January 2009

The New Year for me was welcomed in on the road. Katherine, Devon and I were heading to GA to see Luke, home on leave and to meet his new son Raley. We followed Chris and Melissa to St. Louis. It took a lot to get David to agree to let me go on my own. It was quite a trip, but I really appreciate him agreeing to let me go. It was a great memory. I got to Memphis around noon on the 1st, picked up Bethany and Jonathan who were waiting there for me and headed right to Mississippi to Uncle Kevin's. We were having a family reunion. Katherine had a blast riding the horses. She stayed on them all afternoon. She wore Papaw and Aunt Bebe out by asking for ride after ride. Papaw took her for a canoe ride too. She loved that as well.

The next day we went to the Memphis New Years meeting. It has been at least 5 years since I was able to go. It was great to see everyone and get caught up. I spent the afternoon at Meredith Guess's house. The only drawback of the trip to Memphis is I missed seeing Joanna. It was very disappointing.

The next day, Saturday, we headed to GA. Dad drove one car, Thomas another and me the third. Three vehicles are hard to keep together going through Atlanta when only the lead car has any idea of where you are. We made it to the Thompson's around 6 o'clock. Sis. Laurie had a great dinner ready for us. Of course we all headed to see Raley first. As soon as I saw him and was able to hold him I said "David you better watch out!" It is amazing the maternal instincts you feel just holding a small bundle of joy. You forget all the sleepless nights and struggles and remember all the joys of motherhood.

The next few days were filled with waiting on Luke to call and tell us he was on his way home. We still had no definite arrival date. I took Katherine and Devon to Aunt Stephy's shop to have their hair cut for the first time by a professional. They did much better than I expected, of course it could have been the suckers Stephanie gave them. So smart. Stephanie was so busy with family getting hair cuts, I think we over whelmed her. She gave 10 haircuts/ highlights in one day! Makes me tired just thinking about it. We also made candy one day, or I should say Dad and Mom made candy. Katherine got to help. She loved it. This was the first trip to see my family that Katherine really took to Papaw. I think he was eating it up. It only took 3 years! It sure helped his cause when he took Katherine and Devon to the zoo. It truly was the highlight of the trip for my kids. Katherine and Devon were so fun to take. It is a true blessing to see the amazement on their faces as they see real animals that they have only seen in books. Katherine is still talking about it a month and a half later. Thank you Dad, you made a wonderful memory with your grand kids. That is so important when you live so far from them.

The "PLAN" didn't work out as any of us planned. The night before Luke was suppose to get home. Raley got sick and had to be admitted into the children's hospital. Luke was on communication blackout so there was no way to get hold of him. So Morgan met him at the airport and they went straight to the hospital where they stayed for the next 10 days. Raley had RSV, a kidney infection and a blood infection. I felt so bad for all of them, I know that is not where they had planned on spending their time together. So the last part of our visit was spent driving back and forth from the hospital, an hour away. We exchanged gifts in one of the conference rooms at the hospital. The nursing staff was really great and accommodating. It was such a blessing. It was wonderful to see Luke, you really take people for granted until they aren't around. I am so thankful the Lord has protected him thus far. Luke also told us he was going to be able to come home earlier than expected, he is coming home the middle part of May, Lord willing. He has promised to come see us this summer, so he better keep that promise, I am counting on it! :)

One of the afternoon's we all went bowling. It was the first time Katherine or Devon had been. They ate it up. Writing this I have realized how many "FIRSTS" the kids had on this trip. It is sad David wasn't there to witness them. Sorry Honey! :( The kids got a better score than I did! It was a little embarrassing.

So after 2 weeks we headed home. We stopped in AR for a day to break up the trip. Katherine and Aaron got to spend the day together. Aaron brought his Thomas the tank engine trains and was kind enough to share them with Katherine. Although he kept a pretty close watch on them. :) The trip home the next day was uneventful. The kids did a great job traveling, thank God for DVD players! It was a wonderful trip, but I was so ready to see my sweetheart again. David said we should plan to be apart more often it just makes the reunion the sweeter. I have to agree, but I hope it isn't any time soon!

So long!

December 2008

December came in with a bang. Katherine's 3 rd birthday was on the 8th. My little girl is 3! I can't believe it. She is really into Princesses and Tinker Bell at this age. She decided she wanted a Tinker Bell party. A friend of mine, Lyndi, let me borrow her Tinker Bell cake pan. It turned out pretty good, but man it was harder then I thought it would be. I found some Tinker Bell print outs online and hung them from the ceiling. Katherine's favorite part was the balloons, so we had lots of them. Granny, Grandad and the Bonds came for the party. We had a great time. It was fun to have Katherine really get into it and realize what was going on. Per Katherine's request, we left the decorations up for a week until Daddy politely asked when we were planning to take them down! :)

Devon and I both got the stomach bug right before Christmas. It is so hard when both of you are sick. On my worst day I was blessed to have a very insightful husband who took the kids to his parents. Thankfully neither David nor Katherine got it. For Devon it was kind of the beginning of a long period of sickness. He got a chest cold right after that and in January the Dr. put him on Albuteral breathing treatments. It made me realize how thankful I am not to have kids that need nebulizers on a regular basis. Yuck!

David's family was suppose to get together the week before Christmas, but Chris and Melissa ended up getting sick so it was pushed back to the week after Christmas. We had a great time being together. After Christmas dinner we all went on a nature walk in the pasture behind Granny and Grandad's. It was fun, but oh so muddy. The kids were a mess by the time we got back to the house. This was the first year we have been able to have a real Christmas with David's family since we got married. It was a little over whelming. You should have seen the literal mountain of gifts for everyone. In my opinion it was a little over the top, but still fun. Granny did get the three girls matching dresses. They were so cute.

We had everyone over to our house one of the nights. We had Pizza, I decided to do it the lazy way. After supper we got all the kids together and decorated ginger bread cookies. I didn't think the older boys would get into it, but they surprised everyone and really got into it. Devon's favorite part was eating the icing right out of the bag! :) Then all of the ladies relaxed by having a pamper party. It was so nice to take a little time to slow down and enjoy each others company. (don't worry girls I won't put up any pictures!)

Tori's birthday was on the 29th so she got to have her party with all her cousins. She had chosen a princess theme. Melissa really went all out. She got all the girls a "Little Mermaid" dress and crowns. There was also party favors for everyone. The girls had a blast dressing in all the jewelry and high heel shoes. Thanks Melissa for the great memories.

November 2008

For Thanksgiving this year we went to my side of the family. It is suppose to be every other, but I think it is going to turn out Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with David's. Anyway, we went down the weekend before Thanksgiving and stayed through Thanksgiving Day. I can't believe how much we did in the time we were there. The day after we arrived we were invited to Sis. Lisa Green's house for a Tea Party. She had made the cutest pumpkin ice cream cakes decorated like Turkeys. Katherine and Aaron Green were the guests of honour. They had fun. It was the first tea party Katherine had ever been to. It was great being able to catch up with everyone too.

David and I took Stephen, Jared, and Jonathan. To see Madagascar 2. Katherine went with us too. It was the first movie she had been to in the theater. She was mesmerized. I don't think she sat back in her chair the whole movie. And of course, as is our custom, we broke the rules and smuggled in our own candy. The boys get a kick out of doing something bad. Shhhhh, don't tell anyone! :)

Rebekah Sacran invited us to go to story hour in Fort Smith with her and her girls. So I picked up Anna Green and we all went to story hour. I don't think Katherine knew exactly how to react to so many kids in one place. But by the time we left she had found her nitch.

David went with Thomas to see his college were he is studying to be a lineman. David is proud that he had that influence on Thomas. So David spent the night with Thomas and got to see Thomas' stomping ground.

We also went to Anna Green's house for supper one of the nights we were there. Rebekah Sacran got to come as well. We had a lot of fun being together again. The kids had a blast playing with one another until one of them decided it would be fun to pour all the baby powder out onto the floor and play in it like sand. I was impressed how well Anna reacted, she was so calm. Sad to say I would not have been so easy going. She even had the presence of mind to document it with pictures. Wonderful Mom! I need to take lessons.

We spent Thanksgiving with Grandpa and Grandma Hill. We are getting to be such a large group I don't know how much longer we can fit in her house. It is fun trying though! Katherine and Devon got to experience "The Slide" for the first time. For those of you who don't know it, it is a huge slide Grandpa built. It is tall now to me so Imagine what it is to a little kid. Katherine finally got the nerve up to go. And she loved it, Devon on the other hand like to climb the ladder and then sit up at the top and cry. So he got his thrills climbing up and down.

We left at around 5 'o'clock to head back home. We had a good trip until we got on I-80. We were in between Grand Island and Kearney when a deer ran right into the side of the Armada. We pulled over and amazingly the only damage was a 2 inch scratch on Katherine's door and a dime size dent on the fender. God is good! Katherine didn't even know anything happened.

Well that is it for this month!

October 2008

I have been writing down info as the months have gone by so I will remember what happened in those months. So here goes, for Oct.

There were a few spring flowers that sprouted in the flower beds here this last spring, but not nearly as many as I wanted. So I planted around 150 bulbs in the flower beds. It took forever! But I hope to have forgotten the bruised knees and strained wrists by this spring and be able to appreciate the beauty of the first buds of spring.

We had a Fall Party at the first of Oct. I hope to make it an annual tradition. I invited all the surrounding neighbors and the church. We had about 40 people show up. It was so much fun. It bought back memories of our get togethers in AR. We had a bonfire and games. The wind was blowing so hard we had to have a bonfire NE style. We built several small fires in halved 50 gal. drums. It was not what I had in mind, but it was a memory anyway. One of our neighbors brought his Clydesdale horses and wagon and pulled everyone on a true to life hay ride. Katherine loved the horses, although I think they made her a little nervous because of there size.

David finally talked me into dressing the kids for Halloween. It was not a thing my family ever did so it took me a while to concede. I made them Raggedy Ann and Andy outfits. When I tried them on Katherine and Devon they refused to wear the wigs I had made. I was a little frustrated, but when the night came to really go all out on dressing them up, they were so excited they made no fuss over the wigs at all. We went to a costume party in Cozad for the kids. It was so crowded and noisy I will never go again. And some of the costumes the kids were wearing were just awful. I can't imagine allowing my son or daughter wear something like that. Anyway, we went to Pizza Hut with Granny and Grandad afterwards and then we went and visited Mamo and Papo. They got a kick out of seeing the kids costumes.

Our whole church went to see the Fireproof movie in Kearney. It was sooooo good. I am rejoicing to see some wholesome movies come out and do very well in the box office. Both David and I were crying over this one. It will defiantly be one we will be adding to our collection.

David and I celebrated our 4 th Anniversary this year. Our anniversary is on the 30, but this year it worked out for us to celebrate on the 31st, Everyone gives you interesting looks when they think you got married on the 31st! Weirdos!! We went to the nicest restaurant in Kearney the "Alley Rose". We both dressed up , David even wore a suit! We were not the only ones dressed up, a witch and Iron man showed up as well. :) We stayed the night in the Hampton Inn. It was so wonderful to be by ourselves and be able to sleep in as long as we wanted. A wonderful Anniversary.

Happy Fall Ya'll!!!!