My Gavie: Food Connoisseur, Lover Of Life!

Some kids like food, mine... he "dives" right in!



See, I CAN keep it short and sweet, just like Bubba!

"Tanner - I - Am - Your - Mother"

I hope you read the above sentence in Darth Vader's voice because THAT is what my world has become! We have had the movies for EXACTLY one month and one day and I swear I hear the voices of Anakin Skywalker OR is that Darth Vader in my dreams! He is one in the same RIGHT?!?! ;)



Long gone are the days of simple legos... now it's "Mommy I want to build a ship to carry my droids to the galaxy of the..." Sadly all I hear is "WAAA WAAA WA WAAA WAAA WAAA" (like in Charlie Brown). I love that he is passionate about something but sadly I morn the days when I played Barbies and Strawberry Shortcakes, you know, girl stuff. Such are the realities of being the Mommy to boys. Guess I'm going over to Hollie's where I understand the toys. And maybe if I'm lucky I can dine on an Easy Bake Oven creation while a 5 year old paints my fingernails and "does" my hair! ;)


He looks like he needs a good nap (or a Boddingtons, either way I'm cool!)


I don't recall Luke being dismembered in that way...


In a Star Wars TRANCE!


Do you think they are in "time out"?


R2D2


"The FORCE is strong with these three!!!"

Lord help me! ;)

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was a blast! Tanner was so excited to see that Santa received our forwarding address card and did indeed find our new home! (LAUGH!) Gavin was just excited to see Tanner so excited. After watching Tanner unwrap a few gifts Gavin understood the concept of "tear off the brightly colored paper because there is something GREAT inside". However as all two year olds know, the real fun is the wrapping paper and boxes themselves!


Yeah, this picture pretty much sums up the excitement in our home Christmas morning! Tanner's expression is PRICELESS!


"Santa Came! Santa Came!!"


"Gavie wake up! Wake up Gavie!!"


Gavie says: "OK Daddy, I'll get up. By the way, who is this Santa you speak of?"


Checking out the loot!


Star Wars Action figures!


"Baby Legos"


Star Wars PJs from Grammy


Santa brought Gavie his own Elmo backpack


"LUKE, I AM YOUR FATHER!"


Gavie riding his musical zebra from Grandma and Papa!


Santa must think Daddy is pretty special because he brought him the Keurig Coffee Maker that Daddy has been wanting for over a year!


STAR WARS: ALL 6 movies. Tanner FREAKED OUT!


Santa brought Mommy new satin PJs!


Thanks to Grammy, Gavin's teeth sparkle with his new Elmo tooth brush set!


Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without Jann's Awesome Apple Dish


Gavin playing in his "Man Cave" from Nini & Grandpa :)


"It's a bird, it's a plane, it's The Gavster"

We would like to thank everybody that sent such amazing love our way. Our family is so blessed to have such thoughtful and generous loved ones. Thank you all for everything!

Christmas Eve 2010

Happy Christmas Eve!

We enjoyed worshiping with the Childers family and Wiley's parents on Christmas Eve. There was a beautiful candlelight service at the chapel on base. Honestly, it made me feel a little homesick for my parents, siblings and Paul's family too. The evening was a tender reminder of how blessed we are to be together on Christmas while so many military families are separated - for this my heart gives thanks. It also made me reflect the joy and hope the birth of one child can make! Merry Christmas!


Look at this! A family photo where we all have our eyes open and are looking in the same direction! WooHoo!


The cutie-pie foursome!


Snappy dressers!


EVERYBODY loves a Paigie hug!

Christmas Eve-Eve 2010

We have an AMAZING extended family here in Bahrain. Two of the families we spend a great deal of our time with are the Childers and Williams families. I adore Hollie and Heather, the hubbies are all friends and our kids all act like brothers & sisters so naturly we enjoy spending time together! :) We had an impromptu gathering here at our new pad the night before Christmas Eve.


ALL the kids sitting sort'a still in the same spot... AMAZING!!! Quick - camera do your thing before they are all off and running again! ;)


What a good looking crowd of kiddos! (Well, except for Tanner's "funny face", I guess 5 out of 6 will have to do!) LAUGH :)


Anybody up for a wagon ride?


All the COOL big kids color!


Maggie & Katie are so glad we built the "Flusche Gingerbread Bahraini Standalone Villa", they gave it two sticky thumbs up!


"The Force is STONG in this one!"


"Boomer...


...Sooner!"


It's not a party until someone HAS to go to "time out" - LAUGH!!!! ;) I love you Pagie-Poo!

It's beginning to taste a lot like Christmas!

Decorating a gingerbread house for Christmas is a tradition Paul and I started when we were engaged to be married. Over the years we have delighted in this simple tradition at each of our parent's homes in Oklahoma, in Broken Arrow Oklahoma, in Pensacola Florida, Edmond Oklahoma, Corpus Christi Texas, in our Juffair Marriott hotel room in Bahrain and this year on Tala Island. It's fun to look back at the photos of this tradition, I especially love the memories made the Christmas that Tobey and Kaz stayed with us and I was weeks away from delivering Gavin. I wore a cream & black Damisk apron and was as big as a barn! GOOD TIMES!



This year Tanner and I (amongst the yet to be unpacked moving boxes) cranked up "John Denver and The Muppets Christmas" CD and set out to build the Flusche Family Gingerbread Standalone Villa (more Bahraini humor!) The John Denver and The Muppets Christmas music is another family tradition, this one was started by my Dad when Lauren and I were little girls helping him "build" and decorate the artificial Christmas tree... back then it was a vinyl record... and I had to walk uphill both ways through the snow to get to school, did I mention I was barefoot? LAUGH!)



Tanner and I designed quite a remarkable villa for the Bahraini gingerpeople! My favorite detail was the green star shaped sunglasses for the tiny candy marshmallow snowman - He's got STYLE!



Tanner's favorite contribution was the gingerbread man with the "really pretty blue eyes like Mommy". Seriously, I can totally see the resemblance! :)



Tanner and I set out some expectations for ourselves prior to starting this project:

1) We must complete it while Gavin is napping.
2) We should eat almost as much candy as we use to decorate with.
3) Repeat the John Denver CD if it ends before completion of the candy covered abode.
4) Try not to laugh too hard when Ms. Nida spies on us from around the corner.
5) Sing back-up for the Muppets and try to catch Ms. Nida singing back up as well.
6) Most importantly, surprise Daddy with a complete villa when he gets home from work!



Daddy LOVED our Flusche Gingerbread Bahraini Standalone Villa!

PEACE OFFERING

A few weeks after we moved in to our new pad on Tala our realtor had these beautiful flowers delivered to our home. I think it was her way of saying...

"I know you have lived here for 15 days already without a master shower and your kitchen sink is still leaking AND you had to clean up after the tile layers. I'd just like to say thank you for moving in anyway AND please don't give me the evil eye if you ever see me in the neighborhood. Thank you and good luck with that shower of yours."

I thought about putting them in the boy's bathroom so I could gaze at their beauty while on my knees washing the pots from that night's dinner in the bathtub! ;)

How does the old floral tag line go? "Say it with Flowers!"

Put'n On The Ritz!

A few days before Christmas a good friend of mine named Grace invited the boys and I to the beach. Grace's son Kai and Tanner are best-buds and we try to get them together as much as possible. Grace also has a precious daughter names Zoe who Gavin likes to follow around because, as everybody knows, "big kids are cool!"



I know I live on an island, Bahrain is a country surrounded by water which would lead one to believe that the island would have it's fair share of lovely waterfront. Sadly, due to land reclamation, there are very few beaches to visit. Go when Grace invited us we were VERY excited! This isn't just "any beach" this is "THE beach". FUN! Grace's family are members of the Ritz Carlton Bahrain which has the only (Non-royal) manicured beach on the island and beautiful lush gardens that rival Disneyland ;)



The kids had a blast digging for hermit crabs, walking to the island with Ronnie, building sand forts and eating popsicles! There were four boys all about the same age (6), Zoe (3) and Gavin (nearly 2).



We discovered that Gavin DOES NOT like sand on his feet. It was hilarious, I haven't seen my boy sit in one place that long since he was 4 months old!!! By the end of the day he couldn't stand watching the other kids have all the fun while he sat on the lounge chair... he released his "sand between the toes" fear and right before our eyes became one of the BIG kids!



A BIG thanks goes out to the Markley family for letting us use their last guest pass of the season!
Cheers!