Requests...

Hunter and his cousin Connor

Hunter checking out his Daddy's Christmas present with Uncle Bryan

Hunter sledding with his Grandpa Feicht

Well, I have received a request for more pictures, so here you go! As long as I can get this crazy website to let me upload them...
Hunter had his 18 month checkup yesterday and he is quite a big guy! He's 33 inches tall (75th percentile) and 32lbs, 4oz (97th percentile) and growing by the minute. He has been learning new words all the time and I just love to hear his little voice. I just wish he would stay at this age forever, well, maybe minus the tantrums that seem to come with the territory. But, he is a lot of fun and I'm sure glad to have him around to keep me company while Ben is gone.

Speaking of that, we are down to about three months or so until Ben gets home and I CAN'T WAIT! Hopefully Hunter and I will be heading to Ft. Campbell here in the next month or so to get ready for Ben's homecoming, but a lot of that depends on housing and how long it takes to get our stuff down to Campbell, so it's all up in the air for right now. The good news is that we are actually moving on the housing list, so maybe we will get on base afterall. It might make things easier to do that since we won't be there for long. But, who knows. I suppose we will just see what happens and pray that it will be the right thing :)
Since I last blogged Hunter and I took a trip to Ohio and had a lot of fun visiting with Ben's parents and grandparents and all of the other family that lives there. Hunter travelled so well and it made for a great trip. At least I now have hope that we will survive all of the crazy moves that we have in store for us this year.
Everything is the same with Ben. He's keeping busy working on his Master's still and he doesn't have internet in his room right now, so he can't access many websites (including this one) so I suppose I will have to be his voice for the time being. He is getting very anxious to get back home and I have actually already purchased him a vehicle (don't worry, it's used) and is planning lots of modifications and stuff for it when he gets back. I guess he needs something to keep him busy while he is over there!
Well, I guess that is all for now. To all of my Clarksville friends, I will see you soon, Inshallah!
Love, em

Some pictures...

Hunter and I at the museum

Hunter and Savannah at the museum

Hunter at Clara's wedding

Hunter playing in the snow

How time flies...

Seems like it has been forever since I last posted, and it has! It's been busy, but fun. Clara and Chad were married on Jan 10 and it was a beautiful wedding. Everything went smoothly and everyone had a great time, and that is all that we could ask for! Clara looked beautiful and she was lucky enough to get to wear TWO amazing gowns, one for the ceremony and formal pictures and then one for the reception. Lucky girl, huh? I'm glad she didn't have to choose between the two because they were both so amazing. Hunter did pretty good, he did walk down the aisle, but not by himself, he walked with me, but at least he made it to the altar. His babysitter was so amazing and she was willing to come to the ceremony to watch him, take him to her house in between and then bring him back for the reception and THEN keep him overnight so I didn't have to pick him up late. It was so incredible to just sleep in... it's always the small things that make us the happiest, right?
Let's see... Hunter and I are trying to keep busy and make the time go quickly until Ben gets home, and I think we have been doing alright so far. Yesterday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago with some friends and we had a great time. Hunter really loved the museum, especially the farming exibit and the coal mining one, too! He was able to get up in the seat of a huge John Deere and he also went on a "choo choo" ride in the coal mine. Not a bad day!
Today he started Tumblebees again, he loves that. There are a lot more kids in the class this time, but it's good for him to interact with other kids.
Hopefully this weekend I will purchase a car (well, SUV acutally, a 4runner) for Ben to drive when he gets home. He is very excited about it, mostly because it means that he is getting closer to actually getting back home. And, if I like the 4runner, I might take it up to Ohio with me when I go in a couple weeks. It will be nice for Hunter to see his other grandparents and great-grandparents.
Well, I guess that is most of our excitement for right now. Someday I will get better about updating more often! Only about 4 or 5 months left until Ben is back! Yay!
-em

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