football friday

today was a tailgate party at story time at the library. of course this meant kstate football gear for everyone. creighton managed to sleep through the entire thing so i've included other random pictures of him.

park pictures and chub

my friend melissa and i have been touring the parks in the area. we went to one over by the community center. yes, the kids are in short sleeves and yes, these pictures were in january. and no, i'm not a bad mommy -- it was in the 80s that day.

the other is a chub chub measurement. yes, that thigh is 10 inches around. as for a roll count there are three at the knee and one in the groin -- that is for each side.

something interesting

Photo one is of course Creighton. Photo two is another Wahab and you get three guesses to figure out who.

Ready?

ok.

nope, it's not Creighton and those aren't my legs.

nope, it's not Neilson either.

give up?

It's my brother in law Jamie. I've had 3 people in the past week tell me that Creighton looks like Jamie as a baby so I had to go digging to find out. Luckily, Neilson has all of this family photos scanned onto our computer. While this isn't the closest shot of Jamie, it is one that would upload. I have to admit I see it too. It's hard to miss actually. Jennifer was telling me when she called that Jamie has always wanted someone to look like him and I guess Creighton is it!

Bronco Park

It was 75 degrees in Texas today and that means park time. Melissa and I took the kids to Bronco park this afternoon. Grace rode her bike a mile while there and it was another half mile there and back on her bike :) Creighton enjoyed the fresh air and new sights and smells!

It was a nice change of pace from the mountains of laundry I've been trying to tackle. Grace had a bit of a stomach bug and so we had extra towels to wash.

Grace's excitement today was pajama day at school. She loved wearing her princess kitty jammies to show her friends.

Creighton's big news was going to child care during my bible study. That's right, I let my baby out of my sight for 2 whole hours. I have to admit it was heaven.

wazoos

we had quite the day today. we got up and went to story time and on the way home i was messing with my glasses at a light and popped out a lens. well, i have to have glasses to see to drive so i made my way home, picked up my old glasses and we headed off to the optometrist to get mine fixed. then we went to lunch at mccalisters deli yum. after that we went to wazoos.

wazoos is in indoor inflatable place here in killeen, it is great when the weather is less than perfect. here is a clip (sideways) of grace going down the bit slide. http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e99/ksuwahab/?action=view&current=1-16-09014.flv

it also has a toddler area that creighton had fun playing in. as you can see he loved sitting in the bumpo chair and laying on the squishy shapes.

the child in the first two photos is a friend of ours. he loooooves creighton. everytime we see him he practically climbs in his carseat to give him kisses. he also likes to have creighton look at him. he is oh so gentle, which says alot as our friend is not yet two.

after wazoos we came home and took baths before heading over to lorettas for dinner. she had an awesome taco bar spread out and we gorged.

Hello Out There

Hello all you blog readers. Yes, I'm being ambitious and saying you all. I spoke to Neilson today and he mentioned getting lots of cards recently. He also mentioned that there are more people reading this than I imagined. So now I have to ask you to please comment with your name so I can see who reads my ramblings and follows our wandering. Let me take a moment to refresh your memories on how to comment.

At the end of an inividual post there is a little line noting the time I posted followed by a number and the word comments. e.g. 0 comments --- click on the word comments. The new screen will have two columns, on the left is a list of all the comments, on the right there is a large box. Write what you would like in that box and please sign your name. Then scroll down and it will ask you to choose an identity. Click on the little circle to the left of the word anonymous. Then click on the large button that says, "publish your comment". Viola! you have done it and left your mark.

So on to our happenings today. As I said, I spoke to Neilson. He reports that he is settled in and has a new office that he shares with 1st Sgt. It is cold at night so he is sleeping with his sleeping bag and the blanket provided to him. He also has 2 pillows, one he bought in Kuwait and one sent for his birthday :). He is working on Mosul's city affiars which is something new and interesting for him. He has been receiving mail including many cards and a box from Marjie and Don and a box from us. I asked if he needed anything and he said breakfast or snacky items would be great as he doesn't always have time to get breakfast. However, he said he has plenty of drink mixes and pop tarts. So what does that leave to send? Hell if I know. If you figure that out let me know - haha.

MCCW (Military Council of Catholic Women) started up again for me today. Our parish priest Fr. Wood came and spoke to us. The topic was supposed to be on purgatory and we did chat a bit but really he let us have a Q&A and I learned some cool little tidbits. One of the more intersting things I learned is that he is a married Catholic priest with children. He was a Lutheran minister and got the calling to convert and long story short he has special permission from the pope to be a priest. I thought it was kind of cool. He is the 1st Cav division Catholic chaplain so he will be deploying soon.

Grace had school again today and they are finishing up reviewing the alphabet. She enjoys school and being with her friends. She also likes to show off her room and work to anyone that will listen and look. She has a new photo of her and Neilson on the hero wall.

Creighton has discovered a new game that he enjoys. It's called up baby, down baby. I hold him in the arm pits and stand him up (up baby) and then sit him down (down baby). I announce in a sing songy voice up baby and down baby as we play. He thinks it's wonderful. This game does tend to pump the urp out of him so it is played with a towel in my lap.

Hmmmm I think that is it. Like I said, please leave a comment so I can get a feel for who is reading.

Texas People

Texans are funny. I got an email from Grace's school today. It was the January newsletter and it ended with a paragraph about making sure you had enough firewood and hot chocolate to get through the cold weekend coming up. I looked at the weather for this weekend -- it will be in the 40s and 50s. HA I'm sure I'll see people bundled up too. I might put on long sleeves.

My kids don't even own heavy coats this year. We get by on little sweaters, layers, or sweatshirts. Creighton gets a blanket thrown over him.

See the photo? That is what real cold weather looks like. It was taken in either late 06 or early 07 at our house in Kansas. I remember we played a long time outside that day so it must have been in the upper 20s or low 30s. I don't remember it being particularly cold either. Texans don't know what they're missing.

Diaper Pictures

see i told you cloth diapered babies were cute. look at that fluffy butt.

here's what we look like now

OK

i knew i couldn't keep up with daily posts. between daily emails and well life there just wasn't time.

anyway, we've been quite busy. several of us ladies have been taking turns hosting dinner. it's great for the wives and the kids. it also rocks not having to cook dinner everynight.

some updates on each of us.

grace went back to school this week. she was ready. she missed her friends and the routine. we will miss st. christophers for sure. she also took the bedrail off her bed!

creighton has started giving kisses -- note the last photo. he just opens wide and waves his head around. it's pretty cute.

heather hmmmm... well, hmmm. i'm pretty boring actually. i made a daddy doll for my neighbor and ummm... hmm. well i'll try to do something interesting this week to make up for the lack of interest.

neilson is now officially 30. he is safely in mosul which in bible times was ninevah. there are ancient ruins there and a mosque named after jonah. kind of interesting to be in such a historical/biblical location. he is getting settled in and the brigade they are replacing should be leaving soon.

oh and the rest are just shameles photos of the kids. the other night i managed to get them both to look at the camera and smile - quite a feat. we had fun taking some shots.

25

We had freezing rain today! Can you believe it?? The bushes in our yard looked like crystal as did the trees. However, the roads were great because they were so warm still.

Grace starts back to school tomorrow so today was her last day of vacation. She is getting quite good at sounding out words to write. She is also quite good at following directions to draw something. She spent her day drawing little pictures for a suprise for daddy.

Creighton was a sleepy boy. He napped on and off all day and was very mellow. He had a nice bath and enjoyed the water. He is trying so hard to talk. When I hold him up face to face he opens his mouth so wide and you can see him trying to make words. I'd try to get a picture but every time he sees the camera he focuses in on it and the only expression is concentration.

24

Happy Birthday to me!
We went to lunch with Loretta, Melissa and all the collective kiddos. YUM YUM!!
Must nap... so tired.

23

Another very warm day in Central Texas. it got up into the low 80s i believe - yuck. No wonder I have a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit when the temps tell my body it's spring. gah!

We took some time to play outside today because of the fantastic weather. Both kids seem to love the fresh air.

Our only outing was to church. I brought my little old lady magnets with me and got quite a bit of attention. Grace charmed all the people sitting around us with her good manners and went out of her way to shake everyone's hands during the sign of peace. Creighton looked ever so cute snuggled into the wrap and I had many ladies peering over my shoulder to look at him.

Oh and now I must confess my new found crispy cruncy granolaness. My disclaimer is that though I now have a cruncy granola coating I still retain my nougety conservative center and only participate in activities that either save me money or do not cost me any more money so it is a combo of granola and thrift.

So back to the confession. I have worked this past week on expanding my cloth diaper stash. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll be up to 18 after some boxes come in the mail. I'm hoping that will get me through the day and bit into the next which will help with the washing. I am still going to use disposables for night as they are more absorbant and keep Creighton's skin drier. I will also use them when we travel. The second bit to the granola is I also started making my own wipes. I made them out of paper towels with Grace but this time I've taken the extra step to make fabric ones. I had a bunch of hand me down baby towels that i cut up and zig zagged around. Now I'll just keep them in a recycled wipes container with a bit of wipe solution. (water, babywash and babyoil) Combine this with my project of making my own grocery bags out of recycled fabrics and there you have it.

22

This afternoon it was in the mid 70s for central Texas which means it is perfect park weather. Here is Grace playing in the swirly ladder tube at our favorite park. Bronco park has the nice rubber play surface. Grace loves to take her shoes and socks off and run around and I wish I had gotten a picture of her feet when we left. They were black! I call them her little dirty birdie feet.

Here are some photos that are pretty typical of Creighton and I's evenings. He goes to sleep between 9 and 10 and we hang out on the couch for awhile before I put him to bed bed. Hey, he's only this little once and if I want to enjoy holding the sleeping baby I'm going to! Grace won't let me anymore!!

We sent off the first boxes today. One big yet light one contained his stetson. The other small yet heavy one had some documents he needed. Sadly, neither was all that fun. Why do I mention such mundane details as the size and weights of the boxes, well, it is because I want you to picture something: (cue dreamy side waves) Myself, Grace (who cannot lift the small box nor get her arms around the large one), Creighton in his baby seat and my purse.

How many trips did it take to get to the car? 3

How did we get into the post office? very slowly because I had to get the stroller out, put small box underneath, give Grace my purse, push stroller one handed with big box under other arm while Grace holds onto handle of stroller.

Point being I'm sure we looked like a motley bunch trying to cross the insanly busy post office parking lot.

The first mail award of this deployment goes to Jean and Stan. Neilson received a card from them today. Congratulations Jean and Stan, your fabulous prize is in the mail, yeah, that's the ticket, it's in the mail.

I did hear from Neilson today. He made it to his final destination that I can now say is Mosul. It's in the north. And in biblical times was Ninevah (think Jonah and the Whale). He reports that Mosul is a very dirty, war torn city, the worst he's seen. Their FOB is also very dirty though he did conceed that it is the rainy/muddy season. He also will have spotty internet and phone communications in the short term due to a variety of reasons.

extreme close ups

mr. poopy face

mommy i really don't want to be in the bouncy

really mommy i don't like it.

ok i'll hide behind my hands

creighton was unhappy about being in the bouncer/vibrating chair. i couldn't catch his little pouty lip but i did get plenty of pitiful poopy faces. :(

21

not much to say so i'll just put lots of pics.