Mimi's Lifesaving Visit

Mimi flew in last Friday to hang out and go to Daddy's OCS graduation. We were so excited to have her. Unfortunately, Chris' plans changed and he wasn't allowed to come home on Saturday as planned. We were all so disappointed. We hadn't seen him in 2 1/2 weeks and to have his plans changed broke everyone's heart. 

Having Mimi visit helped. Saturday we got donuts and then ran to the store. We made ourselves a Chinese lunch and enjoyed ourselves. Tanner was pretty thrilled with his Chinese food. It's his favorite kind of food. 

On Sunday Tanner wasn't feeling well, so Mimi and Tanner stayed home from church and played legos for hours together. They were so cute together. 

They build quite a few cool star wars ships. 

Monday was labor day, Tanner was off school and still recovering from being sick, so we just stayed close to home. Mimi and Tanner worked out in the yard. Tanner was Mimi's sidekick. 

Tucker wanted to help too. I kind of love this little naked body. 

That night we played in the water table and then grilled hot dogs. 

These three are so cute. 

Yummy hot dog dinner. So fun. 

Tuesday Tanner went to school and Mimi and the rest of us just ran errands and stuff. It rained that night so soccer was cancelled. Which was nice, we were able to just hang out at home. 

Wednesday was Bailey's first day of preschool. Mimi kept Tucker while I took Bailey to school- which was so convenient . Then because Bailey was on the verge of getting sick and Tanner was getting over it, we skipped our classes on Wednesday. Thursday we finally heard from Daddy and found out he was flying home and would graduate from OCS on Saturday. It was amazing news!!. 

Tanner went to school on Thursday and while he was gone, we got laundry done and got all ready to go to graduation. Friday after Bailey got out of preschool and Tanner got off the bus, we drove down to Little Rock. 

We spent the weekend with Mimi and Daddy in Little Rock for OCS graduation and then came back Sunday afternoon. Mimi left first thing Monday morning. 

I can't even begin to express how grateful I am that Mimi was here during the last week of Chris being gone. I was at my wit's end and exhausted and she helped so much. We spent each night watching "The Paradise" and eating junk food. We hung out during the day and got lots of projects done. She's awesome and I feel so blessed to have such an amazing mother-in-law. She seriously saved me!

Mimi and Grandpa are coming back in November for a few days and we are all excited to see them!

OCS Graduation

Hallelujah Daddy is home! And it's amazing!!!

We finally got to see him on Friday when we drove down to Little Rock for his OCS graduation. OCS is "Officer Candidate School". Chris has worked for the last 18 months to become an officer and on Saturday he graduated with his class and is now a 2nd Lieutenant. I'm incredibly proud of him.
I can't begin to explain how hard this school was. He was emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted but he did it. 

We arrived in Little Rock on Friday evening and we all flipped out when we got to finally see Daddy- after over 3 weeks. 

We checked into our hotel and then we went to Dinner. Chris had lost quite a bit of weight and we decided he need a good meal. We went to "Kobe Sushi & Hibachi"

It was lots of fun. The kids faces were so funny when they watched the guy work his magic on the hibachi grill. 

After dinner we went back to our hotel to put the kids to bed. The kids insisted that Daddy tuck them in and watch some tv with them. I love this picture. They missed Dad so much and didn't want him out of their sight. I understand the feeling. 

Chris left bright and early for graduation. We followed a few hours later. 

Our hotel had a glass elevator and it was quite entertaining for the kids. 

We were on the 8th floor and the kids loved the long ride down on the elevator each day. 

We arrived at "Militia Hall" on base at "Camp Robinson". We found seats and attempted to keep the kids happy while we watched Daddy's graduation. 

Here's Chris' graduating class. There were 15 that graduated. There were a lot more officer candidates a year ago, but many didn't make it through the program. I'm telling you, it was ridiculously hard. 

I'm so proud of my husband and the other 14 officers. 

Here is Chris receiving his diploma. He looks so handsome in his dress uniform. 

After the new officers received their diplomas, each officer was pinned by a loved one. I was able to pin Chris' rank on him and we were both near tears. I'm just so proud of him and I think he was so relieved it was over. 

Here is the entire class in the dress uniforms. Tough looking bunch huh?

After graduation was over we had cake and punch.

We had to grab some pictures with our new 2nd Lieutenant. We are so proud of him!

We are so happy Mimi was able to be there for the graduation. 

Then Saturday night Chris and I got to go to military banquet for all the new officers. It was so formal, but we had a great time. Chris had so much fun catching up with all his classmates. 

It was a great night and we had a nice weekend with Daddy. We are thrilled to be home with him and let life resume as normal. So proud of him!!!!

Kindergarten Happenings

So we are loving kindergarten so much. Tanner seriously skips and bounces into school each day with excitement. He loves school so much and happily goes every morning. 

A couple weeks after school started his elementary school hosted a snow cone fundraiser. We couldn't miss the chance to eat snow cones and support his school, so of course we had to go. 

Tanner loved getting to pick out which flavors he wanted. I think he put a little bit of every single flavor in his cone. lol. We met some friends there and we had a lot of fun together. 

It was the middle of August, so it was still hot outside. This was the perfect way to cool off. 

Even tucker enjoyed a little snow cone. 

Here's the whole group. We sure love the Christensens. Tanner adores the boys and they all play so well together. 

Here's Ryan, Andrew and Tanner. Seriously, I love these boys. They are so cute!

Bailey loved wearing a lei and thought it was the prettiest thing ever. 

Tucker just wanted to run around carrying his snow cones. 

Near the end of our outing, Tanner decided he wanted to help advertise for the fundraiser. He stood on the corner by his school with this sign. He's so fun!

We are also getting use to the homework routine. Every day when Tanner gets home, he gets a "welcome home" snack (that's what he calls his after school snack) and then we do his homework. He happily sits at the counter and works on his homework. I just love his enthusiasm. 

Then about two weeks later we went to the "Wildcat Roundup" at Tanner school. It was another fundraiser and it was like a little carnival. So fun. I got a sitter for Bailey and Tucker so Tanner and I could go alone. There were bouncy houses. 

We ran into the Christensens too. 

Tanner enjoyed playing the games. 

The ring toss was so funny to watch. He was concentrating so hard. 

We also ran into Tanner's little bud, Braxton. Little cuties!

We ate dinner, then indulged in some cotton candy and we got a treat from the ice cream truck.

There was also a dunk tank for the vice principal and Tanner got to explore fire trucks, police cars and a school bus. 

Our last stop was the water slide. Since I didn't bring a change of clothes for him, I had him wait til right before we left to do the water slide. He was so excited. 

I don't think he expected it to be so cold. Lol. 

But he was a champ.  

I had so much fun with my little man. He's such a fun age and I'm really enjoying him right now. I just love him and our time together!

Then today I got to go with Tanner on his first field trip. His class went to go see "Shrek the musical". It was just like the movie, weird and crude, but Tanner and his class loved it.

We saw it at the "Arend Arts Center" 

I got to sit right next to him and he loved that I got to come. 

It was so fun to hear Tanner and his class laughing. 

Here is Tanner walking out the bus to go back to school. I just love my little kindergartner.

 He's the cutest. 

I'm grateful I've been able to be so present in his kindergarten career so far. His school has lots of opportunities for parents to be involved and it's been so fun.
We are seriously loving Kindergarten.