Merry Christmas

Here is a before picture that we took on Christmas eve after we placed all the presents under the tree.
Matthew got to be the present giver and handed all the presents to everybody and opened the presents for them too. I think that this will be the only year he gets to do that since Corinne will probably want to open her own presents next year. This year she was content just to play with Matthew's presents or whatever happened to be lying nearby.Grandpa Medford received a Navy shirt and a USS North Carolina hat from Santa. He was so excited he couldn't wait to put on his shirt.

USS North Carolina

Jeremy is finally back from sea trials. If you look closely at the pictures you may be able to spot him among the sailors on the sail. Jeremy was one of the few selected to be on the sail as the boat goes in and out of port. It is supposed to be an honor, but Jeremy wasn't thrilled about it. It just means he has to stand up there in the cold wind. The link http://www.nn.northropgrumman.com/news/2007/121407.html has more information about the boat and pictures and videos of the occasion.

My Sailor

For those of you who don't know, Jeremy is in the navy. This picture is a little outdated since it was taken at boot camp. All he wears now are his "utiliies" which aren't as traditional, he is a higher rank, and has 4 additional ribbons/medals. I am writing this entry as a tribute to my sailor husband. Sometimes I don't enjoy being a "navy wife" and enduring the many many long hours that Jeremy spends away (it has been more than 80 hours a week for the past 7 months), but as I think about it I am very proud of his choice to serve the country. For the past 4 1/2 years that he has been in the navy, he has advanced quickly and has received numerous awards and commendable letters from the captain and even the admiral. There's so many that they've ended up in a pile under his nightstand. We're trying to figure out a place to put them that doesn't look tacky or boastful (as perhaps I'm being right now). He continues to receive the highest possible level in each of his evaluations which helps him continue to advance the ranks. He has become an invaluable member of his current boat (submarines are called "boats" in the navy) the USS 777 North Carolina which will be commissioned at the beginning of May. Recently Jeremy has learned more about his naval heritage with the passing of his grandmother 2 weeks ago. He learned that his father's father was in the navy and was stationed at Pearl Harbor on the USS Pennsylvania when the Japanese bombed it. Jeremy's father also was in the Naval Reserves. I am proud that my husband loves our country so much that he is willing to spend 7 years of his life to serve it and to sacrifice some time away from his family for our freedom. Thanks Jeremy!

Fun in the leaves

Matthew and I had fun cleaning up the leaves today. Sometimes Matthew was more of a hindrance than a help, but at least he had fun. After I cleaned it all up, the wind blew and a whole new batch of leaves blew onto the back porch that I just swept. I guess Matthew will have another opportunity to play in the leaves.

A Day at the Park

Every once in awhile we'll have a nice warm winter day. Yesterday was one of those days with a high in the 70s so we decided to take advantage of it and spend the afternoon at one of our favorite parks--Fort Fun. We started off by feeding and watching the ducks while on the pier and enjoyed the swings for awhile.
Fall came a bit later this year and this is one of the few trees left with all of its leaves.
The park sits right on the James River and this is the sun setting over it.
Here's the fort part of Fort Fun. If you look closely you can see Matthew ducking inside under the "65" right when I decided to take the picture.

Missing his cousins

Since we've been home Matthew has been missing his cousins tremendously. He was so used to having so many kids around to play with especially his fellow red-head, Will, and Tommy. So, Matthew has resorted to making Corinne be his new playmate (we hoped this would happen with the two being ony 19 1/2 months apart). However, his version of playing isn't exactly what Corinne expects. He likes to lay on top of her, steal her toys, bury her in pillows or his blanket Sometimes he is very sweet to her and hands her a toy to play with and gets her to crawl around the house with him. Those are the sweet moments that happen less than I'd like. I usually hear a scream and a cry and look over and see Corinne crawling out from under pillows or Matthew throwing his letters at her. We're still working on getting along and sharing.
Here's Matthew watching "Super Why" with Tommy and smelling his favorite blanket. No matter how often I wash that thing he makes it smell a certain way within a few hours. It was so nasty after our plane ride home with being dragged around the airport and being thrown up on that it went straight to the washing machine when we got home. But don't worry--he had it smelling like normal by morning!

Family

This is me with my sister, Melinda, who is 18 months younger than me. She is holding her girl, Hannah, who is 7 months older than Corinne.

All the cousins on my side of the family (except for Tanner who is off to the left and Matthew who ran off at the last moment because he was stuck in between 2 unhappy babies).

Garrett always asks to hold the babies and so he had a small window of opportunity with Corinne where she was looking at him and deciding if she wanted to be happy.

Matthew doing two of his favorite things--playing with his cousins and playing in the dirt (he's such a boy!)

I just had to add this picture of his cute smile!

Fun with Cousins

While in Arizona, Matthew has had an opportunity to meet and play with many of his cousins that he hasn't met before or was too young to remember or appreciate before. He's been especially attached to Maya.
Matthew is enjoying reading books because his cousins Tanner and Maya are. Matthew is a copycat and does whatever his cousins do. His cousin, Will, was put in timeout with his face in the corner and Matthew went and stood beside him with his face up against the wall.


Maya and Garrett making Matthew look like a king.




Matthew and his red-headed cousin, Will, who is 5 weeks older than him.







Matthew playing with Hannah.

Thanksgiving plans

For Thanksgiving I'm headed out to Mesa, AZ with the kids. Jeremy has to work most of the week (they're on crunch time trying to complete the boat before Dec. 21) so he won't be coming with me. We'll just have to digitize his face into the family picture! I fly out on Nov. 14 and I'll be staying until Nov. 28. We're excited to see all the family and Matthew will enjoy playing with all of his cousins. I don't know if I'll venture much from my parents house since I won't have a car but others are welcome to visit!

Halloween and Grandparents

Matthew was a cowboy for Halloween. I was surprised that he kept the hat on at the ward Trunk or Treat party--I let him try it on a few days beforehand to get used to it and he wouldn't wear it. I think the only reason he kept it on is because he didn't know what was going on--he was so quiet and just stared at everybody. I had to hold his hand and guide him to all the trunks because he was in a daze. Maybe next year he'll appreciate it more (although that's what I thought last year)

Grandma and Grandpa Strong came to visit over the weekend and the kids loved it. Matthew became attached to Grandma within just 2 days and cried when they left.

Army Crawl, "Butterfly," and Pigtails

Corinne has just started doing the army crawl. Now she can annoy Matthew even more! Yesterday she crawled up behind Matthew while he was playing with some toys and started touching his back. He turned around and saw it was her and started tickling her on her back, then head, then toes. It was their first time actually playing together that I didn't have to facilitate. But she also can get at his toys that he plays with now which he's not too excited about. At least he hasn't tried to hurt her--yet.

A moth got into the house and was flying all over the place. I showed Matthew and he got so excited thinking it was a butterfly and chased it all over the house. I think he's trying to kiss it here. He calls butterflies "sa-sas" which is apparently the sound they make when they fly, or so Grandma says.

I also finally tried putting pigtails in Corinne's hair. It looks kind of funny because her hair is only long on top and is just starting to grow in on the sides. I still think she's cute.

Matthew

Either Matthew is regressing or he's jealous of Corinne playing with her toys. He's tried out all of his old baby stuff. I even caught him in the swing one time. He tries to walk around in the walker when he gets in it and will put the baby toys in his mouth. Luckily, he only tried once to sit in the bouncy chair while Corinne was in it.

THE MEDFORDS!

I've finally created a blog! It's not like we've been anywhere exciting these past few months from which we can post some neat pictures. Jeremy currently works for the Navy. He works about 10 hours a day, 7 days a week and works about 12 hours a day 1-2 days a week. They are in the middle of reactor plant testing and commissioning a new Virginia class nuclear submarine. (For more information on that ask Jeremy.) Now who doesn't want to join the Navy? I'm just glad that he doesn't have to go out to sea. We're hoping that this schedule doesn't last longer than a couple more weeks. But his schedule won't ease up much until around Christmas when the shipyard should be done building the submarine. Meanwhile, I get to be at home with the 2 kids , teaching violin lessons, and doing primary stuff. We enjoy any time we can spend together as a family and go for evening walks after dinner and before Jeremy goes off to work and the kids go to bed. And then we do it all again the next day!