Trick or Treating 2010

This was Daddy's Welcome Home from Brazil.  We each took different letters and decorated them, and Ryan even added a UNC flag he had made at Marbles.

Fairy Madeline

Snake Eye's Ry--aka GI Joe ninja

Trey, Conor and Ry pose for Daddy.  Do you notice something similar with all 3 of them?

Fairy Madeline and Dorothy Ali.  Just a couple minutes before we headed out to get candy!  Madeline ended up with a jacket, as it was a chilly evening.

 

This year was another wonderful celebration of October 31st in the cul de sac.  We grilled hot dogs, ate chips, and watched as the children played around us.  Camden crawled in the grass in his Lion costume, the boys played football in the cul de sac, and the girls were off playing make-believe.  Debra and I enjoyed sitting together, cutting coupons for Super Doubles at HT.  It was a wonderful time with neighbors.  Once the candy getting was done, we met up at Shanda's and ate pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and apple crisp, while the children watched the Charlie Brown movie and sorted through their candy.  The only part that stunk was having to take Daddy to his office, as he left that night for a week long business trip.

Boo!

Our sweet Madeline is such a treasure.  All last week, she would tell us not to enter either her room or the school room--she was making something.  I did not think much of it until we came home from our date on Saturday night.  While putting M&R to bed, Matt told them that tomorrow we were going trick or treating.  They were very excited.  Before they could talk more about it, Madeline ran out of Ry's room, grabbed something in her own room, and came back with a brown paper bag.  The outside of the bag was painted and had the word "BOO" on it.  Inside were cards for Daddy, Mommy, and Ryan that said Happy Halloween from Madeline, and the bag was filled with candies for us.  She is so thoughtful and tenderhearted and sweet.  This will be a memory forever cherished.

Braden's Birthday

Braden's Birthday was awesome again this year!  It was baseball themed, complete with favorite ball field food, baseball to play, and Wool E. Bull!  The Andersen's know how to have a party!

The next 6 pictures must be looked at in sequence.  Matt and I cannot stop laughing over this sequence. 

We love Ry's intensity with anything "sportish".  The look on his face says it all!

And our sweet girl, who just loves having fun.

Of course it was a madhouse once the pinata actually broke.

Kenny and Wool E. Bull.

Onslow Beach 2010

Again this year we traveled to Jacksonville, NC for a trip to Onslow Beach.  Since Daddy leaves on Thursday for Brazil, we had special family time. For the beginning of October, the weather was amazing--low eighties. On the day we arrived, we quickly ate lunch and headed out to the beach. We spent the afternoon searching for sharks' teeth and playing family soccer, two on two. After pizza and frosty's, we went back out on the beach with flashlights to find crabs. It was awesome until Madeline and Mommy got too cold and had to head in for hot chocolate.

The next morning for breakfast the kids had dinosaur egg oatmeal. I only buy it on special occasions and we play a silly game with it. I tell them that they had better not eat a dinosaur egg or else the mommy dinosaur is going to get them, or a dinosaur is going to grow out their noses and bum bums, or if they eat them, there will be no more dinosaurs on the earth. I pretend that I'm shocked that they ate them and that they are in trouble. M&R love this and giggle their way through breakfast. It's so cute!

Saturday we spent the entire day out on the beach, enjoying God's awesome creation and each other.  After dinner at Wendy's we went out to Onslow's Pavilion and watched Karate Kid outside on a big, blow-up screen.  They even had free popcorn and hot chocolate.  Bar the mosquitoes, it was AWESOME.  My sweet boy sat on my lap the entire time and cuddled with me.

Sunday, we again spent the entire day at the beach.  Before dinner, we biked to the playground and checked out one of the fishing piers.  And after a delightful Subway dinner (our dining choices were VERY limited on the base), Matt took Ry took a boxing tournament.  Madeline and I stayed in the minivan and took turns reading her Natalie books to each other.  It was totally worth it, as Ryan and Daddy loved seeing live boxing.

Our little cottage had a loft where the kids slept.  They thought it was so much fun, and loved hanging over the ledge!

Madeline's tooth fell out at the beach, but she wanted to wait until we got home for the Tooth Fairy to come.  The Tooth Fairy was very accommodating and even left Madeline a note.

Ryan, playing in a natural pool of water.  I can't believe my baby is about to turn 5!

Catch that water!

Why does the water always seem colder to Mommy???

I savor this special time with my babies.  I love that Ry is still small enough that he grabs my hand and leads me around to show me things he has found.  He loves to converse.

So beautiful!

Daddy wanted to capture our feet--from left, Ry, Mommy, Madeline.

Our princess with her daddy.

Mommy and Maddie.

Our family sandcastle.

Buddies

 

Stomping on the castle.

The girl loves to do splits, and the sand makes it so much more fun.

Our musical boy.

Visiting a base is so fun.  The signs and the sights are truly unique, and give you a much greater appreciation for the young men and women serving our country.

From Matt, Day 2 in Brazil

It was a great day. It was raining really hard and didn't think we'd be able to spend any time with the kids. but then at about 2, which was the time they were supposed to come, it stopped raining. It was a smaller group, but it was fun getting to know them. It is always tough when you can't communicate, but some have learned some English words, and wanted to learn. This area is probably as poor as Benevides, but they don't have the health issues b/c they're not living on a dump. Drugs and alcohol are bad, and several of the kids fathers are drug dealers. The pastor here is really cool. He's a great guy. Then all the volunteers are really nice too. They made an amazingly delicious lunch. When we were shopping for food today Mike told them that we'd be fine with pasta. One of the ladies said that if she told her mom they were making pasta she'd leave because she'd be too embarrassed to serve it...too plain. Then we went out to eat and some folks from the church bought us dinner. Really great folks here.