1 Month is better then 9 right?

Well I guess I can get another post out of the way.  I have been meaning to do one for a few weeks now, but just have been really busy.  Karrie and I watched all 5 seasons of Breaking Bad.  Yeah probably not the best show to watch, but was really good.  It took us a while to watch since we could only watch a episode or two an evening, if we were that lucky.  We are both busy with work and enjoying the new base.  There is lots and lots to do around here so we are busy exploring and visiting places.  I will try to recap how he last month has gone and try not to be too boring. 

Karrie and I have been running a lot more lately.  Like 12-15 or more miles a week.  Just depends on the week and what the plan is.  Plan you ask?  Well I signed up for a half marathon April 27th in San Luis Obispo CA.  I am excited since it will be my first.  Karrie and I used to hate to run and thought that 2 miles was a long way.  Well we have been enjoying it a lot more and been putting a lot of miles on.  At Thanksgiving Karrie got me a GPS watch and since then I have put on over 130 miles.  That may not seem like a lot, but for me that is.  Just in the past 6 weeks is when I have put on about half of those.  Karrie has been right next to me for the majority of those miles the past 6 weeks.  In fact she ran rather then I did this week!  She is really doing awesome and I am proud of her.  She says she didn't think she could run 6 miles in a row, but she can.  Tomorrow morning we have a 7 miler coming up and that will be farthest either of us have ran before.  Usually Sunday mornings is our long runs and then I run on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays also.  Karrie usually runs those with me and some even on Monday and Friday.  I have the half next month and Karrie and I are signed up for a half in November in Florida in Disney.  Its a night race and they have all the lights on and fireworks and all sorts of fun things.  We run through all 3 parks there.  Should be really fun and we are excited.  Colton even goes with us.  He just rides along in the stroller and I push him as we go along.  He does really well.  A few times he gets a little fussy, but that's ok.  Waiting for mom and dad to run 6 miles, it takes a long time and I would get bored also. 

 

Colton's attire before a run one Sunday morning.   Yep those are his PJ's, I didn't feel like changing him and he didn't care. 

 

So last month we ventured down to LA to the Children's Hospital for Colton's eye.  He had an MRI to see if there was anything behind his eye.  There was no mass behind his eye, but they did find a few other things they want to look at further.  So we are going back next month for a 2nd MRI and this time they will do a whole brain scan.  Last time they just looked behind his eyes.  He had to be put under anesthesia and he will this time as well.  So any prayers you can send our way the better.  I have faith that God will take good care of him and that they won't find anything, but it never hurts to ask anyways.   

 

 

This is the crib he slept in the hotel the night before his MRI.  This thing was huge!  He really enjoyed it.  Well until 4am when he wasn't happy anymore and nothing would make him happy.  So Colton and Daddy went for a walk in the lobby so he would calm down.  He wasn't a happy camper because he couldn't eat or drink anything.

He looked so cute sleeping.  The nurse said he had woken up before we came back into the room and went back to sleep.  When he is asleep, he sleeps.  So we waited about 45 minutes for him to wake up on his own and of course he didn't.  So mommy had to tickle his feet and he woke up pretty fast.  Once he drank some apple juice they would release him, just wanted to make sure he could drink before he could go home.







There are a few pictures of the lobby.  Really nice hospital and they even have a McDonald's inside.  Crazy I know.

Since Colton was so good for his MRI we decided to give him a treat.  We took him to the LA Zoo.  The nurse said he would probably want to sleep all day.  Well Colton had other plans, he stayed awake the whole time at the zoo.  He really enjoyed it and was such a happy baby and not cranky at all.  Now once we got in the car to come home, someone slept the whole 2 1/2 hour ride back. 

 

For being good at the zoo, he got to pick out a book.  This kid loves books.  I don't know where he gets it from because Karrie and I don't read that much.  We want to but just can't seem to find the time.

 

Karrie has been busy working on quits and someone has to help her.  She has a few to finish up and she will be done with those and I'm sure on to more quilts.  One day a week she goes with a friend and they quilt for a few hours.  It allows Karrie to get away from the house to get some work done on the quilts and not distracted by her little helper.  He loves to push all the buttons on the machine and that isn't the best idea while she is sewing. 

 

While I was cooking one day, someone was a little tired and decided to remove the placemats from the drawer and make himself a little bed in the kitchen.  He even covered himself up.  It took a few tries to get it on his back the way he wanted, but he finally got it.  He really is so cute when he sleeps.  A little hard to move around in the kitchen when there is someone sleeping under you.  But that's ok, he is my little helper.  He likes to help me load the dishwasher and helps shut the door.  Funny little guy. 

While Karrie is busing working on homework on the weekends, Colton and I go find something else to do.  This will allow Karrie to have silence around the house and be able to accomplish everything that she does. So one day we decided to go for a hike.  I have my new wild land boots I have to break in, so why wear them also.  Usually they give you blisters, but luckily I only got a few on the top of my foot around my ankle.  From where the tongue flexes.  For a 6 1/2 mile straight up hike, thought that was pretty good.  We parked the car at 122' elevation and the peak was 2450'.  That a lot of ground to cover in only 3 miles up.  It was a warm day, but well worth the pain and the sweat.

 

This is how my rider was for about half of the way up.  He kept loosing his shoes and his hat.  He would say "uh oh" when his hat fell off when he was awake.  Needless to say I had to go up and down a few times looking for shoes and his hat.  But that's ok, I didn't mind. 

This is the view looking South towards Santa Barbara.

Looking North West.




When we have time, which is usually on the weekend you will find us at the barn with Karrie's horse, Hottie.  Colton was trying to whip her into shape.  He likes Karrie's lunge whip, he thought it was pretty cool. 

 

Green Eggs and Ham anyone?  This was breakfast one day at the CDC (Child Development Center) where Colton spends his day while we work.  We get invited to fun little things like this every once in a while.  Notice the oranges on his plate.  I think he ate Mrs. Barbara out of oranges that day.  Didn't touch his green eggs and ham.  It was Dr. Seuss's birthday, that was the reason for the color choice. 

 

 

He loves looking at the picture albums on the coffee table.  I think he just likes looking at his pretty momma.  His Aunt Katie and Grandma made the cut also, but I'm pretty sure its momma.  Just Kidding.  He just likes looking at all the pictures. 

 

 

Momma why are you taking my picture when I am stuck in this box, get me out!!!!

 

I don't remember what we were eating this day, but he sometimes likes to wear it also.  Funny little kid.

 

Momma and Colton had a field trip to the park in his favorite little car.  He only likes to go backwards so he can push with his feet.  He is crazy fast pushing this thing and is a very good driver.  He hardly ever hits the wall which is a good thing.

 

We do art work at school and since it was daddy's night to watch him and he wasn't paying attention, Colton decided to make art work with his yogurt.  At least I caught him before he was wearing it.  I likes to do this with his bottle also.  He is very artsy kid, doesn't get it from me.  My mom says I am a good artist, but mom's have to say that.  I'm horrible, Karrie is the artist. 

 

So we ventured down to San Diego one weekend to watch the OSU Cowboys play basketball in the NCAA tournament.  They didn't win, but was ok.  It was a fun game to watch and we also had fun just being in San Diego exploring.  We stayed on The Navy base on Coronado Island and it was really nice.  Hard to get rooms because they are always packed, but really nice.  It was a fun weekend. 

 

 

Go POKES!!!  Colton really liked watching the basketball game. 

 

Man does he love carousals.  We found one downtown along the coast and he loved it.  That thing was moving and it was very hard to get a picture of him.  When I say moving, I mean moving!

 

His new favorite thing to do, make fun of his momma.  He goes "oooooooo."  We were at SeaWorld and he loved looking all the fish.  Think in this picture we were under the water with the sharks.

 

Along with visiting SeaWorld, we visited the USS Midway.  It's a retired Navy carrier that is now a museum.  If you are ever in San Diego, you need to go.  It's well worth your time.  Makes me thankful that I am Air  Force and not stuck on a floating city.   

 

Colton wants to be a Navy Pilot!  Lets try the Air Force first buddy.  Stuck on a carrier would not be fun. 

 

The next set of pictures are Karrie practicing her photography.  She has an opportunity to work with a photographer in the area assisting him.  This is a great opportunity for her to learn and maybe one day become a photographer.  I think she does wonderful work, but she will say otherwise.  She is always so hard on herself. 

Looking at the boats on the water.  Those are Navy ships behind us from the base on Coronado where we stayed. 

What's that Colton?  "OOOOOOOOO"  Oh ok, I see.

That boat anchor chain is pretty heavy buddy.  Good luck!

 

Well that is about it for now.  A lot going on but so little time.  We are either working, school work, messing with Hottie the horse, running, practicing photography or quilting, that takes up most of our time. 

 

If you don't mind, remember to keep us in your prayers and also some of our friends who recently have had babies.  Enjoy the pictures and I hope to post sooner this time. 

 

 

 

 

It's Been Awhile...

Hi everyone, I know it's been a very long time since Karrie has posted, so I figured I would give it a shot.  If you haven't figured it out yet, this is Jeremy writing.  She is been really busy and I have a little more extra time, so I am going to try and keep up with it. 

Since the last post a lot has changed and when I say a lot, I mean ALOT.  I will try keep it all in order and try to remember everything and bring you up to speed.  This will be long so just bare with me.

In June and July I flew back to Great Falls from Korea on my mid-tour.  We took a week vacation and went to Wichita and Colton was baptized by Farther Pat, the same priest that married Karrie and I and in the same church.  It was really good to see all the family and friends that traveled to see us and enjoyed spending some time with everyone.  Just wish we would have had more time because it was pretty short.  We also went on a few other trips over the weekends while we had time.  We made our way up to Whitefish MT for a weekend with our good friends the Booher's and went mining for sapphire's and explored Butte MT with Tom and Ginny on another weekend.  In between all the trips we went through a lot of our stuff and made a garage sale pile and packed the rest into a storage shed.  The month went by really fast and didn't want to say goodbye.  Saying goodbye is never easy and it was especially hard saying goodbye to the lil man.  But he did a great job taking care of his mom. 

 

From our day hike in Glacier.  He looks worried but he loved it

 

 

This was from his baptism at The Church of the Magdalen in Wichita

 

Before the mine we went into in Butte, MT, it was pretty cool!

 

I dressed Mr. Colton this morning, it's the day I left back to Korea!

 

 

Karrie and Colton at the Montana State Fair Rodeo

 

Colton having fun with the A/C vent.  He sure is a happy and fun little boy!

Once I got back from mid-tour I was able start working my join spouse assignment so we could be stationed together again.  At first the system didn't reflect that Karrie was selected for  the 576th test squadron and was going to Vandenberg AFB in California.  I applied for my assignment and guess where they sent me?  Yeah you guessed it, back to Malmstrom.  It took a few weeks to get that all sorted out, but we were able to change it and I got orders to California.  My old deputy fire chief was pretty excited that I was coming back, but that didn't last long.  With Colton's eye issue I had to get approval to move to California.  In the system he falls under me as a dependent and not Karrie.  They said there were no doctors in the local area that specialized in pediatric ophthalmology and they denied it.  I had to submit a rebuttal and fight for us to move.  I was able to find a doctor in Santa Maria, only 15 minutes from the base and was finally able to get approved.

In September Karrie and Alicia were busy planning Wyatt and Colton's birthday party.  I was unable to attend of course, but from what I hear it went really great.  Mike and Katie were able to fly out for a few days as well as a lot of other friends and family that attended.  Just wish I was there, but Karrie did surprise me and I did receive a care package with a lot of candy that didn't get consumed.  Needless to say the 5lb bag of runts didn't take long to eat and didn't help with my work out plan.  Karrie also was able to get the rest of the house packed up into the storage shed and then closed on the house at the end of the month.  I don't know how she did it, taking care of Colton, packing and cleaning the house, working on her masters degree and her job.  I don't think I could have done it and that's why I married a SUPER women. 

 

What an awesome family I have!

 

Happy Birthday!

 

What decorating skills

Some of this candy made it my way

 

Guess the term "smash cake" really didn't apply to him.  This was the extent of the damage.

So Karrie and Colton moved into billeting on base, the base hotel the end of September and that's where they remained until the end of October when they made a road trip to Oklahoma.  Karrie had to attend a class (SOS, Squadron Officers School) at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery Alabama and the Horton's were so very kind enough to watch Colton while Karrie was in Alabama and until I got back to this great country.  She said it was very hard to leave him, but we knew that he was in great hands.

 

Oh my oh my, look at all the toys I can play with!!!!

 

I found the perfect one, my wipes!!!!!

 

I think Colton was sad to leave the house.  This was after Karrie had moved everything out.

He loves the carousel, can you tell?

Once November rolled around I made that horrible but amazing 12 hour flight from Korea to Seattle and then on to Great Falls.  I spend 2 days after arriving packing a 28 foot ABF trailer with all our belongings.  I honestly didn't know how Karrie was able to pack and move all of that.  It took me 3 hours one day, with some help, to move the big stuff and then another 12 hours the second day to finish it.  It got so late that a few friends (Thank you Dan and Erin) came after they got off of work to help out.  We were using the headlights from my car to finish the packing job.  But we got it all loaded and next time I think I will let the Air Force move me.  They may break more things, but that was a lot of work!!!  Once I got the trailer loaded the next day I picked up the dogs from Jon and Erin's, they were watching them for us after Karrie sold the house, and then started my travels to California.  Traveling with the two girls was pretty easy.  I think I needed to stop more then they did, but they enjoyed running around when I did stop.  Thank you Jon and Erin for watching them.  I know they miss you guys.

 

The Bass Pro Santa and Colton loved him

 

I love my new moose antlers

This is the tree that Karrie and I put a lock on from Seoul Tower.  It took me a few minutes to find it since there is so many locks and about 6 different trees, but I found it.

 



 

This place was so good, it's called the Bulgogi House just outside the gate at Osan.  In front of me is pork bulgogi and what else you see on the table is what comes with it.  I don't know what some of it was, but it was all really good.

 

I went on a wine tasting trip.  Notice the type of cheese the give you to go with your wine.  Yeah that is Korean Kraft slices.

 

This was from the lantern of lights in Seoul.  This was pretty cool and about 2 miles of the river in Seoul is all lights.  I forget how many people attend this each year, but there was a TON!

I arrived in California and started my work.  Right now I work in the logistics section and not on shift.  Currently I am in charge of our firefighting gear, or PPE (personal protective equipment) as we call it.  That is our bunker coats, pants, helmets, gloves, etc.  There are a lot of other things that I get wrapped up into that doesn't involve PPE and that is ok with me. 

Right before Thanksgiving I flew out to Tulsa to pick up Colton.  THANK YOU Heather, Michael and little Miss Harper for taking such good care of Colton, he sure misses his buddy.  Colton and I flew to Atlanta where Karrie meet us and we spent the weekend together as a family for Thanksgiving.  If you have never flew with a child for the first time by yourself and took a dozen doughnuts with you that says "We Love you," I don't recommend doing it on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  We went to some cool places, like Coca Cola world and it was nice to finally be together.  After the short weekend Colton joined me in California.  It was some good quality father son time that I had missed.  After Karrie told me he could eat peanut butter and jelly sandwich's, it made my life A LOT more simple.  Last time I feed Colton he was eating baby food from a pouch and formula still.  At this point he was eating real food and I had no idea what or how to feed him.  He didn't like me much I have a feeling.  I asked Karrie and she said "you will figure it out."  WHAT!!!!  She then laughed and then told me some things that he liked and didn't like.  It took some time, but Colton and I finally got in a groove and got it all figured out.  I looked at houses in Orcutt and Santa Maria CA to purchase, but the market is so high here, we didn't want to take a chance and loose money.  So we opted into base housing.

Colton and I were able to move into our house on the 20th of December.  I had some guys from work come over and help unload the trailer.  What took me 15 hours took us 2 hours to unload.  Its crazy how fast it goes when you have help and when you are unloading.  Colton and I spend the weekend putting things where we thought they would go, but its harder to do that with a 1 year old then you think.  Karrie drove from Montgomery to Vandenberg and stopped a few places along the way.  She stopped in West Monroe LA to visit the Duck Dynasty shop, and picked Colton and I up a few things and then stopped at my family's in TorC, NM for a few hours to visit.  She was ready to be off the road by the time she got here.  We then spent the next week unpacking the house and celebrating Christmas.  Needless to say our house wasn't very decorated this year, but I was able to find a tree and put it up with some lights.

 

Someone likes the dogs and we are lucky that the dogs like him and let him do as he pleases

 

I was helping Colton paint his Christmas ornament at the CDC

 

Well he got a little on his mouth after trying to eat the paint brush.  So I got up to get him a paper towel...

 

...and someone didn't have adult supervision.  Fail as a dad.  But it makes a cute picture.

 

Hungry buddy?

 

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for my new car.  I'm so smart I can push it backwards and crawl out the back to climb on the coffee table. 

 

Grandpa taught me to ride Dusty.  I did this all on my own!

For the New Year's we all celebrated in Edmond OK with Tom, Ginny, Mike and Katie.  It was a nice week off and good to be back.  We were there for Caroline's wedding and it went great.  It's always good to see family and enjoy their company.  Karrie and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.  7 years, really!  It just seem possible that we have been married for that long.  We also celebrated my birthday.  Not everyone knows, but I don't like celebrating things about me.  After some careful convincing from my beautiful wife, we celebrated my birthday and had some of my grandma's world famous chocolate cake.  Karrie was busy so I made my birthday cake.  Not as good as Karrie would have made, but the frosting was nice and thick.  January was pretty boring around here.  Just working, unpacking the house and getting things where they belong, Karrie working on her masters degree,going to see Hottie (Karrie's horse) and playing with Colton, that's about all we did.  Oh and we started the series "Breaking Bad," it's very addictive.

Hopefully our first of many OKC Thunder games.

 
This month so far we went to LA Children's Hospital for Colton's eye.  The Dr. there was very nice and we are going back in a few weeks to get an MRI for the little man.  She wants to make sure that there isn't a mass behind his right eye maybe causing the issue.  She doesn't think so, but just wants to rule it out.  The little guy has been sick the last week and that's no fun for him at all.  He has come home a few times from the CDC (child development center, not the center for disease control) with a fever and not feeling good.  But hopefully he can kick the bug and start to feel better.  Karrie has been able to do some quilting and I have been doing a lot of cooking.  I have also been studying for my next rank advancement and hopefully will find out this summer the outcome.  I'm not getting my hopes up because they are kicking people out and might make this year a little tough.  But we will see and I'm hopeful.  This past weekend I picked up 20lbs of fresh tomatoes from the farmers market and made some stewed tomatoes and spaghetti sauce.  We will see how that turns out, but the taste testing went good.  That is a lot of work for little return. 

 

Look Sage and Tally, I have a Valentines card that plays Mickey Mouse Club house, isn't it so cool!

 
That's about it for now.  I will try to keep you posted and updated every few weeks, maybe even sooner, but we will see.  Hope you all are doing great and if you ever need anything, let us know.




 , Jeremy and Colton