At Home with Lauren

When I first decided to stay home with Lauren, I had a hard time with it. I was so used to working full time and while I loved Lauren, I missed the adult time. Now though, I love being home with her. It's neat to see how she is learning and watching her have fun. Enjoy some pictures from our time together!

Lauren is a girly-girl. She loves for you to brush her hair. BUT she likes to pull her pony tails DOWN!!! It drives me crazy!

Lauren was helping with the laundry. She put her daddy's t-shirt on her head. Notice she is wearing Gabbie's t-shirt. We had to make do one night for pjs...she loved it though!

More helping with the laundry

Trying to fold clothes. I tried to start early with her :)

I came around the corner one day and found Lauren dragging her diapers into my bedroom. I guess she was trying to tell me something!

Marine Corps Ball

Thursday night, Robbie and I got all dressed up and went to the Marine Corps Ball. The Marine Corps Birthday is actually November 10th but we celebrated a little early. There aren't any pictures of the ceremony because it was really dark and we were far in the back. If you've ever gone to a ball, it's pretty much the standard ceremony :)

Robbie and I at the end of the night!

Robbie with his 1st Sgt and another SSgt.

Robbie and I before we left the house

Notice that Lauren was enthrolled with her father. She couldn't stop staring at him. Wonder why??? :)

Chilifest

We actually have a Chili's restaurant on the Kadena Air Base. It's a little taste of home. Trust me, we have enjoyed it thoroughly! I am sure that I will be Chili's out by the time I return the States. That and Macaroni Grill - that's the restaurant here on Foster. Anyways, a week ago Saturday, the provided Chilifest. It was a day full of games and performances. The night ended with Ashanti coming and peforming. We went with Gabbie's mom and stepfather...here are some pics from the night! Enjoy!

Lulu having fun with Gabbie's Mom

Lulu and Gabbie playing in the grass before the concert

Say Cheese!

Gabbie with some friends from school

Happy Halloween!

Enjoy the pictures! Hope everyone has a happy halloween!

Lulu checking out the halloween cards this morning.

Daddy came home early so we went and grabbed a bite to eat for lunch!

The waitress gave Lulu a sucker as we were leaving...Daddy let her have it in car (WHAT WAS HE THINKING????) We had to pull over so that I could clean her up!

We went to a local store and they had a stuffed Elmo...can we say lulu has daddy wrapped around her little finger? The stuffed elmo ended up coming home with us!

Helping Daddy carve the scary pumpkin! She had fun checking it all out!

Smiles! Check out the smiley pumpkin! :)

Trick or Treat..Tinkerbell!

Gabbie and Lulu walking to the next house for Candy! Excuse my big butt in the pic!

Gabbie the pirate or trying to be Captain Hook! We just needed peter pan and wendy and we would have been set!

I was worried that Lulu wouldn't understand how to trick or treat. My child continues to prove me wrong. She caught on very quickly. She would make the people let her take the candy from them and then would put it in her spider bucket! Such a diva already!

Mommy and Tinkerbell

Gabbie the Pirate

Daddy and the Pirate

We're getting tired here!!

See, she got the hang of it!

Gabbie trick or treating

Still laughing but exhausted!

Let me explain this picture. This house is apparantely a haunted house on Kadena. It was in one of the local base papers today and so the Burgess's and the Parrish's decided that we needed to check it out. Long story short, the house is on the Air Force Base here. It is rumored that two families were murded in it. They cut off the bedroom because it was always cold - too cold to live in. The USO used it for storage but they wouldn't even go in it after dark because of the weirdness. They tried to demolish it but the construction crew began to have hallucinations and quit. It is boarded up. The Okinawan's say that it is built on an ancient burial ground. What's even more freaky is that someone lives right beside it. Not me!!

Knowing Daddy

We have AFN (Armed Force Networks for those of you who don't know) as our stationary cable channels over here. Needless to say, the commercials are mostly military. This commercial comes on about 3 times a day. When we first got here, we noticed that it always caught lulu's attention. The longer we've been here the more we have noticed that she doesn't pay attention to any other commercials. She will run from one room to another when she here's this commercial start on the television. What makes it even more interesting is that she hasn't seen her father in this particular uniform since she was 3 months old. She knows that it's guys like her dad. She probably even thinks that it's her daddy. I just think it's cool that she was so young when she saw him in that uniform and yet she still knows. It brings me joy and I know it makes Robbie excited. I just wanted to share. Enjoy the commercial!

Aquarium

Yesterday we decided to take the girls up north to see the Aquarium. We are going to have to go back because it's at this huge park and we definitely didn't get there early enough to see everything. Lauren was a hoot and oohed and ahhed at all of the fishes. Please enjoy the pictures!

Lulu and Gabbie in front of the sign

An octupus. They have all of these different sea animals made of flowers around the park. They are so creative here.

Standing at the top of the walkway

Lulu stitting in front of the spraying fountain as Gabbie rain through it

A big fish

Daddy and his girls

Look at that crab! It's huge!!

The Family in the Jaws of Life

Gabbie with the sea turtles

Preparations

Here are some pics from us preparing for Robbie to come home.

We made Daddy a cake and before I could get the spatuala out the bowl, Lulu grabbed and started licking. Not sure where she learned that from.

Lulu has started carrying around her blanket and stuffed animals. She's too cute!

It must have been good!

She got worn out! Don't ya think?

Look Who Finally Made It Home...

Sorry this has taken me a bit to post. Robbie finally made it home Thursday afternoon. We missed seeing him get off the bus since they got home almost 45 mins before they even told us to be there and then on top of that they dropped them off at a different place. Oh well, we finally got to him!

Gabbie running and jumping into her Daddy's arms

Group Hug

Family Photo

After a few mins of staring at him, Lulu finally jumped in her Daddy's arms

An Update

First off, an update on Robbie. I can't really say when he is coming home on here. I know when he is coming though - unless the time changes. He's still in Korea and I have spoken with him. They are okay. He should be here soon. Just continue to pray for good weather so that what needs to happen can happen. I'm sorry to be so vague but I don't want to compromise his mission and you don't always know who is reading this. I promise as soon as I see him...I will update.

Second off, I added the picture above. I know that some people say that it's not good because you can't see the girls faces. I love that picture. It was taken right before we left and it's a perfect example of the girls. Lulu loves being outside and Gabbie is always trying to get on her level to get Lulu to go with her. Lulu was talking to her and Gabbie was trying to figure out what she was saying. We have plans to get some more family pics when Daddy gets home so I'll probably change it soon but I wanted to share that photo with you!!

Hope you all have had a great night of sleep and are ready for your Wednesday...mine has already been long and I need to get started on dinner!! We love you lots!

Still Waiting

Still waiting...I guess the water is still too bad for them to get here...Not sure where they are at but it's looking like it could be later in the week before he's home...Gotta love typhoons, especially when they aren't even hitting you but are messing up your waters!!! Please keep him in your prayers!!! Well us too so that we don't go insane!!!