An ode to Katie dearest

I enjoy living here in Illinois and hope Mark can get a good job when he gets back so we can stay a while. Anyways, Katie is also a member of Hotel Dana. I am glad she is my "roommate." She came home from church today and as I was doing the dishes she announced she wrote me a poem in Relief Society. It goes like this:

"For you, Rachel, I bequeth your time

to pause where thou be and lend an ear to my rhyme.

In praise & admiration I give thee thanks for you & my brother who rides in a tank.

I admire your courage & strength for the year,

and I am oh so glad to have you near!

You're funny & smart & are nice to have seen

the movie with the boy named Draco,

and oh, by the way, you write good notes to Graco.

Your burden is being but your heart is so full,

thanks for being my sister-in-law

I think you are cool!"

Oh she is a fun girl to have around too! And I will be sad when she goes away to grad school. And because I like her so much, I thought I would share some pictures of her for your viewing pleasure :-)





Isn't she lovely? One night we decided to put egg on our face. It's suppose to be like a natural exfoliator or something. I dont know. It was late maybe? Haha.




Hope you all had a great week and that you have an even better up coming week :-)

Love & Miss you!

Eckert's Farm

We went to Eckert's Farm yesterday for lunch and the intent of purchasing a Christmas tree. However, as we were paying for lunch, we received a 20% off coupon that was good not only at the restaurant, the country store (where they sell fabulous pies!!) and the garden store. So we ended up just walking through the garden store and looking at Christmas trees and will go back on Monday and actually buy one...and we bought a pie :-)



Davids second tooth has finally broke through the gum. I can't believe he has teeth. My baby. Hope you all had a great week!

Bath Time = Photo Shoot

I seriously have a stinkin cute baby boy...even when he is teething :-) Enjoy the pictures!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas! This is my most favorite holiday...good food, great company (friends & family), presents, and most importantly the birth of our Savior! We in the Distelhorst home have begun the Christmas decorating :-)

Katie and I had the task of getting all the boxes down for the box. I may or may not have slightly concerned for both of our lives a couple of times. Thankfully, the boxes are in the house and no one (or thing) was hurt!

Thanksgiving!

What is Thanksgiving all about? Food, fun, family, friends, and...

...a good mess! Haha. This year we spent Thanksgiving at the Jorgenson home. They welcomed in all the "misfits" (Dana, Katie, Melissa, Yale, Rachel & Seth Dillworth, David and I.) I was asked/volunteered to bring pies. Mm..I made apple, pecan and cherry pies. Yum! I probably should have taken a picture of the pies as well. I made my own crusts.

It was defintely weird to 1) not be at Jills house with her family (I have gone there the last couple of years and 2) not to have Mark here. I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving next year!

Take a minute and reflect on the things in your life in which you are grateful for. Here is part of my list:
-A loving & supportive husband
-an adorable & healthy baby boy
-a roof over my head
-a safe & reliable car (although, we are thinking about getting a Toyota Sequoia or something like that, especially if we go out West)

-temples

-our troops (especially those of the 116th and a big thanks to Mark!)

-our troops families

-cell phones...technology

-eternal families
-family & friends who support & love us, especially during this time

The list goes on. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Love you!!!

Hair Trim & Teeth!

On Saturday (Nov. 20) I came home from running around with the Beehives & Scouts doing a canned food drive and I decided it was time. Actually way over due. Davids "wings" had to go. Katie held David as I snipped them off. This was actually a very hard task because David would not keep his head still for very long. But none the less, we accomplished our mission and David looks even more manly/studly!



Yes, I did put it in a plastic bag inside his baby book. I do need to trim his hair at his neck line before it goes into a full bloom mullet, but I dont see him holding still long enough, so that will have to wait.

Then, on Sunday I was holding David, talking, etc. David puts his hands (and everything else!) in his mouth. When I noticed a tooth indent on his hand. I frantically put my finger in his mouth but could not feel anything. Whew. I have told David a few times that he can take his time on getting teeth. Apparently, he thought 5 1/2 months was long enough because Monday when he got up from his afternoon nap, there was a white thing part way out of his gums!!!! And the one next to it isn't far behind! So, it looks like David will be getting his two bottom teeth for Thanksgiving. He fortunately is still sleeping through the night, but his naps (and poops!) are already being affected by the teeth. Wish us luck. I tried to take a picture-haha! Trimming his hair was nothing compared to trying to get a picture of his tooth.

Also on Sunday was Pumpkin Fest! We had pumpkin chilli, pumpkin bread, and a pumpkin roll!




Doesn't all that food look so good? It was! And in the picture David is being held by his Aunt Melissa. He has a lot of Aunts...blood related and not :-)

Katie and I also went and saw Harry Potter last night. I have seen maybe 4 of the movies (the last one being the third) so I was slightly lost. Fortunately, Katie was helpful and let me know what was going on and when scary parts where coming :-) Needless, because I saw part 1, I will most likely being seeing part 2!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous week leading up to Thanksgiving!

Love & Miss you!!

Happy Sunday!

Hope you all are having a fabulous Sunday!

Love you! 11 months to go!

Little Stud

I really need to do better in an updating this thing. I go through phases. Hopefully, with Mark being gone it will give me the motivation though. With that being said, David is the man. About 2 weeks ago I was at the BX (base exchange) and saw this adorable little vest, white shirt, dress pants and a red tie. I had to have it. I knew David would look just adorable in it. And he did. Kennedy also looked cute with DTs tie. This is the only time in Davids life where 1) I will put white socks on him while wearing church clothes and 2) and will be okay with it. Maybe. Enjoy!

I love that Kennedy (as well as Amy & Randy) are close by. David has the best of both worlds. First grandbaby on my side, and lots of cousins on Marks side (number 9 actually, third grandbaby this year!)

I have also have decided I am going to run a half marathon in April. Katie is going to be my coach. Wish me...and her luck :-)

Mark is officially in Kuwait. It's weird. Thank you all for your continued kind thoughts, prayers and smiles. We appreciate you.

We love & miss you!

Trip to see Mark

But first, happy 100th post! Go me! Haha. Anyways, part of me really didn't want to blog about this, but I loved reading other girls blogs of their recaps of their trips to see their husband, so I thought it only fair. It was hard to go and pick up Mark because I knew what was going to happen at the end of those few days we had together. But, now having gone and done it, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Originally we were going to be staying in Mandeville, Louisiana at an Armed Forces Vacation Club. Dana (my mother in law) and I had not great feelings about this. The entire week before I had called daily, random times through out the day, left messages, sent an email and did not hear back/couldn't get through to anyone until 2 days before we leave. Sketchy. When we checked in I asked where the pack n play was. The girl at the desk (was not the brightest crayon in the box) said they didn't have anything like that. I then told her I had gotten an email saying that one would be available. She then told me that they don't send emails! Seriously?! I asked if I could get on the computer and pull it up for her. She said yes...and maybe it was Amanda the manager who had sent it! Yes! This is going to be a watered down version, but the girl basically sent us to lunch, was going to try to get a hold of Amanda and then things should be ready. Her customer service skills were awful, Amanda even said she was sweet, but it wasn't very good. So we get into our condo and think this will have to do. I had to leave and pick up Mark. So I drive the hour and a half to Camp Shelby. (Bethany, you were right about the gate/base!) I felt like the gate check people were rent-a-cops. Anyways, pick up Mark and drive back. Feed DT. Feed us. And off to bed. Thats when things get really interesting. Roaches, mold, dirty stained sheets, etc. Sunday morning we decide this is not good and we leave. But first, DT and Mark get to hang out together. They picked up where they had left off. It was so fun to see DT smile so big at Mark.



We drive just over an hour to Gulfort, Mississippi. Eventually find a Marriott Residence Inn. Much better than where we started. On Sunday we just hung out, nothing exciting. Ok, the whole getting to the hotel took a large portion of the day. I made (and by made, I cheated. Marie Callender did a great job) lasagna. On Monday we went to New Orleans. Emily gave us some ideas of things to do. First on the list was visiting the cathedral. Beautiful. Such detail. (Why do my pictures always flip order?!)






Then we walked the streets of New Orleans. There was this man who was lip singing and dancing.





We then went over to this cute little cafe...Cafe du Monde. It had these amazing little beignets. They were basically a square puffy version of a funnel cake with lots of powder sugar! Yum!





A lot of people recommended doing a swamp tour. So we did. All of us. Even David. I was slightly nervous. But we survived. Had the weather been warmer, we would have seen more alligators...and bigger ones. I think I'm okay with the little (3-4 foot) alligators we saw.








They have the raccoons basically trained. They will throw marshmallows so they will come further out. Their huge!

We walked in the gulf. It was definitely interesting to see the effects of Katrina as well as the oil spill.



We took some family pictures as well. Christmas cards anyone? Haha.








Mark and I went out to dinner two nights. We ate at Applebees and BoneFish Grill. They had the most amazing crab cakes. My mouth is watering as I type this. It was a lot of crab with some breading. Mmm! We had a lot of fun and look forward to R&R! When we flew to New Orleans I had to have a full body pat down because I had baby food and preferred not to open. When we flew back to St. Louis, the TSA man asked why I had water, told him to feed my baby. He asked where the formula was, so I showed him. And then he said have a good day. Thats it? He said, yes, here in New Orleans we don't do all that funky stuff. Haha. (Of course, while we were waiting, I saw a few people getting the pat down.) The people were so nice. Mark got a couple hugs, hand shakes and thank yous. I think thats all...

Edit: At 5 months, David has now been to 7 states:Idaho, Utah, Missouri, Illinois, Colorado, Mississippi and Louisiana! WOW! Next month we are going to Maryland and in January we are going to North Carolina. Go David!

A quick hello...

We are currently in Gulfport, Mississippi spending time with Mark. Originally we were in Mandeville, Louisana. However, the condo situation did not work out. Dana killed a couple of roaches (yuck!) in the bathroom, mold, the list goes on, but don't fret there will be more on that later. To hold you over, here is a picture of Mark and David reunited. It touches my heart to see David smiling and laughing with Mark.