Season's Greetings

Mississippi it is!

Blair matched for residency in internal medicine, at Keesler AFB in Mississippi!

We are so excited. We'll move there after Blair graduates in May.

It's an early Christmas present, finding that out!

Since last time

I bet you thought that was going to be a cool post, if you know who Chuck Liddell is...

but for Veteran's Day we got free admission into Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, since Blair is in the Air Force. Here are some more famous people we saw:

This was one of the only pictures I could get Will to be in (he was frightened of the wax figures, and I don't blame him- they're creepy), and it was because he wanted to ride Evel Knievel's motorcycle:

It's cool to see what famous people really look like in 3D form. Here were some early presidents:

We also went to the Children's Museum with the kids that same day. I think Blair had more fun than the boys:

The girls:

In Oct. the boys went camping with Blair and a couple of friends at Lake Mead. They thought they were in heaven. Claire and I joined them while they set up, and then came back home and slept in our beds.

Today the boys officially got done with soccer. They had a fun time being on the same team this year:

For Halloween Will was the Hulk, and Xander was Iron Man. Claire, my little dress-up doll, had a few outfit changes.

Everything is going straight to her mouth nowadays. Here she was trying out some teeth...

Sunday

Chuck-E, Cali, & Soccer

Chuck-E Cheese

Gotta love the photo booth at Chuck-E. I'm the only one looking at the camera, until I pointed out to them where to look for the next pic.

We went on Will's b-day at the end of last month.

Universal Studios

We got back last weekend from a trip to Cali. We had a fun time at the tourist places, squeezed in visiting a couple people from my mission, and then stayed overnight at my friend Tiff's new house by Riverside, CA on our way back.

Some of the action on the Studio Tour

The boys posing with some new friends

Disneyland!

Don't you love that pic!?! Will was barely tall enough to go on Splash Mountain, but looked so scared, then there I am screaming, and Xander is completely un-phased behind me, with a smile.

Soccer

Now we've returned and are back to school and soccer at this time of year. The boys are on the same team (The Screaming Eagles) and they love it!

A couple weeks ago after a game, Blair put his status update about Will on facebook as: I am excited that my son scored his first goal in soccer today. I just wished it wouldn't have been for the other team :)

Ha ha ha! How can you NOT be excited when the littlest guy on the team scores a goal, even when it's for the wrong side?! He was so proud of himself, no one wanted to burst his bubble!

Famous Xander

I forgot to mention that Xander made the front page of one of Utah's main newspapers, on Wed. August 25, 2010. We just happened to be at the Natural History Museum at the exact moment that one of their photographers was taking pictures for the paper. Xander didn't even notice he was being photographed. We were quite surprised when it ended up being the main picture on the front page! You can vaguely see Will in the background by Xander's shoulder too.

Super Duper Summer catch up

Xander's 6th b-day was a few weeks ago, and Will's 4th is coming up in a week, so we did lots of celebrating in UT, where we were for almost 2 months.

Xander requested a "3 level cake with dots on it and a swoop of frosting around the side." Geez- is he getting a little demanding or what?! Luckily I figured it out and put it together the right way so I didn't ruin his birthday. He loved it.

So, Blair did a rotation in Mississippi for the month of August. This is where we might end up going for residency, so halfway through the month I flew out for a weekend (took the baby- left the boys) & checked it out with him.

I'm glad it's pretty. The main entrance to the Air Force base is a block from the beach, and the back of it is the back bay of Mississippi that drains into the ocean. The pictures above are of that back bay that you drive along, and a nice little park that they have right there.

I was tickled that they have brand new on base housing where we could live if we go there. It's way nicer than most bases. They are all twin homes, and have quite a few different layouts. Lucky for us if we end up there, Hurricane Katrina damaged the old housing and all the stores and many buildings on base, so they have been reconstructing everything and it's nice and new.

For some awesome BBQ, we were recommended to "The Shed," which was just that (shack with a tin roof), in Ocean Springs. We were not disappointed, and apparently we're not the 1st people that have heard about it, because it was packed.

PS. I have never seen it rain so hard than while I was in MS. There was a tropical storm that hit, which made it even more rainy and humid. That picture down below where it looks like I might be in smoke, is really steam from the humidity during a downpour, and the tin roof was totally leaking!

The base is just 1 hour and 1/2 from New Orleans, so we decided to go check it out and stay a night. It was interesting. It was fun to ride the trolley, and see some sights, but mostly to just be with my husband and baby.

Alright, so rewind to back before Blair left to Mississippi, Xander graduated from Kindergarten and we drove to UT the next day. We went on a family vacation with my side of the family up to Wolf Creek resort, and we had a blast for a week at the resort and nearby lake.

Now are you ready for an information overload? Here come a bunch of pictures, and that's why I made collages and made them small so that I can get a bunch of stuff on here and feel like I caught up. Here are some from the family vacation:

I won't even explain any of those, so you're not here all day :) So the next pictures are from some of the museums that we visited when we were in UT. Some were during our Wolf Creek vacation, and some were after. I have a family pass with our Vegas children's museum here, and they have agreements with other museums out of state to get in for free. We took full advantage of that, and some military free discounts I found, and went to the Train Museum, Tree House Museum, Dinosaur Park Museum, Clark Planetarium, Discovery Gateway Museum, Natural History Museum, and a few of those we went to twice!

It's always great to get up to UT and see family and friends there. We were spoiled to be able to go for so long this time (and get out of that 110 degree weather down here that they call summer).

Now we're back and have been busy catching up with some of our fun friends that we have down here. Luckily it's only in the 90's on most days now, and lower temperatures are just around the corner.

So we're back in school now. Xander is a big 1st grader. This was him on his last day of kindergarten, and then 1st day of 1st grade.

You know what this sweet baby is doing lately? She is fascinated with her hands. She holds them in front of her and moves her fingers and clasps and unclasps her hands all while almost going cross-eyed watching the action. It is so cute!

Claire's Blessing