My Baby starts Kindergarten

How do I even describe how emotional it was for me to send my first born to Kindergarten? Words just can't do it. Only those who have experienced this can understand. I was a wreck for weeks before his first day. My Husband really helped me through this. Seth holds a very special place in my heart. He is my first born. And in many ways my best friend.


I love his little heart.
I love his compassion.
I love his goofy side.
I love his need to make everyone follow the rules.
I love his patience with his brother.
I love how he makes me a better person.

He forever will be, my first born.

He was so excited for Kindergarten! Seth has always loved school and I knew I would have the harder time with this transition. The sweetest memory is that Adam was the one to cry when we said goodbye to Seth. Adam LOVES his big brother and really did not want to leave him. Seth put his things up and sat down on the carpet with 2 other little boys. He said goodbye to us and that was it for him. Adam on the other hand cried for 5 minutes after leaving his brother at school....

Am I ready for this?!

In the middle of moving cross country, being in a different home my sweet little ONE year old decides that he wants to use the potty! Am I ready for this? We all know that potty training is a pain in the butt, takes a lot of patience, and TIME! Well it didn't matter if I was ready, Adam was! It was almost tooo easy as everything has been with him. He is my sweet little angel but also has a very stubborn side (wonder where he gets that, haha!) and he wanted a potty!! Potty training in TLF it was!

Dad's Birthday

As I've said earlier My Dad came out to Ohio for a month to help us while we got settled. We were lucky enough that he was here for his birthday! We went to lunch and than to the Air Force Museum which is at Wright Patterson AFB. I was a little worried at first not knowing how the boys would do in a Museum but they had a blast! They both loved the planes and in one section you were able to go inside them. A special treat was an old Air Force One plane that we got to go inside. My camera died at that point so I have no pictures of AFONE. I'm sure I will be back and I am already looking forward to it!

Seth loved this part!

My Sister Wanda and I. Oh the story of her arm....yikes! Well at this point we were in escrow. Along with her Hubby they came to the home inspection since my BIL is very knowledge about homes and how they are built. Well unfortunately, Wanda fell right outside our front door and broke her arm! I felt so bad! It kept her out of work for weeks.....:(

Loren at the EOD exhibit- very cool!

All the men in my life! I am blessed!

Seth was being a goof that day and all the pictures of him he is doing something funny! I love his funny little self. He is so my Son.

TLF livin

This what we did in TLF while waited to close on your home, a lotta nothing. haha!

My Dad and my Boys

Loves of my life

on the way to Ohio

After 2 weeks in California we made our way to Ohio...err, well St. Louis actually. Unfortunately our car did not make it (as promised!) to St. Louis before we did. We tired to change our airfare to Dayton but it was going to cost a small fortune. Here comes my Big Sis to the rescue! Wanda and my Dad (who was visiting from Vegas) drove to St. Louis to pick us up...6 hours one way! What a blessing!!! This is what I mean when I talk about my family, bottom line we are there for each other!!! We drove that night to her house and stayed 2 nights before we headed to Wright Patterson AFB. My Brother in Law Brian lent us his truck since we didn't have a car yet...seriously, they are awesome! We drove an hour to Wright Patt and checked into TLF. We couldn't of asked for more, they gave us a 2 bedroom duplex with laundry and a yard. Talk about an answer to our prayers!! I was dreading spending 2 months in a stuffy hotel room with 2 active little boys.

Here are some pics on the flight to Ohio.


Silly boys, Adam did AMAZING on the flights!

Monday came and we met our Realtor and hit the ground hard housing hunting. My Dad watched the boys while we looked at around 40 houses. We quickly learned that if we wanted to live near the base and live in a house that we really liked we'd be in a bad school district. That was not an option so we widened the search and bought a prefect home for us, in an excellent school district 30 minutes from the base. Its a small community called Springboro, and its awesome!! More to come...

California Part 1

After a full day of traveling we made it to California! The previous days had been so emotional but it is was AWESOME to see my family!! Being in my Mom's home filled with family and laughter took all the tears away and made me very excited to be back in the US! Our trip to California was too short (2 weeks went by tooo fast!) but we had a blast. We were always on the go, tons of pics to post.

July 4th BBQ/Birthday Party

Seth, Sierra, and Sage

waiting for fireworks- Me, Becky, and my Mom

This is how the kids entertained themselves while waiting for fireworks LOL Seth is trying!

The gang, plus my Niece Ashley's Boyfriend Cody and minus Adam he went back to the hotel with Loren. Jet-Lag and a toddler are not a fun thing. Poor guy was exhausted!

Me, Kim, and Becky

Pics are out of order, back at the bbq before fireworks

Popper time- Fireworks are illegal in California and no one had been to Mexico in a long time so poppers it was...kids loved them

Becky

Seth could live in the water

Catalina Island

My Mom treated us and took us to Catalina Island....a.ka. a bit of paradise.

Waiting to take the boat to Catalina Island, a very small tourist Island off the coast of California. Its beautiful there. Before Loren and I had kids we spent a long weekend at the Island. We have countless memories about that weekend. Its just a lovely place!

Glass Bottom Boat

For some strange reason Adam loved Sage's stroller....we have the SAME stroller but Becky's is brown and mine is blue. But for some reason Adam wanted the brown one. Spoiled rotten I tell ya.

My Mom and Becky

Relaxing with drinks on the Island

Raging Waters

Seth was in his element here!

We had a great day! I loved this place as a kid and it was awesome to take my boys there!

We made it to Baltimore!

This is the first thing we saw once we passed customs. Yep, more tears...there was a flight of Soldiers coming home from the War and the USO/Volunteers were there to welcome them home!! This is something I will never forget! It made me proud to be an American and happy to be back in the US! But yes, tears were flowing!


Weird thing is we actually had the same flight out of Germany as the Evans family. Our families had become great friends and we were so happy we were on the same flight from Germany to BWI. We were happy to lend a hand to help them. I thought I had it hard but once I saw the Evans clan I changed my mind....5 kidos under 5, 15 bags, and a dog!! We miss them dearly and were sad to say goodbye.

Loren's in heaven!

Since the total flight time from Germany to Los Angeles was going to total over 20 hours we decided to stay the night once we got over the pond in Baltimore. It was the best choice we could have made. It gave the boys a break from airports/plane rides, a chance to rest, and of course hit the MALL!!! We were up early the next day for our adventure in California!!