Isabelle's 4th Birthday

For Isabelle's actual birthday, we let her decide where she wanted to go out to eat for dinner. She chose Okinawa, a Japanese Hibachi Grill. We always enjoy eating at hibachi restaurants and seeing them cook in front of us, so it was a treat for all of us. For her birthday, they brought out a carved pineapple and some icecream for each of us. After dinner, we went back to the house to eat some cupcakes I had made for her, and to open her presents. Her present from us was a big girl princess bicycle with training wheels. She had been asking for a bike, so she was excited about it. Grammy and Pappy got her some drawing and stamp activities which she has enjoyed as well.


Isabelle's birthday celebration at school:


The following Saturday we celebrated her birthday party with her friends at Liza Jackson Park. Well, we took a chance having an outdoor party in December, but who knew that it would be freezing cold AND raining on the day of her party? We really didn't have a plan B option since we weren't prepared to have it at our house on base, so we just did it under the pavillion at the park and tried to make it quick. It really was a pretty miserable day to be outside, but we had faithful friends who showed up anyway, so Isabelle was happy. It stopped raining during the party so some of the kids actually went out on the playground for a little while, getting cold and wet in the process. Isabelle thought that was fun until she realized just how cold she was. Then she wasn't a happy camper. However, we survived and probably won't schedule an outdoor birthday party in the winter again!

Girls Weekend

The first weekend in December Isabelle and I had a "girls" weekend. The boys went hunting, so the two of us got to spend some quality time together. We had a lot of fun baking and shopping, but the highlight of the weekend was going to the Nutcracker Ballet. We went with some friends, and it was the first time she had seen a ballet. She got all dressed up and had a blast! Her favorite characters were Clara, the Snow Queen, and the Sugarplum fairies. She talked about it for days and now she gets so excited every time she hears the songs from the Nutcracker. I was glad she got to see it since she has begun to show some interest in doing ballet herself, and we are going to let her take a preschool ballet class after the Christmas holidays.

Ready for the Nutcracker:


At the ballet:


I asked her one afternoon if she wanted to bake some cookies. I kind of had in mind something fairly simple, like chocolate chip. However, she said she wanted to make sugar cookies and decorate them. So....several hours later, we had some sprinkle-decorated cookies! We had a lot of fun, though. I think one of her favorite parts of decorating the cookies is getting to eat the sprinkles!

Making cookies:


Just making sure the sprinkles taste okay:

November

The month of November brought a college reunion, fall parties, Indian festivals, and the celebration of Thanksgiving.

The first weekend in November we packed our bags and headed up to Jackson to Barrett's ten year college reunion! We also used the time we were there for Barrett to interview with MEA, a clinic he is looking at working with next year. Since Barrett was interviewing, MEA put us up in a hotel for the first couple nights. We got there late Thursday evening, and Barrett spent Friday morning touring several of MEA's local clinics. For lunch that day, MEA took us both out to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for lunch, while my fried Parke watched the kids for us so I could go. While we were enjoying our lunch, Parke took the kids to the park. Toward the end of our lunch I got a phone call from Parke that Caleb had been hit in the face with the tire swing, and it looked pretty bad. So, Barrett ended up cutting his interview time short and we went to see if Caleb was okay. His lip was cut and bleeding, and the force of the swing had knocked his teeth pretty hard, so he was in a lot of pain. He had cried himself to sleep by the time we got there, but he started to perk up in a couple hours. When we got back home, I scheduled a dentist appointment for him just to be sure that there was no damage to his teeth, and there wasn't. So, the rest of the afternoon we just got to hang out at the Fowler's house and enjoy spending time with them. Our kids spent the night at their house that night so we could enjoy the reunion.

For the first part of the reunion, we attended a ceremony to honor two of Barrett's professors who had taught for 30 years at Belhaven. They had a panel of graduates at the front who shared their experiences of their time at Belhaven and how these two professors, Dr. Chestnut and Dr. Kelley, had influenced them over the years. It was a very special time to see what an amazing impact those men have had on so many lives! After the ceremony was over, we went to Redeemer Church, where the reunion dinner was being catered. For a Belhaven reunion, there were quite a few people there, and it was great to get to reconnect with people that we hadn't seen in years. It was really fun for me to get to spend time with Amanda Brack, my friend who played volleyball with me for two years, since I hadn't seen or heard from her since she graduated. We ate and talked for a while at the church, and then Barrett and I went out to Julep (a local restaurant) with Sarah and Jeremy Allen to get some dessert. It was about midnight when we were finished there and Barrett and I were exhausted so we headed back to the hotel for the night.

On Saturday, we went out to breakfast with Arthur Wadsworth at Broadstreet, and then drove out to see his new house that is being built in Flowood. Then, we headed back to Belhaven for a lunch at Gillespie Commons. They had a couple inflatables for the kids to play on, and we got to visit some more with old friends. That afternoon, we headed back to Tim's new house to relax for a while. For dinner that night, we met some friends at Newk's Cafe, and then headed over to Brian Perry's house for a party. We stayed at Tim's house that night and on Sunday morning went to church at Trinity. After church we ate a picnic lunch with some of our Sunday school friends out on the playground and got to visit with them for a while before packing up our stuff and heading back home. It was a whirlwind of a trip, but we had a great time!

Isabelle's school Indian Festival was the next week, and it is always so cute to see the kids in their hand-made indian t-shirts doing the different activities. I worked the sand art station again and watching two and three-year olds pouring sand into little jars is definitely interesting!

The three amigos- Emily, Isabelle & Ava:




Making a necklace:


Isabelle and Caleb both had Thanksgiving feasts at their schools before they got out for break, and Caleb had a Thanksgiving program at Rocky Bayou church. His class, along with the entire preschool and kindergarten classes, dressed up at indians and pilgrims and sang songs. They all had a turn up in front playing one of the instruments as well. It was so cute and they did an excellent job. Grammy and Pappy came into town just in time to see the program, and then spend a few days with us before Thanksgiving. We enjoyed going to Harborwalk and eating lunch at Dewey Destin while looking over the harbor.

Caleb as an Indian for the Thanksgiving program:




After Grammy and Pappy left, Barrett's family came in and stayed with us for a few days for Thanksgiving. It was a full house, but we had a lot of fun and everything went smoothly with getting the turkey cooked and all the food on the table in a timely fashion! The cousins had fun playing together, and we spent one evening out at Destin Commons enjoying some chilly winter weather which was a lot of fun.

The cousins on Grandmamma's lap:


We have so much for which to be thankful!

October

I always love the month of October, because it feels like fall is on the way, even if in Florida the temperatures still feel like summer!

Caleb began his soccer season this month and played on a team with older players. He was first placed on a team with younger players that were all much smaller than he was. So, he and his friend Johnny were moved up to the next age level. This was a great experience for Caleb because he actually really learned a lot about the game of soccer this year. His coach taught the team different skills and he learned more about how to correctly play the game. I could see a good bit of improvement over the course of the season for him. He had a lot of fun, too. Unfortunately, something happened to the pictures on my camera and they all look distorted. Almost two months of pictures turned out like that because I hadn't uploaed them in so long. So, you can get an idea of what was going on, but it's not very clear.

Caleb getting his medal at the end of the season:


We always make a trip to the local pumpkin patch in October as well. Caleb's class had a field trip there, so I took Isabelle that day so she could participate too. The kids had fun making a pumpkin craft, reading stories, and guessing which objects would sink or float in water. They each got to take home a small pumpkin at the end of the trip.

Caleb with some of his school friends:


Caleb lost his first baby tooth at the end of the month! It was loose for a little while, and one night at dinner, he got up and went to the trash can to spit something out. He had bit into a raw carrot and his tooth came out in his mouth, but he didn't realize what it was so we almost lost it! We figured out what was happening, and dug in the trash to find it! So, he put it in his tooth box for the "tooth fairy" (which he absolutely refuses to believe in) to come and leave him some money- which she kindly did, even though he didn't believe in her. His adult tooth has already almost filled the void of the baby tooth, so he really didn't have much of a gap for long.

Aunt Susanne and Elijah and Gracie Beth came to visit us the last weekend in October, so they got to participate in the Orange Fest with us. The kids dressed up and went "trunk or treating" at one of the local churches that hosts the huge community event. They got plenty of candy, and they played a few carnival games before we were ready to go home. Caleb decided to be the Bumblebee transformer this year (last year he was Optimus Prime) and Isabelle chose to be Snow White (not a big surprise!). We already had that costume, so that was fine with me! Elijah was a dinosaur and Gracie Beth was a mini version of Snow White- she collected her candy from the stroller. The kids had really wanted to carve our pumpkin, so I did that with them that morning. We had fun adding some "hair" to our pumpkin as well!

Our pumpkin:


Cousins in Costumes:


Snow White and Bumblebee:

September

September was a busy and fun-filled month. The first weekend was the three-day Labor Day weekend, and we went to Biloxi to visit Barrett's family. His sister, Susanne, rented a pontoon boat for Saturday, so we all went out on that and had a great time. The boat crew included our family, Susanne, Elijah, Gracie Beth, Grandmamma and Granddaddy, and Uncle Tim and Virginia. We went all around the bay area, and then went to the Blow Fly Inn for lunch. They are located right on the water with a boat dock that you can use to access their restaurant. We had a relaxing day, and Caleb even got to fish a little. He caught the first fish, too (which he was extremely proud of!). Isabelle and Elijah and Gracie Beth took naps cuddled up with Grandmamma. Since we didn't get to use our own boat this year, it was fun to get out on the water at least once!
Caleb with Uncle Tim and his fish!:





Other than school activities being in full swing, the most memorable event in September was our trip to Ohio to visit the Drowns and run in the Air Force half marathon. Unfortunately, Barrett was injured and wasn't able to run in the race. He was a good cheerer, though! We took a couple days to drive up to Dayton and got to the Drown's house Thursday evening in time for dinner. We had all day on Friday to hang out and relax before the race on Saturday morning. We went to the big Air Force Musuem at Wright Patterson Air Base, which contained hundreds of planes and other neat artifacts from the past century. It was a fun outing for the kids, especially the older ones. Saturday was a perfect day for the race. It was cool, crisp, and no humidity (which was such a relief after training in the Florida summer heat!) I felt great, and everything went off without a hitch. Amy and I ran the entire race together, so that was so much fun and it made it go a lot faster to have someone to talk to the whole time. Right before the race started, there was a jet fly-over just over our heads at the starting line. That was pretty cool and it really felt like the Air Force marathon was beginning! It felt so great just to finish the race and accomplish something for which I had been training so long. Something else that was a lot of fun about being at the race was that we got to see some old friends who were there for the race. I even got to cheer on my good friend and neighbor, Andrea, as she finished the full marathon. The funny thing was that I found out I was pregnant the week before the race, so we joke that I should have won an award in the "pregnant lady" category!
We had a wonderful visit with the Drowns and the kids had a blast together. We miss them a lot, so it was nice to have that trip planned and know we would get to see them again.

Barrett and Bryanne with Amy and Daron Drown:

Drown kids with the Jones' kids:

Post Race:

Bryanne and Amy with their race medals:

August

August was a happy month for our family. Barrett had just returned home from his deployment, and we all had a few weeks to spend together before life got back to "normal". Barrett's parents came to see us for a couple days during the first week, and we had a nice visit with them.
Barrett's homecoming:


We had about a week to hang out and spend time as a family before we were packing up and heading south for our Disney trip. We left on Friday, August 7, and drove down to spend a couple nights with Grammy and Pappy before going to Orlando. We were about an hour and a half into our trip when I had a sudden pannicky feeling. "Oh my goodness, we left our disney tickets at the house!" I had remembered everything, I mean I had lists that I checked off before we left so that I didn't miss anything- except, of course, one of the most important items that I had failed to put on the list! Well, we pulled over and made some phone calls that confirmed that the only way we could get into the park was if we had our original tickets. Thankfully, my friend was watching our dog for us and had our key, so she was sweet to overnight us our tickets to my parent's house, which we got on time (it was a good thing that we planned to stay at my parent's house that extra day!) So, that was a $40 mistake (it cost extra to overnight on the weekends) I hopefully won't ever make again!

When we arrived at our hotel, we were about to check in when the manager came over and told us that we had been upgraded to a different hotel (they had overbooked, apparently). We had plans to stay at the Carribean Beach resort, but they moved us to the Boardwalk instead. I'm sure we would have liked our original plan, but the Boardwalk was awesome! We had a huge room that included a little balcony overlooking a fountain and our pool. It was in walking distance of both Epcot and Hollywood Studios, and we took the bus to the other parks. We brought our handy Disney planner book with us, and mapped out each day with what rides and attractions we wanted to visit. We wanted to make sure that we took advantage of our extra magic hours and that we weren't wasting time trying to figure out what to do all the time. It was definitely worth the planning, because it made the week feel so much more organized. We were able to do everything and more that we wanted to do. We went to Animal Kingdom the first day, and then Magic Kingdom on Tuesday. On Wednesday we went to Blizzard Beach in the morning and then to Downtown Disney that evening. We made reservations at T-Rex Cafe, and we really enjoyed it. We had good seats and the kids loved seeing the dinosaurs move and the meteor showers every 20 minutes. We even splurged and got the "smoking volcano" dessert, which was a lot of fun to see (and eat). On Thursday we went to Epcot and Friday we visited Hollywood Studios. I could spend all day talking about what we did at each park, but I will just mention the highlights. Caleb is quite the adventurer and went on as many roller coasters as he could! The first one he rode was Mount Everest- the scariest- at Animal Kingdom. He didn't want to ride a second time but he liked it! His other favorite rides were Star Tours, Toy Story Mania, Buzz Lightyear, and the Tower of Terror (even though he was pretty scared!). Isabelle was not into the rides as much-as a matter of fact, she was a little scared of almost everything- but, her favorite part was getting to see the princesses. Her favorite princess right now is Snow White, and she brought her snow white costume to wear in the park. The kids each had their autograph books, so they were able to get their favorite characters to sign their books as well as take a picture with them. Isabelle got Cinderella, Belle, and Aurora's autographs in the same location, but was disappointed that Snow White was not among them. However, we found out where and what time she would present herself, and we made sure we were there. I think that was the highlight for her, because she talked about it nonstop after that.






At the T-Rex Cafe:


We all had such a great vacation together. It was a very busy and tiring one, but so much fun at the same time. The kids were ready to go back to Disney World as soon as we got home! They have not stopped asking when we are going back again- especially Isabelle, because she wants to see the princesses again!

The last week of August brought about Caleb's first day of Kindergarten! He was so excited and such a big boy! I can hardly believe he is already that big! He goes to a wonderful school, Rocky Bayou Christian, and he has a great teacher, Mrs. Harris. He is loving school and learning so much. He is doing great with his reading, too! It is so neat to hear him sounding out the words and putting everything together. He will be reading fluently before long!
First day of Kindergarten:

Caleb with his friend, Cyrus:


I guess we all started to get back to real life, with Caleb in school and Barrett going back to work. Isabelle didn't start preschool until September, so we had some girl time to spend together, which was fun and sweet.

July

On Thursday, July 2, the kids and I headed down to Largo to visit my family for a couple weeks as we awaited Barrett's return at the end of the month. I wanted to get there on the 2nd so we weren't traveling during the 4th of July weekend. On Saturday, to celebrate the 4th, we went to the local community center for some free food and air jump inflatables for the kids to play on. While we were there, I ran into an old friend of mine from my childhood years, Paulina. We were good friends and neighbors during elementary school and I hadn't seen her in years. It was nice to visit and catch up a little bit.

While in Largo, we did a lot of our usual activities like going to Largo Central Park. The first weekend of each month they do free train rides, so we were able to go and it was a lot of fun. Isabelle only wanted to ride once, but Caleb went on it 2 or 3 times. We went to the beach, played at Nana's pool a couple times, went to the "banana park", played at parks, went to the library, played in the inflatable pool at my parent's house, and went to an aquarium and the children's museum!!! We also played miniature golf, went to the Seabird Sanctuary, and did as much garage saling as we possibly could. The kids LOVE to find bargains, and we found lots of them. Grammy gave them each a dollar or two when we went out and they had a blast.

At the Banana Park:



At Nana's pool:


Watermelon seed spitting contest:


At Chuck E. Cheese's with my two little mice:


We filled the time with so many activities, but it really helped the time go by faster for us, and the kids had a great time. Oh, I almost forgot- our regular trip to Chuck E. Cheese's! We absolutely cannot go to my parent's house without making a stop at the famous pizza place! We also had a watermelon seed spitting contest in the backyard. It was hilarious to watch the kids' faces as they tried to spit the seeds. Caleb got really into it and looked really focused!

The time there was a little more relaxing for me, too, because I don't have too do the cooking or have too many other responsibilities. So, I was able to do a lot of reading, which was nice. Nana got to do many of our activities with us as well, and it was so nice to get to spend time with her.

Toward the end of our time in Largo, it was sounding like Barrett could possibly be getting home a little earlier than was planned, so I decided to come home with the kids on the 18th. It ended up that Barrett came home the exact day of his original itinerary, but it was actually good the have the week and a half here before he returned. I had so much to get done in preparation! Barrett finally made it home on Thursday, July 30. His flight got delayed a couple times, but he walked out into the airport around 2pm. As soon as Isabelle saw her daddy coming out of the terminal, she got down out of my arms and ran straight for him and gave him a big hug! It was so precious to see! Caleb was standing right behind her and gave him a big hug as well. It felt wonderful to be reunited again!

We had the next week to relax and spend time as a family (especially since it rained most of that time) and begin to unpack all of Barrett's stuff.

June

Well, I obviously have not been keeping up our blog very well, to say the least. It has been almost five months since my last entry! To put it simply, life has just been very busy and a little crazy over the last few months, and I got out of the habit of updating everyone on our family's activities. So, I am going to do monthly recaps of the past few months to get back to speed. Here is a summary of June this year:

The second week of June was VBS at our church, and we did the curriculum from Answers in Genesis: Operation Space. I was the main teacher for all the elementary age students, so I taught my material three times each morning! It was very rewarding and fun, but very exhausting as well. I had a wonderful assistant who made my job easier and more fun, too. Caleb and Isabelle really enjoyed it and had a great week. All the children in our church sang the VBS theme song "Blast Off" for the church one Sunday morning, and it was so cute. They all learned the motions that went with the song.

The week after VBS, I had a few days to recupperate before I was packing our bags to to go Jackson, MS, for a week. Caleb was a day camper at a camp called Twin Lakes, which is just outside Jackson in a city called Florence. We stayed with our good friends, the Fowlers, whose son went to camp with Caleb the same week. The boys had a ton of fun swimming, horseback riding, camping, going on the ropes course and rock-climbing wall, as well as other fun activities. They even got to spend the night the last night of camp in their cabin. Parke and I and Isabelle and Caughran, Parke's three-year old son, got to hang out at their house and swim at their pool. It was so much fun to get to see my Jackson friends, and one evening a big group of us went out to eat at Keifers, which was a lot of fun. The weekend after camp ended, Barrett's family was in Jackson for their family reunion, so I stayed with them and went to the reunion on Sunday. After heading home through Biloxi, I had about two full days to wash clothes and repack for our trip down to Largo to spend a couple weeks with my family...

Visiting with family

After Blaise's graduation, Grammy and Pappy, and Aunt Jeanne and Grandma came back to Fort Walton Beach to visit us for a few days. Aunt Jeanne and Grandma had never been to our house before, so we got to take them to a few places in the area. Aunt Jeanne finally bonded with the kids before she left, and they enjoyed her animated story readings!

Blaise's graduation

We went to Fort Benning, Georgia, to see my cousin Blaise's graduation from Army basic training on April 24. We left town after the kids got done with school on Thursday, and then we drove through the afternoon and got to the hotel in Columbus in time for dinner. It was great to see Aunt Jeanne again since it had been a few years since I had seen her, and Caleb was too little to remember her. Isabelle had never met her before, and it took a little while for Isabelle to warm up to Aunt Jeanne, but then they were good buddies! We got an early start on Friday morning to make sure we got a seat in the bleachers for the graduation. It was a good thing we did because it was packed out. The ceremony was great and I'm glad we were able to make the trip to support Blaise. After his graduation, the whole family was able to go out to lunch together and visit for a little while before it was time for us to begin heading back home.

Blaise is in the 3rd row, far right: