Steve's Art

Steve just finished up his personal website. I am quite impressed. Elganart.com

Thoughtful Steve

Friday was a rough day around here for me. It's the Christmas season and I'm missing Steve terribly. The girls have been pretty rotten to each other and that makes it tough on everyone. I was lamenting my station in life when Steve emailed and asked if I had gotten a package from UPS yet? I hadn't heard any knocks on the door, but I went up to check anyway. Well- there on the doorstep was a box from proflowers.com. Inside was a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. But it was the note inside that made my day, made my heart melt and caused the tears to flow. Steve had sent those flowers for our anniversary of the first time we met in person. December 14th, 5 years ago, Steve flew up to Utah from Texas to confirm that I was the girl he wanted to marry for all eternity. What an incredibly thoughtful thing to do! I have the best husband in the entire world!

Some of those promised pictures

Here are a few of my favorites of the pictures we've taken for Steve so far (these have been harder than they look!)...

First of all, there's my Yoga Baby... how many 7-month-olds (let alone any age) do you know that can make and hold this pose?

Decorating the tree and the girls (I believe Mom said Geoff used to enjoy doing this to himself as well)
My tribute to "White Christmas"
Who wouldn't want to find this in their stocking Christmas morning?
And then of course the girls in their Christmas dresses this morning:To get the full selection of pictures, check them out here.

This Little Piggie

Okay, so I saw this done at the Sear's studio and thought it was so cute I needed to do it, too.

December Pictures

For part of Steve's Christmas present we are sending him a "picture of the day" for every day in December leading up to Christmas. We definitely have our work cut out for us. I'll share the best ones as we go. I just finished sewing my latest project and the girls wore them to church today. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out!

Roly-Poly Tip-Toes

So Sarah has been up on her hands and knees rocking and rolling for a couple weeks now. Just the last couple days she's picked up a new trick- hands and tip-toes. It is really quite amusing. But the funniest thing about it, is she'll spit out her pacifier, get on her tip-toes, then do a push-up with her bum in the air to get that pacifier back into her mouth. It really is funny to watch. If Steve were here I'd blame him for making her do her calisthenics. ;-) She is getting very close to crawling, though. She amazes me at how well she can get around the room with just rolling and belly-flopping. I love this age!

Happy Turkey Day

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving today. This is a great time to express our gratitude for those great blessings in our lives. And for me- that is my wonderful husband, Steve and our three sweet girls. (for more crazy pictures of our pilgrim, Indian and turkey...)

FYI

For those of you that don't read Steve's blog, I thought I'd share his latest post... helps make the Army a little more clear.

Well, these last two weeks have certainly been weeks to remember. There have been many changes in my life, but I would have to say that the highlight was this past Sunday. SGT Shawn Smith was able to be baptized out here in the little font in the local FOB Falcon chapel. It is amazing to see the change that has come into his life due to learning and accepting the gospel. He has kept his commitments and continued to learn and grow and read in the scriptures. He accepted each challenge as they were handed out with Faith knowing that he was doing the Lord's will. It was great to go over the whole plan of Salvation with him and teach him all of the basic doctrines of the gospel and to also introduce him to the gospel and church resources and those things that we have available for help. We had pretty much daily discussions clear up through his baptism and we are going to sit down probably tomorrow and continue our after baptism lessons. I think Brother Hardy, our group leader, summed it up perfectly: "Of all of the significant events that have happened while our unit has been deployed out here, this baptism and the commitment that Brother Smith is making today is the most significant by far". It is true, the eternal welfare of souls is so important. To make it all the more sweet, his wife Dawn and daughters Brandy and Bonnie also accepted the challenge to have the missionaries over a couple of weeks ago and they too accepted baptism and they had their baptisms this past Sunday as well back in the Junction City ward there in Kansas. This past week we contacted the Stake President in charge of Iraq and asked him for permission to baptize him and be able to interview him as well. So I did the teaching and Brother Hardy did the interview this past Friday. He was found worthy and then we set up a program, coordinated with the head chaplain over at the chapel to get water into the font and were all set for the service on Sunday. We had a great turn out for church, around 22. In our little supply trunk that we keep for our services, we have 2 large baptismal jump suits. They were a bit snug on Shawn and me, but they worked just fine. It was awesome to be able to put those on and feel the wonderful Spirit there in the chapel that always accompanies baptisms. Everyone was smiling and there was definitely excitement in the air. Shawn brought a camera so we were able to take a few shots of the chapel and of us before and after the baptism. We had a great talk on faith and baptism from Wes Theurer before the baptism and then we went into the waters and performed the ordinance. Shawn came out with gritting teeth because the water was quite cold, but the feeling was amazing. We then had a talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Shawn was then confirmed a new member of the Church. By far the best thing that has happened in both of my deployments thus far. It was wonderful that he could do this at the same time as his family even though they are literally thousands of miles apart. They have a goal to reach the temple in a year and there in Salt Lake be sealed as a family and I plan to be there with them if at all possible. Shawn will receive the Aaronic priesthood this next Sunday as well.

Additionally this past week was my change of command. I'm now the Commander of C Co, 4-1 BSTB, 4 IBCT, 1ID. Translation: Charlie Company, 4th of the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. I was quite nervous going into the ceremony, as I usually am with most new things that I do. We did a practice this past Sunday and then had the Change of Command Monday morning. There was quite a large crowd that came to it as well which was nice. My company was lined up off to the side with 1SG (the 1st Sergeant is the head Non Commissioned Officer in the Company) and the company colors (guidon) out in front. I, the Battalion Commander, and the outgoing commander (CPT Kollin Taylor) were lined up about 75 feet in front of them facing them. We started the ceremony and had a prayer--one thing that is nice about Army tradition and having a Chaplain's Corps. Then we did the actual change while a narrator read the significance of the changing of the guidon. We walked forward and stood in front of the Company 1SG and then he retrieved the colors from the guidon bearer and passed them to CPT Taylor who then passed them to the BN Commander who passed them to me and then I passed them back to 1SG who then gave them back to the guidon bearer. We three then turned around and marched back to where we were and as we did so, I swapped places with CPT Taylor so as to be on the right hand side of the Battalion Commander indicating that I'm now the acting Commander. We then turned back around and faced the Company once again and then we went into the speeches. The Battalion Commander, LTC Birchmeier spoke first and then Kollin spoke and I spoke last. It is tradition that the incoming commander speak very little, so I followed in tradition and just thanked everyone mostly and then at the end went to say the Company Motto and went blank! So I sat there for about 5 awkward seconds before it came back to me. Luckily, I spent those 5 seconds looking at the Company so in the minds of the onlookers it was as though I was expecting the Company to say the motto for me...so anyway...it all worked out in the end. Then we sang the Big Red One song (the 1st ID song) at which point two helicopters flew over head of the Company, we honestly couldn't have timed it better had we tried! And then we all sang the Army song. After that I walked forward half way to the Company and told 1SG to take charge of the unit and saluted and then walked off to the left. And that ended the ceremony. It went well overall. Afterward there was a meet and greet up in the Battalion Conference room where mostly people from 610 Came and congratulated me which was nice.

Key:

Branches of the Army: The operational specialty to which an officer is commissioned or a Soldier is trained. Examples are:
Infantry: Ground troops, the ones that go out and fight and are currently doing the raids in Baghdad and killing and arresting the bad guys
Armor: Ground troops that ride in armored track vehicles
Artillery: Ground troops that specialize in large weapons that lob explosives onto the enemy
Air Defense Artillery: They shoot down stuff in the sky like incoming missiles or planes
Aviation: Helicopter pilots and the Soldiers that take care of them
Military Police: self explanatory
Medical: Self explanatory, but there are all kinds of specialties in this branch
Signal: Communications and networking (this is what I am)
Quarter Master: Logistics (I was just in a logistics unit called the BSB or Brigade Support Battalion)
Transportation: The ones that move all of the logistics, troops, equipment around the battlefield
Finance: self explanatory
Judge Advocate General (JAG): Military law
Adjutant General: Personnel management
Chemical: chemical experts on chem warfare and prevention

There are others and quite a few smaller specialties out there that you can become and get affiliated with, but these are the most common.

Army Organization:
Platoon (20-40 Soldiers) < Company (30-200 Soldiers) < Battalion (300-800 Soldiers) < Brigade (1500-4000 Soldiers) < Division (4-6 Brigades) < Corps (2-4 Divisions)< Army

Rank Structure:

Officer: 2nd Lieutenant (2LT) < 1st Lieutenant (1LT) < Captain (CPT) < Major (MAJ) < Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) < Colonel (COL) < Brigadier General (BG=1 star) < Major General (MG=2 stars) < Lieutenant General (LTG= 3 stars) < General ( GEN = 4 stars)

Enlisted (When an enlisted makes the rank of SGT he/she becomes a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO)): Private (PVT) < Private 2nd Class (PV2) < Private 1st Class (PFC) < Specialist (SPC) = Corporal (CPL) < Sergeant (SGT) < Staff Sergeant (SSG) < Sergeant First Class (SFC) < Master Sergeant (MSG) = First Sergeant (1SG) < Sergeant Major (SGM) = Command Sergeant Major (CSM)

Note: those ones that are "=" mean that they are the same pay grade, but they are in leadership positions and thus outrank the non-leadership ranks.

Note 2: A 2nd Lieutenant outranks the highest enlisted in the Army, however, respect is shown accordingly both ways.


A lot of people out of the military are wondering what a Commander is or what this job means, whether it is a promotion or what. Technically, it isn't a promotion. Currently, I'm a Captain (CPT). In the military, promotions happen when you gain Rank, e.g. when you go from LT to CPT or from CPT to MAJ etc. When you are promoted you also get a raise etc. Becoming a Commander is just changing jobs. You don't get a pay raise or anything like that. At any point in your career, you can hold any number of jobs or areas of responsibility. There are certain jobs that are designated for LTs, Platoon leader being a key developmental job as well as maybe being an executive officer of a Company (XO=2nd in Command). There are also certain jobs for CPTs and MAJs and LTCs and COLs and Generals. Some jobs are of greater responsibility than others and as such are often sought out more or perhaps even esteemed more than others. Being a Staff officer is required by most due to the need to learn various areas of the Army Organization and their purpose is to support Commanders and help them make decisions and help the unit run smoothly. Staff officers are usually only in charge of a handful of Soldiers that work for them directly so their area of influence is limited and their scope of expertise is focused in a specific area. For instance I have served as an Assistant Brigade S1 in charge of personnel operations in a unit and as an assistant Brigade S4 in charge of unit logistics. Both of those times I had only a handful of Soldiers working for me. My most recent job was a Battalion S6 where I was the primary Staff Officer for Communications in charge of the all of the data and radio networks for the entire Battalion of over 870 Soldiers, 300 computers, 5 different networks, and tons of other digital and radio equipment so my technical scope of influence and responsibility was huge, but I still only had about 10 NCOs and Soldiers that worked for me directly. Staff officers support the Commander at the level they are staff. The lowest level that has a staff is a Battalion, Companies do not have staffs.

The smallest unit in the army that is considered a "Command" is a Company. Company Command is one of those jobs that is more "esteemed" or sought after than other jobs that you can get as a CPT. Traditionally Company Command is a crowning job for a CPT. It used to be required by all Branches of the Army in order to be promotable to MAJ and is still required by most branches. Commanders are solely in charge of their unit and all the good or bad that comes from it. They make all of the decisions for its welfare and it every day operation. They are in charge of how things run and how to delegate responsibility. They are in charge of policies and procedures. They are in charge of all equipment in the Company and sign for it all and then have their subordinates sign for it and take responsibility for it at their level. I'm currently signed for about $5 Million in assets and responsible for maintaining it all and keeping track of it. I am also the lowest judicial level in the Army meaning that I hold discipline boards and can assign punishments legally based on the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It is the most responsibility that you can have as a Captain and that is why it is such an important leadership developmental position. In the Signal Corps, being a commander is no longer required to continue on and make the rank of MAJ and beyond, but it is still highly encouraged if you can take the position. In our current Brigade, there is only one Signal Company and 5 Battalion S6 slots and they usually pick the next Commander from one of those S6's so I was blessed to get the job.

So far the job has been great. I have very competent subordinate leaders and my 1SG, 1SG Meadows is outstanding at taking charge of tasks and requirements and being successful at making things happen. Normally I would have 3 Platoon leaders (3 LTs) that would be in charge of my 3 Platoons, but I currently don't have any. The only other officer I have in the company is my XO, 1LT Christensen. He is also a graduate from West Point and thankfully, he is very competent and a hard worker. This past week has been spent learning my new job, signing mounds of paperwork and getting to know my leaders and Soldiers. So far so good. We work hard, but we also have a good time. I'm also blessed because my direct boss, the Battalion (BN) Commander, LTC Birchmeier is very "hands off" in allowing me to have full autonomy of how to run the Company. I'm not used to this, in fact, most of the leaders that I have worked for are opposite-- very demanding and micro managed extensively. The atmosphere in my company is very positive and the Soldiers are all very hard workers. I really couldn't have asked for a better Command.

I'm going to give my "Command Philosophy" to the Soldiers tomorrow evening which is sort of my vision and expectations to the Soldiers and it will also be my first formal introduction to them other than just seeing them in passing. I hope to make a good and firm impression so they know where I stand and my expectations for them. I have a good feeling about this job and hope to be able to influence these young Soldiers for good while I'm in this position.

Our Trip's Summary

Okay, so here’s a quick recap of our trip. To start off, I will say that the girls traveled a million times better than we ever thought they would. Sure, they got tired of sitting in their car seats and they got tired and hungry and grumpy. But really- all of us were feeling the same way. It just so happens that their way of expressing these frustrations made those parts of the trip much more miserable. Having said that…

We really did have a great trip. It did start and end rough unfortunately, as I will explain now.

We were able to leave Illinois by 9:30 Monday morning. We had hoped to make it to Pittsburg by dinner time, but that was not to be. Instead we got to drive in concrete luges (sp?) in the rain for too long. We finally made it to Diane’s house somewhere around 9pm and we were all ecstatic. Ellie and Maya the dog sat under the table playing while the rest of us had a nice warm meal and got settled in. It was the next morning that the unbelievable happened. Keep in mind… nobody actually witnessed this event. Ellie was watching Maya (golden retriever- supposedly best family dog) eat her breakfast. Maya would grab a piece of dog food, take it into the living room, drop it, then pick it back up and eat it. Ellie was just going back and forth with her- quite enthralled with this methodology. The next thing I know I hear a quick, menacing growl (definitely angry), Ellie screaming and I look over to see her falling to the floor holding her face. I run over, pull her hands off her face and see blood. Okay… heart drops. Diane grabs a wet towel and I place it on Ellie’s face. When I take it off again I see the damage. Ellie’s poor little face had a couple good gashes in it. Breathe in… breathe out. My mind was racing a mile a minute, of course. Diane went to grab some antibiotic ointment, but I soon realized we were going to need to get it looked at. It was too close to the eye and too deep to just wait and see. Ken gave Ellie a quick blessing, which put my mind at ease from then on. Fortunate for us, there was a Children’s hospital about 40 minutes away and that’s where we went. Thank goodness for the portable DVD player that kept Ellie’s mind off her injury. We were blessed to be at this hospital. Everyone there was really nice and while it was scary, they were calm and great with Ellie. She had to get an IV for her sedative and she was quite the trooper. It took a really long time to see different doctors to make sure there was no serious damage to her eye. Then it took longer to coordinate everyone to do the actual stitching. Since it is a teaching hospital we had two ophthalmologists come do the sutures. And they were extremely careful to get it just right. I was able to watch and they did an excellent job. It was just strange to see my little girl sedated on that table. All-in-all she ended up with 15 dissolvable stitches. There were 4 different spots that needed sutures- 2 on her upper eyelid, one on the lower eyelid, and the noticeable one under her eye. Diane was there with me and I had to have Sarah along as well- since she needed to eat! Once Ellie finally came out of her sedative and ate and drank something to prove she could keep it down, we were finally released. Ellie was bit at 8:30 that morning and we didn’t leave the hospital until about 4pm. What an incredibly long day! Not the best way to start a vacation! Ellie seriously was a trooper and thankfully she is not afraid of dogs and was more concerned about why Maya had to move away (she was returned to the shelter where the Witzels had gotten her 4 years prior). It took her a couple days to fully recover emotionally from that incident. She was afraid to go to bed the first couple of nights without someone in the room with her. She pulled out of it in time to go to the conservatory and see the incredible glass sculptures among the plants and to have a fun day playing with Micah. We actually extended our time there an extra day just so we could really enjoy a day there. Katie and Ellie never were “themselves” while we were there, which is really a shame. They didn’t get to see the goofy, crazy Katie and the sweet, silly Ellie. Maybe next time? It was fun getting to know Maddie, Jonathon, Micah and Alex better. And really- isn't Alex just adorable?

Okay… so our next stop was New Haven, CT. Again, the trip took longer than expected and the girls screamed the last hour of the trip. Night hits and those girls can’t handle it! But once we were there it was great. Ellie attached herself to Geoff and didn’t let go until we left a few days later. Geoff was awesome with her. She made pancakes and macaroni and sliced apples and washed dishes with him. He helped her feed the ducks and pick apples. He was patient with her naughtiness when I had none left. He’s going to be an incredible dad! I actually took out a baby gift for Geoff and Emily’s baby (which we now know is a girl! Yay!) I love giving baby gifts. Anyway… Emily only had Saturday off, so we wore her out doing all sorts of fun things. That’s when we fed the ducks, picked apples, ate too many apple donuts and went home for Katie’s quick nap. The culmination of that day was going to Sally’s pizza. We got there at 5, waited in line outside in the cold until 6, then waited inside with our screaming girls for our food until 7. But boy, was that good pizza. Mom is still craving that pizza.

The next day was church. Even the church building was cool. Katie, Sarah and I only lasted through Sacrament meeting then I took Katie home for a much-needed nap. After lunch we went to the Yale campus. WOW!!! That’s all I can say about that place. Wow! It was absolutely gorgeous. The buildings are incredible. I’ve seen them in movies before, but it just doesn’t do them justice. The architecture is phenomenal. We got to see the school of medicine where Geoff studies, the beautiful grounds where Ellie, Katie and Geoff chased squirrels, and the magnificent church and library buildings. Awesome. We also took a quick trip out to the beach to see the ocean. Even though it was extremely cold, it was a beautiful sight and the girls enjoyed it. We were yet again exhausted by the end of the day.

Unfortunately we had to leave the next morning and head out to R
ochester, NY. Another long trip got us there right before dinnertime. We ended up in a motel instead of at Uncle Al’s house as originally planned (don’t ask…). So that meant we had to eat out since Aunt Paula was trying to nap before her night-shift at the hospital. We picked up Grandma and went out to eat at a pretty nice restaurant. Unfortunately the girls were over-tired and over-obnoxious. They squirmed and screamed the whole time. My food would have been awesome had I been able to sit and eat it. Instead I ended up with heartburn and indigestion and took the 3 girls to stand outside until Mom, Uncle Al and Grandma were done eating. I was not happy! Mom stresses out around her mom, so once we got back to the hotel I was sent on an errand to find something evil to eat to drown out our day. After needlessly searching for a grocery store I ended up at Kmart and some grasshopper cookies and milk. Mom and I did some serious damage on those cookies. But it made us feel so much better!!! Chocolate is a wonderful thing! Since we had all 5 of us in the same room, the girls didn’t get to bed until late.

The next day was rushed yet again. We went to grandma’s storage unit to pick up a few things (mostly Carrie’s apple dishes) to bring home with us (therefore jam-packing the van). Then it was off to pick up Grandma and out to eat again. The girls did a million times better this go-round. Paula did not join us for lunch either. We saw her a total of 2 minutes the whole time in Rochester. Yet again, no comment. After a short visit with Grandma we headed off to Palmyra for some spiritual regeneration.

I had never been to Palmyra before. What a beautiful place. We made a quick stop at the farm/sacred grove since we were short on time and daylight and went up to the Hill Cumorah. What an incredible place. The peacefulness and the view… gorgeous. I am so glad we made that quick 20-mile detour. The girls were impressed with the Christus, which was neat to see. I enjoyed telling Ellie the Joseph Smith story again and to have it mean a little bit more to her as we were there in the actual setting. It gave us the energy to hit the road once again. We had planned to stop near Cleveland, but murphy’s law- it took an extra 1 ½ hours to find a hotel. We were all going nuts by the time we finally stopped. Another late evening with the girls jumping from bed to bed to bed. Thankfully they slept in the next morning. We were home by 5pm the next day.

Now, while that was a long explanation, it really does not do our trip justice. We are so grateful for the chance to spend time with Diane and her family, Geoff and Emily, and Grandma and Uncle Al. It was a ridiculous number of miles on the van, but we are happy we made the effort and were able to see everyone.

On a completely different side note…

Even though we had just gotten home Wednesday night, we had to travel the hour to and from Monticello for Sarah’s well-baby appointment. Everyone had to go because I wanted us all to get flu shots. Sarah’s doing great. She was 16 pounds, 13 ounces and 27 inches. That puts her in the 50% for weight and 75% for height. She’s doing great! The girls weren’t too thrilled about the flu shots and even my shoulder is still sore. But, after reading about Troy’s near miss with the pneumonia going around his Ward, it was definitely worth it! Yesterday was nice so we were able to do some serious leaf-raking and get the yard cleaned up. The girls LOVE jumping in the leaves. That makes it fun for us as well. I am still exhausted from the trip. Sarah’s sleep schedule is still off and she’s not reacted well to these shots, so I’m not getting a whole lot of sleep. We’re working on it. Sarah is pulling up on her hand and knees and is pulling her knees forward. Just need to get the hands moving and she’ll be crawling any day now. These girls are just growing up too fast! Ellie had her eye examined Friday morning and the doctor said it looks great and should heal with no noticeable scarring... what an incredible blessing!

Trip Pictures

When I have a minute I'll write about our trip, but for the meantime you can check out pictures if you're interested. The trip started and ended rough, but we're glad we did it and we had a great time with everyone we visited. I'll write more soon :-)

On the Road

We have finally decided to do it! We are taking the girls East to visit family. We'll start out in Pittsburgh, PA to visit Diane and her family. I'm anxious for the girls to get to know those cousins better. After a couple days there we'll head up to Rochester, NY to visit my grandmother and aunt and uncle. We'll stay there only one night. Then our last stop will be New Haven, CT to visit Geoff and Emily. We are very excited to go up and see them as they're reliving the student life at Yale. It's going to be a grueling trip, but we're anxious to visit family.

And to add a picture... I thought Sarah was just too cute- oh how patient she was with me in this outfit! I also added the rest of our Halloween pictures to our picture website if you're interested.

Pictures

I just added all the pictures we've taken this month onto the website if you're interested. Like I said, I'll add more Halloween ones next week :-)

Halloween Costumes

We took the girls to my Dad's Jazz Ensemble concert last night to show them off. I have finally finished the costumes and since our ward isn't doing a Halloween party, I had to find somewhere to show off my hard work. And I must say- I think they turned out absolutely adorable. These are the pictures we got from last night. I'll get some better ones eventually, but here is round one. The picture is of the girls walking across the stage while Dad's band is playing (that's my dad in the background, for those of you that don't know). Ellie loves her costume and Katie was amazingly patient while wearing hers. Too cute! Ellie also recites the "Little Bo Peep" poem for anyone interested, which makes it all the cuter. The prizes for the costume contest went only to college students, so Mom was sweet and put together a special prize for the "cutest girls" that Ellie just adores. What a good grandma she is!

Steve's Fault

So, I stuck Katie in her crib for time-out the other day and closed the door. No more than 2 minutes later I heard a knock on the door. Yep- she can climb out of her crib now. When I went to the door she had the biggest smile on her face. She's very proud of herself. Then last night I caught her doing this... and just for the record- Steve egged her on and encouraged this kind of craziness! (yes, that's my messy closet. Don't look too closely)

Sears

Here are those pictures we got taken at Sears. I think they turned out pretty well!

The first is of Steve's girls that we did for his birthday:


On that same day we got pictures of each of the three girls on their own...
Ellie:Katie:and Sarah:
And then we took pictures while Steve was here. First there is one of Steve and me:

Finally the family photo:
This is the first time we've ever had a professional family picture taken and the first time professionally for Katie and Sarah. We take plenty of other pictures, don't usually get around to doing it in a studio. Anyway... fun, fun :)

Pictures

Whew! I knew we took a lot of pictures, but that took forever to put on our website! I'm finally done, though. Feel free to check them out and enjoy :-)

I also added some pictures from this past week. Sarah's rolling from her tummy to back and loves her exersaucer!

Recap of our Time with Steve

Be advised… this is an extremely long post!

Well, where do I begin? It seems like it was all a dream. Steve was here for 18 glorious days… but now he’s gone again and we’re right back where we started. With the exception of some great memories and fun pictures, of course.

I really don’t even know how to tell about the break. I guess I can start by saying that it felt like a perfect vacation. Steve had no work ties to worry about (we were nowhere near Ft. Riley or Iraq), none of the girls are in school (of course), I don’t have a job, and we had built-in babysitters if we needed them. All of the time was ours to spend however we wanted. It was great!

Like I said before, Ellie and Katie pretty much latched right on to Steve. Once they were comfortable around them, you couldn’t pry them off his arms or legs or back or wherever they happened to be hanging. I think he enjoyed it just as much as they did. I must say that one of the things that makes me happiest is watching them all play together. I love the giggling and the excitement from everyone. It makes me smile just to think about it.

We decided to celebrate Steve’s birthday early so that he could enjoy it with us while here. The theme for his party was “A Few of My F

avorite Things.” I had a lot of fun with this one. After a supper of Papa John’s pizza and wings (yummm) we celebrated with a turtle cake (in remembrance of his first pet, Swimmy the turtle- whom he loved). As gifts he received a camera case for the camera lens I am letting him pick out. [side note- I had a couple different people ask Steve what lens he would recommend for them to buy… my way of being sneaky and finding out what he wanted. Well- he kept writing everyone back with “options” for lenses. Needless to say- not helpful!!! Haha…] He got a nice temple bag to replace the beat-up gym bag he’s been taking to the temple. I also found some super-soft, 6-foot bath towels (they call them bath sheets) which I thought were awesome. Hooray for bath towels that fit Steve! I bought him the game “Ticket to Ride” (Germany version, of course) and we had a ton of fun playing that while he was here. Geoff got me hooked and thankfully the same thing happened to Steve. My favorite gift of all was a picture. A few days prior we dressed up the girls and made a trip to the Sear’s Picture Studio. We had a picture taken with all of Steve’s girls (including me) and it turned out great. I’ll get it scanned and post it on here soon. Steve appreciated that as well. We had invited the Smith’s over and they brought him pink M&M’s,

Twinkies and truffles. They nailed that one! It was a really fun night and it was a great way to start our vacation.

We were blessed with incredible weather while Steve was here, so we spent many days at Anderson (Ash) Park. Katie is a fearless climber and it makes me incredibly nervous to watch her climb. Steve just egged her on. Sarah loves the swings, which is fun.

A few fun things we did...

Libby’s pumpkin factory makes something like 80% of the country’s canned pumpkin. So eve

ry year they have a pumpkin parade. Dad used

to judge this parade, and I always remember getting lots of good candy. I thought it would be fun to head up and enjoy the pumpkin festival and it just happened to be going on while Steve was here. The girls enjoyed the parade and got lots of candy. There were tons of marching bands, which Ellie likes. Plus lots of candy, of course. Afterward we went and had a quick ride on the carousel. Since the weather was so nice, it was packed with people… I could barely maneuver the stroller around the people and extension cords strung all

across the ground. One ride was plenty for us all. Steve and I don’t like big crowds.

On Sunday we were privileged to have Sarah blessed before the congregation. It was a beautiful blessing and I had lots of comments about how nice it was and how handsome Steve is. :-D Yes, I had to agree! Steve got to party with Katie in nursery since she is still terrified to be in there alone. We were able to take some fun family pictures after church, which turned out fun. Sarah just barely fit in that dress. It’s a newborn size… I had to keep the top button undone so it didn’t choke her!

There is an apple orchard about an hour north of us called Tanner’s Orchard. I had read about it months ago in the newspaper and we decided to try it out. I was thoroughly impressed! What a fun place to visit. There were goats to feed (which amazingly Ellie and Katie loved to do) and a huge play area for kids. Once we were sufficiently tired we grabbed a few bags of apples, fresh apple donuts and cider and made our way home. The donuts and cider alone were worth the trip up there!

Ellie picked her pumpkin out of the patch at church and it’s huge! It’s an actual jack-o-lantern brand pumpkin. She’s pretty proud of that pumpkin. We carved it at the Smith’s house a couple nights before Steve left.

One highlight was going through the St. Louis Temple with Steve. I hadn’t been in there since the open house. Troy and Rachel were married there in 2000, but I wasn’t able to go in at the time. What a gorgeous temple! I love the serenity found in those sacred buildings. Especially being there with Steve. It was wonderful of Mom and Dad to keep the girls while we went through. After the temple we went to the St. Louis Zoo, which is a very impressive zoo. It was horribly hot, so we lasted only a couple hours, but we saw all the important animals (monkeys and seals especially) then made our way back home. I think the girls enjoyed it. Katie kept ooh-ing and aah-ing at the animals. Very cute. Sarah cried most of the way down and back. That’s 3 hours of misery, let me tell you. We are seriously contemplating a cancelation of our trip back East just because of that. Sarah wants to be up and running… not stuck in that car seat!

Steve and I were able to take the time to go on many dates. We bought him a much-needed new wardrobe one day and then the same for me another day. We went out to eat a lot as well. It was just wonderful to spend time with him. Having him gone makes me appreciate the time we have together so much more.

The girls love the trampoline, so we of course spent many evenings out there jumping with Steve. Ellie has gotten really good at it and Katie can actually jump pretty well now, too. We also managed to get a family portrait taken. I need to go pick those up. It turned out well. It’s the first time we’ve ever had one taken professionally and I think we did alright.

Our last big hoorah was a trip up to Chicago. We signed up with the USO up in Chicago to get emails about any free tickets they get to events in the city. Steve gets emails about baseball games, broodway shows, all sorts of neat things. Well, this time it was for free tickets to the aquarium and to see “Finding Nemo” on Ice. We thought we’d try for the tickets and after much consideration (since it was Steve’s last day here) we decided to go for it. In the end we’re very happy we did it. The timing probably wasn’t the best, but it was a great family adventure together. The aquarium is enormous. We loved watching the dolphins and the penguins. Katie and Sarah weren’t too thrilled about the whole adventure but Ellie had a great time. Same with the Nemo show. Ellie loved it. Katie and Sarah were bored and just wanted to go home to bed. Katie climbed the stairs and the railings and tried her best to be happy. I would guess she watched about 10 minutes of the show. Needless to say, Steve and I juggled girls the whole time. Our hotel was an hour away from there and we were completely exhausted by the time we got everyone settled in and to bed. Ellie was extremely distressed when we got there. I just assumed she was overtired and was acting out. So I tried to calm her down and she told me she didn’t want to move into that hotel. Grandma and Grandpa would be worried! Poor Ellie! She thought we were moving away and this was our new home!

We were up bright and early the next morning to pack up and take Steve to the airport. I don’t like goodbyes. Especially when it’s for another 7 months! We had such an awesome time with Steve, though. Lots of fun memories. The girls now have a better remembrance of their dad and they have something new to look forward to.

The girls have already changed in the week Steve’s been gone. Steve convinced Sarah that moving is a good thing, so she’s rolling and likes to walk around and loves the exersaucer. Katie is finally communicating in something other than grunts and screams- we actually have words… glorious! She talked on the phone with him today and thought that was pretty neat. Steve started saying personal prayers with the girls and Katie loves to say hers. She gets excited and starts calling out “amen” about half-way through. I love it! Ellie has become a great big sister and plays with Sarah and Katie very well. It gives me a couple minutes here and there for a break, which is nice. Never a dull moment around this house, that’s for sure!

Pictures will be on the way soon. I have lots to sort through!

Time?

I am sorry, I've been wanting to write in here all week since Steve left, but there is just no time. Mom and Dad are in Utah and since Sarah hangs out with me until about 10pm each night, I don't have time to just sit and write anymore. So, I'm working on my post about our visit with Steve, which was AWESOME. But for now I wanted to write and say we took Katie in for her 18-month appointment and she's a growing girl. She weighed 24 pounds and is 34 inches tall. I'll have to look and see how that compares with Ellie and percentage-wise. I'd guess she's still fairly average, though. It's been a rough weekend alone here. I've been feeling a little abandoned and overwhelmed with the lack of sleep and plentiful screaming. Emotions are running high with all of us. I would guess the girls are feeling the emotions of Steve leaving and expressing them the only way they know how. Luckily Dad gets back tomorrow.

And on a more important note- congrats Jacob on your baptism! I really wish we could have been there to show you our support. We're very proud of you!

I will get that post and all the tons of pictures posted ASAP. It's amazing how quickly time goes when you want it to just stop!

Lovin' It!

We are absolutely loving having Steve here. Ellie was giddy when she saw Steve walk off the plane. I think I was probably pretty close to the same! Katie wasn't too sure what to think, but she was willing to let Steve pick her up and she doesn't let anyone she doesn't know do that. Steve didn't get his first smile from her until the car ride home. But, both girls have been attached to him ever since. It's been neat to have Steve get to know Sarah. She's such a sweet baby and he is enjoying her very much. I'll tell all about our adventures eventually. Just wanted everyone to know just how wonderful life is with Steve. :-D

Arrivals

Steve comes home today! Yippee!!!

Parades and Pokes

Can I just say how much I love parades? I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because we went to them growing up and then I was in them with marching band/color guard (flags). Maybe it's the candy? I'm not sure, but I just love it. We took the girls to the Labor Day Parade in town and they had a blast. We were at the start of the parade and since the girls were just so cute people were literally dumping candy at their feet. They thought it was great! At first Katie tried to pick up the candy with her blanket in tow. Not the easiest task. As long as she had a tootsie roll in her mouth and one in her hand, she was happy as a clam. So much fun!

I took Sarah for her 4-month appointment yesterday. She's growing quickly! She's already 14 pounds, 4 ounces and is 25 inches long. She hasn't reacted too well to the shots (Sally called them pokes) this time around. Got a little rash and a fever. She's being a trooper amidst the pain though.

I have undertaken the project of a lifetime (for me, anyway). I just bought a sewing/embroidery machine and I am sewing the girls' Halloween costumes this year. I've been buying all the supplies and cutting out patterns and am just about ready to get to the sewing part of it. I have no clue what in the world I'm doing! It's a good thing I have my mom here to help out. I won't reveal what I'm doing until I'm all done. Hopefully that'll be before Halloween :-) And I thought I'd find time to do this... when?

A Believer?

Okay- so I've never been a "bow" kind of girl. Never was interested in putting any in the (lack of) hair of my girls. But when Emily and Geoff were here visiting Emily taught Mom and me how to make them. I think I may be a believer. Not for everyday use... just Sundays. But look that this picture- how cute is that? Emily of course picked out all the ribbon and such and they turned out adorable. I might have a new favorite gift for baby showers :-)

Busy Day

We are loving the weather we've had the last couple days. We can get the girls out to play at any time of day without absolutely melting. Ellie has had more practice on her 2-wheeler, they climbed the tree out front, played with chalk, Ellie tried throwing a frisbee (watch out!) and just had an overall great time. Sarah really enjoys being out now as well, which is nice. We also went to take a look at Ellie's pumpkin that she planted this spring. I was extremely impressed! We dug potatoes tonight and it was Mom's job to do her best to keep the girls from walking on and killing the plants. We ended up with 2 laundry baskets full of potatoes. Yummm! We got a few fun pictures today, though.

F Week

Ellie is in love with projects this week. I'm having to get creative. We took some pictures this morning of all the picture projects she's done this week. "F" is turning out to be a really hard letter to remember. We'll keep working on it!

Plus, Ellie has gotten really excited about that "daddy chain" we made last week. She woke up this morning and the first thing she said to me was, "We need to take off a chain!". I thought she said train and it wasn't until she told me she wanted to take off that colored thing that I understood. I'm glad she's getting the hang of it. Wasn't sure she completely understood what it meant. Hooray for Steve coming home soon!

Can't resist

Sometimes I get the girls dressed in the morning and I just can't resist taking pictures. We took these yesterday. I had bought these outfits months ago and the girls are just now starting to fit in them. It sure is fun having 3 girls to dress up and take pictures of. Just look at how big Sarah is getting, too! It is hard to believe she's already 4 months old. I'm anxious for Steve to come home and see just how big his three girls have gotten. I can bet ya he feels the same way!

"C" Week

So this was "C" week. I wasn't nearly as creative this week and I'm afraid we didn't do nearly as many activities to celebrate the letter "C". Besides, the girls just didn't get along well this week and I felt like I was just playing referee the whole time. Not a lot of motivation to get creative, honestly. But we still did a few things. We made our cookie-cutter cookies, of course. We had a cat, clown, circle, candle, letter C, and candy cane. She made a picture with "C" stickers and of course her visit from Aunt Carrie (on the right) who arrived on the choo-choo train. Ellie put clips in Carrie's hair and outfit and Carrie (and her friend, Denise) had a birthday cake. Next week we move on to the letter "D". She wants to save "E" for when her dad is home, so we'll put that off for just a couple weeks. Steve leaves in only 3 weeks to come home on his R&R. I am so incredibly excited. Can't wait!

On a side note... you know how there are some days you wonder why you even bother? Well, church today was one of those days. I got to hear about 10 minutes out of the 3 hours of church. The rest of the time was spent chasing Katie and keeping Sarah from crying. So why was I there?

Katie's New Trick

Here's Katie's latest trick. If she finds the dryer door open she'll dump all the clothes and climb in with a big grin on her face. She thinks it's great!

Family Visit

We had such a fun time with family here. Geoff and Emily (brother and sister-in-law) arrived Wednesday night and Duane and Jessica (brother-in-law and his wife) arrived Thursday afternoon. We were able to spend most of the afternoon outside playing on the trampoline and just visiting together. We had a wonderful time. Then after bedtime we played "Ticket To Ride". What a fun game! I loved it. I'm definitely hooked! Duane and Jessica were able to stay through lunch (at Avanti's... yummm) on Friday. The girls loved their attention. It was fun to spend time with them. I'm very happy they were willing to stop in on their way home to Idaho. The rest of our time with Geoff and Emily was a lot of fun. Like I said, the girls just loved having them around. It was sad to see them leave yesterday morning. But, they had two more days of travel plus unpacking once they arrived in New Haven, CT. They hope to get there by dinner time tonight and have the Elder's Quorum help unpack their big Penske truck. On to new adventures at Yale! I put up a few pictures from their visit.

It Was Inevitable

So, my little climber, Katie has finally outdone herself. Not only has she climbed into the clothes dryer and up the doors at church, but tonight she climbed right out of bed and fell head first to the floor. Great... I don't know if it was inspiration or luck, but I had just put down a couple pillows under her crib just in case she decided to try that climb. My mom was in there telling stories when she did it. So I guess the fun begins? Now I need to decide if I should lower the crib rail so she has less distance to fall or just wait and see if she learns her lesson? That's a tough one... certainly don't want a broken neck in the process!

It's been a fun week with family here. I'll be sure to write more about that when I get a minute. The girls have loved having the attention from their aunts and uncles. It's fun to let them get to know them all better. Fun!

Typical Army

So we had it all planned out... Steve would come home the middle of October and be here for his birthday as well as Halloween. We've been talking it up to Ellie basically ever since he left. Plus we were planning on flying out to Utah for my nephew, Jacob's baptism the end of September. Then we find out Sunday that he has been selected to take command of the Signal Company in the Battalion (a great career move for him). He will take over the end of November, which means he starts signing for things the end of October. So that means his leave has been moved up over a month. He is trying to head out as soon as September 8th! Whoa! Definitely wasn't planning on having him come home this soon! It's a good thing we didn't have plane tickets or other reservations already made! Now, I don't want to sound like I don't want Steve home... believe me- that's about as far from the truth as you can get. But- I like some control over my life and the Army gives me NONE! I am extremely anxious to have him come home and can't wait- only about a month away! It's all very crazy. So now I need to start planning some fun activities.

We're excited to have my brother, Geoff, and his wife, Emily come visit. They should arrive tomorrow night sometime. Then Steve's brother, Duane, and his wife, Jessica will get here sometime Thursday. It's hotel Streeter around here! We're very happy to have all them come visit.

This week is "B" week. I'll get some pictures posted soon.

McLean County Fair

The McLean County Fairgrounds are only a couple miles from our house, so it's only right that we would take a trip over to the fair this week. Before we left we talked a little about it and Ellie wanted to be sure she didn't step in cow poop and she really wanted to talk to the farmers. It's a long story as to how she came to those two conclusions about what happens at the fair, but we thought it was hilarious. She was disappointed when she got home and realized she forgot to talk with the farmers.

With the humidity it's near 95 degrees out there right now, so we spent only 2 hours there today. But I think the girls had a really good time. They really enjoyed seeing the animals. Even Katie got into it. She loved the petting farm and Ellie let a pig slobber all over her hand. My dad showed pigs in 4-H growing up, so this is all very comfortable ground for him. We walked through the barns for the horses, cows, sheep and pigs. Ellie took a pony ride then we went into the air conditioning and enjoyed our barbecue pork sandwiches. Even if we don't attend the fair, we always get these sandwiches- they are so, so good! Last of all we took the girls on the merry-go-round. I wasn't sure if they girls were enjoying it- their faces were so serious, but once it stopped I had to practically drag them off the horses. I think they were having fun! Sarah was hot, sweaty and feeling pretty miserable in her stroller so we decided to call it a day. On our way out we bought a bag of cotton candy for them to share on the way home. Ellie still isn't convinced about cotton candy. Katie and I love it! I'm really glad we did that. I've always enjoyed going to see the animals, too.