The first days of June

June. Such a simple word. It's only a one syllable month, but we packed (ha! and unpacked!) more than I would have ever thought possible into its first few days. By June 9th, our oldest child had completed kindergarten, our entire house had been emptied by a team of fast-paced movers, we handed over the house keys to the new owner, and we'd hosted a joint party to celebrate both of our children's birthdays with Iowa friends (Alexa's a little early, Brody's a little late). By June 15th, we had said goodbye to some great friends at a thoughtfully thrown farewell party, experienced our daughter's first dance recital, sent our children to Texas with the grandparents, and arrived at our Ohio home. Or what will become our Ohio home. As a military spouse, a line from one of my college roommate's poems seems even more applicable now: "home is a place that suddenly needs defining."

Friends and memories are made at each location, making each place we've lived thus far feel like home when it was time to go. The saying, "Home is where the Army moves us" may be true, but for me, a better definition is that home is where my husband is.

I also feel like I maybe have a little better understanding of Hebrews 11:13-14 where it discusses the people of faith and how they admitted they were strangers on this earth, longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Moving frequently means that while emotional ties may run deep from place to place, we never exactly develop "roots" in one location. Attachments to physical items, like a house, are broken fairly easily, and I begin to realize that our short stints in various states, which will continue until Billy retires, may be symbolic of our lives here on earth. A true sense of "home" may never be realized until we have reached our final heavenly home with our Creator.

Too philosophical for my light-hearted family blog? Guess that's what happens when I stay up too late to play catch up! Anyway, here are the photos from the whirlwind first part of June:

Alexa's Last Day of School

The House we said Goodbye to

The Birthday Party

The Farewell Party

I somehow didn't do a very good job of taking photos at this -

Iowa friends, if you have some, please email them to me!

The Recital

Alexa is the on the front row, third from the right in both photos

The Last Days of May...

Time continued to pass at its sporadic pace, bringing us happily closer to Billy's return from the Captain's Career Course and regretfully closer to our move from Iowa. With it also came the last days of May, a last day of school, and a third birthday.

Brody's final day of preschool was May 20th and they put on a super cute Noah's Ark themed end of year program! Of course, my son was the happy caboose of the animal train and may have never made it to the stage at all except for the gentle prodding of his awesome teacher. Once on stage, though I had heard Brody on several occasions break into song at home (in what I could only assume were the songs he was learning at school) on the day of the actual program, he assumed true Brody form, standing on stage, holding his shirt, and sucking his thumb. He never even attempted a single motion or syllable.



















Upon completion of the presentation, the classes were invited, one by one to step back on stage for a class photo with their teacher - this is Brody's class.

Can you find Brody? No? That's because he was in my lap while I took this photo after refusing to step back on stage. I guess he was afraid he might have to sing again - the stage apparently is not his forte - he is truly his father's son!




He returned to his jovial self once the photo ops were over and everyone progressed downstairs for snacks. His good friend Ashley was in a three year old class at the preschool and was sitting at a table with all of her girlfriends from her class. Brody took the only empty chair at the table, surrounded by other older girls of whom he had never met. Confidence? Perhaps. I don't want to know what this foretells about his teenage years.

All in all, it was a fun but sad day. I had to admit that my little boy was no longer so little, and we had to say goodbye to some fantastic teachers. However, two days later we were in full celebration mode when Billy pulled into the driveway after five months at CCC! We made the most of every hour together over Memorial Day weekend!

Saturday we drove up to Story City, Iowa so the kids could ride the historic carousel. Adjacent to the carousel was a park with an "old school" playground where the kids enjoyed the merry-go-round, jungle gym, and seesaw! Megan, Ashley's older sister came with us and after spending a few hours outside playing, we met up with Megan's family at a great BBQ restaurant before heading to Ashley's dance recital.


























































Monday was Brody's 3rd birthday and though his party was planned for 2 weeks later, we could not let the day pass without a celebration! We met up with some friends at the mall and visited Build-A-Bear. Brody immediately selected an adorable, soft, brown puppy dog which he pulled from the shelf and gave a big hug. We smiled and put the example back on the shelf and handed Brody the limp, shell of a puppy which he was supposed to stuff. Having never been to Build-A-Bear, Brody wasn't too impressed with the flat dog and put it back in the bin so he could again grab the already stuffed example. Eventually, we had to just let him carry the example around until his became 3 dimensional and we could make the switch! He appropriately named his new pet "Puppy" and carried him proudly around the mall, "reading" his birth certificate to him when we stopped for ice cream.

















































Below are more fun photos from May, including some from numerous park visits, a play date with Alexa's friend Zoe, and the bird nest we discovered in our back yard!