Life in Cali

As much as we miss Rick, we are definitely enjoying being in California and living with my parents.  Evan adores the dogs.  We love seeing my parents (nana and poppa) and my brother who lives close by with his dog, Strider.

We had a pretty uneventful trip out to CA.  Sarah helped us with the flight and then stayed for awhile.  We went to Disneyland with Sarah and Aaron (my bro) and had a lot of fun and then Sarah left the next day.  Anyways, more pictures catch up!

Sarah with Logan and Evan

Evan helping Logan with his rings.

Logan the zombie.  Actually, that's cherries all over his face.

Aaron, Sarah, and I with the two boys.

Kim protecting Logan

Kim playing mommy/babysitter for Logan.

Poppa and Evan falling asleep together while watching TV

Uncle Aaron with a sleeping Logan

Handsome Logan, the ham for the camera.

Evan in Logan's carseat

Evan enjoying kitty.

Evan, falling behind the couch.

Logan with his rings. 

The Harry Potter apron my mom and I made for my sister Sarah for her birthday.  (actually, I bought everything and my mom made it.) 

Gryffindor!

Logan fast asleep on Nana.

Those are just a few of the pictures from here in California!  We're having a good time with Nana and Poppa but we're certainly missing Rick/daddy a lot.

I'm Back!!! Well, kind of... (with lots of pictures)

The most recent picture of myself nad the crazy boys. 

Hola!  It's certainly been a while since I've written in this blog.  Rick has been gone from us for the past 9 weeks or so... Only about 5 weeks left!!!   I am super, super excited about being able to live with him again... AND I am SO excited about seeing him in 15 days when he comes home for Thanksgiving!  We had no idea that he would be able to come home, and tickets cost and arm and a leg, but to me it is well worth the money to spend a couple of days with Rick!  I am so looking forward to seeing him.

The boys have had a hard time adjusting to living with my parents.  Especially Evan.  I think he knows it's not really his space.  He's constantly going a million miles a minute (even more so than our house in Maryland).  I am looking forward to moving to Mississippi.  I really can't believe that I said that!  But I am really excited about having our own house.  We're grateful to my parents for everything that they have done for us in letting us invade their house, but there's nothing like having your own home.

Evan turned 3 on October 28.  I am super excited to have a 3 year old, it's kind of crazy.  But then this weird thing happened any my usually sweet little  boy has turned into a temper tantrum throwing monster.  He does talk more though...

And Logan is now crawling all over the place!  He is getting into everything.  He's a demanding, spoiled little guy though.  When he wants to be held, he wants to be held and he will let you know how angry he is if he doesn't get his way!

And for me, I've been doing well.  I have been going to a bootcamp that my friend Amber runs.  It's an awesome workout that I get to do 4 days a week.  And, so far I've lost 21 lbs since I've been here... On top of all the weight that I lost in MD before moving, that makes 40 lbs total I've lost since I came home from the hospital with Logan.  And it was hard to lose....  Anyways, I am very happy so far, with that weight loss.  40 lbs down, and I have about 40-50 more to lose.

Anyways, October went by in a blur!  And we are looking forward to November going by quickly.  We get to see Rick at Thanksgiving.  And his graduation date from OTS is December 14.  So, only 36 days left!

the train cake I made for Evan's birthday

Logan had a grand old time with the balloons.

Evan with his birthday hat and all up in my face.

Logan trying to steal the spotlight while Evan blows out the candle.

I got wax on myself and probably swore.  That's why the boys are looking at me...

Poppa trying to point to the cake but Logan was more interested in the camera.

Making Halloween cupcakes at Aunt Bethany and Uncle Russ' house

With mommy.  Hard to get Evan to sit still.

Logan and I together.  His first Halloween

Evan enjoying his cupcake.

Evan painting his pumpkin.

Logan playing with the foam stickers and getting into everything on the table.

Evan admiring his creepy pumpkin.

Evan as Yoshi.

Luigi, Yoshi, Mario and Toad

With Casey at Texas Roadhouse for dinner.

Mom and Evan (right before Evan fell asleep at the table)

Logan slept at Texas Roadhouse too.  He knew he wasn't getting anything yummy.

The boys the night before we left.

Evan and Logan on the air mattress that we slept on in Bethany's basement.

So cool... on the 15 going home.  Evan with kitty cat.

Slacker

You can call me a slacker.  It doesn't matter.  I really have not been updating this blog as much as I would have liked.  But things around here have just been busy lately. 

-Rick has orders! (finally) We will be moving back to California in September while Rick drives to Alabama.

-Liverpool v. Tottenham game---This was the end of July and we had a lot of fun, even though the game was boring (ended up being 0-0). 

-Scheduling the moving of our stuff has been super stressful because everything is so last minute.  I have a feeling that this is what's always going to happen in the military.  LAME.

-My birthday this month was a lot of fun.  I went shopping, ate sushi, and ate the Gelato Key Lime Ice Cream Sandwiches.  These ice cream sandwiches are amazing.  Seriously, they may change your life. 

-Too many trips to the Amish Market.  I am going to miss that place when we leave.

-A lot of working out.  I have a gym membership that I am taking advantage of as much as possible.  They offer great classes, including step, yoga/pilates, zumba and kickboxing. 

-Playing with the boys as much as possible.  We've been painting, writing, laughing, wrestling, and dancing together.  Evan can write "Evan", "Mommy", "Daddy", and "Logan" in all capitals.  We're working on counting as well.  The other day I told Evan to climb into his car seat and counted to three in order for him to get in a timely manner.  I said, "one, two", and then Evan piped up "twee!". 

-Not doing so well with eating right.  I am a stress eater.  All of the military nonsense is driving me crazy, and I tend to eat with my stress.  It's okay---I am learning that instead of eating, I should go run it off instead. 

I guess there hasn't been that much happening, but, I am still going to just spend as much time with Rick as I can before he leaves for three months.  I probably won't update again until we're in California. 

And I just realized that the name of our blog is "Adventures in Maryland".  Which we'll have to change, so I have to think about that now... hmm..

A Summer Baby Shower

 I threw a baby shower for my friend Sarah the other weekend.  She's having a baby girl, and of course, since I have two boys and no girls, I really went overboard.  I could have done more with decorations, but just didn't have the time to do EVERYTHING that I wanted.  It still turned out really nice and I think everyone had a good time!  Some of the pictures (taken on a camera fine cause I couldn't find our camera in time). 

The clothesline for Sarah's baby girl Aubrey. 

The gift table. 

Sarah with Claire and Leslie.

Rachel, Nicole, Ariane, Tracie and Angela (and Ian)

Melissa, Courtney, Amanda and Jennifer

The centerpieces...It just looks like oranges and lemons in there, but there are also limes too.

Another view of the table decorations.

The food---including the yummy lemon bars that Tracie made.

Rachel reading her table's winning mad lib.

Leslie and Claire making a play dough model of Sarah's baby.

Rachel's model (she was just going for minion look from Despicable Me.)

One of the babies.

Sarah starting to open up her gifts.

Sarah got a lot of new stuff for herself and her baby girl Aubrey.  I am really excited for her having a little girl! 

4 Months Old!

My littlest baby (Rick and Evan are also babies!) is now 4 months old!  His doctor's appointment was yesterday.  He now weighs 12 lbs, 10 oz (he was 6 lbs, 1 oz at birth) and is now 24 1/4 inches long.  My sister bought him a Liverpool FC kit for the soccer game later this month. 

There he is!  My little soccer player! 

Logan and his little hands.  He loves those! 

What can Logan do now?  (in addition to staring, eating, crying and pooping)
-Rolls over from his tummy to his back
-Holds up his head to look around.  He's not too wobbly anymore!
-Lifts his back to try and sit up
-Kicks his feet like a crazy soccer player
-Eats his fingers and fists, stares avidly at them.
-Sucks his thumb
-Laughs and smiles, especially at big brother, mommy and daddy.
-Stares intensely at us while we eat
-Does not sleep through the night (wakes up about once or twice now)
-Tries to crawl.  While on his tummy he moves his feet and legs back and forth like crazy!
-Babbles and coos.  Has a lot to say to us
-Wakes up like mommy and big brother
-Still eats a lot

Playing the Waiting Game

There are a few things that I don't like about the military.  One of those things is the "Hurry up and wait" mentality!  Rick was just accepted to OTS, and now we're just waiting to hear from them on when he'll go to Alabama.  He could go for the end of July, beginning of September, middle of October, and the end of November.  What's hard is trying to get everything done that needs to be done in the time frame that they gave us.  This happened in Rick's tech school also.  Because his classes were always backed up, we had no idea when he would be going.  So, we ended up having about 3 weeks to get ready to leave.  I am seriously hoping that they give us more notice than that!  Rick wants to go in September, so it won't be so hot.  I wouldn't mind him going in July, because the sooner we start this new stage, the better. 

So that's basically what we're doing at the moment.  Just playing the waiting game and hoping to hear soon about a class date for Rick so we can begin planning everything. 

Other things going on:  Logan and Evan are both pretty good.  Logan was having a couple of times last week when he would have huge crying fits at night, but I think he's getting better (crossing fingers that's true!).  Evan is just playing and having lots of fun with crayons, blocks, toys and other things.  He still isn't talking a lot, but I'm not trying to worry about it too much because I think it's there.  If by the time he's 3, and he still hasn't improved at all, then we are for sure taking him to someone to help.  But he's such a sweet little boy (except when he's overtired, of course).  He loves playing outside and going out with mommy.  Yesterday we were coming back from the store, (just the two of us), and he carried the grocery bag of bananas into the house for me.  I can't believe how big he's getting and how much he loves helping. 

Father's Day, scout camp and our anniversary are coming up this month (May and June are busy months for us).

3 months old and other stuff

Logan is 3 months old today!  We are so grateful to have him in our family.  He's a very happy little guy for the most part.  But he also knows what he wants and when he wants it, so he can be a little loud and demanding as well.  No major milestones yet, except holding his head up really well on tummy time.  He loves his mommy, daddy and big brother, even though Evan scares him sometimes.  :) 

This was my itty bitty baby at 6 lbs 1 oz when he was born.  He's not so little anymore.

I am guessing that he's between 11 and 12.5 lbs now. 

He sure loves smiling for us! 

In other news, Evan's been cranky this week and I knew something was off, but it didn't seem to be effecting him that much.  I noticed a few bumps on his body and didn't think much of it until my friend called to tell me that her little boy has hand, foot  and mouth disease.  And that he and Evan were drinking out of the same water bottle during fathers and sons.  It completely clicked that was what Evan had.  Hoping that the baby, Rick and I don't get it also.  :( 

We went to the aquarium yesterday in Baltimore.  Evan enjoyed the fishies a lot, and he got really tired out from walking everywhere.  He especially liked playing in the sand.  My sister Sarah came and had fun with us as well.  I thought the aquarium was too much money for what we experienced, but oh well. 

Then last week was some crazy times.  Rick and Evan had their first fathers and sons campout which was pretty fun for them (more for Evan than Rick because he was everywhere).  And last Wednesday, the official results were released for Rick's OTS board.  Rick applied to Air Force Officer Training School, and he got in with his first choice job!  We are ecstatic about this---Rick has wanted to become and officer since before he enlisted, just so he could have the experience with the job (still not sure if we're going to be "lifers").  So sometime he'll be going to Alabama for three months and I will be with my family in California. After that we'll be going back to Biloxi, MS for his tech school where we'll be able to live with him for that time. I have to admit that I am very much looking forward to leaving Fort Meade.  We have great friends here, but I'm not a fan of the base!