Easter

Early April came and that brought Easter season! I took the kids down to the Delta Zeta house for the alumni Easter Egg hunt. Got to spend the day with some of my closest girlfriends and their precious kids.

Oakley, Reed, and Ashley

Ashley, Olivia, Lilly, Reed, and Oakley

Beth and Ashley

Leslie and Lilly (Olivia refused to take a pic with her mom so Lilly substituted for her!)

Allie and Oakley

Us girls....Love ya'll

Then it was Easter Bunny time!! As you can see, they racked up AGAIN!

The family came over....Reed got to play baseball with Uncle Paul and Ethan.

And a desperate attempt for a semi-family pic...HA!

Tiger Day

On March 4th, I left work early, packed the kids and stuff in the car and headed to Hattiesburg to go see Steven. The next day was Tiger Day....the final send off for the entire 256th Brigade.

Our big happy family back together again!

After the ceremony, lunch, etc was over, we packed up Steven in the car and headed to New Orleans. We decided to take the kids to the park to feed the ducks and then had dinner with my dad and step mom. After dinner, Steven and I headed downtown to our BEAUTIFUL suite at the Sheraton and had a nice night together.

On Saturday morning, Darlene dropped the kids off to us at the hotel so we could spend the day together. We took a ride on the streetcar to the Audubon Zoo.




Lilly got to eat dessert....

Reed played on pretend animals...

But at some point, they got pooped out! Reed wasn't feeling well at all and running a little temp, so we stopped at a park bench and he took a good long nap in mommy's arms...

Lilly passed out in the stroller.

After naps, it was time to play again....

and ride the carousel

My parents came to pick us up from the zoo and Steven and I went back to the hotel, got prettied up and went to a nice dinner. Neither of us were feeling good and both were tired so we didn't party it up all night.

Sunday we picked up the kids and headed back to Lafayette. Steven's family came over for the day to see him off.

Monday we had family pics done, had lunch with some friends, and spent the rest of the day as a family. Another really tough day.

Tuesday we had to bring Steven back to the unit to get on a bus back to Camp Shelby. I was a complete wreck and thankfully Steven's parents came up to see him off with me. I don't know what I would have done without them there. I blogged about that too....not getting into details...too sad...

So, daddy boarded the bus as we waved goodbye through tons of tears....we all headed back home and did the best we could to cope over the next few weeks.

Alot of catching up....

I really thought that I was going to keep up with this especially once Steven left in ALL my spare time...who knew that there was going to be NO spare time....at least it feels that way! Steven left in January which is the start of busy season at work. While I didn't work full time, the atmosphere around the office between January and April is just more intense so coming home to two kids on my own is just exhausting. Not to mention, my 2 kids are some needy!!! And the real real reason....well, Steven never ever comes on here so why bother?? But I'll try to do better for the 5 or so family members and 2 or so friends that take a look every now and again =) So, let's do a quick catch up.....


I left off in December....right before Christmas....well, Christmas was great....most of the family was here....kids got WAY too much....Reed's big gift was his tractor...and Lilly got a BEAUTIFUL diamond cross necklace (that she has yet to wear because no baby needs to wear THIS!)...







After Christmas was New Years....had a few good friends over...kind of a final send off for Steven. We were all in bed by about midnight if not earlier...we are old!


And, then the countdown really began...to the dreaded day. January 5th....I blogged about so I'll just not re-live it right here....go back in the history if you want to remember how much it sucked!


On January 7th, the 256 HHC had it's deployment ceremony at the Cajun Dome Convention center. Steven's parents came with us....I cried through the entire thing. Then we had lunch and I cried the rest of the night...the love of my life was leaving the next morning.

Reed saluting his Daddy....

So, January 8th, we dropped Steven off to begin this terrible year....that day was not good....so let's not write about it. Over the next 2 months or so are a blur....Lilly started to crawl and got her first tooth. Reed started to potty train and overall did good with missing his Daddy. I know we did stuff....

We hung out with my good friends (and life savers) Billy and Renee and their little girl Chloe who is Lilly's BFF....



We dressed up cute for breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Hun...

We did the Mardi Gras thing....and Reed loved it!

Lilly had her first Strawberry and loved it!

Reed helped PawPaw Kevin put up his fence...

and played outside....

Watched movies with cousins...

And, lots and lots of other stuff. I made some new (and really great) friends (other Army wives that are going through the same thing as me) and got together with them several times. My mom came for lots and lots of visits and so did Steven's mom and dad. We survived and made it....and then came March 5th when we got to go pick up Daddy for 4 days before he left the country....stay tuned...