Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving
Ours was great with the one exception of
Ben not being with us on this thankful holiday.

We spent the day with family...
It started off at home getting ready, Camey was here with us
and we watched the Thanksgiving day parade.

Then we headed out to My Dad and Ami's house.
We truly are so blessed with the love of such a great big family!
After we ate the first of three amazing dinners we went through the
Black Friday ads.
Then we went out front to do a little picture taking.
It is always so much fun to hangout and let the kids play.

After we left my dads house we stopped off over at Jan and Marc's to see them and take picture while there was still day light. We came back over here later but I wanted pictures with them before there was no sun. Then we headed over to Pat and Ken's house to have dinner with my Mom's side of the family. This was the first time in 9 years that we all ate as a family with this many people. Michale and Aunt Jeanette, Jayson and De Vona, Camey, Chelsey and Michael, Mom ans Kevin, Me and the special guest that we haven't had a Thanksgiving with in 9 years was Grandpa Jack! It was also another great meal and I was so happy to see Grandpa sitting at the other end of the table.

After we finished there the kids and I headed back over to Jan and Marc's. I was so glad to get to see Joe, Kalynn and Kelsea for the first time in a long time also. They had moved up to Tahoe at the end of August and we haven't seen them since Halloween.
What a great Thanksgiving we had this year.
We all missed Ben a bunch and even though we got to talk to
him throughout the day it still wasn't the same without him.
Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Look who came and trick or treated...

Okay this is a little out of order but I wanted to get these all up.
We had our family from Utah come out and visit this Halloween.
It was so much fun hanging out for 4 days full of total fun.
Blake was Peter Pan this year. I talked him into it
so that he and Bayleigh could match.
What a great sport he is for his mom!

Brooklyn was The Little Mermaid.
(Ashley sent this wig for her to wear)

Miss Bella was Princess Jasmin

and of course Bayleigh was none other then the
feisty Tinker Bell, so perfect for her.

Kelsea was the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

Kalynn was Alice and Joe was the Mad Hatter.
They always come up with the greatest family costumes.

Sweet Alyssa was also Tinker Bell and her brothers were
(Colby) Captin Hook and (Jaxson) Peter Pan.
We looked like a Disney parade.

I was so glad they came to visit.
When I was little we did all these things with the
cousins and it makes me so happy that our kids get to also.

Emry and Isa were also there.
Emry was Jason and Isa was Freddie.
We all went trick or treating at Grandpa Duane's and Grandma Ami's.
What a great night...

Happy Halloween

Ben's Graduation from basic training

Let me just start off by saying how amazing my husband is!
I am so proud of all the hard work that he has done.
This post is about all the stuff we got to do on
our fast, 4 day trip back to Missouri.

We got on the plane in Sacramento at 10:05 in the morning,
it was going to be a day full of traveling.

With one stop in Phoenix

and a safe landing in St. Louis,
we were that much closer to seeing Ben.
After getting the rental car and a
2 1/2 hour car ride we were at our hotel.
We all just wanted to go to sleep so that we could get
up and head over to the base.

It sure is a little nerve racking being on a military base.
They do things a little different then us civilians.

We all went to Shea Gym and waited for about an hour for our soldiers to come in. When they did it was so amazing. They marched in chanting at the tops of their voices and it filled that gym.
It made me cry (happy tears) as soon as I spotted Ben. I was in pure amazement seeing him for the first time in 10 weeks.

He was so into everything he was doing!

All the families were sitting in bleachers, so once the soldiers were allowed to join their families we all started calling out our soldiers names. It took Ben no time at all to find us. Blake got down to him first and Ben gave him a huge hug.
Next came Bella and she just jumped into her daddy's arms.
She was so happy to finally be in his grasp again.

We all sat and talked for a few minutes and then decided to head back outside.

We got to meet a lot of his new Army friends.
They had so many nice things to say about Ben,
He sure seemed to be a good guy to
have around during basic training.

With so many families there to support their soldiers there wasn't a lot of places to hang out at and we had to keep them close to the Delta company territory, so we walked back to our Van.

This is the phone booth Ben would sit in when
he called home every Sunday to talk to us!

Everyone wanted to fill his ears with stories.

Or just be in his arms...

Here are so more of his battle buddies

They were all so nice and they all told great stories.

Group Shot

It took the kids no time at all to start playing with their Daddy.

We spent most of our time hanging out by the van, just catching up and listening to whatever Ben wanted to tell us. It was so interesting to hear all the things he went through while he was here.

Not to sure what Bella and Blake were doing?

Silly faces

Of course the Drill Sargent decided to smoke everyone
while their families were there.

Thursday was his graduation and I
was so glad we were all there to see it.

Ben looked sooooo good in class A's.
I must say,
I have a very good looking husband.

As soon as he was released again the kids all ran over for a great big hug. We got to take him back to our hotel and he spent almost 9 hours with us. I couldn't believe how much Ben has embraced everything he has learned since he has been here. Of course the 9 hours just flow by and before we knew it it was time to take him back to base.

None of us took this very good!

Saying goodbye all over again was very difficult.

He won't be gone for to long.
He gets to come home for Christmas for a little while.

I think we're pretty close to our half way mark,
if not already there.

Ben is doing an incredible job. He was given the Army Value of Honor, which is all 7 Army values. They did a fire ceremony Monday before we got there. His Drill Sergeant said that Ben totally had all 7 of the Army Values covered and was given this for a very special reason.

We were so blessed to be able to go back to Missouri and share in this time with Ben. I am filled with so much happiness and pride for everything my husband has been able to do. You can't truly understand what it is like to be a part of this until you are.

I want to thank all the Men and Women out there serving in our military services. You are doing amazing things and I am so proud and honored to have my husband stand by your side. Also I would like to thank all the families who stand by them, supporting them to get through this. You too are an amazing group of people and I couldn't be happier to now be a part of this group!

Congratulations Ben on all you hard work and success. You have worked so long and hard and I am glad that this part of the journey is over for you. We will always be here by your side and love you so much.
Thank you for being such a brave man!

So....

I decided to start another blog about my scrapbooking talent. I have so much fun doing it that I wanted to share it with everyone! Hope you enjoy what you see. www.causeigiveascrap.blogspot.com

A day at the bay

Our cousins came into town for a visit,
so we drove down to San Fransisco for the day to see them.

We went to a museum at Golden Gate Park.

The kids loved seeing all the stuff this place was full of.

My Mom was loved by the butterflies.
At least 3 of them landed on her at different times.

We went to a 3-D movie.

Walked through a rain forest exhibit.

Full of plants, animals and
a huge pond full of the biggest fish I had ever seen in real life.

After our adventures at the museum we headed down to the pier to get something to eat.
We went to one of our favorite places, Bubba Gumps.
It was a great day and I was so glad to see our family.
They are always so much fun to hang out with.

First day of kindergarten and second grade

Brooklyn start kindergarten this year. It is so hard to believe that now we have two school age kids. She was so excited to be in her new class. Her best little friend Joey and her got the same class, she was so happy about that.

Brooklyn got a boy teacher (as she says)this year. I wasn't able to go into the class on the first day. He wanted the parents to wait a few weeks before doing that. So this is out front of our apartment.

Blake is in second grade now, he couldn't believe that he got his own desk this year. He was so happy cause also got a male teacher. He thinks he is super funny and really likes him so far. He still doesn't like doing homework but knows he has to get it done. Time sure does fly by, my little babies aren't babies any more.

Our last supper

For our last dinner we let Daddy decide what he wanted to eat before he got to enjoy months of military food. Of course he picked sushi, which is a family favorite. It sure was nice eating together for the last time this year. Camey was here with us so she was nice enough to take this picture. Ben has already been gone for 6 weeks today. I know that means that I am way behind on my postings but I am trying to play catch up. We are all doing really good, we get to talk to Ben on Sundays. He writs at least once a week and even though we miss him like crazy, we are so proud of our Daddy! The kids and I say "goodnight to the moon every night and if there is no moon then we say goodnight to the stars. They know it's the same sky their Daddy can see. Thank you to everyone who has helped us get through all of the busy activities four kids tend to have and for giving me some quite time when I am needing my time-outs.

This years black/whites

State Fair 2009

We made it to the state fair this year.
We had to go on opening day cause Ben
was leaving for the military three short days later.
This has become a sorta of tradition for us each year to go.
I get my picture taken with each of the kids in a black/white photo booth.
(I post this years black/white pics on the next post)

We went with Camey and the kids she watches,
Emry, Joe, Kalynn and Kelsea.

Right off the start it started to get hot, we decided it was a perfect time to grab something to eat and sit in the shade. The food was not that good this year, it tasted like they had gotten cheaper with the ingredients. But we all managed to eat just fine I guess!

Emry could only stay for a little bit,
but we sure enjoyed having him with us while he was.

The wine and cheese garden was a really cute display of over sized
snails, butterflies, toadstools, bee hives etc.

There is a new museum opening up in Sacramento and they had some displays for the kids to play with. It was a very fun stop for all of them.

With the mixture of the heat and all the fun activity Bayleigh couldn't help herself!

This was a piece of art someone did made completely out of tooth picks.

Bella loves to take pictures also...

Joe and Blake went on this together.
Joe sure was a good sport about going,
he's not a BIG fan of the swings.

It sure was a great day at the fair, we all had a lot of fun. It was super hot most of the day but we held in there for the long hall. We stood in line for over an hour to ride the tram. All in all we were there from 11 in the morning to 10 at night. For me this has always been my way of ending the summer and starting the school year. I am so glad we got to go and so happy we got to do it with such great people.

Family sleepover

Since we were on the count down for Ben's departure the kids made a sort of bucket list of stuff they wanted to do with "daddy" before he left. One of them was a family sleep over in the living room. So we pulled the top mattress off of our bed, plus made a few extra on the couch.
While working at Bed, Bath and Beyond Ben came across a recipe on how to make a great banana split. So we decided to make it for the treat at the sleep over.

We also rented three kids movies to watch while
we ate some really good "movie" popcorn.

This is how they turned out.
I'd have to say that this is one great banana split!

We all really enjoyed them...

It sure was a great night and I am so glad we had the
opportunity to do this with the kids before Ben left.

Happy birthday Emry

I know that this happened a while ago but I still want to post this.
Our sweet (not so little) Emry turn 11 last month.
Talk about time flying by.
Chelsey had another great birthday party for him over at my mom house.

We did presents.

Had cake.

And even did a pinata.
After they broke it open and collected all the candy,
we had a great canned string fight.
We were covered in it and it was a blast.

This is the party walking back over to my moms house
once we finished with the pinata across the street at the park.

Then we got back to the other fun.

Chelsey rented two bounce houses for us to play on.

One was this water slide that everyone
took turns going down.

Bayleigh dropped her lollipop and was
not at all pleased with the dirty covering it!

The other one was this big bounce house.

Happy birthday Emry, you truly are an amazing kid.
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Our fun camp out in Grandma Ami and Grandpa Duane's backyard.

A few weekends back we went over to my
dad's house to have a sleep over in the backyard.
Since we have so many little kids this had been one of the best
ways for us to enjoy camping. Ami set the whole
yard up for the event. There were tents,
sleeping bags and even a place for a fire.

My dad barbecued hot dogs and steak. There was a game of badminton going off and on and Grandpa even had a t.v. out so the boys could play video games. As the night went on we did a bit of roasting marshmallows.

We hung out by the fire,
enjoying a nice evening outside.

The kids all had so much fun hanging out with their Grandparents.

Bayleigh loved being outside the entire time.
She is our nature girl for sure.

Sleeping went really good during the night. All the kids slept in two tents and Ben, Ami and I slept under the stars. Grandpa got sent in the house, Blake said he snores way to loud.

We all ate donuts for breakfast
and hung out enjoying a nice cool morning.

After we were all finished we got ready to head over to the pool at my dads elks club.

We swam there for over an hour. It was a great pool and we were the only people there. The pool was 8 feet deep and we all had a blast swimming.

Before we left we had one last snack by the pool.
It sure was a nice camp-out.
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for letting us all come over.

Happy 3rd Brithday Bella

(So I know I am a bit behind in the blogging world so here is my attempt to catch up)
We Celebrated Bella's 3rd birthday in June. She wanted to go skating for her party, we did it a few days before her actual birthday so Auntie Ashley could be included in the festivities. We all met up at Roller King for a afternoon full of skating.
Camey also came and brought her twins that she watches.
We were so excited to meet Jordan and Jasmine...
( I promise Bella has two shoes, even though one seems to be missing in this picture).

We were so happy Ashley was able to be apart of Bella's skating party. Even though Ashley didn't skate, it worked out great cause Bella decided that she wasn't going to actually skate either, once we were all there with our skates on.

However, I made her keep her skates on and she just rolled around the skating rink. She was not a big fan of anyone trying to get her out on the hardwood floor. I did take her out once just to show her how fun it really was. Emry joined us half way around and after crying the entire way she looked up at him and said "That was not fun at all."

Grandma Joy and Brooklyn were best buds skating.
They had so much fun out there!

Dallas was a stud out on the floor in his roller blades.

Blake did a great job getting around the floor also.
He was so brave having not been skating in over a year.

Bayleigh on the other hand wanted
NOTHING to do with the skating floor...

I love this boy so much.

It sure was a great day and we all had a blast.
Even though Bella didn't end up skating she sure had a great time.
Little Bayleigh was happiest with her cup of ice water!

Our sweet girls trip to the dentist

Brooklyn was such a brave girl at her trip to the dentist.

She listen really well

Did everything they told her to do.
Didn't cry when they gave her the shot.

Held her mouth open nice and big.

And even manage to give me a smile after two fillings.
Mommy felt like the worst mom in the entire world. We brush every day
but the dentist told me how important flossing is
and that I needed to brush for two minutes every time.
I got the worst mother of the year award that day...

You live and learn.
Now we brush AND floss every day.
We time it for two minutes each time.
Let me tell you two minutes is a lot longer then you think,
but worth not watching our little girl go through that.
Even though she was so brave,
I can't sit my kids in pain.
I'm a softy, I know.

Have to really keep my eye on this one...

A few weeks ago Aunt Jeanette came out to spend the day with us.
We went over to Panera to get some lunch with mom and Dallas and decided to eat outside due to the active kids that accompanied us. While I was trying to enjoy lunch I had to constantly get up to retrieve Bayleigh who thought it was so funny to get as far away from me as possible. After totally being sick of chasing her and feeling I had exhausted my request of Dallas to run after her I was just going to let her be and see where that would leave me...

Well needless to say my sweet little daughter found the only mud pit in the entire eating area and proceed to fall, that's right fall into the mud. So now what are we left with? A little girl, covered in mud and a lunch still in progress. So what do I do? Oh just take off her pants and let her run around in a shirt, diaper and saltwater sandels. I guess when you get to baby #4 you tend to let the O.C.D. things go a bit.

Sorry I don't have a picture of her in all her glory!
I can't even tell you how proud of herself she was.
She thought she was the sillest little Bayleigh around.