Update time!

Here's a quick update since October. Josh left for Afghanistan on the 30th of October. We were very grateful to have him with us for his birthday on the 26th. We have a really fun family tradition for birthdays. We take all the kids to a dollar store and they get to each pick out one present for the birthday person without any guidance from Mom or Dad. It has been so fun to shop with them and see them really trying to pick something that the b-day person would like. So for Josh's b-day he got:

From Katie: A toy gun ("because Dad loves guns!")

From Joseph: An Ice age Dinosaur Watch! Joseph was very excited to give it to him and told him what he got him in detail when Josh asked him what his present was!

From Joshua: Bubbles, okay so maybe he did end up with it in the end!

Josh does such a good job of being the happiest birthday boy around and the kids loved his birthday as much if not more than their own!

Josh also took each of the 3 older kids on their own dates with Daddy. He took Joshua bowling and even now 3 months later he still talks about it. Out of all the kids I think he loved it the very most! He had so much fun, Josh said that he bowled 2 or 3 games! Joseph also went bowling and loved his time with just Dad. Katie wanted to go get pizza with Josh. Then he took her out for ice cream. Each of the kids loved their time all by themselves with Josh. He's the best Dad!

November 15th we left for California. We stopped in Texas with Josh's parent. Then in New Mexico with Josh's grandparents. Then in Arizona with my grandparents. Finally the next week in California with my parents. We were there for Thanksgiving and Christmas (orders from Josh who didn't want me home alone with the kids for the holidays). My kids got to see all of their living Grandparents and Great Grandparents in less than 2 weeks. Pretty cool. We had a great time seeing all the family. It was the first time in quite a few years that all of my siblings were home at the same time. I also got to see my brand new baby nephew Christopher who was born in Fresno, on Dec. 10th. It took us about a week and a half to get home, making all the same stops. We finally got home January 13th. It was great to visit but it feels so good to be home.

Josh is staying very busy in Afghanistan with his job. He works on a FOB (US army base) in an office helping to analyze information and giving advice as to what needs to be done. He works long hours and rarely finishes work before 10 pm. He is doing really good but misses home and family. He will be coming home in April for 15 days when the baby is born. We also found out we're having a girl and her name will be Hannah. I had the ultrasound technician write the gender on the back of the picture and put it in an envelope so that when Josh called we could find out together. It was pretty exciting and so hard to not peek while waiting for Josh to call! We are all looking forward to him getting home. He'll be home for good around November.

I will try to post some pictures of all that has happened in the last few months when I can figure out what's up with my computer. Happy new year everyone!