The Stafford Family: July 2011

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Coming to an End

Today was my last Sunday alone. YEA!!!! So of course, we had a rough start to the day. And church started out rough with the kids. I sent Jonathan to go sit with an older couple in the ward and had to sneak out to go feed Ethan. Our Mother's Room doesn't have a speaker so you can hear what's going on so I sat in the Relief Society room so I could still hear the talks. After a short time, Jonathan peeked his head in.

He told me he didn't like sitting with them (rather surprising). I told him if he didn't go back, I might make him sit with them next week (wait, I thought that was a reward to sit with someone else?) and not sit with Dad. When Ethan fell asleep, I went back into the chapel. No Jonathan. Went out and found him and had him sit next to me. He was really good the rest of the meeting. I still can't believe he didn't want to go sit with the other couple but whatever it was it worked.

When I sat down, I realized something changed in me too. I felt a lot of peace. I'm sure it was all the prayers going up in my behalf from those around me. And we made it through. Thankfully.

Before church this morning, I got a phone call saying our soldier will be home within 5 days! We can't really say too much for security reasons but it's getting close and we have a date and a time now. I had a family council with the kids and told them about the phone call. I asked if they wanted to know the date and we decided it was better if they just knew it was within 5 days, but not tomorrow.

Christina came back later and asked for the date.

And a while later, wanted to know the time. She's not much for surprises.

So we've made a list of the things we need to do before Daddy comes home. We're so excited (and nervous and anxious and you name it) for Daddy to come home.

It's coming to an end.

Thankfully.

A few more days.......

He's sitting in Kuwait now until his flight leaves. I'm not sure how many more times we'll be able to chat before he comes home. I think I know more about his homecoming than he does.

And this one is waiting for him--

See tooth #7? It poked through the day before his birthday. His got quite the choppers now and has really decided to use them. He's taken quite a liking to table food. He had lasagna for the first time last night and LOVED it! Hopefully we can fatten him up a little like the doctor wants.

Girl's Camp!

Tuesday, July 26th Christina headed off to Girl's Camp. The older girls left the day before so there were just two to go down on Tuesday morning.

I know she was so excited to go.

And I REALLY missed her.

A LOT!

The other kids and I had a rough week as I went into anxiety mode trying to get everything caught up, cleaned up, and getting ready for Daddy to come home.

It was a LONG week.

Friday, Ethan had his 1 year appointment. He's 19 pounds 9 oz. and 29 1/2 inches long. The doctor wanted him tested for anemia and lead. Not fun. Luckily some friends helped out with the kids so I only had Daniel and Ethan with me.

Christina came home Saturday. As we were leaving to go pick her up, Daniel said he was glad she was coming home to help with all the work. Maybe he'll be more grateful of what she does. I know I am. Later that day, I was able to make it to the store again with only 2 kids. That felt so nice. I kind of avoided the stores this week as I didn't really want to deal with all of them in the store and I was trying to clean out anyway. So now we have food again in the house. For a few days, anyway.

Cleaning up....

Saturday, July 23rd was our ward's pancake breakfast at the park. Good timing for us. :)

We went and got welcomed back and got a breakfast that I didn't have to fix.

Then it was back home to unpack, start the laundry and cleaning again.

Monday, July 25th was Clay's birthday. Our last birthday for the year. Those are hard days for me. It was weird to not do anything for his birthday. We mailed our last package to him before we left where I sent brownies for his birthday but he got them a couple of weeks ago. We'll have a cake and presents waiting for him for when he comes home. :)

The kids and I spent the day moving furniture around to switch some bedrooms. We're moving Christina into a larger room to share with Ethan and the older 2 boys into her old room since they have a bunk bed that fits in the smaller room.

Back to the Brown

Almost caught up. And it wasn't all pictures. Just most of it.

We drove back to Amarillo on July 21. We made pretty good time but I was totally wiped out. Here's a picture as we left Amarillo the next morning. I miss the mountains and green. :(

Friday, July 22nd we drove the rest of the way, stopping at Walmart to pick up the bare necessities for groceries.

I think I gained 5 pounds from eating to try to keep myself awake on the way home. YUCK!

We're glad we went but I think next time, I'd like my husband to drive part of the way. :)

Smash cake!

Since we had a late night and a slice of pie with our dinner on his birthday, we waited to do his birthday cake until the next day after breakfast. I'm such a good mom, huh? We needed to get on the road to drive back to Texas though and it's a long drive.

So out to the patio we go--

Here's his little smash cake--

What do you want me to do with this?

Hmmm... Where to start?

Ethan wasn't too sure about the cake thing. He got a little on his hands but was very hesitant.

So we brought out the spoon.

Yummy!

Then he really got into it--

Oh, this is fun!

You want some Pepper?

All done and headed for clean up.

He got cleaned up in Aunt Kimberly's sink--

Then Kimberly helped do the little girl's hair while I loaded the car. Jonathan decided to try to do Kimberly's at the same time. Detangling spray and hair spray are a little different though and her hair, unfortunately was soaked with both. Thanks for helping Kimberly. Sorry about your hair.

Daniel and Charlie--

1st Birthday!

Wednesday, July 20th was Ethan's 1st Birthday.

The Happy Happy Birthday Boy--

Isn't he so cute!

We took the kids to the Denver Mint for a tour. I haven't been there since I was a kid! It was fun to see how money is made.

After, we hit happy hour at Sonic before going back to my sister's place. We took the kids to Village Inn for dinner and Ethan got his first bite of pie. Afterwards, we headed back to open presents. He wasn't too sure at first but soon got the hang of it.

He has such a good big sister. Notice the other 2 in the background playing with the toy he just opened? Poor number 6 kid.

Oh, and he decided to do this. I'm grateful he hasn't tried again at home. Yet.

Pine Creek

Sunday night we drove back to my parent's house in Wyoming. Time to start heading home. But first, one last day to play with grandpa and grandma.

Monday, we headed back up to Pine Creek, the canyon by their house. Christina got to drive the 4 wheeler the whole way. Hold on Daniel.--

Playing in the pond part of the creek--

Lex had fun trying to get the kids wet while they made dirt castles.--

Christina and Daniel--

Amanda making her dirt castle. Sand is much easier to work with.--

A little boy's heaven--

Lex kept going over to shake off by my mom.

And Ethan slept through it all.--

Samantha decided she didn't like her pants getting wet.--

So she took matters into her own hands--

Gotcha Mom!

Daniel showing me a cool rock he found--

Daniel after falling in the water. You can't tell me he didn't enjoy it.

The kids decided to have fun running across the pond. Samantha couldn't pass that one up.

Just as we got back to my parent's house to clean up, Daniel added some fun to the mix. He cut himself on his hand with a steak knife. He was completely embarrassed about it. We wrapped it in plastic wrap (great first aid trick we've used for a while now--the blood doesn't stick to it) and headed off to Montpelier, ID to the ER. A 30 min drive. I can tell I've been through a few things because I stayed calm through it all.

That was by far the fastest ER visit we've ever had. In and out in 30 minutes. The ended up not doing stitches, just steri tape strips to put it back together. We almost made it without going to the hospital or doctor's on our trip.

Tuesday, July 19th, we loaded up the car to begin the drive back. Grandpa took some of the kids on one last ride before we headed back to Colorado.

Friends!

Sunday, July 17th we got to go to our old ward in West Valley again. We sure love that ward. Afterwards, we said goodbye to our friends there. Here's the kids with their friends--