Wordless Wednesday

Say Cheese!

18 Months Old!

Our sweet baby girl turned 18 months old last week.  I can hardly believe it.  She is turning into such a fun, sassy, amazing little girl and I absolutely love that I get to spend every day with her.

The first picture shows her normal, sweet smile...the second shows just how goofy she is. :)

We are in the final countdown!  This week is jam packed with things to keep us busy, and soon enough I will be posting pictures of my whole family together again!!

Easter 2012

Claire and I had a great Easter weekend. We started early with a great package from Grammy. She is the best about sending boxes when we need a good pick me up. Claire had some great surpises, but her favorite were these Minnie Mouse bubbles. As you can see, she was SO excited about them!

The Easter Bunny came agan this year, and Claire got a new movie, a couple books, and a couple other little things.

Silly face while opening presents.
WOW! was Claire's favorite word while opening this year. Minnie Mouse bath toys are the best!

My sweet girl in her Easter outfit.

Jaci, Cayden and Mason.

For those of you who don't talk to me often, Jaci is one of the main reasons I made it through this deployment. She is an amazing friend, her boys are so sweet, and she deals with Claire and I with a smile on her face. I am so thankful for her. She is an exceptionally strong woman, and she proved that when she had Mason. Mason was born about a month ago, while our husbands were in Afghanistan. I watched Cayden, her mom was by her side, and she had this baby with out her husband. Can you imagine? I can't. I have watched her go from worrying about how she would do this to mastering her two boys while all by herself and I am so proud of her. Tonight while we were out to dinner, we were talking about how close Mason is to meeting his Daddy. She said to me, "He doesn't even know his voice." I had a hard time keeping it together. He doesn't. He knows my voice more than his daddy's. These next few weeks can not go fast enough. We need our husbands back, our kids need their daddy, and even more important than that, Mason needs to MEET his daddy. I can't wait to watch that moment.

Me and my sweet girl. Pardon my WHITE legs.

These two are the best of friends, as is evident in this picture. Cayden adores Claire, and Claire pretty much thinks he is the best thing ever. She laughs at him like no one else and loves to give him hugs and kisses. They are wonderful play mates, and get very excited to see each other.

This was our last holiday with out Bud. Thank, God. I can't even explain how thankful I am for everyone's thought and prayers and the fact that I will see my husband in just a few weeks. Video chatting is wonderful, but just another reminder of how much I miss him.

Stay tuned for more updates, and in just a few weeks, seeing our family TOGETHER again.

I CAN NOT wait.

6 Months

Bud has been gone for 6 months. That means 6 months worth of meals, bed times, diapers, dog walks, doctors appts, illnesses, lawn mows, garbage days and cleaning that I have done by myself. (Except of course for when I was home over the holidays, and while my parents were here.) I'm tired.

6 months ago, Claire wasn't even 1. She was starting to really master walking, but was still a little unsteady at times. She wasn't really saying much. She was taking two naps a day. She was pretty quiet, extremely well behaved (pretty much) all the time, and just overall very easy going. She had just a few teeth, and barely enough hair to put in tiny little big tails.

Now, Claire is almost 1.5 years old (say WHAT?!?!). She is walking, running, trying to jump, climbing on furniture, trying to climb in and out of the bath tub and has completely mastered her slide. She has a decent voccabulary that is growing almost daily; her favorite words are mama, papa, ada (daddy), lacey, please, thank you, all done, uh huh and fish. She knows where her nose, teeth and hair are. She fights taking one nap most days. She is LOUD, opinionated, extremely sassy, and so incredibly funny. She has 10 teeth, and enough hair to just pull right back in a pony tail.

Bud has no idea what he is coming home to. We were able to video chat for a while today, which was WONDERFUL. Claire was being her normal self, and threw a fit at one point. He laughed hysterically. Except for the minute long videos I send him multiple times a week, this was really the first time he has seen this new side of our little girl.

I can not wait to watch his reaction to her as he soaks her in. She is a completely different kid than when he left. She is SO much like him it is unbelievable to me. She hasn't spent anytime with him in 6 months, yet multiple times a day, I can't help but giggle because she does things, says things, give me looks that are EXACTLY her daddy. We are in for quite the adventure with this little lady. :)

The countdowwn is on. I have been a complete space case the past few days, because all I can seem to think about is how close I am to having him home. SO close to waking up and seeing his face, to listening for his motorcycle at the end of the day, to laughing til my cheeks hurt, to NOT taking out the garbage anymore. :) SO CLOSE to having my favorite people in the world in one house, being a complete family again. I'm so excited.