My Version of Life

Yay! This is my first blog and I am already excited. I figure since this is the beginning to a whole new, wonderful year, I might as well start up something new.

First we will do a run down of last year.

January was a pretty bla month so we'll skip that.

Febuary we welcomed our THIRD son, Matteo Danyle Griffin. I'll probably go through and add all their birth stories later. I love birth stories :D

March we found out we were getting stationed at Canon AFB, New Mexico. Not to happy about the results but we were ready to get away from Okinawa and be closer to family. About two weeks after we found out about Canon, he re-checked the orders and it changed to Goodfellow AFB, Texas. A little closer to home so we didn't really mind. It was kind of annoying it changing though. You get all excited about one base (when you hated it at first) and then they change it to a completely different location. YAY Air Force!

April was completely drug out. We were supposed to PCS in May so it was like torture.

May was horrible. We were supposed to leave early-mid May and it kept changing. Zach was waiting on an answer from the other base and it was taking forever. They kept procrastinating and in turn, we got about a thousand different answers when we'd leave. We had May all planned out and it turned to crap. And my cat died which didn't help. We thought we'd be celebrating Jaidyn's 4th birthday in the states but ended up having to do it in Okinawa with just us.

June came and we were still in Okinawa. Our 5th anniversary was June 30, so we were hoping to be in the states to have a babysitter. Again, we got a thousand different answers and still no real news. I tried to pack but its hard when you know the military is just going to re-pack it. 

Finally in July they gave us a date and after a 24+ hour plane ride later, we were back in Colorado! I believe I even kissed the ground. lol It was very exciting! We had a car lined up and got it before going to see our families. Both mine and Zach's families are all in the states so its the best location to see EVERYONE. lol The hard part was that we had to be back in Texas by the end of July and since we got out of Okinawa so late, we only got a week in Colorado to visit.

 Our home in Okinawa

 Matteo and his girlfriend in Okinawa

 So ready to leave!

 My wonderful friend Christine talking to Tao

 Miss Evelyn and Patrice

 Our going away in Okinawa at Macaroni Grill

 Saying goodbye sucks!

 Me and the girls

 Back in Colorado! Matteo meeting Great Grandma Hall for the first time

 Great Grandpa Hall

 Yay for jet lag!

 So beautiful

 Aunt Amy and the boys

 Aunt Amy and my mom

 Matteo loves Alpacas :D

 Grandma Gleason and Jaidyn

 Aunt Amy and Matteo

 Daddy and Ryker

My dad and the boys

 August - We're in TLF and trying to find a house. When you have a big family, its hard to find a good fit in the price range the military gives you. We looked every where off base and ended up being stuck in base housing cause we ran out of time at TLF. You get 2 weeks to look for a place and then you start paying out of pocket. I was pretty pissed cause I swore I never wanted to live in base housing again but we're making it work. Hopefully its just for a year then we'll just buy a house. More on that later. Jaidyn also got set up with his first year of school at Glenmore for Pre-K. Bitter sweet! Its only for a few hours in the afternoon but it was hard letting him go at first.

Ok, September - Dec were pretty boring so I'll skip that. Just a lot of getting used to Texas, some TDYs, and my mom did come visit (the only not boring part). Other then that, its coming a long. Its hard to deal with 3/4 boys, moving, and the military. I've learned a lot and I think my biggest thing for this year is to just go day by day. Especially with the military, life is unpredictable. You never know where you'll end up or how long your going to be there. It makes it really hard to plan but we survived it all and I think it made our family stronger because of it. The one thing I love best about the military is how close it bonds your family. As long as I'm with my boys and Zach, I know we'll figure it out and make it work. Home is wherever your family is anyway, right? :) Next up - 2012!