All is right in our lives right now.....

Everything is perfect as I sit here surrounded by my sleeping family. My Complete sleeping family!!
This past Thursday the kids and I  picked daddy up at the airport. What a great start to the next 15 days that was! The kids were so excited (as was I), they all... including Missa... ran right up to him with big hugs and lots of love! They also presented him with SPC. Owl :) They picked out, stuffed & dressed this owl like daddy at the Build-A-Bear workshop the day before & they wanted to bring it to the airport for him.

I was busy snapping photos of daddy reuniting with his babies, and a nice women getting off the plane came over and asked if she could get me in the photo with them. Yes, Daddies eyes are closed, and my mouth is wide open with such excitement ;) but we are ALL in the picture together and that makes it 100% perfect!

All of us are of course very happy to have daddy back home with us for a little while, but one little boy is absolutely over the moon! He has been on cloud nine since he jumped into daddies arms as he walked off the plane. His hero, his best buddy, his daddy is home with him!

Missa got to show off her walking skills to daddy. It's been seven months, she was crawling around the floor last time he was home. He was the one in "awe" as he watched her run around the house, and join right in with the kids as they played and jumped all over him.

We are blessed to have daddy home with us for Easter. We enjoyed every minute of this past weekend, egg hunts and church as a family Easter morning, and a few different family dinners. It was a wonderful weekend.

We are making the most of every minute we have him home for. Play time, family dinners, even yard/garden work. It is all great. It was raining a bit today... but who cares? Not us... we went for a walk on the beach! I'm pretty sure we brought home all the seashells on that beach too! ;)

It's a refreshing time. We all needed this. I was beginning to reach a point of feeling absolutely crazy... after seven months of essentially being a "single mom", it just feels so awesome to have my husband back and (like I said) just refresh all of us. I felt a sense of calm come over me the moment we were all together, and I have felt much more laid back. I know it is only for 15 days, but we have made it through the longest haul of this deployment. With only about 25 or so days left of school and all the summer activities we typically do, the last leg of this deployment should (hopefully) go by quickly and a bit easier than the long winter.

Part of having daddy in the military is going through these tough deployments.... we weren't sure how it would affect the kids, and of course it is tough on them, but seeing them bounce right back is a great feeling. We know it won't be easy when these 15 days are up, but we are strong. Our kids are strong, and they are learning more and more about how this "way of life" goes, and they are adjusting to it well.

The technology helps... being able to see daddy everyday on the computer helps us keep that "connected" feeling. We really saw that with Missa... her being so young. She knew exactly who her daddy was when she saw him, and she went right to him. Sure she gave him a few funny looks, and it probably took her a few minutes when she woke up friday morning and he got her out of her crib in the morning, but she is doing great! She is keeping him in line, pointing to baby gates as if to say "Yo dad...you better put that thing up or i'm going to climb those stairs faster than you can blink and play in the toilet!"

It was such a great feeling to wake up friday morning and hear Daddy in the living room with all the kids laughing and playing. I just laid in bed for a little bit smiling. Not too long though, I couldn't sleep in even though he was letting me. I just had to join my family. Not to mention I slept better than I have in 7 months...... so I was feeling pretty refreshed ;)

So yea, life is feeling pretty perfect at the moment! 

(Isaiah 40:31)  But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Bunnies and Eggs

This past saturday our town had it's annual Easter egg hunt. I honestly thought the only kids in the Bunny picture would be Is and B. I because she has always loved having her picture taken with characters. She was the first in line to have her picture taken with Zoe & Grover from Sesame Street when we visited Sesame place, and she was only 3 at the time. This past summer she was determined to have her picture taken with everyone possible at Disney World. Missa, well pretty much because she didn't have a choice, she was picked up and stuck in the picture ;)

E was very excited though, and wanted to make sure I knew it! "Mom, guess what!?.... I am going to sit with the Easter Bunny!!!"

K man on the other hand kept his distance, making sure he was clear in his orders to keep that bunny away from him, and making sure mom did not pick him up and bring him over there. We obeyed his wishes.

The kids had a blast with their friends & cousins running around and filling their baskets with as many eggs as they could possible find! Missa found one, figured out she could open it and find chocolate, and she was done! Pretty sure I had about 1/2 the eggs that were hidden, in her basket! E and K man both found a few. (when I say found, I mean they picked them up off the grass as fast as they could, seeing they were mostly just spread about to make it easier for the little kids to collect them) 

In the end they all had their fair share... we brought them home and divided them up evenly. NO, mom was not included in that divide! ;)

Here and there we had to stop and have some photo sessions of course

It was a gorgeous day, so we had to spend some time on the playground after.

All in all, the day was great, the weekend was beautiful, and everyone had a great time. You can tell it's spring, because they are FINALLY able to play outside and get all the energy they have stored up over the winter out! Not to mention get all their bumps and bruises in... notice the red mark on Missas nose. That was the product of a "drive way digger"... Yup, she fell right on her face. 

Oh well, it is all good and she managed to not add any more bumps at the playground that day. ;)

morning madness

It's a rare moment around here if it is quiet..... like when everyone's sleeping. Most mornings are crazy, everyone want's/needs something right now! I would love to be the kind of person who wakes up slowly and in their own time..... HAHAHAHA oh me, you are HILARIOUS! Who needs an alarm clock when you have 4 small children? One is chirping over the baby monitor "MUMMUM..... MUMMUM.... MAAAAAAAAA!!!" at least when I go get her she is smiling her sleepy little morning smile, and her cute red hair is all strewn across her face (yup, sometimes stuck in her little boogie nose!). It's even better if If the smell of baby poop begins to fill the air as I get half way up the stairs, because typically it's not all completely contained in that practical little diaper. OK, no that doesn't make it better..... but at least her looks make up for that part ;) There are also some mornings I wake up to 4 voices on the baby monitor, only to go up and find all 4 children in the crib! :)

Occasionally the boy will sleep in a little later.... I stress Occasionally! "I" too, will sometimes sleep in a bit, she really is the best sleeper I have here... if everyone was quiet (HAHAHAHA... not really sure they have learned that definition yet), she would sleep in more often. Most days though, the gang is up and on the couch watching their morning talk shows. Yes, that's what I refer to their cartoons as because they don't sit quietly (remember we don't know that definition yet), they talk their way through the shows.

So with big sisters and brother on the couch, little Missa is able to make her grand entrance... we come down the stairs and her face lights up as she waves her little Miss America wave to her fans. Of course she just eats it up as they all get excited and yell "Good morning "B"... awww your so cute!" No wonder she thinks she is Miss America ;)

Breakfast can not wait at this point, we must eat now or we will perish! Everyone want's something different, so each morning I become a short order cook. ok fine not exactly "cook".... most days they just want cereal or fruit and we are BIG fans of eggo's here... and we love them in any way shape and form they come in! Especially on school mornings when we need to be out of the house by 8:15. Talk about convenience! I would like to give a big shout out to Kellogg's for that one... Thank You! ;) We do like "real" pancakes, and eggs and BACON (HUGE Bacon fans here!!!!) from time to time.

Typical breakfast........

Well, that's the "big" kids. Little Missa starts out in the high chair, quietly enjoying a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Then she moves onto standing at the foot of the high chair, where she likes to enjoy her dry cereal while standing and using the foot rest as her tray. 

This way she can walk from chair to chair at the table and get a sampling of what everyone else is having. Yes, she goes from kid to kid, with her mouth wide open yelling "Ah Ah Ah" as if saying "feed me" like a little bird. They do :) they love their little sister and think she is just adorable. (well she is... ) but it's really cute to watch them as they give her bites. This is Missa though... one bite is never enough!

As I sit here at the computer with my bowl of cereal, Missa is of course at my feet.... "AH AH AH" and the rest of the gang is behind me. K man dribbling (if you want to call it that) his tiny little basketball up and down the court..aka... kitchen. While he does this he is yelling a jumbled mess of ... words? As if he is the announcer, and then we here him yell "he shoots and CORES!!! yeeeaaaaaahhhhhh"  (yes he say's cores, not scores). The big girls sit on the side lines (kitchen stools) cheering him on ever so loudly, adding in the occasional cheerleader routine. 

Well I guess, now that they have moved onto another room and no longer want to play with their adorable baby sister, who is following them around screaming in anger now. I should probably bring this update to a close and try to bring this caos under control. HA... good luck me! ;)