Our camping weekend!

I'm making up for not posting yesterday by putting up plenty of pictures of my sweet girls!

We are having a blast!

Road Trip!

We are on our way to a camping trip with my family in Arkansas! Asa and a couple of other guys did well at PT yesterday, so they got Thursday and Friday off. So we packed up the truck and drove to Branson last night. Branson wasn't very exciting for us and the hotel we stayed at wasn't a keeper. But it was nice to have a stopping point for the trip.

Today we have a four hour drive to the campground. I have a love-hate relationships with road trips. When the kids are happy, I love them. I enjoy having us all together, our favorite songs playing, pretty scenery to look at, holding hands with my husband, and hearing the girls laughing in the backseat. When the girls are fussy, the car is the last place I want to be.

But this trip is going well so far. Vivi is asleep and Marley is playing photographer. And Keith Urban is singing for us.

Perfect.

Vivi at Ten Months

Vivi is ten months old!  In two months, she will be a year old!  I don't want to admit that.

I love her little personality.  We are learning new things about her every day and it is fascinating.

She has been crawling for four months.  And now she can walk with a walker and even stand up in the middle of the room unassisted.  She will stand straight up, then squat herself down, and then stand back up.  There are some strong leg muscles on that girl!

Marley loves to walk around with her.  Marley accidently gets going to fast most of the time and it ends with Vivi on the ground.  But they both really enjoy it while it's going well.

She sleeps so well.  She going to bed at night between 8 and 9 and wakes up in the mornings around 7 or 8.  She does wake up a few times in the middle of the night, but she just goes right back to sleep once I nurse her.  So, we usually don't even notice.

 I call her Vivi the Destroyer.  Or The Vivinator.  She is literally into everything.  We have an enormous living room in our new house and she basically just makes her rounds and pulls down everything she can, puts all the paper in her mouth, and knocks over anything that Marley might be trying to play with.  She pulls down most of the books she can reach, takes papers off the desk, and as you can see, she has also managed to pull my camera down on her head.

Marley and Vivi are doing great together.  Marley is usually very helpful with Vivi.  She loves to play with her and help me feed her.  We will all be sitting at the table sometimes and Marley will say, "Can you get me a cup for Vivi?  She doesn't have a drink!"  Those are some of the best moments of mommyhood.  I love seeing them happy together and being loving sisters.  I want to foster that friendship and connection and sometimes it seems like I'm not doing a very good job.  It's hard to talk about sharing with a three year old and ten month old.  Vivi doesn't understand taking turns or respecting Marley's work.  So, we struggle with that daily.  But I'm guessing that's a pretty normal thing.  They love each other though, despite all of that.

Vivi is overall still a very happy kid.  She smiles most of the day and is content to play by herself a lot.  She just loves to get into things and as long as she has something to tear apart/empty/go through, she is content for a little while I get something done.

One example of this was when we bought her some shoes last weekend.  We wanted her to have a pair of shoes so that when she wanted to walk around with our help out in public, her feet were protected.  When Marley was around 11 months old, my mom and I went to Walmart with her.  She was just learning to walk, but had never worn a pair of shoes in her life.  So, we went to the baby section, found a cute pair of sandals, and tried to put them on her so that she could help push the cart.

Marley literally screamed like we were hurting her.  People were staring.  My mom was saying things like, "Oh, we're just putting shoes on her for the first time!"  It was a very traumatic experience, but I was not about to let her walk around Walmart barefoot.  No way.

Vivi, on the other hand, was totally content.  She looked at the shoes, touched them and shook her feet around a little bit, but that was it!  No screaming.  No traumatic experience!  It's a testament to the drastic difference in their personalities!

Vivi's hair is much longer than Marley's was at this age.  And we think she is going to have curly hair!  The ends are starting to make adorable little curls!

 She can clap, wave, sign "more" and "milk", and she did a high-five once.  She is actually a little bit stubborn about performing. 

She will do these things for a day or two, and then not do it again for days no matter how hard we try to get her to.  I'm not in a hurry, though.  She can take her time.

 

She is at the stage where nursing is like a wresting match.  There are so many other things going on that she is rarely interested for longer than a couple of minutes.  But the girl loves to eat food!  She will eat anything we give her!  I love that she is such a great eater and hopefully it keeps going!

 I wish she could stay a baby forever.  I love her cuddles, hugs, and kisses.  She is such a sweet, loving, and happy baby.  And I don't want anything to change that. 

Random Adventures

It's so hard to get back into the habit of blogging.  I am still getting used to sharing my time with the three people who need it most.  I've been busy getting the girls on a semi-schedule, trying to keep the house clean, finding recipes we all like, trying to become a decent cook, playing things with Marley, keeping Vivi The Destroyer away from the things Marley is playing with, and last but not least, spending time with my husband and trying to make up for our year apart. 

And on the occasional day when I do get a second to myself, I am having a hard time feeling inspired.

I think about my little neglected blog several times a day.  I think about how I wish I had time to write.  I think about how when Marley was a baby, most of the little things we did together are chronicled in this blog.  And I lament the fact that I don't have that for Vivienne.  We have family far away, all over the United States and one on a Navy ship somewhere in the Pacific.  I want so badly to be able to keep up with pictures and stories for everyone to read.

So, there are two ways that I am going to make that happen:

1. I am going to start getting up when Asa leaves for PT and use that time before the girls get up to write.  Incidentally, this is the first day of that plan and of course, Vivi woke up ten minutes into my alone time.

2.  I am going to write one blog a day for a month.  Eesh.  That feels like a big commitment for a girl who hasn't been blogging for a few months.  But it might be only way to get back into the swing of things and to feel inspired again.

We start this adventure with a look at a few random adventures we have been enjoying lately!

Water Beads
Marley is totally into "cwafts" and "pwojecks."  She is constantly asking for new ones, so I have been scouring the internet lately and I cannot get enough of a blog called Play at Home Mom. I am obsessed with everything they post!  Needless to say, Marley and I have been doing all kinds of fun things recently!  Sunday, it was water beads.  They were easy to find in the floral section at Walmart.  Then all we had to do was put them in a bowl with some water and wait!

 Marley loves pouring water.  She got very excited getting to do it all herself.  And the end result was three bowls full of slippery, wet beads.  They got much bigger than this picture of them in her hands. When she got up from her nap, she was amazed at how much they had grown and ran her fingers through them the rest of the afternoon. Vivi thought they were funny also.  She squealed and chased them around the bowl.  They were way too small for her to be left alone with them, but she had fun with me holding her.  Asa and I even think they feel awesome! 

Sandbox
Asa is building Marley and Vivi a sandbox!  He worked hard most of the day on Sunday making the box part and will get to do the lid on his next day off.  Marley was beyond excited!  And helpful!

Dr. Marley
We went to the Springfield Zoo two weekends ago.  Mercy Children's Hospital was there giving away doctor goodies and had little activities for the kids to do.  And ever since, Marley has been obsessed with taking care of her babies and bears.  One of them is always sick!  Marley looks so adorable all dressed up like a doctor!

Friends
Marley and Vivi are finally becoming pretty good friends.  I can rely on Marley to make Vivi laugh in the car or entertain her in the high chair while I cook.  They love to talk to each other in the bathtub and Vivi wants so badly to be able to move like Marley does.  I am really enjoying watching their friendship grow recently.  They are proud of each other, even if they won't admit it!

Gymnastics
Marley has started a new gymnastics class!  It is so much better than her class in Nacogdoches.  She is learning a lot more and is given a bit more independence in this class.  And she freakin' loves it!

Old New Clothes

We unpacked a box of Marley's old clothes this weekend.  I loved these clothes on Marley and now I get to see them on Vivi every day!  Each outfit I pulled out had a story behind it or a picture I remember taking of Marley in it.  I love that Vivi is now sporting the same clothes!

See y'all tomorrow!

He's Home!

Where do I even start?

I know, I know... It has been forever.  I feel like my blog is a good friend that I used to talk to pretty regularly, but life got busy and all the sudden it has been over two months since we talked.  And there is so much to catch up on that I may not even be able to remember it all!

But the most important thing that has happened in the last two months is something I am reminded of every moment of every day.

My husband is home!

So, there has been a lot of catching up between the four of us in the last two months, but that meant that my blog got a little lost in the shuffle.  I may not ever be able to post about all the things we have done in the last eight weeks, but I am going to try.

Let's start with Thursday, February 23rd, 2012.  The day our family was whole again.

For about 6 months, we had been thinking Asa would be home in mid-March.  I had moved to Missouri, stayed by myself for a week, and then decided it would be more fun to go back to Texas until Asa came home.  So, around January 24th, I headed back to Texas.

A few days later, I got online to talk to Asa and he said, "Well, I need you to go back to Fort Leonard Wood around February 15th."  I was immediately thought that he had sent something there or one of the other soldiers had mailed something to the house and I was going to have to go all the way back to get a package.  I wrote back, "Why?"  A few second later I got a response, " Well, fine... if you don't want to be there to pick me up!"

I squealed!  He was going to get to be part of the ADVON party that comes home early, since he was ADVON heading over there.  It was amazing news and I wanted to tell everyone!  But, Asa really wanted to surprise his family.  So, for the next two weeks I had to keep it a total secret why I was going back to Missouri so soon.

Marley, Vivienne, and I got back to our house in Missouri on February 15th and had a week to get everything ready for Asa.  We cleaned, ran errands, stocked up on his favorite foods, and tried to find things to do to use up those last days.  It was hard!  There were many trips to Panera to pass the time!

The morning of the 23rd, Marley and I woke up early.  The welcome home ceremony was at 12:30 in the afternoon, so we had the morning to get ready.  We ate breakfast together, put up the Welcome Home sign, and then I decided to get in the shower to shave my legs while Vivi was still asleep.  I was almost done, when the baby monitor started beeping, the lights went out, and the water turned cold.  I hadn't gotten to wash my hair yet.  So, I jumped out, got dressed and assessed the situation.  We had lost electricity.  I checked the breaker box and everything there seemed normal.  I called Joel to ask about what I could do and we couldn't figure it out.  I called the maintenance number and they said they would send someone.  But this time, it was about 9.  I was literally pacing my living room thinking, "Of ALL the mornings for this to happen!"

10 am comes and no maintenance men.  I decided to call the community center and ask if they had a bathroom I could use to dry my hair and put on make-up.  She said I was welcome to, so I packed up a bag with my hair dryer, make-up, and clothes in case I had to.

10:45 am rolls around and still nothing.  At this point, I am freaking out!  I tested the water and it was still freezing cold.  I weighed my options and I was just going to have to go for it.  I couldn't wait any longer to wash my hair and still have time to fix it.  I prepared Marley for what I was about to do and told her that I might scream a little bit, but it was ok.

Well, I screamed A LOT.  I was literally in tears and screaming and jumping around.  The only thing that kept me going was the fact that I was NOT going to be the wife at the welcome home ceremony with dirty hair.  During my shower, I looked out of the glass door and realized that Vivi was standing up against the door and Marley was around.  I couldn't get out while Vivi was standing against it and I really really wanted to get out!

"MAAAAAARRRRLEEEEEEEEYYYY!  MAAAAAAARLLEEEEEEYYYYYY!"  Poor kid.  I probably yelled her name 10 times and she never came.  So, now I'm freaking out about the fact that she is gone!  Vivi sat down, I got out and grabbed my towel and ran out of the bathroom to find Marley walking down the hallway.

"Where were you???"
"The main-nen guy came to the door. He said 'tell your mommy and daddy that the lights will come soon!'"
"Did he hear me screaming?"
"Um..... yes."

I can only imagine what that guy was thinking.  He's trying to explain something to my three-year-old while I'm screaming my lungs out in the back!

I sat in my robe on the bed for a few minutes waiting for the lights to come on and warming myself back up.

Ten minutes later and they still hadn't come on.  I packed up the girls and threw on some sweat pants and headed for the community center.  We ran in and I fixed my hair and put on make-up and quickly as I could.  As I was finishing up, one of the workers came into the bathroom and looked confused.  I explained everything to her.  She pointed to one of the bathroom stalls and said, "We have a warm shower here if that happens again!"  You have to be kidding.

After we were all prettied up, we rushed home to eat lunch and get dressed.  As we walked in the door, all the lights came back on.  I made Marley a quick lunch and got all three of us dressed.  We were down to minutes before we needed to be there.  We stopped for one quick picture by the sign, and then headed to the ceremony!

We got there just as they announced that the bus was at the gate.  This is when I really started getting excited and nervous.  This was really happening!

There wasn't a huge crowd since this was the ADVON party, so we all just walked outside to welcome the bus!  They were brought in by a herd of loud motorcycles.  That noise made Vivi start crying and she didn't really calm back down until we got home later.

 

I tried to take pictures of everything, but it was close to impossible with the crying baby in one arm and Marley beside me asking where Daddy was.  But someone across the street got a few good ones. 

Asa on the right, looking over his shoulder.  We are on the left, looking for him.  We hadn't seen him yet.  It kind of hard when they're all in uniform with hats and sunglasses on!

Asa's hand is on the very right and we are in the middle.  This is the first time we saw him.  There was a wall of Army guys in the way, but we saw each other!

I was just wanting to jump and scream at this point, but we all had to wait patiently.  After we spotted him and smiled at each other, we clapped for the rest of the soldiers and then all went inside.  They had a formation, so we had to sit and listen to a couple of people talk.  I actually put my camera down and got out my phone to take a picture with my phone to send to my mom.  But before I could get the camera on my phone in position, they were released!

I nudged Marley, she looked for Daddy, and then ran to him.  It was perfect.  The best, happiest hug she's ever had, according to Marley.

I got to hug him next.  It felt so wonderful to touch his face and see his smile.  And it was amazing to know that he wasn't going back.  He was home.  For good.

We were all definitely on a high the rest of the day.  We got to show him the sign we had made him, introduce him to the house, and let him get to know the girls again.  Vivi was crying through most of the ceremony, but once we got home Asa laid on the ground and Vivi crawled right over to him and starting climbing on him.  We got in comfortable clothes, called Asa's family, and relaxed as much as possible.

I made him a chicken and pesto pizza for lunch and we went to Panera for dinner.  And then, just as I expected, Asa was exhausted and in bed by 8:00!  But I didn't mind.  At least I was getting the girls in bed by myself with him in the other room instead of half a world away.

Afghanistan exploded in our living room.

It is hard to put into words the feelings from that day.  There were so many going through my head that it is hard to sort it all out.  But by the end of the day, I felt relief.

Relief that our favorite guy was home, safe.
Relief that we had made it through the last year, alive and well.
Relief that I hadn't lost my mind.
Relief that this year actually brought us closer together instead of tearing us apart.
Relief that our family was finally together again.