Joe's Farewell

Today was a hard and emotional day for our family. Joe left this evening for his year long tour in Iraq. I am a little relieved that this deployment is finally underway... the sooner he leaves the sooner he returns. He will be home in December for the birth of our baby, so that made saying goodbye a little easier. I'm not sure the next goodbye will be as easy, knowing he will have another 8 months to endure.

I will keep you all posted as to how Joe, and the girls and I are doing. Prayers and warm wishes are greatly appreciated.

We love you Joe and are so proud, please come home safely.

Our trip to Redding!

For those of you who don't know, Joe will be deploying to Iraq for one year. He leaves at the end of this month. Luckily he will be able to come home for 3 weeks in December for the birth of our baby (another girl for those of you who don't already know). We both know it will be a challenging and difficult year for us, and we appreciate all the love and support we will receive.

So due to the upcoming deployment, Joe wanted one last trip to our hometown of Redding. We had a great time visiting with family and catching up with old friends. It's so great how you can move away from one place and still feel right at home when you go back to visit!

We also got to meet Samantha, Joe's cousin Lisa's little baby. She was born in January and she is such a cutie!