I honestly am going to try to catch up on blogging!  For now, I will start with Easter and try to work backwards.   Easter Morning - poor Mya, this pretty much sums up how she has felt the past few days. So excited about her new Tangled Tower from Nana and Papa T. My sweet girls, again, Mya wasn't in the picture mood Our best attempt at a family picture...ignore the Northern New York tan! D-O-N-E Mommy! Egg Coloring time - Addison's favorite If you know Chad, you are not at all surprised he was giving us egg decorating directions all the way from Afghanistan! Chad's Masterpiece Ready....Set...  GO! Yep - that's her Halloween bucket.  She wanted to use that.  Being that she had no competition for eggs, she had enough to fill her easter basket too.

Military wives know far too well the eerie silence of a quiet phone and an empty email box.  Maybe your not a military wife.  Maybe you don't know the quiet relief you feel each time you hear your husband's voice on the other end of the phone.  Most people don't think "oh good, he's still alive" each time they hear from their loved one.  Military families do.  We check to see if they've read their emails, see if they've read our text messages just to know if they are okay.  While this may seem like we sit in a puddle of worry everyday, we don't.  It is just woven into the fabric of our lives to wonder if he's okay today. Saturday was one of those days.  You know somethings wrong, you just don't know what.  You aren't sure when the bad news will come or how close to home it will hit.  You try to keep yourself busy, but the waiting is tough.  You cringe at the sound of car doors and your heart stops if the doorbell rings...even if i...

Army life comes with seasons of busy times and down times.  Alabama was an incredible 5 months of down time (minus the c-section, new baby and broken elbow!).  Chad's days were short, he had no other responsibilities and I had no Army commitments.  Fort Drum has been a different season for sure.  Being in command brings loads of responsibilities not only to Chad, but to me as well.  Obviously we are still young in the Army, but I think this will be one of the busiest seasons of life.  In a time when our Army responsibilities are high, deployments are often, our kids are small.  I am learning now, more than ever to depend on the Lord for everything - strength for every day, patience with my kids,  peace, protection for my husband and comfort beyond what anyone else could give.  I take incredible pride in serving a long side my husband to help Army families.  I care about these families, just as much as Chad cares about his soldiers. ...

Thankfully no major kitchen mishaps have befallen the Monroe household this week!  We are happily back into a routine and looking forward to my parents coming in town this weekend!  Not only did my parents share their house with us for the winter, they are coming to spend spring break with us.  When so many people are going to the beach, my parents are coming to the arctic. :)  Being an FRG leader, I have meetings, luncheons, etc... during the day pretty often and it is tough to find childcare for Mya, so it works out well that my parents can come help on a week I have a lot going on. Chad has been very busy lately!   At the end of the week, Chad has his Change of Command ceremony.  To change out of his command, right?...no!  He is taking command of another troop in addition to the one he already has! We're not sure how often one person has commanded 2 troops at the same time (especially in theater), but of course Chad is up for the job!  He won...

Ask any military wife that has been through (or going) through a deployment and I guarantee you can find some CRAZY stories of things that happen when the guys are gone.  Murphy's law seems to go in full effect when their boots hit the sand - "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Don't get me wrong, I have plenty to be thankful for - my husband is doing well, my kids are healthy and overall we are strolling through this deployment as well as can be expected. However, there are days like today.  I'm' not sure if crazy things happen when Chad is home and I just don't notice it as much, but for sure, nothing like this has ever happened to me... First lesson learned - when you boil eggs, SET a TIMER!  I set a timer for most things in my kitchen.  Ask my parents.  I'm a freak when it comes to setting the timer, especially when making toast.  Seriously, who wants burnt toast?  For whatever reason, I didn't set a timer today when I put three eg...

I went to Georgia to get away from the snow, but the week after Christmas, I didn't escape it!  New Yorkers would laugh that 6-8 inches of snow could shut down Atlanta for an entire week, but it did!  The bad thing about this storm was that after the snow fell, it turned to ice.  A layer of ice on top of snow is not a lot of fun.  Two days after the snow, it warmed up just enough to melt the snow a little.  For the next several days everything was a solid sheet of ice.  My parents didn't own a snow shovel, so we were basically iced in the house for a week.  All the schools were closed all week too!  My parents now have a snow shovel and now know the way to avoid 3 inches of ice on the driveway is to shovel it off when it falls! Snow beginning to fall... Since there was a layer of ice on top of the snow, it wasn't easy to play in.  Laundry basket sleds worked well though!  Too bad Addison's snow suit and boots were in NY! ' Army familie...

Ok, in an attempt to catch up on the blog, I am not going to blog all our pictures from Christmas.  Here is a video I posted for Chad on Facebook that highlights most of our Christmas pictures. Here are a few others... Celebrating Brooke's Birthday at Grandmom's This picture pretty sums up so much of December at my mom's house.  My mom and I cooking massive amounts of food and trying to keep the kids happy too.  This was during a Christmas tradition for us - a Happy Birthday Jesus Birthday party.  We Lilly, Reece and Gabi came over to help us make cookies, have lunch and eat Happy Birthday Jesus cake.  This is hilarious.  My Ma-maw does a great job of getting the little kids stuff at Christmas.  Our girls couldn't decide how to use these little dress up skirts.  Addison wanted to wear it on her head and Lilly wanted to just wear the skirt...which I don't think was the way it was intended to be worn! :)