Our Fourth of July celebration!

I hope everyone had a super Fourth of July! We kept it pretty low key this year and stayed home (instead of going on base). We did make a run to Toom and Kaufland in the morning. Josh went into Toom looking for a faucet/hose hook-up so we could fill Cole's baby pool, you know, since we don't have an outdoor faucet. I zoomed through Kaufland searching for a watermelon (the last time I was at the commissary, I didn't see any). We both found what we needed and headed home.

While Cole napped, Josh and I filled his pool, put the finishing touches on our pork spareribs, and sat down and watched a little "Independence Day," naturally.  After Cole woke up and we had lunch, we hit the pool and enjoyed some tasty watermelon. The rest of our day was spent hanging out, enjoying the Fourth.

 I made patriotic jello, Cole was a little unsure of it at first, but only at first, it didn't take long for him gain a bright blue tongue! I found the jello mold at the commissary for $2, can't beat that, and it came with the jello!

 I've never made ribs before, and I think for my first shot, they weren't half bad. We made them in the crock. Josh wasn't much of a fan, but he said he isn't a fan of spareribs. I'll do better next time!

 This boy LOVES water!

 He loves it a lot!

 We managed to convince him to step out of the pool for a few minutes to try some watermelon. He wasn't much of a fan, I think the seeds through him off. Maybe a watermelon smoothie is in our future!

Nothing says "Happy Birthday, America!" quite like a red, white, and blue pedi!

Our Fourth of July weekend

Thursday: We grilled, hit up a carnival, ate some watermelon our neighbors shared with us, played in our yard, ate homemade popsicles (I'll post about those tomorrow!), and thanked Josh for his service to our country.We didn't stay up for the fireworks (the base does a firework show), because we weren't even sure if we would be able to see them from our house, so we watched last year's fireworks in D.C. and New York City.

Friday: We went and picked up Josh's new motorcycle!

Saturday: We relaxed. It was a warm day, so we didn't want to do too much. Last week we got our new air mattress and set it up in the living room and had planned on watching "Brave" drive-in movie style, but Cole crashed early, so Josh and I had ourselves a "Castle" marathon instead. We're so cool, aren't we?!

Sunday: We did a little weekly shopping, photo transferring, and a little bit of blogging.

How was your Fourth?!

Happy Fourth of July!

Thank you to all the service men and women both stateside and abroad. Enjoy your BBQing and fireworks, except sparklers (those are the devil's toys). Did I mention I'm terrified of sparklers?! I hope you all have a safe and wonderful day! Happy Independence Day!

In honor of this wonderful day, I'm changing up my banner! What do you think?!

It's October and you know what that means!

Halloween movies! Oh. Yeah.

If there is one tradition I want to pass on to my son, it's the love and appreciation of holiday movies. It's great that Halloween comes at the end of the month because that means we have all of October to get into the spirit!

Here's our list of movies we'll be enjoying throughout the month:

E.T.

Hocus Pocus

Casper

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Corpse Bride

 Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Nightmare Before Christmas

Ghostbusters

Monster's Inc.

The Goonies

The Harry Potter movies

Beetlejuice

The Addams Family

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

Edward Scissorhands

Obviously, I didn't include any scary movies, but did I miss any kid-friendly ones?! What are your favorite Halloween movies?

Last post of November!

Wow! Sorry it’s been a while; we’ve been moving in and giving thanks. But now I’m back in action and have so much to share!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving and was able to watch the Macy’s Parade!!! Josh and I had a pretty successful attempt at Thanksgiving dinner!!! I was worried that we weren’t going to have enough time, but all of our stuff came out promptly! I guess planning a month in advance really does help!

Josh and I might be thousands of miles from home, but there seems to be one tradition that holds true on Thanksgiving: a food item was forgotten; in our case it was the cranberry sauce. The sad part is, I had it prepared, and put it in the refrigerator so it would be chilled and then I forgot about it. I do think it’s pretty funny that both of our sides have something they forget each year, and I feel like I’ve earned a rightful place in the Thanksgiving Food Forgetters Club! What will I forget next year?!

Forgetfulness aside, I would have to say the best part of my Thanksgiving was that I got to Skype with my family! Especially my Grandma! It was her first time video chatting and she quickly became a pro! I guess if I can’t be with my family for a holiday, the next best thing would be to see them all huddled around a computer screen just to say hey!

Now I’m in full Christmas mode! The most exciting thing so far about the Christmas season is that I have access to the Omaha radio station Star 104.5, so I can listen to Christmas music and catch a little news from home all at once!!! It may not sound like much, but you’d be surprised at how many things we don’t have access to over here.

Now for baby news, or better yet my FAQ:

·       I am 14 weeks and 2 days as of today

·       No morning sickness and yes I am thankful!

·       We do plan on finding out what gender the baby is

·       There are a few names we like, but we’re still looking

·       There have been a few cravings but nothing that strange I don’t think; for a while I couldn’t get enough macaroni and cheese, then tater tots, now its anybody’s guess

·       Not much progress being made in the nursery, but we’re still not fully moved in, hopefully soon

·       Still deciding on whether to register through Amazon or Babies R Us

I think I answered all of the questions I’ve been asked! Thank you all for your interest and concern, I feel so loved!!!

Is it strange that I’m not as curious as I thought I’d be as to what the baby’s gender is?! Sure I’d like to know, but the suspense isn’t killing me like I thought it would be hmm… Any guesses on your end?!

Happy All Saints’ Day!

Okay, it’s no longer October, and in my mind that means it is time for Thanksgiving!!! But really it’s my excuse to start listening to Christmas music!

Typically, we decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving; last year however, Josh was at BMT so I started decorating around the 5^th of November!!! Can you tell who the holiday enforcer is?!

Oh and guess what?! An early holiday gift to us! We are moving into a different place (it’s the same kind of apartment, just available sooner!). I’m really crossing my fingers that we’ll be able to get our stuff on the new day we’re trying to get, that way we aren’t unpacking boxes and stuff the day before Thanksgiving like we were previously going to have to do.

I’m really excited for the coming weeks and I can’t wait to share them with you as they unfold! What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving or Christmas traditions?!