The Daily Grind

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

the time has come

We have been successfully avoiding this moment for the past 8 years. Deployment. We have been blessed so far to always miss the deployments. Now, his time has come. He leaves for his continued training in Fort Lewis, Washington this weekend. He will then get to come home for Thanksgiving and then off to Iraq. He won't be home for good until next September.

Please pray for us all during this time. Pray for strength for me to go on each day as a single mom. Pray for the kids to understand and accept this time. Most of all, pray for Jacob. Pray not only for his physical safety, but also to guard his spirit and mind during this time. Pray that he comes back home complete emotionally and spiritually as well.

War is not easy on families but it is harder on the troops that are away and in a far less than desirable place. they see things that we would never wish our worst enemy to see. They are on guard 24 hours a day, every day they are gone. it is no wonder that so many of them come home physically, but mentally, they are injured. I refuse to accept that as normal. I refuse to accept this fate for my husband. So, please, join with me in covering him with prayer!

Gavin is 2!!!

Our sweet little boy turned 2!!! I cannot believe how time is going by. He is so big and funny. Oh my goodness. he thinks his purpose on earth was to entertain us. He is loud, rambunctious, goofy, and smart! he is talking so much and he gets so excited when we can communicate. he is just absolutely gorgeous!! That cotton hair and big blue eyes! ( I say they are turning green, but that is a debate in our house ;)) I haven't taken him in to the doctor yet for stats, but i did measure his height. it was 34.5 inches tall. Which if you buy into the whole double the height at 2, he will end up around 5'9". About right considering almost all the men in our family are around that height.

Right now is totally into trains! and football. Hilarious how excited he gets when football is on the tv. he goes and gets his toy football and throws it and then tackles it over and over again. I guess its just one of those things that are natural instinct.

He LOVES his big sister. They play so well together. As soon as she gets home from school, he runs to the front door to hug her. He is just so excited. then, they get a snack and disappear to the play room together. IT'S AWESOME!

We are so blessed to have the most awesome kiddos ever.

Pictures of Friends

I recently took some pictures for Trinity's little BFF and her sister. Yes, it was in their ugly burnt orange! But we decided to do a cute little rivalry picture with Trinity in her Maroon. The rivalry starts young!! While we were out, we decided to do a few Red, White, and Blue pics for the kids. I am putting together an album for Jacob's deployment.

First Day of School

Well, we have a kindergartner and a high schooler!! Craziness! Trinity started kindergarten at Seashore Learning Center and LOVES her teacher, Mrs. Carroll. I have a kind of funny 1st day of school story for her. (or me...) We went to the meeting before school started and they were adamant about the traffic schedule and drop off points and all that stuff... I was under the understanding that we followed these rules and did not walk your kid to class. so, we went the day before and dropped off supplies and practiced walking to her class. Well, the big day came and we talked about dropping her off in the line and where to go. As I am shoving her out of the car with her big ole backpack, one of her friends moms walked by. She said, "Oh Trinity, you're going to kindergarten today.... all by yourself." is that code for "you are a bad mom?" I then noticed that EVERY other parent was walking their kid to class. I asked T if I should get out and walk her. She said "Nope. See ya later! and walked off to class." What an independent little girl!!! But I was so disappointed with myself. Why did I not think that EVERY other parent would walk their kids to class? Oh well. What a memory of her first day of school.

And Garrett... big man in high school! I don't have pictures, but his mom wrote an awesome blog on his school career! check it out!

Catch up ONCE AGAIN part 2

My family got to come down in July for a little family get together at the beach. Jeremy and Jamie came down and surprised us with little Ella and Noah in tow! we had a great day relaxing on the beach and grilling fajitas for dinner... too bad I don't have any pictures to prove it!! I don't take my camera on the beach much :)

The next day was SO HOT! we took all the kids to see the Lexington Battleship. very cool. I would like to go back when its not so hot outside.

Jacob had the very cool opportunity to go sailing in a race before he left town for more training. It was an ALL weekend event, but he had a great time.

Catch up ONCE AGAIN

Man, the last 6 months snuck past me again. I really stink at this blogging thing! I will try to get better because I know a lot of people who follow this don't get on Facebook. So, I pledge to be better!!!

Lets see... over the last 6 months....

Trinity Graduated from Pre-School! The beginning of our last summer before real school begins! Gavin got to hang with the older chics! Ladies man!! hahaha

We went to Disney World in June!!! Awesome memories for the kids (and for me). Trinity and Gavin got to fly for the first time! Garrett is an old pro at it now, but he was an amazing help with the little ones. Jacob had to meet us there because he was flying in from Kansas City. We stayed in a resort for a week and got to go to Disney with the Millimans for 4 days! Lots of fun! Here are some of my favorite pics.

Garrett got to go back and forth and visit us a few times over the summer. We got to spend some good, quality time with him. We all miss him when he's not here. Lately Gavin has began asking where Bubba is all the time. And Trinity talks about how much she loves him and misses him, yet they argue and pick on each other the whole time they are together!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

I wanna be an Astronaut!

We were in Houston this weekend for a friends wedding. It was in the Clear Lake area so we decided to take the kids to NASA. Trinity has been learning about space this month at school, so she really enjoyed it. She was so mad it was Spring break this week because she is ready to go back to school and tell all the other kids about it. Garrett was not with us :( and it was weird doing a family outing without him, but he has the t-shirt! Kids always miss out in these situations.

The family in front of the new Ares I launch vehicle

(they are retiring all other space shuttles-just FYI)