Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the awesome mommies out there!!!

Becoming a mom has been, by far, one of the greatest blessings in my life. It has definitely been the most life-changing experience of my life! Even though Josh wasn't here today, he definitely made me feel awfully special by sending me a beautiful Pandora bracelet, on it, a mom charm, and two adorable little boy charms representing our gorgeous little guys! Today at church I was overcome with emotion...a mix of missing Josh terribly, but also realizing how incredibly blessed I am to have an amazing, loving, caring husband, and two beautiful, healthy little boys who enrich our lives so much! Thank you, Lord, for fulffilling my dream of becoming a mommy, for giving me my best friend and soulmate to father our children, and for our precious baby boys who we love so much!

And none of this would have been possible for Josh and I without our own mamas...now known as Mamaw and Meemaw! We love you, Moms! Happy Mother's Day!!

Me and the boys

Mamaw (Josh's mom) with two of her four grandchildren

Meemaw (My mom) with all four of her grandkids

A Post of Mixed Emotions

Well, I have a lot to post about today, and a variety of mixed emotions about this post. First off, I would like to ask for prayers for my dear friends, the Oblinger family. They are experiencing so much pain and suffering having lost two of their four children in the past six years. I cannot even fathom what it must be like to lose a child, let alone two children in 6 years. My dear childhood friend, Keith, passed away in 2005, and his younger brother, Kurt, (who had a heart transplant the same year Keith passed) just passed away last week, on Easter Sunday. The Oblingers are amazing people, some of the sweetest, most caring I have ever known, and I ask that you please remember them in your prayers. Thank you.

Sorry to start off this post with such depressing news, but the Oblingers need all the prayers they can get during this difficult time!

Moving on, I have to brag on my amazing husband! He got promoted today, and I am so incredibly proud of him! Josh is now a Captain! For those of you unfamiliar with the military, this is a big promotion for him. We knew he was going to get promoted while he was in Afghanistan, and I am so bummed to have missed such an important promotion ceremony. Josh being the thoughtful and loving husband he is, made sure to video it for the boys and I, so we could see it too! I cannot explain how proud I am of Josh. I am so incredibly blessed to have married not only my best friend and soulmate, but my hero. A man who is willing to sacrafice everything for his God, his family, and his country. He is an incredible soldier, and leader. He is so deserving, and will make a fantastic captain! Congratulations, Josh! We love you so much!!

I will end this post with some pics from Easter. We missed Josh badly, but were able to be surrounded by our families, which was good. Here are some pics:

The boys loved their gifts that Daddy sent them (Muno and Brobee pillows...perfect for the boys' Yo Gabba Gabba obsession!)

Mommy and her boys

Too much fun, too many Easter egg hunts!

Great Wolf Lodge!

The Army Family Strong Bonds Program offered spouses of deployed soldiers a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati, OH this past weekend. So I signed up, asked my mom to tag along, and we had a blast! While I attended my "sessions," my mom watched the boys. When I was finished for the day, we got to take to them into the indoor waterpark, and the boys loved it! Ty loved going down the water slides, and Caellum loved sticking his face in the fountains! Thanks, Army, for this awesome program, and for giving us a fun weekend!

Here are some pics:

Mammoth Cave!

Aunt Peggy, Uncle Bob, and their sweet girls, Natalie and Molly, along with Meemaw and Pawpaw came down last week for a visit. We went to Mammoth Cave, and had a great time spending time together! Thank you, for coming down! We love you and had a fabulous time!

Meemaw, Papaw, me, and the boys

Aunt Peggy and the girls getting ready for their first cave tour!

Entering the cave

Natalie, Caellum, Molly, and Ty posing in front of a tank at the Patton Museum

Caellum's new favorite thing to do is pick dandelions! :-)

Mommy and Ty-Ty Day!

I don't think I have had one-on-one time with Ty since Caellum has been born. So, when my friend asked if we wanted to go to the circus with her and her oldest daughter, I was so excited! She told me her mom would watch Caellum if I wanted her to so I could have some Mommy/Ty time...awesome! I felt guilty leaving my baby boy behind, but Caellum is at the age where he just doesn't want to sit anymore...he wants to get down and get into everything! And I knew it would be good for Ty to have some quality mommy time. So, Ty and I went to the circus! We had so much fun! Thanks to my friend, Kat and Kat's mom, for making Mommy/Ty-Ty time possible! :-)

Here are some pics:

Mommy and Ty at the circus!

He is mesmerized!

The Elephants were Ty's favorite! Unfortunately this happened before he got to really see them do their portion of the show:

We bought Caellum a gift since he didn't get to go with us. Ty gave it to him when we got into the car.

Loft(3)

Hello All!

So I know it's been awhile (again) since I've posted, but I just can't seem to get into the swing of weekly posts. I am just keeping busy as ever with our growing little men! We are all doing well, including Josh! Nothing new to report, just plugging along day-to-day. I have been waiting to post this link, though:

Loft(3) Blog

Once there, click on "blog," and you'll find us under the title "lisa & her boys."

For Josh's upcoming birthday, I had professional photos taken of the boys and I. Since I couldn't wait until his actual B-day to show him (I was too excited about the photos), I gave him the link today while we were skyping, and got to watch his very touching reaction to seeing them. Our friend, Melanie, and her husband, Adam, take the most amazing photos, and Melanie hooked us up by squeezing us into her extremely booked schedule! If you have time, you should check out her blog...amazing photos to look at, and some very touching stories to read! I think the photos made the perfect birthday present, and I am hoping that Melanie and Adam will be able to take more photos of us next year, when Josh gets home! They are also the photographers for my brother's upcoming wedding in July!

Here are some recent pictures of the boys:


Enjoying one of the few warm days we had this month!


Ty painted his face! :-)


Brotherly Love!


Caellum has learned how to climb...he just doesn't know how to get down yet. He cries. Lol!

Two months down!

Just checking in, letting everyone know we are still here and doing ok! February has flown by, and we now have 2 months of the deployment under our belts. We had some fun and some not-so-fun moments this month. The highlight of our month was going to see our family and friends in Cincinnati. It was Meemaw's birthday, so we got to celebrate with her. We also got to celebrate the birthdays of Morgan and Katie, the gorgeous daughters of our good friends, the Sunderman's. Our not-so-fun moments consisted of more sickness...ugh! Ty and I got the nasty stomach virus that's going around at the SAME time! So, I had a fun night of being up all night taking care of a puking Ty, while I was running to the bathroom every 5 minutes myself! That was definitely one of the roughest nights I have ever had. But thank the good Lord for my dear, sweet mom, who came down the next morning to help me take care of the boys and myself! We are just about back to normal now, and are hoping to stay healthy again for awhile! Josh is doing well too, and we have been blessed to be able to talk to him pretty often. He is tired, and working hard, but seems to be doing well. The boys are as ornery as ever! They are really starting to interact and play together, and it is fun watching them. Here are some recent pictures of our little boogers!


Ty loves wearing his daddy's boots and hat!


Caellum trying to feed himself applesauce




Little ornery Caellum pulled all those clothes out of his drawer!


Ty rocking out on his guitar!


Getting ready to go to church!


Meemaw and her four grandbabies...all in their jammies!