PWOC Advent Event

Last week, we held a special event in PWOC where my good friend Ashley Chapman equipped us to build some special advent calendars. The main idea was to inspire us to be intentional this Christmas season. We created a paper calendar to hang on the wall that lists a scripture passage to read each day, as well as a fun Christmas activities to make the season extra special. The ladies seemed to really enjoy it and I look forward to hearing how this advent season goes for each of their families!

Beautiful centerpieces and decorations helped set the mood

The counters and tables were lined with craft supplies!

Our final product, customized to match our Christmas decor

Me with the two lovely ladies behind the event

Kaden 15 Month Update

Kaden is 15 months old! At his check-up last week, he weighed just under 26 pounds (which puts him in the 69th percentile), and measured about 31 inches (about 2.5 feet! - which puts him in the 45th percentile). He's definitely looking a bit longer and leaner like a toddler. His eyes are still getting darker so I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up with hazel or brown eyes like mine.

Not a whole lot has changed from the last update I wrote. He walks very confidently but can't quite run yet (something I'm very thankful for.) He's developing some good fine motor skills as he plays and explores. Developmentally, he is right on track!

He loves being outside and playing on the playground. As the weather gets colder here, getting out and about will be more of a challenge. But I don't want him to be cooped up inside all winter, and so I bought him a nice snow suit with boots and mittens so we can still visit the playground when it's not too windy or icy. Thankfully the weather has been beautiful and crisp this fall so we maximized our time at the park while we could. The photos below were taken on base, where all the gorgeous ginko trees were dropping their golden leaves!

Kaden is becoming a little more social and enjoys playing with his little friends. Below are a couple of cute pictures from a recent play date with Jack. Kaden is still a little too aggressive, but is learning how to play and interact without hurting others, which is good. Multiple friends have watched him for me while I've been working on jet photos and they ALL said he was on his best behavior and was very cute and sweet. I'm proud of how far he's come!

He's heading into a new season of separation anxiety and stranger danger which has made it more difficult to leave him with babysitters and friends. He's usually OK a couple of minutes after I leave. But the good bye's are hard. Poor kiddo! But I know it's good for him to see me leave and know that I will come back again. So we keep plugging away.

A few other recent milestones include getting his first hair cut and cutting a couple more teeth. He is also talking a lot more and it seems like he learns a new word every day. He knows many of his body parts and some animal noises. He can say many color names, though he can't really match the name to the color just yet. We've been working on counting and he can consistently say the number two in sequence, though that's about it. Whenever he sees an airplane (whether in real life or an image of one) he points and makes a jet noise. He enjoys stacking blocks and is getting better at playing on his own instead of needing my constant attention.

There is clearly a lot of mental development going on right now. Unfortunately, this is also a really difficult season. We know that he has ideas and wants to do things and say things, but he's just not quite capable yet. So he gets frustrated easily. We also get frustrated easily because we're still not able to clearly communicate with him yet. He'll be whining and asking us for something but we have no idea what he wants and so we play a guessing game in the midst of his melt down. We do our best to encourage him to point and use his words, but we know he's just not quite there yet. I really look forward to when he can speak clearly.

He is still a smart little sweet heart and we enjoy spending time with him. I just pray I'm still able to say that in 3 days after we take our very active little toddler on a cross Pacific flight for our Hawaiian vacation! (Are we out of our mind? Maybe... We shall see how this goes!)

 Kaden babbling at the camera (he can see himself),
showing off his ability to say "NO!"

and giggling as he tickles mommy.

Wentzel Family Jet Photos

As I was preparing to take jet photos for everyone else in the squadron, I realized that I needed someone to take OUR pictures for us! Thankfully, my friend Christa Elza who took our family portraits a few weeks ago was willing to come out again and snap some shots for us. It was an early, foggy morning and we didn't have as much time to get ready as we would have liked. But the pictures are still adorable!

Jet Photos 2014

The big project that has been keeping me busy over the last few weeks was taking and editing all of the squadron's family portraits in front of the jet. This is a fall tradition at Osan and my second year serving as the official photographer. We had a great response from all of my friends. Thirty different families signed up to have their pictures taken over the course of two weekends. That was a lot of work, and several hours of editing. But everyone has been very pleased with the result, and I know we captured dozens of adorable snapshots for my friends that I know they will treasure for years to come! Below are some of my favorites!

Our New Assignment!

We recently found out that we will be moving to Shaw AFB, South Carolina (just outside of the small town of Sumter) in May! As you can see on the map above, Sumter is about an hour east of Columbia. We are excited about our next assignment, which is a little surprising since it was originally pretty far down on our wish list. Obviously, it would have been fun to live in Europe or be closer to family in the West. But there are many great things about Shaw as well.

First of all, we're looking forward to returning to U.S. after living overseas for five years. There are many things that we've loved about Asia, but it will be so nice to have some American conveniences again, like a garbage disposal and a second vehicle and a garage and a back yard and nicer grocery stores, etc. etc. etc. We may not have much immediate family in the south, but we'll get to see my brother Nate quite a bit since his band frequently tours in that area. It will also be easier to visit my grandparents in Kentucky and James' grandparents in Maine (whom I've never met!) Plus, Sumter is much closer to our parents than South Korea was so I'm sure Kaden will get to see his grandparents a lot more. Really, that's the main reason we're excited to return Stateside. We want Kaden to know his family.

I would have really enjoyed traveling around Europe if we'd been given an assignment to Germany or Italy. But I am pumped about travel opportunities on the East coast as well. I really haven't spent much time in that part of the country at all. I've never been to New England, and there are several bucket list destinations we look forward to visiting, including New York City and Disney World!

We have some friends stationed at Shaw right now who have told us a lot about the local area and what it's like to live there. It's a small town in the south so there are some undesirable aspects. But it's very close to Columbia, and several other awesome cities in that region, so we can easily hop in the car and explore on the weekends. We've been looking at houses there and it looks like we'll be able to get a pretty nice place for an affordable price. We'll also be back in the Bible Belt so there are many great church options - which will be a HUGE blessing after settling for a military chapel for 5 years. Chapel programs are great, but the worship services leave something to be desired.

We will have to adjust a bit to James' new, faster-paced work tempo there. One of the reasons Shaw was so far down on our list is because we know that the squadrons there are gone ALL-THE-TIME. They deploy and leave on short TDYs very frequently. They also sit alert there which means that, even when James is home, he may have to go into work for a full 24 hour shift so we wouldn't see him for a day or two. However, they fly the same Block 50 mission at Shaw that they did in Misawa and I know James is excited to switch back to that. He really excelled at the Block 50 mission and so we hope he'll feel a bit more at ease and able to do well career-wise there.

Oh, and I haven't mentioned the best part: The Cienskis are going with us, and the Hofmanns actually just arrived at Shaw. So we'll be there with close friends and Kaden, Jack and Riley can continue growing up together! No matter what this next assignment holds for us in the way of deployments or challenges with work or the community, at least we know that we'll have some great people to lean on.

Happy Halloween!

This year, our squadron threw a big Halloween party, so James and I decided to invest in a fun, family costume. I've had this idea for years and was so glad we had an opportunity to use it. Incase you've never seen The Princess Bride, we went as The Dread Pirate Roberts, Princess Buttercup, and we dressed Kaden up as a mouse so he could be a Rodent of Unusual Size (one of the three hazards of the Fire Swamp in the movie). The costumes weren't exact, but they were close enough that people at the party got it pretty quickly. :)

 One of the things I love about big costume parties like this overseas, is seeing the creativity. Since it's not easy to just go out and buy a costume, a lot of people have to make theirs. Everyone went all out, too, which was great! Below are some pictures of our friends:

Jason and Cortney Piper as Popeye and Olive Oil. Alex and Barbara Divine as Katniss and Peeta from The Hunger Games.

 Dave and Carrie Ludington dressed their 2 year old Desmond up like a shark, then Dave was a shark victim and Carrie was the mermaid that saved him. You can't really see her make-up in the photo, but she's an artist and sponged on make up through a fishnet stocking to make her face look like it has scales on it. Very cool. Hunter and Brenda Powell are hilarious and decided to go with a current event. They were CDC workers handing out "shots" of their homemade ebola vaccination all night. haha.

By far, my favorite costume of the night was Caleb and Jordan's. There are A LOT of people in the Air Force who are way too excited about an extreme exercise program called Cross Fit. They talk about it non-stop, post about it online, dress and act a certain way because of it. It's very obnoxious. So they went as extreme cross fitters and were in character the whole night, randomly doing push ups or benching equipment in the bar. I'm sure they rubbed some cross fit junkies the wrong way that night, but it was hysterical.

We're normally not really into Halloween, but I can't pass up an opportunity to go out and have fun with my friends!

The night of Halloween, we dressed the babies back up in their costumes and got together over at the Cienskis to hand out candy. They're too small to go trick-or-treating but we did let them wander around in the halls for a little bit before bedtime. One of Jack's nick names is Jack-o-Lantern so, of course, they had to dress him as one. It was so cute! Cortney and little Sofia stopped by for a little bit dressed in matching witch hats. After we put the babies to bed, we continued hanging out a bit and had a fun game night. Over all, I'd say it was a very successful Halloween!

He wouldn't keep his hat on so we put his bear hood up for the photo