Our freezing cold Parade!

Here are some photos of the cold Christmas parade! Yes Gracen got an Elmo hat and yes he likes Me to wear it...that way he can look at it!! He is too funny. Enjoy from your nice warm computer...all bundled up in warm clothes while sipping hot cocoa. I still can't feel my feet!!

Love,
Crystal

December...already???

Whew...time does fly when you're having fun. And boy are we having fun...well most of us. Rich spent last week in the field so I bet he would beg to differ!!! But we made up for it by having an action packed weekend of holiday fun planned for him!! We had breakfast with Santa on Saturday. Noah was so excited I don't think he slept much friday. Frosty the snow man made an appearance as well, so it was action packed. Gracen was not having frosty or the man in red...as you will see from the pictures(just look for his death grip on my neck)!!! But we had fun none the less.

Today we went to the town of Quantico on base and watched the Christmas parade. IT WAS COLD!!! Due to a misprint on some of the flyers we all showed up an hour early too! We froze our butts off!!! But we stayed...for the kids. They did end up having a blast! So now we are just trying to thaw out.

We do have major news as well!!! Rich got orders!! We are headed south to sunny San Diego as of January 16th, 2009!! YEAH!!! We can't wait...when we have more details and a forwarding address we will let you all know!

Love to all,

Crystal

Great News to share!!!

The kids thought the golf carts were the best!!

Jellystone Campground, Luray, VA

All the kiddos snug as bugs in rugs!!

Noah and his buddy Ian

Our Awesome group of Friends!

Hi all!!

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving already...boy do we have a lot to be Thankful for this year. Our amazing family and wonderful friends, we are all healthy, and finally Rich got a job!!! LOL!! All of you know that we have been waiting on pins and needles to find out what job Rich will be doing as an officer. Well.........he got Finance Officer. That means he will be doing budgets and handling the financial matters of the Corps!! He is very excited and we are very proud of him. Finance was his first choice and he worked really hard to get the job.

We have been so busy lately that I haven't had a moment to post photos from our camping, ball and Grama and Papa visit. I will post a few to the blog and the rest to the slideshow. Again...just click on the slide show on the right hand side of the page and it will take you to our folder of photos!!! Enjoy...we had a blast camping and at the ball. We also had a ball taking Grama and Papa around the town and to the beach! Wow it was beautiful at the beach...but COLD!! It took Gracen a few days to figure out where they went when they left...both the boys loved having them here!!!

We will be spending the holidays here in Virginia and Rich will be graduating on January 16th. Hopefully we will be able to make it home sometime after that to visit before things get too busy. We don't know what base we are headed to yet, but hopefully soon!!

Love to all,

Crystal

Halloween Pics

Our Little family at the Church Fall Festival

The boys at the Military Base Halloween Party!

What can I say...he likes cake!!!

Gracen thought his balloon was too cool!!

Mama and the Dinosaur brothers!

Good Morning Family and Friends!!!

We certainly have been busy! Rich made it out of the field in one piece...boy was he dirty. EWWW were the first words I said when I saw his laundry. That was followed by "Good luck with that honey!" He just laughed!! We drug Daddy out of the field and into the world of children high on sugar. Rich got home on Halloween and we had already attended two parties. That evening we went to a Fall Festival at our local church with some of our friends. We all had a ball!! It was kinda sad we didn't trick or treat this year...but with some of the neighborhoods here we decided not to. The church put on an amazing festival and the kids got to "trunk or treat" where the church members decorated their cars and the kids trick or treated the cars. Gracen's favorite was...guess....ELMO!! I know that wasn't much of a surprise. We got to ELMO at the library that day so he was on a roll.

This week is fairly busy for us as well. We are preparing for a few major events. First we are going CAMPING this weekend!!! AHHHH!!! I am so excited. Of course being that it is November we went in with another family and got a cabin! You won't see me tent camping if there is a chance of snow...no way. We are going up to the Shenandoah National forest. Then next wednesday GRAMA and PAPA are coming!!! The boys are sooooooooooo excited. Every morning we have to go to the calendar countdown and see how many more days! We can't wait! Then next weekend is the Marine Corps Ball. Whew! I found a dress and Rich found and outfit to wear(kidding of course he has to wear his lovely uniform). So needless to say it will be a busy few weeks coming up. BUT that means lots of fun photos for all of you.

Oh by the way be sure to click on the slide show to see more photos of our fun here in VA! I can only put so many here on the blog...the rest go into the slideshow folder so check it out! Love to all.

Love,

Crystal and the Gang

Pumpkin Carving!!

We are having a nice relaxing weekend at home for once!! We carved our pumpkins we picked at Belvedere Plantation last weekend. The boys had such a good time. Noah dove right in was pulling out guts and seeds. Gracen on the other hand preferred to use his spoon and anytime the guts got on him he would yell at me to get it off!! Noah insisted Rich carve Lighting McQueen on his pumpkin. I think Rich did a great job. I did Mike Wysowski on Gracen's pumpkin and Elmo on my green pumpkin. Gracen LOVES his Elmo pumpkin. He thought it was too cool. Both the boys are really into Lighting McQueen right now so the cars pumpkin is also very cool.

It is starting to seem like fall around here with the leaves and chilly weather. We are really looking forward to Trick or Treating. The boys and I are going to a huge Halloween Party on the military base on Thursday. It should be a blast!

We love and miss you all,

Crystal and the Gang

New Video

The boys cut a rug at the library and I thought I would share!! Enjoy!

Busy week

We have had such a busy week. Time just seems to fly. I can't believe it is the middle of October. The boys and I are staying busy, obviously. We try to find things to do with our spouse group and keep ourselves occupied while Richie works. Noah is having a great time at his preschool, he absolutely loves it. He goes 3 days a week and even eats lunch in a cafeteria like the big kids! Gracen and I go to gymnastics and playdates while Noah is in school.

We recently went to a Halloween party/safety event at our military base library. The kids got in their costumes and learned about Halloween safety. It was in the evening and the boys had blast. Gracen normally doesn't sit still and listen to the stories, but he was enthralled. I think it helped that Noah was there to set such a good example. They danced and had a ball.

Here are some pics of our recent playing!! We miss all of you and can't wait to see some of you soon. We are hoping for visitors soon! Grama and Papa Osborn are headed our way soon!! Yeah, the boys can't wait. Remember...the door is always open!

Love,

Crystal

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures of our fun at the pumpkin patch. If you want to see all of the photos click on the slide show and it will take you to our folder of all the pictures. I will continue to post pics directly to the blog, but now I can just upload them directly to the folder so everyone can see all of the photos!

Love,

Crystal

Pumpkin Patch

It was another eventful weekend here in Virginia. We took a trip to a farm here called Belvedere Plantation. It is an amazing farm that has tons of activities for the kiddos as well as a HUGE Pumpkin patch!! The boys(and us big kids too) had a blast. The kids rode pedal tractors, got lost in corn maze(I guess that is what you get when you let a 4 year old lead the way), jousted, rode the zip lines, swung on ropes in a barn(ok Papa I fully expect the hay shed to be outfitted with ropes by the time we come home next). You name it, they had it. The boys even got their faces painted, pumpkins of course. All in all it was an awesome adventure. Rich was so glad to be able to come with us, as he often gets left out of our activities due to work...stinking jobs get in the way of all our fun! Our wives group found this place so we had a big group of the kids there and they all seemed to have a great time. So enjoy the pics and we miss and love all of you...even our Pirate Papa and Grama!

Love to all,

Crystal and the Gang

Fire Station

No need to panic...no we didn't need the fire fighters here! Unless it was to pull me off the ceiling!!! LOL!! Gracen has been sick this week, so it has been pretty interesting. He is not a very good patient either...he is pretty grumpy. BUT we did get to go on a fire station tour on Monday before he got too sick. It was on base at Quantico and the boys had a blast!! The fire fighters had some fun too! They did a Sesame Street puppet show...Gracen watched with wide eyes. I think he was on Elmo overload. So here are some pics of them. The firemen must have told us that we could come back anytime more than a dozen times. I think they liked playing with the kiddos and puppets too!

Just to let you all know...airline tickets are pretty cheap right now! My Mom and Dad just got tickets from Pasco to Richmond VA for pretty cheap...so get on it people!!! How many times will you get to come to Washington DC and have free room and board?!?! Yeah that's what I thought, so once you book your tickets email me your itinerary and the boys and I will pick you up! Just to let you all know we most likely won't be coming home for Christmas. Tickets are $798 a piece that time of year, so unless they go down, we are grounded.

Love to all,

Crystal

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures from our weekend at Sesame Place!