Cliff's deployment 2009

Cliff left for Iraq and Afganistan at the beginning of January and will return in May. As a welcome home gift for him, the kids and I surprised him and bought Disney World tickets for the first week of June. We are all so excited to go. We are so proud of Cliff and for his service to our country. We always miss him when he leaves but we know that he does some pretty amazing things when he is away. He is our hero. These pictures are from 2006 when he deployed...we didnt take any in his uniform before he deployed this time because he left at 1am and we all were asleep. But he still looks the same and its the same uniform and rank...at least till he puts on E7...hopefully soon!!

Trip home to Maryland Dec 08

We got to visit with my sisters, parents, some old friends. It was a great trip before cliff deployed overseas.

Snow in North Carolina

We had about 6 inches of Snow here in NC in Jan. It was great. The kids loved it besides for Ben.

home decorating projects

I have really gotten into interior designing. I designed my home in a Tuscany inspired theme. The kids rooms are cool to. Megan's is a hawaiian theme, zack's is helicopters and Ben is sports...mainly football.

Christmas 2008

We celebrated Christmas 2 days early because we drove to Maryland to spend Christmas with my family (although my family doesnt celebrate it). The kids didnt care. We told them santa came early because he knew we were going on vacation. They had a ball.

Unit Christmas Party

On Dec 17, 2008 we went to Cliff's unit's party. We had a lot of fun. There was babysitters for the kids there so after dinner they were able to go play while the adults played to. :-) It was great. Santa came and gave the kids presents to. We played games like musical chairs but you had to go find the items they said and hurry up and run back to your chair. The first one they said was pager...like that was hard to find..I stole one of cliff's. One time I pushed a 1 year old boy to the ground because I didnt see him running back to my chair. I felt sooo bad. Ben was home with a babysitter since the party ended at 10pm and base is almost an hour from our house to.

Date night

Cliff and I went out to celebrate a few things on Nov 12, 2008. He was gone for training for his birthday on Oct 29th. We also have our 8th wedding anniversary coming up in Feb and we wanted to celebrate early since he'll be gone. We went to Chamas Brazilian steakhouse. It was really romantic. The men come out with skewers of pork cuts, chicken, different types of steak cuts like filet mignon, sirloin, flank steak, etc. Its a good thing steak is my favorite food. I didnt eat half as much as I wanted because my jaw was hurting so bad. I have to get my wisdom teeth out here shortly...not fun. We walked around the little historic shops and got some hot chocolate since it was 40 degrees out and we both forgot our jackets. Then we went to Lake Jordan and snapped a few pictures of each other for fun. We wanted them together but no one was nearby. It was a great day and we were glad to get away from the kiddos for a day. I love you Cliff, the 8 years have flown by.