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!

Un-trimming the Tree

I just cannot bring myself to take down the Christmas tree this year.

For as long as I can remember, I've always loved the warm and fuzzy feelings that comes along with a lit tree.  For some reason Christmas lights have always made me feel safe and secure, and this year I look for that feeling more than ever.  As I trimmed the tree, I hung each ornament in anticipation of spending the holiday with Kerriann AND Kevin.  And now that that time has come and gone, it's hard for me to let go of the positive feelings that I associate with our Christmas tree, our FIRST family Christmas tree.

I know sooner or later it's just going to have to come down.  But I'm going to enjoy it for at least a few more days as I reminisce about all of the memories from the past few weeks.

Kevin's R&R Homecoming: Surprising KA

When we found out that Kevin would definitely be coming home for Christmas, we decided to try to surprise Kerriann at school.  Originally he was supposed to get in sometime Thursday morning, which would mean perfect timing for me to drop her off for the morning, pick him up, and then get back to Morgantown before her school closed for the evening.  Of course, as Thursday went on plans kept changing.  We decided to have Christiane stay the night at our house in case I needed to go pick him up in Pittsburgh during the night.  In the end, he ended up arriving around 9am on Friday.  This worked out all because I was able to drop KA off at school as soon as it opened.  I barely made it through parking and security to Kevin's gate before he deplaned, but I got there just in time.  Maybe 1-2 minutes after I got there he walked off of the plane.  It was such a happy reunion after a long three months!

Since we had some extra time, we stopped at the outlets on the way home to finish up our Christmas shopping.  It was so fun to walk around, just the two of us, and browse the stores.  I'm glad we had a few hours to ourselves before picking Kerriann up from school.

When we were finished shopping, we ran home to eat lunch and then picked up Christiane and Alana for Kerriann's big surprise.  They wanted to help videotape and be there to see her reaction.

When we got to school, Christiane, Alana and I went into Kerriann's classroom and Kevin waited outside.  When the camera was all set up, Alana went outside to tell Kevin it was time to come in.



She was so excited to see her daddy!  As you'll notice in the video, she has taken to calling us Kevin and Adriane.  I'm sure this is just a phase, but we have been getting some curious looks out in public.

Kerriann's class made Kevin a banner and a welcome home card that had all of their hand prints in red and blue paint.  Kerriann also gave Kevin a red, white and blue airplane when he walked in as you'll see in the video.  She was so funny and kept waving it around and yelling "fly, fly!"

One more picture to share from this amazing day.  Kerriann's letter to Santa that was posted on the door of her classroom.

I don't think any of us could have asked for a more perfect first day home for Kevin.  It was so great to be reunited as a family again, and it was a great kick off for the rest of the two weeks that we would spend together.

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

Wordless Wednesday

Morgantown Christmas Parade 2011

When I heard an announcement on the radio for the 2011 Christmas parade in Morgantown, I immediately marked it on my calendar (set a reminder on my phone).  Kerriann is a huge fan of parades and I knew that she would love it!  

It was extremely hard to get her to stay in her stroller and/or sit still, but I think the outing was a success regardless!  

When the bands started to march past I decided to let her get down because she wanted to dance so bad. She was trying to dance in her stroller and I was afraid she was going to tip it over haha!

She was also a huge fan of the candy they were throwing.  Most of it was not age appropriate which was a rough point in the night, but I tried to distract her by telling her that there would be a few M&Ms waiting for her at home if she was a good girl.

Kerriann even loved the firetrucks as they drove by blaring their sirens.

When it was time to go home, she cried and begged to stay longer.  If it had been a few degrees warmer, we would have stayed until the end, but after 45 minutes my toes were numb and I knew hers must have been too.  We just happened to be in the right place at the right time, because as we were walking to the car we passed Santa and one of his helpers on the street.  After accepting a few pieces of chocolate from them, we were on our way home.  Hopefully there will be another parade to take Kerriann to sooner rather than later!

Past Few Weeks in iPhone Photos

I feel like now is a good time to dump a lot of the photos that I've been forgetting to upload from my phone.  Some of them are pretty old (and random) but bear with me.  They're too cute not to share!

Kerriann can now drink out of a "big girl" cup on her own

Playing with Tica at my dad's

Edible Arrangement that Kevin sent for us on Thanksgiving

Opening her first Christmas gift of the season

 The Little People nativity scene from the Walsh's!

My first turkey!

Breakfast (right after bath time, excuse the crazy hair!)

Being silly

Bath time!

Modeling her festive new shirt

Thanksgiving 2011

This year I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time.  While I was a little nervous at first, I think I did a great job at rising to the challenge!  My Aunt Sherrie coached me and everyone brought something to contribute to the dinner.  This was the first year that one of the "kids" took over, so we will see if this is a new tradition or if the "parents" resume handling the Thanksgiving festivities next year.  

My famous apple spice cake... seriously... it's getting quite the reputation for being the only gluten-free thing people have tried and actually loved!

I also attempted (aka slaved over all afternoon) gluten free rolls.  They were not that amazing, but with a little honey cinnamon butter or gravy on top they were edible!

I know I say this far too often, but the only thing missing from Thanksgiving was Kevin.  He was so thoughtful to send this Edible Arrangement for all of us to enjoy.  We were lucky enough to be able to Skype with him right before dinner so everyone was able to say hello.

I'm so happy that my family was able to travel to be with us this year for Thanksgiving!  It really helped to keep me from dwelling on the fact that Kevin was gone, and I really had a great time visiting with everyone.

End of Semester Madness

Life has been seriously crazy the past two weeks!  We had an amazing Thanksgiving, but I wouldn't even say my ten days off was a "break."  We were so busy the entire time, maybe even more busy than we are during typical school weeks.  I have a lot more to share about that, including pictures, so I'll try to get around to more updates sometime this weekend!

Next week I will be finishing up the semester at school so that is keeping me extremely busy as well.  I just want to finish so I can focus on the holidays and all of the fun that comes along with them!  I hope all of our friends and family are doing well!