Cool Big Boy Stuff, Lesson 1

This morning I was here at my kitchen table enjoying a freshly made latte and listening to a podcast, when I noticed a lack of noise coming from the living room. Gabriel and Michael had been happily playing there with their mass of toys, and I no longer heard playing noises. I walk around to the stairs and there I find Michael 4 stairs up with Gabriel coaching him and praising him to climb higher!!! Gabriel says, "Mommy, look what I teached him! He can go up the stairs now!" I calmly, but quickly, removed Michael from the stairs and told Gabriel that he is such a good big brother and that I am proud of him for teaching Michael something...BUT, Michael CANNOT go up the stairs without me right there to help! It was quite a cute moment, actually. So begins Professor Gabriel's ongoing lessons in cool big boy stuff with Michael as the primary pupil! Lord, have mercy!

Post Vacation Wrap-Up

So, what can I say about a nearly 3 month trip away from home? Wow...what a trip!!! We had so much fun visiting with family. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend so much time with the people that we love. We saw so many great things and the kids were able to experience some things that they may not have otherwise. We are very, very grateful to our family for taking us in and providing a refuge for us during this deployment. Being gone as long as we were and doing the things that we did really helped the time to just fly by! It was great to leave knowing that before we knew it 2 and a half months would be gone. And, man, has it felt that way! So, now we have been home for a little over a week and we are trying to get our lives put back together here at home. Michael is a full-fledged crawler and soon to be, cruiser. So I have had to quickly adapt our home to accomodate his new found skills. We are also in the thick of preparing for Daddy's return. He will be home in about 2 months! We have many things to do before he gets home, that this time, I am sure, will fly by as well. Hopefully now that we are safely home, I can update our blog more often. I'll keep my fingers crossed on that one! :) So, we are on to new adventures now and soon Daddy will be a permanent fixture back at home!!! We can hardly wait!!! Much love to all from Steph and the Boys.

More fun in Nebraska

This slide show brings us to the end of our trip. Go to the website below. Enjoy!

http://www.rockyou.com/show_my_gallery2.php?instanceid=102089059

The rest of our fun in California.

We are finally home!!! I will have to apologize for not keeping up on the commentary part of documenting our trip. I'm resorting to the good 'ol photo slide show to tell about the rest of our time away. I will follow up with another of the rest of our time in Nebraska. Go to the website below. Enjoy!

http://www.rockyou.com/show_my_gallery2.php?instanceid=102084811

Still gone...

So, its been almost two and a half months that we have been away from good 'ol North Carolina. The time has gone extremely fast...but that was the plan. We are just that much closer to Daddy coming home! When we get home we will have under 3 months left of this deployment--which as we have just proven, can go by in the blink of an eye!

I have been lax in posting about all the fun we had in California and I will probably not be able to post any more pictures until we get home at the end of the month.

I am starting to get very tired of being away from my home and am very excited to return home soon. Before we know it, Daddy will be here and we have things to do to prepare for his arrival. We should be able to keep ourselves busy. Keep checking in...I will, hopefully, post and catch everyone up on our trip when we get home!