A New Addition to The Family

So after months of taking care of Flash to show us how responsible she is, Arabella has earned the privilege of having her own pet. She has known all along that she wanted a female red dachshund. My mom has the same dog, only a male, and Arabella loves him to death. After months of looking we finally found one and took the kids to see her. They had no idea where we were going. So when we pulled up to a house in backwoods North Carolina with chickens, goats and sheep they looked a bit puzzled. Arabella was almost afraid to get out of the car and looked at me like what in the world are we doing here. Once we walked up onto the front porch the puppy and her brother came out and the look of awe on Arabella's face was priceless. So this is Miley Mae (named after Miley Cyrus and my mom, haha). She's all of about 3-4 lbs. But she is adorable. We'll see if I'm saying that after she wines tonight. Here she is:

Mommy let me read to you...

So the other day I'm putting Tate down for a nap and he's holding his little orange New Testament that the Gideons give out. Then he says"Mommy let me read da Bible to you." Okay Tate read the Bible to me. " Jesus lus Tate, Jesus lus Flash, Jesus lus Sissi, Jesus lus Bubber, Jesus lus Daddy and Jesus lus Mommy." You just gotta take in those moments sometimes.

God's Blessing of Military Friends

I know, once again it has been a LONG time since I've updated the blog. There's just always something to be done. Can't imagine why with 3 kids? So for Easter/Spring Break we traveled home to Ky to see our families and to Alabama to see our wonderful friends Katie and Bruce. There's a variety of pictures from our trip. They're not in order since my camera has decided that it won't upload them in the same order as I take them. And I just didn't take the time to sort through them before posting them. There are a ton of pictures though, I'll warn you now. They're from Easter egg hunting in Ky, seeing the train depot in Huntsville, going to the botanical gardens and hanging out at Katie and Bruce's house. Oh, and Curtis driving the kids in Bruce's hot rod. We are SO going to miss our dear friends. It has been so nice to have them in Huntsville. It's only a 4 hour drive from our home in Ky. And as most of you in the military know, that's only a short drive away. We have had so much fun the past few years being able to see them frequently and spend time with them. In the beginning of our marriage I didn't want anything to do with the military. It's still not my favorite thing. But God had plans other than my own, as he often does. And after 13 years in the army, I must say that one of the best parts is the incredible friends we have gained from all over the world. People who are like our family and hope one day to spend lots of our retired time visiting. Best of luck in Hawaii Katie and Bruce, we're going to miss you terribly. Just hurry back to Huntsville! We love you guys. Enjoy the pictures!

The rest of the pictures.

This tree was incredible. It was a dogwood that was I think over a hundred years old. It made for some great pictures of the kids.

Oh! A caterpillar!

Here are some photos from this spring. The weather has been crazy around here, swinging from warm to cold and back. So any chance we get to get outside we do. The kids have been excited for it to be warm enough to get the gator and Lightning McQueen out of the garage. There's some pictures of the Easter egg hunt at Curtis' work. You'll notice Arabella's not in any of the pictures. I had a Pampered Chef party at the same exact time of the egg hunt. So she stayed back to play with her girlfriends.

Hayden and his buddy Cannon at their Spring performance and dinner for his preschool.

The boys having some lunch outside on their picnic on one of the warm days we've had. Yeah for springtime!

Curtis said Tate was scared to death of the Easter Bunny. So in this picture Tate doesn't even realize the bunny is right behind him. Curtis had the bunny squat down so Tate wouldn't see him. The things we do for a picture.

He thinks he owns the road. Even though he's only 2 he can turn the curves and everything. He doesn't do so well with sharing. Once he's in it, it's his and he'll ride for a LONG time. He's getting too big on me.

Okay, can we say some shaggy hair? I like their hair grown out, but this is a bit crazy. The kid does not like having his hair cut and forget about taking him to the salon, no way, he's terrified. It's a good thing longer hair is in style for boys right now.

Those red cheeks!

I tried on their Easter outfits before we went to Ky to be sure they'd fit. Good thing I got some pictures because I forgot to take any of them dressed up on Easte

He was mad about something. Nothing unusual for Hayden.

So one day while Chesley and I were in the house talking (as usual), the kids were all in the back yard playing. It was a pretty cold day. We went outside to check on them and found Tate and Caden in the sand table playing with the water from the rain the day before, mixed with the sand that was leftover. They were so nasty! Sand everywhere you could think of, they were so gross.

Thank goodness for a big brother to teach you how to make silly faces.