Colorado

Tyler and Derek played a lot of football.  Unfortunately (or fortunately for them I guess) there was NO snow in Colorado!  I couldn't believe it.  There really wasn't even much on the ground.  It didn't snow the entire 10 days we were there.  We were all bummed.

 We had a fun New Year's Eve with lots of games and yummy foods.

 My baby sisters - oh how I love them!

 My kiddos - ready for church. 

Christmas

We left our house at 4:30am Christmas morning to get to the airport.  I was mad loading all the suitcases into the trunk at 4:30am because I was sweating!  Yes, sweating on December 25, did I mention it was 4:30 in the morning??!!  I just kept thinking, I can't wait to get to Colorado to get out of this danged heat!  It was an easy flight.  We got to CO about 11am.  The kids had written a letter to Santa asking him to drop their presents off in Colorado.  They were excited to get there and see what Santa had left them!

 

 Brena got lots of fun presents, including a new Udraw for the Wii.

 She'd been wanting a robe forever, so I'm glad Santa remembered that!

 The 3 little girl cousins.

 Brena loves Little House on the Prairie books.  Grandma made her her very own Little House on the Prairie dress!

 Complete with bonnet :)

 Tyler was excited to get the Guinness Book of World Records.

 And his Aaron Rodgers jersey!

 He and Derek spent a lot of time on the Wii.

 We went down to Tj's parents and had fun playing with cousins down there.

 The kids visiting g-pa

 and gigi.

We had a wonderful Christmas and it was nice to spend it with family.  We really miss Tj, and look forward to spending next Christmas with him.

Ballet

 Brena is in her 4th year of dance, that seems crazy to me!  She is such a good little dancer :)  Every year before the holiday break we get to go into their class and watch them perform and see the dances they will be performing at the end of the year recital which is held in the big auditorium at UNF.

Tyler's Party

 For Tyler's "holiday party" they decorated gingerbread houses.  I have never heard of decorating a milk carton!  It was SO easy!  I know how I'll be doing gingerbread houses from now on!  He had a great time slathering on all that frosting and adding the candy and graham crackers. 

 The finished house!

School Party

 Brenalee's class had their "Holiday Party."  They did different stations showing what different countries do at Christmas.  They all put one shoe outside the door because that is a tradition fr the children in Holland (I think it was??)  Then, St. Nick fills the shoes with candy.  Sure enough, when the kids went out and looked in the hall, they were filled with candy!

 This wreath on the top of the head was another custom - and I can't remember which country that was from either!

 Decorating Gingerbread cookies - Germany??

 Playing Dreidel...Jewish game.

 Then they did the pinata - I know that one :)  Mexico!  Brena was one of the last in line and unfortunately she did not get a chance to whack the pinata.  She was devastated.  But, she was a trooper and got over it without too much fuss.

 This cracked me up because it is SO Brena.  She has her desk all blinged out!  Can you see the beads and bracelet hanging from it?  There was more on the other side too - she is so funny.  Her room is like that too, beads and stuff just hanging everywhere!

 Eating all her sugar - oh boy!

Deployment

I was in denial for a while thinking this day wouldn't come.  It seems like before every deployment I have certain emotions I go through.  Lots of crying, feeling sad, anger, mostly just sorry for myself.  This deployment wasn't as bad, I made a conscious effort to not get angry at little things and just enjoy the time we had together.  I also made sure I didn't pack our schedule full of events, that always adds to the stress too!  I always am trying to get family pictures, recordings, and other things done.  This time I didn't worry about any of it.  We just spent a lot of time together.  I did pretty well with my emotions, I didn't get angry until the very end, which is progress for me.  I was also trying really hard to keep my emotions under control while we were hanging around the squadron waiting for the plane to take off.  I didn't want the kids to see me a sobbing mess.  I did pretty well, only shed a couple of tears until the final goodbye.  Then Brenalee lost it.  She started sobbing and looking at me with this sad look on her little face like "why is he leaving me?"  I will never forget the look she kept giving me.  She would just look at me and sob.  It was awful.  When she started that, I couldn't hold it in any longer and I started crying too.  It hurt, it hurt so much to watch him walk away.  It hurt to see what it did to my kids, their poor little hearts were broken too.  Tyler was doing ok until we got in the car.  Then he started crying uncontrollably.  He said he couldn't cry in front of people.  We sat in the car and cried together for a good 15-20 minutes.  We got home and they were doing a little better...until that night.  Then the crying started all over again.  It's hard for them to not have their daddy to tuck them in and give them loves and kisses.  It took a good 4-5 nights before they stopped crying at night for him.  This was by far the hardest deployment ever.  I think the kids are just right at that age where it's really tough.
 

 We had a couple of hours to wait until the actual goodbye.  They kids were acting goofy. 

 Brena decided to beat daddy up with himself (her daddy doll).

 I thought those two looked so cute standing and looking out at the plane.

 We went out to the plane for a bit, it was crowded with every one's stuff and lots of people.

 

 Brena was so funny, she kept kissing daddy over and over again.

 

 Goofy TyTy wearing daddy's gear.

 It's getting closer to the last goodbye.

 And, that was it.  That's when it all fell apart.  Brena had such a hard time.

 

There he goes...

We wanted to watch the plane take off, but we had to wait a bit.  Brena couldn't handle it anymore and she just sat down.

 Then, she just laid down on her daddy doll.

 Then they were off.  Goodbye - we love you so much.  See you in 6 months.