Liam

Liam has just started saying his prayers. I would always say them with him and every now and then I could get him to try and say one. He would usually just mumble through Heavenly Father and then Jesus, Amen.

Everytime that we would pray together I would ask him if he wanted to say it, well the other night he finally said YES! Kel and I looked at each other with surprise and then we were wondering how it would really go. He spoke very clearly and thanked Heavenly Father for food, banana, Liam, Arie, Mommy, Daddy, Jet, tree, bugs... and many other things. It was so sweet.

Tonight he said thank you for the stars and for his pirate ship. I love listening to the things he comes up with.

Anyway... he makes us happy.

Bangkok November 2007

This past November we had the opportunity to go Bangkok. Continental airlines signed a deal to do a military charter for some Japanese troops that needed to go to Kuwait. Kelly was lucky enough to get part of the charter. His job was to fly to Nagoya, Japan, pick up the troops and then fly them to Bangkok. Another Continental crew would them fly them from Bangkok to Kuwait City. Since Kelly had a four day layover in Bangkok we decided that it would be fun if I met him out there with the kids. Another great thing about the trip was that the second FO (first officer) flying on the trip was our neighbor; his family also wanted to go. Having my neighbor to fly with made things a lot easier and way more fun.


We woke up at 5 am, flew to Fukuoka Japan, and then got on a Thai Air flight to Bangkok! If anyone else reading this also flies non-rev (Allie) you know that you don't always get treated very well. In Guam because this is such a small base everyone takes care of each other. We have found that flying as a non-rev out here is much easier and everyone is more accommodating.


Well after flying on a foreign carrier Guam isn't even impressive. When we got off the plane in Fukuoka an airport worker met us at the gate and took us into another room. At first we didn't really know what was going on... the gate agent then proceeded to check us into our Thai Air flight, made sure that each family sat together (as a non-rev that is sooooo rare), and made sure that I sat at the bulkhead, because I had a baby. Then they sent a private security guard to come down and scan us personally so that we wouldn't have to wait in the long lines. It was so nice! And the room we were in was HUGE so the little kids could run around and get out some energy before our next flight which was 5 1/2 hours. When that was all finished they escorted us up to our gate. Talk about SERVICE!!!!!! The Japanese are so organized and so accommodating.


Then on our Thai flight the flight attendants made a man move so that I could have the bigger group of seats at the bulkhead, and she made sure that I had the bassinet to use. Maybe none of this seems like a big deal. But in the states when you fly non-rev they could care less if you are traveling with a baby. Maybe every now and then you get a nice flight attendant who will fill up a bottle or a sippy cup, but that is the extent of the service.


They brought games and toys for Liam, they never woke us up to serve us food. And if we were awake they checked on us every 10 minutes at least!


We got to Bangkok exhausted but ready for some fun. The hotel that Continental had booked was 5-star! It had a kitchen, living/dining room, and a separate bedroom. It was awesome!!!!!


We did a riverboat tour on a local river taxi, we road tuk-tuk's, we saw beautiful temples (or wats), and we ATE ATE ATE ATE ATE all the time. The food was UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!! We also inhaled an unbelievable amount of pollution!!!!!!!! I could feel my lungs turning black with every breath. We also got caught in some tourists traps, and several people tried to rip us off! it was just what you would expect a vacation in Thailand to be!


My favorite part was my many massages. My wonderful husband agreed to watch the kids, some times twice a day, so that I could enjoy some of the amazing Thai massages. It was so cheap over there, that you felt like you had to take advantage! The first day and got an hour leg massage, a mani/pedi, and an hour shoulder/neck/head massage... all for the grand total of $12. AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My neighbor and I went the next day to get some full-body massages. Let me warn you for anyone going to Thailand soon... the full body massage is very full body! And no I don't mean from one of the red-light district massage parlors either, this place was nice and clean and legit. But I think I made a CRAZY face when they went to uncover the front part of my top portion that they knew I wasn't comfortable. I didn't know what to say but I think my face said it all! FUNNY!!!!! The girls were giggling in Thai (where is Stacy when you need her).


The trip was fun too because Liam really noticed that we were in a different place. All of the wat's are decorated with lots of colors and gold. Every time we saw one Liam would say "Look at the Kingdom!" It was fun to watch him soak up everything and ask questions. He really noticed a lot.


Well this is getting longer than anyone probably wants to read.... so here are the pics!

Halloween 2007

Ok Ok I realize it almost 2008. I'm only posting these because Kel thinks I don't have enough on our blog. Halloween was fun and the kids had a good time but once so much time has gone by I feel like it doesn't matter anymore to post the pics. But for my hubby I will try and be better about putting up pictures.

Arie was a ladybug - or as Liam called her a Princess Ladybug.

Liam was Spiderman, and he was very ferocious.

We went to a trunk-or-treat at our church building and we also did some trick-or-treating on our street. The pics aren't great but here they are anyway.......

Oden's Raven

OK - normally this time of year you might expect me to post pictures of our kids at Christmas. But instead this a CONFESSION blog!

For Christmas my Mom gave Kelly an XBOX 360. At first I was secretly mad that she bought him one. I HATE video games and I HATE how boys turn into lushes when they play them! Kelly was so excited about the stupid thing that I too bought him some games. Kel's parents decided to buy the game ROCK BAND. I have heard that Guitar Hero and games like it are fun; but still I was thinking... "I hate video games!"

Well - we opened ROCK BAND and I can officially say that Kelly and I are the BIGGEST LOSERS EVER!!!!!!!!!! We are both so addicted! The first night we played I did my hair in a Sanjaya mohawk, with a neon green head band, and we ROCKED OUT!!!!!

We formed a band named Oden's Raven (if you know anything about Will Ferrell you will know where that came from). Kel plays lead guitar and I hold it all together on the drums. We have a pretty strong fan base in Stolkholm so far. We were about to go on tour today to Berlin but Arie made us mess up on our song. We got so upset about it that we had to make a new rule that we could only play when the kids are asleep! We are so into the game that we ignore our children. But hey that is the life of a ROCK star's family - sometimes the fans come first! HA!

Wow are we sad! I promise that soon I will post more pics of the kids. We went on a trip to Bangkok and I need to put up some pictures of that too.

Anyway - it is late and I need to go practice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Liam is 3!!!

Little sweet Liam is 3 years old now. His birthday was this past weekend on October 6th. It was a great day. He woke up in the morning and saw the Spongebob Squarepants tablecloth on the table and he got so excited. He immediately called Papa and told him all about it, laughing the whole time. Every time he saw a wrapped present he would sit next to it and sing happy birthday to himself. He's a funny kid!
We had some of the neighborhood (really its just one street) kids come over that evening for the Spongebob party. I was a little nervous because I'm not very creative when it comes to throwing toddler birthday parties (I should've called Kirsten). I have a hard enough time keeping my one toddler entertained, much less a whole group of them. It went well though. They really don't need much to be completely entertained. Kelly went out and bought a helium tank and some balloons and that was more entertaining than anything I would've thought of. They loved it! We enjoyed yummy hot dogs (thank you Hebrew National) and Polish sausages.
Then came the cake. Liam had seen a picture of Spongebob ice cream cake once when we were at Coldstone and he never stopped talking about it. It was delicious and all the kids and parents walked out with blue lips. Arie even had a blue pirate mustache!!!! It was awesome. Over all it was fun night. But in true Alyson and Kelly form I think we only took 3 pictures!

I'm Back and on a mission to UPDATE this thing...

I finally had to come to grips with the fact that I'm never going to know what I'm doing on the computer. This blog will never be fancy and impressive. That being said, I'm back at trying this blog thing. Hopefully I will keep up with the latest updates on our family and maybe I'll figure out how to add pictures one of these days!

Stay Classy!

For Better and For Worse

This website was created for our family and friends to keep track of us while we are living our "Guam Adventure". This site will mainly be run by me, Alyson . . . the wife and mother of this crazy group. With that in mind BEWARE . . . this is our family for better and for worse . . . I am not one to hold back. While everyone is invited to check this site out, it is also a journal of our family. I will document the funny, interesting, depressing, embarrassing, beautiful, and special moments that we experience while living on this other hemisphere.
I hope that visitors to our site will laugh, learn something new, and even roll there eyes while reading about our crazy family.
Please enjoy!!!!!