Bowling

The wives club for our squadron decided to get together tonight and take all of the kids bowling. Fortunately, the base here in Lemoore has a bowling alley and it is dirt cheap to play. We all had a blast...Rea even bowled a strike! I have never seen such tiny bowling shoes. Now if only they made tiny bowling shirts...haha. This was my kids' first time bowling and we will definitely be doing it again soon...Wyatt says he can't wait for his daddy to be home that he can take him to the bowling alley. Here are a few snapshots of our fun time tonight...as you can tell by the last one, one game was plenty for my two. :)

Shhh! We're at the library!

On February 2nd, Wyatt's preschool class took a trip to the Hanford Public Library. There, they learned about the library and had a fun Valentine themed story time. They also heard the phrase "Shhhh! We're at the library!" about a thousand times. Guess three year olds just don't grasp the concept of being quiet... Here are a couple of pictures from our field trip...

Guess brother just REALLY wanted sister to see those fish...haha

Dear Joshua Loyal

Dear Joshua Loyal,

I'm sure you're thinking, "Oh geeze, why did she use my middle name?"...so for the five hundred thousandth time, I love your middle name...and if you won't let me use it on one of our kids, I can at least use it in a letter.

Anyway, you're somewhere on the other side of the world right now...I have a general idea where, but don't know exactly. I hate not knowing where you are. Not because I'm some crazy controlling person, but because when I don't know your location it makes the distance all too real. You are 7500 miles and twelve time zones away...or something like that. That is SO far. Thank goodness you're in my heart...and thank goodness I can sit in our home and see you everywhere...

I see you in the big leather chair in the living room...I see you in the fridge every time I see tupperware full of leftovers...I see you in our closet--all of your shirts hanging neatly and color-coded...I see you in our back yard that you meticulously planned out...I see you in the three hundred pieces of mail that we get from USAA every week because you refuse to go "paperless"...I see you in the garage when I see your spotless "middle-aged man mobile" just sitting there...I see you at the top of the stairs every time I look at the many pictures from our travels together...I see you in the playroom when I remember you standing on a stool, hanging the artwork in there... I see you in the office, sitting at your big desk working, keeping this family afloat...and I see you in the faces of our children whenever I am near them.

I can't imagine being where you are. You are on a big tin can of a boat....the only reminders are pictures and video that you have saved on your computer. My heart breaks for you...while sometimes the reminders are painful, they are comforting too. What a sacrifice you make, my darling! I am inspired by your selflessness and strength every day. I wish I could send you a package with enough reminders to last you the rest of the deployment, but I don't think the post office allows packages that big. Hang in there, honey...it will be over soon...

For the time being, know that I am here...loving you and missing you so much that it hurts. I am sitting in your chair, eating leftovers, smelling your lingering scent on those organized shirts, marveling at the back yard that you designed, opening all of those envelopes and laughing, sitting in your car from time to time to "make sure it still runs", staring at the pictures of our adventures and realizing that I don't regret a single one, playing in the playroom and being thankful that you let me have it, sitting at your desk and trying to keep things going, and embracing our babies and wishing you were here to do it too.

I love you, Joshua. You are my hero.

Eden Melissa

I mean...

I mean...could you not just eat her up? Here's Rea singing "Rock-a-bye Baby" to her baby doll...and of course, you can hear Wyatt in the background yelling for me...I'm pretty sure there is no event in my life that isn't interrupted by "Mommy! Mommy!".

Big girl bed update

Last night was Reagan's first night in the "big girl bed" and she did GREAT! She didn't cry...she didn't fuss...and most importantly, she didn't get out of the bed! Not even once! I knew she would do well and she did! I am so proud of my little girl! And when I went in this morning she said "Hi Mommy!" and gave me the sweetest hug.

Where has the time gone?

Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday that Reagan was sleeping in a pack-n-play in my bedroom. We had to take two-hour shifts, walking back and forth across the bedroom just to get her to sleep at night. Then she finally quit with the colic and moved to her room and slept in her own crib. I was relieved that she wasn't screaming day and night...but truthfully, I missed that tiny little thing sleeping right next to me. But I got over that and soon cherished going into to her room every morning and seeing that sweet face smiling up at me. As she's gotten older, those mornings have gotten even sweeter...when I go to get her up each morning she stands up and yells over the edge of the crib "Hi Mommy!" (in her precious Southern accent).

But today, my baby became a little girl. We finally converted her crib into a toddler bed. I cried as I packed away the crib bumper, not knowing if I'll ever use it again. I fought with the crib and eventually forced it to give up the side rails...and silently wished Josh was here to do this sort of manual labor for me. Needless to say, Rea is beyond thrilled about her "big girl bed". She immediately began gathering her "babies" and threw them all right in. She crawled up there all by herself and kept saying "Big girl bed! Big girl bed!" over and over again. We'll see how she feels about it tonight when she sleeps in there for the first time. I have a feeling she'll be the polar opposite of her brother and do just fine. I will honestly be surprised if she has the guts to get out of that bed even once...

While I'm sad that my baby is growing up, I am so excited to see who she will become. I can already, at her young age (2), tell you that she is sweet as sugar, beautiful, compassionate, obedient, affectionate and adventuresome--all of which make for a pretty fantastic little girl. I can't wait to see what our "good mornings" turn into now!

San Diego

This past weekend, the kids and I got out of town and headed south for San Diego. My mom was going to be there for her big CAbi conference and I was not going to miss the chance to hang out with my mom...and see some cute clothes! So we headed down. We had a weekend full of fun. We hung out with old friends, Ian and Sara, did some shopping and most importantly...went to the San Diego Zoo! I had been several times, but this was the kids first experience. They loved every minute of the three hours we spent wandering around. Here are a few pictures of our favorite zoo moments...

We watched this polar bear for quite a while. The kids loved watching him play with a ball in the water...right in front of us.

They loved these goats...and mommy loved the hand sanitizer that the petting zoo provided.

Wyatt tried, but no matter what he did, this log just wouldn't move...

My little bugs...

Daddy had said that they could each pick something out at the gift shop...clearly they were excited about their purchases...

And this was the general result of our zoo trip...Mommy was very happy about it. :)