Welcome 2011

I have never welcomed a year and wanted it to go by so quickly. I typically hate January, and especially I hated it during our last deployment. It went too slow, and it was just a hard month for me. I’m very happy to be facing it as our first month of the deployment so I can get it over with! The girls are doing really well in NJ. Allie of course loves having someone to play with all the time. She has a little cold or something, so her voice is pretty raspy. She enjoys it, so she has been singing, talking and even crying extra to hear the difference in her voice. Emmy is doing great also. With the new stuff she is doing, it feels like Adam has been gone so much longer than the 5 or 6 days that he has been gone. Tomorrow will be a week since we said our good bye and she is now waving, saying hi, has said dada and fake coughing. If you say hi to her she gets so excited she waves so hard that either, A) The person holding her is likely to get injured or B) Her little arm might fall off! She is also almost sitting up on her own. She can do it; it’s just a matter of when she wants to. Just like she can somewhat crawl to get herself around…when she wants to. Lazy, stubborn baby! She goes for a check up on Friday to get her 6 month shots. We are behind because the clinic at Ft. Knox was out of one of her vaccines, so we held off on all of them until we came here so she could get them all at once. There is so much that needs to be done. I need to get the van registered, which is definitely going to be a process, and I also have to get the oil changed on the van too. Hopefully I can get a lot accomplished this week and get it all taken care of.

Day One Down

Well...we have been in NJ now for 2 days. We said our goodbye the morning of the 28th, it was sad, but quick. It was much easier than if we went to his formation. He deployed yesterday. So today was our actual day one of the deployment. Well...we made haha. Today went so fast, so as long as all of the days manage to go this fast, I think we will be just fine! We went to Target with the two 3 year olds and Emmy. Man, that was fun. It took 2 hours, and I had a migraine and it only got worse while we were there. Allie and Katie fought the entire time in the cart over whose popcorn was whose and Emily was good as gold! Oh how I have missed huge Target stores! Hopefully this weekend we will make good progress in getting things organized around here. We are also having our pollyanna for the kids to exhange their gifts. Tomorrow is NYE, Im not overly excited, but we plan on eating tons of junk and playing tons of Just Dance 2! Here's hoping I don't lose it at midnight like I did the last deployment. Man, I am such an emotional nerd!

Its official

My dad is coming out on the 27th. Due to some scheduling, we HAVE to drive home on the 28th. I will more than likely miss Adam's final formation :( I was an emotional wreck all afternoon. I was hating sitting in limbo not knowing when we had to say goodbye and just wanted to know...and it was hard to face the fact that its all coming to an end. It'll be over before we know it though, positive thoughts brings positive results! He will be missed more than anything in this world though!

Its closing in on us

Its approaching so fast, I can't even comprehend. The more I think about it, the more I realize, we have made the best decision to move back to NJ. Allie asks about 15 times a day when Daddy is getting home from work, I don't think she would completely understand he won't be coming back for awhile, no matter how many times I tell her. At least in NJ, she will be surrounded by her grandparents, aunts and cousins. My friend Helen gave me some great ideas to help her understand the time left until Adam comes home and I plan on doing them as soon as we get back to NJ. I dread the day he leaves, but I still don't even realize quite how close it is. We booked the hotel yesterday, and now we need to make the decision of what day my dad is going to come out here. I hate making decisions.

On a more positive note, Allie could not be more ready for Christmas! I have all of her presents wrapped. Now I need to wrap Emily's. Allie got to "buy" Emily a present last night and she was so excited. We were done shopping for her when she decided she desperately wanted this Baby Alive...so we decided that could be the present Em got for her. Now all is well again in the world! I really need to get a lot packed this weekend. We were doing well, but with the crappy weather, we were pretty lazy for a few days...packing Allie's room is not going to go well. She wants to bring EVERYTHING to NJ. But I have to lightly remind her she is probably getting lots of new toys from Santa. We haven't been to see Santa yet at the mall and Im not sure if its even worth it. She had a monsterous melt down when Santa appeared at the troop Christmas party the other night, which in turn made Emmy cry too. But she does know what she wants...Squinkies, Zoobles and Lala Loopsy (with purple hair thanks to my convincing bc thats the one we bought haha). We took some pictures of them the other night in their adorable PJs and they came out pretty cute. Other than that, we are just enjoying this time together and finishing things up.

Our friends the Marshcands invited us over for Christmas dinner and we are excited. They are really good friends of ours, and it will be a really nice night. It will be one of the last things we do here, so I think it will be a nice way to "wrap" things up here, especially since they are PCSing soon. We will miss them a lot. Allie will especially miss her Landon since she is always talking about him. But they will only be in Ft. Campbell, so hopefully we can take a few trips down and visit them after deployment!

Ready or not, here it comes! Deployment AND Christmas!

Deployment is quickly approaching, and so is Christmas! We are moving out of our house the day after Christmas so its going to be hectic. We chose to stay in our home as long as we could so we could enjoy the holiday here. We will move into a hotel for a few days...I think...until Adam deploys. We have a 3 day window that Adam can deploy, so now we are waiting to find out exactly when. Its a little stressful with it being days after Christmas, but we get the holiday TOGETHER and he SHOULD be home by next Christmas, and thats what counts :) As long as we stay positive, we will all be alright!

Its been way toooooo long

Its obviously been too long since I have posted a blog! But our family is doing just amazing. Allie is doing so well in her preschool program. She has transformed from a toddler to a preschooler. She knows most of her letters, is writing, and I feel like is doing just about everything under the sun. It is scary how much she is growing up, so Im trying to cherish all of these moments. Emily is 5 months already...Im really not quite sure where the time is going. She is smiling, laughing, rolling over, and scooting on her belly. She is never where I leave her anymore, definately a little adventure girl! We are gearing up for Adam's second deployment to Afghanistan. He is going for 12 months, and while I don't think any of us are exactly excited (ok maybe Adam is excited to go play war haha), I think we might be ready. We haven't told Allie yet, its a little too early since she hasn't mastered the concept on time, I know she will be ok with it in time. She will miss him, we all will, but we will be ok. We are a pretty strong family. I might be a crazy, emotional wreck sometimes, but I can definately roll with the punches and handle him being gone and do the single parent thing for a year. A year is better than the 15 months we faced last time. Due to recent troubles on post, our brand new van being keyed and our house being vandelized, we have decided moving back to NJ is best. The kids responsible have not yet been kicked off post, if they will even be kicked off at all. It's not a situation I want to deal with while Adam is gone, so going back will just be easier in that aspect. Another thing will be a better financial situation. We are really hoping to be able to get out after this deployment, so we are going to save our BAH (basic housing allowance), so we can have more money put away for a house. All of our decisions are hopefully what is best for our future. We can only hope we are making the best decisions possible, right? Adam leaves in 2 months, so we are going to enjoy every single moment we have left together as a family and hopefully when he leaves I will keep this blog so updated and he can read about the girls' adventures while he is gone too!

Finding the balance

So Adam was home for the first 3 weeks of Emily's life, and then he went back to work. I was smart and signed Allie up for summer camp this week so I got some what of a break during the day. She goes to camp 8:30-11:30 M-F on the weeks that she goes and she loves it so much. This week Im working on finding the balance that comes along with having 2 children especially one being a newborn that demands so much attention and one that is 2 1/2 and apparently is starved for attention. Im just working on figuring out when to clean, when to spend time with Allie, when to attempt to start working out and maybe even when to attempt to relax? (Haha!). Adam went back to work Tuesday and we found out yesterday that he is leaving for the field for 9 days...nothing like a last minute field problem that was never talked about before leave and wasn't on the training calander. So for now, Im working on finding a routine and sticking to it. Adam's mom arrives Saturday, so I won't be sticking to much of anything next week as we will probably be busy, but I must attempt it!
Here's to my attempt to be a super mom...yeah right!