Activites from last weekend

Aggie Muster here in Jacksonville

With my friend Beth, who is a survivor!

We will be praying for you that your scans come back negative again this Friday!!

Princess Play

I am the Indian princess on the right. (And that is what forever the IUP mascot will be to me!)

Aunt Jen and Uncle Josh gave Kendall SEVERAL boxes of dress up clothes for Christmas & we decided to have a princess day AHEM or days of princess wear. Hope you enjoy!

Adventures with Isaac (From the past 2 weeks)

Happy Birthday Grammy!

Big Happy Birthday wishes today for my Grammy Heider! We wish that we were there but August will have to be soon enough!
We hope you have a great day!
Love you!

Michelle's Going West Party

We'll miss you guys!

The military definately has a lot of perks but saying goodbye is not one of them so instead we will say see you guys soon!

Manners Matter

Ok,ok so I stole the title from one of Kendall's book that I like to read her a few times a week but SERIOUSLY they do matter!
We were at the tail end of our evening last night.....Ben holding Isaac and me holding Kendall at Relay for life. They were just getting ready to dim the lights to light the luminaries. Here comes my point of MANNERS MATTER.
Ben and I simultaneously saw a woman walking on the track with a lit cigarette, who then proceeded to drop the thing burning onto the track and mosey off like nothing happened. I looked at Ben because I was about to lose it.
HELLO.....we are at Relay where many loved ones have been lost to lung cancer due to smoking & second hand smoke. Can you be any tackier?
Good golly....my blood has been boiling ever since then! So there you go....when you are going to an event aimed at raising money to cure cancer please leave your stinking cigarettes at home and MIND YOUR MANNERS!

8 things

8 Things
I was tagged by Lindsay, one of my bloggy friends, over at http://macmanusfamily.blogspot.com/ to do an 8 Things post.

Here's how 8 THINGS works:-
Mention the person that tagged you.
- Complete the lists of 8's.
- Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends.
- Go tell them you tagged them!

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO:
1. Spending every day with my kids (Some days more than others!)
2. A clean house (Someday it might happen)
3. My trips this year (Charleston in May for a romantic getaway with my hubby, Emerald Isle in June for a beach getaway with my family, Wisconsin in June to see Ben's family, PA in August for my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary, & Texas in November to see the other side of Ben's family)
4. Seeing Kendall run to Ben's car every day when he gets home. (And of course seeing him as well!)
5. Working on planting some trees in our backyard
6. Isaac being done teething
7. The squadron's flight suit party in June.
8. Seeing friends that I have been missing.

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY:-
1. Drove to Cherry Point (52 miles away) with the kids for the morale coffee for Ben's squadron.
2. Took my color personality test (which I will post about later because it was so neat!)
3. Ate lunch with my handsome hubby!
4. unloaded some laundry & washed curtains with little messy handprints on them
5. bathed 2 wiggly kids at the same time
6. Went to Aggie Muster in Jacksonville at Sharp Shooters
7. Went to Relay for Life (Go Beth!!)
8. Hugged and smooshed to wee little heads before they went to bed.

8 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO:
1. Go to Europe with my husband this year.
2. Be more than one place at one time.
3. Work one day a week like I used to (I miss my patients.)
4. Keep my house cleaner and the laundry caught up.
5. Go back to school for my masters and nurse practicioner
6. Teach nursing at a college level
7. Visit all my friends around the country
8. Have another baby (not any time soon but still....are you panicking yet babe?)

8 SHOWS I WATCH:
1.Grey's Anatomy
2. Army Wives
3. Private Practice
4. CSI (Las Vegas)
5. Law and Order (all of them)
6. Survivor
7. Desperate Housewives
8. 24 (Ben and I used to love to do marathon watches of the season prior before we had kids!)

8 BLOGGERS TAGGED: (Ok so I didn't have 8 but 6 has to be good enough! Have fun ladies!)
1. Andrea at http://kevin-andreaturner.blogspot.com/
2. Michelle at http://michelleroo.blogspot.com/
3. Keri at http://www.thecrazyjacksons.blogspot.com/
4. Allison at http://johnstonfamily519.blogspot.com/
5. Stephanie at http://absolutelyblessed.blogspot.com/
6. Melissa at http://juicycrownnotes.blogspot.com/

Friday Fill-ins

And...here we go!

1. Apparently there's some sort of mix-up. (The story of my life!!)

2. I LOVE a sunny day.

3. 2009 has been fantastic so far.

4. "I peed mommy" & that was it. (Pee all over my carpet again...thanks Kendall!)

5. For too long I've been obsessed with what people think of me.

6. I am not obsessed with blogging; I am not!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Aggie Muster at Sharpshooters & Relay for life, tomorrow my plans include more Relay for life & some quality time with my family and Sunday, I want to have ALL of the laundry completed!

Easter basket, Kites & Bubbles

We also celebrated Ben being home by having Kendall open her Easter basket which contained (among alot of other things) some bubbles & a new kite. I was pleasantly surprised that Kendall loved flying the kite (& Geronimo loved eating the bubbles.) Here is a little sneak peek of what was happening in our backyard.

Aggie Muster

As A&M Former Students come together in all parts of the world,

we pause to acknowledge the many blessings that have come our way the past years.

We are humbly grateful for our Aggie heritage and the comradeship we enjoy because of our love of our University.

We desire our sense of fellowship to spread to people in all schools and nations in order to bring the men and women of the world into a new bond of friendship and mutual understanding.

In our fellowship, we pause to remember those who are absent.

May we have a deep appreciation for the great examples and sacrifices given by those of us whom we honor by silver taps or by silent mourning.

We wish for strength to try to do our tasks better, in service to humanity, our nation, our University, and our associates.

May this occasion inspire us to be strong in body, keen in mind, and friendly in society.
by Frank J. Malina ‘34Paris, France

Cole Brothers Circus 2009

Happy Birthday Kennedy!

Daddy's home!

6 weeks & 2 days later we finally got Ben home to us yesterday from his duty out in California. This detachment was the most stressful time that I can remember in the past 5 plus years for us. I think mainly due to all of the illnesses that the kids and I had! We are so very happy to have him home!

We have been relaxing and being lazy most of the day today but are now getting ready to go to the circus which is a first for all 4 of us!

The kiddos happy to have their dad back

Isaac says, "Who is this big man who is tickling me?"
Kendall not leaving Daddy's side!

Kendall was very excited to see her daddy if you couldn't tell by this video.

I promise......

.....the last 2 shots from Easter. These are from our Easter night potluck.

Yep Kendall was the only girl & the only child crying....that's our girl!

Some of our friends

Slide show of the rest of the Easter pictures

We had such a great Easter minus Ben not being here. Our church is growing in leaps and bounds. We had 247 children between ages birth-3 then over 2100 for our worship services. God is good!
We had a wonderful potluck dinner on Sunday night. Thanks again Karen and Marek! What a beautiful home you have!!
We hope you all had a wonderful, blessed Easter as well!!

Message for Daddy on Easter

We love and miss you BG! Hope to see your smiling face SOON!!

Easter Saturday and Sunday services preview....

Happy Easter

His Resurrection is a gift

that lights our way

and brings joy & peace

to our hearts.

May his love bless you always!

Happy Easter!

Pictures from Saturday First Baptist Easter egg hunt

Videos from the aftermath of the Easter egg hunt today

Before the Easter egg hunt at First Baptist today

This is what you get.....

....when you ask Kendall.....

....to go check on her little brother for you.
Anyway, I am still not quite certain how she managed to get into the crib but there she was for all to see!
I just wanted to share my good mood with everyone. I spent 3.5 glorious hours to myself today getting a haircut & highlights then a pedicure. Thanks again to Melissa who made this possible! If the day wasn't already filled with a wonderful blessings (in the form of a break from the kids) for me...Ben called while I was under the dryer to tell me that they are under motion and on their way home!! Can I get a WHOOP?!?! He will not make it for Easter but just knowing that he is on the way has taken a huge weight off of my shoulders. Please pray that the aircraft holds it together enough to get back to NC without breaking again!
WHOOP!

The view from my bathroom

Sibling time

Mr. Personality
Getting ready for ladies bible study this morning, I just thought that I would put a pic of what I am seeing on my bed while I am getting ready.

This past week for the kids

Kendall is trying so hard to learn how to jump rope

Isaac has been sitting very well on his own & enjoying new toys
Kendall has been liking being in "mama's" bed while daddy is gone

Not to be outdone by his big sister, Isaac has also been in my bed...

Kendall likes to sit in the desk chair & pretend she is on the computer

isaac is very intent on learning how to play this piano!

Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood this past Saturday

Baby Turtle at the Beach household

Apparently our two box turtles from last year left us a present before they left our yard....Kendall & I found a baby turtle while we were mowing this morning. I thought that you guys might enjoy seeing her hold this tiny little bugger.

Playing with some photo software

What do you think?

Stellan

I started this blog because I wanted an easy way to keep our gigantic family and friend base apprised on what was happening with us without having to send out emails all the time. It has done well & I know that lots of you check in every day to see the pictures and updates. I am so glad that it has been successful for that.
Then it became a way to creatively express myself and journal. (I also think of it as a keepsake that hopefully Kendall and Isaac will be able to look back on and laugh about.) I love scripture, quotes, pictures, and other creative things if you couldn't tell by my 2 end columns.
After I got comfortable with these two, I started branching out & enjoying other friends blogs plus finding some new friends. I know that it is a hard concept to think of someone as a friend whom you have never met or spoken to but it becomes that way as you read & learn about their lives.
I have not been following MckMama very long but it doesn't take too long to fall in love with her beautiful family. They have been going through a very trying time with their son, Stellan. We (Kendall and I) have been praying for him every night.
Last night, not 5 minutes after I posted the blog about Kendall, she threw up again all over our new futon & the spare bathroom. Anyway, I bathed her then took her to her bedroom to complete our nightly ritual. We started doing our prayers.....of which I had planned on shortening to get her some much needed rest. I heard her sweet little voice say, "mom we pray for baby stellan heart." Not sure if it was our long day, her thinking of someone else's needs when clearly she was super sick herself, or what but I had a good long cry about it. So we of course prayed for baby Stellan.
I came over here this morning to check out blog land and found out that the news did a report on MckMama and her family. Here is the link for that......



Thousands follow journey of Mound infant's battle Thousands of people around the world are saying prayers for an infant from Mound fighting a potentially deadly heart condition... Full Article
For all the latest News, visit KSTP.com.



Have a blessed day.