Shorty our new puppy

Our new addition is Shorty, a purebred Pembroke Corgi. He is very loving and he adores the kids. He loves playing soccer believe it or not with the kiddos. I have never seen them spend so much time outside before. The dog likes to chew on our carpet, base boards, the kids velcro on their shoes and he digged up Cliff's beloved oak trees he planted from a tiny seed. He was quite mad. All in all he is a curious puppy and with patience and training oh and I mean training he will be a good dog. He loves to lick especially your feet, very weird dog. He likes to come randomly snack on Ben's feet and he just loves it and thinks it is the best thing ever to get his feet all kissed on.

Thanksgiving Day

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had my friend Jeannie and her kids over. Her hubby was working on-call at the hospital and I just knew she couldnt be alone on a holiday. The Neely family also came over. They are our good friends. Cliff and Rob have a little connection since they both served a mission in Thailand and missed each other by 3 weeks on their missions. Cliff speaks a lot more Thai then Rob though since he kept up with it in the military so they dont really speak it to each other. Its still fun to get together and make Thai food though. We are going to miss the Neelys since they are moving next week. The kids all had fun chasing our new puppy outside the entire night. Shorty was so tired he passed out early for bed. Cliff ended up burning the turkey skin 5 mins before it was done. It was hilarious to see this big huge ball of fire. My first reaction to him "what the heck is that." The one and only thing he had to cook got screwed up. It was still good nontheless.

Cliff graduates the Non-Comissioned Office Academy

Cliff went to the Academy in AL from Sept 30-Nov 8th. He did really well and learned a lot of leadership skills. We are hoping it will help him get promoted to E7 in Feb when he tests for it. We are pretty optismistic but you just never know. Making rank in the Air Force is pretty hard. He made e6 his first time so we arent expecting it to happen again.

Our beautiful kids

Here are some pictures from this month of the kids chilling out. I must admit that I have the greatest kids ever. I get compliments everywhere I go about how beautiful they are (especially Megan). I am so grateful for these 3 blessings in my life although at times I know I dont appreciate them as much as I should. At times it can be really hard to truly enjoy them because of Cliff's absence and my lack of patience. But all in all I do know I am lucky and that I couldnt ask for better kids. I am so grateful that they have a wonderful dad like Cliff to. They really miss him when he's gone.

These pictures are the kids missing Daddy but still having fun with mom at home this month!

Halloween Party

I took the kids to a Halloween party on Oct 19th. I also made chili which I normally hate. The event was pretty disorganized so there was no chili winner but I guess mine was good because it was all gone. It is my new secret recipe, I will say I used beef tenderloin, maple sausage, and maple bacon with baked beans and cooked it for 24 hours in the crockpot. It was really good and I was mad I didnt get leftovers.

Zack and Megan had fun getting candy from all the trunks. Zack was aircrew like his Dad, Megan was little red riding hood although she didnt want to wear the hood after awhile and people asked if she was dorothy (obviously people dont pay attention in the wizard of oz) and Ben was a cow. Mommy was an angel of course!!! She has to be good once in awhile right? hehe.

Since Megan called mommy and everyone else for that matter when she was younger "bad bad". Now she calls everyone a brat. :-)

Ben didnt really know what to make of his first party especially since everyone was wearing scary outfits. He raised his eyebrows a few times at people. Some people joked that his cow costume fit him well....I think a piggie might be better since he's a big eater.

We had a blast! But it could have been better organized and Daddy was missing in action.

Our New Arrival-Ben Thomas

Our family expanded this year on July 12, 2007. Ben Thomas was born at 3:20pm at Wilford Hall Medical Center, San Antonio Tx. He weighed 8 lbs 1oz, 21 1/4 inches long. He is way bigger then his siblings were when they were born. He is continuing to grow big and strong. At 3 months he is now almost 25 in and 16 lbs (100% for height). He is going to take after his Dad and be 200 lbs at 6 ft of nothing but huge thick legs and monkey arms.

He has such a great personality. He is always smiling and playing with his hands and feet and learning to grab toys. He likes to watch his siblings and see what they are doing. He is definitely a momma's boy. He is such a joy to us and we are so glad he is part of our family. He totally completes us now. We call him tomato because that is all I ate when I was pregnant with him it seems. We also call him Benihana like the restaurant. Or as Meg calls him "Benihonda" she gets confused about our new van.