Many reasons to be thankful.

Thanksgiving had a great feel this year. Last year Greg was deployed and Eric was in Florida. Their absence left a noticeable gap at the dinner table on Thanksgiving day. This year we were so thankful to have everyone in attendance. We did a triple Thanksgiving this year and went to the Valdez house, Bob's house, and the Hanson house. As always, we enjoyed the big family dynamic at the Valdez house.  It was especially cheery at the Might house because it was the first time that both Bob and Mom's children and grandchildren had all come together at once for Thanksgiving. Mom will be moving to Great Falls with Bob next year after their wedding. It was also very joyous to be at the Hanson house as well because my dad's fiance Sandy and her daughter Valerie were able to celebrate with us for the first time. They are planning a wedding in early March of 2012. Sadly, my camera battery was not charged at the Might Thanksgiving and I am waiting for Mom to send me the pictures (feel free to harass her). We were utterly exhausted by the end of the weekend but it was worth it to see all our family. 

 Ava dressed up like a Turkey (the things on her head are the turkey legs)

 Our little pilgrim excited to see her Grandparents!

 They were both Aunt Jess' shadow that weekend. The girls adorable outfits are courtesy of Jess too.

 Hanging out with Great Grandma Bath

 Nanny decorated the table beautifully for the big group!

 Valdez Group shot!

 This is why we call Uncle Justin, "White Chocolate"

 Aunt Jess and I continued our annual tradition of Black Friday battling. Greg even faced the crowd with Eric this year scoring lots of loot at Target

 Dessert time celebrating Aunt Jess' birthday!

A really neat part of this year at the Hanson house was that there was an older male deer hanging out in their back yard. Unfortunately this picture does not do it justice, but the deer had about 8 points on each  antler. He hung out in the yard the entire time we were over for dinner. Definitely a neat experience. 

 The girls always have a great time playing and experimenting with all the neat instruments at the Hanson house. 

 Ava "harmonizing" with Poppy on the piano

 Daddy even gives it a go!

 Cousin Eric is always a good playmate. Here the girls can reach the ceiling!

The neat presents that Aunt Ellen and Uncle Bill brought back for us from their recent trip to India. We had a wonderful time with all our families and are looking forward to one final visit at Christmas time before our big move out West.

NightTime Ninjas

A Thanksgiving post is in the works...but to hold you all over I present the NIGHT TIME NINJAS! Greg wants me to specify that they are not terrorists but Ninjas. Greg gets them to put on their jammies with the promise to get them in their Ninja gear afterward. He really is Mr. Fun and the girls are so blessed to have him make their bedtimes so enjoyable. I have a lot of creativity to live up to when he goes away for a few months.

Super Jump

One of the things I will miss most about Virginia are my roommates from college. We have been lucky enough to all be in driving distance from each other for the past four years and usually do biannual girls trip weekends each year. They live in Chesapeake, Richmond, and College Park Maryland. Since we found out we were moving in August we have tried to get together once a month for a girls night before I leave in December. I only lived with these girls two years in college and we were in our sorority together for three years but they truly are my sisters. This weekend we rendezvoused in Richmond for good old fashioned girls shopping and eating. Thanks to our husbands who held down the fort and were super daddies while we had our girls day out.

 Pearl's cupackes- mmm mmm mmm

 We have about 1,346 pictures of us all eating

 I have a new favorite store- Anthropologie. It is absolutely dangerous to go in there with a credit card. JaneBerry and Melissa are auditioning for the role of Peter Pan in these dresses. 

 Sunset at JaneBerry's house

At the end of the night, we looked through several boxes of old photos JaneBerry had from college and had a good laugh. Here is one of our favorites from when Jen (Yes Jen as in our Aunt Jen) won Homecoming queen at CNU in 2003. We look like babies!

 Keeping up with the theme that there is never a dull moment at the Valdez house Greg, here are action pictures of the game "Super Jump".  One of the many reasons we love our king size bed is because it is large enough to rough house on. In this game the girls take a running start from down the hall and Greg tosses them on the bed. Pen even enjoys the game. I am currently red shirted from the game on the account of Teeny Babe.

Ava gets some Air

 Min has got style points

 Daddy tries to out do us all

Squeals all the way around

Happy Fall Ya'll

I believe my 21 year old version of myself is gagging at what a lame old lady I have become. My favorite holiday is now Thanksgiving because it is low key, has great food, you see family, you only have to prep for it one day, and the best sales of the year follow it. I also love "Fall Back" daylight savings time. I'll gladly take that extra hour of sleep and I don't mind putting my Divas to bed at 7:00 PM since it is pitch black outside. I love the leaves, the adorable preschool projects, not stressing about costumes or Christmas presents, and giving up sunscreen. Last weekend we celebrated Veterans Day by going to a state park we hadn't visited and by having our family over. 

 Mini Indian wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. This is the adorable preschool projects that I am talking about!

Sadly, we had our Bail from VFA 32. We were so lucky to have the Gypsies as our first sea tour squadron. Much to Greg's chagrin, I have to brag about how well he has done on his first tour in this post. Greg became a FAC(A) (he is allowed to tell other aircraft where and when to drop bombs). He then was picked to by his peers to be the representative for all the junior officers (position known as JOPA). Most notably, he was awarded the Thomas Hudner Leadership award. The award is given to one junior officer every 15 months that best exhibits model leadership. Even though it was rough on our family not to have him around for most of 2009 and 2010 it has been worth it to us to see what a difference he has made. 

The Navy now has a policy that only black t-shirts are to be worn under flight suits. Greg continuing with his JO dress up legacy, ordered about 15 black tshirts with different inappropriate sayings for most of the JOs to wear under their flight suits. They were a hit but not PC enough to put on the blog :)

Thank you Gypsy Chicks for being such a great support network during our 3 years with you. You have set the bar high for spouse clubs!

Audrey (18 mo) came over this week to play. Ava taught her how to be a shoe diva. Audrey showed how she could hang with the craziness of the Valdez House

On Veteran's day we went to Back Bay State Park in Sandbridge, VA. Even though it was a bit nippy out we loved having the trails to ourselves. We are looking forward to exploring the state parks that California has to offer us!

12 weeks- 3 month Preggo picture. Excited to almost be in the blissful second trimester.

 Ellie decided that she was over pictures for this shot.

 The views on the hike were breathtaking

 My Hunk Hubby

The girls (and Greg) are similar to big dogs on a beach. You let them off the leash and they just start running and are overjoyed with the freedom.

Jousting 

 Mini REALLY didn't want to take pictures this weekend. She is pouting here

 On our way to church

 Aunt Jess sent them these fabulous fancy outfits for their birthdays. They had been BEGGING to wear them all week and I told them they had to wait for church on Sunday. They didn't realize part of the bargain was taking a picture to show Aunt Jess her stylistic talents.  Greg says this picture looks like an Angry Girl Band album cover.

 Finally I caught a cute candid of her.

 My current favorite picture of Ava. We played out in the leaves after church.

It looks like Ava threw her leaves on Mini but I swear she was having a good time.

 Trees in our front yard

 Celebrating 3 of our favorite Veterans!

 For the cake candles we said the pledge of allegiance since Ava knows it so well. Nanny improvised with the flag plate. We had a great time visiting with them all!

Cute outfits Aunt Jen sent the girls for their birthdays