~Our Rockabilly Army Life~

My Boy Is Just That Awesome

2012-02-11T16:37:00.000-08:00

I have to say, I have some great kids. I am really one very fortunate Mother. I have 4 son's and we are pretty sure another little testosterone ball on the way. These boys aren't perfect by any means, really who on earth is? Not me, that's for certain! How did I luck out like this though?

Our oldest Michael just turned 12 and he came up with the best ever "theme" for his party.

Seeing as Michael's birthday is in January that is when everyone makes those pesky new years resolutions. Blah. Lose that last 5lbs (er 40), Save money and so on.
My girl friend Amber decided for her resolution to "make a difference" weather it was in the world or in her local community. I was really surprised by this, she became a topic of discussion in our home as to how SHE was making a difference and how we could implement that in our home. She was doing things like a drive for Water.org and donating to her local animal shelter and so on. When Michael's birthday theme came up he said "I want to do that, I could do that too!" he decided that he would ask his guests, that instead of bringing him a traditional gifts, to bring him some sort of a donation for the shelter as well.

Ya, that's right, he decided to give up gifts completely for dogs! Gahhhhh, it makes me tear up even now. Not only were his guests surprised at this, Amber was surprised as well. Some how things snowballed a little and when we went to donate at the local shelter there was a news crew and two newspapers, and three officers from animal control! WHOA! I knew in advance that the local writer for the Fort Polk Guardian would be there since she had called me in advance, having read about Michael's birthday party on my Facebook page. Michael handled it all so very well.

Here is where Michael and Cody both held up a giant 40lbs logging chain that was wrapped around a rather small dog that animal control picked up. He was so sweet, but still so painfully thin. It was all Michael and Cody could talk about for days. How sad they were that other people could mistreat an animal like that.

Here is the video of Michael on the news!

Here I have copied and pasted the article from the Guardian!
There was a small typo saying that it was Matthew Howard but it was actually Michael.

Fort Polk boy makes dogs' day, gives back to man's best friend
February 7, 2012

By Sarah Peachey, Fort Polk Guardian staff writer

Related Links
Fort Polk Guardian web site
FORT^POLK, La. -- He received eight bags of dog food, eight bags of treats and more than 15 toys for his birthday. It may sound like the perfect gift for a dog, but it was for a 12-year-old Fort Polk boy.

Matthew Howard, son of Matt and Rachael Morris and a student at Pickering Elementary School, chose to forgo traditional gifts in favor of donations to the City of DeRidder Animal Control during his birthday party Jan. 21. His mother's friend, Amber LeRoy, was his inspiration.

"My mom told me about her friend Amber's New Year's resolution of helping the world. I decided if she can do it, I could too, so I chose to give back to dogs. I saved all my birthday money to buy extra food and toys," Howard said.

LeRoy chose to make a difference in her resolution and started bringing some items to the animal control facility. "If this idea could spread, it would be awesome," she said.

When Howard arrived at the animal control facility, he grabbed the two largest bags and carried them to the kennels. Almost immediately he wanted to go inside and see the dogs. He picked up a bag of treats and walked into the building that housed the dogs with a smile on his face, stopping to give a treat to each animal he passed. While some of the dogs were timid, others accepted the treats, toys and pats with tails wagging.

"It's sad to see what has happened to some of the dogs, but it feels good to help. Some of the dogs really love what I got them. One of the dogs took the toy as soon as I handed to him," Howard said.

Howard said he's had a love for animals since he was little. "Dogs are just amazing animals. If I could take a dog from here, I would take all of them," he said.

Anne Champney, an animal control officer in charge of the kennel, said she was moved by Howard's decision to collect donations. "It's an amazing thing and he got a huge response. We cannot solicit donations, so he did this all on his own. His mom called and asked about assisting. We told her to think of a bored dog and what they would want to do," Champney said.

Howard said he enjoyed petting the dogs, giving them treats and handing them toys and he spent a lot of time doing all three.

"He's been an animal lover since he was small and watched Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel over any other show," said Rachael Morris, Howard's mother. "He heard about Amber (LeRoy)'s resolution and got excited to do something. He asked, 'Can I get donations for my birthday?'"

Howard didn't have to forgo all birthday gifts, Morris said. A Family friend brought Howard a football.
"I was so proud of him. I kept asking, 'Are you sure you don't want any gifts? You're sure you only want donations?' It was something he felt he had to do. Now my other son wants to do something similar for his birthday," Morris said.

Howard's brother, Cody, 10, has a birthday in June and also plans to seek donations, but for a different cause. "He inspired me to do the same thing. I'm going to work with water.org so kids can get purified water," Cody said. "My brother did a cool thing and I'm proud of him. He wasn't greedy and decided to give back. I've never seen kids do that. People say kids can't do anything, but we can."

I would have just linked it but I wanted to make sure that it was included when we print out next blog book!

This in turn inspired Amber to start a new Facebook page called "Birthdays for a cause" it is AWESOME! It's a place where people can go to get ideas for possible birthday parties asking for some sort of donation, and a place to share those parties once they have happened! Thanks Amber for starting all of this! Thanks Sarah for the article and thanks to all our friends and family who took the time to donate! Thanks Anne at Animal Control for being so open to letting us come and love on the dogs when we donated! It made the kids afternoon. Frankly, were we not moving to Germany this spring we would have let Michael adopt one of those sweet pups. We just can't afford to fly a 2nd dog right now. Boo! At least if he couldn't take them home he was making thier lives just a little better!

In the end Michael got over $200.00 in gift cards or cash, with which he then went to Petsmart and Walmart and spent it on dog food and toys. He got quiet a bit of stuff! I just have to say again and again how very proud of him we are! What amazing boys we have!!!

SeaWorld....Where We Realized I Was Pregnant...AGAIN

2012-02-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

After we sent the kids off to Jon's for Christmas Matt and I needed to plan something for a little early for his birthday. Going to Sea World is free for military families once a year so we decided to go on a date there, just the two of us! I've been a few times, and always had a blast, but we've always had a plethora of children in tow, blazing heat, and a basket full of stress! Going as just the two of us would be a totally new experience. Oddly enough we knew Jon was planning to drive down from Ga, with the kids and take them to Sea World, we did NOT know he was planning on that specific day. The only reason we knew a head of time was the night before hand, while Matt was printing off our military tickets of sorts he read that children over the age of 10 have to have their own military ID present with them when they show up.....I had the ID's. Jon did not. How was Jon going to get them in??? So we called to ask what his plan was, only to hear he planned to go the next morning. Akward much?
Matt and I offered to meet him at the front gate early and let him use the ID's to get the kids in. We decided once in the gates to go our seperate ways. I would have loved to spend the day with the boys but I didn't want to take from what little time Jon gets with them one on one. Not to mention I was unaware that Jon's new girlfriend was going along and was....hideing or MIA everytime we saw the boys yet she was in the park and didn't run into us. Oh well. I was a little irked by the new GF info and mostly I would guess from the surgeing hormones I was unaware of. LOL. AHHH, good old hormones and what they will do to you.
I hadn't yet missed my period and was showing signs of pregnancy. Tired, grumpy, bursting into tears, and an OBSESSION for Chinese food that I couldn't understand.

All of those fun little signs were swept under the rug which was our vacation, thinking "Meh, I'm just tired from the travel, I'm grumpy becuse I'm about to PMS and I want Chinese food becuase...I really..like Chinese??" I really had a hard time rationalizing that one away..lol
Right about HERE is when I REALLY thought...hmmmmmmmmmmm a test would be a good idea...and here is why.

We went into the shamu show, before the show a little girl went past me with cotton candy and caribbean flavored kettle corn. I litterly considered mugging her for her goodies. Matt had no cash and didn't want to run to the ATM for cash right then, I almost cried. REALLY??? Is that rational??? Uh not really...lol
During the show I did actually get all emtional and tear up....right here.

Kissing Orca's! SO CUTE. I am NOT a "SO CUTE" type of person. I normally would have said. "aww" and left it there. Instead I got all weepy. Ya, I'm rolling my eyes at myself too. lol.
Then a wee baby behind us cried and the hormones in me went nuts! YEP...we need to stop at Walgreens on the way home..lol
I went in....bought a test.....went to the potty.....and ...TADA.....LOL #5 on the way!

Here we are on Matt's actual birthday shareing the news with family...lol Happy birthday my love. My gift....a 5th baby!

Just A Cute Picture

2012-02-06T08:52:00.000-08:00

I came across these two shots and thought, man I really do have to add these, they are so cute! Especially the one of Matt and Aidan kissing, just goes to show you how quickly Aidan took to Daddy being home. These were taken within the week of him being home. I would have had a few more with the other boys, but Michael and Cody were on the Field warming up for a game and Matty was off playing with the Dyer kids on the sidelines while we kept Aidan happy in the car..lol Love my family, Love my life!

Welcome Home Party

2012-02-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

As a result of our upcoming move to Germany this spring, and Matt's return from Afghanistan, Matt's parents put together a party to welcome him home and give him a chance to see all of those friends and family who he seldom gets too see, all in one place. Since we were home for Christmas and only had the boy's with us for a short period of time we were not likely to be running off to see each of these people one on one so this was an amazing idea! The food was phenomenal, the company even better! Our family always does the nicest things to make us feel loved and welcome and to show appreciation. This was defiantly a wonderful welcome home party!
Matt and his little brother Jordan were surprised with a joint birthday cake, which was AWESOME!!!! Old embarassing photos! OHHH YES!
Matt and his little nephew Hunter

One of Nana and Grandaddy's neighbors was just amazing and made sure that he and his family would pray for Matt's safety every night, and when he met Cody, they sat at the table for 2 hours talking and they hit it off so well, Cody could have gone home and been adopted..lol it was so cute.

Aidan was of course EVERYONES favorite screamer, most of the evening and once he passed out he made the night much nicer for everyone! lol

I have to add this photo of Matt and Jordan, just becuase I love it so much!

Family Photo Shoot

2012-02-06T06:54:00.000-08:00

Before we had to hand off the older three to Jon for his Christmas vacation with them, the family had a chance to go take some really fun family photos. At first everyone was going to do Christmas shirts for the pictures but Cody had a pretty good idea to pit the Gator fans against the seminole fans, so everyone put on a shirt or jersey of their choice and tada!!! Nana of course was our Ref! lol It was of course like a fuster cluck, seeing as we had 13 people, two of them toddlers, one being EVIL! Aidan refused to be nice, to smile or even stand/be held still. LOL oh well. Here are a few of them!

Once again the ONLY person who was able to keep Aidan from full out anarchy

Ah, look, thereeeee he is, the REAL kid who was there during the photos. LOL

Thanks Uncle Jordan for taking pictures for us all!

Early Christmas

2012-02-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

Shareing kids at Christmas sucks. It just sucks. Lol. Sooo of course that means we have to have our family Christmas early so that we had time to spend it together, We got to open gifts and literally RUN to pick up Amy (my big sister) an hour away so she could spend a day with us before we took off for Florida where we would spend a few days with family and then swap kids with Jon so he could see them for Christmas. It was a whirlwind! What an early Christmas! here are a few things that happened over Christmas vacation.

Christmas as a fam at home........

Then off we went to Fl, where we did all sorts of fun things, Mom and Dad had a family BBQ set up for us at Rock Springs, which was beautiful and so fun to get to see more family in one place.

We had a Christmas Dinner (once again early) at Aunt Kelly and Uncle Don's where Dad thourghly schooled me on how to make Sweet potato souffle, CORRECTLY, since the one I made via email directions was wretched! MMMM what a yummy recipe when done right!!Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Mom, Aunt Amber and Aunt Brittany had all the kids decorating cookies....so fun!

Matt actually helped in the kitchen.......he err...moved the turkey for us..lol

Aunt Amber caught some really great shots of Aidan and of the boys playing football

Mom and Britt working on dinner...omgravy it was all so good!

We got to open gifts with the boys from all of the family and the kids wanted family to open thier gifts then too so they could see .
The boys were SPOILED They got AMAZING jersey's, clothes, and toys!

Next up......more pics from FL...Yes...as always,a TON of photos, duh!

St. Nick and December Catch Up

2012-02-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite holiday traditions is celebrating St. Nickolas day. Each year the boys put a boot out front and it's filled with candy and fruit and little toys over night. The kids LOVE this!

This winter the post did a really fun family day called Jingle Jam, they were slightly unprepared for the masses and ran out of the snacks and crafts for the kids before we got there and the lines to get a photo on santa's lap was over 2 hours. To keep the kids busy during the wait they did have fake ice skating!

Matty and Cody had a blast! Michael just having had surgery didn't get a chance to do it so we just stood off to the side watching while Dad and Aidan held the place in line.

We finally got to take photos with Santa, and Matt and Stewart had to make sure they took over for the jolly one after he finished...lol

The snow globe pictures didn't really turn out, I don't think they knew how to take a photo of the entire globe with families in it and NOT have a glare but it was so fun none the less.
We also had a Welcome Home parade and change of command ceremony in leesville, the parade was the largest since WWII! It was amazing for such a small town!
During all the speaches I had to entertain Aidan with taking pictures of him and showing him on the camera, and Matthew fell asleep on Allysha's lap...lol it was so cute!

Michael and I at the parade after walking forever in my high heeled boots...lol oohhhh the pain but MAN I looked good doing that hobble of a walk..lol and Michael was a trooper with his belly still sore from surgery doing that walk.

November, What a Month

2012-01-24T09:07:00.000-08:00

The boy's had their Veterans Day Program in November and were thrilled that Matt could be home for it. Last year, Matt had just left and that wound was fresh for the boys. Cody cried during one of the songs they sang. It broke my heart. This year it as so nice to see them beaming down from the bleachers singing their hearts out to Matt and the other Veterans.

Thanks boys, we know how hard you worked to make that special for them!!

In November we also starting learning German as a family, in preperation for our move this spring. I swear Rosetta Stone is a genius. Within the 1st hour of study the kids were having a blast and had learned about 70 words that they could read and say correctly. I was amazed! YAY.

Also we had a fantastic Thanksgiving with the Baker family, it was so fun having it at home and just relaxing this year, not like that last two. Last year Matt was gone and the boys were with Jon for the holiday leaving Aidan and I, we did go to a friends which was lovely however not the same as doing it your way at home. The year previous to that I was pregnant and just out of the hospital with complications and on bed rest...lol ya that goes over well when you need to cook for 3 days straight. So this year was lovely!
We went to Natchitoches to see the Christmas lights as a family the next day.

Allysha and I made advent calendars out of cookie sheets, craft paper, ribbon, lettering and spray glue..lol heck ya! So cute. I ended up making 8 all together as Christmas gifts.

Biggest news of November??? Michael had to have his appendix removed in an emergency surgery. Um....opps! Ok , so those of you who know Mikey, know he can....er....dramatic?? Is that the word? Perhaps, better phrased as, he is the boy who cried wolf. He misses school ALL the time due to being the BEST faker on the planet. A sore throat and he's "dieing".
The morning it happened he came walking out of his room clutching his abdomen and crying out in the oddest manner, again nothing we haven't seen in his previous Oscar worthy preformances. I rolled my eyes and got the kids ready for school while making him sit on the toilet, trying to rule out if he really was ill or constipated. While sitting on the toilet I even had him bend over and had me 4 peices of dirty clothes on the floor near his feet ( I know!!! I know! HORRIED MOTHER!!!!) I swear I thought he was faking. After 15 mins of squirming, crying and fussing in between moments of perfect normalcy I finally looked at his face and saw and lovely greenish tinge, felt his skin...cold, clamy......hmmmmm. He then bends over and vomits bile on the floor...AWW Man.....now I have a pretty good idea of whats going on. Ya, I've had my appendix removed...I know the symptoms and you can't fake that, for his sake however I was hopeing I was jumping to conclusions and he was just ill or constipated. So off to the Er we went. He barely made it into the waiting room before he was on the floor writhing in pain. We didn't even have to wait to have him triaged fortunatly, a friend who works in the ER saw him through the window and came to fetch him. After tests and pokeing and proding it was determined that "Yes, Mrs. Morris, it is most definatly his appendix it needs to come out, NOW". BOO!!! BAD MOMMY, BAD MOMMY!! Ohhhhhhhh can you even fathom the Motherly guilt at this point??? To top it off, Michael wakes from a morphine induced haze to say "I told you Mom, this time I wasn't faking......" OUCH! Ya...Another Epic parenting move by Mom.
This is my little sick boy only moments before surgery.

And this is him less than 6 hours later!

He felt so good after surgery, that literally as he woke from surgery he asked to see his surgeon and thanked him , "Because I feel so much better now!!"
My dear husband and friends made it all go smoothly and he had great care! Jessica even stopped by with some goodies to keep him busy...love the glasses Jess.

True Blood Themed Halloween Party

2012-01-24T08:27:00.000-08:00

I had to add this because Allysha and I were so proud of how it turned out! We decided to have a "Welcome Home/ Halloween" party. We made "Fang Banger" cupcakes,
Blood Lollipops (which were SO good!!! Peppermint flavored pops! MMMM), Chocolate bars wrapped in a print out saying "Bite Me"

We found AWESOME blood bags at Hastings and on Oriental Trading Co. Hastings had liquid blood energy drinks, and Oriental had candy syrup. I made signs for the walls and tables saying "Welcome to Bon Temps" with the population of humans, vamps and others, or saying "Come on in, we're dead" and so on, along the theme. So easy! Puff poster board, elmers glue, glitter and white paint! Heck ya!

We used red light bubls in one room for mood lighting but it really did make it too dark so we only did one room that way, in the other room we used an inflatable coffin (SO EFFING COOL RIGHT!!!!) filled with ice for our drinks. We had all sorts of food that we did "Louisiana" themed, ie, "Lafayette's Shrimp Etouffe" and "Devilish Eggs"and "Eric Northman Swedish Meathballs" and "Gram's Peach cobbler" in cups, ready to eat.

we had beverages to match the theme as well. "Glamour Jello Shots", "Sookies Sweet Peach Schnapps Lemonade" and so on.

We really had a ton of fun planning this, it gave us something to plan for and keep us busy until the hubbys got home! It was just the thing! We had a blast! Can't wait to do it again!!!

Halloweenies

2012-01-24T08:07:00.001-08:00

I don't think you know how thrilled we all were to have Matt home in time for Halloween! It was our "count down holiday" as we called it. The holiday the little ones could could down too. Time is hard for a 6 year old and 19 month old to comprehend, but saying "Daddy should be home around Halloween time" is easier. There were days when he was stuck in transit and it looked like it might be weeks and weeks more and well into November before he would be home, so him being there for Halloween was amazing!

This year Michael decided to be a washing machine again, as it as such a hit last year, Cody wanted to be an appliance as well and went for an oven. So we spent a few weeks making his over, functional door and turkey baking inside and all. The candy had to be shoved through the turkey's bum, through the stuffing into his candy bag that was attached inside, just like Michael's washing machine door. LOL makes me giggle. They were a huge hit! Their buddy Kameron was a toilet! His Mom did an awesome job! They were defiantly the highlight of costumes. Everyone made sure to stop and take photos of them as we went around...lol too funny!

Matty wanted to be Agent P or Perry the Platypus, now this took some real thinking. How on earth to make my child a teal colored platypus? A jumpsuit of sorts is sort of what happened..lol. Craft foam for feet and beak, quilt batting and orange fleece for the tail, a hat with ping pong balls hot glued on for eyes. Turned out rather cute!

Aidan was my favorite costume! King leonidas from 300! Or for those of you who haven't seen the movie, he was a Spartan Warrior. HEHE!!! I hand painted on Abs, made a leather diaper, used faux leather for arm bands and legs, a plate with craft foam and elastic for the shield, and some cheap red material for a cape. I did NOT make the hat. I had it made special on ETSY. So cute! Thanks Jess and Sherry for the shoes!

Halloween was a huge hit. We went as a group with the Dyer family. The highlight for me was Aidan wanting Daddy the entire time. Sigh, happy family! Halloween was a hit if I do say so myself!

Welcome Home Surprise For The Boys!

2012-01-22T09:09:00.000-08:00

After our blissful reunion it was time for the boys to get to see Dad! I was so excited!!!!! Just happy my love was home and thrilled at our kids getting to be surprised by him!
Now, when you see these videos, this is NOT how my kids usualy are dressed at school! This was "book character" day at school and my friend Mary's kids, who had them sleepover, helped them dress up and spray paint thier hair and so on. Michael was Harry Potter, and had black hair spray, and his face painted with glasses, Matty was a football player (had no book idea..lol) and Cody was also a football player, from one of his favorite books. So by the time we got to the school to surprise them the hair spray and makeup had worn off to the point where my kids now looked like orphan childnren..lol. Which also is why Matt couldn't recognize Cody in the video surpriseing him...lol it was pretty funny.
Went room to room, surprising the kids youngest to oldest. Matty's class was at Library and I couldn't get the video rolling fast enough, Matty saw Matt before I could even click start and was in his arms by the time the video began, Poor boy just held on for dear life, quietly crying in his arms. Sad day!!!!

Off to Cody's class, where Matt couldn't recognize Cody at first..hahaha.

I had been very frustrated with his teacher, who had also been waiting for her Soldier to get home the same day as Matt, not only did she tell her class of 5th graders what "chalk" (flight) her Soldier was coming in on but had it on the board in class, which is an OPSEC issue. So she almost ruined our surprise on multiple ocassions, I had to lie around her to convince Cody Matt was coming in later.

Here is Matt surprising Mikey.

Awwwww. All of these videos just make me want to tear up. I was definatly a slobbering mess by the end, gathered up our son's and went home to spend the afternoon as a family.
The kids got to open a box of football/halloween stuff from Nana and Grandaddy, then gave Matt their welcome home present, a dancing bear in camo singing Ice Ice Baby...lol
Matt gave the kids each a set of Afghani money.

Why We Needed Daddy Home

2012-01-22T08:39:00.000-08:00

We all wanted/needed Daddy home. He's the glue, the fun, the laughter in this household and while the three older boys are old enough to wrap thier brains around "deployment" the little guy isn't. I forgot to blog this, but it has to go in here. This photo is a huge tear jerker to me, even now, months after Matt's home. A year ago before Matt deployed, my friend, Amy, the amazing photographer took the family photo's we posted, my favorite being the one of Matt walking away, carrying his duffle bag. We had a small version of this in a frame on the end table in the living room while Matt was gone.
During the Parish Fair, Amy had a booth up for her amazing photography business where she features some of her work, in very large sizes. like giant peices of art. The photo of Matt walking away was one of them. When we went to the fair to see her booth, I raised Aidan up to see the photo's and this is what happened.

He saw Daddy and started sobbing, banged his head and hands on the glass and cried out "Daddy". I thought my heart would break! The older boys were in tears, not knowing how to console Aidan, and I of course had to pretend to be strong and tell them how soon it would be, before Matt came home. Breaks your heart huh!!!

Matt's Homecoming!!!

2012-01-22T07:22:00.000-08:00

This blog post has been a long time coming, however, since he came home we've been so busy, and I for one have been soaking up every second with him that I could, totally ignoring the house and the blog!

I don't think you can really explain what it's like, to someone who hasn't experienced a Soldier's homecoming for themselves. It really is one of those experiences that sets your soul on fire.

Matt deployed in October of 2010 and fortunately got back in October of 2011. I've done longer deployments with my ex (which is why I say fortunately). From the moment he left back for Afghanistan from R&R, it's as though you can't breath again. Like an elephant sitting on your chest. A worry. Less worry of "How will I do this with 4 kids, alone" (because you don't have a choice, put on those big girl bloomers and deal) and more of a, "Please Dear Lord send him home to me safely" sort of a worry. Him being Cav didn't exactly set my mind at ease, but send him back we did, and we waited, very impatiently, for his homecoming! I have to say, I was rather a petulant child when it came to my friends reunions with their Soldier's. Matt was to come in a little later than my friends spouses and so I went to their Reunion to take pictures for them. This is my best friend Allysha reuniting with her husband Evan.

Which I have to say, was HARD! lol I know it shouldn't be, and believe me I was thrilled for them, but man a live it was hard to sit there seeing them cry in the arms of their Soldier, safe and sound, while I knew I still had a week or so to wait. A week? Was I really making a big deal over a week? Yes, yes I was. LOL. A day literally feels like months, I swear it does, when you are that close, time all but stops! I wanted to stomp my feet an say "my turn, my turn, my turn!", well, maybe not THAT bad, but it was bitter sweet for me for sure!
My friend Sarah works for the local post newspaper and was at the airport when this group of our Soldiers came home and caught this photo for me and Matt getting off the plane!

Which she took while I was sitting in the gym 2 hours early waiting for our turn!
This time with Allysha there with me (and my friend Molly) to help with the baby and take pictures!
Our time came though! Finally! I have great friends, and one took our older three boys for the night, so I could go to the homecoming ceremony and then go surprise them at school. This picture is the moment we saw them come marching into the gym!

You know how sometimes things just fall into place? For us this usually does NOT happen...lol if you remember the murphey's law filled day we went to get him from the airport for R&R. Nothing but blunders! Well this time it happened!!! It was all perfectly in place! Usually your hubby is at the back of the formation, hidden behind some 8 ft (possible slight exaggeration) giant of a man, where you can't see him and sit impatiently craning your neck to see if you can finally catch a glimpse of him. Unless your spouse it super short or super tall it's hard to pick them out. I tell ya what...they blend together!
Your heart is pounding so hard you are sure the thudding is interrupting General so and so during his speech. This time....where was Matt?? Right in front of me. LITERALLY! I am talking about 10 feet! I could have tackled him were it not for all the ceremony we had to stand through.

Even though he was supposed to hold a straight face, I loved, loved, loved that he couldn't. A few times I could see him sneak a peek at me and crack just the tiniest grin. My heart all but melted. The tears started, my knees almost buckled and Aidan wanted down to run to Daddy. I was actually shaking!

Any second now, any second now, is all you can think. Hush General so and so! You know what he had to say was brief, it was important, but you can't hear him! All you hear is your pulse pounding in your ears and your mind racing.

........and then..........."You're dismissed!" the two words that make you all but implode! All mayhem breaks loose and everyone runs for thier Soldier, and I do mean runs! Once those arms wrap around you, and your lips touch, it's as though that weight were never there, the best high in the world, you are in euphoria! Nothing could go wrong now, you are all but invincible! How could you ever worried he wouldn't be safe? How did it ever feel like a year, now it only feels like few months.....God he looks good, ohhhh how he smells like an airplane and 2 weeks of travel but LORD how good does that man smell next to you. My brain didn't stop running until we kissed and then..............silence. Peace. My brain hushed for a few moments and THAT is bliss! He's my peace, and he's back!!

Once again, there is that worry that the little ones might not remember Daddy but with us, there was nothing to worry about. I mean look at at that smile!

Now it was time to gather up Matt's multitude of bags and head home. You imagine these reunions to be something from a movie, running smoothly, romantic kisses, happy children..lol when in reality you are stumbling around in 4 inch wedges,helping gather tons of bags, a whiney child as it is bedtime, standing in fire ant piles unbeknownst to you as your wedge clad feet are now numb from all the standing around and baggage lugging, which now means you are squealing in a most unattractive manner attempting to take off the worlds most secure shoes off your fire ant invaded toes, in the dark..lol this did not add to the "hollywood" scene I had in my mind...lol. No worries folks, my feet were fine, the evening was salavged..lol
The next morning, this was what I woke too..

Father and son in bed, happy. Sigh. Matt had to run down the stairs for 10 seconds and in the time it took Matt to get up from the bed, jog down the stairs and head back up, Aidan ran from the bed to the stairs and cried! He was freaking out! Ahhh, seperation anxiety, what fun.

I'm going to call it quits here for a moment and break this into two parts, the homecoming ceremony and the surprises!

Back To School

2011-12-07T09:12:00.001-08:00

Back to school means longer days and a very sad baby! He HATED seeing his brother's get out of the car in the mornings and it thrilled in the afternoons when they finally climb into the car.

It means reworking the little mans nap schedule which makes for a very tired baby in the early evening as we ran errands and went to football practice and what not.

Or a little dude who can't sleep at night and ends up screaming to end up needing nothing more than an entire bag of fishey crackers at 4 am. lol

Even though this has NOTHING to do with back to school...I had to add it, My boys love each other (some days..lol) and this was our 1st back to school weekend watching a family movie...AWWWW

And this is just one of those "letting the baby play with the camera" type of pictures that turned out so well we had to share it with Daddy inAfghanistan. Aw.

Back to school meant football! FOOTBALL!!!!!!! Football, as I've said before means what?? THE END OF THE DEPLOYMENT! It was coming!
Look at these adorable little football players and their buddy Kam.

We even got Aidan to learn how to say "I love football!" and "Touchdown" So adorable. Speaking of adorable...

Next up.................Matt's homecoming!!!!!

Distraction Via the Camera

2011-12-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

It amazes me what a camera can do to distract a child from a tantrum. Aidan has the bad habit of screaming bloody murder if he isn't allowed to open the oven and bake himself into a pie, which I am sure you can all see the issue with this. The kiddie lock on the oven does an adequate job, I however didn't want to have him hanging on the door and just HOPING that the latch would hold. Can you see how pulling out the camera fixed this specific tantrum?
Screaming

Hears the melodic sounds of the camera turning on

Crisis averted.

Winding up the Summer

2011-10-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

My amazing older sister Amy came for a visit in early July and it was so great to get to see her! As a family joint Birthday/Christmas gift for all of us she took the boy's and I (and Allysha whom we had to coerce into going) to Blue Bayou and Dixie Landing which is the coolest water park around! Some of the biggest tunnel slides I have EVER seen! SOOOOOOOO cool! Amy seems to luck out and everytime Aidan is sick when she visits..lol poor baby. Rather poor baby and poor Aunt Amy! She was so sweet, and sat and kept Aidan for me for hours while Allysha and the older boys and I got to go do the giant slides (as Amy hates going on them). It was so much fun!! Thanks Aunt Amy! Thanks Lysha for going with us and Thanks to Molly for meeting up with us! That was so much fun!

Here are a few of the other things that happened this summer.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 came out so we had to have a spur of the moment HP themed party for the kiddos!

Aidan learned the "Pound It"

My older boys invented "Swedish Fish Bobbing" (OMG GAG ME SO NASTY!!!!)

Aidan learned to eat with a fork finally! No this isn't that one yet...lol that's next, this one is just so cute!

AIDAN FINALLY LEARNED TO WALK!!!!!!!

Allysha and I had far too much fun when left to our own devices!

Just one of Michael and I cause it's hard as blazes to tie this boy down to get a photo of him

Allysha helped me re-upholster and re-do the table and chairs!
BEFORE

AFTER

Taught Allysha to bake

She even made me a chocolate and raspberry filled cake from SCRATCH for my birthday!!!!

Matty taught Aidan to play UNO (rather Matty tried to play UNO while Aidan looked very seriously at his cards and threw them on the floor)

Spent quiet a few weekends having our "reading party". I seriously have cool kids!

This summer was so UBER busy for us! Thank God it was too! Without that go, go, go.. I would have moped around missing my love and worrying about him more than I normally do, what with summer being the most dangerous time of year over there. So Thank you dear friends and family for keeping me sane! My children and husband thank you! lol

The End of R&R

2011-10-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

All good things must come to an end and even though we knew it was coming it still came like a storm, blustered in out of no where. Then again we were having such an amazing time. I don't think we stopped even for 10 minutes in between things we had planned! It was a whirlwind of a trip.
I think it was smart of us to spend this R&R not at home. It was less like he had come home, back to everyday life, for him to them have to leave us. It was more of a vacation for everyone and the busy schedule kept us from constantly thinking of the day he would have to leave again. I'll tell you what,two weeks literally zooms though.
Our last two days we took the time to meet up one last time with Amanda (one of my very best friends who went with me to meet Matt and ensure he wasn't an ax murderer the 1st time..lol) to say goodbye. There is never enough time to share your spouse on R&R. I was very greedy with my time, shareing him even with my own family!

We also go to go to Lava Hot Springs and had a blast! The kids and Matt got to go down slides and jump high dives and climb a rock wall and generally get some good old rough Father-son play time.

The squishey little baby drinking an applesauce (I know right! Applesauce in a pouch! Genius! )

I loath this photo of me! But I do so love seeing the family. Aidan had a blast even in all that hot water!

On our very last full day together we went to the Riot Zone and did rock wall climbing, go karts, mini golf (we do love our mini golf!) and bumper boats. Matt and the kids were very clingey all day. This photo breaks my heart seeing him holding Aidan, knowing he had less than 12 hours left.

Daddy took Aidan on a go kart (we were uber careful don't worry safety police! There were seat belts, foam padding for the noggin and no one else on the track, and Matt drove like a snail..lol)

We then went to the bounce houses and they played on the slip'n slide..lol love those smiles.

Our sweet Cody turned 10 while we were there on R&R and he was so good to wait and do cake and ice cream with Dad!
Happy birthday again my sweet darling boy who always has to have his birthday some where other than home since it's AWALYS on vacation!

With all these amazing things done.........we had to say goodbye once again. It was like ripping off a bandaid! We had to do it. I did GREAT! Well..right up until the end. I was strong, and only teared up a few times, trying to smile for the boys and of course the hoards of on lookers gawking at the military goodbye (which I do get the allure, but man it's hard to have a moment with an audience) I was fine as he got his ticket....

I was fine as he helped Aidan try to walk .......

I was looseing it as he looked over at me while holding our youngest with tears in his eyes. Silent. No words needed. That silence spoke multitudes.

I of course lost it as the kids cried. That was it. Seeing them cry for Daddy and beg him not to go it just too much for this Mommy. I sucked it up very fast. Just a few tears escaped. Nothing most would notice were they not stareing. Waiting for a show....and a show they did get. lol Just not from us.
A Missionary was leaving to go to California..........California! There was a hoard of them there wishing him luck and literally sobbing! lol.. Ahhhh, thank you little family for taking the attention off of us for a moment so we could gracefully leave the airport with tear streaked cheeks with dignity! LOL
Soon Love!!!! It would only be 4 and 3/4 months until he is home! Not for good, no, as long as our Armed Service men and women are in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan my love will go. There is a reason they say "Here comes the Cavalry!"
God how proud we are of him. How we love you Matthew!

The Most Amazing Tattoo Ever!

2011-10-21T21:43:00.001-07:00

While on R&R Matt was able to schedule two sessions with Christian Buckingham. One of the BEST tattoo artists I've ever come across in real life. He really has such talent! Matt was a trooper and sat through two days worth of sessions and didn't really even need the breaks. Christian was amazing and gave us one AWESOME deal on the tattoos because he was feeling so patriotic and once again not nessecary but just so, so kind! One arm now has an amazing Cavalry inspired skull wearing a stetson ( cavalry hat) and helicoptors and the other...........well..the other the most awe inspireing portrait of Aidan! Aidan being Matt's 1st born is now engraved on his arm so he may "take my little man with me where ever I go" (just as he was headed back to Afghanistan. There was no one who could capture this portrait the way Christian did! There is every detail from the cupcake wrapper to the poofs on the hat and the lettering on his shirt, his eyelashes and finger nails and blue frosting! Here is the original picture (taken by Amy Delia Smith of Seraphino's Photography out of De Ridder, La...yes..again.. she is flipping AMAZING)

And this is the finished product!

Amy Smith from Seraphino's Photography has an amazing blog. When Matt got the portrait done I sent her a photo of it just to show her how impactful we find he work. Letting her knew that a photo she took was so great it translated so well on skin. She was very flattered and wrote a beautiful blog post about it here. LOVE,LOVE, LOVE this woman and esp this blog post. So well written and so very sweet!
http://www.seraphinos.com/http:/www.seraphinos.com/freedom-its-cost/
If having a hard time following the link google Seraphino's photography, post title "The Price of Freedom". Just amazing.
Thank you Christian and thank you Amy!

The River and Epic Parenting Moments

2011-10-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

One of the things the people of Idaho Falls love is thier Greenbelt. It really is beautiful! After going to the "Bodies" exhibt at the muesem with the kidlets we went for a walk and to feed the ducks. What a lovely, beautiful afternoon.

For most of us.

Scroll down and follow the pictures to see why I have such epic parenting skills ~snort~

The boys and I.

Matt and I poseing in front of the river.

This has nothing to do with the story...just that Aidan wanted Mommy to kiss his new (vampire? I mean look at it's teeth..lol) puppy and it was adorable.

"Matthew, don't stand so close to the edge while feeding the ducks!"
"I won't fall in Momma!"

"Cody, Don't stand so close to the edge!"
Cody then wobbles and almost falls in while pretending to be a zombie duck.

Matty then....Actually falls in! BWWWWWWWWHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ohhhh sad day. I felt .....realllllllyyy bad for him....~snort~

See....awesome parenting....I couldn't stop laughing while trying to be sympathetic. Matt didn't even try ...he was in hysterics...lol

Walking back to the car totally mortified....squish squish squish....
We were all falling over with contagious giggles at this point. Matty was crying and eyeballing us to see if we felt bad for him....nope...LOL Squish SQUISH SQUISSSSSSSSSSSH lol

I have epic parenting skills. I should write a book. Perhaps on things NOT to do..lol but a book none the less..lol

Yellowstone Natl. Park and Bear World

2011-10-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

Holy Crapa-molie! I better do some marathon blogging to catch up!!! Why??? Some VERY exciting things are coming and I want to make sure that as all of these fantastic things come about, along with the quickly approaching holiday season I had better get back on the ball and update! I mean REALLY! It's been MONTHS!
So The next few posts will be far more PHOTOS and less actual blogging in an attempt to catch up in a rapid fashion!

One of my favorite places (along with Jackson Hole Wy) is Yellowstone Natl. Park. If you have never been I find this to be one of the most awe inspiring places in the world and I have been quiet a few amazing places. I find that you seem closer to the real WESTERN experience one can get. I always sit in awe of the landscape and how it changes from mile to mile, how the bison are so beautiful, gentle and frightening all at once. How the colors of the clay pots and sulphur and so on. How the lake can have natural geysers in it on the edges! How the rivers can be freezing and then inches over there can be a hot spring inside it! The water falls. OHH the water falls. Sigh! Be still my heart! I was SO thrilled to share this with my gorgeous husband on his R&R since this was his 1st trip there. Our older kids have been before but for Aidan and Daddy this was a 1st and it was just so fun seeing the boy's act like it was all brand new again. Then again, I act/feel like a child all over again each time! Highly suggest going, also alone, no tour guide, a map and stopping at each little turn off! We took 3 days! It was AMAZING! Also just as a side note, Pierre's Playhouse in the town of West Yellowstone...AWESOME! We went and saw "Joesph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat" the spoof version and gracious it was funny (Matt is NOT a theater buff but had a BLAST! I'm wearing him down bit by bit....mmmmwwhahahahahaha!).
Here we are at Bear World. If you are headed to Yellowstone via the Idaho Falls, Id area Bear World is on the way and should be seen! It's a drive through bear park (also has moose and albino elk! So cool! ) They even have a mini amusement park and you can feed baby bears! YES! You read that correctly. BABY BEARS! Ohhhhh so cute. Now...that isn't exactly cheap, and we didn't get the chance to do that (as R&R was not cheap) but we would love too next time. The kids were bummed but the petting zoo was pretty cool too. Where else will you pet a deer/fawn?

The baby bears are just too cute not to share!

Cody literally had a fawn licking his hand...it was so adorable seeing his face so gentle with the baby and giggleing.

RAWR!!!! HAHAHA.

Here the three older boys are in Yellowstone.

Matt, Aidan and I in Yellowstone

It was so wonderful seeing Matt home from Afghanistan even if just for a while, reconnecting with his baby boy. Sigh. I am not a religious person. I am a very spiritual one and being here with my family was as close to God as it comes for me. It was heaven for us.

Ohhh the Bison. My favorite thing to see in the park.

We took this video the last day we were in the park literally as we were leaving, the baby buffalo were sooooooo cute! If you listen you can hear the adult bison giving warnings not to get too close. Unfortunatly we were all at a stand still and had no choice..lol we had to sit there and wait. It was so neat! They were at one point so close I could have reached out and pet one. I did not. THAT would have been supremly stupid! lol

My lovely husband has a habit of snapping photo's of me walking and doing odd things..lol

Sigh, how I love this man and these boys and shareing these things with them!

Look Ma, I'm holding a BEEFALO!

this is literally right next to....

this...

Matt and Cody at Upper Falls

I have to state for the record....this Soldier...is HAWT!

Matty's road trip entertainment.

This is at the top of Devil's Staircase. Yes. It is the Devil! EVIL, VILE, HORRIFIC amount of stairs.. THANK HEAVENS I had Aidan strapped to me....and even running up to three miles about 3 times a week...did NOT prepare me for that at that elevation. I was very annoyed and could only laugh when we drove off and saw an upper parking lot around the back..lol DAMNIT! Could have just parked and gotten the view..lol guess it makes the experience better..lol

I know I know!! I should have added all of this in 4 posts and that was the original plan....ya. I'm ever so organized. Or not. We love Yellowstone. The end!

Jackson Hole, Wy Part Two

2011-09-06T06:05:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite things to do while in Jackson was the scenic float trip we took and the white water rafting trip Matt and I went back another day and did alone, that we took through Mad River Float Trips. Awesome company! Loved everything they did to ensure every one's safety and they were super fun! The boys had an absolute blast! We had planned on taking the older two maybe even the older three boy's white water rafting with us but due to the massive amounts of snow they were having melt and the rain the rivers were far above their normal levels and were very dangerous. I was NOT comfortable with the younger guys going with us so we opted for a slower moving scenic float trip with them and despite it being overcast and even rainy at one point it was breath taking! I think the overcast skies added to the beauty and made for better wild life viewing!

Matty was frozen and bored and his life jacket had a very chinese effect on him. LOL he refused to move from the position until the sun came out.

Why he kept taking pictures of JUST me while we ate lunch I don't know..lol really, why pictures of me eating?? lol Silly man.

Matty didn't have to wait too long for the sun to come out and was thrilled to be asked to help steer our raft with the help of our guide. Each boy got to help and they LOVED it!

Since Aidan was too small to go Mom once again saved our bacon and watched little man, Aidan and his dollar store truck were thourghly entertained!

After our scenic float trip we explored town square a bit more. The kids loved the Giant bear in one of the shops.

Then, one of the really fun bits..lol Who doesn't get old timey western photos done while in the old wild west? Probably plenty of much cooler people than us, but we did and we had a blast! My Mom actually REALLY wanted to go do these... Seeing my Mom holding a blottle of Jack Daniels almost made me pee my pants a little! No....really. Holy weirdness batman! We all looked really cute, and Matt made me giggle over and over by telling me that the ladies who helped set up the shoot had dressed him to look like Woody from Toy Story...lol HAHAHAHA, he had on ENOURMOUS furry chaps.....bbwwwhahahaha. Ahhhhh good times!

I love this one..lol Cody played his part very well!

And here is Aidan sticking his finger in the fake beer. He thought the weird rubbery foam was funny and just kept sticking his finger in it. Did you notice he also kept sticking his fingers in the barrels of the guns in the previous picture? Yes, we will work on gun safety ..lol At a much more age appropriate time. Ha.

After the photos we went to an old fashioned Chuck Wagon dinner at the BAR J CHUCK
WAGON and it was worth every penny! The food....wassss ok, the entertainment was AMAZING! Man are those guys talented musicians, singers and comedians! The kids got to take a wagon ride, eat bisquits from the dutch oven, eat beans and corn bread and what not and listen to some great western music. It was awesome and I highly recommend it!

Here is Cody pretending the bear is eating his head. What a goof ball.

Matty and Michael waiting for more bisquits! So worth the wait!

One of the things I loved seeing on this trip was the facial expressions on the kids and my sweet husbands faces when they would see yet another breathtaking view. Everything there is just beautiful and there were so many photos we took of just the scenery! It's worth every penny spent there just for that! Especially the drive through the pass. When we go to the top we had to stop and let the kids get out and play in the snow........in June.

Another photo of Matt and I that I adore! We look so cute and the view in the background......AWESOME!

Unfortunatly there was just too many things we wanted to do while there and we couldn't fit it all in so Mom made a special day and watched the kids back at her house at the very end of R&R and that allowed Matt and I to go back again for a whole day for just the two of us, which is when we went white water rafting again through the same company, Mad River Float Trips. They have photographers placed along the route and they grab some pretty awesome photo's of you rafting the hardest part of the river. We almost flipped our raft at one point. I'm not sure if you can click and enlarge the 3rd and 4th photo or not but our guides face went from one of concentration to one of "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh @%&#!!!!!!!" and then back to calm..lol he told us after we finished that portion he just "knew we were flipping" and some how we pulled it out of it. Phew! It was amazing! I love rafting and wish we could go more often! Seriously cool!

Lastly we went to dinner theater at the Saddlerock Saloon and saw a live preformance of "Seven Brides For Seven Brother's" which was so good!! Tiny theater, great food, really talented people and amazing sets! I was very pleasently surprised! Surprised by the food, the musical/acting talents and surprised in the extreme that Matt didn't just "sit" through it for me but REALLY enjoyed it!
Ohhhh Jackson Hole, We love you! I can't wait to some day go back again and hopefully get to share it with Matt's family. It was one of the things we talked about nonstop, how lucky my family is/has been to be able to go there all the time and how much his family would LOVE this! Oh by the way if you are looking for a cheap, clean place to stay, very centrally located we can vouch for the Antler Inn! It's only 2 blocks from town square. We got there and some how lucked out with the older "original" 1930's lodge. The newer parts are lovely, and yes this was older by far but really was great ambience and we got 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms a full kitchen and living and dining room. There were 6 queen sized beds! The couch could have been pulled out as well! Normaly it's charged a good deal more (but still VERY cheap for the area and amount of space!) than we were charged, we were given one HECK of a great military discount! I don't EXPECT a military discount but I won't turn one down either! That place made it financially easy for us to stay a few days and get to do all that fun stuff! Thank you Antler Inn! Thank you like Mad Mom for all the help!!!!

Jackson Hole Wy. R&R Trip

2011-09-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

One of the disadvantages of being in the military is that you aren't always around family. Mind you, you make families where ever you live and they are amazing but not always the same thing. Since Matt and I married and moved here he hasn't had the chance to get to meet my extended family or my good girl friends and so on, so before we began traveling the area I love, love, love, there were some introductions to be made. Everyone who could came together for a great BBQ! My girl friend Amanda came whom is one of the ONLY friends from Idaho who had previously met Matt, it's almost like she's family! Tara one of my besties from middle/high school, and the Stephens family. Now THAT is family.

We met the Stephens family when I was very young in Germany when both of our Father's were working there and our entire families clicked and have some how just ended up near one another over the decades. Mike Stephens stepped in and did what he could to be a surrogate Father for us after our Dad died. Wreatha was always just the sweetest example of what a good Mother and Christian is and their three children are like siblings to us. It was very important to me that Matt get to meet this other part of my family. It was so wonderful getting to see them! Stephanie has been my best friend since childhood. We may not talk everyday, every week or every month even, but it's a friendship built on a solid foundation and every time we see one another it's as if no time at all has passed and there we are 8 years old again playing dress up in her room or having sleepovers. Ahhh memories.

Matt and Danny finally got a chance to really get to know one another since their only meeting was over a year ago when Danny stopped by for what was to be a long weekend on his way to another job and it ended up being less than a full 24 hours as his work schedule got pushed up. They really hit it off and man was that nice for all of us!

That left one last person there that Matt had yet to be "introduced" too. My Daddy. Ya, I'm a total cry baby about it still. Miss my Father everyday. It is always hard for me to go to his grave and not cry and seeing as it had been years since I had been and taken the kids I defiantly cried again. This is as close to meeting my Father as Matt will get here in this life. It meant the world to me to have him go and be there with me.

Well then, on a lighter note..lol Jackson Hole! Ohhhhhhhhhhh Jackson, how I love you! We had such a blast there we could have spent a week! We did spend 3 days but it could have been more. That area is just so beautiful, it was so fun to get to share the things I love about this part of the country with my love and the kids!
Now if you are ever headed to Jackson Hole from Idaho Falls, Id, I do suggest stopping for Square Ice cream from the little gas station there in Swan Valley. You can't miss it and cold as all get out or not, it's WORTH it!
Here is our little gang outside the store!

And here is my hunny and I at the scenic overlook along the drive up. It was so pretty out there. My hubby looks rather cute too..lol I love this shot of us.

Now one of the best things we did on vacation, as the boy's will tell you, was the Alpine Slide. Seriously fun! You ride the chair lifts up the mountain and use sleds (it has a brake on it, which I rode like a grandma all the way down! Thanks Mom for watching Aidan since he was too little to go.) down the moutain on a curvy slide.
I do NOT like heights and yet this was a blast and might I say, the views are to die for!

Matt and the boy's at the top getting in line.

And here are the pictures they take at the top of the mountain and charge tourists (like me) 400 million dollars for, because, well, they are awesome and really captured how fridgid it was up there and the amazing veiws!
Oh and did I forget to mention this was what we did for Father's Day?? Ya AWESOMESAUCE!

Matt and Matty going down. We will NOT be posting the picture of me coming down. It was NOT flattering. At all. Ok, fine. Here it is. Ya. I regret that face too..lol

After the Alpine Slide we got to go around town doing all sorts of fun things. I always love the huge Antler arches leading into the park at town square.

We did the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum........very cool indeed.
Matty was not happy here, as that buffalo is made of nails and his elbow made contact with it's pointiness only moments before..haha.

They have these amazing sculptures all around town.

And while there we HAD to stop for Moo's Ice Cream. Its a must!

Daddy and lil man at the ice cream parlor

We then did the old stage coach ride which is always cool but even cooler this time as the driver let Michael and Cody and Matthew ride up on top outside of the coach. They were thrilled. I was scared. As I am a helicopter Mom about these things. Good thing Matt soothes the savage beast within me and I was able to still have fun while they were up there. And by the way, doesn't my Mom look so pretty here??

Well I am going to go a head and break this into two posts as I do not have the energy to strong arm you into sitting and looking at anymore pictures in one setting!

The Reunion

2011-08-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

Ever been so focused on one thing that everything else (even the easiest things in the world) some how escape your mind? Or over prepare for something and then some how muck it all up? That's me in a nutshell..lol. I try my darnedest every time to plan things so they go smoothly, which is totally silly since all military wives know (or will learn) that you can seldom plan things in the military. Hey it sure does keep you on your toes.
On each leg of your Soldier's return you hope he doesn't get stuck in transit, you hope he can call between flights, you hope he makes connecting flights. All I can say is I am so thankful that I knew he was coming home. It didn't matter how long it took, just that I was lucky enough to still have him and hope all I wanted when there are so many families who can't hope for a return anymore.

It ended up that he had a connecting flight that wasn't going to get him into our airport of choice in time to make the last flight out that flies into our small local airport. Not making that flight would mean that my husband would be sleeping in an airport over night, held up over 16 hours, but only 3 hours away driving distance. Ya, that wasn't going to happen I am terribly impatient, come on who wouldn't be! I didn't plan on getting ready for hours to come. I got the phone call that he landed and that the connecting flight issues would delay him further at 4pm. His flight would be getting in at 8!!!!! A 3 hour drive meant TOTAL mayhem! So much for looking cute, getting into that dress I planned on for months and so on, who cared! I knew I was seeing him within mere hours!! Shoved four kids and a Mother in the car and booked it. Booked it an hour in the wrong direction, ya you read it correctly. An hour in the wrong direction! How many times have I driven there? Too many to count! Somehow between Mom and I, phone calls from Matt telling him when we would be there and so on we got on the wrong on ramp! Oh kill me now! Flipped a U-turn and .............well, I drove fast enough I made up that hour and even got there 15 minutes early. Don't ask how! LOL There was not one single highway patrol or cop along the route! What a blessing! During the drive while I was ever so cool, calm and collected,(completely freaking out, sweating bullets and twitching from the idea of a highway patrol car seeing me) Mom had the idea to call my awesome Aunt and Uncle who lived within a 45 min drive of the airport, to ask them to go ahead of us so we wouldn't have Matt coming into an airport just sitting and twiddling his fingers! Man I love family!
I love how involved people have become over Soldier's coming home! Not that you could miss us and not know what we were there for with our tiny understated (HA) signs, but we had multiple people stop and wait at the bottom of the escalators to wait and watch. A sweet woman who sat next to him was so excited she made sure to tell us "He's coming!! I saw him!!! Any moment now!!" (I almost busted into tears at just that!). When we finally spotted those boots coming down the escalator it was too much! Michael bolted with Cody and Matthew in tow. He ran UP the down escalator politely shoving (if one can politely shove) past other travelers to his step Father. I froze. I literally couldn't move a step and burst into hysterics! WHAT THE EFF! I mean, really, I am NOT a newbie at this, this is not my 1st deployment, where on earth did all THAT come from? The emotions around this deployment are like nothing I've experienced before and I was just so relieved to see his face, his gorgeous smile beaming at seeing his family, the fact that I knew that for those next two weeks he was safe and mine all mine! As you can see from the pictures the shock wore off and I could finally move towards him while Matt tried to maneuver 3 clinging, grinning boys out of the way of the other passengers heading for their luggage or standing around watching. Also as you can see, that little squishy baby had not one issue going to his Daddy after 8 long months! within mere minutes he was kissing Daddy and didn't want to leave his arms. That is something I know every Soldier who leaves a wee one behind worries about. If they will remember them. Even now I am in tears being reminded of how amazing those moments were! Oh R&R how we needed you!!!!!!!!
Welcome home my love!
My Uncle Allen (who looks so much like my Dad it almost hurts to see him) and Aunt Lynda! Oh how I love you guys! Thanks Aunt Lynda for taking pictures while I sobbed like a basket case!

My sweet boy's waiting for Dad.

Michael running up the escalator to Matt.

Matt Shuffleing the kids out of the way while being hug attacked.

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do NOT cry pretty, let alone Kiss and cry pretty..lol Poor Matt, 1st time he see's me in months and he gets that hot mess..lol

Daddy testing the waters with his little man, he wanted so badly to rip him out of my arms and bear hug him but was tentative as to how Aidan might react after 8 months.

And seconds later........it was fine!

Good even.......

And not long before it was GREAT just like he never left!!! Thank God!!

My awesome nephews David and Bob drove all the way to meet us at the Ihop so they could finally get to meet Uncle Matt! That was so very sweet of them and we always love seeing them!

The evening was just amazing!

The Best Two Weeks Ever!

2011-08-28T11:57:00.000-07:00

It's finally time for me to blog about R&R (Rest and Relaxation, the two weeks a Soldier gets to have a little reset period), ohhhhh R&R how we all needed it and how amazing it was! We literally milked it for every possible second! Can I just say, the weeks preceding R&R are tortuously long! Ohhhh man it was fantastic though!
We have been so lucky since getting married to get to see Matt's wonderful family 6 times between them coming to visit us or us going to see them. It was time to venture North and see some of my family and show my darling husband some of my favorite places! Since we found out that our next duty station is to be Germany (Hallelujah!) that would mean that between deployment and moving we likely wouldn't get to see my side of the family for another 3+ years and I was afraid they might mutiny. Ha Ha! A family trip to Idaho Falls/Yellowstone/Jackson Hole was planned! Man can I say exciting! We logged over 4000 miles on the van, had 1 teething baby, 2 cases of food poisoning and 5 cases of severe road trip over load and 6 cases of happy hearts! By the end of this trip we were about ready to give up and let Aidan drive home. If I ever see the inside of that van again it will be too soon! I drove the entire way there and back by myself because I was NOT going to waste 4 days of our R&R just to drive to our destination, and while he was home I wanted that man rested, not driving a car back and forth through windy mountian roads!
These are a few pictures of what a road trip looks like. The good, the bad, and the ugly!

And this is the face of a woman who just drove two days with four children, one of whom got food poisoning with me. Amazing!

Update in Pictures of Matt

2011-08-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

Matt is doing great, well, as great as one can be while deployed to somewhere as AWESOME as Afgahnistan, haha. He is very ready, as are we all, for him to come home and as this deployment is getting closer and closer to the end I want to make sure that I get some of the great photo's he has taken onto the blog so that when we print next years blog book we will have them forever. Since it's not like he can sit and discuss his day to day over there I can say, it was cold....it's now hot..lol very hot and he's ready to trade it for Louisiana heat! For those of you who have so sweetly sent packages and letters he really appreciates them and doens't always have the time to email or write a thank you, so this is me thanking you for showing Matt in action not just word how much you love him!
Love you Baby! We can't wait to get you home for good!

This one is alllll for me. Sigh! He takes pictures sometimes that just give me butterflies in my tummy. This is most definatly one of those!

HEHE ya, he has a mustache............a mustache! Frankly it kills me because I think all mustaches are....gross or weird or both but hey if you're gonna have one...better look this good! Think he was rather adorable with it yes!

Go speed racer, go, go, speed racer!

I love this photo. I love seeing him in any photo's with the Afghan people there. It reminds me to think with a gentle heart and not lump all of them together, because not all of them are his enemy.

I love this photo. I don't really know why, I just do.

Matt and his buddy Sgt. Petersen

Yummy much??!?!?! Right!!! lol

Matt getting his CAB (Combat Action Badge)

And last but not least........a camel....because, well, whats a good blog post about Matt in Afghanistan without a picture of a camel? I thought so, thus...the camel..lol

Attack of the Mystery Fevers

2011-07-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

Before we get into Aidan's mystery fevers I have to add this adorable photo of Aidan's 1st hair cut. Can we say cute!!!!!

So since Novemeber Aidan has, like clock work, gotten mystery fevers each month for anywhere from 1 week to 16 days without a break in them. They don't start as some low grade fever and then sneak it's way up, he's goes from 0-60. No fever what so ever to 104 point whatever. It usualy can't go below 102 even with all the mortin and tylonol I can throw at his poor little liver safely. Pedialyte, water and fever reducers have been our friends for months.
After mutiple doctors visits I had to cave and aknowledge that Bayne Jones Army Community Hospital unfortunatly were not able to figure out what this was and were allowing it to go on and on treating it as though I were crazy and over reacting even after taking him into the E.R. with once monthly fevers of 106.5 and the shakes. Really?? He's not sick? He is....teething, or has an ear infection, or a bug, or a virus, or whatever other random non-answer you can come up with this week? Finally Not long after the spur ride I ended up taking the little guy up to Rapids Regional in Alexandria since they have a pediatric department. As soon as we hit the E.R. He was seen and it was taken very seriously. We were only in the E.R. a short while before they decided to admit him. He looked great after some IV fluids and massive doses of meds in the ER so they let him ride up in a little red wagon. AWWW!! kill me much!

As you can see here that "looking great" didn't last long. They were stumped as to why he was fevering so high. His White blood cell count was super high, and after 3 times a day blood draws they still couldn't figure it out.

By the 3rd day, still no idea what was going on, they would come up with an idea of what it "might be" test some more and then....nope..ruled it out. Everything from Leukemia's to Staph infections to mystery virus's (which at this point is still our best guess), but by then he had been given a spinal tap, and tested for everything under the sun and massive doses of 4 different antibiotics and he was starting to perk up.

Fevers would crop back up and make him miserable and stop them from releasing him and drag out the hospital stay. Thankfully I have some really amazing friends who helped out! Even Jon helped out taking the boys early for the weekend and keeping them an extra day. Jessica, Mary, Allysha and Caite saved my butt! I didn't have to worry about the older kids at all. I knew they were getting to and from school, I knew they were being fed and clean and my friends were even driving up to Alex to bring me clean clothes (that they had to dig through the pile of clothes in my room..lol sorry after a baby has been sick two week straight, Momma can only clean so much and my room was the last place in the house anyone was going to go, or so I thought, so it was the last on the list of places to pick up) and baby food from the grocery store because Aidan was refuseing to eat hospital food of any kind and if he wasn't eating they wouldn't release him either.
Poor Matt was so stressed out. That is something you never want to do to your Soldier. Worry them or stress them out when they have plenty to stress and worry about while deployed. I had been down playing how sick he was when Matt would call so he wouldn't end up too stressed but when he heard Aidan was admitted and Mommy was sleeping in the hospital with him he definatly hit that "freaked out" stage. He was lucky to get to call as often as he did to check in on Aidan. 2-3 times a day. It really made both of us feel better. This is Aidan talking to Daddy on the phone. Aidan had a lot of phone calls from loving family. Nana, Grandaddy and Oma called often to keep him entertained. Evidently your forehead is necessary for proper phone calling protocol..lol

This is just hours before we got to be released. The specialist said if it had been anyone else he wouldn't have allowed us to leave but that I was very well informed and had done a great job making sure I was an advocate for Aidan's health and that I knew what sympotms to make sure he was brought back in for while we waited for some tests that would take another 2-3 days instead of making us stay in the hospital to wait for them. He was still so pale but after almost a week he was wanting to get down and play on the floor for about 30 minutes.

Despite being in the hospital so long they still never figured out what was wrong with Aidan but the mass doses of antibiotics seem to have kicked whatever was going on and we haven't yet had another episode (fingers crosses and knocking on wood and all that jazz). I watch him carefully and get him seen for anything I feel is out of the norm for him. We have specialists in Shreveport and New Orleans and Alexandria and we will just have to go from there. Maybe it was a 7 month long fluke and it's over??? Ya, I don't think so either. Guess time will tell. I hope it's over and done though, I felt so helpless. I hated seeing my sweet boy so exhuaseted and miserable from fever and not feel like what I was doing was helping.

My Mini Cav Spur Holders

2011-07-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

First I have to thank my fantastic husband for sending me these beautiful tulips for Mother's day!! He also let me spend money and get my own gift..lol He would have gotten me something great but I just so happened to find something I loved while in shreveport and couldn't help myself!

This is my gift, a Peter Pan shadow box! Is it not too cool! Not, your style? Who cares! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!! I fell in love with Peter Pan as a kid. I love the art style from the 50's and the typical music from the era, just over all, love this cartoon and this shadown box captured just a little of that for me!

Ok so now onto the spur ride~ It was sooooo cool!!! The kids (and I) Loved getting to see them do things like what Daddy has to do. Despite Aidan being sick, I dragged him out into the heat so that the older boys would have the oppurtunity to participate. Poor baby was sick with his mystery fevers again. He looks thrilled to be there right? lol

Doing the 1st aid station, they had to carry a 200lbs dummy (the group of smaller children just had to carry everything minus the dumy) and drop to the group and cover the dummy each time they heard artillery.

Matthew and Cody doing the artillery run. Aren't they too cute all Rambo-esque!

Matthew, Cody and Michael after the obstacal course.

They then had to partake in all the yumminess that is an MRE(meal ready to eat). Most of the kids hated them. Who didn't? Oh right, that would be Michael who will eat most anything and lucked out getting the sloppy joe meal which happens to be his all time favorite. Yuck..er, I mean yum!

They each got a stetson and spurs. The older kids got "spurred" which was really cute!

The following four photos were taken by Sarah Peachey, a wife in our troop who writes for "The Gaurdian" and wrote an amazing article about the kids spur ride and this photo of Matthew and another young lady from our troop was the picture on the front page. Matthew believes himself to be a superstar now..lol

This photo was taken by me and man do I love it! My little Spur holders trying to look all tough for Daddy who was so proud of them all!

Soccer Awards and Alexandria Zoo

2011-07-24T09:15:00.001-07:00

May meant the end of soccer season, which I for one was thrilled to see. PHEW. Three boys in soccer with practices at the same time on the same nights meant Mom wasn't able to support each boy the way I wanted too. So come football season again we are only doing it where Michael and Cody are on the same team again because trying to spread it out like that just wasn't as fun for us as a family. Soccer was still a great experience. The boy's were all so spoiled during football to have such stellar coaches that in soccer they had some lessons to learn about, not so fantastic skills. Their coach didn't care much about good sportsmanship, where as the football stressed it all season, so when the coach allowed bad mouthing team mates and rubbing wins in other teams faces the boy's really had a hard time with it. Really hopeing that we luck out with great coaches again in football! Matty however had a great coach! Matty was like some little soccer star! He was a bolt of lightening and scored at least once in every game, usualy he was the only kid on his team scoreing and won all but one game for his team this season, the game they lost Matthew unfortunatly had a stomach flu and was cramping and vommiting but showed up to play half the game none the less! So proud of that boy!

The kids learned so much in their football season that despite playing against some really good friends none of them were out there being cruel, rather cheering on their friends no matter which team they were on!

Lil man freezing his cuteness off in Feburary. BRRR

Unfortunatly one of the draw backs of soccer was that there really wasn't much of a leesville league so that meant we had to drive to Alexandria very often for games. One weekend we had a mix up with the coach and ended up being in Alex for a game that was actually in leesville, ya, way to go on the planning coach. So we had to find something to do and that something was the Alexandria Zoo. It was actually really fun!!

Ahhhhhhh the zoo and it's fantastic ability to broach the "Birds and the Bee's" talk with your kids. LOL Ohhhhh my. Thank you turtles for your Discovery channel-ness.

Michael hideing and being...?? A Dinosaur? LOL silly boy.

Having planned to be up there for a game I had also taken a friends children and it ended up being a great day! We ran into a family from football (see...football, who knew it was going to be so great for our entire family) and had a blast~

Shiverport

2011-07-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

Ok so it's Shreveport, but I can't forget how cute it was when we first moved to Louisana and Michael called it "Shiverport", ha!
If you remember my previous post about my sexy inclusion cyst Gertrude, well I decided twas time for her to go. Really who wants a lump on their face? Oh course this meant a 3 + hour drive to shreveport for an early morning appointment so I opted to drive up the night before, look around the board walk area and then make the appointment the next morning bright and early. Miss Allysha went with me to watch the kids while I was having my face de-gertrude'd ( so grammaticaly incorrect, I know) and to help with the over all sanity with giving me a helping hand and adult conversation! There was some shopping, some joe's Crab Shack (ohhhh yes my friends!)
The Children's Museaum, and Build a Bear Workshop.
Aidan happy to be out of the car in the hotel.

This looked like the Crab was coming back zombie style with a vengence.

Me fanning myself, because I AM just THAT hot.....with my sexy bandaid...oh yessss. Or not..lol

Cody touching the "Tornado" Now this was a really cool museum, the kids and I learned a lot!

Michael was really emotional about getting his Build a Bear "Daddy Bear" Love these things!

All in all a fun trip minus the cyst removal fantasim.
After we got back we found out that Cody got "Student of the Six Weeks" at school! SWEET! Go Cody!

And is this not too cute?? New Towel for lil man....he learned how to "Rawr" in his new monster towel...hehe!

Mad Dash Catch Up For April and May

2011-07-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

Good heavens Spring was a busy season for us! Between school, spring sports, FRG fun and so on we went nonstop....Now after being two months into summer I would redo the pace of spring any day! Summer has had us spinning! I will be attempting a mass update of April and May.
So in April, Matty had a school production called "Bugs" and I got some really adorable pictures of him with his tiny antenna. Isn't that boy just a doll!

Matthew has had a SLIGHT growth spurt and there is a lovely story involving these flood worthy britches including, hiding on my part (for later donation) and climbing the mount Everest of closet shelving on his part (which ended in an awesome lesson in gravity at it's finest and dry wall patching from the shelf damage) and him sneaking out with these bad boys on. OHHHH ya, baby, high waters! This year the issue has been thwarted BEFORE the school year even starts.....pants long enough to grown into. Score one for Mom!

Then came Easter! Aw I love Easter! We are less religious and more....bunnies and candy than most but I do still have those spiritual moments during the season. I find those moments in nature mostly and one of the places we have recently (if you can count recently as April and it now being July..lol) discovered was Hodges Garden's, which are BEAUTIFUL! How do these treasures continue to hide from me? We've been here two years and we only found out about them this spring. Only 20 or so minutes from Fort Polk and just so pretty for a picnic, a walk, family photo's and so on. We got to have a blast with a picnic there with two fellow Army wives, Rachel and Allysha. Here are just a few pictures from that day. Highly recommend going!
The older kids and Rachel's son Alex.

Can we say giant Easter basket much? Ya, at this point in the walk the kids were a taddddd hot and tired out which explains the looks of sheer glee and gaiety oozing from their very pores, orrrrrr perhaps not so much. HA.

Just so you are aware, hiking up with a baby on you in 100+ degrees and 400 billion % humidity requires moxie my friends!

This was Aidan's 1st year getting to Easter egg hunt, so this year was a fun one for us! Seeing the excitement on his face was adorable, unfortunately my photographer (any of my older three I could finagled into pushing the button while pointing the camera in our general direction) missed the smiles..lol but still got some great shots!

Aidan and I at the Easter Egg hunt for the squadron. It was so fun! I sure do love our FRG!

Aidan was actually not afraid of the giant white bunny ( Soldier stuck in a faux fur jumper and be bunnied head who was just JUMPING with happiness at being voluntold to be the bunny this year). Michael once again, far to old and cool to get the pictures with the bunny. Sad day!

Cody however is the epitome of cool........?

Also in April Matty's school had and earth day picnic and I got to attend, it was so fun to see how excited your kids get just over having Mom there for lunch! LOVE it!

Then there is this picture, no story,just is awesome........Cheese it's bring the world together.

Lastly but not least for this post....Easter Morning and the through spoiling that these children enjoy from Oma, Nana & Grandaddy and Mom and Dad. Ya, these kids aren't loved.............at all. lol
Aidan and his new bunny from Oma which he start kissing and wouldn't put down for days.

All smiles for the camera while decorating Easter eggs on that side of the camera, on my side however I was still twitching from a run in with a pot of boiling Easter egg water and the beating it gave me on my stomach which was grotesquely burned and blistered (you shall not be subjected to that sexiness!)

Well, that's about it for Easter, phew....that was a long one!!!

Not Exactly Necessary But It Sure Was Nice

2011-07-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

When football season started last year we were just looking to get the boy's involved in a sport that they were interested in, and when Matt got there and they needed assistant coaches he loved the thought of helping out, after all, who doesn't want thier children's team to have the best chances at winning? We knew that we were prepareing for this deployment and that meant spending extra time doing something else when we were already strapped for time between training, packing,and squeezing in every last second together. There are many Soldier's who don't even show up to practice's let alone coach when they are getting close to a deployment. I have to say how very proud I was of my husband, he was an AMAZING coach! As a family we all grew so much from football. All the time we spent as a family at each practice, going over the play books and so on was more than worth it, but it was so nice to see that not only did we as a family appreciate all the hard work our coaches put into last seaon's team, but that the Army noticed as well. CYS (Child and Youth Services) here on post held a Volunteer Appreciation dinner and gave certificates of appreciation to all the coaches and sports voulunteers and it was so fun to see the other head coaches and asst. coaches again for dinner and have the boy's accept Matt's certificate in his place.
Coach Todd and his wife and I

Coach Strum, his wife and coach Douglas

Michael and Cody accepting Dad's award

I have to say that our table was by FAR the loudest and most enthusiastic table in the room! GO FORT POLK COLT'S!!!!!

Our coaches were also honored by another unit. LTC. Dietz awarded them a Volunteer Service Medal for over 200 hours of volunteer time, esp on top of prepping for a deplyment, even in the days immediatly leading up to them leaving.

Unfortunatly LTC. Dietz's paper was wrong and only cited Matt as having 100 hours but the actual # was over 200.
Since Matt, and Coach Dyer are both deployed once again the kids got to step in and accept it and we were all so very proud. A Medal or a certificate are not necessary but they sure are nice!

Matthew's 6th Birthday!

2011-04-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Matthew's 6th birthday was such a blast! We rented out the 50 meter pool (for free because of Matt being deployed you get one free kids party! How awesome is that!) and it was so much fun!!!! He had school and family friends over and I was lucky to have a bunch of my friends to keep me sane while Matthew's Dad was here for the afternoon with him. Mary was so great! she whipped out her camera and was taking pictures for me while I was loosing my sanity! She got some great shots I most defiantly wouldn't have been able to get while I was attempting to corral herds of children! Thanks Jessica and Victoria for cake cutting, plate passing out, and trash removal! You guys made the multitude of kids very manageable!!!! This is the really fun slide show Mary made us! LOVE ,LOVE ,LOVE it!!! Even with the pictures of my ex in there. Despite me not loving him being there I can't deny that he loves his son's and shows up when can and I will never remove him from family outings just because I would PREFER him not to be in the photo's. They are the kids memories and I won't have them feel like their Father isn't welcome here. Thanks Mary! Thanks Jessica and Mandy for making the party a blasty!! And keeping me sane! 16 kids and all the Dad's deployed.....oi! Couldn't have done it without all of you!!!!

Grateful

2011-04-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up feeling very grateful, not sure what brought this on but I know that I do tend to faux complain (I find it fun to force you to commiserate with me) a lot and I figured I might as well let you in on one of the days when I just feel grateful. Grateful today that I woke up not tired for the 1st time in months and months, as though I actually got sleep, not just rest while laying in our bed. Grateful that when I got up our 11 year old was up, dressed, and quietly playing playstation without me having to ask him to do a single thing! Grateful that even though Matthew required more work than normal, and missed the bus yet again, that I kept my temper and was able to get all 3 older children off to school in a good mood despite this. Grateful beyond words for phone calls from Afghanistan! Phone calls that make a little 1 year old guy smile and saying "Ooooo-OOOoo" (hello). Grateful that we I came home laden with groceries that my sweet little one sat quietly playing in his car seat while I schlepped them into the house. Grateful that my freezer is so chock full that I had to reorganize very strategically to fit all the food in, as there have been quiet a few times as a single mommy when we a great deal less to stock up in the cupboards and freezer. Grateful that last night I was able to attend the Volunteer Awards dinner for my sweet husband and pick up his certificate of appreciation, spend the evening with 4 different families from football where we made really good friendships, and for a husband who is a great influence on these boys. Grateful for children who love my cooking and eating healthy that they requested Tilapia, asparagus, squash, zucchini, and mushrooms again for dinner, and they REALLY, REALLY love it! They have been so supportive of my weight loss and working out! I have my own cheering squad! Grateful for the Internet and web camera where I can see his smile and the fact that his smile still shoots tingles to my toes and makes my tummy flutter! Grateful for the man I have in my life who makes all of this possible!

Seraphino's Photography Photo Shoot of Aidan

2011-04-03T15:54:00.001-07:00

Once again I must rave, rave, rave about miss Amy Delia Smith from Seraphino's Photography! This woman will do just about anything to get "the shot" she or you are looking for! We waited until about a month after Aidan's 1st birthday to do this shoot because of him being sick on and off and on and off and scheduleing conflicts, but once we did it..........wow! I would do anything to make Matt smile and this photo shoot did just that! Matt said he grinned from ear to ear and reading the comments he left on each picture on facebook just made me gigggle, knowing what he thought of each one. The wind wasn't exactly cooperative, but then again a 1 year old isn't the easiest of clients either..lol he was wanting down to play and then hated the feeling of the grass and wanted to smash that cupcake before we were ready and so on so there was a good deal of him fussing in between smiles and giggles and Amy was once again amazing to work with! She made every silly sound in the book and then some to get his attention and get the shots I so badly wanted. She's always so fun to work with! When we move I will be so sad to have to find another photographer like her! Matt sends his thanks from Afghanistan Amy!!!!

Happy St. Patty's Day

2011-04-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

We had to take a few pictures for Daddy for St. Patty's Day and they were just TOO MUCH to not share!!!
Why am I wearing a green mustache and glasses? Why not I ask? Why not! Just kidding, it was the only way Aidan would allow me to put it on him! It took some doing but come on, it was worth it! My little Leprechauns!

The Social Studies Fair-o-rama

2011-04-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

In our local schools students between the grades of 4th-7th have to take part in a social studies project/fair. For 4th grade it is optional extra points to take part in the Fair, but the older grades must. We figured if Cody had to write a 2 page paper and his grade could use a boost he might as well go full out and do the fair as well, then next year when Cody and Michael both had to do the fair they could switch and revamp each others projects and make things a tad easier since we could possibly be PCS-ing (permanent change of duty station) at that time and not really be able to dedicate the weeks it took us to get these done this past fall. Each student taking part had to write a 2-3 page essay on their subject (which has to be approved by their teacher), it also had to include a title page, table of contents, an abstract 2 paragraphs about what their essay will include, the main body of 2-3 pages, a conclusion page and then the bibliography. All in all it was between 8-9 pages.............for a 4th and 5th grader? Ya it seemed like a lot of work to me as well, seeing as not ONE OUNCE of this work was done or taught in class before this....yea. Then to accompany this, each student had to memorize their speech, and give it in a three minute oral presentation in front of the class and then judges in the auditorium, and be open for 3 minutes of questions....again...ya, a lot for this age when...once again none of it done in class, not even a single book from the library came home on either boy's subject. Then they had to purchase a tri-fold board from the school and have it decorated and chock full of information from their subject, and have a center piece. The board and center pieces alone took hours! Now you know the school said "The Student is to do the work but parental help is suggested". Suggested? My little heart broke when I saw the caliber of work some students turned in because of no help at home. One young lady turned in a piece of card board she colored on with crayons! She was so embarrassed. She sat with her head hung during the presentations. I literally teared up. If I hadn't helped these boys would have turned in something almost as sad. I can't believe that the school requires so much work to be done at home and none in class where the teacher could teach them A) how to properly research a subject B) how to write a research paper C) how to prioritize the information going on their boards D) how to give an oral presentation. They were judged on things ranging from the quality of information to creativity, artisticness, how well organized it was as well as their oral presentation and if they stuttered and so on. This project stressed me out! It stressed them out. I spent about $60 per boy on this between printer ink, paper, art supplies, gas to Alexandria to get the art supplies that aren't readily available in this area. There are families who could not afford this, don't have access to the Internet or a printer and don't have or GIVE the time needed to help their student to this level. Believe me the school and school board and I had MANY conversations about this, espesically since this state is failing in literacy and mathematics but is shoving a massive language arts/social studies project down the students throats and not teaching them how to do it but requiring the parent too. At this rate I might as well home school them! Now, mind you, my kids did AWESOME! What else would I expect of my boys? They picked subjects they loved, they studied hard, they spent endless hours prepping for this and then me and my little OCD self helped them organize it, type it, edit it, help them memorize it, did all the hot gluing, all the spray painting and things that a 9-10 year old at the time should not be doing. On the morning of the presentations Michael was sick, sick, sick. Good old Strep throat and fever were kicking his little bootey that morning and he was FORCED to come in and present or take the F with or without a doctors excuse note. Really?? Ya. So on the way into the fair he wanted to do it all himself and went to lift his center piece out of the car as I was getting Aidan in his stroller. The conversation went like this.
Michael "I'm gonna get this and take it in."
Me "No, no, no, hold on baby, I'll get that it's heavy and glass you don't wanna drop it, hold on."
Michael "I got it"
Me "No!!!! Michael no! Don't"
Michael "Mom! I gottttt...iiiiitttt--AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"
As the glass center peice smashed to the ground and shattered. Poor boy! He burst into tears as the giant glass bowl filled with blue jello (to represent the ocean filled with hand crafted clay penguins, orcas, and marine life with varied shades of blue jellos we worked a good 6 hours on the previous night). He was devastated. This picture was taken after I cleaned up as much of the jello and glass as I could from the parking lot. Despite the fever, little to no voice due to the strep, and being upset over looseing his center piece he gave a great preformance! I was so proud of him! You can see the fever in his eyes here. Poor guy! Cody really didn't care about placeing at all. He just wanted to get those extra credit points but doing the board and presentation and so he gave it his all and ended up making 1st place in his categorgy! For a hot minute Michael was jealous and then he was the sweetest big brother and congratulated his little brother. After the fair that day Michael went home sick with me and sick or not....this is what my sweet oldest boy does..........he takes care of those around him! His little baby brother was sick too and this is how he spent the afternoon, like a Momma bear. I had to pretty much FORCE him to let me take care of my own baby. lol this boy will make an amazing Father one day. When Cody took 1st in his category two of his best friends from football took 1st in thier category as well which meant they would all move on to the Parish (county) level. Cody really didn't care if he was moving on, but wasn't going to complain so off we went a few weeks later to Parish levels and low and behold....he took 2nd..lol So this meant once again moving on to the regional levels in Natchitoches. YAY!! Natchitoches! Any excuse to spend the day there. However this was going to make it diffucult for a bunch of us Mommies, seeing as soccer season was in full swing and this was going to take place over an hour away on a Saturday DURING soccer games for Michael and Matthew. Thank Heavens for good friends! Mary had the brillant idea to switch kids! She took my two soccer players and I took her son Kameron and another boy AJ with me. This worked out wonderfully! I got to take them and spend the day with the three Amigos doing their projects. We had to kill about 3 hours between presentations and judgeing so I took the boys around town doing our favorite things. Ice cream from "The Louisiana Purchase" store, lunch at a seafood place, and Fort St. Jean Baptiste. They had a blast! They learned how the French Soldiers used to live, they got to try and start fire with flint and charcoal material, play old school marbles, and hold an old musket. It was a great afternoon. Had to sneak a picture of Aidan and I in there! When judgeing rolled around Kameron and Aj (who were a team) did end up placeing. Cody however did not. I held my breath for a second waiting to see how he would deal with the fact that his buddies placed and he didn't and this is what came out of his mouth...." I'm done??!! SAAAAAAA-WEEEEEEETTTTTTTT!!! I'm done, I'm done, no more social studies fairs wooooot woooottttt!!!" LOL evidently he was fine with it! This project did end up teaching us a lot. A lot about how the schools here are pushing too much on students they have yet to teach these things too, requiring the parents to basicaly do the projects for them, how to win and loose gracefully, and how my military family always surprises me with it's support of one another! I couldn't have done this as smoothly without the help of another fantastic Mommy who took my boys and cheered them on during thier games and trusted me with her son. She made sure my boys had just as much fun with her and her kids as the other kids with me had that day. It was all in all a really fun experience. An experience I am NOT looking forward to repeating next fall but I don't really have a choice in that do I... lol Now that I've bragged on Cody and all that he did over those weeks I have to make sure I slip this in there too. Michael graduated from the D.A.R.E. program here and man oh man was he proud! I was too! This boy really has his priorities straight and I am so proud of him! <>

Aidan's 1st Birthday

2011-04-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

Nana and Grandaddy came all the way from Orlando for Aidan's 1st birthday since Daddy has to be in Afghanistan this year. We were so lucky that both Gramma and aunt Kelly came too! It was like a mini family reunion! It was wonderful. As previsouly posted we also celebrated Michael's 11th birthday late so that he could have them there for his party as well. It was a really fun experience. Very bitter sweet for me! My little tiny man has gone from being my teeny tiny baby boy To a big boy............. As a parent you love to see them grow but how does it go so fast?!?!?!? This last year as sped past us and while I love every new little thing he has learned I already miss feeling his little breath on my neck as he nuzzles into me, I miss seeing him root around when he was hungry looking for skin, I already miss the way he would sleep in my arms for hours and yet I love looking over at him now watching him walking around the edge of the couch stacking blocks! His birthday weekend was definatly a fun filled one but also a little more work than I had expected what with soccer games for the older boys, ER visits for Aidan, Cody and myself, house guests (yay!!!) making sure we had time for Daddy online, a double birthday party and all the prep work that this all required. I was so very lucky that my in laws were there to help! I hardly had enough to keep me busy. Someone of them was always wisking up a chore and helping me or keeping kids entertained and out from under my feet! Man I wish we lived closer to family and yet I love our military life where we move all over..lol This post and the next will be massive picture overload.....I don't know why I bother telling you that...almsost all of my posts are! Gramma holding her birthday great grandbaby! I'm ONE!!! Grandaddy getting down and playing with Aidan at the boy's soccer game. Aidan and Grandaddy Skypeing Aunt Amber, Uncle Jordan and Cousin Hunter. the Robot cake I made for his party. Nom nom nom! Aidan and Grandaddy playing at Chucke Cheese Looking at his Nana...lol like..WHAT DO YA'LL WANT NOW??? lol we were annoying him with the camera just a bit me thinks! Fever started to rear it's ugly head and despite being sick grandaddy could get him to smile anyway!
/cutesassafrass/Vdaypartythroughsocialstuidesfairregionals162.jpg" /> Playing with his gift from Gramma. Man he loves these!! This video makes me giggle. I was totaly dillusional and thought I would have time to make two birthday cakes and cake pops for these parties and was in the process of it when we Mom said Dad would enjoy eating some of the cake bits I didn't use, so we sat them in a bowl on the ottoman and Dad was nibbleing them as he went in and out of the room, at some point Aidan crawled off and we found him standing at the ottoman devouring the entire bowl..lol it was really cute.

We ended the birthday weekend back in the ER with a fever of 105.3 and miserable, Cody had the saliva gland issue and I had walking pneumonia..lol but we still had a GREAT birthday weekend with our Nana (where did all the pictures of you go?????)
HA found one!

Grandaddy, Gramma and our super sweet Aunt Kelly who put up with allllll the crazys in the house..lol poor thing was over loaded with kids all over her and she just smiled and loved it all. Thanks again to Matt's wonderful family for making sure that we got to celebrate these birthdays together! I have the most amazing in laws ever! I am so thankful for the families I have! My Brothers and Sisters all called to wish the happy birthdays and sent gifts, I wish we had been able to all be together and most of all wish Matt could have been home for it but I am so grateful for skype and yahoo messenger and getting to see and hear him even if it was short we got to share it with him! I can't wait to share with you the photo shoot that we did for his 1st birthday with Amy Delia Smith from Seraphino's Photography! Just you wait!!! It's worth it !!! Happy Birthday to our youngest Mr. Aidan!!!

Birthdays, Birthdays

2011-03-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

I feel like a bad Mother, I'm so behind on posting about the boy's birthdays that it's already Matthew's birthday today and I have yet to post about Michael and Aidan's. Opps! I kept holding off because our wonderful Nana, Grandaddy, Gramma and Aunt Kelly were coming for the party! Michael was so sweet! He decided to hold off on having a party for himself so that he could have one with them on Aidan's 1st birthday! Just goes to show how much he loves his Nana and Grandaddy. So my sweet eldest son Michael turned 11 in January. Have I mentioned how amazing this boy is? Michael has had a rough school year. We had some issues with behavior and grades until I finally caved and allowed his doctor to put him on ADHD medication. This has taken me years and years to allow. I'm a firm believer in behavior modification and consequences (good for good actions, bad for bad actions) instead of medicating as a first option. Well...once the grades became absolutely abismal I felt as if I was doing him a disservice and tada............F's have gone to B's and D's are up to A's. Things aren't perfect, but seeing the pride on his face as he brandishes his progress reports and report cards at me is helping ease my worries over medicating him! Michael is the 1st of my son's to say things like "ooooooooh" and "Ahhhhhhh" over the "most adorable thing Aidan has ever done! Isn't he just the cutest baby ever Mom!" He is always begging to be allowed to put his brother to bed for me and feed him. He's such a great big brother. 11 years ago I became a Mother and this boy has taught me so much since then! I love my Michael! The only, and I mean ONLY thing he really, really wanted from me was a Harry Potter cake. So I attempted it. ATTEMPTED! It turned out pretty well in my opinion for my 1st fondont covered cake! Michael was so sweet and understanding when we didn't get to go skating for his party but instead hit up Chuckee Cheese, even more understanding when his little brother Cody ended up having to end the party early with jaw pain ( which we found out was actually a swollen and infected saliva gland in the bottom of his mouth when we had to go to the ER later that night) ... and very understanding that Aidan having his birthday that day meant sharing everyone attention. I'm so grateful for this boy in my life. He makes me so happy and he is defiantly a huge help to me . Happy late birthday to my Mikey Bear!

Varying Degrees of Seperation

2011-03-14T07:36:00.000-07:00

This is a subject very close to my heart and something frankly I just need to get off my chest.
I am going to attempt (ha, ya because I never offend anyone) to do this without offending friends or family.

One of the things that is a constant frustration for any wife or loved one of a deployed Soldier is listening to someone else complain about how hard it is for them to be seperated from their loved ones. I won't say that you don't miss him/her while he/she is on their business trip, working out of town for an extended period or otherwise out of town camping/hunting and so on. I'm certian that you do. However if I have to hear one more time how hard it is being alone for a weekend, or 6 weeks while he/she is gone giving a seminar, or how you miss him ever so while he's in Korea and you can "totaly sympathize with you on how much you worry and how hard a deployment must be, because he's been gone x amount of weeks or months just like Matt", is NOT in any way, shape, or form the same thing as a deployment. Nor is a Navy deploment or Airforce deployment the same thing as that of an Army one. Does that make any branch better than the other? No, could we all do our jobs well without the other. No. However, your spouse or significant other on a ship the size of a small city, with AC/heat, internet, phones and chow halls to choose from and a deployment of 6 months or so is slightly different than 12-18 months in Iraq or Afghanistan, hikeing mountians, shoveling snow, looking for IED's and insurgents. Dodgeing bullets or having to ACTUALLY fire a weapon on someone, a real person, not a paper target.
While yes, the men and women who join the military are CHOOSING to do so, and they know full well that they have a high likelyhood of deployment it is not the same thing as your loved one taking a job in Utah (5 hours away) or even on the other side of the country, having internet contact daily, or cell phones where you can get a hold of them in an emergency, or have them rush home if need be. Choosing to work out of town for a job weather it is long or short term is different than serving in the military, and even in the military as I said there are different degrees of seperation.
I won't say mine is harder than yours. That I miss my husband or worry about him more than you do. I will say however that hearing complaints about how hard it is to be a geographicaly single Mommy while your husband goes hunting and you totaly get what I'm going through, might not be the best idea. It takes all the strength I have to not let you know how I really feel..lol
This rant is not meant for those wives who's spouses serve as firefighters, police, coast gaurd and other jobs such as this on a daily basis living with danger. The seperation is different but I'm sure the worry and stress over them is the same. There are some jobs that are dangerous such as oil rigs and so on that require you to work away from home a lot. Again dangerous, but the seperation is not the same. Pretty much everything else, I have a hard time hearing how hard it is or how it's "totaly the same thing you and Matt are going through, my kids are going through the same things!"
Did your son cry before bedtime because he accidently came across the news and how a suicide bomber killed 33 people in a blast in Afghanistan tonight? Asking " was Dad was anywhere near that? Was he ok, have you hear from him yet!" (see this is why they are NOT allowed to watch the news).
Or having school teachers call you to say that your son was crying on and off for an hour while having to write a paper about your hero and he just missed Dad so much it was too hard to write?
How about when Baby looks at the computer some days like the man smileing back is a stranger and other days points to pictures, says "Da Da!" and kisses it? Did you worry tonight when you went to bed if you would wake to uniformed men knocking on your door to tell you he won't be coming home?
When the phone rings and you just can't get it to it fast enough, do you worry that that might be his last call and you just missed it? Or that maybe he REALLY needed to just hear your voice because today was "that bad"?I'm not some dooms dayer, I don't think Matt will die. He's a capable Soldier. Wait, scratch that, a fantastic Soldier. I have faith in his skills. However sometimes his skills may not be the reason something bad could happen to him.
We get emails almost weekly informing us of Hero's we've lost from this unit. It makes things a little more real. I guess what I'm saying is, that when you are having a crappy day and think that his deployment or seminar or hunting trip is the same thing as others......take a step back and just ask yourself, how many people do you personaly know who died last week, last month, this year who died doing what your spouse/loved one is away doing, or how many times your child worried about life or death over thier parents job. Like I said, I'm not saying I miss him anymore than you do. Or that my life is harder or some lameness like that. Varying degrees folks. Just don't tell me you can sympathize or empathize with me unless.....well unless you just read through this and STILL think you can.

Just sayin!
>

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

2011-03-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

Quotes from Matthew

After school last week Matthew is telling Cody and I how he learned about the letter U at school.

"U like Unicorn?" Cody asks jokingly
Matty makes a face like (Ew) and says "ya, like UUUUUUUnicorn, ew I hate Una-corns'es, them Una-corns'es has that thing Corn thin pops out of thems skins on their head, you know, like a ice scream scone? No I don't like Una-corns'es"

~Snort~

ohhhhhh Matty!

After a new hair cut where I got 1950's rockabilly bangs cut Cody says to me "Um Mom, I don't think thats really working for you. Ya, no it's not. "
LMAO!
Another one from Cody "Mom. You know those weird ladies on the "Real Housewives" show? Your makeup looks like theirs today, kinda like a clown. But it's ok, you still look pretty".
All I can do is laugh and shake my head and hug that kid. He kills me !

This Marvelous Monday Morning Is Brought To You By Daylight Savings Time And The Color STUPID!

2011-03-14T06:28:00.001-07:00

Evidently when I woke up this morning I forgot to wipe the stupid off my face, because no matter what happened this morning it seemed each one of my older boy's thought I was stupid or that they were smarter than I was, and I blame this on daylight savings time messing with our Monday. It has to be that or Murphy's law is back to rear it's nasty head. Please Lord say it isn't so!

The morning went a little something like this;

Matty.............His school clothes were laid out on his table ready to wear and given instructions that "No you can NOT wear your old school pants those are too short for you, and the other pants are in the dryer, sorry buddy". I exit the room and move on to the next child only to come back and see him staring at me sheepishly, wearing said high waters and holding his shirt. Mind you, it's been 10 minutes. He's had time.
"Matthew. Did you put on those pants even though I said no?"
He answers me with a very adamant "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo" while obviously wearing said pants. I remove pants lay them in the top of the closet to be given away and hand him the shorts and move on once again to the others. Come back, pants are in hand as he is precariously dangling from the shelf, this pulls it from the wall (housing work order being called in later. Oi ). This time I PUT the shorts on him and leave the room WITH the pants.
All this causes him to miss the bus by mere seconds forcing me to start breathing like I am doing the "wax on wax off, wax on wax off" while chanting in my head "oooooohhhhhmmmmmmm".

Michael..............gets ready with no fussing, no arguments and so on. I was thrilled. He was given the task of (while I was dealing Pants McGee in his room) to unload the clothes from the dyer onto the couch, move the wet clothes over to the dryer and start his bedding in the washer. Perhaps this sounds like a lot for an 11 year old but in this household it is not. My boys do laundry, dishes (ew...we are still working on this!) and take out trash. Next up....vacuuming! I come back down as he's closing the washroom door.
"Michael, you took EVERYTHING out of the washer and put it in the dryer?"
"Yes Ma'am!" smiles proudly at me.
"Open the dryer."
"Uhhh, ooooookkkkk."
The dryer had two socks and a t shirt drying in it. The washer was being run RE washing the already clean clothes. mmmmmmmmhmmmm....deep breaths, deep breaths.

Cody..................."Mom, my tummy hurts"
"Oh man, well if you get sick at school I'll come and get you but you've missed a lot in the last two weeks due to tummy aches, that faux allergy in the eye and the dentist, gotta tough it out today buddy, sorry"
He sighs......"ok"
He then proceeds to the front door with the trash.
"CODY!!!!! Close the door.....Cupcake (the wonder dog) is gonna get oooooouuuu..............tt!!!" (this was all in slow motion, I swear it was..lol)
He slowly looks back at me...........watches Cupcake walk up to him and then BOLT! Once again.............(wax on wax off, wax on wax off). Michael, Cody and I run after her (me holding Aidan. Matthew is sitting in the car in his seat belt glaring at me because he's mad he's wearing shorts). Takes 5 mins to get princess stupid back into the house. Love this dog but really?!?!?!? This is why when we are coming and going from the house she is in the kennel (giant closet with a baby gate big enough for a twin sized bed).
After the dog debacle I hook in Aidan, Cody comes out looking absolutely deathly (faux) ill.
" Mooooooooooomm (insert death rattle voice here) I threw up." as he rubs his tummy. I automatically believe him, as he has NEVER faked vomiting. I walk to the bathroom to see what kind of clean up I may be facing as soon as I get back from the school drop off, to find.............ritz crackers crushed in the toilet, very obviously NOT vomit.
"Cooooooodddyy!"
"What!!!! I just don't wanna go today! OK!!!!". Ya you are making the same face I was. The excuse the BLEEP outta me? Who the BLEEP do you think you are talking too face! ANNNNDDDDD he's now grounded for lieing and being disrespectful. Yup....way to start a Monday son. LOL.

Evidently, I woke up with "Stupid" across my forehead. How else can you explain this morning? The only other explanation is the curse of Daylight Savings and it's evil Springing forward.

This Mommy feels the need for a do-over! AHHHHH kids! They keep life interesting that is for sure!

Photo catch up from Afghanistan

2011-03-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here I am yet again, perpetually behind and playing catch up. I have wanted to catch up on photo's of Matt and it seems I just keep waiting to get " a few more pictures" to post at one time and then weeks pass getting one or two and then TADA blamo he sends me a million...lol So here we go "catch up from Afghanistan".

In early December our guys had an Army Journalist following them around and he just so happened to get pictures of MY hubby! YAY. Believe me every picture I get is GOLD! What was the iceing on this little cake was that in local Fort Polk Gaurdian and Leesville Daily Leader newspapers an article ran that had one of the pictures the journalist had taken of Matt and a quote. Oh happy day! The article does go on for quite a bit but here is the cut and pasted portion that had Matt's quote. And this picture is the one that was used in the article with the subtitle under the picture as it was in the newspaper. (Here is the link to the actual full article. http://www.leesvilledailyleader.com/military/x1499819754/Route-clearance-soldiers-help-to-keep-Afghan-roads-safe-build-relationships)

WARDAK PROVINCE, Afghanistan - U.S. Army Pfc. Matthew Morris, a cavalry scout from Orlando, Fla., assigned to 3rd Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment's Task Force Slugger, provides security during a route-reconnaissance mission in the Maiden Shahr District of Wardak Province Nov. 18.

Route-clearance soldiers help to keep Afghan roads safe, build relationships

Afghanistan — For Afghan civilians, Afghan National Security Forces and International Security Assistance Force personnel traveling throughout Afghanistan, clearing routes of improvised explosive devices is necessary to keep everyone safe and alive.
Soldiers assigned to Task Force Slugger's "Apache" Troop, 3rd Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, conducted route clearance and route
reconnaissance in the Maiden Shahr and Nerkh districts of Wardak Province Nov. 18. Nothing was unique about that day's mission; these
soldiers clear Afghan roads of insurgent-emplaced IEDs day in and day out.
"(For) overall mission success, I believe route clearance is very important. If we weren't out there doing it every day, there would obviously be more IED attacks," said U.S. Army Pfc. Matthew Morris, a cavalry scout from Orlando, Fla., assigned to Apache Troop. "(Insurgents) would see that we are not out there checking that stuff, so they could hit us anytime. It keeps us soldiers safe, keeps our convoys safe and we get our job done. It's extremely necessary."During the mission, Apache soldiers searched the routes for suspicious items that might be cause for concern. The soldiers, who spend hours in full combat gear while looking for anything suspicious, are ready and confident in their abilities.

The kids of course ate this up! All 3 older boys could be seen carrying a copy around with them, to school, football and friends homes to show off how thier "Dad is famous now, he was in the newspaper....two of the even!!" He he. Sigh, oh how my kids make me smile.
Here are a few other pictures that wonderful journalist got of my man! I just drooled over these when I got them (and for weeks after..lol).

This one is my favorite. He's actualy smileing and this is the desktop picture on my laptop. Aidan say's "Da Da" to it all the time.....ya....melt much!

ok so now the picture quality drops....ohh drasticaly as we are back to the good old digital camera in his pocket. This picture cracks me up. This one is of Matt on the plane ride over, he looks like a barrel of sunshine. You know you want to fly with this fella next to you for 16 hours. BWWHAHAHA!

Our guys napping in the airport. Uber comfy!

Well Hey there good lookin, who you lookin at!

Did I say yum yet? YUMMO~

Thanksgiving

One of the reasons I've been waiting to blog about Matt lately is that I was waiting and waiting and waiting for.......a box! A box that had gifts!!!
OHHHHHH...AHHHHHHH! Pretty sparkly things for me??? AWW Yes, even in another country he spoils me! For Valentines he bought me an Ipod Touch, a brand new Camera, and all sorts of sweet lovey things and then this month mailed me a 2 keret Black Diamond (it's not set or polished but ooooooooo it's so pretty and sparkly in person. The cell phone camera does not do it justice. The ring is just to give it something to go off of)
And a bea-U-ti-ful Sapphire necklace.
Yes, I am the luckiest woman alive and NO you can't have him to train your husband. Totaly bragging.....ya, he's rather fantastic!
But the best gift in that box? A dvd. A video of him, hearing his voice, seeing him smile (even if he was getting pummeled) just made my day! WEEK, & MONTH!
Now as you are watching this you will most definatly need the sound turned up, and to finish the whole thing. It's worth it..lol if you are wondering why they are punching the shit out of him....well...they have to make sure the new rank sticks now don't they? Especial 1Sgt. He REALLY makes sure...hehe. WOW he's a big feller isn't he? LOL His wife Jessica and I have become cohorts and buddies and we watched this over and over giggleing and cringeing all at the same time. Ahhhhh to be Army and have such traditions. Good thing Matt and I love all these retarded traditions.....Enjoy! He is now Spc. Morris! YAY

Matt is doing well, tired and working hard and missing being home like crazy but proud to be doing what he feels called to do! We'll keep you up to speed on all things Morris as we can!
Matt's new view.

Daddy's Videos and the like

2011-02-12T17:16:00.000-08:00

Well, the internet in Afghanistan sucks! Ok so whineing aside, I should be thrilled (and I am) that he has internet connection at all! It does however make it hard for him to be able to see video's of the kids, heck we have a hard time talking on messenger and I haven't heard his voice in going on two weeks becuase SKYPE is a joke. It hasn't a chance or working the webcam AND the voice. So I am adding a few videos here of the little one so Daddy can keep up with all the new little bitty things he learns so he doesn't completly miss out on the "firsts". This way, when if he his the lottery of connectivity he may have the whole lot of them here in one place to view at his leisure.

1st if a video of Aidan playing cars. I happened to have the camera near by when he played with a toy truck for the 1st time, like it was a truck, not just a small object to be banged into another object to see what cool noise it can make. He even did the vrooommmmm sound. But the best part? His POPEYE FACE!!! Can you see the resemlence?

~SNORT~
Oh ya, we have a new nickname. Hey! Don't judge! It's better than "Booger" which is what the boys have taken to calling him. Ya thought so, you are really rethinking how cute Popeye is now huh!
s

In this video Aidan is on Wyatt's lap (a good friend of Matt and I) at the boy's soccer game (his son's team against ours. We won btw. Just had to slip that in there. GO EAGLES!) I love when Aidan plays with stuffed animals. He's just so cute about how he cuddles them. He was also saying Da Da Da over and over but I barely caught it at all. Boooo.

Here is one of Matty's 1st soccer game. He's quite the little soccer player! This is his 1st season playing and he has so far scored 4 of the 5 total goals between last week and this week for his team. Woot Woot! By the way..........it was COLD. YES COLD in Lousianna! Like 17 degrees that morning and here........that's ch ch ch ch-illy! I do NOT miss Idaho winters!

Last but not least....the doosey. This video will take forever and a day for it to load for him but I just had too! Two days ago when the magical connection allowed us to webcam he got to see Aidan try his 1st lollipop. Matt's face was beyond words. How silly is that? I nearly cried it was so cute seeing Daddy looking at his son just grinning from ear to ear watching him have a lollipop! It was just so sweet. So today I allowed him to have another. EWWWWWW. I flip flop in a manic fashion between a Mother's love (the AWWWWWWWW hehehehe isn't he too flipping cute emotion when looking at him ) and my OCD cringeing in almost pyhsical pain (I wanted to wipe him down every 5 seconds! It was literally killing me not too! OHHHHH the sugary drool!!! GAG ME!!!!). Either way it's a giant ball of cuteness!

Our Family Photo Shoot ~Seraphino's Photography~

2011-02-11T18:08:00.000-08:00

Ok as we all know my FAVORITE photographer is Amy Smith from Seraphino's Photography. You can find her site here (http://www.wedj.com/dj-photo-video.nsf/gosite?open&U=45750BDEE4FD649B862575940021B53B) It's currently under construction but believe me it will be worth the wait!

Before Matt deployed our awesome photographer offered to squeeze us in whenever we had the time and boy did she squeeze. We got the shoot done less than a week before Matt left. These pictures have been a gift to us! After he left we had something to look forward too. She really amazes me. We ended up pulling up to random locations that to the naked eye, the average person might not see a great back drop for a photo shoot, and Amy does. We have these photos hanging all over our home in places of honor. We were even lucky enough have her use one of our photo's choosen to be the ad for Seraphino's Photography for the month of January in the "Homes Magazine" insert in Beaureguard Parish. It was so sweet! I mean so sweet! We were both little kids in a candy store waiting for that magazine to be printed! HE HE! SO COOL!

Now this is the original picture~ It melts my heart. It's hanging in our bedroom now. I definatly need get it printed on canvas much larger for us! (She does that too btw. so talented)

I had to add this one too..............this one kills me. I knew I wanted this shot taken and that it would break my heart but I am so very proud of my Husband. The man he is, the Father, best friend, lover, Soldier. He's my everything and sometimes watching him go is a part of all that. It's a beautiful shot and one of my all time favorites! Thanks Amy!

Now onto the fabulous family shots! ya....we look fancy, don't be jealous.....we are ever so put together and yes we always look so artsy...lol ok maybe not...but LOVE THEM ALL!

I love that in the above shot we are all looking at mister Aidan.

EEKKKKK could his mowhawk be any cuter (or bigger for that matter??? SO gotta grow that bad boy back out, he looks so cute with longer hair)

And this one melts me....so cute.

Now for my big boy.....Michael was far too cool to smile in these shots...very model-esq yes? Don't tell him other wise...he's a proffesional..lol

My little green eyed boy!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE his face in this one.

The little one wasn't terribly smiley at this point in the day but still a doll baby!

But ever so full of smiles for his Daddy............this shot breaks my heart knowing it would be one of the last times for a while.

This is another of my person favorites. He reached over to brush a strand of hair from my face when I started crying. Yes, I cried. It was a very special moment.

HE-HE his smile here is just so cute. Being all embarassed that we were kissing for photo's and yet, he loved having them.

This is also one of our favorites. This and the next one. As for family group shots, LOVE these!!!!!!

Love my big boys in the forefront here!

Amy was also super sweet and took some pictures of the kids in thier halloween costumes for us. The wind picked up and at one point Aidan's Harry Potter cape was flapping in the wind it was so cute!

I know, I know. MASSIVE picture over load but I am trying to catch up and not let myself get so far behind again. That and I couldn't pick any to leave out!!! I love all of them and we look through them all the time.

What makes me happiest is seeing this picture of Matt's room. See, on the magnetic board to the right........that's right. All these pictures hanging in Afghanistan keeping my darling company! (if you are wondering what he's holding, it's the cake from his "cake in a jar" birthday cake we made him)

Natchitoches Yet Again

2011-02-11T10:48:00.000-08:00

So catch update 2 is Natchitoches, as we all know I love, love, love this little gem of a town. It's super family friendly. When Amy and her boy's were here we headed up to Natchitoches and spent the day, once again we were unable to get done in one day all that we wanted to do but still had a blast! First thing we went to Fort Jean Baptiste, this is the 1st time my boys have gotten to go and they LOVED learning about the history of this replica, and I have to say that the guides there are just awesome. The tour guide did everything from fireing his weapon for the kids to showing them how they lit fires from peices of cloth, as you can see in one of the pictures he really had the kids enthralled.

Below is David playing around.

After the fort we headed out of town a little ways to the plantations. We unfortunatly were not there in time to catch the tail end of the last guided tour through the main house. BUMMER! We so need to go back, however Magnolia plantation has a guided cell phone tour outside as you walk along, you text in a number and tada it sends you the info about each stop along the tour. Rather helpfull~

Now we all know how much I love baby wearing! I love carrying my little boy around on me, keeps my hands free, it's a great leg work out, and I just love having him all snuggled up on me, esp when he falls asleep! It's heavenly. My spine however doesn't always agree with this after long periods of time and Bob was a total life saver! Both Bob and Mikey offered to help me out a time or two and we got some adorable shots......esp the one where Aidan found Bob's nipple..lol and just kept tweaking it...lol we all had a good chuckle at Aidan looking for dinner in there..lol ya, nope little buddy not gonna happen...he he.

and is this not the sweetest picture! Baby wearing Daddy in the making!

A little earlier in the day Amy got the kids authentic Lousianna cajun food, which some loved....and others.......not so much....poor Bob was not down with the food. David was rather adventerous. At one point he put his Ski-doo hat on Aidan, probaly the only snow machine hat in the whole state...lol

And then of course it was time for the Christmas stuff around town! I love Christmas lights. I could sit and look at them for hours. Which is one reason why my tree goes up so early and lingers until after the 1st......ok ok, fine more like the 15th. When I start leaving it up all year you have my permission to commit me! Matty was VERY excited to get to see Santa and the waiting was killing him. Since the Christmas magic has worn off of Michael and Cody (WAHHHHHHHHHH) they were harder to keep contained in the line, but only had to be reminded of how much that loved Santa and this being Aidan's 1st Christmas needed to be my helpers and make this magical for him, which would not happen if I had to put on my "in public" voice...ONE....MORE....TIME lol to keep them in line behaving at age 10 and 9. Ya!

Lastly..............we have installed a new form of communication in our house for talking to "Da Da" in Afghanistan...........yup......the foot phone. It's cheap however, smelly....be warned.

Total Blog Negligence!

2011-02-10T21:55:00.000-08:00

So first and foremost, I have to apologize to the 4 people who actually read this blog..lol I know my Mom, my Mother in law, my Husband and my Cousin were all terribly neglected by me not blogging about all the things I thoroughly inundate you with on facebook, on my blog..HA! I plead for forgiveness! I blame the camera!

As previously blogged about...Murphey (and her laws) are a bitch! Since Matt left illness has plagued this house! I have often had times since November where I seriously believed that friends/the CDC would at any moment quarantine this house, board us up and pull a move straight out of E. T. with plastic tunnels and hazmat suits! Ok so maybe not THAT severe but bless muh soul I truly had visions like that!

Aidan has a case of mystery flu/fever/ear infections galore. Poor little monkey had multiple ER/Dr visits, I do believe around 8 regular office visits, and 3 E.R. OOOOOHHH the fun! Pretty much had every form of normal illness I could diagnose (because I am totaly a doctor and should diagnose your children as well!) and then some, we dealt with inept, decrepit pyshician who long ago should have been put out to pasture (this is based not only apon his bedside manner, and skill level, but the massive amounts of Peter Cottontail esq. ear fur he was rocking) and young buck doctors who would rather toss another antibiotic at him, pat me on the head like a brand new first time Mommy and send me home like the hyperactive Mother I surely am. We seem to have hit the tail end of all this or are in a lovely little lull, but either way, I am happy to say things have "simma'd down" for now.

During the mystery illness phase we also had some really fun stuff happen (which the 4 of you blog readers likely already know about, since I have no delusions of grandeur....ok normally I do, just not tonight..lol) and this is where the catching up get's very......picture heavy. 1st off.......Thanksgiving......

SUCKKEEEEEEDDDD.........suckatular, suckarific, lame-a-roo all over. Not to say that the company I had around the actual meal time wasn't lovely....it was (thank you so much Nicole for letting Aidan and I poach your family and food for the day!!) This was the 1st time in over a decade that I have not cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Talk about weird, but.....helpful, seeing as this is when Aidan and I got the sickies. I wasn't up for cooking. This was Jon's holiday, leaving me not only missing my hubby (missed you so much Lover!) but my 3 older bebe's. HATE SHARING! (Chanting, it's best for the kids, it's best for the kids----oooohhhhmmmmmm). Alas, alone we were, and Nicole's fantastic family had us along for some fun. There was a trip to Natichtoches which we all know I love, love, love at all times of the year but Christmas time is soooo adorable also the perfect opportunity to dress Aidan in a Santa outfit as every great Mother should do!What a doll baby! This was also right around when he turned 9 months old! He started eating table foods for the first time on Thanksgiving and went to town! Eppp....weaning begins! He went to town on pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, mashed potatoes and pickles of all things..lol Loves pickles. What an odd duck!

I was hoping that the way Thanksgiving holiday went off, wasn't a precursor to the remainder of the holiday season. Thankfully my big sister Amy came for Christmas~!!! Can we say yippee? Yep! Now Amy and I haven't been close over the last few years, just between distance, work, kids and life in general we (both of us) have sort of just gotten by on the obligatory "It's your birthdayyyyyy I love you"/"Merry Christmas" phone calls. This has defiantly take our relationship in leaps and bounds back to being actual sisters. Goofy inside jokes/ late night texting sisters. LOVE it!

Since Amy's sons Dave and Bob were coming for the holiday but at intermittent intervals we had a lot of travel back and forth to New Orleans, and why not take advantage of those (long ass, hate it) drives? Amy funded my 1st ever trip to New Orleans. AWESOME city

.......I will not, however, return without male protection in the way of a Husband, large Brother or hired body guard. The amount of homeless and people loitering menacingly in doorways and alleys was a tad foreboding. Thus why we toured the graveyards (which were AMAZING!!! Love me some history) right behind two paid tour guided groups (becuase we are far too cheap to pay someone to tell us things..lol), as to avoid being mugged. Seeing as the graveyards are smack i the middle of the ghetto.....there was literally a used old fire hose on the ground outside it with a random woman's shoe right outside the entrance.

The city had places that were so beautiful and so full of history and then one block down an area where windows were rolled up, doors locked, and eyes straight ahead. lol. All in all a wonderful, if not slightly scary/crowded trip! I would love to go back with my Hubby though, and do all the grown up things you really don't get to do with 6 kids in tow.

Below is a picture of Aidan talking to Daddy on the phone. Matt happened to call as we were walking through the graveyard. Aidan was talking up a storm behind that pacifier. I love moments like this! Thank you modern technology!

The 9th Ward was defiantly a sobering 30 minutes in the car. I was really impressed with all of the children, who sat quietly and took it all in.

Maybe we went on an off day, or perhaps in December all the good street performer's are off wearing Santa suits, but the entertainers there could learn a thing or two from those in San Francisco! This fella, literally just stood there. Oh well, the kids really thought he was cool.

This is what I meant by "crowded" trip. Ya, 6 kids squashed in the mini van on a 4+ hour drive. AWESOME!

Matty thought that cousin Bob was the greatest thing since sliced bread (yes I totally just used that oldie but goodie) they were inseparable...rather Matty was like a fungus on poor Bob. He He, Bob did all he could to resist the urge to spatula Matty off his hip for the few days he spent at my house.
Well, it seems I have lost my motivation to blog for the rest of the trip due to the hype from my evil Jillian Michael's work out finally wearing off. I will blog again another day, likely tomorrow,seeing as I can not stand knowing I blogged half a trip and am leaving the remainder of my billion pictures not blogged about..lol Coming soon.....The remainder of this trip(Natchitoches and the plantations), Christmas, update on Matt, Social studies fair, some crafting (because you know how I like to let you all stroke my ego....he's my little pet..you love him..he's furry) and all sorts of other randomness I am most certainly forgetting about right now.

Chili Fest Cook-off and Vetren's Day Program

2010-11-30T06:52:00.000-08:00

Oh my, my, my! I should never be allowed to go to a Veteran's Day program for my kids alone again! Especially right after Matt deploys... oi! That was a tough one. Those sweet little voices singing so proudly, seeing the parents stand who were Veteran's past and present and then seeing Cody cry when he said he was heart broken that his Dad (Matt) couldn't be there. It was very poignant.

Cody's video had a very silly little boy in the front row who either can't sing or chose to sing off key on purpose..lol funny.

Also on the last few weeks our Apache wives (the family readiness group for Matt's unit, we call our selves Apache Wives for those of you who are civilian) entered the Fall Fest Chili Cook-Off. It was sooooo fun! It was windy, rainy and F-F-F-REEEZING batman! Despite all that it was a blast and OMGRACIOUS the chili was good! We had some awesome women show up to help pass it out, decorate the booth and chop, stir and cook it with us. We even won "People Choice Best Tasting Chili" Which we all thought we deserved of course..lol We were lucky ANYONE showed up with the pouring rain we had that day. Fall Fest was a bit of a bust but I already can't wait for next year!

Halloween

2010-11-21T07:46:00.000-08:00

Matt tried on Michael's halloween costume.

At the pumpkin patch with Aidan

Miss Caite, Michae and Cody about to meet Billy the Exterminator from tv. Excited much?

Figured I would hop in there for a picture too.

Just a cute pic of Matt and I after one of the kids football games

Matt was a LITTLE excited.........ya..just a smidge.

Michael the washing machine

Matty was Peter Pan

Aidan was going to be a sock money but my sewing skills aren't as great as I hoped and he got Harry Potter instead.

Cody wanted to be a bank robber.

And these are curtosey of my Mother in law who told me Matt was Peter Pan for his 1st halloween....BBWWHAHAHAHA

OK so as we can all tell, I am VERY behind on posting. We've had a lot of football, frg functions, and school projects taking up a good bit of my time, thus blog posting comes in last! There are som MUCH MUCH MUCH better ones coming when I finally post our amazing photo session from seraphinos photography, but for now, this was our lame family shoot we did before halloween with Matt.

9 Months Old!

2010-11-19T06:14:00.000-08:00

Teeth, teeth, teeth. I feel like this entire month has been about teeth! Aidan cut in his 1st bottom tooth not long ago and this in the three weeks since Matt left has cut in two more and the fourth not far behind. As you would assume, this three weeks has not been a fun three weeks..lol.
The crawling has FINALLY happened. It's more of a belly scoot, then lean back and sit up, then repeat..lol but, it's movement. He just hasn't been interested in being mobile and frankly I haven't minded too much. It means more Mommy cuddle time and less exploring! Soon enough he will be off like a little rocket in every which direction, so I will soak up all of the "I need Momma" time I can get. Besides, all the hugs and cuddles help with the pain of missing my love.
"Da, Da" there has been a lot of "Da, da, da, da,da" going on, we aren't sure if he really knows that it means "DADA" or if it's more of a sound he enjoys, he does however seem to do it most when Matt gets on the web camera and talks to him. He has actually been nursing while I was on web cam with Matt (yes, I do that on camera. Any face time we get together we take and if that happens to fall into his feeding schedule so be it) and Aidan will hear Matt's voice and pull off, turn to the computer, say "Da, dadadada" and wave his little hand at the screen and grin. It MELTS ME!!!! I am loving that he knows who to look at when I say"where's Momma?" or "Where's Mikey?" .

Pulling up~ YES!! finally there too! He may not be a speed crawler but he is finally interested in grabbing a hold and hauling himself up. He does it to me mostly, but once there standing he wants to be turned and allowed to hold onto the couch looking back at his brothers who tend to play with him a lot. It's too cute.
Also...note the video Daddy, of him feeding himself fruit puffs! Yay!!

I am a bit behind on posts so next up, Halloween, and soon to follow the MOST AMAZING FAMILY PICTURES EVER!!!!!!!!!!
I heart Seraphino's photography! Amy Smith is just amazingly talented!

Murphey's Law

2010-11-14T08:17:00.000-08:00

Ya, Murphey thinks he's got jokes for Rachael this week! You know the old saying "When it rains it pours"? Well I have never been more thankful for being raised with a positive outlook than I was this past two weeks.
Things that made these last two weeks suck~
~Matt deployed
~The older three boys attitudes went haywire (to be expected , however, not allowed)
~I lost the master copy of the snack list for football games thus I didn't remind the right parent and the team had no snack at Thursday's game making me feel like a heel!
~ Aidan is cutting 3 new teeth, making him an all night screamer/ never wants to be put down.
~Three day long migraine kicked my butt.
~Lice was going around and school and for a second I thought Cody had it, thus all 3 older kids got high and tight hair cuts to avoid this..lol after all I have over 2 feet of hair...I don't need lice in the house!
~Some tool stole Matt's debit card information and drained his bank account. Ya, this one was a doosie.
~I forgot where I put my Power of Attorney (SUPER stupid move and I was thoroughly upset with myself for not having filed it away correctly), which I needed to send into Matt's bank to take care of the stolen money issue ASAP. Yup......I'm AWESOME like that.
~Both Michael and Cody have a 3 page research paper due and my laptop power cord wouldn't work, thus leaving us with no computer with which to research or type up the paper.
~I needed to do a wire transfer and after 3 attempts from my bank account it wouldn't work, and since I had a brand new card and brand new pin number I couldn't remember it...lol Yep, again, another shining moment of Rachaelness.
~I shampooed my carpets only to later that night have Aidan have explosive diarrhea out the diaper. Michael swooped him up in a second when he saw it and then gagged, allowing Aidan's foot to step in it and smoosh it all over the carpets. I finally lost it then and there, sat down on the couch and laughed with the kids until we cried. AHHH laughter what it will do for your soul!

I found put on my big girl panties and dealt with life! The kids learned that deployment or not attitudes aren't acceptable, we missed Matt like crazy but it helps that we get to see him on web camera and watch videos we took of Matt reading bedtime stories (this helps a lot!). The kids got hair cuts. I bought a new charger cord hopeing this will last until we can afford a new laptop (tax season I can not wait for you!).
Tylenol is my friend, both for Aidan's teeth and my head. I found the P.O.A. and got the bank mess straightened out and the money back! YAY!!!! Got my pin number sent in the mail, and re shampooed the carpets all the while taking deep breaths, and finding a way to giggle through it. All because my Mother and Father raised me to not let things get you down, and because my kids are amazing and my husband gave me words of encouragement and made me smile. Telling me he had complete confidence in me. Murphey, I tip my hat to you and say "Well played sir, well played".

Saying Those Painful Goodbye's

2010-11-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

Well, that time has come and gone and in odd way's we are grateful to get this started. The coming deployment has loomed over us like a dark storm cloud for a long time and to finally get the goodbye's done and start the counting down weeks means we can look for silver linings and get into a routine. ARG I hate deployments, and I know all my veteran deployment spouses are feelin me on that one. Blech- did I say how much they suck? Ya, I did, but they sure do make you appreciate the small moments all that much more. Like a 4 second long phone call of nothing but static from another country. Hours spent trying to connect to a messenger service to get a glimpse of your loved one. Or unexpected pictures. There is a wonderful group of Vets and families that show up at the airport our guys went through who stop and take pictures and post them for their families and that sure made our day. Seeing a random picture of him eating lunch, yep, we smiled and cried and smiled and cried some more. Ya, we're emo like that. It was more than chilly out the night we dropped him, and seeing as you can't sit in your personal vehical with your weapon that meant standing outside freezing....well,I wasn't cold...mmm butt warmers! Sorry sweet cheeks....Leave it to a Soldier to figure something out..lol he grabbed one of Aidan's baby blankets in the back and snuggled into it..he's so cute!

As for me smiling......ya I wasn't in a smiley mood, however remember that "inappropriate reaction to stress" I have? Ya...there it goes rearing it's obnoxious head. Grins when all I could think of was "don't cry, don't cry, not yet. Hold it in just a little longer". Those hugs will have to last until R&R, just don't be standing in my way when he gets off that plane..lol you will be trampled! You have been warned.

And here is Cody, looseing it, or just about too. This shot breaks my heart over and over. My sweet little Tank.

I was able to hold it together really well up until the good bye's to the kids, man those were tough, cody about killed me. He sat back on the couch and allowed the other boy's to have their goodbyes and his eyes welled up and he practically refused to say his goodbye. They hugged and he held those tears in...just about to pour over the rims of his eyes and I said "Cody it's ok to cry hunny, Daddy wants to cry too" and that did it, he lost it. We've had a few phone calls from school saying he's cried during class a few times so we are putting a lot of time into making packages and drawings and letter writing. Seeing him on the web camera had all 3 older boys running for the computer bawling! But what a wonderful release that was for them. A few tears turned into happy faces and jabbering about how they are going to win this game or that to make Dad/Coach Morris proud.

Matt and Cpt. Gilchrest in Afghanistan.

Well, now he's there, made it safely to his final destination and settling in, just as we are settling into a routine. Our new normal. Time to put on the big girl panties and the "everything is fine" smile and start some projects to keep myself sane!

~We miss you and love you Matthew. We are impatiently waiting for you to come home safely. Counting down the weeks (because there are just too many days to count!). Missing you with all that I am.................

Holiday Decor

2010-10-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

Just a few of the things I have made lately....... The Mummy I made years ago at a church social but it's been revamped this fall. The banner is new, I got the idea here (http://www.scribd.com/doc/39132830/moselle-haunted-bunting) I used printer paper, black poster board, black tissue paper (to make the ruffles, it's just folded accordian style and glued one underneath the triangular printed template) and 3 different ribbons. It actualy only took about an hour to make and I just love it!

The moss balls were something to fill the space. That hall table has been a pain to get it to look like anything I wanted so I'm experimenting with this. Foam balls with moss hot glued on...eh it works.

8 Months Old

2010-10-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I suppose it's better late than never, seeing as it's a few days past the 19th (cough cough). In my defense it's been a busy month and he is growing so darn fast I wish, wish, wish with all my heart that I could slow it down! He's creeping closer and closer to his 1st birthday and it's still 4 months away!

At the 8 month marker we FINALLY have a tooth! A teeny, tiny, tearful, sleepless nights tooth! That little bugger was a bear to break through but it's just so gosh darn cute! That second tooth is just screaming to break out but we'll see how long it takes, seeing as this one took a month and a half...wooooo, now that was some work!

Aidan has now started hugging. He turns and grabs a hold and rubs his face into your shoulder and snuggles down into you. I can not verbalize how much I love this! I Love, LOVE, LOVE, LOVEEEEEE this! Reaching, if you ask if he wants "up?" he now raises his chumbawumba lil arms and wiggles those little fingers at me.

Pulling up, he grabs your clothes or things on the floor and rolls around with them. He pretends like he can't crawl, and does this separation anxiety thing, where when I go out of a room he busts into crocodile tears and screams until I'm holding him again, so if nothing else works and he MUST sit on the floor by me while I clean and what not, he cries and cries and then suddenly he's crawling and scooting around in a fit.....really? You can only crawl when you're pissed off? Oh well..lol. He LOVES his walker. He sits in it in the hall and goes back and forth, mostly if Cupcake (our dog) is in her kennel he scoots over to her and lets her lick his hands while he giggles incessantly. I love those moments!

He's been spending a lot of time flirting with all the Mommy's at football practice and eating up all the attention. What a flirt! Miss Rachel and Miss Caite (both are Mrs. but we call them Miss) are his biggest admirers, it's too cute!

This sweet little boy is still nursing, which I love! I am so proud of us both. First of all I have to admit that in the past I have smoked after a few months of having a baby. Not often, just one or two here and there to de stress ( sometimes it's sell the kids to the circus, or sneak a cig.....pick your battles) but since nicotine goes through the breast milk to baby, there is NO WAY I was going to start back up. So the longer I go, the better for him the better for me. It's so rewarding. At this point it's second nature. There is no stress with it, we have MASTERED, I mean MASTERED feeding in public, and thank heavens! We don't have to do it often but it's easy now. As of now I guesstimate we'd be at 1,920 bottles washed were I bottle feeding, and to date we are only at 5! Yeah baby, it's nice! I'm planning to go straight from boob to sippy cup in the next 4 months. It's pretty nice!

Well, we've reached some milestones and I can't wait for more...............oh wait...yes I can! I just want to keep him chubby and cuddly for EVER!

Cavalry Ball

2010-10-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

The Grog......Ya it's so grodey you can't even see throgh it!

MMMMMMMMMMM taste-tastic!

In early September Matt and I were able to go to our first Cav ball. It was such a fun experience! For any of you who are given the opportunity to go you really should. It's full of such fun traditions and really, other than wearing some hideous atrocities that your 3rd cousin may or may not make you wear as a part of a wedding party (oh ya, you can TOOOOOTALLY wear that again......bwwhwahahahaha ,ya right!) how often in your adult life do you get the opportunity to get dressed up in a ball gown with all the trappings and spend an evening with your spouse? Ya, that's what I thought....uhhhhh never! Unless of course you happen to be a part of the military community or you are a socialite..lol
I've gotten to go to a few of them before because of being previously married to a military service 1member serving in a cav unit, this however was Matt's 1 st chance and bank account be damned we were going!

One of everyones favorite Cav ball traditions is the grog.Oohhhhh Gag me batman it's nasty...lol I'd rather eat Salmonella chicken before drinking that grog but it's tradition and if you don't at least have a sip you're a pair of big girls panties! The grog is a giant bowl (or two, depending on how many tables it has to accommodate) with bottle after bottle of liquor ceremoniously poured in by the senior NCO's (non-commissioned officer) on up from each troop, while CSM (Command Sgt Major) reads off the history of each bottles symbolic relation to the history of the unit. One Soldier double fisted the alcohol and took two giant swigs of it, then spitting it back into the bowls......mmmmm, another took off a shoe and poured it into the shoe and then into the bowls, another filtered their bottles through their sock that they pulled off in front of us all....ohhh alcohol thank you for your antiseptic properties! In some units they add sand to represent Iraq or Afghanistan and even diesel fuel...mmmm. It's all smoodged around in a the bowl and then pitches are filled for each table or glass by glass and taken back to the tables...some people completely get drunk off it and other's like my self take a little swig to say "hey hey" and then move on to the dinner line. It was really fun! We spent the evening with good friends, danced and even stopped in for some pancakes/breakfast goodness at IHOP in the wee hours. Over all it was a really colorful evening and I'm so glad I got to spend it with my handsome Soldier. Goodness me oh my did he ever look good. Highly recommended!

Family Visits

2010-10-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

Sneaky Deployment

2010-10-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

It is inevitable that no matter how much time and warning you are given before an upcoming deployment, that you will never be totally emotionally prepared for one. This is Matt's 1st deployment that we are preparing for, not the 1st I've gone through, and yet some how they get harder and easier all at once. Easier because I know what to be prepared for, harder because I know what it feels like to miss your spouse for a year or more, to raise your kids alone and to worry day in and day out as all military spouses do when their other half is gone. I really can not complain. I know that there are so many families who have their Soldier deployed right out of basic training, or right before the birth of their child, or soon after. Aidan will be 8 months old in a little over a week meaning that Matt got to be here for the whole of a very tough pregnancy, hold my hand and coach me through the toughest labor I've ever had, and help raise this little person for 8 months before having to deploy. He's gotten to asst. coach the boy's football team, and go on family outings. It's been a wonderful experience. There are so many families who don't get as much as we have had and I for one am trying to see the silver lining.

Deployment ceremony's are really worth attending! There is such a sense of pride that you have in your Soldier, seeing them march out onto that Field, flags flying, and the band playing. I know how prepared Matt feels that his unit is, and no matter how much he loves his family and hates to leave, there is a draw to deploy, to do his job, to protect and serve and I for one couldn't be prouder of him. I will post some really great pictures of our family that came to visit for the deployment ceremony and to get the early good bye's out of the way, but since this post is already so full of pictures it will have to wait for another day. I love you Matthew................

Football Season!

2010-10-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

Since the deployment is creeping up on us quickly we decided that the kids and I needed to have an activity to keep us as busy as possible so that once he leaves we don't sit in the house wallowing in self pity (ok so the wallowing would be me...lol but this is for the kids too). So we signed the boy's up for tackle football and it ended up that the head coaches....well didn't have a clue so Matt and another Dad stepped up as asst. Coaches (running the team without the title) and saved us..lol thank heavens. Unfortunatly he will likely be gone before the end of the season so he's attempting to teach the head coach how to coach offense. It's been an amazing experience for us as a family to have him coaching our two older kids and Matty and Aidan and I supporting (I some how got stuck with being the Mom in charge of setting up game snacks, oh well, someone has to do it.) I gotta say, Matt is an AWESOME Pee wee football coach, he's firm and animated with the kids, and doesn't make them do anything he won't do with them, ie; running laps, doing up down's and so on. And he's always there running up and down the feild on game day's cheering them on and jumping around like a fool when they score..lol it's too cute!

This is Michael tackleing their quarterback, it was his 3rd tackle of the game, two of which ended up causeing them to fumble, it was awesome, he came out like a bullet!

This is half time, and we were so lucky to have Uncle Jordan here for this game, because he and his awesome camera got to be on the side lines taking pictures for us! Michael is in the back right corner....so cute!

My Cody bear drinking his gatorade........he's such a tank!

Speaking of Tank, there he is, he blocked every time. He really did awesome! Now if we can just get the kids to understand what holding, horse collering and face masking really is and how not to do it...lol it is after all pee wee football but Matt is really tough on trying to get them to not do it.

Matt pumping the kids up before game.

Matt during practice. MMMM hmmmm He's just too yummy!

Cody at practice.

Matt and the boy's after their 1st game. So far we are 2-0 on games and 2-1 on scrimages with the other Fort Polk team. WOOT WOOT GO COLTS!!

Speedy McSpeederson

2010-10-07T08:24:00.000-07:00

Ahem.....cough cough.. Ok so normally I am NOT a speeder. Frankly Matt usually rolls his eyes at my "gramma driving" as he calls it. I tend to take forever to pull into traffic, and set my cruise control at 1-2 miles under whenever I hit the highway to ensure I don't do just this.....well on my way back from Alexandria I got pulled over or going almost 15 over because they had finally opened a section of the new road that has been under construction for over a year and that section of the road we were on was 65 as far as I knew. My bad! Totally need to read the freaking speed signs and not assume that they have remained the same! WHOOPS! And yes, I took getting pulled over seriously, I just happen to have a bad reaction to getting in trouble and I smile and giggle inappropriatly....yes...uber mature! Thanks hunny for taking time to capture those special moments....brat! So....moral of the $208.00 story is...SLOW DOWN RACHAEL!

7 Months Old

2010-09-19T14:01:00.001-07:00

I had to start out this post with our mini Santa, with his little "bubble hawk" because, it's awesome and it makes me smile. Hopefully it brightened your day. (As for the falling over in the sink...opps! Normally for "in the sink" baths I lay a towel in the bottom to keep that from happening but due to an emergency "explodeing diaper" situation he was rushed into the sink and that preventative non slip towel wasn't in place..lol my bad lil man!)

Well, we were really hopeing that this would be the month that he crawled, I mean really crawled, so that Dad would be able see him boot scootin around before he has to deploy but we didn't quiet get there this month. We reached more of a......360 twisting around and the awesome butt in the air, face getting carpet burn move..lol, which sadly I find hillarious and giggle at each time I see it.

We are also working on getting teeth...ohhhhhh the teething! It's a tough game, I forgot all about it! Oh Tylonol & teething tablets, how I love you!

Aidan is my little companion during the big boy's football practice since Dad is asst. coaching and Matty runs off to play with the other kids who are too small to play on the team. Aidan and I sit and talk to the other Mommies and of course he is a total flirt! Just look at those grins!

Like I said, mobility is practicaly teasing him at this point! I swear I can hear his inner dialouge.." I think I can, I think I can...ohhh crap nope.." lol....But then all that work wears him out and his naps have started getting longer and are thankfully changing from 20 minute power naps throughout the day to 2 hour stints of deep sleep.....ohhhh naps how happy I am to see you!

One of the things that as a parent I tend to inevitably forget is that kids do not need toys! At least not purchased ones! An empty water or soda bottle makes the best toy eva! The fact that they tend to roll off tempt him to go after them....see, crawling motivation!

Seeing as this house is full of GATOR fans that meant he would be roped into it as well. Aunt Kelly gave this adorable outfit to cousin Hunter in the hopes of recruiting another Gator fan but his poppa wan't having any of that seeing as Uncle Jordan and fam are Seminole fans (boooo lol), So this outfit made it's way to Aidan's closet and doesn't he look great in it! This is his game face. Go Gators!!!

Despite his lack of crawling I must admit I still love this non-mobile stage where he still lays in my lap all the time and snuggles his Momma! I love being a Mother, and I love being able to stay home and raise my kiddos!

Uncle Dan

2010-09-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

Fianlly Uncle Danny was able to come for a visit! It's been a long time since we've seen him, 2 1/2, almost 3 years for the kids and I and Matt had yet to meet him! Amy, Dave and Dan all work jobs all over the US and Canada and that makes it hard to see each other with as often as we move and as often as they travel for work, so on his way to his new job he drove to see us (thank you, thank you, thank you Dan!!! I know it was a real heck of a drive). Unfortunatly he was only able to stay about 24 hours because of a scheduleing snafu at work. We were all so bummed! However, sometime is better than no time! It was so awesome to get to see my baby brother!

Dan and Matt hit it off, what little bit of time they had to get to know each other, and that was awesome. So as of now the only member of my family who hasn't met Matt is Dave and his family! I wish we really had more time, since when he met Amy and Dan both it was only for a few hours. We at least got to have him meet Matt and meet Aidan. It was so fun!

Waiting at the bus stop for Matty to get home and see Uncle Dan for the 1st time.

The kids had a blast!