SAUCER SCHNANIGANS

Grandma Jean made it in safely from Green Bay!! We are enjoying her visit and aged Swiss cheese YUM!! Alan had a good time showing her his special scrapbook of Madison and himself.

We had a very hard rain this morning. Eddie got away from me when unloading the mini van and the rest is history!!!

Well, a few weeks ago I lost my mind. There was a post to one of my message boards about a really great price on my favorite scrapbooking adhesive, but you had to order $1,000 worth to get it. Someone had suggested a group order so you guessed it I volunteered to organzie it!!! Well needless to say I had to cut it off when the order hit $5,000 plus shipping expenses. I am amazed at how fast people responded and can't even tell you how many emails I received and responded too. I am happy to report that the order arrived yesterday and today and as of now the boxes for those who have already paid me are packaged, addressed and waiting in the van to go to the post office tomorrow afternoon. Daniel has been very understanding in all this and even loaded them into the van for me!!! Alan thought today was Christmas with all the empty boxes and I got a couple video clips and will post them below.

Today has already been a very productive day and it's only lunch time!! After throwing the bedding in the wash, Alan and I got busy making jerky in Daddy's new dehydrator. Then we switched laundry around and washed more sheets. After that we made 4 loaves of banana bread and did some work on the computer!!! It's about time for a nap. Here is a clip of Alan making jerky.

Alan has been saying "trick or treat" a lot lately. It wasn't until santa showed up at playgroup on base yesterday that I figured out he was trying to say "Christmas tree"!! Here are some pictures of the boys with santa yesterday. Can you tell who santa is?? It only took Alan 2 minutes to figure it out, but mommy was able to convince him otherwise :)

We received a package from "Gramps" and Mary today. Alan was very excited so I let him open it. Inside there were some beautiful handmade Muc Lucs for the boys and mommy. Alan couldn't get them on fast enough!!!

Here is a video clip of Alan unwrapping rolos for me this afternoon. I was baking cookies to take to the church tonight where the Circle Of Friends church ladies will be baking up a storm. Alan seems to think that everytime we bake something it must be for Bailey!! Does he really think my baking is so bad it's for the dogs!?!

Well, I'm not sure what made me think I could sew. . . I thought sewing a santa suit wouldn't be too difficult if it was part of a "kit". The base playgroup was doing some Christmas pictures of the kids and I thought I could get the suit done in time to have Daniel take an early lunch and show up as Santa. Well this "kit" had very confusing directions. They may as well have been written in Japanese!!! After spending an entire 3hr naptime studying and attempting to cut out the pieces I was beyond frustrated and ready to cry. I ended up using my resources and sending out a very desperate email to EVERY email address I had for people that lived near me (there are some playgroup lists with emails of people I don't even know). Within 30 minutes a friend, Erin, from my MOPS group responded so I called her and she was able to help me figure out how to cut the pieces out correctly!!! Ok so the pieces are cut out, know what do I do!?! Well. yesterday I r...

Talk about a warm winter. Today is December 1st and it's sunny and over 80 degrees!!! The boys and I enjoyed the sunshine in the back yard. Here is a video of big brother Alan pushing Eddie in the swing.

We had a family night out in the hot tub tonight and the boys had a BLAST!! Alan even got daring and enjoyed counting to 3 and jumping off the cool off seat!!

Yesterday was sunny and 80 so we decided to put ourselves to work. Daniel dugg up all the flower beds in the front yard and got rid of the nasty pine straw. We got the fabric laid to keep the weeds down and then put the mulch and bark down. We ran out of mulch so Alan and Daniel will be heading to Lowe's tonight after work. Eddie of course had a blast spending most of the day out doors. Then after dinner we decided to make some homemade doggy biscuits for Bailey.

I am making pies for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and the boys found the pots and pans cupboard. Alan created his own drum set and we caught a short piece of the newest drum craze on video. Hope you enjoy and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Wow, what a day of travel yesterday. We had spent the night with our good friends the Tuckers to save us a 5hr drive to the air port. Then it was up bright and early to get to the airport. As we were getting ready to board the plane I ran into a lady that I knew from our previous assignment in Alabama. I had to ask her how I knew her, but when she told me it all came back. She was pregnant when I first met her and only saw the baby once. That baby is now 9 months old!!! Where does the time go!?! It was great to catch up with things from the Stampin' group. Then we endured an extremely long, but non-stop, 4hr flight into Las Vegas. The plan was to call Gramps when we landed and again when we were waiting on the pick up curb with our bags. It only takes 10 min from the campground to the airport. We followed the plan, but by the time we called him from the curb he had run into a few problems driving our rental RV. The Rv is 12 foot tall and the clearence to get to the pick ...

I'm sorry it's taken me so long, but I FINALLY got the website, www.angelfire.com/bug./alan82903 caught up. There are tons of new pictures from Cousin Heather's wedding in August through our more recent visit to the pumpkin patch. Hope you all enjoy and please email your comments so I know you're out there keeping up with our family. Thanks

This past weekend we made our trip up to see the Tuckers and do our annual visit to the Pumpkin Patch. The weather was sunny and 73 so we had a perfect day!!! They have everything for a great family day together. We started off taking pictures with different pumpkins and decorations then we had the daddys take the big kids into the inflatable playground to jump around and slide. Then it was time for lunch, roasted corn on the cob dripping in butter :P After lunch we headed to the petting zoo where Alan really liked the pig. After the petting zoo it was time for pony rides and both Madison and Alan rode without help this year!!! Then we checked out the authentic TeePees and got our tickets for the big hay ride to the actual pumpkin patch. Alan and Daddy went way far out to find the pumpkins. Then we played around in the hay mound and had a great time. It was time to head home for naps before we knew it.

We had the best time on Friday when Alan, Eddie and I went to the fire station downtown. Here are Alan and Eddie exploring the fire truck.

Today was a busy day and I really, really, really did NOT need to crash into another driver in a parking lot. Whether I needed to or not it happened. We were at the Dollar Tree and I didn't see this other car and she didn't see that I was backing up until it was too late. Her car doesn't look nearly as bad and thankfully we were both only going 2mph and no one got hurt.

Okay so I know most people who blog do so on a somewhat regular basis. Well, that WAS my intent, but somehow there aren't enough hours in the day!!! September was a very busy month, in fact I'm not really sure where it went to. We left Sept. 10th to spend a little over a week in Mississippi where our Uncle Tom married our newest Aunt Augusta on Sept. 16th. All 5 of Daniel's siblings were there for the big event making the 6 pack complete. It was so nice to see EVERYONE and to catch up. Daniel was a groomsman and Alan was ring bearer and the wedding was beautiful. Aunt Kristine made the long ride home with us to spend 2 weeks playing with the boys and hanging out. That was the fastest 2 weeks ever. I can't believe we didn't even make it to the beach!!! We did make some progress on scanning family pictures (there are still plenty to be scanned) and did some stampin' of course. That pretty much brings us to this week. Daniel is TDY for the week so the bo...

Well we made our first ER visit today. Daniel received a call from his sister, Kristine, that said he needed to come home right away because Eddie's nose AND mouth were bleeding. I saw Daniel run out of the building and jump in the car where I was waiting. He said Eddie was hurt and call Kristine as he sped off base. Everything was calmed down and cleaned up by the time we made it home, but we couldn't get a good look at Eddie's mouth so Daniel took him to urgent care where they sent him to the Emergency Room because they didn't have the right equipment for such a small child. I'm glad I sent Daniel because he said it took 3 adults to hold Eddie down for x-rays and every time anyone checked his mouth he SCREAMED!!! Nothing is broken and no stiches necessary. He has some cuts inside his nose and mouth and some bruising on his face. It really scared Alan too and thankfully he wasn't involved in the big spill off our small toy tractor. Needless to say he i...

Congratulations Daddy!! Today Daniel pinned on the rank of Major. This is a very important rank because it takes you from Company Grade Officer to Field Grade Officer. Daniel is the first in his family to become a Field Grade Officer!!! We were honored to have his Aunt Joyce, Uncle Harold, and Cousin Rachael come in from Pensacola. We were also honored and most pleasantly surprised to have my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Neil drive non-stop from Green Bay, WI!!! Below are some pictures from an amazing day. Alan and Eddie pin on Daddy's new rank. Daddy takes the Oath Aunt Kathy and Aunt Joyce put Daniel's new rank on his shirt Aunts Give Daniel a congratulations kiss!! The Rechsteiner visitors

Today Alan turned 3!!! When he came into wake me up I started to say "Good Morning" and Alan said "Stop Mommy. Birthday me." He went right for the presents and was disappointed to find out he had to wait until Daddy got home from work to open them up. Maybe next year we will wake him up before Daddy goes to work. We started our day trying to make Alan's cake for tonight and I spent the rest of the day explaining we couldn't eat it until Daddy got home. Here is how the cake turned out. Here is a picture of opening presents after the cake.

Sunday was Daniel's birthday. We took Daddy to the beach to celebrate!! When we got home from the beach Alan was eager for Daddy to open the presents that he and Mommy bought together. For Daddy, Alan picked out Sponge Bob pajama pants and the new Disney Herbie DVD. For Daddy??? Not sure, but they have been a real hit at our house. The afternoon, evening and night were not so pleasant as Alan was very sick and threw up on Daddy 4 or 5 times. Enough to not have any clean pajamas left so he opened one of his birthday gifts a couple days early. Mommy knew it was Sponge Bob pajamas, but what I didn't know was the pants were identical to the ones Alan had picked out for Daniel :)

The boys are really into dressing up in costume wear. Hint Hint you can do your Christmas shopping after Halloween sales. Here are some fun pictures of them in the cowboy wear.

Today we had a science lesson. Alan found some party balloons so we took advantage of a teachable moment. I taught him how to rub it on his hair and stick it to the wall.

Our newest neighbors have 3 little dogs. They are just the right size for our little boys to LOVE!!! They also have a very tricky back door. Yesterday David managed to lock himself out while letting the dogs out. He came over to borrow our phone and phone book to call Lisa's work and get her cell number. He then found an open bathroom window and crawled through to get in. This morning I was loading the van to go to MOPS and there was Lisa with all the dogs. She had done the same thing only on her way to work. What an awful way to start your day. Her work happened to be close to the MOPS location so I offered her a ride. They don't have a fence so there was no where to put the dogs who were still getting used to the new neighborhood. Problem solved our yard is fenced in. So we put the dogs in the yard, buckeled up the boys and headed out for the day. When I got home for lunch 2 of her dogs were in her driveway. This was confusing as I just talked to her on the cell...

Wow the month of August is really flying by. I apologize to those of you who check our blog on a regular basis. We have been traveling and getting ready for several birthdays in the next couple weeks. Big August news was Daniel's cousin, Heather, got married on August 12th. We had a great time and really enjoyed visits from Grandpa Bear and Aunt tine, pronounced teen, aka Kristine. She was given her new name by Alan of course and he had a blast being spoiled during the visits.

Alan and Mommy had a date tonight. We went to see Elmo's Coloring book live!! We had a blast, but the show was nothing compared to the Wiggles. I guess once you have seen the best. . . . It was well worth the price of the ticket and Alan was very excited to see his furry, red, friend :) When we got back from intermission Alan noticed we were right in front of all the spot lights. He decided it would be fun to try to catch the light beams!!! Below are pictues from our date.

What a BLAST!!! We took the kids to visit our friends the Tuckers in Alabama and on Friday night we ALL went to see the Wiggles in concert. Alan and Madison were dancing and signing right along. Alan was so disappointed when the concert ended he was crying and even tried to get out of the van to go back to the arena to see the Wiggles!! Here are some pictures from the concert. Even Daniel enjoyed the show!! The Wiggles up close!! Who knew it would be so emotional to see your favorite TV characters live on stage!! It almost made me cry to see them in real life instead of our life size TV :)

Today Alan awoke to a great surprise. Mommy buckled him in the back of Daddy's car (riding in Daddy's car always means we are going somewhere fun). An hour later we crossed the Alabama state line. I told Alan we were in Alabama. He said Bama and laughed. Then I asked him who lives in Alabama. He guessed Grandma and kept saying Bama and laughing. Then we pulled up next to Madison in the parking lot of Walmart he got very excited. I told him Madison lives in Alabama. We followed Madison to the water park and they had a grand reunion complete with joyful screams and hugs!!! We spent the day playing in the water and sliding down the Elephant slide in the kiddy pool. About half hour before we were gonna leave there was a huge clap of thunder and the pools were evacuated. We ran to the bath house to get dressed. By the time we had dry clothes on the huge downpour had turned into sprinkles. So we said our goodbyes and headed for home. I asked Alan if today was a happy d...

Okay, so the beginning of potty training seemed to go pretty smooth. Not for the big "butt". Alan seems to thinks it's perfectly normal to poop in his pants. He is a bit confused about what "poop" is as he always says he pooped when really he peed. Daniel thinks it's because he sits to pee and when Daddy sits it's to poop. Anyway we have started calling poop "stinky" but is hasn't really helped. Any suggestions on what to try to help Alan realize that it's not good to poop your pants are greatly appreciated. That's the straight poop!!

I recently learned about something called a "One Sheet Wonder" (OSW) in the stamping world. You take one 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of designer paper. In my example I happened to stamp and create my own designer paper. Then you follow a map to cut this designer paper up in to pieces to use as accents on the fronts of your cards. You should be able to make 10 unique cards from the "One Sheet (Wonder)" of designer paper. I used my favorite stamp set from Stampin' Up's summer mini catalog to create the cards posted below. It's called "Cowboy Kid". #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10