Dear Chris,

You are such an amazing man. You are a great father and a wonderful husband. I probably don't tell you nearly enough how much I appreciate you and the wonderful things you do for our children. I see you in them every day, from their features to little bits of their personalities. It's amazing to watch them grow and know that you're a part of them.

The day Kairi was born, I wasn't prepared to see that instant bond the two of you had. You were amazing those first two weeks. We both needed you so much, and you were everything we could have asked for. It makes my heart so happy when I remember how you held her so close and worked so hard to keep her calm. Thank you for being her "faborite Daddy eber!" I know that she will never be able to doubt your love for her -- and if she ever starts to forget how much she means to you, I'll be there to remind her that you do everything you can for her.









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I have to admit, I was worried when I was pregnant with Alex. I was worried that neither of us would be able to love him as completely as we do Kairi. I was worried that there wouldn't be that bond with him. And I was worried because you were going to immediately deploy after he was born. But I was wrong about how perfectly he would be able to fit into our lives and complete our family. You are such an amazing Daddy to him. I know that it took some time for him to get to know you again, but he still loves and adores you. Saturday and today he has spent the day taking me through the house and pointing to every picture of you he can find and telling me "Daddy! Daddy! Lub Daddy!". I know that he will grow up to admire, respect, and truly love you. You are the Daddy that he needs. There may not be as many pictures of the two of you together (Kairi does tend to hog you when she's around), but I plan on fixing that.
















Thank you for being the Daddy that makes our family complete. :)


Happy Father's Day!

Another Picture for the Day

This was given to Chris in August. I'm just now getting it up here because I lost the sd card that I had scanned it onto. Now that the card has been found again, I was able to upload it.

Not being certain what info is acceptable to post and what is not, I have edited out anything that seems like it could possibly be asked to not be posted.





Click to enlarge.

A few more pictures and a short update

Alex and Lauryn playing together -- They adore each other!




Miss Lauryn!





That's it picture-wise for now.


This week has flown by! Thank you for all your prayers, thoughts, and phone calls about Alex. After his surgery he was a little grumpy but is now completely fine. It's nice to see him respond to my voice and to know that he can hear me! Now we just need to work on the responding when you're being spoken to thing. He's good at ignoring me.

Thursday night was so much fun! Chris won an IPod Shuffle and the kids had a blast with Kate, Heath, and Carter. We have such good friends here! Chris and I really did need our time together. It was great to be able to complete a conversation without being interrupted by a screaming child, or a child crawling on top of one of us, or one child hurting the other. We really do need more of those evenings to how much we love each other. :) The party itself wasn't a ton of fun, but spending time with Chris was, and that made it worth it.

Friday night was great as well! We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with friends. Chris was part of a quartet that performed and we have not stopped hearing compliments on his voice. Again, it was great to get to spend time sans children where we could complete thoughts -- not to mention have entire conversations! Kathy stayed with the kids at our house and has no idea how much we appreciate her having volunteered to do so!

Saturday night Kathy must really have been looking for torture because she volunteered to keep our kids that night as well. We went to a "A World of Christmas" at Creekside Christian Church. It was such a great experience. They had 3 life size areas set up that looked like a village from Germany, Ghana, and Mexico and at each place they talked about Christmas in that country. Afterwards they had a musical/drama in which a friend of Chris' from work was singing. It was really good! I was very impressed with how well they did. The story focused around a boy that had lost both of his parents. It got Chris and I talking on the way home. Something we had discussed but not set in stone before was what would happen to our children if something were to happen to us, or to happen to one of us while the other couldn't immediately be there. (Like I end up in the hospital or worse while Chris is overseas.) We finally made a plan. The biggest part of that plan is that we have asked Micah to be they're godfather. We're going to draw up legal documents that give him full parental rights should something happen to both of us or to one of us while the other is unavailable. We completely trust his judgement to make good decisions for our children and to make sure that they are brought up in a Christian home -- whether that means that he be the person that cares for them, or simply places them in someone else's home until he feels that he can care for them, we know that he would make the best judgement call. And he wouldn't care about offending someone in our family when it came to putting the needs of our kids above all else. It was so hard to pick someone, because there are soooo many people in our family that I know would open up their homes to our kids. And we are going to talk to Micah more in depth later about the decision and who else we would want considered if he felt that he couldn't keep them himself. But if definitely feels good to know that we have a plan in place and are going to make it as well-documented and legal as possible so that there are no "Oh dear, what do we do now?" if that situation ever occured. Just as a side-note, we're also asking a couple here in Jax to take care of them should anything happen until Micah could arrive and make arrangements for the kids. They will also have (limited) custodial rights to care for the little ones. They will help Micah make the decision as they know our children so well as they live here and see them every week.

Yesterday the kids had fun at the Children's Christmas Party at church! Kairi spent most of the day coloring her Christmas card for the elderly at Avante Nursing Home (where our church ministers) and didn't even notice Santa. We were a little nervous about the party since Santa was going to be there since we aren't "doing" Santa. (The kids will still recieve presents, they just will always know that they're from us. But don't worry, I won't allow them to ruin your child's Santa fun.) But since Alex is too young for it to matter and Kairi had no clue that Santa was even in the room, it wasn't a problem! Instead, after he left I took my kids aside and gave them presents from Chris and I. We all really enjoyed ourselves. But I left my camera there, so until I get it back, you'll have to go without new pictures!

I hope you all have a great day today!

A long post.....

I have so many things to update you all on, but first I need to ask for prayers.

First things first, please pray for Jacobe Paul Tanton. He was born Thursday, October 9. He's had many struggles since then and is now in the NICU. I'm not going into all the details at this moment, but this family is so very important to me. You can see pictures of their family HERE when we got to meet up with them at the Dallas Aquarium.

Please keep them in your prayers!

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Second, before I forget, Kairi has done several cute things recently that I wanted to record before I forgot about them.

~Without being asked, she's throwing her banana peels away every morning!
~She shares with brother EVERYTHING. If it's something that she's not supposed to share with him, then I have to just not allow her to have it.
~Yesterday she started finally connecting the word "name" with people/animals! She has always had a hard time understanding what the word "name" meant. That is a purely developmental task, which explains why it took her longer than others her age since she was premature. So it's exciting to see it click! :D
~Kairi now counts on a regular basis! She is fairly accurate when she does as well!

I know that there's others, but I can't remember off the top of my head.


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Chris had another medical appt recently. He officially does not have asthma. We don't know what specifically IS wrong, but as of yesterday, it's not asthma. He's having a ct scan soon. Hopefully we'll have more info after that.


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Alex has gone 2 weeks in a row without an ear infection!!! HURRAY HURRAY HURRAY! (Said like Kairi -- hooooo ray :D )

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Alex's first birthday present arrived recently! We were blessed with two more BG diapers! Thank you Nana and Papa!

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Chris has been taking Kairi on special trips "sopping". They go together to run whatever errands Chris has to run. She's such a happy person after having shopping time with Daddy. Every time she ends up w/ a special treat. Once it was a mouse pad. Another time it was gummy Life Savers. And today it was a Barbie Doodle Pro sketch pad! She is IN LOVE with the thing! She was so excited about it, that she laid down in the middle of the sidewalk to play with it some more before coming inside. LOL ... Silly girl!

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"Chuch peez!" Kairi ran up to me Thursday night screaming that she wanted to go to church. "Chuch peez! Chuch peez! Mommy peez! Go chuch now!" We had missed church the night before, and she obviously missed it so much that it was bothering her. She bawled when I told her that no one was at church that night.

I don't think that we'll be missing church again for a very long time....

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And whenever I get this video finally compiled, I'll post it. So look for Part II!

Mama Ain't Playin'

A tidbit from Chris:

Mama Ain't Playin '
Looks like Mama is going to make him stand out there for a long time!
Ought to be a pretty good lesson, one not easily forgotten! Don't ya think?
He doesn't look very happy, like, maybe the lesson is already working, huh?

Be sure to look at all three pictures!


Now this is a seriously strict mom...

Don't mess w/ her!

Looky! Looky!

Newest email from Chris:

I forgot to tell you that I tried out for the next Nashville Star and I got command sponsorship. Basically, I still have to submit a package and see if the show will take me, but the command thinks I’m good enough to give me June through September off if I do get picked up for it. Sweet huh?



Anyway, the next Nashville Star is supposed to be all military. That’ll be cool. I wonder if the recording contract is still first prize.

2 Years Ago, Today

I just wanted to take a moment to recognize the man that makes my life complete.

Two years ago today I married the man of my dreams. We have been through a lot in the last two years, and have seen our lives change in ways that we never imagined them changing. But I wouldn't trade them for the world. That's not to say that our life together is perfect, because there are certainly things about him that drive me up the wall, and I'm certain that he could say the same about me. But I know that God has blessed my life with Chris, and that He is guiding and protecting our marriage.

I recently began a list of things that I hate and I love about Chris. Here's the final result.
Things I hate:
I hate how he never cleans but gripes when there is one thing out of place.
I hate how he mutters under his breath every morning about not being able to find anything, but I've gone out of my way every night to tell him where all the things he'll need in the morning are.
I hate how if I can't find something he shrugs, says he's sorry but he hasn't seen it, and then sits on his butt, BUT if he loses something it's my job to find it.
I hate how he'll decide he needs something done, but won't tell me about it, and then gets mad when it's not done.
I hate that the trash piles up for days on end before he takes them out.
I hate that he jumps on me about the stupidest crap whenever he's had a bad day at work.
I hate that he never acknowledges how much I do at home for him.
I hate that he makes promises about changing things at home while he's out to sea, and then conveniently forgets most of what he promised when he gets back home.
I hate that he knows that he's called to music ministry, but won't do anything about it.
I hate that he closes his mind to what God's trying to teach him at times b/c he's heard it before or already knows it.


Things that I love: (notice that this list is MUCH longer!)
I love how he loves me unconditionally.
I love how he beams when he gets to show his babies off to people he works with.
I love how when I've had a bad day, he tells me to go take a bath w/ my "stuff" and to not worry about Kairi b/c he'll put her to bed.
I love how he is learning to play w/ Kairi at night while I cook dinner.
I love how he brags about her to his parents and the people at church.
I love how he gets excited about going down the toy aisles at Walmart and wants to get everything for the babies.
I love how he gave up his savings for a motorcycle to buy a washer and dryer when we moved into our apartment in Jacksonville, even though he at first said that I needed to go to a laundromat instead.
I love how he asks me out on dates still.
I love how he reads classic books just to have something to talk to me about. (In college he'd read the books I had to read for school even.)
I love how he'll go buy books that we'll both enjoy to give us something to do together.
I love how he plays board games with me, even though he HATES them.
I love how he plans for our future and never doubts that we'll still be together in 20+ years.
I love how he never complains about me buying clothes for myself or the babies.
I love how he goes grocery shopping w/ me even though he hates it. And that if he really doesn't feel like going, he volunteers to watch Kairi while I go so that I can have a break.
I love that he encourages me to take time for myself.
I love that he'll explain whatever he's been doing at work, or what he's currently studying/researching online in simple terms so that I can understand it. (Although sometimes this is on the hate list ... )
I love that when I still don't understand what he's talking about that he doesn't get frustrated and instead just reexplains it.
I love that he loves my family even though things were really strained b/w them at first. He loves them so much that HE wants to move here when he's out of the Navy.
I love that he has fallen in love w/ all kids since we've had Kairi.
I love that he supports my desire to get my masters and PhD, but still teach junior high.
I love that even though he'd rather I work, he'd never tell me that I had to b/c he knows how important being home w/ the babies right now is to me.
I love that he wanted me to move back to Texas while he was gone b/c he was worried about me.
I love how he's in a bad mood when something goes wrong w/ me health-wise and he's not here to take care of it.
I love how he's changed almost as many diapers as I have.
I love how when both babies were first born, he spent hours holding them and staring at them.
I love how when I was having problems with the night nurses after Alex was born, that he stayed the night with me to remind me that he was supporting me, but then let me fight my own battle.
I love how after we left the hospital, he told me to be sure that I was back in Jacksonville in time for Jenny's baby to be born so that when she's delivering there that she has support at night when the Nazi nurses try to keep her from breastfeeding.
I love how he's more passionate about breastfeeding than I am.
I love how he kisses me on the forehead.
I love how much he enjoys cooking and will volunteer to cook anytime there's something specific he wants.
I love how he never complains when I try a new recipe, even if it turns out crappy.
I love how he lets me take naps when he gets home.


That's right ladies and gentlemen, I have an amazing husband.



So dearheart, if you ever read this, know that I love you, I miss you, and I can't imagine my life being lived with anyone besides you. You complete me. And I thank God every day, and many many many times a day, for you. Take care of yourself, and know that the babies and I are looking forward to when you come back home.