Let's go young lady!

Ethan is a funny, smart, goofy boy.  His latest thing is to ask, tell, or demand.  He does all this using YOUNG LADY as the refernce to me.  "Can I watch a show Young Lady?"  "Where are you going young lady?" and on and on.  Really it cracks me up.  It beats the Heck out of "Can I have some mik Big Fat Momma?", Yeah put a stop to that one REAL fast.

How can you not love that face?

Top Ten

Wright Family Top Ten 2010




10. Ethan completely potty trained! a thrill mostly for Mom.

9. Austin loosing his first tooth and gaining excellent reading skills.

8. Justin having the opportunity to give medical help to literally hundreds of local Afghan people during his 8 month deployment.

7. Jeremy turned 11, earned his Weblos award, Honor roll status in his New Mexico and Ohio schools.

6. Getting help from the Red Cross to have our Dad home during Austin’s surgery in March.

5. Kresta training and participating in her first Triathlon in Roswell with Justin, cheered on by family & friends near and far.

4. Taking a trip to see our family in Texas, Utah, Idaho and Mizzou. Our kids are the best travelers EVER!

3. We moved to Ohio, settled into a new home, ward and time zone. The bonus is we love it here!

2. Cooper turned 8 and waited patiently to be baptized in July when Justin was home; as well as being on his honor rolls for New Mexico and Ohio schools.

1. What could possibly top having our Dad home safe and sound? NOTHING! Not the lottery, not all the chocolate in the world even.



Happy New Year to one and all! We hope you have all the joy and happiness possible in 2011. Love, Kresta and the Boys

Trimming the Christmas tree!

This past Monday night we got out all the trimmings and put up the tree.  Usually Justin wants to do this for the first Family Home Evening in December.  He couldn't wait.  It was a week early.  In my opinion, its because he had a really awful Christmas last year, he was in Afghanistan....nuff said.

Last year while he was gone, the boys and I picked out shatter proof ( Ethan proof) decorations.  I didn't want to see any of the breakable ones we've collected over the years get broken.  Therefore, we didn't even get them out last year.  So when we started to get out the breakables, they kept asking "is this one mine" "where did we get this one" etc.  We had a really great time together as you may be able to tell.


adding the jingle bells turned out to be a great way to tell if ethan was messing with the tree



Say Cheese! 



being three and cute is what I do best.




Ausitn is growing up so fast, he lost his first tooth a couple weeks ago.



I don't think he really though I'd keep this picture, let a lone post it.  Jeremy in a rare cheese-ball moment.



MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!



The little things that make me happy

So today and the other day I have been fiddling around with my blog design.  I wanted to have a cute Christmas look.  No go.  Instead I ended up just finding another cute background and the how-to on buttons and blinkies.  Well, then I clicked on the secrets buttons and there is the tutorial for how to put the dad-gumm words under a freakin' picture!!!! I have not been able to figure that out.  Glory be and hallelujah!  I really am a happy camper now.  So, here's some cute pictures we have...and the labels to go with.

Justin and I attended the Marine Officer Commissioning of LT Lateer.  We had a great time getting gussied up.

Look closely and you will see ATHENA the new addition.

now usually I don't like how my pictures look, but a random shot by one of the Boys turned out ok.

Ethan loves Mac and Cheese, lots and lots.  No really.

I'll be honest.  I was practically tickled pink to finally get this figured out.  Now my posts aren't as lame!  Cheers!

Oh Happy December First!

When I was growing up we had a tradition that I carry on in my little family. We give December First presents. Not something big and spendy though. Something like a new book, movie, Christmas candy etc. Well, when my brother Riley married his wonderful and fabulous bride Allison, she had a little different tradition that my mom decided to adopt. St. Nicholas Tag. It's celebrated in Germany, which is where Alli's ancestry is from. So score, now I get a Dec. 1st gift from Justin and Dec. 6th gift from my mom!! Oh what a little spoiled girl I am at heart. Growing up with all brothers, it was my job to be that way. A job I took very seriously of course. My brothers think too seriously probably.

So the other day Justin was pondering what to get for me. I gave him some ideas, frankly I have to or else I end up on the receiving end of travel size camping gear, what girl whats that ?!? To have for the family, sure, but NOT as a gift for heavens sake. He has since learned his lesson. Well, he came through this morning! Darling diamond earrings were waiting for me when I a woke this morning. With a cute little note. Well, now he has redeemed himself nicely! A Happy December First indeed!

Full of Thanks and thankful to be full.

Happy Thanksgiving !!! We had such a great time as a family this year. We had some time to hang out with each other and relax. The boys had 5 days off, Justin had 4. When does Kresta get her days off? That is a post for another day. BUT we had a great dinner with friends here in Dayton. We took over the gym at the church. Each family brought something, so no scary turkey experience for me! Just one more thing to be thankful for!! I am a confident baker, cook, and domestic goddess for sure, but turkey scares the crap outta me. Our dinner was really great, no bellies could complain.

So what so the Wright's have to be thankful this year? So much. First of all that J got home from his deployment safe and sound, not a scratch on him....though he did get a hornet sting on the head prior to coming home. BUT that we can live with. Austin has had a full recovery from all the drama we had in March with his Gastro surgeries. We find our selves loving our home in Ohio. That right there is a huge blessing. I'd hate to be somewhere for the next few years that was not Kresta friendly. I have been kindly accused of making a fit for myself wherever we live so, that 's a good thing. Ethan had mastered his potty training experience. Bless him. Bless huggies wipes and Scrubbing bubbles, they can get anything out of carpet. We are surely thankful for great kids who adapt BEAUTIFULLY. Our boys are amazing troopers. They still miss all the friends we leave behind, make new ones and move along. We are truly blessed right there. Can't have a thanking fest without being thankful for Justin's career. What a great one he has, it is going super, he's super at it, too! Lastly( for this post any who) I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So, so thankful and blessed. Sometimes I wonder why we are so blessed, then I remember we really have sacrificed and struggled too, so it works out I guess.

Bring on the Christmas season!! I can hardly believe that this week is December. Yay, yay, yay!!

Time Flies and that's the Truth!

My goodness, what have we done in the past few weeks? Well, for starters we had a great Halloween. The boys dressed up as a Cowboy (jeremy), a ninja (Cooper), Raph - the Nija Turtle (austin) and Spiderman (Ethan). We attended a Halloween Hoops night at Wright State, it was put on as a preview for the Men's and Women's Basketball teams. Then we had a trunk-or-treat night at the church. That was lots of fun, we had a ton of candy by that point. Finally when Saturday night rolled around to do our actual trick-or-treating, the kids were super excited. We went all around our neighborhood and a few streets over. The end result was MASSIVE amounts of candy! Afterwards we had some delicious homemade chicken noodle soup and rolls.

Now moving on to November...Justin and I have been looking forward to the random vacation days he requested this month. Since we still have many jobs in mind for the house, there was a long list of honey-dos. But before all that, the boys had some fun things going on in school and scouts. Jeremy is in the SOAR program here, its the gifted program. He's getting along wonderfully in it. One day a week he and his fellow sutdents all go to Titus Elementary. They have all kinds of projects going on. He's been really pumped to work with the ipods. He also got his Weblos badge and his Religious knot in Scouts. He turned 11 this month, can't hardly believe it. We had a family party and then the other night attended the opening weekend showing of The Deathly Hallows part 1. IT ROCKED!! He and his friend did get a little freaked out when the snake jumped out, but so did I. We loved it.

All the boys have been doing awesome in school and the mid-term reports looked great. This also meant that since they are getting good grades, doing their chores and being great kids (most of the time) they have had the required 3 months to get a new pet. Her name is Athena and she is a Guinea Pig. No hamsters or smaller type things, we wanted to avoid accidental vacuuming accidents!

This week is also our stake wide Proclamation emphasis week. Being un-plugged and taking more time to be together. For us though, we really try to live unplugged and do everything together! But last night when the kids wanted to watch a TV show, we didn't and had time with Athena in stead. We got her little home all set up and let her sniff us out. Eventually she did pee on the floor, on a blanket thankfully. Ethan did drop her on the floor, good thing he's so short, the fall was not a long one!