March Must-Sees

playing catch-up again.... but here's the highlights from last month and how we spent our time before Daddy came home. 

i went to a baby shower for my friend Jessica. this is here and her daughter Madeline. 

Jackie, Hillary and Sweet Baby Judah

and these are a couple of the sweet onesies we made for baby Abigail

we visited the children's museum again.  this time the boys got into the dress-up too!

Silly Boys.... doing their best "Pete" impression from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Reading with Davis-- we read this book about 10 times a day for weeks

picking "flowers"  or weeds, but whatever ;)

Jack hung out with us one weekend.  These 3 had a blast. 

This little guys is always at my feet...especially when i'm trying to get ready

we had some seriously gorgeous days and we were all so happy to be out of the house

D actually sitting still and watching the TV.  it only lasted about 2 minutes, haha. 

Nora drew a picture of her Daddy

We went to the planetarium at FSU with the kids' preschool class.  These 4 kids are always so cute together and they loved seeing all the planets and stars. 

reading like they always do...i do love these sweet kids. 

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

Under the Weather

We had a few weeks of constant sickies this winter.  This just meant a lot of resting, a lot of tears, a lot of medicine and the one upside... a lot of snuggles.

  

yep.  holden didn't really get sick this year.  lucky boy :)