17MAY09

We did it. We have, officially, made it through our 3rd (and hopefully last, at least for a while) deployment. There are so many things you go through during the deployment. I love Travis being in the Army and I am so proud of him and what he does but there is no way around it, deployments SUCK. The worst part, honestly, is the last couple weeks. Especially when the military has a very unorganized way of getting them home. I thought Trav would be home "any day" for about a week. Then the day came and I was a bundle of nerves. We're suppossed to get an 8-12 hour call and then about a 3 hour call before the ceremony. Well I got a call that said, "your soldier will be in Ramstein (air force base) in 8-12 hours. Then 5 hours later I got a call that said, "Okay the ceremony is in an hour." I should have been jumping for joy but no I was stressing that I was going to have now wear my hair straight instead of curled b/c I just didn't have time. You have no idea the DETAILS that go into planning he welcoming home of your husband after a 13 month deployment.

So we go to the ceremony and they make you wait for about another 45 minutes. Then they bring them in. They have short ceremony and then I got to hug my husband for the first time in 9 months. Alexis RAN to Travis first and she was so excited. Although, soon after she got all shy and nervous and didn't really talk for the next half an hour (you all know Alexis she can't even go 5 minutes w/o talking! :) ) Ryan was Ryan. She was happy and had no real idea about what was going on. Although the next morning I think she was a little surprised to see daddy when she first woke up. We've been enjoying our time for sure.

Travis is doing reintergration and is working half days till we go on leave around June 5th. During leave we are going to hang out and do a little traveling. Trav and I are going to leave the girls with our friends, Spencer and Ester, and head to Majorca for a few days. We are so incredibly happy to be together again.

My "entourage." Thank you Ester for taking pictures and Cristine for taking video. Both were very excited to see Travis and I am SOOO looking forward to welcoming Nate back SOON!Getting all pretty for daddy. Really she was just bored waiting!
Seriously the were BORED waiting around! :)

Here they come!

Okay enough music and enough talking just let us hug our husbands! :) (Travis is in the back row all the way to the left.)

Showing Lexie where daddy was. It was so cute when she saw him she waved to him and I had to explain that he was in formation and couldn't wave back yet. She undestood and just kept giving him BIG smiles!

First hugs!

Our family!

Playing around that night. Trav picked up the outfit as a gift in Kuwait and she LOVED it!

Happy.

04MAY09

Just some random pictures from April! :) I am so excited that THIS is the month Trav comes home!! We are FINALLY there (well almost!!!!) I'll keep you posted!!!

Ryan may be on the small side but this girl LOVES to eat!! This is a new favorite of all of ours. Yogurt with fruit, a little brown sugar, and granola! YUM!!

So cute!! She is so great at folding her arms. You tell her to and she does it. Sometimes I don't even tell her she just knows we're getting ready to say the prayer before dinner and she does it. This was her for night prayers. She doesn't keep them folded the whole prayer but, seriously, how cute is she!

Always helpful and definately a girlie girl with her obsession with shoes and putting them on! :)

So we thought it was crazy hair day at school last week but turns out it was the day before! :) Oh well Lexie thought it was great!


First scribbles!!! Coloring a welcome home sign for daddy!!

Alexis was very into this! I colored some of hte letters and she did 3 and Ryan did 2 but it took her a good 30 minutes b/c she was doing some with polka dots and some with stripes just like I did!! So cute!

28APR09

It's official my little girl is getting too big. She had her first sleep over last week. Well okay so Anya has stayed the night before but this was a true craft making, watching movies, eating junk food, staying up late sleep over! We had been planning on doing it for a few weeks and Lex and Anya could not stop talking about their sleep over. They had a blast. I can't believe she will be 4 in just a few months!! She is such a great girl. She loves her friends and her sister. She even loves her sisters friends and can make all of them laugh. She is SOOO helpful these days. She cleans up after herself, gets herself ready, tells me when Ryan is getting into the toilet paper AGAIN. She has completely mastered the letters and is starting to write them and know the sound they make. She enjoys her preschool class (usually!) and her sunbeam class. Plus, she always has something adorable to say. I am so grateful for this little girl. She makes me smile every day!
Just hanging out (One of Lexie's other friends, Corynn, was also there in the beginning since I was watching her. She is a sweetheart and they all get along really well!)


Our craft was making bird feeders with pine cones and peanut butter (thanks Erica!) The girls thought it was great since THEY could snack on the peanut butter while making the craft!

All 3 girls making their birdfeeders.

Such goofy girls!! Eating their ICE CREAM!!

Don't worry Ryan got in on some of the fun!! Here she is after HER ice cream! :)

Sweet friends!! Watching My LIttle Pony!

Eating popcorn and, of course, being silly!


All ready for bed!!

Passed out!! I couldn't get a picture of both of them asleep b/c they were talking a ton and I moved Anya's bed away from Alexis so they would actually go to sleep!! They had a great night!

20APR09

Today my friend, Ryan Bean, would be 28 years old. I just wanted to post some pictures of us from back in the day. I miss my friend but I love the memories we have! Happy Birthday, Ryan.

19APR09

When we did Ryan's one year pictures we also did some of the girls in their Germany dresses. I think these dresses are SOO cute!!! It was a cooler day so Lex was pretty cold (that girl is ALWAYS cold!) She did pretty well anyways and my beautiful German girls looked adorable!!

19APR09

We did Ryan's one year pictures quiet a while ago but I realized I never posted the pictures! My FABULOUS friend Erica took the pictures for me and if you are stationed here in Germany you should DEFINATELY book a session with her!! We went out exploring and she got some adorable shots (obviously I'm a little biased but come on look at this little girl!) The next day Erica watched Ryan for me and I came home and she had decided to take a few more to add to my already huge amound of pics to order!! I mean seriously people look at those blue eyes!! I keep forgetting to write on here that RYan is finally walking!! About a week and a half ago she took 7 steps (for a bite a cake who knew that was all it would take!) Now she is cruising pretty well. When she falls she usually finishes by crawling but I would say she is walking about 50% of the time now!! Such a sweet girl!

18APR09

Travis and I got a new camera when he was home on R&R and I've been using it a ton. I LOVE it! I decided I should learn to do a little bit more with it since I really do love taking pictures of the girls. I took the class from Shauna Maness and she is so talented!! Her pictures are AMAZING. I learned a lot and she did the class so well I feel like I got a lot out of it. At the end of the day we went out to practice what we had just learned. Our model, Billy, was so patient with the cold and drizzle of rain (after 4 straight days of BEAUTIFUL weather it has a taken a little turn for the worse.) She was a great model and perfect for what I was trying to learn about kids and little strawberry blonde fair skinned girls! :) So here are a couple of my favorite. Now I would like for you to remember I shot these completely on manual NO AUTO settings allowed! I was pretty proud to figure out the right shutter speed, ISO, and Apature. Photography is so interesting and fun for me!! I had a BLAST!!! The first one I didn't do anything to and the second one my friend Erica helped edit a little bit for me. She is also one talented girl. An extra special thanks to Cristine for taking Alexis ALL day and Erica for taking Ryan ALL day so I could do something fun for myself!! :)