Happy Halloween!

...from our little candy corn!

Kinley's first pumpkin

 We carved Kinley's 1st pumpkin last night. She was in charge of spoons.

 I stripped her down because I thought she would like getting messy. Not so much!

 Aaron hollowed out the pumpkin and moved it towards her. She didn't want anything to do with it. She cried!

 Once daddy calmed her down, it was back to her spoon.

 I swear she thinks we were crazy!

 Looking at the pumpkin close up with no tears!

 Feeling a little better about it.

 Maybe they can be friends!

Maybe not. :)

God Bless You All!

Isn't he the cutest!? :)

I hope you all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Mount Marathon Race

I spent the Fourth of July with friends in Seward yesterday. God has blessed me with great neighbors (Chris, Kirsten and their daughter, Addison) and they invited me along to spend the day with them. Seward is about 3 1/2 or 4 hours south of Anchorage. It is a little touristy town that reminded me a little of Ellicottville back home. It was a beautiful place! I am looking forward to Aaron and I visiting together when he gets home.

The main reason for the trip was to watch Chris's dad, Bill, compete in the annual Mount Marathon Race. I wasn't sure what to think of the whole idea on the way down but once we got there I couldn't believe he would attempt something like this!

Here is the mountain that made up the race. Isn't that nuts! This picture doesn't do it justice it is very high! People come from all over to compete in this race. They were announcing runners from far away as Virginia.

This is Bill crossing the finish line. It was his 10th year competing. I was amazed! I don't think I could have crawled up that mountain. There was a little drama to the day. The runner who was in first collapsed a few hundred meters from the finish line. He even tried to crawl but his body was having none of it. The ambulance had to come and get him.

Kirsten and I enjoying the beautiful! We were only a few of thousands of people who invaded the town for the race, parade and festival that took place. The emcee announced that Seward had gone from it's regular 3,000 residents to over 20,000 that day. No wonder it was a chore finding a parking space!

Kirsten's little girl, Addison. She had a blast playing with all the rocks while we waited for the runners to come off the mountain.

A random pic of Seward.

My Awesome B-day Gifts

It was raining yesterday so we didn't take them out and set them up. So, you get pics of the outside of the boxes. Does my hubby know me or what!? :o)

Also, thanks everyone for the great cards and birthday wishes!

Memorial Day

When I was little I didn't really think much about Memorial Day. I did know when I heard that Memorial Day was coming up I thought about getting a day off school, parades and a BBQ. Now that I have grown up and become a soldier's wife I have gained a whole new perspective.

I don't want to say it reminds me of those serving our country because honestly, I think about it everyday. It doesn't remind me to stop and think of those soldiers who gave their life for our country. I think of Ben and others everyday.

It may not a time of remembrance for me but it is a time for me to be thankful. I am thankful to all those who serve/have served in the military. I am thankful to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. I am thankful to all those families who support their soldier, marine, sailor or airmen.

My heart aches for those who have lost a son, daughter, father, mother, sister, brother or friend. But my heart is also filled with gratitude for those who sacrificed and continue to sacrifice everyday so I may have the freedoms I do today.

This Memorial Day also has affected me in a different way. It is another milestone in the calendar reminding me that Aaron is deploying soon. I can't give specific dates. The Army tends to frown upon posting anything that is a security risk! But I can tell you he will be in Afghanistan by the end of June.

This is the second deployment for me and I think it will be easier in some ways and harder in others. I don't feel like saying much about it now because I don't want to get upset. I try really hard not to cry or get upset around Aaron. It isn't fair to him. I don't want to make him leaving any harder than it already will be for him.

I am sure I will blog about soon. And I am sure you will get sick of hearing about him being deployed but for now, I ask for you to keep us in your prayers!

God Bless America!

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day Everyone!

No, I didn't forget about you all, I just wasn't home. Aaron and I both got a long weekend so we headed down to his Alma mater, West Point, to visit some friends. (I will blog about that trip soon!)

I am lucky to have such a great Valentine and it isn't because he buys such great gifts. Although, I do love the smell of the Clinique Happy Heart he got me. I love him for millions of reasons! There are the obvious ones but there are so many little things he does for me that make me love him so much.

*He always puts on the Special Features after we watch a DVD. He hates watching the Special Features.

*On the weekends he always makes me a 'Jackie Special' for breakfast. A non-dippy egg on buttered toast. And since I hate the yolk, so he takes most of it and eats it himself.

*When we are holding hands he guides me around disasters before I even realize the trouble I could get into. Heaven only knows how many wet shoes I would have had by now. But he checks for puddles in advance for me.

These are only a few reasons why I love Aaron so much. I think mostly I am so in love with him because he is truly my best friend! I hope your Valentine's Day, heck all your days are filled with love!

4 Years of Love and Laughter

On our wedding day, I promised to love you for all eternity. I love you more today than I did 4 years ago and I know our love will only continue to grow stronger! Thank you for being my best friend and a fantastic husband. I love you babe! Happy Anniversary.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas
...from our family to yours!

Christmas Pickle

I have seen/heard about the Christmas pickle for a few years now but I never bought one. Well, today I did because the ornaments were 50% off. Woo hoo! It is fun to have a little something special hidden in the tree. I searched for the story behind the pickle ornament and found the following from the website mymerrychristmas.com :

"The Christmas pickle is not really a pickle at all. It is a pickle-shaped ornament that is the last one hung on the tree on Christmas Eve. The first child to find the Christmas pickle gets an extra gift from Saint Nicholas. Or so the so-called legend goes.

There are two other versions of the origins of the Christmas pickle. One is a family story of a Bavarian-born ancestor who fought in the American Civil War. A prisoner in poor health and starving, he begged a guard for just one pickle before he died. The guard took pity on him and found a pickle for him. The pickle by the grace of God gave him the mental and physical strength to live on.

The other, perpetuated in Berrien Springs, MI, is a medieval tale of two Spanish boys traveling home from boarding school for the holidays. When they stopped at an inn for the night, the innkeeper, a mean and evil man, stuffed the boys into a pickle barrel. That evening, St. Nicholas stopped at the same inn, became aware of the boys' plight, tapped the pickle barrel with his staff, and the boys were magically freed.

Berrien Springs calls itself the Christmas Pickle Capital of the World. They celebrate with an annual Christmas Pickle Festival held during the early part of December. A parade, led by the Grand Dillmeister who passes out fresh pickles along the parade route, is the featured event. You may even purchase the German glass pickle ornaments at the town’s museum.

Rumor and speculation place the origin of this tradition in Germany. However, few in modern-day Germany recognize or have even heard of the Christmas pickle. Some in West Germany blame generations of East Germans who may have had nothing more than pickles to decorate their Christmas trees with after World War II. But even families and historians in East Germany shrug at the mention of the Christmas pickle tradition."

My very own Christmas pickle! I hung it on the tree before Christmas Eve but I figured since I didn't have kids I could get away with it. I don't want Boone sticking his nose anywhere around the inside of my tree. Who knows what kind of mess he would make!

Do any of you out there have a pickle hanging in your tree?

Ghosts of Christmas Past

I was going through a photo album that my dad made me a few Christmases ago and I came across these photos. It was cool to peek back into my earlier Christmas memories. I guess that is why I love taking pictures so much. It is cool to and look back on things and see stuff you might have forgotten. I also like seeing how the times change as well as the people. Although, some of these pictures make me look crazy even as a kid!

Obviously, I have no idea why the sour face! Whatever it was much not have bothered Nickie.

There is so much I love about this picture. It is Nickie, me and Alicia. It is awesome that we all have the same boots on. The looks on Nickie's and Alicia's faces are funny to me. And I loved that police car. It was like a powerwheels. Or maybe it was a powerwheels, who knows but it provided hours of fun!

Here I go again looking like a crazy person. I must have been really excited about that doll!

Here I am with my bowl cut. Hot right!? I am not sure if you can tell or not but in my lap is a Berenstain Bear doll. My Nana made me all the characters that I loved to read about so much. She rocked!

Merry Christmas Everyone! I know it isn't Christmas yet, but I am so sick of hearing people say 'You have to be careful who you say that to. It might offend someone'. Ugh! I am going to say it as much as I want, when I want. And if you don't like it, don't accept my holiday wishes! People say their version of holiday wishes to me all the time and I don't get offended. Where is the love!?!? It's Christmas for goodness sakes! :o)

Our Tree Is Up!

We decorated! I wish Christmas would last longer. I love having the tree up and the lights shining around the house. There is something so soothing about the soft light! It is kind of like the poor man's fire place. Ha ha ha!

Boone with the tree. I tried to take one of him in front of it with just the Christmas lights on but he was to dark to see.

If you check out the new title picture, you will see one of the newest ornaments we have purchased. It is cool to look at the tree and remember the fun places Aaron and I have got to explore together already. I look forward to seeing where all we can gather new ornaments in the future to document our adventures.

I was messing around with my camera in and around the tree. I love this bulb because it is a snowflake. It was right on target for the theme of our wedding 4 years ago this January. Wow, time flies!

I was sticking my camera inside the tree and taking random shots. Some of the best shots I have taken have been not looking through the view finder. Anyway, I found this shot in my 'roll' and thought it was pretty cool.

I hope your Christmas decorating is going off without a hitch!

Christmas Traditions

Aaron and I have been married for almost four years. We have developed a few Christmas traditions on our own but not many. I am sure that will come with time. But we both have great memories of traditions we grew up with and I thought I would share just a few of mine with you.

There are two that stand out in my mind. The first involves Alvin and The Chipmunks. Ever year, when we would get ready to decorate our Christmas tree, my parents would put on Christmas with the Chipmunks. We would dance around and sing while hanging the lights, garland and ornaments. My sister and I looked forward to it every year! This past Saturday before Aaron and I put up out tree we made a trip to Wally World to purchase the CD. After searching the whole store we finally found it! When we played it while putting up the tree, all seemed right with the world!

The second tradition we had at my house was that Santa always left a stuffed animal on our beds for us to find Christmas morning. My sister and I were so excited to wake up and see what we had gotten! There were even nights we slept in the same room hoping to catch him leaving us a gift. We would compare stuffed animals but Santa always knew the perfect stuffed animal to leave for each of us. Santa continued to bring me a special something at the end of my bed until I was about 22 years old. This is a special tradition that if we are blessed to have children I would love to carry on in our family.

My parents always made Christmas time special, maybe that is why I love it so much! Are there any Christmas traditions that you love? I would love to hear about them!

"In the meadow we can build a snowman..."

I started getting out all of our Christmas decorations yesterday. It instantly got me in the Christmas spirit! Aaron has been gone for a few days so I didn't want to do to much without him. We are putting our Christmas tree up Saturday. (I can't wait!) But I knew he wouldn't mind if I put up my snowman tree. I saw my cousin's, Christine, snowman tree years ago and loved the idea so much I decided to make one of my own.

Tree in regular light.

The tree lighting up the room!

My tree topper (for now). I need to find a little snowman who doesn't mind a light up his bum to stand proud a top my tree! ;o)

The best part about my snowman tree is that it can be left up the whole winter season. And well, honestly...I have been known to keep it up all year round. I haven't done it in awhile but can you blame me?! Who doesn't love a little snowman tree to brighten up their life?!

Be Grateful

Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Halloween!

(his on the left/hers on the right)
(Boone's was too hard to carve. Seriously! It was like a rock!)

Our 4th of July...

Our 4th of July was a pretty lazy day! We had a great time taking Boone swimming at Wolf's Neck State Park and hiking the trails there. We love going to state parks so much we bought a year pass. It will allow us to get into any Maine State park. There are a lot of parks here we are looking forward to exploring.

At night we headed over to Bath, ME where we watched the traditional 4th of July fireworks. This was the first year Aaron and I watched the fireworks over water. It was a beautiful display!

A view of the water from a trail.

Aaron trying to find a good place for Boone.

Boone loves the water! It was his first time in salt water. I don't think he liked the taste at all.

Boone had a blast. He was getting so tired but he didn't want to quit. Aaron had to make him get out of the water.

In Bath, waiting for the fireworks to begin.

I forgot my tri-pod, so my pictures didn't turn out great but it was still cool.

Here I got a good reflection off of the water. There were a lot of boats on the water watching the display. It looked like the fireworks were falling right on them. I am sure it was a cool spot to see them.

We also attended the Bath Heritage Days festival before the fireworks. We were able to get a fried dough and french fries to kick off our firework celebration. Those of you who know me, know that made my whole day!

I hope you all had as relaxing of a July 4th as we did!

Happy 4th of July!

How did this happen?

So, today I turned 31 years old. I don't know how it happened. Where did the years go? I remember when I thought 30 was a long way off. I am hoping 61 doesn't come as fast! Since Aaron had yesterday off (because he got a four day weekend) we decided to celebrate The Day-Before-My-Birthday Day! It sounds weird, I know, but hey this is me we are talking about!

So, we got up bright an earlier to head out to Reid State Park. We read on weather.com that the storms were rolling in early afternoon. We wanted to get to the park and enjoy what nice weather we could. Unlike many of the other Maine 'beaches' we had found, this one actually had sand! As soon as got there the weather started to turn on us. We ended up eating our Subway inside the truck so we wouldn't blow away. But we were so close, we couldn't leave without sticking our feet in the sand. Sticking my toes in the sand was cold and wet! Stupid me wanted a picture taken in front of the water. Of course I wasn't looking behind me and got nailed by a wave. My feet were freezing! I really felt like I had stuck my feet in a bunch of snow! Not wanting to get rained on we left the park.

See how gloomy it was out?

I bet not five minutes later the sun came out and things started to warm up. There wasn't a drop of rain that fell. We decided not to waste the drive out to Georgetown/Arrowsic, so we headed down to Squirrel Point Lighthouse. You couldn't see the lighthouse from the road. We actually hiked back in quite a ways to see it. At the end of the trail you could see the lighthouse far off in the distance. We were up for an adventure so we walked through wet sand, hiked over rocks, and slipped on seaweed to get closer. Just when it looked like we had gotten as close as we were going to get, Aaron tells me to wait and climbs up over a giant rock and disappears. He found a trail that will take us the rest of the way to the lighthouse. It turns out in the beginning of the trail we took a wrong turn and there was an easier trail that would have lead us all the way to the lighthouse.

This happens to us a lot! We always seem to take the harder route. But I kept telling Aaron all day that is wouldn't have been quite the adventure had we taken the easy trail. It was so much fun trying to maneuver our way to the lighthouse!

This is where the trail ended that we took. You can see the lighthouse far off in the distance.

Here is a closer photo of the lighthouse. I took this photo from the same place as the one above. Aaron, as my birthday gift, got me a great telephoto lens for my camera! I am so excited! Now I can take pictures of just about anything.

Our feet in the muck! It was the softest sand/mud I have ever felt. I told Aaron some ladies would probably pay good money at a spa to get covered with the muck we were walking through.

We made it! There was also a creepy house there. You can tell no one lives there but there was cereal on the table and a napkin. I wondered it they put it there to scare people. I didn't want to find out! I told Aaron I wasn't looking in the windows again because I didn't want to see a face looking back at me!

Later in the afternoon we decided to go to the movies. Going to the movies in the afternoon on a Tuesday is great! We were the only ones in the whole theater. We were able to laugh as loud as we wanted watching Baby Mama. It really liked the movie!

To end the day Aaron made me filet mignon, corn on the cob and shrimp skewers. Yummy! I had a great birthday this year. This year was the first time in two years that Aaron and I got to spend both our birthdays together. Deployment stinks like that! I can't wait to see what the 31st chapter of my life has in store for me.