A little throwback fun

We thought it would be fun to recreate this classic picture from Ben's last deployment.

Last time, we were giggling at Maya for plopping herself down in the picture and stealing the spotlight.  This time, we were giggling because she kept trying to lay down! and the back drop kept falling over because everyone is adult size.

I like this one, because it's a pretty classic Colin face.  

  

Also, for the record, I requested pants be changed, but some teen boys were convinced that wasn't necessary.  

I love that we took these because it makes me laugh every time I look at them!

I couldn't get a good picture of Colin because Maya wouldn't stop licking his face! 

I thought standing might go better...

I was wrong.  But I love this one the most

Always and forever thankful for my 3

Decorating for Christmas

Decorating looked different this year.  First of all, I broke all the rules and I don't have a single regret.  When Ben was supposed to be coming home and then China was stupid and he got stuck in the Philippines for indefinitely, I decided we needed a little Christmas, right this very moment and decorated the house in early November.  Scandalous, I know.  But it was also an amazing distraction and gave the house a cozy feel, which is just what we needed.  We watched Christmas movies while we waited for phone calls and found it fun to find Christmas treats out in the store, instead of being annoyed.  It probably helped that we traveled for Thanksgiving and you have to pretend that it feels like winter here anyway.  We bought matching Christmas jammies and Alison and I got Christmas bedding.  I even put a little, live tree in our room...this is what the deployment crazies will do to you.

It was a great project for us all to work on together.  On a trip to Hobby Lobby, we found these Nutcrackers you can paint yourselves and decided it would be fun to add that to our decorations. 

I didn't want to put up ornaments without Ben and lucky for me, he came home before Christmas!

Every year we say it will be the last year for this to happen...

 

He's HOME!

It's a miracle!  There's a million little details that went on behind the scenes and it was uncertain up until Ben got on the plane whether he would actually get back to the US.  Even though we were only apart for 9 weeks, the uncertainty for 5 of those weeks made it seem much longer.  Ben even had to get special authorization just to let me pick him up from the airport.  It was a unique homecoming with just the two of us, but it was also very nice to have time to catch up a little.  We sat at baggage claim so long that we almost missed his bags!

Unfortunately Alison had class and the boys weren't feeling well, so it was a little anti-climatic when we got home.  We thought for sure Maya would lose her mind, but she also was very chill.

(Eli's standing on the step)

That night, it was like Santa had come to town early.  Ben bought us so much stuff while in the Philippine's that he had to buy another suitcase to bring it all home.  We crashed Colin's basketball game watching to have present time.

I've never liked the song 'All I Want for Christmas is You' until this year.  I don't need a single thing, my Christmas wish came true!

Maya's 10th Birthday!

She's 10!

Kansas-Saturday

We went to Kansas City to see Elizabeth and Kent.  We had lunch and decorated for Christmas.

They had just gotten home from visiting Nonny and Papa, so we were thankful to be able to squeeze in some time with them.

Mom spoiled us with all her cooking and made several batches of zwiebach.

We spent the afternoon looking through old pictures and watching old home videos.  Uncle Sam had a video of my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary party and I had completely blocked out that I wore my Grandma's wedding dress for it!  As an adult, I can't believe she let me do that!

Pictures of pictures is never the best, but these were some of my favorites we found.

Colin and Beau really bonded this trip.  There's something about Colin's face that dogs really want to lick:)

Fresh peppernuts and games is the perfect way to end a trip.

 

Kansas-Friday

We went to Newton for the day.  There's something very therapeutic about driving through the Kansas plains.  We went to my Aunt Karen's for a big Thanksgiving reunion.  I was afraid my kids have forgotten what a real farm is, so I made them walk around in the freezing cold to explore. 

I believe this is the first time Eli's ever touched a horse.

Food preparations were going on in the kitchen

and everyone else was out in the shed.  My Uncle Sam greeted us and shared the family tree he had made.  He also had old family videos playing, which was really fun to watch.

It was so great catching up with family and meeting new-to-me additions.

The older cousins: