Our Christmas Letter

Season’s Greetings from the South
Wow! What a year we have had. It has been a bit of a whirlwind for us, and even though we say this every year, we have no idea where the year went. This is a little long, we are making up for last year, so grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and catch up with us.
We started out the year visiting some of our favorite characters at Disney World. Bill’s parents gave the kids and grandkids 3 day park hopper passes for Christmas. When we turned them in for tickets the theme parks were running a special for an extra day free. So, I drove down again with the kids in May for a quick visit and Bill met up with us on his way home from one of the many TDYs he was on. We got to visit all of the favorite characters that we missed the first time, and even had breakfast with Mickey, Minnie, and the rest of the gang. Ryan was a trooper and Kaity was at the perfect age to enjoy the park. We had so much fun!
Bill has made a lot of professional advances this year. He finished the 4 FLUG (4 ship Flight Lead Upgrade) and became one of the Flight Commanders for his squadron in February. He continues to maintain a 4.0 in his Master’s courses and is currently meeting his Major boards. Bill has been gone this year more than he has been home it seems. The Ops tempo here at Shaw picked up last fall and continued going strong with training TDYs (where he goes somewhere else to work). Beginning last October, he escaped (I mean had to go) to Las Vegas, the Florida Panhandle, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Alaska, and back to Las Vegas (I know…again!) where he helped to support the Weapon’s School pilots and got to play war games and practice some of the things that they can’t practice while at home. Totally cush, I know…but by the end, they were all a bit worn out. He finished up the year with a deployment to Iraq with his squadron. We are incredibly blessed that he was able to make it home by Thanksgiving, about two months earlier than the others, but it is bittersweet because he is getting ready to leave again after the holidays for a really long time, but I digress. More about that later. Despite his CRAZY work schedule and his even CRAZIER TDY schedule, Bill has always made time for the kids and I and we never felt that he didn’t meet our needs. Frustrated…absolutely, but never neglected. This year has continued to remind us how precious family time is and has taught us to be creative when balancing family time with working and studying at home. We are so proud of him, the role he plays in protecting our freedom, and the husband, father, and man that he is.
Kim has been busy holding down the fort while Bill has been away, but has still made time for friends, family, fun, and a bit of work. The bow business is going fairly well and she began selling to some local boutiques this year. She is so thankful to be involved with such a great group of gals in the squadron, especially since they all get together so often to make the TDYs and Deployment not only bearable, but a bit of fun. The distraction for the ladies and the children is most welcome. They get together for fun girl stuff quite frequently which makes the time pass quickly.
Now for the stars of the family. Kaitlyn, who is 4 ½ going on 15 at times, started 5 day a week preschool this fall and goes from 9-12. Mom is still not a fan of her going every day, but thinks it is good practice for next year when she sends her baby to Kindergarten. Kaity is a social girl, who makes friends easily and whose teachers find her a joy to be around, so it really is a good fit for her. Kaity is maturing every day and can put a smile on our faces in a heartbeat. She is a sweet and funny girl who is quickly becoming her own person. She also became involved in dance and gymnastics this summer and continued dance (we made her choose one thing) this fall. She is really enjoying it and we have been able to see some small performances and are looking forward to the big recital in the spring. Kaitlyn still loves books and has started to read on her own. It has always been fun to listen to her “read” stories from memory, but is so cool to listen to her sound words out now as well. We have discovered that our spelling days are over, as she has figured out many of the words we try to spell when we don’t want her to know what we are talking about. I guess we will have to move on to Pig Latin. Kaity is still an awesome big sister, and although there is a lot of fighting over toys, she is so sweet to Ryan and always wants to love on him and play with him. They make each other laugh all of the time and are truly best buds.
Ryan has gone from a baby to a boy seemingly overnight. He really is still a baby, but it shocks us how much he grows every day. He is nearly 18 months and is quite possibly the sweetest, most loving little boy we have ever met. Which is a really good thing, because he is also one of the busiest. Our boy who we once called “baby chill” is anything but. He is into EVERYTHING! Ryan is constantly doling out kisses and hugs and when he sees us sitting on the couch or the floor runs up for a quick snuggle and some kisses. He charms the ladies already! Mommy was worried because he was never interested in books at all, but recently has fallen in love with them and anytime we sit on the floor, he runs and gets a book and backs up into our laps so we will read to him. It is the only time he is still! He has hit many milestones this year, from crawling, to running (he seemed to skip walking), climbing, and talking. Ryan has quite a few words, though many are hard to understand. It is so funny how different two children can be. Kaity was speaking in clear, few word sentences at his age and his only clear words, are mama, dada, Kaity, JD (for any dog that he sees or hears), vroom, and train. We aren’t worried though. He knows what he is saying and talking will be like walking was for him. It took him a while, but once he got it, he didn’t slow down. Ryan adores his big sister. He looks for her when he wakes up and when she is at school. He follows her around wherever she goes and wants to do whatever she does and have what she has. The quintessential little brother. She eats it up most of the time, though. They both bring so much joy, love, and laughter to our lives. The Lord has blessed us!
As we wrap up this letter we ask for your prayers for our family as we encounter the greatest challenge we have had to face as a family. This recent deployment was tough on us, but all four of us handled it pretty well. The reason Bill came home before the rest of his squadron is because he had an unexpected assignment handed down this summer. Though unexpected in timing, we knew we would probably have to face this at some point in his Air Force career. Bill is to report in January to Kunsan, Korea for an unaccompanied remote assignment. He is thankful that this flying assignment will keep him in the F-16 and has the potential to be great for his career, but we are heartbroken that our family will be separated for a year. Two months was hard and a year is a really long time, both in the eyes of small children and in the eyes of a daddy who will leave a baby and come home to a little boy and miss many milestones in both children’s lives. This year has been a good preparation for that, but not anywhere close to the same thing. Many things are uncertain about what comes next for the family, but of two things we are certain. The first is that we are committed to making this a positive thing for our family and our marriage. We have plans to see each other both with and without children and although many days will be difficult, we have a lot to look forward to and a lot to look back upon fondly. Fortunately, we have technology on our side, which should make it easier on the kids. The second is that Kim will be buying a lot more coffee and wine as a single parent for the next year. Buy stock now!
We joined the computer age this year as well and started a blog. Please stop in often and check out our blog where another family adventure usually awaits. Kim is getting better and better about blogging and posting pictures and you may even be surprised by a posting now and then done by the man of the house (or the Korean bachelor pad, as it will be). Our site is http://livelaughlovepcs.blogspot.com. We started this blog right after we found out about this assignment, so for those of you who don’t know how PCS fits in our blog address, it stands for Permanent Change of Station, which is quite ironic because nothing is ever permanent in the military. Bill didn’t want anything with our family name in it, so this made sense at the time. We hope you are all having a delightful holiday season and that health and happiness are abundant in your lives. Much love!
Bill, Kimberly, Kaitlyn, and Ryan