Big John Deere

Yes, I definitely have country kids now.  When you know the name of most tractor attachments and you see as many horses as businesses on the way to town...that's what I call a country kid!  Of course, that comes from a decidedly city raised Mama.  Andrew thinks it's all oh-so normal!  So when we heard and spotted the big John Deere tractor, yes Michael knows the difference between a John Deere and any other, we got excited.  The land owners FINALLY came to mow the big field next to our house.  It had gotten to tall we couldn't walk through there anymore...it was about waist high to me in some places.  So they had this big John Deere with a bush-hog sent over to do the job.  Needless-to-say Michael and Mary Ellen were thrilled to watch this big tractor in action.  When he finished for the day we decided to go take a looksie!   

Michael wanted up first.  He loves to sit on our "tractor", that is our little riding lawn mower, so you can imagine how excited he was to sit on this one.

Mary Ellen got a turn too.  They loved to turn the steering wheel and even tried to do the gear shift.

Love this last shot of them in the front end loader with the sun setting.  You can see our house in the background.  We were sad when he finished his work the next day and the tractor left.

Swamp Fox Celebration

All the Swamp Foxes got together to celebrate on Labor Day this year.  Of course, this was really a celebration that everyone was back from the Iraq deployment safe and sound.  Deiter had a BBQ at his house on Lake Murray.  There was skiing and swimming and lots of great food.

This was Michael and Mary Ellen's first time swimming in a lake and they were a little apprehensive.  They've been to the beach in Florida and of course been to several different pools, but the lake water took some getting used to.  Mary Ellen kept saying, "The water is dirty Mama"!  And the bottom was squishy and a little slimy.

They really didn't love walking around in the shallow part so Andrew put them in this little boat and pulled them around.  They LOVED it! 

I think they ate their weight in BBQ, chips and cookies.  It was a fun day to be together as a family...the Thornes, and the Swamp Foxes!

Michael's Hair Cut

My poor little babies have been SLOW to grow hair.  Now with Mary Ellen this has been slightly distressful for me; wanting to constantly put bows in her hair that would not stay.  With Michael it hasn't been that big of a deal.  Boys are supposed to have short hair, right?!  Michael first started getting this rat-tail-thing that was easy enough for me to trim several months back.  We took pictures and I saved the hair.  But then it just started getting long and really unruly.  So I decided to take him in with me when I got my hair cut and let Debbie trim his up before I had my hair done.  Better than me trying to hack away at it, with who knows what kind of results.  I was so proud of him!  He sat as still as a soldier and didn't once complain.  Of course he did have a beautiful lady cutting his hair...what was there to complain about?  Debbie did a great job and now he looks like such a little man.  Who knew he'd be almost 3 before he got his first real hair cut. 

My little man...thanks Debbie!

Flying Airplanes

We had a traumatic doctors visit earlier this week where we learned Mary Ellen had a double ear infection.  She never once complained about her ears hurting.  Although, I've learned she rarely ever does and have to look for other signs which is usually an attitude shift!  Now the ear infection part wasn't traumatic in-and-of-itself.  The traumatic part was that she had lots of wax build up in her ears and they had to spend a considerable amount of time irrigating them.  To put it mildly, Mary Ellen did NOT enjoy it!  But two free ice cream cone coupons were given...yes, Michael also benefited from Mary Ellen's traumatic doctors visit..so we decided to go to Sonic for lunch and the free ice cream.  I guess that's a long story to say we got these GREAT gliders as the free kids meal toy.  Because we don't often eat out at fast food places these toys still hold great excitement for the Thorne kids.  We waited until Daddy got home to put them together and fly them.  I think Michael was in hog heaven; they both were really.    You can just see the pure bliss on their faces!

Daddy helped throw them a few times and if they wanted to watch it fly high, but they did most of it themselves.  They'd run after each other flying the airplanes and spent a considerable amount of time just throwing it on their own about 2 feet, usually behind them!

This last picture is one of my favorite.  What joy it is to watch my children so carefree running through our backyard enjoying life!

        

New Tractor

We finally had to break down and buy and riding mower for our 1-acre-monster-of-a "yard".  Michael and Mary Ellen call it our tractor and want to ride it everyday...especially Michael.  This was right after the Sears truck delivered it.  They had a ball just riding around.  We love it too and cuts a two day project of mowing the yard down to about 3 hours!  Hooray for Sears!!

Independence Day

July 4th was a great weekend of celebration!  We had Andrew home and we were celebrating our country's freedom.  What a great way to welcome Daddy home!  However, most of our celebrating was done inside just spending time together.  We didn't even do fireworks.  It was enough to just spend time playing and being together this year.  Hope everyone had a great Independence Day weekend and that you had the opportunity to thank a military member for our freedoms!

Daddy's Home!

Andrew finally made it home, after an excruciating 5 day journey back, and we have been enjoying all being together again.  It always takes some adjustment to fall back into routines but it seemed easier this time probably due to a 60 day instead of 120 day deployment. 

This was where Andrew slept and all the things we sent him to remind him of how much we love him.  The room he shared with Slammer was about the size of our bathroom but he was always thankful for a dark, cool place to sleep when he could.  I think he only had one day "off" while he was there and that was only because of trying to schedule crew rest.

My handsome husband ready for a mission.  Still does something to my heart to see him in uniform!

He arrived back home very early in the morning.  So we arrived before dark to pick him up.  Michael and Mary Ellen were troopers though, and so excited to finally see Daddy!!  I have video of the actual reunion that I'll have to add later.  Seeing them run across this field yelling, "Daddy, Daddy" was priceless!

Mary Ellen modeling the shirts we had made for Daddy's return..."My Daddy is My Hero"!

Michael and Mary Ellen looking happy and content sitting with Daddy.

WELCOME HOME DADDY!