Great Photo Opportunities

Disney Princesses on Ice... what fun with a little girl! This last Saturday we had the opportunity to take Sierra to see the show (just down the road!) There are a few stories she isn't familiar with as she only started watching the movies a few months ago, but on a whole she was in love with it all! And we were quite impressed with the skating =) The pictures didn't turn out great of the performance but here is a decent shot of the grand finale... if you look closely you can see all the princes and princesses lining the stair case of the castle!

A good smiling picture amid the action!

Sharing a snow cone with daddy at intermission... this was interesting as she flung more of the ice out on her dress than into her mouth! ha ha ha!

Totally interested and unwilling to look at the camera for a picture.

On our way in... our little princess walking with her daddy... what a special date day!

All dressed up and ready to go... trying to rouse daddy and get him excited too! (It had been a long night for daddy with work stuff...)

Last Friday I got to go with Sierra's class on a field trip to a Vet Hospital. Wha a fantastic time it was. They even got to get dressed up and "operate" on their own stuffed patients. Here Sierra is trying to blow up the balloon she found inside her little lamb!

Doctor Sierra extracting all the fun things this poor lamb swallowed! Screws, balloons, toy balls...

Taking a look at Sierra's heart beat with the ultra sound at the vet office!

Our Little Leprechon (sp?)

And last but not least... fitting in cuddle time with daddy when ever possible!
(Notice: daddy is nearly asleep each time! Poor daddy is extra tired these days... so sleepy cuddle time is often likely!)

An Avacado

Caution: This is a mother's cute story of how smart and cute she thinks her kiddo is! Don't we all, ha ha!

So the other morning I got the weekly email that gives me an update on how big the baby is and what is going on. Sierra loves to look at them because they have pictures and sometimes videos of what the baby looks like.

This week the email stated that the baby all curled up is about the size of an avacado. Lucky for her this was an easy visual as we LOVE avacados around this house! However... my curious child asked if we had one in the house at the moment that she could look at. When I told her that we didn't have any at the moment the smart cookie wondered off for a minute... only to return with the four pieces from the avacado in her wooden play set. We then worked together to put the four pieces together and got to talk about the baby. She was so proud of her self... and so was I!

Creative or Cramped Space?

(I some how managed to delete this photo and couldn't add it back in the order I originally had it so here it is... front and center!)

In preparation for baby #2 we had to do some rearranging to turn the third bedroom into a nursery. When we arrived a little over a year ago we made the third bedroom an office as we didn't know when or if a second child would come along while in this home. The big down stairs room became Sierra's play room and our family hang out area. Now added in the mix was all the office furniture. It was a gradual process as I don't sit still well. I was able to gradually get the book shelves moved down (with some help from a neighbor when it came to moving the actual shelving units). Grandpa Steve and Grandma Lulu came for a weekend visit in February while Cole was gone for the month and got all the "wall" moving taking care of. We removed, patched, painted and rehung shelves, pictures, etc. When Cole got home all we had left was the huge chore of moving the desk! Now we have the office/play space/guest bed/hang out area all combined... and we actually like it. Although Sierra was quite skeptical about us "cramping" her play area! In the long run I think she is okay with it as she has a much larger open space in the middle of the room to play school, grocery store, restaurant, etc!







The movement of the office allowed for the set up of a nearly complete nursery. We have tenatively put up the "airplane" bedding we have as my instinct is that we are having a boy.... but we'll find out in the next month! Then we can finalize a name and hang it on the wall above the crib and call it good! Stay tuned for that update next month!







And last but not least... setting up the nursery had us moving the shelves that were in Sierra's room along with a couple of other things... thus we upgraded her room to a bigger girls room in style! She has a new rocker, some fun new wall decorations and she is enjoying the transition... whew! Hope you enjoy the new pictures as it has been a while... =)

Sierra riding on her "Train" that she created... we had to tie the parts together with yarn... love her imagination at work!


The new location for the futon...

An over view of our "multi-purpose" room

Cole at the desk in it's new location... a little tight but it works!

All ready for the many diapers to come!!!

Sierra's new picture frame with fun photos of her grandma's and papa's

Pinheiro News =)

Hello Friends and Family,

We are excited to announce that the last few months (following our annual Christmas letter) we have recieved a couple pieces of exciting news... and so it is time to share it with all of you! As Cole has been finding himself more and more burnt in his current career path and seeking something fresh and a new challenge, we learned that God has opened a door for just such a thing. Many hours were spent over about a six month (or more) period last year of Cole working on putting together his packet to apply for a program that will send him to get his masters for two years, followed by a three year assignment to instruct at West Point. Long story short, we found out a couple weeks ago that Cole was selected for this assignment!!!

I'm soproud of him for all the hard work put into it and so excited to see his dream fullfilled. I remember standing with him before his commissioning ceremony after graduation looking back across the parade field and him talking/dreaming about being back there to instruct. We are looking forward to this light at the end of the coming deployment and the fresh change it will give Cole, the new challenge, and some time for him to be with our family. I'm personally excited to get Sierra all dressed up and send her off to a ball with her daddy!

Here are just a few shots of some of the good memories West Point has provided in the past and here's to some more in the future!

And our second bit of our latest news... we will have a fourth family member joining our journey! We are expecting our second little one the end of August!!!

Overdue Update...

So it's been a really long time since I've updated... this post is mostly a whole lot of pictures! The Christmas season kept us quite busy with parties and celebaration... including Sierra's 3d birthday. We traveled... by truck... to California to spend Christmas with family. We had a great visit, unusually rainy weather, and a little bit of bad/snowy weather on the return trip. Now we are off to a runny start for 2011. The year will hold lots of changes for our family so stay tuned and I'll try to be better about updating more often!

Sierra snuggling with Grandma Lulu.
Sierra and Davery wrestling with Papa Steve.

Auntie Aim and Papa Steve at the party

Target practice with Grandma Jeanette

Cuddles with Papa Mike

Seeing some real target shooting done by papa Steve, Uncle Steve, daddy, Auntie Aim and mommy

Meeting Grandma Jeanette's small dogs that are easy to hold and cuddle

Special dinner with lots of Haubrich cousins

Seeing baby Lila all grown up

Visiting with some great second cousins

Christmas morning

Jordan, Sierra and baby Katie... cousins meeting for the first time

Noah, Sierra and baby Katie

Birthday party with Davery, Brendan, and Peyton

Sierra's actual birhtday spent at Ruth Washburn

After daddy's work/FRG Christmas pary.... daddy's a little toasted and Sierra's a little Rudolph

Picture with Santa

First time sledding...that she remembers

Bundled up and ready for the snow

Hope you enjoyed this long group of pictures and Happy New Year to you all.

Change of Command

So these pictures are a good month over due! Cole has officially been in command of Chaos Company for just over a month now. We have had a busy month with a bit of "chaos" added to our lives! On October 1 we had a busy morning with 4... yes 4, back to back change of command ceremonies. Followed by one huge reception. Then after the clean up for that we had a couple of hours to freshen up and get ready for the Battalion Ball. In the midst of the morning commotion our camera decided to break... again so these pictures were taken with our video camera (which ran out of tape) and are the best we have!

I have to say that Sierra did quite well at the ceremony given that she was supposed to sit still, be quiet and nevermind all the new interesting things. As the ceremony began with the national anthem I showed her how to put her hand on her heart only to look down half way through and see her saluting! She insisted on doing it just like all the soldiers around her. Then she continued to ask "which one's daddy" over and over until she had a good view of him. At which point all the speaches were boring her and she was quite insistant that she needed to take her Pokey doll to daddy so that he had something to play with too! I was able to distract her and keep her from running out on to the field for the most part. Then after the passing of the guidon (flag) when Cole was walking back to us she proudly shouted out "hi daddy!" By the time the ceremony was wrapping up and they started playing the Army Song I just let her march to the beat on out to the field as she was enjoying herself and the music! Needless to say we didn't sit through the other three ceremonies but hung out inside preparing for the mass reception!

Our lives are now full of more meetings, longer nights, and bit more CHAOS... in more ways than one! The ride has begun... please keep us in your prayers as Cole and I are both working to lead the soldiers and their families into the next deployment.