USO Books

The USO has a wonderful program called United Through Reading where they provide hardback children's books for service men and women deployed to read on video to their children back home.  They package up the book and the DVD and send it to the families.  What a wonderful treat for children to have their Mom or Dad read them a bed time story and actually be able to see them!  Of course many have been away from family for up to a year or more, so seeing them doing something so everyday is truly a comfort for children.  Here is a link to a sample of what United Through Reading is doing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEGRijdCIm8

Michael and Mary Ellen were so excited to get their books from Daddy!  They have instantly become their FAVORITE books; wanting to read them every night!  We miss Andrew so much and are eagerly anticipating having him home soon.  Thanks USO for such a special memory!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

We were sad we couldn't spend Father's Day with Andrew this year but are eagerly anticipating having him home in a few weeks!  We did have a great day at church and Michael and Mary Ellen made cards for Daddy in Sunday school.  You'll get them when you come home Andrew!  We took some pictures to send to Andrew to remind him how much we love and miss him.  You are our hero and the best Daddy ever.  Thank you for taking care of us so well and loving us so much.  Hurry home!

Hooray for Daddy!!

Artwork for Daddy

We started working early on Andrew's Father's Day box.  It takes about a week for them to receive packages and we wanted him to be able to enjoy our gifts for Father's Day.  Michael and Mary Ellen are really into finger painting and coloring right now.  So we did a few "paintings" for Daddy.  As you can see Mary Ellen decided to use the entire jar of red finger paint for her painting.  I finally had to take it away from her.  She just kept scooping more and more paint on the paper.  I think it ended up being about a 1/2 inch thick!  Michael was a little more restrained.  We also did a paper collage tie.  Wish I would have gotten a picture of those.  They turned out really cute!  It was a neck-tie outline on a paper and they glued different color scraps of paper on the tie and then we cut them out.  They did most of it completely by themselves!  We also made "Cowboy cookies" and bought a few DVD's and magazines to add.  He got the box yesterday and loved it!  We really miss him and are looking forward to finally getting him HOME!!