Double Down!!

Eric's squadron has a band they put together about a year ago or so called Double Down and Eric has talked about wanting to play guitar for a while. Well, this gave him the perfect excuse to really practice up! The band practiced a few times all together and I got the joy of listening to Eric practice constantly. They had their first show that included a new drummer and Eric this past Friday night. He had a blast and I had fun watching him. They have a few more shows coming up where hopefully he'll get to the point that he can look up from his guitar and not be concentrating so much though :) Now to come to terms with being married to not only a fighter pilot, but a rock star too! HAHA!

Nothing like a picture mid song with the guitarist ;)

Before the show..his guitar strap matches the band perfectly! Good on ya G-Man! :)

Eric and our neighbor

Half of the band. I'm not sure Eric ever looked up from his guitar he was too busy concentrating.

After his first show! :)

Kamp Kunf

After a long few weeks, we decided that over Memorial Day weekend we'd head to Atlanta to visit Aunt Sarah and Uncle Frank. It was so nice to just sit and relax without having to worry about the hustle and bustle of day to day life. Even though it was only for 2 nights, it was a great distraction and the kids love going to visit Frankie, Micah and Baby Ruthie :) The kids enjoyed playing Wii (of course), jumping on the trampoline, staying up late and just plain hanging out!

We spent a little while walking on the river, well, Mommy and Baby Ruthie stayed on the shore while everyone else as least dipped their feet in. Nichole and all the boys had fun.

The girls had a blast having company in the bath with them. Baby Ruthie is too cute!

Daddy had me a little worried about how low that trampoline was going. All the kiddos! They got along great and they all love getting to spend time together! Thank you Kunf gang for letting us come crash for a few days and escape reality :) We love you guys and hope it's not another few months before we see you again!

Making the best with what life deals us...

I once again have been reminded just how blessed I am over the past month. It has been a very trying month for us both as an immediate family and as an extended family. We were already working through some things when I got word of my cousin's passing and I was starting to wonder how much God really thought I could handle. I kept reminding myself of Jeremiah 29:11 and telling myself that God has a reason for us going through everything. I may not understand it now and over the past few days even though things have settled down, I still try find myself trying to figure it all out. I'm not sure I ever will, but I know that God is in control and I need to be at peace with that. I have a family that loves me and I have a family that I love. Distance is never an excuse and while family members or loved ones may let you down, that's no excuse not to continue loving them and wanting the best for them. There is always someone you can find with a heartache worse than yours. So as a favorite quote of mine says "Dance like no one is watching, love like you'll never be hurt, sing like no one is listening and live like it's Heaven on Earth".

G-Man with two of his favorite girls. Being uncle to quite a few girls, having 2 daughters and 2 granddaughters.. he's got a lot of favorite girls! :)

The "Hornsby Family" at breakfast one morning.

Those left behind... All the cousins on the Hornsby side, minus Dani :(

The older generations of cousins, again, minus Dani :(

May: Dance/Friends, Mom's Muffins, Mother's Day, end of preschool, etc

Ok, so I got ahead on work and have a few minutes to update a few things on here. May found us saying goodbye to friends (and a family member), enjoying Mom's Muffins at Nichole's school, ending Nichole's preschool days and many other things that will be blogged about separately. To start the month, we headed Mommy and Nichole had a mother/daughter day while we spent the afternoon with our best friends. Nichole and Kaity were in class together this past year and Kaity's Mommy and I were great friends, except on the crud table ;) We were sad to hear that Kaity's Daddy would be spending a year in Korea, thus taking Kaitlyn and her Mommy (ok and lil man Ryan too) away from us at the school year's end. Nichole had a blast watching Kaity's dance recital and lucky for me, never really said anything about dying to be up on stage herself! (whew!) I'm just a sports girl, not so much into the dance and cheerleading bit :) Anyway, we got to spend the afternoon watching, having slumber parties and got to celebrate Kaity's birthday (a little early) with her before she left town. We miss you Kaity Mac!

Nichole had gotten a shot one day to update her shots at the doctor and while I got the child (Em) who as long as I talked to her while they were doing her shots, Daddy got to go in with Nichole who is most definitely her mother's daughter and he had to promise lots of things, one being that Mommy would straighten her hair the next day. Thanks Daddy! Anyway, this was Mom's Muffins at Nichole's school where I learned that she likes it when Mommy wears dresses. I think she has that backwards and is really talking about herself since I honestly can't remember the last time Nichole wore shorts! It was just before Mom's Muffins that I found out I would be going home to FL to say goodbye to my little cousin Danielle, but more on that again in another blog.

Mother's Day 2009 before church.

Nichole's "end of the year party" for preschool was at Swan Lake. All these pictures were "pre duck attack". Swan Lake is evil if you ask me :) This is another one of Nichole's best friends named Scott. We're glad that even though they found out Scott's Daddy will also be going to Korea, we think they've decided to stay here and we are super excited about that. Nichole would be a mess losing 2 best friends in such a short time! And so would Mommy!

Nichole with a few of her classmates, Jordan and Hayden.

Playing on the playground at Swan Lake

Colee was always excited when she would get to school and see Mrs. Shannon, her teacher. This was the night of "graduation" and to this day, Nichole talks about wanting to go back and see Mrs. Shannon. We LOVED Mrs. Shannon. She was an AWESOME preschool teacher!

Sisterly love on Nichole's last day in her preschool

8 year anniversary!!

So I'll backdate this to 4 June. 8 years ago was one of the happiest days of my life. Thus began our journey together and here we are 8 years later with two beautiful baby girls and our 4 legged wedding present to each other :) It was a small and intimate ceremony with like 35 people to include the wedding party, but I wouldn't change a thing about the day, well except to have had Grandma Hornsby there in person! Thanks to all those who shared in the day with us and those who later celebrated with us at our receptions at home in FL. Thank you to those who have been there for us the past 8 years as well as life has brought us across many different states and brought us into parenthood. I can't wait to spend the next 72 years with my hubby! Ok, so maybe not 72 b/c we'd be REALLY old by then. Either way, I love my 'True Companion'.

One of my favorite all time pictures of my baby sister, Kylie from our wedding day. Isn't she just too cute?:) Reminds me of Nichole and Emily.

The priest, Father McGee who flew out to Colorado Springs from Florida to marry us and he later baptized Nichole. Unfortunately, he passed away while Eric was deployed the first time before he could baptize Emily:( We were so grateful for him coming out to marry us though. He has wise words for us, and our parents;)

Father/Daughter dance to "She Walks with Me" by Michael W Smith

My first pic with "my two dads" :) Love these men!