Presents

For our family stateside and daddy/husband...

Scrappy and her present

Lilli and her present

Blake (watch Lilli come over and inspect his gift with tail wagging)

Putting together his boats from Uncle David and Aunt Donna

Scrappy snugging with her new toy

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, I know we did even though Aaron wasn't here with us!

Merry Christmas From Guam

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Merry Christmas from the Gaither's

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Strangers

You never know when your kids are truly listening and really understand and get the seriousness of what you say sometimes but I'm sure glad Blake paid attention with the Stranger talks we have.

We went to Wendy's with our friends today and while Glora, Joseph and I were standing in line to order Cory, age 9, and Blake went to find a seat.  Well a minute later Blake comes back to me and said "mommy a guy was talking to me", I said "what man and what did he say", he said he told me to come sit over here".  At about that time Cory comes over and I ask him if a man talked to them and what he said, Cory says "He said Victor come sit over here".  Crisis averted and some man will walk away unscathed :)

I am so proud of Blake for being such a big boy and not talking to him and coming straight to me.  Yes the man was not talking to him but Blake still remembered what to do and what we have talked about so many times.

I know it's silly since it was a false alarm but it is a wake up call.  So please talk to your kids about strangers cause you never know when they are listening :)  

TTFN

Mid-Week Update

I'm sticking to my promise... at least this week!

Just a little bit of what we have been up too since the last blog.  On Thursday and Friday Tracey (our neighbor) was home to study for a test so we (Glora and I) took the younger boys out and about!

  

On Thursday, Blake and I went with our neighbors and friends, Glora and Joseph, to Mermaid Tavern for lunch and then to Kmart to walk around.  Exciting I know but we have never really had the chance to actually look and take our time time and to be honest it was a waste.  Everything in the store is marked up by 1/3 of the stateside price.  So basically you get Target price for Kmart quality~ not good!

On Friday, we went down to Big Navy for Glora to finish up her Christmas shopping and so that I could look at the futons at the furniture mart on base.  It was a success and I came home with what I went there for!  I know a futon... but since I put the Christmas tree up I like how the furniture is arranged better now (it looks more homey) but that leaves a big empty space on one wall so I thought a futon would come in handy!  With people coming to visit this next year it will give me a place to sleep without using an air mattress and we can use it when we get back to the states in any room!

Saturday the Oliver's and Blake and I went to a Christmas thing in our neighborhood called Rota Walk.  Rota Dr. is a street where all of the commanders live and they are required to decorate their homes for the season and they all sit out by the road and hand out goodies like cookies, candy, food, gingerbread men, hot chocolate, snow cones and my favorite cotton candy :)  Some people had a choir, or the bell choir or a snow machine AKA small bubbles made to look like snow!  It was fun and Blake had a great time.  We were suppose to hang out at someones house and have drinks but I woke Blake up from his nap and we were out the door so he was ready to come home after the walk.  I would have had pictures but I was scared to take my camera with me due to the rain so I don't have any but it did pour right after we were done and had to run under someones canopy for cover.  Oh Guam how I love your sporadic rain showers and pours :) 

Monday and Tuesday, we hung out at home and played in the pool and trampoline, rode bikes, and went to the playground at the school.  We were suppose to go to Wendy's yesterday and to the Agat WWII memorial but Glora got sick so we are going to go there on Thursday!  For this I will have my camera and will do a post to share them :) 

Today, (Wednesday) we went to some friends of ours for Blake and their girls to exchange Christmas gifts and have a play date!  One of his gifts was a pack of gum and who would have guessed "this is the best present someone could get me" was what he said on the way home!  Should have done that dang-it!  He had a blast and thanks Lisa for having us over and treating us to lunch :)  Next week we are going to have them over to our house for a date and make play-doh, and swim! 

Well that's my wrap up for now!

TTFN

What's Up

I know I have been slacking and I apologize!  We have been busy the last few weeks with random stuff but not really anything in particular.  An uncle had a suggestion that I give updates a few times a week and then have a major blog every once in a while so I think that's what I'll start doing from now on!  That way at least our stateside family will be able to keep up with us... even if it's not much :)

So back to it...

If you remember I made a camera strap cover a few blogs ago, well I wanted to make some more so I went to our crap spectacular craft store to get some more fabric so that I could make some more.  I asked my friend next door if her daughter might like some since she love photography too (she said yes) so that way I get practice and I get to make someone happy :) So I made her 2 and one for me but want to get my camera before I make my other one!  Here are some pictures... 

the patch work one both ends and the back with the pocket

The dual fabric and patch work~ front

Back

I really like both and hope Tiffany likes them too!  I guess they are going to be a part of her Christmas gift but not sure.

Last weekend we went to Aaron's squadron for the kids Christmas party.  Santa flew in on a helo and there were games and prizes to be had and if the kids sat on his lap they got a present.  Blake didn't really do much and he wasn't interested in the present saying, "Mommy I can wait till Christmas for a present", so we left.  Here are some pictures I took of the helo flying in...

On Wednesday was Blake's Winter Wonderland Program at school.  He had fun although I think he was in lala land most of the time so it was hard to get a video of him really singing and dancing although I'll include a few videos anyways!

Christmas on Guam

 All week in school Blake has been doing holiday arts and craft stuff and he brought them home today and I thought I'd share his craftiness!

 

 I said we had been busy for the past few weeks and we have... we've been getting Aaron ready for his deployment.  He left last Friday and will be home in June!  We have been staying busy and I think that will continue.  Starting today Blake has Christmas break from school for 2 weeks, my parents will hopefully be coming to visit early next year... YAY, spring break, and then in May one of my great friends is coming for a visit... see you then Courtney, I can't wait :)  Busy busy!  Although we miss Daddy/hubby we will be staying busy and having a good time waiting for him to come home :)

That's all for now but I will try my hardest to stick to my bi-weekly (at least) post!!

Until next time :)

TTFN

Cleaning Up

My cell phone that is....  While getting a picture off of my cell phone for my last Blog I realized I had a ton of pics that I could share :)

We ended up detouring while we were out on Sunday since the pet store wasn't open and we had like 15 minutes to spare!  These pics were taken at the remains of the old Spanish Governors Mansion.  Pretty neat, I just wish I had my real camera and not my cell phone!

These were taken at a memorial across the street from the Mansion!  The picture of the caves was a cave system from WWII for the Japanese.  They served as shelter from bombs... we didn't walk through them, they were muddy on one end and the other side (not pictured) had trash and a small bag like someone was living in there :/

 

These pictures are from Blake's Thanksgiving Potluck from this morning!

Our little Indian :)  He such a big boy!

Till next time TTFN :)

Crafting Project

A Camera Strap Cover to be exact :)  I know I am a little early since I don't have my camera yet but I will be getting it within a month and I have to make it my own.... right! 

These are some pictures that I took while doing it!

These are the two fabrics I am going to make my straps out of... eventually the red!

Sewn the pocket on and one long seam with added padding!

Flipped over to show lens pocket

 

 Both ends have a hem which attached the padding AKA strip of old T-Shirt... I didn't have the fleece that was needed.  Not sure I could even find it here on the lovely island of Guam.

Finished product!  I'm so impressed with my self, I think it turned out good and will totally be sporting it!

 

On my point and shoot! Obviously too big but I had to try it out ;)

I got the tutorial from LBG Studio!!  I will probably try something a little different next time but I think I am going to wait till I actually have my camera in hand.  I was thinking of doing two different fabrics one for the front and a different one on the back!

TTFN

Not Much Going On At The Gaither's

We haven't been doing much these last few weeks due to rainy weather so I don't have any pictures to share of our adventures :( 

We are however getting ready for Aaron's deployment at the beginning of December and ending in June.  He will be going to Japan and do a turn over with the LDO there and then go out on the ship in Jan or Feb.  Since he will be there for Christmas, Blake and I are going to make the trip to Iwakuni so that we can be together for the holiday!  It won't be too eventful since he is technically on deployment and will be working everyday but he will be able to take off sometime and Blake and I will explore the base! 

Speaking of Christmas I have been told that I will be able to get the DSLR camera I have been wanting for a long time... I just had to work my way there first :)  I have been weighing my options and have decided upon the Nikon D5100

or the Canon Rebel T3i

I haven't decided which I want yet.  I do know that I will get the one I decide on at Best Buy b/c with our credit card we get "Thank You" points which I can get gift cards with.  So I will have over $400 to put towards my new baby :)  I have been researching these like CRAZY and I think it is driving Aaron CRAZY b/c it's so far away, and that's true but it'll be here before I know it and I want to make sure I get the one I want :)

We are also getting ready for Thanksgiving as well!  We are going to be having it with our friends and neighbors.  I am doing dressing, dumplings, lemon merange (sp) pie, and mashed taters.  They are doing the fried turkey, ham, punkin pie, sweetcorn, and possibly other stuff after we decide everything we want.  OH and of course brown and serve rolls.... my favorite!!

An update on Blake and his school.... he is loving it!  Not sure if I wrote about his very, VERY rough first day but it was bad, real bad!  Then he loved it after that first day but wasn't really playing and interacting with classmates but now he is comes home talking about everyone he played with that day and can name all of his friends!  So proud of our BIG boy!!  

In other Blake news which is a big deal for us but may seem minor to others... he now sleeps without rails on his bed, he sleeps with a pillow and without socks.  He takes change extremely hard so we have just let him make those calls when he was ready although we have asked him about all of the above throughout the last 2 years but he was never "ready".  We now have a big boy on our hands, now we are working on reading and riding his real bike with training wheels :) 

Last week I went to the Big Navy base and they had rope lighting on sale so I had to buy some (that stuffs expensive) for our canopy/tarp!  I will have to take pictures of it sometime and post them but I haven't gotten around to doing that yet.  It looks/feels relaxing in our backyard now since there's no need for the patio lights and then all of the plants, tiki torches and lighting... aaaaahhhhhh :) 

This weekend we are going to be going on our date night on Saturday... not sure where or what we are going to do yet but I know food and dessert is on my "to do list", Gelato to be exact :) I LOVE that place!!!

Well until next time... TTFN