Jaime is now 9!!!

James Lloyd Bartlett, III, a.k.a. Jaime, turned the big 0-9 at the beginning of the month. We didn't see him until the weekend after his birthday but we had presents waiting for him at the house. Turns out they were all Transformers. His favorite thing right now.

At this point Jaime exclaimed: "I'm going to explode!" This is the biggest Transformer they make. It stands over a foot tall! And as a motion sensor. If I am downstairs in the boys room I have to be careful not to hit or nudge the desk-table or it sets it off and scares the crap out of me.

It took James about 20 inutes to get it out of the box.

Happy Birthday Jaime!!!!!

And day becomes night.

     I figured with the new year, I would try my hand at this blog thing.  Usually Kate does our blogging, but with my new schedule I have a little free time at work.  As the title may indicate, I am now working the night shift.  I am officially the only person in my command that works the "Mid" shift, so things are a bit quieter for me.  This is my second night on the shift, and I have been fortunate enough to not fall asleep yet. 

     Life has been a bit interesting with me working Mids and Kate working during the day.  I get in about the time that Kate is taking Lulu out for her morning walk.  Lulu and I get to watch her work out before I take Kate to the Metro station.  All in all, we get a little family time at the very beginning and the very end of my day.  The one down side right now is getting up halfway through my "night" to feed Lulu and take her out for her "necessary".

    With luck, I will adjust quickly to this new way of life.  It shouldn't be that difficult, because as some of you know this is not my first experience with shift work.  Wish me luck!!!!

Strickly Ballroom

James and I are taking our first ballroom dance class this evening through Fairfax County Parks Authority. We heard about the class through Molly and Chris (who are also taking the class). James and I have been talking for some time about taking a dance class...and now we are going to do it! I am pretty excited. This way we can get our feet wet and then explore other classes and options. We will be learning the foxtrot, waltz, rumba, and cha-cha.

We will keep you updated our our progress. Which I hope will include some dancing outside of the Lee Rec Center!

And for those you understand the title of this post....can you believe it has been 17 years since Strickly Ballroom was released!?!?!?! Holy Cow! It might be a while before we look like Scott and Fran. But a girl can wish can't she?!

Add another inch to the books

Mother Nature is just loving the DC area. Last night it snowed for the third time this winter. Third time! This isn't normal! And left a light dusting of snow that came to about 1". Schools were on a two hour delay but not the federal government :(

It was Lulu's first time in snow. James said this morning she was a little werided out by the white stuff all over the ground but was able to find a place to do her business anyway!

What a New Year!

Welcome 2010! We have had a quite a couple of weeks.

We picked up the boys on the 23rd and made the trek up to New York to spend Christmas with James' family. It wasn't the whole crew as Kelly and Colin, Gary, Amanda, and Claire, couldn't join us. But we had Jennifer, Chris, Tab, Jon, Michaela, Ronnie, Dani, Noah, and Mom and Dad Bartlett. It was still a full house! There wasn't much snow on the ground but enough to allow for some great sledding! We started out on the bunny hill right behind the house, then moved over to the trail that led to Dad Bartlett's pond which had about six inches of ice which allowed us to sled right on to the pond and gave us extra feet of sledding. Then Dad Bartlett got his truck and took us all to the family campground and to the best damn hill for sledding. The speeds we reached were about 20 mph plus!

Joe

Jaime

Santa brought plenty to the Bartlett house and unwrapping presents was a trip as always.

There was no snow to be had at all until after we left on Sunday. Currently it is near zero and there is about a foot of snow on the ground.

The biggest news we have to annouce is that on Monday, December 28, 2009, we introduced a new member to the Bartlett-Kerr household.....Miss Lulu! A ten week Olde English Bulldoggee (OEB) from Texas.

James has wanted a dog since he got back from Korea. The deal was that when he finished BNCOC (Basic Noncommissioned Officers Course) we would get a dog. He got back from BNCOC in September and we started looking.

We found the breed while looking for a rescue dog and fell in love. We found it very difficult to find a resuce OEB that wasn't snatched up in a heartbeat so we started looking for a breeder and found Lulu!

She has snorted her way into our lives. Look for her adventures as she continues to grow up!

To wrap this up, we say goodbye to the Year of Best Laid Plans and welcome the Year of Getting Organized. We wish every friend and family member the best in the coming year!