Halloween

This year for Halloween we had a Green Lantern to protect us with his lantern ring, we had a Black Spiderman (not Venom and you would be corrected sternly by Spiderman too if you said that) and we had a Ninja that all of a sudden turned into an Army guy at the last moment. I felt well protected at the Boo at the Zoo

and at the trunk or treat at church



and at the Preserve, where I love to go each year because I have tons of friends that live in the subdivision and my kids always have to use the rest room at some point during trick or treating.

Josh's short trip

It was amazing to have Josh home even if it was for a short period of time. I can't imagine doing what he does, I have the boys and my friends and family. He has his soldiers and guns. I sleep in a comfortable bed for 8-9 hours a night. He is constantly on different missions and getting sometimes no sleep at all.

He is an outstanding man and what a great father. The boys absolutely adore him. I am glad he was able to come home even for a brief period of time. I will miss him this year and wait for him to hurry home to me.

It's great to be 8

Cregan turned eight on Friday, he was super excited. He turned 8 and got to have his dad home for his birthday. Josh flew in on Wednesday night very late and left on Sunday. On Cregan's birthday, Josh and he went shopping just the two of them he got this SWAT outfitand then, we all went to Chuck E. Cheese. We tried convincing him of going to the Olive Garden and a movie but nope... it was Chuck E. Cheese all the way. He had a blast playing games and getting tokens and then picking out the presents he wanted, after that we went to Steak and Shake and got milkshakes. It was a fun evening.The next morning was busy, like most of my Saturdays are now. First, Clay and Collin went to the church for practice on the Primary Program and then rushed home to get Josh and Collin and take them to soccer game and then back to the church to pick up kids and set up the church for Cregan's baptism!!

At 2pm, we had a double baptism for Cregan and our friends son Andrew. It was such a fun and spiritual baptism. Andrew's brother gave an outstanding talk on baptism. Bob (Cregan's grandfather) baptized him and then Tanya (my sister in law) talked on the Holy Ghost. I was so happy with how it turned out.

After the baptism, we had an ice cream bar in the gym and the kids were all jacked up on sugar so that was a lot of fun as well!

Soccer

I recently signed up Cregan for soccer with 3 of my other friends that I go to church with. And it feels great to have this huge cheering section at every game, all of us cheering for each others kids and bundling up against the frigid dropping temperatures.... They are the Crew and now I wanna take him and the boys to a soccer game in to see the Columbus Crew.... we shall see about that.

But I'm pretty lucky to have such great friends that are there for me while Josh is gone and ask if I need help with getting the chairs outta the back of the van, or ask if Cregan needs a ride to practice. I should have done sports like this years ago.... live and learn

When Josh came home from training for a week and a 1/2 we decided to do not much as far as going on vacation, seeing as we had been vacation like 3 times.... So for the first couple of day, we just hung out together and then 4 days before leaving, he decided to paint the outside of the house. Of course, we fought about the colors because we fight about everything that goes into the house, see here to read more about that.

I thought the colors were too dark and that it wouldn't look right. I... was... wrong...

And although we rushed to get the front and the back and it rained for a few days oh and I stained the front porch during this time as well...! It was not as difficult, like I thought it would be. All in all it turned out nice, and tons better than the eye sore we had before