Let it Snow!

We have been getting hit with snow the last 3 or 4 days. We are officially snowed in! You know its bad when the Army says cancel the missions for safety sake. Here are some pics of all the snow. We have gotten somewhere between 18 to 24 inches. As you can see here, the snow comes up above my knee.

Christmas in Kosovo

Ok, so Kosovo is made up mostly of two types of people. Albanians and Serbs. The Albanians are muslim, the serbs are christian. We were driving through downtown Vitina and saw this the day before christmas. All of this to advertise photo printing.....lol

Happy Holidays

So the holidays have come and gone. I am getting closer to time to go home. We did not get to do a whole lot for the holidays here. The one big thing was we got to not go on patrols for Christmas and got to wear civilian clothes. This was nice as it was the only time since we have been here we were out of uniform. I invited all my friends over and we played cards for the holidays. As you can see in the pic even here in kosovo I know how to run a card game. The first pic is of me at an oberservation post overlooking Serbia.

Here are some other pics of a patrol in Vitina. You the Cafe we hang out in and drink coffee.

Take the Good, take the Bad & there you have the Facts of Life

We hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas and that Santa brought you everything on your list. We had a crazy holiday this year. It was different/hard with Michael being away (but he was on web-cam so that was cool), we lost someone very dear to us on Christmas Eve and that sucked (sorry, but there was real no other way to say it), our Christmas celebrations were great and Xavier was SO much fun, and then Sunday I had to take Lilly to the vet hospital for an emergency surgery. Can you talk about a roller coaster holiday? Needless to say, I am ready to close the book on 2008.
Here is Xavier on Christmas Eve while we were getting ready for Santa. He was just a little excited.
The cookies, milk and the note...Santa only ate 1 of the cookies and Xavier was all upset because he didn't eat all of them. Note to self, less cookies next year or put them away.

The tree after Santa left all of the presents.

Xavier with Red. This is actually one of the few things Xavier got that wasn't Thomas related.

I added this picture because you can see the web-cam set up in the background behind Xavier. You can see Michael watching on. Technology is so awesome that Michael was able to see Xavier open all of his presents and then we had it again at Michael's brother's house so it was like he was there.

We were all rocking out at Jeff & Sarah's. Xavier loved the drums!

Rock on Xavier!!

Caleb, Tyler & Xavier

My families Christmas was on Saturday. Here is a picture of some of the grand and great grand-kids.

A while ago I noticed Lilly had a "zit" looking thing on her back. It was small and did not seem to bother her so I was keeping an eye on it but did not think too much about it. Saturday when I got home, there was blood down her back and there was now a huge mass. Not to get into too much detail, but there was an infection and it all "came to a head." I called the doctor as soon as they opened on Sunday, I brought her in and they immediately took her in for surgery to remove all of the bad parts, etc.

I have to keep the cone on so she doesn't mess with the stitches or drain because if she does they have to re-do everything.

My poor little girl! She gets the drain out on the 1st and then the stitches out maybe a week later. We can only hope we leave all this bad stuff behind us as we leave 2008. Hope you all have a Happy New Year!!

**Make sure you check out the 2 posts below. Michael added pictures!!!**

another one

Here is another pic of the platoon with names of everyone in platoon. Also notice the brown buildings in the backround. The buildings are the barracks we live in. Each door is a room where 3 to 6 people live. The door in the middle of the building is the bathroom so it sucks we have to go outside to get to the bathroom.

Almost done

I know I have not posted on here like I said that I would. The army has been monitoring blog sites looking for violations in security. We have been really busy here with patrols and missions. I have also been taking classes online so I have been really busy. I will try to post more since its getting close to time to go. Here is a pic of Bravo Co. 1st platoon.

St. Nicholas Day!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!
Xavier was so excited to put his shoes by the door last night and then to find a Thomas Christmas movie, Thomas Christmas book and Christmas PJ's this morning!!

Since today is St. Nicholas Day I figured what a better day to see Santa! Xavier did great this year. He couldn't wait to run up to Santa and tell him he wanted Duck the Train. We are counting down the days!

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We did. It was my families "on" year so we were off to my brother Paul's house. It was an awesome day full of fun and family...all things to be very thankful for!!
Here are a few pictures from Xavier's Feast at Ms. Paula's.

A Lot of Nothing...

I am SO far behind on blogging! We have been so busy...but with not a lot to report. 1st and foremost I have to give a big 30th Birthday shout-out to Sarah!! I know it is very late, but still worth it. I hope that you guys had a blast! Okay...now onto a funny Xavier story that I just have to share! We ran into Wal-Mart last week and Xavier wanted to sit it the back part of the cart. I agreed since we only needed a few things and would be in and out quickly. As we were leaving, I rounded a corner sharper than Xavier expected and he fell over in the back of the cart. He let out a "Woooo" and then the following conversation:
Xavier: "Who taught YOU how to drive?"
Mom: "Pa-Paw"
Xavier: "Oh, Pa-Paw? Well then, my DAD is going to teach me how to drive!"
Can you believe it? I have been fired on by a 3 year old on teaching him how to drive?! Nice!!

Lastly, this weekend we had a visitor to the Yates house. Teddy the Turkey. This was a Ms. Paula project where we brought Teddy home and then had to journal about it, etc. You all know me and I totally got into this! We took lots of pictures of what Xavier and Teddy did this weekend. Here are a few of the pictures...

Here Xavier is teaching Teddy how to make scary faces; lol.

Happy Halloween

Xavier's Halloween festivities started while he was at Ms. Paula's. They did all sorts of fun things Friday during the day. Here is Xavier with his best bud, Gavin. Ms. Paula even got into the Halloween spirit and dressed up too!

After work/school we were off to Jeff and Sarah's! Xavier had a blast with all of the big boys! Here is Xavier with Caleb.

...with Tyler.

Part of the group that we went with. Xavier surprised everyone with as much of a trouper he was. He was determined to stay up with the big boys. We must have gone to 50 houses. Xavier carried his bucket and walked the entire neighborhood right up till the last 10 minutes or so.

This was a very fun night!!! Xavier and I both had a blast and I was impressed because only 5 items out of Xavier's bucket had nuts. Xavier is already looking forward to next year. :)