An Introduction to (and playtime in!) Daddy's Gear

Peter has had a ton of his gear out the last week as he's been packing up and getting ready to go to training for a bit. Of course seeing all these strange things had the kids asking a ton of questions! Finally, he decided he was just going to go through everything that he had laid out and tell them exactly what it was and what it was used for. The kids LOVED this impromptu education on all the things in Daddy's bag! They are proud to now know what all this crazy stuff is called and what Daddy does with it.  :)

Their favorite part though seemed to be trying on some of the stuff he actually wears.....

Trying on Daddy's elbow pads, knee pads and vest thingy.....yeah, I know it's not really called that but I don't know the technical term...The kids probably do now though! LOL! :)

Joy said the helmet really made her head hurt and she doesn't know how Daddy wears that thing all day! :)

Such is life for an Army Kid.  :)  It definitely never gets boring around here!

Oma and Papa's Visit to South Korea

We were so lucky to have Peter's parents out for a visit a couple of weeks ago. It's only been two weeks since they left, but already it feels like it's been a year again! :( I hate that we're so far away from everyone and I wish that all our friends and family could come out for a visit like Oma and Papa were able to. We had a wonderful time with them! I took a TON of pictures while they were here, but here are some of my favorite "Grandparent Moments" with them and the kids. I noticed as I was posting these that there doesn't seem to be a lot of Joshua in them....He was definitely with us during their whole visit, but that boy is always on the go and doesn't have much time to stop for pictures with anyone! :)  So it's a lot of the girls and Samuel, who can't quite run as fast as Joshua....yet. :)  

The kids loved all the extra snuggles and hugs!

Papa and Oma and The Whole Bunch! 

Okay, there's a lot of this next sweet moment, but Faithy walking hand in hand with Papa was just too precious...

It was so sad saying goodbye. We miss you tons already! 

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Our sweet Joshua turned FIVE today! 

He wanted a Wolverine cake for his special day. So Joshua told us exactly how he wanted it to look with Wolverine's fists up, using the candles for his claws. Peter drew one for me to look at and copy when I made it. It's the 'happy - mommy version of Wolverine'....not as scary as the real one and not as edgy as the cool one Daddy drew, but Joshua was pretty happy with it.  :)

It seems like just yesterday he was my tiny baby...

Now he's my big FIVE year old! Time sure does fly fast, but I've loved every minute with this sweet boy. Joshua is so much fun and such an awesome blessing to our whole family! We Love You Joshua, and we are so glad you are ours! Happy Birthday!

Apache Helicopter Field Trip

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to go on a field trip with our homeschool co-op to explore and learn about the Apache Helicopters from some of the pilots. It was SO COOL! We see these flying all the time but we've never seen them this close before! The kids (and Peter) got to climb inside and loved every minute of it of course.  :)

We were all surprised at how HUGE it really was!

Peter was thrilled when one of our good friends took him up into it after all the kids were done! :)

Joshua was excited about seeing "The biggest flag ever!", he said. :) 

Daddy got to go on the field trip with us, and that made everything even more fun! :)