Easter Morning

I know I am a LITTLE behind...but here is the Willis family on Easter morning. We were late for church because I wanted to make sure I got these pictures, but I know that we won't remember one specific day of being late for church, but we can treasure these pictures for a lifetime! And since we haven't had the opportunity to be a "real" family in a long time, I want pictures of us all together as much as possible! : )

Easter Egg Hunt

A says "Yeehaw"

R LOVED the swings!!!

R stayed "up high" with Daddy, to protect him from the Easter Bunny!!

Our pretty ladies!!

This is what R thinks you should do with an Easter bucket!!

We decided to take the kids to an egg hunt on Saturday because the weather here on Sunday was supposed to be horrible (which it was). It turned out that A was the only one who got to hunt eggs...T was too old, and we didn't feel that little R was ready to fight hundreds of kids for a few eggs full of candy that he wasn't allowed to eat! Turns out that A couldn't eat any of her candy either because it was all chewy taffy! (A has had some extensive dental work done lately, with more to come, and now she isn't allowed to eat anything extremely chewy or sticky) But after the 10-second hunt was over, the kids enjoyed the playground at the park immensely! The weather was beautiful, so we let them stay just long enough for T to get sunburned (which if you know T, that doesn't take long)!

Laundry CAN be fun!

Little R spends his days following me around the house "helping" me with my daily chores. When I am doing laundry, I always leave the dryer door open after I get a load of clothes out, because R likes to slam it shut and say "boom"! One evening after taking a load out of the dryer and going into the other room to fold them, I noticed I hadn't heard the familiar slam of the dryer door. When I walked into the laundry room, this is what I saw...

I think at first he wasn't sure if he was going to be in trouble or not, but I couldn't help but laugh, which made him suddenly very proud of his new play area!

Another Fun Concert

Bart Millard of MercyMe...he was great once again!

This is the guy from Hawk Nelson...very energetic! Great songs, if you can catch what he's actually saying! : )

Tenth Avenue North...new group...I highly recommend them...great songs with a great message!

This is the four of us with MercyMe before the show...fun times!

R & I had the chance to go to another great concert recently. We got to see MercyMe, Tenth Avenue North, Hawk Nelson, and Flyleaf. We were in the very front row again, right at center stage! This time we had our friends Jason & Christie go along with us to Oklahoma City to the concert, and we "camped out" in our empty house in Edmond! It was a great weekend! If you follow our blog at all, you know that R and I are huge fans of MercyMe, and we got to meet with them before the show, which was lots of fun! All in all, it was a great concert and a great weekend with friends! Thanks MiMi & PaPa for watching the kids so we could escape for this fun!!

Happy Anniversary...to US!!

R and me with the group...fun! Now we can stop being jealous of you Becky!! : )

Brandon Heath...beautiful voice, great songs...wonderful live! Check him out!!

See how close we were?? Mac Powell kept goofing off in the background of our pics!

I reluctantly posed for the "see how close we were" picture!!

R and I were married 12 years ago on March 22nd. To celebrate, we took off on an overnight trip to see Third Day and Brandon Heath. It was great to get away alone together, and it was a great concert! We were in the front row, at the very center of the stage...as close as we could possibly get! Before the show we got to go through an autograph line and because R just returned from Iraq AND it was our anniversary, they stopped the line and let us get a pic with the band! We had a great time, and if you listen to Christian music (and even if you don't) I highly recommend Brandon Heath...he is relatively new to the scene, but he has landed near the top of my list of favorite Christian artists! It was a great getaway, and we came home to the kids feeling refreshed and ready for the next 12 years!

Dinner on the Road

R, T and A with his parents after dinner...seems R has "outgrown" his Dad!!

Me, T and A with R's parents

"Camping out" on airbeds in our empty OK house!

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but we have been going nonstop since R came home! We are trying to fit as much "stuff" as possible into these few short weeks we have with R before he reports to work in OK. We made a quick trip to OK to show R our new house, and along the way we met up with his parents who were on their way to Florida for a vacation. We got to enjoy dinner and a short visit with them, which was great! Then on to Edmond we went to "camp out" for a night in our empty house there! The next day R's brothers came to see the house and we got to spend a few hours visiting with them and parts of their families, which was also great! (I don't have any pics of their visit...as usual I took the camera, but never got it out and used it!)

Giggles

Untitled from Shannon Willis on Vimeo.

This is an older video, but I came across it the other day, and I just couldn't help but share it. I know that R has never gotten to hear baby R giggle, so I thought at least he could enjoy it this way! There's nothing like a giggling baby to put a smile on your face, no matter what kind of mood you are in (and I am quite partial to this giggling baby!) Thanks T for your wonderful skills in making your baby brother giggle!

Mercy Me

Mercy Me has been one of our favorite bands for years. We have seen them in concert a couple of times, and they put on a great show! We love them not only for their music, but also for the people that they are. We ran into them after a show at Ft. Hood several years ago and visited with them for quite a while, and they were REMARKABLE people...very humble! R sent me this video and it reaffirmed just how normal (or abnormal) they really are. The video is Bart Millard (the lead singer) at home with his kids. He reminds me A LOT of R...not appearances, but behavior! I have seen R perform some of these very same moves! Anyway, the video is well worth watching...it had me laughing out loud!! Watch it until the end...it is well worth it!

This is us with Mercy Me in 2004 at Ft. Hood

Valentine's Day Treats

T with her Valentine's balloon & roses

A with her Valentine's balloon & roses

R is still looking a little guilty, wondering if Mommy is going to take it away from him!

How can you be mad at that face???

He was so cute, and A was so proud of him for eating it so well, and so sweet to share it with him, that I couldn't get mad at either one of them!

The girls had their Valentine's Day parties at school today, so they came home with lots of goodies. I had to finish up their Valentine's present from me inside, so when they got home from school, I asked them to play outside with R for just a few minutes while I got their gifts ready. I was inside for about 5 minutes, and when I came out T was pulling R around the yard in the wagon...great right? Well, upon closer inspection I discovered that A had decided to be generous and share a lovely piece of chocolate candy with R...a whole piece...and boy was he loving it! It was one of those chocolate covered chocolatey caramels...oooey, gooey goodness! Now if you are around me very much, you know that it is a constant struggle for me to try to keep junk food away from R...between the girls and my parents, someone is always trying to give him "treats". I just want to keep him away from the junk for as long as possible...I was thinking until maybe he was 2 or 3. Well, that dream ended today!!! R devoured the entire piece, loving every last morsel of it. I have to admit it was actually kind of cute, but I know now that he realizes how yummy it is, he will be quite persistent when he sees it again!

Our Oklahoma Home

As most of you know, when R returns from Iraq, he has orders to go to Edmond, OK to work in the ROTC department at UCO. A couple of weeks ago, the girls and I made a weekend trip to Edmond and spent an entire Saturday looking at rental homes. We found two that we liked, and with much prayer and deliberation, we chose a house. It is huge compared to anywhere we have lived so far, so the kids will have room to roam inside. It is in a great school district, and T is excited because the middle school that she will be attending has a Mustang as its' mascot! Also, all of the street names of the neighborhood are "horse" related, which we didn't even know until we drove through it. We will be living on Harness Court! We are excited to have found a home, and we are definitely looking forward to being back together as a family again!