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.