Happy Halloween!

Field Trip!!!

Today Talan had his very first field trip of his school career to the pumpkin patch. Even better his best friend Benson, who is in the same class, was able to tag along with us. Even better than that was the fact that it rained last night making our trip super muddy. 

The boys must not have fully understood what a field trip was, because every time they saw someone from their class, and most especially when they saw their teacher, Mrs. Rivera, walking around they became practically unglued with excitement. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" "DID YOU KNOW I WAS GOING TO COME HERE TODAY TOO?" Those were a few of the things they shouted at their friends while jumping up and down and squealing as though they were teenage girls at the midnight showing of the new Twilight movie.  

I've decided pumpkin patches in Virginia and Kansas are quite different. There was no corn maze, although I'm sure if you want to spend more time in the car with two 4 year olds and a 17 month old whose most favorite thing is to make the craziest noises they can think of over and over and over, you could probably find one. Pumpkins were neatly contained in large bins instead of having to wander in the fields to find the pumpkin calling your name. The hay ride contained no actual hay making it more of a tractor pull. I don't think these boys cared. They had such a blast. Too bad Ashton had school. No fun!

Apple Picking

A couple weeks ago our family loaded up Chappie and headed out of the city for some apple picking fun with a good friend. We had never experienced this before, and while muddy, it was way more fun than putting apples in a bag at the grocery store. 

If we ever do get a pet, I know now that Talan is not allergic to cows.

I think this will be a yearly tradition.

A decade later wrapped into a mildly sappy post

Today, despite being several thousand miles apart, we celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. After coming to the realization I am old enough to be married 10 years, I realized how lucky I am. In attempts to control the level of sappiness involved in this post, here are 10 reasons why I love my love.  One for each year. 

1. He is seriously the nicest person I know. Sometimes I tell him he is too nice, but that is just because I realize how much I lack in that department sometimes compared to him. 
2. We laugh together all the time. 
3. He is an incredible dad for our three crazy boys. Even when he has to be apart from us for long periods of time, he still does his best to be involved in their lives.
4. He kills spiders for me without hesitation or judgement.
5. He is such a hard worker, and has done whatever it takes to provide for our family in the last 10 years. 
6. He always tells me he loves me.
7. He is insanely smart.
8. He always tries to help me. When he is home, he cleans the bathroom, and helps with any tasks I have for the day without complaining, even though I know he would rather be doing something else. 
9. We like the same music, foods,  and he goes to chick flicks with me. 
10. He is the peacemaker and calming presence in our family.

After I had Ashton my body chemistry changed and I became allergic to my wedding ring. I haven't been able to wear mine for years, and Brad lost his one day at work several years ago. This year we thought it would be perfect to finally dress up our ring fingers with these beauties:

We designed the rings, which were made by a super nice couple in Canada using wood from their 30 acres of land. 

Happy anniversary love. I love you so so much, even when you fall asleep while I'm in mid sentence during our phone call. ;)

Syphr is 15 months 1 month late

Height: 32 inches (73%)
Weight: 24 pounds (43%)

Sandbox communication: 2002 vs 2008 vs 2011

2002:

For the first few months of Brad's 2002-2004 Iraq deployment, he had to have someone drive him to a phone. It was only once a month, and only for about a 10 minute call. Stock up on those calling cards! The war had just started and bases were still being set up. We wrote letters, and were thrilled when yahoo messenger was set up so we could chat almost daily. How funny it seems to now think how excited I was about yahoo messenger. Phone calls started coming about once a week, but were often down or had a rough connection. Also, phone usage was limited to 10 or 15 minutes. Mail takes about 3 weeks.

2008:

Messenger was once again a prime use for communication along with a weekly time limited phone call with crummy reception, and lots of random emails. All was made up for by our use of google video chat, which didn't always work, but was still fantastic since we could actually see each other. Mail still takes about 3 weeks.

2011:

With a wifi connection, not only can Brad call, but he can also text right from his own phone which so far has had excellent clarity. No more timed phone conversations with junky reception. He will be able to call or at least text just about every day. Such a step up. We still plan to Skype a couple times a week. I can only assume mail will still take 3 weeks. 

To keep up with the evolving communications, it only seems fitting we should be allowed to tag along with Brad on the next deployment. Not holding my breath, but I can't imagine better communication than this under the circumstances.

Side note:  Brad has made his arrival in Kuwait. He is safe, and I know nothing else. That's all that matters though. 

Eat your words Ashton!

After taking Ashton on a date, sans annoying brothers, and after watching him pack away more shrimp than I thought was possible to eat in one sitting, he said proudly:

"Man, I love being naturally skinny. I can practically eat anything I want and still be skinny.  I think I'll be skinny forever. It's awesome! Talan is probably really jealous. He could eat healthy and still be fat. He is like naturally chubby."


Someday, Talan is going to be deeply offended.

Beauty rest

I know every mother thinks their kid is just the most adorable thing on the planet, but seriously, look at that sweet little face with those big fat cheeks that jiggle when he walks, and mouth that never shuts. Couldn't be cuter.

Mini Talan

Sometimes he just wants wear big boy clothes like his brothers. 

He really wanted Talan to wear this to bed and kept shoving them in Talan's face, but Talan had his heart set on sleeping in spongebob pants. I tried to get Syphr to put them back in the drawer, but he would not let them go.


After a few minutes I said, "Pre, do you want to wear those clothes?" He responded with a very loud "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!" He would not take them off until bath time the next day. Luckily for Syphr, as long as he keeps his mitts of the spongebob pants, Talan will share his clothes.

Pre-halloween costume party

A couple days ago Ashton had the brilliant idea of having a costume party. Mostly I just think he wanted an excuse to wear the wrestling singlet. 

Syphr and I dressed up as Brad because Ashton said that was the only thing in the dress up box that would fit me. My feelings are slightly offended.

Ashton dressed up as his former 6 year old wrestling self. His costume party lasted until the next morning once he figured out he had the singlet on backwards. He turned it the right way, and it became the most comfortable outfit ever. 

 Talan was going to participate, but opted out at the last second after being deeply offended by something one of us did. Who did it, and what happened we will never know. We had fun anyway.