Catching up

I have decided to start blogging again.  I always feel the need to record the events in our lives but I am especially motivated to do so now.  Things are going by too fast and I am afraid of forgetting important things.  I will be posting randomly about the events over the last few years and try to get caught up to the present.  This blog is going to become a place for Matt to keep up with his little family while he is across the world.  Matt will be deploying with the Air Force to Kyrgyzstan for 6 months.  I hope that I can help him keep a relationship with his children by posting a lot so that he will feel involved in their lives.  It will be hard on us for sure but we will try to focus on the positive and remember the importance of what he is doing for our country.  The time difference will make it hard but we will get to skype and call each other.  I also want my children to be able to look back on this blog and read about this time in their lives.  Let's hope I have the energy and motivation t keep up with it.  So here we go ;-)

The worst bloggers ever!

Yes I know we never post on here. Matt said he was going to take over and then didn't. I think of things that I should post all the time and never do. I wish that somehow I had more motivation so that I could document the wonderful things that are happening in our lives. I am going to try harder. I know there are so many things that I will forget so I need to write, even just to record our lives whether anyone reads this or not. Quick update and then I have to go do more packing. We are moving to Las Vegas in 8 days. I cannot wait to be closer to family but there are always hard things when moving. The girls will have to be pulled out of school and leave the teachers and friends that they love. We have not found a house yet in Vegas so we will be homeless for a little while. If I have learned anything, it's that I have almost no control over our military lives but somehow it always works out as I am sure this will too. Caleb turned 1 and is walking all over the place. To him this means that he gets to play with the big kids outside and such. He LOVES playing with his sisters and thankfully they are very patient with him too. They enjoy teaching him things and taking him everywhere with them. We are going to be sad to say goodbye to good friends and especially to our ward here. We have had many adventures in the south and can't wait to have more in Nevada. After things settle down and we find a house, I promise to update everyone and also post some new pictures of the kids. So here is at least a quick update so that you know we are at least alive ;-)

Dear Family and Friends,

Dear Family and Friends,

The past few years have been a crazy, yet exciting time for our family. In 2009, Matt was commissioned as an officer in the Air Force and we officially joined the active duty military. That means we spent four months apart and were then quickly moved to Meridian, Mississippi. Moving to the south was quite a culture shock; however it has been a fascinating and rewarding experience.

When we first arrived we couldn’t understand most people and they were using phrases we had never heard before. We were not prepared for the heat, humidity and giant, man-eating bugs that live here. But we were also overwhelmed at the beauty of the landscape and the hospitality of the people. It seems like everything slows down a bit when you cross the border into Mississippi and we have yet to get stuck in traffic. We’ve had experiences good and bad; but we have found friends for life.

After having lived here a few months, we found out that we were expecting a new addition to our family. That news was quickly followed by Matt leaving for another four months for MORE training; leaving Brittany a pregnant single mother in a strange land. But thanks to friends and ward members she was able to get through it without losing her mind… mostly. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.

In 2010, Matt returned and we officially joined the mini-van club. We welcomed our new baby boy, Caleb Matthew, to our family on March 4th. Even though he was 8 lbs 9 oz, he was 3 weeks early and his little lungs weren’t quite ready for the outside world. He had to spend a week in the NICU, in which time we experienced many little miracles and are so grateful for all of the prayers offered in our behalf. We are happy to say that he recovered well and he is the joy of our lives. He has the best big sisters a little guy could ask for and will forever be spoiled by them.

Elleigh is our amazing little dancer and continues to become quite a performer. She entered 2nd grade and now has the true toothless smile characteristic of that age. She has a wonderful teacher, great friends and loves going to school each day. She was placed in both the Intellectually Gifted and Artistically Gifted programs at her school and loves the new and inventive projects they get to do. Currently she has a dream of becoming Taylor Swift and has asked us if we can find a rock star school to attend. As a back-up plan, she would also like to be a veterinarian. She is a little spitfire and life would be boring without her.

Sophie is also becoming quite a beautiful dancer & is officially in kindergarten this year. In Mississippi, kindergarten is full day which was hard for Brittany to get used to. Her wonderful teacher said she would like to clone her and have a classroom full of Sophies, because, in Sophie’s words, she would like to “obey all of the rules of the world.” Sophie continues to dream of becoming a mermaid when she grows up and can’t understand why Jesus just won’t make it happen. Sophie is our heart and is always ready to give hugs and cuddle, as long as she can have her teddy bear with her.

Matt is almost done with training and will soon be a rated Airfield Operations Officer; despite having to suspend training for several months to resolve a medical condition. Training has resumed and we were selected to move to Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, NV in the spring. We are very excited to be closer to home, dry air and civilization.

With Love,
Matt, Brittany, Elleigh, Sophie, Caleb

Not-so-hostile Takeover

I have decided to hi-jack this blog. My wife typically does all of the blogging, but in the self-serving interest of writing things that nobody else cares about, I'm giving it a shot. So I apologize in advance to all of you who follow (or whatever the appropriate blog-term is) this blog, as I'm sure that most of what I write will be uninteresting and useless to you. That IS what I do best.

Here's a brief synopsis of the events over the past 6 months:

E-bug started 2nd grade this past August. She is a little genius and was accepted into both the Intellectually Gifted (IG) and Artistically Gifted (AG) programs at her school. I am proud to say that she not only passed the tests, but she blew them out of the water with scores of 97% and 93%. Unfortunately, we could only choose one of the programs so she is doing the IG. She absolutely loves it; as do her parents. She has become a true 2nd grader with the eternal rite of passage of losing her 2 front teeth.

S-bub is now in kindergarten (sniff, sniff). She absolutely loves school and she adores her teacher. Her class has a color system to determine daily behavior (green=good, blue=less good, red=bad, etc) for which she gets a green dot EVERY day. My little S-bub is so determined to follow all of the rules that she often lets her teacher know who is talking out of turn. I may be biased, but I'm pretty sure she is a genius-level artist. She is so creative... and funny. She cracks us up every day. The other day I made a joke about selling our kids and my little comedian says, "nooooooo... but you can just sell Elleigh".

Little-C is growing like a weed. All he really does is eat and sleep. For the few hours of the day that he is awake, he is the happiest most playful baby around; as long as he's being held by his parents or sisters. He's starting to scoot across the floor, which means we need to go buy a baby corral or some sort of harness to keep him from destroying our house. He has the most infectious laugh that pulls you in, and then when you're not looking... he'll drool all over your face. A couple of weeks ago he and I were wresting on my bed. I picked him up over my head and growled at him. With precision timing and drop-dead accuracy, he spit-up right into my mouth. As I rolled over to spit out the previously consumed formula and applesauce, I passed little-C to my "sympathetic" wife as she struggled to catch her breath from laughing. If any of you are wondering but have never had the pleasure of this experience... it tastes exactly how you would imagine. After I had finished brushing my teeth for the 16th time and drank 1/2 gallon of mouthwash, I promptly grounded little-C for the remainder of his adolescence. But then he smiled at me with his two protruding bottom teeth and I caved. I guess I'll just have to slowly extract my revenge from him over the next 20 or so years... or not.

New Pictures of Caleb

Caleb Matthew Francom

Halloween 2009

This year the girls didn't get to choose what they were for Halloween. We had paid for dance costumes that they never used because we left Utah earlier than planned. So Sophie had a brand new "Jasmine" costume and Elleigh had a really cute cowgirl costume. Luckily they really liked the costumes and so they didn't put up much of a fight. They looked absolutely adorable! We had a week worth of Halloween parties at dance and school and at a friends house Friday night. Then trick or treating on the Navy base where we live. People were so creative when passing out candy. Some people even created their own little haunted house in their car ports. It was really fun and so many people were out enjoying the night. And I must say it was nice to have 70 degree weather to trick or treat in. Quite a change from what we are used to.

Here is Elleigh and Sophie at their dance Halloween party.














The girls with our cute neighbor kids.

It's A Boy!!!

We are so excited to announce that we are expecting our 3rd baby in March!!! It will also be our first BOY!! We are so excited! The girls are thrilled to be getting a baby brother and Matt couldn't be more happy to have a son on the way. We are both still trying to wrap our heads around having a little boy in our house that has been full of little princesses up until this point.

Elleigh in The Wizard of Oz

Elleigh had the opportunity to be a munchkin in the Meridian Community College's production of THE WIZARD OF OZ. It was such a fun experience! I still can't believe how much work it is to be the parent of a little performer. A big thanks to my mom for things she did my whole life that I didn't understand until now. Elleigh loved every second of it. She would get tired some nights when we had to be there every night for 3 weeks in a row but when it was all over she was really sad. She was a little star up there with the best facial expressions. She did such a great job!! Sophie was her biggest supporter and knew all the dance moves too after coming to all the rehearsals with us. She can't wait until she gets to be in a play!



Elleigh as a munchkin.




Elleigh and Sophie as a part of the set.



The girls with the Wicked Witch of the West.



Elleigh on stage.



The girls with the leads in the play.