Merry Xmas....the end of 2011!

Sunday Day 175 thru Saturday Day 188...
Here we are at the half way point of the year.  I have found myself not even wanting to blog as I got into the slump of the holidays.  I want to do nothing more than play with the kids outside in this beautiful 70 degree weather and watch Jasper go from a complaining little immobile man to a crawling and talking ( sign language) big boy!  But I feel like this is another fresh beginning as quite a few changes are about to take place that I will share.
  The last two weeks have been very touch and go at work, the amount of times they have called me "out" would be enough to fire a person if they called out that often in two weeks time!  The holidays are slow on base so therefore there are no children, without children there are no hours.  Period.  So I have spent the time enjoying the kids, cleaning, organizing, e-baying and more.  Our lovely babysitter is going back to school in a few weeks and has decided to take day classes.  This leaves me with only two choice; work in the afternoon at the CDC and stay home in the morning, or give my two weeks until a full time position worth paying a daycare for, comes available.  The children are all still on the waiting list at the CDC since June.  Bay is number 3 in the 5 year old room ( don't let this fool you, they already said she probably won't get in before school in Aug.) Jasper and Payton are somewhere down in the late teens...again not looking like anything until summer, if then.  So for now we make do with what we have to work with.  The week leading up to Christmas was a whirlwind.  Last minute plans and gifts and getting things in order for our first ever Christmas with Nana and Grampa Suratt!  They came in on Friday afternoon as that was our Christmas Eve.  Josh had to work at 4 am on Xmas day so we decided to celebrate a day early.  This also gave Roger a leg up on driving home on Christmas day as opposed to the day after when everyone else would be on the road.  We had a wonderful time, presents were amazing and everybody enjoyed their gifts.  The girls were enthralled with their bikes and could not believe that they were really theirs! It was so much fun to have them open their gifts to find that Santa had pretty much gotten them EVERYTHING they could ever want or need.  We are very thankful to all our friends and family who made that possible.  The week following Christmas was also just a blur....I have only worked two out of five days and was called out again yesterday and of course am not working on Monday as that is the actual " holiday" they follow on base.  I will not complain....I am happpppy to have this time with my family.  Today we will venture up by the airport to a family friendly New years Eve party.  Josh had a friend he met at the academy invite us up to enjoy some New Years festivities.  After that we will come home and hopefully celebrate the New Year with our Linda!  Love all of you and see you in the NEW YEAR!!!!

This is your face when you see you just scored two bikes for Xmas...thank you NANA and GRAMPA!!!

SUHHHWEEEET

Xmas eve bike ride to see lights...

Snow from RI!  Thanks to Mimi and Papa

No...wayyyyy Mimi and Papa got us these!????

Pirate nutcracker!  YEA!!!

Hey you....Yes You....See ya in 2012...

Happy Birthdays and Let It SNOW!?

Sunday Day 161- Saturday Day 174

So as far as the work week is concerned there is no news and nothing too exciting so I will just jump into my awesome birthday weekend!  I received a lovely package in the mail from my parents with an awesome gift....Cabbage Patch Doll with my birthday how cool!   The girls also received some fun Xmas gifts and activities to do.  They also got a really neat book, where Mimi and Papa narrate  The Night Before Xmas.  So cool and the girls adored it, ( over and over and over etc...)  We had a fabulous time, Josh, Linda, Branden and I at the Blue Fish Oyster Bar in Avondale.  Very upscale nice part of Jacksonville...if the schools weren't still horrible and part of Duval I would move there....but come summer we will be moving to Orange Park area so we are in Clay County.   Anyway, the food was wonderful and the company even better!  The bar tender was amazing and friendly remembering our names all night, and the oyster bar chef ( whatever you call him!) was awesome slowly easing me into eating raw shell fish...umm eww.  But I DID IT!  I can't say it was delicious...just salty which I love so, a win win.  After the birthday weekend we prepared more for Christmas and visitors.  This weekend ( yesterday and today) we have our Indiana family traveling through to Disney!  But first, the kiddies and myself along with Alexandra and her son Dominik went to the base for a Tropical Freeze day!  They blew in snow on a hillside in front of the Nas Jax Yacht Club and Marina and the girls sled all afternoon and enjoyed cookies and the bounce houses.  What a blast...and I WAS SWEATING!  Such an oxymoron!  I love spending time with each of my Florida friends, all are so different and so much fun in their own ways!  I am truly blessed to have made such great friends, and to have suckered them into crossfit! HAH!
         After the snow festivities we had family come in from Indiana and have dinner with us.  What a great time, just sitting around chatting about everything and anything.  Janelle did not want to put Jasper down and he loved ever second of that.  Sonya and I reminisced about the previous year ( pregnant and out on black friday finding out the sex of baby J).  Bruce sank into the couch and relaxed after the long drive and the girls ran in circles with Avery and Bryce.  It was a good time.  Next weekend Nana and Grampa come for Xmas and we face what I feel to be a touch decision.  Have Xmas on Friday so Josh can be a part of the morning opening gifts....OR have Xmas after naps on Sunday so Josh is home to see the kids open gifts?  Hmmm....going to have to think on it more.  Until then....its time to get wrapping?!

That is ALLLLL until after Xmas!