House Party My Party

House Party My Party.

The Last Teenager!

We celebrated Emily’s 13th birthday this weekend! She turned 13 on the 8th and we’ve been partying ever since! Alex surprised her by decorating the house – complete with cool decorations, banners, streamers, & of course confetti. (Which is still all over the floor at this point!) We had birthday cake on Thursday night – which we’re still eating on too! Friday afternoon she had a French manicure and checked out all the new fall fashions at New York & Co. And at some point there was a Silly String fight – but it really wasn’t much of a fight – since the girls didn’t have any ammo! On Saturday, more shopping.  Emily picked up some cute t-shirts, a new dress, and some very chic black suede boots!  (Sure wish we could wear the same size shoes!) We took her to Outback for steaks on Saturday night – but she ordered ribs instead. Overall a very nice weekend! And it was so fun to have Alex here with us to celebrate. Emily sure missed her big brother!

Airshow fun!

This weekend, Fort Bliss in El Paso hosted a huge airshow. It was quite interesting and entertaining. From the Mariachi band to the paratroopers to the F22 Raptor flyby – we had a great time. We even got to see a school bus race a jet plane. Not sure who won, but it was a close race. Needless to say, this was no ordinary school bus! We saw all sorts of planes, helicopters, & other military vehicles. Emily even got to go inside a hummer to work the machine gun. We saw a Boy Scout corvette, the Miller Lite cheerleaders, and even a friendly grasshoppper. It was a fun-filled family Saturday!!

 

 

Welcome Home, Alex!

These were taken at church – tried to get a few of everyone “all dressed up” and without food in their mouths from the potluck! The food was wonderful and we appreciated all the hard work & planning on Alex’s behalf. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful family – so many aunts, uncles, & cousins  to make everything so special.

More Homecoming Festivities…

We took these pictures at Nana’s house. These kids sure can get a little crazy when they all get together!

More Homecoming Pictures…

These pictures were taken at Granny and Pa’s farm. Alex couldn’t wait to climb up in the barn with the tobacco! Plus the little boys sure love to ride the tractor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the Homecoming Pictures!

Just a few pics of Alex’s homecoming… this first stet of pictures were taken at the airport.

All pictures will be uploaded to Shutterfly at http://rrchugg.shutterfly.com/ and at our Family Post website http://www.thefamilypost.com/jchuggfamily/home.php, too.

 

 

Our Boy is Home!

Our missionary is home! We are so proud of him and glad to have him back with us. Although we know he did a great job teaching the people in the Philippines and they will miss him – but we are sure happy he made it home safely!

Of course, I have tons of pictures. But believe it or not – I don’t have my laptop with me in KY so I’ll have to post the pictures when I get back to El Paso.

The other very cool thing is that I have all 4 of the kids, both spouses, & both adorable little grandsons here in KY with us! This has not happened in a long time! And it’s wonderful!

I guess the older you get – the more you realize how important family really is. We’ve been to Granny & Pa’s, Nana’s and out to eat with the whole gang. Aunts, uncles, cousins, great-Aunts and all are so special to us and we love them more and more every day. Being so far away from home, I’ve really grown to appreciate and love where I came from.  The drive to our humble little farm at Trapp is the most peaceful and relaxing drive. By the time we pull up to the back porch, all my worries and problems seem so far away. There’s really no place like home!

Down to the last week!!

Big news! We’re down to the last week of Alex’s mission! Can’t believe two years have gone by. We are getting really, really, really excited!! Can hardly keep from jumping up and down all day! Guess we’d better get his room ready – it’s become the “storage” room in his absence. Now where are we going to put all that stuff?

We’ll be heading to KY to pick Alex up! The big kids are meeting us there. Jeffrey, Chemenn & Lincoln will be driving from TN, Jennifer, Mike, & Ethan will be driving from Jersey. So we’ll have all 4 kids & their families all together for the first time in years!!! We’re so excited to see the grandsons, too. Boy, it’s no fun living so scattered around.

Here’s a few pics of Alex – just in case you’ve forgotten what he looks like!

 

 

 

 

Couch Potato Woes!

Yes, I know – my poor blog has been neglected during the hetic summer months. Why, I’m not quite sure since Emily has been gone – I should have had lots of spare time on my hands, but I’m just not sure what happened. I think I’ve had a major case of  the lazy bugs! Yes, coming home from work, crashing in front of the a/c and just chilling  – watching episode after episode of NCIS. It’s been great – but alas, all good things come to an end and it’s back to the grind of school, ballet, homework, and acting like a responsible adult. (kind of)

My goal for the week is to get caught up…

Happy Birthday, Nana!

July is full of birthdays for our family. We start with Jeffrey’s birthday on the 1st  and as the month goes on we add Nana,  Pa, Jennifer, Mike, Ethan, and Clay. So we might as well just put a huge birthday bow around the entire month of July – it’s a party-filled month. Today was Nana’s special day and she loved having the kids at home and talking to everyone. We even had calls from the vacationing grandkids…Jeffrey and Jennifer.

Happy 4th of July!

Fun times and party traditions at home! Loved the food, fun, and fireworks at Clay & Ann’s this week. It’s the best party of the summer! Even though it rained, it didn’t slow the kids down a bit. Fun on the trampoline and playing washers and of course grabbing a snack between activities. And to top the evening off – we had fabulous fireworks!

Cat Scratch Fever family…

Yes, you could now call us the “Cat Scratch Fever” family. We were so totally spoiled with Ollie Moe. He’s such a laid back, big, old fat cat who just quietly hangs out. Not getting into much – just occasionally shreds a roll of paper towels or cries to go out on the deck to harass the bugs. He pretty much follows Emily around and loves to curl up on the heating pad and watch TV with the rest of the family. Even when he was a kitten, he was never destructive or very mischievous. He even let Emily wrap him up in towels and carry him around like a little baby.

But Baby Cat, Tinkerbell is an entirely different story. She is a wild child – constant climbing, constant biting, and constant scratching. She hides under the furniture waiting for you to walk by so she can attack your toes and bite your feet. She jumps up on the bed waiting for you to walk by and then she leaps on to your clothes, clawing her way to your shoulder to sit and see what’s going on. At first we thought this to be so cute and sweet, but lately we’ve gone through more Neosporin (with pain control) than I care to admit. We have scratches up and down our legs, shoulders, and hands. And if you are wearing jewelry… well, just take a look at the scratches on Emily’s neck where she “played” with her necklace.

She pounces around more like a Tigger, than a little kitten. In fact, we are now calling her TiggerTink and are beginning to think that maybe she’s some sort of rare “attack cat” breed that we’ve never heard of. Either way, she’s become one of the family now. And I must say, both she and Ollie Moe have personalities that have some definite similarities to our “real” children. You figure it out!

Missionary Alex Sings!

Finally! It took me awhile to get around to this – but, at last it worked!

The video below was sent to us by the Mission President at the MTC while Alex was there. It’s a hymn medley (very beautiful, by the way!) and he is singing at a missionary farewell. We’ve always told Alex what a good voice he has – looks like he inherited that musical talent from his father and Grandad. I’ve kept in the DVD drive of my laptop nearly the entire time Alex has been in the Philippines and play it all the time. Enjoy!

done

Baby Cat Can Fly!

We must be extremely bored when the highlight of our weekend is watching baby cat leap from ottoman to ottoman!

Getting ready for the leap...

 

Flying kitty...

 

Safe landing!