Surprise Homecoming...Best thing ever!

It's been quite fun here over the past few days! On Thursday night Mike surprised us and came home early. I knew he was going to come home early, but not this early...no complaints!

He got in really late Thursday night so we didn't wake the kids and decided to just surprise them in the morning. The plan was, I would call them down for breakfast and once they were all there then I would let him know and he would come down. It didn't go quite as planned. First of all, Noah already knew he was home because he was at the movie theater that night...

Ok, I think I need to back up a little...

I had randomly decided to go to a movie with my sister Marcy on Thursday night. It was a late start show. I think it started after 11pm. Jan decided to come and Shannon too. Anyway, of all the nights... I had invited my mom to come too, and she said she'd let me know. She was of course picking Mike up from the airport. Unbeknownst to me, his flight was supposed to get in early that day and then I wouldn't have even gone to the movie, but his flight was delayed and I didn't know so off I went. Mom texted me and said that she and dad would come to the movie too. When they came in the theatre Mike followed them in and surprised me. I of course jumped up and hugged and kissed him and stuff. Then my brain just stopped working!! In hindsight, I wish we would have left the theatre and gone home, but my logic was gone and we just stayed and watched the movie...oh boy, yes it's something that I wish I could reverse. Anyway, I knew that Noah was in the theatre next to us watching a different movie with friends so I went in and told him to come out for a second, that it was very important. He kind of rolled his eyes, but followed me out anyway. Then I got to watch as he came out the door and was super surprised. His reaction was great. It made me so happy to see and I know Mike loved it!

So back to the story of surprising the kids the next morning. Like I said, Noah already knew and then Isaac found out on accident. Kind of funny actually. Isaac knocked on my bedroom door to ask me something and Mike thought it was me because the door was locked, so he opened the door and then saw Isaac and just quickly shut the door...then he thought that probably wasn't the best thing so he opened it again and pulled Isaac inside. I think Isaac stared in disbelief and said something like, "what the..." and then hugged his Dad :) Grace of course wasn't home since she was still at girls camp. Dallin and Anna were left to surprise and they were pretty funny. Dallin was just so non-reactive it was funny and Anna just kept looking around saying "wait, what? I'm confused" Here they are post surprise. They all were really happy.

So after that, I just kept thinking about Grace at girls camp and Mike and I decided that we would drive up there and surprise her there. This turned out to be the best decision ever!
Here's the video of the surprise. I love it and it totally made me cry it was so sweet.

Needless to say we are so happy to have him home!!!

Major Dad Goes to School

Grace, Isaac and Anna's teachers had requested that, if possible, Mike would come in and talk to their classes while he was here on R&R. I prearranged a time that would work for all the classes on the same day and of course made sure it was ok with Mike, which I knew it would be.

On Thursday afternoon we headed over to the school.

First we went to Isaac's class.
some of the kids asked Mike how many pushups he could do and then wanted to see him do some. He did about 60 pushups in 30 seconds. The kids were all very impressed :)

You can see Isaac to the side clapping for Mike :)

Isaac's class also made a nice sign for Mike.

Next we went to Grace's class
while waiting in the hallway to go in, the 6th class across the hall saw Mike in his uniform and the kids came to their door and started clapping for Mike, it was very sweet and touching to see the respect and honor they had for him.

and lastly Anna's class

Other than Mike accidentally accusing a kid of killing his grandfather in Anna's class. All the visits went very well. It was fun to see the different levels of maturity from the 3rd, 5th and 6th graders and to hear some of the questions they had for him. I think they were all interested to here that Mike hadn't had bacon for 7 months because it's against the law over there :)

Anyway, I'm glad that we took the time to do it and I know that Grace, Isaac and Anna loved having Mike come to their classes.

Look who we found!

We picked up Mike at the airport last night. 

We are so happy to have him back with us,

even if it's just for 2 weeks!  

Shemaghs and Scarves

Mike sent me and the girls some scarves

and the boys shemaghs as they are called in the middle east.

Noah quickly googled different ways shemaghs are worn.

I know the kids have enjoyed wearing them.

He's Leaving on a Jet Plane

I'm still playing catch up on the blog obviously...

On August 30th...a week later than originally scheduled.

(Which was very nice!)

I took Mike to the airport and we started the adventure of his deployment.

He headed to Fort Bliss for some training before going to Afghanistan and onto Qatar.

It was a happy coincidence that my brother Bob and his family just moved to Fort Bliss

so they got to spend some time together.

Fun side note for those who might not know: 

Bob and Mike were friends way before Mike and I ever dated :)

Happy Everything!

I wanted to do something for Mike before he left for his deployment to the Middle East.

I decided that I would do a Happy Everything send off party.

(something I had planned to do for him the first time we thought he was deploying

but then he ended up not having to go)

Anyway...with the help of family and friends we successfully surprised him.

I wanted something to represent the things he would miss while he was away.

 I think it turned out pretty well, and it was fun to see some friends we hadn't seen in a while.

I didn't get pictures of everyone who came...I wish I had, but here are a couple pics I did get.

 We also took the opportunity to have my dad snap some family photos for us.
I love Isaac's bare feet in this one.