Happy Halloween!!!

From one crazy cute chicken who absolutely LOVES Halloween

Trick or treat!! Cluck cluck cluck!

Come on Skipper. We've got candy to get.

Dadd-oo we sure missed you today. You're boo-tiful little girl would go trick or treating every day if we let her. We have lots of candy we would share with you… but it probably won't last that long. Love you Giant.

What a day

Not the best one in the books but thankfully my parents are here to make today better.

After an hour of wanting to throw my phone across East Bay Street into oncoming traffic because my phone was not allowing my husband's calls to come through, I thankfully still have a "working" phone. I say thankfully because it means we can try the phone call again tomorrow if he gets the time. Fingers crossed so tightly. Seeing him calling and not being able to speak to him made me almost jump out of my own skin. My parents can attest. Thank God that they were here to help me with Cheyanne. I tried to keep it together in front of her, but my blood was boiling inside. I think boiling is actually putting it mildly.

Anyways, after trying for an hour to answer his calls, we called it a day on touring downtown, and in effort to save my nerves, we headed home to internet to catch him on Skype. Unfortunately, it was too late. I'm really hoping tomorrow we have better luck. Say a little prayer for my nerves.

Even though that little fiasco altered our plans, we still enjoyed the day together. We did a little halloween shopping, home decorating with all the fall wedding beauties my parents unloaded brought down, cooking AND baking, and reorganizing the kitchen. Gotta love my mom- the Queen of Organizing.

Wanna see all we've done?

Improvement right?!

And Chey of course helped us relocate and organize the tupperware cabinet.

and unorganize

and then reorganize

In fun news…

Guess who had her first set of pigtails in today!!!! 13.5 long months and we finally have enough hair for pigtails- and she hated every minute of them being put in thus the little lopsidedness. Still, doesn't she look ridiculously cute with them?!

Her expressions kill me.

Ok, so tomorrow will be a better day and hopefully I'll be a much better/happier hostess. Its gotta be better, right? Its Halloween! We're ready to have some fun (and a whole lot of trick or treaters.

Here's a sneak peak at Little Miss' costume. Can you guess what she's going to be? I'll give you a hint- she's going to be one cute little fluff ball.

Yay for Grandparents!

The grandparents have arrived and I couldn't be more excited! I love my parents and I'm so glad they are here to visit for a few days. Cheyanne is too. It's obvious she's missed her Nana and Skipper. And their timing is perfect.

We've got a fun 3 days planned if the weather permits. Its gotten a little cold (high of 65- brrr- for my Northern Virginia friends in snow this weekend) so that might squelch our walking downtown Charleston tour tomorrow, but fingers are crossed. If it gets too cold, I guess we'll just have to revert to plan B and stay inside to bake my airman some cookies for care package number one instead. Which plan do you think we should go with Hubs? No comments on my lack of baking abilities allowed peeps. They'll be delish.

Skipper and Cheyanne wasted no time. Skipper got to "fixing" her walker after she ran into the wall a few times.

The puppet and the puppeteer

Then it got a little confusing and I'm not sure who was leading whom.

Chey snuck in some sweet hugs while loving on her Nana before bed time too.

We can't wait for more fun tomorrow.

On another topic:
I did get a Skype call from the Giant today. Despite the fact that the reception was beyond horrible and we could only understand every other word each other said, I saw his face and it settled my heart. He's now in Qatar and ready to start work. One step closer…

Sweetheart, you are loved and missed tonight. I'll be seeing you in my dreams. My love always and forever.

Deployment Day One

Well, he's gone. By now I'd say he's probably on the other side of the world. That's so weird to think about. Yesterday he was here. Today he's in the middle east. I haven't heard from him yet so I'm just guessing but it seems about right.

Yesterday was rough. You ever heard that Rascal Flatts song that's lyrics say "what he don't know is how hard it is to make it look so easy?" Yeah, that same line kept playing in my head ALL. DAY. LONG as I was trying to keep it together. It didn't help. I choked and teared up a couple times throughout the day, despite my best efforts to put on a straight face and think of all things happy and sunshines. Damn you Rascal Flatts. It doesn't even matter that that song is actually about a break up. Whatever- somehow those lyrics still applied and kept playing over and over.

By last night at 9pm we were on base checking him in at the departure center along with about 130 other members of the squadron and their families. It was loud and chaotic and had this overwhelming feeling of anticipation. The single guys were chatting it up, laughing and talking like they were just hanging out at a party having a good ol' time. Wives were holding on to their husbands and sneaking kisses every chance they could get. It was obvious who'd been down this road before and who hadn't (me). Daddies were smothering their laughing babies who were up way past bedtime with kisses while others were rocking their brand new sleeping little ones.

And my family, we were in the middle of it soaking it all in. Cheyanne was as awake as she could possibly be, oblivious to the fact that her Daddy and "uncles" were leaving, only wanting to run around with the bigger kids who all seemed like pros at this.

Some of our guys even came to see the my boys off.

We all took turns entertaining Cheyanne.  It was especially great they were all there because they were able to stroll Chey around allowing Hubs and I a few moments to ourselves amidst the chaos (which I have no pictures of because I was ABSOLUTELY not camera ready).

Here's Cheyanne with her Uncle Mahoney before he left.

After 3 hours of waiting around, finally the call came through the building announcing time to load up. At that moment, there was no more escaping it in my head. (I'm sure this sounds overdramatized, but until you're in these shoes, well, its not). It was by far the hardest thing to do- hugging them goodbye. I pray that people are right and it gets easier with each deployment. This wasn't easy. Not at all. All I could process to say was be safe and come back to me.

Lordy, I'll miss them all in this quiet house. He's been gone a day and I already miss my husband too much. Thankfully, though, today was much easier than I thought it would be. Since Chey and I slept most of the afternoon away with a very nice nap, I didn't have to think too much. I know from experience that this time away does actually get easier. Once she and I get into our groove, we'll be cruising to the end of deployment. The hard part is behind us- saying goodbye. Now, thankfully we're on the other side of the deployment- the countdown side to his return. I don't know when that will be since there is no actual "countdown" but we're told he'll be home March so let that countdown begin.

(Can you tell who was happy to take our family picture before deployment…and who wasn't?)

Day one of deployment- CHECK!.


Sweetheart, whenever you get to read this- I love you and am more than proud of you. We're doing fine. My love always.

Early bird

With the clock ticking on time left with the Hubs, we've been making the most of it the last few week.

We've got the house "finished" (for the time that he's away). We've painted all that we can paint. We've got chair rail up in the family room. All pesky pests have been e.lim.in.ated!!! The carpets have been cleaned. The Maids have even come and made the house sparkly bright.

All this means one thing. Time for our family to get together one last time before saying "see you later." ::In case you didn't know by now, our family of three has expanded in the last few months since moving south. We've picked up a few boys along the way::. Since Sunday is our usual family dinner night, we decided to do it BIG and make it family thanksgiving night with the whole gang. With half of my family leaving for deployment (the Giant and two of his friends Mahoney and Graves), I made it the biggest thanksgiving dinner we could handle. Sad note- its hard to believe that it will be a full year before we're all together as a family again since my guys in the 15th are leaving for _blank_ months and then the our other guys in the 16th will be replacing them for _blank_ more months before they all come home.

The Giant and I cooked all night and day before the big dinner. We had everything my Giant could dream of since this will be two years in a row he'll be missing the holidays with us. Turkey. Ham. Green bean casserole. Sweet potato casserole. Heavenly squash that he made all on his own. Cherry cheesecake. Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin bread. The list goes on... and on... and on. I told you- all the food he could dream of.

It was all so delish. I think its safe to say we moved a little slower after that ridiculous meal.

I know I'm not the best at taking pictures (of things other than Cheyanne) when I need to, but I did manage to grab a few before the feast began.

My elaborate fall decorations. Boys just don't care about these kinds of things.

The feast

For some reason this post was very hard to write. Since when is writing about food hard? I've got to get it together before tomorrow... I'm going to miss my boys. I am going to miss my Giant even more. I feel like I should be more ready than this. Ugh, that's for another time and another post. 

Bed head

What exactly does this child do during nap time that could possibly cause her hair to get this crazy? I have no. i. dea.

Bu whatever it is, I'm sure glad she does it because I could use a little extra laughter today. 

Sorry to laugh at your expense baby girl, but you don't seem to mind. 

We even had a mini impromptu bed head photo shoot that made me very thankful for the digital camera age. (Photo dump now to follow).

And my personal favs...

You'd think

You'd think they were twins...

cause they sure are two of a kind.

AND

You'd think I was feeding an army...

and you'd almost be right. Actually this is all for feeding Airmen at our pre-deployment early Thanksgiving dinner that I'm having tomorrow for the guys. All this plus a big ol' turkey and ham in the fridge. 

The time is coming up so quickly. I am a little afraid to shut my eyes in that as soon as I open them it will be time to say goodbye see you soon all over again. How have the last two months flown by so quickly? I'm actually not ready to think about that yet. I can't. I'm not there. I'm living day to day with my Giant and our Giant friends that we've made soaking up all I can of loud stinky men in the house before they all fly away. Whoever thought a house with a baby could be quiet? I'm not looking forward to that day that's right around the corner. For now, I'll cook. I'll cook every holiday food that my Giant wants. 

Anybody know how to cook a ham? I haven't the slightest clue!

Lazy Sunday

Happy Lazy Shirtless Sunday!

Hope you're having a day full of laughter and naked smiles.

But if not, hopefully you've got plenty of other reasons to smile today.