WOW! Can I say, "WOW!" again? WOW!

It's time to repent, again! So just to let you know beforehand, I had asked Dustin to send me a lovey card for Valentine's Day. I even said an e-card would do. Here it is the 13th and I hadn't received my card yet. So then, Dustin and I were talking on the live messenger and I was feeling kind of sorry for myself because here I am with 4 kids, getting no sleep and Dustin is on vacation when he says to me, after talking about going to dinner with

adults(!) that he got a massage. Hello? Excuse me? A massage? Here I am wishing for 4 hours sleep in a row and he's out to dinner and a massage? Needless to say a serious pity party was rockin' the Douberly house!

THEN THERE WAS THE SOUND OF MY DOORBELL RINGING....

It was the FEDEX guy.

He had me sign his little doohicky.

My package was from a flower shop!

Ooh, we ripped it open to find these lovely flowers, chocolates, and a super sweet card inside. The flowers are gorgeous and just what I needed on this pity party day. Dustin had already sent me the beautiful blue pearls in the photo. I thought that those were my Valentine's gift before today. Ooooh, am I spoiled or what?

So, THANK YOU, HONEY! I LOVE THEM!

p.s. I also opened the chocolates, looked at the little "map" and chose my favorite, the milk chocolate caramel. I popped it into my mouth expecting to bite into it's chewy goodness only to find it was rock hard...completely FROZEN! I should have expected it but found it very humorous! How long have I lived here? Duh!

My Boys' and their Valentines

Here are my boys and the Valentines they receieved at school yesterday. I can remember Valentine's Day festivities from my elementary school years and I hope my boys remember these fun times, too. I also remember my mom telling me, "Yes, you have to give one to everyone." I can remember the whole lecture about being sure no ones feelings got hurt. That's a lesson that's as true today as it was back then!

Photos from Chief Jo Elementary

Henry was the student of the week for Miss Long's 2nd grade class. We got to help decorate this bulletin board with photos of Henry and the things he loves. There were photos of Henry from Halloween, his birthday, Missy, camping, fishing, jumping, reading and other fun things. I am glad that we had parties today so that I could get these photos of Henry with his special bulletin board all about him! It really did look cute!

Here are a couple of photos of Jeff's recent projects. The one above was his 100th day of school project. We had to collect and display 100 items. Jeff chose army guys. We used glue dots to stick them in there. The picture below is from the hallway bulletin board near Jeff's classroom. His artwork is the one to the right of his head (his left) with lots of orange colors. He takes his time with his art and I think it really shows.

I Heart Classroom Parties!

I love helping out in the boys' classrooms. Today I brought in cookies and then did face painting. I learned the easiest face painting technique at my MIL's company picnic...foam stamps and craft paint. It's awesome. The stamps make neat, clean images, the paint dries quickly, once the pain is dry it doesn't smear, and it washes off in a snap (even with a baby wipe) ! So that's my party contribution each holiday. The kids love it. The girls came along today and Kelsey received her first valentine. She tried to eat it, of course.

It's not nice to try and fool someone...

Dustin had asked that I get a photo of the boys together with their toothless grins. They are so silly that this was the best I could get.

Yesterday, as I was vacuuming the basement I found one tiny little tooth. It was the one that Jeff had lost last week. He was excited that I had found it and he and Henry plotted to put it under his pillow and see if the tooth fairy would leave money again. They are so funny. So this glittery card was all that was found this morning. Nice try, buddy. You can't fool her!

On the Downhill Slide

Yesterday was pretty crazy and I didn't get a chance to post this....

WE ARE HALF-WAY DONE WITH THIS DEPLOYMENT!!!!

Yesterday was day 90 of a(n) 180 day deployment and it was also Dustin's 33rd birthday! The first half has gone by really, really fast and I am hoping that the second half goes by even faster. It helps that I am so stinkin' busy that I don't have a minute to dwell on the fact that he's gone. We miss him like crazy and can't wait for him to come home.

Jenna tells it like it is....

Jenna: Mom, I just yawned.
Mom: Oh, ok.
Jenna: I yawned like you. Moms yawn. That's what they do.

I guess I need more sleep. Who would've guessed that? Brand new baby, 3 other kids, deployed spouse...yeah, I need more sleep.