Little Conversations

I love listening to my girls talk to each other and play.  It's quite interesting sometimes.  The other day I heard this:

Natalie: "Gabbie, do you know the difference between boys and girls?"

Gabbie: "Girls have long hair, and boys have short hair"

N: "No, Boys are stinky and girls have boobs!"


She was as serious as she could be.  And for the record, I don't plan to tell her any differently any time soon. ;o)

I've Been Busy...

As usual it's been longer than I would like since I last blogged. However, this time I feel like I have a good excuse. I've been busy. Here's an overview of what has been keeping me from spending more than a few minutes at a time on the computer.

On July 6th, Baby girl #3 joined our family. Savannah Juliet was born at 3:59 AM, and was 6lbs, 8oz. 19in long. I was induced with both of the other girls, and really wanted to experience what it was like to go into labor on my own. I was about to give up on that, as I was told at my 39 week check up that I still wasn't really making any progress in that direction. I was very disappointed, as I was more than ready for her to be here. However I was also measuring smaller than I did at my previous appt, so after a quick sonogram, they discovered that my fluid was low. The Dr came in and said
"Congratulations, you're having a baby tonight!"
Me: "uuhhh, ok. Can I go home and get my husband and bag?"
Dr. "No. You have to go be admitted right away."
I think I had a dazed look on my face, because the Doctors and nurses kept asking me if I was ok. Ha ha!
Induced again. I'm totally convinced that my body does not know how to go into labor on it's own.

Everything went fine, and about 12 hours later Savannah was here. I did learn one thing...you can go from only being dilated to a 5, to holding your baby in your arms in less than 30 min. Surprise! :o) Savannah was over 1lb smaller than her sisters were at birth, so it was so fun to have such a tiny newborn!
She is a super good, happy baby. She is 9 weeks old now, and has been sleeping through the night since she was about 4 or 5 weeks old. Her big sisters adore her, and are huge helps to me.

Since she is the 3rd baby, and 3rd girl, things have been pretty easy for me. I am however using cloth diapers for her. That has been a new adventure, and one that I am finding is more fun than I thought it would be! I wish I had started doing it 2 babies ago...but I didn't. I'm loving how much money we are saving! I had decided to CD before she was born, but all the diapers that I had bought were WAY too big for a tiny newborn. So I used disposable for the first 3 weeks until I got smaller diapers. We used $100 in diapers in just 3 weeks. YIKES! That made me feel good about our decision to CD, and made me feel better about the initial investment of buying the cloth. More on this adventure later. :o)

Natalie is officially in Kindergarten! We decided to home school her this year. Hawaii schools are not so good, and she was already way ahead of what she would be learning at school. So that has been keeping me busy as well. We have recently joined a local home school group and will be doing a co-op twice a month. Fun!

Natalie and Gabbie have been taking swimming lessons all summer. Two weeks every month from June-Sept we walk down to the pool in our neighborhood for lessons. They are having a blast and learning a LOT. They have one session left for this summer. Then hopefully Savannah will be big enough that I can keep taking them to the pool so they can practice and keep up the skills that they have learned.

AWANA has started back up. I now have one in Cubbies and one in Sparks! How am I old enough to have one in Sparks??! I am helping out with the high school group again also. That keeps my Sundays full.

Tony's mom was able to come and visit right before, and right after Savannah was born. We always enjoy her visits! We are planning a trip back home to Texas to visit my family at the end of September. We are super excited! At that point it will be a year and a half since seeing any of my family, or being off this beautiful little rock in the middle of the ocean. I am not looking forward to the 8 hour flight (12+ hours of travel time, AND 5 hours time difference) with a baby and 2 little ones...but it will be worth it. :o)

Well, this is a small overview of what I have been up to these last couple of months. Trust me, it feels crazier than it sounds. My days are filled with laundry, dishes, nursing, feeding the other girls, cleaning up messes, cooking, cleaning again and more laundry. I have such a glamorous exciting life, don't I ? :0)


Her very first bath...she wasn't a fan!
My 3 girls.

Savannah on Left, Natalie on right. I feel like I am repeating myself...

December Already?!

Wow, I can't believe that it is December already. How well I remember last year! It seems like just a few months ago.

I am trying very hard to get in the holiday spirit around here. I have done hardly any Christmas shopping yet, and I just barely got the tree put up. It's hard to feel like Christmas when it is still so hot and green outside. There are no Christmas song about when it's 80 outside and the palm trees are swaying... Although according to the weather people here we are having "winter" weather. Winter here means a few more clouds and rain, and some days the breeze is fairly cool. I'll take it! On the cloudy days I just look out the window, and pretend that it is as cool as it looks outside.

We will not be with family for Christmas either. While this makes me very sad, and I'm missing all the family stuff we usually do on Christmas, at the same time I am looking forward to starting our own family traditions this year! I get the opportunity to start something special that someday my girls will remember about Christmas! And that does make me a little excited. But I am still missing the big family gatherings, with all the food and fun that comes with being with extended family this time of the year.

I am so thankful for my little family. I'm thankful that Tony is here for the holidays. There are many people in his line of work that aren't able to be home for Christmas. And someday, he might be one of those too. So I am very grateful this year, because we have no guarantee on the next years. The girls are very excited for Christmas too! Especially Natalie. Her Christmas list changes everyday I think. Haha! Although there have been a few things that have stayed the same. They love the Christmas tree! They plug it in first thing every morning. When I finally got it put up, Gabbie went running to it and gave it a big hug! There aren't many ornaments on it, and the bottom half is mostly bare. The bead garland is already messed up. But between the girls and the cat, I didn't really expect much different.

We also have the added blessing of a new baby this year! I am 9 weeks pregnant with baby #3. Natalie and Gabbie are VERY excited. They both want another sister. Poor daddy. Ha ha! So far this pregnancy is exactly like the other two. I haven't been sick, just super tired! I have heard from several people that have both boys and girls that their pregnancies were different with the different genders. I have a feeling the girls will get their sister, but of course that remains to be seen! Either way we will be happy.

I better go try and do something productive with my day. Tony is working this weekend, so I am being lazy this morning. Have a blessed December, with much happiness in this special season!

Tech School Graduation

Today Tony (finally) graduated Tech school! We are so excited! He got Distinguished Grad too! That means that he had really good grades, never got in trouble for anything and had an instructor recommendation. I'm not surprised, and I'm very proud of him! This day has been a long time in coming for us. He has already been in the Air Force for almost 8 months! It seems like forever, and not that long at the same time. The fact that it has been 8 months and he is still in training is starting to get a little old! He has another 2 week-long training class and then we are off to Hawaii! We are very anxious to get to our duty station and be able to start this new part of our lives

My parents are visiting us for a few days since we won't have time to go to Amarillo before we move. They took the girls out to eat tonight and they are spending the night at Mimi and Pawpaw's camping trailer! We have no kids for the whole evening AND night. That has never happened! It is so nice! We went out to dinner with the other married couples from Tony's class. It has been nice having some friends for our time here. We don't really do much with them since we don't have a babysitter very often, but we have a lot of fun on the rare occasions that we were able to get together. Tonight we had fun celebrating that tech school is finally over! All the couples except for us are leaving town tomorrow to go to their new stations. This was our first time to say good-bye to friends that we have met in the Air Force.(first of many I'm sure, so we will have to get used to it) :o) It is bitter sweet. We are all so excited to be going to our new places, but we will always have this common bond of surviving tech school together. I am thankful for Facebook that lets us all keep in touch. Someday our paths just might cross again!








Natalie gave herself a haircut last night. She cut the hair in the front down to the scalp, and took big chunks out of the rest of it. I took her to a salon today to get it fixed. I will admit that it could have been much worse. She looks a lot older now with her new layered hairstyle.





Natalie's version








Better

And a picture of Gabbie, so she is included. :o) Plus it is so RARE that she will actually smile for the camera! I think she is so cute in this one!

Too young to be a tooth fairy!

Sometimes being a parent is no fun at all. Don't get me wrong, I love my babies and I can't imagine my life with out them.

Before we got to the story behind the title, you need a little background information.

Because our upcoming move is considered an Overseas location, we have to be medically cleared to move. The Military wants to make sure that you don't have any conditions, or need to see any specialists that may not be available to you at your next location. It's not a big deal, especially for Hawaii. There is pretty much any kind of Dr. one would need over there, but regardless there is a lot of paperwork and hassle that you have to do anyway. Fun, fun. So this month I have been busy getting the medical clearance paperwork together for the three of us girls. This involves trips to the dentist and the clinic for checkups. After that we have to meet with some medical people and a "mental health" specialist so they can finish clearing us. I have been busy and exhausted, but I am almost done with my part! After this it is up to the military, and we are back to waiting. (The story of my life lately) We are hoping for orders soon, so we will have a date for our move. The next few weeks are big ones for us as far as moving plans go.

When I took Natalie to the dentist for her check-up they discovered that she has something known as External Resorption in her two front top teeth. Basically the roots and teeth are being resorbed. Like dissolved or eaten away. Anyway...this could have been caused from a trama to her teeth sometime in the past, like if she fell and hit them pretty bad. The dentist said that if we didn't have her teeth pulled, then it would spread to her other teeth and even damage her permanent teeth. Yipes!
So sitting in the dentist office I was in shock, and to clarify I asked,

"So you want to take those two teeth out?"

Yes

"And leave a HOLE in her mouth for a year or two??"

Yes

"And it's ok to do this??"

Yes

I had to come home and talk to Tony about it, do some research on our own, and make myself be ok with doing this. For some reason I had the hardest time making the decision to do it! How could I take the front teeth out of my baby's head way before it was time?? She would have trouble eating, and talking, and lets face it I was concerned with how she would look. I know kids are cute with missing teeth, but teeth that are missing for 2 years?! I was devastated. However the thought of damaging her permanent teeth, just to save these for a couple more years was stupid.

So we decided to have it done. Today I took my beautiful little girl to the dentist and had her teeth pulled. She's probably young enough that she doesn't know to care about how she looks with missing teeth. (Although the first thing she said to me when she got done was that she wanted to see in the mirror) :o) I think because her mouth was so numb she had no idea what had happened to her! She had to see that she was ok. She says that her mouth is "dizzy".

I got to thinking about how awful this was for me-and I realized that it really wasn't awful at all. So many parents are told so many things that are so much worse! What they wouldn't give to only have to have their kids teeth pulled instead of surgery, or chemo, or whatever other truly terrible thing their child is faced with.

It's not even as bad as when she was 2 days old and the Dr. told me there was a hole in her tiny heart....

So I will put on my big girl panties, a brave smile, and keep telling my little girl that she is a beautiful princess. (Because she still is!) I will put on my tooth fairy hat tonight and remember this milestone in my child's life even if it did come too early! I am thankful that she is healthy and whole, and we caught this before it was too late!

Now I have to go wake up both of my princesses, so I can go get my check-up. After this I am turning in paperwork and we are back to more waiting. I am DONE with Dr visits for awhile I hope!

I'm Still Here

As usual it has been way too long since I have posted. I have been busy.

The move went well. The movers didn't break anything. So far the only thing that I am missing is the front tray from my double stroller. I am not saying that they lost it yet, I need to look for it some more. However the more time that passes, the more it looks like I may not see it again and it must be riding around the country on a big orange truck or maybe one of the other military families got something new in their household shipment. I will be sad if I don't find it. It doesn't affect my ability to use the stroller, but it sure is nice to have.

I love our new tiny house. It is only 900-something sq feet, but somehow we have all the room we need. We even have a little bit left over! Its like one of the several miracles in the Bible where God caused something to multiply. (bread and fish, widow's oil, etc.) The space in my little miracle house just kept multiplying until I had all that I need. Somehow we have 3 walk-in closets. I love that, as do the girls. It's like an extra room to play in! I'm sure that I love the house more because we are all together here, but it really is a pretty nice house. It is old, and a lot of people complain about them. Maybe I've just never lived anywhere super nice, but I don't see what's so bad about it. The kitchen has been remodeled and it has new paint and crown molding. Other than the bad carpet and dishwasher I have no real complaints. The base is tiny, but I love it too. The Commissary and BX are super close and sometimes I will go at least a week without even leaving the base. My gas tank has lasted a month!! This again is something to love. We live withing walking distance to the playground, and the weather here is wonderful! We are still able to go to the playground often. It is (until this week anyway) still in the mid to high 70s during the day...and the wind doesn't blow!!!! I love that for sure!
It is a lot more wet here than in Amarillo. There are more trees too. There are Pecan trees everywhere on the base. There is mistletoe all over the town as well. I may have to go get me some for Christmas!
The day we finally got here. Yay, living in the same town again! (We were tired....not sure about the look on Tony's face!)

Our house. The pictures are a little blurry, they were taken with my phone.


Living room
Girls' room Dining room
Kitchen

Tony is doing great in school...no big surprise there. I'm so proud of him. His classes are not easy for most people, but he is sailing through them. He is enjoying most of what he is learning so far, and is looking forward to actually doing the job.

Natalie loves the new house and going to the playground. I have started her in preschool (home school) We haven't done it very much yet, but she likes it so far. She already knows most of what is taught in preschool, and she is only 3. So by starting now I am able to take our time and not push her. I don't have to worry about getting behind when we move in the spring either. We have a year and a half until kindergarten to learn the rest of what she doesn't know. We are working on writing letters and their sounds right now. I am amazed with how much she already knows and how easy it is for her to learn things. She loves it. Just like her Daddy. I hope she is always this way!

Gabbie is like me when it comes to learning...there is just so many better things to do with your time! She doesn't like to sit still long enough. We are working on potty training. It is a lot harder than it was with Natalie!! So far she has learned to run to the potty AFTER she wets her panties, and to say that she needs to potty when she should be in bed. She will sit on the potty for about 5 seconds before she says "done!" One night we had 2 successful trips to the potty, and I was SO excited! That was I got though. Gabbie knows more than she lets on though. She won't talk much at all, but every now and then she will let a few words out in the form of a sentence! She gets a look on her face like, "oops!" Then she goes back to acting like she doesn't know how to say those words. Silly girl! One of these days she will probably just start talking in perfect sentences and surprise me. Maybe that is her plan with the potty too...someday she will go from acting like she doesn't have a clue, to perfectly trained in 1 day. I can only hope. The military doesn't pay enough at Tony's rank to afford pull-ups, so I hope that day is soon!

The girls love their new big room. They play together all day in it! They get along about 90% of the time too. They love each other. The first thing Gabbie does when she wakes up in the morning is look for "Nat nat".

I am just trying to adjust. Adjusting to my babies getting so big, and adjusting the learning and discipline that goes along with that. Adjusting to the "stupid rules" of the Air Force. Most of the rules make no sense and are harder, more time consuming, and cost more than doing things another way. Nonetheless, we (especially Tony) have to follow them. I don't mind rules if they just had a purpose and made sense! It will be a lot better once we are permanent party in the Spring, but even then there will be things that don't make sense. Oh well, such is my life now. I'm not complaining at all, just trying to get used to it. I'm adjusting to getting up at 5:00am in the morning with Tony to help him get ready to go to class. I'm adjusting to him being gone from 5:20 in the morning until 5:30 or later at night. Some days I feel like I am adjusting better than others! I am adjusting to a new church. I miss Trinity Fellowship SO badly! There isn't really a good selection of churches here, so I am glad that we are only here temporarily! We have found one that will work for now. I am adjusting to a new town. I can make it to Wal-mart and the rest of the shopping I might need (they are on the same street. shhh, don't tell ;o) ) without my GPS now!

We went back to Amarillo for Thanksgiving weekend. It was good. We look forward to going back over Christmas. We had fun with family, and it made me realize that I consider here to be home now. Home is wherever my family (Tony and the girls), and my house is. I can make anywhere be home. That will come in handy over the next several years I think!

We are so blessed and Thankful this Holiday season! It has been a big year for us. We have done things that we never would have imagined for ourselves. In it all we know that we are exactly where God wants us, and we are headed down the path He wants us to travel! We are so happy where we are right now, and excited for where we will be next year!

Enjoy this wonderful, blessed season!

Missing Daddy

Before Tony left we took the girls to the Bear Mill and got them puppies in an Air Force Blues uniform. I put Tony's cologne on them so the girls have a little reminder of Daddy while he is gone. They love them, and Natalie is always saying "It smells good! It smells like my daddy!"




Daddy and his girls and their "Special Dada puppies"


Gabbie and her puppy watching Veggie Tales




I got my first phone call from Tony yesterday! This is the dreaded 30 second scripted call where he gives me his address. We actually got to talk for 2 min and 11 seconds! Yay! He was not very scripted, and there was no one yelling at him in the background. He sounded really good! Now I can write him letters. That makes me feel better, but we still miss him a lot.

Where Did June Go?!

Wow, this month has gone by so fast for me! I can't believe that it is July already. June seemed even busier than May was, and it definitely went by faster to me!

I want to start by saying hello to my new followers! I now have someone other than family members following my blog, Yay! Now I just need to give them something interesting to read... Hang in there, not all my posts will be about my kids! :o)

We finally got the tubes put in Gabbie's ears. She is doing great.

My parents are in town for awhile, so we are enjoying spending time with them. The girls of course are getting lots of Mimi and Pawpaw time which they love!

Tony's parents came to visit for a few days as well. They lived in South Carolina and came to see us on their way to Japan! Tony's dad is a MGySgt (Master Gunnery Sergeant) in the Marine Corps and they are PCSing (moving) to Okinawa for awhile. It was great to see them. We haven't seen them since March of last year. Gabbie was just a tiny baby last time they saw her! Both girls took to them right away and had so much fun with them. It's hard to believe that Natalie may be 6, and Gabbie will be 4- older than Natalie is now, next time they see them!
Yesterday marked exactly 3 weeks until Tony leaves for BMT! I am only a little nervous so far, but if I think about it too much than I get a lot more nervous! I have plans to visit some of my family while he is gone to help keep me busy, so hopefully those 2 months will go by fast. Right now we are just trying to get everything taken care of that we need to before he leaves. We have a list of stuff we have to get done. Once he leaves, he will not be back here to live! I will be moving everything myself in the fall. That's where things get a little nerve racking!

It seems like I had something on my calender a few days out of every week in June. It was crazy! July so far is pretty empty! That is good though. It will give us a chance to get stuff done and have some family time before Tony leaves. We are leaving on Friday after Tony gets off work to go to Wichita Falls for the weekend. Our good friends moved there several weeks ago, and the guys have days off that line up, so we decided to go! It will be a short trip but I am looking forward to getting out of town. I told Natalie yesterday that we are going to see Katie, her best friend and she is super excited!

Have a happy Fourth of July everyone! Be safe and remember all the men and women that make sacrifices to make this the great country that it is! Thank you!

Long Overdue

Usually my lack of blogging is for lack of something to blog about. That is not the case this time! We have been so incredibly busy the month of May. From Natalie's birthday, and 2 weeks of company, to the garage sale I had this weekend I have stayed very busy. Now I am sick. Not a huge surprise there I guess. The house is a disaster, but I am on light housework(just laundry and dishes) restriction, until tomorrow when I hopefully will feel better. Hopefully I can tackle the disaster zone then.

Here are the highlights:

The 10th was Natalie's 3rd birthday and Mother's day! Her birthday being on Mother's day brought back memories of my FIRST Mother's day- I had been a mother for all of 3 1/2 days! It was defenatly a special mother's day that year, and this year too! Both years there was more focus on Natalie than Mother's day, but then I guess that's kinda what mother's day is all about. The children that make the mothers. Natalie's great-grandparent's from Dumas came over and Auntie Neena, Uncle Clint, and Mimi and Pawpaw all made a trip to visit for the special day. It was a lot of fun, and a very busy weekend. I will put pictures in a separate post.

The week after that I had overnight company for a week straight. For the first couple of days Tony's grandmother from Rhode Island came for a visit. It was her first time meeting Gabbie, and only her second time to see Natalie. Both girls took to her right away. We really enjoyed her time here. My grandparents from Oklahoma came literally 30 min after I dropped her off at the airport. They were here for 3 days, and then a couple of hours after they left our best friends came to visit. They just moved from here to Wichita Falls. It was really good to get to spend another day with them. Natalie and Kaitlyn, their little girl are best friends. They still talk about each other every day, even though they don't get to see each other any more.

In the midst of all this we had been getting out storage trailer cleaned out and ready for a garage sale. That took up most of our evenings off and pretty much all of Tony's days off. We finally got it done, and our part of the storage is almost empty! Which makes me wonder why we even moved and stored all that stuff in the first place!!? Mostly because at the time of our last move we didn't have time to go through it all I guess. I didn't to move it all again, especially twice in a year like we will be doing, so we got rid of it. I had the garage sale this Friday night and Saturday. Tony had to work so I did it ALL BY MYSELF!! Rebecca helped watch the girls, which made it possible for me. Friday I started coming down with something, and Saturday I felt REALLY bad, but I wasn't able to take a break until today...so I crashed hard! I haven't felt this bad in a long time! I am so glad to have it behind me though. I didn't do very well on the sale Saturday. but I have a friend that is having a sale in a couple of weeks. I am going to put what I had that didn't sell in her sale. That one should be a lot easier, and hopefully with that one all of our stuff will be gone!

Gabbie is still having trouble with her ears. We have an appointment with an Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor on the 9th to start the process of getting tubes put in. I can't wait! I am ready for her to be sleeping through the night again. She is WAY too old for me to be going through this again! I want her to be feeling better too, poor thing.
She sure does think she is big stuff. We have moved her out of the highchair to a booster seat at the table, AND she has moved out the the crib into a big bed! We weren't planning to move her into a big bed this early, but we got some bunk beds for the girls. The only bed that we owned for them was the crib, so obviously we needed some for when we move. We decided on bunk beds in case we only get a 2 bedroom house when we move to San Angelo and don't have much room for 2 separate beds. The beds will separate into two beds for when we get a 3 bedroom house though. We were keeping an eye out for one, and found a really good deal, so we went ahead and got it now. We decided to go ahead and put the girls in the new bed so they wouldn't have to adjust to a new house AND new beds when we move. Adjustment to a bunk bed is kinda a big change in and of itself I think. For Natalie sleeping on the top, and Gabbie going from a crib to a bed. Both girls adjusted really well! Gabbie had a little trouble settling down the first night, but she slept great once she did. Natalie of course thinks it is really neat that she gets to climb stairs to get to her bed! We haven't had a bit of trouble with either girl in the new bed. They are both getting so big! Gabbie has started telling me when she is going to the bathroom in her diaper, even when she just pees. So I guess in August when the girls and I get back from visiting some family we will work on potty training. If I can get her to tell me BEFORE she goes, not AS she is going then I think it will be pretty easy. :o) She already is showing more interest in it than Natalie did at the time that I potty trained her! Hopefully I can get it done in that window of time that Tony will be gone and I am not too busy. It will give me something to do to keep me busy!

That's most of the highlights for now I guess!

Quick Update

As usual, it has been awhile since I posted last. Every time that I think I get an opportunity to sit down long enough to do this something else comes up, or somebody wakes up from their nap! I hear snoring coming from the baby monitor, so here goes...

Tony got a job and will be leaving for his basic training on July 21st. He will be in San Antonio from then until the weekend of September 20th. His graduation will be that weekend if anybody will be in the area and wants to come. :o) I think it will be really neat. These dates could possibly change...but this is how it should be. After that he will be going to San Angelo, Tx for more training. He will be there for 19-22 weeks. We aren't sure yet which it is, we have heard both. We are thinking it is more around the 22 weeks. There is a possibility that the Air Force will move the girls and I to San Angelo since he will be there for so long. Even if the Air Force doesn't pay our moving expenses, we are still thinking about moving ourselves-it's only about 6 hours from here. It would be a lot harder (I would have to move by myself!) and cost us a little more, but being apart for 8 months when we don't HAVE to be sounds worse to me! Hopefully we can save up the money to make that possible.

The girls are healthy right now. Natalie goes next month to the Dr for a checkup, so we will see how her weight and iron levels are doing then. She and Gabbie love playing together. Gabbie is getting old enough now where they are having more fun. Gabbie is getting a lot more teeth and saying a lot more words. She is all of a sudden changing into more of a little girl. She is good at following directions and picking up after herself. She is still better at making messes though! She loves to throw trash away...but sometimes things that aren't trash get thrown away as well, so I have to check it all the time. She gets the trash and laundry hamper confused sometimes. Natalie is still loving her gymnastics, and Gabbie is going to be my dancer I think. Every time she hears any kind of music she dances to it. She will even put her hands together above her head and spin around. I have NO IDEA where she learned how to do that! Maybe it just came natural?

I am just trying to stay on top of all the housework and other stuff that is going on around here! Some days all I can do is keep from getting too far behind...forget about getting ahead! I am trying to get more organized and scheduled. It looks like Spring may be here to stay...The forecast for the next couple of weeks looks good! (Except for the wind of course) The weather can of course change overnight without warning, but if it holds like this that will get us into May. Our chances of staying nice are a lot better after that point. I am trying to plan our days so that we can have time to play outside, without me getting behind on what needs to be done inside. It is a work in progress! Hopefully I will get something that works for us in the next few days. I promised Natalie that she could play in the sandbox after her nap, so I have to get some stuff done while she is napping. This will be the first time for Gabbie to play in the "box", so I am scared! :o) Hopefully I can keep her from eating too much of the sand, or getting buried by her sister!

We only have 3 months until Tony leaves, so we are also going to be cleaning out and getting rid of a bunch the junk that we don't need anymore. It's funny how your perspective can be changed and what you thought you just had to have a year ago, now is not important to you. Thinking about moving around a bunch of extra junk helps a lot with that!

We have something going almost every week until July. Another reason for me to get our days organized! We will have family visiting 2 different weekends in May and some family here in June as well. I am glad that we are busy, it will help the time pass until Tony leaves. I am not looking forward to his leaving, it's just the sooner he leaves, the sooner he will be back. That's how I am looking at it any way. I don't know if it is logical or not. :o) I plan to stay pretty busy all Summer. I don't want to summer to go by fast necessarily, but I am ready for September and October to be here. I have heard that it is better to stay busy while Tony will be gone, so that is what I plan to do.

That's it for now. I know I kinda rambled but I am trying to get a lot done in a short amount of time this afternoon. I hope that you are able to make sense of all of it! :o) I have some pictures that I will try to put up soon.

God's Plan for Our Family

Like probably all of you that are reading this, we are always seeking God and His will for our family. Several months ago, we felt Him leading us in a new direction. After months of diligent praying, searching, researching, and numerous confirmations, we are certain of the path God wants us to follow. We believe that God has called Tony to join the Air Force! I know that many of you may not think that this could be from God, or a wise choice for our family, but I promise that we have put MUCH prayer into this, and have nothing but excitement and peace from God! We know that there will be hard times in this path, but are confident that God is faithful and will be with us every step of the way!

Tony swore into the Delayed Entry Program/Inactive Reserves yesterday. He scored a 99 on his ASVAB, which is the highest score possible for the test! That makes it possible for him to pretty much get whatever job he wants that is available. He is hoping to leave at the very end of June, or first of July. We won't know if it will be then or sometime after that. It all depends on when his job will be available. We are supposed to find out in about a month when he will be leaving for training.

We are thankful for all of the love, prayers, and support of our friends and family, and in turn we pray that God will give the same peace about this to them as He has given to us. Everything about this decision has been from God. We are excited about the places that it will take us and the lives that we will have the opportunity to influence for God! We are also looking forward to the benefits that it will have for our family, and believe that they outweigh the struggles we will encounter along the way. We are looking forward to the growth and strength that it will bring to us as well.


We invite you to pray for us and share in our adventures as we "Cross Into the Blue".

Yesterday's Dr Appointment

The girls went for their checkup yesterday. Gabbie's ears are cleared up, she is doing great. Her nose started running again yesterday though. I just got all her mucus issues cleared up! I am really bummed and am praying that it is just because of the crazy weather and wind we have been having.

Natalie's weight is still up from when we started her on the appetite stimulant, but she has lost a bit since her last visit to the Dr. We are keeping her in the medicine for the next 3 months. The Doctor said that she is fine with Natalie staying where she is weight-wise now, as long as she doesn't loose any more. So we have to check again in a few months to make sure that is not happening. The Doctor also noticed that Natalie looked paler than usual, so she had us go have blood work done to check her iron levels. That was not fun! Poor baby, had to have big needles in both arms to get enough blood. She did not like that! (Neither did I!) It turns out her iron is low, so she has to be on an iron supplement for 3 months, then they will check her levels again. -I am already dreading that! Poor little girl.

New Haircut

I finally gave in and took Natalie to get a "real" haircut. I was tired of it always looking so scraggly and messy. These are the best pictures I could get of it. Trying to get Natalie to sit still or pose for a picture lately is next to impossible!

Parent Watch Night

This week was Parent Watch Night at Natalie's gymnastics class. Parents aren't allowed to stay and watch except on the last week of the month. After staying this week, we understand why! Natalie loves gymnastics, but once she noticed that I was there she did not do as well as she usually does. She kept needing me to kiss all her "owies". Anytime she got a little bump, she would burst into tears until I went and kissed it and made it better. Once her Dada got there it was even worse! We finally had to go stand outside of the gym so she would stop crying and listen to the teacher. It is hard enough for her to pay attention as it is. There are several classes and age groups that meet in the gym at the same time. Natalie always wants to go join the bigger kids doing the bigger flips and stuff. She really gets into it! Here are a few pictures of her at gymnastics. She is the one with the pink top and black pants.


Somersault time! Natalie is a pro at this!

Natalie at the end of the group.

Here they had to hop backwards across the room. Again, she is the last to finish! It's trampoline time!!

Birthday Fun

Gabbie had lots of fun on her Birthday!


She thinks the table is for standing on.

Gabbie LOVES cake!! She crammed it in her mouth as fast as her little fingers would go! It was all over her and the floor by the time she was finished.

Gabbie went to her 1 year checkup on Tuesday. She weighs 20 1/2 lbs, and is 29 1/4 inches tall. The Dr said that she looked great except for an ear infection. She has had a runny nose and cough for the past week or so, so I was not very surprised. She has not felt good the past couple of days because of the ear infection, and the 1 year immunizations that she got. Last night she would not eat (If Gabbie won't eat, then we KNOW it is bad!), and she had a fever of 102. She was so sad and wouldn't play or anything. All she wanted to do was just have someone hold her. That is unusual for Gabbie too. She is ALWAYS moving! She seems to feel a little better today, although she is still not 100%.