Rick has had to go work out of town alot lately. We have been blessed enough that he has been home for the next two weeks. The boys and I really miss him when he is gone. One thing I have noticed (and so has Rick) is that the boys (and myself) start "living our own lives" when we don't have daddy mixed in with the routine. DH was a little concerned that he would have a hard time getting back into the groove of things. I know it sounds a little strange that this does happen even if he is home on the weekends. BUT it does happen. We just get into doing our own things and dealt with the fact that we were short one family member. I think we do it to help us get over missing him so much. The first time Rick left for a week Aaron was depressed about it. He cried off and on the whole week and said he missed daddy. Now his leaving has been a little more of a part of our lives. I couldn't imagine being a soldiers wife. I do pray for them a little more now that I kinda know what a family has to go through during an over seas transition. Pray for their safe return and pray that they can get back in line of where they left off.
For some reason this time he didn't have any problem fitting back in. The boys crawled all over him like he never left. The pictures were of them watching cartoons on a Saturday morning.

Great Neighbors

One of the other benefits of living where we live. My next door neighbor has a hair salon at her house. I love it. If the kiddos start looking shabby I can give her a call to see if she has any openings and we take a little stroll over to her home and get their hair cut. Aaron has even gotten old enough that he can run over there by himself to get his cut. I love it and Patty is great with the boys. She always offers them a lollipop and they know that.
The last time I sent Aaron over there he asked ahead of time if he could get a sucker from Patty and I told him no cause he just had two pieces of candy here. I got a phone call later from Patty saying that Aaron was such a good boy. She told me she offered him a sucker and he declined saying that mommy told him he couldn't have one. I was so proud of him! He is getting to be such a big boy! Another neat thing about having such a great neighbor doing my boys hair; I can bring my camera anytime I want. Even if it isn't the first haircut. Patty lets mommy be kooky whenever mommy wants to be! Thanks for being such a great neighbor Patty!!!! We love ya!
I still go over with Aiden, someday he will be able to go on his own. Not rushing it though! :)

Aiden showing me his crazy hair right before we left for Pattys one morning.



He is a good customer!

Thanks Aunt Vicki for the nudge to update my blog. :) I really need help from time to time. If it wasn't for family and friends who let me know that they read the blog I probably have quit this along time ago. It will be good for the boys to read later in life also. Winter is the worse time for me also. I really dislike the cold. It would be just fine with me if I would sprout wings and fly south every fall! Since I don't I try really hard to hide in a cave until spring hits. LOL! I really needed to post today too. This is a big day for Aaron. He will not have to go to Speech class anymore! Congrats Baby!! He has progressed great and his teacher thinks we can sign him out! Our meeting is this morning and I will be signing the papers for his release. Aaron is not too excited because he likes his teacher and he likes the special attention. He gets to leave his pre-k class for about a half hour twice a week to go to speech. There are a few more students that go with him as well. For now on, the other students will go and he will have to stay behind. Maybe he won't notice it too much.

The pictures that I have posted today are pretty cool for Aaron also. The buddy he has with him is Frankie. Frankie came to stay with him for a week from his pre-k class and we got to journal all of Frankies adventures with Aaron. Everyone got sick that week so Frankie did alot of sleeping (except at night). It was a really neat idea by Mrs. H and we hope we will have a friend come and play with us next year with Aiden.

Frankie helping Aaron with one of his chores. Feeding the chickens. Aaron has gotten really good with this task. It was a little rough when he first started. I had to explain to Aaron that it wasn't good to run in the house with the eggs in his bucket. BOUNCE...CRACK...BOUNCE...CRACK!!!! The dogs loved it cause they got the cracked eggs. Oh well! LOL!

I guess this is Aaron day on the post cause I want to also let you know that I went in for his second parent-teacher conference. The first meeting she showed me his test scores of 23 out of 130. The kids are tested on letter and number recognition, patterns, counting, matching, personal information and order of pictures to tell a story. She explained to me that he was tested first and early in the beginning of the year so that might explain the low test score. When I went this time to discuss the test scores he scored 91 out of 130!!! Both myself and Mrs. H were grinning from ear to ear! I am so proud of him! She said that some kids just truck along and seem to struggle and then one day it just clicks for them and they get it. Well, Aaron gets it!!! Very cool! Keep it up baby!


Bye bye Frankie, we are sorry we had to spray you with Lysol but it was for the good of all kid kind!