Canada

I know, they're not in date order, but I'm posting pictures!!!!

Having fun in the airport with Aunt Karrie

This is how we entertained her on the plane, I'm pretty sure they are still finding neon stickers on row 7.

Goofing around at the breakfast table with Uncle Steve

This is "Amer" Sydney's best friend during our visit. She would play with, and do just about anything Sydney wanted. She sure missed her when we came home.

The beginnings of a bonfire, and it's the middle of August!!

and an evening of roasted marshmallows

More silliness from these two!

This was the first time she had cheetos and she did anything she was asked in order to get them!

2nd Birthday

Sydney had a bubble birthday this year.

We also had a small birthday get together with my family a few days later.

Sydney with Papa Bill

Sydney and Gram C

As Promised

Well here are the promised pictures, a bit later than planned but let's face it we all knew that's how it would happen.

Here are a few pictures from a trip to the arboretum in October.

Where Do I Even Begin?

To say it's been a long time since I've updated this is a gross understatement! In order to keep my sanity I'm just going to give a brief rundown of the last six months and then hopefully post a few pictures, as long as blogger cooperates with me. :)

Jeremy left for Afghanistan in May right after we got back from our Hawaii trip. It all happened a little quicker than either of us were expecting but such is the life of a military family I'm told. Thank goodness we are only part time, I don't know if my sanity would be in tact if we were full time seeing as I'm such a planner and all. :) There was much more of an adjustment than I was expecting but thankfully my family is close and we spent quite a bit of time with them over the summer. I am also blessed to have good friends that live close who helped to occupy some of the many hours of loneliness of the summer. Netflix and I also became good friends during that time, mostly in the evening after Sydney went to bed. :) I really don't care for silence in the house and the radio only worked for so long.

In August Sydney and I took a very last minute trip to Canada for two weeks. My grandmother passed away unexpectedly and I wanted to be there for her services. It was a very bittersweet trip, Sydney was finally able to meet my "Canadian Family" and that was a lot of fun to see. My Uncle Steve and one of my cousins tried to teach her all sorts of bad habits while we were there, which was nothing less than I expected based on the childhood activities that took place when we visited. These included things like performing tricks such as rolling over and jumping for balls as well as burping and other such activities. Fortunately we have been able to break these habits since coming home.

Jeremy came home at the beginning of September. After a couple of weeks off he went back to work for several days and then we headed to Colorado for a family reunion/anniversary celebration. That was a wonderful trip, catching up with cousins and having all of the little ones together and interacting was great! On this same trip we also exposed Sydney to her first camping experience. It wasn't too bad but I don't think we will try that again for quite some time. Camping isn't my favorite activity anyway and throwing in a toddler that isn't sleeping well in the new environment made for some long days. Maybe one of these days I will learn to enjoy the activity more. But honestly I'm perfectly fine enjoying nature during daylight and staying in a hotel room with private bathrooms and showers, so I'm not going to try that hard. :)

Sydney started Preschool in late August. She looks forward to seeing her teacher and "new friends" each week. I use these days to work from home mostly. We found out that Sydney will have a new little cousin in early June. My sister Karrie, who will have to start a blog soon :), and her husband are expecting their first little one!! They lovingly refer to this little one as Gummy Bear, usually just Gummy for short. It's so cute to hear Sydney talk about Gummy Bear! I pulled out our infant carrier several weeks ago and Sydney sat down in it and told me how that was her car seat. After explaining to her that it was for little babies and that we were going to let Gummy Bear use it for a while she would say "Gummy Bear use my car seat while" every time she would walk past it. I think it's going to be so much fun watching her with the little one!

I think that covers some of the highlights over the past six plus months. Now I have to go be productive. I will try to sort through and post some pictures in the next few days.

Hawaii Pictures

So, blogger is giving me some problems uploading pictures right now but I have posted some on Facebook so you can check them out there!

Happy Hour

We're actually at hour four right now since this took place. I went to Sonic this afternoon as I am still working through some jet lag and needed a little help making it through the afternoon. Every time Sydney asked me for a "dink" I told her that it wasn't good for her and that she didn't need any of mommy's drink. I even told her once or twice that it was "yucky" which usually keeps her from wanting to try something. As soon as I was far enough away though she ran straight for it and decided that she really liked it. That was at 3:30 this afternoon so we're going to see how long the caffeine affects this little girl before she gets to sleep tonight.



She's currently laying in bed singing to herself.

Lots of Catching UpTo Do

A lot has happened in our lives since my last post. I survived two weeks of being a single mom while Jeremy was away training with the Air Force. I don't have a clue how full time single moms do it. I was only working part time and had a lot of help from friends and family while he was away and I was completely worn out by the end of week one. Thanks to my dear sister and a wonderful friend I had a wonderful evening out at the end of week one and started week two off feeling great! It turns out that was just a practice run for me as Jeremy is being deployed in mid June for at least two months. It's a good thing my parents have several spare bedrooms!! We'll be visiting them A LOT.

On the 15th, the day after Jeremy got back from his training, he graduated with his masters degree from SMU!!!! And he did it with a 3.98 GPA, I'm really proud of him and all the hard work he put in to complete this! I'm not sure who's more excited about the completion of this degree, myself or Jeremy. I made him promise that he wouldn't start thinking about going back to school again for at least a year.

Two days after his graduation we left for our trip to Hawaii. We had a great time and came back extremely relaxed! Tuesday is going to be a very rough day for both of us!! I'll do a picture post on Hawaii later. Maybe I'll do it tonight as I'm still operating on Hawaii time(which explains why I'm hungry right now).

Our Not So Little Girl

Sydney has started talking like crazy at home. She's still a little shy in public and when she's around people she's not familiar with but overall she is just a little talking machine. Just this week she starting using a few two word "sentences" like baba eess(banana please) and it dow(sit down). She uses the previous statement every time she wants her shoes on, which is every waking moment. I'm not sure when my shoe fetish began, but I'm pretty sure I was a few years older than this little girl is. I dread the day when we have to go into a shoe store together!


A few months after Sydney started walking, which was WAY too early, we taught her where her clothes went when she was getting ready for her bath. She's done a great job of continuing to put her clothes(and other things, such as her shoes and hair bows) in the hamper. Some days when I'm folding laundry if I don't get it folded and put away quickly enough Sydney feels the need to assist me with the process. When I make it back into the living room, after completing what ever task it was that distracted me from finishing the laundry in the first place, my folded stacks of clean clothes will by smaller than they were when I initially became distracted. Then Sydney will appear from her room with a proud look on her little face because she just helped mommy with the laundry. She helps me by taking her clean folded clothing and puts it into her laundry hamper. I guess we didn't make it clear that only clothes you've been wearing go in the hamper. :) It's now a running joke in our house that whenever something goes missing we tell the person to check Sydney's hamper. We have found several missing items this way, however.

Here are a few pictures from an early Easter celebration. It turned out to be a good thing that we celebrated with family early because Sydney got her first ear infection Easter weekend and we spent the next several days at home due to the fairly consistent clingyness and crying that were taking place.

Thank You Eesus

I am constantly amazed at the things I see Sydney do. Sometime it's things she's been doing for months and other times it's a first time event. When we sit down and eat dinner as a family, which is not as often as I would like but it still happens several times a week, we always hold hands and pray before we begin the meal. Several nights ago Jeremy and I were completely distracted by a conversation we were having, I don't even remember anymore what it was about, and we started eating without praying. A few bites into the meal Sydney started to reach for Jeremy and my hands. I can't even tell you what this simple action did to me, I had to work at holding back the tears.

After she had both of our hands in hers we told her we were going to thank Jesus. She then said thank you(through sing language) eesus(Jesus). What a lesson our little girl taught us that night. There is nothing that should be so distracting that we forget to thank our Heavenly Father for all the many blessings he has given us. And how humbling to have one of the greatest blessings He's given us remind us that we need to give him thanks.

Muffin?

A friend of mine posted this on her blog several days ago and I couldn't resist passing it along. I read this and could not stop picturing my days.

If You Give A Mom A Muffin

If you give a mom a muffin,

she’ll want a cup of coffee to go with it.

She’ll pour herself some.

Her three year old will spill the coffee.

She’ll wipe it up.

Wiping it up she’ll find dirty socks.

She’ll remember she has to do laundry.

When she puts the laundry in the washer,

she’ll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.

Bumping into the freezer will remind her

she has to plan for supper.

She will get out a pound of hamburger.

She’ll look for her cookbook.

The cookbook is setting under a pile of mail.

She will see the phone bill which is due tomorrow.

She will look for her checkbook.

The checkbook is in her purse

that is being dumped out by her two year old.

She’ll smell something funny.

She’ll change the two year old’s diaper.

While she is changing the diaper the phone will ring.

Her five year old will answer and hang up.

She’ll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.

Thinking of coffee will remind her

that she was going to have a cup.

And chances are… if she has a cup of coffee

her kids will have eaten the muffin that goes with it.

– author unknown

I guess I really didn't have much hope, as this was my life before I ever became a mom. I don't know where I'll be when I have more than one because a typical day for me is about twice this crazy.

Sliding

This is Sydney's current favorite activity, whether here at home or at the park. Even after falling off, she still loves this little slide! Hopefully this will continue to be as entertaining throughout the summer.

A Sleepover

Sydney had her first sleepover a few weekends ago so I thought I should officially document it. Her friend Claire came over a stayed the night with us. You can't tell by the pictures but Claire is actually a couple months older than Sydney. I think she's going to end up getting her height from daddy, as she got her eyelashes from him.

Sydney just woke up from a nap. Poor girl and her curly frizzy hair, it's absolutely impossible to control especially after she's slept on it.

I think both of them were equally unsure of the other. It didn't help that they kept getting their sippie cups mixed up either. :)
Eating dinner. Sydney had to try everything Claire had and she really wanted Claire to try everything she had.
Ready for bed, such happy girls!! No junk food was consumed, no whining when it was time to go to bed, and due to the time change they both slept till almost 9am(yes, we were late for church). I think this will turn out to be the easiest sleepover this household will ever see.