I don't know if you were able to see this dress, but it is from Afghanistan!  Ben got it at a market before he even met Emily!

Here are a few photos of Steve as he's leaving to report to Basic, then one of him emerging from his first opportunity to excel in the gas chamber, and then a photo after graduation when one of his platoon buddies came over to him in the restaurant where we were having a pizza and thanked Steve for all the laughs--told me he'd been assigned by the Drill Sergeant to give a joke of the day for the platoon, and that it had really made a difference for all his platoon mates. Steve should have a few 'war stories' for the Christmas gathering, and he looked great when I got to see him.

See you all soon. Love, Dad

Christmas

This is Ben.  Are we going to draw names for Christmas?

Natalie Laughing Big Time

You have got to check out this video. I tried to post it on the blog but the file was over the size limit for this site. Katie made Natalie laugh like crazy last night - hilarious!!!!!
You have to watch the whole video to the end, it is a riot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLGR9ScYqu8

Best pic

This is my favorite picture from our pictures yesterday.  The leaves were nice and the girls looked great.

Family Pictures at some park in Clarksville

Halloween

Halloween was uneventful, but we did get pictures taken at a park nearby.  The highlight.  I'll attach some pictures.  Halloween night we just chilled and handed out candy.  I told Marinda to give a handful to each kid, but her orders were one each.  So, we have a ton of candy left.  Good for me.  I pounded quite a few Fun Size candybars last night before Marinda hid the bag from me.  We watched 100 scariest movie moments on TV last night.  It was pretty good.  #1 was Jaws, #2 was Alien.  Psycho was up there, too.