Just Couldn't Stay Away

Just 1 post down it says I've left, and now here I am posting that I'm back. I'm back to my family blog. I miss blogging about my family, about my everyday adventures. I do not miss blogging about reviews and giveaways. Too stressful. I have way too much going on to worry about the next product to post about. I just want to blog about the stresses of having a new dog. The aggravation of having 2 kids still in diapers. I want to be able to post a couple cute pictures of my kids every now and then. So I've decided to nix the old fancy shmancy blog, and just post here. Where it all started. I like it here. I miss it here.

So what has been going on? This past summer, Rich deployed for 6 months. He left right before Josslyn's first birthday and returned right before Jacob's 3rd. Being without my better half for six loooong months was difficult but something I think we both needed. I know I did. I learned so much about myself. I learned that I could be a single parent, though I hope I never have to be, LOL.

Justyn started the 1st grade, lost 2 teeth, and learned how to give me attitude and roll his eyes. Yaaaaay!

Jacob started to talk more, eat less (didn't think that was even possible), and started to love his sister. Notice there wasn't anything about using the potty? Yea, that's because he won't.

Josslyn learned to walk, then run, then climb, the terrorize, all while eating everything in sight.

We spent a lot of time at the beach. What's the point of living in Florida if you aren't going to soak up the sun?!

Rich got home right before Thanksgiving. We had a lovely dinner at home, together, as a family.

Shortly after Rich's return he and I went to Georgia sans children and stayed in the most beautiful cabin. It was glorious, and a little scary. I couldn't imagine living in the mountains anymore. Those driveways are horrific.

We got a new puppy for the kids. She is (we think) a border collie/lab mix. She's so cute and soooo aggravating. The kids love her, but I am having a hard time with her chewing stuff. We are going to have to get wood flooring in our house because she's tracking dirt and mud on our carpet every time she comes in the house. Despite all the doggy chew toys she still feels the need to chew EVERYTHING. She is also unaware of her size and strength and how little my children are. She tries to jump on Josslyn and Jacob and knocks them down. I am thinking we may have to give her to another family that has the tolerance, because I clearly do not.

So that has been what's going on in our little family. I don't want to spill too much right now, because then what would I have to blog about? :0)

Here We Go Again...

Rich is deploying for 6 months starting in June. I try not to be too sad about it because I knew what I was in store for when we got married. I am sad for the kids though. What will Jacob do without his daddy for six whole months?! You have never met a bigger daddy's boy, that's for sure. He will miss Josslyn's first birthday, but he will be home for Christmas. At least Justyn and Rich will still be able to keep their Tuesday & Thursday reading nights via web cam. I love technology. I am definitely not looking forward to being a single mom, again. Blah!

I've been getting better with the Photoshop stuff. It's hard self teaching, LOL. Thank the Lord for Youtube!

Here are some recent pics.

Check out her little ruffle bum! I love girlie girl outfits. I'll be stocking up on outfits that this, that's for sure!

The spouse and me. The only time he smiles big is when he's on his bike. HATER! Pay no attention to me. I'm beefy.

Pinky Dinky Who?

My kids love watching Pinky Dinky Do and I have to tell ya...that is one entertaining cartoon, LOL. Here I sit on the sofa trying to catch up on my bloggy good reads when I catch myself watching Pinky's great big idea. Makes me feel like a kid again. Oh how I'd love to be a kid again.

I've been in such a blog funk lately. I feel like I can't get anything done anymore. Josslyn is crawling and getting into everything. Jacob is killing me with his two year old attitude which is only made worse by Justyn's crappy tude.

I did a photo session last weekend. I was super nervous and I did a horrible job. My timing was totally off. I wanted to start when the sun was going down but ended up starting an hour too early. Totally my fault. I should have stayed longer and got the shots I needed to get but Rich, not realizing I had planned to do the session that weekend, had surprised me with tickets to see Dane Cook so I had to get going in order to make it there in time. Makes me feel like maybe being a photographer isn't my fortay. I'm so critical of myself but even Rich said I should redo the pictures. Isn't he sweet?!

My ILs were just in town. We had a blast with them here, even though it was just a short visit. This coming weekend we have friends coming in town. I'm excited. I love good times with good people.

Anyway, that was my update for ya. I know you have all been dying for one! ;-P

Here are some pictures of my lil baby girl. My she has grown. I'm ever so sad about it.

Happy Flippin' New Year!

UGH, The past week and a half has been HELL! Everyone in this house was sick, though Josslyn didn't get it too bad. I thought I was going to die. I've never used the bathroom so much in my life! We are finally all better as of today and all this started New Years Day. So that is where I have been. Busy as hell and sick. I hope to jump back into blogging now that I can sit at the computer longer than 5 minutes without going poo.

Florida Life

Well it's been 2 weeks since we began our lives in sunny Florida, and I know you are all wondering how it's going. Well...it's going, GREAT! I am really loving our new home. We are going to the pool almost daily as a family. The kids are so happy to have so much "daddy time" with Rich.

Justyn has been doing wonderful in school. I was stressing the who taking him to school, dropping him off, thing, but he's doing so well with that also. It's almost like he doesn't need me as much as I thought he would have, ha. Aren't boys always supposed to need their mamas?

We did his first homework assignment last night. It was so much fun for me to help him. He had to go through a magazine and find pictures of things that started with the same letter that his name started with. So we found; Jello, Jar, Jacket, and Juice.

Rich read him two books also as part of his homework. Then they had to identify the front cover, back cover, title, and title page. He is just such a smart well adjusted little man. I can't wait for the rest of the school year!


Jacob has been doing well here also. He is definitely into his terrible twos stage. That said, he is one of the funniest kids I've ever known. He always makes me laugh and he knows just how to do it. He's still such a good baby, sleeping wonderful in the new bedroom. Which took daddy and mommy 2 days to paint, LOL. I think it turned out so well considering it was my first time painting a room. I can't believe he will be 2 soon. Makes me sad that he is growing up so quickly. He finally outgrew his shoes he's been wearing since he was like 9-10 months old. He's starting to dress more big boy and do more big boy things. Like refusing to sit in his high chair. After not having one in Alabama while we were visiting my in laws I guess he got used to it because when we moved here he just would not sit in it. Waaaah stop growing!!!


Josslyn has been just a happy 2.5 month old. She's already laughing and smiling constantly. She's growing like a weed. Already in 3-6, 6m clothing. She's not even 3 months yet! She's beefy what can I say. (Soon I'm sure she will stop gaining, sending the DRs into a frenzy as to why. Um, hello, have you seen me and my hubby. We are not large people. We really don't expect to have huge kids.) She is also looooooooooving her 2 brothers. Justyn just loves to make her laugh. She is also dealing with reflux. She is constantly throwing up, and a lot. We are finally getting her meds for it. I feel so bad for her. Still through all the barfing she manages to keep on gaining and smiling. We are also going to be upgrading her to a convertable carseat. She is not loving her infant seat. None of my kids liked them.

Rich and I are doing well. Just celebrated our 6 year anniversary of being married in August. We are really enjoying our new life down here in Florida. I miss my friends in Maryland but I am so glad to be down here and being a home owner. I feel I have been so blessed!

REVAMP AND UPDATE

Well I had started this blog to journey though my last pregnancy but that didn't really go as planned. So here I am starting over. Everything else in our life is going to be starting a new, why not my blog.

Well in June we had our baby girl. Josslyn Faith was born at 12:51am on June 19th. The labor and delivery were a dream. I couldn't have asked for a better finale to my baby havin' days! She weighed in at a hefty 9lbs and was 19.5" long. We are nursing and it's going great. It would be better if she didn't do it so much, haha.

The boys are doing as well as can be expected. Jacob is having a little jealousy issues, and Justyn can't seem to listen to a single thing I say. What can ya do? Go CRAZY! That's exactly what I'm doing!!!

We are getting ready to move to sunny Tampa, Florida. YAY for getting out of Maryland. BOO to leaving all the fantastic friends I've made here. I wish I could stuff them all in my suitcase and bring them along.

We are in the midst of trying to find a place to live. OY VEY! Can we say frustrating?!?! We wanted to buy down there but the market is so horrible that EVERYTHING we can afford is on short sale. For those who are unfamiliar with short sales...it's when a home owner is getting ready to foreclose on their house. So they ask the bank if they can sell the house at a fraction of what they owe them. Well that sounded great until we found out it takes FOREVER to close on a house like that. So then we thought about renting a house. Rent is dirt cheap down there b/c the market being so bad. Well EVERYTHING is like 30-40 minutes from the base. WTF! So then we decided maybe living on base was the best. Yea...no...HUGE waiting list with no end in sight. So...here we are trying to find a house big enough that isn't 40 minutes away that we can rent. We have less than 1 month to move and no house to move to. Justyn starts school in less than a month and we haven't been able to register him down there because we have no house. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Anyway, that's all for now. Time to bathe my kids and feed my piggy girl.