It Makes Me Laugh

It makes me laugh every time I look up new restaurants, directions, weather or something like that online and I have to put in my zip code. Why? Because I always have to ask myself "where do we live?" or "where am I?" You know you've moved around a lot when you can't remember where you are!

27

I turned 27 yesterday! It was a wonderful birthday; had Bruce been here it would have been absolutely perfect. My sweet Mom and Mother-in-Law drove down yesterday morning to celebrate with us. We really enjoyed spending the day with them! I have a lot of pictures to post (not just from my birthday - I'm so behind in the blogging department!), so I'll keep the birthday portion of this short and sweet. With the move and Bruce leaving for Oklahoma, my birthday really snuck up on me this year. There wasn't anything I wanted or needed and I hadn't thought much about turning one year older. By the time the 25th rolled around, I was looking forward to a quiet birthday with the fam. While I always feel blessed for everything God has done for me, this year all I could think about was how truly lucky I am. I have an amazing husband, three beautiful, healthy children, am healthy myself, we have a family that loves us and is always there for us anytime we need anything, a nice home an hour away from both families, food on the table, on and on I could go. I guess the older I get, the more I realize how precious and fragile life is; there are no guarantees. So I'm thankful for every day I've had and looking forward to another year of life and whatever it brings. Here's to making my 27th year the best year yet!

Mom and me

Cathy and me

Celebrating with my three sweet babies

Time to make a wish! Those cupcakes are from Gigi's...amazing!

As promised, here are a few house shots for you. Each room still lacks something, but we're getting there and we really like our house. It took a little while to get used to the stairs and to all of the creaks and squeaks an older home makes. Not cool at night if you're a big chicken like me! We need furniture in some rooms, more wall decor in others, new picture frames for older pictures in our room and the sitting room, you get the idea. But like Bruce always says, we have more time than money and that's how we're approaching it.

The family room

The dining room - I need to get that picture of K and O up on the wall, curtains up, and some pictures up on that back wall. I would like to get some upholstered dining chairs to soften and brighten that dining set up a bit. We'll eventually pull up that white carpet...so not kid-friendly!

Kathryn and Owen's room

Sullivan's room - I think I'm going to hang pictures on the walls instead of those shelves...I just need to find the right pictures.


Owen's potty-training update
Two words: not now. We tried, but I can't do it by myself. It was too stressful for him and me. We had MANY accidents, but we also had many successful trips to the potty to go pee-pee. I think I realized I had taken on more than I could handle when Owen pooped on his towel (I make them sit on a big towel on the floor in case of an accident) and before I could come back with paper towels to clean it up...Charlie ate it! Disgusting. My original plan, which I think I mentioned in my last post, was to wait until November or December. I'm going back to that. Every now and then he wants to go potty so I let him and we make a big deal about it by praising and clapping, but I'm not doing anything official until Bruce comes home.

This doesn't have much to do with anything, but I thought since I'm doing a catch-up post I would mention this. I know I'll look back on this one day and laugh...or wonder how I did it. This is without a doubt the busiest I have ever been in my entire life. I am absolutely exhausted! :) Three toddlers, all of whom are either in a "no" or "I do it" phase, will keep you moving. I don't even know how to begin to explain it, but I'll try. As an example, I'll use snack time. I decide to make a snack for the kids, all three go to the fridge at different times while I'm trying to get their food ready. One's pulling out yogurt, one's biting into a huge unwashed apple that I know he/she won't finish, one's screaming at me for chocolate milk. One wants peaches with cottage cheese, one wants pears with yogurt, and one wants plain peaches and pears. K and O want to do everything themselves. Whether it's pouring milk, spreading jelly on their toast, or stirring my coffee, it's all about independence. Sullivan is learning new words every day and has figured out that to keep up and be heard, she has to be really loud when saying these new words! She says no to just about everything and has figured out that she can get up and walk out of time out when I'm not looking. Bed time and nap time seems to take forever when I'm on my own...one wants to go potty, then the other, one needs a drink of water, one wants to put on socks, someone unplugs the alarm clock and while I'm fixing it the other baby jumps out of bed and runs down the hall. Even if I weren't keeping up with my workouts, I'd still get plenty of cardio chasing these kids around the house, the yard, Target, wherever. Luckily, my body never feels tired. It's just my brain! There's so much to think about and I always try to stay one step ahead of the kids. Meals to make, diapers to change, laundry to fold, a house to clean, and babies to keep happy, I feel like I have numerous full-time jobs.

I remember thinking around Christmas last year that even though I was busy, my busiest days were still ahead of me. I somehow just knew that having a one-and-a-half year old and two two-and-a-half year olds would be one of the most challenging times in my life. Oh boy, was I right. BUT, with each passing day and each new challenge, there is new joy and I fall a little bit more in love with my children. Which I didn't think was even possible, but it's true, every day I love them more. There are some moments when I feel my heart is going to jump out of my chest because they do or say something so precious that I can't help but think to myself "this is it, this is why I wanted to become a mommy and have a family." In those moments, nothing else matters and I feel energized, proud, and happy. The other night we were about to say prayers with Grandmama and Mimi before bed. I asked Kathryn if she wanted to say a prayer for Daddy and she said "Yes, so he can be happy." Such a sweet, simple, pure thought - straight from a little girl's heart. Yesterday, I caught the kids "hiding" from me. They were all sitting in the living room, backs against the wall, side-by-side. I watched them for a few minutes before "finding" them and I just smiled as they hugged each other, talked to each other, and told each other to "shhhh so mommy won't find us." I love how they ask each other for help and problem-solve together now. Each night Owen and Kathryn want to walk with me to tuck Sullivan in and say good night to her. I pray their bond only strengthens as they get older, nothing could make me happier. So that's that. I guess today's post not only serves as an update for everyone out there, but as a journal for me as well. If you read this whole post, bless you for sticking with it!

And just for fun...some sweet pictures of our little ones from this week and last. I thought Bruce would like to see these, so these are for you Daddy! We can't wait to see you this weekend!

Bath time fun!

Bubble baby

This butterfly costume was a big hit this week.

My little man and his "billa pilla" (That means Gorilla Pillow).

Potty-Training Round Two

It's time for our next round of potty-training - Owen is ready for his big kid undies! Naturally Owen is asking to wear big boy underwear and use the potty right as Bruce is leaving, but my plan is to again do the "Three Day Potty Training Method" and get it over with and move on. I really thought I would wait until closer to December - just before Owen and Kathryn turn three, but Owen had other plans. I wasn't going to push him and was content to wait until he showed multiple signs of readiness. Every mom I've talked to with a boy(s) has said that waiting until closer to three makes things so much easier, but who am I to keep my little boy in diapers if he doesn't want to wear them! We talked about his "reward" this morning and when he goes one week without an accident he and I will have lunch at Chick-fil-A and then go see Cars 2. He seemed excited, so maybe that will motivate him.

It's going to be a busy weekend while we tackle this, but I know Owen can do it. Once he's trained, we will only have ONE baby in diapers. We've never had just one in diapers. That's a small pay raise! Now that Sullivan has seen Kathryn and Owen on the potty, she's always trying to climb up on the potty and she'll say "pee-pee!" The younger ones really do learn quickly. Maybe our diapers days will be over sooner than I expected. Wish us luck...I'll post on Owen's progress soon.

Say Cheese

Just some fun pictures I took this morning of the kids and thought I'd share them with everyone. Today they were all happy to pose and smile for me. That's a first! Of course trying to catch them all posing and smiling at the same time was the real challenge. Enjoy!

Let's Get It Over With

So there's a big change coming next week...Bruce is leaving and we're all very sad about it. However, it's not like a deployment in that we know we will see him twice during the four months he's training. We'll also be able to talk to him anytime we want because he'll be in the same time zone. That's a big comfort to us right now! There's always this weird week or two before a deployment or training stint where as much as I hate to see Bruce leave, we just want our time apart to start so we can get the whole thing over with. Like I said, I know that probably sounds weird, but we can't mark days off the calendar if he hasn't left yet.

All military spouses and military families have their own coping methods while their loved ones are deployed/training/TDY. You have to have a to-do list or a plan. It's important to plan trips, weekly lunch dates or play dates, or, in my case, finish certain things around the house before Bruce comes home. The last time Bruce was gone for this long I was pregnant with Owen and Kathryn. I kept myself busy with work, doctor appointments, planning the nursery and buying baby stuff, lunches and dinners with friends, etc. I'm curious (and nervous) about how this will go with the babies - we've never had to do this before with children. What's on my to-do list this time?

-Weekly trips to the park, Target, grocery store - obvious right? Still that's easily three days worth of outings a week.
-Find a pediatrician for the kiddos, a dentist for all of us (there's no base here so we will all see civilian doctors, Bruce included), and a general physician for Bruce and myself.
-At least one trip to Huntsville/Hartselle a month (especially during football season so we can watch Bama games with the whole fam)
-Potty train Owen (he is ready!)
-Have my wing back chairs recovered (This doesn't sound like a big deal, but it will involve a fair amount of time to find fabric, drop chairs off, etc.)
-Order new curtains for sitting room and our bedroom
-Find furniture for dining room
-Organize the guest room and basement
-Three workouts a week, minimum. Of course these will be done at home when the kids are asleep, but I can't give up just because I can't go out and run alone.
-Find and try one new recipe each week
-Drink a lot of coffee...I'm gonna' need it! ;)

There are plenty of other things I need to do I'm sure, but these are the biggies that came to mind today. My main goal though is just to help the kids adjust to our new environment without their Daddy. Bruce is involved in everything when it comes to the kids and I know they're going to miss him like crazy.

I often feel guilty for being so sad about Bruce leaving for four months. We've had almost three years of Daddy being at home every night and no deployments! That's pretty much unheard of if you've been in the military these last few years. But I guess that's unheard of only if you're comparing us to other military families. When you tell a "civilian" (I didn't know another word to use) family that your husband is leaving for four months, they can't even fathom what that would be like. It's hard because we are separated a great deal more than the average family, but much less than the typical military family. Either way, I have to keep reminding myself we've been blessed and this is a new chapter for our family and it too will have many perks!

Here are a couple of pictures we took before leaving Biloxi for the last time with the babies. I should have gotten these up a while ago. They were taken on Father's Day. We had a lot of fun (and sleepless nights and long days) in this little house.



The only thing missing in the kids' rooms are their letters (a friend of mine is painting them for us) and a few more curtain panels in Sullivan's room. After that though, the kids' rooms will be done! I promise house pictures next week and a rundown of everything we've done or changed since we've been here. It's been a busy couple of weeks! Until next time...