Hi Friends and family! A lot has happened since my last post. We now live in base housing! The 5th wheel was starting to feel more and more claustrophobic.... we just needed a lot more space for our family of 5. We moved into our new place last Thursday when all our things were delivered. By Sunday everything was in its proper place. We really love our new place. It is 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and a nice backyard and back patio. The kids LOVE having their own rooms and all their old toys back. I LOVE having a big kitchen with a full-size refrigerator, a washer a dryer so I can do laundry at home, a bathtub, my comfy lay-z-boy recliner.... the list goes on and on. So this will definitely be our new pad until we move on to our next duty station...wherever that may be!
   Also, Joey was made "Star Student" for the month of May at his school. He was awarded with a certificate and special necklace and pencil. Being a "star student" means that he was selected based on his academic performance, attitude and behavior. Go Joey!!! We are so proud of him!

Happy Saturday! Another week has flown by. Chris is actually home today with no plans on going in to work and studying! He has been putting in long hours these last couple weeks so it will be nice to have him here today. The kids really miss him when he is gone. Every night when he gets home (sometimes not until 7pm) the kids run screaming "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" Except for Vangie and she just runs and screams "Dad-dy! Dad-dy!" and waves her arms in the air until he picks her up.
     It is 6:45 am as I write this. The house is still asleep- I am on my second cup of coffee and just relishing the silence- I know in a little bit there will be no more silence for the day. The kids will wake up around 7am, and I will make them breakfast- usually I make them peanut butter toast but today maybe they will want cereal... They will eat and then watch cartoon and play in their room for a while.  Around 9am we will all head to the gym to get our workout done. Chris and I will lift weights and The kids will play in the child care area for an hour or so. After our workout we ill come home and have lunch and lay Vangie down for a little nap, because this afternoon we will be visiting the water park! He went last Saturday and the kids had a blast! There is a special area for tiny kids so Vangie and Sophie had tons of fun- they didn't want to leave! They have been asking to go back all week so I promised them we would go back today.

The Tooth Fairy made her first stop ever at the Schmitt House last weekend- Joey Schmitt is now missing his front bottom left tooth. It was veeerrryyy lose on Saturday night and Chris helped it to come out by tying some dental floss around it and pulling! (I couldn't look at this point, but I covered my eyes and stayed in the room for moral support on Joey's behalf.)  The Tooth Fairy left Joey 1$ under his pillow which he is excited to take to the store and spend-
   We have been very busy these last couple weeks, visiting the beach, the water park and riding our bikes all over. The weather here has been absolutly beautiful- Sunday was a little stormy with a tornado actually touching down about 15 miles from here- but we have not experienced any super bad weather here so for that we are grateful!

Today was a beautiful day here in Charleston. Sunny and high in the mid 80's. The kids and I decided to go to the beach! We spent around 3 hours in the sand and surf. Vangie loved walking into the waves and having her mommy save her from being swept out to sea.
   Yesterday we rode our bikes 4 miles around the base. Sophie rode the whole way on her bike too! She is really a great bike rider. Joey also rode his bike and Vangie sat in her bike seat and was the only one who got a free ride.

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. We are all doing great and have just been busy! Joey had his pre-school spring recital last week where he sang lots of great songs with his pre-school class. Here is a picture of the kids outside with their umbrellas during a rain storm. They were having a lot of fun!