Built Ford Tough...

Santa knew what he was doing! This boy LOVES his Ford truck!

He was a little nervous about driving to begin with but after a few seconds he was all over the yard like a pro! He had so much fun driving over the pile of leaves in the backyard and trying his best to run over me while I was taking photos! :)

And just to prove my children are little snot heads...

That's what Noah & Preston gave me when I asked for nice smiles. *sigh* Gotta love boys!! ;)

Merry Christmas from Japan!!

Santa has come & gone here in Japan!!! He completely overestimated the amount of space in our house! ;) NO idea where we're putting all of this stuff!

Here are a few quick photos for now... I'll add more after things settle down a bit.

Someone needs to figure out where we're going to put this truck!!! The thing is MASSIVE! The load limit is 150 pounds!! He can haul two friends along! For reference, that's a 32" tv in the entertainment center. The truck is the same size as the whole cabinet width.

And Santa wasn't thinking... Tinker Toys, Legos, K'nex... just how many small pieces parts does this kid need?!?! Noah loves to build stuff so all the little tiny things were a big hit!!

Just LOOK at that face!! Now THAT's my boy!!!! He was super excited by the digital camera!

And who would've thunk it?! The biggest hit of the entire haul was these $6 Nerf guns! All 4 boys got one... and a full-on war insued! I'll be purchasing my own gun as soon as possible! These boys are brutal!!! :)

25 Days Of Christmas

These 25 questions were asked on ScrapFreak.com and I'm going to take a few minutes to answer. I've been insanely busy the last few weeks and I haven't been online much. I miss everyone at ScrapFreak...

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? hot chocolate
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? wrap except for LARGE things... those get a big red bow!
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I prefer white, but my prelit tree has colored. Outside is all white.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Yes!
5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually around the 1st of December.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Sweet Potato Souffle. My mom made it every year!
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Getting a horse! My parents wrapped a container of horse food & it took me a few minutes to figure out what it meant!
8. Do you collect anything for your Christmas decor? Not intentionally, but I've got a lot of snowmen now. :)
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes... usually jammies & a book.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? It's a complete mix since we buy a new ornament every year for the 4 boys!
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it... but didn't have it growing up!
12. Can you ice skate? Never tried. I'm from Florida!
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Yes. Last year my hubby sent me pearls... while he was deployed.
14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Having my family together.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Pumpkin Cheesecake
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Watching holiday movies with the boys & baking cookies for Santa together.
17. What tops your tree? A German tree topper... not a star or angel. It's a pointy thing... blue with a handpainted winter scene on it. :)
18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving. Love to see the boys' faces!!
19. What is your favorite Christmas song? None really. I love to hear the music when we're opening gifts, but I hate getting the songs stuck in my head for DAYS!! I was the Christmas tree for "O Christmas Tree" in a school play (4th grade) so that one isn't my favorite!!!
20. Do you send Christmas cards? If so, handmade, store bought, or photo cards? Some handmade, some store bought
21. Favorite Christmas movie? The Charlie Brown Christmas one!!!
22. What do you leave for Santa? milk & homemade cookies
23. Have you ever shopped on Christmas Eve? Yes... for last minute guests that decided to show up unannounced!
24. Red or green? Green! (and I didn't plan for this answer to be GREEN either!!) heehee
25. Do you get ready before opening presents on Christmas morning or do you go straight to the tree PJs, bedhead, and all? Tom & I get dressed. The boys are usually still in jammies, but I do ask everyone to brush hair & teeth! The older boys are ok with that... Noah, not so much!! :)

Noah isn't the only one that got something new...

It may have been Noah's 5th birthday, but Dewayne got the biggest present!!!

He sold the black Toyota Supra a week ago & used that money along with his first full paycheck and some Christmas money (Thanks Grandma and Granny & Papa!) to get this new car & pay for his insurance! It's a Nissan "One-via".... it's a limited edition... something about the front end body style of some car & the rear end body style of some other car... I don't know... but it's a very pretty deep blue and it's in MUCH better shape than the Supra. He LOVES it!!! And I love that it's not a fixer-upper... because it won't cost a small fortune to fix it every other week! ;)

He wants to take more photos to show Grandma and Granny & Papa but he was busy with school and work yesterday. Maybe this afternoon we'll get some that show the great blue color and the engine. (Apparently it's important to show Papa the engine!) :)

New photos added. Here's the engine Papa!

Has it really been 5 years?!?!

It just doesn't seem like Noah should be 5 already. The time has flown by and I'm just not ready for him to be this old yet! I guess I have to accept it eventually... but for now I'm going to pretend it just isn't true. ;)

The birthday boy had a good day. We had our traditional "mom & birthday boy" breakfast, just me & Noah early this morning, then we talked on the phone with Grammy & Papa so they could wish him a Happy Birthday. We had one rough pillow fight (I lost!) and watched about 2 hours of mind-numbing cartoons. Lunch was the usual peanut butter sandwiches... his choice! Then it was time to get our cook on!!

My little chef helped make his own birthday cake! He certainly enjoys using the kitchen gadgets. I think the electric mixer is his new favorite! We had loads of fun with the decorating spray color for the cake! That stuff goes EVERYWHERE!! Noah wanted to try all of the tips to the decorating tube. We have flowers, leaves, some basket weave & something that is supposed to be a star but didn't turn out all that great... all on one cake! I think it officially got out of control when he got the sprinkles!!! And his masterpiece: After hearing "Can we have cake now?!" a bazillion times throughout the afternoon, it was finally time! We brought out the cake as soon as dinner was done. Noah reminded us all that we had to sing to him before the cake was even on the table!

And then it was time for presents! Legos from Mom & Dad... (not sure WHAT we were thinking... 550 tiny little pieces!), a book with cars & a road mat from Grammy & Papa in Florida, Transformers from the brothers and a ClickStart keyboard game from Grandma in Ohio. I love how excited he was with every present! He had to play with it all... and I'm not sure when... or if... we'll ever go to bed tonight!

Happy Halloween!!!

It's after 9:30pm here so our Halloween is done. Trick-or-treating is over. Noah put on 3 different costumes before he finally decided what he was wearing.... FIVE MINUTES BEFORE TRICK-OR-TREATING STARTED!!! I originally bought him a pirate costume on clearance after Halloween last year... and he wanted to be a pirate up till about two weeks ago. He changed his mind to a dinosaur... so while Daddy was in Seattle, he found a great dinosaur costume... but he put it on & decided he didn't like the way the head fit him. Can you say "wasted money"???? Funny thing is... he didn't wear either of those! Daddy brought him his very own flight suit from one of his trips... it has patches like Daddy & even has his name embroidered on one patch... so he wore that with one of Daddy's old flight helmets... TADA! a pilot!

Noah had so much fun going trick-or-treating. He was the hit of the neighborhood in his costume.

And he got WAY too much candy. This is only about half of his loot. I had to dump out his little pumpkin bucket into this bigger bag. He filled the little pumpkin twice!!

I hope everyone has a fabulous Halloween with lots of treats!! Our night is over... and we are TIRED!!

a boy... and his (temporary) dog

We're doggie-sitting for a friend for about 6 weeks... and today was Day One. :) Charlie arrived around 1pm and quickly made himself at home... checked out every room in the house, sniffed everything, marked every tree in the yard, played ball with Noah, went for a walk & took a nap.

Charlie is a great dog. He's a beagle. Really friendly but not hyper & only barks at other dogs, which we don't have around our house very often. He's obviously sad that his owner isn't here... but he's warmed up to us really quickly. Noah was super impressed with the tricks he'll do for a treat! "Roll over" scored major points!

We're using this doggie-sitting as a "trial run" for getting a dog of our own. Noah has been begging for a dog for about a year. If this goes well, we'll get him a dog about the time Charlie goes home... which will be sometime near the end of November or beginning of December. I'm not a fan of pets for Christmas or birthday gifts, but it just happens to work out close to the holidays and Noah's 5th birthday (December 13).

Reality set in about 10 minutes after our friend left Charlie here... EEK!!! I have a dog in my house!!! But after our time outside and a few laps around the house, I see this:
... and I think this is gonna be just fine. :) They are in the livingroom floor, looking out the patio doors... nothing out there... but they watched that nothing for 20 minutes!

A quick peek...

Just a quick peek at the photos from the Air Force Ball for Mom!!

My Lil Chef

Noah has always loved to be in the kitchen with me... right in the middle of anything I am cooking... so I've always let him help with simple stuff. He loves to stir anything... and I can't crack an egg EVER!! If he hears me cracking eggs, he'll come running... and if I only needed one & didn't let him do it... Oh.My.Gosh... he'll freak!!

Tonight I was breaking up a loaf of bread to make an egg bake for tomorrow morning and he walked in the kitchen. BUSTED!! He pulled a chair up and washed his hands within seconds! The egg bake takes 10 eggs so I had to cut a deal: I would crack the eggs & he could stir them up.

So... do ya think he likes to cook?!

And this is what I got when I told him it was my turn to stir the eggs:
I envisioned 10 eggs and 3/4 cup of milk ALL over my floor...
Apparently I was laughing too loud... or maybe the egg bake was supposed to be a secret????
Stirring eggs... ... and stirring eggs... ... and stirring eggs some MORE. *sigh* My lil chef... Guess he isn't ready to stop cooking... ** He isn't really making a fist at me... we were both being goofy. I stuck my tongue out at him & he said he'd "pop me in the eye"... ;) I think he got my sense of humor!

PS... this egg bake recipe is one I got from my bestest friend Amy in South Dakota. It's GOOD!

Amy's Egg Bake

Tear bread into little pieces – I use French bread but you can just use stale white bread too. For our family I use enough bread to cover the bottom of a 9x13 pan. (Be sure to spray your pan with non-stick cooking spray!!) Mix 10 eggs with ¾ cup of milk and salt to taste – beat well, and then pour over the bread.

I top mine with chopped up deli ham – but you can use any breakfast meat you would like – crumbled sausage or bacon. Sprinkle with cheese to cover. Let sit in the fridge covered over night or at least 4 hours. The bread will soak up the egg mixture. After it sits (or in the morning), put a few thin pats of butter or margarine around on the top (gives it a little moisture while it bakes) and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or so – until it’s golden.

A lil summertime fun in the backyard today! Tom and Noah went outside to set up the kiddie pool... and it turned into an all out water gun war! :) Before it was over, they drug out two water hoses, 4 water guns, a bucket & a kiddie pool!

I got some photos of the water fight... and some of the watermelon break too!