Wednesday Night Date Night

Today was our first day of just us. Everyone else was at work, Ben didn't have to work, and the kids didn't have school. I'm not going to lie:

it. was. awesome.

I've missed my best friend, the kids have missed their Daddy and it was great to get some time together. Now if we could just get our room and stuff under control, we'd be great!

Knowing that we're going to get some time with just us and Ellie on Friday while Noah is at school, tonight, Ben came with Noah and I on our usual "Wednesday Night Date Night" before AWANAs. We tried, to no avail, to talk Noah into somewhere besides the "Little Quesadilla Store", but it didn't work. {I suppose if we didn't want to eat there, we shouldn't allow him to choose, right?}

Date Night with my most favorite guys in the world.

Life doesn't get much better than that! ♥

Saying Bye and Starting New Traditions

Grandma, Poppa, and Sylas were going to stay in OKC until tomorrow morning, but since Colorado was expecting snow {and they own a snow removal business} they had to head out of town a little bit earlier than anticipated. Lucky for us though, they were still able to go to lunch and spend a good portion of the afternoon with us before they left.

Poor Sylas wasn't feeling too great this morning. But he was a trooper and took one for the team by eating and playing at Chuck E. Cheese.

Noah was a little sad when he realized that Sylas had to leave to go back to his home.

We love you guys and thanks for coming down to visit us - we enjoyed the visit!

***

To help with the fact that "that guy" {aka Sylas} had left for home, Ben and Noah {and, eventually even me!} worked on putting together the latest Lego acquisition:

The Winter Toy Shop.

My plan for some time now has been to create a scene or building each year using the Lego creator software/website for Ben and Noah {and eventually Ellie too} to build each year to set up a scene with the train that goes around our tree. But when we saw this set yesterday, well, it saves me the trouble of designing it AND I'm fairly confident that it is a cheaper route to go. Plus it was on sale, so what's not to love?

The start of a fun family tradition indeed. ♥

Legos and Cousin Time

One of Ben and Noah's favorite places to go is, of course, the Lego store. Sylas was pretty excited to find out that we were going to store filled with JUST Legos. Once everyone got ready, we all loaded into the Sequoia and headed up to the mall to go to the Lego Store.

They were all excited to go:

And they had a blast.


Afterwards, we headed back to Nana and Papa's house for some rest time. Noah and Sylas watched Cars 2, while the rest of us either pretended to watch or slept.

{Oh my soul, how I've missed seeing his hands intertwined with hers!}

On our way to Aunt Marsha and Uncle Mike's house for dinner, Ben, the kids, and I stopped at my favorite little park and snapped a few cousin photos. Noah wasn't exactly the most cooperative during them, but Ellie clearly loves her cousin Sylas.

Family Photos and Family Time

Instead of trying to go out to eat with the whole clan of Akers and Haze families after church this morning, we ate lunch at Mom and Daddy-Man's house. {Thanks again Mom for cooking!} Before we ate, I forced sweet-talked everyone into taking a few family photos in the backyard since everyone looked so nice and I needed some of my little family for our Christmas card anyway!

The Akers Family


The Haze Family

The Smith Family

The highlight of Noah's day, however, was getting to open his birthday present from Grandma and Poppa Haze... more Legos! {Thanks Grandma and Poppa - clearly he loved them!}

The First Saturday

Late last night, Ben's Mom, Dad, and nephew Sylas arrived in Oklahoma City. The kids were already in bed when they got here, so Ben and I went over to their hotel to spend a little time with them before the rest of us went to bed also.

The kids were pretty excited to know that Grandma and Poppa were here, but Noah was just over-the-moon when he found out Sylas was here as well.

He. loves. Sylas.

Enjoying some time building Sylas' Christmas present from Noah and Ellie - Legos, of course!

Later in the evening, after lunch at the mall with Nana and Papa, we headed over to Aunt Marsha and Uncle Mike's house to visit with Brenda and Brian and their spouses before they leave to head back home tomorrow.

The little ones were even more excited when they got to open a few presents from Aunt Marsha and Uncle Mike.

Noah showed off his writing skills to Brenda and Bobbie. I'm fairly certain they were impressed. ;)

Black Friday

Let's just be honest here. Black Friday is an event of its' own right around these parts. We love Thanksgiving, but we also like to shop on Black Friday. Because we, Dear Friends, like a deal. I hate paying retail and with a few exceptions, won't purchase something if I have to pay full price for it. In recent years, we've made shirts for our little troop of shoppers. And even though I swore up and down last year that I wouldn't get talked into making new shirts for this year, I did. And, in light of Noah's new love of all things SuperHero, Ben's return, and the plethora of new hero movies that have recently come out... we all got new call names as well:

In brightest day,

In blackest night,

No deal shall

escape my sight!

It was a little bit more crazy though this year. And I kinda blame it on the fact that the stores were opening SO much earlier. Which was nice because we actually got some sleep last night {after getting home around 1:30}, but we definitely didn't get everything on our lists last night. Ben and I went back to Walmart {which was the craziest of crazy places last night - I might have to refuse to go again after that!} this morning and managed to find the two items we still wanted: a new external hard drive and a video game that he wanted for Christmas.

This morning, after getting some real sleep, we all met up at Denny's for breakfast. Usually we're all bleary-eyed and sharing our crazy stories from just hours before, but this morning, everyone was mostly well-rested and stories had already been told {minus the one about Bryan and Jessie's neighbor who had just been stabbed before they got home last night - eek!}.

Happy Black Friday, everyone... hope you stimulated the economy too! :D

Thanksgiving

I've got so much to be thankful for today, and right there at the top of the list is a husband who is back home with us.

Happy Thanksgiving and praise be to Him from whom all blessings and good gifts flow!

Home Again | In OKC

Ben had to go into work for a little bit this morning, so while he was gone, the kids and I finished repacking up our stuff and waited to start the drive back to Oklahoma City. Both kids were so very excited when he got back to the hotel - each time he leaves, I have a feeling that they are a little nervous that it'll be a long time before they see him again.

Once back in OKC, we fell back into our usual routine of Legos, blocks, and photos:

It's so good to have him home! ♥

One of Ben's flights took him through Japan, so while he was there, he picked up a couple of treats for us all to try:

authentic Saki....

and outrageously flavored KitKats {or, as Noah called them: "Green and pink kitty kats!"}.

I definitely recommend the strawberry ones!

Deployment Gifts | Month Six {and more}

Even though Ben came home last night, he still wasn't officially "ours" yet. This morning he had to go in to the base to in-process and because we only had one car with us in Abilene, it meant that the kids and I just stayed at the hotel for the morning. Noah had a mini-meltdown when Ben left. The whole time that Ben was deployed, we talked about how Daddy was at work. So when Daddy "went to work" this morning, I'm guessing he assumed that it was going to be for another six months instead of a few hours.

It's tough being almost four. And it's tough when Daddy has been so far away for so long.

To help pass the time, I let the kids open up their last set of deployment gifts. I've realized {six months too late} that I probably could have gotten away with just getting them one thing between the two of them. Because Ellie ALWAYS wants to play with whatever Noah has.

After lunch, naps, and an oil change in the Sequoia, we met our property manager over at our house. We got some not-so-great news this past week: our current renters moved out. {sigh} Without paying this month's rent or notifying the property management. Luckily, there was no real damage to the home {minus usual wear and tear and a few dings from moving in and out} and everything was, for the most part, left as it was. The property manager was in the process of getting things ready for the house to be shown again and re-leased.

Noah and Ellie were amazed when they saw their old rooms {which are now all a boring shade of cream} and joyfully plopped down in the middle of the living room as if it was the neatest thing in the world to be in their old house with no furniture.



We finished up at the house, did a quick stop at Target {oh, how Ben missed it!} and then ate dinner with some of our Life Group friends at Texas Roadhouse. Dinner was followed by baths for the kiddos back at the hotel and then some friend-time with the Carroll's at their home. All three kiddos were thrilled to get to play together and the four adults were just happy to have everyone under one roof for a couple of hours again.

Admittedly, I didn't take many photos today with Ben in them. Part of the reason? I didn't want to experience all of today behind a lens. And the rest of the reason? I was simply too happy to have him home to even remember to take a physical photo. I'm okay with that.

Home.

Today has been a long time coming. Since the moment we found out about this deployment, I've been looking most forward to this day.

Last night felt like Christmas Eve. Much like the night before he deployed, I could barely sleep. The kids and I finished packing this morning, loaded up the Sequoia, and headed towards Abilene. The first part of the drive was relatively uneventful. The kids slept and we made it to Wichita Falls just in time for lunch. And, just as we were getting into the car to start the second part of the drive, the rain started. And didn't stop until we were almost in Abilene! The. entire. drive. Noah asked if we were to Daddy yet. The boy was anxious to get to the airport to get his Daddy.

Finally, after checking into the hotel and eating dinner, the time arrived for us to go to the airport. Ben's flight was delayed from Dallas due to intense fog, but lucky for us, we had good friends and Air Force family at the airport to keep us company and entertained. My favorite moment, besides seeing him in person for the first time in six months, was while we were waiting for him to get off the plane and Noah turned to me with his hands raised to his face in anticipation and said, "I'm just so excited!"

As soon as Ben turned the corner and Noah saw him, he was off running to get his Daddy. Even Ellie, whom we were a little concerned might not want to give him a hug or a kiss, showered him with love.


We're oh-so-happy to have him home with us finally. And oh-so-grateful for friends and family who have loved on us, supported us, and been praying alongside us during this.

Benjamin, Dear One, I couldn't be more proud of you. You accept every task placed before you with grace and a determination to see it through, no matter how difficult. I'm so very proud of the man, the husband, the daddy, and the officer that you are! You have set an amazing example for Noah and are everything that I hope Ellie will look for in her own future husband. I love you most and am ever so happy to have you back home with us. ♥

The Last {Full} Day

It's our last official full day before Ben returns. I feel like we should have done something exciting and fun to cap off the end of the deployment, but we didn't. We didn't even make it to church! Between extra tiredness, the cold weather, Mom not feeling great, Noah and Ellie having colds, and me having a million and one things to finish up before tomorrow, well, it just didn't happen. After a few quick errands and lunch, Mom and I got the kids into bed and then I headed over to Uncle Bud and Aunt Sally's house to get a couple of photos of them {despite the FREEZING temperatures!}. We didn't last very long outside and I even managed to forget to take a couple of shots! Guess we'll have to try again if we ever have even a slightly warm day.

The rest of the day was spent at home, packing, working on Black Friday shirts {SO awesome this year!}, cleaning, and spending some extra time with the Little Ones.

Last night of bedtime routine without Daddy! ♥