Football Season!

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

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

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!

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Uncle Dan

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!

6 Months Old....Can You Believe It???

Well, he's six months old now! Half a year has gone by? Really? Wow! I find it so hard to believe. Wait...don't I say that every month? This month has brought on some new fun. Baby food! Yes, we waited until he was 6 months before we started other foods. We are still breastfeeding and going strong, which I am super proud of. I breastfed all of my kids, but my older three I wasn't able or frankly didn't try as hard as I could have to bf past 4 months. Either working outside the home, surgery or illness with medication caused the milk to dry up. So this makes me happy. We are both still loving it! I can't say how special it is to me to be able to do this for him. He is such a happy boy!

All that rolling over from last month has come to sitting up. He can't sit himself up just yet unless he is already propped up, then from there he can raise up the rest of the way. He can hold himself in an upright position if you have him sitting up, and he really loves it.

There were just too many cute pictures not to share that we took this month.

This little boy has brothers who play with him all the time, he very seldom is left alone, which I try to give him so we don't end up with a spoiled little monkey, but who can deny him his brothers playing with him? Not me..lol Cody is the one I have to keep an eye on, he's constantly playing with him and trying to pick him up and he's not at the point where he makes sure all of his limbs are in a good postion before trying to move him. But MAN does he ever love this boy!

~Is this not the cutest!!!!!! Aidan was wearing his ACU onesie and Daddy came home from work, picked him up and I had to snap a few.

KISSES

Daddy working hard to feed Aidan.






We are so close to crawling it's killing me! He wants it soooo bad. He can get that butt in the air but then he's face down getting carpet burn on the face, or scooting backwards. He can get the head up and scoot but can't get the butt and legs to cooperate at the same time.lol It's so cute! Ekk, I'm afraid that next month I will be posting about him trying to pull up on things!

Back to School and a Little Catch Up on Mom and Dad.

Well, it's that bitter sweet time of year again.....Back to school! I loved it as a child, the new school clothes, the new supplies, the promises of new knowledge and new friendships....ahhh, I love that my boy's look at each coming year with as much enthusiasm. This year we had a few hitches to get over scheduling and a decision to make about their education. Here at Fort Polk your children can go to the North Polk Elementary which teaches head start-1st grade. Which is the school Matthew went to last year and is continuing there this year since he is in class with lil miss Taylor, a close family friends daughter. South Polk Elementary is 2nd-4th grade. Then for 5th grade on up your kids go off post. Eh, no biggie....so out of curiosity we drove past the school that Michael would be attending due to district lines.............OH HELL NAW! Both Matt and I had the same reaction. At first, as we drove down the street we were silent for the first pass of the school. It literally looked like there were meth labs next too the school. No fencing to keep the kids in and other's out. There was just this dropping feeling.

I sat in the car wondering...." Am I a snob?" is this what this is? I surely hope not. I sat there thinking about Michael going to school where he would be in a school with lower testing scores, and a slightly rougher crowd. Those children are just as deserving of a great education and I know so many families have their children enrolled in this school, but after some more research on the school from friends and online we decided that it was worth it to pull Michael from this school and enroll him in Pickering. Pickering is Elementary-High school, all in one building. Sitting there in the office enrolling Michael I felt so much better about my decision and Cody was so impressed he asked to be switched from South Polk to Pickering (hey this makes my day easier, instead of having three kids in three schools at least two would be at one and make my drop off and pick up a little easier), so....a little more paper work and tada....Michael and Cody are now Red Devils! They LOVE IT! Cody loves it because the classrooms have walls...ooooo, ahhhhh. They each have a homeroom teacher who teaches Eng, Lang arts, and spelling, and then a teacher for science, math and social studies. I could hardly tear them away from jabbering with their new teachers at the open house night. So far I feel GREAT about this. To each his own. And this school is just a better fit.

Michael and Cody about to walk into their new school. Aren't they just adorable!

Oma sent the kids a cute little outfit each and they loved them so much they begged to take some pictures for Oma. They ran off to grab matching balls..lol it was so cute. Take a look at Cody's hair...it's the last time for a while that you will see it like that...lol I'll post about the hair trauma another day.

As to catch up with Hottie Von Sexypants, he had a fun class over two weeks learning how to fly the Raven UAV. He loved it! When it comes time to re-up/ re-class (re-enlist in the Army) he may seriously consider reclassing (basicaly taking another job in the Army) as a UAV pilot. Which would basically have us going back to Ft. Huachuca for a few months ! YAY, we love Huachuca! We are still hoping for Germany too so maybe we'll luck out, get Huachuca for a few months, after Matt gets back from deployment next year (yes I'm already faux planning for Matt's return and he hasn't even left, I'm evidently impatient for it..lol) and then go off to Germany. Ohhhh how silly of my to even pretend to plan in an Army career...but hey I think all Army wives do try.

On another note, I've been very active in our Apache troop FRG, having a blast! We've been doing a lot of fund raisers, and have recently started being the troop "Welcoming Committee" making welcome baskets for our new families to the troop as well as being a POC (point of contact). A lot of the ladies we have are really active and it's nice! Our FRG group leader , Sherry had a little surprise for us at the meeting, a tiny silver spur, and a sweet little thank you/ award. Thanks Sherry.....Don't I look fabulous? Not really, oh well. Who doesn't just love being surprised...lol