We are in NC!

We are glad to say we are in North Carolina! After a long car ride from TN we made it in Friday night-Finally. We are pretty busy looking for houses and trying to find our way around, but so far we like it here. It is really rural and country. I don't think I've seen a Wal-Mart since we got here. Granted we haven't been driving around to find a Wal-Mart but still... We will be looking a houses this week and hope to find something by the end of the week. It may be a little while before we post again. Hope this finds everyone healthy and doing well!

Dec 09 and Jan 10 Pictures

Pictures, finally!! Sorry for the long wait, but they are here at last. Unfortunately, don't have pictures of Andrew's first birthday with me. Hopefully they were put on the computer in Little Rock before we left. Anyway, there are pictures of the kids opening Christmas presents, playing and some snow pictures. They have been enjoying their time here playing with the other kids my mom babysits and visiting some friends we haven't seen in quite a while. Sarah has been missing Daddy and Stroller Strides. She realized he was going to be gone for a while when she saw "the blue car" was missing. Its super cute, and sad, when she says with her eyes tearing up, "Blue car & Daddy home, me go home." Boy I'm not looking forward to Adam's first deployment at all. On a positive note, we did get a little bit of snow on the 7th of Jan! I just had to take Sarah and Andrew out to get some pictures of them in the snow. Andrew isn't too sure about it, but Sarah was thrilled. No hesitation at all to walk in it! To compare the size of the two kids, the Christmas PJs and snowsuit Andrew is wearing in these pictures are the same ones Sarah wore last winter. Before long he'll be wearing the same size she is...lol. Enjoy the pictures!!!!!

Opening Christmas presents in Little Rock before going to TN.

Sarah & Andrew opening Christmas presents in TN.

Madison and Luke Dickerson and the backs of Sarah and Andrew's heads.

Sarah and Madison driving in the Jeep.

Sarah showing Andrew what snow is.

Apparently you only need 6 front teeth to eat corn on the cob...

Alright, here is my smile-take the picture and get me out of this stuff.

Andrew's first time playing in the snow. He's not sure what to think of it.

Andrew is standing for a quick second here and there!!! Yeah!!

Quick New Year Update

Well, Happy New Year all! The kids and I are in TN at my Mom's house. Adam is back in Little Rock finishing up training and packing up the apartment. We are hoping he will be done mid next week! The past two weeks have been pretty busy with Christmas, New Year and keeping the two kiddos out of trouble. We have also taken a couple of side trips to visit some friends we haven't seen in a while. Things are going great and the kids are enjoying being with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Dave and Hannah (foreign exchange student staying with my Mom) I have a ton of pictures to sort through and plan on doing that soon. My goal is to get it done before we leave here. lol. I will post some cute photos for everyone to see.
We got a little bit of snow today!!! Although its a bit of a taste of what we are missing in AK, I'm very excited that we should be arriving into NC in about a week or so!! Looks like another birthday spent moving!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is having a very happy New Year!

Hiking at Petit Jean State Park

This past Sunday we went hiking at Petit Jean State Park. We hiked down to the waterfall, let the kids burn off some energy and hiked back up to the top. The kids have been enjoying hiking around! Typically Adam will carry Sarah in the backpack and I'll carry Andrew in my Moby wrap. The waterfall was beautiful with the fall colors!

An update on the kiddos...Sarah is doing great at potty training! She's starting to ask to go potty even when she has a diaper on. But we still have the occasional accident. Andrew is doing wonderful! We recently started weining him from nursing in light of our upcoming trips and our move to NC. He isn't fond of taking formula from Mom, but Sarah is always a willing helper when Dad's not around! He is doing great with it so far. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Schaefer's Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend we took the kids out to a pumpkin patch with some friends. The kids had a blast and I had fun shooting photos. Sarah enjoyed seeing all the animals, taking a hay ride (though she did not like touching the hay) and picking her own pumpkin. Andrew enjoyed himself as well. He favorite parts were riding in the wagon with Sarah and Mars and watching all the other people and kids. It turned out to be a long but enjoyable day! This weekend we will take some Halloween pictures and will post them soon. Sarah is going to be a cow and Andrew a skeleton.

Happy Halloween to All!!!

I swear she said she loves him!

I just love this photo of Andrew!

Ahh, finally one I can pick up!

This one is MINE! I don't have to pick it up, I'll just roll it!

Climbing out of our Crib

Here is a video from a few weeks ago. Adam went to wake Sarah up from a nap and discovered she wasn't in her crib. Curiously he scanned the room to find her reading (playing with) her books. His reaction prompted me to join in the gazing back and forth at Sarah out of her crib. After a few moments I believe I had the same "oh my" reaction. Once we gathered ourselves from wondering how we are going to survive without having her "jail," I asked her to show me how she got out. I was curious and wanted to know! After I put her back in her crib and asked her how she got out, sure enough, within seconds she was out again. Adam needed to see it as well. Now the third time was not a charm however. Her dismount was not as successful as the first two. She did not get hurt, well, I take that back. Her pride was hurt. We decided we needed to get this on tape. I know your saying, "why didn't you get it on tape from the begining?" We just weren't thinking about it. If I remember correctly images of waking up at 3 am with a pair of 2 year old's eyes peering at me while I'm sleeping kept going through my head. Or a lovely little girl waking me up saying, momma I "vwake."

Also, notice the "landing zone" she created of all the stuffed animals, blankets and pillows from her crib. At least she had a soft landing when her dismount wasn't so successful! Since this last dismount she has been found in her crib each and every time. I love having a whimpy daughter! hehe. We are hoping she stays in her crib until we leave Arkansas as we are currently sleeping on what will be her "new" bed.

Enjoy the video!!!!

Family Photos

Here are some of the family photos we took this morning at "The Old Mill" here in Little Rock. This is Sarah's favorite place to go right now. She likes seeing (and feeding...shh) the ducks and turtles. Thank you Michelle for being our photographer! Enjoy the pictures. Andrew is sitting himself up on a more consistent basis now. He enjoys when we put him on his knees or standing next to his toys. This enables him to play with more things that were out of reach before! Sarah is starting to use the word "no" more often and is definately into the mimicing stage!

Looking at the Old Mill

Looking down the lake to the right of the mill.