Happy 2011!

The kiddos and I, (btw: the babies, are in all honesty, no longer BABIES, so i will now be calling them "kiddos"--just in case you wanted to know :) Anyway, as i was saying, we rang in the New Year in Fayetteville with our Hawaiian Ohana, the Sweatlands, Howells, Davises (minus Mark) , and Loars.

We all met in Hawaii and spent 3 years together celebrating holidays, enduring deployments and exploring the islands together. Crazy enough, we were almost all close by for New Year's and were able to spend it together. Of course we missed Mark and Mike, but Carrie was an acceptable date!

Party in the Tub!

Carrie and I remaking some old silly pictures--look: here and here

~she was my date for the night~

Uncle Jordan teasing Norabird

hanging out with Auntie Carrieour hosts and cleanup crew...Team Sweatlandand here they are giving Jack his New Year's Eve Kiss....Jack was teething this weekend and took his "chewing spoon" everywhere with him! and Kim may very well stop being my friend for this, but i am risking it anyway...

she got an infection in her eye and looked a little silly....

i only tell you this because, i love this picture with all my girls and needed to explain Auntie Kim's look so she wouldn't be mad...are you Kimsy?

When you are forced to spend the holiday without your lovey...as i often am, what better way to make the best of it than to get sloppy New Years kisses from the kiddos?

i do love them so!
the babies New Year's Eve ended as usual with the "Going to Bed Book" ..it is their favorite!

Howdy Ho Howells!

Wednesday was a fun and long awaited day for us. The Howells, our good friends we met in Hawaii, that actually are from Randolph County as well (small world) left Hawaii a year and a half ago. Since then, they have moved 3 times and had a little girl, Adalynn. Since then we had the twins and are halfway through another deployment.

As with all good friends, even though it has been a long time and much has changed in our lives--it was easy as could be to pick right up where we left off.

Here's some pics from the day.

Jordan and NGB

Our Babies umm...what's this baby doing in my lap? and why is my sister using me as a pillow? the stuff us guys have to deal with...

this is super entertaining, yes? check out poor Adalynn's bow, Holden's thinking about making a run for it and Nora's mouth is wide open and probably making some crazy noises..typical and wonderful!

A series of pics with the girls... sorry for the abuse Adalynn, hopefully one day you and NGB will be friends!

the mommies..Holden made a run for it

Jordan reading to the twins...he's a good uncle!

Team Howell:

It was so good to see you guys again and finally meet Miss Adalynn! Can't wait for New Years!

the rest of Easter

After our last Easter blog, Mike and I went to the Sweatland's for our Easter potluck with all our friends. There were 26 people in all and we had a great time. I convinced everyone to let me get a group shot before we ate and they turned out great i think! It is amazing how big our group has gotten--although we will be losing about half over the summer, new friends are moving to the island and joining us and we are so thankful.

After dinner, the boys played a huge game of bocce ball, our favorite, and the girls played catch phrase, our other fave. It was a super fun day, but also very long-as many holidays are and Mike and I crashed upon returning the house.

Yesterday was Mike's last day of leave before going back to work and he chose to spend it playing golf with a few of his friends at his favorite golf course, Ko' Olina. He has been working on a beard since the start of his vacation, a little over 2 weeks ago, and it was getting to look really good. But last night he had to shave it off to get ready for work the next day-- i honestly like the beard and was sad to see it go. I will leave you with some before and after shots.

Before

After

Camping Hawaiian Style

Last week Mike and I camped at our favorite beach, Bellows. Our friends the Howell's and Sweatland's joined us for a few days in the middle. The weather never fully cooperated--there were a lot of rain showers and clouds, but that just left a lot of time to lounge around and play boardgames--Baulderdash being the favorite of the week.

Possibly the Most Beautiful Place in the World...and our backyard for the week

I love camping, but i absolutely can't sleep on the ground...so this our air mattress that my most wonderful husband in the whole world carried across the camp ground to find electricity to blow it up. I sure love him!

our cozy camp

the community tent, for eating, napping and games

the 2-man bikes--Kim and I thought it would be fun, but it seriously was not! It was so heavy we could've used help pushing...but don't be fooled, once those boys took the picture they walked away from us and left us to fend for ourselves.

Last Saturday Mike and I went to get our boating licenses so we can rent pontoons from the marine base. It's something we have been wanting to do for awhile but never got around to it. This past Thursday we took our friends out on the boat for the first time. It was absolutely beautiful and I can't believe we waited 3 years to do this. The water is a perfect teal blue, at the sandbar the water is no more than 2 foot deep for as far as you would care to walk, and because we were out there in the middle of the week there was no one else around us.

~the decapitation of Uncle Gary~

no relation to my own uncle, just a coincidence in names, our inflatable caterpillar and year long friend lost his head on our boating trip--so sad!

my Sand Man

good friends

Round 2: Welcome Home Jordan and Bryan!

Last night Mike and went back to base to welcome home two more friends, Jordan and Bryan. I wish I could explain the energy in the hanger, it's so awesome to see so many people excited and truly happy! If it didn't invovle our husbands being gone again, we joke we could do this welcome home thing every night!

Single Soldier Baskets

The past few days have been wonderful having Mike back. We have been taking it easy, not doing too much so he can rest and recover. Mike did have to report to formation this morning and will start his outprocessing on Monday. This process will take a few weeks to complete and his schedule will be different day to day.

Right now, Mike is taking a nap and I am using this time to catch up on watching LOST and a little blogging.

I want to say thank you for all who helped send items/money for our single soldiers who are coming home from deployment. For those of you who don't know, our Batallion has been collecting donations to make a basket for every single soldier coming home to live in the barracks. The basket contains bedding and pillows, hygeine products, food, notes, gift cards, and anything else anyone wanted to include. Many of these single soldiers will not be able to get to their things or their vehicles for a few days and these baskets are supposed to provide the things that they will need immediately, plus let them know that we appreciate what they have done and are glad they are back safely.

I have been so touched at the generosity of me friends, family and church. Many of you gave so much to these soldiers who you don't know at all. I delivered 18 baskets from you all and I am so greatful to have such wonderful, giving friends and family. Especially after going to a homecoming ceremony and seeing how wonderful and happy a time it can be, I can also see how it might be confusing and lonely for the soldiers who had no one there to greet them and no home to go back to. So, thank you again from the bottom of my heart for all you have done to help brighten these soldiers day!

Thanks to Kim for helping me shop, haul and put together these baskets!

You were my lifesaver!

15 baskets delivered in one day

My 3 Valentines

Valentine's Day Weekend was spent with my 3 favorite girls and we had a great time.

Saturday we went whale watching on a boat off of Waikiki. It was a beautiful morning, and although no whales actually breached, they did surface, spout out water, and flip their humongous tails. This was a trip a year in the making since we had tried to go last year but didn't make it. This year we were determined to do it since everyone is leaving this summer.

On the boat with the girls

That night we went to dinner at church. The youth put together a wonderful meal for the church. They cooked, waited tables, decorated, played music and put together slideshows for us. They even gave each of us single ladies a rose. It was very sweet and fun--i hope they do it again next year so Mike can come too!