Back Up the Roller Coaster

My friend said, in a comment, what a roller coaster of emotions I must be going threw, and she is right. Well, we are going back up to a high point, Jeff "should" be coming back home in January. I think he is giving it a 90% chance, but we've decided we will believe it when he is on the airplane back! I guess the deal is now, they are letting the Air Force guys leave and they are still talking about the Army guys. Please pray for Jeff to come back and the Army guys because they deserve it too and I know they have wives at home who want them back. I know how they are feeling and I want them to have their husbands back as well, especially since Jeff said some of them have paid for tickets for trips and what not since they thought their husbands would be home.
So please keep praying for Jeff and all the men over there.

There Was the Possibility

Remember in my last post when I said there was the possibility of him still not coming back early, maybe not in those exact words. Well, that possibility has already showed its ugly head. Yep. So there is a Sgt Major in the Army who thinks all eight guys should stay, not come home early, and they will send them out to different places and find something for them to do. Ugh. Ridiculous to me, of course, if they aren't out there doing what they are trained to do, then let them come home! But who listens to the military wife? So please keep praying that he will get to come back early. Some guy there, who cares about these men, is trying to get them back early still. Pray, pray, pray!!!

YaY!

Jeff is coming home next month!!! The guy said he wanted to stay and Jeff wants to leave so that settles it. There is always a possibility of it not happening but for now, its for sure! I cannot wait until next month, I'm so excited about going home now! I can't wait to see my husband!

90% Chance

Keep praying for us because Jeff said it is a 90% chance of him coming home early! My hopes are so high...its bad...I know...if he doesn't come home early now, those hopes will be shot down and won't hit the ground for days...I won't feel it for a while, but then when I do, well you know. Praying and hoping!

Fingers Crossed

Jeff has mentioned the possibility of coming home early but I've tried to put it to the back of my mind and not get my hopes to high. Here recently though the possibility has seemed more real and we will find out Friday if he will get to come home early. I guess there are 9 guys there, 8 get to go home early. Jeff is the unlucky #9, of course, but there is a guy who wants to stay. So now it is up to the NCOIC to decide if he will change them out and I guess we will know Friday. Please keep this in your prayers because I would love to see my husband next month!

#6

I completely forgot to do a blog about Gaber when he turned 6. I was looking at my blog the other day, after I had blogged about Tara turning 2. I went back to November and noticed I didn't do one for Gaber. I feel so bad for forgetting to do that. So here it goes...
Gaber turned 6 in November. For his birthday he really really wanted to go to Chuckie Cheese so that is where we went for his birthday lunch. I really wasn't too excited about going, but in our house you get to pick where to eat on your birthday, so Chuckie Cheese it was. (Chuck E. Cheeze? Not sure how they spell it out.) So we had a fun lunch there with his cousins and grandparents and it was on a school day so it was practically empty...one of the many benefits to homeschooling! :) That night we had all the family over for deli sandwiches, chips, veggies, cake and icecream. This year Gaber had a scooby doo cake, which he LOVED. The other thing he loved was all his new bakugan toys he received...and that is all he got was bakugan. Yep, every last present was bakugan. He was thrilled! So it was a great day, we had a lot of fun and my little man is not so little now. *sigh*
Gaber's fav foods:
-chicken nuggets
-soup
-pizza
-burgers
-bacon
-ham
-ketchup :)
-apples w/ pb
-strawberries
-yogurt
Gaber hates green stuff (lettuce :). He has recently decided he doesn't like grapes and mac 'n cheese.
Gabe's fav activities:
-playing outside with friends
-playing with Tara
-running
-brushing mommy's hair (which I love)
-reading
-playing with Bakugan
Gaber is a great kid. He is very sociable, he loves being around people and doing whatever they are doing. He really doesn't know what to do with himself when he's alone, unlike Josiah who would rather play by himself at times...most times. :)

We had a good weekend, on Saturday we had a Christmas banquet at the church. During the dirty santa game (not sure they call it that, but that's the only name i know of for that game), I so happened to pick the one present, the one out of at least 30 presents, that was an angel with a poem on it about war and comforting you while your loved one is gone. Seriously...how did I pick that one? And of course I teared up. *sigh* I.Hate.Crying. AND, I HATE crying in front of people, and there I was all weepy. I've been handling this deployment well, not too many tears shed, but there in front of all those ladies, I pick the present with that gift in it that caught me off guard. I mean, who would think I would pick THAT one. Weird huh? I was thankful for it and I will probably hang that angel in Tara's room when we get back. :)

What We've Been Up To

I check my blog every day to see who had posted a new blog, but I haven't been in the mood to blog myself. Not sure why. I decided to sit here and do it, finally, so this part of my year isn't lost.
The big event that just past on Sunday was Tara's 2nd birthday. Ask her how old she is and she will stay say one. She holds up her hand with her pointer finger and thumb up to show two. We had her party last night, Monday, here at my mom and dad's house. Lulu and lula came, uncle Tom, Aunt Alicia and their 4 children, mima and papa and of course me, Siah and Gaber. I made her a Dora cake. It was one of those white confetti cakes with cream cheese icing. I don't think she liked the taste actually. (note that for future cakes). I made nachos, tatertot casserole and chicken fries for dinner. We also had a veggie tray and juice. Everyone had a great time. Tara loved her new boots from lulu and lula. They are blue and have hearts on them. They light up when she stomps. :) She also got a shopping cart full of food and a stroller. She loves everything! When we get back to GA I plan on buying her the kitchen set. I will post some pictures of that later, my mom took a lot of great photos for me since Jeff took my camera to Afghanistan.
Tara's fav foods:
-icecream
-cake (not white with cream cheese icing)
-cheeseburgers
-fries
-apple juice
-eggs
-bread
-toast with pb and jelly
-cranberry juice
-candy :)
-cheese pizza
-apples
-grapes
-strawberries
-and just about anything that is on mommy's plate.

Tara's fav activities:
-playing with babies
-playing outside
-playing with Gaber
-riding on backs
-peek-a-boo
-reading
-helping mommy in the kitchen

Tara also loves loves shoes. She loves to help. She loves to talk. She will be a good story teller someday. At the age of 2 she gets different stories all jumbled together, which is adorable, but some day I think she may be a great story teller. :) She loves her daddy and loves seeing him online. She tries to get hugs from him through the computer and tries to give him a drink of her juice. We both can't wait for him to get the real hugs.

Other than Tara's birthday, we haven't done a whole lot. The kids and I moved from Jeff's parents home to my parent's home this weekend. We are still busy with school. Josiah is working hard to get ahead for Christmas break. Gaber is almost done with his reading binders. In a couple of weeks we will be working on his advanced lessons in reading.
Yesterday mom and I took the kids to the library. They had a lot of fun playing on the computers and Tara had fun looking at books and toys. Mom and I picked out good books for them to read this week. Gaber already read the 5 books we checked out for him. :)

That is pretty much it here. Just preparing for Christmas and enjoying our time with family. Counting down the days until we see Jeff again. Ready to get back to our home and our normal again, for sure!

See Daddy!

Its been about 3 weeks since I've seen Jeff on the computer. At his "home" base we get to skype almost everyday. But he's been away at some French base where it isn't allowed or maybe he just can't access it. Not sure which. Tomorrow he will be "home" and we will get to see each other! I can't wait! I haven't heard his voice in 3 weeks now. I can't wait to hear it and see him! :) We are actually going to try something called oovoo. I guess its like skype, but Jeff was told by some other guys out there that oovoo works better. Better video and less of the choppiness. So hopefully it will work good for us. I told Tara tonight, while I was putting her to bed, that we would get to see daddy on the computer in the morning. She smiled so big and yelled, "See Daddy! Hug, kiss." So sweet. :)
So tomorrow, on Thanksgiving, we will have something extra to be thankful for, we will get to See Daddy! :)

Bathtime Sayings

Tara: bubbles!
me: yes, bubbles.
me: don't eat the bubbles, Tara.
Tara: ball!
me: yes a ball
Tara: a frog
me: yes a ball and a frog.
me: keep them in the tub, Tara.
Tara: I wet
me: yep.
Tara: I pay (play)
me: don't make a mess!
Tara: cup!
me: don't drink the water, Tara! Yuk.
Tara: yuk.

So these are just a few of our bathtime sayings. We do have many more. At the time it isn't funny to me, but then tonight, after her bath, I sat down and thought about our "conversation" we had during bathtime and decided I had to blog it. :) Too cute to pass up and a great memory.

Update

I am sitting here waiting on Jeff to get online so I can chat with my hubby, while I wait I decided I would try to blog since its been a while. There hasn't been a lot going on with us. The boys are doing good in school. Josiah is making some good grades and some ok grades. He doesn't seem to like history class but he loves math. He will ask for extra work just because he thinks its fun. Gabe is doing good as well. He is more that half through his reading class. After we make it through this last binder he should be able to read, with the help of the marks over the letters. He doesn't love writing, that is the one thing I have we have issues with. He gets grumpy and lazy when it comes to writing. It is usually so frustrating for me but I try to think of new ways to motivate him. Tara is doing great. Her speech improves each day it seems. She can now say lola perfectly. Tonight she yelled, "LULA!" For those who don't know, that is grandma in tagalog (Philippino). She also says, at night time when she knows its time for bed, "I pay (play), no nigh nigh."
Jeff is doing pretty good too. He has been at a french base for a week or more. He is the only American there and so he's pretty lonely. I guess the french there don't care for us so they don't talk to him. He is alone all day at work and eats by himself. I'm ready for him to leave there, he is ready too, and ready for him to get back to his normal base. Please keep him in your prayers for safe traveling around there. We get to chat online in the am and pm right now. When he is at his other base we also do skype, its so nice to see him! Its also nice that Tara gets to see her daddy, since she's the only one young enough to maybe forget him. I was so worried about that, but she remembers him well! She prays for him every night and talks t him on the toy phones at church. When we talk about daddy she says, "daddy work".
I better go check to see if he's on!

Made It

The kids and I made it safely to MO and Jeff made it safely to Afghanistan. We are enjoying our time here with the family. I think my days are going by faster with all the help I have.
Jeff will finally get to start work which will help his days to go faster as well. He will be doing some traveling there, so please keep him in your prayers. But he said he is traveling in the local area where it is "safer". He has two roommates who, so far, seem to be pretty cool and they are all getting along. Our countdown has begun, I think we are at 182 until his return. He should be leaving there or getting home around May 10. One month earlier than what we were told. He said there are rumors that civilians are taking over their jobs so he may be able to come home even earlier. So pray about that one too!!!

The Important Things in Life

As I was sitting here teaching Gabe to read and write he says, "Mommy, do you know why I love you?" I start thinking of the reasons he may come up with, like, b/c I read to him, play with him, make his food, clean his laundry or even teach him to read and write. No. He says, "Because you helped me defeat Bowser's Castle that one time. Remember?" I smile and nod.
Oh, the important things in life, to a 5 year old.

Yesterday

Yesterday was a rough day for me. Getting up at 4:30 am to watch my husband pack up his vehicle to leave me and our children for 8 months is hard. Before he walked out we hugged and I didn't want to let go because I knew I wouldn't get another one until June. Of course the tears started to flow and I hated doing that because I didn't want to make anything harder on him. After he left I went back to bed, cried, and then fell asleep as some point. My sweet dog laid there watching me, she knew something was wrong. Tara woke me up around 8:30 am and I just didn't want to get going. I was wishing I could stay in bed all day but I am still a mom and I gotta keep going for my kiddos. While Tara ate breakfast I read my bible, and chose a Psalm. Of course I had some good reading there. Then I turned on my computer to get my daily devotion. I was so wowed by God's timing, here is the subject of my devo yesterday, "All Alone". Here is the 2nd paragraph in the devotion:
Oh, precious one, do you know how much you are loved by the Lord of the universe? He sees you right now where you are and is waiting for you to look at Him. He holds out His hands in love and says, "Stop crying, my child. I am here for you." He has bottled up your tears (Psalm 56:8) and desires to breathe strength into your heart. He wants you to crawl on His lap and wait for wisdom, as He holds you in His arms of love (Isaiah 40:11).
Isn't God awesome? Just something little like this devotion really helped me through the day. That day I knew would be one of the hardest days, and God knew it and had something for me, waiting for me to open it and read it. :)
I also got a lot of little messages from friends and family letting me know they were praying for me and our family which helped tremendously. I love you all!
Today is so much better, so far. I know we are already one day down! :)

The Fair

We had a great night last night at the GA national fair. Jeff and all the teens, along with another man from our church, took off to ride all the crazy spinny rides while I took my kids and two other boys and one teen (who does not like the crazy spinny rides) to all the kid rides. To my amazement, the 4 boys actually rode some pretty fast rides too! Josiah and Gabe LOVED every ride! Gaber said he liked the ride that looked like a car that went fast. Not sure but I think he's talking about the one that is kind of like a roller coaster ride. He said his second favorite was the Tornado. Josiah liked the one where you spin around sideways...again not sure which one that was. They rode so many and had so much fun! The 4 boys also "helped" me win Tara a prize at one of the booths. They had to throw the ping pong balls into the fish bowls. It was a guarantee win for kids, but they did not know that. They were so excited that they won a pink dolphin for Tara. Sadly she lost it about 1/2 an hour later. :( It was so much fun watching my boys venture out and try the more scarier rides. I was probably more nervous than they were, not that I thought they would fall out or anything like that. I was just nervous that they would be scared on it and have to finish the ride anyway. (I know I'm a worrier...but I'm a mom) As soon as they would run out of the exit gate I knew I had worried for nothing b/c the smiles on their face told me they had a great time. And usually the first words they spoke were, "Can we go on that one again!?"
After a couple hours we met up with the rest of our group for some supper. After supper I got my funnel cake (heaven) and then off we went again. Later that night we took the kids to the circus, which was actually a lot of fun for being free and the acts were funny. Josiah and Gaber laughed so much, and Tara actually watched some of the show too. She loved the little dog that was a part of the clown act. After he left she would say, "puppy gone". The next act was a guy trying to get on the trampoline. He "fell" and hit his nose on the side of it. So then she would say, "nose urt" (hurt). We had to assure her that he was ok. :)
We ended the night watching our guys trying to climb the rope ladders to the top. Sadly, they all failed. It was quite comical though watching the teen guys and the adult men trying to climb the ladders. Josiah and Gaber gave it a try too but quickly spun off of it!
Sadly, I did not take my camera, so I have no pictures. Bad, I know. What was I thinking?

29 forever

Yesterday was my 29th birthday. Blah. I love birthdays, I just don't like the fact that I am this close to 30 now. So I told Josiah and Gabe, trying to be as serious as I could, that mommy would be 29 every year now, for the rest of my life. Gaber sat there, thinking about what I just said and Josiah says, "NO!" When I'm 10 you will be 30!!! I shook my head no and said, "No, I will be 29 forever now. That is what happens to women. Just ask your grandmas, they are 29 too." Jeff is nodding his head agreeing with me, trying not to smile. :) Well, neither boy believed me, but I believe me. I will be forever 29.
We had a fun day together yesterday. Jeff got up with the kids and fed them breakfast for me. When I came out they were all sitting around the table finishing up breakfast and smiling from ear to ear because they had their home made birthday cards sitting on the table for me to look at. I love the homemade stuff from my children, I will cherish those little cards and coupons for the rest of my life. Later that morning we went on a walk and took the kids to the park. For lunch we went to Cheddars and then went home for Tara's nap. That afternoon I gave the kids the day off school so we had a nice lazy afternoon together and then went to church that evening. To finish the day up we had DQ icecream cake, so yummy! :)

Today will probably be a good day too. Jeff has to go into work for a little bit to finish up some training and paperwork before Monday. I am just tidying up around the house, doing school and laundry then we are taking the teens from church to the GA state fair. I am excited about going, even though I won't ride any of the rides. I am not a spinny twirly fair riding kind of girl. Just ask Cindee, I didn't do to well once on one ride and she was sitting by me when I lost my supper. yuck. Tonight I will just walk around with my kids and one of the teen boys who said he doesn't do the rides either. I was told there would be a circus so we will probably head that way and just enjoy the deep fried food. :) Especially funnel cake! mmm. Jeff is totally excited about running around with the teens riding every ride they can. He LOVES the rides that make you dizzy. Just thinking about it makes me sick.
So I think I am done now, since I'm feeling dizzy! :)

Tara's 2 Sentences

Tonight at church Tara told the nursery worker, "Daddy a (at) home. Mommy a (at) chuch (church)." So cute!!!! I am so proud of her! She made 2 complete sentences and spoke them clear enough that someone other than mommy or daddy could understand her! Although her word "at" doesn't have the t on the end yet. It's just the short sound a. And church is said without the r. But we will forgive her for that. :) She has come along with her speaking so much this past couple months. It is such a neat thing to watch as your child starts forming words and then sentences.

BTW, Jeff was getting over the pain from his wisdom teeth being removed when he was hit with strep throat and a nice rash to go along with it....just in case not being able to swallow isn't enough. Please pray for him to get well, like super fast so that that we can enjoy our last week together. Unless all this sickness will get him out of being deployed. If so, then I say we pray for this rash to stay for the next week! [; )

Wordless Wednesday

A Story by Josiah

Josiah had to write a story in in Language Arts class. He had a picture to look at and then he was supposed to come up with a story from that picture. This is what he wrote...

The Stormy Night
Their names are Cody and Jack and they were out on a boat one day going on a treasure hunt. While they were on their boat they crashed into the biggest rock out in the sea. Their boat broke into five pieces and so they saw the fifth piece from the boat and they grabbed it so they won't drown. Cody asked Jack, "What are we going to do?" Jack said, "We are going to swim with the raft." As they were swimming it started to rain and it got dark. It was cold in the water and so they were scared. But they brought the treasure map. "Wow!" cried Jack "I wanted that map with me." "Well there is a boat heading toward us" said Cody. "That's a plane." said Jack. "Sheesh." Jack said. "Look, there's another plane coming right towards us!" said Jack. Cody said, "That's a boat headed straight towards us." Jack says, "Ah man." The boat finally reached them after the boys had been in the water for 3 hours. There were 10 men in the boat. The boys thought that the ten men would take them to the treasure island. Cody and Jack asked the men if they would take them to treasure island. The men said, "We don't know the way, we need to see a map." Cody says, "We have a map!" Then Jack says, "There are two maps." The first map was wrong, the second map is right so they go to the island which was only one mile away. When they get to the island they realized the first map is the one needed to find the treasure chest on the island, the second map was to find the island. The ten men wait in the boat while Cody and Jack follow the map to the chest. They had to walk through the jungle and sand. It was crazy that there were no animals. Their map leads them to the treasure that was only one minute away. When they got there, there was an X and so they dug. Cody and Jack had to dig for only 5 minutes when they found the treasure. They pulled the box out and the opened it because it wasn't locked because there was no key hole. When they opened it there was only one piece of gold in it! The boys brought the treasure chest with them to the boat. The men asked, "How many pieces of gold was in there?" Cody said, "There was only one piece of gold." The men took the treasure chest and threw it into the water so that pirates can't find it. The harrier arrived and took them back home. Cody and Jack were happy to be home.

Boys' Conversation

Last night at our dinner table our boys had a conversation about squirrels. I'm not sure how this got started, I missed out on the beginning, but this is what I heard...
Gabe: "Squirrels don't come in houses. Well, unless you have peanuts in your pocket."
Josiah: "Not peanuts, just nuts."
Gabe: "Oh and not in your pockets, just in your house."

It was so funny to hear this little conversation b/c they were so serious about it. When Josiah "corrected" Gaber on what kind of nut, Gaber shook his head yes, agreeing with Siah, like Josiah WAS right, that its not peanuts, its just nuts that will attract a squirrel into your house. I love their little conversations...when they aren't fighting. :)

So other than that, everything is going good here. School has been going smooth, as smooth as it can go with Tara running around wanting attention while I'm trying to teach Gabe. I usually have her sit at the table to color while I try to help Gabe, but she bores of that fast and starts yelling for me. Josiah is patient, thankfully. He will ask for me and then sit and wait until I make my way to his side of the "school" table. Today he was getting frustrated with his subtraction, not that he didn't know how to do it but the computer was messing him up. He would put a number in the box it belonged in, but then the number would move over one, thus making his answer wrong. Luckily he gets 3 attempts to get it right, but he gets so aggravated with it. We are loving his school, but there are the little quirks with the program that you have to work through, but overall I'm happy with it.
Just so you know, right now I'm hearing tweets, clucks and monkey sounds coming from my front room. Tara learned how to do monkey sounds from Josiah yesterday, along with the arm movements. So this morning Gaber decided to teach her chicken noises. My little tippy toe girl is becoming fluent in animal language. :)
Jeff should be home soon from the dentist. This morning he had to go get his last 2 wisdom teeth pulled. Not a fun day for him. He was non-deployable with those 2 teeth in there, so I thought the smart thing to do would be to leave them in! :) No, we didn't get the option to leave them in. He has to deploy this fall and so the teeth had to come out. Boo.
I need to go help Tara, she keeps yelling, "ight! ight!" (light) She loves turning the light on and off. I usually let her do it a couple times to teach her "on" and "off".

A 5 Year OId's Thought of the Day

This evening we were outside playing with the kids. Gaber noticed feathers all over the ground. He picked one up, looked at it, then looked at me and asked, "Do you think a bird exploded?"

Pictures

Josiah enjoying some Coke...I've raised him well! :) (FYI, I love Coke!)


Lola, Lolo and kids


Our Rybold 5!


Tara wanted to put her hands in her pockets...so she lifted her shirt to do so. :)


Josiah's favorite control at the Atlanta Children's Museum


Tara shopping at the museum


Gaber in the big machine at the museum


Cheezer!


We still love playing in baskets!


Me and my hubby :)


kissing her "owie"

So Sweet

Tara has had a runny nose for a while now. Usually Gaber will yell for me, "Mommy! Tara's nose is all snotty!!!" He yells this in a panic, hoping I will get it before the world implodes or something. This morning I walked past the kitchen to see him wipe Tara's nose and throw away the tissue. Wow! After I dropped off the clean laundry in my room, I came back to ask him if he wiped her nose for me. He shook his head yes and then said, "It almost made me puke." :) I thanked him and told him how proud I was for him to help mommy and his sister out. Gaber smiled from ear to ear. Oh how I love these moments.

Can I just say, I am so indecisive. I STILL have not ordered Gaber's school curriculum. Yes I know its September 8th. I KNOW! I had my mind all made up, I was going to do A Beka, again, but they are being so slow and unhelpful that I've started considering ACE again and also Horizons. *sigh* Gabe and I are working on school stuff while we wait on me to pick so he is doing something, but I really need to get moving and buy his k-5 books. Right now I am emailing with ACE and he will take a reading readiness test, I'm also FBing a friend about Horizons and figuring out how that one works, and waiting on A Beka to reply to me or answer a phone call so I can ask how to get logged onto my account (I lost my acct #). I guess who ever gets back to me first wins. LOL

One last thing, Jeff doesn't have to leave earlier than planned for the desert. YaY! Thanks to all of you who prayed with us.

Back to Normal, for Now.

Today is our first full day of it being just us, Jeff, the kids and I. Jeff's parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew all left yesterday morning. We enjoyed having them here and I hate good byes, especially when I watch Tara stand outside our house waving bye-bye to them all even when they are out of site. Even though we hate saying good bye, we also were excited to have just our family back, our normal. It feels so good. Our normal though will only last for a short time because Jeff will be leaving us for Afghanistan. All I have to say about that is, Blah. *sigh* I wish he didn't have to go but that is our life. Keep praying for us, especially that he will go at the normal time and not any earlier.
This labor day weekend has been great. Last night after church we all, minus Tara because she went to bed, sat outside around the fire. We roasted some marshmallows and the boys ran around looking for sticks and misc. tree stuff to throw in the fire. They love watching it burn...just like daddy. :) This morning we ran to Wal-Mart and bought more than was on our list, yay, and then took the kids to the pool. Josiah and Gaber had their first game of "Marco-Polo", at least that I know of, and had to show off their swim skills to us all. Tara on the other hand decided to go threw the beach bag and use the sunblock as chapstick. There I was, sitting and enjoying the sun and laughter of my boys when I turn around to see white sunblock all over my girl. At first I thought she had eaten it and as Jeff and I were contemplating whether to call poison control, we see her grab it again and rub it on her lips. What a sigh of relief. I then tried to explain to my 21 month old that it is not chapstick and that I will give her chapstick at home. Jeff and I are sure she will be our one to get into EVERYTHING. That is why I need mommy eyes...2 in the front and 2 in the back.
That's enough blogging for now. I will post pictures soon...maybe. :)

To MO and Back Again

Its been a while since I've blogged. I basically got super lazy while in MO. :) The kids and I had a nice vacation there but we were all VERY ready to get back home. We all missed Jeff so much and poor Jeff, well, he missed us VERY VERY much. I was shocked at how lonely he got. We have been separated before, for much longer, and he didn't have such separation anxiety so I was shocked when he did this time. lol I guess its different when you are the one left behind in your own home, alone. That is usually the part I so wonderfully get to play. I don't plan on leaving him again for 5 weeks or even 4, maybe not even 3. I think 2 will be our max for now on, other than deployments because sadly, we can't control them. I wish we could because if we could, I would cancel his upcoming one. Or I would make it a 2 week deployment and send him right back home to his family. :) Yep, that is how I would handle it. I think all the single guys should be the ones to go for the six monthers and up. Pray for his to be canceled because his family would very much like to have him home. :)

Jeff's parents are here visiting us in Georgia for the next two weeks. We are having a nice time with them and I know the kids love having them here. Tara yells for "uh-buh" before she yells for mommy now. Sad? No! I.Love.It. :) What a nice break it is and its so nice to see that her "uh-buhs" are so good to her that she would yell for them over me. Don't you just love grandparents? And about the "uh-buh" name. That is not their names. Their names are lolo and lola, which is philippino...but somehow she has warped that into "uh-buh". It's so stinkin' cute though so they respond to it any how. :)
On the Tara front...she has learned so many words this month. Its like her baby language is morphing into english. She now says....seat, sit, no, uh-huh, mom, up, what's that (or close to it), cup, eat, ball, k (ok), pease (please), down, ink (drink), side (outside), shoe, baby, dora (even though she doesn't watch it, mainly is read about her), no-no, daddy, papa, anky (blanky), a-sauce (apple sauce), ck for book, and any thing with a k at the end. :) There are more but I have the mommy brain right now (along with a yucky eye and soar throat) and so I can't think of any more.
Josiah front: he has started 3rd grade. Yes, 3rd grade. I can't believe my baby is old enough. We started school on August 9. I am homeschooling him and Gaber this year so please pray for me. Seriously. I need the patience for this job and sometimes I'm not a very patient person. Josiah is doing SOS this year and so for he loves it. He has good grades and thankfully stay focused. So maybe, just maybe I have found the right curriculum for him.
Gabriel front: He is starting k-5 this year. I still have not ordered Gaber's curriculum. I can't decide between abeka, what we have always used, and ACE. I just want to order something that will help him learn to read, I'm afraid I will miss something and not teach Gaber the right way. I really worry to much, I know, but Josiah loves to read and I am hoping that Gaber will too.

That is about it for now. Need to start cooking dinner soon and we have church tonight. I will try to keep up with my blogging now that I am at home. :)

Missouri

The kids and I traveled up to Missouri last week to spend a whopping 5 weeks with grandparents and their cousins, aunt and uncle. I'd have to say that so far the boys are having a lot of fun. Josiah and Gaber love playing with their cousins and spending time with lola, lolo, papa and mima. I really wish we lived closer so that they could do this more often. Tara warmed up to her mima super fast. As soon as we picked my mom up at the airport she seemed to remember her. No fussing around her or clingin' to mama like she usually does. She has a lot of fun with all the "new" toys at mima's and lola's house. I think a change of pace is good for all the kids. With all this fun going on we still miss home and miss daddy. Josiah has told me twice now that he misses his daddy. I wish Jeff could have come with us but he does have to work and we are thankful that he has work!
Since we have been here Gaber has been sick but it looks like he is getting better. Every time we travel he ends up constipated and all the issues that go along with that. He also ended up with a fever and now he has some gunky eye problem, hoping its not pink eye. Tara woke up this morning with diarrhea and on Sunday she had a bug bite that swelled up and was very warm to the touch. Just seems like one thing after another, but we are pushing threw all of this and still having fun. Pray for the kiddos that they will get healthy/stay healthy and enjoy their time. :)
That's about it for us. Jeff could blog about a lot if he were into blogging. He took the teens to church camp last week and I heard that they had a blast and we had one saved and they are all just on fire for God right now. Wishing I was there to be a part of it but I can pray for them while I'm here in MO. Pray for Jeff because he is lonely for us, poor guy, and is counting down the days for us to be home. :)

Pictures

Gabe and Josiah on the 4th playing with sparklers


Daddy with Tara on the 4th


Josiah and Tara hanging out


Gaber at swim lessons


Cheezin' for me under the water

Swim Lessons...A Waste of Money but not Time

While Josiah was at church camp Gaber went to swim lessons. He was already doing well on his own but he really wanted to take the lessons and so we signed him up. He had to do the mommy and me class since he was 5, it was well below his level but I was told they would work with him on some upper level lessons too. Too make a long story short, the swim lessons were a waste of money but not time. Does that make sense? It was a waste of money b/c you could barely classify the class as a class because the teacher barely spoke a word to him or helped him. Out of the 5 classes he went to he was probably instructed for about 5 minutes. I would have to say that even though I don't think it was worth the money, it was worth the time b/c Gaber was so excited to go and to have that time with me all to himself. He enjoyed being "taught" and practicing his swim skills. :) He did improve a little, no help from the instructor. He learned that he can swim farther if he uses his arms and he learned to come up from breaths of air. All this said, we could have accomplished this down the street at our free pool, but I don't regret the time spent with him.
I will post pictures soon hopefully. I keep saying that after I blog and I just don't get around to it, but I will seriously try to do it this time. :)

Camp and the 4th

Josiah went to church camp for his very first time. I was a little nervous about letting him go, he is only 8, but I knew he would have fun and hopefully wouldn't be too homesick. We picked him up last Friday from his week at camp and I think he had about a million stories to tell us. He talked about the food, the preacher, the sports and swimming. He had so much fun! I was told he had a few times where he was homesick or once he thought he got left behind so he started to cry, but other than that he did just fine! I also heard that he was pretty good at basketball once he learned the rules. I guess at first he got upset because he wasn't getting the ball so his counselor explained how it works and then he did great! :) I think his team went to the volleyball championships but lost by a couple points. He also was very excited to order his own meals and pay for them by himself! Now when we go out to eat he wants to order and pay!

The 4th of July was a lot of fun this year. We started the weekend on Friday night at the park down the street from our house. We had fun with our friends and their kids, letting the little ones play with sparklers and the big kids play with the more dangerous stuff...even setting the grass on fire a little bit. Then finally around 10:30 we got to watch an awesome firework show. Tara was scared at first, she came running to her momma, but soon was mezmorized by the lights. Saturday we took the kids swimming and then Sunday we had church. After church that night we went to Pizza Hut with a few families from church and then back to the church to shoot off fireworks. Again the kids got to play with sparklers and some of those things you throw at the ground and they pop. Then the big kids set up a little display and had fun shooting off some bigger ones. I sat on the side with a lady from church holding the lighters and throwing some fireworks of our own at the guys. :)

It was all a lot of fun. I will try to get some pictures up soon.

Not Much

Not much has been going on around here, which is good. :) Jeff's working, the kids are enjoying summer break, I'm doing all my normal cleaning, laundry, cooking, and so on.
I'm hoping we can afford a laptop here soon because I would like to have Josiah do school on it instead of our desktop. Especially since we are traveling to MO soon and I would like to start school while we are there. Also for when we are home, if he needs a quite place to work he can go to his room to get work done. Not sure how that will work really, he may have to just sit at the kitchen table and try to ignore the noise going on with me teaching Gaber and with his sister running around. Either way, we'll figure it out. I still need to buy Gaber's curriculum. I'm going back and forth between Abeka and ACE. I may just stick with Abeka for now since that is what I've used in the past for the boys. Maybe when Tara is ready for school I will try out ACE.

On the potty training front, (part 5), that has seemed to come to a complete stop. Since summer has come I don't get up early any more and so by the time I get Tara up (8:30), she has wet her diaper. I'm sure she is still waking up dry but this mommy just can't get up any earlier to check. Hey, I'm enjoying my sleeping in days while I can! Tara actually hasn't even sat on the pot for weeks now. She is showing no interest but that's ok. I'm just not motivated to go for it yet. Not ready for wet undies and floors. lol.

Next week Josiah will go to church camp for his very first time. It makes me a little sad to think he is old enough to go anywhere for that long without me! I think I will be homesick for him. I'm just praying that he has a lot of fun and that he doesn't miss us too much. I wish so much that I could go with him and watch him participate in the sports and everything but I can't. I know when all my kids are old enough to go I will be there with them!

That's it for this household. Not much going on here but isn't that how summer should be? :)

9th Anniversary!

Today is our 9th anniversary! We actually don't have anything big planned...not even dinner out for tonight. I will probably cook and then we will go to church. But you know what? I'm just so happy that we are together today. He is not deployed and we are not separated, I will get to see my hubby tonight when he gets off work. We have our family all together and that makes me happy! I'm so thankful to God for what we have, a strong marriage, 3 healthy kids, a home, a job, vehicles, a wonderful church, awesome parents and great friends that are scattered all over this world. All the years we have spent together have been great, yes there were some hard times, but God brought us threw it all. I know we will have some more hard times, but also some good times and I look forward to it all! I love you Jeff! :)

Florida Vaca Facts

1. a 16 oz of coke can soak into a van seat fast!
2. I was sure glad I brought a roll of paper towels to clean up that lovely mess from #1
3. Tara is not a happy road trip participant
4. I now understand why my mom does not answer to "mom" anymore.
5. Tara broke the record for how many times a toddler can say mommy, or "ommy" in one hour.
6. The boys are good at ignoring sissy as she breaks the record
7. When your steering wheel shakes...nothing good is to follow.
8. A blown tire at 80 mph is not fun.
9. Fire ants hurt
10. Tires bought on the turnpike are expensive
11. Florida is hot...and humid
12. The pool is a lifesaver for adults with 4 kids
13. Adults can act like kids too in the pool *cough* jeff and mark :)
14. Waterproof cameras are awesome.
15. Josiah can swim pretty good on his belly with a snorkel and mask
16. Gaber can swim good underwater (after watching Hannah)
17. Rybold grandchildren can tan easily
18. Gaber and Hannah are perfect playmates
19. Josiah loves little babies!
20. A BBQ rib can take care of a loose tooth.
21. Rose and I are good at setting
22. Jeff and Mark are good at winning :P
23. Staying up every night to 12 makes it hard to get up before 9.
24. Low fat ice cream means you can have 2 bowls instead of 1.
25. A glass wall = a black eye (for a poor little 3 yr old)
26. Josiah loves hanging out with his uncle Nick
27. Tara can say, Nick..."ick" and hannah

We had a great time on our vacation. It ended way too fast like they always do. The kids had so much fun in Florida...Josiah didn't want to leave. I think he would have stayed with Nicole and Nick if we would have let him. :) And I'm thinking Gaber would have loved to bring Hannah home with him.
Here are a few pics...

Potty Adventures, Part 4

This morning I got Tara up at 8:15, fed her breakfast and after breakfast she was dry. So I asked her if she wanted to go potty and she said, "yesh". So off we went and there she sat for a good 5 minutes, but no pee. I got her down put her diaper on her, by now its 9 am, and off she goes to play and sure enough she fills the diaper. So I change her and ask her if she wants to go potty and again she answers, "yesh". Again, no pee. This time I put some undies on her and send her on her way. About an hour later she comes to me and speaks her foreign language, I have no clue what she is saying but decide to ask if she needs to go potty. She answers, "YESH!" We get to the bathroom and as I start to pull her undies down I find a surprise, she had pooped in her undies. I get her cleaned up and sit her on the pot and there she sits but no pee. I get her down, put on a new pair of undies and off she goes, again. Later, its now about 12:30, we've had lunch and played and folded laundry and she still has not peed since the morning. I ask her if she wants to go, she replies "yesh", but no pee, we get down, run to the front room, where this time I sit down to get a diaper ready (she is going down for a nap). She runs to the corner of the room and sits and...pees. Yep. (Luckily it was on the tile floor) She stood up and looked down at her mess...she looked intrigued by this. I think she would have danced in it if I would have let her! I'm hoping this afternoon, after nap time, will go better. Just hoping for that one time where she pees IN the pot! Once she does that, I know she can get trained. Just gotta get her to pee in the pot so I can praise her! I know she is still young, so I don't want to force her, at least not yet. My boys didn't get potty trained until they were 3, that was my choice though, I chose to wait. So, if she needs to wait a little longer, I will, but I would love to have her trained by 2! We shall see!
Something other than pee...
Yesterday Jeff had off and so after he slept in we took the kiddos to the pool. It wasn't too hot out though so the water seemed extra chilly. We had so much fun, especially since we had the pool all to ourselves. Actually, I've never had to share it! Jeff took Tara in and at first she whined but with in a few minutes she was happy and splashing. Jeff put her on his back and swam around with her. She was so cute holding onto him with a huge smile! I wish I had my camera b/c that would have been a priceless picture! Josiah and Gaber had a great time being thrown in the water by daddy and doing all that fun pool stuff. :) I even braved the cold water and did a little swimming.
We are looking forward to this weekend, Jeff has a 4 day weekend and tomorrow we have a bbq at his work. The boys will get to see where daddy works and maybe even ride on some of the equipment. I'll try to get pictures and post them soon.

Summer Vacation!

Today is our first official day of summer vacation. Josiah's last day of school was yesterday, they have a 1/2 day of school today but he didn't have to go since he earned good grades. So, Yay! :) So this morning I took the kids down to the pool which is only about a 5 minute walk but we drove b/c I was too hot. Public schools are still in session so guess who had the pool all to themselves? The boys had so much fun in that freezing water. Tara on the other hand decided to be a girly girl and sat on the chair, mommy's lap and the side of the pool the whole time. So, guess who had to sit out too. Boy was it hot sitting out there too. Around noon I got the kids home, had lunch, laid Tara down and cleaned. Now the boys are playing a game while I blog. What a great start to summer!

Last night we finally got Gaber's tooth out. We decided it had to be pulled b/c it was really bothering him when he ate. That tooth was so loose that I barely had to even pull and out it popped onto his tongue. :) He was so excited and decided to write a note to the tooth fairy, with mommy's help, asking her for a yo yo instead of money since this was his first tooth. :) Too cute! Last night he excitedly tucked it under his pillow, hoping the tooth fairy would leave his yo yo. This morning he came running out with his yo yo, he was so happy that she left him one! *wink*

I better try to get more laundry and cleaning done.

Potty Adventures, Part 3

This morning Tara woke up completely dry...for the 3rd time in a row! So I decided to let her eat a banana while sitting on the toilet, that was the only way I could get her on it. So, there she sat eating a banana but no pee. *sigh* She sat there eating and I sat there on the floor, praying for her to go, I knew she had to but she just wouldn't do it. Five minutes later I take her off and put her diaper back on. When we leave the bathroom I realize it is time to get siah to school so I pick her up and immediately feel the warmth. Yep, she went and filled that diaper to the max. Little stinker.

Stuff

I've decided to home school the boys this coming year. I'm actually really excited and hopeful...but now is the time to pick a curriculum. I just can't decide. I want to try out SOS for Josiah, but I just feel very cautious b/c I don't want anything boring. It looks very interesting to me but so did the a beka video curriculum...and that turned out, lets just say, not so good. For Gaber I will either use a beka (not videos) or ACE. I want to pick the right curriculum now and stick with it for all the years to come b/c I don't want to be jumping around all over the place and having the boys in a whirl wind of different learning systems. So for now all I know is they aren't going back to the school. I think its a step in the right direction for us.
So onto other stuff...
Josiah had his 8th tooth pulled 2 nights ago. I tell you what, that 8th tooth has been loose for at least 5 months. It just did NOT want to come out. I tell you what else, Josiah is such a trooper b/c I can't tell you how many times I pulled on that little tooth of his. He took it like a "man" each time too. I finally came to the conclusion that it was the wimpy string I was using so the other night I found a thicker string and out popped that tooth with one good pull. He was so excited when he felt the tooth pop out and onto his tongue. lol He didn't want money this time from the tooth fairy though, he wanted a yo yo. Actually, this was Gaber's idea....see, Gaber has 2 loose teeth of his own and he said he didn't want money, he wanted a yo yo. Josiah heard and decided that sounded pretty good. :) Poor Gaber has yet to lose any of his loose teeth though, so he is still waiting on a yo yo. One of his teeth is pretty loose, but he just can't sit still and stop giggling long enough for me to get a string tied around it. I think he giggles when he's nervous! :)
On the potty training adventure (Part 2)...Tara woke up completely dry again this morning. We drove Siah to school and ate breakfast and she was still dry. But she wanted nothing to do with that toilet and sure enough she filled her diaper 2 minutes later. Oh well, I know it will happen soon. :) I'm just excited to see that she can hold it and that she is about ready for some "real" training here soon.

Tara's Potty Adventures; Part 1

Tara woke up this morning completely dry. I took her to the bathroom but she didn't want to sit on the toilet...which is weird for her b/c she loves sitting on her new potty seat. I decided it was b/c she was hungry for breakfast. So I took her to the kitchen for breakfast. She ate and afterward she was still dry. So I took her back to the bathroom and got her on the toilet but then she changed her mind. I'm guessing she knew she had to pee and was just too scared. So I reluctantly took her off, I don't want to force her, and put her diaper back on. With in 5 minutes she had filled the diaper. I was hoping she would do it on the toilet w/out me making her. I really don't want to force her, I want it to be something she enjoys. Hopefully w/in the next few months she'll do it on her own. *fingers crossed*

Happy Mother's Day!

This is a day late but I thought I'd do it any way.
Jeff and I have the greatest moms anyone could ever ask for. We love them both, even though he still calls my mom "hey you" and I still call his mom, Rose.They both want to do so much for us and our children. I know they worry and pray for us and I just hope I can be a good mother to my children too like they have been to us. :) Jeff and I love you both!
Here are some pictures of our wonderful mothers...


Loving some time with Tara in Georgia


Cheezin' with Siah in Okinawa


Enjoying some vaca in Hawaii


Another great mother, Jeff's grandma :)


Snugglin' with Tara in Fulton

These moms will follow us anywhere, Oklahoma, Mississippi, the Azores, Okinawa, Hawaii, Georgia...and we love that. No matter how much it cost, they will get there to see us and of course the main reason...the grandchildren! :)
Happy Mother's Day!

Decisions

I've been thinking about homeschooling our boys this coming year. Well, I am already homeschooling Gaber, but Josiah goes to our church school. I really do love sending him and I do want Gaber to have that experience too, but then I want to try homeschooling both and see how it goes. Another reason is the cost. Our school is very inexpensive compared to most christian schools, but still we are a one income family so it takes quite a chunk out of our wallet each month. This coming year it will be almost too much with both boys enrolled. So...this week I have been praying about it and searching the web for curriculum's. I found one called Switched on Schoolhouse. (I actually think my sister-in-law told me about it a couple years ago). Well, I came across it the other day and really liked what I saw. I think Josiah would do good with it and even may enjoy it. For Gaber I'm thinking maybe ACE or abeka.
So that is one of my big decisions right now. One decision of ours was made last week when Jeff was accepted to be a Cadre. He started this Monday as an instructor at the MOB school on base. We have been praying and praying about which path he should take for months now. Well, this door opened up and the plus of it is we get to stay here for a couple more years. I love seeing prayers answered! So this was a big decision for us, because if he didn't get this or the other career he was hoping for, we may have gotten out. But now that he got this job we have decided to reenlist for another 4 years, which will take us to 12 years!
The last thing I have been thinking about is whether to start a very small home daycare to earn us some extra money. Like I said before, we are a one income family and so things are usually pretty tight. But now, with the thought of homeschooling, I'm not sure what I want to do. I'm trying to decide if I could handle babysitting another little one while teaching my boys. I think I could, but i guess I'd need to find a parent who wouldn't mind me being busy with my kids and theirs.
So, there are all my decisions. I need to decide about the boys soon b/c their book fee is due in one week at the school and it is non refundable, so I need to decide before then.
One last decision...I need to figure out why I have ants all over my desk! There is no food or drinks to attract them and I don't even see where they are coming from! I keep killing them with my finger but they keep coming back...time to get serious and spray!

April Pictures

Here are pictures from Six Flags, the aquarium, my parents visit and just hanging out around the house. The last picture of me and the kids is from Easter. :)

Visit

We had a great time with my parents this past week. It ended too fast, like always. Mom and I did a lot of shopping, we always do, Jeff and dad played wow together and we also did a lot of walking. Just about every evening we took the kids and the dog out for a nice walk around our housing area. Its pretty big so we enjoyed taking new paths each time. Gaber had fun running, Josiah enjoyed riding his bike and Tara relaxed as we pushed her in the stroller. :) And of course we made stops at the parks. The only down side to all of the great walking is I lost my nice sunglasses! We looked for them 3 times and they were never found. Pretty sure this woman who was only a couple minutes behind us found herself some nice free sunglasses!
Tara warmed up to my mom with in the first minute! Surprised me, that's for sure. She slowly came around to my dad, she would give him night kisses and a few hugs. She also shared his cereal with him, but as soon as he was out she took off! Josiah and Gaber really loved having them here. They were wondering when we would see them again. I don't think they understand that even though we are in the states, they are still a good distance away.
I'm hoping to drive to Missouri this summer to visit everyone for a couple weeks. My mom and I are already trying to work it out! :)
Keep us in your prayers as we are trying to figure out our next step in Jeff's career. It seems we have 3 different paths to take and so we are praying for God's guidance in this.
I'll try to post some pictures soon of my parents visit.

Atlanta

Last Monday and Tuesday we drove up to Atlanta with the kids. On Monday we went to Six Flags. It was a lot of fun, but about 1/2 our time was ate up with having Tara. Jeff would go stand in a line with Josiah while Tara, Gaber and I would wait for them to get back. We probably won't take her again until she is older. Even with that, we had a lot of fun. Josiah rode his 1st roller coaster ride, the Mind Bender! Jeff said it was hilarious! He looked over at Josiah as they approached the top of the first hill and Josiah's face had terror wrote all over it! (Jeff can demonstrate it for you sometime :) At the end of the ride Josiah grabbed his chest and said he wasn't riding any more roller coasters! For the main part of the day I stayed in the kid land watching the boys run from ride to ride. Tara even got to ride a couple with her brothers. I never thought I would spend so much time at kid rides while at a Six Flags park. I guess parenthood will do that to ya. :) Later that night we got a hotel room and took the kids swimming until about 10.
The next day we went to the aquarium and the children museum. The aquarium was a bit expensive for us and just not as good as we thought it would be. Not planning on going back. The children museum on the other hand was a blast! There was so much for all three of our kids to do...but poor Tara napped threw most of it. By the time she woke up she had only 30 minutes left to play before the closed. It was funny to see the difference in our boys here. Josiah pretty much stayed at one machine on the same controls the whole afternoon. Gaber on the other hand zipped around the building trying out just about everything! We do plan on going back to the museum, its called Imagine It. We'll probably make it an all day thing this time.
I'll try to get pictures up soon of our mini vacation. :)
All has been going well here. Jeff's sister had her baby last Monday! We have a new little nephew, Brody. He sure is cute too! We can't wait to get down to Florida to see him!
Had to take our van in today. The passenger side window got stuck down. Blah. It will cost us 300 some bucks to get it fixed. Yay. We could have paid just 85 dollars to have them put it up but Jeff wanted it working, I guess I agree. :) 300 dollars is a whole lotta green just to put a window up and down. Oh well.
My parents are coming down here on Thursday!!! I'm so excited! They will be staying until Tuesday. I wish they could stay longer, but I'll take what I can get! The boys are so excited about having mima and papa here. They want to show them their room and toys and yard and bathroom and everything. :)
I think I'm gonna lay down for a bit before I have to pick Josiah up from school. So, that's it for now.

Too Much Yellow!

It is allergy season here in Georgia. We knew this when Jeff started suffering with allergies a couple weeks ago. I thought maybe it was just from him being out in the field all week playing in the weeds. Surely his allergies will die down when he's been home for a couple days, but they didn't. Now I know why. Yesterday afternoon when I got in the van I saw yellow covering our van, and then noticed it was all over the roads, sidewalks and even in our house. Yep, it is pollen all over everything! No wonder Jeff is having such a hard time. Last night he washed our van and mountaineer. This morning we had a new covering of the yellow dust. I've never seen anything like it. Jeff had said he is allergic to Georgia. He was joking before, but now he's serious! The weather man said there will be no relief for the allergy sufferers until we get some rain, and there is no rain in site for a while. I do love the blue skies but for Jeff's sake I would love some rain right now!
Other than that, today is a good day. Jeff got the oil changed in our van, hadn't done that since we bought it in November. He is at the church right now doing a car wash with the teens. They are raising money for church camp. (Today was a good day for the car wash with the pollen all over everyone's cars!) Tonight we have a teen activity. Jeff is teaching them a new game, I forget the name. Tomorrow of course is Easter. Looking forward to a good Sunday in God's house. I get to teach the teen girls so I'm excited and nervous about that. I've only taught them twice before. We will have Easter dinner alone. We invited some people over but they all have plans to eat dinner with their parents, grandparents, cousins...what's up with that? Eating with family? Who does that? Oh yeah, people that live near family do that! ha ha. We've lived far away from our family for so long that we've forgotten that people actually do things with family on holidays. Overseas you celebrate the holidays with your friends from church...they are your family. But boy would I love to celebrate with our parents and siblings.
Anyways...
This coming week is Josiah's spring break!!!!! WoooooHOOOOOOOO! Can you see I'm excited? I love sleeping in and I love spending time with all 3 of my children. Jeff also took off work for the whole week...YaY!!!! So Monday we are driving up to Atlanta for a couple days. Our plans are to go to Six Flags, the aquarium and the children's museum. I'm so excited about this coming week. I sure hope we have a good safe time.
I will post some pictures next week of our fun time in Atlanta.
Hope you all have a blessed Easter weekend. Take some time out to remember why we have Easter. Why did Jesus die? Why did he rise from the dead?

My Evil Plan

So here's the thing. I have a picky eater. It is my #3, my only girl, my sweet little princess...Tara. I've been noticing lately though, that #3 will eat off Gaber's plate, even if its something that I have previously tried to feed her and she has predetermined that she does not like it PERIOD. Today at lunch Gaber was eating some chicken, she walks up to him and says her, "ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-AHHH!" (mouth open wide like a little bird). So I take a piece of Gaber's chicken and tear off a small bite, and WALAAA, she eats it! Not only does she eat it, she DOES like it AND she eats the whole piece. (little stinker) So, I tell Gaber, "I have an EVIL plan. Would you like to be a part of it?" (saying all evil-ish). Gaber gets a big smile. I explain to him how #3 likes to eat what he is eating so tomorrow we will put her chicken on his plate and then let her "share" with him. After I finish telling Gaber my evil plan I did my evil laugh....mwuh-ha-ha-haaaaa as I tap my fingers together. Gabers is all giggles at this point and joins in with my EVIL laugh...mwuh-ha-ha-haaaaaaa! :D
So, that is my EVIL plan! I will let you know if it works! Mwuh-ha-ha-ha-HAAAAA!

Thursday

Jeff came home yesterday, but boy was he tired out. He had only been getting 4 hours a sleep at night all week. He said he had a lot of fun out there and I guess his team finished faster than any team ever has. So, Yay! :) He is graduating this morning, then off to tear down their building and clean up and then I guess he's coming home. Last night we did a little birthday celebration for him. We ordered pizza and I made him an ice cream cake. Yep, I made it. :) I used ice cream sandwiches and chocolate ice cream with girl scout thin mints cookies in it. No whip cream in this cake b/c Jeff doesn't like it. The cake wasn't very pretty but it tasted pretty good. :) Then Jeff and Josiah played Call of Duty together, Jeff told him when he turned 8 he could play. And then the whole family played Mario Party on the Wii. So it was a fun night. I'm glad Jeff is home. Not looking forward to any future deployments. I hate it when he's gone a long time.
The kids are all doing good. Josiah did great on all his tests last week. Gaber has been doing very well in school. No complaining about doing it any more which makes my day so much easier. I think he actually enjoys it now. He can read most 3 letter words, only if its a short vowel sound though. :) Tara yesterday found her eye lashes. I saw her messing with her eye so I thought she had something in it. After looking in her eye and not seeing anything and then noticing that she was pulling on her eyelashes, I figured it out. Then she proceeded to pull on my eyelashes too. I told her what they were and so the rest of the day she would say, "ssshhsss". So it seemed she was trying to say it.
Its time for lunch. Better go get busy before the Tar-Bear gets too hungry and starts fussin'.

#28

Today is Jeff's birthday! #28...he's an old geezer now! :) I am about 5 1/2 months older than Jeff, so whenever I turn that one age older he calls me an old geezer until he catches up with me. So now that he's 28 I won't hear about me being old and being a geezer and all that for the next 6 months until I turn 29.
No birthday cake or presents today for Jeff though. He's away this whole week in training. I'm sure he's having fun though, even w/out the cake. :) He is training on how to start a base in a foreign country and how to defend it and to get communications set up. I guess they will be attacked and all that stuff and then hopefully they will be successful in getting their tasks done. If so, he will graduate on Friday. :)
Jeff is a great dad and husband. He loves his boys and his girl. Loves to play with Siah and Gaber. He teaches them everything from playing football, riding bikes, skating, and then the more important stuff...he teaches them about God. He involves them is just about everything he does, at home and church. Jeff loves his baby girl. I think his favorite thing is her big hugs she gives him. He does so much with her and has since she was a newborn. He holds her whenever he can and takes care of her whenever he can. Jeff is a great husband. He works so hard which allows me to stay home with our children. Still to this day he can make me laugh so easily. He is a loving, faithful, kind man. I could go on and on. ;)
Happy Birthday Jeff! I love you!

#8!!!

Today is Josiah's 8th birthday! I really can't believe it's already been 8 years since I had my little man. The time really does go by fast. He has been such a blessing to our lives and I'm so thankful for the 8 years I've had him and pray we have the rest of our lives with him. :)
Josiah was my hardest labor. The doctor induced me on March 21st at 6am. By noon nothing had happened. The doctor decided to break my water to get things going. The only thing that did was bring on strong labor pains but barely any progress. By 7pm that night I was still barely a 2 and begging for pain medication. My pains were as strong at this point as they were with my other 2 babies at the end right before you push. The doctor finally let me have an epidural; he wouldn't all day because he said it could stop labor. So finally, after a hard day of labor and no progress I got my medication. With in minutes I was relieved. After everyone left, except one nurse, she told me she was going to stretch me to a 5 to get me going. So that she did. I've never heard of this before, so if anyone else has, let me know! Well, that worked. By midnight I was fully dilated and ready to push. After one hour and 9 minutes of pushing I finally gave birth to Josiah, Jeff and my first son. A 7 pound 10 ounce baby boy! Jeff wasn't there for our first baby being born which made it very hard for me but we soon had daddy home with us and started our lives together.
Now here we are in Georgia and Josiah has turned 8. For his party this year he wanted to go skating. Saturday night we took him skating with all his classmates and boy did he have fun! It was his first time to skate so he fell about 20 times, he said. :) I think it may have been more! Tonight I told him he could pick where we eat for dinner. He thought for a few seconds and then yelled out McDonalds!
Here are a few of his favorites...
-favorite cartoon: Tom and Jerry
-favorite food: tacos
-favorite toy: monster trucks
-favorite game: Uno
-favorite outdoor activity: play with friends
-favorite drink: Sunkist
-favorite restaurant: Taco Bell
-favorite movie: Transformers
-favorite food mom makes: taco rice

Happy Birthday Josiah!

No More Passy

Jeff and I have been talking about taking Tara's passy (pacifier :) away for a while now. I kept postponing it for various reasons; moving and then the possibility of moving again. Well, she is now 15 months old and still sucking on that thing. Every day Jeff would bring it up. "We need to take it away. She doesn't need it." I did agree with him but I was very reluctant. She sleeps so good with it...why ruin a good thing? I did a few trial runs earlier this week. I gave in every time to her. I could tell Jeff was getting a little annoyed with me for giving it to her but I just really wanted her to sleep...awful I know. ;) Two nights ago Jeff put her to bed with out it and to my surprise she went right to sleep! What a little stinker! Every time I had tried she would put up a big fuss, but when daddy does it she goes right to sleep. After she did that I decided she was done. The next day I put her down for her nap and she slept! But last night we put her down and she cried for about an hour. I didn't give in that time...mainly because the passy has been thrown away and the other one is behind the changing table which is way too heavy for me to move. So that's it. All done. My baby is growing up. *sniff* I am happy to be done with it though. No more worrying about grabbing it before we leave and no more searching for it if it gets lost behind the crib. Nice. :) No more passy. Now, how to get Gaber off the thumb. ??? Can't throw that away.

I Love Those Kind of Days

It has been one of those days where you feel so blessed. It didn't start that way actually, I overslept and so I had to rush around this morning to get Josiah to school on time. But after that everything has gone great. Tara had a doctor's appointment this morning, which actually wasn't that great but I at least got out of there in a decent amount of time. Then we ran to walmart and picked up the bread and milk and always those few extra things which were not on the list. Got home, started feeding Tara when Jeff walks in for lunch. I love it when he comes home for lunch. It just breaks up my day and plus I get a little help with Tara. Before he leaves he mentions that we will be going out to eat with some friends tonight so that is one less thing I have to do today. After lunch is over and cleaned up I lay Tara down for a nap and then remember I can call my mom because today is her day off. So I call and we chat, which we are great at doing! lol. Then out of the blue, Jeff walks in! He is ALREADY OFF!!! Wooohooo! So I get off the phone with my mom and decide to take Chloe on a walk since Jeff is home to watch the kids. Oh, and just to let you know it is around 70 degrees today, blue skies, light breeze. Uh huh! I take Chloe on a walking trail near our house which I hadn't been on yet. The birds were singing, the squirrels were out playing and I was just feeling so blessed at that point. Chloe and I walked around for a while, checking out other people's homes...I'm a very curious person...gotta see how others are living around me. :) We get home in time for me to go pick Siah up from school. Now I'm home, blogging and enjoying the rest of the afternoon and soon we'll be out the door for supper.
These kind of days don't happen very often, so I just had to blog about it and also thank God for my blessed day! :) Hope your all's was great too!

Nothingness

So not much has happened this week. I've been so tired all week. Its been way to hard to pull myself out of bed at 7am...oh I know, 7am is not early but it is for me. A couple mornings ago my alarm was going off and I was trying to turn it off when I realized I was hitting Jeff's forehead! Finally one of us got the alarm off and we dozed for a couple minutes longer when I realized what I had done! I asked him if he remembered me hitting him and he said yes and so then I told him what I was doing and we both just started laughing!
This week has been nice b/c Jeff has been getting home on time. What a nice change that is! So with him being home for supper I've tried out a new recipe, BBQ Cheesy Chicken aka Chili's Monterey Chicken. It was pretty good, Jeff said it was a keeper.
Tonight we are having our movie/game night with the kids. I think we are watching UP and playing Old Maid. :) We will also order pizza, have soda and I'm making some cookies this afternoon for the fun. I also bought some popcorn, the boys and Jeff love popcorn!
Saturday we will be taking the teens out bowling and then we will eat somewhere. I don't think that part is planned yet. I better ask Jeff! Jeff will be working at the church all day Saturday as well for the men's work day. With all of that going on our weekend will go by way to fast.
I'm so ready for summer. The warm days, pool days, sleeping in days, park days, bubble days. :) I thought I missed winter after living on an island for 6 years, but I've decided I don't miss it after all. I can't wait to wear flip flops and summer clothes every day!