The Day Daddy Left

As most of you know, Oliver had to go to a class in Virginia for 3 1/2 months. He left on Saturday the 9th around 5am. I went back to sleep for a little while, then was awakened by Cole around 6:30. At this point I try to turn on the kitchen sink and no water comes out of the faucet. I look at the thermometer and it is 12 degrees outside. So... (to quote myself from facebook) "It's 12 degrees, pipes are frozen, no water and Oliver left this morning... Yay me!"

On top of it all my kiddos do not have winter hats that fit their 110 percentile heads.

We finally got water back on around 10:30am so we could wash our faces and brush our teeth and we were off to the mall in search of hats. It was after Christmas, so retailers think people only need spring clothes now, so hats were not easy to find. Finally we stumbled upon a clearance rack and these are the hats we got...They wouldn't have been my first choices. Cole is thrilled as you can see...

I'm not sure what kind of a model pose this is. I think all of my picture taking has created a monster.

This one is for daddy. Kate said "Take a picture of me by this bear for Daddy. He will LOVE it" All in all we are doing fine. We all REALLY miss Oliver a lot, but at least he is in the country and only 1 time zone away this time.

Roll Tide

We have had a few Alabama folks try to give us a hard time about the National Championship game because Alabama beat Texas and we are living in Texas. Well.....We were NOT rooting for Texas. The kids wore Alabama t-shirts to school, and this was the game time attire. (Kate was a little excited...)

Christmas In a Nutshell

We had a fabulous Christmas this year! It was so wonderful to be all together. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, but I will just share a few...

Kate and Cole in their Christmas outfits
Kate and Cole very excited in their Christmas pajamas.Cole on his new motorcycle.

Kate VERY excited to get her American Girl doll Kit.

All together. YAY!There are so many fun things we did throughout the holidays that made great pictures, so I may add more at a later date if things are slow. (I'm not sure if they ever are...)

I hope you enjoy and I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Major Street

I am so proud, Oliver was promoted to Major this month. His pinning ceremony (velcroing in this case) was on the 4th and this was the first time I could be there for a promotion. It was a quick ceremony, the kiddos and I were there along with some friends and Oliver's co-workers. It was really nice.

Colonel Lukow saying some nice things about Captain Street

Me "pinning on" the new Major rank.

Colonel Lukow telling Oliver he is expected to know something now...

The Cake

Major and Mrs. Oliver Street and family

It was a GREAT day. We had to enjoy it, because it is a L...O...N...G time until he gets promoted again.

Cole's Birthday Party

This post is about a month late, but I need to start somewhere and this was a FUN day!

We had a birthday party for Cole with 8 of his friends. It was a helicopter themed party, and everyone had a great time.

We decorated helicopter shaped cookies...
Played out side and had a helicopter shaped pinata.Had a landing pad cake with cupcakes...

Opened presents...

and everyone left with a light up helicopter party favor...Thank goodness my mom was here to help. We had landing pads on all of the tables and there were cardboard helicopters flying overhead.

A great time was had by all...

Love and miss you all. Hope to hear from you soon...

Rain (finally)

We don't get much rain here in central Texas, so Kate jumped (literally) at the chance to finally wear her froggy rain boots and splash around. She has been waiting so long for it to rain enough to make puddles AND not be lightening. Here are some pictures from the fun.

Kate was running and squeeling with excitement!Trying to get daddy back...

Kate finally got Cole to go out with her. He wasn't too sure at first. (This is my favorite picture)

He's watching, learning, trying to figure this out...He's got it. Fun times...Now we just need it to rain again so we can go out and play some more.

Back Again?

Well, I said I was back and I had all intention of being the good little blogger and sending updates at the VERY least weekly and alas I have failed. Life has once again gotten in the way of sharing our life with all of our friends and loved ones.

So....

Let's try again.

I have so many AWESOME pictures and events from the summer I want to share, but I am going to stat with the present. It's BACK TO SCHOOL time! Woo Hoo!

Kate has started Pre-K and Cole is in a Mother's Day Out program 2 days a week (that translates to 6 hours a week for me). They are both at the same school Kate attended last year.

Kate's first day of school. She was really excited! As we were walking into meet her teacher she looked up to me an said (with a HUGE smile and bright eyes) "I am so excited! It is a red letter day!" What an amazing phrase for a 4 year old to use. I love it!Cole started school the next day. He wasn't quite as excited as Kate to go to school, but he was really excited about the motorcycle on his new shirt!Kate's 2nd day and Cole's 1st day.Outside the school. Cole is looking a bit nervous...Such a big girl...

OK, so now that the kids are back in school I will promise to do my best at updating the blog and adding pictures. And, as I mentioned before, I have so many great moments from the summer that I want to share. Please add comments (or just email me if you don't want to log in)so I know someone out there is looking.

Love and miss you all!