Hannah's birthday, Thanksgiving and an email from Iraq

It has been a long time since I have blogged. We have been busy around here with the Christmas season upon us. For now I will just update you on our Thanksgiving weekend.

Hannah's birthday was on the 21st, but it was celebrated for three days. The day before her birthday we took cupcakes to her school to share with her class. We also gave her one of her gifts that night...the High School Musical 2 soundtrack.

The day of her birthday we did our traditional cake and ice cream for breakfast before we headed to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. That night after supper we gave her her second gift....a High School Musical 2 Wii game.

The day after her birthday was Thanksgiving, so we had birthday cake with grandma, grandpa, Lisa and her family. Her cake was, of course, a High School Musical cake.
The kids singing "Happy Birthday" to Hannah.

Thanksgiving went pretty well and was fairly uneventful. Uneventful that is until I asked Hannah to wash some dishes. My dad was taking the dinner rolls out of the oven as she was filling up the sink with soapy water and all of a sudden we heard my dad holler. Somehow Hannah managed to spray my dad with the sprayer, and not just a little bit either. She soaked him, the rolls and put a little puddle in the sweet potatoes. Lisa and I thought it was hysterical, but my dad on the other hand, didn't find it so funny. Here is a picture of his pants:

The girls with their Grandma.
The boys with Justin and Ryan.

We also heard from Chris' brother, Steve, over Thanksgiving weekend. Here is what he wrote:Things are pretty high tempo here. I have 14 people working for me 6 days a week with 12 hour shifts. They handle it pretty well and I am hoping the pace slows down in the future. As for me I have everything I need and it is a lot more comfortable than the last time I deployed. I have my own living area to myself. My lower enlisted have to double up for 15 months which is a bummer but they will survive. Take care and keep the soldiers and their families in your prayers, they are the ones who really need it. Some of them come in pretty banged up or dead and will have to live with the trauma for the rest of their lives. Sorry to end on a sad note but I want people to realize that terrible things happen here on a daily basis. Before I left it seemed like the war was getting less and less media attention and more was placed on Brittney Spears. -Steve

Here is a bonus video......Justin singing karaoke!