Sunday, April 26, 2009

Yippee!

Today is a momentous day for our family! My husband served in the 2nd Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment in the Army almost 4 years ago now. He had a total of 4 years of Active Duty service, 2 of which were the first 2 years of our marriage. I am so proud of his service to his country, and glad that he was able to do it. There were struggles, but I wouldn't trade that time now. That said, today marks the end of his Inactive Reserve commitment to the Army. This means that they cannot send him a letter in the mail at any time to ask him to come back and fight. For me, 4 deployments to both theaters of war was enough. We knew it was unlikely he would ever be called back, but the possibility is still daunting; especially when our life is so different now than it was then!

These two will be especially happy to never have to go through a deployment (Lord willing)!




Rejoice with us!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Related?

Adelynne
Nehemiah

Sunday, April 19, 2009

A Boy's Wanderings

Nehemiah sets out with his stick from the playhouse Daddy built.

Along his travels he comes upon an old taxidermied sawfish.

He decides the rock he picked up is dirty, and that he should lick it clean.

Note that while the rock is clean, his face is not. And he has returned to his little house and porch.

I love my BOY!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Easter pictures ala Grammy


Friday, April 17, 2009

Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)

Whoa! I love how Susan Boyle shocked everyone who thought she was going to be another audition to mock and laugh at! She turned everybody's disbelief and cynicism into tears, awe and love.

What a reminder not to judge a book by it's cover...Hurrah!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Welcome Spring!

It seems that when we live somewhere it is permissible to wash your car, that I usher in Spring by washing our cars the old fashioned way! What better way to bask in the glory of the sun and warmth?! So awesome!

It will be so fun when the kids are old enough to partake...it is usually too cold the very first time for Nehemiah to splash around. We have well water here, and it is like ice! It isn't 70 degrees yet here, so people probably laugh to see me in my swimsuit top and shorts, but you have to soak up the sun! Even if your fingers get a little numb in the process! ;)

Happy Spring to you all!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

It's the Easter Scoundrel Charlie Brown!

There are some things that you envision as a mom. Things that make great scrapbook or baby book pages, or really great first memories. And sometimes, they don't turn out quite right. Take, for instance, Nehemiah's first bath. I thought it was going to be a joyful occasion full of splashing and mirth, and it was a scream fest that had us both crying by the end. Sorta like yesterday and the first ever Easter egg hunt. Sort of, but not really.

You see, with an Easter breakfast of Belgian waffles, church, Easter dinner with Grammy and Pepa, and a necessary afternoon nap, it was shaping up to be a rather full day, and we still needed to squeeze in our hunt! When we returned home from church, Nehemiah was snoozing in the car, so Ben put the eggs out for the hunt. The plan was then to wake Nehemiah up, feed him lunch, have the hunt, and then put him down for his real nap.

It turns out that Nehemiah had no plans for waking up for lunch, so we ended up letting him take his nap instead. I went in several hours later to wake him up so he could hunt his eggs and we could get ready to go to dinner. He woke up in a foul disposition, and was only calmed when he found out we were going outside--or "side" as he calls it. I got his shoes and jacket on, and out we went for the first ever Easter egg hunt. As you recall, the eggs have now been sitting in our field for a few hours. It wasn't particularly hot out, and there wasn't anything in danger of melting, so we didn't see a problem with this until further inspection upon our arrival at the site.

23 of 24 plastic eggs had been opened and emptied. That's right, no jellybeans here! Well except in one egg. We wondered how this could have happened. Birds? Surely it couldn't be the dog? Not one of the eggs was broken, and both halves of each egg were lying next to each other all over the grounds.

Surely...it couldn't be the dog?

Or rather, surely it could be the dog, we found, as the 24th egg was then discovered by the scoundrel, who gingerly picked it up in his mouth, squished it around a couple of times, popping it open and spitting it out, only to devour the last four jelly beans of our very first ever Easter egg hunt!

Of all the low, down, dirty dog stunts to pull! What devious skulduggery!

In the end it was okay. As Nehemiah ran around discovering his matchbox cars, Ben filled a few of the popped open eggs and kept Maltby at bay so that Nehemiah had the joy of his first jellybeans and his FIRST EVER EASTER EGG HUNT! Ha!

I even got some pictures for that scrapbook page. :)


Dyeing eggs the night before Easter.


Ready to head to church


What's in here?

Jellybeans!

Yum-yum!

Heading back to the house with the loot.

Adelynne's 2nd Easter outfit of the day--on our way to dinner. This little girl is a bit of a spit-up factory, so I can always plan on multiple outfits! ;)

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Too funny!

I was looking through some of our recent photos and came across this series...Adelynne's pjs say Kiss Me I'm Irish on them, and we asked Nehemiah to give her a kiss right after we all got up for the morning.

As you can see, Adelynne is a little less than impressed.


And this picture cracks me up--Ben calls it the "No Luke; I'm your sister!" shot. Which makes me laugh--if you don't get it, watch Star Wars again.

It's the beginning of a beautiful sibling relationship!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Quick pics!


The first two pictures are from Adelynne's first week of life.

The third picture is her first trip to church in her little dress almost 3 weeks ago now!



And the last was taken last week before my camera difficulties.

I can't believe my little girl will be a month old already on Tuesday--Wow!

<3,>

Friday, April 3, 2009

Coming up for air

My goodness! What a transition it is from 1 munchkin to 2! It is fun, but it has me meeting myself coming and going and feeling like I don't accomplish much other than keeping the kiddos alive and clean on a regular basis! ;)

There have been many times I wanted to sit down and blog or post pictures lately--though I'm having some minor camera issues that will take some resolving first. I am choosing to blog this because it is quick and interesting.

I saw it on the news yesterday, and it seems like a really great way to support local independent companies. I think it is structured for more metropolitan areas than where I live, but I love the concept, so I thought I'd share! It is called the 3/50 project, and the basics are that you pick your 3 favorite local companies and then spend $50 a month between them. When you spend locally--instead of at chains or big-box stores, 68% of it stays local, compared to roughly 43% of the money spent at the chains. Check out the site if you like. I think it is smart economics in times like these!