IT'S A GIRL! WELCOME RACHAEL GRACE!

Rachael Grace Mack was born at 1:34pm today (December 29th) at Keller Army Hospital at West Point, New York. She was 7 pounds 13 ounces and 20 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great! Me, the kids, and Laura's mom will head to the hospital to meet them at 6pm tonight, so watch for that post tomorrow morning!

RACHAEL GRACE'S first MOVIE

Snow Day!

West Point's first snow was awesome... school shut down, the kids got to play, and Andy got to shovel for six hours over three days to ensure we could get out of the house and to the hospital (if we really had to). The kids had a great time sledding and playing in the snow. The fifteen inch snowfall proved fun for all... except Andy.

Christmas Party

There is nothing like a family Christmas party at work... and that's especially true at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Our department, the Dept of Military Instruction (DMI), got together for a great family party. There were games, crafts, snacks & Santa... oh yeah, and assault rifle training simulators to play with... fun for the whole family! The kids loved visiting with Santa, but they also had fun shooting at computer generated turkeys with live action M4 carbine simulators. Don't worry, mom gave them a good rifle safety course before-hand.

Being a Big Brother Isn't Always Easy

Nathan loves his big brother, and it is a wonderful thing (or so I try to tell Alex), but Alex isn't always so sure. Nathan has been in a phase (for quite some time) where he does and/or wants whatever Alex wants. This frustrates Alex, who just wants to do his own thing every once in a while.

Case in point: Andy is putting together some boxes to send to some of his deployed friends. He asked the kids to draw 4 pictures so we could include a picture from each kid in each box...

Alex drew this... Nathan drew this.

Alex drew this...

Nathan drew this.

Alex...Nathan.

Alex

Nathan.

I have to admit, I can see why it gets frustrating. :)

Decorating the Christmas Tree

This year we went to a Christmas tree farm and got a fresh tree. Not only did we get a tree...we got to see Santa, color some Christmas pictures, go through a Candy Cane Maze and play in a cool little village. Awesome adventure!

The next day we decorated the tree, drank hot chocolate and ate cookies. It was a lot of fun. Every year we let the kids buy a new ornament to put on the tree, and every year they love going through the ornaments to see what they have picked in the past. Our personal favorite this year, though, is the 2008 NCAA National Championship Ornament for KU. Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!

36 weeks pregnant

Here is a 36 week belly shot. After I got the belly shot, I showed Nathan how to use the timer function on the camera. Turns out it's a lot more fun when he is in the picture too. He would turn the timer on and set the camera to take a picture, then he would run to me so we could both be in the picture. The only place he could figure out to set the camera was on the floor. (Well, maybe he could have figured out to set it somewhere else, but he loved the shots of our big heads.) Anyway, I hope you enjoy his work. :)