I guess it is time for my yearly post. I will start to write and when my patient comes in I will have to call it so it may be brief. I am sitting here in my office here at Camp Schwab. We did the PRT this morning which I did alright on. I always max out on the push ups and sit ups then it is just a matter of the run. Last time I did it I got 9:29 for the 1.5 miles and missed maxing out by 9 seconds! Made me so mad. So anyway, it has been an adjustment running in the weather here in Okinawa so I am not in the same shape I was then. But, it does not matter, because whether I get 9:21 or 10:29 I end up with the same score on the test, Outstanding medium. I am therefore as the name says, Outstanding in that way, just in a medium way. I ended up getting 10:17 which is decent I think for the shape I am in right now. I got some new Asics Kayanos and I am really liking them. I tried them on in SD but I was not feeling it. Something about the limited choices here on the island swayed me to get them and I have been happy. I am loving my Garmin but I cannot sync them to my computer because the stupid syncing device that comes with the watch is not Mac compatible and won't be until the end of the year. If that is not the lamest thing ever, I don't know what is. How does a company in this day and age do that. So if I can find a windows disk I can install windows on my computer so at least I can use it in the meantime.
We recently picked up darts again. We had a stint in Cleveland when we got really into it but we have dropped it since. We have these stone walls here that it is impossible to get screws in so we got a real dart board. I love it. You have to add the numbers up yourself but there is nothing like the sound of the dart hitting the bristle board. The electronic board is nice, just gives a thud. Tracey and I are pretty evenly matched with maybe a quite advantage to me but it all depends on the night because sometimes one or the other is just "ON".
I really want to get scuba approved soon. It is difficult to find time to do the course but I just need to do it. There are a number of shipwrecks around the item from battles and you can charter tours of them. There are also a number of other tours to go on. The snorkeling is great as you can see from all of our adventures. I am just constantly amazed and all of the tropical fish that are just right there in the water. I was snorkeling through like 2-3 feet deep water the other day and I saw one of those flat fishes that are camouflaged to the ground. The one with the eyes on the side of the head. I just followed it through the reef for 20 feet or so. It was just so cool. The day Tracey went though the cave me and some other guys went to find some longer caves. We found some caverns that had tunnels under them. They were never really small condensed spaces, you just swim under the reef for 15- 20 seconds, or at least it feels that way. It really is a surreal experience. Anybody who comes out here will experience it if they wish.
Work is good, just trying to get faster and better each day to complete my mission now in the Navy and get ready for that day which seems like it cannot come soon enough. It sounds like with talks with David that we are setting up nicely for a transition in a few years. We will continue to work that way.
Looks like my patient is here so I must go, but I will say this, Pushing Daisies is going to have to pick it up a little bit. We have watched the shows from this season but it needs something else to keep my attention. 30 Rock with surely get my eyes. Late.

Tom

Aaaaand breathe. My midterms are done. Whew! I had my last one this morning for Economics - definitely the hardest of all. I was the first person done (per usual) and it still took me over 2 hours to take the test! That's what you get when it's open notes, open everything! It is a huge relief to have all of those done though. I don't have another test until Nov. 19th so I can get back into the normal groove of studying for all of my classes instead of just focusing on the ones that I have tests on.

And I'll get back into that groove tomorrow. I took the night off to catch up on my many recorded shows that were piling up on my DVR. And I will take this time to plead with all of you to watch two of my favorite shows which are in jeopardy of being cancelled because of weak ratings. And those shows are Pushing Daisies (Weds. 8pm on ABC) and 30 Rock (Thurs. on NBC starting Oct 30th). Both of these shows are top quality and should definitely stay on TV for quite some time. So do your part and don't let what happened to Arrested Development happen again!

Leaving my soapbox now...here are some pictures from last weekend - my trip to Disneyland and Balboa Island with my friends. We had a blast and went to lots of fun places. We'll probably be back up there in a couple of weeks. :)

Jumping is fun...

I had to visit Sprinkles! And it was delicious.

Just chillin' on Balboa Island, enjoying the scenery

Our visit to the famous Balboa Island Frozen Banana Stand - I swear the Bluth family banana stand is based on this one. And they were delicious.

This weekend I have a biz-school social to attend and a trip to LA to see Wicked with some biz school friends. Our cohort (what the school calls all of us who are in classes together) is getting pretty tight, which is fun. We have some pretty awesome people. 

And now I will sleep. G'night!

I don't know if you all remember this, but a while back I mentioned wanted to have each family member write their favorite memory from the last year to put it into a book and every family will receive a book. I am hoping that you are still up for doing this as I am wanting to do it.

So if you all are on board, we need each person (this includes each grandchild) to draw/write their favorite memories from the last year and send it to me via email or snail mail by Thanksgiving. I would like to get the book out to everyone by Christmas.

-Anne

Well in the midst of trying to find all my blogs so that I could make a photo book with my blogs from last year and also start one for this year, I realized that I suck as a blogger lately, especially since the kids came. I like have a total of 10-12 blogs for the last year and a half. So I pledge to be better about blogging and hope that some of you may do this too.

High school volleyball is officially over. We lost last night and are officially done. It was quite the eventful season but the girls ended well and we are happy. Club volleyball starts up in a week and a half with tryouts and then a couple weeks after that practices officially begin. It is looking like we will have a pretty good team this year so it will be busy.

We have been painting the house(as the pictures have shown) and Peter has been leaving the door open so Andrew can go in and out. Thus we get flies in our house constantly and when they come in, I go on killing rampages with a dish towel as my fly swatter. Well Andrew I guess caught on to this and is now asking for wet wipes to go around the house and swat at the "flies on the wall". I have created a monster but I will say it is pretty funny to watch him do it.

My half marathon is on Saturday and I am pretty excited. This will be my first official race ever so I am nervous also. But I am sure it will be fine. My goal is to finish and that is all right now.

Thanksgiving will be happening here at our house. Kim and Treven are heading over here and I just wanted to say that anyone else is welcome to come as well.

Well I hope to hear from you all soon and I will be posting more often. We love you all and hope to see some of you soon.

-Anne

Well, I finally did it. We went snorkeling on Columbus Day (gotta love government holidays) and swam through an underwater cave! Tom did this a long time ago but I had been too nervous. It was completely filled with fish, many different schools of fish, amazing and yet scary at the same time. We we were able to walk out to this rock formation and then I dropped down in the little pool and by looking under water I could see under the rock and a few rays of sun shining through an opening in the other side. It took me a few minutes to get over my fear of what was probably lurking in the water and then I just took a deep breath and starting swimming. I was so focused on swimming and making it to the other side that I didn’t really have time to look around. I decided to try again to see if I could actually see the fish while I was in there and I was still too nervous. But I did it, and maybe next time I’ll actually enjoy it!

Danica is becoming a serious clown, she thinks she is hilarious and says things all the time followed by “Silly Danica, I said...” The other day she made her first joke, I was reminding her not to go potty in her undies at preschool and she said “and not in my pants.” I agreed with her and she said “and not on my head! Silly Danica, I said not on my head.” And then she does this great fake laugh, really loudly. I”m going to have get it on video because she’s such a cheese. Her other current favorite phrase is “I almost forgot...!” It seem to fit in almost every scenario so she says it all the time!

Alyssa is really trying to communicate now, just with sounds but it’s still funny. She is in love with this toy on the fridge with farm animal magnets. One night I turned it off because I kept bumping it when the kids were in bed. The next morning Alyssa was trying to play with it and came crawling out of the kitchen and just kept crying and pointing until I went in to turn it on. We went to the park today and were feeding some fish in the pond and she kept saying “Wow!” Wow!”

As always, Hayden says the funniest things. One day he started asking me “Mom, what is affirmative one plus affirmative one?” I was really confused and said I didn’t know what affirmative numbers meant, he replied with “You know, the numbers below zero!”

Just an update on McKenzie! Everything was great at her appointment. It was her 2 month appointment. She was 2 months and 3 weeks though... BUT she is almost 15 pounds and 25 1/4 inches long. She is in the 99th percentile for height and 98th for weight. I guess I just make BIG babies!
We tried family pictures this weekend.... 2 year olds just don't work with you! Especially when they take a nap in the car on the way. We are going to try again on Friday. Hopefully it works!

Love you all and can't wait for Christmas! Brent and Buffy, Noah is adorable! I love boy's church clothes!

Kim

Thanks to our friends Chad and Kristen for the outfit.

This is the current look to our stairwell, rails, etc. Slow coming as is typical for recon work. Some day this'll all be done. Dad/Kenn

I have a few minutes during lunch at work right now, so I'll check in here. Life is busy, as it is for us all but I feel especially busy right now. Luckily all that I am doing I find interesting and, usually, fun - there is just a lot to do!

Last weekend I got to go up to WA to visit all who were there. It was a relaxing trip and I am glad Mom & Dad brought me up there. I spent most of the weekend with the D&A kids, who are awesome - love them, and got to go to dinner with Mom, Dad, Brent, Buffy and Pnoah (the P is silent) on Saturday night at Salty's, which was delicious. I even got to see Adina for about 5 minutes on Friday! I also got to try out kayaking which is really fun and I hope to do it a lot more in the future. It was fun to visit and I am excited to see most everyone for Christmas.

Tomorrow and Saturday I am going to Disneyland and hanging out with friends in the LA area. It should be a lot of fun and I am very excited. I love the Halloween time at Disneyland - almost as much as Christmas at Disneyland! I'll be sure to get some pictures so I can post them here.

School is going well. I had two of my four midterms last week and got an A on both. Because of curving I think I may even get over 100% on one of them, which is fine by me. :) I have the other two midterms next week and I'm a little stressed on the studying for those because of the D-land trip but I am sure I'll be fine. On one of my midterms - Econ - we can bring in WHATEVER we want to class for the test - laptops, internet, calculators, books, notes...just not a friend. Too bad for that last part - I was gonna have Brent as my lifeline! I'll be glad when midterms are over but then I just have to get into studying for the finals, final projects and papers...it never ends! But at least I'll get a break in December and I really am loving it.

I'm making some good friends at school as well. A couple of us are going to see Wicked in LA next weekend because one of the girls is friends with the girl who plays Elphaba in the LA production and will be playing her in the new SF production. Her friend could get us 1/2 price tickets so I had to jump on that. Plus I'll be able to see my friend Adam who is the understudy for Fiyero. Small world!

Oh and Adina - I remembered what costume I thought of for you guys - Peter Pan! You could be Wendy, Morgan as Tinkerbell, Isaac as Captain Hook, Taylor as John and Parker as Michael and, last but not least, Dave as Peter! Get ready for those tights Dave! :)

Anyway, I have a lot of work to get done in two hours so I'll have to wrap this up. Thanks to all for the birthday wishes! It has been a fun one!

Hey All,
Sorry I haven't posted while Brent was away but he took the laptop with him and I never went upstairs to our office during the day due to leg issues. Well, Noah is now 6 weeks old and is a total joy. I have learned a lot in the past few weeks about motherhood and will obviously never stop learning from here on out. Right now he has a cold which breaks my heart since he is so young. I feel like I am on top of it though with the humidifier, saline drops and little nose sucker... poor guy.
At this point I am greatful I bought those baby advice books cause they have helped for different things (Babywise and Happiest Baby On the Block). I think I have the routine thing good for right now making sure he gets enough sleep to be a happy baby and tricks on how to sooth him but now I need reccommendations on a sleep book. Right now he does need our help to get to sleep and we are working on getting him to sleep in his moses basket instead of on or next to us. Then we will get to the crib by 4 months I hope. I am also sttruggling with what to do with feeding as I am going back to work. He currently eats every 2.5 hours and takes 30 to 40 minures each time... formula is sounding real good right now.
Again for local family we are doing a Halloween party this year at our house. Space is limited here so it pretty much keeps our group small but we have a blast anyway. We all do a fantastic job bringing food and treats and this year I am asking each family to prepare a game or activity so less work for me. All I have to do is decorate which I love to do and provide drinks and my food and game contribution. I can't wait till more family move here to make our anual party even more fun... yes this is going to be a tradition that won't die if I can help it. :)
As for my leg I am now in a walking boot which is nice but pain does remind me to not overdo it. I will have it for 5 weeks which still means no driving ahh! I will be starting PT next week because I cannot mobilize my own ankle, using the gym will be nice and designating the time will help too. I think I am also going to try using a stationary bike at the gym if I can get there.
Well, I better go. Typing one handed is quite hard with Noah in the other.
Love you all!
Buffy

Happy Birthday and We hope you had a good one. Sorry we are late...I am so busy with volleyball right now I lost track of it. Such a cutie! We can't wait to see you in person!

Love, Anne Peter Andrew and Beck!

He loves to put any shoes he can find on both his hands and walk around with them. Luckily my slippers are nice and clean. Yes, I did say walk. The boy is amazing. He's walking about 80% of the time now. He took a few first steps before we went to see Mike but kept going with the six or seven at a time thing until the day before we left. Then he got serious, now he's a real walkin' man.

So my visit with Mike was wonderful. We've both agreed that it has made our next six weeks absolutely torturous. Sawyer loved his daddy, warmed up to him almost immediately. He would reach for him all the time. Also, as you can see by the picture, you Stinchfield men would be proud. Sawyer would pck up the controller and look at the monitor and reach for Mike. It was so cute that I didn't even mind letting them play a little bit each day (I got to read, I don't do that too often right now).

The girls had an absolutely fabulous time with Grandma Barb. Thank you so much, Barb, I can't tell you what that means to both of us. It is such a great feeling knowing we are leaving our kids (yes, leaving the kids is a great feeling) in such capable, loving hands.

Marnie and Adina, I hope you both had great birthdays. You are two of the greatest women I know and I love you both. Well it is time to get my little yahoos to bed. Love to all.

I meant to put the one where Melia isn't crying! Sorry! And an extra of McKenzie in her blessing dress!

Well like the title says... only 6 more weeks of student teaching. I am definitely wanting it to be done, but I am loving it at the same time. I only have two more evaluation which the next one is on the 21st. I had some very frustrating problems with one of my cooperating teachers, but it has been resolved and it is becoming a better situation. I am more relaxed and able to do my own style of teaching. I know the next 6 weeks are going to fly!
McKenzie is a monster and she is smiling all the time. We have an appointment for her on Tuesday so we will see how big she actually is! She is a lot taller than Melia was. Her eyes are dark and look like they will be like Treven's (of course). She still has plenty of dark hair. We will see if it sticks around. Melia is a crazy soon-to-be 2 year old. The terrible twos is already starting... she got to the couch with blue highlighter. The cushions are now turned so you can't see it. We were planning on getting our couches cleaned so I guess she just wanted to make them dirtier. We also got a Twin size bed for Melia. Now the bedroom has both girls in it. We switched to having McKenzie in the crib because it is warmer in their room than the master bedroom. McKenzie has to be extremely warm in order to sleep well. So pictures below show her new bed and what their bedroom looks like.
McKenzie was blessed today and we had three close friends in the circle with us. It was a great small gathering and we had dinner with everybody this afternoon... Chicken and broccoli (requested by our friends). Pictures added on!
Treven and I were able to go on a date on Friday night with Matt and Kate. We went to dinner and a movie. It was nice to be out for a night with just Treven. Speaking of which, the picture below is of Melia and her friend Rylee. Our friends Linzi and Sam watched the girls when we went out. Linzi was giving Rylee a bath and Melia was watching. Well McKenzie started crying so Linzi went to go get her. When she came back, Melia had jumped in with Rylee fully clothed. It is so something Melia would do.
Treven registers for classes in about a month and is hoping to get into 4 psychology classes that would work perfectly with his schedule and give him the credits he needs. He would only have 2 classes a day. Pepsi is going well, but it is still busy. It has not slowed down like it usually does in the fall. He thinks it is because the college accepted about 600 more students then they have in the past. Who knows?!
Oh yeah.. It snowed this weekend. It didn't stick, but still! Not looking forward to snow coming. It is so cold outside.
We are looking into moving again... I know, I know. AGAIN! BUT! We need a bigger living room with having two children. Our friends Matt and Kate live at a place called Stone book and it is about 15 dollars more than we would be paying here. It is a 840 sq ft apartment and the living room is very open and big. It comes with a washer and dryer so we are going to just store the ones we have for later. This all depends on if we get into them. They start taking names for the waiting list for January on November 1st so hopefully we do get it!
We ARE COMING HOME!!! (thanks to Mom :)! THANK YOU!) We will be coming on December 13th. Unfortunately, Treven can only come until the 18th, but he wants the girls and I to be there for Christmas so that we actually have a Christmas. He is such a great husband! The girls and I will be staying until the 29th of December then heading back to Rexburg.
We are starting to think about the Christmas gifts so we need ideas for Beck and Ellyn, Mike and Buffy! Please let us know!

We know your birthday has passed and we talked to you on iChat but we just wanted to send out this little blog tribute. We hope you had a great birthday and that after sitting around studying you at least went to dinner or something!! Our time with you in San Diego was so fantastic and we wish we were still there. It was so fun getting to spend all that time with you and playing games, improving our hollywood knowledge and just hanging out. The best part was the way that Danica would talk to you and talk about you all the time when she would give everyone else in the world a stone face. She loved to call "her Marnie" on the toy phone and constantly asked where you were. We will forever be in debt to you for finding us such a great house in the best neighborhood and for watching the kids when Alyssa was born and countless other times! Thank you again! Happy Birthday Marnie, you deserve to have a great one!

We love you!

Tom, Tracey, Hayden, Danica and Alyssa

Well the title refers to the half marathon I am running in on October 25th. Hopefully it will go well. I will admit my training hasn't been the best these past 2 weeks but I still feel good when I do run so we'll see how the race turns out. I have been having some knee pain but I talked to the sports trainer at the high school I coach at and he says it is just from the constant pounding. But it isn't bad at all really, I can still run comfortably, it just hurts after.

Volleyball has been a little stressful and drama-filled but things have improved greatly. Our last home game is tonight and we only have one more match after today before the District Tournament. From then on we will see how far we get. We are 2-10 which doesn't sound good but that is better than last year. So we have improved and hopefully we can end with 2 more wins under our belts. We did play in a varsity tournament this last weekend and we ended 11th out of 36 teams which was really good.

Club Volleyball starts up on the 3rd of November with tryouts so I don't get much of a break but I am super excited for club this year as we will have a really good group of girls.

The boys are doing great. Andrew is on an Aladdin watching kick right now and wants to watch it like 4-5 times a day. I have had to regulate that. Actually I just had to get up to turn it off because he just came and told me it was over. He is saying more and more stuff everyday and it is weird to see how much he is comprehending and remembering. He definitely is soaking things up like a sponge. Beck is beginning to cruise along furniture, much to Andrew's dismay. He is chasing Andrew constantly trying to play with Andrew's books and toys that he has brought up to the couch. He has 2 teeth already and 2 more that will break thru any day now. It is crazy how much faster he is doing everything.

Peter had to head out of town this week for a project with work up in Moscow, ID. He is going to head to Spokane for the weekend after being in Moscow so that he can see our nephew be blessed and visit with his family. He is loving work and even though it is stressful and busy at times, he still enjoys it.

Well hopefully I will update more frequently but we will see. I love you all and love to hear about your lives. I will second the want for more pics of Noah, I want to see this cute baby and how much he has grown.

-Anne