having a sister

catherine rae finally came home from afghanistan in may.  there were a ton of people there to greet her, i know she was overwhelmed.  it had been a long time since we all saw each other.  it was a great mini reunion and so amazing to see my baby sister.  nothing more special than having a sister.

baby brother ben and myself

catie coming off the plane

formation before release

waiting for release

got my moment with her

this old dog

sadly, in april we decided to let our 13 year old baby go.  buster was with us from the beginning.  he was the first baby eric and i had all the way back in hawaii.  it was so hard, but we knew it was the best thing for him.  i am so thankful for the memories with buster boy. he has licked many of my tears away and kept me safe through many deployments.  even when human kiddos started coming into his world one by one, he was gentle and patient.  he put up with me freaking out over his hair and his messy bed.  i love this old dog.

the morning we said good-bye

in the window

finally made it to kindergarten round up for ty david gray. k.i.n.d.e.r.g.a.r.t.e.n. wow!  my little buddy, my tyster the myster. all ready for big school now.  can't believe all three are actually going to be in school now.  we got the grand tour of the school and ty got to take his very first bus ride.  note his face in the window.  

weeks of therapy

 here is another fabulous idea in the gray household.  again - eric's fault.  eric thought it would be a wonderful experience to have a few ducklings, raise them until they were big enough and let them free in a pond to live a wonderful life.  i don't know why, but at some point i went along with it.  eric built a coop of some sort, with a little swimming pool and all the fixin's.  it was quite the responsibility for the kiddos.  play with them after school, keep them fed, and lock them up at night so God knows what wouldn't eat them.

well.

something ate them.  each one.  one by one.  each on a different day.  good lord.  what a dramatic mess.  oh ya, eric was in school for all of the latter part.  the kids have recovered after weeks of therapy.  :)

peas in a pod

this is how eric and ty have fun all day.  they are two peas in a pod.  

kambel was

bahahahahahahahahahaha.  i LOVE this picture.  the girls had 'camo' day (yes only in tennessee) for school to kick off an event.  we found the girls shirts, but matching.  kadence wasn't too happy.  but kambel was!

your phone

this next entry is totally eric's fault.  haha.  i was off somewhere and the kiddos were playing on the swing set.  i guess kadence was trying to do some stunt and landed on her chin.  hard to tell in the first picture unless you know her face like her mother does.  it looks like she had a chin implant.  i just about died when i saw her.  it bruised nicely.  most of the photos i had were on my phone...that fell in water.  don't keep photos on your phone.