Silver City Group Trip

The adventure for this weekend was a group trip up in the mountains to the Ghost Town called Silver City. Ben, one of the young guys in our FCA group, is getting out of the Air Force this week and going home to start college, called and asked Sam for one more snow trip up in the mountains! Never one to say no for a chance at a snow adventure, Sam and Collin and a few more friends took off at 8am this morning!
Here is the group on a cold, but sunny day!

Collin perches on his rock!

They really do enjoy getting stuck! Putting on snow chains and dragging each other out of snow ditches is really enjoyable! They didn't make it to Silver City, when they got to the top of the mountain, 2 sets of snowmobilers told them if they were caught on this road in vehicles, it was a $1,000.00 fine! So they turned around. Better safe then sorry with that kind of money at risk!

They were being watched!!!! Isn't he beautiful?!?! And this guy was on BASE!

Kaebrie and her Baby

Christmas morning, here is Kaebrie with her new baby doll that her HaHa sent her! She LOVED that doll!!

Loved that doll so much, she gave her a bath (or a baptism) in the toilet! Then tucked her into her bed, covered her with a blanket, turned on the sound machine and left baby to take a nap! Mommy found soaking wet baby in the bed a bit later!
Here is baby, only 3 days old, in her first (of many) washing machine runs! :-)

Sorry Mom!! (Take it as a compliment) !! :-)

CANCELLED!
Sam got notified yesterday that his deployment to Kuwait for 6 months has been cancelled. They changed the spot to a major position, and Sam being a captain, well, he can't fill the spot!
He is still on-call for deployment anytime between January through April. So his chances are high he will be called somewhere.
But for now, for today, the relief he isn't going to be gone for 6 months is WONDERFUL!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas to all!!!!!! We have had a busy and enjoyable holiday weekend. Christmas Eve morning we attended chapel and then went to some great friends house after for lunch, conversation and games. We also attempted the following photos! Here is Collin!

Kaitlynn with Dixie, who now has been with us for one year! Our Christmas kitten from last year sure has grown!

Dixie isn't the only one who has grown up! Hard to believe how big Christopher is getting!

Baby Kaebrie sure isn't a baby any longer!! She FIANLLY had enough hair to put her FIRST bow in! :-)

Here are 2 of the TWENTY pictures I took trying to get ONE great one of them all. Never got a really awesome one, guess these will have to do!

For the first time, the kids drew names for each other for Christmas. Collin drew Kaitlynn's name, and he got her her first Bible. She wanted one SO BADLY! As you can see, she was SO EXCITED!!!!

Kaitlynn drew Collins name and one of the things she got him was a Steve Irwin memorial ornament. He teared up when he opened it. ( So did I).

Christopher drew Kaebrie's name and she LOVED ber book and ball!

Later that night we got on the web cam with Poppa and JuJu in Alabama and opened gifts together. The girls loved their hand made aprons and mits!

The telescope was a BIG hit! Yes, that is a 12 foot tall Homer Simpson Santa in our yard. Yes, you know we don't do Santa Clause. Yes, it was a practical joke from the Chapel Staff. Yes, the neighbors are talking!!!! :-)

The night before Christmas Eve, Sam and I went to the club for the Fighter pilots Christmas party.

Busy busy weekend. The kids had a great time. It was our first white Christmas. Several bouts of homesickness, but the webcam with all the grandparents and my sister and her family helped bridge the distance. Hope all of you had a Merry Christmas as well!

Christmas Piano Recitals

This morning was the Christmas Piano Recital!

Mrs. Beth (another chaplain's wife) gave lessons every week to mostly the homeschool kids. It was GREAT! I didn't have to drive them anywhere, they just walked over after lunch every Thursday!

Collin played Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Kaitlynn played Silent Night

The videos of them playing are blogged below. Sometimes it takes awhile to load.

Mrs. Beth won't be able to give lessons next semester. So we have found a teacher in town, who, because there are so many of us, is willing to drive in every Wednesday morning and give lessons here on Paisley Street all day.

I am thankful we have found somebody. I really want the kids to be able to read music and play. Right now, getting them to practice is not hard. THEY LOVE IT! Most days they practice without me even reminding them.

We look forward to YEARS of recitals to come!!!!!

Kaitlynn's Piano Recital

Piano Recital

The kids have been WAITING for this and checking the weather for weeks! And the snow finally came! Over 5 inches last night, so this morning it was time to play!

Sam pulled our crew and our friends, the Ritschards, on the sled behind the rover...
...until somebody called the cops and he had to stop.

We bundled up Kaebrie in her snow stuff and she joined in the fun too!

A huge fort was built for the snowball fight!

Notice Kaebrie and Christopher in the MIDDLE of the snowball fight area!

What a fun morning. Carolyn made hot chocolate and pumpkin muffins and the laughter and squeals was so fun to hear!

Christmas In A Box

Last night was the kids Christmas play at the chapel. They had a really good time. Kaitlynn was one of the narrators and did an EXCELLENT job will all her reading!

Collin was Joseph. He had a lot of lines to memorize, but he did it!

Christopher was a sheep. And what a sheep he was!!!!!!!!!!

He has missed the last few practices to due illness (of his parents) so he really wasn't clear on what and where he was supposed to be.

So he was all over the place. In the table, crawling aross stage, visiting the narrators.....

swiping kazoos...............

Being a really active sheep! But the other sheep had already "scattered" anyway, so he wasn't the only "lost sheep."

These pictures were taken during the dress rehersal. He did SO MUCH better during the real performance. Did exactly what he was supposed to do!

Now, on to something new!!!!!!!
WE CAN NOW PUT VIDEOS ON THE BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have experimented with 2 below. A scene from last night and Kaebrie's new phrase. Everytime you tell her "I love you sooo much" she says "Thank you sooo much" and will mimic the tone of your voice.
So, this will add a LOT to our little family diary and will allow us to show you even more of our life here in Idaho.
I am so excited!! Sam is going to have to walk me through the upload process a few times so I can learn it!