Last night we just had a quiet evening in enjoying each other as a family. I honestly can't remember the last time that we didn't have a house full of people for New Year's Eve, but this year it just didn't happen.
We spent the day shopping, cooking, playing with the kids, watching the kids in a hilarious battle of Just Dance Kids. Hudson finally is getting the hang of it and giving Madison a run for her money. :) It might be time to find the next edition of Just Dance Kids, as I am sure we will be having snow days here very soon and most days I find that it's already too cold to take the kids to the park.
One of the things Alex and I have done for years is always pick a new book to ready together as we start the new year. It gets us focused on putting each other first in the midst of our crazy life taking care of kids, running errands, going to school, etc...
This year the book we chose was "You and Me Forever" by Francis and Lisa Chan. We love the books and studies that we've ready by Francis Chan in the past, so when we found this one, we basically stopped looking. I am looking forward to starting this with Alex. We like to put the kids to bed and then sit down on the couch and go through the book together. We often stop and ask each other questions or answer questions that naturally come up in the book. We make a point to do this before we do anything else such as watch TV, read our own book, do homework, or whatever else may be on our "to do" list for the day. I truly cherish this time with Alex.
I am not one that is big on resolutions, but I do like to set goals. So here are a few of my goals for this upcoming year:
1. To go deeper in my prayer journals...to really pray like I believe God will answer the cries of my heart and then sincerely offer up my prayers to Him
2. To be more organized for our upcoming move since we never fully unpacked when we arrived here, knowing that we would only be here for 10 months
3.To continue a healthy eating and work out routine and to not get discouraged when the kids are sick (preventing me from being able to go to the gym) or my picky eaters turn their nose up to a new healthy recipe I may try
4. To read 30+ books (of all sorts...if you have an recommendations please share)
5. To continue our streak of going out on dates more than just once a month, even if that means being intentional and having an at home date night after the kids go to bed where we just play games, watch movies or cook a meal together
6. To be more consistent with documenting our adventures through this blog...my goal is to post at least once a week
Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did! It was so wonderful just being home and having Alex and the kids off from school. A few days after they all went on break, my parents flew in to spend the holiday with us! It was so wonderful having them here after not seeing them for a little over six months (the longest I've ever gone without seeing my parents).
There was plenty of baking, home cooked meals, country ham for breakfast (a family tradition...we order it and have it shipped in), game playing, movie watching, and just being together as a family. We also were able to FaceTime with my in-laws, Aunt Kathy, and Mamaw on Christmas Day which was a treat in and of itself. So thankful for this technology!!!
We also were blessed with the privilege, on the day after Christmas, to drive to North Carolina to go visit my Great Aunt and Great Uncle (I hadn't seen them since I was 10 b/c they stopped traveling shortly after that). We all loaded in the car and made the drive to Belmont to visit with them. My Aunt is simply amazing! She didn't look a day older from the last time I had seen her 23 years ago. She had made us homemade banana pudding, mini pecan pies, egg washed oven roasted pecans, Christmas cookie bars and pound cake. We had a wonderful visit with them. Aunt Peggy gifted me several of her amazing cookbooks from years past, one of them has about 15-20 of my Great Great Aunt Connie's recipes in it. I can't wait to try them. She also gifted me a beautiful hand made ceramic tree that lights up. I would post a picture, except I forgot to take one before she put it in the box and she wrapped it so nicely that I hate to undo it and chance it not being put away properly until next year. So, here is a picture of what it resembles.
My Aunt also gave Madison two of the beautiful porcelain dolls (in the picture above that Alex so wonderfully captured) that my Great Great Aunt Connie had made by hand....they were both very very crafty. Maybe somewhere deep down I have a crafty bone in my body, but I haven't discovered it yet.
My parents left yesterday to return back to California, so now we are sadly cleaning up our Christmas things, but recalling all of the fond memories made this year that will forever put a smile in our heart.
We are looking forward to the fun 2015 will bring and eagerly awaiting the news of where we will be stationed for the next three years.
Well, a lot has changed since I last posted....sorry! My plan had always been to get back to my blog once things settled back down and well, when you have a 3 and 7 year old, things just never seem to slow down.
Thank you to all of you who have continued to write me messages and send sweet notes encouraging me to start my blog back up again. My goal is to try to post something new at least once a week in 2015, especially because we no longer live near family and it would be a nice way to keep pictures and videos easily accessible to all of those we love and that love us.
That being said, let me try to catch you up in a nutshell.
This past July we drove cross country with our kids, our cat and our cars (Alex and I each drove the whole way) to move to Charlottesville, VA. We moved out here for Alex to attend the The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS) to receive his LLM in Criminal Law. The school is only 10 months long, so we will be moving again this summer, but we still don't know where to. We should know sometime in the new year, but I've heard that we could hear as early as February and as late as May, so right now it's just a waiting game. Alex will graduate Memorial Day weekend.
Madison is loving her new school and teacher. She still often talks about how much she misses San Diego and all of her friends and family, but her new gym and new school have made being out here a lot of fun and takes her mind off of where it appears her heart still is.
Hudson is in preschool two days a week this year and is thriving. He just loves school and his social personality has helped him to adapt quite nicely out here. He has friends pretty much everywhere we go because he just has the ability to strike up conversations with anyone, anytime. He still loves our trips to Trader Joe's. :) This Fall he started soccer and wasn't sure about it at first, but then grew to love it. He is looking forward to being on the same team in the spring. At the end of November, Hudson started gymnastics. He loves it and it's been really good for him, as it is often too cold to take him to the park out here during this time of year, so having a place to expend some of his energy has really come in handy. :)
I have been loving being in a women's bible study out here on Tuesdays while Hudson is in school and then on Thursday (again while he's in school) I volunteer at Madison's school and I just love it. It's great to be back in the classroom whether it's working with groups of kids, planning the next class party, or helping behind the scenes with some of the prep work.
Right now, we are all counting down until my parents get here to help us celebrate Christmas.
Well, I have to run...time to get the kids up for school. I'll write more later! Hope you're all doing well and enjoying this Christmas season!
I know that I have a lot to catch everyone up on, so I will do my best. I picked some of my favorite pictures from the last month or so and posted them below with little stories to go with each of them.
Alex and I had the wonderful chance to get away for a couple of days. We went down to Temecula and stayed at Ponte Inn. It was beautiful and I highly recommend it to you all. We did the GrapeVine Wine Tour and had a blast. We stopped at five different wineries and had a picnic lunch in the vineyards of Mt. Palomar.
I also had the chance to meet up with my dear friend Stephanie! We have known each other since we were 18. Stephanie was a bridesmaid in our wedding. We also taught together. Anyway, since moving back to California (6 years ago) our schedules have just been nuts (we've also lived pretty far from one another). Well, we were able to meet up at the San Diego Zoo and Steph met my kiddos and I had the chance to meet her sweet Sydney girl! We had so much fun and it was seriously as though no time had passed at all. Love how God has blessed our friendship!
Madison's school had a sweet little Volunteer Appreciation Tea. Below are close ups of the things her class helped make to decorate the room and tables. It was a very sweet morning and so very thoughtful!
There has been much bike riding and outdoor playing at the park and around the neighborhood!
There has been fun time with friends!!!!
There, as always, has been gymnastics!!!! Madison is still loving gymnastics and she especially loved having daddy home to show him all of her moves.
There has been a lot of baking and cooking! It's so much fun having my love home to spoil with new recipes!
There has been wonderful fellowship time with our lovely Life Group. This is our whole Life Group (minus one)! Love these guys to pieces! Their love and support was huge while Alex was away!
There was a sweet Father Daughter Dance that Madison and Alex had a blast at. Their little stories about it all were just too cute!
There was more fun at the zoo!!!
There were birthday celebrations!
There were several Easter celebrations!
This was Good Friday!!!
Well, that is my summary! God is so good! Our transition back to a family of four has been very seamless!!! Thank you again to all of you who showed us support (whether it was through text, email, cards, phone calls, visits, packages, or prayers)! All of it was very much appreciated!!!!
***Please keep Tori in your prayers!!!! Thank you!!!***
Thank you for your patience as I figure out my new blogging routine! I intentionally took some time off to just soak up all that time with Alex I could. He started back to work this week and so I'm working on getting my new routine of when would be best to post. I appreciate all of the texts and emails I've received asking when I'd start posting again!
Hope you are all doing well and having a lovely weekend! I will leave you with our family picture from Easter Sunday! :)
***Please continue to pray for Tori. She is home now. We are still covering her in prayer for a complete healing! Thank you all!!!***
Thank you all for your wonderful love and support!
Madison and Alex are at a Father/Daughter dance and Hudson is in bed, so I thought I'd take this time to write a quick update on Alex's homecoming! I posted all of the pictures I have right now, on my facebook page. When I get my professional set, I will post a few of my favorites here, and all of them will be on my facebook page as well.
Okay, so on to the day of homecoming:
Friday, March 1, 2013:
We all got up, like normal (the kids did not know that Alex was coming home today). April came over to watch Hudson. I took Madison to school. I volunteered in her classroom that morning. After I was done, I came home real quick and then picked up Alex's car and took it to the car wash.
Hudson and I went to pick up Madison from school and we had our normal Friday night routine, I just started everything a little bit earlier so that the kids would be in bed a little bit earlier. We ordered pizza (didn't want to mess the freshly cleaned kitchen up) and had our movie night. The kids went to bed right after the movie around 6:20/6:30. Once the kids were in bed, I began checking the final things off of my "to do" list. I finally was able to lay down and rest at about 10:30, which gave me about an hour. I slept until 11:30 and then I got up and began prepping our breakfast casserole (which went in the crock pot). If you need something like this, where you prep it the night before...I highly recommend it! My friend Jess, sent me the recipe and it was a huge success. Anyway, so while I was finishing the casserole, I received a phone call from Alex around midnight (he wasn't suppose to even land until 1:30am). When I answered the phone he asked me if I'd received the new itinerary, which I hadn't. I then called my Family Readiness Officer (FRO) and asked her if things were being bumped up. I hadn't even showered yet and still had a 45 min to an hour drive ahead of me, plus I had to get the kids up and get them ready, as well as call everyone who was coming to the homecoming to make sure they were all on the same page. The FRO didn't even know that they had landed yet and so she told me she'd look into it. She called me back about a half hour later and said the time would still remain the same (which was that they'd be arriving at Pendleton at 5:30am). Then about ten minutes later she called back and told me that it was going to be 4:30am since that was the time they'd asked all of the family members to arrive anyway. So, I was operating off of that time frame and was still confident we'd make it. I continued getting ready and attempting to reach everyone that needed the update! Then, at about 1:20am, I received another call from the FRO letting me know that they'd bumped their arrival time up to 3:00am. I was still calm, but knew I needed to get flying. I was just starting to curl my hair and needed to wake Madison up, do her hair, get her in the car, get Hudson up, get him in the car and still try to reach everyone, which had been unsuccessful. I had only been able to reach my parents at this point. So, I finished doing my hair and getting dressed. I then grabbed my phone so that I could record Madison waking up to the news that we were going to get Alex. She was in a dead sleep and a little disoriented, but below is her reaction to finding out Alex was coming home!
As I was finishing getting Madison ready, I finally was able to reach all but one of the people I needed to contact. Hudson woke up, while I was getting Madison ready and he was chipper and ready to go, so he was easy to get dressed and loaded up! We left the house just before 2:00am and headed up to Pendleton. We arrived at about 2:40. My parents were only minutes behind us, so we all went into the air hanger that we were going to be waiting in. They had a lovely breakfast spread that kept the kids entertained. Eventually everyone showed up and the waiting began :) Alex had his phone so he was able to text me updates while we waited. :)
At the ten minute mark the Senior FRO stood up and asked us to all go line up outside to welcome the buses. It was such a magical moment. We could see the Freedom Riders (who had met the plane as it landed at March Air Force Base) come around the corner as they were leading the buses. The band was playing and the freedom riders entered the gates followed by the three buses. The kids were so excited. The buses ended up being much closer than I had anticipated, which made it a little bit harder to find Alex because as everyone was exiting the bus, families were rushing them. I decided to stay put until I saw Alex. I was holding Hudson, so that he wouldn't get lost in the shuffle and Madison was by my side. Brittney spotted Alex and pointed him out (he happened to be blocked in my line of sight do to a lovely family reunion happening right in front of me). I saw him and my heart skipped a beat. He was home. I ran with Hudson in my arms (I thought Madison was right behind me) and he swept me up in his embrace as we enjoyed our first kiss in five months. I realized that I didn't feel Madison next to me, so we turned around and she came running to Alex and jumped in his arms. She was all smiles and then the emotion hit her. She began to sob and when she finally spoke, she told us they were happy tears! It was such a perfect moment. Hudson was glowing at the sight of daddy and kept shouting his name. (In fact, he pretty much does this on a daily basis. If he doesn't see Alex, he'll just keep saying his name until he sees or hears him. He wants to make sure he's still here).
Once the craziness settled down, Alex said hi to everyone who joined us that morning: my parents, his parents, Brittney and Matt and their kiddos, Kami, and Kristine. Then we found all of his gear, loaded up the car, and headed home! Oh, what a glorious feeling!
We arrived home around 5:30am. We worked really hard to keep the kids awake on the way home. Once we were home, both kids were practically falling asleep standing up, so they fell asleep rather quickly once they were in bed. We all ended up sleeping until about 8:45/9:00am. When we woke up, the breakfast casserole was ready and it was glorious to be able to just enjoy breakfast with my handsome prince.
We have had a wonderful week of spending time together as a family and things have picked up right where they left off. Alex and I have had many wonderful conversations and are just in awe of all that God did and continues to do through this deployment. Upon arriving home, Alex found out that he's going to have an awesome new job. As a result of this new job, we'll be able to stay here an extra year on top of the year we already had been extended, which puts us here until at least the summer of 2015. Such a blessing!!!!
Anyway, Alex and Madison are at their father/daughter dance tonight. Then, tomorrow night, Alex and I are going on our first date, since he's been home! We are so excited to spend that time together! Thank you all again for everything!
***Please continue praying for Tori! Pray that God would fully heal her and that He'd give her a way to communicate with her family and doctor's until the healing takes place. Thank you!!!***
Today I woke up crazy early....I couldn't help it! :)
I spent this morning in Madison's classroom and running some final errands. The day went buy super quick, thankfully. Hudson and I picked up Madison from school, ran a couple more errands and then had our usual Friday night movie/pizza night. It was perfect!
Now I am just running around finishing up little odds and ends. I think I am just about done. I will finish the evening with a nice quiet time, thanking God for all He's done during this time and just reflecting on all that has taken place! Then, I will go to sleep and wake up to my alarm to start getting ready.
This is my final post of the deployment. :) We did it!!!!
My next post will be full of wonderful pictures and stories from homecoming! Thank you all for your amazing support and prayers throughout the last five months of this journey we've been on! God is so wonderful and faithful to provide exactly what we need when we need it!
***Please continue praying for Tori! Thank you!!!***
I love to get up early and work out. It starts my day off with energy while giving me peace and quiet as well as time to myself to talk with God. I am married to a wonderful man with whom we have a beautiful daughter and a dashing son! Life can't get much better than this!!
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