Merry Christmas!

We had a most wonderful Christmas, what can I tell you? It was beautiful. It took hours to open all the presents. Thank you to everyone for making our Christmas so merry :) Luke started the morning off at 6:05. He woke up Michael and I and wanted to wake up his brothers. We stalled him for a while. I got up to make the cinnamon and orange rolls (YUM!) and then decided to let Luke wake Kaden at about 6:3o or so. Kaden didn't want to wake up! That took about 10 minutes and Gabriel woke in all the fussing. They were all SO excited to see all the presents under the tree and their full, full stockings!Flash's stocking was full and she and her candy cane were inseparable for about 4 hours!
Merry Christmas puppy dog! After the stockings we decided, well Daddy decided, to go ahead and wake up sweet Josie Claire. She didn't know what to think at first but quickly warmed up to everything and LOVED opening her gifts! Her first one was her rocking unicorn from Mommy and Daddy! She absolutely loves it. Climbs on it and rocks away, when you press the ears the unicorn sings to you. Are you kidding me?! It's way too fun! I adore having a baby girl!!!
Gabriel desperately wanted a WALL*E toy from Santa and Santa delivered! This toy is a hit with everyone! He talks, that sweet little robot, ADORABLE!!!

Grandma Present pics:

Another of the boys favorites, light up-noisy-fun guns and sword. How can you go wrong with that?
Daddy and Josie. She gave him a Daddy's Little Girl picture frame with a picture of the 2 of them at Jackie and Thad's wedding. One of the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen! (I'll try and post a copy so you too can see!)

Sweet Princess:
Uncle Don worked his magic once again...a couple of years ago he made Michael a Raiders shield for his Raider room, it is gorgeous and Michael is still in love with it and shows it off every chance he gets! Well this year, Uncle Don gave Michael one of his world-famous :) American flags. Michael was pretty much floored. He LOVES it so! It is already hanging in our family room. Thanks Uncle Don!!!The calm after the storm...and before the clean up!!!

What a joyous day. Again thank you to everyone who sent cards and gifts. We love you all!

TIGERS

OH

MY

GOODNESS!!!

Did you see my Tigers win last night? WOW. My heart was racing, my palms were sweating, I was not in a happy place for most of that game. But, a win, is a win, is a win. I am glad that Chase had a good overtime, I am glad that it was Jeremy who scored the touchdown seeing that was his last time in a Tiger uniform :( I'm proud of my boys! Until next year...

MIZZOU-RAH!

Christmas Eve post

Hey all! Sorry I haven't been blogging. I'm getting way behind here! We had a wonderful Christmas filled with lots of love and some great presents! (I was given pearls from my hubby, all the way from the Middle East--necklace, earrings, and bracelet! He spoils me, what can I say :)

I'll catch up starting with our Christmas Eve. We had a wonderful dinner together and then opened some special presents from Aunt Jackie and Uncle Thaddeus. They were NEW PJ'S! And the kiddos were in heaven! We can hardly get them to take them off! Here they are showing off their new duds:

We packed up the kids, Luke and Kaden with Grandma and Grandma Short in her new car, and Gabriel and Josie with Mom and Dad, and headed off to a park to look at Christmas lights. It took a little over an hour to go through the park but we all had a great time. Here are some of my favorite pics: We came home and Daddy and the kiddos snuggled on the couch to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'. Luke wanted to read and he did a great job, about halfway through Daddy took over. After the book we had to get Santa's stuff ready. Each kiddo picked out a special cookie for Santa and of course we left some carrots for the Reindeer (all on a new Santa plate from Aunt Jackie!). They were placed with care on the hearth.

The kids went to bed great! They were all so excited for Santa to come. It didn't take them but 10 minutes to fall asleep. We woke up to a wonderful Christmas morning!

Daddy is HOME!!!

So sorry that I haven't blogged! I know you guys are dying to see some pics of the fam back together! Our Thursday return was not really what we expected. We were all ready for the airport. Everyone was dressed in special clothes for Daddy. The boys had their signs all ready. I picked up Luke early from school, then Daddy's plane was delayed and eventually cancelled because of the heavy, thick, MEAN fog here in OKC. Michael ended up renting a car and driving the 3 1/2 hours home. He arrived around 7:45pm while we were all playing a rousing game of UNO.

The boys practically attacked him as he came in the door. They all just held on for dear life. It was adorable. Josie just watched intently. Michael said his hellos to all of us grown ups (me, his Mom and Grandma) and then held onto Josie. She did not want down. The boys went and grabbed everything they had made or we had bought since Daddy has been gone and showed him. They showed him school work, DVDs, Christmas ornaments, books------you name it, he saw it. It was hilarious. It was during all of this that I realized we hadn't got any pictures yet. So there are the ones I took:

When Michael put Josie down she would immediately grab onto his jeans and pull up. She wanted to be held by her Daddy. It was so sweet. Flash was, of course, all over Michael as well. In fact, she has barely left his side since he has been home.

We are all so thankful to have Daddy back with us. Seems we have been going non-stop since his arrival. What a wonderful Christmas time! :) Look at that family picture once again:

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to God for Michael's safe return! Thank you for all your prayers, thoughts, e-mails, phone calls, and well-wishes while he has been gone. We love you all!

He's a Travelin' Man

Well, BUMMER! Michael's plane was cancelled out of Dallas. :( This is not a happy household, I will tell you that. He got a rental car and is driving the 3-4 hour drive as I type this. I know this is not what he wanted to do after traveling for a day and a half. So if you read this...say a prayer for him. Our homecoming has been delayed but it will occur today!!!

Twas the night before homecoming!!!!!

We are all a little on edge and very excited tonight! Michael will be in tomorrow! He called me from Germany earlier today on his layover. He flies into Baltimore tonight! I'm so glad it's almost over and he'll be back in the US of A!!!!!

Here is photo of Luke working on his poster, with help!

I'll post pics from the airport soon!

Waitin' on a jet plane

Hello! I'm back. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. My poor Momma is about ready to throw a tantrum if she doesn't see some grandkid photos soon! Things have been crazy. It seems we have been going nonstop around here. The emotions are running like crazy here for all of us! For those of you who don't already know---MICHAEL COMES HOME ON THURSDAY!!!!! Yes, the deployment is OVER! It's been 127 days, we are ready for him to be back here! The end is very exciting and also very hard. I hardly have any patience for my sweet kiddos and I feel utterly drained! Plus I am getting a cold and am VERY bummed about that. I'm so thankful that his deployment is over, I'm so proud of what he has done for this country, and I am so thankful he is coming home to us safe! The kids and I have been counting down to Daddy's return. Kaden and Gabriel worked on their airport posters today:With a little help from Josie Claire:
My Mom-in-law and Grandma-in-law will be getting here later tonight. That will definitely help keep me sane tomorrow as I await my last day without my honey. We will have a Merry Christmas indeed :)

Creative Kaden

Kaden has had some pretty cute assignments at school. At Thanksgiving time they had to decorate a turkey so it could "hide" from the farmer and not be eaten. Well, Kaden was dead set on a garbage turkey. So this is what we came up with! His feathers are trash and he's in the garbage can. Kaden was very proud:This month we were sent home a Gingerbread man to decorate. Kaden is most excited about the hair and he was insistent that the ginger-man have blue eyes. We made his name into the buttons. We think he's pretty adorable:

Joy of the Party

Oh sweet Josie Claire. She was a busy, busy girl at the Christmas Party. When she was out of her stroller she was on the GO! Here are some of my many attempts to get just ONE good picture of my baby in her new Christmas sweatshirt:I kept right on trying. Here is a run-by smile:At least you can kinda see her sweatshirt in that last one... Josie made it over to the obstacle course and before I could blink she was up on the tricycle. She did not take her eyes off the guy helping in the booth, not for a second! It was so funny!She sat in her stroller to eat. And eat she did. I finally was able to take a pretty cute picture of her. And yes, check out those shoes! They are hand me downs from my niece Aurora. They were her Daddy's favorite shoes I remember and I SO know why. Aren't they precious?!Josie will wear these out this holiday season! :)

Boys at the party:

More pics from the Christmas party as promised. Here are my boys participating in the hanger games. Here are the boys (-1) waiting for the Scooby Doo bounce house:
Here is the missing Kaden bouncing:I know, not a good pic but you can make out his Tiger shirt! He had such a good time in there. You could hear Kaden laughing from halfway across the room!

Obstacle course time. First you start on a tricycle going through cones:

Next you toss the balls into a basket and crawl through a tunnel:
And you finish by climbing up and going down the slide. Fun times!
I didn't really plan those pics with each of the boys doing a different part but it turned out kinda cool, huh?! Oh my, they are in birth order too. WOW, I amaze even myself!

Last but not least, here are Kaden and Gabriel fishing. That was definitely the boys favorite part of the party. We fished about 5 times each, brought home LOTS of goodies!

I've got lots of pictures of my Josie...she will be her own post. Her shoes alone deserve that! :)