Thursday, January 28, 2010

Our Youngest Football Player


I don't usually post pictures of just one of the boys, I always feel guilty as if I am leaving someone out :-) Mommy guilty is never ending :-) Anyway... I was checking my e-mail this afternoon and I look over and there is Ryan with Tyler's Seahawk football helmet on. I don't know how he got it on, but all I could do was laugh. Kelly would have love to see that. Nothing else is really happening here, signed the boys up for T-ball. I was a little disappointed for Kyle because he played coach pitch last year and he doesn't meet the cut off to play coach pitch here, so he will be moving back to T-ball. This is what happens when you move from place to place He is still excited to play, I just hope things work out ok. We signed Ty up too. They aren't positive they will have a league for him, but they said it looked promising. Honestly I am not sure how Ty will do. Kyle is very focused and competitive and Tyler is the complete opposite. We never have worried about Kyle keeping his head in the game, but I have a feeling it will be quite a different story with Tyler :-) I am sure he will have fun though. So it is sounding like a pretty busy spring for us between Kyle's soccer and then T-Ball, but being busy seems to make the time fly by! We should be seeing Kelly the end of April for R&R and then we are on the backside of this deployment. Can't wait to have him home safe and sound!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Ryan defrosting Grandma's turkey...brrrr

I know it has been a while since I last posted, but we have been incredibly busy. The kids and I are finally settling in after Christmas break. Kyle and Tyler are back into school and Ryan is settling down into his routine. We spent Christmas with my parents and then Ryan's birthday and New Years with Kelly's parents. The holidays are always hard when you have someone you love missing, but being surrounded by family makes things a little easier. So thank you Mom and Dad and Marge and Les for making the holidays enjoyable for us.

Like most families, we also have our Christmas traditions. We bake sugar cookies and then decorate them for Santa and then we have a PJ exchange and watch a Christmas movie. I really love Christmas Eve because we have so much fun as a family, but without all the chaos that Christmas morning can bring. I still love Christmas day, but Christmas Eve has a very special place in my heart.

I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately. Mainly just videos for Kelly so he can see the boys in action, but I will share with you the few we do have. Hope you guys enjoy the pictures!



The boys determined to make Santa the best cookies


Ryan getting in on the action.

What beautiful cookies


Christmas PJs





Sunday, January 10, 2010

And Finally, Part 4 - Gifts from Classes



Ok, last post for today, but I'll try and keep up on my posting so that it doesn't happen all at once again.

Just before Christmas, I received two packages in the mail. One from Kyle's 1st Grade teacher, and one from my sister Marne.


Kyle's Teacher had evidently given the kids a project for Veteran's Day making U.S. flags from paper. She also went so far as to take a picture of the class, then paste it on Kyle's flag. Everyone loved them, and I posted them on a wall for everyone to see. All of the flags are still there today, except Kyle's, which I took down and put in my room.

Marne's class made Christmas cards for all of us with some pretty cool stickers of HEMMITs, Apache Helicopters, and M1 Tanks. I also took all of them and posted them on another wall so that everyone could appreciate them.

Thanks again Kyle and Marne.

Ok, that's all for now. Take care and God Bless.


Kelly

Part 3 - Shooting Sub-machine guns




Hello again. The Special Forces guys that live near us have a small range that we're able to go to. We decided to make it a special day and brought along some sub-machine guns to shoot. We shot some British Sterlings and a browning M12, as well as our 9mm handguns and M4s. All in all, it was a pretty good day.

Kelly

Sinjar Mountain - Yezidi Temple











We took a drive up Sinjar Mountain toward the end of NOV (yes, its been that long since I've posted). It took quite a while to get up the mountain (windy and narrow), but we managed. Pictures going up are from the inside of the MRAP.

One of the stops at the top was a Yezidi Temple (all of our terps are Yezidi (type of religion here, not Muslim or Christian), which our terps led us to and told us about it. There were sheets hanging in the temple, and you made a wish, said a prayer, then tied a knot in the sheet after untying a knot already there. The untying of the knot is ensuring that the prayer/wish said by the other person before you will be answered.

On the way down, we stopped and I got some good pictures of the canyon and the farming they do there. The farming that you see in the photos is tobacco fields (Laurie, I know you are laughing about this, but that is what the terp told me, not what I'm guessing....sorry everyone, inside joke). The children were chasing after us looking for candy. Luckily we had some gum and handed it over to them.

We made it back down the mountain and safely back to COP Nimir. I added a photo of the COP (it is pretty tiny).

Anyway, so ends part 2, stay tuned for part 3.

Kelly

Greetings

Hi everyone! Sorry that it has been so long since I've posted. I don't really have an excuse, but I'm going to try and catch up now. This is going to be a 4 part post. The first post is this one (sans photos), giving the introduction of the three following: 2 - Drive up Sinjar Mountain/Yezidi Temple, 3 - Shooting Sub-machineguns, and 4 - Gifts from Marne's and Kyle's classes.

Ok, on to the fun.

Kelly