USO Free Sesame Street Show

Sesame Street is a big supporter of the military and military families. Every year they offer 4 free tickets to Sesame Place for every military family and they have teamed up with the USO to create a special Sesame Street series, Talk, Listen, Connect, to helper younger kids deal with deployments and everything that comes with them.

May is the month of the Military Child and APG kicked it off with a free Sesame Street Live mini show here on post. It was only 45 mins long (which we thought was a perfect amount of time.) Cookie Monster, Grover, Rosetta, Zoe, and Elmo came and sang songs and played games for the kids. I was so nervous that they where going to do the Elmo's Daddy has to go away story line. For some reason (I blame pregnancy hormones) I was super emotional and started crying when they even mentioned it at the beginning. But thankfully it was just songs about being happy and making music.

Every kid that walked in the door was given one of these Elmo light up spiny toys, at the Sesame Street Live show they are at least $10 a piece. Johnny was very excited, especially after Mommy showed him how to make it work.

I think Daddy was excited too. Johnny is really starting to look even more like his Daddy!

We took Uncle Tommy, Aunt Natalie, Ella and Sammi. Sammi really enjoyed the show more then we thought she would. She watched the characters dance and smiled really big the entire time....and oh isn't she cute?

Ella sporting her USO bandanna and wishing that Abby Cadabby was part of the cast...sorry Ella.


As the characters came out everyone cheered for their favorite, of course we tried to get Johnny to yell and bounce for Elmo, but he tensed up, he was so excited and didn't know what to do with himself. Also it was near 90 degrees yesterday when we discovered that he has no short sleeve Elmo shirts! Aren't we bad parents!

He couldn't sit still, it was all so over whelming.

Sammi loved it when her Mommy made her dance.

Johnny loved it the most too when he was allowed to dance in the isle. But it didn't last long, since some parents started to rush the stage with their kids and where running frantically down the isles.

It was a nice experience that I think Johnny really enjoyed! I really love that Sesame Street and the USO went above and beyond to do this show here on our base. Makes you proud to be a military family.

Halloween 2009

Our Halloween this year was a busy one! But super super fun!!!! We started at a local shopping area that had free trick or treating around the local businesses. Papa came with us and it was so much fun to see Johnny get excited about going from place to place....he knew he was getting candy, and before he got tired he would run, laughing.

His tail is fuzzy in this picture because as he walked it waved back and forth and was so so cute!

But Daddy we need to go to the next store...they have dum dums!

Running from store to store :)And picking out his own candy at Kohls. The only funny thing was that his costume had mittens for claws and made it hard for his to pick things up with one hand, by the end of the day he figured out how to hold something with both hands.

After two hours of trick or treating around the shopping area (and hitting every store) Johnny had a nap at Grams and Pops house and woke up to a party going on at Aunt Natnie's and Uncle Tommy's house! They threw the coolest Halloween party ever! We all had a great time!

This was Johnny's favortite part! "bobbing" for apples. At first he put his entire hand in the water, mitten claw and all, so we rolled up his sleves and he spent 15 mintes picking up and putting back the apples, he didn't care that they had prizes inside!

After the bobbing, we all sat down to decorate pumpkins! At first Johnny was sure what to do, but when we found the glitter paint pens he would have painted that pumpkin for hours!

Johnny especially loved Uncle Tommy reading storys. Johnny was such a ham, making noises and standind up to act out the story for everyone, and they all loved him too.

But then as the kids went looking for stuffed pumpkins, Johnny discovered these Halloween beach balls. This is Johnny after he attempted to carry 5 of them, but he had a ball. hehehe

Uncle Tommy and Daddy tried to scare Johnny by dressing Daddy up in this wolf man mask and gloves. Johnny (who had played with this mask and gloves the night before) knew it was Daddy right away and started moving the mask around to dig him out. (though Daddy did scare some other kids at the party, then let them throw balls at him to make up for it.)

We had to take a dragon break so Momma could clean it and get it dry for trick or treating, but smartly Grams and put Johnny super man pajamas on under his costume. By day a dragon, by night he is SUPER MAN! answering a call from the mayor to save the world again!

Here is Uncle Shawn (a knight, Grams made the cloak and shirt) and little Samantha a tiny little monster!

Super Man needed a break from saving Metropolis and have a snack. Aunt Natnie made this yummy and cute pumpkin cheese ball! Johnny really liked it, he would take the crackers and dig right into it, then lick of the cheese and dip again, until we showed him he could eat the cracker.

I just thought that the dragon playing the piano was pretty cute.

Daddy made the mistake of laying on the floor, Johnny enjoying crawling to him and then jumping on him!

After the party it was time for trick or treating. Johnny started the evening by helping Uncle Tommy give out candy. He did GREAT! I was so proud at how well he gave to others, he knew he had a big bowl of candy and he enjoyed putting it in the bags of other kids.

We took the candy and animal crackers we bought for the trick or treaters to Uncle Tommy's house since we knew we wouldn't be home all evening, he very wonderfully gave it all out for us, with Ella's help.

"grrrrrr, Godzilla does not give candy to kids without a costume, grrrrrr!"

After a little time of giving candy out, it was Johnny's turn to get some. He was a great little dragon and everyone loved him! We only did about 2 blocks, then Johnny was just tired! It was a busy day!


Just a little flash back, here is Johnny last year, at 7 months old on his first Halloween as a little stinker :)

Hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!

Global Fluffy Bum

About 2 weeks ago we where happily involved in a wonderful program called Global Fluffy Bum.
Families from all over pass along this embroidered diaper cover, use in for a few days, and take it around their lives, then pass it along to the next family. I was so excited to get to use this diaper and we had a blast.

The first day we had it we just played around the house, nothing special, but it is our life, Johnny getting into trouble mostly.


Begging for a cup of juice.

Throwing all of the cushions off the couches so they can jump on them.

Surveying the mess and holding tight onto Elmo.

and climbing on the dinning room table.

The next day we had the diaper, we went to visit Grams and Pops. Johnny always has so much fun there, and it is crazy how big he looks without pants while Papa is holding him.

Here Johnny's 2 month old cousin Samantha wore the diaper too, why not?

Isn't she cute?

Then to the wash, this is our diaper basket!

Momma hand washed this cover to make sure nothing happened to it.

And hung it to dry.

Momma held onto the diaper longer then she should have, waiting for a sunny day to take Johnny to the tanks here on post and do some pictures. Perfect to come from the military family.

We really LOVED being involved in this program!! It got Momma more dedicated to doing the cloth diapers and even knitting some new covers!

Papa's Surgery, and then Home

Most of our family know now that Papa had a very invasive back surgery on Monday the 28th. Back in September of 2005 Papa had 6 screws and 2 steel rods put in his back to fuse his spine. Well that surgery never took, so for four years he has been in intense pain. Recently upon discovering the the failure of the first fusion, the Dr and Papa decided to re due it. So this time they did the largest back fusion possible. Some of the screws where so loose they just came out! and holes had to be redrilled and larger screws had to be used! Gram's blog has much more details. Papa's surgery was on Monday and he was released today. Mommy spent Monday and Tuesday going back and forth from the hospital and Wednesday and Thursday taking care of Sam and Ella and preparing Grams and Pop's house for Papa's return.

Though this week has meant a lot of early mornings for Mommy and Johnny, Johnny has LOVED getting to spend so much time with his cousins.

Giving Sam kisses! He can't help himself when it comes to Sam, he RUNS to her every time he sees her and hugs her and kisses her and brings her a binky when she cries.

Isn't she a big girl? Three months old now, where does the time go?

Johnny thought Sam needed shoes, and what better shoes then Cinderella dress up slippers...he was her prince :)

The following pictures are from today as me and the kids prepared for Papa to come home!!!

Johnny and Ella did this A LOT!! Sitting close next to each other to read or watch TV. Actually every morning Ella would bring Johnny up to her room to read books on her bed, very cute!

We wanted Papa to know how much we missed him and how much we love him, so we made him some signs to come home to.

Johnny is finally getting into coloring and went crazy here! A beautiful work of art!

I think they turned out pretty good :)

It was such a relief to have Papa home! We all spent the last 4 days on the edge of our seats, needing to know Papa was going to be okay and praying that his pain would finally go away! He still has a whole lot of healing to do, but the Dr has been very informative and very positive so far! He will be unable to pick up Johnny (or even Sam) for a couple months, and we know that Papa will miss that, but after he is all healing up he will be able to do a lot more that he couldn't before and feel a lot less pain!


When Papa walked in the door leaning on the walker, Johnny ran toward him not understanding that Papa wasn't able to pick him up or anything, but Johnny was just so happy to see him that nothing else mattered!