Getting ready for Daddy to come home!

That's what we've been doing the past few weeks, well, pretty much since the day he left out to sea. haha :) We miss Jake alot when he's not home, but we definitely don't like his snoring when he's here! He left the 1st of December and finally will get to come home on Friday! :) They're keeping him busy on the ship, that's for sure! Because of his exemplary attitude with certain things and the attention to detail that he has, he's been assigned to a certain group of sailor's laundry duties, cleaning/assembling/preparing the ice cream machine in the galley, and another thing that I can't remember at the top of my head, dangit. I'll have to add it tomorrow if I can remember what it was... So yes, he's staying very busy! We can't wait to have him back home!

Beckham is having a rough time with all the random boxes that are stashed all over the house, he doesn't understand that he can't see what's in them. (Just a little side note: Beckham is always the first one at the door when the door bell rings, and when we get a package, he goes straight to the kitchen to grab a knife to help me open it.) So the fact that he can't open the few that we've gotten (from my grandparents and a huge one from Jake's mom and dad) is confusing the heck outta him! :p

In case you haven't noticed, we are running a bit late on Christmas cards this year, but don't worry, they're headed into the mail soon. Those of you that have sent us cards already, thanks so much, it's so nice being able to see how much families have grown and all the cute little faces.

We're still loving it here in the cute, quaint little housing community. It's very cold and there hasn't been much snow yet, but it's nice and rainy! I went to go to my car a few nights ago and was greeted by 3 huge racoons, sitting right on my front porch! They jumped a little, I screamed and almost peed my pants, and then we spent the next 10 minutes or so scrambling to find my camera and keep the dog from barking at them and scaring them away. I was SO tempted to open the door to get a better picture of their beady little eyes that were staring at me, but the images of my face marred by their razor-sharp claws and their garbage-saturated faces coming at me and eating my nose off quickly made that thought leave my head. Why did I not know that they can open my trash cans and get into them, leaving the door shut behind them?! When I went to take some garbage out the next day, the bag that was already in there had been ripped open and pilfered through!

Hope that everybody is doing well in Utah and the other places that we have family. We miss you all terribly! The holidays are creeping up on us, only a few more days. Although, if you were relying on Beckham's chocolate advent calendar to tell you how many days are left until Christmas, tonight would be Christmas Eve, because he only has ONE left. Out of 24 pieces of chocolate, he ate 23 of them. Yesterday. No wonder his stomach hurts.

Our new washer and dryer

Some that read our blog may have already seen all the excitement on Facebook, so if so, don't mind me... I just have to share that this morning, we had delivered, a brand-new washer and dryer! They're GE Profile and they're absolutely amaaaaazing! All the bells and whistles...


Just since they were delivered this morning around 9:30, I've washed the following:

• Colors

• 1st load of darks

• 2nd load of darks (Two rubbermaid totes was just a bit much, although each load was gigantic! If I was doing laundry in any other washer and dryer, it would have been FOUR loads of darks! Not even kidding!

• Bath towels (not just a few, either - there were THIRTEEN bath towels, 3 hand towels and 4 washcloths in one load!!! It was awesome!!!)

• Stinky towels and rags from the sink (even bleached 'em so they're extra clean and ran the anti-bacterial dryer setting! Woo!)

• Our big comforter (It's in the dryer now - a) It's the cleanest it's been since we purchased it and b) It's only been in the dryer for 20 minutes, and it's already almost ALL THE WAY DRY!

• 2 sets of bed sheets and pillow cases (All of them! Together! In one load!)

• Whites

In love? Yes! Obsessed...? Maybe... :p

A happy place

So here we are in Washington. Bremerton, Washington, to be exact. New car. New house. New weather. Life is good. It's very different here. Absolutely beautiful though! The Naval Shipyard is an amazing conglomeration of some of the biggest ships I've ever encountered! The Stennis is most definitely a good-sized ship! It was really cool to watch it glide through the water as we stood on the Bremerton Boardwalk. The ferry ride across to Seattle is one of the most amazing things ever! Seriously! If you get the chance, do it! It's free to go to Seattle if you're walking on, and you can take your car there and back for $23.00! We haven't had to take the car across yet, because just walking through all of Pike Street Market is suffice exercise for one day. It's so awesome across the sound. Awesome. There are so many interesting people to see, places to go, and tons of stuff to try/buy! Jake is out to see right now. Hopefully he'll be back by Thanksgiving! Beckham is super excited, because we're planning on going to go see Imagination Movers in December! We've had a little bit of excitement with the wildlife here; the raccoons decided to walk off with all 7 of my miniature pumpkins that were outside for a mere day and half! We're finding our way around the city of Bremerton and the city of Silverdale as well. The kids are ready for some dinner, too bad I don't do seafood, because there is a VERY wide variety of it here in the Puget. :p