Merry Christmas

I hope you found your holidays to be as blessed as ours were!

We thought we'd be on our own down here in the desert for Christmas, but at the last my parents decided to come down and we could not have been more thrilled!! Having them here was a blast, and made celebrating with Ambrose that much more!!

We started our time here with sledding of a different sort.

It was beautiful and we could not have asked for better weather. My mom turned out to be the sledding pro and left us all in the dust with her speed and distance on the sled.

That evening we enjoyed dinner and an attempt at church (where there was not a seat to be found...for real!) and looking at Christmas lights! It was all wonderful but the highlight of the evening for me was baking a batch of cookies with Ambrose and in lieu of a letter to Santa, Ambrose painted a picture.

The next day was Christmas day and we ate home made cinnamon rolls and prepared for what we thought would be a wrapping paper whirl wind. Ambrose surprised us all by not only being hesitant to open gifts, he down right refused a couple of times. When asked if he'd like to come over and open another gift, he'd quietly reply "no" and continue to play with the first gift that he had opened. The rest of the day was spent lounging around enjoying each others company. It was perfect!

The following days were spent playing, eating and just enjoying the company of one another (well that, and trying to get a diagnosis of a weird rash that covered Ambrose). We are SO blessed and look forward to all that the new year will bring!

Thank you grandma Scherer!

My grandma knitted Ambrose two adorable hats, and what makes them even better....he LOVES them. He runs around the house with the jingle bell hat on just to hear the bells ring! Thanks for thinking of us grandma!

The sponge

Ambrose is learning something new constantly! He attempts any word you ask and actually retains much of it. Lately he has taken interest in his name, so we started spelling it with him. He copies the letters as we say them, and will attempt to scribble "letters" down on a piece of paper (however, the only letter he'll say as he's writing is the letter E) .

Here he is practicing on our hike.

Thankful!

At first I was tempted to write a bulleted list of all the things I am thankful for this season, but the reality is, there are just too many to list. I know, it sounds totally cheesy, but it's true, from the big things like health and family, to the small things like a our walmart finally starting to carry my Tassimo coffee discs. My life is incredibly blessed, and for ALL things I am incredibly thankful!

Yesterday we spent the day with friends, while there was a part of me that was sad we weren't with family, the more I thought about it, the more I realized we were with family. In this crazy, transient life, our friends are like family. I can't get through John's job without the love and support of the people that are trudging (and I mean that in the best possible way, there is not a day that goes by that I would have our life ANY other way, I love this life!!! )through it right along side me :)

We started our day watching the Macy's day parade. I loved doing it as a child, and look forward to many years watching with Ambrose.

After Ambrose lost interest in the parade, we went out for a hike on a small trail just a short drive from our home. It was a wonderful way to spend our morning as a family, preemptive working off the desserts that were coming our way.

We then went over to our friends house and enjoyed excellent food and even better company. I wish I

would have taken more pictures, but Ambrose was not at all condusive to doing anything other than supervising him. Even the meal didn't distract him. While everyone else is eating, my son is serving up a giant side of heart burn to everyone sitting at the table because he can't be inconvenienced by eating and he is making it known by whining "all done" or "play" or "outside" or any combination of those to get out of his seat. I made the mistake of telling him that when he was finished eating he could get down and play. He takes that as an all clear to shovel all the food on his plate into his mouth in one shot, and yell with a mouth full of food "all done." I'm pretty sure at that moment that everyone at the table was just thankful that they were not the ones having to deal with my (normally sweet and wonderful) little boy.

With one wonderful holiday behind us, we look forward to the next!!

Sledding

As the cooler weather approaches, we decided to make the best of what could be our last 70 degree day and we headed out for some "sledding" at White Sands.

I had taken Ambrose once before ( John was of course gone somewhere) when he was less than a year, and while the scenery was beautiful, there was much more sand eating than sledding. this time though, Ambrose LOVED it. Not only did he love sledding, he loved that he pretty much had free reign of the place. I feel like so much of his life right now is having boundaries set (teacher speak for me saying "no, we don't stand on the coffee table, or throw glass candles on the floor, or help unload the dishwasher starting with the steak knives....) and he rarely can go 5 minutes let alone an hour with out me "redirecting" him.

The fact that Ambrose could run around on his own gave John and I time to just sit down and take it all in. This little boy truly is the light of our life, and it is pure joy to watch him grow!

* you'd think after over a year of blogging, I'd have it semi figured out, but you'd be wrong. Sorry the formatting is weird, I tried fixing it, but as you can see, I can't figure it out.

1st haircut!

Soon after John left I noticed that Ambrose was starting to sport a mullet of sorts. It was definitely party in the back, but the spot over his ears didn't want to be left out, so they were hosting a party of its own.

Case in point....

I told John that Ambrose needed to get his hair cut, but he was already afraid that Ambrose would look old enough by the time he got home, and he didn't want to do anything that would make him look any older. So I agreed to suffer through the weird mullet-esk hair style until John came home.

Rather than take him to a barber or hair salon I decided that we'd just take care of it here. We were really just looking to trim the back and over his ears, not take anything off on top (when we do go that route that he'll need it done professionally because this kid is sporty one heck of a cow lick!) .

We got out our sure fire kid dirstractor, the DVD player, and trapped him in his high chair.

I thought for sure we were in for an ER visit because there was plenty of this...

going on.

Ambrose did decide that we weren't going after his ears and calmed down a little bit.

Some how we all came out unscathed and the hair cut didn't turn out half bad. I am glad that we waited though, because for some reason, a haircut makes a kid look 5 years older, and my kid was no exception!

Home sweet home

We made it, here we are, on the other end of a "deployment" . I use the word deployment rather loosely because his time gone was pretty short, and his location was pretty safe.

I guess it's all relative though isn't it?

Here is John getting ready to go. I was hesitant to take Ambrose along to say good-bye, unsure of how he would react, however, taking him turned out to be a very right choice for us. It helped Ambrose understand where John was. As the weeks went by Ambrose would constantly repeat "daddy bye-bye airplane."

As with every time John is gone, there are always (literally, every time) delays of one form or another, and this time was no exception. There were a few minor hiccups, but when all said and done, even with the delays on their end, they made it back here fairly on time!

On that day I couldn't decide of I was more excited for myself, or for Ambrose. Driving through the gate we were able to see a few jets in the air, and that's when I told Ambrose for the first time John was coming home. I wasn't sure if he'd fully get it, but he SO did! The joy and shock ( literally, opened mouth shock) that came from that little boy was adorable. He loves his dad!

Oct. 31

Due to a missed flight, Ambrose and I stayed here in South Dakota for another week.

We started the weekend-o-fun with a trip to my sisters work to do some office trick or treating. I wasn't sure how he was going to do, this boy is known for his stranger anxiety, but as soon as he realized those strangers were handing out candy he made best friends with everyone behind a bowl of candy.

On Saturday we went to a local church where Ambrose played games, bounced ( and bounced and bounced) in a jumping castle and ran around with all the other sugar crazed kids. It was so much fun to see him running around and smiling the entire time! After the previous two nights Ambrose was a pro by the 31st.


*this boy was on a mission, he didn't even have time to use the sidewalks.

although candy is good, nothing beats his thumb.

Pumpkin patch number 2

Although we went to a pumpkin patch earlier last week, we didn't actually find a pumpkin to carve, so off we went on the great pumpkin search.

They had a small pumpkin train and Ambrose loved it.

Ambrose also ate his first sucker, and it was a sight to see.
What would the great pumpkin search be without in ending in pumpkin carving? Despite the look of the picture, Ambrose didn't like the guts of the pumpkin. I wasn't surprised, because although this boy is all boy, he hates having his hands dirty.