Welcome Home Ceremony

Welcome Home Fort Drum 3rd Brigade 2-87 Infantry Battalion!!!

At 2:30am on December 31, 2009 Adam's battalion returned from their year long deployment to Afghanistan. The welcome home ceremony was at 6am that morning and while it was incredibly early, no one had problems waking up on time. The soldiers were all exhausted from traveling and being on an all night flight (as you can see in the pictures), but that did not diminish their excitement of being home. Here are some pictures from the ceremony and of our family being reunited again. I was so lucky to have a professional photographer, and friend, come with us to take the pictures for me.

The sign above lists just some of the missions Ft Drum has been a apart of.

The Ft Drum band. The sign above shows the starting date for Operation Enduring Freedom. This is the mission we are trying to accomplish in Afghanistan. Hopefully there will be a completion date added soon.

waiting on the ceremony to start (5:30am)

Ava showing off her shirt

Don't let Andrew's expression fool you. He was laughing and carrying on until he saw a camera pointed at him.

3rd Brigade 2-87 Infantry Battalion

Fort Drum's commander Major General James Terry

There he is!

Dismissed!!!

my 2 favorite boys

Andrew trying to show daddy the sign we made

reunited....FINALLY

lovin his baby girl

Now lets go home!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! We had a very low key kind of day today. A couple of close friends stopped by for some soup and to sit around a chat the day away. It was nice to have company even though we weren't celebrating Christmas today. Andrew asked Santa if he could deliver our toys a few days late this year so that Daddy could be here with us. So we are impatiently waiting Daddy's arrival. As of right now he should be here on the 30th which is either 5 days away or 4 nights and a wake up (depending on how you want to look at it). I hope everyone out there in blog land had a great Christmas. The next time I post there will be tons of pictures from our Christmas and most importantly from the Welcome Home Ceremony.

December so far

Ok so I realized that it's been over 3 weeks since I posted anything so I thought I would update. There really isn't a lot to update though. We are getting closer to Adam coming home. Hopefully he'll be here in about 3 weeks so the excitement is starting to build, along with the excitement of Christmas. This year we asked Santa if he will wait to deliver our presents until after Adam is home. Since Santa is such an understanding guy I think he will do this favor for us. Below are a few pictures from Andrew's Christmas concert from last week. He and all the other little kindergartners did a great job. I also through in a few of Miss Ava from today.

45 Days

Adam SHOULD be home in 45 days!!! Enough said :-)

Happy Halloween

Well this Halloween was a little bit of a let down for us. It rained and rained all day long and although it did stop in time for trick or treating it was then too cold and too windy for me to have Ava out. So like any good parent I bribed Andrew so that he would be ok with staying in that night. We went to Wal Mart and I got him some candy and then let him pick out 2 Scooby Doo movies. The day didn't turn out how Andrew or I would have liked but all in all it wasn't terrible. He enjoyed putting on his costume and running around the house and I still painted his face for him as you can see below. Next year promises to be a great Halloween. Not only will Ava be old enough to go out but Adam will be here too. Can't get much better than that.

Ava in her Halloween onsie and the pumpkin hat Grandmother made

showing off the skeleton onsie Daddy picked out

Andrew wearing his pumpkin hat Grandmother made

my little vampire

I could not find any white vampire teeth so we had to settle for green ones :-)

turning into a bat

Ava wearing the Florida State cheerleader outfit my Aunt Phyllis sent her

now he's a scary vampire

Class Field Trip to Old McDonald's Farm

In his classroom before we left

me and my little man on the bus

Andrew's class getting ready to leave

more friends

class picture at the farm

checking out the Alpaca's

petting one of many horses

checking out the pigs

petting the bunnies

patiently waiting to feed the cows

those are some BIG cows!

on the hayride

Andrew and his friend Hailey going on the dairy tour

picking out the most perfect pumpkin

We had a good time on Andrew's school field trip. It got off to a rocky start because the school only planned for 1 bus to take 3 kindergarten classes, their teachers and parent chaperones on this trip. Yeah that's almost 8 people on one bus....I don't think so. Because of this we ended up leaving the school almost an hour late once a second bus finally arrived. The kids did great while waiting though and weren't too impatient. Once we were there Andrew's class ate lunch and then we were off to visit the barn and see all the animals. After that we went on the Wizard of Oz hayride followed up by a tour of the dairy barn. It was really neat to learn about the dairy cows and the milking process. They have 700 cows that are milked 3 times a day! We also went through the barn that houses the newborn calfs. The kids enjoyed seeing the cow equivalent of a kindergarten class :-) Once we were done touring everything the kids were able to go out into the pumpkin patch to pick out their own pie pumpkin to take home. Despite the cool weather and the crazy wind it was a great day and I am glad I was able to spend it with Andrew without Ava. Big thanks to my good friend Jen for keeping Ava for me that day!!!

She's so HOT!

Ok so a few weeks ago Andrew got off the bus and proudly told me that the "hottest hottest hottest girl" sat by him. He told me that she even kissed him and that he liked it (who knows if that's actually true). The best part of that story was the fact that Andrew has no idea what this girls name is. Well yesterday he came home talking about this girl Mckenzie who is in his class. He kept going on about how hot she is and that she always has to sit on the inside of the seat when they're on the bus. I finally asked him what he thinks "hot" means. He said it was when a girl likes you and you hug. I then asked if she was his girlfriend and he replied "No mom! That's gross!" It is amazing the things he has learned since starting school that are not school related.

Here are some pics of the kiddos sportin' their new Arkansas gear.

Fort Riley Kansas

This is going to be our next home. Last week Adam received orders to Fort Riley KS beginning in April 2010. We really never thought the day would come where we would get to leave Ft Drum and still be in the Army. After all this is the only Army base we have ever been stationed at and we've been here over 6 years now. Adam and I are both excited about this move and the change of pace it will bring to our lives. His orders have him working in a meddac (medical clinic or hospital) which means he should not be deploying for the next few years. I cannot begin to tell you how much our family needs this time together. For the past 6 years we have pretty much been on a home one year deployed the next schedule. Adam has had to miss so many major events in Andrew's life. It will be nice to have him around and working a "normal" schedule for a while. Of course this is the Army and they are very good at changing things when they want to so at any time Adam could be moved over into a deployable unit again. However for now I am not going to worry about that. There are soooooooooo many things we have to get done in a very short period of time. Adam is not due home from this deployment until late December or January so I am here taking care of both kids, going to school and now trying to get the house ready to be sold. I am hoping and praying that our house sells without any trouble or issues. This is my biggest source of stress at the moment because we would not be able to afford this mortgage plus living somewhere else at the same time. In the end I know everything will work out but it is getting to that end I am worried about :-) While we have a very busy 6 months ahead of us I am very much looking forward to starting this new chapter in our lives.

Just a quick update. Andrew is doing well in school so far. He is having some issues with his social skills but I think with a little time he will adjust well. He is a really good big brother to Ava. I have been very proud of him and how he is handling having a baby in the house. Ava is also doing well. She is getting bigger every day and is starting to show more of her personality. I think she is going to be lots of fun as she gets older (or lots of trouble..ha ha). I am hanging in there. Having 2 kids instead of just one is an adjustment but it has been easier than I thought it would be. This week I started back to school after my 60 day leave of absence. Granted it has only been 2 days but I am finding it harder to focus and become motivated to get my work done. I am hoping to get out of this funk because I do not want my classes to become something I dread. I only have 4 classes remaining before I have my associates degree. At this point I will have my degree in February. Adam has already told me I do not have a choice but to continue with school and get my Bachelors so now I have to decide if I want my BA in psychology or something else.

The other night Andrew decided to "read" Ava a story to keep her from crying while I cooked dinner. To my surprise it worked, but only for a few minutes.