Leslie and Stephen get married!

This past weekend Leslie Parks and Stephen Meyers were married. The girls and I made the trip to Lynchburg Va. Friday morning and John came in later that evening. It was so much fun visiting with friends and celebrating with Leslie and Stephen. I am just amazed at how God works and how he brought the two of them together. When I was a RD at Liberty, Leslie was one of my RA's for two years. We became great friends and continued as friends when I stopped working. I love going to wedding's where God is the center and is praised. That is exactly how their wedding was. Leslie looked absolutely beautiful and the day was perfect! Thank you so much for letting me be part of it :) Here are some pictures from the wedding that were taken by the talented Sabrena Carter! She is amazing!

Me, Leslie and my baby bump...I am 13 weeks pregnant and very thankful that I fit into my dress :)

I am not sure why the rest are so small...I will try and fix that later, but you get the idea of some of the pictures.

Anna's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Anna's 3rd birthday this past Saturday. My parents, Chris Deitsch, and Chris's Mom came into town for the day to help celebrate with us. It was a really fun day with family and friends. I was trying to run the party and take pictures so I only have some of Anna and not the whole group :(  Anna was so excited for her party! She was especially excited for the cupcakes. I can't believe my baby is already 3 years old.

Here are some pictures of the party and few of the girls dressed up as Barney and Baby Bop. The costumes were sent to us from my friend Brittany :) Anna loves wearing them..Eliza thought she would like it, but hasn't wanted to dress up all.

The next day she woke up and said my presents are still here :) I guess she thought those gifts were just for the day, but she was glad to know that they were hers and would be staying at our house.

What we have been up to the past few months.....

I realize that I have been slacking on my blog, but I really have good excuses!!!! I do!! Well, we have moved from Lynchburg, Va to Ft. Bragg NC. It has been a pretty smooth transition. Moving is just hard. It just is. We are starting over meeting friends, finding a church, learning about the area, and adjusting to army life. The good news is that we are adjusting. We have found a great church and we are looking to get pluged in. I even found a playgroup to take the girls to every Monday.
My other news, more exciting news, is that I am 11.5 weeks pregnant. Today has been the first day that I can say I feel great. This pregnancy has been the most difficult with morning sickness. Well, more like ALL day sickness. I have never thrown up so much in my life. I have been extra sensitive with smells and foods. I am almost out of this first trimester and hoping to feel great during the second trimester. I have my first OB appointment tomorrow morning so praying that everything looks great. I found out that I was pregnant the first weekend we moved here. I was absolutley convinced that I wasn't pregnant. We were sitting in church and I just had waves of nausea come over me. Later that afternoon I took a test, the next day I took two more tests, and then the third day I took one more. You would think with my third pregnancy I would believe it after the first test.
We lived at the airborne inn for the first couple weeks at Ft Bragg. Here are some pictures from those weeks.

Here are a couple pregnany tests....

With all this going on you can see why I have not even thought about the blog :) Hope you enjoyed some pictures!! More to come soon. I have the messiest house, but as soon as it is clean I willl post some pictures of where we are living.

Ft Bragg details...

We are headed to Ft Bragg again today. I will remember my camera this week! I forgot it last week and was so mad at myself. We will officially move in to our house (duplex) on base September 16th. We will actually be living on the Pope Air Force base side. I am getting excited about it. There are lots of parks and we will live within walking distance of a great pool! We will be back in town Friday (11th) to start packing up the house. We are going to move ourselves to try and make some money off the move. Lots to do...
Also, wanted to share a praise! In God's perfect timing we have found a really nice family to rent our house. We would have liked to sell it, but God just has a different plan for our home right now. This is a huge burden lifted off of our shoulders. Thank you for all your prayers!
I will post some pictures next week...

Army = Emotional Roller Coaster

John called at 7:15 this morning and said my orders have been changed. I will be going to pick them up around 9:00. An overwhelming amount of fear and anxiety swept over me. What does this mean? At that point John didn't know, he said his unit had deployed yesterday and that he could be sent right over there or changing units. After a lot of tears, an e-mail to my wonderful military support in Lynchburg, crying and praying in the shower I waited for John's phone call. My friend Lindsay had emailed me saying, "even in the military the Lord's hand is always at work." Why do I even doubt God for a second??? Later this morning John called and said that his orders had been changed to the 1st company and that they would be leaving in a month. There was someone high up in the office that happened to ask John if he had a family he was trying to move. John said yes and the man said, I am going to help you out and changed him to the 2nd company. They will not be leaving until next year. Praise God! I am so thankful that we will have time as a family to get settled at Ft Bragg before he leaves. So we are really going...we will be moving to some house on base within the next couple weeks..maybe... God is good and faithful always!

Enoy some of the latest family pictures by Sabrena Deal :) I asked her to take some family pictures with the thought that John would be deploying in the next couple months.

Crazy life...

I really do live a crazy life. I have traveled all over the place this summer with two little ones BY MYSELF. Thank you Lord for keeping us safe on all our journey's. About 3 weeks ago we left at 3am for Surfside Beach. I didn't really know exactly how to get there, but I printed off directions. Around 5am I am thinking I am lost. I am driving with two sleeping babies...it is dark outside and nothing is open. I get out my map and a flash light while I am still driving to see if I can find the right way to go. I can't figure it out so who can I call at 5am...My Dad! I know he will be awake. We finally figure out the right way, but my babies are now awake in the car :(

We stayed in Surfside Beach with Gigi and Poppi for a couple days, we went to Charleston for a couple days and then we left to see Daddy at Ft Benning GA. It was a long couple weeks, but on August 14, John graduated from Airborne school and we were able to bring him home. That day he also received his orders. We will be going to Ft. Bragg NC. He also found out that he is with a group that will be leaving for Afghanistan this fall. I spend a couple hours crying on the way home. He was finally coming home after 20 weeks, but it was heartbreaking to know he will be leaving again so soon. Now we are trying to figure out housing on base and we are still trying to figure out what to do with our house in Lynchburg. The thought has crossed my mind to just stay here while he is deployed. I have friends, church, aerobics, doctors, and romp N roll all here. Until he leaves we want to be with John so we don't know if it will work out. Now we are just waiting on God and the army. Needless to say, life is a little crazy for us right now.

Enjoy the pictures from our trip...

Not part of our trip..But just thought it was funny that Anna like to color in my heals :)
The girls loved the beach!

We had a chance to meet up with John's Brother Sam, who is in Iraq right now, sister-in-law Ashley and nephew Charlie. Sam was home on a two week leave. Isn't Charlie adorable!! I had a hard time taking pictures of moving children with my slow camera!

We stayed at the Uchee Creek campsite at Ft Benning...we were staying in a one room cabin, but the very last night they messed up our reservation so they put us up in a chalet. It was wonderful other than the dead mouse I found in the toilet!

Beautiful view!

Anna slept on the top bunk...what a big girl!

sisters :)

Anna loves dressing up in Daddy's soldier clothes!

Another bit of news is that Anna is oficially a big girl because she has given up her pacifiers! She is growing up so fast. More to come about moving at a later date.....

John's Graduation

John's graduation was really cool to watch. Lot's of action as you can see from the first couple pictures. The girls thought it was cool too. Anna talked loudly during the whole thing saying, "Are those soldiers mad? What are they doing?What are they doing with their mouths? Are they mad?" Where did those soldiers go?I want them to come back." I think we bothered the people all around us especially the lady in front of us. Eliza pushed Anna into the lady in front of her and smashed grapes on her shirt! All in all it was a great day and we are so proud of John. He looks like a hunk in his uniform :) Warning : ignore the humid hair in the photo's :)

Anna and Eliza loved this band and danced to the music in the stands :)

Marching..I think John is in there somewhere...

John and his mom

Uncle Ben, John and John's Dad

John and Chris...Chris is such a wonderful friend to us and has helped us so much while John has been away! Thank you Chris for all your help!

John's cousin's Heather and Julie came to support John too. We are so happy that they were able to come. Here is a picture of Julie and John. She was so wonderful helping me with the girls! They love her so much! Thank you Julie!