What I've Been Up To

Most of you know I'm a city girl, born and raised. Howard's a country boy at heart. So why did I wind up with all the yard work?! Well, we wanted it done and I'm not paying someone to do something that I can do myself. Our yard is still a work in progress, but Howard was begging for some pictures. So here you go!

Before

More dirt.

Ta-da!

The finished product.

(The front flower bed at least, I still have some more areas in the yard to spruce up.)

White Begonia's

To the left are Dwarf Hamelins (they look like troll hair). In the center we have red begonias, and to the right are Wintergreen Boxwood.

More white begonias. Also we have Daddy's Flag (that's what Jack calls ALL U.S.A. flags).

I couldn't decide between a water fountain

or...

a bird bath. What do you think?

Erin was making Luke laugh so hard that his whole body was shaking. It was hilarious!

My messy yard! I still have lots more to do, but I'm really proud of all my hard work. It's exhausting! Thank goodness Luke and Jack LOVE to be outside!

Oh the difference a year makes!

I was cleaning out my email inbox this morning and came across a horrible picture of me when we were in Hawaii last year. It was actually almost exactly 1 year ago that we left Okinawa and I was shocked at the picture. Here's one that I just took of myself (sorry I didn't do my hair or makeup today) but you get the point! I'm about 20-25 lbs lighter, but I still have about 10 more to go.

May 19, 2010

May 17, 2009

Nauvoo

I'm such a dingle-berry!!! I've finally figured out how to add more than 5 photos at a time to a post. You will definitely be seeing more photos in the future. I'm also FINALLY getting around to our vacation before Howard left. I'll be going backwards, because that's how I feel tonight.

Nauvoo was one of the last places we stopped before my sister's and then home. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back. We didn't give ourselves nearly enough time to see and do all of the wonderful attractions that Nauvoo has to offer. I particularly love American history and artifacts, so this was great for me. Not my first time to Nauvoo, but still fun nonetheless.

Here's Erin in an 1840's nursery.

My favorite, the potty seat...so cute and little!

Howie taking a break from all the walking.

This is the Temple view from our balcony. We splurged since we were only there for 1 night and got a 2 bedroom suite just across from the Temple. It was one of the nicest Inn's we've ever stayed at.

It was SO foggy when we woke up that you could hardly see the Temple. When I took this picture, the fog had lifted considerably. The kids had a lot of fun on the balcony.

On the Temple grounds, so peaceful!

The flowers were GORGEOUS!

Luke's ready to go in! He was knocking at the door.

Down the steps like a big boy.

My favorite is the top window. It's so pretty!

Too bad for us, the temple was closed for maintenance when we went. But on a positive note, there were hardly any tourists and the weather couldn't have been more perfect!

On a side note - When Howie was a baby we were able to go through the open house of the Nauvoo Temple. It is so beautiful inside! It's probably my favorite Temple (but St. George comes in pretty close!). I LOVE old/historical architecture!

Boys Will Be Boys

Thursday was so nice and warm! After school I didn't make the kids do their homework right away so they could play in the water.

I thought I would introduce Lucas to mud, he LOVED it!

Yummy snack! Tastes like chocolate.

Mud sidewalk art...

What did I get myself into?

We plan on re-doing our front flower bed, so it's currently empty. Right now though it looks like a swamp. The sidewalk and walkways have muddy footprints all over them. I'm praying for a good hard rain to wash it away. I did clean the porch off at least.

PLEASE READ - VERY IMPORTANT

I found out yesterday morning that a friend of mine from church lost her newborn baby unexpectedly. This is an amazing family and it was their first baby. I have been consumed in thought over this terrible loss for this family and I want to help, but I just didn't know what do do. I've been praying and pondering a lot about her and this is what has presented itself to me.

Her family has set up a donation link to help alleviate the burden of funeral expenses. Please take the time to read about this young Air Force family and consider making a donation, even something small would help. Feel free to share this, the more donations the better.

http://marcifreeman.blogspot.com/

Farewell Howard

Howard has officially started his 6 month deployment to Afghanistan (he's still en-route on the east coast.) We didn't know exactly when he was leaving, but we were guessing early next week. We were wrong! Late Thursday afternoon he got a call and he was scheduled to leave less than 24 hours later. Fortunately I has already planned an early family birthday party for him for that night, so the cake was already made and the present was already wrapped. We missed his birthday last year and we didn't want to have that happen again. The same went for Erin, since Howard missed her birthday last year (as well as her 1st). Howard took Erin on a date as an early birthday present for her that same afternoon. Anyway...the cake was good (didn't look pretty, but it was delish!) and Howard was very happy with his new iPod Touch.

Emotions have been running high for everyone around the house the past few days but it's kind of a relief now that he's gone. It felt like a band-aid was slowly getting ripped off and the pain was too much to bare, but now that he's gone I can get on with my life for the next 6 months. At least today was a great day. I took the kids to the movies and did some yard work. I still miss him terribly, but the waiting, anxiousness, and butterflies in my stomach are finally gone.

At lunch just before we left for the airport. Isn't he handsome!

Here we are at the USO just before we walked him to the security check point and said our final goodbyes. The kids were happy because the USO had free drinks and snacks, but my smile was very fake...I wasn't smiling inside.

Today was a much much better day than yesterday, the tears are gone (for now) and I'm back in the routine of taking care of the kids. Let's hope this continues.