DADDY IS HOME!!!!

Larry arrived home on the 12th. He goes back to work here in a few days. The kids held up amazingly well while Daddy was gone.





Back at home.....
We have had a great time celebrating missed birthdays and spending time together.

Wow another cake.....considering we had cake for Kaitlyn's party, for Tommy's party all the sweets associated with Christmas....Tommy was shocked, but Daddy needed his own cake. (he missed 4 or our family's 6 birthdays)

Tommy go this own RC car from Toy Story, he LOVES Robby's and needed his own!

Um, I think he was trying to get a better look at this cool toy...he opened most of his birthday presents on Christmas Eve (when we celebrated his birthday) and Christmas Day after Christmas presents were all opened :)

Daddy opening his gift from Kimberlyn...

Every THREE year old needs a new bike :)

I'd say he loves his bike. HE decided to use it as a chair for breakfast the next day.

And everyone needs dessert after breakfast...he helped himself to some cake!!!

Meet Tinkerbell...

So Nov 1st, 2009 our beloved cat, Smokey went out to go potty (he thinks he's a dog) and never returned. I fear he became dinner for a coyote :(

I had already been being the mean mom saying NO constantly to the kids about the kittens at the barn...as time passed it seemed only right to bring one home!



Just before Thanksgiving Tinkerbell moved in. She's the most adorable little kitten ever. She even made the trip to spend Turkey Day in Missouri with my brother and his family!

Her and Rascal get along great most of the time...sharing the hot spot in the house, Robby's backpack on the dining room table?!?!?



Enough procrastinating...it's 12:20am and I need to get my ponies some fresh, non-ice water :) Night all.

S N O W

So we finally got some snow here....it is bitter and stinkin' COLD. The snow is so dry and not-snowman-building-type it's not funny. Thursday we stayed in until evening pouting about the bitter temps and dry snow. Then we ran out for pizza and to return a movie rental.

We ended up eating our hot n' ready pizza in the van while watching a garbage truck get right-sided after rolling into a ditch. (We later heard the garbage truck was cut off and tried to avoid a crash.)

Today (Friday) after attempting to go to the Magic House (children's museum) we canceled due to my van's tires needing to be balanced or something. Much vibration happening on the interstate. We instead got another movie rental and stopped to get the boys' haircuts.

Upon arriving home the kids, minus Robby all jumped into the snow. All the snow we got, all the snow our neighbors got, maybe even our town...is on OUR driveway ;) Today it was so thick, I decided to not get stuck backing up through it and drove straight across my sidewalk/front yard. I love country living :) FYI- I did try to shovel it, BUT due to wind each shovel-full just BLEW right back into my face. I gave up. I'm not quite into shoveling when it's 15 with wind chills below zero.

Enjoy the pictures....

I'm back... and a visit to the Harlem Globetrotters

So, I've been missing for a few months. Truth is I got hung up over on Facebook (come play too if you aren't over there yet) and honestly it was much more motivating to "write to mom" than just "blog." I shared way back when after mom passed it was hard to come blog here since after I started this on bedrest this became her main means to keep up with our family in her last months of life. Anyhow...I just wish so often I could write to Mom. At the same time I miss not being able to come read what our family did over the last few months. I realize how special this journal is to our family, friends and ME (how I frequent it for details when scrapbooking) I am giving it a go again.

Those of you who are on Facebook know most of my blogging over the past few months would have been pretty depressing. Larry deployed late August. Basically about every week something unfortunate had happened. It's just typical life when your hubby is deployed. As it is now, my garage door will not close. So for the next week or two I'll continue to use it the old fashioned way, that never killed anybody ;) This is not the first battle I've had with that door. The kids and I survived much, and thankfully much in hindsight is petty. At the moment it wasn't petty I assure you. Our grumpy neighbors reported us for not having a barn for our ponies. Only they knew it was a law in IL, fine...Larry phoned the Dept of Ag from Africa and explained the builder was busy and would start construction ASAP. My slipping and falling while rushing to not be late after fretting over my computer being "crashed" only led me to tears and a nice goose egg on my knee. Then I woke the next morning to the computer miraculously booting up. It's sad how dependent we've become on our computers...but such a joyful thing to see my hubby's face almost every single day on it. Water squishing up between my toes in my finished basement carpet about had me hyperventilating. I was even more blessed to pay a plumber $75 to tell me we had no sump pump, very common with walk-out basement homes :) Thankful that the carpet cleaning/drying crew arrived in less than an hour after I called. They were amazing and I know God was in control of the fine tuned clean up plan.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger....I must be really strong I tell you! I'm certain there was more stuff....probably the petty stuff I mentioned, big at the moment and petty compared to water in the basement.L
Larry is expected home in less than two weeks...YEAHHHHHHH!

So, here's a story for you. Our family is huge fans of the Harlem Globetrotters. We've seen then a few times over the years. They just made a stop in Africa last month. Their plane was late and they literally went from plane to gym to perform over there, very impressive. Larry enjoyed the show and we knew the kids and I would see them this month. He went around getting pictures and autographs. In the mean time we learned they have THREE teams going at once, we lost hope that we'd see the same team members in St. Louis.

Kaitlyn recognized #14 Handles as the guy daddy had a picture with. I didn't. We enjoyed the game. We had end seats right near the alley way the team would run in and out from....the older kids got "lots" of high fives as the Globetrotters ran out onto the court. Only bright part of not being center court, I really like being front n' center and was at first discouraged that the tickets from the base ITT set us at a far end.

So the game ended and by golly we about lost our life getting the first autograph. After getting it Kaitlyn asked the man if he played in Africa, he was shocked she had a clue about that performance and said yes he did. We haven't figured out which player he is yet. After that she knew for sure that Handles was the guy Daddy had a picture taken with. I asked an usher person holding the rope to get this man's attention. He wore a suit and according to the usher wasn't with the Scott Trade center staff. All this commotion got the attention of a Scott Trade Center man in a suit...between the two men in suits -who were amazed at our story- they escorted us around to each player for an autograph and picture on the inside of the ropes!!! WAY COOL and exciting for the kids and I. The Globetrotters rep, man in the suit guy (I didn't get his name) was so tickled about the story. I showed him a picture of Larry and asked if it was indeed Handles. "Sure is" he said! He walked us straight to Handles and he too was excited to see the picture on my phone. Made for a very exciting visit. I think it was 3 or 4 players there this evening that played in Africa.

The kids and I with #14 Handles in St. Louis.

Larry and Handles last month in Africa.

A few other shots from our fun afternoon!
Notice one of the players spinning a ball on his finger as he ran onto the court with the backs of my kids.

I think this is #6 Airport...NOT certain....and he was there in Africa too.

Enjoying some cotton candy.

Cute girls and a nose picking Trouble T!

PS Daddy you better notice the kids' necklaces!

So much for trying to be on top of this updating stuff....

I'll keep trying, hate to see how behind it would be if I didn't try :)

WOW.....so the past few weeks have been busy, imagine THAT!!!

After the July 4th festivities we took a day to visit the Arch in St. Louis before Larry headed back to work.

Going uuuuupppppp....

Tommy loved taking in the sights...and put much trust in those windows!

Tommy and Kimberlyn looking...

Cardinals Stadium and the Millennium Hotel restuarant on top is where my sweet hubby will be taking me someday!

Going down now!


Kimberlyn's Birthday at home...was nice and sweet. Many of her old classmates came, her old teacher came, her first ever best friend from back at Altus AFB came (they obviously live here now too)...just a grand time!! How in the world is she really SIX!!!!

The Gorgeous SIX year old...whom insisted on having her hair braided the night before to make it curly!! With her Dalmation cake!

Yes, it was her day and we opened presents before making a wish/blowing out candles and eating cake!!

CAKE TIME! Gee, thinking she should have placed the candles a bit closer together...a couple blows and finally she got them all out!

Pinata, poor thing Kimberlyn had me buy this many weeks before her party. She played with it, called it Sweetie and then we beat it to pieces!!!

The group!! After pony rides...


So, the weekend of July 18th was just a usual weekend for us, BUSY...that's all we know!! Kimberlyn rode in her first parade with Sweetie. Sweetie was amazing. All the towns around us have a homecoming weekend that includes parades, carnivals and festivities. This was the St. Jacob, IL Homecoming and happens to be the town that the kids' schools are in. Kimberlyn got waved at by many of her friends from school, I think she felt pretty cool ;)

Just walking in the parade!

Dad and the boys surprised us and came to watch...for whatever reason the plan was for them to stay home?!?!?

Not phased one bit by the carnival the parade route went straight through!

Hanging out at the trailer after the parade...being ridiculously cute together!

July 19, 2009 Madison County Fair Miss Pigtail Contest!!!
They measured the girls' pigtails....Kimberlyn was measured at 17.5 inches...the winner had like 24-point-something inches....goodness!!! They all got ribbons for participating!! Too CUTE!!


Kaitlyn did a horse camp late July...she loved it, but it ended up being the icing on the cake about Ruby. We decided to sell Ruby due to her and Kaitlyn not being the perfect match. LONG story....the good news is we decided to sell her on a Friday, that next Tuesday I had a check for her and she was officially sold!!
Even more crazy is before Ruby was sold, we found through a dear friend (Kaitlyn's old instructor in Ohio) a great new pony. In what felt like an eternity to Kaitlyn (only a week and a half) she had a new pony! We made a quick road trip to visit Miss Deedee in Ohio and picked up Romeo. He's a doll baby!

Meet Romeo....Kaitlyn has made his show name My Boy Romeo...ADORABLE!


Basically 12 hours after she test rode him.... PONY FUN! Having a grand time playing ponies at Miss Deedee's house!


Trotting...just love this shot!

Romeo and Sweetie...literally minutes after coming off the trailer. True Love I think!!! One of my all time favorite horsey pictures!!!


He was Kaitlyn's new pony for 8 days and she rode him in a show!! They did well, placed 3rd in both classes. Not too shabby for just meeting!




He likes to jump and quite frankly isn't too interested in the "is that a rider hanging on my neck" feeling...he just keeps JUMPING!!! So, Kaitlyn has landed on a jump now! Another time he took her over a jump she asked for a 20m circle...he opted to added the 2ft jump in that circle. Needless to say the two of them have some working to do together :)

Romeo and Kaitlyn jumping...and on the same page together!


Random picture of Sweetie...Kaitlyn decided for no good reason to bathe her. She decided to roll after she was turned back out to pasture...not once, not twice.... ...not three times...not four.....YES, FIVE TIMES! We still adore her!!

I do believe here shortly this blog will be going PRIVATE! Please email me so I can be sure to include you on the invited list! Thanks!!

I must now run to bed...tomorrow is the kids' first day of school...how and WHEN did this happen!!! What about summer???