Valentine's Day 2012

Kerriann woke up on Valentine's Day to a pile of sweet gifts from a few special family members.

First she opened gifts from her grandparents. A Dora jewelry set from Grandma and a cute red dress from Grammy and Papa (which you'll see in pictures in the future!).

Next up was the package from Aunt Julie and family... markers and chocolate, two of her favorite items!

And finally... presents from mommy. A box of princess chocolates and a new pair of "sparkly shoes" since her black ones are getting tight. I knew we would need replacements before too long!

Kerriann and I both got cards in the mail from Kevin. It is always such a treat when we get mail from him and it made my day! He's also treating me to a day at the spa... if I can just find a few free hours to go. Even though he is so far away, he knew exactly how to spoil me this year. I was worried that Valentine's Day might be depressing for me, but the little things he did meant so much to me that I still had a great day. Hope everyone else's Valentine's Day was filled with just as much love as ours was!

On the Eve of Valentine's Day

The day before Valentine's Day I picked Kerriann up from school and took her to pick out Valentines to give out to her classmates for the first time. 

We went to Target (where I was extremely disappointed with the selection) and she picked out Disney princess cards. 

She was so excited to open the box and start addressing them when we got home. Her teachers sent home a list of names, so I wrote them out and then she signed her name in purple.

I put some Valentine's Day themed cookies in the oven to bake as we worked, just for good measure.

I had so much fun making cards with Kerriann for the first time. Next year I'm hoping to get more creative and help her do something homemade for her friends and teachers.

Happy Valentine's Day (And KA's pro photos)

Happy Valentine's Day to all of our family and friends, near and far!

I have many pictures to share, but unfortunately I forgot my memory card in the computer lab on campus, oops! Luckily one of my friends had a night class and was able to grab it for me, but my Valentine's Day photos will have to wait.

For now, check out Kerriann's Valentine's Day Mini Shoot with Tyler Plank Photography by clicking HERE. This was our second session with Tyler and we love how our photos turned out. She is so great with toddlers and really captured Kerriann's personality.

Christmas Day in Photos

We spent Christmas day at our house in Morgantown this year.  My immediate family joined us for a big lunch and more gifts, and my Aunt Sherrie, Uncle John and cousin Chris stopped by for a few hours as well.  It was so great having that time alone as a family, yet still being able to share part of the day with a few of our loved ones.  Kerriann got completely spoiled by all of us and is still loving all of her new toys!

Christmas Eve 2011

On Christmas Eve, we drove back from Gassaway just in time for me to make a quick trip to Kroger for Christmas Day food supplies, get ready, and head to Christmas Eve Mass as a family.

Since we were alone, we got a few family portraits courtesy of the self timer before heading out.

After mass (Kerriann was great!), we came home to set out milk and cookies for Santa as well as carrot sticks for his reindeer.

Shortly after, we read "The Christmas Story" and promptly snuggled into our beds for a long winters nap.

Christmas Tree Hunting

The weekend before Kevin came home Kerriann, Christiane and I went home to visit my parents for a night to help my mom put up and decorate her tree, and to cut down the tree for my dad's house.

We met up at the tree farm in Heaters, WV.  Cutting down the tree is one of my favorite Christmas traditions.  Buying a tree from a parking lot is just not for me.  Maybe I was spoiled growing up, but there is nothing like picking out a tree and cutting it down yourself to kick off the holidays!

It was freezing that afternoon, but Kerriann didn't seem to mind.  It was also extremely muddy, yet all she wanted to do was run away from us.  Christiane and I both ended up covered in mud from trying to wrangle her for the half hour that we were on the mountain.

It was harder than usual to find "the one" because disease had killed a lot of the type of tree that we were looking for.  Forgive me for forgetting what that type was ;).

Once we had the tree home, we set to work on decorating!

And Tica promptly claimed the spot under the tree as her favorite spot for the next few weeks.

Here is one from my phone of our completed work...

And one of Santa's little helpers...

And one more of Kerriann with the mini tree at my mom's.  She wanted to sit by Sponge Bob hahah... we took so many trying to get her to sit still, and that was the only way to persuade her!

Kevin's R&R

As most of you probably know by now, Kevin was able to join us for two weeks in December!  It was a very last minute decision, and we kept it on the down low because he wanted to surprise his extended family at their annual Christmas party.

I surprised Kevin at the gate as he was getting off the plane and barely made it in time.  People were already getting off of the plane as I rushed through security, but luckily he was one of the last ones off.

It was EXTREMELY hard for me to keep this secret because I am so close with many of his family members, but I was able to hold it together somehow!  It was especially difficult because we decided to book a last minute trip to Disney World for five days the week before Christmas.  Between the end of the school semester, planning the trip, prepping the house, doing all of the Christmas shopping, wrapping and decorating as well as juggling Kerriann alone, I was slightly stressed!

But if you know me, you know I love to be busy, and I wouldn't have wanted this holiday season to go any other way.  I can't even put into words how amazing it was to have Kevin home for two weeks.  He arrived on December 16th (he was supposed to get in on the 15th but was delayed) and left on New Years Day.  We decided on this time frame even though it was so early in the deployment because it was the only time we were guaranteed that I would be off from school.  We could have requested for him to come back during my spring break, but it happened to fall almost mid way through the deployment and he knew that everyone else was planning to request at that time as well.  Even if he had been approved, I would have most likely been right in the midst of midterms during his visit.  I am so glad that he was able to spend the past two weeks with us. It was nice having him here for both holidays, even though we took it easy on New Years Eve since we had to leave for the airport at 6am.

I have so many pictures and videos to share.  I'm hoping to get most of them up this week before I go back to school on the 9th.

It's been a day and a half since we dropped Kevin off at the airport and I am still working on getting past the initial shock of being alone again.  This goodbye was just as hard as the first one, but completely different at the same time.  This time, I knew exactly what I was facing, where the first time was uncharted territory.  This time I knew exactly how hard it was going to be going from having him here to being alone, but it's worse in a way.

Now, we are back to the beginning of another countdown, except the first one was only three months and this one could end up being between seven and eight.  And having him home for two weeks was wonderful, but a hard reminder of how much better life is when he's around.  Of course we are hoping and praying that he will be home sooner than planned with all of the changes that are happening overseas, but there is no guarantee.  Just keep our family in your prayers until we are reunited again!

A Quick Follow Up...

A quick follow up to my Christmas card post because it won't let me add text...


I know I'm a little late, but I'd like to wish all of our family members, near and far, a very Merry (and belated) Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Because of time constraints this year, I was only able to send a few of these out to close family members.

Thank you to all of our friends who sent us beautiful cards this year.  We enjoyed reading each and every one of them, and seeing how your families have changed over the past year.  You're all on our list for next years card! :)

Our Christmas Card