528 STB Ball

Oh Army Ball's... this is our 5th.  I've been preggers for 3 :) Thankfully this year the dress i bought before getting pregnant still fit (barely)...i wasn't so lucky with with the twins :)

This ball was held at the old Officer's Club on base.  The building is now used just for special occasions and events.  It's very "Old Army".  So old in fact...that the air conditioning stopped working the day before the event and there was no hurry on getting it fixed...yep, what else would we expect from the good ol' ARMY.  So us ladies in charge of decor and centerpieces spent two very HOT days sweating to death getting ready for this ball. The centerpieces did turn out pretty beautiful, yes? 

Good news is we are a support batallion.  Our soldiers are trained to get whatever is needed all over the world even in the most remote of places...so getting AC to a ballroom??? No big deal.  Hours before the ball, soldiers were taking out windows, replacing them with duct tape, cardboard and huge tubes pushing cool air from trucks/generators parked outside.  The whole thing was kind of funny considering the theme was "Southern Elegance".  Nothing says southern elegance more than cardboard and duct tape yes?  and all those hours spent worrying about decor... all thrown out the window (literally) for some cool air :)  

It was a fun night, we've built some good relationships now and ball's are always most fun with friends, as opposed to the last one when we had just moved to NC and hardly knew anyone. 

some of the coffee group ladies

 the Warrants 

 There was also a photo booth...which got a lot of use!  There should be one of these at every ball. 

how many women can you squeeze into a little bitty booth? 

it was especially funny to watch the boys loosen up and have fun...

 who knows what was really going on here!

  As with all balls i've attended while pregnant, we were not able to hang as long as we would have liked. With the twins i was in the throws of the first trimester and spent most of the night sick, with Davis i was 38 weeks and literally ready to pop--dancing and socializing were of no interest to me! This time my back was killing me after a long day of decorating and then celebrating and my dress was most certainly cutting off air to both me and baby! By about 10 and that dress had to go.  

All in all, a very fun ball! Looking forward to next year's already!

USO Sesame Street Live

The USO does a lot for our soldiers and their families.  A few weeks after Mike came home we were able to go see a Sesame Street show for free on base. The theme of the show was about a girl who was having to leave Sesame Street because her daddy was a soldier and it was time for him to PCS.  The show was a lot of songs about how to keep in touch with old friends and how to make new ones.  Perfect timing for our family, with our best friends leaving this week.  The kids had a really good time, but i think Davis liked it best.  He couldn't take his eyes off all the dancing monsters!  

Day.258

The day Daddy came home. 

Mike wasn't scheduled to come in until late Thursday night.  So that night, i got the kids to bed like normal.  They wore their special shirts we made for Daddy, we celebrated our last night doing bedtime without our Daddy, and i told them that we would go get Daddy in the morning when they woke up. 

Daddy, get your Hugs and Kisses HERE!

 Dad = Hero

 Welcome Home Daddy. Your Princess missed you!

 ready for Daddy love and help reading our night night book!

 so excited!

His van pulled up at 1:15 am Friday morning.  I was there with a friend, ready to pick up our husbands and get the heck outta there.  As expected it was by far the least celebrated homecoming i'd ever been to, but it was so nice to see my husbands sweet face in person and get that first big hug after months of just looking at each over a computer.  

Finally Home

Friday morning and went and got the kids up and told them we had to hurry up and go get Daddy.  Mike had put his uniform on and went outside to surprise the kiddos.  It was a super sweet moment.  Nora was excited and clingy.  Holden was a hesitant and a little stunned.  Davis was a bit confused.  You could see him piecing it all together in his head...how the same daddy that was on his doll and on the computer was standing in front of him.  In true mom fashion, I may have cried a little ;)

oh how i love that smile

Seeing Daddy for the first time

Welcome Home Husband, Daddy and Our Hero

 and then of course we put him right to work making his famous pancakes!

 M&M pancakes.  How we celebrate around here!

 and then it was time to play! Holden went from being hesitant to not leaving Mike's side.  It was so sweet to hear all the sounds of fun, imaginative play coming from upstairs.  I may have cried a bit more downstairs while listening to them.  

 The weekend Daddy came home was also beautiful after a ton of rain we had been having so we were able to enjoy a lot of outdoor play as well.  Being on the trampoline with my whole family brought back memories of how we spent our last evening together before he left.  It was also a beautiful summer evening but i remember being so sad and hurt (PICS HERE).  On this day, so happy and peaceful, it felt we'd come full circle-- we made it through.

Month.Eight

I'm a little late on the monthly update but hopefully my love will be home tomorrow night, so i thought i'd sneak in an update before he gets back.

We finally made our way to the end.  This past month has been a breath of fresh air after the long and lonely winter we've had.  We've been outside, we've played a lot, and we've been happy.  With the end in sight, everything else just seemed more bearable. 

With a month left to go, we celebrated by going to Walmart to pick out our favorite candy and make countdown jars. The jars have been great.  The kids really seem to grasp that Daddy is coming home when the eggs (their candy of choice) is gone.  Thankfully the departure plan has stayed on track and i haven't had to adjust the number of eggs!  Holden would have totally noticed and been bothered by it :)

So yeah, if all goes as planned i'll be picking up my hubby tomorrow night, midnightish.  It won't be the big homecomings you have seen in past pictures...just a few soldiers coming home, being picked up at their office.  No matter how it happens though, the excitement is the same.  I can hardly wait to have my family back together.  Check back soon for pics!

Countdown Jars