24 hours and 45 minutes, but who's counting. . .?

We are so anxious for Randy to come home. I'm trying to think of all sorts of fun things for Kate to do so that she doesn't have to think about it too much. I haven't talked about Randy coming home much today, just because I'm nervous about a delay or something. I'm not usually pessimistic, it just seems too good to be true, and I know the military!!!!!!!!!!!!! We've been swimming, we're going to see a movie in the morning, making posters to hang on our house for Randy, etc. I've been trying to clean up a storm. Not that my house is normally that messy, but it's been a great reason to get rid of all of the residual clutter from our move. That is my least favorite part of moving: the clutter that never seems to end!!!!! My to do list is a mile long. I had better keep working while Luke is sleeping. Hopefully my next post will have lots of fun pictures of us WITH our Dad!!!

My awesome husband

On this Father's Day, although I'm celebrating it with a little loneliness, I'm remembering that my wonderful husband is on the other side of the world celebrating it by himself (although it's well into Monday there). I just want to brag about how wonderful my husband is. He takes more time than any other husband who is deployed over there to talk to my kids and me. The other morning, he wasn't upset when we called and woke him up because Kate wanted to talk to him so bad. She woke up and asked if he was home, then was very upset when I told her that he wasn't home yet. He wasn't grouchy about being woken up just to talk to her.

My husband is the kindest, most generous person I know. He doesn't ask for anything for himself. He hasn't gotten the least bit mad at me at my out of control spending habits since he's been gone :) I guess we'll see what he says when he gets home ;) He tries his best to take care of us from ten thousand miles away. . . He's the best, and I want everyone to know that he is!!!

Happy Father's Day Randy! We love you!!!

Father's Day. . . but where's our Dad?!

Today was a sad Father's Day for me. We miss Randy so much, and it's sad that he just barely missed being here for Father's day. Oh well, only three more sleeps!!! Speaking of sleep, I'm planning on actually getting some tonight. I've only gotten 4 1/2 hours each night for the last two nights. I don't want to get sick just before my cruise. For the first time in my life, I was having a hard time staying awake during church-- Young Women's of all places!!!! My kids are in bed, and I'm off to go there myself. I fell asleep while I was rocking them tonight before bed. I had both kids on my lap and we were rocking in the dark and singing. I think all three of us fell asleep. Luke usually cries himself to sleep in nursery every Sunday, but today he didn't! So, he had NO nap today. Kate could have used one, too. We're all very tired. I hope Wednesday comes quickly!!!

Here are some cute pictures from the week:


Before church this morning (notice the domino in Luke's left hand-- he has my cell phone in his right hand. He was "talking" to Dad)

Kate is insistent that she is a cowgirl when she wears my red collapsible colander on her head. She thinks she's Jessie from Toy Story 2.

Kate thought we needed to take a picture of Randy while we were chatting online with him last night.



Luke always has to run up to the camera and say, "CHEESE!!!" as loud as he possibly can. It's frustrating when I'm trying to get some candid pictures. The second he sees the camera, it's Captain Cheese.


Kate has a horse she has been working on for almost two weeks now. It's one of those little bead ones that you melt with the iron once they're finished. It kept getting messed up last week, so this week she's actually almost done with it!


I'm summoned to come look at how well she's doing about every thirty seconds while she's working on it. It gets a little tiresome, but she's so proud of it!

We're on the countdown. . .

Kate is well rehearsed on how many sleeps are left until Dad gets home. We are very excited, can you tell?! Randy will be home on Wednesday afternoon. Saturday we're heading down to College Station, TX to drop off our kids with his parents, then Sunday we leave on a week long cruise from Galveston. I could definitely use the break!!!! I only got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night. I'm try to finish all my projects on my house before Randy gets home, so tonight will be short.

I taught a class at Enrichment on healthy eating, so if anyone wants the packet I made up and handed out, let me know. I put together TONS of recipes. It'd be easiest to e-mail it to whoever wants it. I've had lots of people comment that they've already tried them and really like them. It's 14 pages long. . . so I won't post it on here.

I took the kids yesterday to have our pictures taken for Randy for Father's Day. That's all he asked for was a picture of the three of us. He also got a plasma TV, but that doesn't count yet because I've had it for a month, which he obviously hasn't seen it yet. I've sent him pictures of it. . . but still. So, I'll post the picture of us. I'm off to go do more sewing. I hope everyone has a great Father's Day for the men in their lives. I wish Randy was around for it. Only four more sleeps!!!!!!!!!

I'm not dead, I swear!

Alright, I've been getting in trouble with lots of people for not posting in FOREVER. I've been so busy!!!!!! Our week started out last week with Berta, Cat, and Sarah coming to visit us from Arizona. We drove to Dallas to pick them up. We had so much fun with them! We miss them tons!! They went home on Tuesday, so we got home late that night from taking them to the airport. Tonight I taught a class at Enrichment for our ward. I feel horrible. . . I was supposed to take 15-20 minutes. I didn't look at the clock when I started. Then I looked at my watch, and it was 8pm!! I had talked for probably an hour! People were asking questions, making comments, etc. But I feel so horrible. I'm sure they'll never ask me to do anything for Enrichment again!

We are anxiously counting down the days until Randy gets home. Six more sleeps!!!!!! Poor Kate. I've been telling her that Cat and Sarah were coming to visit, then they would go home, then a few days later Dad would be home. Sweet thing. . . she woke up from her nap yesterday and called to me from the top of the stairs, "Mom! I'm up! Is Dad here now?" She was VERY upset that he wasn't here yet. I just hope nothing gets delayed or pushed back with him coming home. She would be heartbroken, not to mention the fact that I would be, too!!!!

Randy and I are VERY excited for our upcoming cruise. I know I am going to have a hard time being away from my sweet little people for a whole week. . . but it will be SO much fun for Randy and I to get to spend some time together. I just hope that our cruise adventure is not QUITE as exciting as our adventures in Mexico on our honeymoon. We still laugh about those, six years later.

I'm off to bed. I need to get some rest. I severely twisted/sprained my ankle tonight. I hope it's not a true sprain. I hope it will just feel better in the morning. I need to keep running!!!

I'm off to bed. I need some rest before I hit the ground running this weekend! The countdown is on for me to finish my projects before Randy comes home!

Here are a couple of cute tidbits from the kids: Kate told Berta after church that they had a "blesson in nursery". I think she got a little confused between a blessing and the lesson.

Kate asked me today if the guys were still out mowing the mulawn. She's seen the movie Mulan only once, so it made me chuckle.

Luke is obsessed with a Dora domino set. He always has to have one with backpack and one with map at all times. If he doesn't have one, he's constantly asking me, "where's map? Where's backpack?" It's cute. Instead of a blanket, it's Dora dominoes.

Fun in the sun

On Wednesday the kids had a great time with this crazy water dancer sprinkler we had. The loved being on the trampoline with it spraying them all over!!

Kate got some early morning wading pool fun in before we had to go. She said it was REALLY cold, but she had a lot of fun. Grandpa went to LOTS of work to set it up for her and she was so excited to play in it!


Bubbles are always a hit!

Tuesday morning in the paddle boat with Grandma and Grandpa. The kids went in their pajamas so they could have a quick ride before we took Luke to the doctor. The picture is foggy because my lens fogged up when I opened the camera. It was SO humid outside! It rained so hard later on that day that it knocked the power out at the lake cabin.
Here is Luke at Caddo Lake with Grandma and Grandpa Todd. Luke kept bringing me those leaves (like the one in his hand) and saying, "Look! A starfish!" Poor little guy. . . he REALLY thought they were starfish. This was a pre-sick picture. He finally succumbed to all of the illness we have uncharacteristically had in our house lately and got REALLY sick on Tuesday morning. We had to cut the lake trip short to take him to the doctor where he had to have an antibiotic shot (because he woke up Tuesday morning with his eye swollen shut and it wasn't even swollen the night before. It was a pretty aggressive infection), blood drawn, then be seen the next day and placed on oral augmentin. Poor kid. . . it was a rough couple of days for him!

It has been a while since I've posted. I've been trying to spend every spare kid-free moment I have finishing up projects before Randy comes home. It's finally seeming like a reality!!! If all goes well, we only have 3 weeks left until he's home! We will be entertained by Berta, Cat, and Sarah coming to visit, which we are SO excited for! I have a short list of projects I still want to finish. Our days have been spent enjoying summer! The pools on base are open, and we have been trying to spend time there. I really was missing Randy today at the pool though, because it's the first Friday of the summer for us. Fridays are always a big deal in our house, because it's date night, and kicks off the weekend. Randy always has tried to go to the pool as much as possible with us, so it was kind of a double whammy to have him gone. We have a busy month planned for after he is home. We are going to College Station (basically as soon as he gets home!) and dropping Kate and Luke off with Grandma and Grandpa, then Randy and I are headed on a cruise for a week! When we get home from that, we're picking up the kids and heading to Sea World. Then back to Grandma and Grandpa's for the 4th of July and fireworks at their house and the big show at the George Bush library. After that, we're off to Corpus Cristi to take the kids to the beach. Once that's done, we'll FINALLY be back home together as a family. Then Randy will have to go back to work, and it will be back to life as usual. I know the vacations will be TONS of fun, but I'm pretty anxious for the normal life with Dad around. I'm off to work on a project some more. I'm working on curtains for Luke's room. I have the hardware all hung (hurray!! I HATE hanging anything in the walls in this house-- they're plaster and just crumble EVERYWHERE!!!), I just have to cut the curtain rods to the correct size (with a hacksaw, it takes forever!).

Here is Kate playing with "little tiny baby Kaitlyn" as Kate calls her. We had another friend named Katelyn that we call baby Katelyn, so Kate all by herself started calling this Kaitlyn, little tiny baby Kaitlyn. She LOVES babies. If she ever gets any younger siblings, I'm sure she will be a HUGE help with them!
Kate getting a haircut! She was so excited to have it done!
We had a great time having a picnic in our back yard. It's amazing how fun it can be to just throw a blanket down and take lunch outside! I forgot the after pictures for Kate's haircut, so here is one!Everyone was SO messy (including me after Luke was climbing all over me) after watermelon, PB & J's, and chocolate chip cookies (the chocolate chips were TOTALLY melted), but we sure had fun!!


Kate tells everyone that we have a pirate ship at our house. She is sure that the fort in our swing set is a pirate ship, because her dad put a steering wheel in it.

Luke would swing all day long if I was willing to push him. I've never seen a kid who loved swinging so much!