{ Sunny Florida Vacation, Day 1 }

We have planned and saved for this trip for quite some time now. The kids have been looking forward to this vacation and flying on an airplane for the first time.
We left cold, windy and rainy weather and arrived to warm, sunny skies in Florida.


We were freezing walking out to board the plane, but very anxious to get there... you can see that here.....


We boarded the airplane, put our bags away and settled into our seats. Katie decided to sit with Macaiah behind Jerome, Natalie and myself. I turned around in my seat with my camera to take a peek at Katie while everyone else was still boarding. I giggled as I saw her bright eyes and grin from ear to ear. Needless to say she was beyond excited and ready for the airplane to take off down the runway.


Natalie however takes after me. You could see the nervousness in her as she was looking out her little window. And if that didn't give it away......her asking me if her seatbelt was tight enough at least ten times in five minutes probably gave it away. She kept tugging and pulling and tugging and pulling some more on her seat belt, "Do you think it's tight enough Mommy?".


I had her snuggle up with me and we started playing around with my camera. "Let's get some pictures of us together on the plane to remember this day" I told her. She was happy and we snapped away.


Before long it was time for take off. Natalie gripped my hand with her little hand and buried her head into my shoulder. We made it through take off and she calmed down. She took her camera Grandma gave her for the trip and started taking pictures of the clouds.


And then she took one with my camera of the pretty blue sky and the fluffy white clouds.


Spencer and Noah didn't seem nervous the entire flight. They put their headphones in their ears and listened to their Ipods most of the way there. I did catch Spencer leaning forward to look out the window at the earth below a few times.


We arrived safely in Florida, found a taxi and made our way to our hotel. We spent the rest of the day getting settled into the hotel. The kids swam in the hotel pool (it was to cold for us adults) and played checkers and ping pong by the pool. Then later that evening we ordered pizza, took our showers and climbed into bed to get plenty of sleep for our big day in Disney the next morning.

{ Navy Ball }

We had a wonderful time, just my man and I, at the Navy Ball. I do wish I had pictures of us all dressed up to show, but I wanted more than anything to just enjoy the night.



I did find this picture and thought it was fitting....

{ Blue has never been bluer. }

On Friday, October 8th my grandpa passed away. It was a very sad day. The phone rang, I picked up the phone to hear my very sad and tearful father on the other end of the phone, "Amber....", he didn't have to say it....I already knew. I knew this day was coming, but I just wasn't ready for it. It saddened my heart to hear my dad in so much grief and pain.
Spencer had been home from school sick that day, he was there when I hung the phone up. I could see the urgency in his eyes as he watched me talking to my dad. I hung up the phone, "Is it Grandpa Strickland?" he asked. I gave him a hug and told him yes, it was Grandpa Strickland. He walked outside to get some air and I followed him. We sat on the rocking chair of the front porch and cried together. He told me what he remembered of Grandpa.
At the funeral they had balloons for all the grandkids and great-grandkids to release in the air. It was a beautiful sight to such a sad day....


The little kids were all hopping up and down holding on to their balloon saying, "My balloon is going to get to Grandpa first!". It was sweet.


The funeral was beautiful. My cousin Kristi gave a wonderful speech, that brought a few smiles from the memories she was speaking of and a few tears knowing that he is gone from this world.
After the funeral the church had a dinner for all of the family. The kids (all of the great-grandkids) were all running around playing in the gym after the dinner. It made me smile. I remember all of the Christmas family get togethers we had growing up,running around and playing with all of my cousins. We (myself and my cousins) have all grown up now and most of us have children of our own. It brought happiness to see the kids playing as we did when we were younger.










Even the "big kids" joined in on the fun of running around laughing and playing....

{ Chief. }

He is a man of honor.
He is a loving and faithful husband.
He is a dedicated father.
He is a man of faith and honesty.
He is a man of courage, strength and discipline.
He is a man of dignity.
He is a man of trust, and he values that trust.
He is giving and kind.
He is full of compassion and hope.
He is a leader.
He is our anchor, the one that makes our family whole.

{written to my husband for something he needed for making Chief}



I love this picture. The way he is looking at Spencer with pride as his son pins the first pin on. And this one too, as I pin the other pin. He worked so hard for this and he very much deserves it. We are proud of him.













This is us. This is a part of who we are. We are a military family who has seen our fair share of deployments. We've learned how to be strong through deployments. How to have faith in our prayers. How to hope and cherish each and every moment we have together. We have pride in our country. We feel proud and get a little teary eyed at our son's middle school football games when the national anthem is sang beautifully through a quiet crowd. We know that this is where the road of our life has led us to. To serve our country when called, to keep things together on the home front while deployments seem to be never ending. To stay strong and be proud of who we are.

I am a proud Navy wife, proud of my husband who has worked very hard to get where he is today. I am proud of my husband, my best friend, my Chief.

Spencer

My poor little boy needs a puppy! He has been looking so sad lately, missing his Daddy. His 9th birthday is coming up soon (I can't believe he is already going to be that old) and he has asked me forever for a puppy. I always tell him no, not right now or some other parent like excuse. But here lately I have been reconsidering. He has been so lonely since Jerome has been gone and he just seems so sad. I have really been thinking maybe a puppy would be a good idea (not for me of course, but for hime). The other day we were out driving and we passed our local fruit and flowers stand, and they had a big sign up that said "Lab Puppies for sale". I saw him through the rear view mirror looking over there and trying his hardest to get a glimse of the little puppies in the box. It wasn't a few seconds later he was asking me if he could please have a puppy. He was promising me the moon if only he could have a puppy. I said no because right now is just not a good time. The sadness in his face made my heart sink to my stomache. So today I mentioned to him that if he really wanted a puppy that he would have till his birthday to show me that he is responsible enough to take care of one (this is the same boy that I have to argue with to clean his room, lol). I wish I could have bottled up the excitement that was in his face at that second. He about knocked me down with the hug he gave me, "I promise Mommy, I promise, you'll see" he said.
I think a little companion would do him some good right now. Maybe help with some of the loneliness he is having since his Daddy got deployed. I can see such a difference in the two of these pictures. The one with him smiling (well, half smiling, he is in the awkward teeth stage and won't smile showing any teeth or lack there of) was taken the week we got to spend with Jerome at Ft. Bragg before he left and the one of him at the beach is the week after he left.
Now I just have to convince his Daddy. Ha-ha-ha