his hands so it looked like he was holding them.

I think the cutest thing was when Kyin asked Elfie if he wanted to go look at Christmas lights with us when we went for a walk around the block.  I told Kyin that Elfie was probably going to use the alone time to use the bathroom and get a snack.

First day was a success!
..on to day 2
Elfie decided to dress up as Super Elfie!

First morning of the Elf..

Kyin REALLY didn't want to get out of bed this morning..that is, until I reminded him that he needed to find Brighty the Elf!  He jumped out of bed and came downstairs.  It took him a little bit to find him, but when he did he was all smiles.  He keeps coming up to me telling me he keeps turning his head, but he'll whisper it to me, so Brighty doesn't hear. 

Elf on the Shelf

We are starting the tradition of the Elf on the Shelf.  If you haven't heard of this (like I hadn't before Pinterest-more on that site later) it's an Elf that you place around the house every night in a different spot and the kids have to find him/her the next morning.  The elf also comes with a book that tells the kids that the elf leaves every night and reports to Santa and tells him if they've been good or not.  The kids can't touch him or else he'll lose his Christmas magic powers and then he will leave and won't come back.  Kyin named him Brightly.  So..here he is...Brightly.  His first stop is, of course, the Christmas tree.

Pictures of the Nuggets

Max, Fresh out of the oven

Miss Fluffy in her sunglasses

The kids helping Jer blow out his candles

Max with his Rocket he got from the Easter Bunny

Jer got a fake mustache out of a quarter machine..we had fun with it

Soph in her Ducks bow

And Moose in his Ducks outfit..with the Ducks football

Kyin playing in the sprinkler outside

..the sprinkler

Playing in the backyard together

The Moosey-man in his bedroom

Max & Daddy <3 this photo

Kyin loves his baby brother

Soph, Ky & Jordan at the Norfolk Tides Game

At the pool during adult swim time..eatting snacks waiting for the kids to be allowed to go back in

Sophie throwing a fit at the aquarium

The mustache..

Military family halloween party

Carrot stealer-love this pic

yeah..this is what I get when I try and get a group shot

Soph's litter of babies

Attack of the Moose!

Playing catch up...

Wow..so pretty much an entire year has gone by from the last post on here.. so much has happened.  But..pretty much anyone who reads this already knows whats happened. So I'll update with information just a little and add some adorable pictures of the nuggets :)

Jerrad finally has a surgery date for his shoulder..only schedule for around 18m AFTER he first started complaining about the pain.  He has at least 2 torn tendons in his shoulder. 

Kyin is in preschool in a church based program and he LOVES it.  He now has to bless his food pretty much before every meal (he even said blessing at BOTH Thanksgiving dinners!).  He has also developed into quite the little artist-although luckily he hasn't decided to use the wall as canvas anymore.

Sophie is still our little Diva child.  Some days she goes by the name Princess, others it's still Sophie.  If she gets sent to her room for a time-out we'll hear banging, followed by her yelling "hi-ya!".  She's our little brut and built like an athlete-we have no doubt she'll excel in sports.

Max *aka* Moose is one of the happiest babies you'll ever meet.  He's now cruising, crawling and can climb the stairs-he hasn't figured out yet how to get down with out tumbling down them (thank God for baby gates!).  I love that he knows both name Max, and Moose.  Max is officially off the bottle and only takes sippys now-bittersweet moment, having to throw out the bottles for the last time.

And that brings me to..well..me.  I am still in school, I'll be done in June..I am so ready to be done. 
Because we are fairly certain Jerrad will be getting separated from the Navy because of his shoulder injury he wants me and the kids to move back to Michigan in the Spring and find a house-so the housing money we're getting for the remainder of his time in will go towards a house payment.  Which brings me to my next thing-when we (me and the kids) get back to Michigan I plan on pursuing my photography business as much as I can.  I'm helping a friend and fellow photog out this summer by second shooting some weddings with her.  We're pretty excited about being able to work together, while collaborating our styles to come up with some gorgeous and unique wedding photos. 

..which leads me to..pictures from the past year... on the next update :)