Farewell to Leavenworth

While we were clearing all of our stuff out of our house, rather than stay in a hotel which is the norm, we stayed with our best Army friends Lauren and David DeFelice.  They through us a huge farewell party!  What fun!  Although it was weird having all my little 'worlds' of friends colliding together.  We had such a great time!  This is an assignment that is very tough to leave...

LT COL Promotion Party!!!!

On January 15th we found out fantastic, yet very surprising news...  Russ was selected to be promoted 'below the zone' to Lt Colonel.  That is in civilian terms "promoted early" and a very good deal.  We were very excited because this is a pretty big deal!  

Now, Russ will not actually pin on for quite a while, but in the Air Force, when the 'list' comes out, the guys who are promoted are pretty much required to throw a party as soon as possible... so $350 later (what we each had to pay... ouch) the party ensued.  As unexpected as it was, we were not complaining!  Soooooo proud of Russ!

um... yeah... is this what a future LT COL looks like?
Lauren and I at the party...
Lauren and David

the obligatory random shot...

from the balcony
Kelly Lasica, me, Lauren and Stephanie Retka
David, Russ, Col. Goble, and Danny Lasica

Emma's First Communion

On December 28th, Emma made her first Communion!  She was not supposed to make it until Easter time, but Father Tadeo made an exception since we were moving.  It was a sweet special day...

Skiing in Missouri

The day after Christmas we took my sister to Snow Creek... I would have never thought you could ski in Missouri!  It is mostly man-made snow although on occasion it gets a fresh dusting... this particular day was very odd as we had a freak 'heat' spell.  It was 60 degrees out after being in the teens for weeks.  So we didn't have to deal with complaining kids... a plus!  The snow conditions were not the best, however, but fun was had by all...

Leo just sledded all day... he is patiently waiting until he can snowboard with dad.  Emma likes the skis just like mom.  She is great!  No fear and no complaining... I was really proud of her.  At one point, I underestimated the steepness on one of the runs.  But we were already up and there was no other way down.  We were both a little scared.  I wasn't scared of the skiing part since I can do intermediate runs... but I was terrified of how to get a 7 year old down!  What does Emma do?  point her skis straight down, sits on her butt, and flies all the way down with a big grin on her face!  LOVE IT!

Paula mastered the bunny hill... then moved on to sledding with Leo, she was a trooper too!  It is a scary thing to learn how to ski as an adult (I only learned 10 years ago and that was scary as well).  So Kudos to you PK!

How to Put a Lego Vehicle Together...

...without throwing it out the window!

Ah... you have to love Santa!  For months our precious son has been asking for the MTT... what is a MTT?  It is from a Star Wars movie and it is a big vehicle that apparently carries a lot of droids.  Leo had to explain this to us, because while we have seen the movies, we had no idea what this particular request was!  Well, since it is well-over $100 and also no longer in stores, Santa had to do the E-bay auction thing and after losing many to people with bigger wallets (or at least someone more willing to spend an arm and a leg) the illusive MTT was won.  

Little did we know that it would take over 5 hours to put together!

Russ organizing the pieces...
The 2 hour mark...

the 3 hour mark...
the 4 hour mark...
Janet taking Russ' pulse as he retreats into his happy place... oxygen standing by!
after 5 hours and change the MTT is assembled and ready to be destroyed by a 5 year old.
TA DA!!!!!

Christmas Morning

Okay!  So we drilled the kids before bed last night... do NOT get out of bed before 7am... do NOT go into the living room... yadda yadda yadda...  I think I overdid it because Leo's little lip stuck out and he teared up and said "but what if I forget"?  heart breaking... so I laid off.

Oh the excitement!  7:01 to be exact, we had two little monkeys jumping on OUR bed... then of course they ran into PK's room to wake her up as well...  

Putting together the MTT (apparently in is a robot transporter from Star Wars...  Santa is a rock star!

so... I also have a video from the morning but I need to figure out how to upload that...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  WE MISS YOU ALL!

We had a girl's night out for Lauren's birthday!!!!   Haven't stayed out that late in a long time!

Russ and I and David and Lauren went out on a double date to an awesome seafood restaurant in downtown Kansas City...  very pricey... but the best seafood I have had outside of the gulf coast!  YUM!

yes, that is Lobster Bisque in the photo... almost licked the plate!