Back To School

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

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

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

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!