Friday, February 4, 2011
Fun Filled San Diego Weekend!
So excited to take our little mini vacation this weekend. We are leaving for San Diego in approximately 3 hours(Not that I am counting down). I can't wait to get on the road and finally be there. We used to live there and it is one of my favorite places in California. We are going to stay at the Navy Lodge on North Island which is right on the ocean and right down the street from the Brigantine. I can't wait for Happy hour on the patio with grilled Fish Tacos and chips, salsa and Jalapeno cream sauce..YUM! Then walks on the beach by the Hotel Del Coranado. Tomorrow we are going to take the kids to Sea World..Another favorite of mine. I am pretty sure I am more excited than the kids are..lol. I can't wait to go and see all the shows and ride on the gondola over the water, eat the wonderful food and just enjoy this weekend with my family. We rarely do things like this so I just can't wait! I will post pictures when we get back! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Montana Trip
Cousin and Besties for life:)
My Superstar niece Olivia playing basketball..So excited we got to see her play!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Playing Catch up
Ok so looks like the last real post I did was December of last year..wow that was a long time ago and so much has happend since then. I don't even know if I can remember it all..lol. So lets see...Starting with December last year. Mark went to Montana with a couple of friends to do some hunting. The initial plan was for the kids and I to meet him there after Christmas because Ashlyn was having some anxiety issues about traveling to Montana. It ended up that he drove home and surprised us so we could spend Christmas together and I wouldn't have to drive all that way by myself. So we had a great Christmas and ended up leaving a day early in attempt to surprise my parents. Boy did we ever:) As we were driving down their street I called my mom to see what she was doing, she thought we were still in Utah. As she is on the phone with me she says..I wonder who is pulling in my driveway..it's a white vehicle. So I was like well you better go find out..She looked out the window as we were getting out of the car and I could see the tears from outside. She was so excited but tried to be mad at me for fibbing to her..lol.
Our time at home was amazing and as always way to short. We got to see lots of friends and family and it was wonderful. January must have been uneventful becuause I don't really remember any significant moments. February was my birthday month and of course Mark would have to be gone on FEX. We ended up going to dinner the weekend before and that was fine. I swear every year something is happening over my bday or he is deployed. March was Mark and Ashlyn's bday month. My baby girl turned 9 and I could hardly believe it. She had a skating party and got a ton of Taylor Swift stuff just like she wanted. At the end of the month Mark deployed for the second time in a year to Afghanistan. Man we were not ready for that. Being a military wife you tell yourself you are ready for it and you prepare yourself but when the day comes all that preperations goes out the window. Takes me a couple of days to get out of my funk and then I get back on track. I can't afford to let it get me down..I have two kids that need me more than ever while their daddy is away. Ashlyn had an especially hard time this deployment. She was way more emotional and worried a lot about her daddy. It helped that he called often and was able to talk with them. It usually worked out that he called around their bed time so that was nice. Over the summer the kids and I went to Montana for about 10 days and it was so nice to be home while it was warm! We did lots of fun things outside. My friend Melanie flew from Missouri and drove with us so it was fun to get to show her around Montana and have her meet some of my long time friends. We took her day camping and she drove a quad for the first time ever! I think she had a good time and we sure enjoyed having her. We were home for the 4th of July so it was fun for the kids to be able to light fireworks and my Dad loved having a firework show just for them:) We brought my neice back with us and she got to stay a little over two weeks. I LOVED having her here. I don't get to see them often enough and she is growing up so fast. I am hoping it will be an every summer event. Shortly after my neice went home Mark found a truck that he wanted to buy which was of course in Montana. So I packed up the kids and their BFF Regan and we drove the truck he had to Montana to trade it in for the new one. It was a whirlwind trip that we made in 5 days. We did manage to get some fun times in there, including playing on a real homemade Montana waterslide. It was pretty awesome! We brought my mom back with us that trip and she stayed for about 10 days. It never seems long enough. I love having her around and the kids adore the time they spend with grandma. August brought a visit from one of my bestest girlfriends Melissa and the beginning of School. It was so fun having Melissa and her girls here to visit. We were able to have a couple girls night out while she was here and that was much needed:) In the middle of August the kids started school and I am still in awe that I have a 4th and 2nd grader. Where does the time go..I feel like only yesterday Ashlyn was in preschool. The kids both got wonderful teachers and were happy. Matthew broke his wrist the 3rd week of school after flipping backwards off the swing. He was so brave and hardly cried at all. He thought it was pretty cool when he saw his X-Rays and even better when they put his black cast on. The coolness of the cast wore off real quick as he could get in the water at the beach or shower by himself. September was Matty's bday month and he had a party at the house. He is into Motorcycles so I painted and decorated his room. It turned out WAY better than I could have ever expected. He was soo excited. He had a great birthday with great friends and as always way too many new toys..lol. October brought parent/teacher conference, a trip to the Allergist and Halloween. Turns out Ashlyn was chosen to participate in Gifted and Talented program (GATE) at school. She was way excited and we are so proud of her. She is doing so well with school this year and continues to amaze me everyday. Matty had a slow start with school but I partically blame the teachers. There was no communication to me that he was having issues and once the commication started he immediately improved and is now above and beyond where they want him to be. I may have gotten really upset and yelled at the teacher..I have realized that I have a short fuse sometimes when I deal with frustrating issues. After finally getting fed up with Navy medical I took Ashlyn to an allergist out in town where we discovered she is allergic to pretty much everything. I am glad we found out but feel bad that she went this long before we knew about it. We love her new doctor and he is getting her Asthma under control, Finally. The kids had a blast on Halloween. I had a pretty kitty and a werewolf. It was a beautiful day in Southern California as we walked around base housing to trick or treat. November brought Daddy home and Thanksgiving. Man it was a long deployment and we were so happy when he got home. He of course was on the last flight to come home. I like to think of it as they save the best for last...it was hard seeing all my friends with their husbands as I still waited for Mark to come home. I had planned for Mark's cousin to come and take pictures of the homecoming but just my luck he flew in at 10:00 PM and it was foggy and raining. So needless to say she wasn't able to take them. One of my bestest friends ended up taking some pictures for me instead. They turned out great. We had a funfilled Thanksgiving at ours friend's The Lees'. It has kind of been our Thanksgiving tradition the past couple years and it will be very sad when they transfer. Maybe we will have to fly to them for Thanksgiving:) December of course brought Christmas. We packed the truck, the kids, the dogs and went home to Montana for just over two weeks. Man it was so nice to spend that much time at home. Usually we are trying to cram the drive and spending time with family into one week or 10 days if we are lucky. So it was nice that we didn't have to rush. We stopped at my brother Jason's house on the way to my parents and I was able to watch my superstar niece play basketball. I was so excited and I think she was too. It was fun having the dogs with us to see what they would do in the snow. They LOVED it when it wasn't too cold outside. Mark did a lot of duck hunting and some Bow hunting with the bow I got him for Christmas. He got one deer that we cut up and brought home with us. We were able to see quite a few of our friends from High School which is always fun. We took the kids sledding with our friend Lindsay and her family. We had a blast. Brought the dogs too and they loved exploring the Mountains. I was able to take Ashlyn ice skating one day when Mark had Matthew out duck hunting. She picked it up like a pro. I swear that girl can do anything she puts her mind to:) We had a great time on Christmas and the kids got pretty much everything they asked for. I love being able to get them exactly what they want. We had dinner with Mark's brother, his family and his sister one night. That was so much fun. I love hanging out with them and love to see Ashlyn and Matthew playing with their cousin Landyn. Matt and Chanel are expecting another little boy and I can't wait to meet him! New Years Eve we spent at our friend Alix's house. She threw a fabulous party and it was a good time had by all. We started our trek home on the 3rd of January and hit some horrible weather when we got into California. I know crazy right, good roads through Montana, Idaho and Utah. Then we get into California at 3 in the morning and hit snow packed and icy roads. It was not a fun 3 hours in bumper to bumper traffic. We got home around 730am on the 4th. It was back to work for me on Tuesday, the kids on Wednesday and Mark went back to work on Thursday. It was hard to come back to the reality of everyday life. Well I think I have it all caught up to now. I will try to do better at updating my blog more often. I am going to post another blog of our last year in pictures. It will kind of go with this blog.
Our time at home was amazing and as always way to short. We got to see lots of friends and family and it was wonderful. January must have been uneventful becuause I don't really remember any significant moments. February was my birthday month and of course Mark would have to be gone on FEX. We ended up going to dinner the weekend before and that was fine. I swear every year something is happening over my bday or he is deployed. March was Mark and Ashlyn's bday month. My baby girl turned 9 and I could hardly believe it. She had a skating party and got a ton of Taylor Swift stuff just like she wanted. At the end of the month Mark deployed for the second time in a year to Afghanistan. Man we were not ready for that. Being a military wife you tell yourself you are ready for it and you prepare yourself but when the day comes all that preperations goes out the window. Takes me a couple of days to get out of my funk and then I get back on track. I can't afford to let it get me down..I have two kids that need me more than ever while their daddy is away. Ashlyn had an especially hard time this deployment. She was way more emotional and worried a lot about her daddy. It helped that he called often and was able to talk with them. It usually worked out that he called around their bed time so that was nice. Over the summer the kids and I went to Montana for about 10 days and it was so nice to be home while it was warm! We did lots of fun things outside. My friend Melanie flew from Missouri and drove with us so it was fun to get to show her around Montana and have her meet some of my long time friends. We took her day camping and she drove a quad for the first time ever! I think she had a good time and we sure enjoyed having her. We were home for the 4th of July so it was fun for the kids to be able to light fireworks and my Dad loved having a firework show just for them:) We brought my neice back with us and she got to stay a little over two weeks. I LOVED having her here. I don't get to see them often enough and she is growing up so fast. I am hoping it will be an every summer event. Shortly after my neice went home Mark found a truck that he wanted to buy which was of course in Montana. So I packed up the kids and their BFF Regan and we drove the truck he had to Montana to trade it in for the new one. It was a whirlwind trip that we made in 5 days. We did manage to get some fun times in there, including playing on a real homemade Montana waterslide. It was pretty awesome! We brought my mom back with us that trip and she stayed for about 10 days. It never seems long enough. I love having her around and the kids adore the time they spend with grandma. August brought a visit from one of my bestest girlfriends Melissa and the beginning of School. It was so fun having Melissa and her girls here to visit. We were able to have a couple girls night out while she was here and that was much needed:) In the middle of August the kids started school and I am still in awe that I have a 4th and 2nd grader. Where does the time go..I feel like only yesterday Ashlyn was in preschool. The kids both got wonderful teachers and were happy. Matthew broke his wrist the 3rd week of school after flipping backwards off the swing. He was so brave and hardly cried at all. He thought it was pretty cool when he saw his X-Rays and even better when they put his black cast on. The coolness of the cast wore off real quick as he could get in the water at the beach or shower by himself. September was Matty's bday month and he had a party at the house. He is into Motorcycles so I painted and decorated his room. It turned out WAY better than I could have ever expected. He was soo excited. He had a great birthday with great friends and as always way too many new toys..lol. October brought parent/teacher conference, a trip to the Allergist and Halloween. Turns out Ashlyn was chosen to participate in Gifted and Talented program (GATE) at school. She was way excited and we are so proud of her. She is doing so well with school this year and continues to amaze me everyday. Matty had a slow start with school but I partically blame the teachers. There was no communication to me that he was having issues and once the commication started he immediately improved and is now above and beyond where they want him to be. I may have gotten really upset and yelled at the teacher..I have realized that I have a short fuse sometimes when I deal with frustrating issues. After finally getting fed up with Navy medical I took Ashlyn to an allergist out in town where we discovered she is allergic to pretty much everything. I am glad we found out but feel bad that she went this long before we knew about it. We love her new doctor and he is getting her Asthma under control, Finally. The kids had a blast on Halloween. I had a pretty kitty and a werewolf. It was a beautiful day in Southern California as we walked around base housing to trick or treat. November brought Daddy home and Thanksgiving. Man it was a long deployment and we were so happy when he got home. He of course was on the last flight to come home. I like to think of it as they save the best for last...it was hard seeing all my friends with their husbands as I still waited for Mark to come home. I had planned for Mark's cousin to come and take pictures of the homecoming but just my luck he flew in at 10:00 PM and it was foggy and raining. So needless to say she wasn't able to take them. One of my bestest friends ended up taking some pictures for me instead. They turned out great. We had a funfilled Thanksgiving at ours friend's The Lees'. It has kind of been our Thanksgiving tradition the past couple years and it will be very sad when they transfer. Maybe we will have to fly to them for Thanksgiving:) December of course brought Christmas. We packed the truck, the kids, the dogs and went home to Montana for just over two weeks. Man it was so nice to spend that much time at home. Usually we are trying to cram the drive and spending time with family into one week or 10 days if we are lucky. So it was nice that we didn't have to rush. We stopped at my brother Jason's house on the way to my parents and I was able to watch my superstar niece play basketball. I was so excited and I think she was too. It was fun having the dogs with us to see what they would do in the snow. They LOVED it when it wasn't too cold outside. Mark did a lot of duck hunting and some Bow hunting with the bow I got him for Christmas. He got one deer that we cut up and brought home with us. We were able to see quite a few of our friends from High School which is always fun. We took the kids sledding with our friend Lindsay and her family. We had a blast. Brought the dogs too and they loved exploring the Mountains. I was able to take Ashlyn ice skating one day when Mark had Matthew out duck hunting. She picked it up like a pro. I swear that girl can do anything she puts her mind to:) We had a great time on Christmas and the kids got pretty much everything they asked for. I love being able to get them exactly what they want. We had dinner with Mark's brother, his family and his sister one night. That was so much fun. I love hanging out with them and love to see Ashlyn and Matthew playing with their cousin Landyn. Matt and Chanel are expecting another little boy and I can't wait to meet him! New Years Eve we spent at our friend Alix's house. She threw a fabulous party and it was a good time had by all. We started our trek home on the 3rd of January and hit some horrible weather when we got into California. I know crazy right, good roads through Montana, Idaho and Utah. Then we get into California at 3 in the morning and hit snow packed and icy roads. It was not a fun 3 hours in bumper to bumper traffic. We got home around 730am on the 4th. It was back to work for me on Tuesday, the kids on Wednesday and Mark went back to work on Thursday. It was hard to come back to the reality of everyday life. Well I think I have it all caught up to now. I will try to do better at updating my blog more often. I am going to post another blog of our last year in pictures. It will kind of go with this blog.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Its been awhile...a long while
So I have recently decided that I want to start using my blog again. I realize it has been over a year since I have last posted so I have a lot to catch up on. I will be doing that in the next post..lol. I just wanted to put it out there that I was getting back into this whole blog thing. I'm not so great at it(obviously) so bare with me. I will try to get better with every post:)
Friday, May 1, 2009
I know it's been awhile
I am so not good at this whole blogging thing. I started out really well and then nothing. So lets see I left off before we went to Montana for Christmas. So much has happened since then. We had a wonderful time in Montana and got to see all of our family. Both Mark's and mine. It was great to be with everyone. We rarely all get together so it was great. We came back just after New Years and it was the count down to Mark deploying. So did as much as possible with the kids in the time we had before he had to leave. We added a new puppy to our family on Valentines day. It was Mark's present from the kids and I. He has been wanting a hunting dog for so long now. I finally gave in. Our yellow lab is named Daisy and she is so sweet. Her and Harley get a long so well. They keep each other company during the day. I swear I feel like I have 4 kids sometimes...lol. Mark left for Deployment the last week in February. Every deployment is different but this one seems harder than most. We are getting by just fine though. Staying as busy as we can and the time has been going by pretty quickly. I get to talk to Mark most everyday and thats helps to hear his voice. The kids love it when they get to talk to him. Ashlyn is having a harder time this deployment than Matthew. We are almost to the halfway point so that is good. I am expecting some visitors soon and I am sooo exicted. My BFF Dana Day gets here on the 9th for a week. Then My brother Jason and his family will be here on the 30th of May for 10 days and after that my parents get here on the 17th of June for a week. I do have times available in July if anyone would like to come and visit..lol. It will be so nice having everyone here. It breaks up my time and makes the months go by faster. Then Mark will be home sometime in August..woohoo!
Matthew will be starting basketball in June and Mark is so excited that he has taken a liking to it. Now he just has to work football and golf into the mix..lol. Depending on when Mark gets home he might get to catch one of Matty's games which would be awesome. Ashlyn will soon be taking a hip hop dance class once a week. If you know my daughter you know her love to dance. She is so funny. She makes up her own moves so I thought it would be fun for her to be in a class. Anyway, I think I have roughly caught you up to speed on where we are. I will add some new pictures and try and stay on top of posting new stuff.
Matthew will be starting basketball in June and Mark is so excited that he has taken a liking to it. Now he just has to work football and golf into the mix..lol. Depending on when Mark gets home he might get to catch one of Matty's games which would be awesome. Ashlyn will soon be taking a hip hop dance class once a week. If you know my daughter you know her love to dance. She is so funny. She makes up her own moves so I thought it would be fun for her to be in a class. Anyway, I think I have roughly caught you up to speed on where we are. I will add some new pictures and try and stay on top of posting new stuff.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Heading Home for Christmas!
Well we are headed home today. I have been checking road conditions on the internet since yesterday and things aren't looking too great. The one interstate that leads us up through Idaho is closed in two different spots already. I really didn't think we would have to worry about bad roads until we got into Utah. Apparently Las Vegas got like 3 inches of snow. So it should be an interesting trip. Keep your fingers crossed for us as we travel home. Not sure if I will be able to update this while I am in Montana but if not I will sure have a lot to talk about when I get home:) I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Be safe!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
I'm new to this...
Ok I am new to this so everyone bare with me. I have decided to do this because I enjoying reading a few of my friends blogs and decided that it is a good way to let everyone know what is going on with us. I will add pictures and all that soon I promise. For now I will just catch you up on the things that have been going on with us this year.
Where do I start..Mark was deployed for the first part of this year. He was in Guam from December of last year until June of this year. The kids and I were so happy when he came home. We were lucky enough to have my brother Jason and his family come and visit in March and then we made a short trip to Montana in June for my Gran's memorial service. While we were in Montana we picked up the new addition to our family. Our English Bulldog Harley. She is truely a joy. We just love her and she amazes us everyday. Mark got home about mid June and we were on the go a few days later. He was playing softball and we were taking the kids to do all kinds of fun stuff. We were suppose to go to our 10 year class reunion in July but were unable to make it. Mark had two strokes in July. One was small and the other was more severe. He recovered fine with little or no side affects. He was very lucky. Since then we have re-vamped his diet, added some meds and so far things have been fine. We are very blessed. Matthew started Kindergarten this year and loves it. Ashlyn is now in Second Grade. I have no idea where the time goes. Thanksgiving was a quiet one at home with one of our close friends. We were really missing family this year. The kids have both loved all the festivites going on for Christmas. Everyone in our neighborhood has put up their lights. Last weekend at the winter wonderland they "made" some snow and the kids got to play in it. It was so fun to watch them with all the other kids who are not accustomed to snow. We are soon heading to Montana for Christmas and we are so excited. This will be the first time our family has been home for Christmas as a family since Mark and I have been married. Mark was either deployed or we stayed in California. So it should be pretty fun, although I hear the weather is pretty chilly. Anyway, sorry so long and I will update soon. Happy Holidays to everyone!
Where do I start..Mark was deployed for the first part of this year. He was in Guam from December of last year until June of this year. The kids and I were so happy when he came home. We were lucky enough to have my brother Jason and his family come and visit in March and then we made a short trip to Montana in June for my Gran's memorial service. While we were in Montana we picked up the new addition to our family. Our English Bulldog Harley. She is truely a joy. We just love her and she amazes us everyday. Mark got home about mid June and we were on the go a few days later. He was playing softball and we were taking the kids to do all kinds of fun stuff. We were suppose to go to our 10 year class reunion in July but were unable to make it. Mark had two strokes in July. One was small and the other was more severe. He recovered fine with little or no side affects. He was very lucky. Since then we have re-vamped his diet, added some meds and so far things have been fine. We are very blessed. Matthew started Kindergarten this year and loves it. Ashlyn is now in Second Grade. I have no idea where the time goes. Thanksgiving was a quiet one at home with one of our close friends. We were really missing family this year. The kids have both loved all the festivites going on for Christmas. Everyone in our neighborhood has put up their lights. Last weekend at the winter wonderland they "made" some snow and the kids got to play in it. It was so fun to watch them with all the other kids who are not accustomed to snow. We are soon heading to Montana for Christmas and we are so excited. This will be the first time our family has been home for Christmas as a family since Mark and I have been married. Mark was either deployed or we stayed in California. So it should be pretty fun, although I hear the weather is pretty chilly. Anyway, sorry so long and I will update soon. Happy Holidays to everyone!
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