Everyday thoughts about the Henry's

Cara's Birthday

2012-02-14T16:53:00.003-07:00

Today turned out better than expected. Last night, Cara woke up around midnight complaining her ear hurt. Poor little girl. I gave her some meds and waited for them to kick in....they never did. By 1245 she was just laying on the couch whimpering. I decided that with her being all wierd and sick this entire past week, I should just take her into the ER. She ended up with ear infections in BOTH ears. Poor little girl!!! What a way to start her birthday.

The day turned around, though. We went and got the prescription filled this morning for her meds and then just came back to the house and hung out for the day. Cara was sooooooo ready when Blake finally got home from work to open presents and eat cake!!

The cake was not what I had envisioned to begin with, but it turned out pretty cute for a back up idea.

The day is now ending and I will be putting both kids to bed....very soon :)

Guess who's turning 4??

2012-02-03T11:55:00.001-07:00

Can you guess?? There is a little girl who lives here that cannot WAIT for the next eleven days to pass!! Every morning she wakes up, she has a new idea for her birthday party. It's just about the cutest thing ever!!

Success!!

2012-01-17T21:48:00.002-07:00

I should have taken a picture of my dinner success tonight.....but we ate it. All. Let me share with you what I made.

Dairy-Free Roasted Red-Pepper Alfredo Sauce with Chicken and Gluten-Free Noodles

1 C Soymilk (I used Almond Milk)
1/3 C Raw, unsalted cashews
1/4 C Nutritional Yeast
3 TBL Tamari or Soy Sauce (I used Tamari)
2 TBL margarine (I used Crisco butter baking sticks)
1 TBL Tahini
1 TBL Fresh Lemon Juice ( I used the stuff in the bottle that I keep in the fridge)
2 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp Paprika
1 pinch nutmeg (I omitted this because I detest the flavor of nutmeg)
2-4 Cloves of Garlic (I used 1 1/2 tsp of garlic powder)
Black Pepper to taste.

3 chicken breasts
Gluten-Free noodles

Add all the indredients to a blender and blend until smooth. You can't over blend it, so feel free to blend extra long to get all the lumps out.

I started off by putting only the cashews in the blender and making them powder before I put everything else in. I also added roasted red peppers, but since I didn't have any fresh peppers to actually roast, I used 3 or 4 pieces from a jar of roasted red peppers in oil. I cut up the chicken and cooked it in a pan on the top of the stove with some garlic salt, onion salt, and chili pepper paste. Once the chicken was cooked, I drained it (it was super juicy for some reason) and added the sauce to the pan with the chicken. I turned the heat on super low and waited for my noodles to cook. I did not get a chance to make homemade gluten free noodles like I had planned, so I just used store bought noodles. They were not the greatest, but Alex doesn't seem to care. I did, however, make Blake and I regular noodles for our part of the dinner.

This was so delicious!! Blake went back for seconds and then thirds. If you know my husband at all, you know he is not a big eater. He loved it! I also adored it. I think it could have had to do with the fact that we used to eat alfredo all the time, but since we found out about Alex's allergies, we havn't had anything alfredo-y at all. It was simply fabulous!

I have been messing around with buckwheat flour the last day or so. I made some awesome oatmeal cookie bars and I am going to try buckwheat noodles. I like the taste of the flour, it's just a matter of getting the consistancy correct. I tried to make noodles with Bob's Red Mill all purpose flour, but the aftertaste was so disgusting, I had to throw the entire batch away. Not edible at all. I am hoping to have better results with the buckwheat :) Anyway, I hope all of you had an equally fabulous dinner! Laters!!

New haircut....and mini Cara photo shoot :)

2012-01-08T08:11:00.002-07:00

You can't tell very well, but Alex has a new haircut. I am trying to keep from just buzzing him completly every time! I think it works :)

Cara's view from the last couple of days....just a few, mind you!

Alex's lunch. She loves taking pictures of his food...
Again, her foot. She always takes pictures of her foot.

Alex's cereal....and foot.

The ceiling lights in the kitchen. She has been slightly picture obsessed with them lately.

That's it for now.....

Merry Christmas :)

2011-12-11T08:19:00.003-07:00

Blogger on my phone?

2011-12-06T23:26:00.001-07:00

Just checking to see if posting from my phone works :)

Fun times :)

2011-11-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

They both adore Alex's new bike! It's just cute!!

The last few weeks :)

2011-11-28T18:32:00.004-07:00

Alex was much more interested in the christmas tree box than he was in actually decorating the tree!!

Cara, on the other hand, had a BLAST decorating it! She did almost all of the decorations by herself :)

We have no idea what Alex was so intently staring at outside. He was like this for five solid minutes!

A couple shots from Cara.....

She loves Alex's new bike. There were a good ten shots of this alone!

Mommy, of course, always gets a picture taken of her....I seem to be a favorite for her!

Daddy let her take a nice shot as well :)

We went to the Armament Museum last weekend. The kids just love this place! Airplanes are just so cool, you know!

So, I haven't updated in awhile :) A lot has happened to us in the last two months. We finally got all of the results in from Alex's allergy blood test. Drumroll..........................oh yes, he is allergic to gluten, dairy, apples, and hazelnuts. Fantastic, right? Of course we got all of the results in a week before Thanksgiving. I was in serious panic mode. How do I do this??? Not only does the boy eat applesauce everyday, he eats bread everyday and milk seems to be in everything. After an entire weekend of "pinging" (my husband likened it to living with someone mentally insane), I finally pushed through to the optomistic side of this craziness. I found some great people who have gone through the same thing and they have helped me out HUGE. I have baked Alex his own bread for his sandwiches at school, and even though I don't think the bread tastes that great, he doesn't care. Thankfully, he is young enough to where it isn't going to be that big of a deal to switch out what he eats. After only a week on this new diet, I can already tell a difference in him. Tonight, I successfully made gluten-dairy free pancakes that actually tasted great! There is a little bit of a wierd after taste that comes along with either the gluten free flour or the almond milk, but with syrup, Blake and I couldn't taste the aftertaste at all :) Woo hoo for that! Thanks Jess for the recipe.

So, in doing my research on gluten-dairy free recipes, I have found out so many interesting things. The allergist said that most skin problems and breathing problems that children have can be linked to a food allergy. He also said that food allergies can affect the brain chemistry. I have been doing research for a paper in school on ADHD, and a lot of kids who are diagnosed with ADHD don't actually have it, but have either food allergies or a learning disability. Also, it seems that a lot of autistic children are put on a gluten-dairy free diet as it helps even out their brain chemistry. It is just all so very interesting. It almost makes me want to be an allergist :) So many things are linked in wierd ways!

Anyway, so this is what's up in our life. The kids are both doing really well in school, as am I. I cannot believe that the semester is almost finished. This was such a scary step to start school, but I am finding I like it. And (surprise, surprise) I am not to shabby at it :)

Tinkerbell and the Pirate!

2011-11-04T17:21:00.002-06:00

Okay, so the kids had a BLAST dressing up this year! It was just the cutest thing ever. They came back from trick or treating with a pretty decent amount of candy as well. Alex didn't quite grasp the concept to begin with....the first door they knocked on, the guy opened it and Alex ran straight into his livingroom! By the end of it, though, he was getting it :) Both of the kids loved their costumes. They got to wear them to school that morning, so they were in them almost the whole day. It was a fun day!!!

Cara and Alex and the firetruck!

2011-10-19T17:45:00.002-06:00

I am not sure if you will be able to click and zoom in on the pictures. The school sent them to me in a format to where I could just copy and paste them. I hope you can zoom in! The kids had SO much fun with the firefighters today. They got to tour the firetruck and even spray the firehose. They each got a firehat (which both of my kids have not taken off since we got home). It's just adorable!!!

Just a day in the life....

2011-10-02T20:04:00.002-06:00

Daddy and Alex playing a video game. Alex loves to sit like this!!!
The three of us :) They love to cuddle and take pictures all together!

Cara had a tea party with all of her "friends". They each had to have their own pillow to sit on...it was a little strange to see!

Fun!

2011-09-20T17:38:00.002-06:00

Robert, Cara and Alex watching a movie in 3-D
Alex thought he was pretty cool!

I made homemade pizza with yeastless dough. It turned out pretty fabulous! The first one was ham, olives and cheese and the second was buffalo chicken. Both had a white cream sauce instead of tomato sauce. Yummy!!

She is a cheeseball. This is the only look I can get right now with the camera. Slightly creepy....

Alex in hand-me-down jammies from California :)

So, where do I begin with our saga this week? I think I may have mentioned that we are getting Alex tested for food allergies. He had a blood panel done a few weeks ago and the results have started coming in. So far he isn't allergic to raspberries, strawberries, coconut, tangerines, lentils, sugar cane and gluten. He is, however, highly allergic to the cow protein in milk...so in other words, he has a major dairy allergy :( Today was our first day being completly dairy free. It's insane what kinds of things have milk in them!!! We don't know if he is allergic to soy or almonds yet, so I am thinking we will probably do rice milk until then???? This is just all so new to me! I hope he grows out of it. It will be nice to sit down with the doctor once we have all the results in and talk it over. I will definitly keep you updated on the situation!! More later...

More views from Cara and the beach :)

2011-09-11T10:02:00.002-06:00

A self portrait.

Miss Micaela :)

Daddy!

Daddy's motorcycle

our light on the garage :)

The street in front of our house.

We went to the beach the other day and it was fabulous. The base down here is right on the bay, so we can just go on base and go to the ocean :) It's nice and calm, almost like a lake. Perfect for the child (Alex) who actually hates the ocean. The kids had a fabulous time!! The other pictures are from Cara. She really does LOVE the camera. I am thinking she will probably be getting one of those kids camera's for christmas!

The many faces of Alex....

2011-09-05T20:50:00.002-06:00

This little boy is so dear to my heart!! He is just the funniest little person ever....when he isn't driving his sister batty (on purpose). Alex has just drown these last few weeks in daycare by leaps and bounds!! He finally has full sentances (woo hoo!), he can count to ten and recognize the numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8, and apparently, he recognizes all the letters in TOSHIBA along with a multitude of other letters, as he is always telling what the letters are on the back of my laptop, he is finally on his way to being fully potty trained and he can draw circles :) I think one of the cutest things he does is sing the alphabet along with Pig on Super Why. I also think it's cute that when the four little characters on the show put their hands together and chant "Super readers to the rescue!!", he and Cara both find me (wherever I am in the house), make me put my hands in the middle, and we all chant together. I love that he loves to count down from 5 and then use every tiny bit of energy he has to jump (using both feet) off the ground. I also love it when he sings "I've Got a Dream" from Tangled. He can already carry a tune better than his big sister. I am afraid she might be a little tone deaf....I am just so proud of my little boy. I try not to treat him like the baby of the family, but it's difficult. He is the baby. He can get Cara to do pretty much anything for him. I am not sure how good of a thing that is :) I just thought I would update you on the little boy in our world. I feel as if I don't really do updates on him (in a positive way) and I really wanted to show his good side!!! He totally has one, even though he is a pill sometimes!

cute smiles :)

2011-09-05T17:35:00.001-06:00

Why is it they they are ALWAYS in the bathtub when they make the sweetest smiles?????

Jello Cake!

2011-09-05T17:18:00.003-06:00

The kids had jello cake for the first time tonight.....needless to say, it is now their favorite along with mine!! They just couldn't get enough of it :)

Yes, he is licking his plate clean. I don't normally let them do this, but he was so super excited about the cake, I had to just smile, laugh and take a picture!!!

Our Busy Life :)

2011-08-25T18:04:00.002-06:00

Cara and Alex in thier preschool room. They both absolutly adore it!!!!

So, we've had a busy couple of weeks. I decided to go college (scary!!!). I need to use my G.I. Bill from the military, so here I go!! I just wasn't sure how I was going to make it work, being a full time Mom and being a full time student. Blake and I struggled and struggled with the daycare options we were coming up with. Everything is just so expensive!! I didn't want the kids in full time daycare, but there were hardly any places that did part time, and those that did were totally out of our budget. Marcia (my Mother-In-Law) suggested I look at the actual college. Sure enough, they had a daycare. It's not even a daycare. It's preschool :) The only problem here is that they only take kids 2 1/2 years old and up...and they have to be potty trained. Bummer!!! Alex just wasn't there yet. I went in and talked to them. They were so awesome! I told them how Alex did at home with the potty training...basically, not well. They said as long as we are working with him at home, they have no problems working with him there. Woo hoo!!! He has not had an accident yet!! I am just amazed :)

In the midst of all this, Alex finally had his appointment with the allergist. He had the scratch test done and it came back that he was massively allergic to cats and a certain type of tree. He was also allergic (but not as massivly) to mold and ragweed. The food scratch tests ended up not doing anything at all. The doc was defenitly still concerned since Alex does have reactions to food, so he ordered a blood allergy panel to be done. We just went in this past Tuesday to have his blood drawn, so we won't have the results for another couple of weeks. He prescribed him an epi pen for the outside allergens and I am really hoping that the blood panel will not come back positive on anything major!!! The picture of Alex's back above was minutes after they did the scratch test on him. The larger welts on the left are the cat and tree :( I didn't get a picture of how big the welts ended up getting. He still had them when he went to bed that night. Poor kid!!

So, Cara and Alex have started pre-preschool. I am very pleased that they are in the same room at school, and the classroom is right on campus, so I can go and check on them whenever :) Next year, Cara will move to the actual preschool room, but by then Alex will know what the routine is and shouldn't have a problem being by himself in the room. I am still just amazed at how much his potty training has come in the last two weeks!! He is still in a pull up at night, but I think that is normal :)

School for me is not as scary (so far) as I thought it would be. The math and english are the two I have started so far. I am taking these on campus, I will be taking American Government and Intro to the execptional child online, and those two start next week. I feel as though I will be able to handle it. I was a nervous wreck last week, though! It didn't really help that Blake had to go tdy for a month and a half...and he left the day before school started. It's working out though. He is going to be able to come home next weekend, which will be nice. Cara has some concept that he is gone, but whenever we get home and walk in the door, both kids still run through the house looking for him. I think it's actually a good thing to have him gone for a short amount of time, so when he does deploy (probably next summer) for a whole lot longer, they will have some idea of what to expect.

Another plus that has happened....Hurricane Irene didn't hit us :) One of the initial tracks they had her going on, had her coming straight for us. THat would have been a difficult situation as Blake would not have been here, but thankfully, we don't have to worry about her :)

Basically, life is going pretty well. The kids, as always, have thier own issues we are working through....I won't go into any great detail right now...Huh, I am writing in italics.....Aha! That was wierd. Apparently control and I make it italisized. Wierd. Anyway, we are defenitly working on attitudes with both kids, but slowly and surely, they are coming around :) Well, I think that's it for now!!

Cara's Eye....

2011-08-11T15:28:00.002-06:00

A picture of her almost favorite picture...
She loves to wear my shoes...and she loves taking pictures of her feet :)

A self portrait picture :)

A picture of the boy :) I love how chocolaty brown his eyes are!!

The view from Alex's bedroom window....not much of a view!

And that wraps up our view from Cara's Eye for the day!

So Proud!

2011-08-03T13:12:00.002-06:00

Blake made MSgt this year! I am so proud of him for making it at 12 1/2 years! He doesn't actually put it on until next year at some point, but he is still ahead of the game :) We went to the Senior NCO induction ceremony a couple of weeks ago (that was where the picture was taken). The food was not so great, but it was a very interesting night. I love seeing all of the upper enlisted people get together to encourage the lower enlisted. I can't wait to see where this journey of ours ends up!!

A self portrait by Cara

2011-08-03T08:42:00.000-06:00

Fun with cousins!

2011-08-01T13:45:00.003-06:00

We had so much fun with the cousins this week :) Kaylee, Kaytlyn and Brooklyn also had fun! Cara just loves it when they come to visit. I would label the pictures, but blogger is being a bit wierd and the moment......

Our afternoon

2011-07-15T15:22:00.004-06:00

So, once again my pictures uploaded backwards, but whatever :) Today we made a fort. Or as Cara likes to call it, a castle. The kids had fun all afternoon in it. It's amazing what fun a few blankets and a card table can produce! They get such a kick out of each other, it's just funny to sit back and watch them play :)

Happy 4th of July!!

2011-07-05T09:38:00.003-06:00

Well, we didn't end up where we'd thought we'd be for the 4th, but we had a nice evening anyway :)

We had such a whirlwind trip up to Minnesota. We were supposed to have stayed for almost three weeks, but after a week and a half, Alex ended up with an ear infection and a staph infection!!! I ended up having to take him into the ER twice before we finally decided we needed to come home to our own doctor...and so he wouldn't infect anyone!! Poor little bugger :( We also discovered he is allergic to cinnamon. Weird, but that was what we needed to get a referral to the allergist on base :) He is already allergic to ranch dressing which is also just wierd. We had a follow up appointment this morning for his staph infection and the doc didn't have to lance it!!! Yay!! Let me just tell you, that is one of the worst things I've had to watch my child experience yet....being held down and cut!! If all continues to go well, Alex may not even have to go back in again for it.

Blake had to work last night, so I didn't end up taking the kids down to the beach for fireworks, but a few of the families on our street were doing some little ones, so we went out and watched that, and we could see a few of the big ones that the town was doing, so that was amazing. Well, amazing for Cara. Alex was just happy to be outside and not sleeping :) I hope you all had a fabulous 4th as well!!!

Alex's Fan

2011-06-13T07:05:00.003-06:00

So, I was having issues picking out a ceiling fan for Alex. Cara's fan is (as you can see) girly and cute, and it came that way. I couldn't find anything cute and just boyish at all, so, I bought a 30 dollar fan and made it what I wanted :) It turned out rather perfect! A bottle of spraypaint and some sticker paper, cut into shapes, makes the perfect outerspace themed fan :)

My new livingroom :)

2011-06-08T16:07:00.000-06:00

I think it turned out pretty well :) This is our new furniture (not the recliner). When they started bringing it all in, I was sure it was NOT going to fit!!! It did,though. Now all I have to do is wait for Blake to get home to tell me if he likes it!!

Building a bridge...

2011-06-06T11:19:00.004-06:00

Working so hard at lining all of the blocks up. She kept telling me she was making a bridge.

Apparently for herself!!! She has incredible balance :)

Swimming!

2011-06-05T17:36:00.002-06:00

Yay for Walmart pools that are only 15 dollars!!!

Cara just loves to "surf". She is so silly!!
This is Alex's "spock" look. I wish I could have got it straight on, but you get the picture :)

He so enjoys trying to splash me with water!!

Let me just say how incredibly HOT it is here!!! Oh boy. We practically melt everyday and all I can say is thank goodness for a/c!!! Life (other than the heat) is going very well. Blake made MSgt (yay!!!!) and will pin it on at some point next year. I can't believe I will be the wife of a senior enlisted. It's wierd to think about.

Alex had his first ear infection a couple of weeks ago. That was so sad :( He had an infection in both ears, and the first medication they put him on didn't work!! We had to go back in and get his meds bumped up. Those worked (thankfully) and he is finally back to normal. During his time being sick, though, he wouldn't eat and he actually lost almost a full pound in two weeks :( Poor little guy. He is SO two years old right now!! He likes to exert his will in everything. I am pretty sure he is the most stubborn child I have ever met! He is defenitly sweet, though :) He absolutly adores Cara (even when he's picking on her). He follows her around everywhere and does absolutly everything she does....to the best of his ability. We are currently potty training and I think it's going okay. Not great, but okay. He goes everytime you put him up on the toilet, and he will tell you if he has to go...sometimes....but he also goes inbetween the times we make it to the bathroom. He has NO hold function yet at all!!! I know he will get it. I am just so excited to be able to see the light at the end of this very loooong diaper tunnel!!

Cara is also fabulous. As you can see from our earlier post, she got a haircut. She loves it! I find her in the bathroom looking at herself in the mirror all the time. It's pretty cute. I think she has grown a foot since we moved here!!! I can't believe how tall she is, it's crazy!! She is (thankfully) past the terrible twos...and into whatever they would call the threes :) She likes to do everything herself, and everything for Alex. If we are leaving to go somewhere, she makes sure she puts Alex's shoes on for him. She will even try to feed him his supper. Crazy kid! We work on our "school" stuff almost everyday....well, not everyday. I will admit, I get a little lazy about it sometimes :) She does know her entire alphabet and can recognize numbers up to 13. Her favorite thing to do right now (and pretty much always) is to sing, sing, sing...and dance! We are having food issues again...issues as in she doesn't want to eat anything but noodles or pizza. This seems to happen every couple of months...not too sure why, but whatever. We'll get through it!

Other than that, there isn't too much going on. I am so happy to have my parents back in my neck of the woods and I think the kids and I are going to visit next week. I love that they are a short (ish) drive away!!!

A haircut for the girl :)

2011-06-04T15:25:00.002-06:00

So, of course I forgot to take a before picture, but this is pretty recent. When it isn't curling, it stretches down to her elbows!

After....I SOOOO hope I didn't cut the curls off!!!
She thinks she looks like Rapunzal now (end of the movie Rapunzal, that is).

Us :)

2011-05-24T15:50:00.000-06:00

Just the three of us hanging out :) Cara is such a cheeseball sometimes!

Cara sings Tangled :)

2011-05-18T13:10:00.003-06:00

Okay, she isn't the best singer in the world....by any means! I just find it cute that she just belts out whatever she's feeling...she did exactly this in the theater when we saw the movie also. She loves to sing!!!

Funny :)

2011-05-10T08:39:00.001-06:00

Cara's crazy cheesy smile :)

Alex fell asleep like this. He was passed out!!!! Didn't even wake up when we moved him!

Tea Party!

2011-05-02T15:41:00.002-06:00

Alex and Cara having a tea party. They drug all the blankets they own out into the livingroom so they had somewhere to sit :)

Alex was VERY happy to be included in this! He normally isn't allowed to touch the tea party things.
He had a blast!

Cara LOVES a good tea party :)

She is showing me how you must ALWAYS have your pinky sticking out :)

Our fun day :)

2011-04-30T16:21:00.001-06:00

We went to the Armament Museum today. Cara was so fabulously pleased with the airplanes!!

A fun spot to relax :)

2011-04-30T10:03:00.001-06:00

The boy grabbed his pillow, blanket, Mickey Mouse, Baby (it's a monkey) and his dvd player and went to his tent. He sat here for quite some time, just relaxing and watching his movie :)

An afternoon of Art :)

2011-04-25T15:09:00.002-06:00

Alex's lovely painting. I think he enjoyed the fact that he was using his hands more than actually painting!

Let me guide you through this painting of Cara's. Mickey Mouse is in the upper left. He has green arms coming out of his head. Rapunzel is right next to him. She has a yellow head, red hair and a blue body with some very long blue legs...and blue shoes. I asked her to write her name and she drew circles in the bottom left. I asked "Is this your name?" She replies "No Mom, those are circles". As in "duh!!".
This painting will need a little more of your imagination. Cara painted snakes across the top, the blue blob in the left center is a lion. He is mostly head and mane with a skinny body going out to the right and a red tail. Right next to him is an elephant. For some reason, the head is at the bottom of the blob and the body goes up. Who knows!! Then the mauve colored blob in the bottom left is a dog. Oh yes, the blue squiggles next to the elefant (this is on the right center of the page) is a giraffe. She lastly had to draw a circle around the entire picture.

I just thought I would share a bit of our day with you :)

My surprise trip :)

2011-04-24T12:22:00.004-06:00

Have I mentioned lately that my husband totally rocks??? Well, he does. He told me FOUR months ago that he had bought my 30th birthday present. 4 MONTHS!!! These have been a very tortuous few months!

Blake set it up so his parents would babysit the kids, and he and I got in the car and headed west. I still had NO idea where we were going or what we were doing. He finally tells me we are going to Biloxi. This really told me nothing. Finally, we start playing our travel games, one of which is 20 questions. I had to play 20 questions to figure out what we were going to do :) I totally guessed after 14! It was.....

Cirque De Soleil--Alegria

I was so excited! I have, literally, wanted to see Cirque de Soleil my entire life. This was so amazing!! We went and checked into our hotel, then he took me shopping to buy something pretty to wear for the show. I picked out a beautiful floor length gray-ee swirlyish floor length dress. Apparently while I was trying it on, he decided to go and buy me a new matching set of earrings and a necklace :)

Onto the show. Not only did he get me tickets to see the show, our seats were in the front row. As in, I could reach out and touch the people if I had wanted!!! Now, we've see Cirque de Soleil on tv, but it is NOTHING compared to seeing it in person!!! I cannot believe how amazing it was :)

I don't think he will ever top this. It was so amazing. We weren't allowed to have camera's at the event, or even have our cellphones on, so I don't have any great shots of the night, just some amazing memories :)

A view feom Cara's eye

2011-04-19T10:06:00.002-06:00

Herself in the bathroom mirror

Her most favorite brother

The ceiling fan....not so sure why this is important!

The clock. One of her favorite things ever

the outlet beneath the clock.....

the chairleg of the bench in the room with the clock....

Return to Neverland. She enjoyed watching it this morning

Her foot. There were MANY pictures of her foot. This is just one.

Her bowl of goldfish...from afar :)

All in all, she took 193 pictures of things she loves. A lot were of the ceiling fan, the cuckoo clock, her foot and her brother. She is just so funny!

Agent P jammies :)

2011-04-16T17:55:00.001-06:00

Silly kids....

Cara just being a cheeseball!!

So, Cara LOVES Phineas and Ferb.....and now, so do we! She saw these jammies at Walmart and just HAD to have them :) I tried to talk her into maybe Tinkerbell jammies, but no. She wanted these ones. It's just adorable! Perry and Candace are her favorite characters...They need to make Candace pj's....

Alex's Room

2011-03-30T11:22:00.002-06:00

This is Alex's room at the moment. He LOVES his tent/ballpit that we got him for his birthday. It's just cute to see him and Cara playing together ;)

Happy Birthday to my Baby Boy :)

2011-03-24T18:29:00.002-06:00

A few hours after he was born :)

The morning of his first birthday...what a cheeseball!!
The morning of his second birthday. Still a cheeseball, just bigger :)

Weight: 32lbs - 92%

Height: 35.6 in - 85%

Head Cicumference.....still very large :)

Alex is doing just fabulous :) The doc was "impressed" with his headsize...but then everyone is! Alex has defenitly entered the terrible two's, but we are dealing with it. He loves to do everything by himself and thinks he really knows what is best. This, of course, results in a lot of spankings, but we are getting it! He is so different than Cara. She's a climber/daredevil, he likes caves and closets. She really tries to make people happy. The boy likes to push the boundries like I've never seen!!! It's different having a boy, but in the last two weeks, he's gone from Daddy being the favorite to ME being the favorite. Yay! It gets a little tiring at times, as he's just started wanting to show you everything. "Mom, come on" is a favorite phrase. I am loving being the favorite, though :) I hope this next year is a little easier than this past year....or rather just the past 6 months. If Cara is any indicator, it might just get easier....Here's praying that it does :)

Alex and Brooklyn's Birthday Party

2011-03-22T12:41:00.001-06:00

We had a fabulous joint birthday party for Alex and Brooklyn this past Sunday. Alex pretty much didn't know what to do gift-wise, but when it came to the cake, he blew his candles out (super cute) and chowed down on his HUGE slice of cake :) I will be posting more pictures later!

just some more randoms...

2011-03-11T10:16:00.002-07:00

I kinda think the boy looks like Spock in this shot...Cute picture of Cara though.

They rarely look at the camera at the same time...they never smile at the same time...if at all!
This is a normal look for him when he isn't getting what he wants.

My boy

2011-03-11T08:10:00.001-07:00

His first haircut

2011-02-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

Before.....

.....and after.

He looks so bald.

Crayon Princesses and a Picnik Lunch

2011-02-23T10:48:00.002-07:00

Not too sure what the thinking is behind this......She is so silly!

We decided to have a picnik lunch in the livingroom today. They loved it :)
Alex is SUCh a cheeseball. I remember when Cara loved the camera. Not so much anymore. I hope he doesn't change!!!

She just doesn't smile nice anymore....she just likes to be silly. Oh well! She's still adorable :)

My baby girls 3 year old stats

2011-02-22T10:47:00.002-07:00

Well, Cara is doing quite awesomely :) We had her three year old well child check this morning and the doc passed her with flying colors!!! We were still somewhat worried about her speech, but he said that she is totally fine and when she starts preschool this fall, she will catch up on anything she is slow in, no problem :) Yay!!

Here are her stats:

Weight: 35.8 lbs -- 90%

Height: 38.7 inch -- 85%

Thankfully her eating habits have picked up this last month or so. Last year, pretty much on her 2nd birthday, she stopped eating everything. She all of a sudden didn't like anything anymore. How aggravating is that!!!!! She now loves everything again, which is fabulous! Her favorite thing to eat right now is Subway. I can hardly blame her. It's delicious!!

Singing and Candy

2011-02-16T14:39:00.005-07:00

Singing with Disney Sing It. She loves it! As you can see, Alex's mic is NOT plugged in. He loves to sing, though, too :)

They were so cute watching a movies together today. I love it on the days they get along so well!

We had some crazy fundip for dessert today. Cara LOVED it! She also got a kick out of her tongue being green too :)
Alex had some sweet tarts and a dum-dum. He was completly happy :)

I have a video of Cara singing, but it won't post for some reason. I think maybe it's too big...I am hoping to figure it out, though :)

My baby turns Three!!

2011-02-14T20:01:00.004-07:00

These pictures are all jumbled up, but I will try to lead you through them :)

Grandpa helping Cara with some sitcker-sequins :)

Reading an awesome book with Grandma!
Pretty as a princess :) She LOVES to dress up now!!!

Unwrapping her gifts. She only needed a little bit of help. Lets just say she caught on to this fast!!

Our meager decorations, she did love them, though.

Waiting for cake eating time. It was agonizing for her!

Everyone loved the cake :)

She absolutly adored her cake. Yay!!!

She had a fun time pointing out all of the characters on the cake.

Happy Birthday Cara!!!

Blowing out her candles. I only had to help with the last one.

Her beautiful Tangled cake. It took awhile to decorate it, but I like how it turned out :)

We had such a fun birthday party. Cara had a blast and loved everything she got :) She is such a special little girl. I cannot wait to see what this next year has in store for us!!

Biscuit

2011-02-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

Our newest family member. Isn't she adorable????

A good day

2011-01-28T11:50:00.002-07:00

Cara is telling Alex a "secret"....I am pretty sure she told him "I love you" :)

We have had a pretty decent day today :) It was bright and beautiful outside and a georgous 61 degrees! The kids played and played together. They are so adorable!!! I love that they can play together now. It's fabulous!!

Snacktime!

2011-01-27T17:00:00.001-07:00

They seriously love cookies! Blake brought home oatmeal creampie cookies (the best!!), and the kids totally adored them!! I love my kids :)

Just a few pics

2011-01-19T19:51:00.003-07:00

We've had a whirlwind last couple of months! After leaving Germany, the kids and I stayed with my parents for three weeks, then we met Blake down in Florida where we stayed with his parents for about 6 weeks. We moved into our new house (it's gorgeous!!!) a few days before Thanksgiving :) We spent the first of many holiday's with our fabulous family here in Florida. Marcia's mom and sister were down as well as Erin and the girls. It was just wonderful. We then went to Missouri by way of Kentucky for Christmas. We had a wonderful time! The kids had such a fun time getting to know thier cousins!! Erin and the girls followed us back down to Florida to spend the week after Christmas with us. It was such a fun time!

The kids seem to be adjusting well to the new house. They each have thier own bedrooms, which they love :) They are both entering new stages in thier development. Cara is just starting the "Why?" stage (oh joy....) and Alex is majorly hitting the terrible two's. Cara's speech is finally developing a little more. I think the two weeks with Erin's girls helped out a bunch!! She still sounds chinese some of the time, but her sentances are getting more and more recognizable :) Alex, on the other hand, is moving along quite nicely in the speech department! It's just amazing what he will try and say! Lets see, what else. Oh! Cara has finally decided to start eating again. She just randomly stopped liking most everything when she turned two last year. She just as randomly started eating again. Everything. Even meat. I hope it lasts...Alex, on the other hand, pretty much has to be spanked at every meal. It isn't that he doesn't like food, becuase once he starts eating he doesn't really stop. He just throws a fit at literally every meal for no reason whatsoever!!! It's very aggravating. He is waaaaay more stubborn than Cara ever was as well!! I am still trying to find some type of discipline that will effect him. We spank, put on time out, spand AND put in time out, smack hands, thump the head...everything!! He pretty much isn't effected by anything. I still think he has no nerve endings....that maybe he just doesn't register pain. Example, he fell and busted his head on the coffee table last week. Maybe ten seconds of crying, then nothing more. He had a huge goose egg on his head that turned into a black eye! Oh well, we will figure something out :)

Well, I think that's enough of an update for the moment. I am off to workout and then head to bed :)

Hello again!!

2011-01-13T23:55:00.001-07:00

After a HUGELY long sabatical, I am back in the blogging world :) This will be short and sweet, but there will be many more to come. We had a very successful move from Germany to Florida and finally have our internet set up (yay!). I am so happy to finally have a normal household again :)

My Boy

2010-11-17T11:45:00.001-07:00

My boy and his car. He LOVES it :)

Green Marker and Cara's photography skills :)

2010-11-09T21:07:00.002-07:00

Cara gave Alex a marker to color with when I wasn't looking. Thankfully it was washable!!!

Cara got a hold of my camera while I was taking Alex to the bathroom. These are just some of the pictures she took. She took pictures of the things that interest her the most. The tv show Super Why and Grandma's pillows. She loves Grandma's pillows!

Trick or Treating :)

2010-10-31T18:48:00.003-06:00

SLeeping Beauty Cara and Superman Alex...ready for action!!

Yes, yes, I know Superman doesn't have a mohawk...Blake is in charge of the superhero's hair next year!!

The first house they went to. Cara totally got it!

Alex had NO clue and eventually just started wandering around, looking at everyone's car.

She LOVED getting the candy!

Thier haul. Pretty good, I think :)

Eating her one piece of candy before bed.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

2010-10-30T18:30:00.005-06:00

Our first time to a pumpkin patch :)

Cara wasn't exactly sure what to do at first.

Alex was on a mission.....and it wasn't really to find pumpkins. It was to look at everything else!!

He did, however, find this pumpkin very intriguing.

They soon caught on to the fact that we were picking out pumpkins to take home.

Cara had a great time looking at every one!!

They weren't really interested in watching us carve the pumpkins, but they LOVED how they looked after we were done :)

They were thoroughly impressed when we put the candle inside. They tried very hard to blow it out. Silly kids.

Blake's pumpkin. It is staring at the knife in it's forehead.

Mine was just a traditional jack-o-lantern. It was fun to carve!!

They look so awesome!!!

We had a very nice afternoon with the pumpkin patch and the carving. The kids are not quite old enough for this kind of fun, but next year, I think Cara will be!

Alex's 18 month stats

2010-10-25T21:40:00.003-06:00

We were a month late getting Alex to his 18 month appointment (becuase of the move). He is one healthy little boy!! Here are his stats:

Weight: 29.5 lbs -- 82%

Height: 34 inches -- 81%

Head Circ: 52 cm (20.4 in) -- 100%

He took his shots like a pro. I laid him down on the table, which disturbed him, but I gave him his toy to play with and he was fine. The girl stuck the first shot in and his head whipped around and he yelled "What was that?!?" She quickly did the other shot and he simply said "Eck!". No tears, no nothing. What a good little boy!!!

The kids

2010-10-21T15:24:00.000-06:00

Such a cute picture of Cara........

and then there's Alex with his tongue in the background!!!

Pool Time!!

2010-10-12T21:59:00.001-06:00

It has been SO warm down here, we just had to get the kids a little pool to cool off in. They love it :)

The aquarium at the Mall of America

2010-10-05T21:22:00.007-06:00

(New jammies from the Disney store in the Mall of America)

We went to the Mall of America this afternoon. it is located in Minneapolis, MN. We figured that since the kids and I were flying out of the cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), we would just go the night before and go to the mall. I especially wanted to go to the aquarium. It was fabulous!!! I couldn't put all of the pictures up, but here are a few. Sorry there are so many jellyfish pics, they had a special jelly exhibit or something. It was pretty amazing. Cara absolutly LOVED it! It was just the cutest ever!!!!!

Fun days at Mimi and Pops

2010-09-26T15:35:00.003-06:00

Cara on the merry-go-round :) She was quite the leaf collector!

Alex on the steps. He was not interested in collecting leaves :(
Rough-housing with Mimi and Pops!
Watch Mickey Mouse, snuggled up next to Mimi. So cute!

"Bonking"

Alex's head huts Cara's much more than hers hurts him!!

Cara finally let Alex have a chance with the ipod. He loved it!

My sister's blog had a lot more pictures of our fabulous vacation as well!!

http://craigjessica.blogspot.com/

Just a few pictures

2010-09-21T21:14:00.001-06:00

Cara and her cousin Bella

Pops and his boys
Alex and Matthew

We are having a great time so far here in Minnesota!

Messing around

2010-09-02T07:01:00.001-06:00

I just love messing around with pictures. This is Cara if she had non-blue eyes and dark hair. I think she could pull if off if her hair ever darkens :)

Presents from Ruth!

2010-08-28T12:11:00.003-06:00

Mommy and Cara. This is the only way I can get her to even half-way smile for the camera.

My little goofball Alex :)
He pretty much LOVES his new Buzz doll!

He also loves Cara's new teaset.

Cara was making Buzz and Woody smile for the camera...she would not.

She LOVES her new teaset...you couldn't tell by the lack of smiles, though...

Cara playing with Buzz and Woody. She adores them!!

We also super adore the fabulous Star Wars t-shirts Ruth brought us!!!! The kids are just so adorable!!

Playdate!!

2010-08-20T07:45:00.002-06:00

So sad that Cara looked down at the last minute!! This would have been adorable!

Lukas is so cute!
Alex was angry about something...I don't remember now.

SOOOOO excited to watch Toy Story 2!!!

This movie is both of thier favorite of all time!!! Lukas loves Woody and Cara loves Buzz. It's just adorable :)

I also love Toy Story 2. It isn't creepy like the first one and it's just plain cute :) Cara can watch it with no nightmares, which is fabulous. She absolutly LOVES Buzz like there's no tomorrow. If this keeps up, she'll be having a Buzz birthday party instead of a Sleeping Beauty party!! It's pretty crazy.

Our morning :)

2010-08-20T00:33:00.002-06:00

We've had a nice morning so far. The kids are just sitting watching Sesame Street. They are both starting to actually like the show, so that's good! They are both being super nice to each other. Cara loves to give Alex hugs now becuase he will hug her back :) She loves to stand there for, like, 5 minutes just hugging him. It's super cute.

Alex

2010-08-16T01:33:00.003-06:00

He loves to put on Blake's hats. It's just cute :)

The children

2010-08-14T03:39:00.002-06:00

Alex can now give hugs as well as receiving them :) Cara loves when he comes up and hugs her. It's enough to just melt your heart!!

The Black Forest

2010-08-12T15:34:00.005-06:00

So my pictures are just in a random order....I totally forgot to organize them, but they are still cute :) I enjoyed visiting the Black Forest again. It is kind of cool as the Black Forest was my first sightseeing trip in Germany, and it will probably be my last as well :) So much has changed in the last four years, it's crazy!!

Anyway, our good friends Matt and Ruth and thier boys were here this week from England. It was ncie to be able to see them one last time before we leave.

Cara, just being a goofball

Ruth and Jared
Alex was a little tired of the stroller by the end of the day :(

Cara by the big squirrel

We got to the HUGE cuckoo clock right at 4:30, so we got to see the people dance and hear the music play! The kids were all amazed :)

Alex and Kimberly watching the clock.

Cara, sporting her sunglasses. She has decided that she needs them all the time now. It's cute.

Alex also loves his sunglasses, but they aren't a necessity.

Okay, so this picture makes Alex look HUGE! Maybe he really is that big and I just don't realize it.

The beautiful Black Forest

What a nerd!

2010-08-04T11:07:00.002-06:00

I went in to check on her after I put her down for her nap and found this. She was passed out! What a nerd!!

Just a few shots :)

2010-08-04T03:15:00.002-06:00

My sister got Cara a little mini tea set when I was pregnant with her. We finally broke it out the other day. It was adorable!!!!

I'm not exactly sure why he's so happy in this picture, but it's cute!!
I dyed my hair....I think it might match my eyes now....which is wierd. Alex's brown eyes are a different color than mine, which is also wierd :)

Cara really just doesn't like looking at the camera....we try and try and try......someday I am hoping she'll be better!!

This was just not Cara's month :(

2010-07-31T03:43:00.002-06:00

I don't know if you can see it, but she has a HUGE bump on her forehead!!!

I really wished the camrea didn't wash things out so badly!!!
She was twirling in the livingroom with her Daddy this morning, tripped over a pillow and cracked her skull on the coffee table. Ouch!!! It really does look pretty yucky!

Alex loves to pretend to read our books. He's such a goof!!

Dentist Day!

2010-07-29T05:33:00.002-06:00

Cara had her very first dental appointment today. She did fantastic!!! They said she was one of the best two year olds they had seen :) She opened her mouth up wide for them and let them do a flouride treatment and everything. Woo hoo!!! She didn't, however, grasp the concept of taking just one toy from the treat chest. She loaded up with about ten! We had to (sadly) put 9 of them back, but they gave her some princess stickers and that made her feel better :)

The little booger

2010-07-27T12:07:00.001-06:00

He gets up on things...like the coffee table...and can't get back down again. He does this with everything!!! What a goober!!

A Broken Toe

2010-07-21T01:27:00.002-06:00

Cara totally broke her toe last night!! Our kitchen table bench fell over onto her foot. Poor little girl!! I had to take her to the ER and thankfully, the break wasn't further down on her foot, otherwise she would have had to have a cast. It only has to be taped. Yay!! We are now just working on keeping her immoble and pain free.

Cara and the Ipod

2010-07-18T14:27:00.002-06:00

I uploaded a songlist just for her onto the ipod. She LOVES it! She can't sing worth a lick yet, but it's so defenitly cute when she tries :)

This is where she keeps it when she's not holding it.

She is such a goofball sometimes. She's back to putting everything in her mouth and chewing on it. I am not suer why as she has all of her teeth.....

Alex, trying to give Cara a hug. He doesn't quite hace the logistics of it all down yet.

This is blurry, but you can see all of his teeth he got....in one week....

I know, you all are surprised my kids have clothes on. It's finally cooled off a bit here. Only in the mid to high 80's now. We had a good two to three solid weeks of mid to high 90's. This makes for a very HOT apartment on the third floor with no air conditioning. I can't wait to get back to the states!!!!

Playdate!!

2010-07-14T12:12:00.000-06:00

Cara and her bff Lukas. They love each other. It's cute :)

Alex was just wanting a picture too. He's so cute!

Cara's new bed

2010-07-10T08:49:00.002-06:00

So I am finally getting a picture up of Cara's new bed. Her bedding is just cute, although you can't really see it too well here....

She super loves it :)

This is her new "camera" look. Oh joy....
Alex also loves Cara's new bed. He cannot, however, get back down by himself. This is his bump from falling off the top of the bed (up where her pillow is)....head first. I wish the camera didn't wash out the color so much in the picture! It's really a yucky swollen bump!!!

Just a few shots

2010-07-08T03:04:00.001-06:00

Alex sleeping. So cute :)

Wondering why on earth I am taking pictures of him sleeping....
such a little cheeseball!!

Cara is getting so big!

Our Fourth of July

2010-07-04T00:29:00.002-06:00

Blake and Alex watching the Fireworks

Cara's face during the whole thing (even when she fell asleep)

We had a nice fourth of July....on the third! Germany has quiet hours on Sunday's, so the base put on it's fireworks display last night. It was pretty :)

Cara totally fell asleep half way through it! It was so loud, I am not sure how she did it, but she did :)

Alex did okay. He was defenitly watching them with interest, however, he cried if they got too loud...and he wouldn't let Blake not hold him! He would cling tight if Blake even moved :)

It was a late night, but it was fun. The kids even slept in until 8 this morning!! Not to shabby for our last Fourth of July in Germany. I can't wait until next year!!

Oh, some days....

2010-06-21T10:10:00.002-06:00

I walked into the livingroom this morning to this.....He was stuck behind the staircase.

A few hours later, I found him like this. I am not sure how he even got in there, but he was totally stuck and NOT loving it!
Seriously, how did he get in there??

Cara smiling for me :) She sometimes is so awesome at this!!

On a sidenote, We have officially started potty training. We are on day number three and have only had one accident today :) Apparently, when they are ready, they are ready! She completly gets it!! I am so happy. This will drastically cut down on the amount we spend on diapers!! Yay!!

Cara and Alex and the Bed

2010-06-14T12:08:00.005-06:00

Alex, trying to climb the stairs to Cara's new bed....it's not working so well (thank goodness!!).

Alex found his spot on the bed.....
Cara thought she could fit in Alex's cubby...it didn't work so well!

I will be blogging more about Cara's new bed later, I just had to post a few today~

Our day :)

2010-06-05T14:09:00.002-06:00

Cara just being in a fabulous mood :)

Alex eating one of Cara's most precious possesions....a polly pocket Ariel!!
Alex loves to crawl up on the couch and grab computer stuff. I always try to get the smirk he gives me on camera, but he moves too quickly!!!

Cara loves to "pretend" to go to sleep. She always goes and grabs her pillow case....why the pillow case and not a blanket or the actual pillow..I don't know!

She LOVES their new batcave!

Batman and Robin love to share thier hideout with the Disney princeses :)

Alex can throw a nice fit now....

He buries his head in the pillows and just wails!

Alex loves to wear Cara's sunglasses. I really need to buy him a pair that doesn't have Hello Kitty on them!!!

We had such a nice day today!! Other than a few temper tantrums from Alex, both kids were in a fabulous mood!!! Cara had almost NO whining fits today too :)

This makes me happy!!!

Oh the woe's of having a two year old!!!

2010-06-04T15:09:00.002-06:00

Ok, so what is with the age of two??? Cara has turned into a terror!!! She is such a sweet little girl sometimes, and then, I will hear Alex screaming bloody murder, I go and check on the and she has him pinned up against a wall, beating him in the head with a pencil. What is that all about?!?!?

Her patience has gone from a little bit to NONE. If she can't get something on the first try, she crumples to the floor in agonizing wails...

The words "mine" and "gimme" have become a permanent addition to her very small vocabulary.

She will get upset or exasperated with something and run and flop herself on her bed and cry.

She thinks that the only thing edible in the world is noodles and pizza...both preferably dipped in ranch.

She has defenite likes and dislikes about her wardrobe. There are some things that make her go into absolute fits if you make her wear it.

She likes to walk up and down our three flights of stairs by herself. This is a good thing...however...she thinks she needs to walk without holding onto anything, she likes to jump down the stairs, she flips out if you even offer to hold her hand, and she likes to make sure she keeps eye contact with Alex the entire way down. Seriously???

She has decided that playing with other kids is over rated. She thinks that they are all out to get whatever toy she is playing with. If they come at her in any direction, she immediatly puts what she is playing with down her shirt!!

We have had SUCH character and obedience training these last few weeks!!! I keep thinking that she will wake up one day and be the perfect child....ha ha ha. Continual training is the key...hopefully!!!

All of this aside, she really is a good girl. Her first thoughts in the morning when she wakes up are Alex. She loves to go and help me wake him up and get him out of bed. She loves to make sure he gets the same snacks that she does. She loves to make him laugh. They are getting to the point where they can actually play together. It just melts my heart!!

She is in full-on potty training mode. She changes her own pull up...we are switching to panties as soon as they get here in the mail :)

She helps me clean up throughout the house.

She is back to sleeping so fabulously through the night.

She eats her noodles and pizza very very well.

I love to watch her dance and sing (very off key). She loves anything princess right now. I think her favorite dance to watch is at the very very end of Sleeping Beauty. She can hardly stand the excitment of that! Its so adorable :)

She really really has some awesomely great moments.....but she really has some awesomely horrid moments too. I am just glad she loves Alex. I really don't think she is trying to be mean to him (like hitting him in the head with a pencil). She just really loves to play with him. She still gets disciplined for it, though. Today I actually thunked her in the head with the pencil once before I threw it away, spanked her and put her in the corner. I think she may have got the point. I hope so....

Well, this was a post where I have no life lessons that I've learned yet. I am hoping to post a great and fabulous update in a few weeks on how well our training is going......

Guess who is a crawler no more???

2010-05-22T10:44:00.002-06:00

This little crawler is officially a walker!!!

He's been trying out the whole walking thing for the last two weeks...He wasn't quite sure about it.
Finally today, he just took off!! He can even push himself up in the middle of the floor. Yay!!

Cara loves to "help" him walk.

She then laughs hysterically when she makes him fall. Poor kid.

This is her just having a good day :)

Cara loves to read to Alex. He, for the most part, is mostly interested in only eating the books.

He tries to pay attention while she reads to him, though. It's usually very short lived.

I am so happy that Alex is finally walking!!! He will be 15 months old in a couple of days. I thought that maybe he would crawl forever. I was mistaken :)

Alex is growing up!

2010-05-17T04:40:00.002-06:00

We changed Alex into his big boy bed. He hated it to begin with, now he loves it :)

We also moved him from the highchair to a booster seat. He loves this. It also helps with Cara eating too. She loves to eat with him.

Cara being cheesy.

She loves her purses :)

Playdate with Lukas!

2010-05-13T07:51:00.002-06:00

They love to wrestle around. It's just cute. Cara kind of takes him down. It's funny!

Cara and Lukas' picnik lunch in Alex's bed. They loved it :)
Just a cute picture of Cara. She's adorable!

Cara Dancing :)

2010-05-12T10:26:00.002-06:00

Kimberly babysat the kids while Blake and I went to his NCOA graduation and she got Cara on video dancing. It's just funny!!

Our friend Kaiya

2010-05-08T11:02:00.002-06:00

We babysat our friends little girl Kaiya today.

Kaiya is nine months younger than Cara and four months older than Alex. The kids had such a fabulous time today!! Kaiya was, by far, one of the easiest little people I've ever taken care of. Both kids just loved her. I felt a little bad when I came up on her and Cara playing....I say "playing", but in reality, Cara was sitting on top of her playing peek a boo. I don't think Kaiya liked that as much :( Other than that, though, it looked like she had a blast too! I will defenitly be offering to watch her again someday :)

Guess who found Cara's cubboard!!

2010-05-05T02:20:00.000-06:00

He now loves to sit in it, just like Cara did

She, also, still loves to sit in it :)

And we're off!!

2010-05-04T06:20:00.003-06:00

We are going to Florida!!! I am so excited! We just got the word that our next duty station will be Eglin AFB. This is one place we've always wanted to go. Blake's Dad retired out of Eglin and he and Blake's stepmom, Marcia, still live there and teach. I've never lived by family, so this is going to be so fabulous :) The bug situation will be horrible. I hate roaches and spiders...snakes...gross. I am hoping that that will be the only downside...besides of hurricanes, but being in weather, hurricanes are not really a "downside" :)

Now, the process of pcsing starts. Getting everything ready here to pack out, finding a place to live there, figuring out the best schools for the kids...the list goes on and on. Thankfully we are very familiar with the area since his parents do live there. I have a pretty good idea of where we will live, and since Keith and Marcia are both teachers, we have a pretty decent idea of which schools we want the kids to go to. We are also planning on buying our very first house!!! I love the idea of being a homeowner. I can't wait to paint the kids' rooms, paint our room, choose the colors for the livingroom...the works!

We don't leave until the beginning of October, but I think Blake is going to send the kids and I home a little early so he can deal with the movers and the cleaning of the apartment without us being underfoot. Blake is pretty excited about the move as well. I think one of the biggest things he's happy about, is the fact that he will be able to ride his motercycle a little more frequently than he is able to here. That, and the fact that we'll be in Florida, at an Air Force base, near his parents and in a place were we get some awesome storms :) He will still probably have to deploy, but that's okay. I am good with that.

So, our countdown starts. The kids and I have four and a half months left here. That is no time at all! I can't even imagine how fabulous it will be. I know every place has it's downsides, but I think the pro's will defenitly outweigh the con's on this one :)

My Boy

2010-05-03T10:27:00.000-06:00

He is such a ham!! I wish Cara were still in this stage....

My mom's fabulous drawing!

2010-04-28T01:21:00.001-06:00

My mom's drawing of the kids :) She is sooooo talented!

My cheeseball :)

My baby girl

2010-04-25T09:08:00.001-06:00

She was seriously thinking about something here.....Who knows what goes through her brain.

She is just not that little anymore! I think she grew...again!!!!

Another good practice shot

2010-04-21T08:36:00.000-06:00

We are getting the hang of this!

More "practice"

2010-04-20T15:11:00.000-06:00

We've been trying really hard at smiling at the camera when asked to. It still doesn't work all the time, but we are getting better at it!!

My little man

2010-04-16T15:21:00.001-06:00

Me and my little man. He's such a cutie!!

Wheeeere's Alex??
Peek a boo!!!

Our day

2010-04-11T12:48:00.001-06:00

The kiddo's

My beautiful bouquet for the beginning of my birthday week.
My hubby rocks!!

Allergies....what a bummer!!

2010-04-10T04:15:00.002-06:00

The poor little bug when she woke up this morning.

Her one eye wa so swollen. I gave her her allergy meds, though, and it seems to be doing a lot better :)

On a completly different note.....I have no idea what the barbies were supposed to be "looking" at. She lined them up on two different occasions like this. What a wierdo.