School Pictures

School pictures have arrived!
Wesley 7 years old.

Wes doesn't like his and wants a retake. Wesley's class picture.

Berlyn 9 years old.

Berlyn's class picture.

Book Report

For homework this week Wes had to do a book report and make a character from the story on a can. He choose a book we got from the Family Support Center called "My Daddy is an Airman" and wanted to make his dad out of the can. He was very happy with the way it turned out. So was I because my creative juices aren't that great!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! For the first time in a really long time I was wishing we were back in Utah so we could go trick-or-treating on Saturday and not worry about it being on Sunday. Our ward doesn't do a trunk-or-treat, so we were really disappointed. However, we ended up having a lot of fun anyway. Once a month a group on bases hosts a get together for all the families of deployed members. This month they did a Halloween carnival where they had games and food and fun for the kids. They got lots of candy and had a good time. The week of Halloween we crashed Alex's cousins wards Halloween party and trunk-or-treat and Saturday night we crashed another ward in the stake's trunk or treat. We ended up lots of good candy, and I finally took the last of it today and put it away so we don't end up eating it all this weekend.
Andy as Luigi (this past week Andy actually passed Super Mario Bros on the WII, how pathetic that my 4 year old did that, and I was in a bubble!)

Berlyn as a Fifty's girl (I love this picture of her.) Macady fishing and dressed as Cinderella

Its the Mario brothers!

Playing a game at the carnival!

With our newly carved pumpkins, trying to get all four of them to look at me at once was a challenge!

Andy was afraid to touch the pumpkin "guts"

Macady put her hand in and tried to help, but didn't like the way it felt.

And this is Macady, she is such a silly girl!

Happy Halloween!

Quilts

Before Alex left, we heard of an organization in Virginia that made quilts for children of deployed parents. So we gathered 9 pictures for each child and sent them off. Well, I didn't know if we would ever see them or not. But last week I received an email saying that the quilts were done. We received the quilts this week and they are darling. This is a link to the website of the organization that made them and you can see pictures of the volunteers working on the kids quilts.http://www.mspquiltingangels.org/asymca/
Wesley

Berlyn received a pillow because she is older.

The lady that helped with our quilts realized that we were LDS when she saw the picture of Alex and Berlyn on her baptism day. She put alot of thought into making Berlyn's pillow and centered it around the gospel.

Andy

Macady

We are so grateful for those people that give their time and talents to help others. We feel truly blessed to have received these quilts and pray that our Heavenly Father will bless the lives of those that are helping others like us.

For the past couple of weeks Alex has been telling me I need to update this blog. Well, I don't know if it is obvious to anybody but me, but I really don't like blogging. Maybe if I had more interesting things to say it would be better, but I also hate writing down my feelings. I have never been a good journal keeper. But Alex has been keeping a journal sent he left and he hasn't done that since his mission, so I guess I can try and do my part.
So much has happened since we got home from our cruise. About a week later we found out that Alex was deploying to Afghanistan and that day we found out we were expecting baby number 5! We had prayed and fasted for many months whether we should have another baby and finally felt it was right, and so it was a real shocker to realize that Alex would be gone when the baby was born. We were told that Alex would leave in June and be back hopefully in February.
Well it doesn't take a scientist to figure out that the baby was due sometime in December. So we prayed about whether we should try and get out of this deployment or if Alex should continue to go. We both felt very strongly that this is where he needed to be at this time. We don't know why, and maybe we never will know why Alex is gone right now, but having that answer gave us the ability to prepare for him leaving and for us to have this little baby.

Alex left June 26 for 5 weeks of training in New Jersey. He then went straight to Afghanistan. He is at a little tiny base in the middle of nowhere, but not away from danger. There are only about 30 individuals at this base and Alex is the only Air Force member, the rest are Army.

We have been truly blessed that he is able to call us almost everyday and get on the webcam almost everyday. I am hoping that I am smart enought to hook up the old laptop at the hospital so he can see the baby as soon after it is born as possible. The deployment has affected everyone in different ways. Macady has had a hard time sleeping and still asks where he is. She talks about him all the time and will tell me that he left on a airplane. Andy just wants his dad to come home so he can play the WII with him. Berlyn and Wes have handled it pretty well. They understand a whole lot more than the little ones. Berlyn really misses just talking to her dad and asking him questions. He is very open with her and I know she really likes that.

My friend told me about a husband and wife in Missouri that makes these pillows for children of a deployed parent. I took a picture of each kid with Alex before he left and sent them to the people. The kids love their pillows and many nights I go to check on the kids and find them hugging their "daddy pillows". I know it makes them feel better. This deployment has been the hardest for me. I miss Alex more than I thought I would and instead of getting better, it just feels like I miss him more. After more than 10 years of marriage, it has been really hard to be seperated from him. And being pregnant hasn't helped. I miss the help he always gives me. I am so tired at the end of the day from doing everything. But it has truly made me appreciate all that he does when he is home.

He always does dinner dishes with me and the kids and bathes the little ones, but I miss hearing him play with the kids and having fun with them. I miss just talking and laughing. I would give anything to just have a hug or hold his hand. As much as I hate him being gone, I am grateful for how it makes me appreciate him so much more and love him that much more. I am grateful that he is willing to leave us and go help protect our freedoms and help our country out.

So besides Alex leaving we have had two deaths in our family. Alex's step-dad passed away in May and two weeks later his Aunt passed away. It was a difficult time, but a wonderful time to teach our children the plan of salvation and that one day we will see Grandpa again. There wasn't time to go on a family vacation before Alex left, but Berlyn has all next year figured out for us. She wants to go to the beach, Disneyland, Legoland, Sea World, and to Utah. I told her maybe we could go to the beach next summer and most likely Utah, but don't count on Disneyland with a new born. We did so much swimming this summer that everyone has a white butt and a really tan body. The kids did really well in swimming lessons and Berlyn should be able to finish the lesosns next year and Macady will be able to start. We are now in school. Berlyn is in 4th grade, Wes 2nd, and I am helping Andy at home with preschool stuff and Macady just does what a 2 year old does best! I originally decided to not find out what we are having since this is our last baby. But Berlyn and Alex wanted to know. So I took Berlyn with me to my ultrasound and the tech told her and gave her a picture that she could mail to her dad. They did a really good job of keeping the secret. But when I went to my next dr. appointment, she accidentially told me. She thought I knew and she felt horrible. So it looks like another little girl is joining our family. We are all really excited. We only have 12 more weeks to go. I am scared to death to have this one without Alex, but I guess it will happen with or without him. I am grateful for all that we have been blessed with and pray that the rest of Alex's deployment goes smoothly and safely for him!

Freedom of the Seas

Alex has always wanted to go on a cruise. I have had my fears about it. You know, Titanic did sink! So for our 10th anniversary, Alex said we were going. We of course, had to go big!!! So we picked a 7 night cruise on the second largest cruise ship in the world. It was the Freedom of the Seas with the cruise company Royal Caribbean. We had three ports to stop at and three full days of sailing.
We set sail on a Sunday afternoon in really stormy weather. Alex got sick to his stomach that night and I was really dizzy that day and had a bad headache. Luckily we had some medicine we took and it helped a lot. On Monday morning, we were at the Bahamas. The island we went to was Cococay Island. It was still stormy and very windy, but we decided to get off the ship and see what we could do. We ended up going on a Jet Ski tour and it was amazing. Despite the cold weather, we had lots of fun. I was almost thrown off the jet ski nurmous times, but it made for lots of laughs. We also went on a fun water slide, and happened to be on the only adults doing it at the time!

Tuesday was a day of sailing and we explored the ship more and enjoyed eating lots of good food and ice cream cones. Wednesday found us at the Virgin Islands. We took a Catarmaran and went snorkeling. There was a sunken ship that we were able to see and some very beautiful fish. They had rum punch for us to drink on the way home, but we decided to keep the Word of Wisdom and not drink it. We then headed into town and found some coloring changing shirts and nail polish. The shirts are white until you go outside, and then they change color in the sun. The kids think they are awesome. The nail polish is clear until you go outside and then it is bright red.

Thursday we docked at Saint Maarten. We had some good friends that just moved from our Tucson ward to that island. So we asked if they would be our guides for the day. They took us to an abondened fort that the French used to fight off the pirates, and there were still canons there. We also went to a beautiful beach and played. Or rather I kept getting carried and dunked by the waves. We ate at a restaurant on the beach that is right by the airport and the airplanes fly right over us to land. They were so close and it was so loud. We had a good time being with our friends and enjoying the wonderful weather.

Friday we were at sea all day. We were so tired that we lounged in the lounge chairs and read books and ate ice cream cones. I froze and was the only one dressed in jeans, tennis shoes and my jacket while everyone around me was sun bathing in their sexy bikinis!

Saturday we went rock climbing and ice skating. We were laughing that we were in the middle of the ocean ice skating. But it was fun. I again froze as we were lounging so needless to say, I didn't get a killer tan. I burnt my shoulders pretty bad snorkeling and at the beach, but oh well. Alex got a really nice burn on his shins, but the back of his legs are as white as ever. We were able to see a magic show, comedy show, a band that looks and sounds like the Beatles, an actrobatic act, and lots of singing and dancing shows. We wore ourselves out, but had a wonderful time being with each other. We were fed great food and met some wonderful people. I think one of the best things was surprising everyone that we were on a cruise for our 10th anniversary and not our honeymoon. And then when we said we had left our four kids at home they were in even more shock. So it made us feel young! Maybe one day we will cruise again, but for now we are good. It was a great experience and we are so glad we did it.

Picture #1 first formal night; picture #2 random pictures they took; picture #3 second formal night; picture #4 in the dining room we ate at; picture #5 they sang happy anniversary to us and gave us a treat; picture #6 after we got done snorkeling.

Berlyn's party

We have decided that our kids can have a birthday party when they turn 5, 8 and 10 or 12 whatever we decide later. But last year we surprised Berlyn for her birthday and took the family to Disneyland so I promised her she could have one this year. So yesterday was the big day. Her birthday isn't until the 23rd, but next weekend is the big Air Show on base and the base will be crazy, plus Alex has to work and I needed his help. Berlyn wanted to play games and then we had a ice cream bar. We played musical chairs, hot potato, Who Am I game, where you have a name taped to your back and you ask questions to try and figure out who you are, and a Hula Hoop contest. Plus we had a pinata that was shaped like an ice cream cone. It was crazy, but she had lots of fun! We had vanilla ice cream in a sugar cone bowl and then they could choose from chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, strawberries, sweet tart bites, m&m's, sprinkles, gummy bears and bananas. They were loaded up on sugar, but had fun making their own sundaes. Hot Potato!!

Lined up to do the Pinata.