Chuck, the pictures of Will and Charlie are great. Here are some more that we took on the day before Christmas. Everybody had a great time and it will be a short time before your family is in the new house. It is really nice and it will be a great place for them to await your homecoming. Mom is leaving with Chris today to go back to Saledo to help with the moving arrangements. The way things are going maybe you will be back here sooner than you thought. We can always wish. I remember when we went on cruise the rumors started the day that we left port that we were returning early!

Day # 44

Not too steady yet
Will really loves his big brother

Having fun just hanging out in his Bumbo
Sometimes he is just all smiles

I have a lot to write you about Will. He is growing by leaps and bounds, and has changed tremendously over the past week. Yesterday, on Christmas, he sat up all by himself. I'd say he is able to sit a good 20 to 30 seconds if he isn't trying to also hold something in his hands. Speaking of that he has really been interested in his feet lately. They go to his hands and mouth whenever he gets the chance. He is also grabbing just about anything he can reach. It is funny now because you just about have to have something in front of him when he is in your lap, and of course everything goes in his mouth. He is really getting pretty good at retrieving his own pacifier, even in his crib (finally!).

This morning I woke up and heard a funny sound on the monitor. I figured out he must have a hold of it because I was hearing a lot of feedback. When I went in to get him out of bed he was chewing on the cord! It is time to move the monitor out of his bed. That could have been bad if it had gone on too long. Anyway, Will gets more and more fun by the day. Enjoy the pictures!

Love, Chris

Day # 41

Yes, it is heading for the floor!
Will went straight for his bowl tonight
This picture doesn't even do his mood justice

Ok, you motivated me to ground you a little. I know it is almost Christmas, but your little angels at home aren't always little angels at home. Tonight, when I wasn't looking, Will went straight for his bowl full of baby food. He dumped it all over himself and the bowl eventually ended up on the floor. Charlie said, "Will spilled it." On the other side of the table Charlie was busy pitching a fit because I cut up his food wrong or something. I never quite figured out why he was so mad at me, but I decided I better capture the moment none the less.

I am starting to lose count of the days, so I hope I am right with my numbering above. Today was another busy day getting the house ready. I met Jay, Scott, and Scott's step-dad over there this morning. They were tasked with quite a few "honey dos". They were a HUGE help. It was so nice of them to help two days before Christmas, too, maybe I should be thanking their wives instead.

I think living an hour away from the house has been both a blessing and a curse all at the same time. As nervous as I am about getting everything finished next week, I am glad that the end is in sight. I have a feeling it is going to get ugly though. Fly safe!

Love, Chris

Day # 39

Master Bath
Guest Bath
Breakfast Room and Laundry
Breakfast Room and Laundry Again

Here is our work in progress. The breakfast room and laundry have the beginnings of tile flooring. I need to take a picture of the boys' bathroom next. I will try to take more of these pictures as they get further along. Can you believe what a difference it makes to just have the wallpaper down? I am really pleased with our paint colors, too. Can't wait until we can really make a dent into getting moved in there. Won't be long now!

Love, Chris

Day #38

I know you just laughed out loud seeing this picture of Charlie in his rainbow pjs, "Woody" cowboy hat, and my cowboy boots. He discovered my boots and wore them around the house just about all day Sunday.

Just wanted to write you a quick note. I am procrastinating. This packing and pitching is really getting old, and I still have a ways to go. Got the movers set up today and am meeting with a landscaper, security system, and tile people tomorrow. The painter should finish up then, too.

I'll take some pictures and blog them soon.

Love, Chris

Hi from Boo!

You are missing so much fun (and aggravation). Chris is holding up well amidst it all. Yesterday Charlie and I went to story time at the library, and Santa Claus came to see all the children. Charlie did get on his lap but then started talking about all the trains around the tops of the shelves. He sat with me later and read a book about the insides of an airplane. There were several pictures of airplanes, too. He pointed out one and said, "I think this is the JV3 Cub yellow airplane that Cappy and I went flying in". I am not sure I got all that airplane lingo straight, but he knows it exactly. Will watched Rudolph with Charlie the other night. They were so cute glued to the TV. The house is really nice, and I know you will love it. I know they will save some things for you to do when you return. 'Gotta run; we have boxes to pack to take over tomorrow.

Love, Boo

Greetings From New Jersey

Hey, Chuck. Here is the New Jersey contingent of the family wishing you a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year. I flew up to New York in a Lear on Friday and Janet and Mike picked me up on Saturday. We had dinner with Carol, Peter and Elsie last night. Carole Margaret brought her three up from Yardley, Pennsylvania today. We thought it would be fun to take a picture to send you. As you can imagine, we took three pictures and this is the best of the lot. We still couldn't get Caroline to look at the camera but most everybody else is. The top row is Carole Margaret, Carol, Austin (H_I), Peter, Mike and Me. Seated are Janet (expecting no. 2 in April), Olivia and Elsie. Standing at the coffee table are Caroline and Eric. It was nice to spend the night at Carol and Peter's. I am staying at a hotel near the Meadowlands where the Giants play. It is just across the Hudson river from New York city. The countryside is beautiful where Janet, Mike, Carol and Peter live. Hope you are getting settled in and they aren't working you too hard. Peter, Mike and I are going to drink a beer for you. Maybe you'll be able to drink a little cranbury juice or something in return. We salute you. Love, Cappy

Day # 35

Wow! Has it been a crazy 24 hours for the both of us. Glad to hear that you are in country now. Sounds like they aren't wasting any time putting you to work. It is nice to hear that you are running into old friends, and are even working with some of them.

We did not close on the house yesterday, but are supposed to Monday morning. It has been nice to have still had access to the house to bring loads and to have work done. The painter got all of the wallpaper in the kitchen down and repaired the drywall. He is going to texturize it tomorrow and pull the rest of the wallpaper down in the other two bathrooms. I got bored waiting on the cable guy, so I pulled down the border in the guest bathroom. A baseboard behind the fridge needs replacing. Looks like his fridge leaked at one point. The painter is going to do that for us, and I think we'll go ahead and paint the laundry room, too. It will be easy to get it taken care of before the washer and dryer arrive.

You are going to laugh, but I had the cable guy out today, but didn't get the cable installed. I was so careful to bring all of the cords and even brought extra cables, but forgot the remote. So, they are coming back on Monday to finish installation of phone, internet and tv. I do feel like we got a lot done today, there is just a lot left to do. At least we are both moving forward towards our ultimate goal! I'll try and post some pictures tomorrow.

Love, Chris

Day #30

This is Charlie and Coach Mike at gymnastics this morning. Charlie likes to run up and down the basketball court. He worked on walking on a beam, jumping off of mats, and hitting a T ball today. Charlie is working on doing a somersaut, but doesn't like to do them very much. Coach Mike says he is like a rocketship about to blastoff and this works well for him. Charlie did not want to put his shoes and socks back on today and leave. He seems to really enjoy his gym class, so we may sign up again for classes beginning in January.

After gymnastics we took Will to the doctor. He has had 3 rough nights and I was beginning to wonder if there was an ear infection in the works. However, everything checked out. I guess he just has the cold that Charlie had last week. Hopefully he is on the road to recovery because we all could use some sleep!

We are going to head to the park now, it sure is a nice warm day here!

Love, Chris

Can't touch that

Chuck, can't top Chris' pictures of the boys with Santa and Ms. Santa. Just thought I would send you a little more Christmas cheer with a picture of the lights on the deck. Today was beautiful here and about 55 degrees. Worked on the RV a little. Having some trouble with the alternator and think that I will replace it just to be sure it will work when I need it. I think Chris is staying awfully busy but it sounds like that definitely helps pass the time. I heard that you are a little bored. Sorry but bored is good from where we are. Hope you can move into some better digs soon and that your communications will improve also. Love, Dad

Day # 28

Mrs. Claus just fell in love with Will




The boys with the Clauses




Charlie chattering to Santa about reindeer and presents.

It seems like in some ways you've been gone for an eternity and in other ways I can't believe it has already been 4 weeks. We have been so completely busy that it has made the time pass quickly.

Tonight we went back into downtown to catch what we missed last weekend. There was a great Santa and Mrs. Claus down near SCInn. We decided to go there and have the boys pictures made. Mrs. Claus fell in love with Will and Charlie really hammed it up with Santa. He was just chattering away with him about reindeer and presents. Again, we had to just about pull him off of Santa's lap because a line was beginning to form.

We then headed further down Main Street. We stopped at the local fire department's food stand. Charlie insisted that he get a sausage wrap. The people that took the order would holler back to the cooks, "1 sausage wrap or 2 sausage wraps" everytime they took an order. Each time they did this Charlie would chime in, "sausage wrap". Everyone around us got a kick out of him. I'll leave more of the story of tonight for tomorrow and attach the pictures accordingly.

Love, Chris

Day # 27

Hi, I'm a bit tired tonight, so I'll make this a short blog. We were quite busy today with painting estimates and Christmas cards, and of course the boys. Charlie has had 3 rough nights in a row. I changed his medicine to more of a cough suppressant, so I hope he will sleep better tonight. As for Will, sometimes it just boils down to getting lucky.

Tonight when I was putting Charlie down he rolled over and said, "Mommy I love you, I love your eyes, I love your nose, I love your mouth, I love your head, I love your elbows." Pretty darn cute, huh? I'll have to remember that when he is up in the middle of the night. He is just crazy about "Vince" now. He has paraded around the house with his #10 jersey, his helmet, and his football most of the day. He said, "pilots also wear helmets." Again, I'll need to keep those things in mind at around 3:00 am.

Hope you find something else to do tomorrow, and that you can get back to the "bat" phone. Happy movie watching, be sure and let me know if you see something worth me seeing.

Love, Chris

Dallas Trip

Chuck, don't have a lot new to tell you. I went up to Dallas on Tuesday for a retirement party. It was nice and Herb and Colleen were there and spoke. There were a lot of the old timers there and we all had a good time. So good that I woke up with a headache yesterday morning. I tried to leave Dallas yesterday afternoon but it was really cold and there was some precipitation. I took off and quickly started to ice up so thought better of it and turned back around and landed. The second picture is our hanger with a Mooney visiting for a few days. The first is the windscreen ice I picked up after being airborn for just eleven minutes yesterday. Not the smartest thing I've ever done. I took this pictures right after landing when we pulled it back in the hanger. Today the weather was a lot better. Just got home this afternoon. Mom is up with Chris and the boys. I am working on a ground school presentation for the TA-4 that is down at Ellington. Maybe that will get me in the cockpit. Who knows? I'm trying to do it in a PowerPoint presentation. Have you ever done one? It's kind of interesting learning how to do it. Hope that you are doing ok over there. I get a little update from mom and Chris each day. Big ice storm in Dallas and Austin and all points in between. Susan got stranded in San Antonio and Kathy had to stay at the Four Seasons in downtown Austin because the roads were so slippery. She was celebrating her birthday out with the girls. Chris wisely decided to stay off the roads in Saledo.

Day #24

Poor defenseless little Will

It has been a wild couple of days since my last blog. Sunday we went to church. It was my first attempt at this as a single parent. Luckly there are plenty of grandmothers and greatgrandmothers here that someone offered to hold Will while Charlie and I took communion. Charlie was so interested in the communion. He actually held the line up drinking every last drop of his grape juice. Otherwise we was very well behaved and did exactly as told. He also made it through the entire church service without having to go to the nursery.

Sunday evening we headed to Scott and Monique's house. Scott took on babysitting all four boys while Monique and I attended the "mothers of boys" party. We had a great time and thought the boys were well situated before we headed out. Will was fed and down, Jack was down, and Charlie and Ben were being allowed to stay up until we returned. Scott decided to try and put Charlie and Ben down. Well as soon as he did everyone in the house woke up. He said that at one point all six of them (included their dog) were in the same room. By the time Monique and I returned, all was sane again. Ben and Charlie were both tucked in next to each other in the master bedroom (well padded so they wouldn't fall out), Jack was back down in his bedroom, and Will asleep on Scott asleep on the couch. Not sure we'll do that to Scott ever again!

Monday we headed to gymnastics class. Charlie is getting more brave. He still struggles like a cat trying not to be put in a bathtub when you try to get him to do a somersault. His favorite things to do in class are: log rolling down an inclined mat, running laps on the gym floor, and putting his hands and feet on colored squares. We have one final lesson left.

I think Charlie may be starting to get protective over his little brother. He doesn't like other children to be around them. He runs over to Will and says, "that's MY baby brother." Today I was trying to fix the fire alarms in the house and Will started crying. I was up on a ladder and couldn't do much. Then Charlie let out some tears. When I went down to see what the matter was Charlie said, "Will is crying". I think this is the first time that he has really even noticed Will when he was crying. This didn't last long though, because this afternoon Charlie moved Will out of the way of his new toy so he could get in a play with it himself. I tried to snap a picture of what he did, but it didn't do the scene justice.

We all miss you!

Chuck, everybody wishes you a safe stay and a short one. We all miss you and hope you are enjoying this blog. It is a little bit of home and Chris always has a neat story about the boys and their activities. It will be neat when you are home and you are all in your own house. We'll all be a lot happier then. It sounds like things are going well with the new house and Chris is VERY busy. Mom is going up to help Chris on Wednesday. Pretty clever of you to be gone for the move. I'm working on my own schedule to see where I'll be but somehow I don't think my excuse will stand up to much scrutiny. Sounds like your communications will be a lot better when you get settled in your new diggs. Hope so. Cappy

Charlie and Will during Iraq 2005-2006

Day #21

Will--just along for the ride YeeHawwww


"I'm thankful for my daddy!" is how Charlie started off his prayer tonight. It is the first time that he has had much to contribute, and he took the lead. I think the best I've gotten out of him in the past is, "I am thankful for milk, I love milk!" We had a nice time at Whistletop Park today. The HEB trip was almost too much for the boys to take, although Charlie settled down when I got him an "Incredibles" book.

I don't know what happened to our son overnight. I forgot to mention that yesterday we went to Pace Park for the first time in a long time. Well he took off running and hit every slide on his own (no coaxing even). He just had a ball. I wonder if he has gotten braver since he goes to the playground at the church with other kids twice a week now. That would explain his bruised up knees and shins. Anyway I thought you'd be pleased that he is now having more fun on the playground.

Love, Chris

Rose Bowl Bound Horns

Chuck, just a short note. Horns and Trojans won big so here comes the Rose Bowl. Mom and I are worn out from the Kelley Kids and Steele and Janie Parks. They played all day and are really good kids. Hope that you are well. Tomorrow we will bring Gigi out and Kathy and Travis and the kids will have lunch here before they go back to Austin. Mom has a birthday cake for Kathy. Susan and Mike are staying with us again tonight. Everyone is out celebrating the Texas victory. Love, Dad

Day #20

Well, you've been gone nearly 3 weeks now, and today was the first day I didn't get to talk to you on the phone. I am so greatful for the internet, though, so I know you are safe and sound. It was another busy day here. I think I've done more in our hometown over the past 24 hours than I have done some months. I actually attended a playgroup here. It was hosted by one of the mothers of a child in Charlie's class and she personally invited me and happens to live around the corner. It was totally low key, and it was nice to sit and talk to some other young mom's about our hometown. They all agreed that the restaurants leave you desiring more. I actually heard that there is a good breakfast taco place next door to the Texaco station. Too, bad I'm making friends and finding more out about the area just before we move.

Speaking of moving...I think it is now official. Basically the seller has agreed to all of the major work, all that we need to do is a few more things and the cosmetic items we've talked about before. I don't think I'll do anything but the kitchen and bathrooms right now. That would include painting, flooring and countertops. We are still closing on the 16th (to my knowledge). That is only 2 weeks away! It is going to be a busy month, as I just gave 30 days notice to Will. I sure hope a 2 week cushion to move is enough with the holidays in the middle of all of it (sound familiar).

Ok, now to the latest with the boys. Charlie and Will and I went downtown tonight to see what this "stroll" weekend is all about. Really it was quite nice. It would have even been romantic if you had been there and I wasn't pushing two small children around in a jogger. We drove down to Main St. and walked bascially from Royal to the Civic Center. There were a ton of Xmas decorations, a bell choir, and a live nativity scene. Charlie and Will were both fascinated by the bell choir. However, Will checked out pretty quickly after that, as it was his bedtime. Charlie was totally engrossed by the nativity scene, too. The story was posted, so I read it aloud to him. I don't think he moved a single muscle while we were there. As we were leaving I leaned over and asked him what he thought about the nativity scene and he said, "where is Santa, I want to see him", so much for the true meaning of Christmas.

Tonight during Charlie's prayers he said he was thankful for Christmas decorations. He has gone down and stayed down in his big bed three nights in a row now. His naps are a different story, but the past few nights have at least been better. I'm expecting it to all go south tonight now that I have bragged about him. Otherwise, I'm hoping to get some things done around the house this weekend. Looking forward to your phones being back up soon. Love, Chris

These boys are growing

What great pix of the boys. Chris can you get yourself in there also? Here are more old pictures but hope you enjoy them. Great to talk to you. Texas plays tomorrow. Love, Cappy

Day #19

Will in his new seat














Charlie and Will bundled up for the Christmas parade









Charlie wanted to have his picture taken











(What do you think about our new camera? Downloading the pictures was almost effortless. It did take a little longer to upload to the site, but I think that is the difference between 2.0 and 5.1 megapixels.)

I think I may have gotten the basics down on this camera. It seems to be pretty easy if I'm doing things right. This afternoon we went down to Main St. to see the local Christmas parade. It was about what you would expect: floats, local marching bands, cheerleaders, and golf carts. Santa rode in a top a fire engine. I was so curious to see how Charlie would do with Santa this year. Well, he was a little timid at first (of course), but once he got up on Santa's lap he was right at home. He looked Santa in the eye and sat and talked to him for a while. I would have killed to hear what they talked about. The people running the Santa station finally had to say, "Ok, who's next" and Santa had to take Charlie off of his lap.

I also had Will sit on Santa's lap. He did just great, too, no smiles, but he did look at the camera and didn't cry. I wish I had pictures to show you, but was too busy keeping up with both of them to take any extra shots. I had the camcorder with me and really wished I had gotten Charlie on Santa with it, but just couldn't manage all of that. I think they will send me the order form for the pictures, so I'll be sure to order you a copy of each and get them into the mail to you.
We love you, keep your spirits up!

Back to the Future

Chuck, thought you might get a kick out of a picture of Charlie taken the day after my retirement party as Chris was headed back to Clarksville. Can't really say that Will looks a lot like Charlie in this picture. Hope things are going well with you. Things are good back here but pretty boring without Chris and the boys. Mike and Susan, K, T and the kids are coming in Friday for the Texas/Colorado game on Saturday. We will have M & S Friday and Saturday nite and most of the Kelley and Parks kids on Saturday during the game. This is a bunch of trivia I know but hope it helps pass the time of day and night for you. I try to remember what mom's letters were like when I was gone and I think I remember even enjoying the trivial stuff so you'll probably be getting more of it from me. Hope this doesn't make you homesick but reminds you of how far you and Chris have come and what a lot you have to look forward to. Love, Cappy