Busy....Busy....Busy...

What a busy month it has already been! Kyle and I have been so busy these last few weeks time is flying by and we are realizing that Christmas is already next week!! Kyle is finally done with Change of Command inventories and will be taking his position as a Platoon Leader, well almost done, the Change of Command ceremony is taking place as I'm typing this. I wish I could be there but unfortunately I had to work. Captain Coulter and his wife Melanie will officially be in command of HHB.

On Saturday, we have the St. Barbara's Day ball and we had such a great time!! We sat with Capt. Coulter his wife Melanie, Graves, Jody and Cheif Morgan and his wife, Julie. We danced a little, took pictures and enjoyed hanging out with everyone. Kyle was a part of the Ceremony of the Neophyte Gunners, he had to drink from the yummy grog bowl, haha. He said it wasn't so bad. Overall it was a great night!!

This week has been inundated with holiday parties! We had HHB's Christmas Party yesterday and it was so much fun! Our friend Graves dressed up as Santa and the fire department brought him in on a firetruck with the lights and sirens going! It was great! Kyle had helped organize most of it and it turned our great. We even won a Black Falcon/Artillery jersey, awesome! Tonight it my works Christmas Dinner, we are all meeting at Miyabi's, a Japanese Steakhouse here in Fayetteville, it should be a lot of fun!

Starting Friday Kyle will be on leave for 2 weeks and he is sooo looking forward to it! My vacation starts Christmas Eve until the 4th! Yay for time off!! I will try and update this before Christmas Day, if I don't get a chance to...everyone have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

18 Days until Christmas!

Christmas 2009 is almost here!!! I love this time of year, I love decorating, baking and spending time with family and friends! Unfortunately this year we won't be going to Vegas but we now have Skype so we can talk and see each other which is awesome!!! It is amazing to "see" our families and not just hear them on the phone.

We have so much going on in the next few weeks, it will be busy! Kyle is in the field all week which work, so it will be just me at home. As much as I love him, it's always nice to have time alone. We have the St. Barbara's Ball this Saturday and I am so excited!!! I love getting dressed up, Kyle not so much haha. Next week is HHB's Christmas party, it should be a lot of fun!!

Hopefully I will get a chance to update this after the ball and post some pictures. :) Have a great week!

Holiday Cheer....

Well, as I sit here typing this it is We are 3 days away from December 1st. Holy cow where has this year gone. We celebrated Thanksgiving here in NC and it was awesome. We had our friend, Kristina over.Her husband Jeremy is deployed to Afghanistan right now and we didn't want her to be alone, she is like family and it was great to have her here. I cooked a huge meal and it turned out much better than I expected!

I definitely have so much to be thankful for this year:

1. My amazing husband, Kyle. He never ceases to amaze me, I am so proud of him for serving our country and being such an incredible person. I love him more than anything and I hope he knows that.

2. Family: We have the best families in the world and they support us no matter what. We love you all!!

3. Great friends: I am soooo lucky to have friends who support me the way they do!!

4. Health- I have been through a lot this year (Kyle and I both), thankfully everything is going well.


I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner. We got all of our decorating done today, and it looks soo awesome. We put our tree up a few weeks ago so we could take our Christmas picture and it came out beautiful! Christmas cards are sealed up and ready to be sent out.

We will hopefully be moving in the next few weeks, they are doing post mandated moves for all the officers in our neighborhood, we will be getting a brand new 4 bedroom house and we can't wait!!! We are spending Christmas here in NC this year and it would be so great if we were in the new house by then. December 12th is the St. Barbara's Day ball and we are soo excited!! It's the first time we have been able to attend as Kyle was in the field with the White Falcons last year. It will be great to support the Field Artillery soldiers.

We are going to miss our families so much at Christmas this year, but they understand that we can't be there. Thank goodness for webcams we will definitely be using them! It will be especially hard for us not seeing our 3 year old niece, Kylie on Christmas morning, but we got a very special book for her of us reading her "The Night Before Christmas", we hope she loves it as much as we love her!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Gone too fast...

Gosh, I can't believe that it's already November!! This year is going by too fast! It has been a while since I have updated this and I apologize. Well let's see whats new:

* Kyle has been working VERY long nights getting ready for Change of Command

* We had an awesome Halloween of passing out candy with our friend, Kristina...watching movies and just relaxing.

* Kyle has been playing with the battalion soccer team and they have made the playoffs, it has been a lot of fun!!

We have a lot that will be happening in the next few weeks, Kyle will be welcoming Capt. Coulter to HHB as the new commander and hopefully the long nights will go away for a long time. We have the St. Barbara's Day ball next month and I can't wait. I bought a beautiful new dress for it and I can't wait to wear it!

There are 2 very special birthdays this month, our adorable niece, Kylie will be turning 3!! OMG she is getting so big so fast. It makes me so sad, I remember the day she was born it was such an awesome day (even though I had the flu haha, yes I still remember that), she is so awesome.. Also, my wonderful sister, Lisa will be celebrating her 28th birthday! She is the best and I love her so much! It's a great month!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is right around the corner...gosh then Christmas will be here!! We are going to be taking our Christmas picture already so I can get our cards ordered and ready to go, I'm so excited!! Yay for Holidays!! :)

   

It's Halloween Time!!!

Well, Halloween is right around the corner and we can't wait!! It is by far my favorite holiday of the year!!! It's time to start decorating, woo hoo!! :) Let's hope we don't run out of candy like we did last year, haha no last minute trips to the store!

Things have been really busy for Kyle since getting back to his unit after Jump Master school, he has had a lot of late nights because change of command is coming up for HHB. Let's hope things slow down for him...and we get to see more of each other!

A good friend of mine from Vegas, Calli will be flying here to visit on Thursday, it will be nice to have her here!! :)

BIG NEWS!!!!

Kyle has been in Jump Master school for the past 2 1/2 weeks, he has been re-entried qualified the whole and yesterday was a huge day for him: HE PASSED!!! He is officially a Jump Master!!!! I am sooooo proud of him!!!! :)

Vegas, Arizona and Back...

WOW!! A lot has happened in the last week or so! I flew back to Las Vegas last week to spend time with my family and to go to Arizona to watch my Dad race. It was such a fun trip and made me realize how much I miss all of them!!! My niece Kylie is almost 3 and she is sooo funny!! It was great to be back with family for a little while, my mom, dad, lisa and kylie are definitely the best. We headed down Friday to the Kingman Street Drags to watch my dad race in the unlimited class. After qualifying for the Quick 8 in the Unlimited Class, he ended up with a runner-up finish! It was an awesome weekend!!! It's always a great time and we made some awesome new friends. :) I miss my family a lot but am glad to be home with Kyle. I go back to work tomorrow, even though its Friday hehe. :)

Proud to be an American....

   It's hard to believe that 8 years ago we experienced an event that no one ever expected. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I saw the 2nd highjacked plane hit the World Trade Centers. You never think that you will experience something like that in your lifetime.
 
  As we remember today all those who lost their lives, all the families who lost loved ones, we also salute the hundreds of thousands of troops who have been and are currently in harms way serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 For me it hits closer to home, I am so proud of Kyle for being such a wonderful man of courage and honor, he is an amazing soldier who serves his country with pride! I love him so very much!

Thank you to all our troops....past and present!! God Bless America!!

A Home of Our Own!!

After much discussion, Kyle and I have decided to start looking for our first house here in NC. We decided that its time to move out of post housing and have a place we can really call home. As much as we love living on post, we feel its time to move on. We are really excited to start looking and hopefully we will be meeting with a realtor tomorrow. This time last year we were certain we would only be in NC for a year and a half maybe a little longer, but now that Kyle has made the decision to put in his Psyops package, we will be here for atleast another 3-4 years. We are both very excited to start looking at homes, hopefully we will find something we both love!!

Less than one month before I head to Vegas to visit family, time has flown by since I booked my ticket in March! I am looking forward to seeing everyone!! :)

Not much else has been happening around here, with me working now and Kyle busy with his job we are both drained at the end of the day and are enjoying doing nothing! :)

Hopefully soon I will have good news to share about the house hunting!

Goodbye White Falcons....Hello Black Falcons.

Well, we are officially in the month of August. This year is just flying by. I officially started my new job at Reaves & Reaves on July 20th. They are a small law firm that handle real estate and small criminal cases. I love my job, I’m a receptionist and I also help out with other things around the office. It’s so weird going back to work after a year of being off.

Kyle has officially been moved back to 2/319th his Field Artillery Battery. He is currently the XO (executive officer) and a platoon leader. Today will be his first real work day. The one big perk is that he has a huge office!! I got to see it on Saturday! This coming week I have my final coffee with 2/325 and we also have our Hail and Farewell. It will be bittersweet to leave the White Falcons, but we are excited to be a part of the Black Falcons. We had 2 BBQ’s this past weekend, one at Capt. Montgomery’s and the other was at SSG. Griffing’s house. Kyle’s fist team (well old fist team now) presented him with the most beautiful plaque, it definitely moved both Kyle and I with how much effort and time they put into this. I know Kyle will miss them all and so will I.

I am getting super excited about my trip to Vegas in September. I will get to see my Dad race down in Kingman for the street drags and I can’t wait. I am so excited to see our niece Kylie, she is such a little sweetheart! :) Since we aren’t able to make it home for Christmas, I wanted to be able to visit for a bit. Hopefully sometime next year Kyle will be able to go as well.

People have been asking about our sweet, Emma and how she is doing. She is responding well to the medication and we are so happy. We are taking her for walks more and more to get her energy back up. She is our baby and we are so glad she is doing well.

Hopefully, I will get more chances to update this! J Everyone have a great week!!

Summer Fun!!

Well the year is half gone and it keeps getting better and better. On June 21st, Kyle and I celebrated our 1st Anniversary!! The night before we hung out with my best friends Des and Kristina and Des's husband, Chris. We celebrated with them at midnight for our anniversary! We had dinner at Olive Garden and went to the movies and saw "The Hangover", it was an overall great night!!

I received an exciting call last week from a real estate law firm, wanting to interview me for a receptionist position. I was soo excited and I interviewed with them, hopefully I will hear something back next week!!

This Sunday is finally Des and Chris's wedding, there has been so much planning, it will be amazing to see how perfect the day will be!! It will be such a wonderful day full of awesome people!!! :)

The following week, Kyle's mom and dad will be here for a few days to visit, and hopefully I will hear something about the job! Yay!! :)

AS far as Emma, she is still on 3 different medications trying to regulate the enzymes in her liver. She will go back to the vet on July 17th to have her liver tested. We are hoping for good results. I will keep everyone updated!!!

Our sweet Emma...

Well the last few days have been really stressful and emotional for both Kyle and I. Our 5 year old mini dachshund, Emma has been going through some health issues. Over the last year or so she has been experiencing seizures, which for the most part are common for some breeds of dogs. We took her into the vet yesterday after she experienced a VERY bad seizure on Friday. After bloodwork, come to find out she has bad enzymes in her liver that could be potentially fatal if not treated. She will go in tomorrow to have her liver tested and monitored. She will be on 2 different types of medication hoping to get rid of the enzymes and seizures. Please keep Emma in your prayers...to everyone else she is just a dog but to us she is our baby.

Not much else has been going on lately. I have still been helping one of my best friends, Des with her wedding! July 5th is coming up quickly and its going to be such an awesome day!! :) Im really looking forward to being a bridesmaid!! Kyle and I have been trying to keep busy lately...and its been good for the both of us :)

Kyle has a 3 day work week which I am soooo happy about!! :) We are looking forward to our 1st Anniversary this weekend!! I can't believe it has been a year already....its been amazing!!! :)

Another month is gone...

I can't believe today is the last day of May!! This year is flying by!

Kyle is finally finished with Jump Master school, but not with the result that we had hoped. He unfortunately failed, because of not making time by 4 seconds! He was incredibly disappointed, but is going to try and go back in a week. So he is back to work at the company and getting back into the swing of things.

We had a Hail and Farewell on Friday night at Col. LaNeve's house, it was a lot of fun! We got 2 White Falcon Mugs which are pretty awesome! We had some friends over afterwards...we played some guitar hero and watched Super Bad. It was a great night! Yesterday, we went over to our friends Ed and Melanies for a bbq, we had a good time.

I have been keeping busy with planning a party at my house for Tuesday. My friends and I will be welcoming a new army wife, Kim to Fort Bragg! Im really looking for to it. Im taking her around on Monday to help her get acclamated. I'm also getting very excited for my friend Desiree's wedding on July 5th. She has a few of us to be her bridesmaid and I'm honored to be a part of it! I bought my dress last week and I love it!! :) It's going to be a beautiful wedding!

Kyle and I are super excited that we have 3 weeks until our 1 year anniversary!! :) Although we have had our ups and downs, we are incredibly happy! :) Time has definitely flown by!

2nd Brigade Ball

Well, last night we the 2nd Brigade Ball and we had such a great time!! It was a great chance to hang out with everyone and just cut loose and have fun! We sat with Capt. Montgomery, the new Commander of Alpha Company, his wife Carrie, 1SGT Adams and his wife Kim, and Lt. Grant and his gf Erin! We had a great table!! When we got there we went right in to get pictures done, hopefully we will have them soon. We had a great guest speaker Lt. General Austin, the commanding general of the XVIII Airborne Corps. After the formal portion was over with we all moved to the dance floor and let loose!! It was great seeing everyone dancing and having a great time!! :)

These next few weeks are going to be busy as well...lots of FRG obligations and hanging out with friends. :)

Kyle is almost finished with his second week of JumpMaster school and he has passed 3 tests so far! :) All he has left is JMPI and PWAC! Everyone keep your fingers crossed!! I will update everyone next week on his progress!

Half way through May...

Wow! I can't believe it's already May 16th! This year is flying by!! It has been a busy month so far and there are no signs of slowing down. Kyle is currently in Jumpmaster school, so he has been busy studying and memorizing lots of information. This coming up week is All American Week, unfortunately Kyle isnt able to participate in any of the events, but I will be there supporting our Brigade and Battalion during the events. We have our Regimental Ball on May 20th and I am super excited!!! :) I wasnt able to attend last year, so we are both looking forward to it!
We had an awesome day today! My friend Kristina and her husband Jeremy hosted a barbeque at their house today with our group of friends! :) Her husband is home on R&R from his deployment it was great to meet him! We had an awesome time!!
Tomorrow is my moms birthday and I just wanted to wish her a Happy Birthday!! Love you, Mom!! :)

Welcome Logan and Kaylee Alsup!!

Well today has been a very exciting day!! Our great friends Janis and Drew Alsup welcomed their twins at 4:30am!! Logan Kane who weighed in at 6lbs 6oz and Kaylee Jayne who weighed 6lbs 2oz! Kyle and I were lucky enough to have their 1 year old Emily today and also very blessed to have spent almost 2 hours visiting with the newborns! :) They are two of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen! :) We enjoyed our visit with them. I am headed back to the hospital tomorrow to spend more time with them! I so enjoyed being able to hold them, of course Kyle was scared at first, but he got the hang of it! Here are a few pictures...me holding Kaylee and Kyle holding logan! :)

Another week gone by...

Its been a while since Ive posted a new blog so I figured it was about time! :) The last few weeks have been pretty busy for us. My friend Anna invited Kyle and I to her sons, Trenton and Griffins soccer games over the weekend, we had a great time watching all the kids play! We also were very excited to finally meet Mason Bauer, our friends Matt and Jess' newborn son. We spent Sunday at their house and had a cook-out. It was great to hang out and of course I was in heaven holding little Mason, he is such a sweet baby.

I was invited to a Division Volunteer Appreciation Ceremony on the 28th with several other ladies from our battalion. It was awesome!! It was a great turn out and I enjoyed listening to the 82nd Airborne Choir sing. Kyle has been increasingly busy as well, with his Company Commander and XO gone to JRTC, Kyle has been the acting Company Commander and XO, along with doing his normal job of FSO (fire support officer). He will be entering JumpMaster School on May 11th and we are both very excited!! He has wanted to do this for a while now!

I, thankfully am getting over the flu, after the ceremony on Tuesday, I was down for the count for 2 days, but am much better now! Kyle had a night jump on Tuesday and from what he said, he had a pretty rough landing, so he has been nursing a pretty bad headache all week. He seems to be better today. He has more guts than I do to jump from a plane!

We dont have any big plans for the weekend, except for getting some much needed cleaning done and planting some flowers outside! :) We hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Exciting Happenings....

Well so far April has been a very fun and busy month!! Yesterday, Kyle and I purchased a brand new car for me to drive!! It's a 2009 Toyota Corolla and I couldn't be more excited!!! There are lots of things happening at Kyle's work that is going to keep both of us very busy. Kyle will be leaving on April 27th to head down to Ft. Polk Louisiana to OC a JRTC (joint regional training center)for 1st Brigade. He will be gone for about 3 1/2 weeks. I have plenty to keep me busy while he is gone between friends and FRG I will be very busy :) We are also going to be attending the Change of Command happening on Friday the 24th for Kyle's current Company Commander, Capt. Farmer, he will be handing off Command to Capt. Montgomery. Lots of exciting things here in NC.

We also want to send out a HUGE congratulations to our neighbors and good friends Matt and Jess Bauer on the birth of their beautiful baby boy, Mason James. :) We are looking forward to meeting him when they come home. :)

Easter Fun!!

Well Easter 2009 has come and gone, but it was an awesome day! It started out in the morning with Kyle and I exchanging Easter Baskets, it was fun and we loved doing it! Later in the day we had some GREAT friends over Matt and Jess and Jackie and Justin for a barbeque. After eating some pretty good food if I do say so myself, we played a very LONG game of Trivial Pursuit, if you dont know this group, we are pretty competitive when it comes to board games, but last night was pretty laid back. It was a blast! Then after that Kyle and I started up the firepit and we did some S'Mores, YUM!!!! Finally at about 11 after some good s'mores and good conversation we all called it a night. :) It was a great Easter with some even better friends!! :) I hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!

Myrtle Beach Vacation

Well, we are back from our amazing vacation in Myrtle Beach, although it was only for 2 1/2 days it was still awesome!! We had a great room with a beautiful view of the beach!!! We did a lot while we were there, we experience Broadway at the Beach, all of the Ripleys Attractions and some much needed relaxation on the Beach!!! Although we were sad to leave we are glad to be home with our animals, Emma and Fishy!!!

Healing Process...

Well as many of you may or may not know, Kyle and I experienced a heartbreaking ordeal this past week. I unfortunately suffered a miscarriage. We have gone through so many emotions in the last few days dealing with this, its something we never thought we would have to go through. I have been in and out of the Dr's all week trying to figure out exactly what happened and to make sure its healing on its own.
We are still emotional about the situation and have decided to take a much needed vacation. Kyle has a 3 day weekend and we have decided to go to Myrtle Beach. We have a room with a view of the Beach and we are very much looking forward to this.
Thank you to our wonderful families and awesome friends who have been so supportive through this whole situation. It means the world to us and we couldnt get through it without each of you.

March Madness!!

Well we are a week into the month of March and so much is going on. Kyle is in the field until March 14th for whats called MRE: Mission Response Exercise. He has been extremely busy with work but hopefully things will start to calm down after the MRE. I have had a lot to keep me busy since he has been gone. I have been able to spend time with some friends and also offer my services to watch their kids when needed. I have loved every minute of it!!! :) I am also planning a St. Patricks Day party at my house...yay for parties!!! Im just looking forward to having Kyle back at home!!! :) I hope everyone is doing well!!!

2BCT featured in Fayetteville Observer.

Hey Everyone!! This will be a quick blog, but I wanted to share a link with you. Kyle's Brigade is featured in an article in the Fayetteville Observer. There are also videos at the bottom that you can watch to see exactly what Airborne Paratroopers do! :) Enjoy!!

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=317969

New Collection Starting...

So I have always wanted to have a collection of some sort...some people collect bells, thimbles, etc. I have picked what I want to collect....SPOONS. I know its not very original but I love the idea of it :) So Send me some awesome spoons!! :)

Happy Valentines Day!!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!! :) Well not a lot new is going on here in NC just trying to stay busy. Kyle has been very busy at work and is getting ready to do some training in March for about 2 weeks. I have been battling a cold for the last week and it almost had me down for the count! But thankfully its gone and Im starting to get back to normal. Since Kyle and I had already exchanged gifts for V-day, we had a very low key day today. I made Kyle breakfast this morning...I even made him red scrambled eggs ;) We did our usual bowling and I made stuffed shells and garlic bread for dinner. I do have to say I have the most amazing husband in the world, he made me a chocolate cake with purple frosting...it was sooo yummy :) I hope everyone has had a wonderful Valentines Day with someone special! :)

PT Test Results...

Unfortunately, Kyle did not pass the PT test required to enter PRC. It was a very hard physical test. He is not upset, he now knows what he needs to do to pass it. He may or may not re-test on February 23rd. Im still very proud of him!! :)

Happy February!

Wow! This year is flying by! I thought it was time to update our blog. Its February 1st and a lot has been going on in our house lately. On Tuesday Feb 3rd, Kyle will be doing the PT test for the Pre-Ranger Course, and he couldnt be more excited. So when he passes that he will enter the Pre-Ranger Course which will last 3 weeks here at Fort Bragg. Since Kyle will most likely be gone for Valentines Day, so we celebrated it together yesterday. We had a great day of shopping for his prc equipment, exchanging gifts, going bowling and enjoying a great dinner together! I was very excited because Kyle got me bowling shoes for Valentines Day!!! :) I have been wanting them for a long time!! :) I got Kyle custom made fortune cookies dipped in chocolate and also a Build-A-Bear Monkey dressed in Army Gear named Martin haha. :) I will keep everyone updated with information regarding the results of Kyles PT test. :)

Holy Snow!!!

Well...as Kyle and I woke up this morning at 7am, Fort Bragg was covered in SNOW!!! Its still coming down, I havent really experienced snow like this before in my life, its amazing! They have closed post today, so Kyle is home again for a 5th day! :) Our animals arent quite sure what to think of it. Emma wont go outside of course, we've tried lol. I was able to get some pictures this morning...hopefully it stays long enough to get more! :)

Happy New Year!!

Well everyone, Happy 2009! Kyle and I are back in NC after 2 wonderful weeks in Las Vegas! We were so lucky to be able to spend time with our families and just relax!! We arent sure when we will be going back to Vegas so it was nice. We were able to do quite a bit while we were home, go bowling (watch our niece Kylie bowl for the first time was awesome), see some good movies, eat some great food, and just enjoy our families company. We did a joint gift exchange with our families and it turned out great!!! :) Overall, it was a great trip! Although we were very sad to leave, we are also glad to be home, yes its back to the same ole' grind everyday but we love it!! :) Well, I just wanted to update everyone. Here are a few pictures from our trip. :) Enjoy!!

2008 comes to an end...

Well 2008 is officially over! What a year it has been...Kyle and I got married, moved to NC and things are great. Today is our last night in Vegas and it has been a good trip home. :) I will post some new pictures when we get back to NC tomorrow. Happy New Year!!!