snuggler

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, one of my favorite things to do with Charley is snuggle. He loves to be held after naps and while we're reading. He's my snuggler and always has been. I'm so glad with all that energy, he can still sit still with me. He also comes up to my randomly throughout the day and says, "Mommy, I love you sooo much," and then gives me a perfect gentle kiss on my cheek. Aahhh, I melt again and again.

Happy 3rd Birthday Charley!

Now weighing in at 31 lbs and standing at 38" tall, Charley turns 3 today, June 7, 2007. I can't believe it's been 3 years since starting this great adventure of parenthood. It's been a ride and a treat.

So far, he's growing into a very loving, caring, outgoing and active little boy. He's not potty trained yet, but we're working on it. He's been dealing with a contipation issue for a year and a half now and we have him on a prescription laxative. We're making progress though and hopefully, starting preschool in September will be the turning point after our work this summer.

He takes prodigious care of his brother and his constantly hugging and kissing him saying, "I love my baby brother." It's so cute! We're working on obedience as well. Some days are great, some days are not and as he learns to express himself verbally instead of physically, it gets better. He's not a whiner, but we have had to work on hitting. It's a work in progress like anything and from all of my reading and interviewing, I think it will just take time and loving reinforcement.

A few of his favorite things to do are digging for worms, riding his tricycle, petting the neighborhood stray cat, driving our neighbors' toy Jeep cars, playing with trucks, Bob the Builder toys, and building with quatro and duplo legos.

His favorite foods right now are chicken nuggets, raisins (especially yogurt covered), fruit of just about any kind (he likes to sink his little teeth into apples whole, peel and all), of course chips and chocolate, candy of any sort :). He's out of his noodle phase. he used to love any pasta or noodle soup, but lately he hasn't been interested. He still likes green beans and corn, which is good. Oh yeah, I forgot, peanut butter and honey sandwiches. :) He's also good about eating cereal, meat of almost any kind and bread. He's not a real big mac'n'cheese fan, but maybe that falls in the pasta category that he's left behind recently.

He has excellent motor skills, verbal skills (he'll talk your ear off and you can understand him), and balance. He love to do somersaults, jump on the trampoline and do tricks, jump from just about anything high, like a dresser, bookshelf, or toy chest, to anything else, say like the couch, bed or ground.

He has tons of energy and is up almost every morning at 5:30. Somethings haven't changed from when he was 7 months old. Back then though, he went back down for a nap. He still takes about an hour to an hour and a half nap everyday though, which is nice.

He loves to be read to, to sing and dance to songs, and to recite things. I catch him reciting poems, lines from movies, songs, and lines from books to himself while he's playing with his trucks. It's really cute to watch and listen to what he remembers. In fact, when I'm reading him a book we've read before, he'll correct me if I say a word out of order or miss a word, even an insignificant word like "the". I don't think he knows all his letters yet, although he could be playing games and just not wanting to tell them to me. Will says he knows them. He also can count to around 15. :) What really strikes me about his mind is his ability to observe. When he's in a room, he notices everything, even little things. He never forgets where he's left a toy and even when we think he's wrong, he'll go get it and prove us wrong.

It's been a joy to watch him grow and develop during this changing time in his life and I can only look forward to what the next 3 years will be.

Ben, Ben the Music Man

Ben is my music boy. When he need to calm down, all I have to do is play PP&M's "Garden Song" and he's dancing and smiling or shaking a maraca right away. It's adorable. The outdoors did it for Charley, and while Ben loves being outside, I think he loves to dance more. :)


Here's picture of him gnawing on a drum.


Ahh so cute!

Early Happy Father's Day!

The grill is the early Father's Day present, not the Porche Boxter below! Actually, I think the grill is kind of a late Mother's Day present as well since I don't have to cook as much when he's grilling! Look at that . . . it works out well for both!


First lesson in push-ups :)



Making peanut butter butterscotch chip cookies with Dad, Cheers!


Porche Boxter on loan from a friend out of town. Happy to watch your car anytime! Will and I got to go to the PP&M concert in this as well.

so happy together . . .

reading together

I have so many memories of my picture Bible when I was a kid, so it's the first book that Ben and Charley got. (a new one of course, b/c mine is almost falling apart). This is Charley reading his and me reading my new NASB. I hope this becomes a morning practice for us together eventually.

suspicious characters

Alert: please be on the look out for a suspicious looking frog in snow boots who is going around mowing my lawn. :) I just thought this pic was too funny and had to share. The frog outfit is actually supposed to be a Halloween costume, but we use it for dress-up.

in bloom

These are for my Mom. She asked me to take some pics of the flowers around our house. We have Japanese iris, rododendrum, purple lilac, (all pictured). We also have bleeding heart, creeping geranium, petunias, and spirea (bridals wreath). They're all in bloom right now. Spring really is beautiful in Newport. Before that, the azaleas, daffodils, narcissus and tulips were blooming. See, there is a point to the really cold winter! :) I still miss the bluebonnets though. Anyway, enjoy!

Sachuest Point

This past April, when the weather finally got a tad warmer, we visited Sachuest Point, a wildlife refuge on one end of Aquidneck Island. It was really pretty and we all had a blast running up and down the paths and even ventured onto the rocky beach. Unfortunately, we kept the boys out too long and had a major meltdown on our looooong way back. ugh! It was still good to get out and see part of our pretty island. The top pic is Charley pointing at a plane I think. :) and the bottom pic is Ben in the back pack with Will and Charley all climbing on the rocks. It makes a great day or afternoon outing and the paths are stroller friendly for the most part, although
I'd still recommend a backpack for really little ones. http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=53543 is the web site for anyone who's interested in checking it out.

'07 RI Navy Base V-ball Champs!!

Yay!! We won the base volleyball finals last night by deafeating BOOST! They put up a great fight! I was on the Naval War College Juniors team and we had an undefeated season. We didn't even lose a game in any match! The commander said that was a first in the history of this competition. We even get Championship t-shirts and our pics in the Navalog! woo hoo! :) It was a really fun season. We had a fun, relaxed, talented team and it was a lot of fun playing with them. I was the only civilian in the group, but was allowed to play because they allow spouses of student to participate.

Thanks honey for all the babysitting so I could go play. I love you!


Oh yeah, I hope you all enjoy this really funny pic of me serving! Laugh it up!

Mazda RX-7

Yay!! Will got his old car back! We're all excited because we now own (again)the car that Will's grandfather bought new back in '83, a Silver Mazda RX-7. Will's dad bought it when Will's grandfather was unable to drive it and then Will got to take it to the Academy as his own. He has memories of this car since he was 5.

Anyway, it was broken at the end of his time at the Academy and was told by a repair shop that it would cost more to fix than the car was worth. So, he donated it to charity, but instead of giving it to charity, the car shop sold it. It has changed hands a few times since then (2001) and a couple of weeks ago we got a call from a friend of the current owner who was looking for the title. They traced it back to Will, who had lost it somewhere along the way. Will got to thinking about the car and all it's memories and got excited about just knowing where it was . . . so he called the guy back and asked if he could buy it back. To make a long story short, this passed Saturday, Will drove our Suburban down to Maryland, rented a trailer and hauled his Mazda back up here on Sunday. Long trip! but at least he missed a lot of Memorial Day traffic. He was so giddy and we're all so excited for him. His grandfather has since passed away, but he called his grandmother to let her know he got it back and she was trilled too! She said she was going to go tell Wayne (his grandfather who used to own it). :)

Now we just have to get it running. The carburetor and transmission are out so we have a lot of work to do! Hopefully it will be done within this next year so he can drive it to his ship next June when we move (to Norfolk as of right now, but who knows where, it's always changing) :)


Congrats Baby! I'm so excited for you!

pre-school thoughts

In my previous "pre-school dilemmas" post on May 18, 2007, Dana, a friend from high school who lives down in TX and has 4 children, commented on her own personal thoughts about motives for pre-school and she pointed out some cautions as well. I used that post to reflect more deeply into my own motives for thinking about putting Charley into pre-school, and came away even more certain that we are doing this for the right reasons. I wanted to describe my own thoughts and respond to what she wrote in another comment to her, but it got too long and so I am turning it into a post for everyone to read. If you want to read her original comment, the link is https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=31275887&postID=8322021595624444154 or just go to the comments link on my May 18, 2007 "pre-school dilemmas" post.

I hope this exchange provokes thought and understanding between all who have an opinion on this subject.

RESPONSE:

I'd like to go through the concerns you brought up and write out my thinking. That way, I can make sure I'm not avoiding any issues and have thought everything through honestly in my own mind, and it might be interesting to you to understand a different perspective.

It's so interesting to me how different people come to different conclusions based on different circumstances. For instance, I don't have the wonderful support system of friends here that are able and available to take the kids off my hands so any break I get, besides Will coming home early from work, I have to pay for. However, as nice as a few hours with just Ben and I would be for me, it isn't my motivation in putting him in pre-school.

Also, you mentioned several motives that you had narrowed down for yourself such as "grown-up" peer pressure and I was really glad you said that because it helped me to make sure that I wasn't doing the same thing. In fact, I have talked to only 2 stay-at-home moms who are about to put their kids into pre-school; so I definitely don't feel any pressure to "keep up with the Joneses".

As far as what my kids will remember about their childhood . . . I don't think 2 mornings a week away from me will even factor into their thinking. In fact, they already do it when you factor in Bible study on Tuesday morning and church on Sunday. Not to mention the weeks that we get a babysitter to go out. So, I definitely don't think this will cause them any concern about the time or energy I'm investing into their lives. It's a good consideration though, and good motive-check again.

Another motive you mentioned was that some people put their kids in pre-school to give them a better future or to have them "participate in the latest or most advanced programs." While I am interested in Charley getting a good education, I don't feel that pre-school is the key. I still believe that Will and I are educated enough to provide a perfectly good education for our kids and to that end I have not ruled out home-schooling. However, I also haven't ruled out public school, which some might say would certainly ruin his education. Instead, we are taking the decision of "schooling" and "type of schooling" literally one year at a time. One reason we are doing this is because we want to make the wisest decisions we can for our kids and listen to God's leading and direction for us all there. The other reason is because of the nature of the Navy, we have to be ready for the possibility of many moves, during the school or not; or to places with excellent or poor schools; to places where we can afford it or not. I believe that all of these things will ultimately factor in to our decision of where to place our kids year after year. For instance, if I know we have several moves coming up, I might homeschool that year. If we move to a place with excellent public schools such as Rockwall or Katy, TX (and many others) we might enroll them there. Or, if we move back to Norfolk where we can afford private school, we want to consider that. I feel that by keeping everything on the table, it helps to keep up open to what God wants us to do.

NOW :) my first thought while reading what I've just written is, "what a lack of stability we might be setting our sons up for, all the changes, and possibly different schools ... how will this engender security in my children?" And my first response to these concerns and possibly fears is: in a way, change is the nature of life, for everyone, but especially for a family in the Navy. Because I knew that we'd have children while we were still a Navy family, some of my first thoughts regarding having children dealt with, "how will I prepare my child to deal with this?" I have definitely seen the toll that being a military brat can take on some kids, and families.

Therefore, I must take a different approach to all of the instability they will encounter (and have already encountered - Charley has already experienced 2 moves and he's not even 3). I cannot look at it as a negative since it is the life God, in all His wisdom, has given us to live. I must embrace that we (including my children) were meant to go through all of the changes the Navy will bring us, and KNOW that God WILL give us the strength and resources to deal with it.

My first goal is to teach him how to rely on God and the strength within himself that God gives us as people struggling to live on this earth...if I can teach him to turn to God first, whenever he's frustrated, afraid, lonely, hurt, or happy too, then I think that will go a long way towards helping him through the tumult of Navy life and eventually...life on his own.

My second goal is to do my part in building a strong family unit for us all as we lean on each other through each move, deployment, and change...to build a secure "environment of love and support" like you said. However, I may differ from you in that I don't believe that putting Charley in pre-school for 2 or even 3 days a week, will challenge that at this point. I may feel differently next year, depending on our move in May and where we go. Hence, my need to keep ALL options open.

My third goal is to teach my children about attitude and how when you encounter struggle and hardship, you can use it to grow or to wilt. I want them to know that it is a mere fact of life that this will happen and I want them to be ready to deal with it...whether it brings them pain or joy. We were made to experience both and to embrace, learn, and grow through both. Granted, I don't want them to learn about things they're not prepared to handle at an appropriate age. I think that any negative things that he might encounter at a pre-school of my choosing (I'm currently visiting them during the day to observe for myself the atmosphere, teachers and lessons), will be good for us to talk through and deal with and will be a good introduction into this fallen world he will have to live in on his own someday.

After all of this, I can say with 95% certainty that the main motivator for me in considering pre-school for Charley is simply that it would benefit him on many levels (encourage his independent spirit, give him the chance to act properly apart from me and the chance to understand what's not appropriate around others, structured social interaction, a better chance for his creativity to grow, to be challenged and learn so much intellectually to name a few) as a child and enhance his growth in many different ways. I simply believe he's ready for it and he definitely wants it. He asks to go to school constantly, which my Mom said reminded her of me! In short, I think it would be so good for him, not every child, maybe not even Ben when it's time. It's not because I believe pre-school is the key in making sure he has the best, most advanced education. It's not because I want a break from him during the day. It's not because it's the "thing" to do or because "people" are worried about how much kids are learning these days. I believe the reasons we are considering it are positive and I think I pretty much covered those in my previous post, "pre-school dilemmas". (I had been talking a lot about things that weren't influencing our decision, I just wanted to mention some things that were.)

I agree with you that this is an important decision that should be made with discernment. I can tell that I'm probably quite a bit more comfortable with my kids coming into contact with negative outside influences than you are though, and that's ok with me. Maybe it's because you struggle with that particular issue for personal reasons more than I do. Or maybe it's because I feel like I was too sheltered as a child. I wish that my parents had told me or shown me more of the world so that I could have prepared for it in advance in the "safe" environment of my own home, or so they could have taught me how to deal with it. Who knows. We are the way we are and we do the things we do because of so many things including our pasts, and our own current, particular situations in life; and those differences lend themselves to different decisions. I like what the Jeub father of 13 said, it was something like, "you can always try to do everything right for your children, but you will still always make a mistake." I'm sure many wise people have said this and while it may seem negative, it is also freeing. It frees us to realize that we need to trust God more than our own abilities in child raising. It frees us from some of the guilt of making inevitable mistakes. It frees us to be very much IN the world and not OF it. And finally, it frees us to allow our children to be children and make mistakes along the way knowing that God is still in control. I know that I'm not always good at living all of these things, but I think their truth remains in tact regardless.

I believe that as long as I'm seeking God in the decisions I make regarding my children, they will be safe in His care. Calamity will come regardless of the job I do as a parent and I need not fear it, but in the vein of Paul, embrace it and learn how God wants me to grow through it.

I know that I'm seeking God's guidance in the best way to raise my children and I know that you're doing that as well. And as long as we're both doing that, then even when we come to different conclusions on what the best for our children, we're still doing what God wants and we can both be at peace about that.

I appreciate your perspective and words of caution and advice. Thank you so much for taking the time to express your personal thoughts and feelings to me. Reading through them helped me to be sure I wasn't making this decision for the wrong reasons, but more importantly, reminded me to be in prayer about this a lot more than I already am.

not moving . . . again

I guess I forgot to mention this in the months since we've been back home from our very long Christmas vacation but, it doesn't look like we'll be moving to D.C. after all. It's kind of funny because we only expected to live here for 10 months and when we finally leave next May, it will have been almost 3 years! Will just kept getting different assignments and so we kept getting extended. Actually part of the reason I didn't say anything earlier is because we haven't really known for sure. In fact, we just didn't hear anything and Will was assigned to a ship out of Norfolk next year instead of D.C. and it was never corrected or changed and so . . . waiting . . . waiting . . . never hearing anything different and here we are, it's May and I can say with 90% certainty that we will not be moving to D.C. next month. So, I think it's safe to announce, finally! : )

I'm going to miss family and friends that we have there that we thought we'd see, Will's Aunt Donnette, the Willhites and the Burkmans, and all the wonderful things there are to do in D.C., especially for kids. Oh well, if Will stays in the Navy long enough, I'm sure we'll get stationed there eventually.

The good news is that we won't have to do two moves in 2 years because after D.C. we were going to have to come back to Newport for Department Head school for just 6 months and now we can just stay here and do it. Another plus is that we'll get to Norfolk sooner and I'll get to see all of the friends we left behind there: Tab church family, the Lowes, the Chevaliers, and many others. We also miss our house that we still own down there. Renting it out is going well, and we're not sure if we'll buy another and keep renting it, or move back into it. I really liked that house. That's another blog though. :)

Anyway, that's the latest on the moves front.

pre-school dilemmas

Well, yes, we considering putting Charley into pre-school at age 3. I never thought I'd do it and I thought those who did were just looking for a babysitter. (my apologies to those people whom I may have judged incorrectly). Some of my reasons for considering it are as follows: Charley is active, outgoing, interested, curious, and independent. I think putting him in a structured classroom environment for just half a day for 2 days a week (still debating 3) would really benefit him in all of those areas.

It would provide him with healthy interaction with other kids in a controlled atmosphere and since he acts much better away from me than with me, I'm not concerned about him exhibiting any behavioral problems. He's a good boy most of the time anyway. Second, he would have better exposure to more information = more chances to learn more things and since he's so interested and curious about things, this would be wonderful for him. He's such a sponge right now and I want to take advantage of that and I don't want him to miss out on certain experiences simply because I have to look after Ben a lot or don't have the resources at my house to teach him everything I'd love to teach him. Another reason is that the teachers there have practice with great teaching methods, a song to go with everything you could possibly want to learn, including the days of the week . . . in general, just a lot of things that I wouldn't do a great job of teaching him. Finally, I want to encourage his independent spirit because it's my job as a parent to prepare him for life apart from me and I think that in a way, that starts as soon as you put your baby in a crib in another room.

There are many more reasons that I think this is a good fit for Charley and if it doesn't go well, we can always pull him out and wait another year. Of course the part that is hard is letting him go during that time. I stay at home with him because I believe I can do the best job caring for him and these are very important years of his life when his personality and confidence are being crafted. I also stay home because I love being around my children. However, I don't think it's too long to be apart from me and I am still the main caregiver as far as his personality is concerned. I think pre-school would do wonders for his confidence though. Not that he needs help in that area (anyone who's met him knows he's a confident child), but I want him to enjoy succeeding in a new environment apart from me and our home. I think this will help his creativity, and ability to problem solve and think for himself later on. Those are my thoughts anyway. I hope they're well-founded.

We're still in prayer about the whole thing and about the frequency and are not registered yet so are not committed to anything yet. Feel free to offer any ideas or thoughts, contradicting or supporting. Honest input is always refining. :)

catching up 2

So . . . Ben had a wonderful first birthday on April 27! We celebrated the next day with Will's parents, who came into town for a week, and his aunt, who came into town from D.C. for a few days. I made a cute carousel cake with animal crackers connected to the chocolate pirroine (sp?) pole by twizlers. Will's mom made a top out of paper for it. We waited until after naps this time (unlike Charley's first) and that worked much better. Ben did a great job and seemed to like his presents. Of course he had help opening them from his older brother. I think Charley enjoyed playing with them more, which is fine because almost every morning, Charley gets different toys out for Ben and tried to show him how to play with them. It's so cute watching them. They play really well together and to borrow a term from my friend Anna in Virginia Beach, "it makes my heart happy". Anyway, I can't believe Ben is one already! This has been the fastest year yet in my life and I've heard they only go faster. Aaaahhh I'm hanging on to this ride as best I can!! :) No, life is good, not spinning out of control, despite some of our crazier days. Ben was under the weather for a little while when he got his one year shots, but he's doing better now. What a blessing to have a happy, healthy baby. Oh yeah, he's up and walking by the way!

Ahhh new babies!

Congratulations to my two friends Dana and Kimi who had babies just two days apart. Kimi had baby boy Jared on April 3rd and Dana had baby girl Zosia (za-sha) on April 5! Both are healthy and beautiful babies. For really cute pics you can visit their blogs through the link on my page.

It was the first baby for Kimi and number four for Dana. Congrats Girls!! I'm so excited for you and you and your families are in our prayers.

Easter blessings

I know this post is late, but I kept enjoying the thought of it and wanted to share it. First some background info.

I remember getting an Easter basket only once as a child and I absolutely loved it, but I don't remember what I thought about Jesus that year or if it distracted, b/c all I remember is the big basket. Also, my grandmother always made these beautiful and elaborate table centerpieces for Easter dinner and I remember loving those, but again, they had nothing to do with what Easter is really about. That bugged me when I started to get older. I'm ok with Easter egg hunts, as long as they have a Christ-focused message or symbol inside like "resurrection eggs". I guess maybe I take Easter and Good Friday more seriously than Christmas, but yes, I'm one of those people who doesn't like the sight of a bunny or chick in my house or anywhere else for that matter when Easter comes around. It may be severe for now, and I'm open to changing as the years go by and the kids grow up, but I'll try to maintain this as long as I can.

Anyway, this past Easter Sunday was pretty low key for us. I had been wanting to organize some "Christ-focused" Easter traditions to do with the kids like the resurrection eggs, or an advent-type calender/chart for everything from Palm Sunday through Easter etc. Unfortunately, I didn't get any of this together and by the time Easter Sunday rolled around, the weather was a bit chilly so we didn't go outside for an egg hunt, and the boys were so tired when we got home from church that we didn't do one inside either. And, I obviously didn't want to do Easter baskets (somehow when candy and gifts get involved, things just get hazy.) We did have a formal Easter dinner with some friends, but aside from a lamb-shaped cake


(which was really cool), we didn't really do anything traditional. So, I decided Charley should at least hear the story and I should talk about it with him. He has two picture Bibles from his Nonny (my mom) that he loves to read. So I got them out and read the Easter story from both of them and talked about what happened as much as a 2 1/2 year old will understand and he ended up really enjoying it! He's asked me to read him the stories several times in the days afterwards and now everytime he sees the tomb he points and says, "That's Easter!" I, of course, couldn't be more thrilled. After my lack of planning, he ends up getting the main point of Easter after all through a simple story, and he actually remembers it now which is even better. Another bonus is that next year when Easter rolls around, he won't expect gifts and candy etc. and instead we can hopefully, again focus on how wonderful it is that Christ died and rose again for our sins! I know he doesn't understand all of that, but we can build on the story as he's ready for it. At least for now, the story and message is simple in his head, as it should be and hopefully, that will help him keep things straight for Easter's to come and so that he'll be able to share that simple message with other kids as he grows up.

I know that sometimes Easter baskets and egg hunts help to get kids excited about an event that they can't possibly understand at a young age and then later they transfer that excitement to the actual meaning of the day, but I think I prefer the way things "accidentally" happened for us this year. I'm amazed that through God's grace, a small child can know about (even if he doesn't really understand) the Easter story. In fact, a couple of weeks after Easter, Charley woke up one morning and said, "God protects us from the tomb!" We had been listening to G.T. and the Halo Express CD's with Bible Memory verses on them and each one has a theme. One of the themes for one CD is "God's Protection" so we'd been talking about how God protects us. I guess he just combined that with the Easter story somehow, because I know he doesn't understand salvation yet. But he still got it right which was really cool to hear coming out of his mouth! I exhuberantly said, "Yes Charley, God does protect us from the tomb!"

What a simple and wonderful message! Thank you Lord for your sacrifice and for rising again as you conquered death once and for all to protect us from the tomb for eternity.

Peter, Paul & Mary

Yay! Will and I got to go to a PP&M concert a week ago at PPAC and it was so much fun! It's amazing that we got to see them perform live and in our lifetime. When you consider that they were with Martin Luther King playing songs so long ago and that they're still at it . . it's amazing! We were so excited that we bought t-shirts! I'll have to post that pic later :) Another really cool thing was that Will got to drive us up there in a Porsche Boxter that his friend left with us while he was traveling. Also, when we left the concert, it started snowing the largest flakes I have every seen. These things were as big as cotton balls! All in all it was a really special night and I just had to blog about it.

long time, no write

Ok, I needed to recover from the long trip (which I'll tell all about later), but I didn't need this long. It's just one of those things where you want to write so much that it seems like too much to do so you procrastinate etc. anyway, this is my effort to get back into the swing of things. I miss blogging and things are piling up in my head to talk about so . . .
First, our trip was long, awesome, hard at times, but really fun! We got to spend about 2 weeks with my family in Rusk and Dallas and about 2 weeks with Will's family in Dallas and CO. We went skiing at Winter Park, where we also got caught in a snow storm, but missed the avalanche at the pass. We went hiking, we got sick, the dog got sick, Charley and Will got to ride on the 4-wheeler in Rusk, and a golf cart (both of which he loved). We got to attend the most formal wedding ever in Ashville, NC at the Biltmore, which was a blast! We saw a ton of friends along the way and made news ones as well. It was a long trip, but a lot of fun. We were very blessed to take it and enjoy seeing all the family that we did. Thank you Lord for keeping us safe.

"on the road again"

Well, we leave this Sunday afternoon for the first leg of our long trip to TX, CO and back again :) We'll spend next week in D.C. where Will is attending a conference, then continue on through NC, TN visiting friends and eventually land in TX for awhile. After Christmas, we'll continue on to CO for a week, then go home through KS and back to Ashville, NC for a friend's wedding on the Biltmore Estate (woohoo!) :) Then hopefully we'll get to stop in Norfolk, VA (our old stomping grounds) to see a good friend's new baby boy and then go back to RI in time for Will to begin his final trimester at the Naval War College. (whew!) I'm definitely going to need a vacation from this vacation! :) It will be so much fun to see everyone and I can hardly wait for everyone to see how big Charley and Ben have gotten, especially for those who will see them for the first time! :) I'll try to post while we're away, but if not, I'll definitely post a synopsis of our trip when we get home.

Please pray for our safety and sanity on the road (with two little kids and a dog!). Fortunately, we're leaving the day before we get our first snow of the year, but the storm is coming from the East so I hope the roads in that direction are clear. I'm reading some pretty interesting news online about this front, so please keep us in your prayers.

See ya soon!