Olivia's Elmo Birthday Bash

Olivia had an Elmo Birthday Party this year! Grandpa Steve & Grandma Sue were so nice to allow us to have it at their house. Without them,Chad, & Brittney we would of never been able to pull it off! So thank you so much from the bottom of my heart! Thank you also for everyone that came, and not only helped me out by taking pictures, video taping, holding, feeding, collecting garbage, and everything and anything else you can think of but helped Olivia have a wonderful day! David you can never be replaced, and you will never know how much you are loved or needed. But you can rest assure that our family and friends know how to step up to the plate when you are busy fighting for us all! Olivia recieved a ton of gifts which she was excited about each one! She was very polite and made sure to comment on them all! Everything was cute, and pretty! She recieved a fish named Dorthy just like Elmo from Grandma Sue! The two of them were nice enough to also share one with each child that came to the party! Sorry Aunt Brenda! She took home 5! :) All of her Grandparents, & Great Grandparents were able to attend! She is a very lucky little girl! She also recieved a Big Wheel from her daddy! It was certainly a favorite of hers! We had great food and I must say that my personal favorite was the cake! Thank you again for everyone that came! We love you all!

Happy 2nd Birthday Olivia!

Today our little girl turns 2! I can't believe how time flies by! She is super smart and acts older each day! She has lots of new words, and actually puts 3 to 4 words together now! She is a busy body, never slows down, and a great copy cat! She at least has me on my toes! She misses Daddy terribly but always enjoys getting to go to bed with her Daddy pillow! We wish he could be here to help celebrate her big day! But Daddy just know that we love you, miss you and are thinking of you! Olivia I hope you have a wonderful day!

The last few weeks have been a horrible roller coaster! Everyday we waited to hear when David is going to leave or when he is going to get delayed. But while we were waiting we were busy enjoying our time, packing, and cleaning. We got to go to the swimming pool and Olivia loved it! A few days ago my Dad came down and helped us get ready to come back to MT. The plan was to drop David off at the plane and then we would continue our trip to MT. But of course the delays kept coming. But the ride was over when my Dad, kids and I pulled out of the drive way leaving David at home. It was a horrible day but it had to be done. David finally made it on a plane later that evening and made it to his first stop early the next morning. We haven't heard if he has made it to the final destination or not but should arrive sometime today. We will keep you posted and send you an address as soon as we hear!

Never say Never

We made promises. We swore to each other that this day would never come. We would never be "those people." You know..."those people" ... they show up at a function and both side doors of their vehicle SLIDE back to reveal a bunch of screaming kids. They pop open that gigantic HATCH and pull out the world's largest stroller. That would never be us....right? Here's the deal. We're grown ups now. It's time to be responsible. So, we finally stepped up to the plate and made a life changing decision. We bought a MINIVAN. You read that right...a minivan. We showed up at the dealership and checked our egos at the door. They can hold a bunch of kids, a stoller, and tons of luggage. Oh yeah, and they get great gas mileage. But...for anyone that knows Heather and I, you know that we wouldn't settle for some plain jane vanilla minivan. We had to go all out! We bought a 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT 25th Anniversary Edition. And it's black as the night itself. Here's the details: 251 hp engine 6 speed automatic transmission Black Paint with Mopar Appearance Package Dark Charcoal Leather interior w/ 1st and 2nd row heated seats Stow and Go Seats - 2nd and 3rd rows fold completely into the floor Dual DVD System - 3 screens and two different players GPS Navigation 30GB hard drive - for storing all of our MP3s and pics Sirius Satellite Radio Bluetooth Automatic Side/Rear Doors As you can see by the pics...it's the "Bad Boy" of minivans. We think it's awesome, and I guess that's all that really matters!!! What do you think? p.s. Full Window Tint - Tomorrow!

Look at all the PISHIES!

As you can see David is still here! This defiantly is not a bad thing but it is funny how we don't really know how to act or what to do. Everyday of our life is so busy and every weekend crammed with "Kodak Moments" that when we received this bonus week and weekend we didn't know what to do! IT WAS AWESOME! Saturday we literally just hung out at home! There was nothing that HAD to be done because it already was! There was no where to go or no where to be because we weren't suppose to be here! Most of the day was spent in our PJ's just hanging out together. Sunday we got up, got ready and went to church but just not at the right time. So we went down to Sandy, UT south of SLC and went to the aquarium. It is just a "sample" of what is to come so it was very small. But actually full of fun fish or what Olivia calls "phishies",and other water life. It took us less than and hour to get through! But she loved it! Here is look of our trip!

4th of July

As many of you know the 4th of July is a big time of year for David & I! We just celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary and absolutely love the 4th of July. Well, this year was different than any other year for us. David is getting ready to deploy very very soon. Therefore, we thought that our little time we had left would be much better spent with our kids. The first time in 27 years that I have not been home in Montana for this weekend! But you know we had a wonderful weekend and really enjoyed hanging out with just our little family. Don't get us wrong we missed everyone back home but there is always next year! We decided to head to Provo, UT for the weekend. We went down on Friday and hung out at a park where they had lots of vendors, food, games, music and fun. The biggest parade in UT was on Saturday morning. We spent the night at a hotel in Orem which is just a few miles north of Provo. In order for us to be able to have a spot to watch the parade, David got up at 2:45 a.m., took a cab down to the parade route and saved us seats. He was lucky to make it there when he did cause the whole parade route was full of people...or stuff saving spots. You had to have at least one person there or the cops would move your stuff. The kids and I arrived just in time for the start at 8:30 a.m. (Takes a little time to get the three of us ready!) The parade was awesome and the spot was perfect! Being a little tired we headed back to the hotel for rest. That night we were given tickets to the Stadium of Fire. It is a huge show they put on at the BYU stadium. They were honoring the military and allowed us to sit down on the field. There were dancers, performers, The Jonas Brothers, Shedaisey and a ceremony that burned a flag. We even got a fly over of F-16's and fabulous FIREWORKS!!! They were unbelievable! The kids did great and we enjoyed our Fourth of JULY! We hope you did too! WE MISS YOU ALL!

CAMPING!!

This weekend was a really fun one for us. Our good friends Brian and Tory Brady invited us up to Bear Lake for a camping trip. We tried to explain to them that people like us with two young kids do NOT do well on camping trips! But...after a couple of long conversations, we finally decided to give it a shot. We got up really early (thanks Sawyer) and decided we would head to IHOP for a little breakfast. It was a good time because both of the kids were on their best behavior. From there, we started the 2 hour drive up to Bear Lake. All I can say is that Utah and the Bear Lake area are absolutely beautiful! It's this HUGE, bright blue lake up in the mountains. It's truely stunning. We met up with the Brady's at the KOA campground and then headed to the beach. When I say beach, I mean an ACTUAL beach. It was like we were on a tropical island or something. We had fun building sandcastles, riding jet skis, and drifting along in a paddle boat. It was really fun. Next we went back to the campsite and Tory cooked dinner for everyone. Thanks Tory! The kids played and we sat around the campfire and talked. Then the event we had been dreading....BEDTIME!!! Sawyer went right to bed, but Olivia needed a 20 minute drive around the lake to fall asleep. We finally got them both asleep and we all crawled into the same bed. We got up a couple of times throughout the night, but overall it was a success! We got up, had some breakfast and then started the drive home. I'm really glad we ended up going. It was a ton of fun and a great experience for us to have as a family.

22 Months Old

Last night we celbrated Olivia's 22 month birthday! I decided to surprise David & Olivia with an Elmo birthday party. David will be gone for Olivia's 2 year birthday and I didn't want him to miss out. There is nothing like watching her excitment over Elmo, presents, cake and balloons! We had so much fun! We all wore Elmo shirts, ate Elmo cake, opened Elmo gifts and even had our good friends the Brady's over for cake!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful father's in our lives! We hope you had a great day! I think if you asked David he would say he had a GREAT day! First of all he was here and able to spend the whole day with his kids! David got to sleep in a little, had an awesome breakfast, and opened gifts. David got a bunch of things that were needed for the upcoming deployment, a monkey with the kids voices, and a speacial box of Lucky Charms. David loves them and Olivia gets them when she goes over to the neighbors house. I asked her to pick a box of cereal for Daddy on an end cap at Target. She happened to pick the Lucky Charms! We went to church and just hung out and relaxed the rest of the day. Later that evening we were able to go over to come friends house and have dinner! We both missed our father's but were thankful that our kids were able to have a nice day with their Daddy! Here are some pics from the day!

Hill AFB Air Show

This past weekend we had an Air Show at our base! It was a lot of work but well worth it! David and I both worked booths for our squadron both days. We were able to see so many cool things including airplanes, jets, fly bys, static displays and the THUNDERBIRDS! We also were able to meet up with a good friend that we met in Alabama at SOS. He was able to come have dinner with us and we truly enjoyed our time together! The best part was that we were able to be together as a family and experience such a grand event! Olivia totally got the whole thing! She spent most of the time pointing in the air saying "airplane!" Daddy even got her a little F-16 that she flew around the whole day. Plus how can you forget the adorable flight suit that she was wearing! Good thing I remembered to get it out of the closet because it no longer fits! Wish you all could of been here to experience the Air Show...maybe next time! You know you may think that because we live this life, see, hear and some of us actually fly in the jet itself that we would be sick of it! But you know it NEVER gets OLD!!!