Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!

Happy Holidays! Normally, I don't really care for that saying, I would much prefer to just say "Merry Christmas," but since there are TWO holidays being celebrated in this one post, I guess it's actually appropriate, right? Anyway...

Hunter and I had a very nice Christmas. We spent Christmas eve with my dad's side of the family. We had dinner here at my parent's house and then opened gifts and stuff like that. We are celebrating with my mom's family on Jan 3 so that will be very fun as well, I'm sure!

Christmas morning Hunter was quite excited and ate as many chocolate things as he could find. There were plenty in all of the stockings and I eventually had to hide them from he before he got sick. He is quite the choco-holic, I have NO IDEA where he got that from :)

I actually haven't given Hunter his two bigger presents from Ben and I yet, but that is somewhat intentional. He has been quite happy with all the wonderful toys and stuff that he already got so I figured I could wait just a bit until he needed something new to occupy him, which I'm sure I will need soon with Clara's wedding just around the corner! Either way, he had a great time opening gifts and he did pretty well with all the excitement.

Hopefully everyone else had a good holiday. Ben sent me an amazing painting that was done by a local artist in Kabul who is only 15! It's absolutely beautiful and I'm very anxious to get it framed so I can hang it up. He spoils me even when he's not home :)

I can't believe that it is going to be 2009 in just a couple hours...time sure flies and I'm so excited about that! In just a few months Hunter and I will be heading back to Ft. Campbell and in no time at all Ben will be back home with us, HOORAY!!! :) Just about four and a half months, not that I am counting or anything.

Well, I guess that's about all for now. Just wanted to get back on here and wish everyone a blessed new year.

Love, em

Confusion

It seems like I have been getting a lot of questions lately about where we all are, what we are doing right now, where we are going next, etc., so I thought I would try to explain it all on here and clear up any confusion. Hopefully this will make sense to all of you, and if it doesn't, well, just blame it on the Army!
As of right now, Ben is in Afghanistan and I am in IL with my family. Prior to Ben's deployment we were living in Clarksville, TN and Ben was working at Fort Campbell, KY. Ben left in March of 2008 and it is a 15 month deployment which means that he should be home in June of 2009. Hunter and I will probably head back to Fort Campbell sometime in March of 2009, but that also depends on when Fort Campbell Family Housing lets me know that they have a home available for us, so that is up in the air. The plan is for Hunter and I to be back in TN and settled before Ben gets home. We have never lived on base before so this should be quite an adventure! The bad part is that we are only given a two bedroom house and we were quite spoiled before with having our own home with three bedrooms, so it will take a little adjusting to try to figure out where to put all of us along with all of Ben's piles of Army gear. So, I will apologize in advance to anyone who may be brave enough to attempt visiting us during the craziness of moving :)
After Ben arrives back at Campbell he will have 10 days or so of in-processing to do, which is standard after a deployment. He has to report to a class at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri on July 12 so he will also have to clear Fort Campbell which takes about 10 days as well. Because of this we probably won't have much time between the time he arrives at Campbell and the time we are moving to Leonard Wood. Of course, this will all depend on exactly when he arrives back from Afghanistan, but that is up to the Army and they don't like to give us very much information. It's definitely teaching me patience :)
Anyway, after we leave Fort Campbell we will move to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for Ben's Captain Career Course which should take about 5 months. While we are there we will be living on base again so I have no idea what the housing will be like. We heard a rumor that they have newer housing for Captains so I am really hoping that is true because most Army housing can be pretty yucky. Anyway, I believe that the class ends on December 10, but I'm not totally sure on that date. Sometime during that class (probably close to the end) we will find out where we will be stationed next. There are a lot of factors that will play into that decision and some of it will depend on what jobs are available, what the deployment schedule is, where the Army wants Ben to be... you get the picture! We are hoping and praying that Fort Carson, Colorado might be our home, but that is just wishful thinking right now. The hard part will be that we will be moving over Christmas, but I guess that's just how things go sometimes.
So...that is our life for 2009. We will keep you updated as we figure things out but for now that is the best I can do! We will be moving around a lot in the next year so try to bear with us as we make all of the necessary changes and adjustments. Thanks for your patience with us!
-em :)

Our little model!

Hello there friends! It has been a little while and I am so sorry for that, but I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have had a lot going on in our lives, some happy and some sad, but I'm always happy to see the arrival of a new month and hopefully good things on the horizon!

So, in case you were wondering about the adorable pictures, Hunter was a part of a fashion show a little while back and these are some shots from the runway. For those of you who may not know, my mom owns a bridal shop here and so from time to time there are bridal expos and fashion shows. I (luckily!) am too short to model for her, but since Hunter owns a tuxedo (actually, he owns more than one, but that's just because he is soooooooooo handsome!) my mom thought Hunter may enjoy being in the show. I had my doubts, but figured that it couldn't hurt to at least just let him wear his tux and watch. Well, the show started and to my surprise Hunter was just climbing right up on the runway and ready to go. I actually had to fight him and bribe him with wedding cake (from another vendor, it was delicious!) to keep him OFF the runway. Ha! He is quite the little ham. There was a photographer at the end of the runway that snapped these pictures of him and I thought I would share them with you guys. There are some other pictures floating around somewhere so if they are good I will post them when I get them as well.

On a completely different note, my family lost a dear friend this week to her battle with cancer and it would be wonderful if you could keep her husband and daughters in your thoughts and prayers. It was a rough wake and funeral and something I hope to never have to be a part of again.

Well, December promises to be yet another busy month, but that is great because time is just flying by! We are on the downhill slope of this whole deployment thing and I am so grateful for that. Only 6 months or so left to go and I'm so anxious to be done and be together as a family again. I know that Hunter is anxious as well. Anyway, as Hunter would say "Ba-bye!"

Love, em

Big boy!

Hunter had his 15 month check up yesterday and the conclusion is that he is a BIG BOY! I guess I already knew that, but it was confirmed. He is 31.5 inches tall and 31 pounds!!! Sheesh, no wonder I'm exhausted at the end of the day. Actually, I was anxious to get to the doctor because Hunter has been having a problem sleeping and at least now I think I have an answer to why. For a few nights in a row Hunter had been waking up just screaming and crying and it seemed like the more I tried to console him, the worse it got. He was up for hours at a time just crying and kicking and I felt so helpless because nothing I did seemed to make it better. After talking to the doctor about it, he told me that Hunter is probably having night terrors, which are apparently quite common in toddlers his age. The strange part about night terrors is that although his eyes are open, he's actually sleeping so you are not supposed to pick him up or try to console him because he doesn't even know anything is going on, so I was making everything worse without knowing it. Luckily we have had two nights now without any problems so we are praying that it's all over now. I guess we will see.
On a much happier note, Hunter is very excited about having a new cousin (his first cousin, actually!) named Connor Ryan. We can't wait to go and see him in person, but he sure is adorable in pictures. Anyway, thanks for reading about my crazy life, I will try to get some more cute pictures up here whenever I get more downloaded. It's been wild around here with wedding showers for my sister and all kinds of stuff going on. It has also been fun though too, and the wedding planning is coming along nicely. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!
Love, em

Back in Afghanistan

I am back safely here in Afghanistan. The trip back was long, but uneventful. I was stuck in Atlanta for a good part of a day, but at least I didn't have to stay overnight. From there I flew to Kuwait had a layover in Ireland for about two hours before we headed out for Kuwait. In Kuwait it was kinda chilly and rainy. The desert is miserable in the winter time, all that blowing sand turns into a slimy muck when it rains. I got stuck there for two days which I suppose isn't bad, but I was glad to get out of there. From there we flew straight to Bagram on another uneventful flight. I got lucky and only spent a couple of hours in Bagram before I got down here to Kabul this morning. I didn't want to come back, but at least the trip is over. Traveling with the Army is never fun. I had two Masters classes start on Monday and they both look like they will be fun, but very challenging, which will be good. So long as I can stay busy time flies by. Now that my R&R leave is over I'm counting the days until I can be home again. Right now I'm just trying to get caught back up and figure out what to do for my new classes. It will keep me really busy. I will try to keep this updated better this half but we will see. It was great to see everyone while I was home and congrats to Jonathan and Julie on their wedding.
Ben

How cute is he???

So, I couldn't resist posting some pictures of Hunter in his monkey costume. He wore it to the zoo on the 30th and of course on Halloween again. He had a great time at the zoo and also visiting with some family while trick or treating. He ate a bit too much candy at my Uncle Mike's house and had a bit of a meltdown while we were visiting with G.G. (that's what Hunter calls his Great Grandma Plut), but overall it was a great time and he sure looked cute. Hope you enjoy!
-em

Has it really been that long?

Hunter and Daddy

Wearing Daddy's hat

The guys at the aquarium

Wow... I just realized that it has been a REALLY long time since I last posted on the blog here. I suppose that's not a bad thing, we have just been busy! Let's see...
Ben arrived back in IL on the evening of October 13 and Hunter and I picked him up from O'Hare airport. It was crazy at the airport and I thought we would never find each other, but it worked out and it was soooooooo amazing to finally see him again! Hunter was a bit shy at first but after a few days he was playing with his daddy like they had never been apart.
On the morning of the 16th we headed to Clarksville, TN as a stopping point on our way to Jonathan and Julie's wedding in Atlanta. It was a long trip, but it was enjoyable to be together as a family after so long. We had a great time visiting with the family in Atlanta and Hunter performed his duty as ring bearer quite well. I did have to help him and I hate to admit it, but he carried a tractor down as well, BUT he made it down the aisle and that is all that matters! :)
After a couple days in Atlanta we headed to Biltmore estate in Asheville, NC and spent the night there. It was beautiful and we really enjoyed it. We could have done a lot more there, but we were anxious to get to the amazing cabin we rented in Pigeon Forge, TN. We spent a week in the mountains of TN at an amazing cabin and just relaxed and enjoyed life! We visited an incredible aquarium, went on a monster truck ride, walked around the town of Gatlinburg, spent a day at Bass Pro and just had lots of fun!
After that we came back to IL since Ben had to fly back out of here and spent the last couple days here. We took Hunter to Brookfield Zoo and went trick or treating (well, just to a couple houses of friends and family.) Hunter was very happy to have his Daddy home even if it was just for a while. Ben headed back yesterday morning nice and early and he's in Kuwait right now waiting for a flight back to Afghanistan.
Now it will be back to things as usual for all of us. Ben starts his next couple classes for his Masters on Monday, hopefully he will be back in time to get his homework done this first week! He will have a lot to do for a couple of weeks as he gets back into a routine so I'm sure he won't have much time to post or email, but I will do my best to keep everyone updated on what he is doing. I suppose that is enough for now, I will try to get some adorable pictures posted soon.
Love, em