My little Girl is 7!

This is actually an older picture but I love it! I can't believe my baby is already 7! Katie has been so excited for her birthday. Josh has been planning on doing web cam while she opened present so that he could sort of be there. I made the mistake of telling her the plan. The weather where Josh is at was so bad that he couldn't get the Internet to work. Fortunately the phones still worked. Katie had been sitting at the kitchen table with all her presents and the laptop all ready for Josh to call. When I told her it wasn't working she looked like she was about to cry. Josh had me put the phone on speaker and she opened presents while he was on the phone. She enjoyed telling Josh everything that she was opening. She said it was a good birthday. Thank you everyone who called to wish her a happy birthday!

Josh!

Here is a picture of Josh in the snow that he emailed me this morning.

Katie's Journal

Everyday for school Katie writes in her journal. This is what she did today.....

I love the abd at the bottom of the picture. She always does that so that she can remember which way the b and d's go! She' so cute!

I love the picture. It shows Josh by Afghanistan on the side of the earth that is day time and Katie on the night time side. All the kids have been fascinated by the time difference and gave us a great opportunity to teach them that it is daytime somewhere in the world always and that it is night time always somewhere too.

A lot of her entries are about Josh. All the kids miss him so much. We've been able to web cam with him a few times in the last two weeks and they all love it!

8 more weeks until he's home for the baby! I may hide him in my closet and not send him back! 15 days will be wonderful but not nearly enough time with him, but we will make the most of it.

Pictures of the kids!

We took some picture today to send to Josh and thought I'd share them here!

I didn't get a good family picture, maybe next time!

I got a lot of beautiful pictures of Katie! She'll be 7 next Sunday!!Josh said that he is going to web cam her for her birthday! She is very excited!

It's hard to take a bad picture of Joshua!

My spunky little Michael! He's really good at keeping me on my toes!

I love all the kids faces in this one!

I had promised the kids that we would get some kind of pet when we got home from all of our holiday traveling, so we got a guinea pig named Spot. All the kids love him, but Joshua most of all. He is hardly ever in his cage because he's with Joshua! The other day I saw Joshua making a bed for him and Spot at the bottom of the stairs. He laid down and talked to his little friend. I thought that was pretty cute. Then when I came by later he was sound asleep and his calm little friend stayed tucked in where Joshua had put him! It has been such a good thing for Joshua to have a fuzzy little friend.

We are almost down to 8 weeks until Josh gets to come home for the baby. I am already dreading having to take him back to the airport after our two weeks.

Joseph Thomas Payne

The Joseph, Katie, Joshua, and Michael on our way to the snow in California with my parents!

I'm sure anyone who knows Joseph good knows that he hates his middle name. If you call him by his full name he gets really mad and will tell you that his name is Lava Joseph Dragon Payne! This was our conversation this morning:

Me "Hi Joseph Thomas Payne!"

Joseph "I DON'T LIKE THAT NAME!!! I'm Lava Joseph Dagon Payne!"

Me "Why don't you like that name?"

Joseph "Because trains don't do very much things!"

It never crossed my mind that he was thinking he was named for Thomas the Train! Ha Ha! He is actually named Thomas for my Grandpa!

Joseph sure does say the funniest things!