*sigh*

Well I thought Josh might be able to come home yesterday or today, but he kept getting delayed, so tomorrow it is. (Unless the snow doesn't slow down)

And in my boredom waiting for him to come home,
I baked cookies.............
played games with the kids..............
Shoveled snow..........twice
And messed around with my new camera..........
And if you can't tell, I'm having fun with it. :)

On the 5th day till Josh comes home.......

................my kids and I decorated graham cracker houses.

They had lots of fun! Ate way too much candy, and now are screaming and tearing the house apart. (Can you say sugar high?)

So I only have 5 more days (or so) till Josh comes home for his 2 week break. I am so grateful that he gets to be with us on Christmas. We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas present.

This has been a very long deployment. It has been 8 months since our trip to Disneyland, where we got to see him for 4 days, and 10 months since he has been home. (Well 12 if you count him going to Washington DC for a month training in Jan and the month of February was spent sleeping at Camp Williams) The other good thing about him coming home this late in the deployment, is that when he has to go back, he will have only 2 months left!!

The kids have all grown a lot taller (me around the middle), and we've had lots happen in the last year. Having my wonderful guy around to make my life complete again is something I don't even know how to express.

Merry Christmas everybody! And especially those soldiers and their families that don't get to be together. Those wives that have been so much fun to get to know, and have struggled this very long year too. I hope you all can have a Merry Christmas, you all are in my prayers and thoughts every day.

Mario Kart

Any Mario Kart fans out there? This is for you!

I finally have some pictures of Josh! He doesn't take any (he says he got enough the first time around, and the country hasn't changed much in 5 years) so I had to steal these off his facebook! I really hope he doesn't mind. ;)

He comes home in about 12-14 days!!!!!! WOOOHHHOOOO!!!!!!


It sure makes you grateful for our country and our homes. I will never again complain about where I live or my kitchen!

Birthday surprize? Hardly!

Well now that I have a 10 year old, I guess I need to do a better job hiding birthday and Christmas presents.

Ethan confessed to me the other day that he snooped. He told me where he looked and that he looked at receipts. He told me he saw a bag in my closet (which was hidden under a pile of sweaters) but he said he didn't see it (Only because I said, you snoop you don't get it). But I heard him tell his dad he was getting a camera.

And on a receipt he saw "Lego set" (which was a huge set for Christmas, so I had to go to the store and buy him a small Lego set for his birthday so I wouldn't mess up his Christmas.) So he thinks he is getting a big Lego set for his birthday but now he's only getting a tiny one! Serves him right! The little punk!!

I also have a child that wanted a bandaid so bad that he went around the house banging his foot and arm on things so he could "bleed". (I wouldn't let him have a bandaid when his brother got a cut, saying "bandaids are only for when you are bleeding") I know I am a terrible mother, and should have let him have the dang bandaid, but it was really funny.

And finaly, I put something on Emery's wall. I still need to get the chair rail to finish it, but at least I put up the vinyl. Thanks to wonderful Sam!

A little reminiscence!

So it all started while I was trying to organize my pictures....I found some of the funniest things I had totally forgotten about. Then I couldn't stop, I just kept going and found my favorite pics of each of the kids.


I think in this one of Ethan he was in 1st grade.

Sand Dunes in St. Anthony ID

Nate was just barely 2!!

Nate's Halloween bucket! I think he was 2 1/2.

Before we cut Will's hair. LOL

Will in the window!

Emery at 2. I just can't believe she has grown up so much!

Emery is not a girly girl, so to see her all dressed up was kinda fun. Ben and Emily's wedding.
Then I found these, I went to the ice caves in Idaho while I was pregnant with Will. It was fun!
And a few shots of my favorite guy doing some of his favorite things...well almost.....

The "Army Wives" get together! We try to get together once a month, it helps the deployment go by a little faster and a little smoother, and a lot funner!
Okay so we all have this post, but hey it was fun! Thanks guys and thanks to those that remembered their cameras!

On Monday, I took all the kids in to the Dr. Turns out we all had strep! Even me! It was a fun weekend, the kids had to stay home for 2 days! Getting the RX was a lot of fun too. I had to take 5 RX in, it was a mess. Oh well!

Today the kids went back to school and it was just Will and I again. Wow can this boy talk! (I wonder where he gets it?) He followed me around the house, talking NON-STOP! It was kinda cute though. I think he misses his brother.

One more thing, is it possible to hire someone to do my scrapbooking for me? I HATE scrapbooking! I am behind about 4 years, and literally have thousands of pictures. HELP!!!!

Trick or Treat!

Trick or Treating was a blast again this year!

The kids costumes were great!

We went with our good friends and neighbors!

And the candy was too good to eat just one!

This is a video showing Ethan's cool costume. We actually had someone ask to take a picture of him! (In which he said, "I don't like being famous, you have people surrounding you all the time") He was a big hit!!

Carving Pumpkins

The fun began today! We carved our pumpkins! The kids each did their own, with the exception of Will although he did help clean the seeds out (or maybe he just made a bigger mess) Oh well what is carving pumpkins if you don't make a mess right?

I know you miss this, right Josh (he he he)!
They actually did a good job! I didn't help at all. And we had a great time! Now I just get to clean up the mess in the kitchen. Ugh!

Another Recipe

I am always craving soup, but because of the cold weather lately it has gone from just craving soup to "I need to have soup NOW." So as I was going through my soup recipes and I remembered this great one. If any of you have ever eaten at Carrabba's this is as close to their sausage and lentil soup as I've ever had.

1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 (16 oz) package dry lentils, rinsed
1 cup shredded carrots
8 cups water
2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1 tablespoon salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 pound Ditalini pasta (optional)

1. Place sausage in a large pot. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Add onion, celery and chopped garlic, and saute until tender and translucent. Stir in lentils, carrot, water, chicken broth and tomatoes. Season with garlic powder, parsley, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, basil, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover, and simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until lentils are tender.
2. Stir in pasta, and cook 15 to 20 minutes, or until pasta is tender.

This soup is almost exactly like Carrabba's sausage and lentil soup. To kick it up you could add 1/4 tsp. of red pepper flakes or I have tried getting the spicy Italian sausage, which I highly recommend.

I went up to Midway today and while I was there I tried to take a few pics of my kids. First of all I need a better camera, second of all I wish my kids had been in nicer clothes and lastly I need HELP! Oh well at least a couple turned out kinda cute.

Disneyland

I went to my very good friend of 26 years, (wow I'm old) wedding on Friday. (Which I forgot to bring my camera to.) It was in San Diego, so since I was going that direction, I was bold and brave and daring, and decided to take the kids ALONE to Disneyland. It was really fun! The kids had a great time and are so incredible. They look out for each other so well and helped me out immensely.
I did have the help of a couple of my sister-in-laws and their husbands during the wedding, which I was so grateful, Thank you! And I talked another sister-in-law to come down for a day. We just proved we CAN do Disneyland alone! With no problems, in any way! He he he.................
......................except getting her son's leg caught in the bench and having to have the paramedics, security and everyone else take the bench apart to get it out. (Sorry Kim, it was so funny) And look at poor Seth's face, he was so brave!


Sometimes I think they would rather spend the entire day swimming than doing anything else.



One of the days, there was a helicopter filming the parks, so if you ever see footage of Disneyland from overhead, you may just see us. LOL!


Having so much time at the park, we decided to do all the stuff we had never done before! I had never been over to Toontown. I guess it's one of those places you forget about, and these guys belong in this place!

For some reason, they always seem to have the desire to line up like this.

I love having kids old enough to go on the rides alone!

Oh, and we never had to wait in lines! It was perfect!

So over all we had a great time! We were just missing one very important thing..........DAD!