Time for an update......

Hello everyone and happy spring! We hope that you are all doing well. Ben has been home for a few months now and we are all settled into a routine and a feeling of normalcy. We are so glad to be back to normal! Ben is enjoying his new job where he gets to travel quite often. While traveling, he spends his time inspecting the vehicle maintenance shops at all of the AMC bases. While he is home, he likes to join the other inspectors in trying out every local restaurant possible, oh, and of course, preparing for the next inspection!

I continue chugging away at nursing school and am maintaining a 3.75 GPA!  I am excited to get to start the good stuff this summer and am looking forward to the next two years flying by!

The school year is coming to an end for the kiddos. Brittney will be graduating 8th grade in less than two weeks and is so excited to be starting high school next year. Christian is wrapping up his junior year and is ready to be a big SENIOR! Wow... I can remember those years like they were yesterday, yet my 20th reunion is this summer.

Wow, what else have we been up to? Well, here you go.......

There are still many homes being built in our neighborhood, so we took advantage of that and have been recycling the builder's scraps of wood. Here is a pile of some of the wood we were able to find.

This is what we did in the basement - so much better that before!

This is our wall we built in the garage. There is more to the right of the door as well.

We have been working some in the yard and the latest was putting in the landscaping around the trees. We did both trees in the front yard, but still have two more trees in the back that need done. The garden is also planted and we already have some different things coming up; squash, basil, spinach, carrots, zucchini, sunflowers, some great vines that will bloom beautifully, some other wild flowers, and much more. Again this year, we will have a garden surprise - there is really no telling what it will be!

We are so proud of our Brittney as she had the leading roll in her school's play this year, "Mothergoosed". She did a great job and the play was very funny. They all did fantastic!

This was after the play.....hanging out at 54th Street Grill - Christian, Jenna, Sydney, Brittney, and Bailee

In April, we all drove to Memphis, TN to be at my cousin's wedding. Everything was just beautiful and we had a wonderful weekend! Congratulations Anna and Nick!

Hanging out on Beale Street in downtown Memphis! What a trip that was. This is a pic of my brother Jonathan, Me, and my sister Lauren.

The Parish Family at the wedding

On the roof of our hotel - The Peabody - Jonathan, Ben, Christian, and Uncle Brian

Our Lexi turned 2 this April....we just love her so much and are all so glad she is apart of our family.

In the garden where she isn't supposed to be.......

Announcing our working boy.....CP got his first job at Domino's Pizza! Way to go son...we are proud of you!

We bought a new bike in February and just love it! It is a 2008 Suzuki Boulevard M190

We have been spending many of these nice weekends exploring Illinois with friends. This photo was taken in Chester, IL - the home of Popeye!

We hope all is well with everyone! Hugs and Kisses xoxox.....The Parish Family

It's ALL about the BALL!!!!!

If you weren't aware.....it is, has always, and always will be ALL ABOUT THE BALL! We look over the other day and this is what we saw....Lexi was laying there, waiting patiently.....with her BALL!

The ball is her best friend. She takes it EVERYWHERE with her....she takes it outside to pee, she sleeps with it, she puts it in her bowl while she eats so she doesn't loose it.

And IF she does lose it? Oh Holy Cow! It is a crisis and everyone in the house has to help find it! And she has more than one, but only has one favorite. IF for some reason, she can't find her favorite, she will settle and play with a different one. We had to just throw away her favorite becuase she had busted a hole in it. So, now she has a new favorite. If you are in the shower, she stands at the shower door with her ball and begs you to play. The minute you open the shower door, she runs to get the ball and brings it to you. I have to play ball while I am doing my hair and make up...getting ready for the day, while getting dressed, and any other time in between. Lexi would play ball non-stop all day if we let her. Sometimes we have to HIDE the ball!

He's home!!

Well, the moment we were waiting for all year finally happened on Jan 9, 2012.....Ben finally got to come home after being stationed in Korea for ONE WHOLE YEAR! This is a picture of the kids waiting for him at the airport. Everyone is so happy he is home....including him! Ben took a few weeks of leave and is just now getting back to work at his new job here at Scott AFB. He will be the lead vehicle maintenance inspector for the IG; he is very excited about this job and he will be traveling quite a bit (although we can handle a couple of weeks to a month every now and then over a year anyday).

The night he got home, he had to open his Christmas presents ;)

A week after Ben got home, him and I took a five day get away trip so we could reconnect! Don't laugh when I tell you where we went. The whole idea was to just get away...together.....even if it were down the street. So, Ben looked around and found a great old hotel in Dubuque, Iowa....and that is where we went. It was right on the border of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. And niether one of us had ever been to Iowa or Wsiconsin and we like to explore new places. So, here is a picture of Ben having a nice relaxing beer on our trip........

The hotel we stayed at was called the Hotel Julien named after Julien Dubuque, the founder of Dubuque, Iowa. This hotel was 150 years old and has recently been remodeled. It was beautiful and our room had a big jacuzzi tub right in it. They even had the most plush, comfy robes for us to wear while we were guests. The hotel had a spa in the basement and we enjoyed a couples massage together (this was Ben's first and I think he will have more;). It was SO cold while we were there, but we still had fun exploring the area, we just decided to skip the snow skiiing we had planned to do. We also forgot our snow boots, so the next day, we went to the mall and bought some. We are so glad we did, because we LIVED in them for the rest of the week.

Here you can see Ben....or can you tell it is him? That frozen river behind him is the great Mississippi!

After just getting out of the car for a 2 minute photo shoot, our hands and faces were F.R.O.Z.E.N! The Mississippi was behind us here, but we didn't have the tripod piece that hooked the camera to it, so we had to just set it up on the wall that was there.

On our adventures, we drove to a little town called McGregor, Iowa. This is the town my Grandpa (mothers daddy) and Great Uncle Dick grew up in. I had never been here before and it was so neat to visit. What a cute little town.

Just across the river, we drove through Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. While in Wisconsin, we bought a ton of cheese and had lunch in a great little town called Shullsburg, Wi. I had a 6 cheese grilled cheese sandwhich and cheese soup! Yummy.... I ♥ Cheese!

During our travels, our car got very dirty!

This photo was taken in Galena, Illinois. What a cute little town. We shopped at the little shops and bought some great sauces at the Galena Canning Company. We got some yummy BBQ sauces, rubs, salsa, and jellies! We also made our own candles at a place in the little town.

This photo was what we ended up driving home in. It was awful and Ben didn't think my idea to just stay another day was any good. Warm cushy hotel, great company, some more wine..... I thought it was a great idea;) We drove for a couple of hours in weather like this, and then the last two hours before we arrived home, we drove on one big sheet of ice! Very dangerous! In a matter of 1 hour, we saw 12 different accidents/jack knifed big rigs/and people in ditches.

Oh, and we found some dirt with the jeep the other day...just had to share;)

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year and Welcome 2012!!! We are so happy that Brother came to visit and was here to ring in the new year with us! This is the first time since we can remember that we were all together for New Years.

Jesika and Mark came over before we went out and we ate some goodies and had a drink or two.

We went to our local fav....Silver Creek to celebrate. We had a great time!

Jes' feet hurt....lol

SC had a photo booth set up...it was a lot of fun! We love our brother!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone and we hope yours was great. Thank you so much for all the wonderful Christmas cards....it is so great to hear from you all!

This was the best we could do with the Christmas lights this year without the help from daddy. It will look better next year.

The girls had fun making Christmas cookies.

They were so yummy and last quite awhile......we don't know how?!?

We had WAY too many presents under the tree this year....especially after Uncle Jonathan came!

We had fun opening presents....it took us an hour! We just were missing Ben :(

Christian, Sydney, and Brittney on Christmas morning

Uncle Jonathan

Sydney and Brittney in the trash.....

Ben sent me his squadron "Trans" jersey he had made in Korea. It is so cute!! I love it!

Boy did we have a super yummy Christmas dinner???!?! Roast Beef, home made mac and cheese (Paula Dean recipe), Cheesy augraten mashed potatos (Rachel Ray recipe), slow cooked fresh green beans, and rolls.....mmmm mm GOOD!

Our little girl in her jammies on Christmas morning!

Britt and Lex

Sydney, Lauren, Jonathan, Christian, Me with Lexi, and Brittney

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!