The one with the family pictures

We finally got new family pictures taken. My friend Liz took them. She did such an amazing job! Especially considering Ellie was rather grumpy and is pretty much frowning in all of them. She is most definitely my daughter. She's got her scowl down! haha There are just as many pictures of Jon blinking or not looking at the camera as the kids. Seriously he's like a big little kid. Of course it's hard to get all 4 of us looking and smiling at the camera at the same time. So they aren't perfect, but they let our personality shine through, which I totally love.

*picture overload headed your way...

 Remember this photo?... from 2010

We did a remake of it 3 years later. 

 He is such a ham. He kept asking Liz to "take a picture of me"

 We asked him to sit down and this is what he did. Totally posed

 this is my favorite one of these two. So studly! 

 Seriously, his face is awesome!!!

 Jon's face is awesome. And Taegen loves doing this. 

 This is pretty much how she was the entire time. We're lucky we got any shots of her being happy.

I love the progression of these next few. Oh the simple joys in life :) 

 Turns out all she needed was a little bit of food..yummy banana

 MUSCLES!

 Jon was trying to get E to look in the direction of the camera, so he's holding a fruit snack out in front of him. 

*sorry if there are any repeats. I tried to sift through them, but I did this post two different times so it was hard to remember which ones I had already put up. And since there are so many, I probably posted some twice and didn't notice. 

The one where I turn 27

Its weird to me that I'm 27. I use to think that that was old. haha. Of course now that I'm that old, I realize thats not the case. The day was a pretty relaxing day. Jon had school and we decided to not give gifts for birthdays or Christmas right now. Once we get our money back from the move we'll get each other gifts. We wanted to save our money for the expenses of relocating. I heard from all my sisters and my dad. Spent most of the morning on the phone talking to those I love. Then that night we went to the annual Christmas tree lighting and to see Santa on base.

At first I thought this was a real Christmas tree. I was in awe at how big it was. Then as we got closer I realized it was just lights draped over a regular tree. Taegen thought it was great non the less. 

 standing in line to see Santa

 The MWR took pictures and they one they took turned out much better than the one the elf took with my camera. 

 See it's all blurry. But in this one you can see how upset Ellie was. She did not like Santa. Oh and don't mind my posture in both of these pictures. I was hunched over trying to console Ellie. It didn't work.

Taegs with Santa

Before the festivities we went and grabbed some dinner at Popeyes, which I had never been to before. All in all I had a wonderful day. 

The one with Thanksgiving 2013

I didn't take any pictures this year. I know, not smart.

I made some rolls and an apple pie, and Jon smoked some turkeys and we headed over to Sgt D's house. (or as normal civilians would call him, Carlos Duliepre). Carlos and his wife, LaWanda, hosted a wonderful Thanksgiving for some of the soldiers that weren't going home to be with their own families. LaWanda is an awesome cook and she made some delicious food. I will say I was a little surprised with all the different foods she made. She made a lot more than just the traditional Thanksgiving food. There was mashed potatoes, turkey, rolls, dressing (stuffing), green bean casserole, mac and cheese, greens (collard greens that you eat with hot sauce), potato salad, corn, ham, roast beef, salad, candied yams, rice and beans. For dessert: my apple pie, lots of pumpkin pie, pecan pie, chocolate cake, strawberry cake, sweet potato pie and banana pudding. There was no cream pies. The banana pudding was the closest thing they had to a cream pie. I thought that was really odd. My family makes cream pies every Thanksgiving. We LOVE cream pies. In fact, those are really the only kind of pies we make. We're not huge on pumpkin or fruit pies. Jon then informed me that eating cream pies on Thanksgiving is not normal. We asked one of his buddies from upstate NY and he said they don't ever make them on Thanksgiving either. So I don't know if its just my family thats weird, but I sure did miss my cream pies. So the next day I went to the store and got a single serving coconut cream pie for me to enjoy :)

Taegen had a lot of fun with the daughter of one of the other soldiers. She was probably around 16 yrs old, so she probably didn't enjoy the company of a 3 year old as much as he enjoyed it. But she was a good sport about it.
Heres the only picture I have of that day;

Ellie loved the turkey!

We missed spending Thanksgiving with our families, but we had a good day none the less. It was my first time spending a major holiday away from family. Jon spent Thanksgiving in 2011 away at his mechanic AIT. It gave us a little taste of what Christmas will be like this year. Except we'll probably spend more time with just us as a family and less with friends.