Nathan's 8th Birthday Party

We went to the base bowling alley for lunch and then bowled a couple games. It was a lot of fun, as you can see from the pictures. After bowling, we came home and the boys went to woods to play. Around 5 pm the pizza arrived and we had pizza for dinner. Darron, Ann and the girls came over at about 5:30 pm and we opened presents and ate some birthday pie. Nate wanted this chocolate cream pie he saw, in the freezer section of the commissary, the other for his birthday cake, so that is what we had. It worked out great for me. I didn't have to bake a cake!

Thanks to everyone that sent Nathan a gift, card and birthday wishes on Facebook. He really liked getting all of the messages on Facebook, as well as his cards and gifts. I know it must have been a good day because he told me this morning that this was one of his best birthdays. I was very happy to hear that as he was a little upset when he realized that his dad would not be home for his birthday.

I attended an update briefing for Monte's unit on Friday. They didn't really tell us anything, but they did give us somewhat of a possible return date. Sounds vague, I know, but that is the way the military works. So, as of now, Monte should be home "No later than 15 April". As I always say, "I'll believe it when I see him". I just take it with a grain of salt as he has rarely ever came home when he was told or given a date. It would be really great if it ended up being true though.

So that was our weekend guys. I take Chase home at noon and then I'm going to sit on the couch the rest of the day and cross stitch while I watch the Sprint Cup NASCAR race. There's leftover pizza for dinner too, so I don't even have to cook! Yay for me!

Take care everybody and have a great week. I love you all. God Bless! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

So here are the picture's I took of the snow we woke up to on Saturday. Robin said that it was more than what they had in Montana. Isn't that crazy? Jacksonville, North Carolina had more snow than Kalispell, Montana.

As you can see, the boys and Sophie as well enjoyed the snow. Sophie was too cute the way she was running around and burying her nose in the snow. I think she was looking for the holes she's dug in the lawn. You can see on a couple of the picture's the snow stuck to her muzzle from sniffing around. Sadly, the snow is almost gone now. We've got a sunny day going on right now and water is dripping everywhere. Whatever doesn't melt today will be washed away in the rain we are supposed to get tomorrow. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

The picture's below are from the 22nd MEU Family Appreciation Day that the boys and I went to on the 6th. The wind was really bad that day, so didn't put up any of the bouncers or the rock climbing wall. Needless to say, Nate wanted to turn around and go home. But, we stayed for a couple of hours and I think they enjoyed themselves. They had a Wii set up and a bunch of games going on, like the "candy" walk the boys are in a couple pictures doing below. They gave away free bags of candy and stuffed monkeys. And they had face painting, balloon animals and a table to make Valentine's for the dads. Nate and I each made one for Monte. All in all, it was a nice afternoon.

Not much else going on with us now. We got Popcorn Factory goodies from Monte for Valentine's Day and I made the boys wait to open the boxes until this morning. They thought the waiting was going to kill them, but they managed to survive...ha ha. We're just hanging out today at home. Brady's cleaning his room, Nate just came in from playing outside with his friend Chase and I'm watching the Daytona 500. Go anyone (besides Jeff Gordon) who can beat Jimmy Johnson!!!!! I like anyone who can beat those two guys. The drivers I always root for though are Bobby LaBonte, Dale Jr, Carl Edwards and Marcus Amborse. I don't know why, I just like those guys.

Well, I guess that's about it for now. Have a great Valentine's Day everybody! We love you! God Bless! :)

Update

Hello Everyone:

Just wanted to update you all on Monte. He left for Haiti on the 15th of January. He is doing well and he and the other Marines are handing out supplies daily. In an email he sent me a couple days ago, he said that things are pretty good in the area that they are in, so they may be leaving for another part of the country soon. He never gives me many details, but that is the way it has to work for security purposes. Still no word on when they may be coming home.

The boys and I are going to the 22nd MEU Family Appreciation Day on Saturday. Its should be pretty fun. There's going to be food, a DJ, clowns, jumpers and bouncers, rock climbing wall and some other things. The unit wanted to do something for the families since the Marines had to leave so soon after returning from the 6 month float in December. Of course, it would be better that they never left, but I appreciate the effort to say thank you to us for having to let our Marines go again so soon. I'll be taking picture's of the boys while we are there and I'll be sure to post them on the blog.

We got all of our Super Bowl fixin's yesterday at the commissary. It's going to be all finger foods, all day. Brown sugar bacon wrapped little smokies (YUMMY), chicken taquito's with southwest ranch dip, mini cheeseburgers, nacho pinwheels, potato skins with cheddar cheese and bacon, sausage cups, chips and dip, soda, Oreo cookies and brownies. Its most likely going to be WAY too much food for the boys and me, but oh well. It will all get eaten eventually.

So, may you all have an excellent weekend! GO NEW ORLEANS SAINTS!!!!!! God Bless! :)