Facebook is the dangdest thing. Because I am friends on Facebook with the five or six people who read this blog, I now have instant accountability about my rate of blog posting. Here's an example. Today is Saturday. I actually arrived back home in New Mexico from my trip to Mississippi on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, my Facebook status said something to the effect of "Haley is so glad to be home!" Big mistake. Apparently my 4.5 blog readers saw that status and then set their timers to give me a two-day grace period to get my act together. Then at two days and 10 seconds, I started receiving messages like "Hey! When are you going to blog? I know you're home now! I need some pictures of Kate! Get on it! Chop chop, woman!" So here I am! Back from the abyss! Sorry to keep you waiting. Here are some photos to make it up to you.

Before Ryan came home, my sister Audrey and I spent a whole hour of our lives thinking of clever things to write on our welcome home signs for the airport. We're not really the kind of family that's going to make super-patriotic signs when we welcome you home from war. It's not that you aren't a hero. It's just that ninja is a much cooler word, and it's accurate too, since Ryan is a black belt instructor in the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. So Kate's special baby-sized sign reflected that:

Other signs we made said "Byaaaaah!" which is a nod to our family's love of the Howard Dean scream (previously blogged about here) and "Have Mercy," the sign Audrey held in reference to an ongoing conversation she and Ryan have been having via Facebook during his deployment about how when he got home, he was going to beat her up. I am not sure why that's funny, but they've been at it for months. You can see these signs in the shot of the crowd that gathered to welcome Ryan home. (Hat tip to my Aunt Lisa for getting these photos. I was a little busy, since Kate kept trying to sneak off and take a joy ride on a nearby escalator.)

We waited for what seemed like a really long time for Ryan to come out of the gates. In fact, we saw all of these people who had been on his flight come out, and several of them told us that he was coming right behind them. I think he was putting it off to make a more dramatic entrance. And it worked, too, because we cheered and cheered when he finally did come out. Here he is with my sisters Hannah and Audrey.

Aaron and Kelly had arranged for us to all head over to the Crawdad Hole (Yes, that's the name of an actual dining establishment, and they make some great crawfish, too.) and hang out for a while, so we did. Ryan entertained everyone with stories.

Kate entertained herself by stealing my cousin Adrian's purse. Adrian was very sweet about it.

I have some more great photos from the weekend and I'll post those soon. But for now, I just want to thank everyone again for all their prayers for Ryan and our family during his deployment. We are so blessed to have him home safely.