Still here!

I am still here! Treading water, but here!

I'm waiting to get some pictures from my weekend trip to Wicked to post. I took my fancy new camera with me and got to El Paso and realized when we got there that my memory card was in my computer at home. Of course. So I need to get the pictures off my friends' cameras. It was AMAZING. I understand why people go to see it over and over again. More details about that when I have pictures to put with it.




I think we have found our house in Utah! We haven't put down a deposit or signed our contract yet, but it seems as if it's a pretty done deal (knock on wood). It's coming open June 1, and we're not set to leave here until July. So that lends to a few exciting potential opporutnies, like a trip home in June for me and the kids. Details on that later if it works out. It's a great house, just two miles from the gate of the base that the legal office sits just inside of, our church sits at the end of the block, and the elementary school is less than 1/2 mile away. Kindergarten is just half-day there. I haven't broken that to Sara Katherine yet. I'm not sure either of us will know how to feel about that. She has been looking forward to big school, and though she will go to kindergarten everyday, she stays longer at preschool than she will at kindergarten. It will be so strange to live in a place again where I can just pop over to Target or Costco in about five minutes and where there will be so much to do. I'm looking forward to it! The house is owned by a military guy, and he and his family are moving to England. My favorite part is that it has a basement! There is a bedroom and full bathroom down there (which will be the guestroom, hello!), a family room, and this mirrored room that was used as a ballet studio. I'm trying to decide whether or not to make that a food storage/elliptical/home gym room or to turn it into the playroom and have the family room down there be toy-free. In theory, it'd be awesome to work out at home, and as I have a brother that sells gym-quality treadmills, etc, I could set myself up pretty nicely. But. Seriously, would I work out at home? Yeah, probably not. I'm doing body pump with a friend at her house on Tuesdays and we have four kids around us doing that and what should be a 55 minute workout turns into a 1.5 hour workout, at least. I enjoy being able to drop my kids off in a room with no TV to play while I work out. So I'm leaning toward playroom. I don't think my food storage will be able to go in the garage there, so you may have food storage for decorations when you come visit that guest bedroom! There's a living room and three bedrooms/two baths upstairs and an eat-in kitchen, a big fenced in back yard...it just looks like a great layout for us. I'm not excited by how small all the kitchens are out there, and they are seriously small, which makes no sense to me, but we'll make-do. The kitchen I have now has spoiled me forever. I am really going to miss the counter and cabinet space. :(

I took Elyse to the ENT in Lubbock today to find out what the deal is with her chronic double ear infections and her snotty nose she has had for seriously, the last 10 or so months. She'll have to have surgery next month to get a set of tubes in her ears and to get her adenoids out. The adenoids are so big that junk in her nose can't go down her throat, so it has to come out of her nose. It affects her sleep, and I'm hopeful after thsi surgery she will be able to sleep through the night breathing the whole time. She really stops breathing sometimes. Freaks me out.

Our dog Pepper has a bad habit of bolting from the house when we're not looking. I always imagine he is out sowing his proverbial oats, and he usually winds up a few hours later very dirty with a guilty look on his face, but he always comes home. He's been gone for a day and a half. I'm headed to the pet shelter tomorrow morning in hopes he is there. I pray that he is, or I'm going to have three terribly sad kids and one terribly sad husband on my hands. I mean, I like him and all, but I mainly like him because of the good memories he's giving my kids. To me, it's just something else I have to feed and clean up after, except I didn't birth or marry this one. But I still hope I find him. He's a good dog, and the exploring is really his only bad habit.

Let's see...what else....Valentine's Day. I am sick with some sinus issue, again, so David came home and made chicken noodle soup then put kids to bed while I layed lifelessly on the couch watching Storage Wars, as I had done for a majority of the day. Hence, when Pepper got out, I didn't get up and go look for him right away like I usualy do. And now I feel marginally guilty about that. Anyhow, I had all these cute Valentine's ideas filed away on Pinterest..yeah, didn't do any of them. I ordered silicone mini heart shaped pans off Amazon to make heart crayons with and everything. Oh well, there's always next year. I did good to make sure the kids did their Valentine's cards and got them to school, and I put out their Valentine's goodies that morning. David and I did go to a really neat couples Valentine's Dinner last Friday that a couple from church hosted. It was really a lot of fun, so we just celebrated early, I guess. Everybody brought an appetizer and dessert, and they actually had really fun games, one of which included finding out couple's how they and met and got engaged stories. Those of you who know me well, know I love to know really personal stuff like this about people, so I thought it was great! One of the surprises for the ladies was each husband wrote his wife a poem. I was giving David a (really) hard time because he was still writing his while others were sharing their poems, but when he shared it, he had everyone crying, me the most. I have no idea how he waits until the last minute to do so much and can still do it so well. I do not have that gift!

David is disappointed a potential 3 month deployment to Africa got axed this week. He really wanted to deploy from here. He was going to leave the end of March and be gone through the end of June, but the AF decided to go a different direction with the deployment. I can't say it hurts my feelings, but he's disappointed so I'm disappointed with him. I'm sure with his special ops experience when his bucket comes open at his base in Utah, he'll go.

He does leave for Hurburlt Field in Florida next week (on my birthday! boo!) for 2 1/2 weeks for work. I get to have Sara Katherine's birthday party in the middle of him being gone. She wants a Justin Bieber birthday party and all I can think is, how do I put Justin Bieber on a cake?? I guess I'll figure something out.

I can't believe I only have a little over three months left in Clovis. I already have anxiety about leaving my friends and my church here. This place has become home. With our career I can't go getting all attached like this every place we move, but I have gotten attached. There are things I will miss not at all about this place (the fluvia of cow poop in the afternoon, flat, flat, flat land, windstorms, general apathy to SEC football, and limited shopping!), but those are just things, and it's people and relationships that make me happiest, not things. So I'm going to live up these next few months and make the most of what time I have left here!

Things I'm looking forward to..

January has always been a tough month for me. I find it hard to get back to normal life after three straight months of holiday merriment beginning with the arrival of the fall season and ending at New Years. I'm always ready for it to be February, because at least my birthday is that month and it's one month closer to warmer tempatures. I am definitely a spring/summer/fall girl. The winter doesn't do much for me. Maybe when we live in Utah next year and can go skiing/sledding, etc, it will mean a little more to me, but right now, well, yeah. Not to wish my life away, but I'm pretty glad there are only three days left in the month.

I always like to have things to look forward to in January, or any time really. I'm really, really excited about our upcoming move to Utah this summer. There are about a million options for me and the kids within arms reach, and the possiblity of a lighter workload for David. There will be kids museums, all the outdoor options we have living near the mountains, not to mention a Costco and a Target in my zip code. SO excited. I have had to put myself on time-out from searching for houses, though. The rental market there has so much variety and you get so much more house for your money out there vs. here in Clovis. We haven't decided whether or not we are going to live on base or not. It will depend on a variety of things. But if we choose to live off-base, I'm finding really great rentals now that I know won't be available in July when we move. So I'm making myself (mostly) stay off the rental websites until about April as to curb the disappointment of missing out on a great house.

I did our taxes last week and discovered we will be getting a really great return this year. While there are a lot of good things we could do with that money (put it toward paying off our van, divy it up and put it into kids savings accounts for college or missions), we decided we are going to take a portion of it and make some memories instead. We are going to DISNEYLAND over Spring Break!!
It's about 14 hrs from here. Flagstaff, AZ is smack in the middle, so we will stop and spend the night there and take in a little bit of the Grand Canyon. Then we will drive the rest of the way to Anaheim. We are going to stay in one of the Disney resorts and everything. I'm not sure who is more excited; me and David or the kids. We LOVE Disney. I have such fond memories of going with my parents as a kid. My Grandma lived an hour from Orlando, so I was fortunate to have been able to visit quite a bit as a child and teenager. I went to Disneyland one day with my cousin Yvonne when I was visiting her one summer (she lived in San Diego). But I've never stayed in the park. And as fun as it was when I was a kid/teenager, taking my kids a few years ago was about the most fun I have had in my life. I didn't know we would have the opportunity to go again so soon, but I'm thankful David was agreeable to my plan and is excted with me. I have a cousin that lives in L.A., so we will be able to spend some time with him and his family, and do some other sight-seeing around L.A. before we head home. We'll be spending three days at the Resort and in the park. There are just two parks at Disneyland, so I'm certain we'll be able to see and do all that we want, especially because we get in early since we are staying in one of the Disney resorts. We're eating breakfast with Goofy one day, the Princesses another, and I am SO excited. Sara Katherine was at a great age the last time we went. She was about 2 1/2 and remembers a lot. Elyse will be younger than that and I doubt she'll remember this trip, but I still think we'll have a great time.

Another big thing we are doing with this return is buying a nice camera. We've gone through a couple cheap digital cameras, and I've just had enough of buying them and having to replace them. I want good, crisp, clean pictures of my kids. They will only be little once; I don't just want good pictures to document their childhoods, I want GREAT ones. I found a FANTASTIC deal on a Canon T3i Rebel on Amazon complete with the accessory kit, and so we just went for it. Now I just have to figure out how to use it beyond the automatic functions. I've been wanting one of these cameras for years, and I'm thankful we could just buy one outright.

The thing coming up next I am so excited about is I'm going to see the Broadway Play, Wicked, in El Paso! I've seen Phantom of the Opera in Atlanta, Aida on Broadway in NYC, Billy Joel's Movin' Out on Broadway in Boston, and so I think this will be my 4th Broadway show. I don't know much about Wicked except that everyone who sees it LOVES it. So some girlfriends and I are headed to El Paso next weekend. I'm calling it an early birthday present, and David is off the hook for having to do any birthday shopping, obviously. I'm thankful he is willing to tend to the kiddos solo so I can go. He's a good man.

Also, the week before we leave for California, I am going to the same Breastfeeding Convention/Conference in Albuquerque I went too last year, but this time solo. My mom has graciously agreed to take some leave from work and fly in to tend the kiddos for the few days I'll be gone. At first I had said I'd pull the kids out of school and she could watch them in Albuquerque, but we decided it would just be easier on everyone if she watched them here at home. David will be in Florida for work so if she hadn't flown in, I wouldn't have been able to go. It's a really great conference information-wise, and I'll also be able to make a nice chunk of change to put toward our Disney trip. Not to mention I have no idea what I will do being completely by myself for three days. Don't get me wrong, 99.5% of the time I love being a stay-at-home mom, and I certainly love my kids 100% of the time. But I'm already making plans for things to do when I'm not in the conference. A movie by myself, roaming the book store by myself, and maybe even a museum or two by myself. All by myself! It will be nice for a few days, and every good mom should take an opportunity to have a few days to herself if she has the chance. So I am!

That should get me through March, then it's looking forward to Utah! I feel so very blessed in my life. I love my husband, I love my children, I am thankful for the stability of David's job, and I am thankful for my church which brings peace always; even through the dark days of January! Here's to making memories!

Elyse's 2nd Birthday

So Elyse's first birthday was pretty lame. She was sick; David was out of town. It was just lame. I promised I would do better for her second birthday, but yeah, I didn't. FAIL.

David was here this time, but I pretty much saw none of him in January. He had two back-to-back trials, magistrate court in the middle of it, a trip to Alabama to the JAG school, plus all the other office stuff he has to do on top of courts. I heftily dislike January anyway (post Christmas let down, it's cold, etc, etc) so having David not be around was just the icing on the cake.

I knew David wouldn't be home on the night of her actual birthday. My next door neighbor talked me into doing something to recognize her birthday, so we went to McDonalds (don't judge; we don't have a whole lotta options in this town!), I brought some cupcakes, and we let the kids play.

The Sunday after her birthday we actually had David around for dinner, so I made a beans and rice cake (her favorite food molded into the shape of a cake) and we ate it with chicken fajitas.
Sara Katherine wanted to make her cupcakes so I let her. She pretty much did them all by herself, including icing them. I think she'll be pretty handy to me in the kitchen in the next few years. My friend Sara had sent the kids some paper garland she made, so I strung that up and she opened her presents after dinner.

I think it was a fine enough birthday for a two year old who is likely not to remember any of it, the other two just got a lot more for their first and second birthdays, so I feel a little guilty about that. Of course, we did live near family for their first and second birthdays, so we had more reason to do a little more. So Elyse, when you're reading this twenty years from now and you see the disparity in your first few birthday parties and your brother and sister's, don't think I loved you any less! I will do you a special cake next year, I PROMISE!

And she weighed 28 lbs at her well check! She's finally got some good weight on her (and a cute little pot belly too). She has had a runny nose for seriously the last six months and has had several ear infections. I can't wait to get her to the ENT next month where they will hopefully put in some tubes. She doesn't sleep well for all the congestion she keeps. It's hard for me to believe she is 2 because she still looks so much like a baby to me. She doesn't have much hair, she still has about four teeth that haven't come in, and she's smaller than my other two at this age. She has the most firey personality of my kids. She's very sure about what she wants or doesn't want. And she's the first child I have had that gets in trouble for hitting, and the first one that will outright tell me 'no'. It's mildly horrifying. One kid at her mom's day out group wouldn't give her the toy she wanted, so she took her shoe off and threw it at him! Eeek! What do you do?? Despite her little temper, I love her to pieces. She doesn't say much (I think because she can't hear well because of all the fluid that stays in her ears, which I think leads to her little frustration tantrums), but her little vocabulary is expanding and I love to hear her call for me.

I love you, Lysie Lou! Happy 2nd birthday!

Ethan loses his first tooth!

After church a couple Sundays ago, Ethan came to me telling me his loose tooth was hurting him. It had been loose for awhile, and he was sooooo ready to lose a tooth. He's the youngest kid in his class at school, and everyone else had lost at least one tooth! It wasn't hanging on by much, and I didn't want him to swallow it by accident (how would I explain the whole tooth fairy to him if that happened?), so I just reached in his mouth and yanked it out. He was so excited that he didn't put it under his pillow the first night because he wanted to take it to school and show his friends first. The tooth fairy left him $5 for the first tooth, but don't worry, she's not always going to be that generous or she'd go broke! My camera is dead and I have no idea where the charger is, so all I have is this crummy picture off my Droid. I want a Cannon T3i baaaaadddd. Buy another camera charger or a Cannon T3i? Hmmmmm.

The crazy thing is after I pulled his tooth, I cried. I look at his snaggle-toothed smile and am just a little weepy that my baby boy is growing up and old enough to lose teeth. Next comes the birds and bees talk, which isn't nearly as much fun as losing your first tooth. He is just such a great kid. He causes no problems for me at all. He does nothing that makes me want to pull my hair out, unlike my little girls. My girls test and try my patience in ways that are hard to imagine, but Ethan does not. I think much of it is just the personality he came to Earth with. I remind myself often (and especially when I'm at wits end with the girls) that this is such a short season of my life, raising small children. It's hard and sometimes heartbreaking, but it is just a small season and will all-to-soon pass. And with Ethan, that season of him being small and totally dependent on me is coming to a close, and I have bittersweet emotions about that. I can't wait to watch him grow up and become an adult. I know with no doubt he is going to do great, big things in his life. GREAT BIG. The rest of his life begins with losing teeth. Sad, but true.

The Christmas Round-Up

Our gingerbread house tradition. Sara Katherine clearly loves it because it involves eating some of the decorations!
Cutting out Gingerbread cookies with Grandma.
Cutting out and decorating sugar cookies. (No shortage of cookies around here...)


Treats ready to be delivered!
We made reindeer rootbeer for our neighbors!Ethan tracking Santa (on the kitchen counter top?) Christmas Eve on the Norad website. Stockings!
After Santa came!
Santa's thank-you note for his cookies, because that is good manners ya know!

The aftermath. We just did stockings and a few presents, then went to church, then came home to finish presents.
Lunch after church! Festive!This was the first year our Elf on the Shelf came to stay with us. The kids named him Elfie Theodore. I can already tell this is going to be one our favorite Christmas traditions. The kids had SO much fun looking to see where he would move to each morning. He came to watch the kids open presents on Christmas morning then went back to the North Pole Christmas night! So fun!We took the kids to the Kid's Science Museum in Lubbock one day...so fun!


She insisted David take her training wheels off her bike and she rode it by herself!
Her play-dough creation.

Christmas Card Pictures 2011

Awwww...

I thought this was so sweet until David suggested her hand may be on his face in her attempt to get him to stop snoring. I'm going to go with it was more of a "I just love my bubba" hand-on-the-face.