A tough age

Lydia is sick, again, poor girl can't catch a break. Probably has to do with all the running around and appointments we've had. To put the cake topper on she is also teething. We've had 5 nights of sleepless nights, it made me take a look back to when Isabelle was this age. Sure enough I went through lots of sleepless nights with her between the age of 18-24 months. Both my girls are late teethers, didn't cut teeth till 11 months. When Isabelle was this age we lived in a 2 bedroom apartment and many, many nights were spent rocking her back to sleep. At 21 months we put her in her toddler bed. I thought hey let's try switching things up and allowing her to come to momma instead of standing there crying and crying, it actually worked. She would come to me I would comfort her and back to bed she went. Do I dare do this with Lydia? We'll see. If things continue we my try it in another month or so. Until then it's an achy neck in the am for mom and a crabby toddler/mom. The joys of motherhood! :) I'm off to buy more Tylenol and Vicks vapor plug ins.

Have a great Wednesday!

She's 4!

We have a 4 year old! That should really be a question. How did we get this far? My oh my...she's a wonderful, beautiful, smart, kind hearted, goofy, girl. She knows how to pray and loves Jesus too! Lord knows we are so proud of the little girl she is. I could go on and on.
Her birthday was simple, no theme this year. She did everything she wanted to do. Which meant jumping at the mall. The child is harnessed in and jumps on a large trampoline looking thing, Isabelle loves it. A train ride, and movie sealed the deal.
I've started a new bible study at my weekly mommy/bible study that's on post. It is going to be very interesting and will touch on some things that are bound to make us women squirm. It deals with what God's desire is for a women and what role she plays. In today's society of women who can do it all, have a career, family, kids, etc. that role can be very let's just say confusing or controversial. With just one week in I can say I'm so happy I signed up for this study. I struggle a lot with being a young Christian women and SAHM, I hope that this study will continue to encourage me(and my hubby) that we've made the right decision in his career (thus far) and in the raising of children.
Tomorrow's Tuesday and I already wish it were Friday. (To self: stop griping!!!)
We've have such a busy day already and tomorrow will be even more busy, fun, but busy.
Time to check on my girls before I crawl in bed myself.
Isn't that such a wonderful thing? To be able to sneak into your little chicks room? Check to make sure their blankets are pulled up and their sleeping sound? The last few months I also find myself stopping over each girl and praying for them. Simple things, that they continue to know God and have a relationship with Him, that they dream of beautiful things, that their they continue to grow strong and healthy, little things like that.
Happy Monday!

Tuesdays thoughts

12 weeks along now and am ready to she adios to the Nassau and vomiting! Almost there...
What I can't get enough of is grapefruit juice, cereal, and roasted veggies. A few nights ago I fried corn tortillas and oven roasted zucchini, red and yellow pepper. I tossed the veggie's in o.o. cumin, oregano,salt, n pep. Next I made an aioli. Sour cream, fresh basil, a bit of minced garlic, and smoked paprika. Dinner was soooo good. Cereal is my life savor, it's more often my breakfast and dinner.
The joys of Motherhood. :)
This pregnancy has me thrown for a loop; an unexpected pregnancy vs a planned one has me all jumbled. However, this is my last so I am just going to have to enjoy every bit of it.
Today upon picking up my ever so dramatic 3(almost4) year old actually introduced me to a new friend she made! I love having girls although their dramatics can be so exhausting. When I walked in Isabelle's watch care room they were playing Simon Says. The class leader says 'Simon says who's mommy just walked in?' Isabelle ran up to me with her friend in tow (holding hands) and politely introduced us to one another. Apparently I'm supposed to set up a play date now.
Being a girl is too much fun.
My 17 month old is up after a short nap while the 3 year old us going on over 2 hours? Someone explain that one. :)
At church on Sunday I was reminded of God's plan for me, as a military wife you think you have so much in order and in a second it can all change. From deployments to change of duty stations to just l-i-f-e! Between Lydia's 2 day a week PT, being pregnant, keeping our home clean and running smoothly it is exhausting. God has a plan, I don't know why we go through the things we do. Why my husbands superiors are choosing him as a target at work to take their anger out on, why my 3 year old has an all outfit because I asked her to keep her socks on, or why I can't stand the sight of chicken! But hey, it's all in his plan. We sang a song called 'beautiful things'
(http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oyPBtExE4W0) on Sunday and its just such a beautiful reminder that when life isn't going as planned or we're hurting about something, be our children, a sickness, a move, a loss that its all in God's plan. I don't know why I had to have a daughter with SB, my heart aches for her to wiggle her toes and feel the soft cotton of her socks. To put on a pretty pair of Mary Janes and walk, but its God's plan for her to be this way. I'm not angry but sweetly reminded that God gave her to Jake and I, that he choose for to be Isabelle's little sister and that our life is so much better with her. So what that I will 2 kids to carry around, so what? He is in control and that comforts me. Cause all the crying all the anger, all the negative time wasted is just that. Wasted time.
So if your feeling down folks, just remember sometimes we go through things, unexpected, not so nice, not in our "plan". We keep going though...
Well a little person in the house is pining for my attention so it's off to play tea.

Tap,ballet, and tumbling

Is what Isabelle is doing once a week now through June. It is the cutest thing! I had such a heart soaring moment as she gave me a big hug and kiss and a "I'm so excited" whispered in my ear as she ran off to the studio with the other kids. I am able to watch her from a tv as Lydia and I wait, Lydia watches too. She does 30 minutes of ballet followed by 15 minutes of tap then tumbling. She has such a tiny pair of tap shoes...and is so cute in her leotard and tights I can hardly stand it.
Okay, I'm off my soap box of my daughters cuteness. :)
Sitting in the waiting room made me miss not living closer to our family. My mother did tap and some ballet, was even offered a full scholarship to a dance school where she could have done tap. With that said it was one of those moments where my heart ached for my mom to be able to see first hand what her grand baby is doing. So I have something special in mind for her so it won't seem like she is so far away from our little dancer.
Anywhoodles, my energy is returning, my nausea is starting to subside, and Lord knows how thankful I am for that. (I think my family is too.)
Little Lid's is going to do some aquatic therapy in the near future, it will be neat to see her use some other muscles and get her legs kicking. Jake and I have both started PT for our backs, geez we sound like a bunch of broke hill billies!
I love my PT Dr, she pretty much massaged my back almost the entire time....thank you Lord.

Tonight I don't feel like cooking meat, so we are having breakfast for dinner. Eggs, pancakes, strawberry compote, and bacon. Yep, sounds like a good dinner.
In the old days I would wish you a merry "thirsty Thursday" those days are long gone, sooo
Ta Ta for now.

Paperwork...

Boy oh boy. Talk about getting an early start in the day. By 8 am I was updating my daughters shot records for child care, filling out DA forms for the army, and having an orientation for the girls classrooms they'll be in while at watch care. Whew! Isabelle was asking If she could go to her class repeatedly and was bummed to find out she'd have to wait a few days. Lydia has weekly PT appointments and I thought it would be nice to have Isabelle be able to play with little ones her own age instead of going to more of sisters appointments. Of course Lydia was suspicious of the ladies in her class room for her age group. She wouldn't give them a smile or wave; I think she suspects what's going on. Future drop offs have her paranoid if you ask me :).
Seeing as the program the girls are enrolled in is based through the military talk about paperwork. Well, it's finally done and I'm looking forward to future errands being ran w/o my little ones in tow and maybe am early movie or dinner for mom and dad here and there.
We are back to cooler temps this week...
Isabelle is learning the letter "A" this week and Lydia, well she's "helping" mommy out all the time. :)

I got a little creative with Isabelle's craft project last week, along with the theme "a." While I watched my morning news I cut out things you would find in an aquarium for Izzy to glue to her own aquarium. I then found stencil images online of items that begin with the letter "a" and had her color them. With a white piece of paper and black marker I was able to trace the pictures myself.

What else is new...

you may ask? For the whopping handful that read this blog. :) Well I am over the moon to announce:

Yep, #3 will be here right in the heat of summer. Who would have thunk it? We sure didn't. :) We are so excited to for our new addition to arrive, yet enjoying every minute of our family of 4 while we can...before we are out numbered kiddos to adults! Happy Thursday

St Nick

December flew by in a whirlwind, which meant major lacking in the blogging department. So with out further ado, here are the girl's St Nick pictures. Bed head and all :)

Amongst the hustle and bustle of the Holidays Jake graduated Air Assault school. It was a long 2 weeks, but well worth it. A simple and nice ceremony to acknowledge the graduates and it was over. Lucky us, we happened to sit down in just the right spot; right near where the hubs was standing. We're very proud of our Soldier.

November 19, 2012 was my last post...gee whiz. Well I am back to a schedule and hoping to get back to writing. We have had a whirl wind of appointments the last 6 weeks and with the Holidays that doesn't leave much time for writing, and other activities. However we are home now are going to back to solid routine. Lord knows the girls and I need it. :) Lydia will start weekly physical therapy.Her first step is to start strengthening her core so when standing she isn't soley barring weight on her upper body. I have some activities I do with her at least once a day that include using an exercise ball. Our goal is to have Lydia walking by her 2nd birthday which I think she can do! Isabelle will go to child care on post while Lydia is at her PT appointments. If I am lucky Isabelle will start gymnastics this week (hoping there's a spot left for her!) Otherwise we will wait till Feb. In between that we will have play dates and story/craft time at the library. I am lucky enough to have found two sweet mommies with girls around the same age as mine. Needless to say there is plenty of play dates to keep our girls occupied. The family and I were in Wisconsin over the Holidays and we enjoyed it immensely. The day we arrived we were hit with a big snow storm and the snow lasted the whole time we were there. The snow hit just 15 minutes from my in-laws and it couldn't have come at a better time. We had our white Christmas, snow man in the front yard, and Jake did plenty of shoveling/plowing, etc... Although I didn't work out for 2 weeks (shame, shame, shame) I did squeeze in a 5K the Saturday before Christmas. HOLY CRAP WAS IT COOOOOOOLD. Jake and I left about 7 am for downtown Milwaukee, temp a 'warm' (yea right)8 degrees. My aunt and I planned this a few weeks prior and upon getting out of the car I thought we were nuts! There was a sea of red Santa shirts, hats, and beards...nothing like Santa to get you in the Holiday spirit. Unfortunately there were no heating tents and the bathrooms were a mile away...I mean people we are downtown, off the lakefront, in 12 degree weather! Poorly planned if you ask me, but what are you gonna do? Fortunetly my aunt saw a crowd gathering by the Milwaukee Art Museum which was along the running path and the garage below was HEATED! Praise be to Jesus, you bet we ran there to heat our frozen toes and tushi. Our hot hands only worked to heat just that. All said and done we had a blast but I don't think I will ever do a run in the extreme cold again.

I finished 31st place out of 304 women in my age group, and if not for the icy trail I do believe I could have made the top 20. I came in at 28:39, not my best time. Just glad I didn't break a leg! We did a lot on our trip back. Isabelle went ice skating for the first time, we enjoyed a few Sunday fun days with friends and family. Ate entirely too much and thoroughly enjoyed our selves. I am a little late, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!