Some Pics from Christmas

I didn't take nearly enough pictures over the holidays. I guess I was just too busy enjoying the fact that Mike was home this year! We had such a great time with family and friends in Kentucky.  It went by way too fast, as always.

Happy New Year to everyone!!

Mom and Dad's Christmas tree.

Met up with our friends, Sarah K. and Ryan, while we were home!

Quick family pic before church on Christmas Eve.

Cousins, William, Avery, AK & Austin.

The girls with their Mimi and Pawpaw. Can believe we forgot to take a Carnes family pic! Erg!

Uncle Brian. Avery LOOOOVES Uncle Brian.

AK perfecting her clay with her new pottery wheel. :)

Getting excited for Christmas!

These pictures are out of order because I'm posting this from my phone, but here are our Pre-holiday Highlights!

- Disney Princesses on Ice!
(when Rapunzel came out, Avery raised her arms up in the air in disbelief and kept them up the entire time. So funny.)
- Christmas tree!
- Hot chocolate!
- Decorating Christmas cookies!
- Live Nativity and caroling at church!
- Santa!
- Greatest part: Daddy is home this year to do it all with us!!! We feel very blessed this Christmas!

Hawaii!!

Hawaii Bound!!!!

We hugged and kissed the girls goodbye this morning. I cried, of course. But here we are in 21A and B. As I key this entry we are flying over the Pacific. Destination: Oahu!!! The nine hour flight isn't that bad so far. We only have a couple hours left! It's a lot easier when you don't have to worry about keeping your kids quiet. :) We've been watching movies, reading, playing checkers on the iPhone... And having uninterrupted conversations! I forgot what that's like!!! They're having a contest of who can guess the exact midway point of the flight down to the second. So naturally Mike got to work calculating wind speed and altitude. I hope we win and that the prize is a million dollars. :)

We are looking forward to some long overdue quality time together. I know we'll come back refreshed and itching to get our arms around our baby girls.

Picture Update!!

We've missed Daddy so much over the past three months that he's been gone off and on. We were really happy to welcome him home last Friday! We went to base and surprised him by being there when he landed. The girls wore their Halloween costumes since Mike has missed Halloween for the past three years.

Here are a bunch of pics from the last few months including fall festivals, Halloween, Mike's homecoming and the USMC Birthday Ball.

Mike and I leave for Hawaii (!!!!) next week for 10 days and we can't wait!! The girls will be staying in KY with Mimi and Pawpaw. We are attending Mike's brother's wedding in Hawaii and decided to make a second honeymoon out of it. Last time we were there was our first honeymoon. Ten years ago. So excited to go back!