I love technology! Not only do we get to talk to Tim every day on email, we also get to talk to him twice a week via video on Skype! The boys love to be able to see daddy while they are talking to him. The best thing about Skype is that it is free! Remember when we couldn’t even make a long distance call without it costing an arm and a leg?
These pics are from the day Tim left for a six-month deployment to Iraq earlier this month. We got up really early to take him to the airport. Other air force folks from his group came to see him off as well, but did not go to the gate with us. Overall, is was an okay departure but still hard. We had been talking to the boys about daddy’s long “trip” to prepare them.
We still had some time, so we had breakfast in the terminal.
Three attempts from 3 different strangers to get a family portrait in focus…..If I had been more organized I would have gotten my act together and coordinated with local photographer Melissa to take some shots for OpLove.org. Operation Love.org is a group of professional photographers who volunteer to take portraits (at no cost) for families of a deploying member (either the return or departure). It is a great organization/cause. I would like to do this for his return.
Finally one girl was able to get one in focus.
Pillow for the long plane ride.
jakie getting tired….
A few pics here from Christmas last week in Virginia. That week our friends in Northern VA got pounded with 2-3 feet of snow. We, however, in southern VA got nada! No white Christmas for the boys except one little patch of snow in the front yard that we promptly mad a little snow (or slush) man out of. That’s okay though. It was still as just a joyful Christmas as ever with lots of great food and company!
Christmas Eve dinner prepared by Jason. Food from Nepal. It was soooo good! I loved the dumplings.
Christmas dinner (actually held on Dec 26th).
As I was putting some photos on a thumbdrive for my husband, I found some old pics that I had never done anything with. I thought these were too cute to leave on the hard drive all alone. My favorite is the one at the upper left hand corner – with Jakie’s crazy hair and Hayden’s huge guffaw.
jakie loves Nutella.
Saturday we went to Bigz burger joint with friends! It was pretty cold but the outdoor heat lamps saved us. We had burgers and good conversation. Jakie was still sleepy at first from his earlier nap. We love taking the kids to Bigz because there is a large, safe fenced-in astroturf area for playing football, etc.
I don’t know who is addicted to my iphone more…me or Hayden. Tough call.
We went out to eat with friends Saturday night. I had to wake Jakie up from his nap. He was still very sleepy. He looked so cute there sucking his fingers like he always does so I had to take a few shots. These were taken w/out a flash and the highest ISO. Eventually I had to open the window shades to get a little more light.
This was my favorite shot. I like the catch-light in his eyes (my favorite).
It is January and we are playing in the backyard. It’s sunny and warm…only had to wear light jackets. Crazy weather here in warm, sunny San Antonio!
Ran across these pics from earlier this past summer. Already they look so much older just 1/2 a year later. Time is flying. Reminds of the importance to document it all.
We took some pictures of Patty on Christmas day out back at Dad’s house in Virginia. Hayden eventually made his way out there to see what was going on and get involved. We were only out there a few minutes as it was actually slightly raining. The light was pretty good however that day out back. This one I especially liked. It looks like Patty is giving him a blessing. This one will have to get printed for our family photo wall.
