Pappa's Bronze Star!

Summer's Almost Gone already?

I can't believe it has been nearly 3 months since my last post. I do have a great excuse though.... SHAYNE IS HOME!!!!!! It was an extremely long year and we literally crammed everything we missed out on together into the month of vacation that Shayne was given! He came on on Sunday May 30th at nearly Midnight! Payson stayed awake very excited with 4 american flags in each hand waiting to welcome home his Pappa! It was an exciting night that I was afraid would never come! Thank you again to everyone for all of your prayers in our Families behalf! We are so grateful! In the month that Shayne had off we were able to go to Bozeman, come back home and have my siblings come for the 4th of July, then Shayneand I headed for a getaway to South Carolina! We got back just in time for a visit from the Quilters and Jonathan! All of it was a ton of fun and of course we got some great pictures! Shayne had to go back to work on Monday July 19th but ended up having quite a few short days so we were able to do lots with just the 3 of us! This last weekend Shayne had a 4 day so we packed up and headed to St. George to spend some time with the Cook's and Willis's AND Grandma Great! We spent the first day on the lake and went from a beautiful sunshining day to a deadliest catch storm! GOOD TIMES! We always have so much fun with them and are so glad the Cook's let us come crash at their new beautiful home! So that is the skinny on what we have been doing this Summer! We don't have anymore big adventures planned for at leasta couple of months but we are very much looking forward to getting back to normal life and being together again! Oh ya! And this week Shayne will be changing positions at work. He will be the new Company XO and no longer the Maintenance PLatoon Leader. We are so so grateful to be back together as a whole Family again and while Shayne may be home safe we still have many friends who continue to fight for our country in both Iraq and Afghanistan. PLease remember all of our Soldiers and the sacrifices the continue to make for us daily!

The Blessings of a Blue Eyed Boy!

I feel like I have been so horrible with blogging lately! We have just been trying to stay busy to help the last couple weeks of this deployment go by super fast!! We are so ready to have our HERO come home to us! We took a trip last week to go see our favorite Willis's in Utah and had a blast!!! I'm pretty sure Payson loved all of the attention too! We ate lots of GREAT food and laughed a lot! We will be going back soon for sure!! When we got home we had a couple days to recover until I had to have my wretched wisdom teeth pulled! I thought I was gonna come out on the easy end and it ended up like with most things I had "The luck of the Hunt" as my Dad would say! Lot's of pain, prolonged numbness and dry socket! I woke up wanting to die on Mother's Day so my Aunt came and took Payson so I could sleep! So, not only did I spend the day without my Sweetheart, but without my baby as well! I was soo grateful for Ann for taking him so I was able to sleep all day, but I missed the little man! I have been so blessed to have some GREAT friends here who were so willing to help take care of both Payson and I! This week has been a rough one to say the least and all I can say is I am SO greatful for this sweet little boy that I get to call mine! As much as a handful as he can be sometimes, he sure knows how to make a Mom smile! The other morning he was in my bed and I fell back asleep. He started rubbing my cheek and was singing me a little song. I pretended like I was still sleeping so he wouldn't stop! I felt like the luckiest Mom in the world!! This last week the weather has been COLD and rainy and feeling more like Fall then Spring! Payson however, is loving it! He loves the puddles and getting wet and dirty! He wanted to go out so bad today so finally I just let him!! I figured I would just let him have fun and get as messy as he wanted!!

He was soaked up to his knees!!

I would say by the look on his face I just might have won the Mom of the Day award!!

And if not, this smile definitely made me feel like Mom of the Year!

Cardboard Boxes and Little boys!

After being at the Poulsen's last month and getting to play with Ollie in his box, Payson has been wanting a box of his own. So we set out on a mission to find a box! I got so spoiled from working at Sears and having access to unlimited boxes, but apparently these places in the bigger cities don't save them! Finally I broke down and bought a box at some place I found!! Once I got it home and made it look more like a clubhouse, I decided it could use some paint! Since it was a little boy clubhouse I didn't want it to look too nice! :) I found some paint that we had and Payson and I went to town! Unfortunately the only colors we had were pastels, but it turned out just fine!! I asked Payson what he wanted it to say, thinking either Payson's Club or Payson's Fort, but he simply wanted Payson's House! When he woke up this morning and saw it again he was so excited and would barely come out for breakfast!! I think every little kid needs a good bix that they can play in and then destroy!

Conference and Easter

Here are a few pictures from Payson and I's Easter! We spent most of the day watching conference but we took a little time to color eggs and make some home made tortillas! Payson was killing me in that apron! He protested at first but then he decided it was ok! He thought the eggs were pretty cool but when he tried to eat one he flat out said "GROSS!" Conference was amazing as always. I love it that they are not given topics, but somehow most end up speaking on the same subject. That just adds to my testimony that Heavenly father is real and He knows of all of our needs! How blessed we are to be members of His true church. I'm grateful for the teachings I recieved this weekend about teaching my children and keeping the Gospel in our home. We are counting down the days until we will have a permanent Priesthood holder back in our home! Less then 2 months!

R&R And a Little Bit of Fun!

So I know I have let alot of time pass since I have actually blogged so I thought I would take a quick opportunity to do a quick update!! First of all Shayne came home!! We had the opportunity to go and listen to President Uchtdorf speak and thanks to Shayne's plane catching fire in Ireland, he missed it by just a few hours! It was the most amazing meeting I have ever sat through and would have traded anything in the world to have had my Sweetheart with me. What an amazing spirit that comes with an Apostle of the Lord. It was a great night and I was grateful I was able to share it with great friends! So the next morning I was FINALLY able to go to the airport, very nervously I might add, and see my Love for the first time in nearly 8 months! Feeling the fire and elctricity I felt as I wrapped my arms around him was undescribeable! Knowing that I would only get him for two weeks made me never want to let go! While he was home we packed in all sorts of fun stuff including a train ride up to Pike's Peak, Gymnastics, trips to the park and LOTS of Wii Mario! But most important, we got to have a sleepover date night!! Sam and Ann were great enough to take Payson for the night! He just loves them so much!!
We got a hotel with a pool so we could take Payson swimming before our date!

Payson and Pappa in the foam pit at Gymnastics!

We waited to open Payson's bday presents until Shayne got home and still 2 months later Payson plays with this train set EVERYDAY!! We've added a few more pieces and it now takes up our entire office!

Having Shayne home again just made life feel so normal again! Having him leave again was harder then the first time he left, even though we just have a short wait! The day after Shayne left we skipped town and headed to AZ to spend more time with the Fam!! We had a blast like always! There is nothing quite like getting together with your siblings and laughing the days away! Stevie, Jessie and I stayed up waay too late one night playing Mario and it was suddenly like we were 10, 8 and 5 again! I think the three of us laughed and cried like we hadn't in a long time! It was great! Like always it was hard to leave but great to come home! Ashley came home with us and spent a week! We spent most of our time following Payson around with a camera and laughing hysterically at nearly everything! Two weeks after Ash left we headed back to Bozeman to suprise Em for her birthday!! And what a suprise it was!! I am still kicking myself for not recording it when I saw her walk in!! It has been a crazy couple of months and we have about a month until we go on our next and LAST adventure until Shayne comes home for good! Oh ya, and somewhere in between all of that madness I was called as the 2nd Couns in the Relief Society Presidency! As of today we are down to roughly 60 days until our Family is complete again!

What a Wonderful World!

What do you do in that moment when you realized your SPOTLESS CLEAN bathroom has been turned into cologne wreaking, baby powder mess with a little Imp standing in the corner shouting "I DID IT MOMMY!" What do you? You GRAB THE CAMERA!! What else would you do?!

He was so proud of himself and I couldn't help myself but laugh!

Apparently he is tall enough to get into Pappa's drawer. So he decided to spray himself and his toys with the cologne and then dump everything with baby powder!

Oh and this is yesterday's adventure....the ENTIRE roll of toilet paper and my boot along with a couple trucks..all shoved in!

And the best part is, I am loving every minute of this!

The Best is Yet To Be!!

"As a new year begins and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives."
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Jan Ensign 2010

Yep..It's one of those days

I swore I was not that girl and that it would never be me. I'm better than that. I'm stronger then that. I will keep my brave face on and continue to help everyone else and be happy while I do it, in spite of the pain my heart is going through. But I guess everyone is entitled to a day of wallowing right? Not me. Or so I thought. I am not here to complain by anymeans. I hate complainers and I have no right to complain about anything. Anyone who really knows Shayne and I knows that we are Best Friends, Soul Mates, Eternal Companions. We do everything together and share all of our secrets with each other. We love to stay up in bed laughing the night away..who cares how late it is or what time we have to wake up in the morning? We love doing spontaneous things, we love long car trips together, especially if we have great music that we can turn up and sing at the top of our lungs to. Who cares how we sound?! We love dancing together no matter how silly we look, thumbs up and all! ;) We love just being together even if we are both sitting on the couch reading a book. Bottome line, we are together. Like it or not, we are a package deal and that's how it will always be. And then I suddenly realized he has been gone nearly 8 months and it has been way too long since we have had the chance to enjoy any of those things. It hurts. Bad. Don't get me wrong, I am proud of my Soldier and grateful for the blessings, the friends and the opportunities we would not have had otherwise that being in the Military has brought us. But this time that we have been apart has made me realize how much we have missed out on. How much he has missed, especially his little boy growing. Has it been worth it? I am not trying to offend anyone, but we are not lifers. We can't be. We are not cut out for this being apart business. We knew that the first Summer he left for training. I don't want to just get used to my Sweetheart being gone because that is part of life. I need him all the time. Is that too much to ask? I don't care if we have to go to living the poor life. It would be worth it to have him home all the time. I can hardly contain my excitement about him coming home for a visit in a couple weeks, but I can't help thinking that it is only for 15 days and it is gonna go by fast. I know I sound like a whiner but I know he feels the same way. We are supposed to be together and do things together all the time and I can't wait until the day he is 100% mine again. I just miss him. That's all.

Let The Count Down Begin!!

I feel like I have a whole months worth of stuff to catch up on when in reality it's only about 2 weeks!! We finally came home from Bozeman and immediately got started decorating and preparing for Christmas!!! We broke down and bought an artificial tree that took way too long to put together! I'm not the pro yet like my Mom and sisters! Payson and I had a good time decorating it! He would cheer after each time he put another ornament on the tree!
One Sunday morning before church he noticed one had fallen off and quickly had to replace it!
We had the pleasure of having Ashley come up and spend Christmas with us! We had so much fun with her and can't wait for her to come back!!

Payson's first present was from Gramma Jen and Grampa Terry. We had to remind him there were lots more presents to open!!

Santa brought us cereal with our stockings and Payson was trying to sneak off with Mommy's!

This is just a random cute picture that Ash snapped of Payson! I can't get enough of this kid!!

We had alot of fun decorating cookies..even after Payson dumped out all of the sprinkles!

He really liked the frosting!

After hula hooping on the Wii Fit at the Gappmayer's we took a little trip to Manitou and found this giant Hula hoop! Ya...I still got it!

Payson even took a turn on the Wii!

It had snowed the day Ashley came to town so of course we had to go sledding!! Payson preferred to just play in it rather than sled!

Payson thought this was less scary than flying down the hill.

I swear it was fun!

Ashley and Payson's turn!!

Ashley and I decided it would be fun to go out at almost midnight and build a snowman...well the wind was blowing and it was freezing and all we got was a big hump!! All the snow is melted but that sweet hump is still in my yard!!

Thesme are a few random pics that I did not include in my last post! While we were in Bozeman we got to go to Em's first Basketball game as a Lady Hawk!!

Payson didn't want to wait for us to dish him some ice cream...Think I could sell this to Wilcoxen's to use as advertising?!?

And of course super exciting news....We got to see SETH AND JAYNE over break!! It had been a year and a half since we have seen them and it was SO GREAT to be with them again and be able to finally meet Ollie. t was just like old times being together again and I cannot wait for it to happen again! We are so blessed to have such amazing friends!

OH and I cut off all of my hair!

Payson and I were just doing a little dancing while we decorated!!

And the best news of all is SHAYNE COMES HOME THIS MONTH!!! I have waited 7 months to say that. Well he is only coming home for his mid tour leave but at least we get to see him for a bit!!! The countdown has begun and he should be home on the 25th!!! Thanks again to everyone for all of the wonderful Christmas gifts and for helping these last months fly by!!