Hey Sailor!

When I talked to my mom yesterday afternoon, she asked if we could meet the family at McGrath's at 8 pm. I said sure, wondering what it was all about. Mom just said that she and Dad had to "discuss" something with all of us (meaning Me and Craig, Joey and BriAnne) present. Then she said "Oh don't worry, it's a good thing."
So, I get this feeling "Wade's here." I tell Craig, who was at work dealing with nincompoop doctors about McGrath's. He was a little hesitant. (McGrath's=fish) But he said he'd meet us there. I clean up the kids and head over, grabbing the camera. (I learned a long time ago to trust those funny little feelings.) So...I was a little surprised to walk in and find no sailor there. I asked mom and dad, and they (sneaky sneaky) started going off on how I am sooo wrong and the Navy was jerking Wade's chain about his leave before going off to Zanzabar or wherever and he possibly won't be able to come home, when SUDDENLY--

IN WALKS A GORGEOUS SAILOR BOY!! WOWEE! WELCOME HOME WADE!!

He looks great! And it's great to get to see him! (And it's also nice in a small way to go, hah! I was right!) So now we get to see him before he goes on his deployment! The kids are ecstatic to have their "Unka Wade" to play with, and he got to cuddle miss Miley cuddlebug for the first time. So, thanks to all who said a prayer that he could come home! We're definately going to cherish this time before he goes and serves over ocean deep. God Bless the men and women AND their families in the military for all their service and sacrifice! Anchors Away! GOOO NAVY!!

Two Little Cookie Monsters

YUUMM COOKIE!!!

Craig caught the boys dipping into the cookie dough bucket, feeding each other a little forbidden fruit! I guess we need to push the healthy food a bit more, seeing how the other day Craig asked Sam what he wanted for dinner and Sam said "ummm, chocolate and coke." !!?? (Trust me, these kids don't get coke, they're wired enough without a stimulant!) Actually, they do pretty well, but their favorite vegetables consist of corn on the cob and french fries (if those count as a vegetable). Sigh. Maybe one of my kids will turn out liking tomatoes, squash, olives, fish--despite Craig's best efforts. Oh well, a girl can dream, right??

The kids were clowning around with the sunglasses the other day before the storm hit. It brings to mind the 80's song "My future's so Bright, I gotta wear shades!"














You know, I think back on the days before they came along...my world must have been very, very boring. Very quiet. Very clean. Very colorless. Very serious. Very very very boring.
Even though they make life a hot mess of mayhem and foolishness sometimes, I wouldn't trade any minute for anything in this world. (My apologies to Niecey Nash). I JUST LOVE MY FAMILY!! (oh yeah, the recipe's been updated, check it out!)

Wrestle Mania!

We're kinda boring I guess, since we didn't do much but clown around this weekend. We did some yardwork and we watched our Boys in Crimson win (Sammy says "Gooooooo Utes!")! The boys and Craig played wrestlemania too! Miley sat in the rocker and was quite funny with her squeals and sideways glances she kept giving the boys. (Silly rabbits!)

Sunday we kept the kids out of church since they all seem to have the sniffles and a cough, and then we went to the Ford Family Night at Craig's parents and talked about all the upcoming events for the next few months. It's going to be pretty busy. Craig's schedule at work is going to be changing (again), but more on that later.

My little brother Wade, who's in the Navy called us yesterday and told us his deployment might be moved up to the end of this month, so we're really hoping he'll get to come and see us before he goes. We haven't seen him in over a year and we miss him lots. So everyone please say a prayer or two that he's safe and he'll get to come home for a week or so before he goes off to where it's 130 degrees in the shade (where you may ask, is that? He's not at liberty to say.)

I've decided to add a spot on the bottom of our page for favorite recipes. Check out this week for an idea to use all that Zucchini that the zucchini fairy blesses us with this time of year! (This one's for you, Joey.)

Smiley Miley Sue!

We love this girl!!

First Day of "Sammy School"

Today we started a new thing, taking an hour or so each day to work with the boys on their ABCs, kinda like preschool. We wanted to get Sam into a preschool, BUT...since he is so resistive to finishing the potty training process we've decided to wait a little while and have our own "school" here at home. That, and Sam last week in Primary had an absolute melt down when it came to going to Sunbeams. When he finally did warm up, he wasn't all that well-behaved, either!

So, we bought school boxes and outfitted both Sam and Jake with new crayons and markers, glue and scissors, and those fat pencils we all remember as kids. They were sooo excited!! We had wiggle time, and started memorizing the Pledge of Allegience, talked about the letters S and J, sang songs, colored the Sun yellow and practiced drawing lines. Jake is going to be an artist, I think, he manuevered the pencil through the little drawing obstacle course very precisely for such a little squirt. Hopefully this will keep them a little more stimulated in the day (and not bored--bored children are dangerous!), not camped out in front of the TV so much, and keep them from getting left in the dust when they're ready to both start school.

Sam is very excited that Dad is going to be helping him at "Sammy's school" tomorrow. Hopefully he'll look forward to it everyday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

Mom and the munchkins... Today is Craig's birthday--36! I just wish I'd met him a whole lot earlier...He's my rock, my light, the air I breathe. Like always...

"You are my sun, my moon,
My starry sky--
Without you, I dwell in
Darkness."

Have a happy one, Sweetheart! We love you!!