Here Comes Santa Clause!

Santa came to visit the kids tonight at the Church after dinner there! What a treat for the kids. Here are some pictures of Jaden and Santa!

And a Merry Christmas from Afghanistan!  I sent Cory this Santa hat in his November box (I think it was), and he is such a good sport to put it on and have someone take pictures of him for us!  You gotta love him :)...I know I do!

Give Your Thanks to Our Wounded Warriors

I have signed up as a Volunteer for the Wounded Warrior Project, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to share with all of you.  If you click on the link below, it will allow you to write a special thanks and Holiday message to our Wounded Warriors.  These people are so amazing, and I have been able to receive emails of Wounded Warriors who share their story with me.  They are so inspiring, and I hope that we can give them some love, encouragement, and support throughout this holiday season.  But HURRY, it needs to be submitted by the 18th!  Sorry for the delay, I just thought of posting this.
Love you all so much.  Thanks for being such an amazing family!

http://www.kintera.org/AutoGen/Contact/ContactUs.asp?ievent=1006512&en=6eIHJNNjE8IGKJPkH9JHLKPjGdIRI1PvE5JBJPNvGaLEIVMBKhIMIWNBLhKNLUNoHfIZE

Disney On Ice!!

What a great opportunity Jaden and I had to go to Disney On Ice this past week.  Ft. Bragg was giving out thousands of tickets to deployed soldiers' families from Ft. Bragg, and Jaden and I were able to get a couple through our Company.  Jaden LOVED it and so did I!  It brought back "performing memories" which was really fun.  I'm so grateful to be able to share these moments and experiences with him, and I can't wait to have more of these experiences to share with Cory when he comes back next year!  Just 5 more months until a 2 week R&R and 8 more months until he comes home-home.. (for a while anyway:)!

Enjoying his popcorn and show!

The next couple of pictures are really bad quality (we need a good camera!), I just took a few with my iPhone.  But I wanted to capture the acrobatics that went along with the amazing ice skating of the show!  This is when Flynn Rider and Rapunzel (from Tangled) are swinging from her hair. 

Here is a little video from the "Princess and the Frog" segment of the show.  It was so much fun and I recommend everyone go see a show like this.  The kids love it and you will too!

And a little something from Down Range!  Cory is wearing the hat that Mom sent him for his Birthday.  He said that he falls asleep in it almost every night (because it reaches below freezing now!).  Mom makes some good hats! :)



Love you, Cory!  Lots of kisses to you!

ABC News Special on Charlie Company!

We have had a lot of news crews go over to Afghanistan to fly with our medevac guys.  Right when they got there Cory kept saying how they are having yet another news crew doing a piece on his All-American Dustoff Company.  This one is by far the best piece that has been done and it gives you a little taste of what our Company does.  (A Company is similar to a Navy Squadron, so it's cool because I know these guys, Cory works side-by-side with these guys, and I interact with their families here!)  Enjoy :)

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/afghanistan-jake-tapper-soldiers-war-military-medvac-angels-health-troops-us-15026226

Tis the Season!

Christmas this year is kind of bitter-sweet.  It'll be just Jaden and I, and it will be the first Christmas that Jaden actually knows and understands what's going on.  He wanted to play "Mary and baby Jesus" today after reading the Christmas story and practicing a little skit from Joy School.  And it's now the time that I can use the "You need to be nice or Santa won't come this year" phrase and he gets it! :).  I've only used that once, but it worked!  But it will be our first Christmas together as a family yet apart.  It's for good reasons though, so I can't complain too much!  It'll just make next year tons more special!

Anyway, here is a look at Christmas in our Fayetteville apartment!

"Ho, Ho, Ho!"  He got the hat from our Christmas box, dressed himself, and is stuffing his face with pepperoni :).  This is the classic Jaden!

 And a little treat from Afghanistan!  This was taken on Thanksgiving!  Cory is doing well over there and staying busy, not so much with flying as it's the winter and the "action" has slowed down a bit, but with classes, studying flight stuff, and being a great husband and daddy from miles away!
We love and miss you and are so proud of you!!

Tumbling Time

Here are a few videos that I took of Jaden at tumbling.  I should have done more circuts, but this was the only one that I was able to get close enough for: the bars!  This is Jaden's favorite one.  He likes the floor, and the pit, and the trampoline, but he LOVES the bars.  This was their second week on them, and he is right at home being a little monkey.  I don't think I captured it well enough for you to see just how much fun he is having.  I'll try and take more videos of tumbling next time.



Gettin' down with it!

There is a little show on Disney Junior that plays in between the regular shows.  It's called Choo Choo Soul.  Jaden looks forward to it, and when it is on, he gets excited...but I have never seen him go so into it like I did this morning! :)

"ABC"

Jaden has a thing for numbers, and I have had a really difficult time trying to get him excited about letters!  So, we have been working with his alphabet puzzle and in his alphabet workbook and on the "ABC" song for a while now.  Here is what we have accomplished!  A week ago, heck even about 4 days before this, there was no getting through the whole song without him saying, "Mom, I don't want to sing this."  Now, he is practically (almost) a master :)...he even gives his own little ending to the song.

First Day of School!

Today was Jaden's first day of school.  I was both excited and kind of sad for today to come.  He did great, going in all by himself as he took the teacher's hand.  Ms. Cheri seems really nice, so I think he is going to like going once he gets used to it!  There is only him and one other boy with about 6 girls.  I was happy to see another little boy come out of the classroom!  He was quiet when I first picked him up, but once we got home he told me about how he got to work with a partner with a little boy just like him, and how he learned about the color blue (he brought home a little worksheet that they did), etc.  I am going to be honest--I felt a little old today sending one of my kids (well my only one right now) to school!  I have a kid in school!  When did this even happen??

Here are a few pictures from this morning.  He loved FINALLY wearing his new school clothes that we got on clearance, and used a coupon with, at Old Navy (I love deals like this!).  He also got to wear his "cool packback" :).

Deployment...

We knew this was coming, but oh boy was it one of the hardest moments of my life.  Cory left on August 8th to go over to Afghanistan for a year, and next August can't come soon enough.  He flies Blackhawks for the Army and is currently in the Medevac Company of the 82nd Airborne Division.  We were so blessed to have been able to get married and get settled before he left.  It all worked out better than I could have ever imagined, and that just goes to show that the Lord has His hand in everything and that things will happen if they need to happen.

Before he left, I was picking him up at the Airfield and they were starting to fly the helicopters over to the other Airfield to be flown overseas.  I was so excited to be able to get this shot of a Medevac helo taking off.  Jaden waved "Bye" to each one that we watched.  Watching this gave me goosebumps of both pride and sadness with knowing what would be happening the next week.

Cory took off at around 3am, and I was so grateful to have one of our friends come over and stay with Jaden while he slept so that I could go with Cory to the Airfield and spend the last few hours we had together with him.  It was neat to be a part of this.  It was a first for me!

He arrived in Aghanistan safely and is anxious to start flying missions over there.  Jaden and I miss him dearly, but we have been keeping busy and getting really involved over here which makes time go by fast and allows us to have some fun and meet new friends!  We were also able to go to a pre-deployment Family Readiness Group (FRG) meeting and were given a lot of great things for the kids, including this "Daddy Doll".  Jaden sleeps with him every night. 

The 2 pictures that I have received of Cory since he has been gone.  I look at these every single day.

Cory Joslin
C/3-82 AVN (medevac)
TF Attack, FOB Sharana
APO-AE 09311

Kimberli Visits!

I'm so happy that my sister Kimberli was able to come down with her family, for an afternoon, to visit with us and meet my wonderful husband, Cory, for the first time.  It was SO much fun, and I was sad that it was such a short visit but am really happy that we were able to meet up!!  I'm bummed we didn't get a picture of Emili and Anthony in there, but I'll be sure to get a lot more the next time we are together :).

Happy Happy Birthday, Jaden Dear!!

My little baby is 3 years-old.  Holy cow!!  Where did the time go?  He is learning and growing up so much and way too fast for my taste.  But it's fun to see him grow with a lot of different things and to see him find his "thing": something that he is really into, his nitch, his passion, his interest, etc.  This is the fun part about watching him grow up. 

The night before, Cory and I started on his surprise cake.  His theme this year was "Cars" (the movie).  This was based off of the cake pan that we let him pick out, so we went with it.  This cake...well let's just say I'm glad it's over!  I have a whole new respect for my parents and all of the fun cakes they made us every year.  At least I have a year break in between each one (well...for now! :).

A sigh of relief with the next picture....*ah*.

The next morning, Jaden woke up and he was so excited to find a huge car balloon waiting for him.  It was HIS day, and he had been looking forward to it the entire day before! 

We went to a Children's Museum here in Fayetteville, which is in the downtown historical part.  Really cute little area.  It's a really cheap place to go, and it kept him occupied for a good while!

Mr. PostMan!

Handy Man

This was his absolute favorite exhibit.  He loved pretending he was a dentist.  He cleaned that mouth at every angle possible.  And I mean....

every....

single....

angle..

Checking for missed spots and cavaties.

Now it was Daddy's turn to play dentist.

After the museum, we went home, had a pizza bar in the kitchen and made our own, personalized, english muffin pizzas.  Then we opened presents and had cake. 

It was a great day, and we are so blessed to have Jaden in our lives. We love him so much and would give him the world if we could.