As promised, we finally posted some pictures of the house.  Granted, they are a little late and I still need to add some more, but it's a start

 

We're off to a great start to the Holiday week.  I'm on vacation this whole week and loving my time as a "stay at home mommy".  Alli and I even went to storytime at the library today, where she had a great time playing with the other kiddos.  We're also gearing up to host our first family Thanksgiving and cannot wait.  It should be quite an experience!  Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

We have so enjoyed being back in WA and living near our families.  With the holidays quickly approaching, we are very aware how fortunate we are to back with our families.  Although we flew back to WA every year for Christmas, this will be our first Thanksgiving in WA since 1999!  We are so excited that our families have graciously allowed us to host it this year :)  Fortunately, they are also allowing us to host Christmas too!  This is particularly special to us because we have never woken up in our own home on Christmas as hard as that is to believe.  We love the holiday season, all of the decorations, yummy food and being with our families.  One thing we are particularly excited for this year is working at Pop's tree farm.  For those of you who do not know, G's g-pa owns a U-Cut Christmas tree farm.  It is so much fun to spend the day up there chatting with happy families and handing out candy canes.  Alli has already had her first candy cane this season and I think we may struggle to get her to give any away as she liked them so much

 

Not much else is new with us.  We had our Open House a couple weeks ago and had a wonderful time sharing our house with friends and family.  We had 9 little ones at the Open House (including Alli) and the kids all had a great time playing in the play room.  Alli seemed so excited to have so many friends at her house!  Must have gotten her over her little "shy kick" because since that day, she's had a blast playing at the nursery at church on Sundays ~ YEAH!  We love having her spend the days with her g-parents but we are always looking for ways to get her interactions with others her age.  We are going to start going to story time at the library and are looking into some dance and music classes so hopefully she will continue to enjoy playing with other kids.

 

We have finally taken lots of pictures of the house and will post them later this week.  On a slightly separate note, thank you for understanding our desire to make this blog private.  It came to our attention that random folks were veiwing it and that made us a bit nervous.  We hope you do not find this too much of an inconvenience and will completely understand if you choose not to visit the site, we just had to put safety first.

Today is Veteran's Day, a very special day to me and an opportunity to thank all of the wonderful men and women of this country to serve in our Armed Forces.  I would particularly like to thank four special men in our family who have served our country:  my Dad, who retired from the NAVY after 26 years of service as a CWO4; my wonderful husband, who proudly served our country in the Air Force for 8 years, separating as a Captain in August; Uncle Greg, who is a retired ARMY Lt Col; and Cousin Brandon, who also served in the ARMY.  We are so fortunate for all of the men and women who put our country above all and protect the rights and privileges we all have.  Thank you!!!

 

Here is a picture of my favorite Veteran from his tour in Iraq . . .

Here's one of the family at Captain Fisher's goodbye party . . .

It will likely come as no shock to anyone that we were less than pleased with the outcome of the election.  That said, we are so happy that it is over and we can move forward and pray that we will be proven wrong.  The majority (in every sense of the word) has spoken and we have to have faith that this was the right decision for our country at this time.  Certainly, in some ways, it is such a proud moment for our country and a true testament that we have come so far.  I personally would still like to see an end to the electoral college, however, I am thrilled that for the first time in 8 years, we will not have to debate whether anyone "stole" the election.  Although he did not receive our votes, President Elect Obama certainly received the majority of the American votes and won this election fairly.  It truly is a proud moment for America!  It is extremely unlikely that I will ever agree with the majority of his policies, particularly when it comes to taxes, but I will support him while he is in office and I pray that the rest of the country follows suit.  The Office commands our support and respect.  I only hope that this country will show him more respect than it has shown our current President.  Love them or hate them, they give up much to serve our country and they deserve our respect.  Okay, I will get off my soap box now!