He melts my heart

This little man brightens my day every day. I am grateful for his sweet spirit and smile that lift my spirit when I am down.

What would I do with out my boys?

Playing dress up

We spent the evening at the tennis courts, and the kids played so well together while my brother and I played tennis. I really was in awe of how well they played. They were coming up with the funniest games and saying the funniest things. It was every mother's dream :)

Deagan walked up to me at one point wearing the outfit in this picture. He found this stuff on the courts and put them on. It was too darn cute.

Oh how I love my sweet Deagan!

The first day we got here, Deagan spent most of the day on my parents kitchen counter because he was so afraid of my parents 3 dogs. I was worried that that was how the whole 6 months would be like, but over time be has warmed up to the dogs. He now wants to be every where the dogs ate and gets upset when the dogs have to go outside to go potty. What a difference time makes! :)

Precious Memories

Being a single parent right now is tough, but there have been lots of sweet moments that help me realize that I am being blessed right now. I don't want to do this forever, but I am grateful for the memories that my children and are creating right now together.

Greg's Attack Experience

Last Sunday I got a call from Greg at 6 am telling me that they were on lockdown because the area where he is working was under attack. The connection was not good, so he kept cutting out.  It was a stressful day not knowing how he was, but I felt peaceful at the same time.  I know that the Spirit was helping me to feel peace, and I am grateful for that.  Greg wrote out his experience so we could have it documented, so here is his experience first hand: 

"So I went to church on Sunday and it was a nice service.  Afterwards I had told Jason that I would go over to nearby Camp Eggers with him for lunch, so shortly after church we went over to Eggers to eat with one other girl who had a long rifle.  The main reason that we wanted to go over there was that it is an American base and people say it has a little better food.  Also, it was Sunday and not a lot happens on the weekend here because most other people in the community have the weekend off.  We looked into the threat level before we left to see what the requirements were for walking over there.  The kilometer or so of a walk is considered the green zone because the local Afghan National Police (ANP) restrict access on the roads, however its hard to know just how tight of security they run through there.  We found out that we didn't need to wear all of our protective gear (bullet proof vest and helmet) because the threat level was low.  We were supposed to have at least one cell phone between us three to be able to call our office in case of emergency. Jason was the designated cell phone guy, however when we got to the exit of ISAF HQ he realized he had forgotten it.  We thought for a second, "should we go back to get it?" but then quickly determined that everything was likely to be fine so we just kept going.

 

As you walk over to Eggers there are a bunch of little kids and locals that beg for money.  We were told to just try to ignore them.  It kind of made me a little nervous because you don't really know the intentions of the people there.  We walked over to Eggers but some friends from work had recommended a different cafeteria located on a compound called the Koala House, where all of the contractors were located.  None of us had been there before, but we decided to try it out.  We found the compound without much trouble, but we we couldn't find the entrance at first.  We actually ended up walking through some back streets trying to find it until we decided to turn around.  We backtracked and found the entrance.  There was no problems.  We ate lunch and as we were eating Jason made a comment about how he thought during his time here that he thought there would be a significant attack (he only has 2 months left).  We didn't think much of it other than we mostly agreed because attacks usually pick up over the summer.  

 

From there we decided to walk over to the main part of Camp Eggers to go to the American PX.  To get there we had to walk through the green zone again.  It took us maybe five minutes and we were on base.  Once we got on, we started walking down the main street to the PX and as we were walking we heard what we thought were gun shots.  We paused as did others trying to determine if indeed they were gun shots.  They continued and we knew that something was happening close by.  We initially took cover by a cement wall and soon determined that we needed to get somewhere more secure.  We were fairly close to the PX and Jason remembered that it had a basement.  We ran to the PX and at first we didn't think that the attack was very significant because we just heard small arms fire.  We thought that it would probably blow over in a few minutes.  So we just started looking around the PX, then we heard and felt a big explosion.  We knew at that point that it was more significant.  A bunch of people rushed in from outside to take cover in the basement  and one lady almost pushed Jason down the stairs:)  

 

We got into the basement and we continued to hear a lot of small arms fire as well as fairly big explosions.  We soon learned that the explosions were rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) that the insurgents were firing.  This continued to happen for a number of hours.  In the basement of the PX, there was a small tv where the local Afghan nationals that worked in the PX were watching tv.  We then got all of our updates about the situation from them because the tv was all in the local language.  We were able to call our office and check it as well as call home to let everybody know that we were fine.   Things continued for a number of hours.  At one point, a group of two or three military members came in to the PX to acount for everyone that was there.  They said that they were going building to building to clear all the buildings.  They said that they had been directly fired at four times so the insurgents were targeting people within the compound. 

 

After about 5 hours we were able to leave the PX.  We made our way to the dining facility to get some dinner when we started to hear more explosions and gun shots.  We then headed into a nearby building where we were able to sit for a while.  They had a tv in the basement with a MLB baseball game on so we ended up watching the majority of the game while the attacks continued.  After another hour or so, we heard that they had opened the dining facility, which was just across the street from us.  We decided to quickly grab a bite to eat.  After dinner we continued to watch the baseball game when someone recommended that we check into transient housing for the night.  At that point we knew that we weren't going to make it back to ISAF HQ that night, but the girl that was with us was set on trying to get back.  She was really crazy about it for some reason and just wanted to run back in the dark when previously we had heard gun fire from the direction that we would need to go in.  We decided to stop by the front gate to see if they were letting anyone back.  They told us to wait around for a little while to see if things improved and maybe they would let people travel back to ISAF HQ.  After waiting there outside for about 45 minutes we started to hear things start up again so we decided that we needed to just stay there for the night.

 

We ended up getting into transient housing and it was a room with about 40 bunkbeds.  The mattresses that they had were horrible.  The springs were sticking out everywhere so needless to say I didn't sleep well.  Well, and in addition they didn't have any bedding so we just slept in a mattress with all our clothes on.  The transient housing was on the top floor of a three story building, which didn't seem like the best spot to be during an attack.  It really seemed like an easy target.  Anyway, all night long explosions and gun fire continued and a few of them sounded really close to us.  I woke up several times to explosions.  Helicopters were flying over us all night too so it really made it impossible to sleep.  Finally around 6 am everything settled down.  We got up at 7 and ran into some coworkers who had been in the same boat as us.  We ate breakfast and then they told us that they had been put up in really nice accomodations...that made us pretty jealous:)  We didn't think that we were going to be albe to leave any time soon and likely thought that we would be spending another night there. However, we got in contact with our office and they arranged to create a short window for us to be able to walk back to ISAF HQ.  In order to do that we needed to have personal protective gear, which we had not brought with us the day before because the threat level was low.  We were able to get some loaner equipment in order to walk back.  I'll tell you what that was one of the most nerve-wracking walk in my life.  There was 7 of us in a group and we walked back with our guns fully loaded and ready to go.  Luckily nothing happened and we made it back safely."

Right after Greg called, Deagan and I had the idea to pray for Greg. I am so amazed at the faith that Deagan has at such a young age.  I am so grateful that Greg was watched over, and I am grateful for the chance that it gave Deagan to exercise faith.  I just pray that something like that doesn't happen again!

 

Very Special Pizza

This morning as we were talking to Greg over Skype, Greg mentioned that he was going to have pizza for dinner.  When Deagan heard that he said, "Send me some!" At that moment, Greg had the thought to order pizza for the boys from Afghanistan over the internet for them to eat at lunch.  We talk to Greg around 7:30 every morning (which is about 6 pm local time for Afghanistan), so he planned on ordering it a few hours after we talked.  

A few hours later, I got a text from Greg (he is able to do that from Gmail somehow) saying that he couldn't order it online for some reason, so he called the order in over the phone.  He had a calling card with only 6 minutes left, so he was trying to rush the call, but the pizza guy put him on hold! Luckily, it all worked out, and right around noon 2 large pizzas arrived at our door! Deagan thought it was Greg bringing the pizzas because he ran to the door yelling, "Daddy!" He was sad when it wasn't Dad, and it made me sad that he thought it was :( Those boys miss their dad! 

It totally made the boys day to get pizza from their dad, and it reminded me just how lucky they are to have a dad like him, and how lucky I am to have him as my husband.  He is such a great man.

"Stop taking pictures mom!"

Listening to Daddy Reading a Bedtime Story

Even though the kids don't come out and say it a lot, I know they miss their dad so much.  They always look forward to talking to Greg via Skype every morning, and mentioned Greg randomly through out the day. They are daddy's boys through and through!

While Greg was at the airport before he deployed, there was a service for everyone being deployed to record themselves reading books to their children for free.  Greg took advantage of it and we received the books last week.  In the package that we got, it recommended recording your child watching it for the first time to capture their reaction to send to your deployed spouse.  I finally did it last night, and it was so fun to see the boys reaction. (I did record it, but the video was too long to upload here.)  They were talking to Greg the whole time through the DVD, and at the end yelled, "I love you Dad!" when it ended.  It just melted my heart.  I am so grateful for services like this one that help support  families during deployments.  Its little moments like this that get us through.  

Cousins

This past weekend we traveled to Rexburg to be with Greg's side of the family.  His sister and her husband were graduating from BYU-I, and since we are so much closer to Rexburg here than we are out east, we made it a point to make it there.  It was so great to see Greg's parents and some of his siblings and especially the the cousins! Deagan absolutely adores his cousins, so it was so fun to see them all play together.  After this trip, Greg and I were both reminded how important it is to make sure we see each of our families at least once a year.  I want our kids to see their cousins more often so they grow up knowing them, and I want to get to know my sister-in-laws better and other extended family.  

We had such a great weekend, and of course it ended too quickly.  I am so grateful for our family!

(The kids decorating eggs with their cousins)

Wyoming Snow

After have no snow in Virginia this year, I was hoping that it would snow at least once so the kids could experience snow this winter.  A few days after we got to WY, my wish was granted! We got a spring snow storm (all the snow was gone the next day) and the kids loved it.  I actually was not prepared with any snow stuff, so they ran outside in whatever I could find.  They didn't seem to care though! They just wanted to play in snow! I wish I would have gotten a picture, but when Grandpa got home from work that evening he helped build a snowmen in the front yard with the boys.  They were all inside with in 10 min though since they really were not dressed for snow man building.  I was so glad though that they got to experience snow this winter though! 

The Kids and the Animals

My parents have 2 cats (Angel and Fiddlesticks) and 3 dogs (Bella, Sadie, and Hazel) at their house.  Both kids took instantly to the cats, and Kayden has loved the dogs from the beginning, but Deagan is really timid around the dogs.  3 weeks later, and Deagan now loves being in the same room as the dogs.  It is fun to see the kids and the animals.  I think the kids love the animals more than the animals love the kids though :)

Kayden with one of the cats Angel. (Since this picture, the cats have been kicked outside for scratching up new leather furniture.)

Deagan in Hazel's kennel

Kayden in Bella's kennel