December Randomness..

This past weekend I took the kiddos to Disney on Ice! The show exceeded my expectations and was actually really cute! Drew and Claire loved it!

Enjoying some delicious and sticky 

cotton candy! 

                    Eddie the elf....

  Eddie our holiday elf returned in full force on December 1st! Drew and Claire come RUNNING down in the morning to see what mischief Eddie has been into!   

Every night I make Eddie do something different until Christmas Eve when he flies  back to join Santa! So far I've remembered to do something every night except once! I still pulled it off as I woke up at 4am in a sweat as I had forgotten to hide him!! Ran down stairs and made it a success for morning! 

I LOVE the age Drew and Claire are at!! It truly makes the holidays SO much fun!!

Here are a few things that Eddie has been up to lately..

Christmas

This Christmas was a little different as Andy was deployed this year during the holiday season. During this deployment December 25th was the day I was dreading as the kiddos start counting down the days till next Christmas staring the 26th of December. It was extra hard for Claire as she fully didn't grasp why Andy couldn't JUST come home for Christmas. So, I knew I needed to do something to make this magical and fun! I booked us a trip to our favorite and RELAXING resort in Florida leaving Christmas afternoon.

I took the kiddos there Labor Day weekend alone with the kiddos and we fell in love with the place. You can park your car and not get in it again until your ready to check out! 

The resort had a shuttle that drives you around, too many pools to count, beaches, movie theater on site, trails, tree houses, too many restaurants to pick from, and to top it off a zip line across a bay! 

Another moment I was dreading was making cookies from scratch.. Boy I HATE baking!! I love to cook, just not bake! It was a success though!!

Tearing into gifts!

Stopping to enjoy the bubble wrap..

Then it's all over and were (I'm) left with this!!

We had a good turkey meal. Claire loved helping carve the turkey!! (She also enjoyed snacking on it while she helped!)

Packed up the car that afternoon and checked into paradise!

Our room over looked the cute village!

Taking a break on the beach for a quick photo!

Jumping the waves!

On the resort site their was an American Girl store. Claire was in heaven!!! The lady who worked there couldn't have been nicer! EVERYDAY when we went in their the lady would gather doll clothes that matched Claire's outfit!! Claire was in heaven!

I brought the kiddos bikes then our condo came with a couple of bikes! Everyday we were out biking on the resorts amazing trails. I had to drag the kiddos off of their bikes as I was tired before them!

If we weren't biking we were at the play ground, in the hot tub, or in the amazing pool! 

A trip to España!!

Andy has been deployed to Spain for the past six months. Spain is his home base and off of that hex stays busy traveling to check on other battalion det sites.  We were thrilled though when we heard his home port was Rota where we use to live and only dreamed that I would go there for a visit!

After receiving the news that certain locations were allowed to take leave we thought, let's make this happen and meet up half way through deployment in Spain!!

I then called my mom and without hesitation she said she would come and watch the kiddos for a week so I could go. Words can't/ couldn't explain my level of happiness as I now had something soooo exciting to look forward too!!

Before I knew it the long wait of my departure date was here and I was off for a week in Spain!!

Andy was able to take a much needed week off and had everything perfect. Including a huge arrangement of flowers waiting for me!! (He's only bought flowers a hand full of times since we've been married, so when he does its really special!) 

We spent one night in Malaga enjoying the city, beaches, restaurant's, and a hike to a castle that over looked the city.

Another day we went over to Cadiz.

In Cadiz they have a huge seafood market, which we loved while living there!

One of the nights we went and met up with a group of friends that still live there!! Beyond fun..!!!

And the wine... Soooooo good!!

We stayed a few nights with our good friends the Andros family. It was so fun to catch up with them and be silly with they're sweet little girls. We love the navy life, however moving away from people that you want to stay neighbors with forever is sooooooo hard!

An afternoon we spent in cute Puerto Cherry and walked the beach the rest of the afternoon!

At the end of a meal in Spain (most Europe) they provide you with a shot of alcohol. One just sits there, sips it, & enjoys the flavor. 

And what's a trip back to Spain without some sangria!

The week couldn't have been more perfect. Andy and I are beyond appreciative  to have a week together and break up a six month deployment separation. We realized Spain is still beyond perfect and we want to live there forever!

Tiger Cub's

Drew is participating for the first time in Boy Scouts. I don't know why, but I've always been skeptical of Boy Scouts!! We decided to give it a try though as their mission and projects are amazing! I couldn't be more impressed with Drew's troop here in Gulfport!! The two dads that run it are SO fun and have it together. 

This past Sunday we went to a local pizza shop and learned how to make homemade pizza!! 

It's really nice, there is another little girl Abby, who's Claire's age and also goes to all the events (those two participate in everything and anything the boys are doing!) 

Making the dough 

Smoothing the dough out

Putting on all of the fixings

Waiting patiently for the pizza's to come out of the oven 

And enjoying their final product! 

Halloween

Last weekend it was Halloween Balooza on base!! We had three Halloween parties to go to and were only out of our costumes to sleep!! Cade and Lucy (their cousins) joined us for our party weekend!

The base put on a huge Halloween party across the street from us on the lake!

Right across from our house is the lake. On the lake is an "island" with a bridge to get across and the kiddos LOVED it there!! 

All weekend we drank out of Halloween plastic wine cups! This photo cracks me up!

Every superhero drives a dirt bike.. 

On Halloween we went down to the neighbors and all went trick or treating together! The guys took the kiddos around the hood and is chicks passed out candy in the drive! We had a great Halloween!!