No Place Like Home for the Holidays

December has been whirlwind of holiday festivities, Kyle's officer basic course graduation, and traveling to Chicago for Christmas. At the beginning of the month we introduced celebrating Hanukkah to Greyson. He loved lighting the menorah every night, even though he tried to blow out the candles with all his might. He had so much fun receiving a small gift and getting to eat tasty Jewish treats like latkes and brisket. Then on December 18th, Kyle's 28th birthday, he graduated from field artillery officer basic course. I'm so proud to share that Kyle graduated #1 in his class out of a 120, earning him the title of Distinguished Honor Grad. He was honored individually at the ceremony and here is a brief clip of him receiving a framed print in recognition of his accomplishment. Check out the December pictures to see more of him looking spiffy in his fancy uniform on his big day.


Then a few days later we packed up our stuff and headed to the airport to fly to Chicago for Christmas in the Windy City. We had a fabulous time seeing both my family in Glenview and Elmhurst and Kyle's family in Kenosha. We enjoyed a visit to the Kohl's Children's Museum, eating all sorts of tasty Chicago treats (Portillo's and Lou Malnati's), and lots of time with family and friends. Greyson was spoiled by Santa with TONS of gifts - a few of his favorites are his Elmo Live, Rocky the Raccoon the giant pillow, some super cute clothes, and a mini-shopping cart and play food. Greyson also got his first taste of real snow - he had a blast walking around it, going for a ride in his sled, and knocking the snow off the tree branches. Kyle and I enjoyed some time to ourselves while Grandma Joannie and Grandpa Mike babysat. We got to finally see "The Blind Side" and have a lunch out and enjoyed a special night in the city as a belated birthday gift for Kyle. We checked out the Map Room, home to many fine Belgian beers on tap for Kyle's delight and then headed to dinner at Topolobompa, Chef Rick Bayless' (winner of Top Chef Masters) fine dining restaurant. There we had one of the greatest meals of a our lives and even got to the meet the chef. As I've told people, most men dream of meeting their favorite NFL player, but for Kyle meeting Rick Bayless was a dream come true. Now he's inspired to use the many Rick Bayless cookbooks he got to make some tasty Mexican delicacies for us at home.

We returned home to Oklahoma a few days ago and plan on laying low over the New Year's weekend. We're also now in the home stretch of gearing up for our move to Colorado Springs. Kyle has two weeks left of training for J.F.O. (joint fires observer), where he will learn to communicate with the Air Force to drop precision guided munitions. Then we will be getting packed and loaded up and hitting the road to Colorado. We're excited for a fresh start, but dreading the stress and headaches that come along with moving. Doesn't it seem like we just did this? Oh yeah, that's right we did - 6 months ago. Crazy!

Hope you all had a fabulous time over the holidays with all the ones you love and wishing you all that you hope and dream for in 2010!

Love,
K, L, and G

P.S. Enjoy the many fun pictures from December on the left and check out the videos below. G shows off his dance moves, sleds in the snow, and feeds Nonny and Poppy's dog Kali.

Happy Hanukkah

Here's a little video of Greyson's first Hanukkah - as expected he REALLY wanted to blow out the candles, but we did keep him from doing so. Good news is he's going to do a great job blowing out the candles at his next birthday.

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I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Doesn't it seem like December just creeped up on all of us? November was a busy month full of visitors and a trip away for Kyle and I. Kyle's parents came to Oklahoma to watch G while Kyle and I headed off to Colorado Springs to look for a rental house and get to know the lay of the land. We enjoyed checking out the gorgeous views of Pikes Peak and the Rockies. We also got a taste of Colorado living with some snowfall during our visit. Unfortunately we didn't find a rental house that trip, but shortly there after we came across a great listing and have secured a 4 bedroom, 4 bath, 2700 sq. foot house with a finished basement in the town of Fountain (just south of Colorado Springs right near Ft. Carson). Here's a picture:


Greyson had a fabulous time with Pop Pop and Jo Jo while we were away and we enjoyed a few "date nights" and a bit of time to ourselves while getting to know our future city. We're so excited to get to Colorado come late January.

Thanksgiving brought more visitors with my Dad and stepmom, Robyne, coming in town for the holiday. We enjoyed a tasty feast with them and our friends Amy and Tom and their daughter Emma. We had GREAT weather that weekend with 70's and sunshine so we made the most of it and spent a lot of time outdoors playing G. We also went to the cultural hot spot around here, Meers, for a tasty meal. It was a fun filled visit and we look forward to seeing them again when we travel to Chicago for Christmas.

Kyle is wrapping up his BOLC 3 training and he's really looking forward to being done with all the studying and tests. I'm proud of how well he's done and he's in the running to be the distinguished honor grad for his class. I'm also happy to be wrapping up this semester of grad school. This past week has been very busy completely two large final papers, but I'm just about done and so looking forward to a month off and only taking one class next semester.

Greyson continues to be a little boy full of energy. He's running around and now even dancing a bit. He's talking and spitting out new words left and right. We're all looking forward to Greyson's second holiday season to see how he reacts to all the festivities now as a going on 2 year old.

Happy Holidays to all of you!
K, L, and G

P.S. New November pics posted on the left.

P.P.S. Here's a video of our monkey man playing at the mall and using all his energy to have a good ole time.