New Beginnings for the New Year

To end our blog for 2008 on a wonderful note, I thought I would introduce you all to two cutie pies that are just new to the world. KoaKai was born to my good friends Maria and Arthur whom we were stationed with in Italy. "Koa" is a Hawaiian name, meaning "strong, hero, or warrior" and "Kai" means "pure" or "sky". KoaKai was born December 8th. We look forward to meeting KoaKai and seeing his sisters again, April and Maelyn, hopefully this summer during our Sigonella reunion. Another precious little one was born on December 22nd to my close friend, Allison, and her husband Dave. They gave their daughter such a pretty name; Lilly Grace! Allison and Dave reside in Halifax, so hopefully I'll be able to meet Lilly Grace sometime in the near future. Congratulations to both parents on your beautiful miracles. May God bless your home with the joy and love of your baby. We are so happy for all of you!!! To All: May you experience Peace, Love, Joy, Health, Prosperity, and Happiness in the New Year!!!

Happy Birthday Kristin

Today we were very lucky to have the opportunity to help Kristin celebrate her birthday. It's not very often that we get the chance to all be together for a birthday. Kristin was very excited because it snowed today. Joe also surprised her with a beautiful bouquet of red roses. After dinner, we sang the birthday song to her and had cake. Unfortunately, I can't take credit of making the cake. The cake came from Super Valu and it was delicious. Happy Birthday Kristin!!! We are so glad to have you here today to celebrate a very special Cape Breton birthday with you.

Family & Flowers

Approximately three thirty this morning, my brother and his wife arrived from a 3 day drive up from Arkansas. I fell asleep waiting for them, but I soon woke up after hearing their voices once they were safe and sound in the house. It is wonderful to see Joey and Kristin again. We've missed them so much. Tonight we went out to dinner at Don Cherry's and used the gift certificate that Sarah gave us for Christmas. This holiday season is particularly difficult for our family this year, however us being together makes it a lot somewhat easier. I just wish Steve could be here too. Speaking of my Pookey Bear, this afternoon I received a beautiful Christmas bouquet of flowers from him. I was talking to him at the time on the computer when the flower delivery person came to the door and handed us the flowers. I was so surprised!!! How sweet of Steve to send me the flowers!!! The white carnations remind me of snowballs and I love the pine mixed in. My husband does the sweetest things!!! I love you and I miss you sooo much!!!!

Tyler's Birthday Surprise!!! Click the Play button!!!

Merry Christmas

This morning I got up a little extra earlier so that I could set up the web cam before Tyler made his appearance out in the living room to see what Santa brought him. I wanted Steve to experience the entire thing as if he were here too. I was only up for 10 minutes before I heard the little pitter patter of a little boys' feet, though they didn't come out to the living room right away. I could hear him talking about something so I went to investigate and it was him discovering his Christmas stocking stuffed full of lots of good things. I gave him his stocking, which was hung on our bedroom doorknob, and then we made our way out to the tree. Tyler's eyes grew big with excitement and he couldn't believe how much stuff Santa brought him. He just stood there talking about it for awhile. I expected him to just dive right into the gift opening. It wasn't long after that Steve logged into the web cam. He had just returned back from his Christmas lunch. We were so happy to have everyone together. We all opened our gifts together. Everyone received a lot of special things and we are so thankful for everything! Tyler's big gift this year was given to him by Grandpa and Grandma Smith in Rhode Island. They sent Tyler an electric Thomas the Tank Engine train!!! After I put it all together and started Thomas up, Tyler was so delighted to see it go around and around the track. I wish I got video because he was jumping up and down and clapping his hands. It was so wonderful to see his excitement! This afternoon we spent most of our time playing with Thomas and all of his other toys. Mom and I are not going to have our Christmas dinner today because it is just the two of us. Instead we are waiting for my brother and his wife to drive up from Arkansas and we will all have Christmas dinner together. Joey and Kristin are expected to arrive on Saturday. Anyway, this is how the Smith/Walker Family spent our Christmas day and we wish everyone a wonderful Christmas. Lots of love from us to you all. Happy Birthday, Jim!!!

Preparing for Tonight

Santa isn't the only one who could use a snack tonight. Tyler and I put some special reindeer food out on Nanny's front lawn this afternoon. We want to make sure Santa's reindeer come this way and eat a little snack while they are waiting for Santa deliver presents inside. Reindeer food consists of oats and glitter. The glitter helps make them fly. Now that the reindeer are taken care of, Tyler and I need to start baking some special Santa cookies. Rumor has it that Santa's favourite cookie here in Canada is shortbread. Merry Christmas Eve everyone!!!

In the Movies

"You'll shoot your eye out!" Tyler in 'A Christmas Story'.

The Smith family is the Griswold Family in 'Christmas Vacation'.

Hangin' out with a few Congressmen.

I went out this morning to get "messages to the troops" from a few congressmen. From right to left: Steve Israel from Long Island NY, Ed Whitfield from Kentucky, me, Anthony Weiner from Queens/Brooklyn and Tom Cole from Oklahoma. And the Governor of New York David Paterson escaped my photo!

Snow "Dropping"

Hope you enjoy this latest video! It was taken before we got all the snow. I would also like to shout out a big Happy Birthday to two special 2 year old little buddies! Yesterday, it was Marco's birthday and today is Chance's birthday!!! Welcome to the Terrific Twos!!! Hope you both have a fun filled year!!!

O Christmas Tree

If it weren't for our little munchkin being around, Mom and I more than likely wouldn't even put up a tree this year. This year is going to be one full of mixed emotions. Sad because both my dad and Steve aren't going to be here. Yet this is also going to be a happy and exciting time because this is the first year Tyler is really into Santa and my brother and his wife are coming home for the holidays. With this being said, Mom decided just to go with a little 4 ft tree which is perfect to add a small touch of Christmas. While we were decorating it, I couldn't help but remember the times my father and I would decorate the past trees. Dad and I were in charge of decorating the Christmas tree every year. After we were finished we would turn off all the lights and just sit and admire it. Today I didn't have my dad help me, but I had my little guy with me and also Steve through the web cam which really helped pick my spirits up.

Meet Frosty

Yay!!! It finally snowed a good amount of snow and it stayed on the ground instead of melting away. We've been waiting for this for quite some time now. Tyler and I got on our snow pants, boots, and the rest of our snow gear and went outside to play in the snow. The snow was somewhat good consistency for making a snowman, so we made Tyler's very first snowman. Tyler said his name was "Frosty". We used red pepper for his mouth, carrot for his nose and cucumbers for the eyes. His hat is one of Tyler's little plastic bowls. Even though we had fun building our snowman, Tyler had more fun eating the snow. He said that the snow tasted like snow, which is a good thing I guess...LOL. Tyler even shared with his new buddy, Frosty. As I'm writing this I am looking out the window and I see that the snow is still coming down. Goody, more snow for playing in tomorrow!!!

Tie A Yellow Ribbon

We are so thankful for the friends that we have made. One friend in particular, Becky, has done so much for us while we have been away from our house. We couldn't thank her and her husband enough for all their time looking after everything. She e-mailed me this photo of the ribbon they tied on our tree in the front yard. We were so very touched and feel very blessed.

Holiday Viewing

One of the best things about Christmas is watching the Christmas specials on T.V. They usually come on at night, so I let Tyler stay up a little longer than his normal bedtime to watch them. Tyler and I watch them together while wearing our jammies. It's especially nice to see the classics with him that I remember watching when I was younger. In all, it's just a nice cozy festive feeling.

See Ya Next Year

Today was the last playgroup of the year. They are taking a two week Christmas Break followed by another two week break for program planning. I'm not sure what we're going to do for the month that we have off, but I'm sure we'll be busy during the holidays. Tyler will miss his little playgroup mates and I'll miss talking to some friends that I've made there. In this photo, Tyler is looking in one of the windows in the same building as his playgroup. We always stop and look inside at the Christmas display.

Don't Eat Me!

Today's fun activity was gingerbread making! For awhile now, I've had the materials to make gingerbread, so today Tyler was quite excited to finally get the chance to make what he calls "cookie man". After I mixed and mixed the ingredients together, Tyler had the task of rolling the dough out. I knew Tyler would be perfect for the job because of his experience rolling Play-Doh. Next was another part that Tyler had previous experience doing. Tyler loves using the cookie cutter shapes with his Play-Doh and cookie dough was even more fun because he knew he was allowed to eat the final result. He did a fantastic job cutting out all the gingerbread men. After Tyler made a whole family, it was time to put them in the oven. One of the books we are currently reading is called "Gingerbread Baby". It is about a boy who was making gingerbread men, but couldn't resist peeking in the oven to check on them despite the instructions that advised against this. The result was disastrous; the gingerbread wasn't ready and a gingerbread baby jumped out of the oven instead. I reminded Tyler of the story, so we watched through the stove glass instead. The final product was absolutely delicious! I didn't have time to decorate them because I had to call Steve and then go do some errands. Tyler doesn't know that I have the icing to decorate them, so tonight after he goes to bed I'm going to be busy getting them ready. I can't wait to see his face when he sees that they grew eyes, smiles, and buttons over night! Birthday wishes are being sent to Rhode Island today. We are wishing Steve's dad a very happy birthday! Walt, hope you have a fantastic day!

Play Land

Tyler had a whole new experience today at McDonald's. We took him to the one in town with Play Land inside. Last summer, we came to this one with the intentions of going to Play Land, however to our disappointment it was closed due to renovations. There was no nothing stopping us today however, Tyler was joined by a boy named Riley who was almost exactly one year older. Riley showed him how to climb all the way up the jungle gym and the two had a blast. Meanwhile, Nanny was having a heart attack watching from below...LOL

The End

Sadly enough today was the last day of Story Time at the library. There is another session starting after Christmas, however the nearby arena has their preschool skating the same morning, so I think we'll just stick to the skating. Tara mentioned that there is a preschool class starting up in February for 3 and up that we may register for depending on what day it is. We'll miss Story Time, but hold our own each night before we go to bed anyway.

Tyler to the Rescue!

Tyler is sporting his new rain jacket.

Christmas at the Playgroup

Tyler got all spiffed up this morning to attend his playgroup Christmas party. This was the very first time he has ever worn a tie and oh my, how handsome he looked in it! It was difficult to get a good picture of him wearing it because it was snowing at the time and he was more interested in watching the huge snowflakes falling from the window. This was the first time we had snow this year that actually stayed on the ground instead of melting. It created the perfect mood for our party. All the children looked so adorable dressed up for the party. Kathy, our coordinator, did a wonderful job with keeping with the Christmas theme today. All the books in the playgroup area were Christmas related, there was a Christmas craft, and even the playdough cutouts were all Christmas shapes. The kids listen to a Christmas story being read to them while they enjoyed their snacks that were provided by the parents/caregivers. Then after a few Christmas rhymes and carols, we were interrupted by someone at the door. To our surprise, it was Santa Claus!!! Santa came to talk to the kids and pass out treat bags. What a terrific Christmas party it turned out to be. It was so nice to get our playgroup family together for a Christmas celebration. Lucky for us, we have one more playgroup session before Christmas break.

Santa Visits the Fire Hall

The sirens and ho ho ho's could be heard from a far distance. It could only mean one thing, Santa was visiting the local fire department. And to inform all the kids, he was escorted through Coxheath spreading the word that he would at the party. Tyler and I nearly missed the fire truck going down Nanny's street and caught him on the way back up. When Santa got closer, the truck slowed down and on the speaker he spoke to Tyler. He said "There's my little buddy" and Tyler hid behind my leg. He was so shy. Then as the truck turned off the street and went up the next, he so wanted to get in the car and follow Santa in the fire truck. However, it wasn't long before Tyler was reunited with the big guy in red. Santa was at the annual fire department Christmas party for kids. There were lots of treats, hot chocolate, movies being played, and of course a chance to meet and have your picture taken with Santa. Tyler was all excited to be able to talk to Santa. He told me what toys he was going to ask him to bring. However when it came to Tyler's turn to sit on his lap, Tyler was so shy that he hid his head behind his hands. Finally after a little coaxing with a cup full of treats, he poked his little head out and we could see his smile.

Tomato Eatin'

The Tyler Show live via internet!

You never know who's going to be live on camera when you watch the Tyler show live from Nanny's House!

New Competitor

The other day we noticed something fuzzy growing on Daddy's upper lip when we were talking to him on the web cam. It turned out it was a mustache!!! Apparently, Daddy and the other guys in the office (the ladies weren't invited to participate) have started a mustache competition. Steve said he isn't exactly sure what the competition is about, however he said he is certain he is going to win...LOL I dunno, Steve, you've got new competition. Take a look at your son's mustache he "developed" today. Two birthday wishes are being sent out today. The first one is being sent all the way over to Sicily for my good friend, Margherita. Another special birthday wish is being sent to my long time friend, Mara. Hope you both have a terrific day!!!

Playing Games

Tyler's first board game is Toopy and Binoo. The game comes with a "pop the dice" in the middle of the board. Getting to pop the dice is his absolute favourite part. The object of the game is to see who can get to the middle first, but you have to know your colours before this is achieved. Lucky for Tyler, he is already really good at knowing his colours. This is a nice way to spend a rainy day.

Rain Comes to Baghdad

And hail. And wind. And some serious lightning. We were without power in various locations for more than 24 hours. I can't go into details, but it was pretty crazy Saturday and Sunday. One worker said he hasn't seen hail in the four years he's worked here. I also heard a rumor that some senior religious leader says this was Allah showing his displeasure at the approved security agreement. That'll teach 'em!

The press conference studio where I work.

My trailer! I did some Jackie Chan moves to prevent my feet from being submerged.