Thanksgiving

How sad that these are the only pictures that I got of our Thanksgiving. Miki volunteered to help the ward clean up after the El Paso Thanksgiving Day Parade. So, the girls and I joined him for the festivities. It was a beautiful day, but I have to say the parade was a disappointment. It was soooo slow!

After the parade, we went home for a traditional home cooked meal and spent the day together as a family. We are just so happy to have Miki back and to spend so many fun times with him making more great memories.

Camping out in the living room

When Miki came home, he was able to spend a lot of time with the girls especially since they were on Christmas break from school. One of his great plans was to push all of the sofas together and have everyone sleep on one big sofa bed. I chose to sit this one out, but had fun watching and listening to the mischief. Sadie didn't last the entire night. I think I remember her coming up to her bed after only a little while.

Sadie's Field Trip

Sadie's preschool took a field trip to a local farm on November 19th. This farm had so much to see and explore. There were pecan trees everywhere, a corn maze, a huge field of cotton, a pumpkin patch, playground and a hayride. We had a great time and will try to go back next year!

Miki is Home

He returned on Saturday from a year deployement to Iraq.

Originally, he was scheduled to return at 2 am on Saturday, November 13th, but for about 72 hours I kept getting phone call after phone call with changes to his arrival time. It changed about 8 times before it was settled upon 5:50 pm on Saturday.

The girls and I got to the meeting place at about 5:00 and waited for about an hour. We were inside most of the time and there was a bounce house and coloring and crafts for the kids. They also provided free snacks and drinks while we waited.

At about 6:00 we went outside to watch his plane taxi in. It stopped pretty far away, but we could still see everyone get off of the plane. There was a band playing, soldiers in formation to welcome them, families with signs and balloons and lots of cheering. The soldiers walked by but we couldn't really tell who was who because they were still pretty far away. They had to walk to a different building to drop off their weapons and have a briefing. We went back into the building to wait for another 1.5 hours. But their was a live video feed of the soldiers in their meeting and we got to see Miki there.

When it was time, the families all lined up and we heard a loud knocking on the metal door. Smoke machines turned on while lights flashed. Then the troops marched in. What an amazing moment to see all of those soldiers in uniform. I thought I would be in tears by this point, but I was just so excited. I couldn't stop grinning. We spotted Miki in the crowd and you can see how the rest panned out in the video clips below.

We are so grateful for our wonderful husband and father. And so blessed to have him back in our lives. What a wonderful spirit he brings to our home. We missed him so much and love having his fun, relaxed and easygoing personality around all of the time. I truly appreciate his love and support of me and the girls while he had been gone. I didn't know if I could make it this last year. It has been a very difficult year at times, but I will be forever grateful for the love and sacrifice of so many family and friends that have stepped up and lifted our family when we have needed it. I know that the Lord has blessed and strengthened us during these difficult times and I will be forever grateful for this experience and the person that I have become because of it.

Lanie is 6 months old

Lanie is such an amazing little girl. She brings so much joy and sunshine to our family. She has mastered rolling over and loves to try and grab things out of her reach. She wiggles, kicks and laughs all day long. She is still an excellent sleeper and will take 3 naps of about 2 hours each and sleeps 12 hours at night. She has started eating some baby food and loves everything that she has tasted so far. She loves her daddy and has melted his heart. We love you Lanie!

Kylie's Last Soccer Game

Kylie wasn't too excited to play soccer this year. She didn't have a great experience with it last year. She was on a boys and girls team. She pretty much just stood there and watch the boys attack the ball and each other. We thought we would try an all girls league this year in hopes that she might enjoy herself more.

Well, she loves it! She says that she wants to play soccer her whole life. She has improved so much this year. She was very excited to be able to do the starting kick three times after the other team scored. She also really enjoyed her teammates and said that her favorite part was all of the new friends that she made. We can't wait for the Spring season and Dad will get to see her too!

Sadie's Last Soccer Game

Here are pictures and video from Sadie's last game of the Fall season. They start up again in March. It was starting to get a little cold since the 4-year old kids play at 8:00 am on Saturdays. I think we were sitting there in 48 degree weather. Luckily, Sadie was running the entire time and didn't even feel the cold.


After the game she told me that she did something very sneaky during the game. I asked her what it was and she said that two of the players had fallen down and everyone was staring at them, so she dribbled the ball away and made a goal when everyone was distracted. She thought that she did something very sneaky and was pretty proud of herself, but I think she was also worried that she might have done something wrong.

It was so fun to watch her go out there and give her best every game. I had no idea that she would be so aggressive. Kind of a pleasant change to see.