aaron.anica.emily.isabel.claire

Updates to come . . . maybe in January I'll find time :). Anyway I'm attempting to send Christmas cards out. Leave me a message with your address if you'd like one. Also I'm sure Aaron would love to receive mail from any of you. His address is: Aaron J DeHart 971st Camp Marmal APO AE 09368 It goes through the Army postal system so don't write "Afghanistan" on it or he may never get it. I sent him a package and it took about a week to get there, so not too bad. He's doing well. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Happy Holidays!!

Other than missing Aaron everyday, things are well. We've got our routine and despite each day's challenges, I continue to feel quite blessed. I'm lucky to have such sweet little girls and feel it's a blessing that I get to focus entirely on them and their needs in a way that I otherwise wouldn't get to experience if I shared the parental responsibilities with Aaron for this year. Emily is an awesome big sister. I am amazed at the compassion that she has not only for her little sister, but for those around her. I couldn't do it without her. Sometimes the things she says are quick reminders of how much responsibility she has taken upon herself in caring for Isabel. And Isabel, well she's just full of it. She becomes more and more spunky each day, not to mention the temper she's developing. But man is she fun! I've been blessed to have such wonderful friends, family, and ward members check in on me which helps me not feel so alone at times. ...

Day 1 of the next 400 days. I have to say I've been feeling something I completely didn't expect to feel today and that is blessed. I woke up at 3 a.m. to take Aaron to meet up with his unit. Came home, couldn't sleep, and woke up again at 7:45 to my beautiful girls' faces. The shorter one of which happened to be covered from head to toe (literally) in poo, but her little smile shone beneath as we scrubbed her down in the bathtub and Emily attempted to go to the bathroom while holding her nose and dry-heaving. Got a phone call later in the day from Aaron to say he'd made it safely to Fort Lewis, WA where he'll be for the next 3 weeks or so before heading to Afghanistan. He also gave me his address to overnight the list of things he'd forgotten. :) I can't blame him, how would you even begin to pack for a trip like that? This evening I've been reflecting on how grateful I am for all the love and support of friends and family that I know I can dra...

Em started 1st grade this week and is now gone all day, so my day's are filled with this little angel . . . Lucky for me, her personality is just as fun as her hair! I'm happy to say that the first day of school went fairly well, other than: Emily yelling, "Why can't I just have my OWN fashion!!!" when I tried to help her pick out her first day outfit, Izzy crying and holding her arms out for Em as we walked away from Em's classroom (broke my heart), and Emily refusing to get on the bus to come home because she "didn't know where to get off." All in all, a pretty good day. It all could have gone much worse.

We made the decision at the end of last year for Aaron to join the Army Reserves so that he could get some assistance for school and get on a better career path to support our family. This decision was not made without a lot of thought and careful consideration. In doing this we knew that he would have to leave us for four months to complete his Basic Training and AIT. We're happy to say that he made it through, graduating at the top of his platoon. The girls and I were able to keep busy and stay positive so the time went by fast. Now we're onto the next step, which we knew was a possibility, but hoped it wouldn't happen this soon. Aaron will be leaving for Afghanistan for a year to fight for our country. I have to be honest, when I found this out I laid around and cried for several days before I realized it wasn't doing any good so I better get up and get to work. We're focused on the positive things that will come from it and hope that it will go by fast. W...

but it's still a pig!!! These are the words of Aaron when I attempted to get my family to eat brussell sprouts for dinner for the first time. I brought out some ranch dressing for them to dip them in or in Emily's case drench them in. My family would say that I'm pretty lucky to have never had the experience of eating brusell sprouts growing up. In fact, I tried them for the first time a few months ago at work , where they are cooked in bacon grease and I thought, what's not to like. We received some in our Bountiful Basket one week, so I thought we'd give them a try. My mistake was that I left out the bacon grease. They didn't go over so hot. In the words of Emily, "They smell like throw up and they taste like it too!"

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