The Lake

I've been trying to keep the girls busy lately. I try to give the things to do during the day and the occasional movie or two. But when Steven is home we definitely try to get out of the house to let them 'run out their crazies' before bedtime. It helps bedtime go a little more smoothly, especially Lilly who will try to keep herself awake until she can't keep her eyes open any longer. We've been going to the playground behind our house, but we decided to try and find the lake that the base owns here. We've tried to find it before but always ended up in the wrong place, but it wasn't a 'need' to find place, we were always just exploring.

Last weekend we finally found it! Since we don't really fish, yet, or go boating, Steven took the opportunity to try and teach the girls to skip rocks. It didn't go so well, but they had fun anyways and I got to take lots of photos of them. I edited some of them and the rest I'm going to save for my treatment days. 

Lilly got a little frustrated because she couldn't skip the rocks, but she kept trying. 

Sadie figured out an alternative way to skip rocks. She would throw handfuls of small rocks and since they hit the water in different places she said they 'looked' like skipping rocks.

Ruby? She collected sticks and rocks. And tried to bring them home. We had fun and the girls seemed very interested in learning how to fish.

 Hopefully sometime soon we'll be able to take them out there to fish with Daddy. I'll go and take photos, ha! For now they are just happy to go and throw rocks and play at the playground there.  I think we'll try to spend as much time there as we can this summer. 

Oh, and when we left to go home, we got stopped by a freight train. I thought it'd be fun to count the cars. We started counting and I thought it'd be a small train, but it had 120 cars! Crazy long, but they had fun. And they slept pretty well!

-K

My babies....

aren't really babies anymore. As excited and happy as I am that they can play together, I am just as sad at how big they are. It seems like the past 7 years have been a blur. With Ruby and Sadie's birthday passing, I'm reminded that Lilly's is less than 3 months away. She'll be 6 and I'm not sure I can handle that!
They were playing together when Lilly asked if they could play a board game together. But Ruby is still too young to play most of them and she often throws things when she gets mad, so I told sorry but no. Then Ruby pointed up there too and asked for the tea party stuff. We found this set at Walmart for only $5 over the summer. Unfortunately it's made of porcelain and easily breakable, so we bought two sets. And you know what one of the first things Ruby did? She got made a Lilly and threw a cup and broke. For awhile though, they played together well, without fighting. It's always nice when that happens :)



-K

Catch Up Time

I seriously need to get on top of things. I'm so behind. Partially because we've had colds go around house constantly since mid-November. Partially because I've had doctor's appointments and tests off-base in the city. Partially because we are preparing to move in the beginning of February. Partially because Ruby turns 2 tomorrow and Sadie turns 4 on Saturday and Christmas is a little more than 2 weeks away. The list goes on and on and on..... I really have no idea, energy-wise, how I make it through the day anymore. It's been hard to go out and do anything because there is so much going on that we just want to veg out on the couch when we have minute.

The last weekend in November we went to a couple of playgrounds that we hadn't been to yet.  We loaded up the girls, including Sophie, and headed out. While the girls and I played at the playground, Steven went for a run with Sophie.

The girls all had a lot of fun. Poor Sophie is just such a small dog that after her run she was licking her paws. We love her so much, but we're going to get another dog when we get to Offutt AFB. Steven wants a bigger dog, since he's had bigger dogs in the past, and a running buddy. The girls keep talking about how they want another cat too, so we'll have 2 cats and 2 dogs. I don't know if that will happen though. Steven's not the biggest cat person, but Milo is without a doubt his cat even if he won't admit it. I think Milo knows he's the only other boy in the house :)

After the playground we headed to the golf course. I've been wanting to take some sunset photos of the girls and the golf course gets some great light. I'm trying to get one good photo of all 3 of them to hang in the living room. I want a large print, so I've been trying to get that shot for a long time now. Plus Ruby is getting ticked that there are no recent pictures of her hanging on the walls. She sees old pictures of Sadie at 2 and throws a little fit because she thinks it's her and not Sadie. I'm determined to get one before we move so that we can hang it in our new house. Our living room furniture is so dark, so I want to get some lighter, brighter colors in there.

I'm hoping life slows down a little bit, but probably not. I'll at least try to be a better blogger and update more. Especially because my babies are turning 2 and 4 tomorrow and Saturday. Days just keep getting shorter and shorter.


-k

Golf Weekend

So last Saturday was a whole lotta golf! Steven played in the clubs Turkey Trot tournament with some guys from work. He went to have fun and get some practice in. And even though his team didn't win, everyone got a free turkey for participation, ha! This year will be our first Thanksgiving in which we actually will have turkey. Steven's not a huge fan of turkey so we usually do chicken or ham, so hopefully I don't mess it up!

We also had Lilly's 4th week of golf lessons. And since Steven was playing golf, the girls and I got to go too. We had rain clouds and wind all morning so we weren't sure if we'd still have it, but the weather started turning as soon as we got there. There was still a lot of wind but it started to warm up as soon as the sun came out. Sadie was a little bored but managed to keep herself entertained using my iPod camera. Ruby was very annoyed that she had to sit in the stroller and I wouldn't let her out.

Lilly did really well. I could tell it was hard to get any good hits on the driving range, mostly because the golf club she was using was too small for her and the next size up was way to big for her. But when she got to the putting, she was a pro. She did so good and kept moving the ball further and further away from the hole. No matter how far away she was from the hole, she just kept sinking the putts.

Her next lesson won't be for a few weeks, but they are going to go out on the course and play few holes and drive golf carts. She loves the golf carts!


After her lesson we noticed how great the sun looked on the mountains so we stopped to take some photos. And then we headed to Starbucks to get a much needed hot chocolate for Sadie and Lilly and a peppermint mocha for me :) I ♥ Peppermint Mocha!


-K

Playing Together

This is how you can find all three of the girls on most days. They are usually very good for a while until they begin to argue over who controls the actual book. Lilly cannot wait until she can sit down and actually read Sadie and Ruby a book. Until then, they'll still look for objects in I Spy books and listen to Lilly make up her own stories to the pictures in the books.

I took out the water colors last week so the could paint on Veteran's Day since Lilly had the day off. Lilly and Sadie had a blast, but Ruby was a mess. She had more paint on herself than she did on her papers.

 And did I mention how excited I am that we are almost out of the baby mess/ baby proofing stage. I can't wait until I can give them this stuff and not have to supervise 100% of the time. I am hate messes and toys/activities that create large messes. I'll have to remember that when Ruby turns 2 and Sadie turns 4 in three weeks. This year has seemed to fly by; it's crazy!

-K

Girl Scout Rodeo

Last weekend we went to a little party that the Girl Scouts here had. It was a birthday party for Juliette Gordon Low who founded the Girl Scouts almost 100 years ago. We went to a restaurant just off base called the Crazy Horse Saloon. It was like a country western restaurant with Turkish food-ha! They played American country music, had some old playground equipment and even had horses and stables. After the girls ate and learned some things about Juliette Gordon Low, they all got to go and ride a horse. They all had a blast! I didn't get too many photos of Ruby and Lilly because they were all over the place. In one place one second and you turn around and they were gone. I'd say they were bouncing of the walls but we were outside so there weren't any walls :)



Sadie was so excited to ride the horses. I have never ever seen her this excited/nervous/anxious about anything. She didn't even look like our normal Sadie-Mae. She is usually really skiddish and shy when it comes to things like this. She loves the idea of something but when it comes down to actually doing it she would rather just watch everyone else and not go near the animal. She was just so excited and it showed all over her face. And when she actually rode the horse, she just had such a peaceful, contentedness look on her face. Like it just came so natural to her. She was just so happy.

All the girls had so much fun. It was really a nice afternoon. Now the girls are just trying to convince Daddy to get them some horses to keep :)
-K

Trick or Treating

The girls started their Halloween festivities at Daddy's work. They got to go trick or treating at the squadron and had a blast. As soon as we got there, Ruby started waving her bucket around and chanting, 'canny, canny, canny'. She was thrilled about the whole process. They had a lot of fun and were excited about all their candy! And where else could you go trick or treating alongside some very large planes! Sadie was Belle, Ruby was Cinderella, and Lilly was Ariel!















-K

Happy Birthday Steven!

This past Saturday, my sweet hubby turned 27. We celebrated with some movies, a rib dinner, and some cupcakes.

This year he picked out his own present about a month ago. The BX happened to have a new Sony tablet and since he had just lost his ipod too, it was an easy decision. The girls still wanted to pick out some things for him as well. His parents, Memaw and Papop as we like to call them :), sent him some money for his birthday. So to keep the surprise effect he tasked us with picking out some goodies for him. If you know the girls, you know they like to pick out toys for Daddy so that he can play with them. One year it was play dough, for some reason I can't remember last years, and this year it was a sword. Not just any sword, a Star Wars light sabre! They were thrilled to show him what they picked out and after it was opened a rather large sword fight erupted.

The thing I picked out was a trolley for his golf bag. That way when he golfs he doesn't need to rent one or a cart unless he wants to. And it's one thing that I knew he wanted eventually. And it was the only one at the BX. And the man is hard to shop for. So golf trolley it was. Lucky he really liked it. Did I mention he's hard to shop?

I made the mistake of saying that the light sabre reminded of Howard Walowitz from Big Bang Theory. He has a pair of light sabres displayed in an x above his bed. Now he has his sitting on the headboard to our bed. I kid you not, it's been there since Saturday.

We made ribs and cupcakes and had a wonderful dinner. The girls sang "Happy Birthday" twice and after the second time, Lilly and Sadie squealed in unison, "Blow out your candles Daddy!" Steven started laughing and blew out the candles. I was lucky enough to catch that on camera! After we took a minute to take a picture of us and the girls wanted in too. So Daddy took a picture with each of them, including his other girl Sophie!
And after dinner we got a treat, a college football game that wasn't on in the middle of the night here. Unfortunately it was the Texas/Oklahoma game. We were rooting for Texas but seemed completely apparent that they weren't going to win early on, so we called it a night. Other than the football, I think he had a pretty good birthday this year!

-k

Sick Days

For most people, sick days are quiet and calm so you can rest and get better. Not for us. Our kids never act sick. It's hard to explain because people think you are exaggerating. I kid you not, it's exhausting to watch. They run around and play, despite me explaining that their little bodies need to rest, and they never complain. The only time they act unlike themselves is when the Tylenol and Motrin wear off and a fever returns, other than that you never that they're sick. It makes it hard to know when they need to see the doctor.
Oh and when one of them gets sick, it's a matter of minutes and hours until the other two get sick.

Lilly found a good place to color for the day.

So a week and a half ago Ruby came down with something. We don't know what it was but it was a stomachache and I'm sure you don't want to know what else that entailed. Sadie and Lilly had a little bit but Ruby had it for a week. Poor thing was so uncomfortable.

Sadie looking at a book and then the decorated Ruby's notebook with stickers.

Steven and I debated whether or not Lilly should go to school one day because she had a stomachache the night before.She said she felt fine, so we told her if she started to feel bad again to go to the school nurse. She was at school all of 45 minutes before I got the call to come pick her up. She only had a low grade fever of 99.7 but I was told that that was too much for her to stay at school. When I got to the school, I waited in the office for her, and I heard her loud talking and skipping down the hallway. I could only laugh, it just seemed ridiculous to me that I was there to pick up my "sick" child and her she was skipping down the hallway.

Ruby took a pillow and camped out under the princess table and made sure to stay well hydrated!

When we got home, Ruby was feeling better so we attempted to relax and turn on a movie. I was hoping the movie would get them to at least sit still for awhile. I was wrong. The pictures show how their day went. And I'm positive that if I hadn't told you they were sick, you would have thought it was weekend and they were feeling great. My kids are one of a kind. There isn't another kid out there like these 3, and I kinda like it that way :)


-K

The Library

We've been taking the girls to the library since Lilly was 6 months old. They love Story Time and they love being able to pick out and take home books of their choosing. We read a lot around here, at least a lot of kid books. I love reading but their isn't much time for me to read around here. Plus, if you met my kids you'd understand, they are LOUD. Ridiculously loud. All. The. Time. Even when they're sick. But that's a-whole-other story for another day.
Every week we get a bagful or two of books and we read some every night. Lilly has a sheet for school for all the books we've read. It keeps tally of all the books we've read with her. At the end of the month if you've read a certain amount she gets a small treat from her teachers. Lilly's very competitive so she is really into making sure we mark down all the books.

The first thing they do when we get to the library is start pulling books from the shelves, take out a cushion, and find a good spot to sit down. They'll look at the ones they took out and decide which ones they want to take home. While they do that, I look for books that I think they'll like, especially seasonal ones. The children's book at our library are shelved by topic instead of alphabetically. It 's a good system for holiday/seasonal books but a pain in the butt if you're looking for a book by author. I at least try to get a good mix of books, but the girls have their favorites, so sometimes it's a lot of the same kind. One day at Story Time, I told Sadie she could pick out some books to bring home. She came back with a stack of Fancy Nancy books, and only Fancy Nancy books.

Some books that we are enjoying these days are:
Fancy Nancy
Amelia Bedelia
Eloise
Clifford the Big Red Dog

We could spend hours at our small library. I hope where ever we live next, they have a nice, big library. I'm sure the girls would love it not matter how big. We're really happy they like to read.

My failed attempt to get a nice photo of all 3 of them.

And speaking of reading, Lilly has been doing great at school. She is learning sight words and has really picked up sounding out words. She's thrilled, we're thrilled, and Sadie and Ruby are thrilled that soon Lilly will be able to read to them. We also like to give them books as gifts and rewards. They have so many toys as it is and we'd rather not buy them anymore, and we're grateful they love books just as much toys. And I'm pretty sure Santa is going to bring more books than toys :)

-k

Who would have guessed?

So the day after I take Ruby to the ER, Sadie wakes up vomiting. I know, lucky me! Ugh! We head back to the ER and everyone stops and stares and says, "Same Mom, different kid?" I explain that we were here the previous night and they quickly check Sadie's throat and see that her throat is just as bad as Ruby's.

Something popped into to my head and I wasn't sure if they would even consider it. I ask if they can give me a prescription for Lilly too so that I don't have to come back the next day. And to my surprise they start to consider it. I explain that Ruby and Sadie are never sick and that Lilly is the one who gets hit hardest when something is going around, and I felt terrible for using the ER for something that could be easily taken care of by their normal pediatrician. They hand me a prescription and say fill it if she gets sick and if she doesn't just don't use it.

Sure enough Lilly wakes up at 5am they next morning and she's throwing up already. I'm so happy I took the time to ask because for 1) Who wants to go to the ER 3 days in a row with 3 different kids? and 2) I started getting sick that day too.

Thankfully I got a milder case than the girls and didn't need antibiotics. There's only one thing worse than having 3 jet lagged and sick kids and that's having 3 jet lagged and sick kids AND a sick and jet lagged mommy. Boy was that not something I want to do again. It just makes me more nervous to fly home and have Lilly go back to school on top of it all.

I'm happy to say we are definitely getting back to normal and it's only taken 3 weeks! Man, traveling with kids is tough. I was able to take some photos of the girls at the playground the other day. They were so excited to run around and play. Hopefully we'll be able to through some more fun things in the mix now that they're feeling better!

-K

Way Behind

I know I'm way behind on updating here, but life has been crazy hectic these days. We are now at my Mom's house in Pennsylvania. Along with being very jet lagged, we are now sick too. It has been one crazy thing after another. It started when the alarm went off the morning we left. On our way out the door, Sophie decided to run down the street. Steven went after her and we waited what seemed like forever. Once we got to the terminal we waited even longer. Steven was on a time crunch because he had to be at work that morning so when we said "see you later" we didn't even know if we had seats on the plane. Once we were on the plane I calmed down a lot.
My sister and her boyfriend picked us up in Baltimore and we stayed at her house that night in Delaware. The girls were up around 2am EST and I got them to stay quiet until about 5:30. The sunrise was beautiful and we were all up and dressed so I thought we'd go outside and take some photos because 1) I can't see myself ever getting up and doing a photo shoot at sunrise when I could keep sleeping and 2) I thought it would be best in order to not wake up Cindy and Mike. Needless to say, my plan back fired. We were outside for 5 minutes and Sadie says she needs to go potty. We get to the door and it's still locked. So we had to wake them up anyways.




When we got to Yiayia and Papou's house the girls were so cranky.
Then one night my sister Gabbie wakes up to use the bathroom and it's flooded. Turns out Lilly pulled the stopper in the sink and left the faucet dripping. Water was leaking through lights in the kitchen. Looking back, it's funny now, but at the time it was a huge mess.




Then Ruby wakes up throwing up and with a fever. Yay! Now I'm jet lagged with a sick, cranky, tired baby. She told me her mouth was hurting so Gabbie and I attempt to look at it and we didn't see the all of it nut we did see a big white spot. That's when I decide it's time to take her to the ER. Since we are just visiting here, our only medical option is the ER. It turns out the Ruby has strep throat. It was a pretty quick visit but on our way out of the parking lot, Gabbie calls and says Sadie is sick. Since I hadn't seen her I was hoping it was just Sadie's paranoia, but it wasn't. So the next day I take Sadie to the ER. We were able to see the same doctor as the night before so she was nice enough to give me a prescription for Lilly too, just in case. The next morning, Lilly wakes up throwing up. I'm super glad I asked for her medicine too.



I woke up yesterday sick too but I am feeling much better today. The girls and I spent most of the day sleeping yesterday and today Lilly isn't feeling much better. She has body aches and a headache today and is napping on the couch. Poor kiddo has has a rough week and a half. It's hard being sick but she misses her Daddy so much. She was crying last night because she misses him so much. We all miss him terribly and being sick doesn't help that.
Right now I'm looking forward them finishing the antibiotics and us feeling better. We really want to enjoy our time here and get out of the house. The last week and half has seemed like a lot longer. We're happy to be here with family and in the states but we're still trying to count down the days until Steven gets here. We can't wait until you get to join in our fun! Oh and the girls have had tons of fun playing with their cousin Phia. She is just the funniest little girl with the biggest personality. She has had me laughing everyday since we got here :) She is pretty excited to see "Uncle Tebie" too!