GIRL POWER!!!

Julianne had a slumber party last night. Our house was invaded by little girls anxious to has as much fun as they could possibly fit into one evening. The girls came from as close as around the corner and as far away as the next city over.

We had pizza for dinner and lots of snacks to keep the little mouths occupied. The boys stayed at home, but retreated to safety zones. Jacob stayed upstairs most of the time. Charles was zoned into the computer. Nate on the other hand wanted to be in the mix of it all.

I had many activities and games planned to keep the girls busy, but they had their own plan of the way the evening should go. They were excited to get their pajamas on early in the evening and play, play, play. Julianne opened her gifts, all of which she loved, and quickly moved on to the next activity.

I had Charles pull out the Karaoke machine and the girls had a blast singing (even Nate and Jacob had fun singing). At one point Dawn, a close friend of our family, sang to the girls. Boy did they ever enjoy that! They enjoyed Dawn so much that when they woke up in the morning they were asking if she was coming back over to play. Next time she will just have to spend the night!

So the girls had a great time, stayed up extremely late, and woke up very early this morning. I made them a big breakfast, they watched another movie, and played until their parents came to pick them up. Julianne had a great birthday!

CHARLES IS HOME!!!!!!!!

Charles came home on the USS Ross after 190 long days of being apart. Since the beginning of the year he has been gone for 8 months.






It has been a long road over the last year. Charles has been gone for a long period of time and there have been many challenges while he was gone. Monday started with a burst of excitement as the children and I got ready to watch the ship come home. We left the house later than I had planned, but still arrived at the pier with plenty of time to spare. There were many activities for the kids to do while they waited, but we were anxious to see the ship.

When we were finally allowed on the pier, we could see Charles and the kids anxious waved and yelled to him. The first kiss had happened, all the new dads came off the ship, the CO, XO, and CMC were reunited with their loved ones and then we were allowed to cross the brow. Charles was there waiting with open arms. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I watched him embrace the children. I was overwhelmed with joy and love. We are reunited as a family once again.

The children and I are blissfully happy. We know there will be times of separation again in the future, but for right now, we know we are a complete family. God has protected us as a family. He has given us the strength to make it these last six months. We look forward to the fun adventures that are to come in the near future.

Halloween

This is a picture of the kids before we headed out to trick or treat. The girls' friend, Justina, came over to spend the evening with them. They had a blast! Victoria was a witch, Julianne wanted to be a princess (may people said she looked like Princess Di), and Nate chose to be the infamous tiger (the tiger has been used almost every year by one of the children since 1998).

More Halloween Pictures...

Nate seriously considering whether he wanted to try and keep up with the girls or not. He took his time going from house to house at times frustrating the girls.

Justina, Victoria, and Julianne had a blast going from house to house collecting candy! At one point a firetruck and police car from the base parked and distributed candy to all the kids. I wish I had a picture, but it was challenging enough keeping track of all the kids in the mob of children.

Jacob's difficult week

Jacob has had a very challenging week. He got into a lot of trouble last week at school and at home. It is hard to be a one parent household right now, trying to find the correct discipline. One of the things Jacob lost was his privilege to the fun of Halloween. Boy did I feel guilty, but the impact really seemed to make a difference. He did so well last night without complaining or causing any problems while we were out, I let him go home and hand out the candy. This is the last few minutes before we turned off our light for the night. It is the first and only picture he let me take of him.