Where have we been!?!

A lot has happened in the past few weeks and I just didn't have time to update you all on our lives until now. First of all, Brad came home for R&R! He was home for 15 days and we just had a blast. We had to keep it all a secret though, because we had a surprise 60th birthday party for Brad's mom and we didn't tell his parents we were coming or that Brad was even home from Afghanistan! We flew to Omaha in the middle of our 2 weeks together and had so much fun with the family. We all (Brad's brother and family, his parents, and all of us) went to the zoo while we were in Omaha and the boys (mostly Gabriel) just loved it. Our time there went far too fast, but we were so happy that we were able to spend some of our vacation with Brad's family. After we got home last Tuesday we continued working on some little projects that we started during the first few days of Brad being home and also relaxing and trying to recouperate from our travels. On Sunday we went to church in Wilmington because Michael was to be baptized and Brad was to give the sermon. It was such a wonderful and blessed day for us. Brad left again on Monday morning. We are sad that he had to leave again, but we know that this will be the last time he will have to leave us for so long again. It was such a blessing for me to see my husband with his children. It was especially joyful to see him with our new little one and see him effortlessly fall into the role of the Dad of 2 kids. I didn't know what it was going to feel like with him home again, but once he was here it was so gratifying and we finally got a glimpse of what life will be like when he is home again...for good. Here are a few pictures of our time together. Enjoy!






Bonding time.
The big surprise! That's Brad in the forefront.




Daddy's sweet little boy.




Dressed and ready for the zoo!
Gabriel loved the elephants.


But, I think riding the train was the highlight of the day!


Grandma McCoy with all her grandkids.

Playing with Daddy's old doctor kit.


Michael sitting in the pew before his baptism.




Daddy and his boys at the airport the morning that he left.

Happy 4th of July?

Well, yesterday was the Fourth of July. Mimi and Papa Pelikan bought a ton of fireworks for the kids. We all hung out and ate and played and had a good time until it was dark.



Phil (Papa) started up the festivities out on the street with a few small fireworks that whistled and popped. We thought the kids would like them, but boy were we wrong! Karis and Gabriel both were so freaked out that they ended up watching from an upstairs bedroom window!



They didn't like that for long though, it was still a bit too much for them. So Mimi put on Blue's Clues for them.



Oh well, we tried :) I guess we'll have to see how they do next year.

Our Beach Trip!

Hey, I haven't gotten around to making a post with pictures from our beach trip to Wrightsville Beach last weekend so I thought I would direct you to my best friend, Rondi's blog. Check out her blog at JohnnysGirls

We had a blast!