Silence

*I was supposed to publish this on the 30th... oops.* 

March has been a very busy month for us, the first 3 weekends were spent with a birthday party each Saturday, and then this past Sunday the 27th was my 26th birthday. Plus school with the kids, issues with Kiale... again, and Cayleigh-Grace displaying full on 2 year old behavior for a good two weeks make for one non blogging me. There have been several good things about this month, we are two months down in this deployment which means we are two months closer to seeing KS again! Yay!! Even though we still have a LONG way to go, but what can I say I like to look at the brighter side of things. I have been hitting the gym 5 out of the past 7 days and I am feeling great and sleeping better. Plus I hope to be in bikini shape by the end of the month (that being April not March) I am planning a beach trip and it cannot get here soon enough! I still cant believe its been 9 months since I last went to the gym, and I can feel it too. I am no where near in the shape I was in last June and I have a long way to go to get back there again, but I will get there.  I am crazy determined at this point. I know what I want and I am going to do everything in my power to get there. There were a few wonderful things that happened this month...

This is the AMAZING Reese's birthday cake that my dear friend Alicia made for me. It was DELICIOUS!!

Kiale decided that he wanted to start reading my books, this is him reading the first 4 pages of Eragon to Cayleigh-Grace. I had him trade it out with the first Harry Potter book since the words are quite as hard in those books.

This isn't a wonderful thing but it is kind of a funny thing... Cayleigh Grace decided that she wanted to stand on Kiale's back while he was leaning over the couch getting a book off of the bottom shelf of my bookshelf. She then proceded to fall into the bookshelf and give herself quite the goose egg and scratch. The first picture with her in the pink dress is from the 27th just a couple of hours post fall and the picture to the right is from 48 hours later and looking much much better.

  

This is by far the best thing that happened in March, Colin lost his first tooth on the 29th!!! I hadn't seen him so excited in what seems like ages, he was THRILLED to have finally lost a tooth, and the tooth next to it is already loose as well. Good thing the Tooth Fairy knows exactly how to get to our house. The bottom picture is from the next morning after the Tooth Fairy came and left Colin a dollar for his tooth in our special tooth lamb.

Skates and Elephants

For starters I want to give a shout out to my wonderful husband,  

Happy 8th wedding anniversary Honey! I love you!!  

Now, on to our feature presentation of 

Skates and Elephants.

Our weekend was awesome, it started off with a birthday party at the skating rink. We brought Kiale's roller blades and Colin, Cayleigh-Grace and I just got skates from the rink. The kids loved it. Cayleigh-Grace had a hard time accepting the fact that she could not do it. She just isn't coordinated enough to skate. She had never come across something could not do before. I ended up carrying her while I skated back to where the party was being held while she held her face in her hands and cried, "I cant do it" it broke my heart. I think she is going to be sensitive like I was.

Immediately following the skating party we headed down the road to see the Greatest Show on Earth. It was wonderful. We met some friends of ours there and all the kids (Moms included) had a blast. We were trying to get there early enough to make it to the pre show, but it just didn't happen. We got to our seats and a couple of minutes later the pre show ended. It was just too crazy and hectic trying to get from the party and to the circus within 15 minutes, it ended up taking 30. Thankfully the kids didn't want to go down to the pre show anyway. They wanted to stay in our seats so they could just watch what was going on. They knew if we had gone down there we wouldn't' have been able to see what was going on. There was just too many people down there. Right before the show began I took the boys out and got drinks for us to enjoy during the beginning. Here is the opening act. Which just happens to be one of my favorite parts of the entire show. I just love the music and it always manages to get stuck in my  head for hours after I hear it.

Once the show began and the kids got settled I waited on a slow part to head out and get some goodies. I ended up getting each of the boys a snow cone cup, Kiale got a tiger and Colin got an elephant. I also grabbed a bag of cotton candy, you just cannot go to the circus and not get cotton candy. Its the best! Cayleigh-Grace was getting fussy on and off during the performance, I cant imagine why we had only  had once heck of a busy day... she had finally settled down after going from her seat to mine when the people in front of us (well the lady) turned around and yelled at her for kicking her seat. I had no idea she was doing it. The lady kept yelling at her and said "I cant fill with you kicking my seat, stop it!" I didn't even have time to say anything to the lady Cayleigh-Grace went into hysterics right away. I just picked her up out of her chair and rocked her until she calmed down. Thankfully it was so loud in there she wasn't really bothering anyone. At that point I wouldn't have cared if she was I was in shock that that woman yelled at her like that. I don't even talk to her like that... anyways she finally calmed down except for her body jumping every few seconds b/c of her sniffling and trying to catch her breath. Eventually she fell asleep. She slept clear through intermission and through the rest of the show. While she was sleeping the concession clowns came around selling things and I bought Cayleigh-Grace this pink light up wand that spins around.

to the clown. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the show. They kept yelling over the music, "Did you see that?" "That was so cool!!" I already told them we would go next year if it is in town again. The circus is just too good to miss, and our seats were great! I loved where we were at. After the show we headed to the main concession so the kids could pick out some goodies to take home with them. Colin picked out a sword with a sheath like Kiale had got last year when we went before we moved. Kiale got a white tiger stuffy. He wanted one to keep his cheetah stuffy company. We got the cheetah when we took the kids to the zoo when I was five months pregnant with Cayleigh-Grace. Cheety as he is affectionately known as around here has become a fixture on Kiale's bed ever sense. Cayleigh-Grace wanted an elephant. The elephants were her favorite part of the show, unfortunately she missed their main feature since she had cried herself to sleep (dumb... stupid... mean woman....) Thankfully she was able to see them in the opening act and when they played the national anthem. I will admit this every time I hear the national anthem I start tearing up. It seems that that song, among others, is hardwired to my tear ducts now. Guess when you have a husband deployed in a war zone it makes you appreciate things like that so much more. At the end of the day we were all happy and thrilled to have had not

only such a busy day but a magical day as well. Everyone was happy. Once we got home I was exhausted, to the point where it wasn't even 7 O'clock yet and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. I ended up ordering Chinese from this place off post that KS swore by. I hadn't tried it yet but he kept tell me it was so much better then my usual delivery place. He was right, it was delicious! We will definitely be ordering from them again, it was great. Almost as good as the Chinese back home. As soon as we were done eating I put the kids to bed and tried to wait on KS so we could skype but I just coudln't do it. I ended up going to bed and getting an email from hem asking where I was. I was just too tired to hold my eyes open any longer. It doesn't help that Cayleigh-Grace had woke up at 0630 that morning. She doesn't even wake up that early on school days...  at the end of the day it was a great day and I wouldn't change anything... we except for the lovely woman who thought she could yell at my daughter. Yes, I am still bitter about it.

5 days...

We are now going on 5 days being 100% paci free!! She kept asking for her turtle night night last night and I had to show her that the drawer where we keep her paci's was empty. She was not happy at all but when I explained to her that the paci fairy came and got all of her pacifiers because she is a big girl now and not a baby anymore she didn't know what to think. She kept giving me the sad face and then laid down and went to sleep.

Sledding!!

School ended up being closed both Monday and today which has been wonderful. KS didn't even have to work Monday and only had to go in for a short time today. Here are our pictures from Monday's fun in the snow. All the kids enjoyed another first together, sledding! With kids so far apart in ages it is rare that they get to experience a first together, but this one happened to be a super fun one to have! We were all really disappointed going to bed Sunday night. We all assumed that the snow would be gone by morning... we couldn't have been more wrong. Here it is almost 4 o'clock Tuesday afternoon and there is still enough snow to go sledding on outside. Being from the south we do not own sleds, but we do own metal cookie sheets!! They worked wonderfully! The kids had so much fun out there and we ended up going outside three times throughout the day to enjoy the snow. I will be posting videos tomorrow of all the fun they had!!

Kiale

Cayleigh-Grace

Colin

The boys were even there to help Cayleigh-Grace slide down the hill. They had to keep hold of her until it was time to let her go.

They were so pretty I had to take a picture.

Home Safe

Made it back home safe and sound! We coudln't believe it Cayleigh-Grace was looking at pictures and she pointed to herself and said "Cayleigh-Grace"!! I didn't think I would here her say her own name for years!!! The trip back was easy, granted I can say that... I wasn't the one driving. ;-) The only negative was that they boys TVs quit working on the way down. One had already been malfunctioning and they finally bit the dust this time. They were great while they lasted though. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving holiday. I  know I am looking forward to seeing family that I have not seen in 9 months. We all feel very blessed to have been stationed so close and I am going to cherish every minute of it I can while we are here, because who knows where the Army will be sending us next!!

Oktoberfest

We celebrated Oktoberfest on Post here a few weekends ago. The kids had so much fun, and I loved seeing how thrilled they were to ride rides for the first time. KS and I had never taken the kids to any sort of fair before; KS does not trust the rides at all and thinks that it is all just a waist of money. I on the other hand love the rides... but I do agree with the money part. We shelled out $20 for tickets and then bought a funnel cake for moi, and a jumbo cotton candy bag for the kiddos... and me. It was so worth every penny, the kids got to ride 3 rides and were able to pig out on the yummy snacks. They had German food, Folk dancing, and German music while we were there as well. Overall a wonderful experience and I cannot wait to go again next year.

The view from the top.

She kept trying to find the boys and I but each time KS would point us out to her she wouldn't see us.

I tried to get Kiale to pose for another picture with me but he refused.

Their first roller coaster.

The dad that was riding this with them made sure they had a blast. Their bear was twirling more then any of the others.

Our shadow family picture.

Our Sunday

This is how part of our Sunday was spent, well the afternoon anyway. My husband has always loved anything remote controlled so here he is installing that addiction love...  in our kids as well.

The kids have a blast whenever KS pulls out all of his RC gear, I'm not sure who has more fun the kids or Daddy.

(Sorry for the TMI from Kiale, he had had an upset stomach earlier in the day and well... you can figure out the rest.)

Earlier in the day we took the kids out bowling for the first time, it would have been great if a certain 20 month old wasn't a little too excited about rolling the balls down the lanes. She got so cranky when it wasn't her turn. I think we have decided to recruit one of our friends to watch her next time we go, it was just too difficult bowling with her there. Unfortunately we were only able to play one game but it was still loads of fun watching them all play for the first time. In case you were wondering, KS and I tied with 70 points a piece. The only reason we tied was b/c he let Cayleigh-Grace bowl two of his games. I think I need to step up my game some more if we are going to keep this up... The last time we had been bowling we when Kiale was in an infant carrier and we would go with my cousin and her friends. So as you can imagine its been a few years.

Hair!

Normally her hair is very straight but I couldn't' help but take a picture of the sweet little curl she woke up with this morning. This girl managed to sleep in until 10:20 this morning, now why cant she sleep in this late on the weekends!?

Eggs & 19 Month Olds...

Note to self, eggs + a 19 month old who can open the refrigerator and get out whatever she wants just doesn't mix very well...

It ends up being a nasty mess and a very freaked out little girl who has slime all over her shoes and pants. Not to mention the slime all over my carpet and kitchen floor. Thankfully Kiale caught her before she made even more of a mess, but unfortunately instead of keeping her in the kitchen and only having a mess in there he decided to bring here up the stairs while carrying her and then proceed to almost fall backwards down the stairs while still holding her after loosing his balance. Thankfully I was able to get to them in time before they both took quite a tumble. New rule, well same old rule really just more enforced now... DO NOT CARRY THE BABY UP OR DOWN THE STAIRS. I think I need to go buy one of those locks for my refrigerator now...

Broken Glass

How many times have you woken up late and that just set the stage for a bad serious of events? Well that was me on Friday. I had forgot to set my alarm the night before until after midnight, so I had to change the set time before I could turn the alarm clock on. Once I did that I quickly fell asleep, forgetting to set the set time back ahead... needless to say I woke up on my own 30 minutes later than I wanted. I was rushing around the house, nursed Cayleigh-Grace, got the boys breakfast ready, stuck CG in her room and finally got into the shower. I honestly think that was the fastest shower I have had in quite a while. After I got out I had to pack Cayleigh-Grace's bag because she was staying with a friend while I took the boys on a field trip. The boys got dressed and we finally headed out the door, I had got everyone ready and out the door, including myself, in 45 minutes. I was thrilled, we were actually going to make it out on time, until I got to the truck. I quickly realized that I had locked my keys (all of them) in the house with my purse. I had grabbed Cayleigh-Grace's bag which is the same style as my purse and walked out of the house without a second thought. Normally this would not have been a problem, I have a hide-a key, but I had used the key on Wednesday after church b/c I couldn't find my house keys when I left. I had forgot to return the hide-a key to its designated spot... which meant that I was 100% locked out of my house, no one else has a key. So I put Kiale over the fence to the backyard hoping that the boys had left the backdoor unlocked, but of course it was locked. Even the doggy door was locked. So I go around to all the windows trying to get them to open to avail. Finally I am pushing on our dining room window that KS replaced before he left just hoping that it would give and open. Well it did give, but it wasn't the window that gave and opened. The glass ended up shattering all over my forearm and hand. (Granted I was angry and was pushing with way more force than I needed to be...) So I rinsed the blood of in the spicket, grabbed a brick and finished busting out my dining room window. Then I was able to climb into my house, FaceB@@k my friend and tell here it has been a bad morning and we were on our way, rinsed my cuts off again, and headed to her house. As soon as I got to her house, I was hiding my arm behind my back, I asked her if she was okay with blood. She gave me the oddest look and said she was so I showed her my arm and explained my "fun" morning. Thankfully she was able to get me all cleaned up and we were able to get Cayleigh-Grace settled and the boys and I headed off to our field trip. We ended up leaving only 15 minutes later than I had wanted too. I just wasn't able to check the boys into school, granted I don't think I would have been a good idea to show up to school with a bloody and cut up arm to begin with. They would have freaked out...Thankfully we made it to the theater with 10 minutes to spare. The movie, Under the Sea was wonderful and I had never been to an Im@x movie before so I was surprised by how nice it was. All I knew going into it was that it would have a very large screen. The only thing I was disappointed in was how short the movie was. It was exactly an hour long. After the movie I had the pleasure of panicking again due to the fact that I had forgotten to get gas before I left town and I could not find a gas station close anywhere. So my gas light was on and all I kept saying was please don't let me run out of gas, please please please... Thankfully we made it to the gas station right as the needle was on E. After getting gas the boys and I headed over to Sonny's for some lunch...  (the pic is from my phone)

After lunch we headed back to the house to clean up my mess... and boy was it a big one...

After about an hour and a half of breaking all of the remaining glass out of the window and cleaning the floors we finally went and picked Cayleigh-Grace up from my friends house. This happens to be the same friend that took our family pictures as well as the pictures with KS in his ACUs. Thankfully Cayleigh-Grace did wonderfully her first time away from me. Yes, it has taken me 17 months to leave her with anyone... On Saturday my Dad came over and replaced the glass in my window, and I now have 2 hide-a keys instead of one.

Scroll down to see a pic of my hand and arm, it isn't that bad I promise. It didn't even hurt when it happened thankfully. I do realize that I got very lucky, if the glass had cut me any lower and any deeper it could have been really bad.

Wordless Wednesday

Not Me or My Child Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not start having second thoughts about Kiale joining the Army when I dropped him off at the hotel last night for his physical this morning.

I am not in complete denial about how long Kiale will be leaving us for (40 weeks+) when he joins the army... I would not be the type of person who lives by the "I'll deal with it when it gets here" motto.

I am not extremely proud of my husband for joining the Army today, he is going into active duty.



I did not have to argue with Little Kiale about why he cannot be home-schooled right now, and the have to convince him to go back to his school at the end of this month.

I do not have one child that wants to be home-schooled and one child that wants to attend school, and those two boys would not proceed to argue about where they will be going to school. Thankfully at the end of the day they were both excited to be going back to their school that they attended last year.

My daughter did not finally learn how to walk really well and she is not walking everywhere now. Goodbye sweet baby crawls!!! You will be very missed.

My daughter did not scarf down 2 pieces of cake at my Dad's birthday party. She is not going to be a blast to watch during her birthday party next month. (do you see her cute shoes?!! I bought them before I even found out she was in fact a she in my womb!!)


Little Kiale did not accidentally hit Colin in the eye with a plastic brush which did not result in giving Colin his first (of many I am sure) black eye.