He's Home! He's Home!!!!

86 days and 85 nights

1,020 diapers (who's counting though?)

1 staph infection (Brian)

4 typhoons

Missed birthday and Halloween

Multiple colds, illnesses, boo boos, tantrums, and tears (Brian) (Haha jk)

MANY sleepless nights

3 weeks of a broken plane

Seeing Brian safe and sound knowing that deployment #3, the first deployment with two little ones is done: PRICELESS!!!!!!

 

We made it! It was by far the worst deployment but it is done. THANK GOD! No more phone calls about another part breaking on the plane. No more, "I have bad news" or "I don't have any news" or "I don't know when we're coming home" calls. He is home!  Of course this deployment couldn't end normally though.  When I talked to him last he wasn't sure if they were going to be able to take off and make it all of the way to Nebraska or have to land in Alaska. So the whole day I stared at my phone willing it not to ring until 2:00. That would be when he would land in Nebraska.  By some miracle they were able to take off on time, get a tanker to refuel them, and make it from Japan to Nebraska in 16 hours.  Did I mention that he's home?! Yay!!! Here are some pictures from his homecoming:

 

Daddy's coming home?! Yayyyyy!!!!

Daddy is that really you?!

He just kept saying Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!! Hi Daddy, I missed you Daddy, oh, Daddy! It was very cute.

Are you the man in the phone?

Yeah it's my daddy!

Brady's got the biggest smile here, I love it! They're a little heavier than last time, huh?

Yay!!!

 

 

We didn't get a family shot because there was no one else around (only a couple of people flew back) but we got one with the car not intentionally! :)

At home watching Finding Nemo. So happy to have Daddy back! :)

That Time of Year Part 2

Here is my story....Part 2

Mommy and Grandma thought it would be hilarious to put me through pure torture. Thanks guys, real hilarious.

 

Mommy and I got home and thought it would be fun to paint some masks. Since I am a budding Picasso I thought this was a great idea.

Do I have it the right way? Oh crap.

As Mommy's punishment for torturing Layla and I we decided to bury her in a pile of leaves.

The situation got a little critical. I heard something being muttered about "No Thomas for a year".  So being the good son I am, I went in after her.

Oh hell no, screw this. I'm not getting eaten by leaves.

What a mess. What a friggin mess.

More trick or treating. This time at the base. Hurray. At least they had cookies.

This nice lady was showing me how to do a fun craft. What mommy doesn't know is that she kept whispering about the bowl of candy under shirt. I thought she was pregnant. My bad.

Then we went fishing? Not sure what this has to do with Halloween.

Hey mom, want do know why I was so dang crabby Halloween morning? See my eye? Yeah that is cologne you let me spray in my eye. Where were you? I think it's called parental supervision. Try it. And thanks.

Yadda yadda trick or treating.

Even a super cool fire truck couldn't make me feel better.

"Hey kid! See this tire? It's says reserved for Pilot Brady Ross who appears on the local news. Move along!" 

This girl, I swear. You have your own food. It's called Mommy's booby. You don't see me trying to steal that! Here, try some peas..

Blech. Sisters are gross.

 

What you think this look comes naturally? A lot of time is spent in front of the mirror preparing my face for the world. Or is it preparing the world for my face?

You should see my guns after carrying all of this Halloween candy. Screw the gym, go trick or treating 6 times!

Wanna know why no one came to the door?

They saw her through the window and figured she ate it all.

 

Happy Halloween and safe November times! I'm out!

 

THE END!

Happy Halloween!

We hope that everyone had a happy Halloween! Our Halloween, well, it was interesting!  Both kiddos were incredibly crabby when they woke up and it continued into most of the day. Layla is teething and Brady, well I don't know what his excuse was yesterday, but he was crabby!  I think we're all just a little more than over this deployment and we're all a little on the edge. And I think we overloaded ourselves on Halloween events but we made the most of the day! Here are some pictures from our Halloween:

We started out the morning opening up Halloween bags

Daddy even got to watch!

Finally a book about princesses!

Pumpkin shaped pancakes!

 

After our morning festivities our sitter Kaylee came over and we went to the Papillion library's trick or treat.

Here's Brady getting candy from the mayor.  And my stupid camera string again...grrr

Layla slept through most of it but she was still a cute lil puppy!

We trick or treated all through downtown Papillion. It was really cool!

LOTS of trick or treaters!

 

And while we were trick or treating I got interviewed for the news.  Not the best idea to wear a huge orange sweatshirt and to not do my hair, but oh well.  Here's the link if you want to check it out at all!   http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Papio-Tots-Trick-or-Treat-176673261.html

Brady with Kaylee by the cool Papillion fire truck. That's Brady saying cheese very loud and very hard.

Kaylee with Layla

This picture pretty much sums up our day. Sigh.  They really do love her!

There's a smile!

While crabby child #1 napped, crabby child #2 had a Halloween photoshoot. That crabby child (and barking) #3 photobombed.

Yay, my first Halloween!

What do you expect me to do here mom?

Is this right?

Then we had an ultra fun dinner making our own pizzas. Yippee

And then the grand event (and number 6 out of 6 trick or treats, thank goodness!! What was I thinking this Halloween???) was about to begin. Little Red Riding Hood was ready!

Farmer Brady was pumpkin carrying and ready to roll

Brady with Preston his neighbor. (Brady was staring at our other neighbor's giant blow-up cat.)

After doing our own trick or treating we got all set up to hand out some candy of our own.

We were well stocked since last year we had 70+ trick or treaters. This year the temperature was in the high 50's so I expected tons of kids.

We waited and waited. Brady kept yelling out, "Hey kids, hey kids! Trick or treat!"

We decided to move it indoors.  Only 33 trick or treaters this year. Brady had a blast handing out candy though to those we did have.  Halloween is over, we have tons and tons of candy, and this mama is tired! :)