hi dad, It's been a long time again, we know, but boy have we been busy! Last time we chatted we were kind of down in the dumps but mom has been keeping us going nonstop..After a busy week at work mom took us to visit great grandma and great grandpa in Huntington beach.

We started off the trip by going to the beach and hanging out with auntie Kimmie, Brennan and Faith. It was very crowded because it was Father's day...what better way to keep us busy but to take us to our favorite place!(mom's too of course) Uncle Joel had to work so it was just the moms and the kids! We played and played..Gunnar loved waiting for the waves to knock him down, then rolled on the ground while waves were going over his head. He was literally getting toppled over and over.He would recover jump up and head out for more....Guess who slept the best that night?

Jessica had a nice time letting the waves come up to her toes and laughing at her brother getting"beat up" by the waves..But most of all she loved playing in the sand with Brennan and Faith.

Dad, needless to say if we can keep making regular trips to the beach with mom, everything else will be tolerable. We can tolerate eachother and mom can tolerate us..She LOVES the beach. We talk about all the time how you told us when you get home we're going camping there as long as we want. Just a little "reminder"!

After the beach we took ourselves over to Great Grandma's...We're pretty sure they might never be the same.

They have a pretty house with lots of pretty things. They also have a pretty front yard and a pretty backyard that they work very hard on. We tried to be on our best behavior and didn't do too bad of a job. Mom said though, if we had stayed much longer than we did, things wouldn't have stayed "pretty" for long. We think it had something to do with mom saying great grandma and great grandpa are "fragile" and they like things quiet. Our little "hurricane" brought them plenty of excitement for a while.

We ate out at a couple restaurants. Mom took us to her second favorite place, South Coast Plaza! Lucky for you, we were with her, and Gunnar wasn't in the "shopping" mood. You can thank us later! We rode the merry go round about 10 times and had about 10 snacks...Great Grandma said she never saw so much eating!! We reminded her 3 and 5 year olds eat more and more often than 88 year olds!!

That night we were exhausted but mom still took us to see Toy Story 3. Great movie..a little traumatic near the end but we made it through.

Got up and left everything in it's place,b..a..r..e..l..y!

Next stop?? Where else? The beach in San Diego...Nope, can't get enough. We got home eventually and got back to somewhat of a normal routine..We finished our swimming lessons and mom let us play hookey from preschool the rest of the week..AHHH the life!

Mom's still going to the gym..She's working out with someone who she says makes her feel like she's going to throw up for a couple of days. Doesn't sound fun to us but she says she loves it..oh well, whatever she needs to get along without you is fine with us..She's holding up o.k. She's tired but we don't know if she would know what to do if she wasn't..She loves talking to you on the phone and we know she misses you because she talks about you all the time. We miss you too. We're getting more used to you being gone except when Jess hears a sad song we have to turn it off and when Gunnar see's another dad he wants to know when you're coming home.

We love you dad, and we hope "Assghanistan" is treating you well....

dad, it's been a while since we've written but you'll probably understand when we're done with this conversation.
Last time you read what we were doing Jess had just graduated from preschool and we were planning on starting our busy summer. We talked to you that night and we loved it but it made us miss you even more. Mom has had to make the "busy" in our schedule even busier! If we're not distracted and constantly on the go it seems we miss you a lot and want to know when you are coming home..We will feel better soon but we're having a hard time understanding why you have been gone this long eventhough mom keeps telling us it hasn't been that long..Needless to say, we're in survival mode and mom misses you a lot too. Our temporary new life is hard to get used to it seems lately but we're all trying very hard. We're going to school every day this week but only for a half day..This way we get to go somewhere for a little while and Gunnar doesn't nap which means he won't be up till midnight. Mom has joined a new gym and is going to meet with a trainer who is supposed to "whip her into shape". I guess she really must need to blow off some steam because she's never done that before.
Enough of all that...Let's talk about what we've been doing to distract us from how much we miss you.
Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for a few days after Jessica's graduation..We had a great time.Gunnar went on a couple of jeep rides, a couple of scooter rides and fed a lot of ducks! Jessica went shopping, baked cookies for mom's customers at the beauty shop and we both loved the new slip n slide at grandma and grandpa's house. You know there was a lot of roasted marshmallows inbetween all that too and a sleepover at their house..Very weird for mom but she slept like 9 hours in a row which hasn't happened in months!
They left and then next came Brody's pool party..Great time of course but after that party mom is even more determined to get us swimming lessons which we start by the way this week!
The next day was something called your anniversary??We really could't grasp that idea but mom said it was a good reason to take us to the beach so we were willing to go along with it. Mom said you wrote her a nice email and then called her and you talked for a while before we woke up..Thank you for that because she was happy and smiling all day long! Twelve years sounds like a long time to us and yet we're still trying to figure out why we can't remember this event..Anyways mom says next year hopefully we'll all be camping at the beach when it's your next anniversary and it will be a great celebration...
Brody and Taylor went with us and their mom too.We all slept in the same room and it went surprisingly smooth. However you know that if mom and lori set their mind to getting something done, it will get done and go great! Needless to say we can't wait to do it again and we love that hotel! Mom said it's her new favorite place because you had a great time with her there and now we have too! We can't wait till we can all go together.
This will be a busy week mom says..She has a lot of people that need their hair done before we go on our next trip..She keeps telling us to just be patient while she works because if she does then we can keep going on our beach trips. Next is off to Great Grandma's house in Huntington Beach on Sunday. Mom said we'll need to get away on that day and keep busy. She hasn't told us why yet but she said we will be talking to you for sure that day and we're getting a special package together to send to you.. We miss you dad. We're just plugging along waiting for our hearts to not feel so heavy. Be safe and know that we love you and are very proud of you for staying and working. We have been telling mom to call you and tell you to quit and come home but she says once you start something you finish and another dad will get to come home and see their kids because you are staying there. Stay tuned for more beach pics!

Busy Week

ok dad, since we last wrote it seems we have been going nonstop! We told you we were going to keep mom busy and we have done just that.
Since we last wrote the lakers have won two games, and lost one, Jessica has graduated from Preschool, also has had her first sleepover, and Gunnar has seen "the real Ironman" movie.
While all of these things have been going on mom has been working at the beauty shop a lot. We just can't believe so many people need their hair done all the time. Mom says it's a good thing people have hair on their heads, whatever that means...
Jessica graduated from preschool on Thursday night. It was an extremely busy day to say the least! Mom and Jess got their nails done, of course, and Gunnar played at Aaron's house. Aunt Nancy came over while we had pizza and the whirlwind of getting out of the house all in one piece started her head spinning. Little did she know it had just begun. We made it to school 30 minutes early. We stood in line with everyone else in the sun and waited for them to let us all in. Thank goodness when we walked in they had the airconditioning. We all sat in little chairs, even aunt nancy. There were about 3 times as many people for the amount of space they had but it all worked out. Gunnar walked around and greeted everyone of course and played with all the other brothers and sister's of the graduates..He had 2 bags of m&m's and managed to stay on mom's lap "most"of the time. Considering the crowd and the chaos he did pretty good and a good time was had by all..After cake, lots of pictures and two return trips for forgotten "things" at school we headed to the moser's. There, we had more cake and ice cream, played with our friends, including Brody and Taylor, who made a special trip, and then called it a night. One thing's for sure, we slept good that night but nobody slept as good as Aunt nancy. We wore her out!
Saturday mom worked for a little while. These people with hair that need attention never seem to go away! When she came home Jess got ready to go with her friend Lilly and Gunnar got ready to go see the "real Ironman movie". Everyone had a nice time and before we knew it mom and Gunnar were home and Jess was sleeping over at Lilly's house. Everyone thought it was an o.k. idea except for Gunnar. He's not so sure that will ever happen again. Luckily by the time Gunnar was awake the next morning Jess and mom were home with donuts and all problems were forgotten.
Now you may think this week might have gotten by without us even thinking of you being gone. We couldn't disagree more. We didn't mention Friday night because the only thing we remember about that night was watching tv, then being put to bed and falling asleep. Thank goodness for mom's sake. The phone rang right after we went to bed and it was you. She told us you talked for an hour and it was the funnest night she had, other than haning out with us, for a while. You told her you were lonely because your team of 5 other guys still hadn't arrived to where you were living yet. They were supposed to be there any day and all your equipment was arriving that night and you were excited to have something to do. Sitting around by yourself for two weeks just waiting wasn't cutting it. We hope you are busier now and have your friends with you to talk to. We miss you every day and ask mom all the time if you are in the airplanes we see in the sky coming home. Gunnar even yelled out the car window to you to not worry he would see the ironman movie when you came home.
It's been three weeks ago today that you left and we hope the time goes faster and faster. We are tough and we are taken care of. Mom is doing her best at keeping us busy and doing everybody's hair at the same time. We think she's tought too and if she wasn't before she is now. Thank you for working hard for us. As usual we'll be cheering for you tomorrow night during the Laker game. It's not the same around here without you but when you are here it will better than ever!

Tuesday May 18th

We miss you dad...Mom made the mistake of telling us you were sleeping with bugs in your tent and we have been talking about it ever since! We hope you are safe..Mom is very proud of us...If all goes as planned this will be our second night asleep before 9pm...We've been having a hard time going to sleep without you around but we're trying really hard. We heard you are calling on Thursday night before Jessica's preschool graduation..We're very excited and can't wait to talk to you.

By the way in case you're not keeping track the Lakers are ahead 1-0 in the conference finals! Go Lakers!!

Sunday night May 16th

Well dad, this has been an interesting week! We had a bit of a hard time getting back into the swing of things after our fun trip to Uncle Joel's. We went to school on Wednesday and Friday. It was so so, only because we hadn't been there all that much the week before and so much in our lives had changed since then. Lucy stayed home with us on Thursday and that was probably the highlight..She takes good care of us and tires us out just like mom..The only problem is we end up napping and then are up till all hours which is a challenge to say the least for mom.
We think we have it under control and mom says tomorrow is a school day so we are in bed and it's 830. We didn't say we were sleeping, just in bed, but we're trying.
We were happy when the weekend came as this week seemed to drag on forever. Mom worked on Saturday..That wasn't all that bad because we got to go to Andrew's football game in the morning and then were home in the afternoon with Lucy and her grandaughter. Mom went to one of your friend's house for a BBQ after work because he's going on one of these "long trips" too we heard. Even if he wasn't going anywhere she probably still would have gone somewhere, as she mentioned she sort of needed a "break".We can't figure out why?? We think we're a lot of fun! We've been staying up late, making a lot of noise, and running around all over town with her too. Plus she's been doing a lot of people's hair, which she says she loves doing so we're not quite sure what the "break" was for but she was really happy when we saw her this morning!
We went to church which was extremely weird going without you. We all had a talk about missing you at lunch today at burger king..We played while mom did her paperwork for the beauty shop and then we went home and had a quiet day. It sounds nice but we miss you more when things are quiet. I guess we're going to be real busy for the next year! We'll be just fine with that you know but we're not sure about mom..We'll let her keep busy for a couple more weeks and then we're taking her to the beach in SanDiego on your anniversary! Since you're not here what better way to celebrate!
Tomorrow's a school day so we better go..Not your average Monday though. The Lakers start their series against the Suns and we have to rest up since we're cheering for you too!!

uncle Joel auntie kimmy and faith

home from our weekend

Well dad we had a great weekend at brennan's. On Mother' Day we went out to lunch with Marian at a restaurant by the mall. Of course that was convenient because mom of course wanted to go shopping after..That turned out pretty good for us. We got to ride in a double firetruck stroller,rode the merry go round and of course we made out with a couple of things for ourselves. After that we went to the park. Uncle Joel, Auntie Kimmy, Brennan and Faith were all there as well as Auntie Kimmy's sister, mom and uncle Bob. The highlight was Grammy and Kathy showed up and played with us for a long time. We loved seeing them and you know we show a good time at the park! Needless to say, by the time we got home we were exhausted, AGAIN. Do you think mom plans all this stuff so we can't see straight by the time the day is over??

Anyways we left monday morning for home. We got our usual "bribe for the road", donuts, and we were off.

We were still tired apparently because we slept most of the way home. This was nice for mom cause it would be the only quiet she had had for a while.

Mom told us Tuesday morning she had talked to you after we went to bed monday night. She enjoyed the 20 minutes before you guys got cut off. She's still a little worried about you but we're good at keeping her busy,don't you worry! We miss you but don't worry,we're doing great!!

Brennan's House

Mommy decided to take us to brennan's house for the weekend to pass the time while you were traveling to afghanistan from washington d.c. It was great timing since Brennan was having a birthday party...And you know we love parties!!

We saw great grandma and great grandpa.We jumped in a mickey mouse "jumpie thing" pretty much nonstop all day.We had a little bit of subway and a whole lot of junk!! We don't know if it's because you're gone or what but mom's really letting us bend the ruleson our usual "diet". Not only that but she's letting us stay up as late as we want. I think Uncle Joel and Kim better watch out cause we might want to move in!!

Anyways, we had a great day today. We crashed hard but mom's still up..Right after we went to bed she got to see you on skype for the first time and talk to you right before you got on your plane to Afghanistan. She might not get much sleep tonight, but when we wake up you will be in a whole other world..You being so far away is scary for her but don't worry, we will wake up hopefully rested and will keep her busy again tomorrow!!

The day after we said goodbye

Daddy, the day after you left, Tuesday May 4, we went to our two favorite places with Mommy...Can you guess where? That's right...the park and mcdonald"s. The only thing missing was you! Mom's learning the routine though now that she's off work more. We had a great time and eventhough there will be many more trips to both places, we can't wait till you can go with us again.

Welcome!

Our family is beginning a new chapter as Keith is currently on board a plane destined to the middle east where he will be living and working for one year. I'm creating this blog mainly to keep in touch with Keith but also so our family and friends can follow us and pray for us during this new journey the Lord is taking us on. For now, please pray for Keith's safety, adapting to a new time zone and getting settled in. Thank you for reading, following along and praying for us as a family.