Twas the night before Christmas.....

These pictures are for Daddy because he had to
work tonight, so he missed the fun of getting

everybody ready for bed and Santa. We went
to a friends house for dinner and made

cookies. One of the great things about the Corps

is that it is like one big family and if anyone knows
what it is like to be away from family, it is people
in the military. So every one's homes are always

open to whoever needs a place to go.

When Jason came home from work yesterday he wanted to give the boys a gift each that he had gone and picked out himself, and give me my gift (since he is working tonight). I wanted to wait, but he wouldn't give up. So, I opened it. And got a big surprise. He gave me a new digital camera! We talked about that being what we would buy this year as our gift, but then decided to wait, so that was the last thing I thought it would be. Our digital camera was one that was actually part of our video camera and the quality of pictures was really low since it was kind of just like a side feature. So we were still using film for the pictures we developed. The camera he got me is awesome and way better than I had hoped for. Now I know why he wanted me to open it so bad, so I could have it for Christmas morning. So enjoy pictures with our new camera!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Things I have been meaning to post....

It has been a bit crazy around here and I have not had time to update the blog. I know my loyal readers have been disappointed time after to time to find no updates! :) I can not promise to do better in the future, sorry. The pictures did not upload in the order I wanted, but I don't have the time to fix them so you will have to look at them out of order, again sorry. Here is our front porch and topiaries decorated for Christmas.
Ryleigh turned 5 months old yesterday! She smiles constantly, tries to grab our food and drinks away from us, resulting in lots of messes.
She can now roll from her back to tummy and from her tummy to back. I lay her on a blanket in the living room to play and she is always somewhere else besides the blanket when I look over at her. The other night I found her under the Christmas tree, looking up at the lights.
She likes the boys toys better than her own. Here she is sucking on a power ranger action figure. I tried taking one of these action figures away from her the other day and replacing it with a baby rattle or something and she got very upset. I gave it back to her and she stopped crying! :)

The boys making sugar cookies. I totally cheated and bought the sheets of cookie dough from the store. That way when I needed something to do, I could just say "Hey! You guys want to make cookies?" And not have to wait to actually make them.
My dirty little boys. Here they are after playing for 2 hours in a dirt pile with cars in the back yard. In this picture they don't look too bad, but you should have seen the bathtub. They probably were not too clean after taking a bath in grass and dirt.
The boys continue to do things that make me shake my head and pray I make it while raising them. The other day I went to lay Ryleigh down for a nap in her crib and the bottom fell out of the crib and with Ryleigh on it the mattress fell. Luckily it caught on the way down and she did land on the floor (of course it woke her up though). I called the boys in her room and asked them what they had done. They have strict orders not to get IN her crib, I guess I should have told them that they are not allowed UNDER it either. Apparently they were playing under the crib, lifting the bottom up with their feet. I told Aiden what happened and this was his response: "Did Ryleigh cry when the crib fell?" I said "No" Aiden - "Well, she is a VERY brave."
Our palm tree, decorated. I still have a hard time with it being so warm around Christmas. I still dress the boys in jeans and long shirts and sweaters in the morning because it is December and that is what we should be wearing. By the time we go outside I have to change them because it is 78 degrees out.
The upstairs window with little Christmas trees

Ryleigh taking a nap in her swing. I have to watch the boys carefully when she is in here. Sometimes I find them swinging her so high she could flip over or fall out. Ryleigh has like 100 guardian angels.
Our tree and mantel. It finally got cold (only lasted like 2 days) and we could have a fire in the fireplace. Thank you Grandmom Jeanie for Ryleigh's stocking! Jason and Ryleigh hanging out by the fire. She grabbed his dog tags and was playing with them.
Ryleigh has Jason wrapped very tightly around her finger.
Another cookie making picture, out of order.

"Welcome to the show". That is what Aiden told me when he asked me to come in his room and look what he had made. In each window of the bay in his room he had different things set up and they were all part of a "show".
In this window he had two Thomas the train trains set up and he would make them both go and crash into each other.
Stuffed animals were in another window. They never got their moment to shine because Kyle knocked them over to climb on the window.
This is the result of Aiden getting the PJ's and Daddy getting him dressed. There was a day when I would have changed him. Those days are long gone.
Ryleigh having fun playing in the living room. Aiden got her to smile. He saw me get out the camera and he said "I can get her to smile mom, watch." And he did. :)

Bow and Arrow

This video will make their daddy proud. :) I don't know why the videos are not very clear. They look much better on our TV. Anyway, this is from the boys playing outside today.

A Christmas Card Story

I mailed our Christmas cards today. Here is the story behind our smiles.


We were late. It was getting dark. We got behind a car going 20 mph almost all the way there. Our friend who was taking our pictures was running behind. Aiden found a piece of candy stuck under his seat and insisted on getting it out before he would go over to get his picture taken. I sat in a pile of burrs. When I tried to get them off my pants, it got stuck in my finger and started bleeding. Our friend was using her camera, she brought extra batteries, just in case. Every battery she had was almost dead, even the new ones straight from the pack. Each time she turned on the camera, it went dead. Somehow we got about 6 pictures out of a dead camera. Here are some excerpts from our pictures and the story behind them.
Aiden had to pee, so we told him to quickly just go in the grass. He had trouble with his pants, got himself and his hands all wet with pee. Then proceeded to put his arm around Jason. No time to get wipes from car, the sun was setting.
Getting my hair out of my shirt. Trying my best not to look like the frazzled mom I really am.
Jason trying to get Kyle to sit down. Every time he would smile and say cheese he would arch his back and lift his feet off the ground. Pushing me backwards and almost making me fall over.
Kyle showing us his idea of how he thinks he should smile. He was not very cooperative, to say the least.
I didn't realize until we were already in place to have our pictures taken that Kyle had somehow brought two screws from home with him. I knew taking them away would result in no smiles from Kyle. So there are screws in our Christmas card.

So, did we even get a picture that was decent enough to send out? You be the judge. :)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Our neighbor and friend, Mandy, is a photographer. She had Santa in her studio last week so we took the kids in to have their pictures taken. Kyle really wasn't crazy about the whole idea, but we gave him a train and we finally got him to stand beside Aiden. We had our Battalion Christmas party last night and I am glad I got these taken, because Kyle didn't want to get on Santa's lap there either. Aiden is all about it though. They each got a book from Santa last night and Aiden was so excited. He said it is just the one he has been wanting (I have never heard him mention it, but I am glad I picked out one he liked!!)

Introducing Videos!! (I hope)

Here is an old video that I took originally to send to my family (hence all the saying hi to each person), but never got it to work. Aiden is just over 2 in this video and Kyle is about 7 months. I will work on putting up newer videos (key words here are "work on"). Hope this works!!

Happy Birthday Granddad!

Birthday week continues!!

Here I am hanging out with my granddad, way back when, trying to lay just like him (notice our legs)! I loved going to my grandparents house when I was little and I was fortunate enough to live close by and spend lots of time with them. I have great memories of washing school buses, riding on tractors, eating Frosted Flakes, sausage gravy and your famous fried chicken, riding bikes on the best long driveway in town, and trips to Frederick shopping. You have been generous to me (and all of us) all my life and I am grateful for all you have done. Love you and hope you have a great day! Love Erin, Jason, Aiden, Kyle and Ryleigh

Making Everyone Happy

My lovely sister Ashleigh, who leaves for college in January! We are going to miss not having her around when we go visit. Ashleigh's work ethics will get her far in life. Hanging out with Ash is always fun.

Sweet Aimee, she has the best attitude and will do anything for anybody. I was lucky enough to spend lots of time with her when she was little.
My Dad, meeting Ryleigh this summer. A man who can always make you smile and you always knew you were loved dearly by him.
Liz, tons of memories with Liz. I think she is an unbelievable person and truly a loyal friend. Everyone that knows Liz, loves her.
Megan. She has to be one of the sweetest people you will ever meet, yet she will stand up for what she believes and she is not afraid to do so.
Sarah. Not to copy what I said about Megan, but it goes for Sarah too, one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. Sarah is a strong supporter and you would want her in your corner.

So apparently there has been some whispering about how others are feeling, I believe gypped was the word used, since I didn't put pictures of them on my blog for their birthdays. So here is a picture of everyone that has had a birthday since I started this blog at the end of June. I love you all and I am glad that each one of you are in my family!! Are you all happy now? You all need to give me some credit here. I have three little kids and a husband who works very long hours! I am doing the best I can. :)

(Note: Truth be know, Matt pulled my name for Christmas and we all know that Liz will be picking out the gift. We also all know that Liz is a really good gift giver and if you are lucky enough for her to draw your name, you don't want to jeopardize your chances of getting a really great gift. So I am just covering my bases here. Don't judge, you would do the same thing) :)

Happy 22nd Birthday Joe!

Do you think we have changed much? Too bad Chelly wasn't in this picture too.

I think you turned out remarkably well and I know it is from the mothering you received from all your sisters! :) Thanks for being a great friend to both Jason and I, and a great uncle to the boys, someone we will always be proud of them to look up to. We love you and are proud of you! Hope you have a fun day.

Little Feet

Ryleigh's new favorite pastime is playing with her feet. It is adorable to watch (At least Jason and I think so, we sit and watch her play all the time. Cheap entertainment!). She is also now trying to put them in her mouth. :) In other news, she can now pick up the toys she drops, she is getting way too big for her bassinet, but I don't want to put her in her room yet, and she is getting really loud. I guess she really doesn't have a choice but to be loud, to be heard over the boys. The boys continue to adore her. This morning I put her in her bouncy seat and told Kyle to watch over her while I took a shower. So he sat right down beside her and I said "You are her protector Kyle, so watch her and give her her toys, ok?" He said "Ok Mommy." I get out of the shower a few minutes later and Aiden is crying because Kyle hit him on the face while trying to kiss Ryleigh. I guess he took the protection part pretty seriously. We say, you've got the right idea Kyle, keep up the good work! (Just have to remind him that Aiden and Daddy are ok!) :)