It's been almost three years since I last blogged- THREE YEARS!!! Pathetic, I know, and a lot has happened in that time. Growing kids, a move BACK to Fort Hood, Texas, AND a new addition to our family! John just left on what will have been his second deployment since I last blogged. His last two tours were in Iraq, and this time, to Afghanistan. It seems like with each deployment, comes another baby. The first deployment to Iraq, John left me six months pregnant with our oldest, Janalyn.

Our second deployment, he left when Jack was almost eight months old...

Our little Kylie is 4 1/2 months old, and once again, he is deployed.

While it's never really easy, I like to think I'm 'going off to battle' my own little war every time he leaves. Only this time, I've decided It would be theraputic to blog about it. So this be my first post.

For some reason, deployment brings bad luck for us; and always come on a significant date. The day John was packing to leave for his first deployment, I was in the back room sick as a dog with food poisoning. Throwing your guts up when you're six months pregnant is no picnic. John left for that deployment on his birthday.

The second time he deployed, I spent the night before he left, in the ER with 8 month old Jack, strapped down to a papoose board, having his smashed finger drained of infection. Jack also caught the chicken pox that deployment ;) Fun times. John's departure date was on Fathers Day.

The day John packed for this deployment, I was sick with a virus. Not 48 hours after he left, I broke my middle toe- giving me a lovely shoe, a pair of crutches, and a 'take it easy, don't drive,' and 'do you have anyone who can come help out for a while?' (Thanks Mom, and Dad!) My sweetheart left two days before Valentines Day, of course.

I have three very cute, and VERY busy kids. I'm sure that they'll keep me on my toes and I'll probably want to break down a lot. I'll have days when I want to lay down in front of a train! But, I also know I can find joy in the journey and that what doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger!

Nothing like the great outdoors....

This past Memorial Weekend, we decided it might be fun to take the kids camping. So we packed up the car, loaded up the kids and carpooled with our dear friends, the Bailey's to beautiful Linx Lake. It rained all night and due to limited space, we ended up camping in a NO CAMPFIRE zone, but we still had a good time. It was little Bennet Bailey's 4th birthday so we had a little birthday party for him that night. I made dutch oven chicken and rice and John made his famous dutch oven peach cobbler. We sang to Bennet, who then blew out his birthday...match? Birthday cobbler and ice cream, yum! At 7 months old, it was Jack's first camping trip. He even had a little camping buddy...7 month old Jeremiah Bailey. Jack loved every minute of it! The babies took turns crying us all to sleep but after everyone settled down, we slept soundly to the piter patter of rain ALL NIGHT LONG!!! We awoke the next morning to wet clothes and pancakes. The Baileys were in charge of breakfast and did a fantastic job! We broke down camp while the kids ran around like wild animals. Then, it was off to the lake. John taught Janalyn some valuable life lessons, like how to cast a fishing pole, and how to squat in the woods. We took a beautiful hike around Linx Lake and saw all sorts of neat wildlife from a snake, to a mother duck and her new baby ducklings!The weather was beautiful. The scenery, serene.Our picnic lunch was a bit windy, but the brownie bites and hot dogs well made up for it! On our hike,We stopped for a family picture....and for Janalyn to sit right in an ant pile!!!We had tons of fun with the Bailey family... who hopefully didn't get too sick of us by the end of our journey!We plan on more camping trips in the future....just not until we aquire a porta-potty and children who are a bit older! Babies and camping don't mix well, right Jack?

Homeward bound to bathe! On Saturday night, my friend, Maranna came through on her way to Washington, all the way from Ft. Hood, Texas. It was fun having her and her little girl, Lily for dinner.

We wrapped up our long Memorial weekend kind of rough. Both kids ended up sick on Monday. Poor Jack spiked a temperature of 102.2! Janalyn made it to a baseball game with daddy that morning; Diamondbacks vs. Padres. Padres won.

Check out this cute family!

Happy Memorial Day!!! A BIG thanks to all those who have and do serve our great nation!

Stick Figure Family

Make your Stick Figure Family at FreeFlashToys.com

Happy Mothers Day Daddy!

We enjoyed a beautiful Mothers Day this year. Janalyn believes that Mothers Day is for everyone, Mother or not. Not only did she want to open all of Mommy's gifts and cards, but she spent the whole day saying, 'Happy Mothers Day!' to everyone, including Daddy and Jack. She is my little sweetheart. After all, every time I start to get upset at her, even to this day (three days later) , she'll blurt out, 'Happy Mothers Day! I love you. Are you a happy girl?"With it being Mothers Day, we were privileged to be able to call Elder Gregg Bowen all the way in Portugal. He sounded just like the same old Gregg, only a bit more polished and missionary-like. It was fun to have him talk to Janalyn and hear what a little lady she's becoming. She even sang 'We are a Happy Family' to him over the phone. So fun!
John made orange rolls (yum!) for breakfast, and we dashed out the door for church. On the counter he had left two pots of beautiful red and yellow mini roses and a beautiful card from both him and the kids. Janalyn had a fun time listening to the Primary kids sing 'I Often Go Walking.' Mommy explained to her that she would get to do that next year. The bishopric spent all of second hour baking homemade cookies in the kitchen and took them around to serve to all the Mothers during third hour. I had taught my Mia Maids a lesson on Temple Marriage and had brought little handouts that read 'DONUT settle...Marry the right person in the right place at the right time.' And had donuts for each of my girls. The reason I mention this, is because by noon, I had put away two orange rolls a cookie and a donut. Happy Mothers Day to me! How SHAMEFUL!!!

John made me a delicious dinner. I requested: Lasagna, salad and garlic bread...

...and a frosty STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM CAKE! I was VERY impressed!

Some friends of ours were getting rid of an old swing set, so we decided to adopt it. This swing set reminds me of the one in Grandma and Grandpa Bowen's backyard in Sugar City when I was a little girl. All the cousins would spend hours out there swinging and playing on the teeter toter. We'd chant the song 'Teeter-toter bread and water, wash your face in dirty water!' Gross, I know. Here's a picture of my cousin, Jason on the teeter-toter and Grandpa and I on the swings. These pictures are in loving memory of you Grandpa!

We ended our wonderful day with a family stroll around the block.

I am so grateful for the blessing it is to be a Mother. I couldn't have asked for sweeter children! I am also lucky to have the Mother I do. She is my best friend.

This picture was taken of us last Mothers Day 08'.

Happy Mothers Day!

One is silver and the other GOLD

Recently, my very BEST Friend from high school came to pay me a visit. Ten years we've been the best of friends so it was fun for me to have her come all the way from windy Wyoming to play, show off my cute kids and did I mention PLAY?! She showered the kids with GIFTS, ...We went to the PHOENIX ZOO.... Here's Janalyn 'brushing' one of the goats at the petting zoo. She had just spent some time at the splash park and got SOAKED so yes, that is one of Jack's diapers and onesies she is sporting. Hey, I worked with what I had! I got many dirty looks from people when they saw my child running around Phoenix Zoo dressed this way...

We paid to ride the train through the zoo, which was SO worth it! Jennifer purchased us some of that splendid sugar-spun delight often refered to as COTTON CANDY, yum! That'll get Janalyn going!
Jennifer and I decided to attend one of the Fit n' Fab workout classes at the YMCA. We were not so FIT and FAB. Afterward we took the kids SWIMMING!
We PICNICEDat the PARK...

...went SHOPPING and to LUNCH and stayed up late watching FLICKS and remenicing about the days of NO RESPONSABILITY and wrapped it up with a quick run for PEDICURES. LOVE you Jen! I had a BLAST! See you again soon~

Egg-static about Easter!

Hello? Mom, Easter was SO last week!
I stink at this whole blog thing so just plan on checking for my updates weeks after any event.

Baby Jack just turned six months old this past Sunday the 19th. My baby boy is growing up so fast I can hardly stand it!

A few days before Easter, Mommy and Jana got the brilliant idea to have a tea party in Janalyn's room. So, we made a cake from scratch.....a CARROT CAKE!!! ...And we made little tea sandwhiches and a fruit and a veggie platter and had a JOLLY GOOD TIME!

Janalyn and Jack had fun dying Easter Eggies this year. Janalyn had a blast sticking stickers on each one while Jack just enjoyed sucking on the eggs. EEWWW!!!


Our pretty girl with her prized eggs, just before Uncle Scotty peeled and deviled them! You can see him standing by....

I've learned that it's pretty much impossible to get a picture of both kids smiling at the camera. And NO, not even jumping around and acting like a complete idiot helps one bit! Janalyn just looks at you like you're crazy, see? Jack liked it.



Happy Spring!
The forcast says it's going to be 102 degrees tomorrow. Where in the heck did spring go!?