This is going to be more like a novel, since I haven't collected pictures from others to go with all of the things that have happened this month.

On May 2, Ben graduated and commissioned. I only took Sydney to graduation and left the babies at home. It only lasted 50 minutes, which was awesome. The only speaker was the valedictorian. Best graduation ever, although Sydney wasn't terribly impressed with it only being "talking and not a show."

That evening he commissioned with the Air Force. Most of my family was there, which was really nice. However, we all had our kids and ended up spending most of the evening in the hallway, since Major Martin decided to perform a ridiculously lengthy stand-up routine, which caused the ceremony to last 2 1/2 hours. Ben commissioned last. Sydney really enjoyed helping to pin new ranks on Ben's hat.

After we got through all of those festivities, it was time to really buckle down and get ready to move. We did a lot a cleaning and organizing to prepare for the movers. Eight days before the packers were supposed to be at our house, we still hadn't heard from anyone to confirm packing and loading days. I called Hill and was told that they might not call until a couple of days beforehand, but that I could call back to see if I could get more information.

Monday afternoon (less than two days before packing day) I had Ben call Hill to see if we could find out what was going on. I had a feeling that things had fallen through the cracks, and if we didn't track down who was supposed to be coming, no one would be there Wednesday morning. Ben spoke to an airman at Hill, who told us to call JPPSO in Colorado, who told us to call Alexander's Mobility Service in Maryland, who told us to call Atlas Van Lines, who told us to call Mollerup Van and Storage in Roy, Utah. Mollerup had never heard of us. This resulted in a call back to Atlas, after which Mollerup called us to confirm a Wednesday pack date had been scheduled. That's cutting it just a bit too close for me.

The Air Force scheduled two pack days for us. Three guys showed up at my apartment at 10:40 and left at 5:20, at which time everything was packed. They even took two breaks. We really don't have a lot of stuff.

We still had our beds, so we all slept there that night, then after Sydney finished preschool on Thursday, I drove down to Orem with the kids to wait until Monday when we could start travelling to Missouri. Ben stayed in Logan to take care of the fish so we would only have to move them once.

We really enjoyed being able to spend a few days with family before moving so far away.

Monday morning, we began our drive. My sister, Kari came with us to help with the kids, since Ben and I both had to drive cars. She has been an absolute LIFESAVER! At 7:30, we headed up Provo Canyon on our way to Wyoming. We stopped at Little America for gas and $.50 ice cream cones. Our next stop was Rawlins, Wyoming for lunch. Ben got a late start and caught up with us just as we were finishing lunch.

We then went to Laramie, Wyoming, to the University of Wyoming to see Big Al. The BBC made a documentary of this allosaurus skeleton found in Wyoming that was 95% complete. It is one of Sydney's favorite things to watch. She was so excited to get to see the real thing. We even got her a t-shirt.

We stayed the night in Cheyenne and decided to have dinner in the restaurant in the hotel. Bad idea. We were there FOREVER. It was an hour before we got our food. I was so frustrated and tired. After we finally got out of there, we played in the swimming pool. The kids loved it, and it helped them to work off some energy so they slept really well.

We set out first thing the next morning, and drove for about an hour before stopping for breakfast in Sidney, Nebraska. Sydney thought that was pretty cool.

We then drove to North Platte, Nebraska to visit Cody Park to play on the kids' carnival rides. We were disappointed to find out that, although not posted on the website, the rides only run from 5-9 at night. We got to see llamas and peacocks and play at a playground.

Our next stop was the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles. We got to see a lot of restored WWII vehicles, which was a lot of fun. There were a lot more outside, but Nebraska was so ridiculously windy, Ben and Kari only took the girls to see the two you could climb inside while I fed Zack in the car.

The wind in Nebraska was so bad that our cars constantly wiggled as we tried to keep them on the road. No my favorite days of driving. I vowed never to live in Nebraska.

We stayed the night in Lincoln, where the kids again slept really well. They had a warm breakfast available in the lobby. Ben took the girls to play on the elevators, which were glass on the back. I couldn't even look, but they thought it was great.

Wednesday morning, we went to the Lincoln Children's Museum. They kids had fun playing, and we all enjoyed some much-needed time outside of the car. I got an good taste of how the trip was wearing on Sydney when it was time to leave the museum, and she screamed about how I was being mean and dumb to her. Those are the worst words she knows, so she was pulling out the big guns.

We drove out to Nebraska City for a quick lunch at Burger King, then set out for St. Joseph, Missouri. After a brief stint in Iowa, we finally crossed the Missouri border. After a quick visit to the Pony Express Memorial, we checked in our hotel and headed straight for the pool. We went to Red Lobster for dinner (so yummy!) then turned in for our last night on the road.

At 4:40 a.m. Thursday morning, my cell phone rang. It was Kari over in the next room with Sydney. Sydney had started throwing up. I had already been up for two hours with a cold and had just gotten back to sleep before this happened. I went over and bathed Sydney, got her dressed, and brought her over to the other room. She watched Happy Feet on the computer, which puking into the ice bucket for an hour and a half. Then it started coming from the other end. Not the most exciting illness to have in the car.

We equipped Sydney with a bowl in case she decided to start returning her food again and set off. We stopped in Liberty for breakfast. Ben was wearing his uniform so he would be ready to go when we arrived on base. A nice gentleman won three stuffed animals out of the claw machine and asked to give them to the kids. Tansy used hers to knock an entire glass of orange juice over which covered the table and got on Ben's pants. He was able to get it out. Phew.

Near the end of our meal, a lady stopped to thank Ben for all he does. Another gentlemen asked us to point out our waitress so that he could pay our bill. It was amazing to get so much attention because my husband decided to serve in the military. It really makes me proud of him.

We all got back in the car, and thought we wouldn't stop until we reached Whiteman. After all, Sydney had gone to the bathroom twice at the restaurant, so we should be good. We ended up stopping about 45 minutes after we started out and again in Knob Noster, which is only two miles from Whiteman. Poor girl. Two minutes after getting to Whiteman, she had to go again.

We went to the Whiteman Inn to get into our Temporary Lodging Facility (TLF). We had originally scheduled to arrive on the 20th, but when we found out that the Air Force would cover four days of travel, we pushed our arrival date back to the 21st. Ben and I had both tried to call several times, but I only got through once and hung up after being left on hold for 20 minutes. The girl at the desk said that since we didn't arrive on the 20th, they no longer had a TLF for us and finally offered us a single room until a TLF would be available the next day. I told her we had three adults and three children and that wouldn't work. She then left to go "figure something out."

Ben and I left the kids with Kari and went to get IDs taken care of. Poor Kari was stuck outside with the three of them until a nicer girl at Whiteman Inn showed her a playground. They also bought some snacks. I was able to get back to them almost an hour and a half later, then we waited for Ben for another half an hour. At this point, the nicer girl was able to check us in to a TLF. She showed me that she had chosen the one we are in because there is playground just outside the front door, and the laundry is so close. I loved her for that.

We are currently staying in a place with one bedroom with a queen bed. The living room had a sofa bed and the chair also folds out into a bed. Right now the kids are in the bedroom with me and Ben and Kari sleep in the living room. When Kari leaves, I plan to move the kids to the living room and Ben and I will take the bed. We'll see how the kids deal with that. They are still acting up a lot, since their lives have been turned upside down.

Friday morning we got keys to look at two houses. Despite all of the assurances of new houses and renovated houses, we get to choose from two that are scheduled to be demoished before we think we will be transferred. Not much to look at. It was pretty disappointing, but we have been through twice, and I have some ideas of improvements. The nice thing is that since it will be demolished when we're done with it, we can pretty much do whatever we want. The yard is also fenced, which is awesome. And it is my very own house, not an apartment.

Yesterday, we went to Liberty and Independence. We wanted to make sure Kari got to see those before she went back to Utah. We had a good time, and even stopped at Cici's pizza. Everyone tired out pretty quickly though, so we headed home.

Today was the first day in our new ward. Everyone was very friendly and introduced themselves. We met with the bishop this afternoon and will be heading over to another family's house tonight to roast marshmallows.

Basically, things have gone really well, with just a few hiccups. Pictures will be coming soon! Thanks for hanging in there with me for this long, long post. I use this as a sort of journal, so everything needed to get in. Now that we are here, I'll be posting more regularly.

I just didn't have it in me to blog last week. I don't think anything spectacular happened so I didn't stress too much. Hope my adoring readership was able to get through the lapse.

This past week we had lots of company. Kathleen and her boys came up to spend Tuesday and Wednesday with us. We had a lot of fun with them, and Kathleen showed me how to make the yummiest whole wheat bread. I really want a Kitchenaid. Anyone feeling particularly generous? Anyone?

Kim and Jasmine came up Thursday afternoon to help celebrate Sydney's 5th birthday. Syd got her crown at preschool that day as well as a goodie bag from her awesome teacher. We had a cake with family that night.






On Friday, Sydney had her friend birthday party. I decided to be a bit more adventurous than usual this year and make a dinosaur cake for the party. Sydney is really into dinosaurs. When I saw this cake in the March Family Fun magazine, I knew I had to make it for her. The "dirt" on top is supposed to be made out of chocolate graham crakers, but I couldn't find any. I checked several stores with no luck. Sydney was impressed anyway and asks to see this picture. Guess I did all right.


Tansy told me she wanted to go potty yesterday. I told her that she wears a diaper. She said, "Di-pah off," and started pulling her pants down. She got the stool herself, and insisted that I put her on the potty. She is actually pretending to wipe herself here. Of course nothing happened, but she was so serious about it. Hope this girl doesn't think we are doing this any time soon. Hang in there, baby!

I've been trying to get a shot of Zack's teeth, but he isn't cooperating. I could show you some lovely shots of his tongue though.

And let's not forget the most important news of all. Ben's last day of class was Friday. He will be done with finals tomorrow! It's almost here. In six short days, he will graduate and commission with the Air Force. Oh, the places we'll go!

Happy Easter! It has been a fun day for us. The girls colored their eggs last night, then woke up this morning to find that the Easter Bunny had hidden them in the living room for a fun egg hunt. They also looked very cute in their new dresses, but I didn't get a shot of that.

Yesterday we took the girls to have their portraits taken. So glad that is over. Don't get me wrong. We actually got smiles this year. The problem was keeping the girls portrait ready. Especially Sydney. On Friday, she really wanted me to help her put on some nail polish. I agreed, but then she picked out five bright colors and wanted all five colors on each hand. I finally talked her into clear nail polish like Junie B. Jones.

Crisis averted, right? I thought so until about five minutes before we were supposed to go. That's when I noticed that she still had a large temporary tattoo on the back of her right hand. I quickly located the baby oil and took care of that.

Tansy looked way too much like a boy for me, so I had her wear a head band and repeatedly told her how pretty it looked so she would leave it in. She decided that the position needed constant adjustment and got looking pretty weird while we waited. I adjusted it right before we went back and decided to have her go first before she could mess with it again. No dice. She wouldn't let go of me. Sydney is not usually very cooperative either, but when Ben asked her to show Tansy how to do it, she went into some kind of "model mode." She was doing all of the poses the photographer asked her to. If we could get her to smile naturally, that would also help. Tansy watched and mimicked her from the side. Sydney even came up with her own pose that she wanted a picture of. So funny. Tansy was good for about three shots after that, which was good enough for us.

Last night, Sydney had a nightmare and fell out of bed. She cut herself right above her right eye, and it's a bit swollen. So glad she didn't do that before pictures!

In Zack's efforts to gain forward mobility, he has finally learned to roll over. Poor little guy. It makes him so mad because it is not even close to what is trying to do.

And I can't forget the funniest thing. We got The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything from Netflix this week. If you are not aware, this is a VeggieTales movie. Sydney has watched it a few times, and yesterday she said to me, "Mom, do you know who is my favorite in The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything?"

"Who?" I asked.

"Alexander," she said with a shy smile.

"Is that because he's handsome?"

"Yeah, and I really like his hair."

What? Her first crush is on an animated vegetable. At least he's one of the good guys.

These are just random pictures I took of the kids one day. Sydney couldn't stop talking long enough to get a decent one. I wonder how she ended up like that?

No news yet on our orders. The paperwork has gone to Hill AFB, but we are still waiting for approvals, and Ben has to do at least one more interview. They are trying to push everything along as quickly as possible, and I am trying not to revert back to my awful nail-biting habit.

My birthday was last week, and I am officially 30. I got to go shopping all by myself. So quick and efficient. I got a license plate cover that says "Air Force Wife," Peter Breinholt's "All the Color Green" CD, and Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine. It was a lot of fun, and the kids were so good that day. Of course, there was a ridiculously chocolatey cake involved as well.

Zack broke his first tooth on my birthday. Very exciting! I guess Sydney really was an abnormal case. Sydney almost made it to her first birthday toothless. Tansy and Zack both came in at eight months.

On Monday, Tansy got to have a birthday party with the Abshire side of the family. She actually stayed really clean while eating her chocolate cake. Shocking. I let her choose her own cake at Walmart. She was pretty impressed with that. Sydney kept trying to get her to choose a white cake, but Tansy would not be swayed.

I had to snap a picture for St. Patrick's Day. Yes, we all wore green, but we skipped the green pancakes this year since Ben had an early class. The girls got green milk with breakfast instead. Tansy was really not sure about that. However, you will notice her trying so hard to copy what Sydney is doing with her hands. She is Sydney's little parrot. I'm so glad for two little girls who play so well together. Zack just tries to stay out of the way because the girls play a little rough with him.

On Wednesday, Ben left for Wyoming for an ROTC base visit. Just me and the kids until Saturday afternoon. It went surprisingly well, except for Sydney's cold. Ben even took some pictures of base housing they visited so I could get an idea. It was so nice. I'm so excited to move into a house!

The "big girl bed" is working out great for Tansy. She loves that she can get in and out of it by herself, and I love it too. She always seems to wake up when I'm in the middle of something, usually feeding Zack. I often find books or toys in with her at naptime. I'm glad I skipped the talk about not getting out of bed. It never occurred to her to just get back out until yesterday.

This is Sydney being "bookalicious." Her word. She wanted a picture, and she is modeling her preschool shirt that she had worn that day for a field trip. They went to the Willow Park Zoo Education Center. They learned about a lot of animals and got to touch a snake and a lizard. This is how we discovered that Sydney is allergic to reptiles. Twenty minutes after getting home, she was covered in hives. Poor girl. Good thing we always have Benadryl on hand here.

Ben had Spring Break this past week. Such a nice break. However, the weather didn't get the message about the "spring" part. On Monday we got a foot of snow. That's Cache Valley for you. Ben got to sleep in and recuperate from the crazy semester he is in right now. Only six more weeks to go.

In preparation for our move, we decided to return my sister's crib. We borrowed it since Tansy wasn't big enough for a toddler bed when Zack was born. She was just too short to climb up, which really defeats the whole purpose. Tansy had a great time helping Daddy take it apart.

We had a bit of crisis, though, when we got one crib disassembled, moved the other into Zack's room, and then realized we had no idea where the hardware for the toddler bed was. Ben discovered it under a box on a shelf in the closet of Zack's room. That was totally me, since Ben would never do something like that. We got the bed put together right before we left for Orem for some family fun.

We stopped by Hill AFB on the way to my parents' house to get a couple more things for Ben's uniforms. Sydney was so excited to see so many people in uniform.

On Thursday, Ben and I took Sydney to lunch and to the Draper Temple Open House. She was so excited to go inside a temple. She kept asking when we were going to get to the room where you get married. That's the last stop. She really loved the Celestial Room.

On Friday, we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Sydney is really into dinosaurs right now, and she loved it. The kids were so exhausted by the time we were done. The pictures are of Tansy in the
Erosion Room and Sydney digging out a dinosaur skeleton in the sand box at the end of things.

Friday night, we had a birthday party for Tansy and me. Tansy turned two on Saturday, and I will be (gulp!) thirty on the 28th. Ben has promised adventure and excitement for the big day. He actually picked up a gift for me at the Shopette at Hill AFB when we were there on Wednesday. It's a license plate cover for my van that says that I am an Air Force Wife! I love it.

No orders yet, so the moving plans are kind of on hold, but I'll keep everyone posted when I know anything.

To clear up the situation from my last email, here's the update. I left some treats on my neighbor's doorstep with a note hoping to clear things up. She stopped by our apartment and told me that she didn't even really know what happened and wouldn't have if the police hadn't come to her apartment. She apologized for her friend's behavior and said she was glad that it wasn't going to cause a problem with us. She also said he isn't coming back.

Moving on to real news, we got our dates from the Air Force this week! We are to report to Whiteman AFB in Missouri by May 21. However, dates only mean that the detachment can begin processing orders. We need orders to get on the housing list and set up lodging at bases along our way. They won't be done for a couple more weeks. Sigh.

My sister Kari and kindly agreed to come with us to help with the kids on the move. We have two cars that we have to drive out there, so having an extra pair of hands is vital.


I buzzed Zack's hair again this week. I took off an inch and a half! I didn't get the gasps at church that I expected. When I buzzed it when he was 2 months old, you wouldn't believe the horror. It's not like I use a razor, people.

His hair was so puffy and would get so messed up. I could put barrettes in it, for goodness sake. He looks much more manly now. If only we could get Tansy to grow an insane amount of hair. Sigh, wishful thinking.