Mommy's New Hair....

Nope, no pictures yet....it's a surprise for Brian! But, I did get my hair cut and colored today....I went to get Austin from Paula's when I was done. He walked in smiling, and just LOOKING at me. Then he came up and said, "Mommy! You have the wrong hair!"

So, I will be showing off my wrong hair do when Brian gets home....I don't want him to see it just yet, so no pictures until after he comes home! Sorry! :-)

Slacking off....

YES! I know, I know....I have slacked off lately! It's been busy here and I haven't gotten too many pictures lately! I'll try to do better in the next couple of weeks. However, you KNOW I will have pictures of Brian's homecoming up on here as soon as I can.

For those of you wondering....no, I don't have a date yet. In fact, I won't have a concrete date until his plane takes off...and even then, it can always be changed if the plane has problems, etc. We are 'planning' for around his birthday, but I guess we'll see when he actually gets here! His homecoming will be great though, no matter what day he gets home! We are soooo ready for this deployment to be over....and that's a HUGE understatment!

My Silly Blue Eyed Boy!

These pictures were taken at Anna's soccer game. Austin is so silly!!! I'm not quite sure where he gets his energy....still trying to figure that out so that maybe I can go to the same place and get me my own supply!

Anyway, I was just playing around with the camera....but his eyes just really popped with the second and third pictures....all I can say is that he definitely got his Daddy's gorgeous eyes...I am SOOOOO glad!!!

Anna - The Soccer Star!

My niece, Anna, is playing soccer! You wouldn't believe it now, but she was NOT happy that Mommy had signed her up! Now, she is absolutely loving soccer! Her team name? The Bratz...yeah, Anna came up with it! All the girls agreed it was a good team name!

I just wanted to show everyone some of the pictures I took of her game...yes, I DO take pictures of things and people OTHER THAN Austin! I even have a picture of Nathan in here too!

Great job Anna....you're so great!!!

I really thought this was a cute picture...this is Anna's whole team....with all their numbers showing!



All THREE Steele kids have gorgeous eyes!!!

Visit from Family!

We had visitors on the Frede side of the family! My aunt and uncle, Mary and Jeff, had come to Hawaii to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary and spent the day with us! We had so much fun showing them North Shore! We took them to the Turtle Beach first. I didn't take any pictures there...but they did. After we watched the turtles eat up their breakfast of seaweed, we moved on to a place called Sharks Cove. This is a good place for snorklers and non-snorklers alike. For those wanting to get in the water and snorkle there is deeper water off to the side. For those who are not as comfortable in deeper water, there is a HUGE area of shallower water that you can walk through and just watch all the fish and other sea creatures. It's basically one HUGE tidepool.

After Sharks Cove, we drove further down the road and stopped at one of the infamous Shrimp Shacks! Let me tell ya, you have not had shrimp until you have had it from North Shore Hawaii! It was a great lunch!

We then ended the day at Sunset Beach. The water was just gorgeous and refreshing and Austin had a blast in the sand. It was a great relaxing beach to end the day with!

Thank you Jeff and Mary for the great visit....Austin and I had a lot of fun! For those who are jealous, our touring services are always available...just let us know when you'll be here!!!

Sharks Cove with Austin truck that he had put into the tub a few days earlier....figured it could now become a beach truck since he liked it so much!!!

Austin with Jeff and Mary

Jeff and Austin playing with his truck.

Austin being silly at Sunset Beach.

Mary taking a picture of Austin....

Playing in the sand at Sunset Beach

Bellows Beach on a Sunday

So, we went to the beach at Bellows Airfoce Station. They have camping and pavillions along with some other things like paint ball and mini golf. It's a great beach and one of our favorites to go to. We went with some friends, about 12 of us all together. It was a great day!!! I think everyone went home exhausted, but happy.

Don't ask me.....he's a goofball!

Cheesy little boy....

This is Austin and Cait, the best babysitter in the world....Austin just absolutely LOVES Cait! Looks like he's trying to tell her something really important though....

Can you tell he wants to be a BIG BOY? He even wanted to ride in the car with them....too bad, he got stuff in a car full of girls!!! Poor kid!

Silly boy!

Our Little Artist

Every little kid LOVES to paint, right? Well, Austin constantly wants to paint. He's always getting the paints out of the craft cabinet and asking to paint. I really do need to let him do it more often, but I'm working on that! I mean, what's a little mess, right? Hehehe....yeah, little....uh huh...I'll just try to keep that in mind next time! But, seriously, this time wasn't that bad...he kept it mostly on his paper and then we went to the bathroom to wash up without fighting Mommy, so I couldn't have asked for a better craft session!!!

The Best Husband in the World

I have had a very hard week or so with Austin. Temper tantrums don't even begin to describe the episodes he has been having EVERY single time we go out....and even when we are home. I think I told my mom they were more like "meltdown, phychotic episodes." Seriously, I think his voice changes and there is a screeching demon inside of him! I might even have hearing damage from his screaming this morning in the parking lot of the PX. I really did think that the MPs were going to show up at any given moment and take me away because I MUST have beat the child to make him scream like that. Little does anyone know, that all it was over was a cup of chocolate milk.....figures, right?

So, anyway, we get home and I put him to bed after lunch. I get done with his book, am just about to do the prayers he asked for (guess he figured maybe it would help him in the long run) when the doorbell buzzed....yes, our front door has a buzzer...scares me to death everytime! Anyway, I go to see who it is and there's this lady with some GORGEOUS flowers. They were actually for me from the GREATEST husband in the world. He knew how hard it has been lately and wanted to perk me up a bit. Ok, everyone...collective "AWWWWWW!"

Brian, I love you so much....thanks for the little things you do. We can't wait for you to come home and for all of us to be a family again!!! Miss you Honey!

Cake Decorator

From Fireman to Cake Decorator, Austin can do pretty much anything he sets his mind to! We went to a birthday party on Saturday and these are the only pictures I got....let's just say I've had a bad week with my 2 year old son! He's doing so well with this activity though....you'd never know that he's about to have a HUGE tantrum right after this!!! Of course, tantrum is an understatement!

Purse-toting Fireman....

You have just got to laugh at this....he's so masculine, yet so cute with his (my) purse!!! He'll grow up to be a very well-rounded man, right? He'll be so secure that he won't mind holding his wife's purse while she tries on some clothes!!! OH, and the second picture is of him putting on some chapstick....yeah, I'm sure Daddy is thinking he needs to be home now to put a stop to this! :-)

Weekend Visitors

The Coleman Family came to Hawaii for the weekend!!! Walter was an official for the Hawaii game this weekend and the rest of the family came in as well! Mrs. Coleman and Walter got in on Wednesday and Austin and I went down to Waikiki to see them on Friday morning. Mr. Coleman, Courtney, and Colin didn't get in until that afternoon, so we got to see them today! Austin really took to them all and had a great time playing at the beach on both days. Here are a few pictures from Friday....didn't get any of today!

Walter will be back in Hawaii 2 days before we leave for the mainland, so Brian will get to see him then. We are already looking forward to that visit!

Playing in the sand....thank you for the sand toys Mrs. Coleman!!!

Looking at the birds that tourists take pictures with....

Waving to Mommy....

Running back to our spot....

Not sure what they were talking about, but it looks like a good conversation!

NEXT MONTH!!!!!

It is officially SEPTEMBER...do you know what that means???

BRIAN COMES HOME NEXT MONTH!!!! Yay!!!!!

The Million Dollar Question has been "WHEN?" No one knows that answer....but we are looking at it as "he'll be home when he walks off that plane." If I know anything, I'll let the important people know....you know who you are...and then we'll go from there!

Please continue praying for all of our Soldiers....as long as there are Soldiers over there, we all need to keep praying!