Happy 7th Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary my love. Hopefully this will be the one and only we spend in different countries. It has been such a fun seven years and I cannot wait to keep enjoying the ride together. I couldn't imagine a more wonderful and loving husband and father, thank you for all of your love. I do, I do, I do, again and again and again.

Boom-A-Ring Circus

On Sunday we went to the Ringling Bros. Circus with our friends Sophie and Benji. Before the show started the kids were allowed to be down in the center ring interacting with the performers. Amelia just wanted to watch but Luke joined in a few things. Here he is on the trapeze. Amelia's favorite parts of the circus were the elephants and the dancing dogs. Luke's favorite part were the six tigers but I swear it was the bathroom because he made me take him potty like 7 times during the show. Too much Gatorade I guess!

Mini Top Gun

Stephen sent the kids a package yesterday and they were over the moon with excitement. He sent them these amazing flight suits, just like Daddy's. The patches are all removable just like his and has their names on them, wings, American flags and a special patch. Stephen had special patches made for each of the kids by a little Arabic alteration shop on base. So he had a Disney princess patch made for Amelia and a Kung Fu Panda patch made for Luke. Luke's picture freaks me out just looking at it because he looks exactly like Stephen!

Ever since they got their flight suits they've been playing, they jump on the couch and say, "hurry, the plane is leaving for Iraq, we have to go visit daddy." When Luke woke up today he asked to put his flight suit back on and said, "When I grow up and get big I can wear this flight suit and go to Iraq like daddy." I can only pray that won't happen. But in the meantime, he sure looks cute.

Thanks Daddy, we all love our presents!

Fishy, Fishy

While Grandma Joan was here last week we went to the National park right by our house. They have great kids programs and the kids always have a blast when we go. This week the theme was fishy, fishy and the kids got to make fish, starfish and stingray prints on t-shirts. They turned out great! Although Luke looks less than thrilled in this picture.

Stephen News

Inquiring minds have been asking what plane Stephen takes on his missions. This is it, it's a C130 (I think). You can see where the back hatch comes down.
Here is Stephen with his crew and the bottom picture is the inside of the plane. Not exactly like sitting in first class I guess. Although I have only sat in first class once and did not know what to do with the warm wash cloths so it's totally overrated. Who needs seats when you can sit in a cargo net?
Stephen and his crew are hanging in there. Stephen ran a 5K this morning in a Race for the Fallen, I was most impressed because it was at 6 am, not exactly Stephen's favorite time of day. The kids are still coping with missing daddy and Luke said to me, "Mommy, I think all the soldiers are all better now so Daddy can come home." We all wish that was the case. We are proud of you Stephen!

Mudshack

Grandma Joan came to visit this week which has been a great relief and help to me! We took the kids to Mudshack today which is a cute little paint your own pottery place here in town. The kids each picked out a piece of pottery and all the colors they wanted. Oh what a difference in their styles. Amelia picked the tiniest little brush and barely dipped it in the paint. We thought, oh boy, this is going to take hours for her to paint. Luke found the biggest brush he could and went to town on his dinosaur. He piled on the paint 20 layers deep. It was a fun afternoon.

We've been watching a lot of the Olympics lately, the kids especially love the diving and the gymnastics. Luke loves to "dive" off the couch backwards. He balances backwards on his toes and then jumps off and says, "Hooray, no splash!" One of the nights we turned on the Olympics and it was the very beginning of the broadcast. They were scanning over parts of China with just music playing and Amelia says, "Hey mom that's the Great Wall of China." I said, "How did you know that Amelia?" She said, " That's where Mulan lives." Oh well, now I don't feel bad I let them watch Walt Disney movies, look how educational they are :)

Ship Island

On Sunday we were lucky enough to have our friends Chris and Blake take us out on the boat with their three kids. We went to Ship Island which is the farthest out island and the kids loved the ride! They both rode up front on their knees and the waves were getting them soaking wet, it was so funny watching them. This is Skipper Luke, he threw this rope in the water and then stood up and hauled it in for about a half hour straight. He was very proud of himself. For the very brave reader someday you can ask me why he is in his undies instead of his swimsuit.

Morgan, Luke and Amelia having fun in the waves.

The kids were worn out, we left around 9am and got home around 4pm. They were salty, sandy and happy as can be. On the way home we spotted a a family of about 6 dolphins. The dolphins were about 10 feet from the boat. The kids got a huge kick out of it because they kept blowing water out of their blowholes. Then as the grand finale, the dolphins slapped their tales against the water. We all cheered and they did it again for us! It was so cool!

Big Kid!

Our baby girl started kindergarten today. As you can see from her face, she was 100% excited, 0% apprehensive. (I on the other hand was the exact opposite). This much excitement and it was only 6:45 in the morning!
Showing off her new backpack and lunchbox. I packed her a great first day lunch, sandwich, apple, carrots and cucumbers, applesauce and teddy grahams. I opened up her lunchbox when she got home and the only things she ate were the teddy grahams and a bite of apple. Go figure.
I thought the first day of school deserved a special snow cone treat. We were there about a half hour and Amelia never stopped talking the entire time. She told me all about her day, the rules of the classroom, how she needs to raise her hand to talk, the pledge of allegiance, going to P.E. class and how she has to wear tennis shoes every Wednesday, who brought lunch, who bought lunch, nap time, what books they read, etc. etc. etc. I was cracking up. I don't think she left one detail out. I am thrilled she loved it so much, it does make it a little easier for me. I was so happy to pick her up and see her smiling face. Although tomorrow, hurdle number two for mommy, she rides the bus home, yikes!
This was Luke sucking down his snow cone as fast as could while Amelia talked. All of a sudden he did this and said, "Mommy, it's like really cold but really hot too." I think he just experienced his first brain freeze!

Hard at Work

Stephen has been in Qatar now close to a month and I guess is as acclimated as he will become to handling his deployment. He said it's hard to get used to everything being brown and rock, no green at all. He also said it's 137 degrees so every day it is like sitting in an oven and blowing a hot hair dryer in your face. Yuck, it even sounds worse than Mississippi in August (although surprisingly similar). The picture is of Stephen and his CCATT team on the plane on the way to a mission. They've been doing a great job and making a difference in these soldiers lives. We're very proud of you honey! When they are not on a mission, they are working out A LOT, playing xbox, basketball, etc. Kind of like summer camp, except the being on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to go on a mission.