Merry Christmas!

So we have been in Arizona for a little over a month and the time has flown by! We are enjoying the nice, beautiful weather here! Brad really likes his rotation at Luke AFB, but he despises his 100 mile commute everyday! The girls and I have been busy with holiday stuff going on so it hasn't really hit much that we are here. It feels like we are on vacation still! We have been decorating for Christmas, watching Christmas movies, looking at Christmas lights, eating Christmas goodies and we can't wait for Christmas next week! We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I am slacking again this year on the Christmas Cards, so consider this your card! Maybe next year, when we aren't living out of suitcases, I'll get around to it!

Good Bye, Oregon

Well, the time's come for us to leave our rainy home. Yes, I say home, because that's what it has become for us. In the past 3 and a half years we've lived in OR, we've had a lot of experiences. Some good, some bad, most of them good. I've now been away for only 2 days, and yes, I already miss it up there. There are things I won't miss, like the soaking 6 month-long rain, Oregon drivers (please, just drive the speed limit, you won't die), the astronomically high property taxes, and the fact that I can't just put my own gas in my own car. But, there are things that I will miss, like Tilamook ice cream, the beautiful trees, actual seasons, the many things for my kids to do, the strength of the Church, our wonderful ward, and most of all, our friends. To all of you who extended the hand of fellowship when we first moved in, thank you. To the friends we've made over the past few years, thank you. I never could have hoped for better friends, I will miss you all terribly.

Sorry for being so mushy, but I felt I needed to say good-bye and thank you, to all of you, for your support and your friendship. I hope it won't end.

Brad

It's worth the drive

Yes, we really drove an hour and a half, one way, just for the pumpkin ice cream! I was thinking of you Chelsie as I was savoring the pumpkin yumminess! Maybe someday they will start selling it in the store!

What's been going on.........

So back in August, we went camping with our ward and we had a great time! This is 1 of 3 pictures I took the whole time we were there! Oops! The tent was awesome! It was huge! Much better then our 2 man tent we got after we were first married that only fit our air mattress inside!

After the campout I made chili sauce out of 50 pounds of tomatoes. Brad's family LOVES chili sauce. They eat it on Roast Beef and Meatloaf. I've tried it and it tastes yummy, but so does eating them with ketchup, which to Brad is a sin! I thought since I got a good price on tomatoes, I would try making the man I love his beloved chili sauce. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Luckily, Brad's mom walked me through the process and and after many phone calls throughout the day, I did it!

Here is the finished product! And if that wasn't enough, after all day in the kitchen making chili sauce, I spent all night making apricot jam. NEVER AGAIN! :)


A few weeks later, I was running with my friend, Kim, and apparently I can't talk and run at the same time because one minute I am running and the next minute I am on the ground turned 180 degrees holding my ankle. Isn't it pretty?

After having an X-ray done at Urgent care, it came back with a questionable break, so they had to have a radiologist read it. They couldn't let me leave with it possibly broken, so they outfitted me with a lovely soft cast! Luckily, it wasn't broken and I only had to wear that for a couple of days!


I just had to show off Kenzie's teeth!





And for Jayna, these are my Love Bugs:

THE END!

Kenzie is walking!

So she isn't a pro yet, but she has been walking around so much the past few days! She'll take like 20-30 steps and then fall down and walk on her knees. Her knees are still her preferred method of travel! So here is a quick video!


By the way, now that I am a private blog, I can freely use my kids names, so in case you didn't know, Hayley is peanut and Kenzie is monkey!

Going Private...............

Sorry for all of you out there that hate checking private blogs, but we are going private in 1 week. Leave a comment or send me an Email me if you would like an invite to: brangbywater@msn.com

For those that have Google Reader (like me and can't live without it), I have created another blog that you can put on your google reader to see if we have updated the private blog. That address is: navybywater.blogspot.com

Best Friends

What to do on your FIRST Birthday by Monkey

1. Have your mommy make a cute monkey cake2. Get all excited when you see it and wonder why people are singing to you

3. Take little nibbles of the unknown substance

4. Realize what yummy goodness it is, and rather than nibble, pick it up for bigger bites

5. Smile at your mommy with your messy face!


I can't believe you are 1! Where did this past year go? You have grown so much and we love having you part of our family! Some things about you that we adore are:

• your cute gummy, toothless smile (that's right, still NO teeth!)
• your kissable cheeks
• your cute laugh
  
• how you play with your sister
• how you like to stand and climb on things
• how your hair grows really fast on top and slow everywhere else!
• when you wave
• when you say "Hi Da da" (Brad claims this, however, I have yet to hear it!)
• when you give us kisses on our cheek
• when you cuddle
• you dance when music is on
• you love yogurt and cheese just like your sister

We Love You Monkey!

Peanut and her "Ballet-tard"

Peanut has been taking ballet for the past 9 months and LOVES it! Everytime I tell her it's time to get ready for class, she says, "Where is my ballet-tard?" I tell her it's leotard, but she isn't convinced! Anyway, she had her dance recital a few weeks ago and here are some pictures from it! I was worried she would get stage fright, but she did so great! She was especially excited to wear makeup! Daddy came and surprised her with some pink roses and she was so excited to have her own flowers! What a great Daddy!

Adventures in Newport

Brad had 2 1/2 weeks off before the start of his 4th year, so we had some fun adventures! We had never been down to Newport, so we decided to go check it out. We stayed at South Beach State Park and camped! When we got there, we headed to the beach! It was awesome because there was only one other family there, so we pretty much had the beach to ourselves!
It was a little chilly, but that didn't stop us from building sand castles and playing in the sand!It started to get really overcast and we weren't sure if it was going to start raining, so we headed back to set up camp. Setting up camp was EASY, cuz we got to stay in a YURT! What is a yurt you may be wondering? A yurt is the best way to camp in Oregon! The last time we went camping, I froze the whole night. This time, it was awesome because we had a space heater in our yurt and I was even a little warm during the night!




Here is our Yurt. It is like a big teepee!

Inside the yurt had bunk beds and a futon that folded down into a bed. And there was plenty of room for the pack and play! It was also nice to stay in the yurt because it started raining pretty much after we ate dinner and continued all night long. Brad made us a nice campfire and we used some of his crappy Perception notes (the worst class he has ever taken) as kindling! It was a great celebration to burn them! The next day, we went to the Aquarium and saw some cool things! Peanut really wanted to see the sharks and she loved petting the starfish. She tried to pet the sting rays, but she would get scared cause they move!


We had a lot of great memories and hopefully we can do it again!

Boards Celebration Trip

Well, as a celebration for passing Boards, my buddies and I took a little day trip down to Chambers Bay Golf Course near Tacoma, WA. Actually, we were planning on going all along, we just happened to find out about our boards results on the car ride up! Made for an even better day to find out we all passed! Chambers Bay was amazing, it's a PGA Tour course that will be hosting the US Open in 2015. It's a links style course on the Puget Sound, so it was really challenging, but such a blast to play. We all did decent, too. Here's some pics:

You had to take a shuttle down to the actual course

It was a beautiful day

This is a view from the tee box on a par 3, Dave birdied this hole (big surprise)

I'm not sure if Dave is making that face because of the sign or because he needed to find a bathroom to 'lose 4 pounds!'

Nobody's perfect dude

Ben had an advantage over us, a perfect view of the green from above

Another gorgeous par 3

Congratulations to all my boys, and to all my other classmates for passing boards! Now we just need to get past perception, and we're home free!

Board Results are in..................

Brad PASSED!!!!!!!!!

What to do when it's 80 degrees outside................

Go to the BEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Brad had the afternoon off of school, so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to Indian Beach! It is so cool to drive thru a forest and then all of the sudden be at the beach. I love it. The beach is one of my favorite places to be! I love to sit and watch the ocean! Peanut loves playing in the sand and flying her Strawberry Shortcake kite! This was Monkey's first time at the beach and all she wanted to do was eat the sand and make messes in her diaper! :) Unfortunately for me, as I was changing her diaper, she pooped on me TWICE! That was our cue to leave the beach!

Long overdue.........

Where have we been? Busy having fun! :) Brad took boards, but we won't know for another month how he did. But we are sure glad to have them over! Monkey is 9 months old! She is so close to crawling. She gets up on her knees and rocks and then falls down as she is reaching for something! Peanut loves reading books and singing songs and telling jokes that make no sense! Life is good!

Happy Birthday Peanut

My little "peanut" is 4 years old! I can't believe it! She is such a little girl! She wanted to have a party, so we had a few of her friends over for a Prince/Princess party! She had such a fun time.
We had another little party with some friends from school the day before her birthday and had pizza and cupcakes! She had so much fun!

I had to be seen in public with this: