Play time with Cyana

Cyana wanted to play with her toys and always wanted Taris and I to play with her.  She has such an imagination!  She loved drawing on her new easel and she always wanted to play with her Tinkerbell Fairy House.

The Charlotte USO

The plane that we were taking as a connection from Charlotte to Pensacola was coming in from JFK, which was delayed due to weather out of JFK and was not even scheduled to take off from JFK until 3:30.  So, our 4:10 departure from Charlotte was just not going to happen!  With over four hours to kill, Taris decided to introduce me to the USO.  An area available to all military members and there families at all major airports as a place to relax, play games, watch movies and send email/surf the web.  I have always seen the commercials on the television, but never seen a USO in action.  Wow!  They are amazing.  The friendliest people who care about making your stay as nice as possible.  There are people from all over here getting their last fill of home.  If you live in a "big city" with a USO, I encourage you to get involved.  I would bet that you will get more out of it, than the people that you will serve.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

On Saturday night, James, Sara, Taris, and I went to see The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.  We went to the 10 pm movie.  For those that know me, you know that I broke my first rule...going to a movie after 8.  Believe it or not, I think that I may have stayed awake for the whole thing!  It was actually pretty good.  It left it open for a sequel...which I am not surprised and Robert Downey, Jr was great as Holmes.  I would definately recommend seeing this one...even worh the full price of admission.

Hello, North Carolina! and Merry Christmas!

For Christmas, Taris and I headed to Jacksonville, NC to see James, Sara, and Cyana.  (James is stationed at Camp LeJeune.)  Taris' parents met us up there as well from Frisco, TX.  We arrived late on Christmas Eve and headed home on December 27th.  We had a fantastic time getting to know Cyana and catching up with James and Sara.  They were wonderful hosts...Cyana let us use her bed and room while we were there.  (At one point, she asked if we were staying for two weeks.  She is SO funny!)

We woke up to Cyana knocking on our door Christmas morning wanting us to get up so that we could open presents.  Boy did she make out this year.  I think that she may have gotten every toy known to man...and we played with all of them.  We got her a Magna Doodle Pro (Mason loves his), a kid proof digital camera (that she couldn't stop using), and of course clothes (what every kid loves to open).  She is VERY into Tinkerbell and got a Tinkerbell house.  She got My Little Pony, a Fur Real cat, Veggie Tales movies, a remote control car, and an art easel.  Not one gift got more play time than the other.

Cyana waiting for dinner

Our Christmas spread

Beejae...prepared our feast

Taris and I volunteered to clean up the kitchen after  (Sad to say this is my only picture!)

I volunteered Taris and James to clean the kitchen after dinner

Thanks again to James and Sara for putting us up at the house.  We had a fantastic time and you were gracious hosts.  Can't wait to come back to visit!

Christmas came early!!

In case you don't know the background on me, I have NO patience to wait to open presents!  Since Taris and I would be spending Christmas with his family in North Carolina, we opened gifts on the 23rd.  I was SO excited!  I love giving gifts...and getting.  Because Taris is taking his yearlong remote, I didn't want to get him anything that he couldn't take with him.  He specifically asked for Blu-rays and XBox games...he is going to leave the PlayStation here for me to use. 

I got home...after my hair appointment to find that Taris had "cooked"...he picked up ribs from our favorite (outside of Harold's) BBQ place...Big Daddy's.  After eating...I should say inhaling my food I was ready to go!

The first gift that greeted me was an inversion board.  I have scoliosis...a back issue...and am constantly needing Taris to adjust my back.  Since he won't be here next year, he got me the inversion board as a replacement.  (I have been asking for one.)  I think that he loves it more than I do.  I caught him on it several times before we actually left for the airport.

I also asked for a Kindle.  It is a device that allows you to download books, magazines, newspapers, etc. and read them when you like.  It takes up NO space...which is awesome because I have no more space on my bookshelves and you can delete any book from your Kindle, but still have it stored on the Amazon website...awesome.  The best feature...it is able to download a book worldwide!   A bonus for all of you military people out there.

I got movies, some new cooking utensils, and a creme brulee torch set...I love me some Creme Brulee!!

Taris cleaned up quite nicely as well.  I think that he got enough movies to last a lifetime and a ton of games.  I should have plenty to keep him busy.

Abbie...so excited that we were at her level

O Christmas Tree

I finally convinced Taris that we needed to get a pre-lit tree!  Hobby Lobby had them on sale for half off and I couldn't pass it up.  We upgraded to a 9 1/2 footer, but I was able to get it slimmer so that it doesn't stick half way into the room.  I decided to do a partial theme with red and silver and "accent" with our Hallmark ornaments.  Enjoy the Pictures!

A Red Knight Christmas

So on December 11th we had our squadron Christmas Party.  It was up at the O Club at Whiting Field.  We had a great time.  Since this would be Taris' last one for a couple of years.  We shut the joint down!  We left at around 2:45 AM and headed for some breakfast at Waffle House.  By the time we got home, I chatted with Kathleen (in Japan).  I crawled into bed around 4:00 and the dogs were ready to be up and about at 7:30.  I didn't take any pictures...I know, I know.  Trust me when I say that it was a lot of fun and we had a great time.

Marcelain Photography

Over the Thanksgiving holiday the Byers family had some family pictures made.  For most of us, we haven't had pictures made since our weddings!  One of the things that Taris promised before he signed up for his 365 deployment, was taking some new family pictures.  We worked with Tammy Marcelain.  She is AMAZING!! If you find yourself in Abilene, you can not go wrong with her.  She has an amazing eye to see the full picture and I couldn't be happier with the final product.  If you want to see the ones she posted specifically on her blog, go here.  Here are a few of our favorites.

Black Friday

So on Thanksgiving day the family sat around Maw-maw's house investigating our best plan of attack for Black Friday.  We had fun looking through all of the adds and figure out who had the best deals on what.  It was decided that Wal-mart would be our jump off point, then branch off from there.  Rachel and Kayla both needed new lap tops, Ashley wanted to check out the $10 Blu-Rays, and I saw a Kodak 12 mp digital camera to send with Taris to the desert.  Wal-mart did things different this year.  They actually never closed and set-up stations through out the store for certain items and handed out tickets.  I arrived at 3 AM and my reward was number 2 in line.  (I know, you think that I am crazy, but I will say this...the closer you are in line, the faster you can check out and get down the road.)  I picked up a couple of other things, but I can't mention them since Christmas gifts have been given out yet.  After Wal-mart, I headed to Target.  They had a 500 MB portable external hard drive and a few other not to be mentioned at this time.  I finally headed to Best Buy where I did the most damage...shocker.  Best Buy had some awesome deals on Blu-Ray movies and television season dvds.  By 7:15, I was on my way to La Popular for some breakfast burritos.  (The BEST ones in Abilene.  I do miss my Mexican food!)  I was back in bed for a two hour nap by 8 AM.  Hope everyone had their own success on Black Friday...or Cyber Monday!

Family Pictures

It was so nice to see all of the family and we took advantage of the time with a TON of pictures.

Mason

Mason turns 2 on December 4th.  I can't believe how grown up he has gotten.  It make me so sad that we live so far away.  We had the privilege of staying at Mason's house while in Abilene.  He loves his Uncle T more than his Auntie E, but he does know my name so I guess that makes up for it.  On to the pictures...

Such a Rachel look...stop taking my picture look.

Stay tuned for the story of "the orange"

Baby Kendall

Or as Mason would say Boby Kenal.  No real words needed, lets get to the pictures!