20120509-20120512 El Paso Showers and Mother's Day Tea

FYI: I'm going to label these posts for the periods that they cover... not the day I'm posting them.

This is WAY back 2 1/2 months ago... yikes!

These may look like just your run-of-the-mill kids back from running in the rain pictures... that is until you remember that we live in the desert! These raindrops are long-awaited and are SO MUCH FUN! We didn't even take the time to get pants on David... that would chance missing some rain!

And the rest of these are from a super fun Mother/Daughter Tea that Little T and I attended on post the weekend of Mother's Day. They requested that, if possible, we come in gloves and hats, but unfortunately T was the only one of us that had such wonderful accessories to really dress the part.

I think this was also the last weekend that I could (kind-of) wear one of my pre-pregnancy dresses. 

And then our photographer (Dad) wouldn't quit until we got a few silly poses. We did our best.

The event took place at "Old Fort Bliss" - which is a cute little historic site at Fort Bliss with original buildings from way back when. They had it done up really cute inside, and most everyone dressed up as requested for the event. It was great fun!

They had really fancy finger foods and lots of them. T especially loved the strawberries, the chocolates, the fancy Rice Krispy bars and the tea... she LOVES tea and tea parties!  Actually, we just read "Fancy Nancy's" book about tea parties this afternoon, and I'm pretty sure that this Tea Party would have gotten an A+ on her checklist!

 

After we enjoyed a relaxing tea time, T and I explored the rest of Old Fort Bliss.

T had to hold on to her hat while riding the local equine.

And getting a little swing time in is always a pleasant way to end a Mother/Daughter day. This was a VERY fun event. We will definitely attend in the future if we are still here.

Love, Us.

20120614

OK... so here are the details of our crazy life. Up until about an hour ago, things were still unclear date-wise. But, Joe just officially received his orders to deploy to Afghanistan on June 28th - Yes, 2 weeks from now! Luckily, between us finding out about the possibility of this deployment and now, we have been able fly down some live-in babysitters (THANK YOU DAVE AND GAIL!) and have a few days just the two of us in order to try to get out heads back on straight and aligned before the separation. Things are being made a lot more complicated by the fact that we are moving on to post the same day he is deploying, but we will manage, as we always have.

Joe is actually very excited for this deployment, and it really does seem to be a better fit for our family than the option we were looking at previously. Before receiving these orders, we were looking at a 12 month deployment starting next June or July. At that point, baby Patrick would be between 7 and 9 months and would actually miss dad greatly. Now, however, the plan is for his deployment to only go until November, and what baby actually needs their dad in their first 2 months of life? Let's be honest... they have no idea they are there! So... we are both sincerely quite pleased with this deployment.

Well, I think that is all I have time for right now. Sadly, the kids and Joe and I were supposed to be in Oregon right now celebrating Adam and Hayli's wedding. It is very hard to be sitting here now instead, but we agreed to take on this lifestyle... sacrifices and all. To any of you who may be celebrating with them this weekend, though... give them lots of love and hugs from us!

Love, Us.

And I WILL have pictures next time. I promise.

20120517

Good Morning!

We got some more big news yesterday concerning Joe's upcoming deployment! Before I let you all know here, however, I'll need to privatize the blog. So... could you please email me (or attach a comment to this post) with your email and any family members' / mutual friends' emails who might not check often enough to email me before I switch over, but who would like to have access to it from time to time? Then I can get everyone possible on my "list" so that you can still see the blog. All you will have to do is sign in with your email. Feel free to give me numerous emails of yours, I can put any number of "members" on my list. Better too many than not enough.

Thanks!

Love, Us.

20120507

We got big news this morning! We will be moving once again in just over 2 months... but not as far as Missouri to Texas again... just a couple miles to post! We are SUPER excited! Now, Baby #5 won't be sleeping in our closet, and maybe we could even have a library/school room! Okay... I am a little too excited. But, I must say, this is one thing that is a good fit for me and the army. I LOVE to reorganize, and I actually enjoy packing and unpacking. I know, I'm crazy! I've even passed on that love to little T!

But, on to our last week or so.

To start, we received some long-awaited packages in the mail a bit ago, and after some handy-woman work by yours truly, the kids had brand new, custom made by their very own Opah, school desks! We love them! They were soon filled with art supplies, books, and papers, and the first projects done on them were some very special water color pictures.

David not only colored a GORGEOUS picture... he also decorated himself from head to toe!

The kids are getting really excited for their trips coming up! When thinking about Michigan in July, Therese was reminded that on our last plane trip to Michigan she had made her new cousin Gus his very own rosary. She decided that this year she wanted to do some work ahead of time, so her and David worked on making rosaries for EVERYONE! I think they are half way done now!

David had a milestone this week - he can now put on his own pants... and enjoys doing it very much. He is quite good at it... it just often ends up being "backwards day" here for him!

We went to the zoo again last week and had a blast!

Elephants!

A Sand Cat! She looked cuddly!

Yikes! Really big Python!

But their favorite animals of the day: local mama duck and her two duckings! They were swimming in the  "moat" around a monkey island, and the kids chased them around and around their circle as they swam!

It was a beautiful, hot, day here, so we ended our time there at the Zoo's splash park!

Oh yeah... we did say goodbye to the sea lions after that on the way to the car. They were very friendly!

Well, that is it for now!

Love, Us.