09JUN09

Poor Eric. The boy has been surrounded by girls for the last year. Maybe that's lucky Eric b/c you should see the girls he's with! :) Anyways, Nate suggested a James Bond 1st Birthday party since he would be the only boy (and in an ADORABLE suit!) and surrounded by beautiful girls in their party dresses. We all got dressed up and yes, it was for a one year old's birthday party. What a great excuse to take pics!! We had a blast and the party was very classy even Eric thought so as he ate every last lick of chocolate icing on his cake!! Thanks Holtgrewe's for a fun/fantastic party!

The McBride's and Holtgrewe's (seriously SEVEN YEARS and this may be the ONLY picture of all 4 of us together.) Also no we didn't match on purpose we just happened to all have great taste! :)
Me and my very sexy hubby.

Anya and Lex. They are such sweet friends.

Holtgrewe. Eric Holtgrewe.

Eric and all his lady friends!! (Alexis, Anya, Eric, Ryan, Anni, and Alexia)

Me and the girls. These are the girls that got me through this deployment. Aren't they all beautiful!!?? (Cristine, Britteny, Erica, and me.)

07JUN09

They had a big Welcome Home Ceremony/Party for all of post on Thursday and then leave started for everyone the next day. At the Party they had rides for the kids and free food which was pretty cool. They also had a concert later that night which Trav and I didn't go to. It was Hinder and we're not huge fans. I mean it would have been fun but not worth getting a babysitter. Instead, we watched our downstairs neighbors kid so they could go. Alexis had a BLAST. Ryan thought the couple things she could go on were pretty neat but mostly it was just a beautiful day to be outside and it wasn't far from our house so we walked down there.Lexie and daddy. She is so spoiled now that daddy is home. She gets carried on his shoulders EVERYWHERE!! :) Good thing he loves it too.

Daddy and Ryan.

On the train ride. Trav told Lex to put her arm around Ryan and help her and she kept it there the entire ride. She is such a sweet sister.

Daddy and Lex on the bumper cars. This was, by far, her favorite.

The carasoul.

Ryan just hanging out in her stroller.

Alexis LOVES dogs. This dog was huge and she loved it.

02JUN09

I know it's been a while since I've posted. Having Trav home makes my life so much busier and my normal computer time is spent relaxing with Travis! :) We've been having a blast. We've been bbqing, fishing, going on a date, hanging out as a family and with friends. Most of these pictures are pretty random but here is some of what we've been up to! :) I will be posting some great pictures from Eric's one year party soon. He had a James Bond so we all got dressed up. We decided to also use that as an excuse to get some good pictures of all of us together!

The men grillin'! :)

Playing with friends Annika and Branten.

Ryan, Branton, Eric, and Anni

2 of my girls Cristine and Erica. I just like this picture of them! :)

Playing in the grass.

Trav and I.

This time when Trav went fishing I came out for a couple hours with Ryan. We had fun playing in the grass and the sun was shining. Any outdoors makes Ryan and Lex happy. I was happy just shooting pictures of everyone! :)

And just some other randome pictures from this month...

21MAY09

We are so glad Travs is home. I'm not sure who is more excited and happy Travis, Alexis, or me (Ryan is happy but you know she's so young and easygoing she's just happy to get attention from an extra person.) We've been going non-stop. Trav's gear and boxes from Iraq are still sitting all over the house and we don't even care. We've just been spending time together going to the park, the pool and, of course, Trav took Lex on her first fishing trip. Travis had an early morning formation and then was off b/c it was the day for single soldiers to get all their stuff that was in storage. So he decided to take Lexie fishing. They have been talking about it for MONTHS. When daddy gets back Lex and daddy are going to go fishing just the 2 of them. Alexis LOVED it. Travis said she was having a blast! She even caught a fish! She was so proud and they were gone all morning long. I am fairly certain there will be a lot of alone morning for Ryan and I over the next month or so. I'm really not sure who had more fun Alexis or Travis! :)

Doesn't she look like a little fisher.

Her first catch!

So proud!

Some other random pics. Trav put this on her and it didn't even have the plates in it and she kept falling down and couldn't get back up! This is her "mean face."

Playing in the mosquito tent. It's still up in Lexie's room and the girls keep playing in it.

This is a really random picture but I love it so much I had to share. Anya turned 4 this month (wow where has the time gone??) This was Ryan at her birthday party. We had a great time.

One more side note... I just talked to Cristine and Nate is on the plane flying to Germany as I type this!!! I'm so excited for them to be back together too!!! WELCOME HOME NATHAN!!!! Stay tuned for BBQ pics VERY SOON!! :)

19MAY09

Everyone on my facebook page has seen this video but I figured I would post it for those who don't have facebook. This is the video! :)

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!