Coming Home

Exciting news.  Chris and I are coming to the end of deployment #7. Hooray!  To celebrate, I thought I'd dedicate both of our songs to my awesome hubby.

Our first song is You Move Me, by Garth Brooks.  The circumstances of our meeting, courtship, and long distance relationship required that both of us move a little out of our comfort zones and take some risks to make it work.  Also, the fact that we are in the military and moving all the time makes this song continually relevant to me -  "I can't go with you and stay where I am, so you move me."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IASPJxkzXb4 

(for some odd reason I couldn't get the video of You Move Me on here so you'll just have to use the link.  Also, I am not a fan of the video, but it was the only one I could find that actually had Garth Brooks singing the song.  So just listen! :)> )


Our 2nd song, The Promise, by Tracy Chapman, became our song during Chris' deployment to Colombia, which was either his 3rd or 4th deployment.  Since we have spent as much of our married life apart as together, this song holds special meaning to me as well.  As we are coming to the close of our 7th Deployment, I am so grateful that another promise has been kept, and that Chris is coming to "fill that space in my heart."  Oh how I've missed him.

The Promise, by Tracy Chapman

Chris, I can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks!  I'm so excited to reunite so we can share our next adventure together - moving again! :)>    "And I'll follow with my heart, laughing all the way."  You're totally worth it.  Love you!

March . . .

Let's just keep on rollin' . . . 

 March has been a very exciting and eventful month that went by way too fast.  Aly was able to go to the pre-camp over-nighter to work on certification and the hike for girls' camp.  As you can see from the above picture, they had a blast!

Aly's been having more chorus concerts, which are always fun to go to and amazing to listen to.

 I was able to take Aly and Lise to see "The Sound of Music" play which had 3 kids from our ward playing the roles of  3 of the VonTrap children.  It was awesome!

 St. Patty's day was also a big hit.  Because "Everyone loves and Irish Girl", right?  And we're Irish every day of the year!!

 I had preschool at my house again, this time on a Dr. Seuss theme.  We played with play dough after reading, "Oh the Thinks You Can Think!"

 And finally . . . SPRING BREAK!!!  We have been living it up this week, just relaxing and spending time with friends.  It was finally warm enough to go to the beach, so we totally jumped on it.  The water was still cold, but it was perfect outside and everybody had fun playing in the sand.  And of course the kiddos still got in the water for a bit as well.

 And you also get a picture of me, being a weirdo, as usual.

 Also during Spring Break Kate and Lise went to a back handspring clinic where they worked on skills and building muscles to learn how to do a back handspring.  They both did really well and were really fun to watch.

 This week I also started cooking again (for reals, not just the easy quick stuff I always do when Chris is gone.)  We had the Sister Missionaries over for dinner and I'm trying to build up some freezer meals for when Chris gets home and the craziness before we move.

I was also able to do a day trip to the temple on Wednesday with some friends.  It was awesome.  I love the peace that's found in the temple and the quiet reassurances of the Spirit.  While I was there I was impressed with the purposefulness of all Heavenly Father's creations and knowing that, as I am one of his creations as well, there is a plan and purpose for my life and my family.  In thinking about the last almost 3 1/2 years we've lived here I was also impressed that, although we may never be able to come back to this same ward or friends, or time in our lives, there is always more good friends, opportunities, and great people waiting for us at our next duty station.  I have learned to trust in that.

And finally, I'm excited to watch the Women's General Broadcast with Aly and Lise tomorrow.  What a great experience!

February . . .

Ack!  It's the end of March and I haven't even blogged February yet!  So here we go . . . 

 The big thing in February, of course, is Valentine's Day.  Here is Kate with her ultra original Valentine's Day box.  Fun with the art supplies.  Need I say more?

Kylie had a fun party with her preschool. . . 

 . . . and I got an "I Love You Because. . ." book from Chris.  It is awesome and I LOVE IT!! This book scored major brownie points. There were serious ones and funny ones.    Here are some of my favorite pages:

 Chris, you are awesome and now I've got a book to prove it!  Love you!

 Despite the cold winter, we actually had a few warm days, President's day being one of them.

 We took advantage of it by going to Rocky Bayou State Park.  The kids had tons of fun on the playground .. .

 . . . playing a game of rip-stick basketball/soccer . . .

 . . . and exploring the forest.  You can't beat a nice big stick to carry around, right?

 February also finished off Aly's swim season.  She did awesome and I loved going to see her compete.

The rest of February was spent doing not as exciting things like looking for houses to rent in Kentucky, going to doctor's appointments, and getting our house ready to rent.  However, the girls always keep things interesting. And lucky for you I've saved up quite a few of my kids "funny-isms" to share. Like when I went to drop one of the girls off and came back to find Kylie scootering in "tights." (see below)

 Maybe we should just go child by child.  First of all, Kylie.  She has been obsessed with cupcakes for over a year and a half.  Whenever she likes what you're doing she'll tell you,  "You can have a cupcake at my birthday!" (or 5 cupcakes, or whatever.)  But if she doesn't like what you're doing then you don't get any cupcakes at her birthday.  How rude!  I think I'm going to need to bake about 1,000 cupcakes for her birthday for all the ones she's promised people!   Kylie has also been very worried about her toys and stuff making it to Kentucky.  She told me her bed couldn't come because it couldn't fit through the door.  I told her we would take it apart.  So that night her prayer went like this, "Thanks that my bed will be broken and we'll take it to Bentucky"  (Yes, she always calls it Bentucky.)

And speaking of prayers, Kylie's are always very interesting and heartfelt these days.  She is always laughing or crying when she gives them.  Here are a couple examples:
 "Thank you that I could watch a show and it was Arthur and Lise wanted to watch her show and (whining) I wanted a pony show, (wailing) so I didn't get to watch my show!  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
(Laughing) "Heavenly Father, I get to see my preschool friends tomorrow!  Yay!"

And here are a couple funny conversations I've had with Kylie lately:
Me - The kitchen's closed
Kylie - (Opening the fridge) See, Mom?  It can still open.

Kylie, (looking for a butter knife because she wanted to butter her own toast) - Mom, where's the baby sword?

Now on to Kate.  She is my ultimate, think-outside-the-box girl.  If I ask her to get a paper to do her spelling words on then she'll bring over  the wipe off board or a napkin to write on.   When I ask her to make a sandwich for her lunch she'd rather have pepperoni or a hard boiled egg.  So on her math worksheets (that are the multiple choice, fill in the bubble type), instead of filling in the bubble, she will often turn the bubble into a picture, like a balloon, or a girl stick figure's head.   It has to be her idea, ya know. She doesn't want to conform.  One day she even wanted to wear her underwear over her pants to school.  I had to put my foot down on that one though.

You also never know what is going to come out of Kate's mouth.  We were reading in the scriptures about becoming as a child.  The conversation went as follows:
Aly - It means they're innocent.
Me - Yeah, like when an 18 month old is crawling around and dumps over a bucket of toys.  He isn't trying to make a mess, he's just exploring.
Kate - Yeah! Like a cowboy, exploring in the woods. (. . . ?!?)

I also liked when Kate was excited to go back to school the day after President's day and said, "Tomorrow we're going to learn about Uncle Sam the nutcracker!"  We have a Christmas decoration nutcracker that looks like Uncle Sam. Love it.

Next is Analise.  I took Analise running with me one Saturday to help us get ready for the upcoming Mud run.  We had gone about 4 blocks when Lise said, "I thought you'd be walking by now!  Are we even still in Niceville?!?"

Also, once upon a time, when Chris was a teenager, teasing his little nephews,  Chris' sister-in-law cursed him with 5 girls.  As we feel that we are done having kids, Chris and I thought we had escaped the full brunt of the curse.  But Lise let us know that Chris does, in fact, have 5 girls, because I am the 5th girl!  Is she saying I'm a curse?  I asked Chris what he thought and he said he didn't know how to answer that . . . hmm.

And finally, Aly.  All of the teasing that Aly has been giving me for the past year or so has come back to bite her in the butt.  Why?  Because she is turning into me!  She's started borrowing my clothes, wearing mascara, and I've even caught her dancing in front of the mirror!!  Scary but true!