Have yourself a Merry little Christmas....

I can't believe how fast this month has gone by and that tomorrow is already Christmas! Thankfully the stomach bug I got didn't hit me until last night, and that I'm feeling a lot better today than I did last night! So hopefully I'll feel even better tomorrow. On Friday we went to the mall and got Maddie's ear's pierced! She did cry, but not for long. She's been asking for this for weeks, and I finally decided it would be a good Christmas present. She looks so cute! Anyway, the kids got to open one present tonight, their jammies. Jonas has sponge bob, and Maddie and Eliza are wearing matching purple jammies that have butterflies on them. Anyway, they are all anxious for Santa Claus to get here and to open all the presents under the tree! We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Eliza's stats at one year.... or 13 months...

We went in for Eliza's one year check up, and her shots. Yes it acutally took this long to get into the doctor! She did great during and after her shots!So anyway, Eliza is now 19lb. 10oz. and I don't remember how tall she is, but it's not too tall, but she's not too short! So she's still a small fry, but she's as busy as can be! Everyone that sees her is amazed at her walking because most don't know she' already been doing the whole walking thing for a couple of months now. She also has a big personality, she knows what she wants, and if you don't give it to her, she will let you know how she feels about it!
On another note, we are counting down the final days until Christmas. I think I am getting excited just to see the kids faces on Christmas Day! They are going to have so much fun! I can't wait!

Olmstead Foundation...

Just in case anyone wants to know what the Olmstead Foundation is and how it got started, etc. I got a comment that what I wrote about Josh was confusing. The Olmstead Foundation picks candidates for this graduate program from all the branches of the military, it's not a program run by the Navy. Don't know if that was the confusing part. Anyway, you can go to
www.olmsteadfoundation.org sorry if the link doesn't work!
It really tells the history, and why the program got started. It's very interesting.

Counting down to Christmas.... and other things

Jonas and Maddie have been taking turns asking me when Christmas is, and it's so nice to tell them today, only one more week! It's hard to believe it's only a week away. I need to correct something I wrote in my previous post. Josh got picked as an alternate in the program, the 5th alternate. 10 were picked, and then there were 8 others I guess that were picked as alternates, but not sure. I know there were 18. Anyway, Josh being picked as an alternate I guess I misunderstood doesn't mean he necessarily won't be picked, it's just who the Navy chose as their top choices, and then the Olmstead board will be the one's who really select. So if they decide to interview Josh it will be sometime in mid-January somewhere in Washington D.C. so we should hopefully find out by the end of next week if he will be interviewed, and if so he might be returning home a few weeks earlier, which means I might unfortunately not be going over there to meet him as I'd hoped. We'll see what happens. I am just posting this in hopes that everyone out there will have us in your prayers! Think positive thoughts for us. It would be very exciting for us if he was accepted in the Olmstead program, it would mean our whole family living abroad for 2 years in Russia, and Josh going to graduate school there! It would really be exciting, but I'm not going to get my hopes up as he's just an alternate to be picked. Yesterday I got to play photographer for my friend Jenn and her family. They needed family pictures, so we went and took some, and I thought they turned out pretty good. (as you can see above!)Tonight the kids and I will be taking a drive to see the Christmas lights at the Botanical Garden, it should be fun!

Aviator Wings

Josh sent me a presnt for Christmas, which technically means I opened it up too early. I honestly didn't know if it was the present he mentioned or not, by the way it was packaged. I had an idea of what he was going to get me. When Josh got his Aviator Wings in 2003, he bought me some wings just like in the picture (as all good aviators do for their wives!) that I wore for 3 years. Well this past summer I took it off when we were going swimming and somehow lost it. I was very upset. To me, the wings were not only his accomplishment but they were mine as well. He joined the Navy, but so did I. The two years of flight school were tough for him, and they were tough for me. The wings meant that he was done with school and was a pilot, and finally felt like he was really part of the Navy! To me it represented a chapter of our lives that seemed never ending, and was finally over, but just beginning. It meant a lot to me that today of all days I got this package in the mail. It reminded me that our decision for Josh to join the Navy was the correct decision, and that after finding out today that he didn't get into the Olmstead program (for graduate school) that he really had wanted to get into; that things happen for a reason. He loves to fly, and I've loved being able to live in the different places we've lived. We've been blessed with all the friends that we've been able to make along the way. Today was a terrible day for me, I won't go into it because in the end it really won't matter in 30 years. To me these little wings of gold represent how far we've come in this Navy career, and how far we will go, and that we have an unknown adventure ahead of us. When Josh joined the Navy, the slogan on their commercials was, "Let the Journey Begin", truly that's exactly how it has been. A Journey, an Adventure.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

We got our Christmas tree the other night! It now officially feels like Christmas season to me! We went to Home Depot and picked up one of their trees with the Strickland Family, (Thanks Jenn and David!) and they helped me get my tree home and put it in my tree stand. The kids had fun decorating the tree, and are now enjoying moving ornaments around just about every day. (even though I tell them not too!) I finally got all the presents for famiy out and have begun wrapping. I'm hoping to get them all done tonight so I can mail them tomorrow. Ambitious I know. Is it possible to finish? Who knows! I'm babysitting for my friend tonight, and will have her kids overnight. It will be the first time I've babysatt any kids overnight, hopefully all will go well. We'll see.

Pictures from the past month....

Where does the time go? I've meant to post these pictures, but hadn't even downloaded them yet to my computer! The kids had their preschool Thanksgiving program, and I got some cute pictures of them. Then we went to a craft fair and saw Santa! It was so much fun! Then we went to a parade in downtown Norfolk for the lighting of the Christmas lights downtown. On a Josh update he woke me up yesterday, at 5:30a.m. They were in port for a few hours, so he gave me a call. It was good to talk to him. It will be a few weeks before we talk on the phone again. It took me several minutes to wake up and become coherant to have a conversation! But he's doing well, and glad to be on the Arctic again, although unfortunately doesn't have a phone in his room like he did before!