Last Time (we hope)

Last Saturday we said good bye one last time (we hope). His R&R didn't last as long as I was hoping but we are thankful we got what we got. It wasn't as tearful as it has been, but we are old pro's at this now. We all shed a couple of tears but by the time we got home it was back to normal. I'm glad though. We all miss Dan very much but we are ready to get this whole thing over with and the sooner he goes, the sooner he comes home. For good.

Bronwyn and Zuko

Bronwyn wasn't sure what to make of our newest family member. She hasn't quite figured out that he's bigger than she is. It's funny though that he gets very jealous of her when it should be the other way around. She loves trying to test her limits with him. She smacks pats his nose, tummy and back.

Daddy and Bronwyn

Dan has had very little time with Bronwyn. It has saddened me greatly to know that she hasn't had the time with her daddy that her siblings had. But he was able to spend some real quality time with her while he was home. For that I'm so thankful. I was able to capture a few of those moments on film. :)

9 months old

Our little girl is 9 months old! Dan got to spend this day with her. She has really loved having him around. It took a day or two for her to realize who he was and for her to be ok with him holding her but after that she was all about her daddy and wanted to be wherever he was. I'm so glad!

Her stats thus far:
weight: 25.5 pounds
height: about the same as last month
eating almost anything
wears size 12mo clothes
and best of all
SHE'S CRAWLING!!!! she started this feat while Dan was here! I'm so glad he got to witness one of her firsts!!!

Her personality is blooming everyday. She's so happy and loves to have people talk to her.  

It's a BOY!!

We have added a new member to our family! No i'm not pregnant.

We've been wanting to get a dog for a VERY long time. Like the entire time we've been married. Dan and I both grew up with pets and having a home without a four legged member always made us sad. So we finally bucked up and headed to the pound and found our furry bundle of love. We got lucky in that this fellow had just arrived to the pound and we were the first to see him. We fell in love with him right away. The pound had named him Joe. He was a stray found (amazingly enough) on our street. It was meant to be I guess. We filled out all the necessary paperwork and he was sent to the vet to get neutered and the next day we were able to pick him up. He's so playful. The kids love him!

Here he is: Zuko (we changed his name) 32 pounds, 4 months old of furry fun and love. We are so excited to be his people!

He does not like the camera. He wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get a decent picture of him. He is a lab/mastiff mix. He gets his brindle coloring from the mastiff side. So if you haven't guessed....he's gonna be a big boy. 

Our Disneyland/California Adventures Vacation

Wow! What a worldwind week we just had. Dan and I talked about taking the kids to disneyland while we was home, but wasn't sure if we wanted to do it when he came home for good or during his break. I checked ticket prices and we decided to do it during his break. Of course that meant that the kids would miss school, but it was totally worth it!! So we saved up and I got the tickets and hotel all confirmed and ready to go! (it's so nice to not have to worry about a credit card bill after the fact!)

This will just be a small sampling of our trip. I took a ton of pictures and well, can't put them all here. Anyway, this will give a small idea of what our week was like.

So to keep this trip secret we didn't tell anyone. I mentioned it to the teachers only so I could get work for the kids so they wouldn't fall behind. I picked a great week since they only missed 4 days of school. I applaud the teachers for not mentioning it to the kids! As part of our package deal we got a character call and I set it up for the day we left so at that point the kids would know where we were going. With all the packing etc, they knew it wasn't going to be a day trip, but we kept it to ourselves as to how long and where we were going. Once they found out they were bouncing off the walls!!  I honestly don't know who's more excited, us or them!!!! I've never been so this is really exciting for me! The character call was from Mickey and Minnie. It was really neat to have them call and welcome us to Disneyland and tell us they couldn't wait to see us. *happy*

We got to our hotel and ordered pizza for dinner. Too tired to really do much that night we sat around and watched tv and then hit the hay early. Seth and I got to watch some fireworks from the window and then we fell asleep. Tuesday came and there was enough excitement to fill a football stadium. We got dressed, ate breakfast and off we went.

Day 1-the drive to Anaheim

Day 2 - Disneyland, here we come!!

Day 2

 Day 3 California Adventure

Day 4 Back to Disneyland & Downtown Disney

The week was awesome! I'm so glad we were able to save up for this trip. This will DEFINITELY be a vacation we will NEVER forget!