New Award

Well, I created an award...and gave it to myself today. It's called the "Worst Blogger of the Year" award. In order to win, you can only post entries to your blog every other month and must begin every blog post with "I'm really sorry that I haven't posted in a while..." or something to that effect. :)

We have had an interesting month. Mostly, we have just been hanging out at home and occasionally playing with our friends...but we did manage to squeeze in a trip to Los Angeles to see my brother, Trey, compete in a track meet at Azusa Pacific University. He ran the 200m, and won! It was a good day to be in the stands. Wyatt loved it and kept yelling "Uncle Trey wins!" over and over. We had such a good time visiting with Trey...I'm pretty sure Trey is now missing an ear due to Wyatt's incessant questions and talking. From the time Trey arrived in our hotel room, Wyatt never stopped talking..."Uncle Trey, do you like that car? Uncle Trey look at that flower! Uncle Trey, what's your favorite color? Mine's blue..." you get the point. Sweet Rea was her quiet self, but sat in Trey's lap at any chance she got...she's our snuggle bug.

After our trip to LA, we came home and began Easter preparations. Easter is our favorite holiday around here, as it is the cornerstone of everything that we believe. We are so grateful for the free gift given to us by God and our Savior...the gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus.

The kids had a blast and loved their Easter baskets. The church sermon was fantastic as usual and we celebrated with our dear friends, the Shulmans, for Easter supper. Sadly, my computer is not really cooperating with me these days and I only have three pictures from that day to share right now...but here they are....aren't my babies beautiful? The bonnet and dress that Rea wore to church was mine when I was a little girl, and Wyatt's outfit belonged to my brother--I love vintage clothes!

Since Easter, we've just been recovering from the massive sugar high that we all experienced. And as we start the month of May we begin to see the light at the end of the deployment tunnel. The countdown is on for Josh's return...and along with the counting down comes a lot of homecoming preparations. As we prepare, I will do my best to keep you all updated...

The most common question

I get asked a lot of questions about the military life and deployment...but the most common question I am asked is "How do you do it with your husband gone for so long?". I finally decided to give an actual answer to it...so here goes--this is how I do it:

The biggest thing I do to cope, is to crawl into the lap of my Jesus at least once a day...sometimes I just sit there...sometimes I whine and complain to Him...sometimes I cry into the folds of His clothes...sometimes I fall asleep there...sometimes I talk...and sometimes I just listen. The comfort of being in His presence is what gets me through each day. Even though my earthly husband isn't here, my heavenly Father fills that void for me.

I do still rely heavily on my earthly husband though. I seek his guidance before making decisions and I rely on his "pep talks" via email. His confidence in me is what makes me push through being tired and stressed and to get the job done. How fortunate I am to have a man beside me that pushes me to do better, but loves me just the way that I am...and could care less if the kids got a bath today.

When I'm craving human contact, I lean on my fellow military wives. We do dinners, play dates, hour-long phone calls, and many many potlucks. They help to fill the void of adult conversation and interaction...they also help to fill in on days when I desperately need a break...or a pap smear.

A lot of days what keeps me going are the sweet faces of my two beautiful children. Even though they can run me ragged, they are so precious to me...and to Josh. And they need me. They need me to hold it together...they need me to make their dinner...and bathe their little bottoms...and remind them that daddy loves them and is coming home soon. So I can "do it" because I have to...because I love my children more than I love even myself.

I also lean pretty heavily on my family...and Josh's family. My mom is the first person I call when I need an opinion on anything, from what to wear all the way to how to deal with potty training. She's my go-to person when Josh is gone. The rest of the family humors me with longer than usual phone calls and skype sessions just for no reason. They help me fill the void when I'm feeling lonely, and who better to do that than the people that have known you the longest.

And that, my friends is how I do it....it's not easy, but then whose life is easy? God can give us all the grace and strength to deal with any situation or circumstance that comes our way.

Hello again

I know I say this at the beginning of every blog entry, but I'm sorry that it has been so long since I've updated this thing! The children are keeping me very busy...between Wyatt's expanding vocabulary and insatiable curiosity and Rea's new found love of walking, I barely sit down during the day. We're having so much fun, the three of us, but we're still missing Daddy. We are counting the days until Josh's return...we're almost half way through his deployment! The official countdown can finally begin for us. Anyway, here are a few pictures of what the kids have been up to lately...

I got a chance to take Wyatt to the circus. I got a babysitter for Rea so that we could enjoy some alone time. He was in awe the entire show and he loved every minute of it. It didn't hurt that we had front row seats too! I can't wait to take Rea when she's a little older...

My mom's assistant is possibly the sweetest girl on earth...and even better than that, her husband is a fireman! Stephanie and her husband Zach invited Wyatt and Rea down to the firestation one Saturday afternoon...I thought Wyatt was going to burst, he was so happy. Still to this day he tells me that he wants to go see "Mr. Zach" again.

Another exciting day is when a package came in the mail from Nike. My brother, Trey, is signed with Nike and had taken my mom and her friend on a little shopping spree at the Niketown in New York. He generously got me a few things and got the kids these adorable shoes! They loved them! Rea especially loves shoes...she's only one and already she's learning a lot from her mommy!

This past weekend, the kids and I loaded up and headed over to Atlanta to see my dad. My stepmom, Deborah, is in Israel on a tour of the Holy Lands for two weeks and I thought my dad could use some company...so over we went. We had such a good time...the kids really love their Papa. The weather was so gorgeous that we spent most of the weekend outside...and of course, went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens....just beautiful!

I'm sure you're wondering where the pictures of Rea are at the gardens...well, before we left for our outing that day, Miss Rea pulled a small console table over on herself and wound up with a huge goose egg on her forehead. This was not something that I particularly wanted to document as I was being plagued by mothers' guilt. But I promise she was with us and have a great time. Don't worry...her noggin is just fine. She's got a hard head, like her daddy. :)

Today and tomorrow we will spend the days packing up. That's right...packing up. We are heading back to California on Thursday. While we're sad to leave Birmingham (and Nana and Caesar), we're excited to get back to our own house and get back into a real routine. Who knows...we may even get Wyatt started in preschool! So, we'll let you all know when we make it back and how the drive went! Wish us luck!

Random pictures

We've been busy while Daddy has been away....here are a few pictures of what we've been up to.

Not the best week

So last week was not the best week ever...and I'm really glad that it's over.

Wyatt was just generally being grouchy and difficult, then Thursday came. I put the kids down for their naps and they both fell asleep easily. About two hours later, I heard the scream. Wyatt was screaming bloody murder. I raced upstairs to find him pantless, with blood everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean everywhere. I grabbed him and ran into the bathroom, intending to find the source of the blood and clean him up. That's when I saw it....he had busted through all of my babyproofing measures, gotten into the bathroom and emptied every drawer and cabinet. Then he had emptied every container he could find...makeup, shampoo, sunscreen, soap, perfume...he had also taken my best eyeliner and drawn all over everything. Accompanying this art, was lots and lots of smeared blood. I begin freaking out....Rea is screaming so I go in to check on her. She is also covered in Wyatt's blood. It is about this time that I remember I have not located the source of this bleeding. After about ten minutes I narrow it down to Wyatt's thumb, but I cannot stop the bleeding. I load everyone up, as is, and head to the ER. I still have no idea how he cut his thumb open, but the doctor ended up putting dermabond (liquid stitches) on it. I guess Wyatt's thumb is just too little to hold an actual stitch.

So I make it out of that situation somewhat sane....then came Friday. Friday morning, while Rea was napping, I took Wyatt out to play. He was running down the sidewalk when his little boot caught the lip of the concrete and smack! He face-plants right there in front of the house. He has a massive "strawberry" on his forehead, a bloody nose and a scratched up chin. Lovely. Later that night, we went out to dinner with my mom and stepdad. I had already warned Wyatt twice about standing up in his chair...that's when it happened. He fell out of his chair and busted his lip on the edge of the table. I mean...could this get any worse. Yes. Yes it can.

Saturday night, knowing that I had a rough week already, my mom volunteered to watch the kids while I had a "girls night" with my best friend, Taylor. Taylor and I had an amazing night. We enjoyed some Mexican food and margheritas at Chuy's, followed by some yogurt at 32 degrees. I arrived home and crawled into bed feeling refreshed and ready to get back to motherhood the next morning. Forty five minutes after laying down, it started. Wyatt started throwing up everywhere. I cleaned him up and put the sheets in the wash. Then I put him in bed with me....he proceeded to throw up all over my bed. So I strip that bed and get Wyatt a "puke bucket". That child threw up every fifteen minutes all night long.

Thankfully that was the end of the bad stuff. Sunday came and with it, a new week. I'm sure Wyatt is greatful for the reprieve too. So far we've had only happy children and no accidents. Let's hope it continues for a long time...I've gotten my fill of difficult mothering.

Pictures from Christmas

Blogger has been giving me fits today, so I'm just going to post a few pictures of our Christmas in Alabama in this edition...

Belated Merry Christmas!

Belated Merry Christmas to everyone! I'm sorry that I haven't updated the blog in such a long time, but these kids are keeping me busy! I hope that you all had an amazing Christmas and were blessed over this holiday season. I know we were!

To start off, here is Wyatt and Rea's visit to see Santa. Wyatt was thrilled to go see him and was very excited to tell Santa that he wanted a "really huge Thomas set". Rea was not so thrilled. Oh well, I guess every child needs a "screaming with Santa" picture in their portfolio...