William's home coming

William has safely left Iraq  and is currently in Kuwait.  He will be there for a few days and then he will come home.  I can't offer any more information than that he will be coming home some time hopefully  this week.  There are lots of possible delays so he may not make it home this week but he has finally left Iraq.  The home coming process has started!!  We are very excited for his arrival home.  When he finally enters the United States I will be able to let you know.  

On another note  I am very thankful for Mom who currently has my two beautiful boys!!  After William not coming home last week I was done and I needed to rest and be by myself for a day so I called mom and she so graciously took them.  Actually she was thrilled and couldn't wait to get her precious grandchildren.  So after a primary activity on Saturday I dropped the boys off and I will go and pick them up tomorrow morning!!  It has been an amazing couple of days.  I have rested, I was able to pay attention at church and I am cleaning and shopping today!!  I am so thankful for this extra time to get ready for William's arrival.  Plus when he gets home I will be rested and not wanting to throw the children at him while I run away!  It will make for a much calmer homecoming for all!    Life is good!

Daddy's Welcome Home Banner!!

Yesterday we stayed inside due to me not feeling good and the high winds here in Vegas.  So we had fun staying in and making banners for when Daddy comes home.  We thought he might make it by the end of this week, but he still hasn't left Iraq so most likely it wont be until next week sometime.  But it is best to be prepared.  The boys had the best time making the banners.  They really loved the one that they pained.  It looks so cute.  Now I just have to write on them to say Welcome Home!

My painters hard at work.

James colored on himself!  He loved coloring himself.  

Here we are with Jessica.  She was helping the boys outline their foot prints.

This is the banner I bought for when he comes home.  I really think that it came out nice.  Lil'Will wanted his picture with it.

Just a better view of the banner!

So cute it had to be posted

James:  Knock, Knock!

Mommy:  Whose there?

James: J. J. (What he calls himself)

Mommy:  J. J. who?

James:  Mommy!

It is his first Mama joke.  You know like your Mama is so big she is the state of Texas, or whatever.  I just thought it was cute!

Lil'Will:  When Daddy comes home I want to move James bed and your bed in my room so we can all wake up together.

Mommy:  I am not sure we are all going to fit in your room with our beds.  

Lil'Will:  Yes you will.  I will even put a pillow down so you wont hurt your head when you fall out of bed.  ( that may explain a lot about me. I suffer from head injuries, obviously, from constantly falling out of the bed!)

Mommy:  I didn't realize that I had a problem with staying in the bed at night.  But thank you for being so sweet to put down a pillow for me.  

LilWill:  When you fall out I will put down another pillow for you so it wont hurt the second time.

Mommy:  Wow you are really very sweet.  Thank you for thinking of me.

Lil'Will:  I know. (Its nice to know that he can take a compliment)

My crazy boys!

We were heading down the hall to get into the bath when James ducked into Lil'Wills room and grabbed this hat.  He even put it on!  I thought he looked so cute I had to take a picture.  

I only asked him to look up so I could take a picture, but he might have heard Mardi Gras with the reaction I got!

Super Cheese!

Super Will-Will on the super scooter

The two boys together.  They are so handsome!

Daddy's Uniform

Before Mom and Trent left I had gotten a call from William.  He told me that in one of the trunks he sent home was an Army uniform.  William has quite a lot of uniforms from this deployment.  When he got to Iraq they realized that the Air Forces new uniforms weren't fireproof enough so they gave the airman flight suits to wear than they gave them Army Uniforms and then they got some fireproof Air Force uniforms.   Needless to say since he wont wear the Army Uniforms again and he knows what a military nut Trent is he had me open all of the trunks in search of one of the Army uniforms for Trent.  Trent was super excited to get a uniform, but Baby James was very upset that Trent was taking his Daddy's uniform! He kept screaming No Dada!!  He knew that was his Daddies uniform and he did not want Trent to have one if he didn't get one.  So I pulled out one of Wills Physical Training shirts and pulled it over his head.  He all of a sudden was very placated.  He wore it the rest of the day and cried when it was bath time and it had to come off!  It was very touching and sweet to me that he knew that it was his daddies items and he didn't want to let go of them.

The two boys in their uniforms

I love baby James feet in this picture.  He has the sweetest baby toes ever!!  I just love to eat them up!

Children's Museum

We were very lucky to have Mom and Trent come and stay with us for part of last week.  Since it was Trent's spring break we really tried to do something fun everyday.  On Tuesday we went to the Children's Museum here in Vegas.  They had Clifford the big red dog as the traveling feature.  The museum was a lot of fun.  The kids really enjoyed a few of the exhibits.  You will see them in the pictures.  My boys really enjoyed the little airport that they had there.  They loved being baggage handlers.  They played there for 30 minutes and then we went back and they played there for close to an hour.  Trent really liked the store that they had him and mom rang things up on the cash register while the boys had their second go round on the plane.  Unfortunately for Trent and Mom I got sick with pneumonia while they were here.  I was very thankful for all the help.  It was nice having them help with the boys!!  The boys cried for almost an hour after they left on Thursday.  It was really sad!

Mom and the boys in front of clifford.

James giving Emily Elizabeth a kiss!

Captain James and co-pilot Will

The captain and the co-pilot are also the baggage handlers.  Its a small airline company.

I've always said he was a bubble head.

Our local auto mechanics hard at work!!  Aren't they just the most precious thing in the world!

Spiderman in my house!

Lil'Will has this spiderman costume that he got from his Nana.  He loves it and wears it at least once a day.  You never know when spiderman may show up and save you from the sandman!!

Spiderman is taking a rest with his blanky.  Who knew he had one of those?!

Here he is showing me where he gets some of his super powers.

Making a cake

Lil'Will really wanted to make a cake this week.  So I made one on Monday.  The boys had the best time licking the bowl and beater after we made the batter.  They could hardly wait for the cake to come out of the oven.  They actually sat in front of the oven while the cake baked.  It was very cute.  After the cake came out of the oven they became little vultures.  The cakes slowly became picked at and were slowly eaten.  It took a lot of icing and a bunch of sprinkles to hide the damage.  The boys loved putting the sprinkles on the cake.  Lil'Will did the big sprinkles and James did the small sprinkles.

Damage caused by the vultures, I mean sweet little boys!

The finished product

Lil'Will showing off in front of the cake

James taking a taste of the finished product

How pretty it looked when cut open.

Signs my Airman is coming home!!

We are so excited for William to come home.  Lil'Will and I talk about it almost every day.  The best part is that we are not planning for it to happen in 6 months but soon so it makes it so much more fun!  I have come up with some signs that my husband will be coming home soon!

1.  Trunks have started to arrive.  These are the one that William has sent home and I have 5 more of these for other airman that live in the dorms and needed a place to mail them.  I am to expect about 10 more!  But I am so thrilled to have him sending things home cause that means that he will be next!

2.  I had some shirts made for Williams homecoming.  I think that these are so cute and that the boys are going to looks so cute meeting Will in them!

3.  I ordered a sign for us to hang up outside for when he comes home.  It has his picture on it and everything!  I can't wait for the day when I get to put it up on our garage cause he is here!!!  I would put up its picture but I haven't received it yet.

4.  We had a welcome home briefing with the other wives in his squadron.  It was all about how to treat your husband when he comes home.  How it will be awkward at first and the resources that the base has to help those that need it. I really hope that I don't need to use any of them.  But only time will tell.

5.  I am organizing the house and trying to clear out the spaces that I know he uses.  So that way when he comes home he has a place to put things.  This one is the hardest for me.  I like having all the drawers in the bathroom for my stuff!  

and the biggest of all the signs. . . 

6.  His replacements have been trained, have left Las Vegas and have arrived in Balad!!  Now they need to be trained for two weeks and he will hopefully be able to leave.  Unfortunately we don't know how long it will take for him to get back.  It took almost two weeks to get to Balad so lets hope it doesn't take that long to get home.  This Mama can't handle to much more!   

A bit confused

On Friday Williams squadron held a meeting for the spouses of deployed airman.  The meeting was basically how to deal with your airman after he gets home.  It was held at the Airman Family Readiness Center.  Well, we had been very busy that morning and ran around getting things done. But since the meeting was being held at 1:30, nap time for us, I kept mentioning it to the kids so they would know what we were up to.  So at 1:15 we arrive at the Airman Family Readiness Center and I tell Lil'Will that we were there and that it was time to get out of the car.  He looks at me and goes, "Um, No!!  This is not your FAMILIES house!!"  Then I was like, "Oh, so sorry to confuse you.  This is a place where they help families in the military.  We are going to meet our military family."  Needless to say he was very unhappy.  There weren't any cousins to play with.  Just other kids not related to him!  He was very grumpy for the whole meeting!  I may need to clarify things in the future!

Knock, Knock!!

Today at lunch James was sitting next to me and eating his lunch like a very good boy.  Then I noticed a slight hit on my arm and it kept happening.  When I finally look over to ask James to not hit mommy I realize that he is saying Knock, Knock with it!  So in honor of Baby James first Knock, Knock joke here it is.

James:  Knock, Knock! (In the sweetest soft baby voice)

Mommy:  Oh!  Who's There? (In shock my baby it telling a joke, Hello he is only 19 months!!)

James:  Doo Doo!!  (this is what he calls Scooby Doo)

  Then he laughs hysterically!  It is seriously the sweetest thing!

He gets his sense of humor from his brother.  I taught Lil'Will his whole name by putting it in a knock, knock format.  Hey, he may not yet know how to tell a joke but he know his full name is Will-Will Ford Bennett!

I so love my boys!!

Potty Training Already?!!

Baby James is no longer my baby!  This last week he decided that he was going to go pee on the toilet like his brother.  He has been showing the signs since we were in New York, there he wanted to sit on the toilet before his bath.  So this week I finally felt that we were settled back at home much better and I dragged out the little toilet.  he was thrilled and he would sit on it before bath time, never doing anything.  Then yesterday I pulled out the toilet seat insert and he was thrilled!!  He had to sit on it four different times during the day!  We didn't have any success until last night.  I sat him up on the toilet and then went to check on the bath water and when I turned back on him he he was going peepee in the toilet!!  I am so proud of my little man!!  I can hardly believe that at 19 months he is using the toilet.  I don't expect him to use it often and I don't think that he will be potty trained anytime soon.  But I am super proud of him.