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.