While playing with some play-doh today, my mom asked Gabe to make something and she would guess what it was. Look what he made! A seahorse! We were amazed this lil' 3 yr old whipped that up himself!

Michael says this guy "poked the bear" so he choked him out. 

Shot-put competition with some Afghans. Michael was diplomatic enough to tie. Gotta love that upper white man thigh.

This is how Michael introduces himself in pashtu: zama num turan nulk deh.  Means= My name is CPT Nulk. Whenever he said this the Afghans would smirk and point to their fingernail. Apparently the afghan word for fingernail is very similar to the word Nulk. So he's officially CPT Fingernail! But now he introduces himself as Cpt Mike.

Also, he told me a funny story today. I guess they have a weekly meeting where someone is awarded the dubious honor of this big 3-ft plastic war eagle. Michael was voted this weeks winner because of his blonde moment. There are some pics of Afghan VIPs posted on the walls in their building and Michael was asking MAJ Ski who they were. So MAJ Ski explains who the first guy was- some afghan war hero. Then Mike asks who the next guy is.  MAJ Ski says, "are you serious?" "Yes, sir". "That's president Karzai". "oh, i thought his hair was darker". Haha! Needless to say Michael felt like an airhead. And he gets to place the war eagle outside his door for a week. He painted a engineer castle on the back of it to mollify himself.

Nulkie said i should share that story with you. Stay safe Nulkie, love ya!!
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Easter came early this year...

 Easter bunny came early this year....and since the kiddos have no clue when Easter actually occurs...doesn't matter! We did it early since my parents will be in Oregon and my grandparents were visiting.

 Gabe's new grill. Boo yah. We've been having burgers and mac n cheese made for us daily. Gabe was "grilling" for Grandpa the other night  and Grandpa said, "no more food Gabe, i'm full. I'm gonna get big and fat". So Gabe still keeps making him stuff- then eventually he sat down and says to Grandpa "you big and fat Grandpa!". Haha. Rude! But funny.

 checkin' out the loot

 Woody & Bullseye! No way!

 Evie's basket is way more exciting. The rest of the afternoon he served us all tea from her tea set. Daddy would be so proud.

 Cool baby!

 playing with Great Grandma

 Not his best. He would not smile for me. Must mean BEDTIME

Insert thumb= sleepy time.

Were doing good here. Evie & I both have colds were recovering from- so taking it easy by the fire. Tough life. Gabe continues to be rambunctious and a stinker potty. Also, it seems he acts out more as Evie can do more. Mr. Attention seeker feels threatened. Like Evie has been rolling a lot lately so we all cheer and cheer. So the other day Evie was down for a nap and Gabe was in the living room rolling across the carpet saying" wook at me mom, wook at me wrolling!". Good job, three year old, good job. He also will Skype with Daddy and then asks for daddy "to come out here". He wants him to leave the computer screen and come out. Breaks your heart a little bit. I feel ya Gabe, i feel ya. Wish Daddy could apparate here (warning-harry potter reference) and come hang out! Instead, he's busy chucking rocks and partying with the Afghans. That Nulkie. He can smell competition from a mile away. Hope ya'll are doing well!

 At Five Rivers enjoying this glorious weather. I'm pretty sure Evie has maxed out the Baby Bjorn- time to hit up the kelty backpack. Let's face it, Miss Chunkypants is not getting any smaller, or lighter. My shoulders were killing me by the end of this walk. Where's my big strapping husband when i need him? Oh right, protecting our country. No biggie. LOVE you Nulkie!!!

 

 Whose bigger? I can't wait to blackmail Evie with these pics when she's in high school.

 Hi Daddy! CHECK OUT MY BELLY!!

 Just doing some light reading in his easy chair.

 Eating cereal with Gram-mommy. He's basically tongue-tied with all the names he has to call people daily, so he's just blended them together. My dad is uncle-grampa (uncle wes + grandpa) and my mom is Grandmommy (grandma + Mommy). It's funny sometimes. Can't handle all these names! So far no one has been mixed up with Bella or Winston so that's good.

 Checkin' out his new ride! Grandpa got him a lil' John deere just like his big one. Gabe was funny- he wanted it to turn on. He has to pedal this one- no motors for this family. We expect our kids to work!

 now he's gettin' the hang of it. He kept saying, "hey guys, watch me! watch me on my tractor!".

 

Go greene or go home baby. We only drive deeres.

Nulkie is doing well. We love to see his handsome face on skype! He's mostly choppered around everywhere which is pretty fun for him. We miss him big time. I was doing a couple of the books Michael recorded for Gabe and Evie (those hallmark ones you can record your voice on each page) tonight. My mom had Evie on the floor drinking her fomula and I was up on the bed with Gabe playing the story. Evie was cooing, smiling and craning her neck to see where the voice was coming from. She KNEW it was daddy and wanted to find him...she could barely focus on eating (which is usually her priority) and kept squirming. Super cute. Gabe wanted me to "do again, do again".

Our weekend

 Hey Ya'll! I'm just chillin' here with my purse. Thanks for the pretty outfit Aunt Carolyn!!

 AHH! She is just sooo stinkin' cute. I love this age so much. 90% of the time she is happy and content. I wish i could freeze time!

 I know you won't believe me, but we think her face is thinning out a bit. You're probably wondering if she's ever mad? See the next photo

 Teething stinks mom! This is the only photo i could get to show off her new teeth on the bottom row!

 All prettied up for church. Note, this was my baby dress my Grandma Marie sewed me for my first birthday (we think it was my 1st bday). Butterball has to wear it at 7 mths!

 She's already completely enchanted the nursery staff at church. I think I had 4 different ladies rave about how sweet and wonderful she was! It's so nice for this mama to hear :) And lets face it, she's pretty much the best baby ever.

 I know it seems like this has become an Evie-blog rather than a balanced one between her and Gabe. The main reason is Evie sits still smiling at me, Gabe does not. Evie is basically beckoning me to photograph her and Gabe is highly resistant to doing anything i say in general. So therefore Evie gets dibs on the camera footage these days. In my defense, i have over 3000 images of Gabe when Michael was deployed in Iraq so Gabe is still dominating in computer memory.

 Chasing Uncle Luke with a stick, what could be more fun? BTW, this was today and it's 73 degrees out! In March! Yes please, to global warming. We like it!

Catching some rays before dinner.

Our weekend was nice and chill. I got to do some baby-less shopping, take walks in the glorious weather, skype date with Nulkie and relax. Win-win in my book. Hope you're all having a nice spring. Go outside! It's good for you!

Message for Daddy

Evie rolling!

Here's a little video of Evie rolling. I have to scold Gabe a bit in it because he wants to steal the attention and then Evie will be distracted and not perform. Ah, 3 yr olds! BUT she managed to roll twice for me on camera despite her brother's interruptions!

Evie & Gabe

Probably only Michael will appreciate this video so here ya go Nulkie! It's Gabe & Evie interacting at 7am. Just my usual scenario. For some reason when were in NY, Gabe has to wake up by 7, usually before. I'm drinking some serious coffee these days. Evie's sitting REAL good now. And she's rolling from back to tummy(she did the other way first). She's just the cutest baby ever. Love you Nulkie! Happy 7 mths to Evinator!

Oh and a weaning update. I am DONE breastfeeding!! HAHA. Eat that le leche league. I was open to nursing longer- but 4 bouts of mastitis kinda killed that dream. And she quit just in time cuz her first tooth popped through! Bottom left and she's chewing on everything!

we made it!

 Last day with Daddy

  We are back in NY! Occupy Journey lane has begun. And almost 1 week down...eat that deployment! Micheal has successfully arrived in Afghanistan- and made it to his FOB in record time. He's been able to call a few times and sounds pretty upbeat- just tired from days of traveling. Right now he's meeting with his counterparts and trying to acclimatize to the new time zone. Sounds like the unit they're replacing is pretty pumped to see his unit showing up-aka they get to go home!

We are pretty much all settled in and trying to establish a new routine and catch up on some sleep. This last month has been pretty stressful. I think we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when the goodbye was over and the countdown could start. My parents arrived in CO last Thursday despite the blizzard in Albany. I think it's the Pilon Law- doesn't matter if it hasn't precipitated for 90 days straight- if they're going to fly, it WILL snow. Haha. Anyways they made it to CO by 1130 am and we had the truck all packed by that afternoon. The new truck cap is awesome. Might be hick but it gets the job done. I actually had room to spare!  Friday it snowed all day in Colorado so we spent the day finalizing some packing and organizing and tried to go to bed early. I didn't sleep at all. Nulkie had to be dropped off at 1:30 am and it was 6 degrees and icy outside. I was like- wow they never show this in Army Wives! So once we said our goodbyes i drove back home where my parents had unplugged all the appliances and had everything ready to go. We were on the road by 240 am. My dad was nice and took the first shift of driving since i was pretty much wiped out. He made it to KS before he needed a coffee! It was funny- in the gas station we took Gabe in to use the bathroom and pick out a snack, so at 540 am he's perky as can be and picks out a huge lollipop. I was like no way buddy- you can have choc. milk!

 Can you find the 4 racoons in this picture?

 

   My mom drove next and by around 8ish i realized we were going to be passing Junction City, KS by around 11am so i called up Matthew to see if he wanted to rendezvous. I had turned down his offer the night before since i didn't think we'd want to stop. Turned out to be a great break! We met him at this BBQ place and had some smokey brisket sandwiches for lunch and had a little visit. Gabe was pretty excited to see Uncle Matthew. After that we had like 6 more hrs till Ft. Leonard Wood where we stayed with some friends. We rolled into their house around 640sih and it was like heaven. Kristi & Daniel had a delish soup simmering and Clay & Cooper were ready to play! It was so cute to see Gabe with his old buddies again! And wonderful to see our sweet friends. We miss them! Gabe even slept over in Clay & Cooper's room :)

 I love this mini-table they have. It matches their normal-sized one!

 amazing fort- Daniel (their dad) made/desigend it for them.

 I mean, come on! This is in their playroom- Nulkie's job is to build one for our kiddos next!

 buddies!

 Evie took a shift at driving. It's only fair she's pulls her weight too.

 Sunday morning we had a nice breakfast with the Walkups and hit the road by 9:30. We made it to Columbus, OH where we stayed in a dog-freindly hotel with a pool. Gabe had a ball swimming! It was a brand-new holiday inn Express-very nice actually. Monday morning we started out by 830 and were home to Glenmont by 7pm. We were about 2 hrs from home at a rest stop when both Gabe & Evie lost it. Gabe just started hysterically crying from exhaustion and Evie was upset to be stuck in the carseat again. But we made it! Gabe did not nap much and Evie only took little catnaps throughout the trip. So it challenged our creativity to entertain the kids for 30some hours in the car! I think my mom now has her masters in backseat-child activities!

 This was a jungle my mom set up for Gabe. He was hanging animals off it.

 The dogs slept on the floor in front of Evie's carseat. They did great.

All in all we could not have had better weather for our roadtrip. It was cold- but mainly clear and sunny. We didn't hit too bad of traffic either. And the truck drives so smooth. Once we rolled into the driveway, Wes had pizza and wine waiting for us. And the fire going. Can't ask for much better than that! So far Gabe & Evie are roomies most of the time. Except afternoon naps because Evie sleeps at a different time than Gabe- so she's in my room in a pack n' play then. Gabe is loving all the toys and space around here. He likes all the people too :) He LOVES to ask to wake up Uncle Wesdawg at 7am. Haha. Evie is happy as can be. She's sitting up now for long periods of time and loves it. She likes to be in the middle of all the action. I'm pretty much settled in my room too. We are just so grateful to be here. It feels so peaceful- and SUPER nice to have all these extra pairs of hands to help with the little guys! Hope you all are doing well. Sorry for the blog hiatus- was just too tired/busy for an update.