Flower

Just testing the size of the photo! But it is a beautiful flower :)
And I am thinking about redesigning the blog all over again. I know, I'm never happy enough with the way it looks! But it's a good thing I'm feeling creative today. I have a bunch of post in my head right now and I need to get them written down.

Sleeping Baby

Ruby fell asleep on the couch a few days ago. That is a rarity. She didn't nap for weeks when she was transitioning from 2 naps a day to 1. Her body was just confused. Week after exhausting week I prayed she'd just sleep for a little bit so I could just think straight and form complete, understandable sentences.

Then one day, Lilly was sick and stayed home from school, and it just happened to be on one of Steven's days off. So we all climbed into our bed and watched Harry Potter. Steven just couldn't keep his eyes opened and fell asleep. Not long after, Ruby fell asleep. I mean really fell asleep and stayed asleep for a couple of hours. The next day she fell asleep again with Steven. And she did it the next day, and the next day, and the next day! She would only take a nap with Daddy and she fell asleep within 10 minutes.

Occasionally she will fall asleep downstairs when she isn't feeling good or she is really exhausted. The kiddo is just crazy. She is into everything, climbs, on everything, and plays with everything she can get her hands on. She is much more than a "handful". She is more of a handful than Lilly and Sadie combined. Everyday she is looking more and more like a little girl and not a baby. But just for a few moments in her sleeping on the couch, she looked like my baby again. So I grabbed my camera and just kept shooting. Before you or I know it, she'll be starting school, and I don't think I am ready for that at all.



To see more check out my photography blog!



-k

It's that time again...

for packing, packing, and more packing! We're excited to be going back to Pennsylvania, but sad that Daddy is staying here. Poor Lilly was on the verge of tears yesterday when she was telling me how much she is going to miss him. I had to change the subject quick. Our sweet girl has such a big heart. We are so happy and excited to be with family but we are really going to miss Steven.



In the meantime we have tried to spend every possible second together that we can. We took the girls to lunch and bowling and some time at a favorite playground. The girls picked out some goodies for their cousin Fifi out in the Alley and we had ice cream sundaes for dinner. The girls thought they should be called "Ice Cream Saturday's" because it was Saturday not Sunday, ha!
Steven went back to work on Sunday night, so I have been doing load after load of laundry and then packing. The girls are about 97% packed and I started on my clothes today. There isn't much left. Just waiting on prescriptions to be refilled and a trip to the commissary for snacks and pullups.



Sadie has been telling me all day that there's only this many more sleeps. I keep telling her to be patient, we'll be there soon enough!

-K

What do the litte girls do while Lilly is at school?

They like to play dress up, make silly faces, tell me when to take a picture, and play together. Ruby has started to put her finger onto her cheek and squeal "Cheeeesssse!!". She does this whenever she wants me to take a photo of her. She's pretty cute when she does it and she'll usually stand on the coffee table for the picture. They miss Lilly a lot when she's not with us so I think they will be really excited for summer vacation.







-k

Big News, BIG NEWS!

We have a new member of our family. Her name is Sophie and she's a 2 year old bichon frise. She is the sweetest little thing and the girls adore her. They have wanted a small dog for a very long time. We had 2 other dogs before her and things did not work out well with them and part of the reason was the dogs were bigger than our kids. All 3 girls are very petite. They have grown a LOT over the past year but they are still the smallest compared to other kids their age. Bigger dogs are intimidating and can easily push them out of the way. Sophie is just a perfect fit for us. She is sweet, gentle, well behaved, and cute too! We are thrilled to have her join our family.

We also got some more big news this weekend. We received our next assignment.

 We are headed to Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan! We are so excited to go there and make it our home. The girls are ecstatic. Lilly has learned that all of the kids in her class are military kids too and they all go through the same process of packing up and moving. Sadie and Lilly both remember the physical process of moving- packing up the house, getting on an airplane, staying in hotels, getting a new house, and then wait and wait some more for our belongings to catch up to us- and are excited to see where this next chapter brings us. At school when someone moves they will tell the class where they are moving to and try to "prepare" them for the changes. Lilly remembers where all her friends that have gone so she is hoping that she sees them again. I know, I know. Most of you are saying explain to her that there's a good chance she won't see them. But, there is a little boy in her class here that was in her nursery school class in England. They remembered each other when he moved here and have enjoyed that.
Sadie is thrilled because there is a Disneyland in Tokyo, ha! She likes looking at the photos of our trip in Disneyland Paris in 2007 when I was pregnant with her. She wants to see all her favorite characters, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy. That is a big one on our list to do there. Either way we are excited :) I will try and keep this blog up to date on all the different parts of PCSing to the other side of the world!

-k

The Other Playground

Here is the rest of the photos from last Saturday. This playground is in the middle of some older housing in our neighborhood. We like it because it has stuff for everyone, a LARGE playground structure, a small structure for Ruby, swings, and a couple of merry-go-rounds. It also is pretty shady so it's really nice to go to and let the kiddos blow off some energy. The girls rode their bikes and there was even a little girl there that Lilly knew from school. There really aren't many pictures of Lilly because she was running all over the place.  Seriously, she was everywhere. So you won't see many of her. But here are some of this part of the day.










Check out so more here, Fleur De Lis Photographie.

-k

A Saturday Off?

Steven has been on normal day shift schedule for the past week or so. What I mean by that is 8 hour shifts with Saturday and Sunday off. I seriously cannot even remember the last Saturday he had off. And on nights, his first day off he would sleep half of the day so we wouldn't see him. This past Saturday he had off and had gone to sleep normally on Friday, so when the girls woke up and he was waking up too they started getting excited. Lilly figured out that she was going to get to share breakfast, lunch, and dinner with him. She and Sadie were giggling because they were so excited. It was so cute to see them that excited over something as simple as sharing meals together.



Since we're pretty early risers, we took advantage of the day. We ate breakfast, got dressed, and headed out. The girls got on their bikes, Ruby in the stroller, and we headed for a playground. We got there and the girls parked their bikes and headed on to play. There were flowers there to pick, a giant playground, and they were able to ride their bikes around it. Ruby felt left out because she couldn't take her bike and helmet so she borrowed Lilly's helmet to play in. And yes, Lilly's helmet did fit her. Sadie and Ruby have big heads- Thanks Steven!- and Lilly's head, even though she's older and taller, is the smallest of the three.



What I love about these days is that I take my camera and just photograph whatever I can. The girls will occasionally break from playing for a little while and let me take a few photos while they rest. After they excitement form the playground wore off we packed up, got on bikes, and headed to find another playground. We found another playground and gazebo and played there for awhile then headed home for a much needed potty break. The girls were beat so we headed out for lunch and then back home so Ruby could nap. And when she woke up we headed to another, you guessed it, playground! But since Ruby is about to wake up from her nap and we have to get Lilly from school, I'll save it for another time.




And for even more photos, check out my other blog, Fleur De Lis Photographie.

-k

Oh and I am making it a priority for Steven and I to take more pictures together and to try and get some more family ones, you'll see more and more photos of us. And Steven hates it!