Winter 2019

Valentine's Day celebration in TK.

Emmy being sworn in as a Girl Scout.

Pinning Em!

Selling girls scout cooking in front of Safeway!

Jensen Ranch Family Dance!

Hannah waited patiently to be in the talent show.  She planned to do a "burpee challenge" to the Kid's Bop version of "Timber."  Emmy so graciously offered to be her "counter."  She outdid her personal record with every show that she did.  The final show for the upper graders came after a challenging morning.  She overslept, was physically tired (from all of her burpees,) and to add insult to injury, she badly stubbed her toe as she was getting ready for school.  She was convinced she couldn't do a single burpee. And then she got out there and whipped out 37 of them in a minute and 19 seconds.  It was incredible! Hannah's perseverance and Emmy's kind support of her little sister were such an inspiration.

Hannah in the bathroom after her performance filling Daddy in on her new personal record!

Taco Bell with Hailey and Becca.

Read Across America Day at Jensen Ranch.  James' Judo coach Stevie was one of the readers...

...and so was Daddy!
Here is the e-mail I wrote afterwards to the Principal of Jensen Ranch:
Dear Ms. Jew and Ms. McLean,

I want to take a moment to thank you both again for the incredible honor that it was for my husband, Nick, to be asked to participate in the Read Across America Day last Friday.  I’ve been reflecting on it quite a bit this weekend, and why it meant so much to me and felt led to share my revelations:

When Emmy (our 9 year old in Mrs. Dalby’s class) was three months old, Nick deployed to Afghanistan for 12 months.  Among the very long list of things we needed to do to prepare for his time away, we were encouraged to make a video of him reading her a collection of stories.  So we did.  One of the stories Nick chose to read was the Sneetches by Dr. Seuss, the same story he read on Friday (though I’m certain he didn't remember this when he asked to read the story last Thursday.)  After he deployed, I would pull Emmy into bed with me when she woke up so very early every morning and would play the video “Storytime with Daddy” on loop so that I could buy myself a few more minutes of sleep, but mostly so that she could know her daddy’s face and voice.  The number of times we watched that video was in the hundreds-maybe even thousands.

I now think of watching my husband, wearing the same uniform that called him to leave her (us) nine years ago, reading the same story that sustained her (us) during that long year; except on Friday, he was physically present and safe and reading not only to Emmy but to her siblings and classmates, brings me to my knees with gratitude.  It’s such an overwhelmingly abundant answer to so many desperate and tearful prayers. I thank you so much for your hand in making this precious memory of sweet redemption for our family a possibility.

And as it would be, Facebook just reminded me a few moments ago that today marks eight years since the day we welcomed him home from that brutally difficult deployment.  Thank you, a million times over.

I have included the video “Storytime with Daddy”…No need to watch it, but I thought I would send it along just in case.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/16yry2wh8if95nb/AADyne8bbNs98IyCGzCcMN2Ba?dl=0

With a full and grateful heart,

Ali Horn