Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to visit Mt. Vernon, home of the Washington's. This is one of my very favorite places to visit. I just love the history of it and I love seeing the home that they made. It is pretty incredible. I got an annual pass for Christmas (thanks again Susan and Dennis) and cannot wait to go back many times and see everything. It was super super cold that day but we managed to see some of the grounds and get the tour of the house.

The National Thanksgiving turkey Apple now lives at Mount Vernon. He was pardoned last month by President Obama and will live out his life on this farm.


For the record he wasn't really friendly.

It seems our founding father had a penchant for exotic animals, and in 1787 he paid 18 schillings to bring a camel at Christmastime to entertain his guests. This years camel is Aladdin. He didn't even move the whole time we were looking at him.

Happy Christmas from the Washington's!

December 23

On December 23rd Grandpa and Laura flew out to spend Christmas with us. (Grandma came a week earlier) We picked them up from the airport, went to dinner and then took them to the Washington DC temple to see the lights. It was quite an adventure. But once we were able to finally get there it was so nice to be able to see all the beautiful lights. We were able to see a really nice Christmas program put on by the Sister missionaries and see all kinds of nativities from around the world.

Noah warming up to Grandpa. He wasn't too sure at first but by the end of the night they were best buddies.

One of my favorite nativities.

We were so lucky to have everyone here for Christmas.

I feel blessed to have these people in my life.

First Party~ Part Two

First Party~ Part One

THE ZOO

Aunt Susan came up to spend the weekend with us and help us celebrate Noah's first birthday. We spent the morning at the Washington DC zoo. Noah didn't feel very well so we cut the day short and headed home.

(one sick little boy)

(best picture ever taken of me)

There are days I wish I could lock them in a cage.

a year...

(well technically he won't be one till tomorrow but I had to get this up today so I can post about his big birthday party tomorrow)

Tough decisions...

11.01.2010

Myles had the day off from preschool. We had a tough decision to make. We could either stay home all day and clean and do laundry {or any one of the other 1,000,000 things I have to do} or we could drive into the city and go to the zoo. We decided to go to the zoo. It was a spectacular day. We made the right choice.

Can I just say how much I love living here? You know what our total cost to go to the zoo was? $0.00. That's right. It's free.

Halloween...

Scary. Sweet. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Lots of candy. Trunk~or ~Treat. Next day crankiness. Candy wrappers everywhere. Till next year...

What a year...

The past few days I have really be reflecting a lot on our lives this past year. It has been a crazy one. One year ago Matt left for Afghanistan. I was pregnant and heartbroken. I still cannot look at the pictures from the day he left without crying. So let me just review... In the past 365 days my husband left for a deployment. I gave birth to a pretty amazing little boy. I survive (only because of my mom) 7 months and five kids. We had a joyous reunion with Matt. We had a harder time acclimating to our new "normal" than we expected. We moved half way across the country. Matt started a new job that requires him to be gone way to much. We are having a hard time adjusting to our new "normal". I wish that in all of my reflecting that I could say that I survived this last year and am a stronger person because of it. I am not sure that is true. I had a lot of moments where I wasn't on my best. A lot of things I probably would have done differently. But I learned... No time like now to change things.