The Paustenbaughs

This Season is a Little Merrier

Last Christmas and holiday season was a little somber at our house.  We were preparing for Terry to deploy just after the new year for a year (which thank goodness was shorter); we lived in a house/neighborhood that none of us liked and Maya was having some issues at her school.  So the 2008 holiday season was emotional and tense to say the least.

The 2009 season is a little merrier, brighter and just plain happy and I'm so thankful for that!  Although it's hard going through difficult times, I do think it brings new perspective and insight when you come out on the other side.  That has been so true for our family this year.  We did it. Together. And we're a better family for going through it now.  So bring on the holiday cheer!!!

I've also been uplifted and finding some new perspective after reading this:

There are just certain books that sing to you and this was one of them for me.  A dear friend let me borrow it and now I've put it on my list of books to buy and keep and even got one for my mom for Christmas!  I really like the idea behind it, which is that we don't need to give others' monetary or material gifts to make an impact.  It just put things in perspective for me.  Especially during this season of gifts and feeling the need to spend and spend to give a good gift.

Now, if someone could let a certain 7 year and a certain almost 5 year know about this concept then we're all set!!  Our house has been full of "I WANT THAT" with the 8,000 magazines and 5,000 commercials they see!

Late As Usual, But Still Thankful!

As usual, I'm a few days AFTER a holiday/event, but I've come to live with that just being how it works for me!

We spent Thanksgiving with my lovely in-laws down in South Carolina, enjoying the sunshine and warm-ish weather for our holiday.  I have so, so many things to be thankful for this year compared to other years.  While our year wasn't filled with unemployment or major money troubles like many in the country right now, it was filled with heart ache and some tough decisions as a family. 

I'm thankful we made it through some school difficulties with Maya and have come out on the other side brighter and better.  We are still struggling in some areas, but so much better overall after her switch to a new school, or as she calls it her "quiet school"!

I'm thankful that all 4 of us survived and triumphed during Terry's deployment to Iraq.  What started out as a 1 year deployment was reduced to 6 months and that is something to celebrate and thank God and the USMC for every day! 

I'm thankful we're in a new beautiful house on base, where everyone is happier; much, much happier.  We did not find a lot of joy living in Jacksonville in our rental house and we just couldn't be more happy living on base, even with the sounds of hammers and destruction/construction all around us!

Our Thanksgiving was filled with 2 very special cooks, who I might add are cut from the same cloth and would be considered BFFs if they weren't already related!

Maya was super excited that we got to eat in the formal, or as she calls it the fancy, dining room this year and use the fancy plates.  We haven't been able to up until now because of a smaller person who is a spaz, clutz, and all around goofy person, but we won't name names (psst it rhymes with "FELLA").

Our girl loves to be fancy!

And Grandma was genius and bought them some charms to mark their spot, because although Ella was allowed to sit in the fancy room, she certainly wasn't allowed to eat off the china!

And we always celebrate Papa's birthday over Thanksgiving since he's an end of November birthday.  We are all about celebrating birthdays, having cake and opening presents in our house!

Happy Birthday Papa!

And although our Christmas cards are ordered and being addressed this week, I always try for a family photo to add to our collection and this was turned out so typical!  Terry giving a half smile, me trying to wrangle the wild child, the wild child being just that-super goofy, and Maya just wanting it all to hurry up and be over so she can move on to other important playing!

Happy (Late) Thanksgiving!  Now let the Christmas decorating begin!!

Um, wow and NO WAY!!!

See this??!!

Yep, that's me as the featured layout at Two Peas.  Never thought in a million years that would happen!  So excited!  I'm completely serious when I say this kind of good news doesn't happen to me all the time.  My mother used to tell me that if it weren't for bad luck then I would have no luck at all!  These days I count my blessings where I get them and this is definitely one of them!

Welcome to my Swamp (said in best Shrek voice)

I really do feel like Shrek should be living at our house after all the rainfall we've had over the last 2 weeks.  It's sad when your children are even asking if the sun will come back out.  I don't think any of our family would last in the Northwest for even a month!  We love our Coastal Carolina sun and warm weather-SO BRING IT BACK ALREADY!!!  And to top it off we have construction at our house, limiting our path to the vehicle as only through the soggy mud and grass.  But I always remind myself that I'm not doing the construction nor paying for it so I need to hush about it!! 

This is our neighbor's yard right now:

Anyone for a swim later?  And if we had access to all this mud then I think we would be the coolest family ever with all the 3-14 year old boys in our neighborhood!

But do you see it?  That little speck of sunshine on the water and tarp?  As soon as I took the picture the sun came out in all it's glory! 

Welcome back Mr. Golden Sun!!!

And because Mr. Sun finally came out then I finally took some pictures of layouts that were needing to go up!  This is for the current Inspired Blueprints sketch using EAD Rub Ons.  Love that the new Studio Calico kit this months went so well with the rub ons I received!  You would have thought it was planned!

A Grown Up Weekend

Terry got home from Iraq in July and we haven't had a weekend, or any day for that matter, away without any children.  We like to get away once a year, even if for only a day or two, to just be adults!  And luckily I have the greatest Mother-in-Law on Earth and she came to rescue us this past weekend!

We started off with the Marine Corps Ball on Friday night.  Lots of people complain about going to the ball, but I actually enjoy getting all gussied up like a princess (as my girls called me!) and going out for a nice dinner and hanging with my super handsome husband!!  The girls really got into it this year since we dressed up at home before heading over to the Officer's Club for the big shebang!  They wanted to be princesses too and they were just too cute!

And me and my pretty girls:

The next morning we headed out to Indianapolis to hang with some college friends and go to the awesome Colts/Patriots game.  We just don't get to see our friends enough since we can't even stay in one place long enough to let the ink dry for our address.  We always have a blast listening to the same stories of our days or yore!!  I think I built up some stomach muscles laughing so hard, but well worth it!

Sunday we headed downtown to see the new Colts stadium, which lived up to everything we imagined! 

It was an unusually warm November day so there was tons of tailgating, and oh, what's that I see?  A Colts Storm Trooper just walking around??

You know, just another day in Indy!  We did find him later and since I'm a nerd I needed a picture!

And oh, did I mention we had SUITE TICKETS!!!!  Ah, yes, Terry's stepbrother came through for us in a big, big way.  We only wanted general seats, but he was able to lay his hands on tickets for the suite to the radio station he works in.  Can you say TOTALLY AWESOME???!!!  It was amazing and we could never thank him enough.  We had some great food, great drinks and amazing seats at the 45 yard line.  It was amazing, especially considering the beer we were drinking would have cost $7.50 out at the concession stand!!  Did I mention we're cheap too??!!  We were certainly living the life of luxury that night!

The stadium had a record crowd and the energy in that place was amazing!!

 

It was a great, great weekend away and we enjoyed every minute of it!  It was good to get back to the girlies too and I think Grandma needed some relief!!

To All Our Heros

Happy Veterans Day to my own personal hero and veteran and all the other men and women serving today and throughout the years.  Many reasons to celebrate them today.

A Walk Down Hoot Lane

I created this layout for the current sketch at Inspired Blueprints using some awesome EAD Rub Ons.  They were perfect for this layout about our resident comedian, Ella:

That picture is from this summer at Myrtle Beach and is so classic Ella.  While we might be furiously mad and ready to sell her to the gypsies one minute, she turns and gives us a one liner or a goofy face the next and you can't help but roll into laughter.  Luckily she has that trait or she may be a gypsy by now! 

And as I was doing this page I started remembering that this comedic personality didn't just come to be recently, but she's had it since birth.  I sat down and went through some old photos from CD's and found some gems that chronicle her comedic history, and will also serve as blackmail later in her teenage years!

This would be Ella, circa October 2005, putting her at about 8 months old.  We were on a field trip with Maya's preschool class and after waking from a needed nap in the baby carrier she was ready to entertain!  I put her on the ground and she thought she was so cool, you  know cooler than any other baby, pulling up on picnic tables, eating hay and generally cackling at herself.  Anytime someone talked to her or said "look at her", she turned and gave this grin!

A few months later, in January 2006, this would be me attempting to get some cute pictures of the birthday girl in all her glory in cute birthday shirt and hat.  Me=failed at photos, but I got this loveliness, with baby chub and all!  I'm pretty sure she was laughing hysterically at me trying to put her in a spot to get a photo while she got up and showed her hot stuff walking around and getting into things.  I'm pretty sure she's saying "catch me if you can Mom"!

Oh geez.  I think this is circa winter 2006/2007, making her about 2 ish.  And yes, she did all of this herself and as you can see is really quite proud!  You never know when you might be invited to a ball and then need to do some laps too.  Always must be prepared!

And the poor dear was making us chuckle without even meaning to this time!  She is 2 1/2 at my parents house during the summer.  The bigger kids found some of those snaps that you throw on the ground during July 4th and she kept blinking and closing her eyes each time one snapped!

This would be the deranged elf of '07!  She thought she was hysterical in her floor length apron and oversized Santa hat!

And finally...

This is circa 3 weeks ago and the typical pose that I get when the camera comes out.  I will give her credit that she will ask me to take a picture, but this is what I get in return!  A nutball!

And that was our walk down hoot lane with one Ella Grace as your subject!!  It's been a wild ride so far and I expect an even more wild ride in the years to come!

Happy *Hot* Halloween..

We love living in the mild weather of Coastal North Carolina.  Gone are the days in Indiana of buying a costume 4 sizes too big because you have to fit a sweatshirt and possibly winter coat underneath.  Fun times looking like a princess Michelan Man!!  This year did we not only NOT need a jacket, but I think some wished they had changed their costume from long sleeve to a bathing suit.  It hit 83 degrees on Halloween so our little princesses were quite happy! 

We had the Medieval Princess (um, please excuse the wrinkly Medieval Princess-her mother is a peasant and doesn't partake in ironing):

We also had a more low key princess, or as she referred to herself Printheth Gabrielwa):

And I actually got one of the princesses together!!

The girls made it their usual 2 blocks then headed back to hand out candy to other kids.  They seem to have more fun doing that than the actual trick or treating, which is fine with me, since that means we only have 5 pounds of candy instead of 15!!

And they had to get back to all the fun at the neighbors' houses who hosted the Halloween block party.  One of the many reasons I love living on base is just this-gathering together with neighbors and friends!

Tis the Season

I know everyone says this, but it really does seem like Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year.  Did I just notice this since becoming a mom and my children start squealing over pumpkins, pilgrims and Santa all in the same aisle?  And the "I wants" seem to start just after Labor Day with all the fliers, commercials and marketing propaganda out there.  There is a scheme I think between children and marketing companies to wear parents down before they even break into the Halloween candy.  Plus, you  know its holiday season time when your mailbox looks like this:

THIS IS ONE DAY PEOPLE!!!!  And this was from last week, oh around October 20th, 2 full months before Christmas.  I'm not ready and I'm closing my eyes for now and building arm muscle carrying the load of magazines each day to my recycling bin.

Now, being the scrooge I am about Christmas paraphernalia before Halloween I did sit down and do a Christmas layout for the current Inspired Blueprints sketch.  I've been wanting to scrap this photo for some time now because I just love it and with the sketch brought the perfect opportunity, plus I used some papers up too!!

This is from our trip to Sea World last Thanksgiving and I absolutely love the true wondermont in her eyes! So come on over and play-it's the first circular sketch for IB and really fun to work outside my linear "zone"!

Introducing....

Our very own  Math Bat:

And the lesser known, but still too cute, Science Frog:

After their bath a few weeks ago Maya started running around with her towel being first Super Girl, then quickly turning to a bat.  Well, since she is a tried and true nerd like her mama then it turned from a plain bat to "Math Bat"!!  Ella had to get in on the action too and became Science Frog.  Although she asked later "what does a Thience Fwog do anyway??"  I love my little nerds!