What's COOKing: January 2009

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

for no other reason....

{ than just pure cute }

Mitchell, feeling lucky to play with Davis' tools. Isn't the hat my sister made for him cute?

What if I'm not ready...

{to let go of my house}

Can I take it with me? Why can't we put our cul-de-sac and our perfect house in the moving truck with us?

My eyes filled with tears when we were signing papers yesterday with the realtor. It is so strange to be so excited about something and sad all at the same time.

I am so excited to call Colorado, home. I can get in my car and drive 2 hours and see my sister, Kelly, Kyle and Chelsey. We can meet each other for lunch in Denver, craft together on days off. There will be an airport in town and an hour away. I can drive 1 hour up the road and be in Denver where there is culture, concerts, a children's museum, kid activity galore. We can teach the boys how to ski, go sledding and build snowmen. The summers won't suffocate me with the humidity, the bugs won't fly me away to wherever they go. There will be seasons, snow, mountains, hiking, skiing.... I will experience new adventure, new friends, new places, new scrapbooking stores, and new places to photograph.

There will not be our house, the one we watched being built from the dirt up. The house that my Mom helped me make curtains and valances for. The house where she knew I was. The only home my kids have known. A place where we never have to lock our door, ever. There will not be the great friends I have here, my job. (I love the girls I work with) Brent's family will not be close by who we spend so much time with. All of our get-together's, crazy trips to Biloxi, long holiday weekends, and New Years Eve. There will not be the cul-de sac that we have spent hours watching our kids ride bikes and playing ball with Hunter. The 3 acres in our backyard that we can watch nature at it's best. All the hummingbirds that we feed in the summer...I mean more than you can imagine...30 little birds at any given time. There will not be the security of Brent being home every night with no fear of a deployment breathing down our back.

Our life in the military...hard to say good-bye to all that we knew, but so exciting to say hello to all the new things that await us. I have loved the last 3 years here in Alabama (hard to imagine that) and I will love the next 4 years in Colorado.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Guess What??

{We are headed West}

Ft Carson, Colorado (Colorado Springs) is where we will be calling home for the next 4 years.

Move date....May 2009.

You think we can build our home here??

Our Christmas Holiday

{ In Picture Re-cap}

We are now more then midway through Jan. and I have already not met my [partial] New Year's resolution...(partial, because I knew that it probably would never happen)

New Year partial resolution... "TRY" not procrastinating. Whatever...it's overrated.

So, in true Debbie form, it is Jan 18th and I am posting a photo recap of our Christmas holiday.

My New Year's Resolution will be back on tomorrow.

Christmas Eve.

I had to work until 3PM. (Why do people have babies on Christmas Eve anyway?)

The boys made a Gingerbread house...(correction) They ate a lot of candy and made a gingerbread house with what was left.

Everyone tucked into bed....fast asleep. Mom and Dad were going to be tired in the morning. We said goodnight at 2AM.

Mitchell checking out his stocking. Davis trying out his new tools

The perfect Christmas mess. What is Christmas without everything everywhere. Grammy and Carl spent Christmas morning with us.

That afternoon, I drove to Pensacola and picked up the Tucker's. The Day after Christmas we started to prepare for our New Years Eve bash. We needed firewood for our bon-fire...so we started with some of our own trees that needed to be cut down.

...and Mitchell who dressed himself for the day of yard work. How can you not love this?

We fit in some time for a little friendly game of miniature golf. Kyle and Brent had a "serious" game of golf. Brent and Chelsey tied for first, Kyle with second. Best putt of the day....hole-in-1 on #16. We all jumped up and down for him.

Almost every night, we played games.

My brother and his family came from California for New Year's

Lauren and Alexa were so much fun to have here.

Since New Year's, the boys have told me over and over "I like those cousins"

We surprised the kids with a huge bounce house in the backyard. The kids had a blast. We had it for 4 days...it was worth every cent.

Look at these happy little faces. They all spent hours in there..laughing and giggling. Davis and Mitchell thought that we needed to have a bounce house like this all the time. I wish.

Then it was finally time to prepare for the big night. All the guys were itching to do their traditional firework preparation.

...this thing pops for 30 minutes straight...loud, loud, loud...did I mention how LOUD it is.

My brother said, "it's so stupid it's funny."

This is always very entertaining to watch.

The Bon-fire... essential part of the evening!

Shannon and Amy

My sister and Amy trying to stay warm around the fire. Kyle laughing with my brother.

This is the photographic proof that I am a loser. The first New Years that I was going to let the boys stay up until midnight. I had it all planned out....Play in the bounce house all day...get all energy out...late nap around 3-4 pm. Perfect plan to help the boys stay up, right? Well, it would have been the perfect plan if I would have not lost track of time. It was dinner time the next time I looked at my watch...no nap. BUMMER. By 10:30, Mitchell could not stand it another minute. When I put him in bed, he said to me, " Mommy it is going to be a long time till the next New Years...till I can see all the pretty fireworks. Can you take a picture of it for me so I can remember?" I am a loser....I have failed as the cool, let your kid stay up till midnight Mom!

Picture ..so he can remember. I feel so bad.

We all had a blast New Year's Eve. All the people we love the most in the world, together to bring in 2009. (note to self...get pictures of everyone next time)

One last thing we wanted to do is get pictures of all the cousins together on my side of the family. We all live so far apart, we had to take advantage of the opportunity.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

We have 2 new babies at our house

{you can call them.....Canon 24-70 2.8 and Cannon 17-40 4.0}

I was going to send out announcements...

Brent out did himself this Christmas...I had no idea...never even asked for these..only secretly dreamed about them. Aren't they pretty?

I think they are! I actually shed a tear when I tore the wrapping paper off. I love you Brent...you are the best.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Happy New Year!!

{good-bye 2008...Hello 2009}

I can't believe that a year went by so fast. I can't believe the Holidays have come and gone. I can't believe all my Christmas decorations are still up!! Imagine Christmas music playing in the background, reminiscing about the stories behind all the ornaments I hung on the tree, the boys smiling while decorating their tree, hanging our new stocking that my sister made for us, putting twinkle lights all over the house...can you feel the Christmas spirit? Almost like a Hallmark commercial, right?

Now the tree is in my way, not lit... and I know it is a pain in the *** to take down. There are a million little ornaments to wrap up and cram in a box, hoping they all fit because I don't want to go buy another ornament container. All the twinkle lights get tangled coming off the tree and the mantel. Do I wrap them around something to keep them from tangling for next year...or is that too much work and toss them in the box and I will untangle the ball of mess next year? I don't want to take down my stockings and wait another year to put them up....why can't they be year round decorations? There is no take down all my Christmas stuff music to get me in the spirit. So, there it sits.

Plan = take it down Thursday....I'd rather scrapbook....but I won't
After Christmas breakdown....update my BLOG.

So, until then...Happy New Year! I hope it's a good one for us all. I will leave you with a few pictures of my niece, nephew and Bro-in-law practicing for our firework show.