Videos from Santa

I am pretty excited for the boys to see their videos from Santa this year.  Tucker was pretty shocked to get a video from Santa last year.  I am sure he will be excited this year, too.  Here is Tucker's video:
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/guest/hMikWgTuGRLD-4DD4us5mg

Peyton could have cared less last year with his video from Santa, but he has grown up a lot in the last year and actually knows who Santa is this year.  I am excited this year to see how he is going to react to his video.  I think he is going to be pretty excited.  Here is his video:
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/guest/wblGKvy3Qp7WbkB9axUkkQ

9 1/2 years and 4 states later...

June 2001, Todd and I officially moved away from Nebraska for Todd's career in the Air Force.  We moved to Wichita, Kansas and lived there for 9 months.  In 2002, we moved to Enid, Oklahoma so that Todd could go through pilot training.  We lived in Enid for about 1 1/2 years.  October 2003 brought us to the state of Washington.  Our 3rd move in as little as 2 1/2 years.  We lived around Tacoma, Washington for just over 3 years.  February 2007 brought us to our 4th state of California.  We have lived here almost 4 years.  Last night at the squadron Christmas party, we were surprised with the news that Todd got accepted to fly the E4-B (747 jet) out of Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska.  Everything is coming full circle.  We are coming back home.  We are super excited to move back home and to be close to family again.  The kids, along with myself, are not going to know how to act to be so close to everyone again.  We couldn't be more happy right now!!!!

Must be a growing spurt?

Tucker has been eating me out of the household here in the past couple of weeks.  The kid can clean his plate and 15 minutes later say he is starving again.  The school also probably thinks I never feed my child breakfast, either.  The other night, I received an automated phone message stating that Tucker's meal plan was in the negative.  To say the least, I was extremely surprised.  "That is impossible," I thought to myself.  Why, you ask?  Well, Tucker doesn't eat hot lunch but maybe 2-3 times per month and the last time I checked, he had around $20 in his meal account.  I thought that maybe another child was accidentally using Tucker's meal card.  Well, I went online to check the activity of his meal plan to find that my child has been eating breakfast off and on since October.  What?  How can that be?  Why?  He eats waffles practically every breakfast and he eats 2-3 waffles before he goes to school.  So, I asked Tucker, "have you been eating breakfast when you get to school?" 
"Yeah, sometimes mom."
"Tucker, you eat before you go to school.  Why are you eating again when you get to school?"  I asked.
"Mom, I am starving when I get to school."
UNBELIEVABLE!  That's all I can say about that.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Bode family!  What would your year look like if you described it according to TV show titles?  (I’m sure all of you have asked yourselves this at some point in your life…note the sarcasm.)  Ours would look something like this:

Survivor – From late February to the first part of July, Todd was deployed to Turkey and Kuwait.  He was gone for just over 4 months.  During this time, the boys and I stayed here in California.  Between Todd overseas and myself with the boys here in California, we survived yet another deployment.

Biggest Loser – This spring and summer, I started training to run in my very first 5K races.  I ran my very first 5K (3.1 miles) race in the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure.  I had a goal of at least getting under 30 minutes and I beat that goal.  In June, I ran my second 5K in 29 minutes 10 seconds.  For my “make-over”, I cut between 9-12 inches off of my hair and donated it to an organization called “Children with Hairloss.”  It is similar to “Locks of Love” but they accept hair that has been highlighted and they also just make wigs for children that have lost their hair.

Grey’s Anatomy – Thankfully our family has been healthy this year with really no major incidents.  Tucker had tubes placed in his ears in March and thankfully has not had any ear infections since.  He also was officially tested for a chicken and pea allergy before school started.  He tested positive for both.  He takes after his father with the chicken allergy.  As for Peyton, early November he jumped off of our bed and broke his middle metatarsal bone in his foot.  It didn’t slow him down one bit.  He was still running, jumping off of things like nothing was wrong.  He just had a bit of a limp for a couple of weeks.

Hawaii 5-0 – Todd and I had our very first vacation together without kids.  Actually, it pretty much was our first vacation even before kids.  We called it our “honeymoon 9 years later.”  We celebrated 9 years of marriage by going to Hawaii right after Todd got back from his deployment.  We stayed on the island of Oahu for 6 days.  We drove around the island in a rented convertible, hiked up Diamond Head, toured Pearl Harbor and downtown Honolulu, tried to go snorkeling (I don’t think we were in the right area for snorkeling), swam in the ocean and drank many mai tai’s and pina coladas.

Sports Center - This pretty much sums up what Todd watches on TV.  Besides that, Tucker has been pretty active in sports this year.  He played t-ball this spring and soccer for the first time this summer.  He really liked soccer.  He is currently playing flag-football for his second year.  Starting in the New Year, he will be giving basketball a try.

The Office – Since Todd has been home from the deployment, he has been working more in the squadron.  He hasn’t been flying the C-17 as much since being back, which I am not complaining about.  If he isn’t flying, he isn’t going on missions, which means he is home with us.

The Travel Channel ­­– We have had many visitors this year.  In February, Todd’s sister, Tracy and family came out to visit before Todd deployed.  We did some sight–seeing in San Francisco and walked around Muir Woods.  In April, Todd’s brother, Ted and family came out to visit us to try and break up the time away from Todd.  We also took them around to see the sights and also to celebrate Tucker and his cousin, Lexi’s 6^th birthday.  In June, my dad and step-mom came out to visit the boys and I.  We travelled to Yosemite National Forest for a couple of days, visited Napa and San Francisco.  After Todd got back to the states, we travelled back to Nebraska, then to Hawaii, then back to Nebraska to get the boys and then drove from Nebraska to California taking in the countryside for 3 days.

Are You Smarter than a 5^th Grader? – In this case, a 1^st grader.  Tucker is in the 1^st grade this year.  It was a small adjustment for him but he is starting to come around.  He is doing pretty well in Math and Science and on his spelling words that he has each week.  We are working on his reading skills and trying to get him up to where he needs to be.  Peyton turned 3 on December 7.  He is very much into learning about the ABC’s and can count to 10.  He loves putting puzzles together, coloring, playing with play-doh and doing his “homework”, which consists of either coloring or scribbling on a piece of paper while Tucker is doing his homework.

Higher Education – While we are on the subject of education, Todd finished his Masters Degree in Business Administration while deployed.  It was a long two years of him working on this and he was really glad to finally have it done.  As for myself, I enrolled in New York Institute of Photography earlier this year.  I have completed 5 out of the 6 unit exams and 1 out of the 6 photo projects.  I am trying to find more time to try and dive into studying photography a little more.

So, here is your TV Guide through the year of 2010 for the Bode Family.  Hope this finds everyone in good health and in good Christmas spirit. 

Merry Christmas with Love,

Todd, Kelly, Tucker and Peyton Bode