Deployments

I know that I haven't blogged on my personal blog for quite awhile, but today I felt like saying some things that don't belong on my other two. Some of you might think this is silly. Others may not understand at all. But for me, this post is full of heartache and tears. For those of you who don't know, Shayne's Brigade is in the process of deploying. Again. However, this time he is staying behind as the Rear D Commander. Great news right?! Then why do I feel this way? Don't get me wrong, I am SO incredibly grateful that Payson and I get to have him at home with us. But I have seen how hard it has been for him this last week as he has sent his friends/Soldiers off to war, but he is the one staying behind. Since he took this job a few months ago, I knew it wouldn't be easy for him not to go. I just didn't realize how hard. We went to a movie the other night that hit way to close to home. As we sat in the theater at the end of the movie, tears rolled down my cheeks for the heartache I felt while watching the movie. Tears rolled down Shayne's cheeks for the heartache he felt for not going with his men. He didn't tell me this, but I know. He told me after the movie that even though he loved me and wouldn't want to leave me, he wished even more that he could go. I never thought it would be so hard to NOT let my Sweetheart deploy. I am usually his voice of reason and I think the job he is doing is an honorable one and I am constantly reminding him of that. However, if he came home tonight and told me that plans had changed and he was deploying tomorrow, I would let him go. With a tear on my face and a smile in my heart. I am so proud of my Soldier and all that he has done. I wish I could take his guilt away. We have so many friends with loved ones getting ready to deploy right now. We've been there. It's not easy. Today in church I watched a new Soldier/young Father of three, stand at the pulpit in his Multi Cam uniform, just a couple of short hours before stepping on the plane, humbly bare witness of Jesus Christ and His teachings, without once even mentioning that he was about to leave his Family to go fight for his country. Humble. Shayne and I were recently talking about what we would do if we ever get out of the Army. The thought honestly scares me. Going back to civilian life with some people who have no clue what the Military is even about or what it's like to be an Army Wife, makes me nervous. I am so glad to be a part of this "Military bubble" that we live in and couldn't imagine life any other way. And for Shayne, Sweetheart, you are doing a great thing! I know there are soldiers who will sleep better and be able to work harder knowing they have such an amazing guy back home taking care of their Families. This job won't be easy but you will be great at it and you were picked for a reason. For all of those Families with Soldiers who have left or will soon be leaving, know that you are all in our prayers. Be safe and come home soon!

2-12 Infantry Battalion

August is NOT over yet!!

We had all sorts of fun happenings in August!! But most important, My Handsome little man started Preschool!! He LOVES it. One of his best friends is in his class too! He wishes he could go everyday! I can't believe he is growing up so fast!


We also made a quick visit to Phoenix to witness the sealing of some of our favorite people! What a happy day! Tears were definitely shed from these eyes! Sweet Payten looked BEAutiful in her white dress! We were honored that they asked us to be there!

Of course while we were there my sister couldn't resist Payson's sad face so the Warn's drove up to see us!! We had a fun BBQ at Stevie's house!! Apparently the kids had too much fun! I LOVE Maddy's hair!!

We also went on a ward campout! I got to hang with two of my favorite boys!!

The men, doing what they do best!!

How can you NOT love this face!!

Sweet Cheeks!!

We had such a great month!! We love getting to spend so much time with the Cassity's and the Maughan's! We are so blessed to have so many amazing people in our lives!

That was our August in a nutshell! I will try not to be so "nutshelly" in September!

That's CAPTAIN Heap To You!!

Silly mean Gnats!

I know the month is almost over BUT not yet!! Go me for not missing a month!! I have so many pictures and so much stuff to catch up on from the last month. HOWEVER, there will only be a few pictures for now. Mostly because Blogger is taking forever at uploading for some reason! In the middle of June Payson and I headed down to AZ to meet the newest member of our Family! Her name is Gracy May and she is so PRECIOUS!! I fell in love with her instantly and liked to pretend she loved me just as much! It was adorable how sweet Payson was with her but heart wrenching at the same time! I know my sweet boy is so ready to be a big brother! We had so much fun with Family and tried not to die in the AZ heat! We were able to see my whole Family, even Brother! We even got to spend two days with our favorite Panks!! Grandpa Steve took us for a visit to see Great Gma and Gpa Hunt! Payson loved them both and didn't act like it had been over a year since he had seen them! Speaking of Gpa Steve, we went out on an Old car hunt for some photo ops and thought it would be fun to take some pics at an old grocery store! Payson sat down in the perfect spot and bugs started flying all around him! Needless to say, he freaked out and was freaked out the rest of the day! He wouldn't even stand with his Gpa on the train tracks! it was a BAD day!

After nearly two weeks from my Love we FINALLY got to see him again! Remind me to NEVER leave him for that long again!! He picked us up in Denver and we got a hotel in Cheyenne, on our way to BOZEMAN!! I have lots of pics from there too, HOWEVER... We were there for a week and had fun with giant slip n slides, Gone with the Wind, Gettysburg and the 4th of July!! It was a great time and so good to see everyone again! The day after we came home Jessie and Brandon came to our hour for yet another fun filled week!! We ate lots of good food, played lots of dominoes, went to gymnastics, played volleyball AND hit up Pirate's Cove! I also had the opportunity to do some more pictures for their adoption profile!!! Which I will be posting on here VERY SOON!! The last day they were here a very exciting thing happened in oir Family!! Shayne was promoted to Captain!! HAPPY DAY!! I am so proud of my Soldier! He had so much support that day and we are SO grateful to everyone who came!! It was a good day and I know he felt truly loved, as did I by his support! But he is pretty easy to love! Payson had the opportunity to pin his new rank on his ACU's and I attempted to pin it on his Patrol Cap! That was a little embarrassing! :) That's all for now! As soon as I have another minute I will add some more pics!!

The Greatest Show On Earth!!!! Or Was It?

May and the first half of April have been extremely busy!!! Busy with mostly fun things thank goodness!! Our Primary took a trip to the Denver Temple at the beginning of June! Payson now know who Moroni is and thinks it's pretty cool to spot him on top of them Temples! He told me we should find a Temple that doesn't have the Angel Moroni! Good thing we are headed to AZ this week!! Shayne was having a hard time sitting still so he took my camera and had some fun! I LOVE this picture of my sweet Boy and Shayne captured him perfectly!

This is Payson with one of his best buddies Liam! Apparently they don't do well together in Primary so when their class split so did the two of them! :(

Some of my favorite girls don't have their Hubby's home QUITE yet from Afghanistan so Shayne decided instead of Family pics that we all take a pic together!! I think he was just trying to get out of being in a picture!

So, I'm sure form the title of my post you've probably assumed we went to the Circus! YEP! I'm not ready to say it was the greatest show but it was pretty cool! Payson thought it was so awesome and cheered his little heart out and "whistled" his whistle all night!

Have I mentioned yet that Shayne FINALLY got a Jeep?! He loves it and Payson thinks it is pretty much the coolest ride in the world!! We took it up to 11 Mile Lake on Memorial weekend and Payson managed to fall asleep on the way up!

My amazing friend Nicole planned and put together a Girls Night out for all of us! We did it at a Spa in town and all of us were treated to Mani's, Pedi's, massages and facials! It was so much fun and so nice for a little break!! On the down side, I woke up that morning with a super stiff neck so I wasn't feeling too well that night! AND my favorite Jennie left for Utah the day before so we REALLY missed her too!

This picture is just from tonight! We were having fun out back playing with the chalk! I traced payson and he helped me draw his face!!

Onto something more exciting, Payson started Tee Ball this year! I can't believe my sweet boy is old enough! It wasn't much of an actual ball game but it was hysterical!! Fights breaking out over who gets to bat, who gets the ball, which base to run to! Payson had fun even if he had NO CLUE what he was doing!! We enjoyed watching him!

This week Payson and I are headed to AZ to meet the newest member of our Family Sweet Gracy May!! Shayne has some stuff going on for work so we are gonna meet him in MT for our next adventure in a couple weeks!! I didn't even realize on my last post that I left everyone hanging about some exciting news and got some peoples hopes up on what it might be!! The news is that Shayne was offered a new job so we won't be leaving Coloraod this Fall as planned!! We are so happy to get to stay here for another two years!! We love it here and feel like we have been blessed so much since we have been here!! I'm not sure if I have mentioned or not but we started up a little photography business called C&S Photography!! Check out our blog page http://candsstudios.blogspot.com/ and while you are there you can also check us out on Facebook! Photography has always been a passion of mine and I love that I am getting the opportunity to do it more often and for other people now!! I continue to learn new things everyday and am SOO grateful for all of the support we have gotten so far!!! Well, for the next six weeks we will be here and there so we should have LOTS of fun things next time!!

April Re Cap!

So I obviously never got around to logging in April. I was doing so good for the first three months! I will try not to miss a month again! My friend challenged me to once a week...NOT gonna happen! April was full of so many exciting things so that is my real excuse! Aunt Stevie came to visit and we took her for a little hair trim...15 INCHES of trim to be exact! She hadn't cut her hair other then little trims here and there for 5 years!! It was time! Not to mention She looked Absolutely beautiful!! I had a ton of fun doing her pictures and trying to beat the storm!! Seems like I have done a couple photo shoots like that! :) Gotta love the Rockies! While she was here it seemed like we went nonstop all weekend! We didnt even have time for GLEE Karaoke!

:( But we did squeeze in time for a little 5K Heroes Run, a trip to Manitou and a night a Cajun crawfish and shrimp boil!!

Also, of course in April we had Easter!! We had ourselves a Family Easter Party with our Ft. Carson Family! It was a blast! The kids had a ton of fun hunting for Easter eggs! Payson had to open EVERY egg to see what was inside as soon as he picked it up! We played games, ate lots of good food and sat around and chatted, what we do best! Evan, the oldest kid of the bunch, was such a sport to play with all of the little kids! Of course they all love him! Also of course when he wasn't outside hunting eggs Payson was inside playing with Dillon's trains! Cuz we all know that NO other toys exist in his world! Thanks Rachel for hosting such a fun day! The last picture in the collage is our Scuba diver eggs I promised last month! Once we started making them we realized they were a little advanced for P but they turned out so cute!! Thank you Grandma Mary for sending us Family Fun so we can come up with cute activities every month!!

Nothing SUPER exciting has happened so far this month but fingers crossed we may have some exciting news coming soon!!

March Madness!!

That really has nothing to do with us being College Basketball fans! Just that we have had a fun and busy month! These three are a couple random pics from throughout the month! Payson with two of his besties Liam and Haley on our way to shopping and lunch in Denver! Costa Vida here we come! And it was delish! Picture number two is Payson covered in Chocolate after a full week of being deprived of the stuff!! Picture number three is my sweet boy passed OUT in the car. If you look close you can see the bubbles by his mouth! Too funny!!

Living at the base of the Cheyenne Mountain we get to experience ridiculous winds! We decided to take advantage of them! Payson had his first kite flying experience and LOVED it!! He decided it would be better for Pappa to hold his kite so he could crack up laughing while it danced in the wind! Shayne was a pro flying two kites at once while I could barely keep mine up long enough to snap a picture of the three of them together!! I won't mention how many times it crashed on the other side of the wrought iron fence!!

Grandma Mary in Montana, as Payson refers to her has been sending us the Family Fun Magazine. Payson loves it and wants to do EVERY craft that he sees in them! This month it was the Dino Feet. I think he had more fun painting himself then the actual feet but he was happy! He insisted that the toes needed toenails because "everybody has toenails!" Silly Mommy! What was I thinking! April's activity is Scuba Diver easter eggs! We cant wait! Last week we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with our favorite Maughan's! Ok, so they are the only Maughan's we know but they are still some of our favorite friends!! Payson is good friends with their daughter "Brookly" and the two of them fight like an old married couple! It's hilarious!! Payson wanted to feed the giraffes but once he got close he decided it would be better for Pappa to do it instead! He totally shocked us by telling us he wanted to ride the pony and then HE DID!! And HE LOVED IT!! He was even wearing his little Wranglers! At the end of the ride the guy asked him if he liked it, to which he responded with a solid "Thumbs up!"

With April coming in a couple days that mean General Conference, spring flowers, walking in the mornings with my friends, (friend sounds too impersonal. They are really my Army sisters) picnics at the park and so so soon back at the pool!!

My Sweet "P" Payson!

I know I talk a lot about Payson on here and sometime become very redundant but I cannot get anough of this kid! Even when he is having a rough day he still has is moments of sweetness but most importantly SILLINESS! This kid is so stinking hilarious and keeps me laughing everyday! The things that come out of his mouth kill me! He has such a great sense of humor and it's so fun to watch it get bigger and bigger everyday! He has recently started singing a lot more but now he knows actual words to songs. I have him listen to Kid Songs and we sing them all the time but his recent song of choice is Black Eyed Peas Time of My Life! He thinks saying "dirty bit" is the funniest thing and he laughs at himself after he says it! The other day he was in the bath singing Defying Gravity! At least he has good taste in music! The way he analyzes things and remembers thing amaze me! We heard a Plain White T's song the other day and he told me that Pappa liked the song and liked to sing it! It was true but so cute to hear it come from him! These are a couple pics from the last month or so of him! I can't believe he is in Primary and growing up so fast! Oh and best news of all HE POTTY TRAINED LAST MONTH!!!! Such a big boy!

I still can't get enough of these eyelashes! Thanks Pappa!!

One of those moments where you want to be mad but it's so stinking cute so I ran for my camera instead!!

In January we went to Bozeman and Grandpa took the boys sledding! This was my favorite picture because all three of them look like they are having way too much fun!!