Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everybody! We started off the evening with good friends and good food-I am blessed with a good friend here who is always so thoughtful and so creative! She forsaw that this could be a difficult holiday with Mark away and she was right-it just wasn't the same without him. It was, in fact, utter chaos despite my attempts to cover all my bases. But, in the end, Liv has a mound of candy, the girls ( I am sure) would be voted best duo, and all had a good time. Thanks, Grandma for the stellar costumes. Everyone marveled at them! My only touch was a cloud for the angels to light ride upon. I will have to get a pic of them on it-I ended up covering their stroller with a down comforter. It worked well!

Face of an Angel

Dancing Girl

Angel's Wings

Food with Spooky Character

Painting Pumpkins

At our weekly playgroup in the backyard we celebrated the season with a little creativity-and a little mess! The kiddos all painted pumpkins! All had a ball-Katelee even took a few strokes.

Fort Fun

Beautiful Smiles

Peek A Boo!

My Man

It is my turn to brag on Mark-and to share our news! Several months ago-April, I think, Mark put in a package (applied) for a fellowship in the world of operational and aviation psychology.

We learned today that he has been selected! (Congratulations, Babe, I never had a doubt!) If my understanding is correct, this fellowship will allow him to move out of the clinic and into more of the line-side operations of the military. Apparently, there is quite a difference between Med Group and the rest of the AF. He will focus more on prevention than on damage control.


We don't know many of the particulars, but one thing we do know is...watch out Florida! Here we come! The fellowship will take us to the panhandle sometime this summer/fall. It should make for an awesome opportunity for Mark, a good transition locale for us since we will still get our fill of sand and sun and be a great vacation spot for visitors-without them having to fly around the world!

In case you can't guess, I am super excited and super proud of my husband. Sometimes it seems he leads a charmed life, but get to know him a bit, and anyone would learn luck has nothing to do with it. He is hard working, responsible, generous, an amazing father and husband...I believe God blesses Mark because Mark blesses God. Does that make sense? It does to me.

Mark, you are my best friend, my greatest hero.

With All My Admiration...Court

Steppin' Out

On Sunday, October 26th, 2008, Katelee Sarah braved her first steps. She took one early in the day . Then, later in the evening, she took four steps right into my arms. I tried to get her on video, but that was a challenge. If any of them turned out, I will try to share. Liv and I were both hooping and hollering and Katelee was grinning from ear to ear!



For now, you will have to make do with one of the girls reading a Halloween book together.

Silly Girls

Yesterday, Saturday, was a fun day of hangin out all morning in our jammies and acting silly.

Then we had a yummy dessert of strawberries in whipped cream. Katelee found Liv's plate...

Sisterly Love

One of Katelee's new things is to open the cabinet doors and check out what is inside. While I was taking out the trash, she found a cool little nook-just her size! She just crawled in and out, in and out...you get the point. Liv thought it would be great fun to "help" her in and then shut the door. Luckily, all activities were closely supervised and no such instance occurred. For now, at least, Katelee is safe from a life of claustrophobia.

Playtime II

Watch out, Dad. Liv was having her own playtime. She looks pretty cozy with her friend, Drew. They are buddies! Although, she is still going to marry Nolan...Drew hasn't asked her yet! Lorri, I think Nolan is safe-Drew doesn't strike me as the marrying type.

Playtime

This is a classic Katelee expression right now...the scrunched up nose.

Is it a cookie? Chocolate? No. It's a rock with a side of dirt. Yummy!

(where is this girl's Mama?)

Time to wash our face!

Little Piggy

Our dainty little girl has taken to eating an entire waffle for breakfast in the morning. Keep in mind, this is following her morning nursing and is accompanied by yogurt and/or milk!

Going...

Going...

Gone!

Road Trip!

Here on the island, the concept of a road trip has been lost, unless you want to drive around the whole thing and end up where you started! The Guam version is to recruit as many other mom friends as possible and actually drive off the base! You can't really tell from the pic, but there are five cars making up our Mommy Parade.

Olivia and her friend, Drew, chillin' in the back of the van

Our big outing was to venture down south, have lunch at Jeff's and then play on the beach for a while. Sounds simlpe, but now consider 8 moms and 10+ kids between the ages of 2 months and 4 years! It was chaos-lots of fun!

Happy Birthday (already?)

Since Mark will be gone during Katelee's first birthday in a couple of weeks, we decided to go ahead and have a small celebration today! We had a few friends over to help celebrate, watch the Mizzou-Texas football game (Mizzou got trounced), eat some pizza and cake, and watch Katelee open her gifts. She was a little hesitant about diving into the cake, but that didn't last long. And, she seemed to get into the gift-opening spirit quickly too. She completely enjoyed the blue ball her big sister bought her (with her own money). Despite Mizzou losing, it was fun. Enjoy the pics!

Angels

Guess what the girls will be for Halloween this year!

Tombstone

One of Mark's favorite movies is Tombstone. So, while in Sierra Vista, it provided a great opportunity to head over to the town of Tombstone. He was able to wander around the town and look at the old western stuff. Then, he headed to a reenactment of the OK Coral shootout. It was fun.

1882 City Hall

Tombstone Mainstreet

Doc Holiday

The reenactment was good, and a video of it can be found by clicking on the Video link on the right. Enjoy!