Happy 4th...

Yesterday after church we all took a 4 hour nap so we decided that we would drive down to the river and watch the firework show after dinner. We knew it would be chaos, but figured we were going to be up for a while. The fire works were awesome... the girls loved every second of them. We were lucky enough to be right under them. When they were all over it was CRAZINESS trying to get out of there. It took us 2 hours to get home. It is maybe 20 minutes from our house if that says anything. All in all it was a good time and the girls enjoyed themselves. I am so happy to have Nater home this year to spend it with us...

Today we have plans to BBQ with some friends and see the fire work show on Ft. Campbell.

Hope you all have a safe and Happy 4th of July!!

Abe's A Daddy...

5/23/11

I can't believe how tiny these little guys were when they were born. We are so excited that they are finally here. From what I understand Ebi did great and there were no complications. She had 2 little boys. We were all hoping for some girls, but you never seem to get what ya want.

* This is Ebi (momma) and the 2 pups *

The puppies are only a couple of weeks old in this picture. Their little eyes weren't even open yet. Ebi is the best little momma. She takes great care of these 2 little boys. We have decided we are going to keep ours. His name is Theodore Roosevelt... go figure right?! We call him Teddy for short. The other one is sold, but for now we call him Winston. After Winston Churchill... I know, I know... you might think we are crazy, but believe it or not, Ebi's owners are the ones that named the puppies. They said in honor of Abe they wanted to keep the theme going.

Home At Last...

*Daddy and Reg's*

After what seems like an Eternity, Nate has arrived home safe and sound!! I am grateful for the sacrifices these men have made! It has been one tough year, but I think our family has learned so much and will continue to learn as we keep on our journey in this life. There was a time in the beginning of this deployment where I seriously thought I wasn't going to be able to make it through. I have learned we are all a lot stronger than we give ourselves credit for. I would like to thank our family, friends and most of all the ARMY family I have made over this last year. Without you all I don't know where the girls and I would be.

The Place We Call Home...

These pictures were taken with my iPhone so they are a little grainy... We have made a few changes since these photos so I will be adding some more pics soon. Just wanted to give you all an idea of what on post housing looks like. We moved in this house in July of 2010. I haven't been very good at keeping up my blog, but hope to keep on top of it now. I wasn't a big fan at first, but once I hung some things on the wall and got our stuff put where we wanted it... It now feels pretty homey.

2 Little Princesses...

We had known about this "Character Brunch" for a month before we finally went and the girls had been so excited. The girls were a little nervous about some of the characters, but were good to take pictures with most all of them. Kennedy was terrified of Shreck and Hulk. Anytime they came around she would hide behind my legs. I got her and Regs to take a pic with Iron Man because I told them Daddy liked Iron Man. I sure hope they enjoyed themselves. I know I did. I got a little emotional when I thought about Nate missin' out on the fun day. He had just barely left when we did this.

Regs and Kennerbug... I love you girls!!

Awww, The Joy's of Moving...

Can I just tell you how much I hate to move?! I have moved 9 times in 7 years now. I am gettin' pretty good at it let me tell ya. This was a much needed move and it went pretty smooth. The hardest part has been gettin' it all to fit in this tiny place and gettin' it all unpacked. I am just tired of unpacking. We got our keys to this place on July 1, but the movers moved us in on the 6th. I still have stuff in boxes and not a whole lot on the walls. I sent Nater a video of the place and his first call to me after he saw it went like this... "Lish, you need to either rent a storage or sell all that clutter." I just started laughing.

He then tells me that he will hang everything that is sitting on the floors. Like I said... I still haven't hung everything on the walls yet. They are on the floor where I want to hang them just haven't hung them. Nate is the "hanger upper" in our house.

So Welcome to our first "On Post" home...

Meet *Sir* Abraham Lincoln...

Nate came home from work one day and told the girls there were some Yorkie puppies for sale up the street. Of course they got soooo excited and wanted to go check them out. I knew if we went and looked at them we would end up with one of them so I asked how much they were. When he told me, I about chocked!! It was late so we decided that we would go the next day when daddy was off. The girls were so excited they waited all day by the windows watchin' for him...

As you can see they had waited so long they fell asleep. As soon as he got home we got in the car and headed over to see the puppies. When we got there we found out the momma was still pregnant. The girls were pretty sad so she told them she had one puppy left from the last litter, but he was 5 months old already. I took one look at him and told Nate.... NOWAY!! I wanted a girl puppy and I wanted her to be cute and small etc... (I know... I'm a big ol' baby)!! Anyway the woman tells us I will sell him for 200.00 cause he is gettin' older and I haven't been able to sell him. He looked so scruffy and not so cute in my opinion, but the price sure sounded nice. I told Nate lets leave and so we can talk about it. I didn't want to do anything on impulse. We had to really coax Regs to give him back to the woman. It broke my heart, but we told her we would be back in just a little while. We got in the car and Nate of course was sold on him and Reagan no longer cared if it was a boy or a girl so needless to say we went and bought him some things at the pet store then went back and got him. They had named him Taco. I was not lovin' that name and so we all started to discuss what we would name him. We had all kinds and then it hit me... "Nate, this is your boy. Let's name him Abraham Lincoln. We can call him Abe." Nate and I busted up laughing and everyone agreed this was going to be his name. So... meet Sir Abraham Lincoln...

Our *Ghetto Fabulous* Digs...

We lived in this place from

2/28/10-7/01/10

Like I said in the last post... we got here on Feb 28 and Nate left on March 2 for some training. He was gone for 1 month. So here I am in a new place with my girls, I knew no one and was feeling pretty overwhelmed, but I knew this is where I was suppose to be and was bound and determined to make this feel like home. I wanted to have everything unpacked and all set up before Nate got home because we only had a short time before he was going to be leaving. I busted my bum and got it all done. I didn't get any pictures of the upstairs, but I got our garage/pantry/backyard... lol. My poor girls wanted to play outside, but if you could only imagine where I lived... I was not letting them play out front.

The place was newer so that was nice, but the location was not so new. We had the smallest kitchen ever so we had to create a pantry system in the garage. It really didn't bother me except that it stunk horribly like the previous people kept animals out there. All in all I liked the place and thought I would be able to tough it out until Nater got home from Afghanistan, but nope... that didn't happen. Four days after he left 3 out of the 4 units got broken into. Mind you 2 of the families were home. I was awake and heard all kinds of noise, but thought nothing of it because my neighbors were extremely loud all hours of the night. As soon as I found out the next morning what had happened I called the property management and let them know I was leaving. That is just a short version of the story... it was not a pleasant experience let me tell ya. The ARMY was awesome... they had movers come pack me up and move me into a place on post with in 2 weeks. I was so thankful because at the time I was pretty nervous and was a little out of my mind.

We are definitely not in St. George anymore!!

Movin' to Fort Campbell...

I feel like I have been so busy... I have missed updating our little blog. My hope is to be able to keep this up again. I am going to start from February until now so...

Everyone knows Nate joined the ARMY back in August of 2009. He went away for Basic Training and we didn't see him until Christmas Exodus. He then left for Airborne School... it was suppose to be for a couple of weeks, but turned into 2 months. We found out that we were being stationed at Fort Campbell and were OK with that until they dropped the BOMB on us. He was going to be deploying sometime between May 1 and the 15. I was of course devastated and didn't know what I was going to do. Everything in me wanted to stay in St. George, but Nate wanted us to move to Kentucky. After major melt downs etc... I decided to move to KY. With the help of family and friends, we were able to get our house all packed up. My mother in law and father in law helped us move our stuff ALL the way to Fort Campbell. It took us 3 days and was one interesting trip. I am one of the biggest wimps and I drove through tunnels, over bridges and in a pretty bad storm. I handled it all pretty well if I do say so myself. My girls were amazing... they really didn't complain the whole time.

We arrived in KY/TN on February 28. It had been almost 2 months since the girls and I had seen Nate. It was awesome to know that we were going to be a family again even if it was only for a couple of months.

Happy BiRtHDaY Kennerbug...

I can't believe my BABY is 3 years old today!! She was so excited from the time she woke up until the time she went to bed... We woke up and had her fave breakfast (cinnamon pull apart bread) then headed out to let her pick out a gift and her cake. We were lucky to have Auntie Candice here visiting, but really wished Abby and Dom could of come with her.

We are also really missin' the DADDY on this special day, but know he is doing a great job protecting us!!

She picked this little dress out and Auntie Candice let her put it on in the store (Gotta love Auntie Candice). She was in Heaven!!

When we got to Wal-Mart, we couldn't decide on just one of the Princess cakes so we bought 4 (Ariel, Cinderella, Belle, and Tiana). They were adorable and tasted fantabulous!! Ariel was my FAVE... it was decorated so cute!!

As you can see, Kennedy enjoyed them very much...

After we ate cake and ice cream we headed over to Ci Ci's Pizza... Kennedy LOVES pizza and I knew she would pick it for dinner.

Kennerbug... I sure hope you enjoyed your day! We love you little lady!!

Happy BiRtHDaY Regs...

The Big ol' 5

I am so sad, but yet very proud that my little/big girl is 5 today. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she kept telling me, "I donno." I made a couple of suggestions and one of them was gettin' here ears pierced. I was totally shocked when she said, "Momma, I want to get earrings." I told her that it would hurt and she still insisted. So we got our GPS out and found a Claire's.

We had such a fun day together (just us girls), but we really wished our Daddy was home to celebrate with us. He was at least able to call her and wish her a Happy Birthday. It made her day to here his voice... you should of seen her little face light up. Daddy is Reagan's best friend!!

We also made a trip to Wal-Mart so she could pick out a cake and some ice cream. She picked a cute little strawberry cake. It was actually really good!!

I think she had an OK birthday with her momma and sisser. Maybe next year we will know people and we can actually have a little party ;)

Proud to be an Army Wife...

I wear no uniforms...

no Blues or Army Greens,

but I am in the Army...

in the ranks rarely seen.

I have no Rank upon my shoulders...

Salutes I do not give,

but the Military world...

is the place where I live.

I'm not in the Chain of Command...

orders I do not get,

but my Husband is the one who does...

this...

I can not forget.

I'm not the one who fires a weapon...

who puts my life on the line,

but my job is just as tough...

I'm the one left behind.

My husband is a Patriot...

a Brave and Pride Filled Man.

The call to serve his Country...

not all can understand.

Behind the lines...

I see the things...

NEEDED to keep this Country free.

My husband makes the sacrifice,

but so do our kids and me.

I love the man I married...

The Army is his life,

So I pledge to support my Hero...

and stand among the Silent Ranks...

known as...

The Army Wife!

-Unknown Author

This is AWESOME...

I recieved this in an email... you have to check it out if you are a Twilight fan. It is Hilarious!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVy8Dr_SxWg

Peacock Anyone?...

So I'm sittin in my car waiting for Regs to come out of Preschool and I notice this huge bird lookin thing sittin on this car in front of us. I decide to get out to see what the heck it was and got a little nervous cause I had no idea what it was. As I was tryin to get close to it... the teacher came out and said, "What are you doing?" I pointed over to the car and she told me it was a peacock and it just mills around all over the neighborhood... my girls thought it was the coolest thing ever so we took some pictures.

Pickin Up Our Soldier...

The girls and I were so excited to be pickin the Daddy up from the Airport

We got the call early in the morning letting us know he would be there earlier than expected so we rushed down to Vegas to get him... The picture above was us gettin ready to head into the airport to get him. The girls were ecstatic!!

As he was comin down the escalator Reg's got pretty excited...

Kennedy on the other hand wasn't to sure for a minute, but warmed up really fast...

The happy fam finally together after almost 5 months...

We have 2 weeks with him and we will be stuck to him like glue until we drop him off to go back!!