A big "catch up" blog...

OK- Things are starting to settle down around here, so I can finally catch a few minutes to blog. Where to start.....

A few things on my mind...
We are so lucky to live in a city that is completely smoke-free indoors. While on vacation, everywhere we went people were smoking inside restaurants. And I don't care where you sit, you can still smell it and it flared Brayden's asthma....ugh.

How do you teach a child how to study? Maybe some of my teacher friends can give me some advice.

And lastly, where did the summer go?????

Since I haven't blogged since telling about vacation, I will start there. Anthony is now at AIT (army training). He says it is worse than school, but better than boot camp! I like this better, because he gets to regularly check in with us by phone instead of letters.

Janessa and Carson both had a great start to school. I can't believe Janessa is in 4th grade and Carson is in Kindergarten!!! They grow up so fast!! I just don't want to miss anything...

Brayden had his skin scratch test to see what he is allergic too. It turns out he is allergic to half the human world including all kinds of grasses, trees, dogs, cats, dust, dustmites ect..... He is now on 6 medications! My sister-in-law spent all last week with us to help me de-dust my entire house. She worked me to death, but we finished! Now every ceiling fan, baseboard and shelf is dust free, but who knows for how long. We pulled all the furniture away from the walls and vacummed up 5 years worth of dust! Who knew dust collected there? Now, I'm just working to keep it that way.

Carson's birthday was Friday!!! My baby is officially 5 like the rest of his class. He seemed to have a great day. Vernon took the afternoon off and had lunch with him at school. He also took cupcakes to his class. That night we went to Stevie B's for a pizza dinner and then to the movies to see Kung Fu Panda! I spent all day writing in his journal about what a special boy he is. I cooked his favorite meal Saturday and Janessa made him a cake. Then Sunday my mom cooked him a dinner and had him a cake! So his birthday turned into a birthday weekend, instead of just one day!! And we are all caked out!!!

Oh, we had our first monthly gathering at our house and had a blast. I really enjoyed hanging out and getting to know everyone more. Next month we are combining it with the boys' birthday party. I know it sounds weird and I am catchng a lot of slack for it, but we are having 1 party for both boys in September. (Brayden's birthday is actually not until December 30.) I talked Vernon into it this year, but I doubt I ever will again, so I hope Brayden enjoys having a good (hopefully warm) birthday party for once!

Well, my time is up...back to work!

Anthony's Army Graduation Picture

The best part of vacation....

After 2 months, we finally got to see Anthony!!!

We missed him so much. I didn't realize what a fixture he had become to our family. I missed his humor, his grace, his faith and watching him play with the younger kids. When we first saw him, he snatched the kids up for big hugs and my heart just swelled. They all love each other so much and I'm very proud of that. He saw Vernon first and actually barreled him over. I couldn't help but to tear up. He did have these hideous glasses on though lol..... good thing he changed to his prescription sunglasses until he could get his contacts in!

We had so much fun just hanging out on Thursday's Family Day. We played mini golf, had lunch at the PX, went shopping, played at the park and went bowling. Anthony picked out a shirt for Janessa and a complete matching Army outfit for Carson. They also all got hats. Anthony is getting their names made to Velcro on the back. Carson had to wear his outfit as soon as we got it!

The kids had a great time playing at the park.
Anthony saluting as the flag was lowered
We had so much fun bowling. Brayden danced after every roll, but then the boys got bored. It took an hour to play one game, because their were so many of us! But it was still fun. We ended up eating dinner there and getting Anthony back to the barracks by 8 pm, so he wouldn't get into any trouble.... It was hard leaving him again, but we knew we got to see him the next day.

Anthony was among hundreds that graduated on Friday. Most of them were in their teens. I looked out and just cried silent tears. Nine weeks ago these boys most likely graduated high school and now they are US soldiers. These are just boys that are now trained to go to war for our country....... for each of us. There was also a 34 year old man and a 39 year old mother of three that graduated that day. All I can say is WOW, what an experience!

Anthony was one of three that received special recognition back at the barracks and were bumped up in rank based on their performance at boot camp. Now he is an E2, but I'm not really sure what all that means yet =)

After graduation, Anthony could finally leave the base for a few hours. We decided to go to the Zoo in Columbia.

Brayden came face to face with his favorite and my least favorite animal....a snake!

We tried to get Carson to change into shorts and a T-shirt, but he refused (and his clothes were smelling pretty ripe after two days in that extreme heat! It registered 103 degrees and that wasn't including the heat index) We knew how much it meant to him, so we all endured....lol!

We went for an all you can eat Seafood dinner, so Anthony could really chow down. Then we had another tearful goodbye. I think it was harder this time, because we know what it's going to be like. I don't think anyone had a dry eye except Brayden, because he slept through it. When we got back to the hotel, he woke up and saw a man in camo from the back. He took off running thinking it was NeeNee and we had to call him back. All of us were wiping our tears again...

We ended our vacation with a stop in Clemson, South Carolina. Vernon was in hog heaven, because Clemson is his favorite team. We even got to see the team cross right in front of us to their practice field. Vernon got a couple of autographs and we watched them practice for a few minutes (before it started lightening and they called off practice). It was really neat and exciting. Vernon was like a kid in a candy store!!!

All in all, we had a great time. I really like being able to record our vacation and other happenings in this blog. It is going to make an excellent way to remember for years to come AND I get to share it all with my family and friends!

We're back!

We are back from vacation, J and C are at school, the house is somewhat clean, the little ones are asleep and most of the laundry is done. Wooo hoooo! Now I can finally post some of our vacation pictures.

We had a great time. We spent 4 nights in Hilton Head Island, SC and 3 nights in Fort Jackson (Columbia), SC. We went to the beach.......


Vernon found a star fish and the kids all held it before Janessa released it back into the ocean. We all marveled at how awesome and diverse God's creatures are. It was really neat!

Brayden liked "jumping" the waves!

The kids loved playing in the waves, finding sand dollars and building sand castles. I am really glad we decided on a beach vacation this year.

We went swimming in the hotel pool several times. Carson and Brayden and doing GREAT learning to swim. Carson has better technique, but Brayden is fearless.

This is the lighthouse in Harbor town. We all climbed the 147 steps to the top, but I wouldn't get close to the edge.
This was my view from the top!

We were very "touristy" and just had to play miniature golf.

Brayden used his hands more than the putter!

Carson actually got a "hole in one!"We went to a really neat Children's museum and the kids had a blast.
My future engineer

and astronaunt....

We enjoyed a dolphin, sunset and fireworks cruise on the Vagabond!


We even saw dolphins!!!

It was a great vacation and I'm not even done yet. I will post about seeing Anthony later. My kids are due home any minute!

Lots of love and many blessings!

PS - The time is still off on my blog. It is 2:40......