Foot Bath

Here are the boys helping Daddy soak his feet after one of his road marches. (That's right my husband now packs up his rucksack with about 40-50 pounds of weight and walks about 6 miles to get himself used to the Army road marches.) He keeps trying to convince me to go with him but every time he gets back he has to soak his feet so I tell him I need to stay back and get the water warm for him.

John's R&R

We missed the party but had a delicious (Yum yum yum yum yum delicioso!) Monihan Feast and got to spend some time together. Definitely a time to be thankful!

Welcome Olivia Mitchell!!

Olivia was born on Nov. 2!! Her mom, and my best friend ,Jamie had a pretty rough time after the c-section and I really needed to see my friend and make sure she was ok. She refused any pictures but it was so good to see her and get to spend some time with her. It kicked off our week of travel for Thanksgiving and to see John who is home for his R&R from Iraq. I finished up my last class and we drove the 6 hours to the upper most part of Maryland and crashed at a hotel (Coop glued to my back and Bear to my front). I couldn't wait for the sun to come up so I could sleep in the car! Sully found he liked the suitcase as his chariot. Jim forgot his wallet and cell phone at home and I told him not to worry about it as long as I had my wallet we were fine. I then promptly left my wallet at the hotel. We figured it out when we were trying to get some gas! Thankfully they saved it for me with all our cash in it. This leg of our trip was certainly an adventure!

Little Stinker

The Luckiest Mom

Activity Table

Cooper likes to eat the play-doh and Bear eats the crayons. Anyone have ideas for other things they can do at their little activity table???

New Winter Jacket Time

Goofy

Whenever Coop sees the camera he yells, "Cheese!" but closes his eyes until after the picture!!

Brotherly Love

I couldn't believe it when I saw Bear just go up to Coop and hug him with the most adoring smile and Coop turned around and patted his head and touched his face lovingly. Seriously how could I not cry when I watched that??

Nap Time

Do You See Apple?

Happy Birthday To Me

Everyone keeps asking how it feels to get older. I have to say that part doesn't bother me in the slightest. I just keep getting all these reminders to enjoy the moment because all I truly have is this moment, right now so I don't want to waste it with stressing out about getting older. Mostly I'm just really grateful. My dear friend Jamie was in the hospital this weekend and gave birth to her baby girl Olivia but had a major snafu with the c-section and ended up in emergency surgery where they had to remove her uterus and give her a blood transfusion. It was so wonderful to hear her voice this morning and to know she is on the other side of it. She sent me a party in a box so we will have a birthday party tonight thanks to her!! She is so sweet she's just had a baby and come through a life threatening surgery and she keeps calling me to make sure I'm ok today.

I miss my mom even more so today. She always made my day special even when I didn't want anything. She kept telling me about the movie Little Miss Sunshine so we watched it this weekend and I could almost hear her laughing with us at the end. I think she would appreciate me wearing one of the little tiaras that came in Jamie's party box. Bear and Coop keep eye balling me like they want my tiara!

Bear got Cooper's cough and fever this weekend and they both had us up at 4 am on Saturday and then with the time change we got all discombobulated. Bear went to sleep at 5:30 last night and Cooper was out at 7:30. So today we are adjusting nap times. Bear still has a slight fever so I didn't take them to the gym. Jim was good to me and we sort of spread out my birthday celebration. We had a splurge dinner last night and he let me open one of my presents last night. I'm finally with the now generation and have the cute little iPod shuffle. I was up figuring it out and getting a workout play list together. This morning we continued the tradition of blowing bubbles like GiGi loved to do.




After the bubbles we went for a walk around Lake Lynn. My new iPod came in handy since I couldn't go to the gym. They both fell asleep halfway around the lake and I was jamming to some Madonna and Gwen Stefani. I honestly had to resist the urge to dance but I did belt out a few, "I ain't no hollaback girls" along the way.




On the way to Lake Lynn I let them get out and chase the geese and Coop got to climb his first tree!

My favorite part about our walks-

They Say It's Your Birthday

My Little Experiment

I've decided to test out a theory. Do you do things later in life just because that's they way you did it when you were little.? For example do you put on your shirt first and then your pants or your pants and then your shirt?

So I decided to start a little test now with the boys.....
With Cooper I put on both socks and then his shoes. With Bear I put on one sock, then a shoe, then the other sock, and then the other shoe. Jim thinks I'm silly but seriously I'm just curious how they will put on their socks and shoes later in on life.

I Did It

Bear's first sentance! This morning he was trying to climb off our bed and having a difficult time. He finally found the place where he could slide down onto a box and then slide off the box. He got to the bottom, threw his arms up in the air and yelled, "I did it!"