Daddy's last day of leave... :(

Well, the day has already come... the last day of Chris' leave is here. He heads back tomorrow morning. The time went by so fast but we had so much fun! The girls really loved having him home. I am anxious to see how they do when he leaves. Pray for that... and pray for a safe journey back to Iraq for Chris... he has a long one ahead of him!

Today we decided to do something fun to keep our minds off the fact that he leaves tomorrow. The weather was beautiful so we went up to Boulder Falls. The girls LOVED climbing on the rocks and looking at the water! It really was the perfect way to spend the last day of leave together!

Ireland was a lot more brave than I thought she would be. She was climbing everywhere... no fear at all. Chloe was a little afraid of the sound of the waterfall. It was a little loud and I don't think she knew what to think of it. Chloe did really good at climbing the rocks and she eventually got more brave about the water noise. In some of the pictures it looks like Chloe is miserable... But I promise she was having a good time!

I hope you all like the pictures. We got some pretty good ones... and... call the news... I even got in some of the... under my own free will non the less... so here you go!

Beautiful Boulder Falls being the background for a beautiful family picture!

The girls were giving Daddy kisses on the cheeks... I missed the actually kiss but still a cute picture!

Ireland giving Daddy kisses and Chloe pouting (this was the first picture by the water).

Chloe giving Daddy lots of love.

Mommy trying to get Chloe to smile for the camera! :)


Mommy and Ireland having so much fun!

Chloe was smiling in this picture... but she started talking right before I clicked it. They sure do love each other.



Chloe yelling, "I'm queen of the mountain!!!!"

Ireland yelling the same thing... but much more gracefully posed!

As you can see, we had so much fun! The girls are already asking to go back!

Chloe's early birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHLOE!!!! (well, close enough)

Chris wanted to make sure we had a party for Chloe while he was home on his leave. Since this was his last weekend here we had it on Saturday. It is a little early but as far as Chloe knows, she is now a 3 year old... Ireland knows that Chloe's birthday is March 31st and that March 31st hasn't come yet. So Ireland is the only one having a hard time with it! :)

Chloe's party was loads of fun. She wanted an Ariel (Little Mermaid) party so that is what she got! I decided to make it a beach party as well so she could wear her swimming suit... one of her favorite outfits!

Nana made a really great Ariel cake! I was so thankful that she had the time to do it... because I would have failed horribly!

So, here are the pictures from her party! I really hope you like them! We had lots of fun! However... we missed all of you who couldn't be here with us!

The very fabulous Ariel cake... lucky for me, my cake lady is cheap! Chloe was amazed by the cake and it was hard for me to keep her away from it the morning of the party!

Chloe with her cake... Notice the half closed eyeballs... she wouldn't look at me for the picture! I would say, "Chloe!!! Look at me!!!" She would look for a split second and then look back down at her cake... this was the best I came up with!

Blowing out the candles... pretty great action shot if I do say so myself! :)

Chloe after the cake!

This was part of the gift that Chloe got from the Oakes. So far, it is a BIG hit! Cassies, I have already had to break up many fights over the baking gear! It really is a perfect gift because the girls LOVE to bake cookies with Nana! Now Chloe has her own get up! :)

And this (the pink hair) is the other part of the gift from the Oakes... I haven't had any fights over this yet... simply because it doesn't last long OUT of Chloe's hair! Needless to say, she adores this present. She calls it her Ariel hair. I don't know if you can tell by the body language in this picture, but Chloe thinks she is pretty hot stuff when she is wearing it! She swings her head from side to side with her hands placed firmly on her hips! Thanks Oakes! She is one happy (almost) 3 year old!

Opening some Ariel (catch a theme with the presents yet) necklaces from Nana and Papaw.

Chloe in front of her presents... she was one lucky girl!

Ireland showing off her fish she made... we had "ocean" crafts to do. The kids really liked them.

Chloe making a tropical flower necklace... it took her all of 2 mintues and she was back up and running around... and, for those of you who care... yes, that is Maren's very cute and preggers belly in the red shirt in the background! :)

Ireland in her beach party outfit... "beach hair" to match.. upon her request of course!

This is one of my favorite pictures so I saved it for last! EmJ played along with the whole theme and wore she swimming suit too! I got all the kids sunglasses and she actually wore her for a bit!

And on that note... I will close this blog with an ever appropriate...

PEACE OUT FARM TROUT!!!

P.S. Check out the blog below... it's new too!

Daddy's new ride!

For those of you who don't know, Chris has an obsession with Jeeps! He loves them! Since this deployment started we have been saving money so he could get a Jeep when he got home. Well, it just so happened that there was a great Jeep in Longmont that he couldn't pass up so he ended getting one on his leave! He is really excited. He has had it for almost 2 weeks now and is still in shock that he owns his own Jeep!

The girls also love it! Chloe was a little timid at first but she warmed up to it fast! They love taking rides in it. Yesterday was pretty nice so Chris took off all the windows and we went for a little spin... the following pictures show how much the girls really love it!
Here it is... it is an 88 YJ (I'm pretty sure) and it has some lift on it and big tires... all very important things I have come to learn. :)

Ireland laughs the whole time Chris is driving!

Chloe can't even contain her excitiment!

The girls really do love the Jeep! They want to ride in it more than the van now! :)

Fun Visitors!

My sister. Matt and the kids had planned on coming for a quick visit when Matt got done with his training and it just so happened to fall during the same time as Chris' leave. So Chris got a chance to meet Silas for the first time. He was happy to get to meet him! The visit was really fast... but it was the only time they would get to come and see Papaw until this summer... so they made sure to squeeze a visit in even thought it was fast.

While they were here we went to the mall to play and get the kids out of the house... so here are some pictures of that fun day!

Funny faces! Silas is such a wonderful baby! We loved seeing him!

Camdyn being brave on the slide!
Chloe showing off... weird! :)

Ireland looking pretty! :)

Chloe the rock climber!

Hope you liked the pictures.... there is another new blog below this so take a quick peek at it too!

Being silly with Daddy

Here are some pictures of the girls and Chris having fun and being silly... they were just cuddling and acting crazy one afternoon and I got a few pictures of it. The girls have loved having Chris home! They want him to play with them all the time! And I know he is loving being able to play with them whenever they ask! :)

Hope you like the pictures even though they are kind of silly and some are a little blurry!