A little bit of fall

The kids were given indian names at school for thanksgiving. Julianna was "Happy Eyes." Her friend was Rainbow Princess and Julianna was really bummed that she didn't have "Princess" in her name. So I called her "Princess Happy Eyes" and that seemed to do the trick. She had asked me a couple of days before what season it was. I said "It's Fall." She then asked (remember we live in Hawaii) "Then where are the fall leaves?" Good point. Kind of hard to teach seasons around here. Well, when our friends in Maryland heard this story they decided they could do something to help. When she got home from school that day she had a surprise waiting for her in the mailbox.

FALL LEAVES!! Nyla was her friend here in Hawaii but recently moved to Maryland for her Dad's next assignment. She sent these to Julianna and you have no idea how happy such a simple thing made her. She was so excited that she wanted to go door to door and hand out a leaf to each of the kids in the neighborhood. She said "It's like trick-or-treat, except I give them a leaf." :) Such a thoughtful present. Thank you Nyla and Regina.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, I have absolutely NO photo documentation of our Thanksgiving Day. I also did not call or text or return any calls today because I left my phone at a friend's house and did not get it back until it was WAY to late to you back on the East Coast. My apologies. I will say that we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our military family here and for them I am thankful. This was actually my first Thanksgiving without being with family (either Ike's or my own). And to top it off, Ike wasn't even here. But despite that, we had a fabulous day with all of our loving friends here in Hawaii. We were invited to join several families and feel so blessed that people are willing to open their homes to us and invite us to join in on their own holiday traditions. We stopped by several friends houses and visited for a bit, dropped off a pie, then headed to visit another, etc. It was a fun filled day for sure. We settled at one home where we stuffed ourselves with all of the usual Thanksgiving delights. Turkey, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, stuffing, and ofcourse lots of desserts. Everything was delicious. Julianna really enjoyed her day and on the way home, in the midst of a yawn she said "Thanksgiving is really fun. Really, fun." Before bed I said "Julianna, I am thankful for you.", to which she replied "And I am thankful for Xander" (a friend from school). haha

I hope you all enjoyed your day. We have so much to be thankful for.

So far, so good.

This is our new house. (That's the back of the house to the right.) Pretty nice view of the mountains and you can also see the runway and Kaneohe Bay. It's awesome.

The playground is right at the end of our driveway and we have become regulars. If you happen to drive by we will likely be there. As you can see, Mason REALLY likes it. Also, if you click this pic and make it bigger you can see that he has some new teeth in the back. Some meat chewin' teef!! He'll be ready for steak by the time Daddy gets home and fires up that grill.

There is the bay and the runway. If you click and make the picture bigger you can see a plane.

Silly boy. He looks SO big here!

And here is Julianna (with her hair lookin' a hot mess) at Tripler after her doctors appointment. Her ears are much better but they did have to suction some gunk out. That was a pleasant experience as you might imagine. However, as soon as it was done she said her ear felt much better.

We haven't been up to too much other than unpacking and playing at the playground. I had a wonderful farewell luncheon for our CO's wife. They are leaving soon and it was a wonderful afternoon spent with all of the girls. I am sad to see them go. They live right down the street and the kids play together all the time. It's going to be very strange after they are gone. But, that's the way this job goes. Always changing.

I am down to just a few boxes left to unpack in the house. Nothing that is important which is why it is still in the box. Every night after the kids go to bed I say I am going to do it and then I sit on the sofa and have no desire. I need to leave some work for Ike when he gets home I guess. :)

And here we go...

Take a good look at this calendar. November 15th to be exact. Yup, that's a moving truck. It's a good thing this was made especially made for us. The moving truck seems to get used way too frequently!

We went over to the new house last Saturday to get a better idea of how I was going to arrange furniture, etc. I still don't really know what I am doing with my furniture but the kids had a great time running around the empty, open, echoey house. There happened to be an Auburn game on and the kids were showing their school spirit. War Eagle, by the way.

Hey Mom, listen... AHHHH. It echos when I scream. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. :)

Baby races.

Run Mason, run!

Say Cheese.

Strike a pose.

These 2 are crazy but they sure do have fun together.

I don't know what this was all about but it makes me laugh.

All this moving around is exhausting. We need a nap!

Monday morning the movers arrived around 845 and packed up the house, picked up stuff from our storage unit, and dropped it all off at the new house by 330. By Monday at 6pm I had the kids rooms all unpacked. Yesterday I did some kitchen and my bedroom stuff. Today I did more kitchen (We have a LOT of kitchen stuff and china!! I think it's funny since I don't even cook!) and put away some of the kids toys. I have made a lot of progress. I can only work for a few hours a day because when Mason is around I don't get much work done as you might imagine. I also had to go and clean the old house because the new family is moving in on Friday!! Shew, let's just say I've been a busy little bee and I am pooped!! We are definitely having a great time in the new neighborhood. Julianna has spent lots of time at the playground across the street with her friends. I think that was worth the move by itself. The central A/C and twice as much space is also a bonus. I'll post pics of the house soon. Sleepy Mama!

No pictures

I've been bad lately about taking pictures. I guess that's how you can tell I'm a little busy. We are preparing for a move so my mind has been full with my To Do list. We've still been doing lots of playing, I just haven't been taking pictures of it. Our new house (on base) has a playground right across the street and every time we drop something off at the house I let them go over and play for "a few minutes." Before I know it, there are anywhere from 5-10 other kids out there playing and we've been there for 2 hours. It's going to be so much fun to live in a neighborhood with so many other kids. Julianna already loves it. We officially move in on Monday but I am going to take some stuff over the weekend to make the unpacking process a little easier for me. Anything I can do to simplify will be a big help. The house we are in right now is great and we are very happy here, but it is really going to be a great move for us. I'm excited. I'll keep you posted on our progress and try to take a few pictures of the kids. :)

Julianna's performance

Julianna was so excited that Mason and I came to her school for the military assembly last week. They invited all military families and had music and a presentation. It was very nice.

Mason was still a little under the weather so he didn't want his public to see his dark circles. He went incognito.

SISSY!!

This is the group of children who currently have a parent deployed. Isn't that crazy? Her school is pre-k through 8th grade.

Here we all are. I love seeing her at school. She's so cute with her friends and she was So happy to see Mason and I there.

The Early Learning Center did a little musical performance I thought you might enjoy seeing it.

You guessed it!

So, I haven't posted in a few days..... any guesses? Yup, sick kids. Again. We just can't catch a break around here. Last week Julianna, this week Mason, and next week... we're moving. Seriously. We're moving to a house on base. That's a good thing though so we'll talk about that later. Back to Mace. He basically got what Julianna had. Bronchitis and one of his ears is infected and oozing puss. Sounds awesome, doesn't it? So he also had a nebulizer treatment in the office and is on antibiotics. He didn't eat and had a fever for about 5 days so he ended up in ER Wednesday night to get some IV fluids. I think that did the trick because Thursday morning he seemed a little bitter and has slowly improved since then. He ate a little bit today and is playing more but he is still VERY cuddly and wears himself out quickly. I do think he is on the mend though which makes me very happy. However, Julianna now has an ear infection as well and her ears are both oozing a ridiculous amount of puss. How gross is that? She has had her tubes in for 18 months now and it has never, ever happened before. So she and Mason both have drops for their ears. I'm sure you can imagine how happy she is to get her drops put in. She is doing very well with it though and other than her most recent complaint of not being able to hear out of her left ear, she is feeling pretty good too. I am hoping she just can't ear because it is stopped up with grossness. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the drops cure that issue. Turns out out of the last 26 days or so, I have been to the doctor or the hospital around 12 times. And we have atleast 3 more appointments in the next 2 weeks. Oh, and did I mention that we're moving?

Halloweenies