7/18 - Aiden's 3rd birthday party

On Friday night, Brad and I got to go out on a date!! Our neighbor, Ryan, was nice enough to watch the boys for us. We went out to St. Johns Town Center and had dinner at a nice italian place (Maggiano's). It was delicious. We walked around for a while and also got some ice cream. It was an awesome date night.  

On Saturday morning, we got the house ready for Aiden's birthday party. He wanted to wait until daddy came home so we did. We decorated the house with Car's themed stuff. The party was not as large as I thought but it actually worked out perfect (funny how God knows what we need more than we think we do).

Aiden was so excited for his 'friends' to come over that he didn't even take a nap. I did make him stay in his room so I could get stuff done. Brad was gone during nap time to deliver meals to some families that just had some babies. Aiden was running around the house before our guests got there putting out fires with his invisible hoses. Eli was jealous of me taking pictures of Aiden so he plopped down in my lap for his picture.

Stephanie, Harold, and their 3 kids and my friend Crystal and her husband (Ian) were the only people who ended up coming. It was perfect. Brad blew up some balloons but Eli and Blaise didn't quite understand they needed to hold on to it so it wouldn't float away. I tied Eli's to his pants and he didn't like that at all.

The kids had a good time. We just ordered pizza and had some chips and fruit. 

We got a cool Cars cake done at Target. I was gonna make Aiden's cake when he originally said he wanted monster trucks but I didn't feel like I could pull of Cars (nor did I want to spend my precious time with my family baking/cooking too much at this point). Aiden loved it.

This is the first year he didn't cry at his birthday!! He even blew out all three candles by himself!

We tried to take a family picture but the boys really just wanted to eat cake and didn't care about smiling at the camera. I promise they were having a good time! haha

Aiden got to open a few presents. He got a spy jet (from Cars 2) from Crystal and Ian and was pretty excited about it. He's never met Ian before and took right to him. He even gave him a hug.

Ms. Stephanie and her family got Aiden a backpack with a Cars sleeping bag in it. He was pretty excited. It worked out great because Bronco ate the straps on his first Cars backpack and I was waiting to get him one without wheels. The even cooler thing is we've been talking lately about going camping and even letting Eli sleep in Aiden's bed and Aiden can sleep on the floor in his room and they can have a sleepover. Now he has a sleeping bag for that. Papa has also talked to him about camping. We will definitely be using that pretty soon.

He got a few other random Target dollar bin toys and two Cars from the new movie. He had a great birthday. Everyone stayed for a bit so it was a great time for Brad and I too.

I had to take a picture of Eli because at 21 months, he drinks like a champ out of a big boy cup. He's growing so fast. Unfortunately, he still likes to use his hands to eat way more than I would like.

I believe Blaise was originally sitting in the Cars chair and chunky monkey Eli came and pushed him out and then sat in it. Blaise didn't fight it too much to my surprise. We are gonna need to keep our eye on little Eli; I don't want him becoming a bully.

The boys were sad to see Stephanie and her family leave so Aiden followed their truck down the block to the stop sign. It had been raining out so there were lots of puddles. They had a blast walking down to the end of the street to the stop sign and then coming back.

You can't see it very well in this picture but Eli was crouching down like he was going to sit when I asked the boys to stop at the STOP sign and say cheese. It was too funny.  I just added a picture where you can see Eli crouching.

Eli got a little tired on the way back so Brad gave him a piggy back ride. He was enjoying it but it seems Brad was in a little pain.

I was shocked that Aiden wanted to play in the puddle. He got a little sidetracked and had an accident while he was playing in the puddle. That's only the 2nd or 3rd accident he had since he started potty training. He does a great job, even during nap time. He still needs a pull up diaper at night but other than that, he's potty trained.

I forgot to take a picture of Aiden by his big Lightening McQueen balloon. Look at how big this is!!

On Sunday, we went to church as a family which was so awesome. While Brad was getting ready in the morning, he was doing push-ups and the boys started to copy him. It was too cute. Aiden talks all the time about exercise and it cracks me up. Some people would think I have brainwashed him but he's actually gotten it from an Elmo DVD.  Aiden even tried to bend his arms to do push-ups. I was shocked that Eli could actually support his body weight too.

Eil decided to not eat his lunch (he hasn't been eating much lately) but when he saw Brad's leftovers from the italian place, he made a bee-line to Brad's lap and was like a little bird opening his mouth for food. He was loving it though.

I also had to get a picture of Eli with the balloon because it was so big. He had a blast with it.

Things have been going great. Brad went back to work today and is bringing home a lot of clothes to be washed tonight. I dropped the boys off, went to the store, and then got a workout. I've been doing some work and am getting ready to work on my bible study. Make sure you enjoy the time you have with your loved ones because you never know when it will end. Every day is a gift from God and I am so thankful for the family I have right now.

7/16 - Brad's Home - Homecoming 2011

The day that I've been anticipating for 6 months has finally come ... Brad is home!! On Tuesday night, I got his sign up and yard decorated. Aiden got pretty excited when I got his poster out and was giving daddy kisses on the poster. He didn't know when daddy was coming home but I did say it was sometime this week.

I dropped the boys off at daycare and then went on over to the squadron. I took a picture of a picture. It is all of HS-11 on the USS Enterprise flight deck.

Besides the sign that I put up at the house, I had another to hold. Ms. Ferguson (an awesome friend from church) met me at the squadron and took most of the pictures you will see at the hangar.

This is Ms. Ferguson. She has a grandchild between the ages of Aiden and Eli and we've had a playdate before. It was great to have someone there to talk to and pass the time by so I didn't explode with excited. I didn't really realize it until later that the pictures she would take would be so treasured and tell such a great story.

Pastor Edwards from church came out as well as Randy, our sunday school teacher. It was great for them to show support for Brad and I.

Watching the 7 helo flyover was awesome. I got a video of it and posted it on Facebook. The helos then came in and landed and it was difficult to see the numbers on the side of the helos so I could figure out what helo Brad was in. Thankfully, Randy and Ms. Ferguson were watching for that. I took off running when they said it was okay to go out. That wasn't a great idea because my wedges (shoes) started to come off so I had to fix my heel strap and then just walk fast.

It was so great to see my man again. He was as handsome as I remember and if felt fantastic to be wrapped in his arms again.

It was hard to believe it's been 6-months. I made it alive and the boys are alive too. That was my goal!

This was also the first time Brad got to see my new haircut and me looking all snazzy. I actually had to go get new shoes the day before because we were told we couldn't wear heals and that was what I was going to wear. I found some really cute red wedges at Payless and wore those and they worked perfect.

It was crazy hot and sunny out on the flight line even at 9:45am.

We went inside and were in the hangar for a bit. As you might imagine, not many people wanted to hang around and just chat but we were actually some of the last ones to leave. I love these pictures at the end that a friend took. They had a huge flag hanging in the hangar.

Being with my hubby almost felt like it did on our wedding day. It was so great and awesome and perfect. I am so blessed.

Brad liked the house although he said he didn't like the picture I chose for his banner. I'm still not sure if he was joking or not. Either way, he was happy to be home.

We hung out for a few hours and had some lunch. I had already told the local news station about Brad surprising Aiden and they wanted to meet us there to film everything. We showed up right at 2:30pm and the news station was already there and had been taping Aiden. His daycare put up decorations and made sure they were playing in the very front area so there was extra room. It went great. Aiden was SO SO SO excited to see his daddy and just kept saying, "daddy" like a broken record. It was like he was convincing himself. He had a smile glued on his face. So did Brad. It was just perfect.

We grabbed some little flags off the kids' tables at the squadron and that ended up being a great idea. Aiden loved the flag. Aiden finally got down from Brad's arms and got his lunch bag and his art work. While he did that, the TV station interviewed Brad and even asked me a few questions.

It went great and they aired the story on the 6:00pm news, right at 6:15pm. I'm including the link so I can go back later and watch it.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/28536610/detail.html

We then went over to Eli's daycare. The news station was invited but got what they needed at Aiden's daycare so did not come. That was fine. I wasn't sure how Eli would react. I got it all on video and as soon as I figure out how to get it off the camera, I'll post it. Eli's daycare teacher made the room and door so cute. She took pictures of all the 1 yr olds saluting. Eli is such a ham!

Eli (in the middle under the window) was at a table coloring when we got there. Brad said hi to Eli but it wasn't until Aiden ran over to Eli and asked him to say hi to daddy that Eli realized who it was. Eli tried to get up from his chair and he ran over to his daddy and showed him his picture. Brad gave him his flag too and then Eli got really excited. Eli gave daddy big hugs then Eli and Aiden ran around the room with their flags.

Both reunions with the boys went great. Eli was really excited to see Brad after he figured out who he was.

We even managed to get a family shot before we left. That is one happy family you see right there!

On the way out, I had to get a picture of Eli and Brad in front of the door to his room and next to his absolutely adorable picture.

We got home and boys had so much fun playing with all the flags in the yard.

Eli was giving Brad a show of how cute he can be.

Aiden has been a little clingy to daddy and has talked his ear off. Brad has been amazed at some of the things Aiden has said and how much he knows.

We spent all day Thursday together and enjoying each other's company. We also found out on Thursday that the video that aired on the local news here on Wednesday night also made it to the Tampa Bay area. By the afternoon, we found out that CNN was airing the story as well as on CNN.com as a feature story. It was so amazing and crazy. By Friday, Brad's hometown had gotten news of it and they aired it. It's so amazing how far a story can go. For us, surprising the boys was a great decision. I know Aiden would have liked to see the helos fly in but I'm not sure how he would have done with the noise and I wasn't sure how Eli would react at all. Bottom line, God had the perfect plan for us. Today we celebrated Aiden's birthday and I'll post pictures of that soon. It is great to be a family again.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2011/07/14/dnt.pilot.son.suprise.return.WJXT?iref=allsearch