Patriotic Wreath

My version of an idea from FamilyFun Magizine

Not that I would….

ever want Joe to go back to Iraq, but this whole being gone 5 days and coming home for 3 then leaving again just sucks big time.  Now I know I should not be complaining as it’s been much worse (like a year gone) but I got pretty used to seeing him, and having him here…….I’m missing that man of mine.  We should get a little break  in October, so far the schedule is pretty clear then.  Next month isn’t much better but part of it is me leaving for a week!!!  I get to go to Iowa for a week with Lizzie and Ethan. I will leave on Monday, and Joe will bring the boys up on Thursday!  We have a wedding!!!  Joe’s drill is starting to take it’s toll on both of us, as well as costing much more than he makes!  The 5 1/2 hour drive is hard on him, and with the price of gas hard on the pocketbook as well!  I will be happy when he transfers to a unit here in Arkansas!

School is going okay……Wyatt is doing great and loving his teacher.  Morgan loves his teacher, but can’t seem to stop talking.  She told me that after this week if he doesn’t get better she’s moving his desk over by himself.  I feel so bad, Morgan doesn’t mean to act up, he just loves to talk.   (can’t imaging where he gets that from)  Plus he will hate being by himself, he’s a very sociable person!  Hopefully he will understand soon!

I promise to get my camera hooked up and post some pictures soon!

1st day of school…………

was great!  I wonder how many people have written that in a blog title or facebook post or whatever that tweeting thing is.  I don’t have anymore time therefore I stay away from the tweeting!!  Although I did read this morning Oprah tweeted something interesting yesterday?  Okay back to school.  Morgan loves his teacher, although he did tell me that he had to move to a different set.  When I asked him why she said ” Cole and I are CRAZY together, so we can’t sit by each other”  Cole was in his class last year too, and I believe that he is right, they are CRAZY.  Wyatt liked his teacher as well, but was most excited about his new school books!  How could two kids be so different I don’t know, but I sure love them both!  Wyatt does have one of his best friends in his class as well.  He was excited to tell me about Ben and how much he missed him!  Can’t wait for them to get home today so I can find out how the second day was!

Joe didn’t take any pictures so I got some today!  It’s probably better as Joe cut their hair last night and they look a bit more presentable.

THe first day of school……..

Is it bad that I’m excited! Even worse that I can’t wait until Sept 6th when the other two get to start too???? Bad mom of the year award…….here I come! I have everything set out and ready to go, lets just hope I can actually get up! Pics tomorrow!
Joe gets Dad of the year award he worked it out so he could fly home tonight to be here tomorrow!!!

Okay, so I have this blog…..

Not that many people would know as I haven’t posted on it in over a year.  I might as well start over….but this one is already set up!  I have never really got good at the blogging thing!  I must try!  I think it is such a good way to help me remember life…..cause let me tell you it goes fast!

Well first of all Joe is home….got home before Christmas even.  He is back at work and his job keeps him away from us a lot it seems!  The deployment was hard….very hard.  Looking back it seems like it went fast, but let me tell you during that year I thought it would never end!  When it did it took us a little while to get use to living together again.  I guess its hard to go from only having to think about yourself (ie getting to work, working out, eating and sleeping) to coming back to a family of 4 kids and a crazy wife.  For me I had forgotten home much crap Joe has….we need a bigger house!

Which leads me to my next topic, we are now looking for a house.  I guess we’re gonna be here awhile.    It’s been awhile since I’ve looked for a house…….I forgot how picky Joe (the construction man) can be.  I’ve thought more than once we might just have to build one.

My kids have grown a lot!  Ethan is not really a baby anymore although I sure try and make him one.  Lizzie is in her last year of preschool.  Wyatt will be in 3rd grade and Morgan in 1st.  Busy times I tell you!

Lizzie’s 3rd Birthday

So my baby girl turned 3 yesterday….it’s hard to imagine that it was only 3 years ago that she was born.  Sometimes it’s seems like forever and sometimes like yesterday.  I guess I should be happy that time seems to be going by fast lately…all the sooner Joe will be back.  Lizzie is the one child of mine that seems to show how much she misses her daddy most.  She talkes about him at least once a day.  She doesn’t ask anymore when he is coming home or where he is.  She knows now that he is at work in Iraq and he won’t be home for a long time.  But she still talks about him, like reminding me he is ‘at work in Iraq’ whenever she see’s a plane, she always tells me that Daddy is on a plane going to work?  And between you and me I think Joe misses his baby girl a lot too.  They talk the most because he calls most times during the day when she is home.  The boys miss him, but don’t seem to mention him anymore.  He is scheduled to come home for a visit at the end of summer so we are really looking forward to that.  I’m sure after he is gone it will be hard again going through those first few weeks but well worth it to get to see Daddy.

For Lizzie’s birthday she got to pick what she wanted to do.  In the morning she had her cereal and then got to skype with Daddy.  He sang happy birthday to her.  (it almost made me cry)  Then she wanted to go to school to play with her friends.  We brought frosted cookies to share at snack time.  After we picked up Wyatt from school we came home and watched her favorite show and got to talk to Grandma Janie, Aunt Melanie and Aunt NaeNae.  Then she of course wanted to have McDonalds for dinner so we went to the one over in Levy with the nice playcenter and ate and played for an hour or so.  Came back home and had friends over for cake and icecream.  Bryson and Aniston came, along with the Climer boys and Charles.  Lizzie doesn’t have any girl friends really.  I feel bad I didnt’ do a better job organizing I would have like to have had more people.  We ate our cake and icecream and opened her gifts.  She got a cool new nemo sprinkler, some make up, dress up clothes, bookes and new outfits.  She loved it all and enjoyed being the birthday girl. 

I do have to mention that today she got into her cake and had frosting all over her and tried to use that it was ‘her birthday ‘ as an excuse.  It was cute, but no dice! 

Here are some pictures of the day.

Lizzie's Birthday morning

 

New 'big girl underwear'

 

lizzie and morgan

 

Ethan trying to figure out what all the fuss is about

 

Lizzie at school with her cookies

 

Lizzie with her cake

 

Lizzie

 

Getting ready to open gifts

 

Lizzie in her Fairy Princess outfit

 

showing off her wings

New camera

I finally got my new camera…I am very proud of myself for waiting and not just getting it.  I saved my money and feel really good about my purchase.  I love love love it.  I love the great pictures I can take.  Quality that is, I’m still learning how to take good ones.  I thought I would share a few.  I have two lenses for it, they both take great pics. 

Here are some flowers I practiced with…

And of course I have tons of my kids…here are a few of the ones I really liked!  There will be more later too, I take so many pictures now.  Seems the nice camera makes me feel like I should shoot more!

Morgan, after school!

Wyatt

Ethan..little too close, I had the wrong lense on!

Mommy and Morgan

Ethan, sucking on his fingers

Lizzie doing a little light reading

Life is hard when your almost 3

Wyatt’s unfortunate accident…

So anyone that has boys, especially boys as close together as mine, know that they fight.  Wyatt has bullied Morgan for years…he has always been bigger and older.  Well Morgan had his revenge today.  They were arguing in the bedroom about who knows what then I hear Morgan yell at Wyatt to stop…which at this point I’m not concerned as I know soon enough Morgan will come tell me what Wyatt is doing to him.  So next I hear Wyatt start crying….also not uncommon, for being the bully he is also a wimp.  Morgan comes out says Wyatt pinched him and he hit him back.  So still not worried, I yell to Wyatt ( and no I didn’t get off my arse…I’m a bad Mom) an ask what is wrong.  Still crying, then he turns the water on, so I get up and walk into the bathroom.  Yep Morgan hit him okay….in the forehead with a metal pole.  There was blood everywhere.  Running all down his poor face and he was trying not to make a mess so he was leaning over the sink with the water running.  Which of course only makes it look worse.  I will give him this he tried hard not to make a mess with the blood.   After cleaning him up I find the source of the blood, he had a tiny cut on his forehead….I being the good mom I am slapped a steri-strip on it and called it good.  Ahh, I’m guessing as they get older the cuts are going to get bigger…..

More picture fun…

Ethan at the Park

Wyatt at Wye Mt Farm

Morgan

Lizzie (she was way concerned about her hair blowing)

 And no she wasn’t suppose to be picking those flowers.

That's Bryson, Lizzie's future husband

Easter Outfits, and yes I know I'm missing one

Lizzie

I know, I’ve been hearing about

me not posting.  I don’t know what happen, lets just say my life has been a bit busy and leave it at that.  So I thought I would put a few pictures up for everyone.  Let everyone know that I have not died, although I have been know to lock myself in my room every now and then. 

I feel that I have to admit that part of my problem was a little kick I got on with Bones.  (that is a tv show for those of you that don’t know)  It has one of my favorite actors in it (I like to oggle) But I realized that I had missed a lot of the episodes so I started getting them from netflix, you just get one disk of the season or two or three, depending on your plan at a time.  So I wasn’t too bad when I had to watch it and then send it back and wait for another one, but come April 1st they put them on instant watch…..I watched them all.  Yes all 4 seasons.  Then I went to Fox.com and watched as many from the current 5th season as I could.  I’m still missing episode 4, 6, 10-14 if anyone knows where I might be able to find them.  So anyway as lame as an excuse as it is, I have been watching a lot of TV on my computer!  SAD

I have been doing things too.  For spring break(i hope i haven’t already written about this, I should have checked)  we went to the zoo, then we went for a hike at Pinnacle Mountain park.  We also had a picnic by Lake Maunmelle.  We went to the daffodil farm for some pictures, see I did good that week, that is kind of a good excuse for not blogging.  There are lots of pictures for that but I’ll just put a few on.

At the Little Rock Zoo

Morgan looks possessed, it is kinda funny we were only at the zoo for a few hours, this was when we first got there, but by the end Morgan was sick.  Fever and all.  Poor guy.  So I’m not going to put all the monkeys elephants and other animal pictures in….if you want to really see them let me know and I’ll send you a snapfish link.

Zoo, on the way out

It a beautiful day and we had lots of fun.  We go back again! 

So that is all you get for today…more pictures tomorrow…gotta leave myself something to write about!

Things I’ve learned while my husband is in Iraq

It can physically hurt when you miss someone.