I have been asking Emma a lot the last couple of years about getting her ears pierced.  She would always just tell me no, but she just loves wearing clip on ear rings!  At one point, when Tyler was still deployed, I asked her again.  Finally she said “OK, but we have to wait until Dad comes home.”  Sure….I thought she’d just forget about it and when I asked she’d just say no again.  Thursday evening she came up and told us she was ready to get her ears pierced and asked if we could go Friday!  Alright, sounds good!  I know I was way more afraid than she was.  I don’t remember how old I was when I got my first holes, but holy cow, did I cry!  It hurt so bad, but I am kind of a big baby with no tolerance for pain.  So of course I thought it would be the same for Emma.  Nope, that girl is tough!  She held my hand, and just sat there, barely even flinched!  She was too excited to show them off to her friends at Church on Sunday :)  She can’t wait for the 6 weeks of healing to be done so she can wear cool earrings like me!

Good morning everyone, and Happy Mother’s day!!  Tyler FINALLY got home from his 15 month deployment!!  He came in Saturday May 9, 2009 at around 3pm.  He was actually about 15 minutes ahead of schedule!  The kids and I were the first ones at the family parking area!  Of course, right?  That means we love him the best!

We loaded onto buses and they drove us down to the flight hangar.  After that we got to sit for about 2 hours waiting :)  There was no lack of fun for the kids, they brought their little video games!  It was incredibly windy while we were waiting for his plane to land!  I think the Lord truly blessed us, we have had the worst rain and tornadoes for probably the last 3 weeks.  But, it was beautiful, sunny, day!  We saw his plane when it was just a tiny speck in the sky, Evan yelled “HI DAD!”  There were around 200 soldiers on the plane, and watching them walk past us was awesome!  Tyler was one of the very last soldiers to finally come down those steps!

After that, the families were herded back inside the hangar so the soldiers could form up and march in!  The Commander gave a very short speech, I didn’t listen!  Something about what a good job they did I’m guessing :)  After that we were finally able to go see him!  15 minutes later, back in formation to go turn in weapons and pick up baggage.  We then got back on the buses, jumped in our car and ran over to the motor pool to pick him up and go home!  It was such a great day!  Enjoy the pictures!!

I finally finished Tyler’s welcome home cake!  All homemade lemon cake and lemon frosting (his favorite!)  and it should taste wonderful!  Now that’s supposed to be a flag waving in the wind.  Eh, it kind of worked out that way.  He’ll be home to eat it……Tomorrow!!!!!!   I’ll post pics of his homecoming…at some point I’m sure :)

Emma turned 7 the other day!  She’s been talking about it for such a long time!  I guess she’s like her mom and dad, she LOVES her birthday!  She picked out her cupcake design and birthday cake out of a couple of really cool books I got for my birthday (thanks Jenny!!) They turned out pretty awesome!  All the kids loved them, and her teacher was impressed as well :)  Then Evan and I brought in lunch and we sat in tiny chairs in the cafeteria and ate with her.  Right after school we headed up to Chuck E Cheese and had a great time!  That is, until the giant thunderstorm made the electricity go out!  We decided to save our tickets and get the heck out of there!  Cake, icecream and presents followed at home.  She had a great day!