May you have a wonderful Christmas and a blessed new year!!

Love from Morena, Andy, Dominic & Christian

Birthday boys!!!

Dominic turned 4 on September 20th, and Christian celebrated his second birthday on October 21st. Here are the boys' birthday portraits:

There be pirates here!!

It's that time of year again, and the boys decided they want to be PIRATES! My mother made these adorable costumes for them, and they tried them on the other day and starting warming up for the Halloween day performance. Enjoy!

Milestones

Time sure does fly. Dominic just turned 4 and Christian will be 2 this month (I'll post birthday pictures later) and are hitting lots of milestones. Dominic started PK and LOVES it, and he also plays soccer now. Christian moved into a "big boy" bed and is thrilled with his new independence.



I posted more threads below, but they're a little out of order...feel free to scroll down to see what's new. :)

Other milestones...Andy and I got new wedding bands for our 10th anniversary. Our old ones were too small, so we both went up a size. That's what time and happiness do to you. Andy also gave me a beautiful anniversary band to go with it. It's stunning...too brilliant for my camera, so I couldn't post pictures. Remind me to show it off next time I see you. :) I tested again in my karate class, and am now a blue belt (8th kyu). I'm slowly working myself back to where I was in Okinawa. I'm still enjoying myself, though, so the belt color doesn't matter too much (I keep telling myself. :)

The great flood of August 31, 2006.

So I'm doing laundry and fixing dinner on a Friday night. I hear water running, and I realize that the washing machine has stopped. I go to investigate the source of the running water and walk into a squishy, wet, hallway carpet. I open the closed bathroom door and water rushes out at me. I run to the sink and find the drain closed and both the hot and cold water faucets are on full blast. A small toy is in the sink.

We had purchased some toys that grow when you soak them in water. Dominic liked to fill the sink with water, put the toy in to soak, and then check on it every so often. This time he forgot to turn off the water. He really felt bad about it and kept apologizing and trying to help clean up. At least he was contrite!

I don't know how long it ran, but the bathroom was flooded, along with the hall and two closets. That was fun to clean up. I'm sure this is just the first of many little misadventures these boys will take us on!!

Summer fun!

It has been a horribly hot summer...we were over 100 degrees for almost the entire month of August. Still, we found ways to keep cool. A sprinkler and slip-n-slide were a great investment! We've also found some great indoor places to hang out at, like the play area at a local church, and indoor bounce house, and a big playroom (similar to Monakids jungle in Okinawa). Here are some pics of my monkeys having fun!

Home sweet home...

It's hard to believe we've been here a year. Here are some pictures of our front and back yards. I'll work on getting pics of the interior up soon.

Meet the Wiggles!!

We had the pleasure of attending a Wiggles concert last weekend! The boys had such a wonderful time! My face still hurts from smiling so much! The next morning they woke up and asked to go see the Wiggles again...I'm so glad they enjoyed it! Dominic got to talk to Murray when he gave him a rose for Dorothy, and Anthony was so sweet to Dominic when he accepted two bones for Wags the Dog. He asked Dominic's name and spoke to him for a minute. I liked seeing how genuine they are...they really seem to care about their little fans!


You can watch two short video clips, one of Dominic dancing and the other of Christian singing, here: http://www.dropshots.com/morenahockley

We went to Disney World!!! It was such a FUN vacation for all of us! The kids really enjoyed all the sights and the rides, and especially got a thrill out of meeting some of their favorite characters! While in Orlando we also went to Universal's Islands of Adventure, where the highlight for both boys was meeting Spiderman! They both still talk about their friend, Spidey, and love the pictures they took with him. Here are some pics from the trip...can't wait to do it again!

So many pictures, so little time!! Here are some pics I've been wanting to share but haven't gotten around to.

This was taken on Mother's Day, where we had fun hanging out at the base's air show:

Here is my little T-ball star. Can you stand how cute he is??

And these were taken at the Renaissance Festival. My dad was visiting and got to go with us. The boys loved seeing all the interesting costumes, but their favorite part was the pony and elephant rides!!

As you can see, Spiderman is VERY popular with the boys! Here are some pictures of them in their Spiderman jammies climbing the walls like their favorite superhero. The other pics are from a party the boys went to where they were to dress up. They both got a kick out of meeting Superman!

How can a decade pass so quickly?

While it doesn't seem like it was yesterday, it sure doesn't feel like it's been ten whole years since our wedding day! Little could I have known on June 1, 1996, what the next ten years held. In ten years we've:

Travelled (Italy, Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Costa Rica, China...too many places to list!)

Earned 3 advanced degrees between us (Master's for me, MS & Dental for Andy)

Lived in 5 different places (UC, two places in Houston, Okinawa, Fort Worth)

Purchased several cars (while we miss our little Oki cars we love our Odyssey!)

Become parents (the hardest yet most fulfulling thing we've done yet...our sons are such a precious gift from God to us)

Grown even more in love with each other.

To those of you who were there to celebrate our union ten years ago, thank you for your continued love, support, and friendship. To those whom we have met in the last ten years, thank you for sharing this journey for us. And to those whom we are yet to meet, carpe diem!

Our little Christian...

It's Christian's turn to be bragged about. He just turned 18 months old on Friday the 21st, but he thinks he's much older. He wants to do everything that Dominic does...including play T-ball...and can't understand why he can't tag along. His vocabulary stuns us. Just last week he said "I want dinosaur party." He rarely talks baby talk, and his speech is surprisingly clear. He does a good job letting us know what he wants, especially when it comes to food. Each morning he will tell me what he wants to eat. Usually it's "I want sausage", but sometimes it's "I want pancakes" or "I want egg". (How quickly they master the "I want..." statements, don't they?) He repeats almost everything you say and retains what he has learned. He amazes us!

Dominic to the rescue!!!

Just had to share what happened last night when I had the boys in the tub together. I left the water running as they both like to play with the water. Christian decided to pull on a mysterious silver knob and, to both their surprise, the shower came on and cold water was raining on them. Christian started screaming, and Dominic exclaimed "Oh my gosh!" as he jumped out of the tub. Once out, he turned to his little brother and said, "I help you!" He grabbed Christian and pulled him to safety, out of the tub. It was so touching to see his concern for his brother and his rush to help him, even though I was right there. It's days like this that I love being a mom.

April 1 & 2....what a weekend!

We had a busy but fun weekend! Saturday was a Japanese festival, and we were eager to reconnect with the culture we miss. While the location was beautiful (the Japanese Gardens at the Botanical Center) it was unlike any festival we ever attended in Okinawa. While Andy & I were disappointed at the absence of yakisoba and Orion birru, we enjoyed watching the boys feeding the large koi in the ponds. They had a great time!

On Sunday we visited with Thomas the Tank and even went for a ride! The boys were very surprised to see Thomas "live". They enjoyed the train ride, along with many of the other activities like bubble blowing and playing with trains. It was a fun day for all of us.

On a sad note, we lost two wonderful people this week. My grandfather passed away on Sunday, and Andy's uncle passed on Tuesday. They will both be greatly missed.