mixed emotions

i'm sure in the next few weeks, i'll likely have a lot of deployment talk going on here. it's a new gig each time... with the girls ever entering new phases of growing up, and me plugging along {doing my best to keep my head above water usually}. anyway, all that to say, stan had his last day of pre-deployment leave today, and the girls were back in school after our water park escapades last week. so stan and i spent a quiet day together, hanging out. perfect kind of day to get ready for the road ahead. ahhhh, the peaceful moments that make up the highlights of life.

yesterday i grabbed a quick picture of stan & torrey showing off their tongue rolling skills. yah, we've all got the gene. i've even taught my children the art of shooting peas from your rolled tongue. {p.s. this trick also works with cherry pits... just ask stan after the pelting he got while we were camping this summer. lol} wow, does it feel like it just had a mood swing between paragraphs there? wowza.

speaking of mood swings, today's picture came after emma finished up a frustrating bit of homework. that whole explain-your-answer thing in math can be very frustrating sometimes. especially when we use it to work on spelling, too. we had one too many rewrites this afternoon. my sweet little miss had a bit of a break down, which only lasted about five minutes... but gave me enough time to snuggle her through the frustration & snap a quick picture.

it's been amazing to look back on the 365 pictures throughout the year. having a camera in hand a lot of the time does lend itself to getting pictures you wouldn't ordinarily have. maybe it's being 284 days in that's made the camera seem even more like a part of the family. maybe it's just that i've got a crazy photo-taking problem. maybe it's a little of both. either way, it'll be fun to look back on them for years to come, each with their own little story & all with the underlying message... life is good.