This is Adara's birthday present from Grandma Jolley and Great Grandma Barrus. She was sent some money in her birthday cards and was anxious to go get a gift. Thank you grandma's. That was very sweet of you. This is what she picked out. It's the barbie Mariposa. She loves the movie and couldn't pass it up. We haven't had her birthday party yet so sorry there aren't any pic's of that so far. Stay posted.
Halloween is finally here!!! The kids have been so excited to get out and trick or treat, but most of all to wear their costumes. Liam loves Iron Man right now and that was what he had to be for Halloween. Adara picked out a Sleeping Beauty costume, but at the moment insisted on wearing Sponge Bob. And Kael is a little Dragon. He couldn't stand the head so he pushed it off. Still, he was cute.

This is what the kids really wore trick or treating. Adara had to wear her dress everywhere since we bought it. Needless to say, she ripped 2 of the side seams and I couldn't get the fabric to sew together. The material was being difficult. So, on Halloween day it dawned on me that I could glue the darn fabric together an be done with tear. IT WORKED!! So far, it hasn't come apart again. I'm sure it won't last forever, but for now she can continue to wear that costume until it dies. Then maybe we can move onto to something else.

While I was putting all of the Halloween decorations away Adara decided to try on all of the costumes. This is a prince costume that Liam wore two years ago. She looks pretty good in it, but wasn't allowed to wear it trick or treating. We didn't buy the princess dress for nothing... I've just concluded that she likes dressing up. So, I'm not packing the costumes away anymore.....they are going to stay in the closet where the kids can dress up whenever they want. It is fun to watch them act depending on what they are wearing. Kids are so entertaining.

This picture is just plain funny and I had to show it. Kael loves juice and this time I gave him the cherry pomagranite crystal light (very good!). When he was done he found his blankie and curled up to me on the couch to watch cartoons and started sucking his thumb. When he took his thumb out of his mouth I just couldn't stop laughing. It was as red as could be. No, that's not a carrot in his hand. It's his thumb. I anxiously called for Ray to grab the camara because I couldn't pass up a corny moment like this. Kael didn't think it was so funny because he wanted his thumb back.

Okay, I finally took a picture of the front of our 4-plex. Those are our kids in the middle and our front entrance in up the stairs to the left of them. This is one in a line of big white buildings in our housing area. They call this housing area the White Elephants. They are pretty nice and old fashioned. Trick or Treating was easy with how many of these there are in a row....and there are 4 families in each one. We didn't have to go very far to fill our buckets. Whooo-hoo.

This is our half baked new addition to the family. It's a girl!!! She's a pound and a half so far. My due date is March 10th and we're all excited. We are playing in the water at Panama City Beach. I don't really like this picture, but it's the only one with me in it. Still, it was fun. It was the only day we were able to play at the beach because there was a hurricane coming. Instead of missing the opportunity to come here at all we settled on one day of fun then returned to Ft. Benning to enjoy the rain. It was worth it.

The water was so clear at Panama City Beach that you could see the fish swiming around your feet and bumping into your legs. I tried to get a good picture of Ray and the fish. I'm not sure you can see it very well, but some of those shadows are fish.

Cute little Kael at the beach.

This is our little girl's profile and front on face shot. I'm not a pro at blogging and darned if I can ever get things in order. Oh well, be thankful I'm feeling well enough to even sit at the computer and put these on. It's been rough the last couple of months. Thank heavens this little bit of self inflicted misery does end. Then, we will be blessed will a bundle of joy that keeps us up all night. Is that why we love them so much? Someone once said it does end. It's a love/hate relationship.

Here are our little artists. We hadn't lived in this place for more than a month and the inviting white walls quickly passed initiation. The hallway is so long that there isn't an inch without some form of toddler art. Of coarse, Adara made sure I knew that it was Kael's fault and that he twisted her arm to make her help. Ha ha ha. My older two are getting smart enough to know how to pass the blame, but they willingly jump in when no one is looking.

This is Ray's birthday party, July 17th. The kids picked out the decorations at the store and helped me with the cake.............. and the candles almost set the fire alarm off. They were sparkler candles. It was exciting.

This was a fun trip we took to Alabama, 20 min. away from Ft. Benning, to the largest firework store in the US. That's what they say. It was awesome!! Ray has been deployed for so many holiday's it was his turn to splurge. It was the 4th of July and $250 later, we finally got to leave. The kids were in heaven...............that includes Ray. We had so much stuff we broke it up into a 2 day celebration. The kids are so glad Dad is home.

This is a view of the backyard from the door. There is a nice patio area and behind the garage is a field with a small playground and a basketball court. It's really nice. The kids have a lot of space to run around in and all of these big, white complexes are in a circle. So, other kids come out when they see others playing. The kids always have someone to play with and I get to chat with the other Mom's. The close quarters do pay off.

This is our incredibly tiny kitchen. I don't like it, but it's something. We just don't have too many helpers in the kitchen at one time. We can't.

This is Kael's head......and our living room. It's pretty nice, but we do have a lot more stuff in it now.

The kids are happily running throught our new appartment. The hall is very long and provides ample space for artistic advancement. As you saw above, all of the hall walls look about like that door. Needless to say, we will be painting before we move. Yippee.....

This a picture of the back of our complex. It's a 4-plex building built in the 1930's. What's interesting is that this building is so much more sturdy than any new house you will find these days. I guess I forgot to take a picture of the front. I'll put that on a future posting.

Cute Adara wanted a picture because she found my lip gloss and made herself beautiful. Oops! I chopped Ray's head off. This is Liam getting ready to blow out his candles on his birthday boat cake. (March 22)
The birthday boat cake Liam has been asking for for a year and a half.
You can't have a birthday party without a pinata.
At Liam's birthday party we had a contest to see who could sit on their balloon and pop it first. I don't remember who won, but they all worked hard........especially the light weight kids.
Adara challenging the shark. Na na, get me if you can!!

Liam and Adara and their friends Noah and Sira (?) checking out the shark in the Aquarium at Sea World. Spooky!!
We got there just in time to take a picture with Shamu. I'm sure he was sweating bullets in that suit. I hope he gets paid well. It was 94 degrees that day.....with humidity. Liam didn't want to get in the picture for some reason.
These are blue bonnets, the Texas state flower. We spotted them just outside a small town's mechanic shop on our way to San Antonio. They really are very small, but we couldn't pass up this kodak moment. The kids are Liam, Adara, Noah, Sira and Kael.
I love visits from in-laws.........yeeehaa, get to work boys!! Ray's brothers, Jeremy and Cory, and one of his friends, Phillip, came over and helped us rip down our falling fence and put up some of the new one. Our fence has been falling down since we moved in 4 years ago. It's time to fix it.

Back to Sea World. The kids are trying to get the dolphins attention so they could pet them.

The fish are cool, but Kael is cuter.

Here, Adara really did get to touch a dolphin. A nice lady next to her gave her a fish to feed it. Then, another lady gave her a fish to feed the dolphins. She sucks people in with her cute cheesy grin and little girly charm. She totally got lucky this day.

If you look on the right side of the picture there is Noah, Phillip, Ray, Adara. The water is so cold Adara freaks out when she gets splashed. She's curled up to Ray in the next picture and would not let him put her down after that.

Noah, Phillip, Cory, Liam, Ray, Adara and Jeremy comparing who got the wettest.

While in San Antonio, I went to the Botanical Gardens with Ray's Aunt and the kids while he went with the guys to Fiesta Texas, 6 flags. The kids were very pleased to see there was water there. It was so hot that weekend.

Before we came home we travelled over to Houston, Tx and visited the Space Museum. The kids had fun and are very cute in their helmets.

You can't get any cuter than this.

Needless to say, we have had a lot of fun and now we have to pack up the house. We leave for Ft. Benning in mid-june. I will get the new address out when I know what it is. Phone numbers will stay the same though until we move next year. Anyway, enjoy the pictures.