My Darling Husband

Happy birthday to my dear husband!  I feel like I should have thrown him a big party for this birthday.  Thirty is a milestone that should be celebrated.

Brady I hope you know how much I love you.  I hope that I show it as often as I say the words. I am so thankful for you.  Thankful for how hard you work for us.  I know that it can't always be easy being the bread winner and bacon bringer.  It means so much to me that you continue to do it for us, that your hard work allows me to be home with our children.  

I know that you, like me, often feel like we are in a rut.  Everyday the same things over and over again and it gets exhausting.  It gets to be mind numbing sometimes. Some days are easier than others and some are just down right awful. I want you to know that there is no one I would rather share this rut with.  No one whose random quirks I would rather deal with.  I mean, if I have to pick up random dirty socks from places I would never dream of leaving a dirty sock I am really thankful they are yours.  

I love our life together.  The ups and downs and the ruts.  I'm just as happy as the kids to see you when you walk in the door after work.  I hope you know how vital you are to our happiness.  I hope that you can feel it in how we treat you.  

Thank you for dealing with my frustrations as often as my excitement.  Thank you for being a voice of reason when my ability to reason has run out.  Thanks for not always making me be the bad guy with the kids.  Thank you for loving our kids in all their wonderful, exasperating glory.  Thank you for being a wonderful dad with out even trying.  

I am grateful you picked me to spend eternity with.  Happy Birthday honey!  May this year be the best one yet!

Pictures...

The girls like to flop around and play on the bed in Beckah's room after she wakes up from nap time.  It's super fun and usually I join them but I decided to take some picture instead.

Daddy kisses! 

Even our nutter of a cat (Rockstar) will try and get in on the fun from time to time.  He gets kicked off the bed pretty quick though since he thinks teeth and claws are appropriate at play time and the girls don't agree. 

I love how Beckah will just flop down on pillows and blankets!  Then she lets out this sill belly laugh that makes her sound like a lunatic.  It's awesome.  

Oh I have an idea!!  Lets take a picture of all three of them...still in their PJs and with crazy hair!  Yeah!  

Okay...not so much but they did sit together so I'll take it.  

Yesterday we had a sunny day for the first time in a week.  It's been raining a lot, which we are grateful for but I have to admit that it was so very nice to see the sun.  So Cadence and Rory let me take some pictures of them in the pretty evening sunlight.  

I really just love how much they love each other.  It's like pulling teeth to get them to take pictures separate.  

This next one is the same as the one above but it is right out of the camera so you can see how rosy the light was as the sun set.  

Jumping!!!

Wiggle those hips!

No no...for real this time!

 

I just love these girls.  

Hope you are all having a wonderful March!

Brady is Home!

I can't tell you what a difference it makes to have him home. My girls have been plastered to him all weekend and I couldn't be happier!

Brady graduated, after passing his tests, on Thursday. He was a favorite of his instructors (this doesn't surprise me) and he also was awarded Top Graduate (I think I got that right I will have to double check) which is an optional award. He also has lots of letters saying nice things about how awesome he is in his file. :o) There is nothing better than knowing that we made the right decision. Joining the Air Force was a tough sell for me and it took a lot of praying and comfort from the Lord for me to agree that it was the right thing to do. Getting Brady in was a long and rough process and part of me felt that maybe we were wrong, but the Lord kept saying we were in the right place. In the end Brady got the job he wanted and has been soaring through training and tech school. I can see how much he loves what he has learned. He is in the right place and will have a job that he enjoys. The Lord has truly blessed us and we are so grateful that his steady guidance got us here.

Now we are gearing up for our move. I already have a plan, because I can't not have a plan, but I am making myself wait to start packing. Mostly because once I start I will pack everything and then we will have to unpack stuff just to make it through the next two weeks. :o)

I'm not sure that I will get much up on the blog before we move. I will promise that once we are settled and we have internet again that I will post pictures of our new house and tell you all about the fun we had getting to our new house!

We will miss everyone here! There is a big part of me that is in denial about moving away from my home. I have never lived anywhere else and I know it will be hard for me, but I also know that so long as we are together as a family we will be fine where ever we go. I am looking forward to meeting new people and learning a new city, but I know that I am going to miss everyone here very much. I am really going to miss my family being so close. I am sure that my girls will adapt well to life without both grandma's, but I'm not sure how well I am going to adapt.

Anyway, enough of the mushy. We are hoping that you all will keep in touch! I know I will be blog stalking most of you so I can see everyone's kids growing up and where life takes you!

Yay!

We got to talk to Brady tonight! All of 6 minutes. Brief but wonderful. He is doing well. He told us that he will be able to talk to us for a little while once a week from now on. I am very happy to hear this! He got to talk to Cadence and Rory and it was just plain wonderful to hear his voice and know that he is doing alright! We are so proud of him! :o) Anyone who would like to write to him, let me know I can send you his address. I was told to tell everyone NOT to send packages or food, as he is not allowed to receive them. :o)

One tough day...

Today was the day! Brady was sworn in and left for basic training today. It was a bit insane. To start the day Brady had to be down at the recruitment office by 8:30am. We had packed up everything he needed the day before so we all got up early and headed out. Once they started the paperwork we found out that Brady and one other recruit had to be re-finger printed. Where the first ones went, no one knew. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but there were no finger print cards in the office as well as no ink. The Army office upstairs didn't have any either. Brady couldn't leave for Basic without them and so it was looking like he would have to go to Salt Lake to be printed and then on to Texas for Basic. He kept signing paper work, and I took the girls over to the Target that was next door to let them run around a bit. Brady was supposed to be sworn in at 10 am and pretty soon a bunch of family started showing up for all the recruits. Brady called to say that there was another problem. Normally an email is sent out to all available officers looking for volunteers to swear in new recruits. The email was sent, but during the holiday rush no one checked to see if anyone had signed up. No one had! We got back to the office and everyone started making phone calls to anyone that was qualified to do it. My Uncle Les, a retired Navy officer, could have done it but he was in Reno. There were other calls made but no one was picking up. Thankfully, my father-in-law got a call through to Billy McCoy, a friend of his, who was able to come down and swear in all four recruits. It was wonderful! Billy McCoy is a retired Two Star General and I am sure that the service was better for having him. He gave them some wonderful advice and you could tell that he truly enjoyed the opportunity. Plus he totally save the day for the recruits and all the family that had gathered to see them entered into service. After that we waited around to possibly get the finger printing done and they finally found some cards and sent the secretary down to Office Depot for an ink pad. We finally left the office at Noon and headed to In and Out for some lunch. Then it was off to the Airport to catch Brady's flight to San Antonio, Texas.

I wasn't anticipating how emotional I was. Here I am watching Brady hug the girls, whispering last minute love to them and seeing how hard it was for him to let them go. I hugged him twice and told him I loved him. Then he had to go. I felt like a huge piece of my heart was walking away and I am sure that he felt the same way. Rory chose that moment to start hollering "Bye Daddy!" and waving. She continued that all the way out to the car. As we were loading up Cady asked if we could get some ice cream and then come back and pick up daddy. We had been trying to explain, the best we could, that Brady would be gone for a LONG time, but Cady has no concept of that. I told her that we could get ice cream, but that daddy would be gone for a long time so we couldn't pick him up after that. She got quiet and I got Rory buckled in. When I looked up again Cady was crying. I asked her why she was crying she said, "Cause daddy isn't coming back." I unbuckled her and just held her for a bit and then explained that daddy was coming back, but not for lots of days. I told her we could make a chart and she could mark the days off until we would see him again at his graduation from basic training. That calmed her down. I was still a wreck. It didn't help that, for the rest of the day, every time the girls saw a plane they would holler out, "Bye Daddy! Come home soon!" Well Cady did, Rory would just yell "Bye" or "Daddy" which was just as bad.

I knew this would be hard. I knew it. But knowing something and living it are two completely different things. It is crazy, but I can say that I was 100% prepared for today and at the same time I wasn't prepared at all. I miss him so much right now, and it hasn't even been a day. And I know that a huge part of it is knowing that he isn't coming home. That everyday the girls will ask when daddy will be home and I will have to explain again where he is and why he is there. That every time they ask I will remember he is gone. That our lives are changing completely and I have no clue how, just when.

A good friend told me that it doesn't get better with time, but that you get used to it. I really hope so because this spontaneous crying really isn't like me at all.

I do need to say that I am so very grateful that I get to be here surrounded by family and friends. I have such a great support system here and I couldn't be more thankful. I have had so many people call or text just to check on me today and I can't tell you how much that means to me. All you wonderful people with kind words and advice on Facebook are AWESOME. Really. I am also thankful for two beautiful little girls who will keep me very busy for the next five months. Most of all though I am thankful for the gospel and my Savior, Jesus Christ. Brady and I have known for a long time now that this is the path that we are supposed to be on. We knew that it would be hard and extremely challenging for both of us, not to mention our children. We knew that there was a possibility of Rory not remembering much of Brady when we finally got to see him again. We knew that there was a possibility that Cadence would suffer emotionally from his loss in our home. We knew that this could possibly be very difficult on our extremely tranquil marriage. But I have come to learn that with the Spirit of the Lord in our lives, homes, and hearts, that all these possibilities could strengthen us as well. I know that because Brady and I are both on the same page temporally and spiritually that the Lord will make our family strong and that this difficult time our lives will be a beautiful time, a happy time, and a learning time. I am so thankful for the technology that will allow us to see and hear Brady after Basic is over. I am so thankful for prayer and the comfort that my Heavenly Father gives to me every time I need Him. I feel so very blessed!

I added some pictures of Brady with the girls. I will post our family one with the news letter soon. I hope that everyone had an Amazing Christmas and I look forward to seeing those who are coming down for the Wilson New Year get together on Friday! :o)

Some of our Saturday brought to you by...

Just thought I would put up some more pictures of some I shot this weekend! Brady and Cadence are such good sports! Enjoy!