New Year!

Well in the 3 years we’ve been married the plan every year has been to write a Christmas letter. Well this year it didn’t happen again, but we’re doing a letter anyway even though it‘s February and we‘re just getting it out. It has been quite a year for us with lots of ups and downs but we’ve made it through. In September we made our 3rd move since being married and still haven’t left San Diego. We had been looking into buying a house, but in the process found out that the stuff we could actually afford with Andrea staying home 90% of the time instead of going back to work wasn’t something we wanted to live in or was in a bad area. We made the decision as a family to move into base housing and it’s been a nice experience. The houses are nice and we actually have a front and back yard for the kids to play in. As a family this Christmas we were blessed beyond what we could have imagined by being part of Operation Homefront’s Adopt-A-Family where we were blessed with a gift of $1,000 to do what we wished for Christmas. What an amazing group of people the San Diego Yacht Club is. We couldn’t begin to thank them enough.
Josh finished his 10th year in the Navy and only has 10 more to go before retiring at 37 (won’t that be nice). He’s been aboard the USS Thach since August of 2005 and unfortunately has not been the best command to say the least, but we make the best of it and are looking forward to new orders in 2009. With another deployment approaching fast we’re preparing our family for the separation once again. As much as Josh hates being gone from the family it’s not as horrible as we thought it would be at first. One of his daily activities while at home is rough housing with the kids which inevitably leads to at least 1 person getting hurt, which usually ends up being Mackenzie, but hey they’re having fun. He’s starting to get Rylan in on the rough housing which is fun to watch.
Andrea is still a stay at home mom, but now is working part time to at least get some adult interaction from time to time. She is selling PartyLite and is working toward going on the cruise that PartyLite sends them on in May. It has been a great outlet for her to get out of the house and feel like she’s helping the family because the money she makes has been paying for most if not all of the van payment every month. Andrea got her first REAL taste of Military life and how people that you met just over a year ago become your best friends very quickly and are soon the only family you have around you. She also had to experience the worst of military “families” when they have to move across the country. Andreas parents moved to Hawaii this last year and that was a tough thing to get through, but she knows they prayed about it and it was a good move for them. Her dad left in February right before Rylan was born and her mom left in July. The good thing about the difference in when they left is that now her mom can honestly say she has a grasp on a little bit of a deployment feel with Kent being so far away.
Mackenzie’s growing like a weed and way too smart for her own good. She turned 2 in July and loved having 2 different birthday celebrations. The week before her birthday we went out to Florida and spent a week in Disneyworld with Nana, Papa, Uncle Brett, Auntie Meow, Jace and Bubby. Talk about a BLAST. She loved meeting all the characters and we can’t wait to take her to Disneyland sometime before Josh deploys. She is a fantastic big sister and loves playing with RyRy in her room with all her toys. She is loving our new house and the fact that she has a “backard” as she calls it. We have some things that we do every week and she loves both Mom & Tots as well as Craft Group. Because of Mom & Tots she has learned so many songs as well as her left from her right. Every Wednesday she knows it’s Mom & Tots day and that Thursdays are Craft Group day. She has made a lot of new friends and in her short 2 years has also learned how the military works and that we make good friends and then they have to move. She misses her “J” very much, but we’re hoping to get out to Pittsburg to see them while Josh is deployed.
Rylan joined our family February 24th 2007 and is the complete opposite of Mackenzie. He has been very quite since he was born with very little crabbing. He is growing up so fast and in a few short weeks he will be turning 1 which we can’t hardly believe. Rylan’s favorite thing in the world to do is chase Mackenzie around the house and attack her. He’s learning so much so fast and it’s crazy. We love having him in our family and couldn’t imagine it without him,.
We hope you all have had a great year and continue to have one this year.
The Biglers
Andrea, Josh, Mackenzie and Rylan