He's home!

 Well my love is home finally!  He actually got to come home 2 weeks early which was a total surprise!  I love surprises btw!!!  It was a crazy stressful day but it turned out to be great thanks to help from some family and friends!! 

The time for them to land changed at least 23 times.  Just kidding, maybe only 3 times.  My amazing friend Amy and my Mom helped out a ton when it came time to get the kids on base and in the squadron to wait on Daddy.

 As you can see in the photos to follow, Ellyce was SUPER excited and surprised to see Daddy.  She was literally on cloud 9 and was actually so attached to him that she cried when he didn't come home with us right away.  Sad times.  He had some paperwork to do and she thought he wasn't coming home, period.  Oh to be 3 years old. 

 She sprinted to see Daddy.  Wondering why there are no sprinting Asher pictures?  Well he sprinted all right and he even yelled "Daddy" but he ran straight to me!  LOL

 I'm not sure if you heard but Michael got home on a Friday.  We hung out all weekend and went to church on Sunday and then got ready to head to Tennessee on Tuesday.  We got up super early and piled in the car and headed off to see our family.  We had everybody with us too!  Except Jack.  My mom, the kids and me and Michael.  Well 3 hours in to our trip I started feeling like I had an upset stomach so we stopped and got gas and used the restrooms.  Afterwards I still didn't feel 100% but I thought it was from eating greasy breakfast at McDonalds.

Well we get on the road and no more than 2 miles I couldn't drive anymore because I was in so much pain.  I pulled over and switched spots with Michael.  Then I started throwing up.  Like violently and painfully throwing up.  We pulled over on the side of the road again and I got out of the car and collapsed on the side of the road.  I told them to leave me so I could die.  They didn't of course, but Michael did get on his trusty iphone and find the nearest ER. 

5 miles later we pull into the smallest ER known to this world.  2.5 hours later I'm armed with meds and a CD with my scans on it.  I had kidney stones.  Good times.  So long story short I had them removed and spent the first two weeks of Michael's return in the bed.  Not exactly how I wanted to be. 

I missed my best friends wedding and Ellyce wasn't able to be her flower girl.  I also missed taking my brother, Ben's and his fiances engagement pictures.  I was totally bummed but thankful that God allowed my Mom and Michael to be with me cause I'm not really sure whta I would have done!!

My amazing church brought us meals and my friends were so supportive as well!!!

I want to thank all of you that helped us out during this crazy time!!  I love each and every one of you that thought about me and prayed for my recovery.  God has truly blessed me with great friends that care no matter what and never ask for anything in return.  All these selfless people, where did they come from?!

Nostalgic is how I'm feeling

This picture above was taken in Hawaii when Michael and I went in 2009.  This was before he got into the Air Force, before we were pregnant with Ellyce, before pretty much our life started :)  Good times!

My ALL time favorite photo from our wedding day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my favorites of me and Emily.  This girl is now a Mommy, an entrepreneur and works pretty much full time!  I am so proud of her and I love her so crazy much it's nuts!

Sally and Whitley aka Whitney.  Sally my love recently in the past year got back from Africa where she lived for 2 years teaching the people about Christ.  She has such a beautiful heart.  I wish we lived closer to each other so I could be around her up beat self and suck up all her positive energy!

Whitley as I like to call her is going to be a Mommy soon!!!  She is such a joy to be around and I cannot wait to see her in 2 weeks!!!!!!  I love these ladies so very much!  Whit is a teacher and that is quite possibly the most amazing job for her because she adores children and they love her too!

Aidan devouring some ice cream on the Boardwalk here in Louisiana in 2009!  So long ago! He's even more handsome now if you can believe it!!

Love, love love this picture.  This was taken at mine and Michael's going away party when we moved to Oklahoma.  We had a blast and as you can tell Sheena in the middle was pregnant with Easton, her first son.  These girls and I were part of a group we called PEARL.  It stands for People Eternally Altered by Gods Redeeming Love.  

Last but not least, Neely bug!  This girl couldn't look any different.  She has hair LOL.  I miss her so much and her Mommy and Daddy and big brother!!!

Hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane!!

You feeling Lucky?

     An aviator call sign is a nickname given to a military pilot, flight officer, and even some enlisted aviators.  This call sign is a substitute for the aviator's given name, and is used on flight suit and flight jacket name tags, and in radio conversations. They are most commonly used in tactical jet aircraft communities (i.e., fighter and attack) than in other aircraft communities (i.e., airlift, mobility, maritime patrol), but their use is not totally exclusive to the former. 


     The origins of aviator call signs are varied. Most call signs play on or reference on the aviator's surname. Other inspirations for call signs may include personality traits, references to historical figures, or past exploits during the pilot's career. Aviator call signs nearly always must come from a member or members of the aviator's squadron, training class, or other coworker. It is considered bad form to try to give oneself a callsign. It is common for aviators to be given a fairly derogatory callsign, and the more they complain about it, the more likely it is to stick. Some stick with the aviator forever, while in other cases an aviator might have a series of call signs throughout his or her career.  In some cases an aviator will even try to buy themselves a new callsign.

 

Well Michael finally got his callsign.  Which is Lucky! The history lesson above is for those of you who might not know what a callsign is for or how one comes up with a callsign.  Michael's fits and it's not derogatory (thanks goodness.)

We are pleased and well happy cause now we can get mugs and other memorabilia with his callsign on it.  Another tradition of the callsign is to get it put on beer mugs and other types of shirts, bags, etc.

Gettin crafty over here!

 I've gotten bit by the crafting bug almost every day of my life but I just recently started working on stuff when the kiddos go to bed.  It's fun to accomplish something I've been wanting to do for a while!  Plus these are things I can do inside the house with little to no supplies needed!  Above is a close up of fabric across the back of my built-in bookshelf.  What ya think?  My gracious sis in law let me pilfer through her scrap fabric bin before she left town and I LOVE the fabric so much!!!  Thanks Audrizzle :)

 Another close up!

 Here is the whole bookshelf.  And before you say anything, yes I realize I put two of the same fabric pieces above and below each other, oops.  I'm just going to go with it.  Also I didn't put fabric on the top two or one on the left.  Not sure why?  I have extra fabric, maybe later :)  You think I should????  Honesty is the best policy!!

 You might have seen these beauties on my Facebook page.  I'm in love with them.  I've wanted to do this for a LOooooong time.  I finally just did it.  My friend gave me these canvases and I repainted them white and then free handed the states while looking at a picture and then painted!  Tennessee is a super hard state to draw on an odd shaped canvas.  It took me 3 tries before I was satisfied. 

 Another close up.

My lovely friend Megan made these cute little poofs for the kids to sit on and she had leftover fabric that I framed and now will write our weekly menu on!  Genius!

 

Lastly, I wanted one of these for the kids room and I was not about to pay someone to do it for me.  I searched the interwebs and found a tutorial.  I just needed to know which program it worked easiest in so I used Powerpoint.  I love the way they turned out.  I printed them out on photo paper cause the colors are more vibrant that way. 

Any of my friends that want one send me your kiddos info and I will email you the file when I'm done!!

We are in countdown mode for Daddy's arrival!!!!!

Ellyce is 3 years old!

My darling diva is three now.  We have been anxiously awaiting party day since she decided on a Tangled themed party.  That day has come and gone and I'm exhausted :)  We had a blast with a bunch of friends and the only thing that would have made it better would be if Daddy had been there!

A lot of our church friends and Air Force friends came and some new friends too.  We played inside and outside and pretty much wore each other out!  I had a blast watching Ellyce tear through her presents.  I mean she literally ripped and threw everything she laid her hands on.  It was hilarious!

We had cookies and cupcakes, pudding and marshmallows and just a lot of not good for you kind of food!  I am tired and full and well fat and happy as the saying goes.  I'm so overwhelmed that Ellyce is 3 years old.  It truly blows me away how fast she's grown up and how dang smart she is.  I love her so very much and she has taught me many things over these 3 years.

Love you Lycie! 

potty training = stress

I have not pictures because frankly you probably don't want to see them if I did.  We are potty training at the Owens abode and this Mommy needs some encouragement.  We started on Tuesday and it is now Thursday afternoon and I'm feeling overwhelmed and a little, teensy stressed out.  Ellyce has actually done pretty well from other stories I've heard from other Mom's.  I'm proud of her and really excited to see where we'll be this time next week.  I also have moments where I'm totally done and don't want to do this anymore.  I don't care that much about changing diapers do I???

Anyways, I will keep chugging along and try and keep the goal in mind that we will be down to only buying one kid diapers.  I can do this, I can do this, etc.

Hope you are having a peachy week.  I've done more laundry in the past two days than I have all month.

Jamie

Beauty

These are Ellyce and her Grandma Norma's hands.  I LOVE this picture so much.  It shows how beautiful hands can be.  I love that you can almost see the memories and years attached to Grandma Norma's hands and all the experiences that she can pass on to Ellyce.  Her hands are so tiny and fragile looking.  God has blessed us with Grandparents and the wisdom they possess!

 

Our Christmas in Texas

 

What do you think of the cutest Christmas card EVER?  I am a little, teeny biased.  But seriously you can't fake this kind of adorable!  I have to say this is my all time favorite card!!!  Thanks to our good friend Austin, we were able to get these photos taken right before Michael left.  I have been sitting on these puppies since September!!  I was so ready to show off my cute babes. 

Here is the back.  Sorry I scanned this so I accidentally cut off all the writing.  My bad.

 My handsome little big man loved his presents.  He has actually played with Ellyce's more since she likes them and that's what little brothers do, right? 

 Seriously we have WAY too many toys at this abode.  I mean who needs this much stuff?  I have sent off 2 bags full of old stuff to the Goodwill.  I had to purge!

Papa was in the pic and it was funny cause I think he liked playing with all the new loot too!

 Love the family photo?  I'm not at my best let me tell ya.  I had literally just woken up.  I thought I would be sneaky and go potty while Ellyce was asleep and get back before she went downstairs.  I got up and she was OUT.  I come back and she was gone, gone, gone.  I go downstairs and there she is staring at all the stuff like she's never seen new toys before.  I started cracking up cause she couldn't believe that Santa actually came!!

Anywho, we Facetimed with Michael and got this funny pic in our new pjs.  That's our tradition and we aren't changing because he's on the other side of the world.  Jeez!

Happy New Year btw!

Birthday pics to come!

New Year

This year has been an up and down ride for us as a family!  We have loved and grieved, hoped and wished and barely slept!

My sweet girl turned 2.  We spent a whole year in our new house.  My baby boy was born just shy of 2012 and he has kept us very busy.  I had surgery.  Michael was deployed.  My beautiful niece, Anna was born.  My sweet Nanny passed away.  We joined an amazing church called Lifewater church.  My other Owens family moved away and left me broken hearted.  Everybody got a year older.

Those are just a few things that happened in 2012.  I wouldn't change a thing because I know God had His hand in all we experienced!!

This upcoming year is going to be tough and joyous.  There are a lot of things I'm looking forward to and a few things I'm dreading.  God will take care of my little family through it all!

I want to be a better Mom and Wife and Sister and Daughter.  I want to lose weight and feel more confident about myself.  I want to grow closer to God and I want my children to learn about Him through my actions and speech.  I want to craft and take lots of pictures!  I want to pay off bills and save money.  I want to see my husband and give him a BIG KISS!!  I want to see Asher take his first steps.  I want Ellyce to wear big girl panties.  I want to see my family more.

Thank you to all of you who have made my life amazing.  Love you!!