Cookies for Santa

This is the first year we remembered to put cookies out for Santa. To make up for our past negligence, the boys personally decorated cookies this Christmas.


Ian is a big fan of the sprinkles. And the frosting. And cookies in general.


Nathan just had to sneak a taste of that green tube frosting. Yum!


The masterpieces! Aren't you glad that you didn't have to take a bit of these sugar-coated cookies?

Haze Grey, But Not Yet Underway

One recent Sunday afternoon, the four of us decided to visit daddy's ship to explore his home away from home. The boys had never been on an aircraft carrier and I was excited to compare the enlisted/nuke life of the Vinson to the officer/airwing life of the Enterprise.

I "borrowed" these first 2 pictures from the Enterprise Facebook page. Obviously I do not regularly fly over the ship while it is underway to capture beautiful images such as these. So, here's the floating city:


This is what Ryan actually does on the ship...when he is not busy writing flight schedules and eating quesadillas. He may even be in the plane in this picture! We have no idea, but we like to assume he was flying at the time.


The boys made themselves cozy in daddy's rack. They thought it was awesome that he has the top bunk!


The room holds eight men, here are racks for 5 guys. Nice and cozy for sure. Glad it's not me! At least it is better than the berthing that Ryan used to enjoy on the Vinson...he roomed with 249 of his nearest and dearest.


Sorry for the awful picture, but the lighting was terrible in the ready room. Nathan is sitting in Ryan's chair. The ready room is where the crews brief for flights, conduct training, do the majority of their work and sometimes they relax by watching movies.


This is the room that shocked me the most. The ward room. I cannot believe this is where Ryan eats onboard the ship! Such a change from the galley on the Vinson. I especially love the huge flat screen TV's hung on the walls and the covered chairs!!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We have taken hundreds of photos this month and will share of the highlights with you soon. It has been a busy month full of holiday school programs, craft playdates, cookie decorating, underway period for Ryan and deployment preparation.

Snow Day!

We enjoyed a random snow "storm" yesterday. The weather guessers predicted snow at a 30% chance so we all ignored it and went about our daily business. School was cancelled in advance (not that I checked the website) and Ryan went to work. Whoops! It began snowing while the boys and I were at the commissary across town which resulted in a 90 minute drive home. At least we all had fun once we were home! Hopefully Ryan will edit the video of the boys and I engaged in an unfair snowball fight (I used a shovel).