Callin' Baton Rouge

"Papa" and "Bama" are still here so they watched the girls while me and Nathan took a little trip to Baton Rouge. We only stayed one night but it was lots of fun {even tho it rained the WHOLE way there and all night}. We were planning on going to the temple and we checked online before we went but it was closed! Bummer! But of course we still enjoyed our time alone. We did a lot of shopping, saw "Blind Side" {which was AMAZING and I recommend to everyone!!}, ate some very delicious sushi, scarfed down some cheap {2 dollars and sixty eight cents for 2 big cup fulls!!} frozen yogurt, had some deep discussions that inlcuded something about the difference between 'well' and 'whale';), and spent some lazy time in our hotel suite that included a jacuzzi! I also got a haircut...pics to come later....

Love you so much Baby!!

Thanks again Mom and Dad!

Santa was a little late...

but he made up for it!! We decided to wait to do Christmas until after my parents got here, which was at about 7:30 Christmas night. Kaylin was so excited to finally get to tear into her presents.
My mom and dad got her a play kitchen. She LOVES it! She actually opened it the day after Christmas since we were up so late the night before opening the other gifts. She's had lots of fun cooking for us and bringing us "coke" to drink.
Taylor had fun trying to help Kaylin unwrap her presents....Kaylin had fun saying "NO...STOP!"

These next few are out of order{dangit}but you get the idea.
Nathan and I got her a Princess FJ Cruiser. She tried to run over Nathan after she finally figured out how to make it go.
She opened all her presents while sitting in there...she did not want to get out!
Very happy girl! It was so fun watching her be so excited this year!!
She wanted to get in even before all the wrapping paper was off!

Sorry there aren't more pictures of miss Taylor...she was asleep by the time we got around to opening present Christmas night. She loves playing with all the wrapping paper tho!

We got to feed the missionaries lunch on Christmas day and then they used our phones to call home. It was fun to have them here. I really enjoyed the special spirit they brought to our home. I also enjoyed seeing how excited they were to talk to their families! I certainly know how they felt with not being able to see their families during the holidays! We miss you all!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Last boring craft post for a while!

I promise! Nathan's coming home tonight {YIPPEE} so I probably won't be in the mood to craft for a while. So you won't have to read about my boring crafts anymore!
I needed another toy box for Kaylin's room. So I decided to turn one of our laundry baskets into one...again I just used some scraps I had.

Kaylin was very helpful.

And this is how it turned out!! I used some chenille, like 5 or 6 glue sticks, and some ribbon! Super Easy!

Naptime craft

I needed a Christmas card holder, so I decided to made one with some of my scraps.

Now I have a place to display all the cute Christmas cards I get!!

When Kaylin woke up from her nap she looked over there and said "WOooOW...cute!" LOL.
Thanks for the approval Kaylin!!

See you in 2 weeks

Nathan is gone for 2 whole weeks. He'll be in Fort Huachuca, AZ of all places! He's doing a tracking class there. So its just me and the girls until the 18th! Of course I have to keep my mind busy so I made that cute "S" ornament. Too bad it only took about an hour. Now I have to figure something else out to do.

Anyone wanna come visit me??

I took this pic right before I got on here to blog. Kaylin was trying to get the crayons off the t.v. screen so she could color. LOL! So glad I have her to make me smile everyday!

Christmas Cards

I need addresses for our Christmas cards! Email me your address if you want one!

samantha312@hotmail.com

Or you can leave it in a comment and I'll delete as soon as I get it.

Thanks!!

Bath time!

Unit Family Fun Day!

Nathan's Unit had a family fun day today. Basically is was to show the families what their soldiers do when they go to work. For the first 45 min. we got to stand in formation with our soldiers and listen to some speeches. The first pic up there is a guy in full camo. Usually Kaylin is pretty outgoing...not really the shy type. But we now know the one thing Kaylin won't talk to!

He tried to take her hand but she turned away as fast as she could and pulled her hands in!

We let her have some fun after being scared to death. {And No, Nathan does not get to jump around on these things when he goes to work :)}

Then we went on a bus so I could shoot some guns!!! Kaylin loved the bus ride! So did Taylor, she just sat on my lap the whole time and didn't move.

Safety First!

The guy told me to just hold down the trigger...so that's what I did. I guess you're not really supposed to do that, you're only supposed to shoot like 3 at a time. Whoops! It was so fun tho! Even tho all the guys were laughing at me. I got to shoot 2 laying down guns {Nathan's gonna laugh at me for calling them "laying down guns" but really...how am i supposed to remember all their names??}

Then I got to shoot the kneeling down gun. I was scared just holding it like that...thats a lot of power! But after a few shots I got used to it! So much fun!!!

MY Stud Muffin

Nathan got his EIB {Expert Infantry Badge} last week.
"The EIB is awarded to U.S. Army personnel who hold Infantry or special forces military occupational specialities. To be awarded the EIB, the service member must complete a testing phase which is the culmination of weeks of training, leading to a final evaluation period. The EIB test is administered on the average once per year with pass rates usually averaging less than 10 percent, depending on the unit conducting testing." I copied that from the U.S. Army Infantry Homepage. They are supposed to get weeks of training before the final evaluation but Nathan only got to train for one week and out of 180 guys who started the training...only 30 something graduated...Nathan being one of them! And I might add that most of the guys he is standing with are Seargants, Nathan is a Private 1st Class. It was actually pretty funny when they were reading off the names. You heard "Seargant so and so, Seargant so and so, PFC Sherwood, Seargant so and so...." It was like he didn't belong there! Haha. But it just shows how awesome he is doing!

Here's Nathan's Platoon Seargant telling his team how awesome he is.

Here's the badge! {the blue one}

Here's all the guy punching the pins into his chest. He was bleeding pretty good when the were done with him.

Here's Nathan with his Platoon Seargant on the left and Team Leader on the right.

Good Job Baby!!! I'm SOOO proud of you!

Tip Junkie...

...is having the 12 Days of Junkie Giveaway!!! Check it out!!!!

www.tipjunkie.com

Friday Night Lights

Nathan got (had) to do Color Guard for the local Homecoming football game...uh...like 3 weeks ago (whoops!) because he's 6'4". It was pretty fun to watch him. He's the one holding the American flag. Sorry about the picture quality...I was trying to keep a 2 year old entertained.

Walking onto the field

Posting the colors (army talk for holding the flags on the field)

Leaving the field

He also walked in the Homecoming parade but I was about 15 minutes late and missed him so no pics of that.

Baby Food

Taylor got to try baby food for the first time last night. I should have tried something a little tastier then peas....

Creative Juices

My rag rug. This took forever but it was worth it. Its the softest rug EVER! I love it! I'll probably be making a few more of these.
{Before}

Here's what I did today today while both girls napped!

{After}

hAlLoWeEnY

The cute little Lady bug and the pretty Fairy Princess!

We had a pretty eventful Halloween this year. Friday night we went to downtown Leesville for "Witch Way to Maine street" All the downtown businesses pass out candy. It was fun. Kaylin just enjoyed checking out all the costumes. The camera battery was dead...so sorry there's no pics from that night. Halloween night our ward had a Trunk or Treat. We had dinner and played games too. Kaylin had so much fun!

She tried throwing 2 of these rings but after missing twice she decided to just put the ring on the leg...much easier then trying to throw it!! Smart girl! I forgot to take pics of her trick or treating!! After the first few she finally figured it out to say "trick or treat" and then "thank you". She got so much candy!! Her bag got pretty heavy. I offered to carry it for her but she would not have it!
Nathan and I didn't dress up but Nathan said we could just say we were models...so here we are modeling with Rufus. (this was attempt #10 of trying to get a good pic with the self timer)

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!!