Goodbyes :(

We have made many friends since we joined the Army 2 1/2 years ago. We have already seen many come and go and have grown accustomed to the 'revolving door' in our community. It's just how the military life is. We came to S.Korea two years ago, our first duty station. During our time here we grew very close to three wonderful families. Three families who ALL PCS (permanent change of station/move away) this month. We said goodbye to two of them tonight and the last one we'll say goodbye to in two weeks. Two years ago I never would have thought that I would meet people while we were here in Korea that I would ever call some of my best friends, but I did. These three women and their families have made such a difference in my life. They've inspired me, encouraged me and have been there for me when everyone else in the world that I loved was thousands of miles away on the other side of the world. They have been my family and support and are some of the greatest people I've ever known. I will miss them terribly!

This Easter was the last time that we were all together here in S.Korea...

Jason, Jocelyn, Peter, Me, Mike, Kim, Carrie and Nick

So tonight we had to say our goodbyes, and that was very sad. But what was even more heart wrenching was watching our kids have to say goodbye. Our sweet, tenderhearted Joshua burst into tears when we told him it was time to go. He gave each of his friends a big hug and told them he was going to miss them so much! Joy cried all the way home. Faithy kept asking, "Will we ever see them again?" They are old enough to understand now what it means when someone is moving away and their little hearts were breaking to have to say goodbye to some of the closest friends they've ever known. These people have become such a huge part of our lives. We see them several times a week, sometimes almost everyday. They have become like family to us. There will definitely be a void in our lives with them gone.

Our adorable kiddos after the egg hunt on Sunday

I know that God has called us to this life in the military and that means lots of moving around and lots of goodbyes, but it breaks my heart to see my kids have to go through this. They have made some amazing friends here. God has truly blessed all of us with friendships in these families that I pray will last a lifetime. We've had some people tell us that "you get use to it" being in the military and moving around so much, and maybe it will get easier. But these friends are very special and now having gone through it, this is definitely my least favorite part about being in the military.

I'm praying that God will heal our saddened hearts and continue to grow our friendships even as we all scatter to different parts of the world. I hope our paths will cross again and that we'll get to experience life together in another place. I'm so thankful for the time we have had with each of these families, they have blessed us in so many ways! God has been so good to us and we will treasure all the fun times and great memories we've made with them.  :)

Stage Makeup

Joy is in the musical HONK! (The Ugly Duckling Story) this coming weekend. Tonight we had dress rehearsal. She wasn't happy about letting me put makeup on her but I told her the director said she had to wear it....

After I was done, she looked in the mirror and decided it was alright....

And by the end of rehearsal she told me that stage make up was kind of fun. :) 

She's her Mama's girl.

Musical Rehearsals...

This one is for the grandparents who wanted to see some rehearsal pictures from Joy's musical she's in. The show is HONK! The Ugly Duckling Story. She is a duckling named Fluff, one of Ugly's sisters.  :) She's doing a great job and I can't wait to see the show at the end of the month when everything comes together. I helped out with the choreography for several dances in the show and Joy has been working hard to learn her lines and songs. I have so much fun watching her, it reminds me of all my years doing shows when I was little.  :) She's super cute up there...

History Banquet

Earlier in March our homeschool co-op did a history banquet night. Each of the kids chose a person in history and could present it any way that they wanted to. 

Joshua chose to present Abraham Lincoln...

Joy chose to present Sacagawea...

We had a yummy spaghetti feed before the presentations began.  :)

Peter helped out some of the other kids with their presentations. :)

Both Joshua and Joy did such a great job! We were so proud of them! They both enjoyed reading about and researching their subjects and planning what they wanted to share with everyone.  :)

I got a great idea from an awesome friend to put smiley faces on his note cards at the end of every couple of sentences. We he saw the smiley face it was to be a reminder to look up at the audience, make eye contact and smile... Well, it worked and even got several of us chuckling because it was so cute when he'd look up and do this every 10 seconds or so, LOL!....

Our 'Sacagawea' remembered to smile and look up too.  :)

All the kids presentations we so great and we really enjoyed preparing for them and watching everyone else's. It was a fun night!

Fabulous February!

February was a great month for us, and it flew by fast with everything we had going on keeping us busy! Of course we did several Valentine and heart themed arts and crafts. We started the month out doing them right away so we could get the house decorated. :)

Painting is a favorite in our house, so we had to make sure and do some pretty Valentine colored masterpieces to hang on the wall. :)

Our popcorn sensory bin came out several times this month by request, and Faith and Samuel especially enjoyed playing in the kernels. :)

Faithy and Samuel enjoyed practicing setting the table many times. :) They are getting really good at it!

I found this placemat table setting printable over at Parents.com. They enjoyed matching everything to what was pictured on the paper.

Joy started piano lessons in January and is really loving it still in February. :)

We played a lot of UNO! this month. It's so fun as the kids get older and can play more and more games with us that we like to play! We also opened up the game Trouble and Rack-O this month that they really enjoyed too. :)

It was Daddy's birthday! The kids enjoyed celebrating it almost as much as he did! They were very excited to give him their cards that they worked so hard on and watch him/help him open his presents.  :)

Samuel enjoyed some piano playtime too!

He loves to wear the headphones...and we don't mind it when he does! It's much quieter for the rest of us, LOL!

We did a neat project using crayons on the griddle. It made a really cool, bold color effect on the paper as we pressed it on the warm griddle. We tried it first at home...

And after a couple of minutes, Mama got nervous and made him put on an oven mit! :) Just incase!

Later in the week I did it with our whole homeschool co-op class and their pictures all turned out really neat. The warmer the griddle, the smoother and brighter the crayon markings will be. We will definitely be doing this one again!

Daddy did some fun art lessons with the kids. He is really great at drawing and always creates fun looking characters so one day he walked the kids through step by step as he drew some animal pictures, teaching them how to make them.  :)

Here are some of Daddy's...

And Joy's...

And Joshua's...

Faithy's birthday was in February too, but I already blogged about that one! She had some birthday money though and was very excited to get to go on a date with Daddy out to lunch and shopping to spend her birthday money.  :)

Valentine's Day! Daddy and I received this adorable alligator valentine from Joshua. He was very proud of all the tons of hearts he drew and colored in and made sure to tell me that it took him hours and hours to make all of those hearts! :)

We also had to start the day off right with some heart shaped pancakes of course.  :)

The themed night at Awanas was crazy hat night!

Joy made a pipe cleaner hat and Joshua...a balloon hat. :) It was pretty fun.

Our homeschool group went on a field trip to the bowling alley and got a behind the scenes tour before we bowled! :)

Joy was surprised at how big the pins were since they don't look very big from way down at the beginning of the lane where you throw the ball from!

Faithy, watching her ball roll slowly down the lane, waiting to see if it'll knock some down...

Joy got a strike!

Even Samuel bowled!

He thought that was pretty cool! Especially when everyone was yelling "Yay Samuel! You did it!"

It was a very fun time with great friends.  :)

Faithy decided when she turned 4 this month that she wanted to do more 'school work' on paper like Joy and Joshua and asked specifically if she could have some math on paper to do. So I found these great math printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler and Faithy loved them. They are simple addition facts with 3 answers for each that they get to choose the correct one from. Instead of having her mark her answers with a pencil or crayon, I had her put a sticker on it so that I could peel them off and we could reuse them again. I think there were about 10 pages worth so I gave her a few the first day and she did different ones the next time, not having to redo the same pages till the next week. I was amazed at how fast she could answer them the next time we went through them though. She's enjoying her 'math on paper' very much!  :)

We did an impromptu photo shoot in the living room one day where I got my new favorite "LOVE" picture of the kids...

Most of the other really great ones I posted on Facebook already, but here are a few more that I hadn't posted yet...

Our little 'ham'...

So, now that it's March and I've updated you on January and February, maybe I'll actually get around to blogging through March before the month has passed! I'll try! :)