The Minivan

When Dave and I got married, I never would have imaged that 6 years later I would be living on post and driving a minivan. It's funny how life turns out. Of course, our house on post is awesome and we're almost done getting it all set up the way we want it. This weekend we decided to take the plunge and trade in the Pilot for a 2011 Honda Oddyssey (only had 4 miles on it!). It was just getting too hard to put 3 kids into car seats without being able to step into the car. I'm actually really happy with it. We got the completely decked out version with Navigation and DVD and memory seat settings. At first I didn't love how the window goes down and comes to a point at the end, but Dave read that it is referred to as the "lightning bolt" trimline. They even launched it at the Charger's stadium. How cool is that!

Veterans Day

I was walking through the hospital there other day and someone handed me a card. Here is what it said:

"Dear Military Family Member,
I want to thank you for the sacrifice you have made to preserve our nation's freedom.
Your long nights, lonely days, times of fear, hours of worry and seasons of stress are not unnoticed by those of us who enjoy freedom.
Thank You."

Dave was at Fort Campbell for 5 years. This card perfectly articulates what it was like. 
Two years of being in a war zone, month long field training, lost weekends, and the feeling that at any moment there would be more to sacrifice. I completely appreciate that there is a holiday to honor those who have been through that and who are doing it now.

This is a picture of when Dave got back from his second deployment. It reminds me the amazing feeling of being reunited and that the worrying is over.

I feel so very lucky at the moment. There are people who have to give up so much more than we ever did. People who are on deployment number three, missed big moments in their kids lives or their birth, and of course there are those who give up their life. We left Fort Campbell over 4 years ago. San Antonio was like living in a bubble protected from the "real" Army. This assignment has been my dream come true. Dave gets to put on a uniform and help those who serve, but we have not been sacrificing at all.

My grandfather, father, and husband were all veterans who gave up part of their lives to serve. Veterans Day really has a lot of meaning to me, and I'm thankful we get a day off in honor of their sacrifice.

Swim Meet and Future Runner!

They have a competition on post called the Commanders Cup. Dave ran in the 5k last fall. They had a swim meet last week and Dave thought he would give it a try. I actually think he did really well. He got 5th and 6th in a few of the events he was in. These people were real swimmers, so 5th and 6th meant last place. I still think it's cool because he scored points!

Dave is in lane 5 which makes him the farthest swimmer to the right

These girls came over and wanted to help me take care of the boys. They fed the twins and chased Jack around while I supervised. Pretty sweet deal for me.

As you might be able to tell, Jack is all about sports, but hadn't discovered running until now. While we were at the swim meet, some kids were running races in the park. They would yell "set. go." Jack went over and race with them. They were like 10 years old and he couldn't keep up, but it was cute to watch. Now he goes around getting into his version of a track start and saying "set. go." Here is a little video of my future runner!

Jack's Halloween

Halloween on post was great. A lot of houses went all out with their decorations and there were plenty of little kids out and about. We got Jack a Root Beer costume. He was so cute, and I couldn't believe he didn't try to mess with the hat. It took Jack a few houses before he really got the idea. It was cute to watch him figure out that you go up to a house and put some candy in your bag. I mean seriously, is there anything better than that? After we finished up in our neighborhood, we went over and did some wondering around with Dave's brother and family.



The bag was getting heavy

He did it!

The Twins First Halloween

Halloween babies!
Tim on the left and Chris on the right

We had a really nice Halloween. It was both the twins' first Halloween and Jack's first Halloween walking.  I wanted to find twin costumes that weren't exactly the same. Most days, I have been dressing Tim in green clothes and Chris in blue clothes. I managed to find similar monster(ish) costumes that were colored in blue and green. These costumes were very warm which was perfect for the cool fall night.

It is subtle but they are both sticking their tongue out!

I still need to go through all the pictures and video we took of Jack. I will post that tonight or tomorrow. Hope everyone had a nice Halloween!

Lots of Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of the boys.

I gave Tim a little mohawk the other day. As I was going to take a picture, Jack walked by and got Tim to smile!

My friend Danielle got an amazing picture of her daughter on the changing table. I gave it a try and Chris even flashed a half smile

My mom got Jack a sleeping bag that he didn't want anything to do with while she was here. Now he asks for it all the time. He calls it his "bed."

One of my favorite parts of this twin experience is watching the interaction between all the boys.It just fills my heart with joy to watch these guys together.

Can you guess who is who?



I had them in bed with me one morning. I went to change and when I came back they had snuggled into each other!



Jack with Tim ... Do you see how big the twins are getting!

Jack came over to play with Chris. I just started snapping because Jack usually runs away from the camera, so I didn't frame it well and missed that Jack is holding Chris's hand.

Jack talking to Tim

Out and About

So far this month, we have done something fun every weekend. This weekend our friends Jamie and Rob came up for the Army Ten Miler. I didn't get to run the race, but it was great to have them here. Dave's training fell apart once the twins came (for obvious reasons), but he ran it anyway and had a great time.

Rob, Jamie, Dave, and Peter after the race

They were so great with the twins! Besides helping feed and carry the twins everywhere, they did lots of baby holding. I loved it because I don't feel like the twins get held enough. Rob also did a lot of football with Jack.

A few weeks ago, we went to the Oktoberfest on Fort Belvoir. I danced the chicken dance with Jack, but he was mostly scared of the loud music. I realized while we were there that Oktoberfest was also one of Jack's first outtings.

Last year we went to Cox Farm for their Halloween/Fall Festival. It was beautiful and Jack loved it. This year it was super cold and windy plus we carried the twins instead of using the stroller. On top of that, Jack just wanted to wonder around free rather than us telling him where to go. It made for a much more difficult trip. It was still fun because Jack loved the activities, but we didn't stay very long. I came home and crashed for three hours.

This is Tim's face. It was difficult to take the picture because people kept jumping in Dave's way yelling "oh look how cute that is"

This is Chris as a goat